e 02484

onnruiOCTOBER 1979 $2.00 FUTURE EVENTS:

RENE DUBOS, RICHARD LEAKEY R#Y BRADBURY THOR HEYERDAHL FRANK HERBERT, PETER GLASER, KARL POPPER, DENTON COOLEY,

IEYOND COMPUTERS:

3NE-MAN ROCKET:

m SEARCH OF YETI:

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN JEHN SHEPHERD: onnrui1979 OCTOBER

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE EXECUTIVE EDITOR: FRANK KEND1G ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO EJROPEAX ECr-J-:: IJfl. B-HNARD DIXON FICTION :o tor- BEN BOVA DIRECTOR OF ADVENTS NO 5EVEF- K'-' WARCA_E EXECUHVE VICF-FRFSIIJ-NI IPVvIM- BILLMAN

CONTENTS PAGE

FIRST WORD Opinion Bob Gucoione 6

OMNIBUS Contributors 10

COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 12

FORUM Dialogue 18

EARTH Environment Kenneth Brower 20

SPACE Astronomy Mark Chartrand III 24

LIFE Blomedicine Bernard Dixon 26

STARS Comment Patrick Moore 28

OFFICIAL CIRCLES Politics William K. Stuckey 32

THE ARTS Media 34.

UFO UPDATE Report James Oberg 44

CONTINUUM Data Bank 51

INTELLIGENT MACHINES Article Thomas Hoover 60

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST Fiction Robert A. Heinlein 66

A ROCKET FOR THE PEOPLE Article Kathleen Stein 70

ALIEN LANDSCAPES Pictor a Various Authors 76

THE TEST Fiction Stanislaw Lem 86

PHILIP MORRISON Interview Eileen Zalisk 92

DECADES OF DECISION Opinions Various Authors 96

THE LOST CULTURE OF DELI Humor Jean Shepherd 104

UNSEEN YETI Article Lord John Hunt 108

RENT CONTROL Fiction Walter Tevis 114

EXPLORATIONS Travel Susan Mazur 169

COMBAT Phenomena Marty Stouffer 172

GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 176

LAST WORD Opinion Ursula K. LeGuin 178 PHOTO CREDITS 174

- 7=i.:ISS\CM . 7 N,~77 Cccyngh. 1979 1 Omni IrW-natl^al d All rights reser ed. Published ] Cover art lor this month's Omni OMNI. 871 1), US Volu g y is an oil painting by the ££* ,,:.!,«-. American artist Peter Cartas. tiv, ?;•' HESS HS 2SS : ss,: : The painting was originally : ..' !.',:' .' : 'V: : .- .:;'„-.:».« ;? rJishrr^Any^^", .:;. : commissioned for the cover of inwhde V, 'SSS^SSSm % Smart as the Devil, by Felice Picano (Dsll Publishing). Mr. Carras has studied with Norman Rockwell and Jim Bama. X™

4 OMNI ' '

Looking back over our first year of publica- neighborhood barber but cridn': expect

tion, we have seen .a few old barriers . either anesthesia or antinroiics A: least breached, new frontiers .'explored and. you didn't have to worry about cancer or charted, and much of the so-called im- heart disease. In 1830 the average life possible become commonplace.- Our expectancy was 38 years typhus, Tinker Toy attempt at interstellar flight, the diphiher'a. dysemery cholera, tetanus, Voyager probe, actually reached Jupiter, malaria smslipcx yellow fever, or some sent back an incredible gallery ot photo- other Killer almost certainly felted you

i

= -.- graphs, and -then headed bravely far before . i . . ii. ease: had a

Saturn and the stars. At Princeton Univer- . chance to develop their symoloms Com- sity— for the briefest moment:- a team of munications meant li'.rie more than word ot scientists successfully harnessed fusion, mouth.- The Battle ot Now Orleans, lor the powerthatdriyes.the sun. And for the example, was fought T5- days after the firs; time in the history of aviation a wispy Peace Treaty of Ghent was signed; More Hying machine called the -Gossamer.Alba- than 2.000 men died needlessly tross, powered by human muscle. alone-, By contrast, the future from which our cameo a man ac'oss the- English Channel. "thends of the simple -ile" would have us There was, of course, the darker flee is one of infinite promise and hope. side — Skylab came tumbling down, and- Iv'aiiy scientist;?, today predict that the

at Three Mile island, for neither the ti'sl nor average human lilo spar: wiii break 100 the last time, we stood at the very years by the next century. Some even go threshold of -eternity. so far as to claim lhal there ere people

Vial ,n many ways it was business as alive today who will never die. The )R usual. The Oft ce o! Man.:: cement and technology required tosolve the Scdgei - retired to these days by its much-touted energy crisis-is already with

acronym, TOMS-- announced its tiscal us. All that is needed is the political and l plans for the. U.S. space program over the financial commitment to pursue it. JJUNl next four years. TOMB'S resourceful And the door to space stands wide forward planning called for'an immediate open. A future more wondrous, more Uto- im The inane protestations 22-percent decrease in NASA funding. pian, than that of man traveling among the of our "friends of And that, of course, was without reference stars is unimaginable to me. TOMB, the to inflation. It was President Carter's way Carter administration, and/or the deiicate > the life" simple prove one of celebrating mankind's single, most sensibilities of Wall Street notwithstanding thing — that the spectacular technological achievement to man will reach into the future with the same

date, the tenth anniversary of our landing i m pae a be determination with which ultimate fallibility of man on the moon. his seed rose from trie primeval slime. is his curious This proposed cutback in space A eie celsb'.il.ed Bniish astronomer Sir * '930. living need to rationalize history. spending, however, is only the tip of an James-Jeans' wrote in We are ominous iceberg. According to the- al the very beginning of ;;me. We nave

r i National'Sci'ence Foundation, expendi- come into being i the rresn eiorv of ihe tumsfor Research and Development inthe dawn, and a day of almost unthinkable United States decreased by more than 20 length stretches before us with percent in the years between 1968 and unimaginable-opportunities for 1973 During iha; same time period, accomplishment Qui descendants ol

Research and Development was up 15 lar-o ' looking oovvn this long vista ol percent in the Soviet Union, up 1.6 percent time from the other end, will see our .in West Germany, and up '20. percent in present age as the misty morning of Japan. human history Ou-' contemporaries ol And all the while we near pleas for a today will appear as dim. .heroic figures return 'othe "simple life."— a legendary .who fought their way. through jungles: of state of being that occurred before, the ignorance, error and suoersti!ion to ad vanceof technology, before pollution, discover Truth."

and cefore me so- called energy crisis This month Omni celebrates' its first These inans protes'stior::; p-'e-ve one anniversary The groping irtler- has :h-ng — thai ihe Liiimate ^tibi^y of man i:_> become an eagei child We nave learned his curious need to rationalize history. Con- much in the past year: the need'to look

siderthe "simple life" of 1 50 years ago: ahead, to determine the- social,

I- you worked i'ac-d a'mosi everybody environmental, and economic impact of had to), you worked a 72-hour week — at future technology on all our tomorrows.' We

the loe.st. li you traveled (and almost have learned, once again thai nothing is

nobody did), you ; raveled slowly and .so constant as change. Yet our pledge to

uncomfortably The trip from Boston to- you remains the same as it was 'a year New York, for example, accomplished ago: to stand al the frontier pf intellectual under idea! conditions, took some 40' and philosophical inquiry, re chart the

hours by stagecoach. If you were sick: course ol him an progress imc -he

both medicine and surgery were freely twenty-first century and ooyene . . ic available — you simply visited your friendly welcome the future. DO CONTRIBUTOR Druiruii

This month marks the completion lated into nearly 30 languages, has been Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden of Omni's first year of publication. for the past four decades one of Europe's Memories and Other Disasters have Coming soon will be the end of a most prolific writers. Cofounder of the become prescribed reading in many tumultuous decade and the beginning of a Polish Astronautical Society and member American-literature courses throughout promising, though uncertain, new one. To of the Polish Cybernetic Association, he the world. His short stories have won the help us articulate the key developments of has written, most notably The highly coveted Playboy Humor Award four

the decade past and their impact on the Investigation , the classic Solaris, The times, a record unequaled by any other years ahead. Omni went to the world's Cyberaid, and his most recent work, The writer. Shepherd's contribution to Omni, leading figures in science and technology. Chain of Chance. For a passage from his "The Lost Culture of Deli," can be found on The end result is "Decades of Decision" latest novel, see "The Test," on page 86. page 104. (page 96], in which Isaac Asimov, Rene~ Walter Tevis concludes this month's The noted English explorer and mountain- Dubos, Masters and Johnson, Arthur fiction with "Rent Control" (page 11 4). a eer Lord John Hunt trails the "Abominable Koestter. and many others share personal story of time, love, and consequence by Snowman" in an entertaining article insights on topics ranging from possible the author of The Hustler and The Man entitled "Unseen Yeti." Hunt, who took part breakthroughs in their own specialities to Who Fell to Earth. in man's first successful ascent of Mount humankind's changing role within the Thomas Hoover, whose fascinating Everest, in 1953, provides evidence that, cosmos. study on intuition appeared in ourfirst he hopes, will someday prove the Robert A. Heinlein, author of the classic issue {October 1978). returns to examine existence of this legendary creature. See Stranger in a Strange Land, joins Omni's the other side of the mind, the process of page 108. anniversary celebration with an exclusive pure reason in "Intelligent Machines" Ursula K. Le Guin ponders the excerpt from his first novel in five years. (page 60). From fhe leading artificial distressing problem ot time shortage in Truly one of the legendary writers of this intelligence (Al) laboratories across the this month's Last Word. Le Guin has century, Heinlein has been a dominant nation. Hoover reports on both the prog- repeatedly won Hugo and Nebula awards figure in the SF field since the appearance ress and the dilemmas emerging from for her novels and short stories. She edited of his first work. Lifeline, back in 1939. efforts to teach computers human skills. the Science Fiction Writers of America

He has won many Hugo awards. His Hoover's startling conclusion is that Al annual anthology, Nebula II, and coedited explorations are universal, reflecting his researchers are well on the way to evolving a collection of original fiction. Interfaces, interest in politics, religion, and socio- a new species of intelligence, entirely alien with Virginia Kidd, which will be published biology. Certain to be a best-seller, The to that of living organisms. No stranger to later this year. "Where Does the Time Go?" Number of the Beast should be on the the computer console himself. Hoover has is found on page 178. stands sometime in 1980. Omni readers also explored Eastern thought in Zen Last, Omni associate editor Kathleen can tind it beginning on page 66. Culture (Random House, 1978), Stein presents a profile of Bob Truax, who Other fiction this month includes an Jean Shepherd must be considered one claims he will launch the first private excerpt from Polish writer Stanislaw Lem's of America's most versatile humorists, hav- astronaut info space with his "Volksrocket ing newest novel. Tales of Pirx the Pilot . due to performed on stage, in night clubs, X-17." Who will be the honored pilot of the be released in book form this month. and on television and radio. His best- vehicle? The f'r st pe'sor to come up with Lem, whose novels have been trans- selling novels In God We Trust and $1 million. See page 70. DO "

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8 GUCCIONE editor & publisher KATHY KEETQN associate publisher etter:

OMNI INTERNATIONAL LTD, THE CORPORATION isident) Kalhy Keeton (senior Wi Irwin E. Billman (executive vice-president) carinnnuruicMTiorus Anthony J. Guoclone (secretary-!/ EDITORIAL

McAuliffe.' Erie R< Solipsism Syndrome? expresses this reeling very we//." Copy Editor. The Douglas Colligan. writing about space implication here is that future astronauts Susan Caputo, Karen A. Galanaugh; Conirii colonies in the May Omni [Continuum, might go to a Bergman film festival as part Editors: Monte Davis. Dr. -Christopher Evans. C 35], discusses the long-term effects of their orientation for living in space. rick Moore. OBE, Ourk Pearson, Sandy Shak William K, Stuckey on humans spending lengthy periods in Admittedly the study did give the people

ART space. He brings up the "Solipsism of Lund a raw deal if its solipsism Art Directly- Frank De-Vino; Associat Syndrome" (when people lose their sense diagnosis is based solely on the Lynda Chyhai; Designer: Marian Levine;P/icft>& of reality) and goes on to write; "It's a real conclusions of film buff. If it's Hildegard Kron: Stall Photographer. some NASA condition often seen on Earth in the any consolation, ADMINISTRATIVE NASA also managed to citizens of Lund. Sweden, during their long V.PJDirector of Advertising Beverley W insult citizens in its own country as well. Public Relations Director Aima M (18 hours at times) winter nights." Just a few pages after the Lund passage, Administrative Services Jeri Winston V.f As a citizen oi Lund. I strongly object to the study goes on to say: "What would this statement. Something similar probably make life in an extraterrestrial appeared some years ago in the NASA community 'harder' than life in Minnesota

study "Space Settlements. " which or California (?) is isolation from the earth presumably was Mr. Colligan's source. and smatlness of the environment. In these The reason Lund was mentioned appears two aspects, an extraterrestrial community

to be that it had figured in connection with resembles Hawaii rather than Alaska." i some neurosis shown in one of Ingmar guess what this all means is that the Bergman's movies! The NASA study was simplest way of simulating life in space is

quoted in the Lund University newspaper, to go see Wild Strawberries in Honolulu. I arousing some amusement. However, its for one would rather take my chances on ADVERTISING OFFICES perpetuation and amplification in Omni the springtime student carnival in Lund. cannot remain undisputed-

Lund is an old (almost 1 ,000 years) town Maze

in the very south of Sweden, with a climate I enjoyed working the "Sky Pipes Maze" on of similar to that the northern United page 119 of your July issue. I had never

States. It features an old cathedral and a seen a three-dimensional maze like this university with some 20,000 students. one before. Who drew it? Come and join us among blooming Deborah Gilbert magnolias in the euphoria of the Detroit, Mich. springtime student carnival, Losing a sense of reality? Maybe at times. But Larry Evans, who has several maze books. solipsism syndromes? Good grief! The latest, 3-Dimensional Maze Art, was DainisDravins published this month by Troubador Lund, Sweden Press. —Ed.

York 909 Third Avenue, New Yo Douglas Colligan 'eolies: My source for Amazing Plot

the Solipsism Syndrome reference to Lund I feel that I must comment on "How to Write 6732 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif- was indeed the NASA study "Space a Science-Fiction Novel" [June 1979. Tel. (213) 652-8070; London 2 Bramber fioa page West Kensington, London W14 9PB. Englan Settlements." I decided to go back and 107]. Tel. (01)365-6101. Tele* no. 9.19B65. reread it after seeing Mr. Dravins's letter. What we have here is a remarkable U.K. & European Editions There's no author cited for this particular simplification of the cc; :e.-? :: ~t~ :' Managing Director: Alan Root; Advertising Dan section, ' ' nor any specific reference most major and minor SF stones. For Eleanore Graham; Public- Relations: W '"'. explaining its ". . Editorial Assistant: Andie Burland how NASA reached example: . Earth ... is struck by a giant

conclusions about Lund. But it might . . BUREAUS be comet ... not destroyed, but . almost Washington, DC: William P. Corson, 1707 H S interesting to see what the study says in everyone dies (the end).' You have just Washington, ".W. DC. Berlin: Hans-I part: "in the small town of Lund, Sweden, stated in wonderfully simple terms 640

rasse 1 , Berlin 45 Wo de Janeiro: Andte Fodor, 9 the winter days have 6 hr [sic] of daylight (paperback) pages of brilliant SF; Larry ja Mexico. 15th Hear, Rio de J. . Budapest: Paul Kirlyhedgyi, 5 Regr prjsla utCi and 18 hr of darkness. Most of the people Niven's Lucifer's Hammer and Jerry Budapest 5. Hungary Zagreb: Cedomir K live under arlificial light, so that life Pournelle's Amazing. Slretirnjak 96, Zagreb, Yugosla- acquires a special quality. . . . Ingmar This is wonderful! No longer will I have OCTOBER film .^____ Bergman's Wild Strawberries to plod through every word of a story. All I Make it. Use it. And save up to 60% on interstate calls.

you can save 35%, or ev 60%, on out-of-st: phone calls? "Thanks to my Phone Thing, I saved 60% conies to saving money on a call to on direct-dial calls. the Coast." Just put it all together,

before you make your next call, and start saving every time you reach out and touch someone.

Bell System

. .

have lo do is read the synopsis or TV Skylab — yel I can only wonder what effect natural resources, we could continue to Guide. Why. Ihis method tar outstrips this will have on future research. Perhaps develop technology that will propel man to speed reading. You could read 10 to 20 the American people will realize that a the outer reaches of the universe and books in the store itself and never have to successful space program'dependson publish magazines .such as Omni? buy them! the amount oi government money allotted The simple fact is that we can't have one

it. I can see a whole new industry to However, it is more likely that Skylab's without the other. springing up out of this. Whole books on demise will have an adverse effect, and Jory L. Laine one page, a whole library in one looseleaf instead the American public will retreat Denver, Colo. notebook. The saving alone in royalties to into their ever-present shell of scientific authors would justify il'from the Start. ignorance Radioactive Garbage?

I. ol course, the first of Lorraine have these "new Souza I read with dismay Ben Bova's column in

for in 111. wave" stories inclusion an upcoming Chicago, Omni's July issue [First Word I about edition of Omni. Happy reading: storing radioactive waste in space. "... a team of editors . . . invent . . . giant The Hunt We have always used a solution such as

icky things . . . which misunderstand us . . After reading Kenneth Brower's article "As this to get rid of wastes, only to have to live and cannot be killed by a crowd of Go the Whales" [July 1979], I felt there was with them at some future time, We have

authors. . . . The (happy) end." something drastically lacking in his factual buried garbage and dangerous Stephen R. Chambers stating of the pro- and anti-whaling chemicals, only to have them seep into our

Annandale, Va. standpoints, and so I write to you. lives at a later date. We have dumped tons Whales are not just pieces of meat, nor of chemicals and waste into the oceans, Hard to Believe are they merely numbers; they are and now we are reaping the pollution that

I just read Gerald Maxson's letter in your intelligent, loving people, more threatens our own lives just as it threatens

July issue. Maxson is correct in pointing sophisticated than humans in that they marine life forms. out the tact that Arcturus is in Bootes, not coexist with their environment instead of Flying waste into space and storing it in the Dipper. However, he also writes that changing it. doesn't solve the problem. If we live long an observer traveling faster than light I found his talk of "numbers" and enough on this planet to explore the outer could, upon reaching his destination, stop, "quotas" sickening — reminiscent ot black reaches of space, we'll meet up with our turn around, and watch himself coming. slavery in America, where the slaves were waste once again.

He says he finds this ditticu It to believe, only animals to be used . The idea that Science has no idea what and I'm afraid I do also. The traveler would thousands of whales are mass-murdered repercussions might occur if nuclear not see himself coming; instead, he would each year for such things as margarine. wastes are introduced into an environment witness !hc aoparent receding of his soap, and cosmetics is disturbing and still alien to us. What if other beings live in image, as if a tilm ot his voyage were being repulsive. space? How would their lives be affected played in reverse. In eifect. he would see One of the main problems is education; by our radioactive garbage? himself going. This is due to the fact that Most people don't realize the intelligence I think Mr. Bova's idea is inhuman and

light irom the beginning of his journey of the whales. I truly wish you would do an inhumane. A more creative solution would would take longer to reach him than light article on the stud es snowing how be to eliminate the cause of the waste in from the miles he had just covered. incredibly sensitive dolphins and other the first place, rather than concern In relation to sound, this phenomenon is cetaceans are. ourselves with zero-defect technology. already well known because of supersonic Doug Atemanne Sidney Summers aircraft, and in the case of light, it brings Hastings, N.Y. Boulder, Colo. up another interesting matter. It such a "tachyon traveler" existed, not only would Bugged by Bugs Ben Bova's suggestion that we should use he appear to go-backwards in space, but The reference to the primitive ants as zero-defect technology as a solution for he would be going backwards in time. And being 'Australian bugs" in the "Oldest the prevention of nuclear-plant disasters is

I find that difficult to believe! Ants" item in Continuum [May 1979. page more of the same old double-talk that has Bill Goodwin 30] somewhat grated on my entomological been dished out to the public over ihe pas! Los Angeles. Calif. nerves. Although most insects and other 20 years of nuclear-fission history. Has Mr.

similar "creepy crawlers" are collectively Bova forgotten that if was NASA's

Remark on Ark referred to as "hugs" by the layman. I zero-defect technology that killed three In response to the letter written by Tom would like to point out that only 2 of the 26 Apollo astronauts in 1967?

Gale to Omni [June 1979], I, too, am recognized insect orders are classified as I, for one. do not wish to sail on your convinced- that within the next 15 years the true "bugs": Hemiptera and Homoptera. it Titanic human race, as we know it, will be defunct. may seem like a minor point, but I feel a Stephen Goodfellow

It is extremely fortunate that there are magazine such as Omni should not be Highland Park, Mich. people like Gale who take "the end of the encouraging the unfounded use of such a world" seriously, for "Gale's Ark" may be popular misnomer. Ben Bova replies: Wo person or our only hope. Paul Heels organization or technology is perfect. But

I'd be most appreciative if Omni would Victoria, B.C. nuclear power is needed now. It exists now. furnish me with a way of contacting Mr. Canada Sometime in the tuture we may not need

Gale as soon as oossiole A^ter all, we nuclear-power plants. Sometime in the don't have forever! Exploration a Necessity future we will have solar energy, synthetic

ReginaE. Towers It is truly incredible, if not downright hydrogen fuels, and ultimately fusion West Chester, Pa. hypocritical, that your June issue extols power. Wonderful. But until then we will

the virtues of space exploration in one . need uranium-fueled nuclear-power All mail to Mr. Gale should be sent to: article ("Eye in the Sky") and in another plants, and we should take the steps Tom Gale, 186 Evelyn Avenue, Apartment ("Phoenix of Crested Butte") condemns' necessary to make them as safe, efficient, 2, Toronto, Ont., Canada. — Ed. exploration for one of the minerals, and low in pollution ss possible. To do molybdenum, that help make such Otherwise would be to take a step Splashdown ventures as the space telescope possible. backward; this would damage our

I heartily regret the downfall of one of Are your writers naive enough to believe economy, our way of life, and our humankind's greatest achievements — that, without the utilization of the earth's freedoms. DO FDRURJ1

In which She readers, editors, and myself batly this early in the day— had a those who are sntornnud nearby and that correspondents discuss topics arising out slight ailment, a condition that we don't sets them on edge, as well. of Omni and theories and speculation of boast about, which the first king of your general interest are brought forth. The country had. It is called porphyria. Mary Intellectual Brilliance views published are not necessarily those Queen of Scots passed it to King George When my wife saw your "World's Hardest l.Q. Test." introduced by Scot Morris in the of the edilors. Letters for publication III. When I knew her, Mary had a lovely should be mailed to Omni Forum, Omni neck. Porphyria is mainly an inherited April issue of Omni, she challenged me to Magazine. 909 Third Avenue, New York, metabolic disorder in which a bodily prove, once and for all, the intellectual

brilliance I had always claimed for myself. NX 10022. pigment is overproduced, but I shan't bore

you with the details. Let it be that the With feigned confidence, I took the lest,

From Transylvania, with Love disorder makes my skin sensitive tc the and several days later I sent off the form $2.50. Finally, after much too long It was nearly enough to rouse me before light, and I prefer the night, naturally Over and my my accustomed nightfall when, among the the years, and particularly from the a time, my results have arrived, and they cards and letters that have been wending exposure of full moonlight, some confirm my suspicions in every respect. their way here for the last, oh, 600 years or porphyrins have leached into my bones Thanks! so, came the June issue of Omni, with and teeth and, in regard to the latter have Clifford Walton word of my supposed affliction reported caused erythrodontia, a reddish staining Greencastle, Ind.

by Bruce Wallace. If it could, my blood on my rapier canines. I rather fancy the would nave curdled. effect. Scot Morris replies: We apologize to those readers who took "The World's Hardest So now it is rabies that drives me to seek If you are interested, erythrodontia my lovely victims? Rabies 7 How plebeian! shows up best under long-wave ultraviolet l.Q. Test" in April and had to wait three Your Mr. Wallace should stay home at rays, but few people care about this months or more for their scores. The Four Society, which drew the test, night, with his doors bolted, if he can't tell anymore, alas. Sigma up the difference between me, the Prince of Count Dracula was swamped with more than 10,000 Walachia, and my old friend Jack Whereabouts withheld entries in the first month alone. Problems in Homolupus. Hirsute as he is, Jack is best hiring people to open the volume of mail in acquiring new computer to known as the Wolfman. and it is he who Bruce Wallace replies; Poor old Count. and a has rabies. A mild case, though. Louis mouthing (if he will pardon the expression/ process all the entries delayed the mail Pasteur wouldn't even take him as a predestination, like a devout Calvinist. response much longer than had been inherited ancestor anticipated. Those of you who have put off patient. But I digress. Porphyria from a remote every taking the test may now expect to receive I, the most prominent inhabitant of has led to erythrodontia! indeed, as Transylvania, have never in my life foamed Walachian immigrant to these shores has a computerized l.Q. score and analysis sending in at the mouth. It would be ludicrous to learned, it is the grime of New York's Rabid within four weeks of the Transit that discolors the teeth of completed form. suppose that I had. The foam would System obscure my two-inch-long canine teeth, one of my most recognizable features, and Progressive Censorship that would be a pity, don't you agree? As The prior restraint used against the Progressive deserves lar more comment for biting indiscriminately, I can only the brief Continuum note in Omni's suggest that you review my history I prefer than July issue. women or, as you call them these days, liberated women, of good breeding and The government's action againsl this translucent skin. These ephemeral small political magazine is the most qualities have always appealed to me. blatant, un-American act of censorship in the entire history of the United States. Perhaps I inherited this taste from my mother. Years of censorship of so-called pornography set the government's From my father, though, I inherited my fondness for the night and my desire for precedent for destruction of the First

the jugular, a vein of singular quality as it Amendment. Now that censorship has courses so conveniently up the neck, attacked political publications, the warm and blue. 1 become enraptured just destruction of our basic right of free thinking about it. You see, my father, and expression is complete. As Guccione publication, you should his before him, and his before him — and I a be well aware of the problems of could go on, but 1 don't wish to drive

18 OMNI CONTINUED OM PAGE 174 EMRTH By Kenneth Brower

if Bible, with its radical doctrine that this here did we go wrong 9 idling engines were making a sound, new f% like planet was God's gift to man, certainly it only we had ears for it. very much a ; M I It is apparent that | didn't help. Our attitude toward Earth was Wv vv happened someplace, that in chuckle.) everyone seen the healthier when we were pagans who our relations with the Mother Planet we But by now has monster in the Model-T, and the problem is believed that spirits resided in everything, took a wrong turn. Was it at Alamogordo? that man and beast were on equal The A-bomb's escalation ot our war older than that. it well-intentioned work oi footing bears becoming men against Earth was certainly loud and Was in the — Lister, and occasionally, men becoming owls— and spectacular. The blinding flash and big men like Hippocrates, Joseph trie human that a tree had to be placated before you boom may be the ultimate symbols of what Jonas Salk? Having depressed death rate, medicine has released

error f was endothermy lecture given by a marine scientisl who Drain achieved nearly il:= preser: 0'" The endotherm, the "warm-blooded" entertained some doubts about making whales the brightest creatures on animal, generates in of its cells endothermy. each about The scientist — I have this planet. Somehow they passed on an four times the chemical heat that the forgotten his name— suggested that intact- and bountiful ocean to their ectotherm, or "cold-blooded" animal, endothermy in the sea, in the forms of descendants. They moderated their generates. The endotherm's insulation, in cetacean and seal, might not have been a numbers. They have not become a the form of fur or feathers, is superior good idea. He was being deliberately blubbery mass occipymg all '.ho known While the ectothemrs workday begins only heretical. The conference hall was full of universe and expanding outward at the

when the sun has warmed it, the young biologists who had become whale speed oi light. endotherm's begins anytime the mood advocates, which seems to be a nearly The problem, then, must be in the

. strikes. The new system, inaugurated in inevitable development among whale appendage we have in place of a flipper. the Triassic, conferred a great competitive researchers. His purpose was mostly The human hand, deceptively clammy at advantage on its converts. It opened up playful, to shake up his colleagues. high-school dances, but endothermic at latitudes, higher colder seasons, and the But his point was interesting. The its core, is the culprit. The notion is hardly night. It was a prerequisite, on this planet ocean, as he reminded the gathering, Is original with me. Peter Sellers, for one,

at least, for high intelligence. It looked an ecosystem of peculiar interdepen- knew it, consciously or not. in his portrayal awfully good. dences, a country where the sheep eat of Dr. Strangelove, We are all Dr. But it had a high cost. The energy Strangelove, as portrayed by Sellers. for a population of budget endotherms is Strangelove's hand has a lite of its own, 10 to 30 times higher than for a population saluting the Fiihrer at unexpected of ectotherms of the same weight. moments, fidgeting spasmodically Victorian When zoologists first despite its owner's desperate efforts to dissected Nile crocodiles, they ^Our attitude toward were control it, lulling him, and trying to escape amazed to find that the stomachs of most Earth was healthier when we in a fingerwalk down the armrest. We must were empty. The discovery did not seem to were pagans who master our hands, obviously, and far better jibe with the monster's crooked and toothy than Strangelove did in the movie. smile, its voracious reputation. The true believed that spirits resided It is too late to grow flippers. It is nor too monster was not the croc, of course, but in everything, that late to learn to communicate with the bespectacled, apparently cetaceans. There have been a number of man and beast were on equal mild-mannered scientist peering into its previous arguments for trying to do so. stomach. (If some intelligent footing, and trees had One is for the sake of the cetaceans. 1 extraterrestrial lizard had dissected a look at language as a weapon in the to be placated before cutting.^ sampling of Victorian zoologists, it would long-term fight for whales." Jean-Paul have been appalled by the evidence of Fortom-Gouin, of Florida's Delphic real voracity— the crumpets, marmalade, Research Institute, told me last year "If and kidney pie in each stomach.) you can prove they can talk — if you even We endotherms are the gas guzzlers of think they can talk— then the only ethical the animal kingdom. We are the the litters of the wolves. The reproductive position is to step killing them until you can double-carburetored, fuel-injected muscle method of marine mammals— a method find out." A second argument is for the cars of the phylum Chordata. Auto makers land-evolved — was a totally foreign intro- sake of humans, that we might experience are mistaken in naming their economy duction. With sea mammals, a single calf intelligent companionship on an earth vehicles Rabbit and Colt. More or pup is reared carefully by its mother and where the opportunities for that appropriate would be Salamander, Frog, its tribe. There are no millions of trans- companionship are few. "It is worth at least Scorpion, Iguana. We have pulled out and lucent little porpoise fry, no sea-lion finger- a wistful thought." Loren Eiseley writes, roared past the oxcart of the ectotherms. lings, left over to feed the fish on which "that someday the porpoise may talk to us but the planet is paying the price. adult porpoises and sea lions feed. Marine and we to him. It would break, perhaps, "A star is a planet whose inhabitants mammals take a lot from the sea and give the long loneliness that has made man a experimented with nuclear power," Alan back little. Throughout long lifetimes frequent terror and abomination even to

Watts once said, inventing an improbable they eat tons of fish and squid, burn a lot himself." A third argument is for expanding cosmology to make a good point. Maybe of calories to keep warm, and generally human horizons. "We can hear whales Watts's axiom could be amended: A star is have a good time. They return only their singing," writes Joan Mclntyre, of Project a planet where life experimented with excrement and finally their cadavers. Jonah. "If we pay attention and let them endothermy. The intense, dazzling Anyone who has seen the fearlessness live, oerhaos we will hear them speak, in oi in liberation energy the fission bomb is, and speed with which the dorsal fin of a their own accents, their own language. It perhaps, just a sublimation, an inevitable killer whale cuts the surface, then slices would be an extravagant reward to product, of the chemical liberation that through a school of ectotbermic salmon; experience, by empathy, a different band occurred in the cells of the first anyone who has watched dolphins spend of reality" But an even stronger argument endotherm. And it is possible, too, that the whole morning leaping and playing, might be made for our very survival, If we endothermy — or its equivalent in a life their time freed by having echo-located can somehow bridge the 60 million years system based not on carbon but on silica their prey so efficiently the previous of cultural separation, discovering a Or something else — inevitable, barring night— that person must have sensed the language intelligible to both sides, we cosmic accident, once life has begun. possible truth in what the scientist humans might learn the cetaceans' secret: Whetherior not stars arise from suggested: that these animals are just a how a smart, hot-blooded animal can intelligent tinkering — and it seems unktlely, little too good. amuse itself for millions of years without on local evidence, that there was ever that But marine mammals have a convincing burning the place up. DO 22 OMNI JUPITER JOURNEY

By Mark R. Chartrand III

has always been easy to speak in Earth or by spacecraft camera— is not a moons is a world in its own right. We have Itsuperlatives about the planet Jupiter: the solid surface but the top of a swirling discovered a mini-solar system.

largest in the solar system, being more cloud cover. If Jupiter has a solid surface lo— in mythology, one of the god Jupiter's than 1 1 times the size of Earth; the at all, it lies deep beneath the clouds. many paramours — proved to be the most heaviest, with 318 times Earth's mass - Because of Jupiter's fast rotation, the dramatic, lo has at least six or seven more than the sum of all the other planets gases at its equator are traveling af about volcanoes erupting most of the time, combined; the fastest-rotating, requiring 46,000 kilometers an hour. The clouds do altering the surface, covering any craters. only ten hours to make one complete turn: not rotate in unison, as a solid body would: and spewing gases that fly into orbit the most colorful, with belts and bands Each latitude rotates at a slightly varied around Jupiter. Even in the few months that and spots; and accompanied by the speed. This shearing tears the clouds and elapsed between the Voyagers, lo's greatest number of satellites, 13 (and atmospheric features as they slide past surface changed, lo may be the most another is suspected). one another. active solid body in all the solar system. This year such superlatives have been The visibility of the cloud features and Europa appeared only at a distance all but exhausted as astronomers and the speed and scale of their activity make during the Voyager 1 tlyby. With Voyager 2 laymen alike have seen, close up. not only Jupiter's atmosphere a testing ground for came the discovery that this moon may be

Jupiter itself but the five inner satellites. meteorologists' theories. Although it would the flattest member of the sun's family. Though the man in the street might well be unfair to suggest that the Voyager Europa has few craters but many curious argue that the spectacular photographs mission will soon provide better weather wrinkles. These show up as dark lines on sent back by the Voyager program justify forecasts on Earth, the studies will the surface, bul there is little vertical relief. the few dollars they cost each U.S. citizen. enhance our knowledge of how planetary They're almost as flat as if they were planeiary scientists expect far more. They atmospheres work. painted now have a new astrophysical laboratory With the earlier Pioneer missions as a Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon that may tell us more about meteorological hint, we expected to obtain breathtaking and the second-largest in the solar and geological processes than we could pictures of Jupiter. The surprises came system, after Saturn's Titan. The most get by studying conditions here on Earth. from the surface details of some of beautiful of mortals, Ganymede was taken What we see of Jupiter - either from Jupiter's satellites. Each of the large to Mount Olympus to serve the gods. His namesake may end up serving as another planetary laboratory tor plate tectonics.

