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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1989)
Thursday, March 9,1989 The Battalion Page 11 •snapping e Whaf flavorin; ) stations, s alreadi e albums e Crazy: >n the a|. this one’s es of Top n’t Loot te Drives f to realli the infer s on the involved t. Listen- d, even tes long, pile o[ d for a take you orite, bus isoesque collage, road, be vay 696 zell. This iter than : wav to : 696 is aveled (1 iree an ome to a it gets ction 77 ■ing half 1 Street, ool. e Street You will t. gh this ack 142 :ed strip this 2b- jyd and ish and : on the lance of r ayal of itiC per il life of te is not been in minting fell vie- n’s con- spectac- Joseph kness," venture 1 to the thep he best t shows ’) to be ; super- n cellu- Around Town Live Music Brazos Landing Brazos Landing is at Northgate. Everyone is admitted. Beer, wine and mixed drinks are served. For more information, call 846-3497. Thursday — The Footnotes. Heavy metal. $4 cover. Friday — The Killtones. Rock/b lues. $3 cover. Saturday — The Killtones. Rock/blues. $3 cover. Cow Hop Annex Next to the restaurant at North- gate. Those 18 and older ad mitted. Alcohol served to legal drinkers. Call 696-5522 for more information. Emiliano’s In Bryan at 502 W. 25th St. Beer, wine and set-ups served. Call 775- 9539 for more information. Friday — A1 Chavarria y Grupo Mayo. Spanish. Cover $3- $5. Frank’s Bar and Grill In College Station at 503 E. Uni versity Drive. All ages are ad mitted. Beer, wine and liquor are served to legal drinkers. Call 846- 5388 for more information. Saturday — Memorandum. Jazz. $2 cover. Kay’s Cabaret At Post Oak Mall. Those 18 and over are admitted. Beer, wine and liquor served to legal drink ers. For more information, call 696-9191. Thursday — Hank Townsend. Soft rock. No cover. Friday — The Scroocs. Grateful Dead. $2 cover. Movies All movies and showtimes are provided by the theaters and are subject to change. Cinema Three Located at 315 College Ave. in the Skaggs Shopping Center. Call 693-2796 for more information. Kinjite. Rated R. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. Working Girl. Rated R. Show- times are 7 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. Lean On Me. Rated PG-13. Show- times are 7:10 p.m. and 9:10 p.m. Torch Song Trilogy. Rated PG- 13. Opens Friday. Post Oak Three Located in the Post Oak Mall. Call 693-2796 for more informatioh. Her Alibi. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:10 p.m. and 9:25 p.m. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adven ture. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. The ’Burbs. Rated PG. Show- times are 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Schulman Six In Bryan at 2002 E. 29th Street. Call 775-2643 for more informa tion. Twins. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:15 and 9:45. The Naked Gun. Rated PG-13. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:25 p.m. Tequila Sunrise. Rated R. Show- times are 7:10 p.m. aftd 9:40 p.m. My Stepmother is an Alien. Rated PG-13. Showtimes are 7:05 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Opens Friday. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Rated PG-13. Showtimes are 7:05 and 9:30. Ends Friday. Mind Games. Rated R. Show- times are 7:20 p.m. and 9:55 p.m. Ends Friday. Beaches. Rated PG-13. Show- times are 7 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Dream A Little Dream. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:55 p.m. Opens Friday. Plaza Three In College Station at 226 South west Parkway. Call 693-2457 for more information. Rain Man. Rated R.Showtimes are 7 p.m. and 9:35 p.m. Three Fugitives. Rated PG-13. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Skin Deep. Rated R. Showtimes are 7:10 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Opens Friday. Farewell to the King. Rated PG- 13. Showtimes are 7:10 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. Manor East Three In Bryan in the Manor East Mall. Call 823-8300 for more informa tion . Cousins. Rated R. Showtimes are 7:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Dangerous Liaisons. Rated R. Showtimes are 7:20 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Dream A Little Dream. