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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1981
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National
Flat Earth Society calls
shuttle orbit runaround
United Press International
LANCASTER, Calif. —
Charles Johnson, president of
(he Flat Earth Society, says he
has it all figured out—the space
shuttle Columbia didn’t really
orbit Earth.
Johnson Sunday called the
U S. space program “a con
tinuing giant ripoff of the tax
payers of America. ”
The Columbia lifted off all
right, Johnson says. “But it
torhit the earth, he said.
“It can’t he done. The earth is
t.
“Are they hanging by their
feet in Australia? No they
aren’t. ”
Johnson said the Columbia
took off from Cape Canaveral
and landed at sea a few minutes
later.
Landed at sea? “Of course,”
he said. “Those big tanks keep it
from sinking.”
The films purportedly taken
from space were done in a stu
dio, Johnson said. It was done
just like in “Buck Rogers,” he
explained.
He said Saturday’s spectacu
lar landing was accomplished by
hauling the shuttle aloft and
dropping it over the desert air
base near Lancaster where he
lives.
He isn’t sure how it got from
the Atlantic Ocean to Edwards.
“We don’t know all the details,”
he said. “Magicians saw ladies
in half.”
Johnson said the space prog
ram is run by professional cri
minals. “You know how Florida
is — riddled with crime,” he
said.
Johnson said the round earth
myth is an old superstition. In
telligent people know it is flat,
but reactionaries don’t believe
it, he said.
NAACP leader wants more
blacks in U.S. space program
United Press International
BALTIMORE — The presi
dent of the regional NAACP
says he’s tired of seeing whites
“gain all the glory from the
U.S. space program and he
wants to see a black astronaut in
space sometime soon.
Following the landing of the
space shuttle Columbia,
Emmett Burns said, “I’m sick
and tired of seeing the great
white fathers gain all the glory
and see my people with nothing
gained.’
Burns emphasized he is not
accusing the National Aeronau
tics and Space Administration of
racisim, but said: “I can certain
ly charge delay and neglect as to
blacks in space.”
Burns, in a recent letter to
NASA administrator James
Beggs, asked: “Must black
Americans wait another 25
years in the history of the prog
ram before they lift off?”
Police give hand to ‘thieves’
Fake burglaries are ignored
United Press International
NEW YORK — Students faked
car burglaries to see if New Yor
kers would intervene, but unlike
people in San Fancsico and
Phoenix, only a few challenged
the “thieves. Some New Yorkers
even offered to help the criminals.
A study showed that only 12 out
of about 8,000 people who passed
by the 250 “break-ins” into parked
cars in New York tried to stop and
apprehend the "thieves.”
Professor Harold Takooshian, a
social psychologist at Fordham
University, conducted the New
York study, which was published
in this week’s New York maga
zine. Students pretended to burg
larize their cars and then surveyed
passersby for their reactions.
The daytime car break-ins were
staged in midtown Manhattan
from October 1977 to September
1980 with student volunteers us
ing coat hangers to break into the
vehicles in most cases.
To test the possibility that the
passersby feared being harmed for
intervening, Takooshian placed a
uniformed police officer 50 feet
from some of the cars broken into,
the magazine said.
The study said that 40 passersby
offered to help the “thieves” and
five witnesses to the break-ins de
manded part of the loot for their
assistance.
The survey said most of thos<
who offered to help the “crimin
als,” including several police offic
ers, were “naive Samaritans” wh<
did not know a theft was in prog
ress.
The rest of the passersby simpl;
did not notice or ignored tin
break-ins.
Consumers’ big
buying may stop
Home and Auto
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Surgery removing fetus
considered breakthrough
United Press International
IANN ARBOR, Mich. — Re
searchers predict that consumers
will avoid going into debt by not
purchasing such large assets as
cars and houses and by putting
their money in savings from now
until early 1982.
A study by the University of
Michigan’s Institute for Social Re
search said consumer worries ab
out high interest rates, unemploy
ment and depleting savings are
contributing to the trend toward
saving irtoney.
“Growth in consumer sales
during the balance of 1981 and
early 1982 will continue to be slow
and uneven, ” said Richard T. Cur
tin, director of the survey on con
sumer attitudes.
“Large discretionary purchases
will continue to be responsive to
trends in interest rates, but more
favorable employment and real in
come trends are needed before
sustained growth in housing and
vehicle sales can be expected,” he
said.
During July and September of
1981, the research institute con
ducted its 156th survey of con
sumer attitudes which targeted
2,000 respondents. The results
were compiled to measure con
sumer buying attitudes.
Woodstone Audio
913 Harvey Rd.
College Station
693-4423
United Press International
SAN FRANCISCO —
Surgeons operated on a fetus and
returned the unborn baby to the
mother’s womb where it survived
tofulltenn, the University of Cali
fornia Medical Center has dis
closed.
The operation was performed
on an unidentified San Francisco
Bay area woman four to five
months ago in San Francisco by
Drs. Michael Harrison, Mitchell
S. Golbus and Roy A. Filly. It took
place in the 21st week of the pre
gnancy.
The baby died after birth be
cause of undeveloped lungs — a
complication not directly related
to the operation, which corrected
a severe urinary tract blockage
that would have killed the fetus
early in the pregnancy.
The procedure is considered a
breakthrough because the pre
gnancy continued for the full
term.
A hospital spokesman said Sun
day that doctors have been in
structed not to talk to reporters in
lieu of publication of the official
surgical report in an unnamed
medical journal.
Confirming only that the
surgery had taken place, the
spokesman said hospital officials
were concerned the report might
not be published in an accredited
journal because unauthorized
sources had leaked it to the press.
Earlier attempts at operating on
a fetus to correct defects have
been unsuccessful because of the
threat of miscarriage. Surgery sti
mulates the uterus to go into labor
and the fetus is pushed out.
New drugs and ultrasound tech
niques to view the fetus and pre
vent contractions enabled the re
cent successful operation.
The 1 '/2-hour procedure neces
sitated cutting into the mother’s
uterine wall, withdrawing the
lower half of the fetus and return
ing it after about 30 minutes, a
medical source familiar with the
operation said.
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(Article in “What’s Up” Section)