Ganymede's surface is pocked with recent craters, scoured with ridges and grooves, and spotted with large light and dark areas, which are not yet understood. Callisto, named for an Arcadian nymph, is probably the most heavily cratered body

in the solar system. The pictures taken of Callisto remind me of a rural road sign full of bullet holes. Callisto may preserve a billion-year record of the last stages in the accretion of the planets from the debris that formed the solar system. The planet Jupiter— along with its retinue— has certainly lived up to its eponym's mythological reputation as the

source of human happiness, if you happen to be a planetologist. We eagerly await the next phase of the Voyager mission; a rendezvous with Saturn in 1980. Voyager's cameras have 100 times the resolution seen in this September's Pioneer 11 photographs of this photogenic planet. The prospect is enough to make even Eutopa's dark lines, shot by Voyage" 2 Iron: 246.Q0Q km may be huge c the most saturnine scientist jovial. OO 24 OMNI LINKING OF CANCER

By Dr. Bernard Dixon

^^decadc- ac.o ary suggestion that Orthodox piacthkru.-'s. ooie-vs absolute proof that this loss of immunity X«^» the mind could influence cancer resisted evidence that the mind affects makes cancer cells begin to proliferate. # % growth invariably triggered malignancy simpiy because they could But the correlation is impressive. no possible explanation for such an There's another objection. Maybe derisive dismissals from medical see — scientists. Today many physicians influence. What could Ihe mechanism be? certain psychological characteristics recognize that our mental state does Lacking even the tiniest clue, they quietly depression, say. and the suppression ot much to govern our susceptibility to set. aside Kissen's pioneering work and emotion — are a result rather than a cause malignant disease. This is now a declined to mouni further research. Greer of cancer. This seems implausible, respectable field of research — one that is an exception, and he appears to be particularly in the case of bereavement. has already yielded encouraging results. gaining converts. The only way to settle the issue is to One of the people most responsible for We now have a little evidence about the conduct prospective, rather than this shift in opinion is Dr. Steven Greer. link between what goes on in the brain and retrospective, studies. By assessing the Over the past five years Dr. Greer and his what goes on in the body's tissues. The personal!: ^:s of ~iany people and colleagues at King's College Hospital. immune system, which not only repels watching their health for years, it should London, have made painstaking progress invading microbes but probably watches be possible to identify any associations with a problem that is extraordinarily for the appearance of malignant cells and between Ihe mind and cancer. difficull to investigate. Their findings were combats their. growth, may well be the Drs. C, B. Thomas and R. L. Greenstreet published recently in Psychological answer. Dr. Paul Rosen, president of the reported virtually the only research of this Medicine (Vol. IX, p. 81). One of their major American Institute of Stress, gave one sort ever carried out, in 1974. after three discoveries came from personality studies example recently in The Lancet (1979. Vol. decades of monitoring the health of

among women who were having a lump in i. p. 1302). One especially stressful students from Johns Hopkins Med-cal Ihe breast investigated by biopsy. When experience, the death of a husband or a School. Every year from 1945 on. the compared with :ne general population, wife, is associated with an increased students completed psychological

more of these women listed "suppression incidence of rna :-gnancy It is also queslionnaires. The results were striking. of anger" among their behavior traits. accompanied by what Dr. Rosch calls "a The personality profiles of those who later revealed little This interested me oecsusc it supports prompt and impress, ve oec me in immune developed cancer them as work done in Britain several years ago by function." For the time being, we have no given to expressing their emotions. David Kissen, whose Medical Research Serious scientific investigation of the Council unit on the psychosomatic mind's influence on cancer is still in its aspects of cancer was closed down after infancy. Yet there is one important, he himself died of the disease. Dr. Kissen's practical lesson we've already learned. If investigations yielded highly suggeslive certain psychological states reduce our evidence that cancer and the patient's vulnerability to Ihe disease., perhaps we psychological condition are closely linked. can mobilize our mental resources to fight One ol his most persuasive studies cancer. Drs. O. C. and S, J. Simonton, a compared smokers suffering from iung husband-and-wife team, have been cancer with group of training patients to visualize their body a matched , cancer-free smokers. Personality tests defenses fighting their tumors. When used showed that the patients included an with orthodox treatment, the technique unusual proportion who repressed their certainly seems to increase life emotions, keeping them severely in check. expectancy {Journal of Transpersonal A later study showed that lung-cancer Psychology. Vol. VIII, p. 29). And last year victims who smoked were less Dr. Y Ikemi and his colleagues reported self-assertive than smokers in general. that belief was a maior factor in the Such revelations are not as surprising to spontaneous remission of cancer nonscienlists as they are to "experts." We [Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 1978,

all know of people who have developed Vol. I, p. 45). cancer shortly after retiring, for example, The fact that such claims are now being or closely following bereavement— cases published in conventional scientitic

in which it's been difficult to resist the journals shows that research on a obvious conclusion. Why have the medical- psychosomatic causation of cancer is and scientific establishments been so acqunng respectability. The potential ready to dismiss such stories? dividends are incalculable. DO 26 OMNI VENUS GLOW TARS By- Patrick Moore

have always been fascinated by the There are objections to both of tures were discovered, ivies: notable was story of Franz von Paula Gruithuisen. a Gruithuisen's theories, and the ashen light a huge rift valley. 5 kilometers deep. 280 I German astronomer who became itself remains controversial. Some kilometers wide, and stretching at least prominent early in the nineteenth century. astronomers have dismissed it as a mere 1 .440 kilometers, apparently with no sud-

it is beginning or end. This remarkable He was a fairly good observer who effect of contrast. I have not. Though den Valles Marineris concentrated on the moon and (he always elusive, I have seen it myself on valley dwarfs even the planets, but his imagination was. to put it quite a number of occasions. To see it on Mars and makes our own Grand mildly, somewhat vivid. For instance, he properly, one has to fit a special "occulting Canyon seem, like a mere mud crack. discovered what he believed to be an bar" into the telescope eyepiece to hide Just as interesting was the revelation artificial structure on the moon and the bright crescent of the planet. And. of that there is continuous lightning up to 32 level. described it as "a collection of dark, course, one can never see Venus well. kilometers above ground Both the gigantic ramparts ... a work of art." against a really black sky. because it is Venera and the Pioneer orbiters detected Unfortunately, there's nothing there but a always too low over the horizon. as many as 25 discharges per second. An few haphazard ridges. Among possible explanations for the observer on Venus would see what eerie glow It was in observing Venus that ashen light, astronomers have suggested appeared to be a continuous, Gruithuisen really outdid himself. He put fluorescence in the planet's seas, auroras. and would hear ceaseless thunder.

if glow, to forward a theory to explain the so-cailed and lightning flashes. It now looks as the There is also a second though! ashen light that caused his more sober lightning theory may be correct. be caused by chemical reactions in the contemporaries to raise their eyebrows. As many people will recall, afleet of- superheated atmosphere close to the Look at our crescent moon and you can spacecraft approached Venus last planet's surface. This glow seems to start often see the unlighted side faintly December. There was, for instance, the about 16 kilometers above ground level, shining. There is no mystery about this. Pioneer multiprobe from the United States. and it may well combine withthe lightning The glow is caused by light reflected from And a couple of Russian Veneras made to make up the ashen light, an effect that Earth to the moon — as Leonardo da Vinci controlled landings, though without send- has been seen by nearly all serious Venus recognized long ago. But through the ing back pictures, as their predecessors watchers. telescope, the same sort of radiance has had done. Many strange surface fea- Less than iwo decades ago it seemed

been seen on Venus, where it is known as probable that Venus was coveredby with surface temperature the ashen light. On Venus, it is not so easy oceans, a we to explain. Venus has no moon, and the would find quite tolerable. By last finding earth could not illuminate il perceptibly. December, we were resigned to a Gruithuisen thought he had found an carbon dioxide atmosphere about 90 explanation. He noted that the light had times as dense as our own. clouds been observed in 1759 and again in 1806. containing sulfuric acid, and a surface after an interval of 47 terrestrial and 76 temperature above 450'"C. Venusian years. He concluded: "If we The new findings make Venus an even estimate that the ordinary life of an more peculiar world than we expected inhabitant of the planet lasts 130 Venus Any traveler incautious enough to step years, which amounts to 80 Earth years, outside his spaceship to admire the view the reign of an emperor of Venus might would be simultaneously poisoned, well last for 76 Venus years. The observed squashed, fried, and corroded. It now

appearance is evidently the result of a seems that he might also be deafened. general feslival illumination in honour of The thunderclaps on Venus must be vastly the ascension of anew emperor to the louder than anything we hear on Earth. throne of the planet." Over the years, many people have Later Gruithuisen had second thoughts. suggested that we seed the atmosphere He wondered whelher the light might be of Venus with bacteria to break up the due to the burning of large stretches of carbon dioxide molecules and release free jungle to produce new farmland. He oxygen in order to prepare the planet lor that added that "large migrations of people colonization. It now seems unlikely would be prevented, so that possible wars such plans will ever be practical, in many would be avoided by abolishing the ways, then, Venus has been a disappoint-

reason for them. Thus the race would be ment. Yet it remains one of the most

: kept united." .4:;,s( -; concopuor: pori'syi s\.in!.;vi o» Venus. fascinating bodies in our solar system. DO 2B OMNI THE ELECTION OF 1984 DFFICIML CIRCLES By William K. Stuckey

Can President Howard Baker be Anderson as the man best qualified for the California, are probably the most bealen in 1984? Will Vice-President presidency, and siphons off much of the future-oriented members of the House General Alexander Haig remain on support of George Bush. Reagan, and Committee on Science and Technology. the ticket? Will Tom Hayden. of California, Connally. Baker nails down the position of Finally. Gore has the potential of making and Representative Albert Gore, Jn, of Ten- Washington's Wiliest Pol. delighting the left even Jerry Brown look like a Victorian fudd nessee, succeed in their separate efforts by voting to cut loose the Panama Canal through his newly acquired chairmanship to wrest the Democratic party leadership and proposing to nationalize the oil of "Congress's science-fiction branch," away from Senator Edward M. Kennedy? comoanic-s. curtsying to ihe right by the Congressional Clearinghouse of the Or will Big Brother cancel the election, opposing SALT II. looking more and more Future. And oh, yes. his college studies all of the above, and you? like a 1980 winner even over Fritz Nice Guy ranged from law to religion (perhaps The underlying premise of such and Ted Kennedy. attractive to tormer Carterians), and he questions, as you've guessed by now, is And young (early thirties) Albert Gore, wrote a thesis on the impact of television that the 1980 presidential election is Jr., is preparing, even if he doesn't know it, on the presidency. Gore's a textbook already over, tor all practical purposes; to come out of nowhere. example of a political comer, as long, that and very few of the now and future Gore is the rep-tied, squeaky-clean, is. as his closet is skeletonless. candidates (excepting, perhaps, Kennedy Harvard-trained epitome of the idea that The time may be right for a Gore-like and young Gore) have shown any ability or all presidential candidates should look like candidate. Forgetting about the future for inclination to use political savvy — and Jack Kennedy. He is the son of a famous a moment and getting back to present technology -to fend off the long-feared senator from Tennessee (which is reality, remember that 1979 was the year Orwellian Dictatorship. emerging as a key border state in national when Bell Labs announced the Wait a minute. Technology? Isn't that election matters), a liberal-but-not-wild development of the one-million-bit supposed to be the demon that will hurl us devotee of individualism, fusion power, magnetic bubble memory, which should into polluted, computerized prison? Not science, and futurology, and an otherwise give computers unprecedented new necessarily Technology has just as much pragmatic supporter of the still- snooping and storage power; the year potential to deliver us into a decentralized controversial Ovshinsky photovoltaic when congressonal nves^gators were

Jeffersonian Utopia— if only some approach to solar energy. He and saying that Washington's data banks were candidate would pay attention. Here is the Representative George Brown, of being illegally pilfered, not only by credit scenario; bureaus, insurance companies, and other

By late 1979 President Carter is corporations, but also by Communist achieving remarkable success in making nations and the Mafia; and' the year when

Jerry Ford look good. Politically, he can still some of us concluded that the only count on the votes of the boat people. Ted protection the individual would have Kennedy has become leader of the against a digital Big Brother was massive American parliament and de facto prime decentralization of political and corporate minister. Ham Jordan is picking gung from structures — and neighborhood or home between his toes and unwisely flipping it computer terminals, which would assist us toward Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. in bugging the bastards back, right down Ronald Reagan is saying that he might to President Carter's daily memos. even pick some issues to talk about, while The anti-Orwellian candidate committed

Jerry Brown is quoted as saying, "Issues to avoiding 1984 disaster would want to are the last refuge of a scoundrel." make neighborhoods self-sufficient in Hayden. the reformed founder of the food and energy; to train an entirely new Students for a Democratic Society, is class of political managers who building a powerful California grass-roots understand how to use standard and organization stressing local autonomy, appropriate technology to strengthen solar energy, Naderian anticorporate neighborhood security and educational theology, and no-more-nukes. He is programs; and perhaps to amend the preparing to run for Senator Sam Constitution, requiring every candidate lor Hayakawa's seat in 1982. John Connally national office to have such experience. sponsors a political Ihunder dance, but It will be fascinating to see whether that nobody comes. General Haig returns from liberty-loving, Big Brother-loathing 1984 NATO, dazzles the Soviet-hating presidential candidate will be a bright new oligozillionaires, is described by Jack Albert,Go'e. Jr.: Head of Congress's SF branch face from Tennessee. OO 32 OMNI TELE\ THE ART5 By James Delson

The 1978-79 television season with its ultrasophisticated special effects, comic-book characters and remained on was the most competitive the even the most enthusiastic viewers soon that level. The New Avengers (syndicated)

medium ever saw. It was a year in discovered that they were watching the was a weak reminder of its earlier which the major networks tried out and same effects over and over each week. As incarnations. However, reruns of The canceled shows at the drop oi a rating point. state-of-the-art as these effects may have Prisoner (syndicated) and the debut of The pressures of prime time will been, how many times could three Cylon Doctor Who (Time-Life), both more than a continue unabated this season, with CBS Raider spacecraft zoom away and bank to decade old, proved audience pleasers. and NBC trying desperately to catch up the side before fans turned back to reruns Project U.F.O. (NBC), canceled at with the now-established ratings leader, of Star Trek and Space: 1999? Though mid-season, dealt with reported sightings ABC. As a result, science and science- Galactica was touted as one of the most taken from U.S. Air Force records. Though fiction shows, perennial chance items expensive series ever made, only the it was too skeptical for the mass audience, whose costs often exceed their earnings, production values showed where the fine model work for the alien spacecraft

.'. il not be as prominent as they were last money went. It is hoped that the show's and some serious questions about season. But public television's excellent failure will not undercut the chances of extraterrestrial life were featured. And in prog ramming and selected syndicated further efforts in the big-budget SF mid-season came Salvage-I (ABC). ihows — from children's programming to adventure/hardware field. Claimed by Robert Truax to be based on specials, docudramas, and docu- Most of 78-79's SF drama series his real-life situation, the show starred mentaries— will continue to take up were simplistic cartoons aimed at a Andy Griffith as a space-age junkman who the slack left by the networks. Presented lowest-common-denominator audience. built his own rocketship for galactic sal- here is a wrap-up of the past season's Fantasy Island (ABC), Supertram (NBC), vage jobs. (Truax is profiled on page 70.) programming and a look at what's ahead and Time Express (CBS) had DRAMA 79-80 n science and science fiction. science-fiction elements in their basic DRAMA 78-79 concepts, but relatively few in their Though such syndication favorites as week-to-week stories. The Incredible Hulk Star Trek (Viacom), Space: 1999 (ITC), Although ABC's Battlestar Galactica (CBS) and The New Adventures of Wonder Doctor Who. and The Twilight Zone promised to draw and hold vast audiences 'Woman (CBS) were drawn from (Viacom) will continue in many cities across the country, only two network shows, Fantasy Island and The Incredible Hulk, returned this fall. Joining them will be two new dramatic series, Buck Rogers (NBC), a space opera with special effects, and Tales of the Unexpected (produced by Anglia Television, in England), an anthology of Roald Dahl stories previewed in the September issue of Omni. COMEDY 78-79 __ The surprise hit of the past season was Mork and Mindy (ABC), a sitcom about an alien's misadventures on Earth. While Cfose Encounters may have allowed extraterrestrials to land on Earth in peace, tvlork made one want to take him home for supper. Starstruck (CBS) was a pilot show about a stopover for space travelers between Earth and Pluto.

The Muppet Show (ITC) still features the Pigs in Space segment, a swipe at space operas that stood just ahead of Galactica on the believability scale. COMEDY 79-'80 Both Mork and Mindy and The Muppet F .

air Ihis fall, Show are back on ihe though documentary on building the world's largest Sfar Wars Christmas, in which Wookies Conrad Janis and Elizabeth Kerr (Mindy's privately funded electricity-generating proved they need George Lucas to make father and grandmother) have been windmill; / Was Born at Home, which traces them more than lovable walking carpets. dropped for the new season. A pity They the growing trend to allow midwives to SCIENCE SPECIALS 79- '80 added a certain air of beiievability to an deliver babies in the home; Jupiter Watch, otherwise unbelievable situation. a 4-hour live show on the Voyager 7 PBS will present shows on the famous

spacecraft it DRAMATIC SPECIALS/Ty MOVIES 78-79 as neared its closest point of Dionne quintuplets; man's threat to the contact with Jupiter on its way to Saturn; ecological balance of Africa's Okavango Several science and science-fiction Opium, a 3-part documentary on the Swamp; North American predators and the dramas were shown this season in movie international network of crime surrounding possible results of their threatened format. The varied field included a heroin; Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear extinction: and the potential and actual uses cartoon-inspired superhero (Captain Gang, a documentary exploring the of outer space for military bases. ~~~ America , CBS); a villain threatening to NON ICTION SERIES 78-79 destroy the earth's ozone layer

(Billion-Dollar Threat, ABC); a woman's PBS led the field again, with four of five adjustment to her mastectomy (Firs! You series. The only network attempt, and a Cry, CBS); a biochemist who clones 13 brave one atthat, was Lifeline (NBC), a replicas of himself (The Clone Master, short-lived series of cinema verile- like NBC); an update of H. G. Wells's The Time views of real medical operations. On PBS, Machine (NBC); a man capable of Marie Curie traced the life and work of the projecting electric waves from his hands two-time Nobel Prize- winning scientist; The

(The Power Within , ABC); and the best of Cousteau Odyssey returned with shows on the lot, the story of an astronomer's Easier Island, the recovery of poisonous attempts to .warn officials of the imminent chemicals off the coast of Italy, lost treasures collision of Earth and a comet in its path off the coast of Greece, and the pollution (A Fir@ in the Sky, NBC). problems of the Mediterranean; The DRAMATIC SPECIALS/TV MOVIES 79 -'80 National Geographic Specials presented programs on gold, Hong Kong, ihe plight of Upcoming drama productions for the elephants in Kenya, and the voyage of Thor new season include Brave New World Heyerdahl across the Persian Gulf and (NBC), a novel for television based on Indian Ocean in a Sumerian reed craft. Aldous Huxley's story of a dystopian soci- NONFICTION 79-'80 ety; Flash Gordon (NBC), an animated SERIES version of the comic-strip character, The new season's offerings are from the Filmation Studios; Frodo: The PBS-dominated, with a new series of The Hobbiill. a sequel to the 77- 78 animated Cousteau Odyssey that covers man's Hobbit from the Rankin/Bass Studios; increasing intrusion on the Nile River and The Martian Chronicles (NBC), a novel other similar subjects. The National for television based on Ray Bradbury's Geographic Specials offer programs on Andy Griffith as ft. C. Truax in book; and Vampire (ABC), the story of a ABC's Salvage- exotic deep-sea life forms, the brain and its present-day billionaire throat-napper. wonders, a study of microscopic life forms, effects of low-level radiation; A Place of SCIENCE SPECIALS 78-79 and a visit to the Queen Elizabeth II.

Dreams , the history of flight, narrated by Entirely new programming on PBS An unprecedented number of science Cliff Robertson: features Pompeii: Frozen in Fire, a The Voyage of Charles Darwin , a

specials, mostly documentary in nature, visit' to the traveling Pompeii exhibit They 7-part docudramaon Darwin's life, from were aired in the past season. PBS alone Said It Wouldn't Happen, a report on the university to his expedition aboard HMS presented 20 different programs, several of nuclear accidents, following the Three Beagle and the controversy surrounding his which were multipart in format. The major Mile Island incident; The Thieves of Time. revolutionary theory of evolution. networks sprinkling had a of shows on illegal archaeological excavations and 3-2-1 Contact will be a daily show newsworthy items, such as the Jupiter tlyby their effect on preserving America's designed to introduce children to science. In and Einstein's hundredth birthday but each historical heritage; The Three Mile Island production, to be aired sometime in 1980, is one presented only a single major science Mishap; An Update, a live program on the Cosmos, Carl Sagan's long-awaited series special of any consequence. reasons for and the threat caused by the that explores space and time in the same The list landmark of PBS shows included: accident; and To Mrs. Brown: A Daughter, a format used so well in The Ascent of Man Ail for One , a documentary about the program on the first test-tube baby. Topics to be covered by Sagan include Lamaze method of childbirth; Defusing Locally originated science specials missions of discovery to other planets, black Cancer's Time Bomb, concerned with included: A Death in the Family holes, the origin of matter, the human brain, short-term tests for chemical carcinogens; (WCCO-TV, Minneapolis), a program alternate universes, time travel,

Do / Like I to Die?, Look Want a debate over about the effects on five families of having communication among whales, the death of nuclear power; Eclipse! The Astronomers to give up watching television for a month. the sun, extraterrestrial life, Hindu Are Coming, the Astronomers Are Coming!. and No Way to Treat a River (WAVE-TV cosmology, cosmic catastrophes, the- a documentary on the last eclipse to occur Louisville], an examination of the Ohio Voyager 1 interstellar message, Martian over the United States in this century; The River, its beauty and its pollution. canals, robots, cosmic influences on the Energy 3-part, series War, a 5-hour on the Network science specials in the past origins of life, the collisions of continents, Senate debate over President Carter's year were very disappointing. ABC space voyages of exploration by sailing natural-gas bill; The Fight for Food, a 3-part, presented Infinite Horizons: Space After ships, the deciphering of Egyptian hiero- 3'/2-hour Global Paper on the world food Apollo, a documentary marking the tenth glyphics, contact with other civilizations in

shortage; , Findhorn a study of a successful anniversary of the moon landing and outer space, the birth and death of stars and communal society in Scotland; looking forward to the benefits and galaxies, the future of Earth, and other ques- Fluorocarbons: The Unfinished Agenda, hazards of future efforts to conquer space. tions concerning the origin and fate of the showing the potential environmental hazards CBS presented Universe, a pilot for a universe. If he pulls it off, it will make a great of their use; Generation of the Wind, Minutes- a 60 type science series, and A birthday present for the new decade. DO -

combinations of which the '$6,000,000 Man' is

The future is coming. And with it will come an almost credible preview. great benefits for mankind. And a whole new set of Lowering Temperature, which alone problems. Because we are a forest products com- Body pany, and plant seeds that take up to 50 years to might add many years to human life. become mature trees, Champion International has of life-extension to think a lot about the future. We'd like to share The future is very promis- some of the things we've learned with you—to help ing. To many scientists, there is no question you make intelligent choices in the years to come. Here is something you might want to think about. that the problem of aging will be solved within the next few generations—even without an all- In the future, incredibly out program. That brings up two questions. If life-exten- expensive technology could sion becomes commonplace, what will we do enable a few people to with all those great-great-great- great-great live for 200 years or more. great-grandparents? Will they hold onto their jobs forever? If they don't, who'll support them? Who will be chosen? And, On the other hand, what if the first tech- who will choose? nology to prevent aging is incredibly expensive? Will that mean that only the wealthy will If life-extension becomes a national prior- be able to turn back the clock, or that the ity like the space program, if high-technology government will select the future 'Methuselahs', countries like America, Russia, Germany and based on its own criteria—intelligence, race, Japan could work together, if there were a talent, or perhaps, even political affiliation? multi-billion-dollar, multi-discipline assault on That is an untenable solution. But what aging and death, we could produce dramatic are the alternatives? How can the people have results within the foreseeable future. a say in the matter? We all have a lot of things That's the opinion of many futurists and to think about. scientists. A cooperative program like this But if you'd like to do more than just think between nations could put such a dent in about it, if you'd like to be able to make aging and death we might create a whole new intelligent choices for the future, write for more world of healthy, hearty 'Methuselahs'. And it information to: would probably cost no more than we are all Champion International Corporation, now spending on maintaining our old-age Box 10125, 1 Landmark Sq., Stamford, Ct. 06921. homes and other geriatric institutions. Looking into the future now may help you Within the next few decades, a lifespan of prevent future shock later. 100, 200, 400 years and up may become a part of Homo Sapiens' on-going evolutionary destiny. Champion, a forest products company with its roots planted firmly in the future. Right now, researchers are working on sev- are in the forest products business. We plant eral approaches to longevity, which include: We trees and harvest trees. \Ne make wood and paper. And we Transplantation, which might allow us to make things out of wood and paper. continue replacing organs until almost our Because we make our living from the forest, our success depends, in one way or another, on the future. entire bodies are new. these are our operating divisions that are Regeneration, a process by which deacti- planning for the future: CHAMPION TIMBERLANDS

to cell Bi 1 vated genes are switched back on renew CHAMPION 1 DiNG PRODUCTS CHAMPION PAPERS tissue. CHAMPIOK PACKAGING fMOtRNL-R WALDORF) The Prevention of Lipofuscin Build-Up. Lipofuscins are a form of destructive cellular garbage produced by the body, and are thought by many scientists to contribute to aging. ^ Restricting Diet, which in the young, Planting seeds for the future delays maturity and increases longevity; and in the middle-aged seems to rejuvenate the immune system. s Prosthetics and Cyborgs, machine-human THE ARTS By. Tom Johnson

discrete ^^\ s I walked through the door of the own variations. More likely the machine played phrases and then M^^^ Arras Gallery in the heart of was relatively simple and the variations stopped; others played continuous lines # % New York's Fifty-seventh Street just took care of themselves as the for as long as someone cast a shadow- on in rhythmic in character. gallery district, I was greeted by a phrase circuitry heated and cooled off various them. Some were f electronic music. The sound seemed to places. Either way, it was an ingenious Some sounded almost plaintive. Several of be coming from a wall hanging, located to device that could easily have held my these curious electronic sculptures had my left, a neat arrangement of wires, attention for another ten minutes. But I was me completely baffled until I noticed a resistors, a three-inch loudspeaker and becoming impatient to investigate the 20 sign on the gallery wall that explained that other electronic paraphernalia. There was or 30 other "cybernetic objects" of Peter they were sound-sensitive rather than

no one else around. So I figured that I must Vogel, which were hanging on the walls lighl-sensitive. They would respond only somehow have triggered the sound myself and standing on pedestals around the when someone triggered off certain other

I in the vicinity. when I entered. room. decided to move on. sounds

The music stopped suddenly I went Most of Vogel's cybernetic objects From a purely musical standpoint, none back toward the entrance and tried to looked and sounded similar to the one that of the machines could be compared with trigger it again, but nothing happened. I had perplexed me at the entrance, but the technical perfection, careful control,

looked at the floor, thinking I might find a each had a different twist. In one case. I and intricate sound colors that can be large synthesizers switch of some sort, but I couldn't see or cast my shadow on an object, heard produced on today's

feet anything. I looked around for video nothing, determined that it was not tn and computer-music operations. But that cameras or photoelectric beams, but I working order, went on to the next one, and is not Vogel's concern. He works with couldn't find any. then heard the music a little later. The relatively simple self-contained systems,

The little atonal phrase erupted again. I circuit involved a delay mechanism. and his music is as exposed as the looked toward the circuitry and noticed Another wall hanging included four circuitry that produces it. His cybernetic that the shadow of my head was sharply separate circuits, and it was possible to objects are not big, elaborate, expensive outlined against its convolutions. There play rather dense, intricate musical electronic instruments that attempt to do must be, I thought, a little photocell textures by moving my hands in front of everything. They are just nifty little somewhere in the circuitry itself. I tried the four photocells in various machines, and their only purpose is to do standing still, not moving my shadow, to combinations. Some of the machines their own nifty little things. There is see whether the music would continue. It always sounded about the same, and something appealingly intimate about ended after about ten seconds, just as some varied their musical material. Some them. Since they play only when someone before. is standing right there listening, and since

I stepped aside and Ihen returned to my they cannot be heard clearly unless one is close, listening Vogel's position to see whether I could trigger the standing quite to music again. It worked. This small success cybernetic objects is a very private encouraged me to study the configuration experience. With a little imagination one

of the circuitry more closely. I began to might even make friends with one of them, develop some working theories about at least for a few minutes. which of the hundreds of little pieces in Vogel's work is unlike anything I have this electronic puzzle was the encountered before, but it is not unrelated.

light-sensitive trigger. I felt I was getting Many other visual artists, who normally somewhere. work in museums and galleries, have also

Then a new thought bothered me. I used sound tracks, tape loops, or audio realized that the phrase was a little circuitry of some sort to extend their different this time than it had been before. I exhibitions in an aural dimension. had been so busy psyching out the basic However, many composers, who normally situation that I hadn't listened closely to work in concert halls, have sought out the music, but now I began to see this galleries or museum spaces to put their curious wall hanging, netted with music in a place where listeners can come attractive circuitry, as a pretty smart and go, where sounds can go on machine. It always blipped and slid endlessly where one is free to stay for as around the same basic atonal progression, short or long a time as one wants, and but the pitches came out a little differently where it becomes possible to present each time. Perhaps I was observing a very many kinds of audience-participation sophisticated circuit that programmed its Pc:^: .'„!,„„ ..,;,..,...;.''::. cb:tc[ that sir.gs music. 42 OMNI CONTINUED ON RAGE 175 Tl UFD UPDATE By James Oberg

^^l genuine UFO appeared over Bui many uic cgisls f ave adopted the sympathies were wnh —ore exciting #a^k Siberia in 1908, startling Tunguska event as proof not of our limited suggestions: Thomas Atkins, coauthor of # » thousands of witnesses before scientific knowledge of natural The Fire Came By (Doubleday, 1976). and it exploded with a thunderous detonation phenomena but of a visitation to Earth by Henry Gris. coauthor of The New Soviet whose echoes sii reverberate around the an alien space probe, which accidentally Psychic Discc'/enes (Prentice-Hall, 1978), world. Tens of thousands of trees were destroyed itself in a thermonuclear both argued that an alien spaceship had flattened by the tremendous blast. Many immolation. Opinions differ as to whether caused the Tunguska event. theories have bitten the dust as scientists the explosion was a deliberate signal or an "There is evidence," Atkins wrote, "to sought to explain what happened that day accidental overload of the sfarship's indicate that an extraterrestrial vehicle in June near the Tunguska River. propulsion system. The fact of the may explain the Siberian explosion.