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:05 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. Ends Friday. Police Academy Six. Rated PG. Showtimes are 7:05 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. Opens Friday. Robotics fell short of predictions, may still become ‘wave of future’ Ancient Egyptian statues of pharaoh, goddesses found carefully buried PITTSBURGH (AP) — Scientists in the 1950s proclaimed the robot the wave of the future. It would free housewives of drudgery and fill fac tories with a tireless steel-collar work force. But in many ways, the wave has been a washout. Robots can paint cars, salvage nu clear fuel and even assist in brain surgery, but they’re still pretty dumb. And they are far from the sci ence fiction promise of comic books and movies. “Robots now are significantly bet ter than 30 years ago, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are any where close to an R2-D2 or C-3PO,” says Raj Reddy, director of The Ro botics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, referring to the robot characters in the movie “Star Wars.” Orders for American-made ro bots have, been falling since their peak of $501 million in 1984, according to the Robotics Industries Association. Experts say automating a factory is more complicated than just buying a robot and putting it on the assem bly line. In addition, they say, some industrial robots are too complicated and prone to failure and, when they do work, they don’t always fit in with factory operations. About 33,000 robots work in the United States, mostly in manufactur ing, with automakers buying at least 40 percent, says robots association spokesman Jeffrey A. Burnstein. "It’s not a revolution,” Burnstein Stereoscope entertained before TVs GROVES (AP) — Before video re corders, TVs and home movies, Americans in the 1800s invited friends to their parlors for the latest in mass-produced visuals. Midway through the century, Americans were introduced to the stereoscope, a French invention that allowed a viewer to see a photograph in three dimensions, as in real life. Cards with two seemingly identi cal, yet slightly different, images were viewed from a few inches be hind a lens. Soon everyone was looking at realistic scenes of land scapes, presidents and even nude girls, said stereoscope collector Gor don Covington. “A common scene in every home back then was a basket full of view ing cards on the coffee table — that was their entertainment,” Covington said. He has a basket like that in his liv ing room. But in one of his back rooms, he keeps a collection of a few dozen stereoscopes and drawers of 10,000 cards to go with them. Covington has huge boxy stereo scopes, small folding ones and paper ones. A slot on one charges the viewer a penny to look. A book about the White Mountains in New Hampshire has lenses built into the cover. says. “It’s an evolution. Robots are another new, productive technology in the same way that computers were.” Japan is the world’s leading robot user, followed by the United States, West Germany and France. “Robots are still dumb," Reddy says. "They’re dumb because we haven’t taken the trouble to put the pieces together, not because we don’t know how. That takes money and time and effort, and we don’t have the money.” But today’s robots can: • See. They don’t see like hu mans, hut they can recognize forms and shapes and measure distances through sonar, ranging devices and lasers. • Hear and speak. They use com puters that recognize thousands of words. • Smell. Their sensors can detect smoke or fumes. • Move. They most often roll on wheels, but some models hop on one leg and others walk with as many as eight legs, ambling like a spider on uneven terrain. • Touch. They can recognize tex ture and the force of a movement, such as pressing. Many robots have one or two of these abilities to some degree, but creating a competent robot that combines most or all of them has been difficult. In addition, scientists have found it’s difficult to match human abilities PARIS (AP) — A clanking pin ball machine, six bicycles and a projector showing white light are among 100 pieces of “anti-art” objects on display at the Georges Pompidou Center in a retrospective of Situationist art. It is said to be the first such ex hibit of its kind. The exhibit, titled “On the Pas sage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time, the Situationists 1957-1972,” features comic strips, cartoons, pamphlets, posters, paintings, sculpture and books documenting the growth of the International Situationist Movement. It was an underground, avant- garde movement of the 1960s and /Os which attempted to tear down the barriers between art and every day life. Situationists worked to combat what they saw as the oppression of the individual by advertising and other elements of a capitalist society. “Their basic idea was that the me diated image controls us,” said Elisa beth Sussman, chief curator at the Institute of Gontemporary Art in Boston which co-produced the show that most people take for granted, such as the dexterity of a finger or the ability to identify objects. “The rule of thumb is that if you think the job is easy, then it’s usually difficult,” says Takeo Kanade, co-di- rector of the Carnegie Mellon insti tute. “The list of things that robots can do better than humans is much, much shorter than the list of things robots cannot.” Industrial robots can perform