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
; ■