The Tunguska event, as it has come to explosion itself is thought to be convincing Though the proof is neither complete nor be called, produced an explosion proof for the existence of extraterrestrial absolutely conclusive, the theory appears comparable to that ot an H-bomb. More nuclear-powered "flying saucers." increasingly acceptable." puzzling, the blast occurred high in the air, Narrating against a background of a Gris. who refers to the object as the" leaving no craters on the ground and no man-made nuclear explosion, Leonard "Tungusky [sic] Miracle," quotes recognizable traces. Weird scenarios oi Nimoy told viewers of the television extensively from the testimony of Aleksei antimatter meteors, miniature black holes, documentary "In Search of the Siberian Zolotov, a Russian college professor lithium asteroids, fiery whirlwinds, ball Fireball" that "the evidence now indicates whose frequent visits to the blast site have lightning, and other exotic phenomena that a nuclear explosion may have convinced him that the object was not of have all been proposed as scientific occurred on Earth as early as 1908." The this world. Zolotov told Gris in Moscow in explanations for the Tunguska event. The show, produced by Alan Landsburg 1977. When you hear the descriptions, favored hypothesis today is that the blast Productions and first televised in you cannot help forming the opinion that was caused by the collision of Earth with a November 1978, interviewed some this was no meteorite, but a giant UFO. small comet, probably a chunk off a dying scientists who supported the comet The explosion [people in the area] saw "space snowball," named Encke's comet. theory, but clearly the program's was a perfect duplicate of what a nuclear

blast looks like. . . . Everything points to a

nuclear origin. ... I have no doubt it was sent by inhabitants of outer space to attract our attention," Zolotov often talks with Western reporters and is widely quoted in the Soviet press (the possibility that the first space visitors chose to land in Russia warms the hearts of all true patriots). Zolotov and the USSR's chief UFO expert, FeliksZigel, take turns enthralling bored and news-hungry Western journalists in Moscow with their latest proof that the blast at Tunguska was produced by an object traveling here 'rom outer space. It's a good story that piques the interest of the wire services and TV news producers about once a year. The nuclear-blast theory favored by ufologists owes its origins to traces of radiation tound near the site and to the fact that plant mutations and accelerated plant growth were detected by biologists (these effects have also been observed following H-bomb tests). A mysterious giowing cloud from the explosion drifted over northern Europe for several days,

,'(«;, The Tunguska e t, visualized has much of Us mystery baffling scienlis.ts who were unaware of . 44 OMNI ;

^ * tk. THEEARTH " ' *. V li «v fa^l ACCORDING LI TO GEO

You are invited to accept the Collector's Ik Issue of GEO GEO ff^^wv. , if!-. '•'"•ypfc,i.»«*-.« without t3»S* cost or obligation. w&e -V C

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card for details. If card is missing, write to: GEO, RO. Box 2552, Boulder, Colo 80322. the Siberian blast. The strange shape of craters. Fortunately. nve:-;Ii gators at the radioactive clouds, yet the explanation for the site itself suggested to some scene noticed a thin layer of soot on some this phenomenon is much simpler. Dust researchers that tire explosion took place newly fallen snow. Laboratory analysis thrown up from an explosion in Siberia inside a superstrong hull and was directed showed that the material was of meteoric would have been carried by Ihe outward. Testimony of eyewitnesses origin, testifying to the complete stratospheric winds eastward, not in the describes a cylindrical object that pulverization ot the meleor following its opposite direction toward Europe. Bui had changed course several times before explosion Ti'i* explosive iorce was Ihe abject been a small comet, its tail heading toward an uninhabited region just accounted for entirely by its kinetic energy would have been pointing downsun, before the explosion. and atmospheric friction; no chemical or toward the west, at the moment of the A czarist expedition seems to have nuclear fuels were needed. dawn impact. That direction would have reached the site shortly after the event, but "Use of the word fireball to imply that the placed the dust right over northern all of its records were obliterated, along Tunguska blast resembled a hydrogen Europe. with the personnel of the expedition, in the bomb is false." Oriti claimed in an Earlierthis year a Czechoslovak ensuing Bolshevik revolution: only interview late in 1978. "Those of us familiar astronomer repeated an earlier suggestion tantalizing secondhand and thirdhand with meteor reports know that the term that the Tunguska object was a fragment accounts have survived. An expedition should properly be applied to the flaming from Encke's comet. Professor L. Kresak, arrived al Tunguska in 1928, after several objects crossing the sky, not to the final of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, years of scouting around the remote explosion." asserted that the blast occurred during a Siberian forest-swamp region. The Nor are the reports of radiation any more meteor shower that is associated with expedition leader, a meteorologist named reliable. Although the UFO press quotes debris from the comet and that the Leonid Kulik, persuaded the Communist many prominent scientists as testifying (o computed direction of the object's government to finance the trip on the the nuclear nature of the blast, a more trajectory coincides well with the comet grounds that vast quantities of meteoric careful check of their opinions reveals a theory. iron were probably lying around on the different picture. Willard Libby. father of Skeptics of the comet theory have ground and could prove useful to Soviet asked why the fireball would not have industry. been seen before impact, Astronomers

Imagine Kulik's discomfiture when he counter that it was probably a very small arrived at ground zero and found comet, which was also located in the thousands of hectares of flattened trees daytime sky during most of its approach to bWeird scenarios of but not one fragment ofiron! Decades Earth. later analysts discovered microscopic antimatter meteors, tiny Aerodynamics experts in Moscow spherules in the local soil, but there is still conducted an experiment about 20 years black holes, lithium a dispute as to whether these are in any ago in an effort to simulate Tunguska's asteroids, ball lightning, way connected with the 1908 explosion. bias: oaitorns I ho scientists used a Kulik had some explaining to do when he and other exotic charge of explosives suspended over a got back to Moscow. board covered with miniature "trees." phenomena have all been Years later, while surveying the atomic- represented by matchsticks. In addition to bomb damage to Hiroshima, Russian proposed as scientific the single blast point, a string of smaller science writer Aleksandr Kazantsev saw cnarges were added to reproduce the explanations for the blast* enough similarities with Tunguska to hypersonic Shockwave of the object's theorize that the Siberian explosion, too, ballistic passage through the upper had been nuclear in nature. He atmosphere. embellished this notion into a When the explosives were triggered, a science-fiction story, published in 1946, blast pattern strikingly similar to the which suggested that the explosion had the"carbon-14 dating technique and a "butterfly" pattern of the actual Tunguska been caused by a crippled spaceship Nobel Prize winner, supervised tests of site was created in the matchstick forest. from Mars, seeking lo obtain Iresh water tree rings conducted after the 1908 Although this experiment conclusively from nearby Lake Baikal. The "Tunguska explosion. Although he found trace demonstrated that the strange pattern was UFO" was born and has been thriving ever fluctuations of radiation, he computed that due entirely to a large object that since. an actual nuclear blast would have left exploded naturally, the experiment's

As might be expected, "traditionalist" residues at least seven times as strong as results were still being misinterpreted or scientists do not subscribe to this theory. those that were found. misquoted years afterward. According to Even leading astronomers and space "Our test ruled out any such large a 1978 In Search of program. "The geologists in the Soviet Union tend to favor nuclear reaction." Libby commented to an evidence supported the Soviet contention the comet hypothesis, leaving Tunguska to interviewer from Astronomy magazine late that Tunguska was the result of a nuclear the private endeavors of Zigel, Zolotov, in 1976. When told that pro-UFO holocaust," a conclusion directly counter and other writers who try to give the spokesmen were quoting his tests as to that of the experimenters themselves impression that the UFO theory is the having proved the existence of a nuclear and a statement that falsely implies that official Soviet version ot the event. It is far blast at Tunguska, Libby objected: "No. it Soviet scientists in general contended that from it. proves nothing of the sort. We found the event was nuclear in origin. American meteor experts, for example, nothing to indicate a nuclear explosion of The most frightening aspect of the may have uncovereo new evidence linking that size, and we had calculated that if a comet hypothesis, which is gaining in the blast to a comet's impact. Ronald Oriti, nuclear reaction had occurred, we would credibility, isthat the natural phenomenon a researcher with the Griffith Observatory have found clear indications." that leveled the forests of Siberia 71 years in Los Angeles (who was interviewed on In support of Libby's claim of proof of ago could happen again — at any moment. the In Search of program), vehemently the absence of any nuclear blasts on On a more densely populated Earth, rejects the spaceship theory. In 1975 he Earth in 1908. Norwegian chemists and in a political climate in which nations published a new analysis of the Tunguska recently published the results of their own have constructed their own nuclear event, drawing attention to parallels with a tree-ring tests. They showed no trace of arsenals to retaliate at a moment's notice similar but smaller midair blast over any radiation. if attacked, Ihe idea of another Tunguska- Revelstoke, Canada, in 1965. That blast UFO books suggest that the glowing like blast is a part of our future we might was in the kiloton range, yet it lelt no sk ez.over Europe were caused by prefer to avoid. DO 4S OMNI coruTifuuunn

HE HJNDENBUK3 SOLUTIOI

1937, outside of Lakehurst, New Jersey, the German zeppelin experimental buses in Stuttgart on metal-hydride-contained city of Berlin will soon be running its own fleet of InHindenburg, filled with hydrogen, suddenly burst into flames. hydrogen, the The disaster did two things: It killed 35 people. And it gave hydrogen-fueled vehicles. hydrogen a bad name. • Chicago, Illinois. At the Institute of Gas Technology, research- With visions of the fiery Hindenburg dancing in your head, ers have built an experimental coffee warmer using a hydrogen consider the following scenario. The year is 1986. You leave your catalytic heater. (But can they make a good cup of coffee?) hydrogen-powered home to get into your hydrogen-fueled car lo • Stuttgart, West Germany. At a four-day meeting of fuel and pick up a package arriving on a hydrogen-fueled jet. aeronautics experts this September, a German-sponsored of developing a small fleet of If this sounds scary, it shouldn't. Or so says a group of hydro- group discussed the possibility gen advocates who have banded together to form the Hinden- experimental liqgid-hydrogen-fueled wide-body jets to be put molecular hydrogen). into air-treight service by 1986. The specific aircraft to be con- burg Society (H 2 is the formula for The group's purpose is lo allay the public's fears over a substance verted is the Lockheed L-1011. now a widely used passenger that could turn out to be a very good multipurpose fuel and help jumbo jet. Though hydrogen is expensive to produce, G. Daniel to solve the energy crunch. Brewer, of Lockheed, pointed out before the meeting that "hy- efficient than aircraft using other Hydrogen has a lot going for it, claim its advocates. It gener- drogen aircraft are much more makes for the difference ates almost no pollution. In liquid form, it makes a potent jet fuel, fuels. And [this efficiency] more than up producing almost three limes the energy per pound of conven- in cost." William J. D. Escber, of Escher: Foster Technology Asso- tional fuel. In hydride form, it can serve as an efficient— and ciates in St. Johns. Michigan, agrees: "The only way we could safe— fuel for automobiles. And, perhaps best of all, it's plentiful. have a supersonic transport that could cross the Pacific is by

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. On going to hydrogen. Jet fuel simply can't make it." all of projects going on, why aren't there thousands Earth we find it mostly tied up in water. True, coaxing the H 3 away With these expensive process (elec- of people rushing to get on the hydrogen bandwagon? The from the O in H 2 is presently an trolysis), but new and cheaper methods are being developed. answer is that many are resisting hydrogen partly because they That hydrogen is the fuel of the future is supported by the fact that don't realize what an efficient fuel it is and partly because of Ihe properly, emphasize its in some places it is already the fuel of the present. For instance: legacy of Lakehurst. But when handled • Provo, Utah. After converting a Model A Ford to burn hydrogen, advocates, hydrogen can be a safe fuel that could help us make Roger Billings, president of the Billings Energy Corporation, has the transition from the dwindling fossil fuels of today to the renew- since converted two buses, a small tractor, the home he now lives able, clean fuels of the future. transition is already in (both heat and power), and— believe it or not— a Dodge Omni In a town of 4,000 people in Iowa that to run on hydrogen. happening. Forest City is about to become the first to be totally The Billings Corporation has also created an iron/titanium converted to hydrogen fuel before 1984. The Billings Corpora- hydride that when powdered and placed within a pressure tank tion, which is designing a coal-gasification plant for the town,

it equiva- allows the tank to soak up hydrogen like a sponge. The company estimates i! can produce the hydrogen needs at a cost tested the safety of the material by inviting some army personnel lent to paying 50 cents a gallon for gasoline. (Coal gasification is to fire a round of armor-piercing incendiary bullets into a con- another way of making hydrogen.) tainer filled with hydrogen-soaked hydride. It didn't explode. In But if the future has caught up with this midwestern town, the fact, the hydride is so safe for cars, claims Alene Bentley, of people there are still suffering from the shock. "The biggest

Billings, that even if you were in an automobile accident and the problem, in all honesty," says Doug Eddy, a Forest City council- tank ruptured, "the hydrides would just spill out like face powder." man, "is that the people will not even believe it. It's too damn good • West Berlin. Inspired by Mercedes-Benz, which is running to be true." -KENNETH JON ROSE caruTiruuuan

: .-;- have THE NAZI PAPERS bemg studied by Dr. Kurt Ir- : =s been able some of the metal into their golic. professor of chemistry to develop successful syn- systems. And copper, when A key point in President and associate director of the thetic-fuel technologies: ingested by some people. Carter's energy program is university's Center of Miner- Soutn Africa in the mid- has the peculiar property the development of synthetic als and Resources. 1950s and Nazi Germany. Of ot turning their hair color to liquid fuel. Mow it appears "They grabbed every- the two Irgolic says, the green. German technology is far The copper discovery has simpler and more produc- given the Fenzels and other tive families more than green — Douglas Colligan pates to worry about. Now Mrs. Fenzei says she's con- GREEN HAIR cerned about the effect ot large amounts ot copper on Shortfy after moving to her and her family. Even be- Columbia Maryland. Peggy fore the copper discovery Fenzei. = natural blonde, when her baby was eight noticed sometning odd. Her months old, she had hair was changing color. stopped using the water to vVeeKsia^e- -e- _ -:ends con- mix formulas for the child, firmed her suspicion She who was always getting sick. nad green hair The family has now switched So dia other adults and to bottled water for drinking children .. - ,vn:te or light and cooking and uses the hair in tne neighborhood well water only for washing. where she lived. In fact. In the meantime Mrs. Fenzei some children like the main and her husband are suing character an the movie 77ie the water company and the Boy with Green Hair, were Maryland Health Depart- having harq times in school ment to make the water the United States may get a thing." Dr Irgolic says, because their classmates clean, not green. — D.C. helping hand from an odd "blueprints, drawings, prod- made fun o' them. "I thought source: Nazi Germany. uct analyses, even I was going crazy. " Mrs. Cutoff by Allied forces memoranda. These were Fenzei said. from oil supplies toward the brought to the United States What began as a strange % end of World War II, German and microfilmed." and annoying problem — "I scientists undertook a crash Irgolic and his staff are couldn't wash out the program to develop syn- abstracting and indexing green"- became more seri- thetic oil from coal. The proj- this mass of material, which ous once the source of the ect, actually begun in 1933, could cut two to three years problem was uncovered. grew in importance as Nazi off the time required for the Mrs. Fenzel's housing de- war fortunes worsened and United States to develop its velopment is serviced by a the Allied stranglehold tight- own synthetic-fuel program. private water company that ened. At the peak of produc- They are also tracking down draws its supplies from a p 1 tion, Germany's 25 plants and interviewing German large underground well. It were churning out thou- scientists who were involved tums out the water is highly sands of barrels a day. with synthetic fuels. Only acidic, so much so it dis- When the war ended, the solves minute quantities of United States took posses- "We have to face the fact that copper trom the plumbing in sion of some 500,000 docu- one day humanity will the houses. ments relating to the disappear. There is no After weeks of drinking synthetic-fuel program. They escaping that fact. The and washing with the are now stored at Texas A&M question is. When?" copper-rich water. Mrs. Fen- University, where they are —Richard Leakey zei and others absorbed

52 OMNI SIGHT TYPING lower right dot, and finally at PROOF OF AGE The teeth and the lenses the center dot. There are 64 contain proteins synthesized

Now It's possible to type codes, so that the user can Some say it's the yogurt early in life. Bada and Mas- with your eyes. Dr George designate several for com- that keeps the Soviet Geor- ters explain. These proteins Rinard. of the University of monly used words. gians living as long as 168 are not broken down and re- Denver Research Institute. The special glasses have years. Others say it's the en- placed with new proteins, as a tiny camera fastened to the vironment. Still others say it's happens elsewhere in the earpiece, a tiny flashlight lo- bunk— that the claims of body. cated on the nosepiece, and longevity are totally unsup- Recentiy visiting geron- an infrared mirror — invisible ported. But scientists at the tologists from the USSR to human eyes— in the dot- Scripps Institution of brought the Scripps team a ted coding lens. The Oceanography in San Diego tooth from a Soviet Georgian flashlight's infrared light say there's a way to tell for woman whose birth date bounces off the user's eye sure. The residents of Ab- was documented. The dat- and is reflected by the mirror khazia in Soviet Georgia can ing analysis put the woman's into the camera. In this way prove their age by showing age at ninety-nine only three the camera tells the type- their teeth. years off from her known writer where the user is look- Jeffrey L Bada and Pa- age. ninety-six. The close ing and what key to strike. tricia M. Masters have call has prompted the Rus- The computerized type- adapted dating techniques sians to offer additional tooth

writer is only in the prototype they developed for judging samples and any lenses that

stage, but it is made from the antiquity of fossils into a may be removed in cataract standard, readily available new procedure for determin- operations from other long- parts that cost about $2,000 ing the ages of living ani- lived Georgians unassembled. Fully assem- mals. By examining proteins - Dava Sobel bled, mass-produced in the teeth or the lenses of

typewriters will probably the eyes, they say it is pos- "Nothmg is impossible lor cost slightly more. sible to calculate the year of the man who doesn't have to

The English language has birth with only a 10-percent do it himsell." has invented a typewriter- been broken down into 64 margin of error. — Weller's Law intended for use by stroke, separate sounds, so the palsy and arthritis victims — 64-code system could be [hat can be operated solely programmed to speak as by eye movements. well as type. The special To work the typewriter, cur- glasses can also be hooked rently being tested by quad- up to control a wheelchair. riplegics at Denver's Craig — LoisWickstrom Rehabilitation Hospital, the user wears a pair of special "We must have respect for glasses with nine dots on both our plumbers and oui one lens. The dots are used philosophers, or neither ou to code letters of the al- pipes nor our theories will phabet, punctuation marks, hold water" and spaces between words. —John W. Gardner Each code consists of two or

three dots, with the center "As lor man . . . he doesn't dot being the last dot in each even consider himself an code. For example, to type animal —which, considering the letter £, the user first the way he considers them, looks at the middle left dot is probably, all things con- and then at the center dot. sidered, the only consid- " For a IV, the user first looks at erate thing about him. the lower left dot. then at the —Cleveland Amory " "

coruTiruuurui

METEOR! with Earth's orbit at a speed PERSONAL SECURITY price to competitors. (The of up to 100,000 feel per latter class of customers

An idea that started out as second. It missed Earth by a If you're a woman living is commoner than the former. a classroom challenge at the scant 4 million miles. But alone who ;= pestered by CCS security experts say.)

Massachusetts Institute of had it hit. disaster would sinister midnight phone call- CCS puts out an array

Technology 12 years ago is have resulted. It would have ers, there's good news for of exotic gadgets for use in

making it as a movie and a shaken the ground with the topic for junior-high-school explosive equivalent of and high-school classes all 500,000 megatons of TNT over the country. triggered tidal waves The movie is Meteor, a worldwide, and thrown disaster flick starring Sean enough dust into the atmo- Connery, Natalie Wood, and sphere to change our a wayward hunk oi space climate. rock that threatens to smash The solution Dr. Sandorff's into Earth with planet- students worked out was to shattering speed. hit Icarus with nuclear- The basis for the movie's warhead-armed Saturn 5 plot began at MIT in 1967, rockets to knock the asteroid when Professor Paul E. San- off its collision course with dorff offered an advanced our planet. space systems engineering To help teachers course entitled "Mission to capitalize on the interest in Icarus." The course cen- sky objects by students who tered on keeping a mile-wide see the movie. American In- asteroid named Icarus from ternational Pictures has pre-

colliding with Earth. pared a teaching kit on "secure communication control center' is a portable system In fact, the following year, meteors, asteroids, and CCS's that includes a lap alert, wiretap defeat, and telephone scrambler. 1968. a real asteroid named comets, complete with read- Icarus was due to interact ing lists, suggested quizzes, you in the futuristic world of industry, law enforcement, and activities. The kits are electronic security. and private security and in- being sent to science A New York-based firm, vestigation. A Voice Stress teachers all over the country. Communication Control Sys- Analyzer— which comes in a Those teachers who have tems (CCS), is marketing a phone model and a smaller, not yet received a kit should special telephone called an cigar-box -size version— can write to: Meteor, American Electronic Voice Handker- administer a lie-detector test International Pictures. chief (or Secure Communi- (without the subject's knowl- Inc.. 9033 Wilshire cation Control) for $2,650. edge) by recording slight Boulevard, Beverly Hills. All you do to deter a heavy voice modulations. (Most law Calif. 90211. -DC. breather is say "Just a min- enforcement organizations,

ute. I'll put my two-hundred- however, consider this de- 'We have probed the earth, fifty-pound husband on the vice unreliable.)

excavated it, burned it. line," flip a switch, and — The company also car-

ripped things from it, buried presto - your own voice ries a full line of bug- and

it. things in . . . That does not sounds like a man's. wiretap-alert devices. fit my definition ot a good Or say you're a high- — Judith Hooper tenant, if we were here on a powered businessman with month-to-month basis, we a taste for James Bondian "Hot-air ballooning: Where would have been evicted highjinks. You can disguise you land is where you work. long ago. your voice by lowering the —Johnny Carson's —Rose Elizabeth Bird pitch to basso profundo and solution to the gasoline

Sean Connery stars in the forth- (first woman. chief justice find out whether your shortage, on the coming movie Meteor. of California ) supplier is quoting the same Tonight Show, May 18, 1979 51 OMNI EGYPTIAN REMEDIES leaf's natural properties. which had been falling since cancer and obvious birth de- Even surgery was in 1966, hit bottom in 1975 - fects, are well recognized, King Tutankhamun and his vogue, according to Fer- which just happens to be subtle damage to fetuses is contemporaries in Egypt nando G. vescia, M.D, of the when children born in the more widespread - and around 1350 B.C. knew many Stanford University school of peak fallout years, 1957-58. more ominous for humanity.

of the ills that continue to medicine. The Egyptians took the test as high-school "We aren't aware of the knew how to extract human seniors. damage being done, be- internal organs, but they The low -SAT/high-fallout cause these children look practiced this art only on the link holds up year by year normal and seem normal." dead Living patients were and region by region, says he notes. "But hidden dam- treated with herbal reme- Dr. Slernglass, and also age to the thyroid — where dies. Dr Vescia, a medical coincides with higher infant- radioactive iodine historian as well as a gas- mortality rales. Areas with accumulates — slows troenterologist, says that heavy rainfall recorded the growth, physical and more evidence of this ratio- sharpest drops in test mental growth. nal medical system may scores: for instance, the "We're destroying our emerge as physicians and Pacific Northwest, where species' most precious linguists study the few Pacific A-bomb radiation resource — our intelligence." papyri on this subject that came down with the rain Slernglass warns. -J. H. have survived from ancient while the future test-takers Egypt. were in the womb; and New "Walking on water wasn't " Fuller understanding of England. New Jersey, and built in a day. Egyptian herbals could lead New York, which got a dose —Jack Kerouac modern doctors to drugs of Nevada-test fallout car- they may want to prescribe ried by the jet stream. LASER DETECTOR or synthesize— some bene- Sternglass, who urged ficial substance that may mass evacuation from the Take a football field. Cover

have been forgotten during vicinity of Three Mile Island. it with sand to a depth of 18 the many intervening warns that while the grosser feet, and then locate one plague modern man — and centuries. — D. S. effects of radiation, like particular grain ot sand many ot the remedies that This, in effect, is what Dr.

are still in use. The enema, FALLOUT Howard Reiss, professor of for example, and opium from chemistry at the University of poppy seeds were standard Post-Hiroshima science- California at Los Angeles, treatments the young fiction movies usually depict has done. He can detect one pharaoh may have tried. nuclear-taiiout victims as a sulfuric acid molecule mixed Preparations made from race of monstrous mutants. with 10 trillion molecules of a acacia leaves were known to but the real-life "mutants" different kind. soothe hemorrhoids and may turn out to be merely a Dr. Reiss developed a prevent pregnancy 15 cen- generation of dummies technique combining a turies before Christ. Today's A study by University of cloud chamber with a laser hemorrhoidal ointments and Pittsburgh School of beam to detect particles by contraceptive foams work on Medicine professor Ernest J. the way they scatter light.

the same principles, contain- Sternglass — whose field is With it, he and associates ing oily substances or acids the effects of radiation on the can study how sulfur dioxide that mimic the acacia developing fetus - has is converted into polluting turned up a startling correla- sulfuric trioxide and sulfuric "We can easily forgive a tion between declining acid. This could help regula- child who is afraid of the high-school Scholastic Ap- tory agencies make sound dark; the real tragedy of life titude Test (SAT) scores and judgments over controlling is when men are afraid of the A-bomb-test fallout in the the level of hazardous sul- night." 1950s and early 1960s. fates in the air. -Plato The average SAT score, -Alton Blakeslee 55 coruTiruuurw

REDOX est, but "we don't have much from abroad for sale to U.S. TONGUE TWISTER down in writing," Stone said. research institutions and pri-

NASA has developed a He thinks that if the system is vate collectors. The hooded Can you roll your tongue new storage system to make lo be developed to its full snakes— dead and alive — into a lengthwise tube? solar and wind power com- capabilities, the Department have been round in the Whether you can or can't is a mercially cost-efficient. of Energy (DOE) will have to Miami area and near Lake genetically determined NASA spokesman Phillip intervene to get the ball roil- Okeechcoee. Most experts Stone estimated that the bat- ing. DOE is picking up half believe they either escaped tery, called Redox, will cut the Redox tab, but NASA private collections or were in- energy-storage costs (con- hopes the Energy Depart- tentionally released by their sidered the major cost of ment will invest more. "En- owners. solar- and wind-power use) ergy is DOE'S territory." Occasionally, cane cutters by 60 to 75 percent Stone said. "1 don't fee! there working in fields along U.S. The main difference be- are any problems with Redox. 27 near Lake Okeechobee tween Redox (an acronym It's just getting the dumb report cobra sightings, usu- for reduction oxidation) and thing out into the ally dismissed by super- the conventionally used field."— Steve Le Vine visors as "wild tales." Flori- lead-acid battery is- that the da's herpetotogists agree latter uses solid material for COBRAS there's no tangible evidence storage purposes, while of breeding, but they hold Redox uses liquid. "There is Cobras have slithered divergent views on whether a lot of fulzing around with their way into south Florida's cobras could establish a standard storage batteries." ecosystem. There is now a beachhead on the North Stone said, "but with the very real danger that the American mainland. Redox system, the only snakes could breed a colony "It's clearly possible." said maintenance would be to of deadly serpents, accord- Dr. Roy McDiarmid. of the add a bit of fluid or replace a ing to some of Florida's pro- University of South Florida, Omni editor displays prodigious pump. Overall, it's fairly fessional reptile researchers. who believes a breeding proclivity tor science. maintenance-free." Unknown numbers have population could be estab- proof ol The theory behind storage escaped, after importation lished with only 25 fugitive trait — a fact known for some is to achieve what utilities snakes. "There's no evidence years. Now, however, re- call load leveling. Simply, they wouldn't take hold." searchers in the genetics this is storing energy when For many years several department of Swansea demand is low to be used cobra species native to Asia University in Wales, have later when demand is high, and Africa have been discovered that people who thus leveling out punishment brought into Florida in siz- have this ability are likely to on delicate power equip- able numbers. Only in recent have another accompanying ment. Eventually. Stone said, years has the sale been reg- characteristic: the kind of individual factories can in- ulated. It remains legal to personality that suits them to stall privale Redox systems buy cobras in Florida but the study of the life sciences. to store energy at low- prospective buyers must The British geneticists demand periods, when now obtain a permit. found that 80 percent of life utilities charge less, for use scientists surveyed could roll at high-demand periods their tongues, while only 65 (normally during the day), "They never will try to steal percent of the school's art when utilities charge more. the phonograph. It is not of students had this genetic " Utilities can use the same any commercial value. skill. They concluded, there- system on a larger scale to - Thomas Edison fore, that there is a relation- lessen storage and mainte- ship between the genes that nance costs. "Basic research is what I am encourage people to be-

The problem for NASA has doing when I don't know come scientists and those been that utilities and toreign e fugitive snakes breeding a what I am doing." that control tongue rolling. countries have shown inter- 3t colony in Florida? - Wernher von Braun A quick survey through 56 OMNI metabolism to an extreme I he Omni offices revealed concentration of positive I YOGIS that 72 percent of the edito- small ions is unhealthy, say degree. Heller suspects he j rial staff can perform the ion-generator proponents, An Indian yogi who regu- can. based on data he tongue-rolling trick — a score and a negative-ion generator larly has himself buried in a gathered during a recent almost exactly midway be- can restore the balance, pit for days at a time has six-week trip to India. His tween those of Swansea's Pollution, hermetically agreed to visit Stanford Uni- next task will be to determine scientists and its art stu- versiiy. -where U.S. scientists whether the reduction is

dents. Obviously, this is will study his quasi- consciously attained and. if

proof positive thai Omni is e hibemation state. They sus- so, how. Is it by lowering perfect blend of art and pect that his extraordinary body temperature? Or by re- science. breath and pulse control distributing the flow of blood'' may have a message of While m India Heller ION GENERATORS li!e-and-death importance found the resting metabolic for Westerners with hyper- rates of several willing yogis The federal government tension. to be below the predicted should keep its eye on This man seems capable values for Western men of ions — oral least regulate the of controlling bodily systems the same age, height, and " sale of those much-debated thai we consider autonomic weight. What interested him air-ion generators, says a says Craig Heller of Stan- more, however, was that the leading authority on electro- ford. "If such control is pos- yogis' already low rates were

static energy. Though ion sible to learn, then we hope it as much as 50 percent lower generators are beneficial, could be taughtas an alter- during meditation. according to University of native fherapy to hyperten- "The yogis meditate, sit- Michigan engineering pro- sives, who now rely on ting up." Heller adds. "Yet fessor emeritus A. D. Moore, dangerous medications to their metabolic rates then

' poorly built ones may be achieve the same effect are lower than during the rest emitting poisonous ozone. Heller says ihat the first tests, taken while they're Dr. is Moore's caveat just goal of the investigation is to lying down. That's why I think the latest instance in a con- determine whether the yogi there's conscious control troversy that has raged since sealed, air-conditioned can suppress his involved," -D. S. the 1950s, when some buildings, and even some aficionados' extravagant synthetic fabrics are all said claims— that negative ions to deplete negative ions. would cure everything from Animal studies, particularly arthritis to cancer— gave those by Albert L. Krueger. a the gadgets a quackish bactenologisl at the Univer- reputation. sity of California, have linked Air ions (air molecules that negative ions to increased have acquired either a posi- relaxation and resistance' to tive or a negative electrical infection, among other charge) are constantly being things. created by the earth's But because of the ab- radioactivity and by cosmic sence of clinical research, rays. Though tons make up the Food and Drug Adminis- only a tiny fraction of air tration prohibits ion-gener- components, too high a ator manufacturers from making medical claims: they "How can we have any new may only tout "clean air." ideasor fresh outlooks when A small, battery-operated 90 percent of all the portable ion generator sells scientists who have ever for about S150, while.a lived have still not died?" conference-room model -AlanLMackay, 1969 goes for about $650. —J. H. " J

coruTiruuuR/i

CARDIAC KIDS has a certain degree of ar- known to interrupt their mi- poisonous for people to eat. teriosclerosis," Gilliam said. gration for a few drunken The poison -cyanide-

If you wait until you're "If we can do something at a days in Nevada innocuous to ihe bird, is thirty to worry about choles- very young age, we can re- Bees sometimes drink a formed when water in the terol, you're 25 years too duce the danger in the fu- little too much overripe nec- bird's system reacts with late. A recent study has ture." tar and then bumble around chemicals in the plant. — S.D. found six-year-olds to be According to Gilliam, chil- high-risk candidates for dren need vigorous activities coronary heart disease. with heart rates up to 180 to "Children are transported 190 beats per minute. He to and from school and to ex- exposes his subjects to 25 tracurricular and even sports minutes of intense exercise activities," explained Uni- four days a week, versity of Michigan professor "As a result," he said, "we Thomas Gilliam. "They sit for saw some nice changes in long hours watching televi- the blood profifes." sion and consume lots of Gilliam's goal is to change high-calorie junk food. attitudes so children will "As- a result, children are choose more strenuous-ac- showing increasing evi- tivities. dence of high cholesterol, "Cholesterol levels over high blood pressure, obesity, two hundred milligrams per and other conditions associ- cubic centimeter and tri- ated with heart disease in glycerides over one hundred adults." are no good, "tie said, In a study of 400 Michigan "whether you are six or schoolchildren, almost 50 thirty." -David Lewis percent showed one or more risk factors for heart disease. DRUNKEN ANIMALS "By age ten, every child wildly Wasps that sip sweet "It suddenly struck If you want to see intoxi- tree sap become so uncoor- me that that tiny pea. cated elephants, visit South dinated they can't fly at all. pretty and blue, was the

Africa, There, elephants oc- Butterflies become so docile earth. I put up my thumb casionally eat the yellow, on a man-made, banana- and shut one eye. and my plum-sized fruit of the and-sugar concoction that thumb blotted out the

marula tree and then en- they can easily be caught by planet Earth. I didn 't feel like

gage in noisy drunken collectors. a giant. I felt very, very brawls, ineffectually charg- The National Wildlife Fed- small. ing at one another. eration, which has done a —Neil Armstrong The marula is one of many survey of inebriation among (returning to Earth on

truits and berries that nonhumans. found that ani- Apollo 11 ferment— either on the vine mals usually don't know they or branch or in an animal's are going to get drunk when "We think so because other stomach— producing they imbibe, In the case of people all think so; or drunkenness and disorienta- one animal, the environmen- because, after all. we do tion. In Sweden birds stag- tal organization reports, the think so; or because we once ger around on road shoul- habit has been particularly thought so and think we ders after eating fermented beneficial. On the island of must think so; or because we rowanberries. In Florida rob- Mauritius in the Indian once thought so and think ins that eat ripe pyracantha Ocean a pink pigeon is care- we still think so; or because, berries crash into telephone fully avoided by hunters, be- having thought so. we think Electrode-bedecked six-year-old poles or into one another. cause the plant that makes it we will think so." was part ot Michigan study. Robins have even been drunk also makes its flesh —Henry Sidgwick 5S .OMNI AT

u#1

Ri

INTELLIGENT lYIflCHJI^ES IP V

wsmSBSMHSm I. The idea ol a superintel-

:i i isters is one of the oldest in creasingly hard to stay | | 'JwE!il^lMtfl'"'ffrfff y i

.'lligence. For example, how tar into tl (•Consider the Kurzweil Reading Machine.

it can recognize words, apply phonetic rules,

and read aloud as it goes along.?' place beneficent, seemingly in- Like many people, computers telligent computers that; find it harder to listen than to talk, • Converse with people over the So far, most commercially avail- telephone, using properly gram- able devices force you to pause matical synthesized speech; slightly between words so the • Interview a physician about a computer can detect word patient's symptoms and either boundaries. Almost all comput- make a diagnosis or recom- ers must get to know you. You mend further medical tests; have to train them by repeating • Clean up in a poker game by each word several times to form analyzing each human a personalized "template" of player's style to decide when your voice characteristics, to bluff and when to call or Thereafter the computer simply close out their hand? compares each word with the

If you plunked these scenes vocabulary in its memory until it squarely in the present, you're finds an acceptable match. right. Our smart machines are Word- recognition devices are still a long way from seeing, faster and more congenial than speaking, and scheming, as standard computer terminals, HAL did. buf they do exist, and they're beginning to change our and new uses for them are springing up all around. People are now

: lives. They're all pari of the world of srtil cia Intel fgence (Al), de- telling computers to sort packages, fill out forms, and keep track of scribed by MIT's Marvin Minsky, one of its founders, as "the science stock-and-bond transactions. A system now being tested will en- of making machines do things that would require intelligence if they able pilots to talk with in-flight computers. But perhaps the most were done by men." rewarding application will be their use as an aid to the handicapped.

We have always assumed that humans alone are capable of allowing people without the use of their hands, for example, to tell a unlimited speech. We have credited this unique ability partly to our robot arm to do their bidding. physical design and partly to a brain that can handle abstractions. The next step beyond "discrete-utterance recognition"— and it's Running a slow third comes the sometimes questionable assump- more like a giant leap — is the computer's ability to understand tion that we have something to say. It appears, however, that remem- continuous speech. When you want a computer to pick out indi- bering and reproducing words are not really all that hard for ma- vidual words in rapid-fire colloquial speech (we don't really say. "Did chines, either. you?" We say something like "Didja?"), the machine has to start

Computers, it turns out, can talk very nicely. Researchers have looking beyond mere acoustic matching. Enter artificial intelligence. figured out how to translate sounds into digital form a technique One approach is to teach the computer to figure out what you that has many uses. Since strings of numbers can easily be stored probably would have said by using its understanding of grammar on an integrated-circuit chip, computers can now pack away an context, and logic. Al researchers call these three types of com- extensive vocabulary. Talking timepieces and hand calculators are puter knowledge syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. already on the market, and Texas Instruments has brought out Scientists at Bell Labs are trying to produce a computer that can Speak and Spell, a device that pronounces words and asks the user take airline reservations over the phone. Their work provides a good to type in the spelling. Speak and Spell stores over three minutes of example of how this secondary information can be used, When you speech on two tiny memory chips, and two new language trans- ring up the airline computer, a synthesized voice asks for your lators can spout some 500 words. The inexpensive storage and identity number and poses a series of questions, including where processing chips developed for these devices underscore the im- and when you wish to fly. minence of widespread talking computers. Pragmatic knowledge tells the computer you will be talking mostly

Repeating words doesn't take all that much intelligence, but what about places and dates. So it doesn't have to compare questionable about reading aloud? If a computer could pronounce words that nouns against everything in the dictionary Semantics tells it that

it, weren't already programmed into would that show intelligence? when you say, "The day I want to travel is mumble," the mumble isn't

Consider the Kurzweil Reading Machine. It can scan a page, going to be the name of a city. Syntax dictates that after the verb you recognize letters and words, apply phonetic rules, discern phrase will probably use a noun, a preposition, or an article, not another boundaries from syntactical and vocabulary knowledge, figure out verb. In noisy surroundings we often rely on such cues ourselves. where stress and accent should go, and finally synthesize it all into Using these techniques, the computer can apply its sense of what words and sentences as it goes along. Priced under $20,000, the you probably said to help sort out and identify the individual words. device has been a great help to the blind. What's more, if given a Since our mind most likely does something similar, this simplified little practice, people find it just as understandable as a human linguistic analysis represents a kind of low-level artificial reader's voice. intelligence — probably the only true "intelligence" achieved to date. The Kurzweil machine uses the same knowledge of pronunciation Where is this route to Al leading? Weil, work at IBM's Yorktown we do (whether we are aware of it or not) to turn print into speech,

it and performs about as well, Synthesized speech is one of the more MIT's ' phoio (above) duplicates lines types otdataour successful areas of Al research. And yet, impressive as the Kurzweil eyes instantly axttact i'om a scene. Silicon water (lei!) carries Hell's device is, its performance still falls far short of true intelligence. magnetic fcuMi'c memcy chips, seen highly magnified in background. Heights Research Center, in New York, may Human: "It's true. I am unhappy." produce a "voice-driven" typewriter The Computer: "Do you think coming here will research at this lab is by far the most am- help you not be unhappy?" bitious in the field. IBM scientists are trying Human: "I need some help. That much to recognize natural grammar-based seems certain." speech, using concepts from information Computer: "What would it mean if you got and communication theory as well as some help?"

acoustic processing. IBM's speech-pro- Human; "Perhaps I could learn to get along cessing consultant, Rex Dixon, says that with my mother" IBM's is the only research now grappling Computer: "Tell me more about your family" with totally unconstrained, natural lan- guage. All other work has been on gram- The program has mastered the vocabu- mars contrived to aid speech recognition. lary of psychiatry just well enough to pick

Pressed to predict when voice-driven up on key words. For example, it recog- typewriters will appear. Dixon ventures, "If nized "depressed" as an undesirable stale funding is maintained at a fairly high level, and knew that "mother" referred to family. we can reasonably expect to have usable When it draws a blank, it simply changes continuous-speech-recognition systems' pronouns and rephrases the statement as working with all talkers, natural grammar a question, wilh an implied "hmm." and large vocabularies in fifteen or twenty Weizenbaum intended to use the pro- years." In case you're counting, that's be- gram for language research, and he was fore the year 2001. disturbed when people started taking it

As desirable as spoken input is, all it seriously. Some even demanded to be really amounts to is a new medium for the alone with the terminal in order to pour out same message, As long as we talk with their troubles. His dismay at human gullibil- computers on their own terms, we'll always ity transformed him into a crusader against be limited in our ability to communicate The poten:ial misuse of Al. with them. So why don't we just teach them Terry Winograd, now of Stanford Univer- to understand everyday English? sity, takes a completely different approach That innocent-sounding question to the problem. Early in this decade he catapults us out of applications and back devised a program capable of extended into academia's basic research, where Al conversations by the simple expedient of experts have been stymied by the com- giving the computer something to talk plexities of language. The problem is that about. He created a "microworld" peopled natural languages lend to be ambiguous, by colored blocks, pyramids, and boxes on something we instinctively compensate tor the computer's TV screen. He told the pro- with our firsthand knowledge of the world. gram everything it needed to know about

When we say, "I drove the car into the this world: the relative size of the objects. garage, and it died," we know that "it" refers their shapes, colors, and so on. He could to the car, not to the garage. To interpret this then command the program in simple Eng- sentence as easily, a computer would have lish to move the items around on the TV to know something about cars and ga- screen with a simulated robot hand. (He rages. Understanding requires at least also taught the program enough grammar some knowledge of the subject. for it to reply in reasonably high-quality Because Al researchers couldn't wait for typed English.) A sample; the development of a worldly-wise com- puter, they have created some clever ways Human: "Pick up a big red block." to get around the problem. Joe Weizen- Computer: "Okay." baum, ot MIT, hit on the idea of teaching a Human: "Find a block which is taller than c.omputer to bluff its way through a conver- the one you are holding and put it into the sation by assuming the role of a "nondirec- box." live" psychotherapist, leading patients to Computer: "By 'it,' I assume you mean the

understand their problems by asking for block which is taller than the one I am hold- repeated explanations and clarifications. ing."