many tedious tasks with precision, including welding, assembling, painting, packaging and loading, yet Burnstein estimates that less than 5 percent of American companies have installed even one robot. Japanese companies, which have installed more than twice as many robots as American companies, have been more willing to invest in robots that take years to pay for themselves, Burnstein says. “Robots are very expensive to make and they can do very little,” says Hans Moravec, senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon. “It’s hard to find a job for them that actu ally pays off.” Moravec says the industrial robot is about as smart as an insect. “The robots working on the as sembly line today might well be com pared to spiders,” he says. “They do their jobs competently, but it’s a nar row job.” Industrial robots often shut down when even the slightest thing goes wrong, forcing humans to their aid, with the Pompidou Center. “Advertising is so dominant peo ple only know what they’re told to desire, there’s no room for their own desires to surface.” Among works on display are a gi ant collage-mural by Britain’s Jamie Reid, who designed posters and re cord covers for the now-defunct punk rock group the Sex Pistols, and paintings by Italy’s Giuseppe Pinot- Gallizio wrapped around an indus trial spool. Most notable in his absence is Guy Debord, the French filmmaker who was the movement’s leading theore tician and author of the Situationist bible, “The Society of the Spectacle.” The reclusive Debord has not al lowed screenings of his films since 1982, but they were evoked in the show by a whirring projector show ing only a beam of light. The exhibition would probably horrify die-hard Situationists who were opposed to both showing or selling art. Born in Europe as an offshoot of surrealism, the movement — gather- says Donald Michie, chief scientist of the Turing Institute of Glasgow, Scotland, which conducts research into artificial intelligence. Michie is trying to develop com puters that learn from experience — a technology that could result in ro bots that adjust to changing circum stances and learn from mistakes. Moravec believes technology will enable robots to have human-like in telligence in about 50 years. Service robots, a new breed, are moving off the factory floor to han dle work in hazardous environ ments, help the disabled, or just sweep floors. Underwater robots are examining lake bottoms and doing risky deep-sea work. Doctors at Memorial Medical Cen ter of Long Beach, Calif., have per formed more than 35 brain opera tions with the help of a robot arm that guides surgeons as they drill into the skull. Research is under way at Carnegie Mellon on a six-legged robot to ex plore the surface of Mars in the next decade and on a car that can drive it self. University researchers also made robots to remove radioactive waste from the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harris burg. K.G. Engelhardt, director of the university’s health and human serv ices lab, is developing a robotic work station that allows the disabled, espe cially those without the use of their hands, to work in an office. ing no more than 100 members at any given time — expelled followers who became too commercial. “Painting is finished. It might as well be killed off,” proclaimed one poster. This early philosophy rose to a cli max during the 1968 student revolts in Paris, made its way to the Unive- risity of California at Berkeley, and contributed, ultimately, to the rise of punk culture in Britain in the ’70s. “For the International Situation ist, there is no separation between art and nonart,” said Peter Wollen, the show’s curator. “Art became a total environment, not a canvas on the wall.” Wollen said he spent three years tracking down the documents which had been scattered throughout Eu rope. “Most of the Situationists would have liked to dynamite a place like the Pompidou Center, so it’s really ironic that they’re being consecrated here,” said Marc Higonnet, a long time aficionado of the Situationist movement. LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — The dis covery of five ancient statues, which had been buried for thousands of years, has transformed a tranquil courtyard of Luxor Temple into an archaeologist’s dream. “We want to discover who buried the statues, why and when,” Moham med Saghir, the Luxor area’s direc tor of antiquities, said as diggers’ picks and shovels turn the silty earth in search of more statues. Since the Jan. 22 discovery of the well-preserved statues, experts have debated whether more lie near them. The find is located beside tow ering columns on the north side of the courtyard of Pharaoh Ameno- phis III, who ruled Egypt in 1391- 1353 B.C. The courtyard, just over 57 yards long by 50 V2 yards wide, is consid ered the glory of Luxor Temple, a fabled