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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1983)
Bowl-less Ags whip undermanned Frogs See page 9 Horns pick Cotton with win over Bears See page 9 me BaTTanon Serving the University community Vol 78 No. 58 USPS 0453110 12 pages College Station, Texas Monday, November 21,1983 Cindi Tackitt, Battalion staff Tornado Hits Millican Homes A Millican home that was hit Saturday by a tornado that destroyed a one mile strip near town. tornado destroys farm; five residents injured from staff and wire reports j A tornado touched down on an old cotton plantation 20 miles south of Bollege Station Saturday, injuring Tive people and destroying or damag ing several structures, authorities said. I The tornado struck Allenfarm, lo cated near the community of Millican in southern Brazos county, at 9 a.m., Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Sam Saxon said. I Officals from the National Weath er Service in San Antonio reported [that the 100-foot wide tornado moved straight through the farm, missing isome buildings, tearing roofs off others and completely destroying ther structures. Five residents of the farm were iitjured and taken to Grimes Memo- Bal Hospital in nearby Navasota, Sax on said. I One victim, Stacy Whitfield, 7, was in serious condition following surgery fot a ruptured liver, an injured lung and a back injury. A hospital spokes man Sunday reported her condition as stable but guarded. The other victims were identified as Esiqual Gutierrez, 34, in good con dition with leg lacerations; Mary Gutierrez, 25, good condition with head lacerations; Lottie Douglas, 33, good condition with a broken pelvis; and Nathan Williams 46, guarded condition with lung damage. The twister, which moved from west to east, damaged buildings and farm equipment within a one and a half mile area Saxon said. Five homes, a small Baptist church and a barn were destroyed and eight homes and a barn were heavily dam aged. At least eight other structures, including a cotton gin, received minor damage. Several cotton trailers and and other pieces of farm equipment were destroyed. Almost all of the vehicles on the farm were damaged and inop erable. Harry Moore, the owner of the inside Around town 6 Classified .10 Local •. 3 National 9 Opinions 2 Sports 9 Slate 6 What’s Up 4 forecast [Partly cloudy with highs in the low to mid 70s. farm, estimated the damage at $ 1 mil lion. The farm, located off FM 159, pre viously was a large cotton plantation, and several of the damaged homes were tenant houses. Cotton is still grown on the farm. Tornado warnings, along with se vere thunderstorms, hail and the threat of flash flooding plagued much of central and northern Texas Satur day. Much of east and southeast Texas was under a tornado watch Saturday afternoon. Storms produced heavy rainfall of one to two inches in Orange and Jef ferson counties Saturday morning, along with marble-sized hail and 50 mph winds. Marble-sized hail also fell in Tarrant County Saturday morn ing. Authorities reported no heavy damage or injuries. The National Weather Service also reported that rainfall from heavy thunderstorms caused minor flood ing of some streets and secondary roads across southeastern Montgom ery, San Jacinto and Polk Counties. Regents approve bell tower site by Karen Schrimsher Battalion Staff The Texas A&M Board of Regents planning and building committee approved a site Sunday for the Albrit ton Tower. The tower will stand at the west entrance to the main campus at the intersection of Old Main, Jones and Lamar streets. The Lower, a gift from former re gent Ford D. Albritton and his wife Martha, will house a carillon — a group of bells. It will be built on a landscaped circle 70 feet in diameter. Old Main Street will be widened and the tower will be surrounded by a cir cular driveway. Albritton said his gift was warmly accepted by the University, promp ting him to increase the number of bells from 37 to 49. The Lower will be 140 feet high — 10 feet higher than originally planned. The peal of the bells will be heard for three fourths of a mile, and the tunes played will be heard for a half mile. ‘The Day After’ icts WW III by Rusty Roberts and Elaine Engstrom Battalion Staff The controversial made-for-TV movie, “The Day After,” which de picted the effects of a nuclear holo caust, was forceful but not as grue some as viewers might have expected. From scene to scene, “The Day After” kept the action moving and the audience on the edge of their seats. The obliteration of Lawrence, Kan., was achieved for the viewers in a mat ter of minutes. But the after effects lingered on. Director Nicholas Meyer chauf- feured viewers through the mid- America heartland around Kansas City, Mo., introducing them to a doc tor — played by Jason Robards and his wife; letting them get to know a farmer and his son and acquainting them with a military serviceman and his spouse. The word of nuclear war leaks out and the town begins a type of systema tic panic. Supermarkets are filled with frantic shoppers while missile silos are blown open as rockets roar overhead. In a matter of minutes, scores of people are vaporized by the extreme ly intense radiation. In X-ray fashion, the vaporized bodies flash on the screen and then disappear. Others are consumed by rolling waves of fire. Finally, a thick darkness covers the screen and the stiff, charred forms of people remain for those who are still alive to contemplate. Meyer says the motive behind the film was to get people to talk about the consequences of nuclear war. Roger Beaumont, a Texas A&M history professor, agrees. “This will be a major stimulus to public debate and growing awareness of the extreme conflict involved in the event of nuclear war,” he says. “Peo- catchy slogans or movie dramatiza tions.” Questions of deterrents and how to eliminate them probably will be the focus of most people’s concerns, Beaumont says. The problem is by no means simple to solve. “We can’t just say, ‘Let’sjust get rid of all these bombs and everything will be okay’ because there is no guarantee the opposing forces will let their guard down also,” Beaumont says. “And if they (Russia) do, they still have more conventional weapons than the United States.” However, he says the film was well handled because it dealt with the realistic issues of fallout, radiation sickness and Electro Magnetic Pulse. “EMP produces the biggest threat for the huge network of biomedical engineering,” he says, “because this large disturbance of electrons due to a nuclear occurrence will knock out people’s pacemakers and the