In the exchange below, the computer is Human: "Okay." interviewing a troubled young woman, who Computer (hand sets down the block it is began with a common complaint. holding and picks up a taller one. putting it into the box).

Human; "Men are all alike." Human: "What does the box contain?" Computer: "In what way?" Computer: "The blue pyramid and the blue Human; "They're always bugging us about something or other."

Computer; "Can you think of a specific It's hardly something we'd care to dis- example?" cuss over brandy on a cold winter evening, Human; "Well, my boytriend made me but at least the computer had full command come here." of its topic. Computer: "Your boyfriend made you come Winograd's work proved that computers here''" could carry on a conversation on a limited Human: "He says that I'm depressed much subject, and language research blos- of the time." somed in several directions. UCLA psy-

Computer: "I am sorry to hear that you are chologist Kennelh Colby followed Weizen- baum's techniques, but he decided to take

ov,'-; CONTINUED ON PAGE 161 FICTION

The aliens killed them twice over; so they had to flee this universe THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

BY ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

a mad scientist, and I'm his He'sbeautiful daughter." That's what she said: the oldest cliche' in pulp fiction. She wasn't old enough to remember the pulps. The thing to do with a silly remark is to

tail to hear it. I went on waltzing while I took another look down her evening formal. Nice view. Not foam rubber. She waltzed well. Today most girls who just attempt ballroom dancing drape themselves around your neck and expect you to shove them around the floor She

kept her weight on her own teet, danced ,

close without snuggling, and knew what I

was going to do a split second before I did

it. A perfect partner - as long as she didn't talk. "Weil?" she persisted. My paternal grandfather— an unsavory old reactionary; the FemLibbers would have lynched him — used to say, "Zebadiah. the mistake we made was not putting shoes on Ihem or teaching them to read; we should never have taught them to talk!"

I signaled a twirl by pressure; she

floated into it and back into my arms right

on the beat. I inspected her hands and the outer corners of her eyes. Yes. she really was young— minimum eighteen (Hilda Corners never permitted legal "infants" at her parties), maximum twenty-five, first approximation twenty-two. Yet she danced like her grandmother's generation. "Well?" she repeated more firmly.

This time I openly stared. "Is that

cantilevering natural? Or is there an l4 invisible bra, you being in fact the sole « iy *i > supporter of two dependents?" She glanced down, looked up, and grinned. "They do stick out, don't they?

PAINTING BY LES EDWARDS " . .

Your is comment rude, crude, unrefined, "Let me think. Flycasting? Or was it bas- My mind went into emergency, reviewing and designed to change the subject." ketweaving? It was one of those transdis- the past years the way a drowning man's "What subject? I made a poliie inquiry; ciplinary things in which the committee life is supposed to flash before his eyes

you parried it with amphigory" simply weighs the dissertation. Tell you (how could anyone know that?): a rainy af- " Amphigory' tired feel! I I've my answered what. got a copy around my digs. I'll ternoon when my chum's older sister had precisely" find it and see what title the researcher who initialed me into the mysteries; the curious

'Amphigory," I repeated. "The operative wrote it put on it." effect caused by the first time strangers symbols were mad, scientist, beautiful, "Don't bother, The title is Some Implica- had shot back-at me; a twelve-month and daughter. The firs! has several mean- tions of a Six-Dimensional Non-Newtonian cohabitation contract that had started with ings; the others denole opinions. Semantic Continuum. Pop wants to discuss it." a bang and had ended without a whimper;

content: zero." I stopped waltzing. "Huh? He'd better countless events that had left me deter- She looked thoughtful rather than angry. discuss that paper with the bloke who mined never to marry,

"Pop isn't rabid, I in it." although did use mad wrote I "I answered instantly, meant what I im-

ambivalent mode. Both scientist and "Nonsense. I saw you blink; I've hooked plied: marriage, in its older meaning. I'm beautiful contain descriptive I you. opinions, Pop wants to discuss it, then olfer you willing. Bui why are you willing? i'm no stipulate. But are you in doubt as io my sex? a job." prize."

If are so, you qualified to check my twenty- "Job! I just slipped off the hook." She took a deep breath, straining the third pair of chromosomes? With transsex- "Oh, dearl Pop will be really mad. fabric, and — Allah be praised! — her nip-

ual I surgery so common, assume that any- Please? Please, sir!" ples came up. "Sir, are the you prize I was thing less would not satisfy you." "You said that you had used mad in am- sent to fetch. When you said that we really "I'd prefer field a test." bivalent mode. How?" oughl to get married— hyperbole, and I "On the dance floor?" "Oh. Mad-angry because his colleagues it knew — I suddenly realized, with a deep "No, behind the bushes back of the pool. won't listen to him. Mad-psychotic in the burst of happiness, that trite was the means Yes, I'm qualified — laboratory or field. But it opinions of some of his colleagues. They of fetching you that I wanted above all!" is not your sex that's in question; that is a She went on, "But I will not trap you

fact that can be established . . . although through misconstruing — a gallantry, If you the gross evidence is convincing. I wish, you may take me into those bushes "Ninety-five centimeters isn't gross! Not back of the pool and not marry me." She for my height. One hundred seventy went on firmly, "But for that , . . whoring . . barefoot, one eighty ^Fights were no hundred in these my fee is for you to talk with my father and to heels. It's just that I'm wasp-waisted for my novelty at Hilda "Sharp" let him show you something." mass — forty-eight centimeters versus Corners's parties. "Deety, you're an idiot! You would ruin fifty-nine kilos." that pretty gown." "And your teeth are your own, and you Her food and liquor were "Mussing a dress is irrelevant. Besides, I

don't it have dandruff. Take easy, Deedee: I can take it off. There's nothing lavish . . . her guests under it." didn't mean to shake your aplomb"— or "There's a great deal under it!" those twin were often eccentric but glands that are not gross but That fetched a grin, instantly wiped away, delicious. I have an infantile bias and have never dull . . "Thank you. Shall we head for the bushes?" it since I known was six, six months, that "Wait a halt! I'm about to be noble and a . . . hypergolic mixture.^ is — "but the symbol daughter encom- regret it for the rest of my life. You've made a statements, passes two one tactual, sex, mistake. Your father doesn't want to talk to and the other a matter of opinion even when me; I don't know anything about n- stated by a forensic genetohematologist." dimensional geometry." Why do I get these

"Gosh, what I big words you know, Mister. attacks of honesty? I've never done any- Doctor." mean say that his papers don't make sense." thing to deserve them.

"Mister is correct. On this it is they campus "Do make sense?" "Pop thinks you do; that is sufficient. swank to assume that everyone holds a "I'm not that good a mathematician, sir. Shall we go? I want to get Pop out of here doctorate. Even I have one, Ph.D. Do you My work is usually simplifying software. before he busts somebody in the mouth." know what that stands for?" Child's play, compared with n-dimensional "Don't rush me. I didn't ask you to rassle

"Doesn't everybody? I have a Ph.D., too. spaces." on Ihe grass; I said I wanted to marry you.

'Piled Higher and Deeper.'" I wasn't required to express an opinion; But I want to know why you are willing to I raised that maximum to twenty-six and the trio started "Blue Tango," and Deety marry me. Your answer concerned what assigned it approximation. melted into as second my arms. You don't talk if you your father wants. I'm not trying to marry "Phys ed?" know tango. your father; he's not my type. Speak for "Mister Doctor, you are trying to get my Deety knew After an eternity of sensual yourself, Deety. Or drop it." Am I a maso-

goat. Won't work. I had an undergraduate bliss, I swung her out into position precisely chist? There's a couch for sunbathing back double major, one being phys ed, with on coda; she answered my bow and of those bushes. teacher's credentials I in case needed a scrape with a deep curtsy. "Thank you, sir" Solemnly she looked me over, from my job. But real my major I was math, which "Whew! After a tango like that, a couple formal tights to my crooked bow tie and on continued in graduate school." ought to get married." up to my thinning brush cut— a hundred

"And here I had 'All been assuming that right. I'll find our hostess and tell Pop, ninety-four centimeters of big, ugly galoot. Deedee meant Doctor of Divinity." Five minutes? Front door, or side?" "I like your firm lead in dancing. I like the "Go wash out your mouth with soap. My She looked serenely happy I said, "Dee- way you look. I like the way your voice rum- nickname comes from my initials, D. 7. Or ty, do you mean what you appear to mean? bles. I like your hairsplitting games with Deety, Dr. D, T. Burroughs, That when I'm being you intend to marry me? A total words — you sound like Whorf debating formal, as I can't be 'Mister' and refuse to stranger?" Korzybski with Shannon as referee." She be'Miz'or 'Miss.' See here. Mister, I'm sup- Her face remained calm, but the lights took another deep breath, finished almost posed to be luring you with my radiant went out, and her nipples went down. She sadly: "Most of all, I like the way you smell." beauty thenjiooking you with my feminine answered steadily "After that tango, we are It would have taken a sharp nose to whiff charm. hot getting anywhere. But-f m Let's no longer strangers. I construed your me. I had been squeaky-clean ninety min- try another tack. Tell me what you piled statement as a proposal — no, a willing- utes earlier, and it takes more than one higher and deeper," -?" ness—to marry me. Was I mistaken waltz and a tango to make me sweat. But 68 OMNI Deety's remark had that skid in it that she pul into almost anything. Most girls, when they wanl to ruin a man's judgment. squeeze his biceps and say, "Goodness,- you're strong!" smell I grinned down at her. "You good, too. Your perfume could rouse a corpse." "I'm not wearing perfume." "Oh. Correction; your natural phero- mone. Enchanting. Get your wrap. Side door. Five minutes.'" "Yes, sir." "Tell your father we're getting married, He

gets thai talk, free. I decided that before you sta'rted to argue. It won't take him long to decide that I'm not Lobachevski." "That's Pop's problem," she answered, moving. "Will you let him show you this thing he's built in our basement?" "Sure, why not? What is it?" "A time machine."

II Zeb

Tomorrow I will seven eagles see, a great cornel will appear, and voices will speak from whirlwinds, foretelling monstrous and

fearful things. . . . This universe never did make sense; I suspect thai it was built on government contract. "Big basement?" "Medium. Nine by twelve. But cluttered. Workbenches and power tools." A hundred eight square meters. Ceiling height probably two and a half. Had Pop made the mistake of the man who built-a boat in his basement? My musing was interrupted by a high- pitched scream: "You overeducated, ob- stipated. pedantic ignoramus! Your math- ematical intuition froze solid the day you matriculated!"

I didn't recognize the screamer but did know the stuffed shir! he addressed: Pro- fessor Neil O'Herel Brain, head of the de- partment of mathematics — and God help the student who addressed a note to "Pro- " fessor N.O. Brain" or even "N. O'H. Brain "Brainy" had spent his life in a search for

The Truth — intending to place it under house arrest. He was puffed up like a pouter pigeon with his professional pontifical pomposity reeling. His expression suggested that he was giving birth to a porcupine.

Deety gasped, "It's started," and she

dashed toward the two men. Me, I stay out of rows; I'm a coward by trade and wear fake zero-prescriotion g.?.\-.ses as a buffer. When some oaf snarls, "Take off your glasses!" that gives me time to retreat.

I headed straight for the row. Deety had placed herself between the two, facing the screamer, and was saying in a low but forceful voice, "Pop, don't you dare! I won't bail you out!" She was reach- ing for his glasses with evident intent to pul them back on his face. It was clear that he had taken them off for combat; he was hold- ing them" out of her reach.

1 reached over their heads, plucked them out of his hand, gave them to Deety She CCNTINUFD0NPAGE11S .

America has two manned spaceships. One is the shuttle. And the other A ROCKET FOR THE PEOPLE BY KATHLEEN STEfN

man stands in his The there driveway, a crazy disconsolate American muse of self-sufficiency. glint in his eye. "The way I see it," he says, Two years, $100,000 in surplus machinery, and much "NASA will be trundling out its first space shuttle publicity later, Truax has completed the final valve work to the launch, but the radio and TV announcers will be and plumbing on the Volksrocket X-1 and begun static- saying, 'Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bob Truax is firing tests on her motors. And it looks as if he'll get the wheeling out his Volksrocket X-17— that's seventeen money to send her up, thanks to the backing of two launches— to the pad.' Mine could be the first real, potential astronauts— one the stage manager of a fa- working space shuttle. If not the first, the cheapest." mous rock-and-roll group, the other a Peruvian tortilla- Captain Robert C. Truax, U.S. Navy (retired), is run- factory owner who wants to confront his destiny as a ning some kind of horse race against the monoliths, and flying Incan, Rosicrucian businessman. if fortune favors him, he just may be the first to ship a The Volksrocket is not Truax's first venture into the person up into space and back, and do it again and zone where showmanship, technology, and weird de- again in the same rocket. He plans to open space not sires occupy identical space. This scientist who only to private enterprise but to the kid next door. headed the military's top secret space program in the When the rocket engineer first made his standing 1950s, who came up with the Polaris missile concept, offer to shoot anybody 50 miles up into the stratosphere who gave the Mercury program its initial thrust is also for a bargain-basement $1 million, most people thought the man who designed and built the rocket-powered he was a nut. So Truax set about to restore the American Sky-cycle that was supposed to propel Evel Knievel rightful nut to his position in society. "What's the differ- over the Snake River in 1974. It didn't (not Truax's fault). ence between a visionary and a man of vision?" he But when Knievel wiped the river mud off his U.S.-flag asks. 'A man of vision is a visionary who gets his vision jumpsuit and said, "This is going to be a hard act to to work successfully." follow," Truax responded, "This is nothing. Next I'm In some ways Truax is a throwback to an earlier era, going to put you in orbit." when free enterprise was a gambling man's venture Knievel dropped out of the project, a media persona and profit meant risk. His rocket— small, reusable, non grata after "playing baseball without the ball," cheap, made out of spare parts— evokes that slightly Truax theorizes. But Truax kept on, ever alert to the

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUGLAS KIRKLAND £ Assembled from government

surplus, it will lift a man to the edge of space. 9

treasures of government's surplus in risk their lives cities, sitting the naut— must be reasonably good health than their money." By that major astride it on a saddle, Taco Bell restaurants. "He sold so many," two helicopters, a medical team, and frog- able catalogs and junkyards, a practice that and to produce £100,000 in spenda- time Truax was almost broke. He did every- a la Strangelove. and performing occa- says Truax, "that now he owns the whole men—will be waiting at the splashdown eventually him the prototype hero of thing shoot made ble money." but 200 pounds of po! over the sional acrobatics. This, according to Ray damn factory. He's a pilot and a sky diver, site. The rocket will put out 4.000 pounds of series /.the border. Meanwhile, work al- ABC's TV Salvage Sanfordand Offers poured in— pilots in the Royal Aus- Mexican had Upton, "is the first stage of my plan to es- and he looks like he s in pretty good thrust to achieve the necessary 37,000-

Son of space. "Yeah. it from me," in most come to a halt. ABC got tralian Navy who had read about him tablish the world-renowned character shape." "Yes, but can he roll a taco in foot-per-second escape velocity; its he growls. "They knew what I was doing. tabloids, unemployed A break in the clouds came sometime the Great." the Sydney kids, Ramundo zero-g?" one joker remarked. parabola will be tracked by an AN/MPQ-10 Pure imitation." mechanics. millionaire around the beginning of 1979. "fla- the time, Daniel Correa, One came down to One Around same J. The rocket's specifications: Twenty-four radar used in conjunction with a transpond- Armed with a $3,000 pilot study fund Truax's Saratoga, California, garage-han- mundo"— aka Ray Upton, stage manager the tortilla maker, arrived on the scene with feet long, 3,100 pounds at lift-off. It is a er in the rocket. (from Knievel). Truax worked on the rocket gar and offered to foot the whole bill. "He for the Beach Boys and self-proclaimed several thousand dollars as a down pay- single-stage, liquid-fueled, completely re- design and scrounged for backers. He said he wanted to invest in the future of superstuntman— decided that taking a ment on the stratosphere. "He seems to usable vehicle, assembled mainly from Truax readies Volksrocket (left) in its launcher/ mortgaged his house and advertised for mankind," commented Truax, but he was short ride in the Volksrocket would make have the ability to make money," says Truax. government surplus parts. It is capable of erector, made to order and donated by K and G finances in papers such as The Wall Street never heard from again. Daily crank calls, spectacular publicity "So if he comes through with the rest of the lifting the astronaut in a near-vertical trajec- Custom Trailers. This structure holds the rocket Journal: "Wanted: risky capital for risky but no money "I tell em all the same story," When I arrived chez Truax, two of his megabucksfhe-goes up." Correa arrived in tory to the edge of space. in position lor both static firings and actual project." He appealed to the adventurous first "boys" were banging away on the United Stales a few years ago with 50 will he says. "The one to come up with the a dummy $1 The rocket be launched near a large launch. Truax put-, limsni^g touches on electrical spirit of the rich: "Man or woman interested hundred thousand dollars goes to the head Volksrocket for Ramundo. which the rock- in his pocket and started selling tortillas on body of water, probably the Pacific Ocean, guidance system (top) and hammers on nose in becoming the world's first private astro- of the list. But it seems people would rather and-roller will ride above the waterfronts of sis to supermarkets and and a recovery team — two 125-fool cutters. cone ol the demonstration model (below). 72 OMNI 73 Burnout will occur al 113,000 feet. The erful totem in the country today, an ar- rocket will coast to a maximum apogee in chetype perhaps, formerly represented by excess of 50 miles, then descend to about the thunderbolt of Zeus, the cross, or the

100.000'feet. at which time a drogue chute automobile. It could be a sublimation of the will be released automatically from the unmanageable violence of humanity or a nose cone. At 20,000 feet the main canopy celebration of limitless glories. will be deployed, reducing splashdown In 1936, as a plebe at Annapolis. Truax speed to 45 feet per second. Total trip time: started his own rocket +ab. conducting con- "One hell of a ten-minute ride." trolled experiments, monitoring chamber The rocket will be recovered intact. pressures, fuel-flow rates, and accelera- towed to land, dried, and sent back up. tion. In that year he wrote to Robert God-

If the flight details have not prepared you dard: "Who knows. The day may come

for the mix of the mundane and the bizarre when I shall be as active in the develop- that make up this true account, then a visit ment of the rocket as you yourself are," to Truax Engineering. Inc.. will. Nestled Ensign Truax headed the navy's first jet- serenely in the peaceful Santa Clara Valley propulsion office, where he conceived, or-

(Silicon Valley), Truax's ranch house is lo- ganized, and directed the navy's first rock-

cated on a cul-de-sac. Rocket parts are et projects. During World War II he rose strewn around the drive and the front yard. quickly through the ranks and went on to The rocket's engine is mounted on a block dominate rocket development in the mili- in front of the two-car garage, in the back- tary, expanding significantly rocket and yard, the obligatory swimming pool. missile capability: ICBMs. IRBfvts. ground-

"shaped like the state of California if you're to-air. and surface missiles. He planned. lying on the bottom." lies basking in the "sold." and directed Thor, the first of the sun. large surface missiles, as well as the There is Mrs. Truax. Sally; rangy, big- Samos. Midas, and Discoverer programs. natured. She met Bob at the Pentagon and Owing largely to his efforts, the navy was clearly knows all there is to know about selected to manage the first artificial-satel- rocketmen. They have two sons. Dean. two. lite launcher; and all the while Truax was will count down on demand. "Four three. calling for a nonmilitary peacetime space two. one. blastoff!" He's probably per- program. formed that stunt a dozen times for the TV He headed the air force's space pro- crews. Scott, eleven, is boisterous and vol- gram, a project so hush-hush that once atile, like his lather His homework, an es- when he was talking to the newly Ameri- say, lies on the kitchen table; "What You canized Wernher von Braun, and the V-2 Need "for Success: Intelligence. Good man wistfully expressed his dream that the

Looks, and a Sense of Humor." U.S. have a space program. "I had to jam "Let me give you the Cook's tour of the my fist in my mouth to keep from telling him works here," Truax says. He looks like a that the air force already had one." former astronaut, his graying hair cut in a Truax has his degrees: one in mechan- crew cut, his face a combination of con- ical and one in aeronautical engineering, trolled determinism and mischievous glee, He holds a master's in nuclear engineer- his body that of an athlete or a trou- ing. In 1957 he was president of the Ameri- bleshooter, not tall, not short, without ex- can Rocket Society, a collection of astro- cess weight. He looks forty-five but is in fact crazies who explored the farthest reaches "pushing sixty-one with a short stick." of the demon rocket. There was Bob Bus- The trip through the shop exposes the sard with his ramjet ("There's no limit to his exoticism, indeed the eroticism, at the imagination"); and there were photon rock- heart of the garage. We know from his his- ets, solar sails, giant nuclear-powered in- tory to expect something less than earth- terstellar tankers. "The critics said the nu- bound; his story is the history of rocketry in clear rocket was too expensive to develop,

America. Truax grew up at a time when too dangerous. It had to be handled by rockets usually exploded on their stands or remote control." he smifks. "Oh yes. ive're within a few hundred feet of lift-off, when all descended from that lost ship/ Monsieur the Hungarian Oberth, the Russian Tsiol- iNand'ring forever thru space/Trying to shut ." Houbigant kovsky, and the American Goddard formed down our reactors the space industry's shamanistic triumvi- In the Sixties Truax retired from the mili- rate, witch doctors who tried to coerce tary and became director of advanced de- massive conflagrations to be contained in velopment for Aerojet General. And when small tanks. They all lived with an obses- efforts were devoted to simplifying the sion to escape Earth's gravitational well, complexities caused by larger and larger and Truax was obsessed, too. turbo-pump-pressured rockets. Truax As a boy. he fished around trash barrels pushed for the "big dumb booster" con- behind theaters for celluloid movie film cept, an enormous cheap rocket whose

(highly flammable), which he stuffed into propellents were fed to it by the pressure tooth-powder cans to make crude rockets, generated by its acceleration, He solved

He liked playing with fire in enclosed the launching problem by having it float

places, trying to peer into the future that lies vertically in the ocean, from where it could in the contours of a rocket. "Rocketry in- take off without the need for complex, mas- spires an almost religious enthusiasm." he sive launch facilities. More important, the comments. This understatement masks the Sea Dragon, as he called the huge vehicle, possibility that the rocket is the most pow- could be recovered af ses and 'eused. The mammoth prototype ior his Volksrockef. it was. in 1963, a workable shuttle. '-I'm al- ways getting into things too early," he com- plains. "I spent a couple million dollars of Aerojet's money and developed a simple reusable rocket. It was my contention that we could lower development costs, save tesl vehicles, but, no. my ravings fell on deaf ears." To him the current NASA shuttle is a monster. "Look at its tremendously com- plex landing system. It flies like a brick and has adead-stick [unpoweredjlanding. the

most difficult of ail landings. After I devel- oped the Sea Dragon. NASA did a hun- dred-eighty-degree turn and opted for the much more complex winged system, If I'd been in my grave, I'd have rolled over, It's an unparalleled money sponge. It makes about as much sense as requiring an airplane to be able to land at railroad sta- tions." But he sighs, "What are you going to do: Mitzi and Rilzi want to go to the stars/ Do you grab a screwdriver or a wrench?" He makes odd sense, this rocket hon- cho — tough Glenn Ford jaw. steely eyes- spouting weird lyrics. He lives with phrases like transponders, servoactuators. inertial platform gyros, and sees the solenoid valve as an objet d'art. Yet the time spent in his garage is conventional, practical, produc- tive as any other cottage industry in the suburbs. After all, the rocket is a very an- cient device— a chamber with a hole in it. And even with the advent of electronic telemetry, it remains, nonetheless, a bomb with a little brain at the tip. The delicacy is in^ the containment of the fuels. What does the Volksrocket look like? A shark, as slender as an arrow Toothpaste tube. Truax begins his tour at the nose cone. It is small, about the size of a hot-wa- ter heater. As with 80 percent of the ship, it came from the friendly junkman. The for- ward six-foot piece was originally the tail section of a "tip tank" from a Grumman

Albatross. It was an old practice on ex- tended patrol missions to add an extra. fuel tank to the tip of the wing, one that could be dropped when the fuel was expended.

"The streamlined object on the tail is just the right size for a nose cone. You can pick up the. whole tip tank for a hundred bucks," he says with pride. The cone, made of 6062 aluminum, has in its first two feet the drogue and main chutes; without them the rocket would turn into a fiery cinder on reentry. It also contains a floating radio beacon and a dye marker. The "command module," barely large enough for a person to sit in, is pressurized to "a shirt-sleeves atmosphere." Truax tested it to two atmospheres. There was no

The astronaut in the top of the stack doesn't have to do anything but "squat in a prayerful attitude until the craft hits the wa- ter. Ha, ha. I'm giving him plenty of time to get cold feet." As for Truax, he'll be operat- ing ihe automatic system from the block- house. "I'm chicken." Ha, ha. There are some contingency manual

CONTINUED ON PAGE 139 ALIEN LANDSCAPES

Science-fiction classics, as envisioned by talented visual artists, show four worlds of imagination

THE TIME MACHINE

"The Time Traveler ... led Ihe way down the long, draughty corridor to his laboratory. .We beheld a larger edition or the little mechanism we had seen vanish before our eyes Cut by the horizon lay the huge hull of the sun, red and motionless. The sky overhead was no longer blue I cannot convey the sense of abominable desolation that hung over the world."— H. G. Wells ,

ZPaul looked down and saw sand spewing out of the metal and plastic beneath them

. . . . like a . .tan and blue beetle. 9

DUNE

"Flecks of dust shadowed the sand around the crawler now, The big machine began to tip. ... A gigantic sand whirlpool began

forming. . . . Then they saw it! A wide hole emerged from the sand. Sunlight flashed from glistening white spokes within it. The hole's diameter was at least twice the length of the crawler. . 'Gods, monster!' what a muttered a man beside Paul. . . . The

. men crowded around him . . staring fearfully." — Frank Herbert . .

MISSION OF GRAVITY

"The world IMesklyn] is rather surprising in several ways. Its equatorial diameter is forty-eight thousand miles. From pole to

pole ... it measures nineteen thousand. ... It rotates on its axis three . . . making the day some seventeen and quarter minutes

long, At the equator I would weigh about four hundred eighty pounds ... at the poles I'd be carrying something like sixty tons. ... A large part of the southern hemisphere will receive no sunlight for fully three quarters of the year and should in conse-

. . of the quence develop . frozen methane at the expense

. the equalor, carry- oceans. . . Tremendous storms rage across

. . ing methane vapor . . . while the southern regions warm up for creatures with liquid methane in their tissues. "—Hal Clement

£The Earthman began to realize just what the winds of Mesklyn could do even in this gravity. .

^Frorn an embankment of the railroad, Chris sat silently watching the city of off. Scranton . . preparing to take 9

CITIES IN FLIGHT

There was no longer any reason why a vehicle to cross space needed to be small, cramped. .. .The mosl massive and awkward object could be lifted and hurled oft the earih and carried almost any distance once anligravity was an engineer- ing reality'". . - Whole cities could be moved. "—James Btish DO

S.byM3y"ovjoiB™ks(NewYork|an FICTION

Before he could qualify as a space pilot, Cadet Pirx had to prove his skills, his courage, and his luck THE TEST BYSTANISLAWLEM

slot machines. if Cadet Pirx!" Oh, what the lief. They weren't- disappointed, tion textbook. Cadet Boerst!" Bullpen's harsh voice machine suddenly went hay- "Very good," Bullpen said in Pirx sat down at his desk as if

snapped him out of his wire and coughed up so many a fatherly sort of way. "Then it were made of uncongealed daydreaming, He had coins into his waiting hands what would you do?" glass. He wasn't even sore at

just had visions of a that he couldn't stuff his pock- "I would stop," Pirx blurted Smiga; that's the kind of guy he two-crown piece lying tucked ets fast enough? Well, why not? out, sensing that he was drifting was, always one to play a joke. away in the fob pocket of his It happened to Smiga, didn't off into realms that lay vastly He didn't calch a word of what old civvies, the ones stashed it? Pirx was already reeling beyond his competence. Furi- Boerst was saying; Boerst was at the bottom of his locker. A under the burden of his unex- ously he racked his empty trying to plot a graph while jingling, shiny silver coin — all pected windfall when Bullpen brains in search of the appro- Bullpen was up to his old trick of but forgotten. A while ago he roused himwitha bang. priate paragraphs from his turning down the electronic

could have sworn nothing was Folding his hands behind Space Manual, but it was as if computer, leaving the cadet to there, an old mailing stub at his back and shifting his he had never laid eyes on it. get bogged down in his compu- best, but the more he thought weight to his good leg, his in- Sheepishly he lowered his tations. School regulations about it, the more persuaded structor asked. "Cadet Pirx, gaze, and as he did so, he permitted the use of a com-

he was that one might be what would you do if you were noticed that Smiga was trying puter, but Bullpen was of a dif- there, so that by the time Bull- on patrol and encountered a to prompt him— with his lips ferent mind. 'A computer is only

pen called out his name he ship from an alien planet?" only One by one he deciphered human," he used to say, "It, too. was absolutely sure of it. The Pirx opened his mouth wide, Smiga's words and repeated can break down." Pirx wasn't

coin was now sufficiently real as if the answer were there and them out loud, before he had a sore at Bullpen, either. Fact is, that he could feel it bulging in all he had to do was to force it chance to digest them fully he wasn't sore at anyone, his pocket, so round and sleek out. He looked like the last per- "I'd introduce myself." Hardly ever Five minutes later to the touch. There was his son on Earth who knew what to A howl went up from the he was standing in front of a ticket to the movies, he do when meeting up with a class. Bullpen struggled for a shop window on Dyerhoff thought, with half a crown to vessel trom an alien planet. moment; then he, too, ex- Street, his attention caught by a spare. If he settled for some "I would maneuver closer," ploded with laughter, only to display of gas pistols, good for newsreel shorts, that would he answered, his voice muted assume a serious expression firing blanks or live ammo, a set leave a crown and a half, of and strangely hoarse. once again. consisting of one pistol and a which he'd squirrel away a The class froze in welcome "Cadet Pirx, you will report to hundred cartridges priced at crown and blow the rest on the antiooation of some comic re- me tomorrow with your naviga- six crowns. Neeciess to say. he