remain altered and reworked by many of ancient Egypt’s best- known rulers. On a recent Sunday, four of the recently uncovered statues sat in their burial pit, covered in padded vinyl and tied so only their toes peeked out. Workers dug around them as small boys carted basketfuls of dirt to mounds near an outer temple wall on which a statue of Ramses II, standing tall in a chariot, smites the ill-fated enemies of Egypt. They’ve found no additional large statues, but Saghir said the dig had turned up a small bronze of the god Osiris, lord of the underworld. They have also found part of a stela or commemorative plaque, copper tools and other small artifacts. Some light has been shed on mys teries of the discovery, which is just one of a number of group burial sites created by ancient Egyptians. “We know this burial was not acci dental,” Saghir said. “These statues were placed lovingly in the earth, their sides turned toward the west. “Not only did the ancients protect the statues by putting a base over them, but they took the care to seal the pit with a layer of gypsum and limestone chips. “They wanted to save them for eternity.” Two of the statues were of the general, and later pharaoh, Har- emhab, kneeling with offerings be fore the seated creator god Atum. A third is of the goddess Hathor, Changing Times What’s one of the last, best and cheapest treasure hunts? Yard-sal- ing. Some Saturday morning, stuff your wallet with $30 in small bills, hop into your car and try it. Many people habitually do it for fun, but it’s also a great way to economize on clothing, furniture, toys, tools, kitchen supplies and just about any thing else. If you don’t mind sifting through other people’s used merchandise, you can bag some fabulous buys. Following are some tips from Changing Times magazine on the types of secondhand outlets and what to expect from each. • Yard sales. These occur in resi dential neighborhoods. Although many are advertised in newspapers, a lot of good ones are not. Because people hold these sales to get rid of things they no longer want, many items are drastically underpriced. • Rummage sales. In most cases they’re conducted by a school, church, hospital or charity with do nated goods. They, too, are likely to have a vast assortment of stuff on display and scads of eye-popping bargains. • Thrift stores. At the lower- priced end of the thrift-store spec trum are nonprofit stores run by such organizations as the Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries. They offer bargains galore, espe cially on clothing and furniture. But real steals are not quite as prevalent at these stores as they are at yard and rummage sales because store man agers are savvy about pricing. • Consignment stores. They are, patron of beauty and womanhood, and the fourth is a minor goddess, Yunet. The most important statue is a quartzite depiction of Amenophis III standing on a sledge to demon strate his divinity, Saghir said. Tomb paintings and small wooden statues exist showing the king in such a pose, but the stone statue standing more than eight feet tall is the only one depicting such a pose. The statues may have been put in hiding for safekeeping during the Assyrian invasion, Saghir said. The Assyrians were a west Asian empire that conquered Egypt in 671 B.C., and for years its soldiers ran sacked and plundered the country. However, Egypt suffered ups and downs as early as 100 years after Amenophis built Luxor Temple, when the pharaohs began to decline after the 66-year reign of Ramses II. Some believe that this decline may account for the statues’ burial. In Cairo, Rainer Stadelmann, di rector of the German Archaeological Institute and one of the profession’s most respected scholars, said he be lieves the order in which the statues were buried gives history a hint. “The best choice” for the time of burial would have been during the reign of Ramses II, who expanded and redesigned Luxor Temple, he said. “Perhaps they bothered Ramses in some way or interfered with his processions.” Stadelmann reasons that the stat ues were grouped as they are for a reason. “To me they represent the west, the setting sun,” Stadelmann said. “If this is true, then we can expect in the opposite courtyard to find an other grouping, this time represent ing the east, the rising sun.” He characterized his ideas as fan tasies because the discovery is so new, but said he expects that the statues lined the sides of the festival courtyard in ancient times to pro duce a processional journey for the sun god. “We have these processions painted on walls, but in this case it could have been done with statues,” he said. To the ancients it wouldn’t have mattered if the pharaoh were dead or if the statues later were buried . . . “Thejourney would continue.” in ellect, high-class thrift stores. An individual brings an item to