hospit- But this mild-mannered town be- pie are going to see that this problem s carc ^ ovascu ^ ai machines, gins to rumble after the first hour. is too serious to simply be handled by See NUCLEAR, page 8 Atom’s depths probed A&M leading search by Mitch Clendening Battalion Reporter Texas A&M is a leading detective in the world search for the smallest par ticles in the universe and has main tained this position by working with colleges in other countries and ex panding research facilities here, the head of the Texas A&M chemistry department said Wednesday. Joseph B. Natowitz, head of the Department of Chemistry, returned last Monday from a three-week re search trip to France, where he took part in an international experiment to probe the forces that hold atoms together, he said. Texas A&M is in a rare position as a leader in nuclear research, Natowitz said, because few U.S. colleges have the facilities needed for the highly technical work. The cyclotron here is one of the most powerful in the coun try, and currently is being expanded to international dimensions, he said. A cyclotron, sometimes called an accelerator, is used to race small parti cles — usually protons or ions — around a circular track for study of the results of their collisions with other small particles. By observing the results of a collision between two par ticles, scientists can observe forces at work on the subatomic level. As researchers are able to observe collisions at higher and higher speeds, they are able to see the forces in more detail. Natowitz said the work being done here and in France is laying a founda tion for many other areas of research. The work is providing answers to many of the basic questions of physics and chemistry about the nature of the universe. Natowitz was hesitant to list any commercial applications for the research. “We shouldn’t expect a better toas ter,” he quipped. Funds for the research come almost entirely from government re search grants, mainly from the De partment of Energy, he said. Texas A&M doesn’t have to spend any money on the work, but the Universi ty does benefit from the international reputation the research gives it, he said. See NATOWITZ, page 12 “When we’ve won a football game, we’re going to let a lot of people know,” Albritton said. The tower is scheduled to be com pleted before the first home football game of 1984. The committee also approved a master plan for the Texas A&M Uni versity Research Park. The 485-acre development is scheduled for com pletion in late 1985. The site, approved by the regents in November 1982, extends from the west campus and is bounded by FM 60 on the north, FM 2818 on the west, FM 2347 on the south and Poultry Science Road on the east. The park will be ow ned and man aged by the University. Upon comple tion, 11 tracts ranging from 3 to 15 acres will be available for lease. See REGENTS, page 12 Ads use ‘scare tactics’ by Steve Thomas Battalion Staff It’s the most difficult time of his life. The forlorn young child stares at the mammmoth chalkboard, rub bing his eyes as he struggles with problems and concepts. He’s trying hard, but he can’t compete without the proper tools. He needs help. You better buy him a home com puter, before he falls behind. This is the message of Texas In struments’ most recent advertising campaign. It’s the first sign of a new era in home computers, in which the market will be dominated by the giants and the small-timers will be left out in the cold. Advertising strategies have to be changed be cause the market is getting old and wise and full. “This is a classic case of the pro duct life cycle, and it is going quick because of the competition,” said A1 Bush, assistant professor of market ing at Texas A&M. Bush said the home computer in dustry is moving from the growth stage into the maturity stage. The growth stage of an industry is char acterized by a tremendous increase in sales, profits and competition in dustry-wide. Advertising normally emphasizes what the product can do for the price — an informative, ra tional appeal. The maturity stage is characte rized by intense competition, a de cline in profits and a trend of sales increasing at a decreasing rate. The advertising becomes emotional and persuasive, frequently using fear appeals, such as those used in Texas Instruments’ new advertisements. According to Business Week magazine, the small computer in dustry is moving with unexpected iwiftness into a “shakeout phase” that will weed out more than 90 per cent of small computer manufactur ers within the next 18 months. Of the more than 150 manufac turers now in business, only about 10 are expected to survive. Experts have been predicting a shakeout phase, but it was not expected to start until 1985. See SALES, page 12 Computers aid students by Elaine Engstrom Battalion Staff A tight computer market has led - to scare tactic marketing by two of the industry’s giants. Commodore and Texas Instruments both have aired television commercials threatening parents that their chil dren will be doomed to failure if they don’t buy them a home com puter. Because competition for business is so stiff and the novelty of home computers has worn off, computer companies are faced with the need for aggressive marketing techni ques. One such technique has been to scare parents into buying home computers for their children. But what do educators and retail ers think of these gloomy predic tions? One local principal says that own ing a home computer may help a child develop computer skills, but that computer knowledge doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the child will do well in other academic sub jects. Danny Stribling is the principal of Oakwood Middle School in Col lege Station which has an enroll ment of 400 sixth graders and houses eight Apple computers and five Texas Instrument home com puters. “It’s not a disadvantage not to have one,” Stribling said. “But, kids with computers at home have an advantage just in the world of com puters. But, having a computer doesn’t make the kids any smarter. “Nothing in the world is belter than a parent silting down with his child and helping him with home work or math drills or flashcards.” Dr. Michael J. Ash, head of the educational psychology department at Texas A&M, agrees. “It’s a nice option for parents,” Ash said. “But it’s certainly not man datory. The kids are not in danger today of not doing well in school, but this situation could change very rapidly.” However, Ash said home compu ters will widen the educational gap between poor children and children from wealthier families. See COMPUTER, page 12 ; ■