PAINTING BY DON MA1TZ —

"What're only imagined he was window-browsing on them now. Closing his eyes, he crouched asked, someww. oewikicrcdly, Dyerhoff Street. down, stuck his hand through the crack in you doing here? Your name wasn't on the flight list" The bell rang and the class emptied, but the door, and gave the pocket a probing sick. I'm taking his place." without all that yelling and stampeding ot pat. Sure enough, it was empty. "Brendan got Pirx- mom«nt;jrily tluste'ed. This was lower classmen. No, sir, Ihese weren't kids was one and only area in anymorel Half of the class meandered off He was standing in his unpressurized the one area— the just which he was able 10 climb just a millime- in the direction of the cafeteria because, suit on the metal catwalk, under the those empyreal realms that although no meals were being served at hangar ceiling, and. with neither hand ter higher, to Boerst to inhabit so effortlessly. thai time, there were other attractions to be free, was bracing himself against the seemed Not only Boerst the brightest in the had -a new waitress, for example (word cable railing with nis elbow. In one harrd he was held his navigalion book, in the other the program, for which Pirx could fairly easily had it she was a knockout). Pirx strolled forgive him he could even muster some leisurely past the glass cabinets where the crib sheet Smiga had lent him. The whole — this for the man's mathematical stellar globes were stored, and with every school was alleged to have flown with respect ever since the time he had step he saw his hopes of finding a two- pony, though how it managed to find its genius, all the Boerst take on the computer, fal- crowii piece in the pocket of his civvies way back every time was a mystery, watched tering only it came to roots of the dwindle a little more. By the time he more so since, after completing the flight when only were his par- reached the bottom of the staircase, he test, the cadets were immediately trans- fourth power — and not well-heeled that he didn't realized that the coin was just a figment of ferred from the institute to the north, to the ents sufficiently to dreaming about two-crown his imagination. base camp, where Ihey began cramming have bother in the pocket of Hanging around the lobby were Boerst for Iheir final exams. Still the fact re- pieces lying tucked away his civvies, but he was also a top scorer in Smiga, and Payartz. For a semester he mained; It always came back. Some gymnastics, a crackerjack of a jumper, a and Payartz had been deskmates in cos- claimed that it was parachuted down. Fa- dancer, and. like it or not. he was modesy, and he had Payartz to thank for cetiously, of course. terrific handsome to boot. Very handsome in all the inkblots in his star atlas. So Pirx stood on the metal catwalk and something that could not exactly be "You're up tor a trial run tomorrow." fact— said of Pirx. Boerst let drop just as Pirx was about to overtake them. They walked the distance of the cat- their way between the gird- "No sweat," came his lackadaisical re- walk, threading ers, filing past the rockets parked next to ply. He was nobody's fool. iHe was standing in row. before emerging in "Don't believe me? Read for yourself," one another a light that fell vertically through Boerst said, tapping a finger on the glass in his unpressurized suit on the shaft of two-hundred-meter sliding panel in the pane of the bulletin board. a the metal catwalk. cone-shaped giants— some- Pirx had a mind to keep going, but his ceiling. Two reminded Pirx of head involuntarily twisted around on its In one hand he held his how they always — giants— each measuring forty-eight me- axis. The list showed only three names navigation book, ters in height and eleven meters in diame- and there it was, right at the top, as big as in the other the crib sheet. the first-stage booster section, stood blazes: Cadet Pirx. ter, in side by side on an assembly of concrete total blank. , For a second his mind was a . , The whole school Then he heard a distant voice, which exhaust deflectors. had flown with this pony. 9 covers were open and the turned out to be his own. The hatch gangways already in place for boarding. "Like I said, no sweat." point the gangways Leaving them, he. headed down a walk- At about the midway lead stand, planted way lined with flower beds. That year the were blocked by a staff. beds were planted with forget-me-nots, with a little red pennon on a flexible procedure, Question: "Pilot, artfully arranged in the pattern of a de- waited for the CO to show up in the com- He knew the mission?" scending rocket ship, with streaks of now- pany of both instructors. irVfia! is keeping are you ready to carry out your the faded buttercups suggesiing the exhaust them? he wondered. Lift-off was sched- Answer; "Yes, sir. I am"- and then, for first time in his life, he would proceed to flare. But right now Pirx was oblivious of uled for 1940 hours, and it was already aside the pennon. Suddenly he had everything -the flower beds, the pathway, 1 927. Suddenly he heard footsteps ap- move the boarding cere- the forget-me-nots— and even of Bullpen, proaching from the other end, but in the a premonition: During himself tripping over the rail- who at that very instant was hurriedly dark under the hangar ceiling it took him a mony he saw

it taking a nose dive all the way to ducking out gt the institute by a side en- while before he could make out who was. ing and like that happened. trance, and whom Pirx narrowly missed All three were looking very spiffy; As the bottom. Accidents if happened to any- bumping into on his way out. Pirx saluted was customary on such occasions, they And such accidents were to happen to Pirx. In as Ihey stood cheek to jowl. were decked out in full uniform — especial- one, they bound uninflated, however, Pirx's fact, there were times when he was apt to "Oh. it's you, Pirx," said Bullpen. "You're ly the CO. Even loser, though his flying tomorrow, aren't you? Well, have a space suit looked as graceful as twenty Ihink of himself as a born

opinion. To . good takeoff. Maybe you'll be lucky football uniforms stuck together, not to instructors were of a different mention the long intercom and radiophone them he was just a moron and a bumbler. . enough to . , . er . . meet up with those right thing at people from alien planets." terminals dangling from either side of his whose mind was never on the respirator hose the right moment. Granted, he had no Once inside his room it was too neck-ring-disconnect, the time of it it came to words; be- cramped to serve as anything but a sin- bobbing up and down near his throat, and easy when gle—he debated whether he should open the reserve oxygen bottle strapped tightly tween his thoughts and his deeds there if an abyss, then at the locker. He knew exactly where his old to his back - so tightly that it pinched. yawned ... well, not .pants were stashed. He had held onto Suddenly the whole catwalk began to least an obstruction, some obstacle that forever life difficult for him. It them, despite the fact that if was against undulate as someone came up from be- was making Pirx's instructors — or to the rules — or maybe because of that hind. It was Boerst. He was wearing the never occurred to and even though he had hardly any use for same kind of space suit, and he gave Pirx anyone else, for that matter— that he was a stiff" salute, mammoth glove and all, and a dreamer, since he was judged to be a in his went on standing in this position as if just man without a brain or a though! aching to knock Pirx overboard. head. Which wasn't true at all. When the others had gone ahead. Pirx Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Introducing a high-energy thinker whose ability to fuse the cosmic with the terrestrial places him in the forefront of theoretical science IfUTERV/IEUU

Twenty years ago Philip Morrison revived the age-old Anyone who talks with Morrison at his home in Cambridge, not dream ol comrnunicalion with extraterrestrial intelligence. far from the Harvard Observatory, is invariably impressed by the He coauthored an article in Nature lhal proposed a sys- range and diversity of his interests and by his remarkable ability to tematic search for radio signals from "civilizations with scientific find relationships between the microscopic and the macroscopic, interests and technical possibilities much greater than those now the pasl and the present, the lerreslrial and the cosmic. Asked

available to us." Entire books, scholarly symposia, and the begin- what it might be like to receive a message from the stars, he

nings of an actual search for distant signals have grown from that replies, "By analogy, we do it all the time, for example, in studying suggestion. Always active, this celebrated scholar, philosopher, the writings of the great philosophers and playwrights. We can't physicist, Institute Professor at MIT. and interpreter of science to ask. Socrates what he meant. So we study the texts and argue the lay public is now a leading advocate of arms control about them. Now this is exactly what we may get from any long- Born in Somerville, New Jersey, in 1915. Morrison graduated onduring signal from space: a tremendous treasury of what they from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1936. He took his know, think, and do." doctoratein theoretical physics from the University of California at Small in stature, articulate, and acerbic, Morrison reveals his Berkeley He worked on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1946. enthusiasm through bright eyes and an animated voice that belie After the war, Morrison's interests turned to astrophysics, a field in his sixty-four years. which he later became widely known for his explanation of super- Omni's interviewer, wrifer-editor Eileen Zalisk. began by asking novas, cosmic rays, solar neutrinos, and Ihe'fomiation of galaxies. him what first drew him lo science 93 Morrison: I can't really remember. I was Also, the Candu reactors have a much in-.orested in cosmic rays. always interested in science. The first thing smaller power density. As a result, they In those days, the cosmic-ray physicists

I I can recall is a big. thick chemistry book don't produce in a small area as much heat were the leaders in particle physics be- understood very poorly. I also had a as other nuclear reactors do. Therefore the cause they had the only high-energy chemistry set. And a spark coil. And a radio dangers of meltdown and all those terrible beam — the natural cosmic ray. However, it transmitter, i also made gunpowder in the loss-of-containment dangers are consid- was at exactly the same time in the early basement. The usual things— tunny colors, erably reduced. That's not to say they are 1950s that the high-energy accelerators funny odors. It all seemed fascinating. absent, but they are a good deal less. became capable of producing mesons. As

When I got to Carnegie Tech, I was de- In addition, the Candu-type reactor a result, the cosmic-ray people were com- termined to become a radio engineer. I had seems to me to be a less finicky design that peted with right out of existence. They become very much involved in amateur is probably easier to make on a large scale would go up on a mountain and get a few radio. But to be frank, electrical engineers and to maintain and operate without as particles a day and wouldn't know when the were so dull, and their interests so narrow, much trouble as the Americans have had. particles were coming or irom which direc- accelerators that I realized the physics department was Omni: How did the United States become tion. But the could produce a where I wanted to be. Even if physicists committed to the light-water- reactor de- million particles in a second. And so my didn'l know how to make a radio, they un- sign? interest, with that of many cosmic-ray derstood deeply what was behind it, and Morrison: The American light-water plants people, shifted from cosmic rays as labora- "they wanted to know more. And that was depend primarily upon big military capital- tory items to cosmic rays as astronomical what I wanted to do, too. So I gradually izations to make uranium-235, mostly tor phenomena. dritted into theoretical physics. submarine reactors and for bombs. It was Then the radio astronomers showed, Omni: As one of the physicists working on one of those things that was not clearly most surprisingly, that low-frequency radio the Manhattan Project, you rode in the back thought through. So now the peacetime was associated wim high-energy particles. seat of an automobile with the first bomb's use of nuelear-power plants, in a way. re- That really began :hc- interest in what one plutonium core, from Los Alamos to the test flects investments made for very different, would call high-energy as:rophysics. I think site. How did you feel .after the test? the phenomenon of high-energy astronomy Morrison: Curiously enough, for all of us is still one of the most interesting things involved in the Manhattan Project, the cul- we've ever seen outside the laboratory. And mination at the lest site had a double mean- so I'm still involved in it. ing: One was that the challenge, the intel- Omni: Can you talk a little bit about some ^Galaxies are lectual concerns, the sense of urgency, and of the tools and current directions of the all those things wore re : eased with the ex- now flying apart. If you go new astrophysics that interested you? plosion, because it demonstrated that our Morrison: The thing to realize, of course, is backward far efforts had paid oif. The other was that we that the cutting edge of the contact be- were ahead of everybody And the new enough, you see that they tween physics and astronomy was the rise world— good, bad. or indifferent— would merged. Go back of the understanding of thermonuclear begin. tactions inside the sun. even more and you find a kind This is what the physicists were about. It was pretty clear by the mid-1950s that" The actual application of all this to war, the oflumpiness appearing we had a good understanding of the inte- use of the bomb on Japan, came as a kind rior of the stars, based on nuclear physics. out of a gaseous background.^ ol strange anticlimax with which the physi- It was also clear that we had a very poor cists had little to do. understanding of such strange high- Omni: You later refused to participate in energy phenomena as cosmic rays. Then work on the hydrogen bomb. What brought the radio astronomers showed us that there about the change in your attitude? were gigantic cosmic-raylike sources in the thing Morrison: The war. I mean, one war was primarily military, purposes. galaxies, in quasars. The whole just enough. We saw that bombs would now be Now, that often happens. For instance, burst in a new experimental way. made not by the ones but by the the most successful jet airplane, the 707, The tools of the new astrophysics are thousands. We saw this terrible catas- was a direct consequence of the C-135 air essentially radio astronomy. X-ray as- trophe coming. Obviously, the world would force tanker development. It's a wonderful tronomy, and excellent new physical in- not survive these things. So it seemed to airplane that has flown all over the world for struments that provide the optical as- me that the thing to do was to get out of the twenty-five years and is only gradually be- tronomers with much better spectroscopy. situation in which World War II had thrust coming obsolete. That's a case in which the For example, the-flashing on and off of the us. I've been trying to do that ever since. military investment really paid off in the ci- pulsars was just a revelation. There inside Omni: You have written about how science vilian world. the Crab Nebula something was happen- and peacetime industry could utilize But. in my opinion, the military invest- ing at thirty limes a second. Nobody had atomic energy Do you still believe that? ment has not paid oft in the civilian world in ever seen that on a solar scale before.

Morrison: Well, yes, I think I generally do. terms of reactors. And I think it's just a These are the things that have led as-

However, I am rather dissatisfied with the mistake, an error of judgment and invest- tronomers into absolutely new domains. As large proliferation of the light-water-reactor ment, that we're so heavily committed to a result, we understand the universe much

design in the United States, which I think is this one reactor design. better than we did before. not the best reactor design. The most suit- Omni: After the bombing of Hiroshima, Omni: How do you view the current able design now is the Candu design, the your interests moved from theoretical theories on the origins of the universe? Canadian heavy-water-moderated reactor physics and its practical applications to Morrison: My colleagues, especially the with natural uranium. The Candu design astrophysics. How did that come about? younger theorists, are very enthusiastic

does not depend on gaseous diffusion Morrison: I was, trankly, having a rather about what they think they know, because plants to produce enriched uranium. Once hard time settling down to do academic there is a beautiful theory by Einstein and you've decided to have gaseous diffusion research because of the political situation by Friedman that can be modified and that

it I in explaining plants, and you've made that investment, at the time. I had a year oft from Cornell; so has had superb success upsets the economy, because gaseous dif- came here to MIT to work with Professor such things as the universal thermal-mi-

I still fusion plants use a great deal of energy, in Rossi, whom I .knew very well from Los crowave background. But have cer- fact, it's not easy to see if the whole system Alamos days arid admired very much. He tain doubts. is a net producer or a net user of energy was a cosmic-ray physicist. So I became I think we know pretty well what hap- 94 OMNI PAGE Mie W" DECADES OF DECISION ALTERNATING CURRENTS

To celebrate our first anniversary, Omni that use only a fraction of the photovoltaic went to the leading figures in science and materials now employed. This could technology for their comments on the permit the use of such materials as

decade now closing. We asked them gallium, tellurium, and indium in suitable about breakthroughs, disasters. chemical formulas. —Peter E. Glaser, implications for the future. The response inventor of the solar-power satellite was voluminous and varied, reflecting a diversity of thought concerning where As the petroleum age ends and we stand we've been and where we're going. at the dawn of the solar age, were Herewith, an exclusive sampling: beginning to see more and more dearly how much we let petroleum do our

Through the excessive destruction of thinking . . for us. . The first conceptual tropical forests and other habitats rich in breakthrough of the coming era will be that local endemic species, we are stripping we don't need an inexhaustible supply of

the earth of genetic diversity. Future new energy. Like fusion. If we did manage

generations will be able to correct our to find it. socially speaking, we would in mistakes energy use and materials probably electrocute ourselves, I believe

aJlocation, but I do not expect them to the Irial by entropy we are going forgive us for the erasure of a large fraction through now is the best thing that has ever of the species of plants and animals— an happened to us ... in terms of rethinking unnecessary wastage of their heritage. global order. —Hazel Henderson. which will undoubtedly be ranked as the economist, author of Creating Alternative is Science caught on the horns worst error committed during the twentieth Futures of a dilemma —the dire century. —E. 0. Wilson, sociobiologist We have the potential of fusion power — a need to exploit all available We should bear in mind the possibility that great potential. Fusion power could give versus energy sources remarkable truths might still be discovered us almost unlimited energy, if we can bring the necessity to preserve the on this planet; we're likely to find more it to the point of feasibility. — Carl Walske, amazing things at the bottom of the sea physicist, president of Atomic Industrial fragile balance of nature. lhan on all the surfaces of the rest of the Forum The life of the planet is at stake, planets. — Thor Heyerdahi, explorer and the debate rages on. The most annoying occurrence of recent The great problem of the future is excess years is all these knuckleheads running energy. ... We could do lots of damage around protesting nuclear power— all with it. damage to our environment, to these stupid people who do no research at

ourselves. I happen to be against nuclear all and who go out and march, pretending reactors, not so much out of fear of they care about the human race, and then

radioactive contamination, but that they gooff in their automobiles and kill one will impose more social organization, more another. —Ray Bradbury, author centralization.— Dubos, Rend N PAGE 144 microbiologist, Pulitzer Prize winner

We are slowly accepting the reality that the search for nonrenewable fuels can only hasten the day of their ultimate exhaustion. ... At the present time we are using only a fraction of the solar energy we can ultimately expect to use in a wide variety of applications. Breakthroughs in the next decade will develop thin-film solar cells

PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETE TURNER .

DECADES OF DECISION LIFELINES

The physiology of female sexual sensation. And now, in the past ten years,

responsivity makes it impossible to deny at Cambridge University. Berkeley, and

that women are sexual beings beyond here, il has been shown that the visual

their reproductive capability. If women and system analyzes spatial configurations in the society in which they live can begin to the same fashion. We're beginning to think realize lhal this female sexual potential is of the cortex as being sensitive to different

inherently neither a threat nor a vibes, as it were. —Karl Pribram, professor burden - to women or to the men with ot neuroscience al Siantord University whom they interact — the possibilities for

sexual sharing are enormous. First, A development I welcome is greater public

however, il is necessary to perceive female and political debate about science. The sexuality as a birthright, expressed as an question of genetic engineering is an option, not an obligation, — William outstanding example. The new debates in Masters and Virginia Johnson, sex the future are going to be about ... the

therapists politics of cancer and whether its epidemiology can be established. The The mosl important advance in biology will large numbers of new carcinogenic be Ihe discovery of the ways in which agents now being introduced are startling, human heredity affects cultural evolution and we are going to have to look at that and culture atfects genetic evolution. very hard indeed. -Ciive Jenkins, leading When this is understood, biology and the British trade unionist, representing

. social sciences will be truly joined . . and scientific workers Gene splicing, coronary-bypass the nature-nurture controversy will surgery, and opiates found become a historical curiosity. — E. 0. Unquestionably, the opportunity to do Wilson, sociobiologist genetic engineering has been the most in the brain are only a few of important breakthrough. With recombinant the biomedical breakthroughs One ot the most significant discoveries in DNA techniques, it is now possible to of the 1970s- The 1980s? .molecular biology has been that of develop clones that will form large intervening sequences in at least some of amounts of hormone-receptor molecules A dramatic increase in life the genes in higher organisms. . . and to use the trick of genetic engineering expectancy and perhaps Nobody predicted this, and it raises a host to sequence very large proteins, Using the of new, but unanswered, questions an understanding of the mind's about methods available at the beginning of the evolution and origins. —Sidney Brenner. Seventies, it probably would have taken inner workings. molecular biologist 100 man-years to accomplish this. Now it's possible to envision this being done in less There have been two significant lhanayear, -Floyd Bloom, director, Satk developments within my own field. One is Institute's Center for Behavioral neurochemical; the discovery of internally Neurobiology secreted opiates in different parts of our brain. Just the idea that we handle pain in a homeostatic fashion and that the substance is so closely akin to morphine opens an incredible new frontier. The other development has to do with sensation. The cerebral cortex is coming to look more and more like a resonator that encodes frequencies. In the auditory mode, that's been known for a hundred years. Von Bekesy, by making a model of

the ear, showed that it's also true for tactile

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOWARD SOCHOUREK .

DECADES OF DECISION MICRO/MACRO

Microcomputers make it possible to hot in the field, obsessed by today's proceed with the total computerization journals. A more interesting breakthrough and automation of society, therewith for me would be one in which some kid in removing the necessity (or humans lo our laboratory discovers something indulge in dull and repetitious labor that outside the realm ol anyone's thinking, blunts the mind and stultifies the something undreamed of in our spirit.— Isaac Asimov, author philosophy. Horatio.—Leon Lederman. director of Fermitab The door to space can lead practically, rather than just philosophically, to The microprocessor has finally repealed

opportunities lor solving those the labor theory of value; there is really no technological and social problems that possibility now of maintaining the fiction today seem insurmountable. —Eugene A. that human beings can be paid in terms of Cernan. Apollo astronaut their labor. The link between jobs and

income has been broken. . , The whole An ultraintelligent machine is the invention game of world trading patterns based on that will end invention. By definition, an comparative advantage may be finished ultraintelligent machine can perform every off by the microprocessor. —Hazel

intellectual activity better than any man. If Henderson, economisl. author of Creating

such a machine has been invented, it Alternative Futures

must be secret, because I haven't been

told about it, -/, J, Good, mathematician IBM tried to control the computer market by keeping computers complex and as the decade in which In the entire history of the world, I can't difficult for people to use. But now many think of anything as important as space are being simplified, and this is going to many frontiers were breached. travel, To me it's commensurate with the arm many individuals with machines as On the one hand, science birth of Jesus. Buddha, or Muhammad. powerful as the monsters in corporate has penetrated the microworid Pick your religion.— Ray Bradbury, author hands. —Frank Herbert, author of the atom. the On The development of the microprocessor The most exciting breakthrough of the other, man has opened the door has been immeasurably significant for the decade is the convincing evidence for the space program. The microprocessor origin of the universe in the big bang and to the macroworld of space, allows much greater technology to be the ensuing explanations of the present the first step to the stars. packaged in much smaller volumes and and future stales of the cosmos. The origin weights and allows finer precision control. of the cosmos in one great cataclysmic We might not be in space to any extent event is of immense importance not only to

without it. —Judith Resnick, mission cosmology but also to the contingent specialist, NASA shuttle program relation of mans origin and place in

nature. It gives rise to questions of The past five years in physics have been meaning and purpose. —Sir John Eccles. extremely exciting. That has to do, Nobel laureate in physiology and essentially, with the firm establishment that medicine quarks do exist. We now have a new, basic CONTINUED ON PAGE 144

candidate for the elementary particle. . .

If we could understand how the quark forces, which are strong, relate to the weak

and electrical forces . . . that would be a breakthrough — a breakthrough, let me

say, with limited imagination. It's a breakthrough you can get out of anybody

PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILLIP HARRINGTON DECADES OF DECISION THE HUMAN FAMILY

The most significant event of the last The worst thing has been the swing in decade in science seems to have been a public opinion from an undue reverence general, accelerating trend away from the for science and technology to a deep

naive reductionist! inherited from the last suspicion of it all. -Jocelyn Burnell, century toward an updated form of holism. codiscoverer oi pulsars

, . . Obviously, the worst development was tne widening of the fatal gap between I'm very much afraid we've already

mankind's genius in conquering nature reached the point where it's going to take

and its incapacity to resolve conflicts on one of the Four Horsemen, and maybe all the local or the global level.— Arthur four of them, to solve the population Koestler, philosopher of s problem.— Robert A. Helnlein, author

It is all now clear that races of human I would like to see architecture move

beings have a common heritage. It is also toward the aesthetic rediscovery of

clear that extinction has occurred to other symbolism in design: Decoration is okay, prehistoric species of man and could so and the appearance of a building need

affect our own in the future, —Richard not fit its use. —Robert Venturi, architect Leakey, anthropologist In the past decade science has been Watergatel That and the squalid ending of dominated by a materialistic ideology, the the Vietnam War have totally destroyed assumption that the concepts of value,

Americans' faith If Watergate, dwindling energy in their government. meaning, and purpose have no place in America crumples through despair and the description and understanding of supplies, giant loathing, there are other nations willing to nature — This ideology has had a leaps in technology, and a deep lake the lead. —Isaac Asimov, author contaminating influence on the minds of scientists and reduces the degree to suspicion of the motives of Watergate was important because it which science follows lines that are good science are the hallmarks of the showed that even the President has limits for humankind. -S. D.Josephson, Nobel to his power— Frederik Pohl, author in 1970s. Nonetheless, the laureate physics human species I see little chance of evolution affecting us I predict that the 1980s will see us relieved continues to flourish. in the Darwinian sense; but social of the burdens ot astrology, flying saucers,

evolution. I see no end to that. To Jeane Dixon, the Bermuda Triangle, and advances in technology and ways ot other idiocies. —James Randi, magician,

thinking, I see no limits. — Rene Dubos. investigator of psychic phenomena DO microbiologist, Pulitzer Prize winner

The new cosmologies that are growing out of physics ... are leading to a much more sophisticated, indeterminate view of reality. We're no longer looking for immutable facts and immutable objects the way we were during the Cartesian-world-view era of the past 300 years. We're learning that uncertainty is the only certainty, and we're learning a

happier view of uncertainty. . . . Everything could change in the twinkling of an eye.— Hazel Henderson, economist and author of Creating Alternative Futures

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALCOLM KIRK 102 OMNI expedition had been Theworking the site, wilh minimal success, for some time. Tempers were trayed. Even the most civilized and erudite members ot the party were nipping at one another The rains, alternating with the searing heat, had worn down all of them. That, and ot course the looming sense ot failure. None ot them, in spite ot earlier optimism, had the vaguest idea that they were about to make a strike that would rival, and indeed surpass, the discovery of the fabied Rosetta Stone of millennia past. Little was known of the area where the expedition was working. The few facts, only partially substantiated, were that thousands of years or more in the opaque past a great city had flourished on the site. The area had been under the sea lor centuries during the last Ice Age and had only reemerged in recent geological time. There was much dispute and there were many theories about what this settlement had once been called. A few hints were available to scholars who could decipher and understand the scarce archaeo- logical references, which were all in an ancient, dead language. One school maintained that the area had once been known to its inhabitants as New Amsterdam. The spelling was variable; sometimes NIEUW Ammsterdamme, other times N-E-W Amsterdam. Another faction held that the site had been known as the Big Apple, which led to a theory, TH€LOST CULTURE OF D€U BY JEAN SHEPHERD

Inside the gray metal vault was the key to this extinct civilization

PAINTING BY DONALD ROLLER WILSON .

gleaming in the brilliant since it was known that apple referred to ically, Dixie. Did the reels hold the answer? High above them, some sort of fruit, that the place had been A brace had given way. causing a large sunlight, were two Olympian golden devoted to agriculture. A small but vocal section of the tunnel wall to collapse, partly arches. As they danced, their rhythmic element of academics, admittedly unor- blocking the passageway. Members of the chant, pulsing with primitive vigor and thodox in their views, had recently un- expedition quickly moved to clear away the abandon, boomed deafeningly: earthed a reference or two among the mud and other debris; suddenly they be- We do it all for yoo hoo hoo. . fragmentary records of the past to some- held a sight that none of them would ever We do it all for yoo hoo hoo! thing called Fun City. The translation of the forget. A great gray metal vault gleamed The scene quickly changed, and a word city was sure, meaning "a large, or- dully under the lights. The leader was manic, wild crowd of natives, who ap- in family ganized gathering of creatures," but a bat- summoned immediately. The very air; was peared to be arranged groupings sparkling, tle was still raging over the meaning ot the charged with excitement as he peered at of various colors, their teeth eye- balls rolling, vast quantities of word fen. Some felt thai it was used in refer- the mysterious discovery. A small attached consumed ence to a religion of the time. Others label bore the inscrutable letters BBD&O myslerious round, spongy objects. The scoffed, maintaining that the civilization and, in smaller script, TV 60 Sec Commer- dancers in Iheir uniforms reappeared, in- being studied had no discernible religion cials. toning: We do it all for yoo hoo hoo. The and hence "Fun" was just a meaningless With a sense of scientific history being family members, many of whom appeared proper name of no significance. Then, of made, the cabinet, after being suitably to be immature, or possibly a subspecies, course, there had been the discovery of measured and photographed, was care- grew more agitated as they ate voraciously. that curious, deeply buried monolith that fully opened. The interior revealed row The arches suddenly reappeared; then read Queens Plaza IND. which, according upon row of reels wound with a sort of film. darkness. to a recent treatise, pointed to the conclu- The lowermost compartment contained, in The observers sat in stunned silence. At sion that the settlement had been some absolutely perfectly preserved condition, a last, pandemonium broke loose. The lead- all lurched upright. His sort of matriarchy, if in fact there had been device that was obviously to be used in ing scholar of them blurted, any form of government at all. conjunction with the mysterious reels. The voice quavering with feeling, he But to the members of this expedition, all "Nothing we have studied even hinted at such views were merely speculative. What what they were really like! None of their was real was the mud, the boredom, and famous authors or artists even suggested the lack of rest. The leader had considered anything like this!" He sat shaking with closing out the operation and in fad had emotion, unable to speak further. 4/\ close-up of one already begun to compose in his mind the "More! More!" they shouted. No longer -message that he would send back to crazed native caught him was this a solemn gathering of minds. headquarters, informing those in control of "More! More!" frantically sucking dark- his decision, when the big strike occurred, Again the machine whirred in the went. a iind that was to open up the truth of this at some sort of small urn ness, The numbers came and Another horde of celebrants appeared, if ancient lost civilization in all its bizarre or container. His romantic glory and barbaric splendor, far anything even more manic and wildly con- frenzy increased as he was more revealing than any of the poor fables torting than the previous tribe. They and tepid myths of what these peoples had joined by a female, seemed to be at the seaside, on a sandy beach, dressed in outlandish pagan cos- left behind, which they called Art and Liter- sucking a similar container. 3 ature. These childish scrawls had dealt tumes of staggering immodesty. They mainly with the endless pursuit of some- leaped about madly, striking balls with ex- treme, childish delight. Again a deafening thing they termed sex or, even more curi- another chant: ous, self-fulfillment. Little was ever men- chorus intoned Join the Generation, come alive, tioned about the actual life, the day-to-day Pepsi existence of those bygone times. But to- party was jubilant but oven in their joy they come alive! close-up of crazed native day's epic discovery would change all that. had little appreciation as yet of their A sudden one Like many significant finds, this strike stupendous find. caught him frantically sucking at some sort small urn or container. His frenzy in- came about as a result of a fortuitous acci- Months later, in the laboratory, all the work of J star- creased as he was joined by a female, also dent, deep in the tunnel that had so far and disappointment paid off. A new, | yielded nothing but disappointing bits and tling vision of this ancient extinct civilization sucking a similar container. c pieces of incomplete artifacts, although burst upon the scholars and scientists like Come alive, come alive. . . I one curious, perhaps meaningful minor a thunderbolt. For months there had been Join the Pepsi Generation. . . | noisily the 3 find had been made. A number of small intensive research into the connection be- The sea crashed as scene plates bearing the enigmatic inscription tween the mysterious machine and the ended. J in the IBM Selectric had surfaced. According to reels, and at long last, through a series of One of the scholars hissed §

it silence, "Is it possible that it was a the leading technicians, these plates had keen deductions, had been found that the stunned \ civilization that worshiped I apparently been attached to some kind of device had been used to project images whole damned • machine, although its use was not known. from the reels so that they could be viewed. food?" The machines themselves had long A carefully selected group of high-level Another voice cut in: "Don't jump to con- 1 the since largely disintegrated. Only a few personages had assembled for the first elusions. We haven't even scratched i surface." cogs and wheels had survived the millen- viewing ol one of the reels. The lights were | third: "I wonder what 'Pepsi' was." I nia. One small container made of an un- dimmed. There was absolute silence as A for true vision of the A tourth: "What about those arches? known flexible substance had been found. each observer waited a ^ there a whirring sound Now, that's significant." It bore the inscription Dannon Yogurt, past. Then came j which was obviously the proper name of from the rear of the room. Ancient symbols The leader spoke: "Easy now, let's not get \ = some long-dead native who had used this flashed on the screen; X-X-X-8-7-6-5-4- excited. The only thing sure is that these things they call commercials are far more receptacle for some purpose or other as yet 3-2-1. And then it happened. A spectacular % I not established. Other digs had unearthed scene so stupefying in its effect as to bog- important than anything else they ever did. with the c forth By the way, I agree you about quantities of these containers, which indi- gle the mind blazed before them, A , cated that Yogurt was a very numerous dozen figures dressed in colorful, crisp uni- arches." tribe, rivaled only by one that appeared to forms danced and cavorted wildly, their Another voice, choked with emotion: \ be called Deli and athird named, enigmat- teeth flashing, their footwork remarkable. "Those dancers were young females. o 506 OMN! .

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WBI1WWr—! my companions and I had called on the east face Reports suggest that a primate with human of Kanchenjunga. My companion acting abbot. Sitting beside the old was Pasang. characteristics survives in areas still re- man as a young Sherpa who later we partook light of refreshments, I asked achieved mote from human activity. Accounts of such fame as one of the foremost him about the yeti. The effect was dramatic. beasts have been recorded in mountainous climbers of his race. We were heading for He set aside his dignified demeanor the Zemu La, regions of China and the Soviet Union and and a narrow gap at 5.800 meters became decidedly animated. that on the entire length of the Himalayan range, separates Kanchenjunga from a Pointing out the window toward some neighboring summit in the Karakoram, northern Burma, and named Simvo. It was rhododendron bushes that fringed the alp exhausting Bhutan. There are also stories of a large and monotonous work. on which we had camped, he described Suddenly we biped in the forested mountains of Oregon came across two lines of how. two years before, as he was sitting in tracks, and British Columbia. Despite the absence one larger than the other, side by the same upper room, a yeti had emerged, side, of communication between the inhabitants leading either from or toward our des- standing on two legs and scratching its tination the of these widely separated areas of Asia over heavily crevassed part of armpits. Some and North America, descriptions of the zoologists see this as a sign the glacier Although they were clearly im- of nervousness among the family, beast display a remarkable similarity. ape but printed and raised above the surrounding the lama My own experiences convince me that colony was decidedly alarmed. surface by wind action, their shape was They fetched their cymbals, indefinite. these reports are not without substance, conch shells, The size of the larger tracks, and long bass horns and made such a din about 33 centimeters My latest encounter with yetis occurred last long and very broad, that Ihe creature November, when with other members of the disappeared into the and the placing of the feet gave the im- bushes. The abbot's account was 1953 Everest expedition and some of our convinc- pression of a two-legged creature of ingly district of told in every respect. human proportions. wives I was again in the Khumbu Now, 25 years later, we met with the suc- My reaction of Mepal. We had trekked 320 kilometers was one disappointment. I cessor to the man had across eastern Nepal from Darjeeling to who been head assumed that these were the tracks of a

lama during our first visit. I told him about mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first German party we had encountered a few the tracks we had seen and asked for his weeks in ascent of the mountain. earlier a village below the glacier. views, He evinced no surprise. For it I'd Some of the party had reached the head him been forestalled in my hope to record was a matter ol course. He told us, had the third of the Tehola Khola, a high valley thai runs as ascent of the Zemu La. our old friend Dawa Tenzing during supper parallel to. and to the west of. the Khumbu Pasangs response was very different. at his house the previous evening, that yetis Glacier. From our camp at 5,000 meters, we Although highly intelligent, he showed regularly cross into Khumbu from Tibet in signs of great climbed to about 5,900 meters in the follow- anxiety. "Those are yeti the early part of the winter and travel north- tracks," he said. ing days. My wife and I set off to cross a col ward again in the spring. believed, (a mountain pass) and descend into the He as other Sherpas still do, Both the tracks reported by travel- that upper Dudh Kosi, to complete a circuit of many calamity overtakes those who have the ers in the Himalayas and elsewhere in Asia misfortune the magnificent peaks of Taboche and to catch sight of a yeti. His fear since at least the beginning Jobo Laptshang. of this century stemmed from the deaths of a German and the descriptions of the creatures tally climber and a Sherpa who had fallen II was an exciting moment when, on a from quite remarkably. Photographs moraine ridge not far from our camp, we of foot- the nearby northeast spur of Kanchen- prints, in particular one of those came upon a line of large, oval footprints in taken by junga during an expedition six years earlier. Shipton in 1951 and also those Frank Ihe frozen snow. They were very similar to by The Sherpa was reputed to have seen a yetf Smythe in 1937, closely resemble the close some of those that Eric Shipton had photo- to where we stood a few days before tracks of a large primate: The prominent he died. graphed on the Menlung Glacier in 1951, I

sideways-pointing thumb is a telling fea- I discovered later that these tracks were paid scant attention to Pasang's story at ture. Other photographs also taken within one kilometer of almost identical by the time. But my incipient belief in the yeti Shipton, and by Jackson of footprints recorded by John Jackson when and members derives from the moment when, after our Izzard's expedition, leave room for own expedition, the he, too. was climbing from the Tehola more German party assured doubt. Khola, during Ralph Izzard's yeli expedi- me that they had never been anywhere My own sightings in 1937 and 1978 sug- near the La. There tion, organized by the Daily Mail in 1954, Zemu were, in fact, no sev- gest the possibility that a bear, or even a other explorers in the area during that win- My wife and I found more tracks at large snow leopard, might have ter. eral points along our route. The last ones been re- we came across — they were also the sponsible for them. But I have seen and A year later H. W Tilman, who crossed photographed tracks of biggest and most recently made — were European brown the col to the Tangshyong Glacier from the bears in the Pindus Mountains of Basin, just outside a yakherd's hut on an alp central Zemu saw similar tracks of a single

Greece, and I do not believe that those my leading named Drangnag. high in the Dudh Kosi beast up to the Zemu La, We both

wife and I saw in the Khumbu district were glen, where we spent the night. They were observed that the tracks led over the col, bear tracks. about 35 centimeters long and 18 cen- despite considerable technical difficulties Local people with whom I have spoken in the descent timeters in width, and the animal had sunk on the south side. Many deny that bears are to be found in these years after these sightings the into a heavy snow crust. For this reason, I German places. They insist that the tracks are do not believe that their size and shape had those mountaineer G O. Dyrenfurth, who had led of a biped whom they know been distorted by the sun. as a man-beast an expedition to Kanchenjunga in 1930, (yeti). Others speak of a mi-go or mi-teh told of two Norwegians That evening, just as it was getting dark, who claimed to (wild man); a.kang-admi, kang-mi, or almas have both the Sherpas who were with us heard encountered two yetis beneath the (snow man); or a van manas (forest what they were convinced was a yeti call- man). Zemu side of the col. Smythe was told in Garwhal that they are There is one more ing. They said nothing about it at the time: piece of evidence re- mirka. The Lepchas of Sikkim speak of the but when, two days later, they reported the lating to the Zemu area. Twelve years be- hanam-mo, and there Is a variety of fore my experience incident to our sirdar, Pinju, it confirmed my own N. A. Tombazi, a nomenclature in several republics impression and my wife's that we, too, had of the Greek zoologist, told me of sighting a yeti Soviet Union and in western provinces of after he heard a cry at that time. had crossed the Zemu Glacier. In the People's Republic of China, We went to pay our respects to the head thick rhododendron scrub he caught a My first introduction to the yeti occurred fleeting lama af Tengboche before leaving the dis- glimpse of "a human figure" sev- in 1937. Taking had stayed at the part in an expedition in eral hundred meters away, moving around trict on our way home. We On his return to Khumbu, Everest mo:.-n;

110 OMNI there," said. It was the exact the area, he iound fresh footprints much graphed and followed tracks in Garwhal in "Yes, over he

cor- place where I had heard those cries 20 like others described by many people in the summer of 1937, and his pictures years earlier. many different places. His Sherpas had no responded to the tracks I had seen.