the shop, and the merchant agrees to put it up for sale at a given price. If the piece is sold, proceeds are split between merchant and con signor. If the item fails to sell within a certain period, the merchant will reduce the price or return the item. • Flea markets. Also called swap meets in certain regions, these week end sales are held in every part of the country, typically outdoors. Great deals tend to be less common at flea markets than at yard sales. • Estate sales. There are two dif ferences between yard sales and es tate sales, the first being volume of merchandise. Estate sales typically are held to liquidate a home’s entire contents instead of miscellaneous castoffs. So you’ll find dining sets, half-empty paint buckets and every thing betwixt. The other difference is the party running the affair. At garage sales, that’s usually the home’s occupant. At estate sales, professional liqui dators price the items and preside over the sale, taking a percentage of the receipts. So you can get decent bargains at an estate sale but not many unbelievable steals, except on the final day when prices are slashed. Here are several more parcels of wisdom on second-hand shopping: Be organized, early and quick. The best stuff is usually gone within an hour or two at a yard sale. So start looking Wednesday for newspaper ads for sales on the following week end. Check smaller papers, because there is seldom duplication between their classifieds and the dailies.’ Look for fliers posted around your neighborhood. Rose breeding means big business; rights to names expensive Art displayed from movement opposed to commercial shows Bargain hunters discover secondhand treasures His neatly organized cards show images of pre-war manufacturing, rural life, disasters and even comedy series. Time-delayed photographs of the moon and planets look ready to orbit off the card. “You can name a subject, and they’ve made a picture of it,” he said. Early cards were made of tin, glass or cardboard-like paper. Later, the black-and-white images were hand- tinted. One of Covington’s tissue pa per cards, called Satan’s Courtroom, shows colored skeletons and de mons. Tiny holes in the demons’ eyes make them appear to glow. LONDON (AP) — Christian Dior, Anna Pavlova and the Empress Jose phine found immortality in the rose garden, but the honor requires luck — and lots of money. For centuries, rose breeders have named new varieties in honor of the heroic, the beautiful and the fa mous. But they won’t guarantee the flower will catch the public’s fancy. It costs up to $62,000 to buy the right to name a rose, says Terry Kenwright, vice president of the British Association of Rose Breed ers. He said it can take as long as 15 years to develop a new blossom. “Breeders are businessmen,” he said. “They want some reward for their effort.” Britain’s 17 professional breeders introduce only 35 new varieties each year on average, and only a fraction of those are available for private naming. There’s a Chrysler Imperial rose and a Times rose. The Everest Dou ble Fragrance is named after a storm window factorv. One of the oldest and most fa mous cultivated roses is the fragile pink flower the French call Cuisse de Nvmphe — Nvmph’s Thigh. The British, who have grown it for 500 vears, prefer to call it Great Maiden’s Blush. A blossom named after a factory might smell as sweet, but could it so perfectly evoke the silken cheek of youth? In the depths of winter, a rose cat alog with its mysterious and seduc tive names offers a promise of spring. There is Eglantine, Celestial, Rose d’Amour, Black Prince and the splendid crimson Cardinal de Riche lieu. But the honors go mostly to the la dies: Penelope, ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, dozens of duchesses and Ma Perkins. Roses have inspired wonderful tales about their origin: A jealous goddess created the flower to rival Venus’ beauty; the first rose sprang from the sweat of the prophet Mo hammed or fell from the hair of Au rora as she combed her golden locks. One of history's greatest rose lovers, Napoleon’s empress Jose phine, grew every known rose of the day at Malmaison chateau and is honored by the pale pink Souvenir de la Malmaison. The unfortunate Atom Bomb, re putedly quite a nice red rose, never caught on and disappeared from the dialogs so<..>n aiiei .ts introduction in 1954. Some say the Peace rose by any other name might not have become one of the most popular modern va rieties. Bred in southern France dur ing World War II and shipped out of the country just before Hitler’s ar mies invaded, it was named in the United States on the day Berlin fell to the Allies. Hundreds of Peace blooms were sent to the first United Nations Con ference in 1945. It was planted in gardens and at memorials, and by the mid-1950s, an estimated 30 mil lion of the bushes had been sold.