II all opportunities to The general impression conveyed by doubt that the creature was a yeti. When I World War placed numerous descriptions through history is met Tombazi in Athens years later, he still pursue the matter further into cold storage that of a large, long-armed, slouching, held firmly to his conviction that he had for a while. It was not until 1953 that I was frequently adopting an seen a biped. able to obtain further testimony in our visit apelike creature, capable of turns of speed, Don Whillans, the famous British moun- to the head lama at Tengboche. Ten days erect posture, with sure-footed on steep and difficult ground. taineer who was a member of two Everest after that conversation I had camped The skin is described as dark or g ray, partly expeditions (in 1970 and 1972), reported a some of my team beside the Amai Dablang covered by long body hair, gray or, more sighting very similar to Tombazi's. in the Glacier, where we were continuing our train- commonly, reddish and particularly thick Khumbu district ot Nepal. No one who ing before the whole expedition moved up on the back. Extreme- ugliness, by human stan- knows the phlegmatic and down-to-earth to establish a base camp at the foot of the often mentioned, but the creature's Whillans would accuse him of flights of Everest icefall. As the light failed that eve- dards, is high-pitched, yelping face is also described as more human fancy. ning, I heard some than simian. Yetis are said to be shy and Nor are these sightings exceptional. Re- cries from the far side of the glacier, several not gregarious, moving singly or in pairs. ports ot the yeti have been made regularly hundred meters away. When I turned to one be' both Soviet Union has of the Sherpas, he said confidently. "That is The yeti is variously claimed to . for at least 200 years. The and herbivorous. Droppings found these reports substantial enough a yeti." carnivorous to those of the creature con- this of evidence I was believed be that in 1971 it appointed Professor Boris To slender shred tained evidence of a small, tailless Tibetan Porshney to head a commission to investi- able to add a further strand 20 years later. com- rodent, the pikka, which is commonly gate alleged sightings in Siberia. Two years My wife and I, with two of my Everest Wylie, found in Khumbu. There are also some later a yeti reportedly walked past the tent panions, Alf Gregory and Charles unlikely tales of yetis killing or stealing of members of a zoological expedition from were camped beside the yakherds' huts at horses cattle. the United States to eastern Nepal. Public- Bibre, in the upper Imja Basin, under the and lone herdsman Some of the stories date from many years ity about the yeti was so widespread during shadow of Amai Dablang. A Wylie ago and have been retold from one genera- this period that when Robert McNamara, occupied one of the huts, and asked tion to the next. They include accounts of then president of the World Bank, went to him about the yeti. Like other Sherpas with spoken, he expressed com- yetis that were captured and kept in a the Muktinath region of Nepal for a hiking whom I have semidomesticated state. Recurrent finds of vacation, in November 1973, he felt com- plete assurance on the topic. "Of course fresh tracks in mud or snow, some of which pelled to announce to the press that he was they exist, "he said, and he went on to relate resemble those of no known animal, and not searching for the legendary beast. his own alleged sightings over the border, yetis in the few reports of sightings within the past My interest in the yeti, aroused by the in Tibet. Asked whether there were years or so refuse to permit the Snow- Zemu episode, was further whetted by the our vicinity, he immediately pointed across 20 dismissed as being nothing .mountaineer Frank Smythe. He had photo- the. valley to the Amai Dablang Glacier. man to be more than mere folklore or a figment of a runaway imagination. There are accounts of more tangible evi- dence, most of them secondhand. Relics such as skins and scalps are said to be preserved in lamaseries. There are scalps in both Pangboche and Khumjung in the Khumbu district, and researchers have even viewed dried hands. One scalp, taken by Sir Edmund Hillary from Khumjung, was examined by the Chicago Natural History Museum, the Musee de I'Homme in Paris, and the British Natural History Museum, At

all three institutions the artifact was pro- nounced to be a skullcap made from the skin of a serow, a mountain goat commonly found in Khumbu. False trails, exaggerated stories, and absurd nicknames (Aoo-inable Snowman was invented by Colonel Howard Bury, who found footprints in 1921, which his porters attributed to a mere/) kang-mi) have added to the doubts about the yeti. To date, no- body has brought in a corpse or a captive for scientific investigation. There is no pho- tograph of a live specimen that could prove the creature's existence. Neither the tracks nor the assurance with which the Sherpas and other mountain peoples in China and the Soviet Union pro- fess their knowledge of a "wild man" surviv- ing in a primitive state despite the march of civilization can be discounted or convinc- ingly explained away. The real question is

not whether yetis exist. It is how long they

will continue to evade our attempts to lo- cate r'lem.OQ RENT CONTROL

Lovers dream of making

time stand still; so they learned how to stop the clock

BY WALTER TEVIS

ly God," Edith said, "that was the most real experience of my life." She put her arms around him, put her cheek against his bare chest, and pulled him tightly to her. She was crying. He was crying, too. "Me, too, darling," he said, and he held his arms around her. They were in the loft bed of her studio apartment on the East Side. They had just had orgasms together. Now they were sweaty, relaxed, blissful, It had been a perfect day. Their orgasms had been foreshadowed by their therapy. That evening, after supper, they had gone to Harry's group as always on Wednesdays, and somehow everything had locused for them. He had at last shouted the heartfelt anger he bore against his incompetent parents; she had screamed her hatred of her sadistic mother, her gutless father. And their relief had come together there on the floor of a New York psychiatrist's office. After the screaming and pounding of fists, after the real and potent old rage in both of them was spent, their smiles at each other were radiant. They went afterwards to her apartment, where they had lived together half a year, climbed up the ladder into her bed, and began to make love slowly, carefully. Then frenetically. They were picked up bodily by it and carried to a place where they had never been before. Now, afterwards, they were settling down in that place, huddled together. They lay silently for a long time. Idly she looked toward the ledge next to the mattress, where she kept cigarettes, a mason jar with miniature roses, a Japanese ashtray, and an alarm clock. "The clock must have stopped," she said. He mumbled something inarticulate. His eyes were closed.

"It says nine-twenty, "she said, "and we left Harry's at nine," "Hmmm," he said, without interest.

PAINTING BY GEORGE TOOKER .

." and said, "thai sure is slrange . . She was silent for a while, musing. Then Sunday Times, spoke fair French, The "Let's go to sleep," he said. "I'll explain she said, "Terry, what time does your watch watched Nova, and each had read theory of relativity in (he morning." say?" Stories'of John Cheever. He was a maga- the "Time time," he said. "Watch watch." He zine illustrator, she a lawyer; they could But when he woke up, it wasn't morning, shitted his arm and looked. "Nine-twenty," have afforded a bigger place, but her terrific Hefelt refreshed, thoroughly rested; he had he said. studio was rent-controlled and had a 1 absolutely silent ' of the sense of a long .and "Is the second hand moving? she Midlown address. It was too much a with noises intruding from the asked. His watch was an Accutron, not bargain to give up. "Nobody ever leaves a sleep, no world outside, no dreams, no complica- given to being wrong or stopping. rent-controlled apartment," she told him. never felt better He looked again. "Nope. Mot moving." So they lived in one and a half rooms to- tions. He had piled up in their bank When he looked out the window, the light He let his hand fall on her naked behind, gether, and money from the streetlamp was the same and the now cooi to his touch. Then he said, "That is accounts. tirst, garbage bags were still piled in front of the funny Bolh stopping at once." He leaned They were terribly nervous lovers at it, full Toreador and — he saw now — what ap- over her body toward the window, pried too unsure of everything to enjoy of self-recriminations. He peared to be the same taxi stood motion- open a space in her Levolor blinds, and explanations and not less in front of the same green station looked out. Itwas dark outside, with an odd had trouble staying hard; she would excite herself only with wagon in the middle of Fifty-first Street. .He shimmer to the air. Nothing was moving. lubricate and could him and looked at his watch. It said nine-forty-one. There was a pile of plastic garbage bags his hands on her. She was afraid of often with resentment. Edith was still asleep, on her belly, with on the sidewalk opposite. "It can't be elev- made love dutifully, his unreliable one arm across his waist, her hip against en yet. They haven't taken 'the garbage He was embarrassed by Not waking her, he pulled away and from the Toreador." The Toreador was a member, sensed her withdrawal from his his. started to climb down from the bed. On an Spanish restaurant across the street; they ardor, was afraid to tell her so. Often they impulse he looked again at his watch. It kept promising they would eat there some- were miserable. take nine-forty-one still, but now the second time but never did. But she had the good sense to him was hand was moving. "It's probably about ten-thirty," she said. reached out and turned the electric "Why don't you make us an omelet and turn He clock on the ledge to where he could see its the TV on? Make mine with cheddar. And It said nine-forty-one also, and when three eggs." face. held it to his ear, he could hear its gears "Sure, honey," he said. He slipped on his he « Terry touched turning quietly inside. His heart began to bikini briefs and eased himself down the beat stronger, and he found himself catch- ladder. Barefoot, he went to the tiny Sony Edith again, this time iaying his ing his breath. near the fireplace, turned it on, and padded hand gently He climbed down and went to the televi- over to the stove and sink at the other end of sion set and turned it on again. The same the room. He heard the TV come on as he on her bare back. Outside appeared as before he had slept, located the omelet pan, which he had everything stopped. face wearing the same oversized glasses, the bought her, under the sink, nestling be- It was as if ah image on a bland smile. tween the Bon Ami and the Windex. He got same turned the sound up, sealed him- eggs out, cracked one, looked- at his movie screen Terry self on the sofa, lit a cigarette, and waited. watch. It was running. It said nine-twenty- was stilled for that moment.? It seemed a long time before the news six. "Hey, honey," he called out. "My watch program ended and a voice said, "It's ten is running." After a pause she said, her voice slightly o'clock." looked at his watch. It said ten hushed, "So is the clock up here." He o'clock. He looked out the window; it was He shrugged and put butter in the pan evening. There was no way it could and finished cracking the eggs, throwing to her therapist, and he had the good sense dank— ten in the morning. But he knew he had the shells into the sink. He whipped the to go, Finally, after six months oi private be it. it slept a whole night. He knew His hand eggs with a fork, then turned on the fire sessions and of group, had worked. They the second cigarette was trem- under the pan and walked back to the Sony had had the perfect orgasm, the perfect holding ". perfect intimacy. bling. for a moment. A voice was saying, . release from tension, the Slowly and carefully he put out his nine-thirty" He looked at his watch. Nine- Now they ate their omelets in bed from mother's silver cigarette, then climbed back up the ladder thirty. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed. Spode plates, using his salt and Java pepper. Their legs to the loft bed. Edith was still asleep. But he had forgotten about it by the time forks. Sea he knew what to do. He laid his he cooked the omelets. His omelets had were entwined as they ate. Somehow on her leg and looked at his watch. As been from the beginning one of the things They lay silent for a while afterwards. He hand touched her the second hand stopped. that made them close. He had learned to looked out the window. The garbage was he the For a long moment he did not breathe. cook them before leaving his wife, and it still there; there was no movement in Still holding her leg, he looked out the meant independence to him. He made street; no one was on the sidewalk. There there was a group of omelets beautifully— tender and moist— was a flatness to the way the lighl shone on window This time people outside; they had just left the res- and Edith was impressed. They had fallen the buildings across from them, as if they of backdrop. laurant. None of them moved. The taxi had in love over omelets, had called themselves were painted— some kind a gone and with it the station wagon, but the the Cholesterol Kids, eating them after He looked at his watch. It said nine- was still there. One of the people making love, eating them on Sundays. He forty-one. The second hand wasn't moving. garbage Toreador was in the process of cooked lamb chops, too, and bought "Shit!" he said, puzzled. from the arm was in a I pulting on his raincoat. One things like frozen cappelletti from expen- "What's that, honey?" Edith said. "Did something wrong?" sleeve and the other wasn't. There was a . sive shops, but omelets were central. do frown on his face visible from the third-story They were both thirty-five years old, both "No, sweetie," he said. "You're the best apartment where Terry lay looking at him. youthful, good-looking, smart. They were thing that ever happened. I'm crazy about Everything frozen. The light was pecu- both Pisces, -with birthdays three days you." He patted her ass with one hand and was liar, The man's frown did not apart. Both had good complexions, healthy gave her his empty plate with the other. unreal. dark hair clear eyes. They both bought She set the two plates on the ledge, change. Terry of Edith, and the man finished clothes at Bergdor! Goodman and Saks which was barely wide enough for them. letgo drove by in the and Bloomingdale's; they both read the She '''glanced at the clock. "Jesus," she putting on his coat. Two cars CONTINUED ON PAGE 164 116 OMNI HEATHKIT CATALOG

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his power of attorney." nodded. "Got it. I can handle your c

I "You pipe down, too. My name is Carter, Deety; Jake and I will go in it. You ride with BEAST to sir, Zeb Carter. I'm on campus; you can Zebbie, dear." She turned me. "Hold

I can fol- I to down the speed, Zebbie, so that check my record. But intend marry [ Iricks, Buster. Don't try to lose us, or flashed me a smile and put Ihem back on Deety at once, if she will have me." low No busting of ears." herfaiher. He gave up and let her. She then "I know your name and record, sir. It you'll have cops out your

innocent eyes toward I took his arm firmly. 'Aunt Hilda!" doesn't require my approval; Deety is of I turned my swe^t,

darling, know I Our hostess came running over. "Yes, age. But you have it anyhow." He looked her. "Why, Sharpie you Deety? Why did you -stop them, darling? thoughtful. "If you two are getting married wouldn't do anything like that," You didn't give us time lo get bets down." at once, you'll be too busy for shriptalk. Or "You'd steal City Hall if you could figure a Fights were no novelty at Hilda "Sharp" would you be?" way to carry it. Who dumped that load of pool?" Corners's parlies. Her food and liquor were "Pop, let it be. It's all set." lime Jello into my swimming lavish, the music always live; her guests "So? Thank you, Hilda, for a pleasant "I was in Africa at that time, as you

evening. I'll call tomorrow." know." were often eccentric but never dull. I had you been surprised at the presence there of "You'll do no such thing; you'll come "So you say. Deely darling, keep him But H. 0.. Brain. straight back and give me a full reporl. a short leash and don't feed him meat.

it: Jake, I you. You are no! going on their marry him; he's loaded. Now where's that I heard I now felt that understood a planned hypergolic mixture. honeymoon." radio link? And your car."

Hilda's questions, "Will "Aunt Hilda, please! I'll manage every- "Here," said Deety, pointing the Magic Deety ignored | you excuse Pop and me and Mr. Carter? thing." Wand and pressing the switch.

Something urgent has come up." We were out the side door close on I gathered all three into my arms and I dived. hit the the blast hit "You and Jake may leave if you must. But schedule. At the parking lot there was a We ground as you can't drag Zebbie away. Deety. That's bobble; Which heap, mine or theirs? Mine is everything else. But not us. The blast cheating." intended for two but can take four. The rear shadow of other cars protected us.

Deety looked at me. "May I lell?" "Eh? Certainly!" That bliffy Brainy picked this moment to Zeb artist interrupt. "Mrs. Corners, Dr. Burroughs Don't ask me how. Ask a trapeze how he does a triple 'sault. Ask a crap- can't leave until he apologizes! I insist. My £/ have no precognition privilege!" shooter how he knows when he's "hot." But it's hap- Our hostess looked at him with scorn. for harm/ess don't ask me how I know going to one of your pen just before it hits the fan. "Merde, Professor. I'm not events. But this split-second teaching fellows. Shout right back at Jake It doesn't tell me anything I don't need to

letter until I knowledge has know. I don't know what's in a Burroughs if you like. If your command of

it it letter his, we'll enjoy hearing it. open (except the time was a invective equals kept me ative when i need

I for harmless But just one more word that sounds like an bomb). have no precognition it . . . in an era knowledge order to me or to one of my guests, and out events. But this split-second

it alive rela- you go! Then you had best go straight when homicide kills more when I need has kept me and homicide home; the Chancellor will be trying to reach tively unscarred in an era when people than . . . cancer3 you." She turned her back on him. "Deety, kills more people than does cancer and the you started to add something?" favorite form of suicide is to take a rifle up Sharp Corners can intimidate Internal some tower and keep shooting until the riot Revenue agents. She hadn't cut loose on squad settles it. curve Brainy— just a warning shot across his bow. I don't see the car around the on

But from his face one would have thought seats are okay for two for short trips. Theirs the wrong sine: I automat oally nit the ditch. she had hulled him. However, her remark to was a four-passenger family saloon, not When the San Andreas Fault cut loose, I

it. in the Deety left me no time to see whether he fast bul roomy, and their luggage was in jumped out a window and was open didn't would have a stroke. "How much luggage?" I asked Deety, while when the shock arrived — and know

I "Not Deety, Hilda. Me. Zeb." I visualized two overnight bags strapped why had jumped.

from this, ESP is erratic; I "Quiet, Zebbie. Whatever it is, the an- into one backseat with my prospective Aside my

it war-surplus outlet. swer is no. Deety? Go ahead, dear." father-in-law stashed in the other. bought cheap from a

I got "I has two big I sprawled with three under me. up Hilda is related to that famous mule. I did don't have much, but Pop

trying avoid crushing them, I gave a not use a baseball bat because she only bags and a fat briefcase, I'll show you." fast, to comes up to my armpits and grosses Damn. "Perhaps you'd better. Where?" hand to each woman, then dragged Pop to

in the far corner. I'll unlock it and his feet. No one seemed damaged. Deety forty-odd kilos. I picked her up by her el- "Over the fire blazing where their car bows and turned her around, facing me. turn on the lights." She reached into the stared at |

"Hilda, we're going to get married." inside pocket of her father's jacket and took had been, face impassive. Her father was I looking at the ground, searching, Deety "Zebbie darling! I thought you would out a Magic Wand. never ask." "Wait for baby!" stopped him. "Here. Pop." She put his glasses on him. "Not you, you old harridan. Deety I pro- The shout was from our hostess. Hilda back dear," started toward posed, she accepted. I'm going to nail it was running down the path in front of her "Thank you, my He down before the anesthetic wears off," house, purse clutched in one hand and the tire. "No! Into Hilda looked thoughtfully interested. about eight thousand newdollars' worth of I grabbed his shoulder. myl "That's reasonable." She craned her neck sunset mink flying like a flag from the other. car— fast!"

. . . could lo look at Deety "Did he mention his wife in So the discussion started over again. "Eh? My brietcase have blown Boston, Deety? Or the twins?" Seems Sharpie had decided to come clear." Jake behaved "Shut up and move! All of you!" I set Hilda back on her feet. "Pipe down, along to make certain that "Doit, Deety grabbed Hilda's arm. Sharpie; thisJs serious. Dr. Burroughs, I am himself, and she had taken just long Pop!" into after- unmarried, in good health, solvent, and enough to tell Max (Hilda's bouncer- We stuffed the older ones the

out I shoved Deety into the front pas- able to support a family. I hope this meets butler-driver) when to throw the drunks space; with your approval." or cover them 'with blankets, as needed. senger seat and snapped, "Seat belts!" as

"Pop says yes," Deety answered. "I hold 'Hilda listened to Deety's summary, then I slammed the door, then was around to the son." "Oh, how romantic! Jake darling, we'll leit so fasi thai I should have caused a "I'm okay, sing the 'Liebestod' on the way down. sonic boom. "Seat belts fastened?" I de- "Deety?" locked "Okay here." You'll sing tenor, I'll force a soprano, and manded as I fastened my own and we'll die in other's arms. Zebbie, the door. "Did'lhat fall in the parking lot hurt you?" each took it could we have more altitude? For the tim- "Jake's is fastened, and so is mine, Zeb- "No. sir. I twisted in the air and on bie dear," Hilda said cheerfully. one buttock while getting Pop's glasses. ing." Burroughs, gag that hitchhiker. "Belt tight, door locked," Deety reported. But next time put a bed under me. please. "Dr. wrestling mat." Sharpie, 'Liebestod' m a solo." The heap was hot; I had left it on trickle. Or a the radio "Picky, picky! Isn't dead-on-arrival I on What use is a fast car that won't go sea;? I "I'll remember." switched police Jealous you can't carry switched from trickle to full, did not turn on but not the transponder and tried all enough? because

di- a tune? I told Dicky Boy that that should be the lights, glanced at the board, and re- frequencies. If anyone had noticed our air. Cosima agreed with me—" leased the brake. does, they weren't discussing it on the a duet, and

frimpin' lip while I klicks. I made an "Sharpie, button your It says here that duos must stay We were down to two to the right, then switched explain. One: Everybody at your party grounded inside city limits; so I was lifting abrupt wingover your knows why we left and will assume that we her nose before she had rolled a meter, on power. "Deety, where do you and probably called out and she was pointed straight up as we Pop live''" headed for Reno. You something to that effect as you left—" were clearing the parking lot. "Logan, Utah."

"I I I did." meter long does it take to get married believe did. Yes, . Half a klick straight up while the g "How a profes- it "Shut up. Somebody made climbed— two, three, four— I let reach there?" Hilda cut in, "Utah has no wait- sional effort to kill Dr. Burroughs. Not just five and held it, not being sure what Pop's "Zebbie," " of high explo- heart could take. When the altimeter read ing time — kill, but overkill; that combo trans- Logan." sive and Thermit was intended to leave fourklicks, I cut everything — power, "So we goto analyze, But it is possible that no ponder, the works -while hitting a button "—but does require a blood test. Deety. nothing to around one saw us lift. We were into this go-wagon, that dropped chaff, and let her go ballistic. I do you know Zebbie's nickname it thirty 'Wassermann and I was goosing less than sec- didn't know that anyone was tracking us. I campus? The Wasp. For after that booby trap exploded. Inno- didn't want to find out. positive.' Zebbie, everybody knows that onds cent bystanders would look at the fire, nol When the altimeter showed that we had Nevada is the only state that offers twenty-

. trifle. four-hour service, no waiting time, no blood at us. Guilty bystanders , , There wouldn't topped out, I let the wings open a at anc! sic/i ~ti be any. A professional who booby-traps a bite air, I snap-rolled her test, So point Reno When I felt them car either holes up or crosses a state line onto her belly, let wings crawl out to sub- "Sharpie darling," I said gently, "would and gets lost. The party or parties who paid sonic, and let her glide. "Everybody okay?" you like to walk home from two thousand dearie! that meters?" for the contract may be nearby, but if they Hilda giggled. "Whoops, Do " are, Hilda, they're in your house again! This time, somebody kiss me." "I don't know; I've never tried it." "Pipe down, you shameless old strum- "That's an ejection seat ... but no "One of my guests?" "Oh. shut it, Sharpie; you are never inter- pet. Pop?" parachutes." ested in the morals of your guests. If they can be depended on to throw custard pies or do impromptu strips, or some other prank that will keep your party from grow-

ing dull, that qualifies them. However, I am not assuming that the boss villain was at

your party; I am saying that he would not be lurking where the Man might put the arm on him. Your house would be the best place to hide and watch the plot develop. "But. guest or not, he was someone who knew that Dr. Burroughs would be at your party. Hilda, who knew that key fact?" She answered with uncustomary seri-

ousness. "I don't know. Zebbie. I would have to think." 'Think hard." "Mmm, not many. Several were invited because Jake was coming. You. for example—"

"I became aware of that." " but you weren't told that Jake would be present. Some were told — N, 0, Brain, that old for example— but I can't imagine fool booby-trapping a car."

"I can't, either, but killers don't look like killers; they look like people. How long be- fore the parly did you tell Brainy that Pop would be present?"

"I told him when I invited him. fvlmm, eight clays ago." possibilities include not I sighed. "The only the campus but the entire globe. So we must try to figure probables. Dr. Bur- roughs, can you think ol anyone who would like to see you dead?" "Several!" M

fooled, that he "Let me rephrase that. Who hates your (hat Professor Moriarty isn't his secret guts so bitterly that he would not hesitate to is watching by repeater scope in that knows we are headed for Reno, kill your daughter as long as he got you? HO, he will there. So we And also bystanders such as Hilda and and that hostiles greet us

quiet, please; I must SECRET me. Not that we figure, save to show that he won't go there. Now this what to do." didn't give a hoot who caught it. A deficient tell baby of car can't cook, personality. Amoral. Who is he?" The computer-pilot my OF GREAT Pop Burroughs hesitated. "Dr. Carter, but what she can Bo she does well. I called disagreement between mathematicians for display map, changed scale to include the light pen to trace route- can be extremely heated, and -I am not Utah, used complex, as it curved around Reno to the BLOODY without fault." You're Selling me, Pop! "But again, made eastward these quarrels rarely result in violence. south, back north country, and passed Even the death of Archimedes was only over some very empty Range in approach- MARYS? indirectly related to his— our-profession. north of Hill Air Force To encompass my daughter as well ... No, ing Logan. I fed in height-above-ground giving her leeway to smooth out even Dr. Brain, much as I despise him, while and one change in speed- does not fit the picture." bumps added over-ground once we were clear of Reno Deety said, "Zeb, could it have been me

I asked her they were shooting at?" radar. "Got it. girl?" "You tell me. Whose dolly have you "Got it, Zeb." busied?" "Ten-minute call, please." of who dis- "Will call you ten minutes before end of "Hmm I can't think anyone likes me even enough to snub me. Sounds routing!" a smart girl, Gay." silly, but it's true." "You're that to all the girls. "Deety is "Boss, I bet you tell "It's the truth," put in Sharpie. — just like her mother was. When Jane Over." display Deety's mother and my best friend until we "Roger and out, Gay." The in college, faded. lost her— and I were roommates programmed my getting into jams and Jane Certainly I could have I was always response to a was always getting me out, and never got autopilot to accept a plan in But isn't it pleasanter into one herself. A peacemaker. So is punched "Execute." But Deety." to be answered by a warm contralto? girl" lay in the fact that it "Okay, Deety, you're out of it. So is Hilda, the "smart aspect booby voice to make a flight plan opera- and so am I, as whoever placed that took my might find a trap would not predict that either Hilda or I tive. A skilled electron pusher lock, then drive her would be in blast range. So it's Pop they're way to override my first time he attempted to gunning for. Who. we don't know; why. we manually. But the would not don't know. When we figure out why, we'll use autopilot, the car not only for know who. Meantime, we've got to keep accept the program but would scream frequencies. This un- Pop out of range. I'm going to marry you as help on all police fast as possible, not only because you nerves car thieves. that Deety had been smell good but to give me a legitimate in- I looked up and saw

intently. I waited for some terest in this fight." following this Instead said, "She has a "So we go first to Reno." question. Deety "Shut up, Sharpie. We've been on very pleasant voice, Zeb." is very nice girl, Deety." I Deceiver a course for Reno since we leveled off," 'Gay before but to the left, "And talented. Zeb, I have never BLOODY MERRY-MAKER flipped on the transponder, Ford that can do the things this not to the right. It would now answer with a been in a do." Now, from the makers of world fam- registered, legal signal - but not one regis- car— Gay Deceiver?— can

I'll introduce you to ous Angostura- comes the answer tered to my name. This cost me some "After we're married, the perfect Bloody Mary. that her more formally. It will require repro- to creating shekels I did not need but were appreciated by a tight-lipped family man in gramming." Fast! Easy! Foolproof! knowing her belter." Indio. Sometimes it is convenient not to be "I look forward to all Ford. Her Bloody Merry-Maker has all the identified by sky cops every time one "You will. Gay is not exactly a of spices and flavorings to make crosses a state line, external appearance was made by Ford Mary. Just add to her once be- delicious Bloody "But we aren't going to Reno. Those Canada. Most of the rest of stir. tomato juice, vodka, and Forces. But I cowboy maneuvers were intended to de- longed to Australian Defence eye, radar, and heat seekers. The added a few doodads. The bowling alley. individual ceive the You spice it to your own evasion against the heat seekers— that The powder room. The veranda. Little taste! 3 to 5 dashes for a regular while we were still in glide- homey touches." Bloody Mary, more for a "hotter" rough turn them, Zeb. I either worked or was not needed, as we "I'm sure she appreciates she not had I that know I do. suspect had Economical too! haven't had a missile up the tail. Probably canasta." wasn't needed; people who booby-trap them, we would all be as dead as bottle makes up to 50 perfect Each right, If so, it would not be cars aren't likely to be prepared to shoot a "You may be Bloody Marys. Available at fine certain; the first time Gay has kept me alive. You duo out of the sky. But 1 couldn't be food, package stores or... to have have not seen all her talents." so I ducked. We may be assumed assump- "I'm beyond being surprised. So far as I sample died in the blast and fire, and that Send 50c for a generous land at Lo- tion may stand up until the mess has can see. you didn't tell her to To: A-W Brands, Inc. Box 2670 cooled down and there is daylight to work gan." Carteret, N.J. 07008 to be the next most likely by. Even later it may stand up, as the cops "Logan seems for a reception committee. Who ii may not tell anyone that they were unable place knows that you and your father were to find organic remains. But I must assume Logan 0D,t, 0F |RDQLOS BRANDSlt, . "

code is Nero Aleph eight zero going to visit Hilda?" I got it under control after two whoops. Comcredit five two dash three nine "No one, through me." Too many. Deety said sadly, "You said you one dash seven Star Zed." (Zed Star Zed "Mail? Milk cartons? Newspapers?" wouldn't laugh." three two Zed

credit rating — I was not going to have to "No deliveries to the house, Zeb " She "Deety darling, I wasn't laughing at your support my prospective father-in-law.) turned her head, "Pop, does anyone in name; I was laughing at mine." cut in. "Pop, you must no! call I Deety Logan know where we went?" "I don't think Zebadiah is a funny name. Zebulon Carter— at this "Dr. Carter, to the best of my knowledge. like it." Professor Carter— hour." no one in Logan knows thai we left. After "So do I. It keeps me from being mixed "But, my dear daughter, it is not late at having lived many years "in the buzzing up with the endless Bobs and Eds and night in—" Toms. But I didn't tell my name. gossip of academe, I have learned to keep middle

"Of course it isn't; I can count. You want a my life as private as possible." What's a funny name starting with J?" interrupt his after- all your "I favor from him. So don't "Then I suggest that you ease won't guess." lunch nap. 'Mad dogs and Englishmen.' sleep. Until len minutes before "Let me lead up to it. I was born near the belts and " "It noon in Singapore; it's — reaching Logan there is little to do." campus of the university Thomas Jefferson isn't "Siesta time, even hotter than noon. So "Dr. Carter—" founded. The day I graduated from college wait." "Better call me Zeb, Pop. Get used to it." I was commissioned as a second looie,

"Deety is right, Pop," I interrupted, "but "Zeb it is, son. On page eighty-seven ot Aerospace Reserve. I've been promoted doesn't to be your monograph, after the equation num- twice. My middle initial stands for John." forthewrongreasons.lt seem matter of life and death to call him this bered one-twenty-one in your discussion of It took not quite a second for her to add it a minute. Whereas it might be a matter of life the rotation of six-dimensional spaces of up. "Captain . . . John . . . Carter, of Vir-

death ours, I mean— to make a call positive curvature, you said, 'From this it is ginia," and — this car, especially with your credit evident that,' and immediately wrote your "'A clean-limbed fighting man,'"' I from the in the equation one-twenty -two. How did you do agreed. "Kaor. Dejah Thoris. At your ser- code. Until we find out who Boys calls Black Hals are, I advise that you place it? I'm not disagreeing, sir. On the contrary! vice, my princess Now and forever!" from the ground and from public phones But in an unpublished paper of my own I instead used a dozen pages to arrive at the same that you can feed with newdollars Peoria. Or transformation. Did you have a direct intui- of your code. Say a phone in it wait?" tion'' Or did you simply omit publishing de- Paducah. Can "Since you put it that way, sir, yes, it can tails? No criticism, I am impressed either skilled electron • A I trouble believing that way. Sheer curiosity." wait. Although have anyone wishes to kill me." I told "Doctor, I did not write that paper. pusher might find a way to 'Available data indicate it." Deety so." override my lock, it 'Agreed. But I not yet grasped "That is what he claimed, Pop." have

. emotionally." "Oh. come now! Two Drs. Zebulon E. then drive her. . . But the baseball bat," said Hilda. "I had Carter on one campus?" "Takes a car . . . would scream him." "No. That's not my name. I'm Zebadiah J. to sit on him while Jane proposed to for help on all police utterly unfac- Carter. Zebulon E.-for-Edward Carter, and "Why, Hilda my dear, that is

tual. I wrote my late beloved a polite note called Ed, is my cousin. While he is proba- frequencies. This

saying . bly listed as being on campus, he is in fact unnerves car thieves.* I I add to doing an exchange year in Singapore. It's let them argue while tried to available data. "Gay Deceiver." not as improbable as it sounds; all male "Yes, members of my family have first names Boss?" "News, dear" starting with Z. It has to do with money and "Ready, Boss." a will and a trust fund and the fact that my grandfather and his father were somewhat "Kaor, Captain John Carter. Helium is "Retrieval parameters. Time; since California, eccentric." proud to accept." twenty-one hundred. Area: Persons: your kindly boss, "Whereas you aren't," Hilda said We fell on each other's shoulders, howl- Nevada, Utah. Burroughs, Dr. D. T Burroughs, in her sweetest voice. ing. After a bit, the howling died down and dear. Jacob _ ..." into kiss. Miz Hilda Corners I hesitated. "Profes- "Quiet, dear." I turned toward Deety. turned another

I felt silly adding "Deety, do you want to be released from When we came up for air, Hilda tapped sor Neil O'Heret Brain." shoulder. "Would let us in on Brainy, but there had been a row between our engagement? I did try to tell you that me on a you you had trapped the wrong bird." the joke?" Pop and him. and years earlier my best "Never neglect the so- "Zebadiah—" "Do we tell her, Deety?" teacher had said, "Yes, Deety?" "I'm not sure. Aunt Hilda talks." called trivial roots of an equation," and had prizes had I out that two Nobel de- "I intend to marry you before this night is "Oh, nonsense! know your full name, pointed "trivial" I held you at rived from roots. over. But you haven't kissed me. I want to and I've never told anyone. be kissed." your christening. You were wet, too. At both "Parameters complete, Boss?" give!" Dr. Burroughs touched my shoulder. I unfastened my seat belt, started to un- ends Now

if any, fasten hers, found that she had done so. "All right. We don't have to get married. "Can your computer check the news, Deety kisses even better than she tan- We already are. For years. More than a on your cousin?" million gos. century." "Mmm, maybe. She stores sixty wipes last-in-last-out every- I bytes, then During a break for oxygen, I asked her in Pop spoke up. "Eh? What's this?" ex- But her a whisper, "Deety, what do your initials plained to him. He looked thoughtful, then thing not placed on permanent. stand for?" nodded. "Logical." He went back to some news storage is weighted sixty-forty in figuring in notebook, then favor of North America. I'll try Smart Girl." "Well . . . please don't laugh." he was doing a is in "Holding, Boss." "I won't. But 1 have to know them for the looked up. "Your cousin Zebulon, he ceremony" the telephone book?" "Addendum. First retrieve by parameters given. Then retrieve by new program. Time: "I know All rigflf, D. T. stands for Dejah "Probably not, but he lives at the New Thoris." Raffles." backwards from now to wipe time. Area: hotel Singapore. Person: Zebulon Edward Car- Dejah Thoris — Dejah Thoris Bur- "Excellent. I'll try .both the and the ter Z. E. . . . aka Carter aka Doctor Carter . . . would Ed roughs— Dejah Thoris Carter'. I cracked university. Doctor son Zeb, up. you be so kind as to place the call? My aka Professor Z. E. Carter aka Professor or 124 OMNI "Display map, please." We were midway Dr. Carter, of Raifles University." sumed to have been overcome by smoke, northern Nevada. "Cancel routing and "Two retrieval programs in succession. unable to escape. No one else hurt or miss- over attributed to faulty wiring. "End of cruise random. Report nearest county Got it, Zeb." ing. Fire seat." "You're a smart girl, Gay." first retrieval. Zeb. Second retrieval start- equidistant girls. ing." shut up. "Winnemucca and Elko are "Boss, 1 bet you tell that to all the Gay "Pop, doesn't to one percent. Elko closer by ETA as I am Over" I said soberly, somebody north of Elko "Roger, Gay. Execute!" like you." now vectored eleven degrees "San Francisco (AP). A mysterious explo- He groaned, "Gone! All gone!" bearing." ." papers elsewhere? "Deety, would you like to be married in . of sion disturbed the academic quiet of . "No copies your Elko?" A story ending with the usual claim about And your . . . gadget?"

I would love to be married in an arrest being expected "momentarily" "Eh? No, no! It's much worse! My irre- "Zebadiah, Elko." settled several points: All of us were be- placeable collection of pulp magazines. "Elko it is, but loving may have to wait. lieved dead. Our village top cop claimed Weird Tales. Argosy, All-Story, the early Gay, vector for Elko and ground us, normal to have a theory but was keeping mum- Gernsbachs, The Shadow, Black Report ETA in meaning that he knew even less than we Mask -oooooohi" private cruising speed. elapsed minutes." did. Since we were presumed dead and "Pop really does feel bad." Deety whis- Wilco, Elko. Nine minutes, seven- myself. I "Roger since the news said nothing about an illegal pered, "and I could manage tears collection. teen seconds." lift-off and other capers that annoy sky taught myself to read from that War Aces, Air Wonder, the complete Hilda said soothingly. "There, there, Jake cops, I assumed that police radar had not at darling; is here," then added in her been looking at us unlil after we had be- Clayton Astoundings. It was appraised Mama newdollars. top-sergeant voice, "quit stalling, Zebbie! come just one more blip behaving legally. two hundred thirteen thousand thing in which basement?" I What The lack of mention of the absence of Gay Grandpop started it. Pop continued it. "Sharpie, you're nosy It belonged to Pop, Deceiver did not surprise me, as I had grew up reading them." it's destroyed, and that's all you I her. and now roaded in and had been last or nearly last "I'm sorry, Deety." hugged 'They know" to park and could have arrived by taxi, by should have been microfiched." need to "Oh, but it wasn't." Dr. Burroughs said. public capsule, or on foot. Dr. Brain was not "They were. But that's not like having the speaking of continua craft, mentioned, and there was nothing about magazines in your hands." "Zeb is my Hilda. It's safe. Not in Logan." the row Guests had been questioned and "I agree. Uh, how about the . . . you know, of the is a con- released. Five cars parked near the explo- thing in the basement?" "What in the name dog sion had been damaged. "What 'thing in the basement'?" de- tinua craft?" means." Deety explained, "his time "Nevada: null retrieval. Utah: Salt Lake manded Sharpie. "Zebbie, you sound like "Pop machine." City (UPI). Afire near Utah State University H. P. Lovecrafl." ." "Then why didn't he say so? Everybody campus in Logan destroyed . . Blokes in "Later, Sharpie. Comfort Jake; we're black hats again, and Deety and her Pop busy. Gay!" savvies lime machine. George Pal's Time I've caught it were dead twice over, as they were pre- "Here, Zeb. Where's the riot?" Machine — a classic goodie.

"Did you hear someone say, 'Eureka'?" Jake. I gave you a test run before I let Jane marry you, and don't you dare deny it." Jake shrugged helplessly. "As you wish, dear Hilda." "Aunt Hilda, do you love Pop?"

"Would I marry him if I didn't? I could carry out my promiss-to Jane more simply by having him committed fo a shrink fac- tory. Deety, I've loved Jake longer than you have. Much! But he loved Jane, which shows that he is basically rational despite

his weird ways. I won't try to change him,

Deety; I'm simply going to see to it that he wears his overshoes and takes his vita-

mins, as you've been doing. I'll still be Aunt Hilda, not Mother Jane was and is your mother."

"Thank you, Aunt Hilda. I thought I was as happy as a woman can be, getting

Zebadiah. But you've made me still hap- pier. No worries."

(/ had worries. Blokes with black hats

and no taces. But I didn't say so, as Deety was snuggling closer and assuring me that

it was all right because Aunt Hilda wouldn't

SperryTbp-Siders. So classic, fib about loving Pop, but I should ignore that guff about her sneaking into Pop's

some people never wear anything else. bed— on which I had no opinion and less interest.) "Deety, where and what is Snug Harbor?" .oratsea. Hand-sewn, keener- bced, durable a "It's a nowhere place. A hideout. Land extraordinarily handsome. Pop leased from the government when he Write for our complete catalogue. decided to build his time twister instead of And read the classics. Authenticity has it just writing equations. But we may have to Niltiv "K-. r-~!d.n. iOKishk-i Av-jmie, NiiusiiiTNii, CT. DS770

. wait for daylight. Unless . . Can Gay De- ceiver home on a given latitude and lon- gitude?" on the late-late early show more than once." Run until canceled. Place retrievals in per- "She certainly can! Precisely."

"Second retrieval compleie," Gay De- manent memory. Report new items "Then it's all right. I can give it to you in ceiver reported. "Holding." soonest. Start." degrees, minutes, and fractions of a sec- "Report second retrieval, please." "Running, Boss." ond." "Singapore (Reuters). The Marston ex- "You're a good girl, Gay." "Grounding," Gay warned us. pedition in Sumatra is still unreported, ac- "Thank you, Zeb. Grounding Elko two The Elko County clerk did not object to cording to authorities ai Palembang. The minutes, seven seconds." getting out of bed and seemed pleased party is thirteen days overdue. Besides Deety squeezed my hand harder. "Pop, with the century note I slipped him. The

Professor Marston and native guides and as soon as I'm legally Mrs. John Carter, I county judge was just as accommodating assistants, the party included Dr. Z. E. Car- think we should all go to Snug Harbor." and pocketed her honorarium without ter, Dr. Cecil Yang, and Mr. Giles Smythe- "Eh? Obviously" glancing at it. I stammered but managed to

Belisha. The minister of Tourism and Cul- "You, too, Auni Hilda. It might not be safe say, "I, Zebadiah John, take thee, Dejah ." ture stated that the search will be pursued for you to go home." Thoris . . Deety went through it as sol- assiduously. End of retrieval." "Change in plans, dear. It's going to be a emnly and perfectly as if she had re- Poor Ed. We had never been close, but double wedding. Jake. Me." hearsed it, while Hilda sniffled throughout he had never caused me grief. 1 hoped that Deety looked alert but not displeased. the ceremony. he was shacked up with somelhing soft "Pop?" A good thing that Gay came home on a and sultry, rather than losing his head to a "Hilda has at last consented to marry me, pin point; I was in no shape to drive, even in

jungle machete, which seemed more likely dear." daylight. I had her plan her route, too. a

"Pop, a tew minutes ago I said that some- "Rats," said Sharpie. "Jake has never dogleg for minimum radar and no coverage

body doesn't like you. I now suspect that asked me in the past and didn't this time; I at all for the last hundred-odd kilometers to somebody doesn't like n-dimensional simply told him. Hit him with it while he was this place in the Arizona strip north of the

geometers." upset over losing his comic books and un- Grand Canyon. But I had her hover before

I I "It would seem so, Zeb. I do hope your able to defend himself. It's necessary, grounding — being scared silly until was

If I fire there. cousin is safe — a most brilliant mind! not, Deety. I promised Jane would take care of certain there was not a third fireproof, it would be a great loss to all mankind." Jake, and I have— through you, up to now A cabin, with underground

(And to himself, I added mentally And to But from here on you'll be taking care of parking for Gay. I relaxed.

me, since family duty required that I do Zebbie, keeping him out of trouble, wiping We split a bottle of chablis. Pop seemed

something about it. When what I had In his nose. So I've got to hog-tie Jake into about to head for the basement. Sharpie

mind was a honeymoon.) "Gay." marriage to keep my promise to Jane. In- tromped on it, and Deety ignored it.

"Here. Zeb."- stead of sneaking into his bed from time to I carried Deetyoverthethresholdintoher "Addendum. Third news retrieval pro- time as I've done in the past." bedroom, put her gently down, faced her. gram. Use all parameters, second pro- "Why, Hilda dear, you have never been in "Dejah Thoris—"' gram. Add Sumatra to area. Add all proper my bed!" "Yes, John Carter?" names and titles found in second retrieval. "Don't shame me in front of the children. "I did not have time to buy you a wedding weather permitting. Pop is almost as casual. Aunt Hilda was family-by-choice; THE EDDIE BAUER we had often used her pool and never with suits (the pool was screened for that pur- CHAMOIS CLOTH SHIRT pose). That left just my lovely new husband, and square_centimeter of me he Just slip one on and you will understand if there was a whythls Is one of ourall-tlme bestsellers. had not examined (and praised), I could Tailored from the finest 10-oz. grade of with, in not recall it. Zebadiah is easy to be 100% cotton. It Is warm, absorbent and bed or out. After our hasty wedding I was thickly napped Inside and out. So soft you slightly tense lest he ask me when and how can wear It without an undershirt so tough It virginity. when the tums away pesky insects and chilly weather. I had mislaid my But ' altar chafing. Button- prevents subject could have come up, I forgot it and flap chest pockets. Long he apparently never thought about It. I was shlrttalls stay tucked in.

the lusty wench I have always been, and he Sizes: Men's neck 5fl4-t4&

M<15-15B,L(16-t6ttXL(17- seemed pleased — I know he was. 176). Women's: S(8-10), M(12- this teat hammock? So why was I tying on 14), L/,16-18). Colors, Men's: I was — but why? Red, Camel Tan, Navy Light P two things equal to the same Blue, Brown. Women's: Red, Because Camel Tan, Light Blue. Men's thing are never equal to each other. Basic

r Women's Chamois Cloth mathematics, if you select the proper sheaf postpaid. Shirt 51655 of postulates. People are not abstract sym- of them bols. I could be naked with any one but not with all three. - Today! Back Guarantee! - Order Money Aunt Hilda I felt a twinge that Pop and

.;:-:.'!.!5..i!*,m,-:-::ie-::.S'.f-. ' ordarfor$ might be in the way on my honeymoon, but (Add sales tax where applicable.;

I just then I realized that Zebadiah and were Please charge my D Master Charge V: as much in the way on theirs. So I stopped American Express "GoodThnj" worrying. It would work itself out. Card No . Took one last look in the mirror, saw that my scrap of halter, like a good evening gown, made me nakeder than skin would

j£c&£*&/%}<>**v^ have. My nipples popped out; I grinned out my tongue at them. They full-color Christmas Catalog of and stuck

Dept. EMN, Fifth S stayed up; I was happy. after me two I went through and closed soundproof doors, then no longer had to tolerate anything for keep quiet. Pop does not present, but I do have something you." IV shoddy; if it doesn't work properly, he fixes "I need no present from my captain." Deety Har- it. B.S. was in mechanical engineer- I Pop's "Hear me out, my princess. My Uncle I woke early as always do at Snug his M.S. in physics, his Ph.D. in math- Zamir did not have as fine a collection as bor, wondered why I was ecstatically ing, then and turned my ematics; there isn't anything he can't de- your father had, but may I gift you with a happy, remembered Leonardo da complete set ot Clayton Astoundings—" head. My husband — husband!— what a sign and build. A second She suddenly smiled. heart-filling word-my husband was Vinci -or a Paul Dirac. snoring No one in the everything room. I decided "—and first editions of the first six Oz sprawled facedown beside me, kitchen yet; if the I end books, quite worn but with the original coior softly and drooling onto his pillow. held not to head for the others slept a bit longer, I could get in my plates? And a first in almost mint condition still, thinking how beautiful he was, how tone-up. Mo violent exercise this of A Princess of Mars?" gently strong and gallantly tender morning

whiff than I him. but I morning, mustn't get more The smile became a grin, and she looked I was tempted to wake knew controlled limbering. Stretch nine years old. "Yes!" that my darling needed rest. So I eased out was— just "Would your father accept a complete of bed and sneaked noiselessly into my high, then palms to the floor without bend- ten is enough. Vertical splits, set of Weird Tales?' bathroom — our bathroom! — and quietly ing knees— then the same to the floor with my "Would he! Northwest Smith and Jirel of took care of this and that. I did not risk both legs, first right, left. I forehead shin, then Joiry? I'm going to borrow them, or he can't drawing a bath although I needed one. to my

I heard, odor that calls for at I doing a back bend when look at my Oz books, I'm stubborn, I am. have a strong body was battered bride. Deety, stop And selfish. And mean\" least one sudsy bath a day, two if I am going "Ghastly. The

"'Stubborn' stipulated. The others de- out that evening, and this morning I was that." walkover nied." certainly whiff as a polecat. I continued into a backwards letting stood up, facing Pop's bride. "Good Deety stuck out her tongue. "You'll find I made do with a stand-up bath by and

the ba- morning, Aunt Hillbilly." I kissed and out." Suddenly her face was solemn. "But I water run in a noiseless trickle into hugged her. "Not battered. Bartered, for I grab that proper bath after my sorrow, my prince, that I have no present sin. would my husband." captain was awake; meanwhile, I would maybe." "But you have!" stay downwind. "Battered." she repealed, yawning. you those bruises? What's his I to. on a gave "I do?" pulled on shorts, started tie "Who "Yes. Beautifully wrapped and making halter, stopped, and looked in the mirror. name?— your husband." you've known I on me, me dizzy with heavenly fragrance." Suddenly wondered why I was putting "Not a bruise and

I have." "Oh." She looked solemn but very happy. on a halter. The day was going to be hot. his name longer than is things "Mmm, a futile discussion. So my prob- "I would like my husband to unwrap me. While Pop so cubical about some Please?" that he turns up at the corners, skin is not lem child is adequate?"

. . of the Ku of them. (Possibly he had been, then "Well . he's not a member I did. one

I like Klan-" That is all anyone is ever going to know Mama had gently gotten her own way,) Klux that thought he I Zebbie isn't about our wedding night. to be' naked and usually am at Snug Harbor. "I never was 130 OMNI 3 a"

sort oi person anyhow." scorcher. Even that hip wrap was a con- was doing Old Stone Face, efusing assent stared him, tiny "— but he's a wizard under a sheet!" cession to propriety. That is, I did not know or dissent. Deety at gave a Aunt Hilda looked startled, then guf- my new son-in-law well enough to subject shrug, reached behind her, and untied or

it her fawed. "I surrender. We're both the hap- him abruptly to our casual ways; might unsnapped something and discarded piest women in the world." offend Deety. own top.

I re- "And the luckiest. Aunt Nanny Goat, that I was the last up and saw lhat all had "I said, 'What's for breakfast?'" robe of Pop's must be too hot. I'll get some- made much the same decision. Deety was peated. thing of mine. How about a tie-on, fit- wearing what amounted to a bikini mini- "Greedy gut," my daughter answered. anybody bikini?" mum (indecently decent!), and my bride What we were offered, as fast as Deety "Thanks, dear, but you might wake Zeb- was "dressed" in a tie-on job belonging to could pour batter and Hilda could serve, that enrage bie." Aunt Hilda opened Pop's robe, held it Deety. The tie-ties had unusually large was a gourmet specialty would bows; Hilda is tiny, daughter is not. cordon bleu but that, for my taste, is wide, and fanned herself with it. I looked at my Zeb a her with new eyes. She's had three or four was the only one fully dressed: an old pair ambrosia: a one-eyed Texas stack— a tall term contracts, no children. At forty-two, of working shorts, a worn-out denim shirt stack of thin, tender buttermilk pancakes to her face looks thirty-five, but from her col- Deety had confiscated, and his evening Jane's recipe, supporting one large egg, larbones down she could pass for eigh- shoes. He was dressed for the street in any up and easy, surrounded by hot sausage. thing: I'm built edifice drowned in melting butter teen. Little bitty teats — 1 had more at western town save for one and the twelve. Flat belly and lovely legs. A china like a pear; Zeb is built like the Gray and hot maple syrup, with a big glass of on the doll; makes me feel like a giant. Lensman, orange juice and a big mug of coffee

She added, "If it weren't for your hus- My shorts fitted him well enough— a bit side.

hide. It/s loose but his shoulders were splitting the Zeb ate two stacks. I concluded that my band, I would simply wear this old — hot." shirt's seams. He looked uncomfortable. daughter would have a happy marriage.

"If it weren't for your husband, so would I took care of amenities a "good morn- ing" to all. kiss for my bride, one tor my I." I retorted. a "Jacob? Deety, he changed your dia- Hilda dishes, then soaked and I washed pers. I know how Jane reared you. True Deety modesty, no false modesty." in her tub and talked about husbands. We of "It's not the same. Aunt Hilda. Not to- giggled and talked with the frankness day." women who trust each other and are sure £ Poor Ed. We had talk that "No. it's not. You always did have a wise that no men can overhear. Do men head, Deety. Women are tough-minded, never been close, but he had openly in parallel circumstances? From all I while have been able to learn in after-midnight men are not; we have to protect them never caused we pretend to be fragile ourselves, to build horizontal conversations, all passion

up their fragile egos. But I've never been me grief. I hoped that he was spent, men do not. Or not men I would take "perfect lady" (which I Whereas a good at it. like to play with matches." shacked up to bed. will I simulate) "Aunt Hilda, you are very good at it, in Jane was, Deety is, and can

. . . sultry, rather your own way. I'm certain Mama knows with something talk with another "perfect lady" she trusts in her father, hus- what you've done for Pop and blesses it than losing a way that would cause and is happy tor Pop. For all of us— all five band, or son to faint. his head to a machete of us." We quit yakking and looked for our men. "Don't make me cry, Deety. Let's break Deely said that they were certain to be in

out the orange juice; our men will wake any the basement. "Aunt Hilda, I don't go there time. First secret of living with a man: Feed without invitation. It's Pop's sanctum him as soon as he wakes." sanctorum." for son-in- "You're me not to risk a faux "So I know." daughter, a handshake my warning

"Yes, of course you know. Ever since we law— good hands, callused. Then I said, pas?" the lost Jane. Does Zcbbio know how lucky he "Zeb, take that shirt off. It's hot and getting "I'm his daughter; you're his wife. Not is? Does he have any idea?" hotter. Relax. This is your home." same,"

. . "He says so. I'm going to try hard not to "Thanks, Pop." Zeb peeled off my shirt. "Well, he hasn't told me not to . and disi fusion him." Hilda stood up on her chair, making her today he'll forgive me, if ever. Where do you about as tall as Zeb. "I'm a militant, hide the stairs?" women's-rights gal," she announced, "and "That bookcase swings out." Jake a wedding ring is not a ring in my nose— "Be darned! For a so-called cabin, this ring that you have not yet given me, you old place is loaded with surprises. A bidet in I woke in drowsy euphoria, became each bath didn't startle me; Jane would aware that I was in bed in our cabin that my goat." one, them. Your walk-in freezer daughter calls Snug Harbor, then woke "When have I had time? You'll get have required enough for a completely and looked at the other pil- dear— first chance." startled me only by being big interrupt restaurant. But a bookcase concealing a low—the dent in it. Not a dream! Euphoric "Excuses, excuses! Don't when for the best of reasons! I'm orating. Sauce for the gander is no ex- priest's hole ... As Great-Aunt Nettie used

Hilda was not in the bath, but my tooth- cuse for goosing the goose. If you male to say, I do declare!" "You should see our septic tank— yours, I can brush was damp. I smiled at this. Logical. chauvinist pigs — mean goats —

I have the now." as Hilda now had any germs I was harbor- dress comfortably, Deety and "I've tanks. Pesky things— ing. And Hilda, (or all her playiulness, is same privilege." Whereupon my lovely little seen septic incon- no-nonsense practical. She faces danger bride untied that bikini top and threw it always need pumping at the most without a qualm (had done so last night), aside like a stripper. venient time." " but she would say, "Gesundheit!" to an ' "What's for breakfast?" asked Pooh,' "This one won't have to be pumped.

erupting volcano even as she fled from it. I misquoted. Over three hundred meters deep, An even

' I was not answered. Deety made me thousand feet." I showered, shaved, and brushed my

teeth in nine minutes and dressed in under proud of her for the nth time. For years she "For the love of . . . Why?" at least with her shaft below us nine seconds as I simply wrapped around had consulted with me, "It's an abandoned mine my waist a terry-cloth sarong Deety had eyes, on "policy 'decisions." Now she that some optimist dug a hundred years bought for me. The day promised to be a looked not at me but at her husband. Zeb back. Here was this big hole; so Pop used 132 OMNI "

whis- husband looked startled but I his brush cut and My it, There is a spring farther up the mountain. quietly. rubbed

I relieved. Zebbie looked his ear. I pleased, and felt Pop cleaned that out, covered it, con- pered an indecency into Then down. at his own bride. Deety said solemnly, it is cealed it, put pipe underground, and we kissed'iny husband and sat Neither of was pro- have lavish pure water under pressure. The My husband resumed talking lo Zebbie. possible. Zebadiah. us each was. ovulating or close to ovu- rest of Snug Harbor Pop designed mostly "I lost more gyroscopes that way." tected; said. lation, Hilda is blood type B Rhesus posi- from prefab catalogs, fireproof and solid I held up my hand, My husband and heavily insulated. We have — you "Yes, Hilda dear?" tive and my father is AB positive. I am A sir?" the sells gyro tops. I'll buy Rhesus positive. May I inquire yours, have. I mean-this big fireplace and "Monkey Ward's

positive. Uh, I have Shot you little ones in the bedrooms, but you won't you a gross." "I'm O may need them, other than for homeyness. "Thank you, dearest, but these weren't down the first salvo?"

. . this likely. But . does Radiant heal makes it skin-comfortable that sort. They were made by Sperry Divi- "It would seem even in a blizzard." sion of General Foods." meet with your approval?" Zebbie stood up, knocking "Where do you gel your power? From the "So I'll get them from Sperry." "Approval!" could not nearest town?" "Sharpie," Zeb put in. "you're hankering over his chair. "Princess, you calls for "Oh, no! Snug Harbor is a hideout; no- to clean the erasers, too." make me happier! Jake! This a body but Pop and me, and now you and "Just a moment, son. Hilda may be the toast!" kissing me. Zebadiah. knows it's here. Power packs, perfect case to find out whether or not what My husband stopped to you which "Unanimous! Daughter, is there cham- Aunt Hilda, and an inverter in a space be- I have tried to convey — and hind the back wall of the garage. We bring really can't be conveyed save in the equa- pagne chilled?" in power packs ourselves and take them tions your cousin Zebulon used, a mathe- "Yes, Pop," " excited out the same way. Private. Oh, the matics you say is unfamiliar to you — "Hold it!" I said. "Lets not get normal biological function. Deety leasehold record is buried in a computer in "Completely unfamiliar!" over a

Washington or Denver, and the federal "—but which you appear to grasp as and I don't know that we're caught; we just -" rangers know the leaseholds. But they mechanics. Would you explain the concept hope so. And "So we try again." Zebbie interrupted. don't see us if we see or hear them first. Mostly they cruise on past. Once one came "Deety. what's your cycle?" by on horseback. Pop ted him beer out "Twenty-eight and a half days. under the trees. From outside this looks like Zebadiah. My rhythm is pendulum steady"

prefab, a living room and two shed- "Mine's twenty-seven; Deety and I just just a */ stopped worrying, roof bedrooms. Nothing to show that impor- happen to be in step, But I want that toast at luau afterwards; it might be tant parts are underground." it would work . . . out. Took dinner and a Deety. do you get "Deety, I'm beginning to think that this one iastlook the last for a long time. place— this cabin—.cost more than my morning sickness?" townhouse." in the mirror, saw that my "I don't know; I've never been pregnant

. . . before." "Uh . . . probably." scrap of a hatter,

"How do you swing back this book- "I have and I do. and it's miserable, Then like evening gown, a good little after trying hard case?" 1 lost the naked grub "Switch on the cove lights, then. turn on made me nakeder to keep it. But I'm not going to lose thisonel ea'e:ul the cold water at the sink. Then switch off Fresh air and proper exerc se and than skin would have. . . 3 for the cove lights, then turn off the water— in diet and nothing but champagne me

that order." tonight, then not another drop until I know.

Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.' In the meantime. Professors, may I point

The bookcase closed behind us and was out that class is in session? I want to know

a door with a knob on the upper landing about time machines, and I'm not sure I side-. The staircase was wide, treads were to Hilda? If she understands it. we may could understand with champagne buzz- broad and nonskid, risers gentle, guard hypothesize that a continua craft can be ing my buttonhead." rails on both sides— not the leg breakers designed to be operated by a nontechnical "Sharpie, sometimes you astound me."

most houses have as cellar stairs. Deety person." "Zebbie, sometimes I astound myself.

I went down beside me, holding my hand "Sure," I said scornfully, "poor little me, Since my husband builds time machines,

I tick. Or at like a chile needing reassurance. with a button for a head. don't have to want to know what makes them The room was beautifully lighted, well know where the electrons go to use holovi- least which knobs to turn. He might be

the and I would ventilated, and did not seem like a base- sion. I just twist knobs. Go ahead, Zebbie. clawed by Bandersnatch. him on with your ment. Our men were at the far end, bent Take a swing at it I dare you," have to pilot home, Get over a table, and did not appear to notice "I'll try," Zebbie agreed. "But, Sharpie, lecture." time don't chatter; your comments to the "I read you loud and clear," us. I looked around for a machine, keep "Sharpie, you ex- could not spot it— at least, not anything like point, or I'll ask Pop to give you afat lip," Class resumed. can wouldn't plain precession in gyroscopes?" George Pal's or any I had ever read about. "He dast!" - re- All around was machinery. A drill press "So? I'm going to give him a horsewhip "Well, maybe. Physics One was looks the same anywhere, and so does a for a wedding present — besides the Weird quired, butthatwasalongtimeago. Push a

lathe, but others were strange— except Tales, Jake; you get those, too. But you gyroscope and it doesn't go the way you that they reminded me of machine shops. need a whip. Attention, Sharpie." expect, but ninety degrees from that direc- My husband caught sight of us, stood "Yes, Zebbie. Same lo you, doubled." tion so that the push lines up with the spin, -- forefinger like little up, and said, "Welcome, ladies!" "Do you know what precess means?" Like this " I pointed a a Zebbie turned his head and said "Certainly. Precession of the equinoxes. boy saying, "Bang! You're dead!" sharply, "Late to class! Find seats, no Means that Vega will be the North Star "My thumb is the axis, my forefinger rep- whispering during the lecture, take notes; when I'm a great-grandmother. Thirty resents the push, the other fingers show there will be a quiz at eight o'clock tomor- thousand years or some such." the rotation." row morning. Ilyou have questions, raise "Correct in essence. But you're not even "Go to the head of the class. Now— think your hands and wait to be called on. Any- a mother yet." hard! — suppose we put a gyroscope in a one who misbehaves will remain after class "You don't know what happened last frame, then impress equal forces at all and wash the chalk boards." night. I'm an expectant mother. Jacob three spatial coordinates at once, what Deety stuck out her tongue, sat down wouldn't dare use a whip on me." would it do?" 134 OMNI Would it be .worth a thousand dollars? A million? Could you put a price on it? Now with OMNI, the first magazine of the future you can! And the price ($18 for 12 in-

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i I am vitally Interested in Dnnrui the future because Subscription Dept, P.O. Box 908, Farmingdale, N.Y 11737 I am going to spend Yes I want to see the future and save S6 the rest of my on the newsstand price. Here's my lifethere.9 check money order of $18 for a one- year subscription (12 issues). Name

i5?je rav.THi-,r;n.i-ocoor.-::ai-i.or- — " It "I'm not very at holding still it. "I think it would either from my husband and put it in front of me. good I tried to visualize with bridegroom, faint or drop dead," looked like the jacks I used to play "No, she isn't," agreed my that instant could 1 love dearly at I and "A good first hypothesis. According fa when was a little girl, but there were not whom enough' things sticking out— four instead of have choked. Jake, it disappears." "They do disappear. Aunt Hilda. I've six. Three touched the table, a tripod; the "But I can close both eyes and feel three straight dimensions with my hands." watched it happen several times." fourth stuck up. "But where do they go?" Zeb said, "This is a weapon, invented "Good! Close your eyes and pick this up centuries ago. The points should be sharp, and think of the prongs as the four direc- "I can't follow Jake's math; I have to ac- Does the cept his transformations without proof. But but these have been tiled down." He tions ot a four-dimensional space.

flipped it, let it fall to the table. "No matter word tessera ct mean anything to you?" it is based on the notion of six space-time vertical. geometry teacher coordinates, three of space, the usual three how it falls, one prong is Scatter "My high-school front of horses go how to construct them — projec- that we see— marked x, y. and z — and them in cavalry and the showed us discouraging. They came into use tions—with modeling wax and toothpicks. three time coordinates: one marked ( like down— iour-dimensional figures again in World Two against Fun. I found other this (f), one marked tau. Greek alphabet Wars One and anything with pneumatic tires— bicycles, that to project. And a number of (r), and the third from the Cyrillic alphabet. were easy ' teh (m) motorcycles, trucks, and so forth. Big ways to project them." and must have had an excep- "Looks like an m with a macron over it." enough, and they disable tanks "Sharpie, you tracked vehicles. A small sort can be whit- tional geometry teacher." "So it does, but it's what the Russians thornbushes for guerrilla war- "In an exceptional geometry class. Don't use for f." tled from

"No. the Russians use 'chai' for tea. In fare—usually poisoned and quite nasty. faint, but I was grouped with what they thick glasses with strawberry jam." "But here this lethal toy is a geometrical called overachievers after it became 'un- projection, of the coordinates of democratic' to call them gifted children." , drawing "Stow it, Sharpie. So we have x, y and z; a continuum. "Be durned! Why do you always behave I tau. and teh. six dimensions. It is basic to a four-dimensional space-time from like the theory that all are at right angles to each Each spike is exactly ninety degrees a fritterhead?" the other, and that any one may be swapped every other spike." "Why don't you ever look beneath

I I laugh because for any of the others by rotation, or that a "But they aren't," I objected. "Each surface, young man! cry. This is a crazy world, and the new coordinate may be found (not a angle is more than a right angle." dare not is to treat it a joke, seventh but replacing any of the Six) by "I said ft was a projection. Sharpie, it's an only way to enjoy it as

I don't read and can't translation, say. tau to tau prime by dis- isometric projection of four-dimensional That doesn't mean

I from Giblett to placement along x." coordinates in three-dimensional space. think. read everything oft tour coor- That distorts the angles, and the human Hoyle, trom Sartre to Pauling. 1 read in the "Zebbie, I think I fell about

I read in bed, I read dinates back." eye is even more limited. Cover one eye tub, I read on the John,

I in I eat alone, and would read my My husband suggested, "Show her the and hold still, and you see only two dimen- when

sleep if I could keep my eyes open." caltrop, Zeb." sions. The illusion ot depth is a construct of "Attention, class. The two "Good idea." Zeb accepted a widget the brain." Zebbie said, prongs of the caltrop painted blue repre- sent our three-dimensional space of expe- rience. The third prong, painted yellow, is the (-time we are used to. The red fourth prong simulates both ratj-tirne and real- time, the unexplored time dimensions nec- essary to Jake's theory. Sharpie, we have condensed six dimensions into tour; then either we work by analogy into six or we have to use math that apparently nobody but Jake and my cousin Ed understands. Unless you can think of some way to pro- ject six dimensions into three. You seem to be smart at such projections."

I closed my eyes and thought hard.

"Zebbie, I don't think it can be done. Maybe Escher could have done it."

"It can be done, my dearest," answered

my dearest, "but it is unsatisfactory. Even with a display computer with capacity to subtract one or more dimensions at a time. A superhypertesseract — a to the sixth power— has too many lines and corners and planes and solids and hypersolids for the eye to grasp. Cause the computer to subtract dimensions, and what you have

left is what you already knew. I fear it is an innate incapacity of visual conception in the human brain." "1 "I think Pop is right," -agreed Deety.

worked hard on that program. I don't think the late great Dr. Marvin Minsky could have

done it better in flat projection. Holovision?

if I I don't know. I would like to try ever get my hands on a computer with holovideo display and the capacity to add, subtract, and rotate six coordinates." SYSTEMS PROGRAMMERS WIN YOUR OWN TERMINAL Here's your chance to win your plishments, including the manu- improve your career. With your very own Terminal, for use as you facture of our own line of super contest entry, you can also send wish in your own home. We're not mini-computer systems. your resume or inquiry. But we do asking you to guess a weight or Why are we running this want to reiterate— all that's fold paper planes, but enter a con- contest? It's our unique way of necessary is your entry solution. test that zeroes in to your own showing the spirit of adventure, Send your solution to: professionalism and talent. imagination and leadership that NATIONAL CSS, INC. Dept. You know you're good, now NCSS in has the computer field. 542 Westport Ave. have fun proving it. Every If entry you like our thinking, perhaps Norwalk, Connecticut 06851 solution will be considered by a you would like to work for us. distinguished panel of judges Our salaries are outstanding, made up of professional Systems with excellent benefits, and you'd Programmers who work for NCSS. be working with the latest state- are a firmly We established of-the-art systems in a challeng- leader in the information services ing and rewarding environment. NCSS field, with an outstanding record So this is a chance to own of growth and technical accom- your own terminal, as well as makes your future happen

You have a card (80 columns)— viewed as 80 bytes of data PROBLEM: You want a new card image with the card rearranged so that vie data in column 1 in the original is in column 80 of the new ird, column 2 in 79,... column 80 in new card column 1.

[Do it in TWO 370 instructions.]

Entries must be received by November 15, 1979 for eligibility. Determination of the winning solutio is at the discretion of NCSS. In case of a tie, winner will be selected by a random drawing. " . "

Hilda hit on something. Ag- "Didn't Pop tell you? We made one "But why six dimensions?" I asked. "Why "Maybe Aunt translation didn't to not five? Or even four, since you speak of nostic as you are, you nevertheless keep minimum We seem rotating them interchangeably?" the Bible around as history and poetry and have gone anywhere, and Pop thoughl he

I number "Jake?" said Zeb. myth." had failed. Unlil Iried to look up a the book. in the book. in I in phone J No J My darling looked fussed. "It bothered "Who said was agnostic, my daughter?" No the Britannica. No J in any dictionary. So me that a space-time continuum seemed lo "Sorry, sir. I long ago reached that con- in and Pop returned the require three space dimensions but only clusion because you won't talk about it. we popped back got oul and the one time dimension. Granted that the uni- Wrong of me. Lack of data never justifies a verniers to zero and, we this alphabet was back Ihe way it oughl to be verse is what it is, nevertheless nature is conclusion. But key number— one-

I shaking. Bui our rolation was filled with symmetries. Even after the de- point-oh-three-one-four-four-plus times ten and stopped struction of the parity-principle, scientists lo its twenty-eighth power — perhaps'thal is even more scary, and we almost died. Out kept finding new ones. Philosophers stay Ihe Number of the Beast." in space with blazing stars — but air was Deety?" leaking out, and Pop just barely put it back wedded to symmetry, but I don't count phi- "What do you mean,

. losophers." "Thai Revelation isn't history, it's not to zero before we passed out . . and came "Of course not," agreed Zeb. "No phi- good poetry, and it's nol myth. There must to, back here in Snug Harbor." losopher allows his opinions to be swayed have been some reason for a large number "Jake," Zebbie said seriously, "that got to have more fail-sales, in by facts. He would be kicked out of his of learned men lo include il while chucking gadget has series, deadman switches tor homing." guild. Theologians, the lot of them." out several dozen gospels. Why not make a with

" ' "I concur. Hilda, my darling, after I found first hypothesis with Occam's Razor and He frowned. "I'm going to keep my eye for both numbers, six sixty-six and the a way to experiment, it turned out that six read il as what it purports to be? Prophecy." open

long one. I trust Deety's hunches. Deety, dimensions existed. Possibly more, but I "Hmm, The shelves under the stairs, next see no way to reach them." to Shakespeare. The King James Version, where is the verse with the description of the It's somewhere in the middle of I Beast? "Let me see," I said. "If understood never mind Ihe Ihree others." earlier, each dimension can be swapped Deety was back in a moment with a the chapter."

it is. I another beast for any other." "Here And beheld "By ninety-degree rotation, yes." coming up out of the earth; and he had as a "Wouldn't that be the combinations two horns like a lamb, and he spake taken four at a time out of a set of six? How dragon.' speak. many is that?" "Hmm. I don't know how dragons "Fifteen," Zebbie answered. 47'he room was But if something comes up out of the earth

horns . . . and I see or hear "Goodness! Fifteen whole universes? beautifully lighted, well and has iwo And we use only one?" either number— I'm going to assume that ventilated, and "No, no, my darling! That would be he has a 'black hat' and try to do unto him ninety-degree rotations of one Euclidean did not seem like a base- before he does unto us. Deety, I'm peace- universe. But our universe, or universes, able by policy, but two near-misses are too ment. . . . I looked has been known to be non-Euclidean at many. Next time, I shoot first." hadn't I lief mentioned least since 1919. Or 1886 if you prefer. I around for a time machine, would as Zebbie stipulate that cosmology is an imperfect black hats. Hard to believe that someone could not spot . . inno- discipline. Nevertheless, for consideration was trying to kill anyone as sweet and any I had ever read about.V cent and harmless as my darling Jacob. that I cannot state in nonmathematical But they were, and we knew it. terms, I was forced to assume a curved All space of positive radius— that is to say, a I said, "Where is this time machine? closed space. That makes the universes I've seen is a claptrap." possibly accessible to us either by rotation "Caltrop, Aunt Hilda. You're looking at or by translation of this number." My hus- well-worn black book, which surprised me. the space-time machine."

it Why aren't we in it and band rapidly wrote three sixes. I read Ihe Bible for my own reasons, but "Huh? Where?

would. going somewhere fast? I don't want my "Six sixty-six," I said wonderingly. "The never occurred to me that Jacob he'spractically Number of the Beast." We always marry slrangers. husband killed; brand-new." "Eh? Oh! The Revelation of Saint John "Here," said Deety. "Chapter thirteen, "Sharpie, stop the chatter," Zebbie put in. eighieen: 'Here is Let him "It's on that bench, across from you." the Divine. But I scrawled it sloppily. You verse wisdom.

'All ! is a portable sewing machine." I understanding count the number see took it that I wrote 666, but what intended thai hath 6 6 its for il is the of a man; "That's it." to write was (6 ) : six raised to sixth of the beast: number power, and. the result in turn raised to and his number is six hundred threescore "What? How do you get inside? Or do its sixth power. That number is this: and six.' you ride it like a broom?" aa "Neither. You mount it rigidly in a 1.03144 + x 10 , or, written in full, "That can't be read as exponents, 10,314,424,798,490,435,546,171,949,056. Deety." vehicle — one airtight and watertight by Thai's more than ten million sextillion uni- "But this is a translation, Pop. Wasn't the strong preference. Pop had it mounted in quite airtight and now kaput. verses in our group." original in Greek? I don't remember when their car- not it What can onesay to that? Jacob went on, exponents were invented, but the Greek Pop and I are going to mount in Gay "Those universes are our next-door neigh- mathematicians of that time certainly un- Deceiver, which is airtight. With better bors, one rotation or one translation away. derstood powers. Suppose the original fail-safes."

read 'Zeta, Zeta, Zeta! and those scholars, "Much better fail-safes, Zebbie," I But if one includes combinations of rotation and translation — think of a hyperplane slic- who weren't mathematicians, mis- agreed.

1 find that being married ing through superhypercontinua not at the translated il as six hundred and sixty-six?" "They will be.

I to worry about point of here-now— the total becomes in- "Uh . . . moondrifl, daughter." makes a difference. used worried about denumerable. Not infinite, because infinity "Who taught me that Ihe world is not only my own skin. Now I'm Dee- has no meaning. Uncountable. Not subject stranger than we imagine but stranger than ty's. And yours, And Pop's. All four of us."

I "All for to manipulation by mathematics thus far we can imagine? Who has already taken "Hear, hearl" agreed. one, and invented. Accessible to confinua craft, but me into two universes that are not this one one for all!" no known way to count them." and brought me safely home?" "Yup," Zebbie answered, "Us four, no ? "Pop-" "Wait a half!" Zebbie said. "You and Pop more. Deet y, w hen's l unch " DO "Yes, Deety?" have tried the lime-space machine?" 7b be continued next month

138 OMNI ROCKET

overrides: engine cut-off, manual THE capsule GAME release, escape release. "It's got a big red panic button, but the fail-safe one won't be THAT THINKS hooked up." Below the astronaut, but still in the pres- In the park, your living room, airplane, surized shell, ride the autopilot, the teleme- try equipment, radio transceiver, radar recreation vehicle, commuter train, gas line transponder, controls tor stabilization, at- —those are just a few places you can enjoy titude indicators, inverter oxygen and compressed air bottles, capsule lock, and Boris, the world's first and only portable chess release mechanisms. computer. Unlike any other electronic game The language of all this is downright his. advanced programming Boris obscene. "The autopilot is a strapdown enables to system using HIG gyros and pendulous think and respond as if he were human. accelerometers," he says, "a real beauty It only takes a few minutes with Boris to capable of being programmed to hold see either a constant angle of ascent or a grav- how easy it is to play and enjoy this age old ity turn after the initial kick," game of strategy^ How is the ship steered? "The gyro and the accelerometer signals are combined and warfare. with a feedback signal from the thrust- chamber-position sensors," The rocket's propulsion system, the con- tained explosion, is built around four Rock- etdyne LR101 engines. They are, in effect, inspiration for the the whole trip. "When I

saw those Atlas engines in the junkyard, I

had no fixed idea of what I might do with

them, but I just couldn't bear to. see them bust 'em up. For twenty-five bucks, I said,

I'll buy 'em, even if I have to use 'em for paperweights." dor|s

He rescued them from a scrap dealer in Ontario, California, who specializes in melt- The perfect opponent, Boris is always ready ing down stainless steel, even though, as to play at a moment's notice, day or night, rain Truax pointed out to the scrap man, the engines were not stainless steel but or shine, with chess skills that will entertain a nickel-plated, which gives the appearance Master. Even if you've never enjoyed the chal- of stainless steel. lenge of this exciting Originally built as vernier engines for the game, Boris can teach Thor and Atlas, they were used after the you to play in less than an hour. main engines cut out to give that last tweak Boris' near human brain knows all the to the velocity, to give that last Increment of

speed to the missile that allowed it to hit its moves, every rule, and plenty of tricks. He'll target with finite precision. Giving 1.000 even suggest moves for you, or you can pounds of thrust apiece, the engines were manifolded together by Truax to yield 4,000 change sides with him if you're losing too bad- pounds of thrust, a comfortable margin of ly. A position programmer lets you interrupt thrust over weight, The gleaming engines look like large upside-down wine carafes and resume a game at any time, or set up a ready to pour out fire. k special board position for practice or remove The tour goes on, valve by valve. Truax for explains how these engines receive their pieces handicapping. There are many flow of liquid oxygen (LO E ) and Jet-A other exclusive features that made Boris #1 in kerosene, an ordinary jet kerosene that can chess computers. be stored at room temperature and is a slightly cruder grade of the same stuff that Boris is available in a variety of models. fired the first stage of the Apollo Saturn 5, There's even a Boris that flashes messages the largest rocket ever built.

The engine sits on four load cells, rigidly . . . keeping you on your toes. If you're ready attached to the launch platform. The hold- for some refreshing excitement, you're ready down fittings, in the center of the arrange- ment of the engines, restrain the rocket, for Boris, the game that thinks. even after the fires have started, holding it SEE BORIS IN ACTION at major retailers and down until the thrust builds up, reaches a speciality shops worldwide. For further Informa- tion plus the name ot the store near you call or powerequal-tothe weight of the rocket, and write: Chetltz, Inc., Dopt. 773, 856 Rockvllle Pike. surpasses it by a comfortable margin. Then Rockvllle, Md. 20852. (3D1) 340-0200. In Canada call (418) S83-4555. the instrumentation says. All systems go, and the bird rises. All the rocket's valves, poppets, and strong alloy capable of handling up to joints have been altered slightly to fit the 250,000 psi before it begins to yield. (U.S. lovely pieces of discarded technology. Un- Steel makes the thinnest sheets of this like NASA designs, very little of the X-1 is of material ever rolled, and they're still too "ad hoc" design. "Overengineering, that's thick for Truax's purposes.) And while his where your tax dollar goes." says Truax. potential welding company can furnish him

it milled "For maximum effectiveness, one should with . 078-inch thickness, he wants do calculations on important issues, apply down io an incredible .05 inch, fingernail- rules of thumb on others, and use a cali- thin. He's also trying to figure out a way of brated eyeball on the rest. When To do getting U.S. Steel Io pay for the tanks. "I'll which is the essence of engineering |udg- have to work on their sense of patriotism ment." He squints a calibrated eyeball into and desire to grow with the times." the sunlight. Corporate backing has been a problem project, as Truax points "I try to use things that have been well for this because, had a developed, as close to the onginal as pos- out, it may fail. 'After Evel's parachute are premature ejection, so to speak, the com- sible." The L0 2 and kerosene pushed of into the thrust chambers by the pressure of pany that furnished the chute went out S liquid helium held at -250 F in a titanium business. Of course, this is a different situa-

tion. I Evel to postpone the sphere. There it is on the garage floor, a had asked diffi- An exclusive shining beach ball of incredible strength, Snake River shot until 1 ironed out the culty with the chute, but he said, 'No way, magazine abo.ut able to hold up to 5,000 pounds per square all riding on it.' (psi) of freezing liquid gas. It was ini- not with that TV money the alternative. ' inch this rocket to of tially installed in a Titan 1. 'And here's the "I'm not allowing get out

I until I'm helium regulator, a nice little pressure valve my technical control. won't go up completely satisfied, no matter which TV at one hundred twenty-five psi. I traded a networks are waiting." junkman some turbines for it. It's gold- plated, off the Lockheed Agena." Ahead are months of testing, the sound The electronics and telemetry overflow and fury of captive firings. A moving-van from a toolroom offside the carport, a wired company has donated a van to be used as cave of oscilloscopes, graphs, gal- both the static-test control center and the vanometers, and other gadgets. The oscil- launch control center, and the tests are lograph, originally created for the B-52 and being done in one corner of a local airfield. used to monitor H-bombs prior to their Despite his caution, Truax is willing to being dropped, cost $14,000 new. Truax accept lower reliability statistics than NASA picked one up — and the paper (usually will- "They have gone completely wacky, The as- $80 a roll) and a viewing table— for $75. It insisting on first-time success. and other oscillographs will be used to tronauts, to a man, are willing to accept a monitor chamber pressures, feed, and tank lower survival probability than the ninety- eight-percent survival and the ninety-six- "And my piece de resistance!" crows the percent reliability for mission success. rocketman. The inerlial platform unit- These were set not out of consideration for balls within balls of circuitry and floating, their safety but because government ad- rotating gyroscopes that measure latitude, ministrators do not want to risk the embar- longitude, altitude, pitch, roll, and yaw. rassment of failure. infinite "They were initially in the X-15." Truax "We all recognize it would take an of to obtain one-hundred- beams, "still the world's fastest plane, but amount money to achieve the their development was started even before percent reliability. We expect to mini- lhat. for the Dyna-Soar" That aptly named extremely low cost by adherence strict simplicity of but still diabolic weapon was made obso- mal objectives, by extensive use of well-proven lete by the ICBMs. but it still remains one of equipment, by and. quite frankly, the first reusable winged rockets. It was a but surplus components, sponsors to skipbomber that was designed in the Fif- by asking the astronauts and risk is cur- ties as a manned gliding vehicle on top of a take a somewhat higher than Evel. for Titan 3 that would drop a bomb on the city rently acceptable to NASA." a 60- of your choice, skip back up to the fringe of example, was willing to accept space, circle the world, and return to base. percent risk. If the trip is successful and Truax makes "One out of the four X-1 5s crashed, and I re- got the three other units at thirty-five dollars some money, he plans to launch and mailing costs. lai.r.ch ire Volksrockr. until no ge:s Iho apiece. I paid more for the reliability statistics And the program na: developed them cost funnies out of it and the the twenty-five million dollars." are up. "Then," he says, "we'll open up barnstorming era of space travel. We'll sell And on it goes: "These pressure trans- pound around ducers cost me one hundred dollars for a tickets. Not quite a penny a They're usu- the fairground, but maybe one hundred dol- whole mess of 'em. I dickered. we can assure people ally three hundred and fifty dollars apiece. lars a pound. Once of coming back in one The gyro flight package, that's from the that their chance or better, a lot of Polaris." hunk is ninety-five percent thousand Truax's single argesl expense will be the guys will be willing to pay ten their lives." propellant tanks. They will be farmed out. dollars for the ride of people will do it? "We can't be profligate with our tank rates." What makes Truax think optimists. The X-1 is he says. The tanks will be fabricated from "People are incurable Indy 500, gra'de-250 maraging steel, an incredibly not more dangerous than the Truax in the National Star; where people risk their lives for paltry re- the whole picture and get my hands dirty. did read about feels it's his wards. Take Evel, for example. He just I'm probably the envy of all the engineers in he is a sky diver, a pilot, and astronaut. He wants to make money without working — the aerospace industry" manifest destiny to be an the Nazca greater risk for greater reward. Fast cars However, Truax may have a bit ot a corpo- tells me the great drawings on of of course, were etched there and faster women. Each person wants rec- rate storm on his hands. Correa and plains Peru, position early Inca astronauts who flew hot-air ognition, some more than others. Me, I want Ramundo are beginning to vie for by aloft in structures made of to beat NASA with the first woman in space. now, and there could brew up a Battle of the balloons kept hitch the tortoro, a reedlike plant that grows at Lake First a man, then a woman, and, if I haven't Astronauts. Ramundo wants to Titicaca. being a Rosicrucian, too, he killed anyone off by then,- I'll send up some Volksrocket up to a big-time media and And mind: try to of the people who've been bugging me. promotion scheme; and although this will advocates power of the "We

if it our consciousness, always ampli- "I'd say of the millions of people in the supply Truax with much-needed capital develop awareness, exploring further Into Western world, there are maybe one happens, it will take the rocket's usage fying thousand who've made a pile and who are somewhat out of his control. On the other things. And, of course, the rocket is good business, having Arriba painted on the not satisf ed with their lives. It will cost me hand, Correa can at best supply Truax with for five' thousand dollars. I'll make five slow, steady increments of money. Yet with side." steamer. It is a thousand dollars. The world's first rocket Correa, the company stays small. Correa, to He brings out an Arriba spaceline!" escalate his involvement, has had his own square box with a top of clear plastic, re-

' turntable. "I noticed a The glint is heavy in his eye. There are all dummy rocket built with Arriba, the name of sembling a stereo store-bought tortilla," he kinds of show-biz possibilities, movies, TV the tortilla steamer he's invented, painted problem with the dry up and crack in the foreign rights, spin-off toys. T-shirts, "al- on its side. explains. "They

the stove. I though I'mnotmuchofaT-shirt-and-button Ramundo is getting anxious, saying the oven and get greasy on So daughter's vaporizer man," he smirks. But he's nothing corpo- only thing standing between him and the redesigned my baby far, the with this device tor rejuvenat- rate, either. "I always like to keep my hands stars is the "tortilla roller." Yet, so and came up tortilla. Tortilla Advisory Board is dirty; everyone does. But in a big shop tortilla roller is the only one who has laid ing the The

itself. with it, and if I sell three hundred there's one little black box for the little guy, down spendable cash for the project pleased

steamers this year, I will tell I want to visit Correa. "Well, and fifty thousand and he gets to get his hands dirty, but he 1 Truax paint, five million dollars, plenty of money doesn't know what the little black box is for. expect headdress, feathers, the make The supervisor keeps track of seventeen whole thing. He's a bona fide Inca." for the rocket." with giant into his I left, he loaded me a little black boxes, but he doesn't under- The Inca's secretary ushers me When ot white stand 'em, and the manager keeps track of air-conditioned office at Mission Bell Bak- bag of tortillas and a pound heavy private enter- thirty groups of supervisors, and the head ery in Redwood City, a short trajectory from Mexican cheese. "We need he said, flashing a dazzling of the whole business doesn't even know Saratoga. Correa is dressed in conven- prise in space."

or white smile. "In September I start training what a little black box is, he's so busy tes- tional California sport clothes, no gold tifying before congressional committees feathers. But he has the Inca cheekbones, for zero-g." eyes. Yes, he and petitioning for money. Here, I can see the '-black, almond-shaped "The main problem is motivation," Truax explained later, at the kitchen table, as Sally pulled a loaf ot Wonder Bread out of the freezer, plopped four slices on the Ar- riba, and watched as they putfed up like sponges trom the steam. "You just have to get the idea you can do something. Hell, we knocked off the moon in ten years. We've got to stop thinking we're helpless. "What gets people stirred up? Walt .Dis- ney? Wernher von Braun? The race with the Russians? I'm hoping to kick off private participation in the decision making as ic what kind of space program we're going to have. Right now. we've got only the bureau- cratic way: You get only one approach, no studies for comparison. Competition gets

the economic shakeout, I hope we'll get some spacelines out of this. "Within fifty years, at least fifty thousand people will be working in space. And way downstream, in a thousand years, there'll be more people living in space than on Earth, and we'll have colonies. All the mate-

rial in the solar system could be built into a habitat, a giant ring, say, within the orbit of Mercury, a solar collector on the inside, radiators on the outside, and everything

our little hearts desire there. Compute the

number of people it would hold. It would range in the upper billions.

"Once I thought going to the moon would be the challenge of a lifetime, and we finished that off in ten years. Now, after this

project gets going, I want to finish off war

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CONTINUED FROM Pi

very few ideas The most important breakthrough in my The worst and most damaging discovery of I think we have created of X-ray as- the past ten years relates to the now- since the nineteenth century, certainly not field was the emergence in the subject, so obvious problem in storing radioactive in medicine. There is nothing in our time, I stronomy and the boom branch of as- wastes This has contributed signifi- feel, to compare with the grandness of that it is now an important tronomy. important event outside cantly to the real energy crisis.— Richard scale of the theory of evolution ... or the The most Leakey, anthropologist understanding that all living things are my field was probably the discovery by made essentially of the same kind of build- Penzias and Wilson of universal microwave Burnell, codiscoverer The most significant development in ar- ing blocks.— Rene Dubos, microbiologist, radiation. —Jo ce/yn of pulsars chitecture is an accommodation to the en- Pulitzer Prize winner ergy crisis in realistic, technical, and eco- the dis- outside field nomic terms, rather than in expressionistic A major breakthrough has been The most significant event my aesthetic terms.— Robert Venturi, architect covery of the basic unit of operation of the has been the new ideas connected with association neocortex, which is 95 percent black holes and their consequences, for responsible Brenner, Eventually individuals will be picking up a of the total human cortex and cosmology and physics.— Sidney The way is husky hunk of their energy off their rooftops for all higher brain tunctions — molecular biologist scientific and in their backyards. There'll be addi- open to a wonderful new era in

of the Of course, I regard the so-called Wein- tional amounts feeding in from grids. These understanding in a wide range the that unifies elec- grids are probably going to be localized, neurosciences. with implications for berg-Salam model brain-mind tromagnetic and weak forces as the most neighborhood, regional. The goal is to philosophical problem of significant- event of the past decade. In the make the loop as short as you can,—Denis interaction. — Sir John Eccles, Nobel obviously, the attempts Hayes, environmentalist laureate in physiology and medicine decade to come, toward further unification will be impor- Popper, philosopher of sci- A negative impact has been the continuing One can't omit the first synthesis of a gene tant.— Karl the general of Logic of Scientific Dis- development of new chemicals that in as a specific achievement, but ence, author The some way threaten human health or the shift in the scope of molecular biology is covery dis- quality of the environment. These chemi- really more important. So perhaps the interactions cals never existed beiore in the natural covery of reverse transcriptase should go The development of computer Rattray linkages world, and there are no evolutionary de- down as a turning point.— Gordon and the growing interconnected fenses against them— Roger Reveile, Taylor, futurologist and author of The means that a great deal of data, often of a former director of Scripps Institution Doomsday Book personal nature, can be made available to a large number of people. The danger lies the the Brother Because of our loss of faith in nuclear The coronary-bypass operation was in threats to privacy and Big power we now have a desperate situation, past decade's greatest advance in the aspect of the computer-information revolu- and unless public and political opposition treatment of heart disease. In 1978 approx- tion.— Roger Revelte, oceanographer for- abates, we could face disaster. We simply imately 100,000 operations of this type mer director of Scripps Institution cannot manage without nuclear energy; were performed in this country. But the potential for this widespread uses of there is no alternative. — Clive Sinclair, number of candidates We are already see ng between circuits in washing machines, pioneer of the first two-inch TV screen procedure may actually range integrated

half a million and one million persons. for example. . . . Talking computers, using The worst development of this decade is The most important breakthrough in car- synthesized speech, are likely, and com- the overdedication to the belief that we diology during the coming decade or be- puters we can talk to should be feasible should be more dependent on nuclear yond probably will be the development of within a decade. — Clive Sinclair, pioneer energy. —Clive Jenkins, British trade union- new pharmaceutical agents to control car- of the first two-inch TV screen angina pectoris. ist, representing scientific workers diac arrhythmias and What is being handled surgically now may Most important was the development, start-

therapy if answers of general Technology, and its potentials or options, is be replaced by medical ing from thermodynamics, a growing much faster than man's emotional come out of drug research.— Denton theory of systems in states far from equilib- or institutional ability to react.— leuan Cooley implanter of the first artificial heart rium in which new and statistically improb- Maddock, secretary of the British Associa- able structures are spontaneously gener- future implication tion for the Advancement of Science I don't think there has been any develop- ated and multiplied. The ment in the past decade comparable to of this ... is that it may lead to a unification of the genetic biological sciences, The decline in scientific funding has pro- relativity or the discovery of the physical and

has seen a number it physical theory of the duced a disaster in the last ten years code, but the decade since provides a convincing ex- nonequilib- We've lost generations of bright young kids of well-designed and quite formation of highly structured, phenomena, such as in self-reproducing to fields of more immediate relevance. This periments on psychic rium, and, some cases, experiments of Targ Cottrell, former chief loss extends the energy crisis, because it's the remote-viewing structures.— Sir Atan going to be solved by an invention that and Puthoff and the metal-bending re- scientific adviser to the British government nobody's working on right now—Leon search of Hasted. These may be regarded

if is Lederman, director of Fermilab as highly significant in the future.— S. D. Space exploration! I think analogous Josephson, Nobel laureate in physics to coming out of the sea and tackling the

I quite confident the stars are The worst thing today is the accelerating dry land. am dependency on cartel-controlled sources There are countless wonders about us that not forever beyond our reach. I am not of it's going to be of energy. ... We do not have, and for a long do not need the flimflam or the trappings prepared to prophesy how time haven't had, a free marketplace. I'm pseudoscience to make them attractive done— whether it's "worm holes," space Einsteinian equations sure a number of congressmen are in the subjects for research. The problem is to warps, or that the quite what they have been in- pay of these cartels. In effect, many gov- dump the nonsense and return the beauty don't mean ernments are dominated by corporate of the unknown.—James Randi, magician, terpreted to mean physically. —Robert A. interests.— Frank Herbert, author DO investigator of psychic phenomena OO Heinlein, author OO 144 OMNI Morrison: Nothing. understanding ; gol about the whole busi- this im- IRJTERV/IEUU Omni: But I understand that NASA pro- ness—is that things like are not posed fourteen million dollars for such a proved by having scientific instruments. It search to be carried qut over a seven-year won't work because the perceptions are too your pened in the universe. The galaxies ate period in their fiscal year Seventy-nine fleeting. You're not going to have ap- now flying apart. They were flying apart in budget. paratus in the right place at the right time. the past, when ihey were closer together. It Morrison: Yes. But that was for last year. We looked into that rather carefully, and we you run the movie backward, far enough, That proposal was turned down by Con- could see that the -systematic apparatus you see thai they merged. If you go back gress affer a debate. This year no such that is looking at the sky never sees any still furlher. you find a nucleation, a kind of proposal was made in the NASA budget. Hying saucers. lumpiness appearing out of a uniform Another proposal will probably be made for We have to wait for a good example — the gaseous background. We can even ob- FY Eighty-one or FY Eighfy-two, to modify famous flying saucer landing in front of the serve that uniform gaseous background, the situation and get things together a little While House. Then we'll all believe it. But I people who which we see very much red-shifted from betler to see if we can get it through. just can't accept the stories of they've flown in flying I think there is a chance of the come and tell me its former white-hot condition. But I think good that's as far back as we know. Now. that's proposal's being passed at one time or saucers with little green men and don't ninety-nine, or ninety-nine point nine per- another. Buf you can never be sure. bring back even a cocktail napkin from the cent of the way back. So that's a tremen- Omni: Do you think there is life out there? If ilying saucer so I can see something. dous achievement. so. why? Omni: You've always shown a great en- hard to Omni: Let's turn to the search for extrater- Morrison: Well, whether I think there is or thusiasm for science, which you try public. restrial intelligence. What do you think not is really not very interesting. What I think communicate to the general How- antagonism toward should be done in this area? is that we now know a plausible means of ever there is a growing finding out that which we never knew be- science and the impersonal technology it Morrison: I continue to feel very keenly thai this? this world should spend some of its re- fore. And what we should do is try that represents. To what do you attribute

I think of the main roots of sources trying' to test this hypothesis. I Morrison: one think there is hardly anything more exciting the difficulty is the following: Although I am

in it that modern technology could find out than an enthusiast for science. I see one whether or not we are alone. Since 1959 or great fault. There is a kind of arrogance characteristic of scientists, especially of 1960. when we attracted attention with this ^Americans who notion, quite a few radio astronomers have brilliant scientists. The result of their confi- tried something similar— more or less as are probably more immersed dence in their work when translated down the media in particu- pioneer efforts -on their own. without than other people to the public, through promise much equipment or financial support, just lar has been. I think, to give a false in this industrialized world, that solve all the social prob- because they had some interest in it and science would lems in the world, which is not the case. the chance to do it. are disappointed originate in sci- The first, of course, was Frank Drake, Those problems did not by the failures of the social with the Project, who looked ence and will not be solved by science: famous Ozma ( nature at three stars, with the receivers he had on structure, which They will be solved by changing the of relationships among humans. hand, for two weeks. There have also been they blame on science* social probably im- a few searches by radio astronomers in the Americans, who are more industri- United States as well as in Canada and the mersed than other people in this Soviet Union. The radio astronomers have alized world and disappointed by the fail- blame these done a splendid job in the pioneering ures of the social structure, failures science. phase, but it hasn't been much of a search: on all for alternatives is es- In the past twenty years they've done one plausible means and find out we can. I think the search thousandth of what one would call a worth- Omni: UFOs are frequently associated, at sentially wishful thinking. All the hope of the while search. least in the popular imagination, with emis- irrational, the notion that Tarot cards or as- are clearly Now. clearly what is needed is a change saries from extraterrestrial civilizations. trology will save you— these

in the wind. I don't oppose in style. Fortunately we are technically able Recently you wrote a paper. "The Nature of mere straws

scientists do. I to make that change, because in the past Scientific Evidence." in which you dis- them as bitterly as some ten or twenty years there have been enor- cussed the UFO problem as one example. don't believe in them, but I think they form a psychotherapy, or social mous decreases of cost and gains in the Can you tell us about that? kind of unofficial from sophistication of computing techniques. Morrison: Of course it's a very vexing prob- therapy. And if people derive benefit

I should As a result, we can now have really power- lem. About ten years ago I became quite them, who am to say they not? "flying were one of the main ful computing apparatuses tied to radio interested in the repeated reports of Omni: Recently you at collaborators, along with other members of telescopes, making it possible to look no! at saucers" and in the Condon studies the Group, on a book called one channel at a time -as some people time they were being carried out. I person- the Boston Study Strategy for did -or even at a thousand at a time as ally went to talk to some of the most experi- The Price of Defense: A New that study, the best people did — but to look at a million enced and enthusiastic people. But I came Military Spending. How did channels at a time. Then any search be- away very disappointed in what they re- come about, and why? comes enormously more effective. gard as evidence. Morrison: We have spent tour or five years Of course this requires some capital in- Since then I've talked to many people seriously trying to look at the American mili- is the most powerful in I finally structure, which vestment. It requires putting some people and listened to many accounts. And tary that many the world, prototype for all others, and to work. And what we think it requires is came to the conclusion there are the making a systematic national effort. We're phenomena in the sky that people see. But which has indeed taken the initiative in not talking about a huge project, billions of there are so many jumps between a sen- most of the technical developments of war- dollars; we're talking about a modest proj- .sory experience and its interpretation. The fare. We have asked what we need to de- ect like many carried out by NASA or the real question is. Is what people see com- fend American foreign-policy values and interests. have come to the conclu- universities. But we must do it systemati- patible with the criteria of scientific evi- And we than cally, year after year, for five or ten years, dence? And the answer is no. sion that we need much less what we presently developing. until we see what we want to do Now. the best point I made in the paper are area of the earth Omni: What is being done now? you referred to — and for me it was the key Between the surface im OMNI and the increased production of weaponry, exactly that kind of thing has to happen in so that we're nor always liv ng in a danger- the human species is being pressed. Now the military world. ous and more threatening world that in-

that pressure is great, but it is going to get . So we asked the question: If we want to duces the other side to be more dangerous worse and worse and worse. And it's defend our NATO allies— and they need and more threatening in a rat race that ev-

against I that that think we must act. some defense— and we want to defend the erybody understands. I'm convinced that after a third world war Japanese — with whom we have some These are the main changes. And all everybody would agree with But there me. longstanding half-guarantees of de- these changes_add up to quite a lot. would not be many people left. The ques- fense—and we want to preserve freedom Omni: What do you think of the SALT II tion is, Can we avoid that experience and of the seas, what do we need? Then we agreement? try to learn in another school? looked carefully at the what different the- Morrison: I think that to some extent the We feel that the growth of weapons aters of war might be in terms of what the passage of the agreement would put us a strength, matching weapons, and the enemy — the Russians, the Chinese, small step forward with regard to the arms arms-race are suicidal. game essentially whoever— might bring into that theater. race, while its defeat would put us many Somebody must begin to say no. the all And Add of them up, and you have what you steps backward. It just means that you've one who can say no is the one with the best need. That's the sensible way to do it. put the clock back. You still have to find a possibility: the United States. When you do that, you discover that solution. Then you can say, "We can Omni: One of the elements in the new about forty of percent what we have is breathe a little more easily . . . They are not strategy for military spending proposed in surplus— it's unnecessary, I . . obsolescent, so ready to go . am beginning to draw your book is a "zero-based budget" for mili- even dangerous and uneconomical. It back: maybe others will begin to draw tary expenditures. What are the most im- doesn't get you what you want. back," 1 think we have to try this. portant features of that? Omni: What do we need? Omni: If we continue as we are going, what Morrison: The idea is that, as in every other Morrison: We need fewer infantry suitable do you think the future will look like? activity of government, you should get what for fighting in the Third World, fewer infantry Morrison: Like the present, but more trou- you need. suitable for manning beaches. We're not blesome. For thirty-five years we have had You should decide what your goals are, going to be doing any of those things on a more weapons— readier, bigger, grand- what you need in order to accomplish those large scale anymore. er— but I don't think most people feel safer. goals, allowing prudent margins for error We must get rid of the most expensive Sooner or later someone will take a chance, and lack of judgment and change. You and dangerous part of the navy— the air- or errors will be made, or misunderstand- should not assume automatically in a whole craft carriers that were splendid for fighting ings and misapprehensions will occur, and lot of stereotyped ways that more is always the Japanese war but that have since then the weapons will be used. better and bigger is always better. lost a good deal of utility They are by no And the human race will not survive We've seen that happen in industry, means worth the money they cost and the it— or not much. That is the thing that we where everyone took that view. The bigger ships and men needed to support them, feel must sooner or later be recognized. the automobiles, the better. Well, no one And we should reduce the intense and And the great powers must somehow begin thinks that so strongly anymore, And aggravating overkill in strategic weapons to wind it down.OQ

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It his that while still didn't stand a chance. Then it was his turn. zero. Without losing radio contact, escort crossed mind he was No sooner had the CO started addressing both JO-two ships in Information to moon, busy turning the manhole cover, Boerst him than he suddenly remembered some- commence lunar insertion for temporary was probably already settled in his glass thing: There were supposed to be three of equatorial orbit as per LUNA PELENG, ver- cocoon. But then, he asked himself, what them flying. Where was the third? Luckily ify orbital injection of both piloted ships, is the rush? The lift-offs were always stag- for him, he caught the CO's last words and then escape orbit at acceleration and gered at six-minute intervals to avoid a si- managed to blurt out, just in the nick of course of your own discretion, and return to multaneous launch. Even so, he was anx- time. "Cadet Pirx, ready for lift-off." stationary orbit in the radius of satellite PAL. ious to get behind the controls and hook await further instructions." up Ihe radiophone— if only to listen in on "Hm ... I see," said the CO. "And do you There curious to declare that you are fit, both physically "Pilot Pirx, are you ready for blast-off?" Boerst's commands. He was Right what Boerst's mission was. . limits Pirx replied. now he was know and mentally . . . ahem . , within the "Readyl" of your capabilities?" conscious of only one desire: to be in the The interior lights automatically went on The CO was fond of lacing routine ques- control cabin. He dreamed of the moment the moment he closed the outside hatch. tions with such flourishes — something he when he could unzip his space suit, or at After sealing off the cabin, he climbed a could allow himself as the CO. least the neck ring. small flight of steps padded with a rough the Pirx declared that he was fit. The CO stepped back. but pliant material, before reaching for 1." in pilot's seat. "Then I hereby designate you as pilot "Board your rocket he bellowed a ihe duration of the flight," the CO said, re- mag'nificent voice— a voice that rose Now why in hell's name do they have to squeeze the pilot into a glass blister three meters in diameter when these one-man rockets are cramped enough as it is? Pirx wondered. The blister, though transparent, was made not of glass, of course, but of some Plexiglas material having roughly the same iexture and resilience as ex- tremely hard rubber. The pilot's encapsu- lated contour couch was situated in the very center of the control room proper, Thanks to the cabin's cone-shaped de- sign, the pilot, by sitting in his "dentist's

chair"— as it was called in space pilot's parlance— and rotating on its vertical axis, was able to monitor the entire instrument panel through the walls of the blister, with

all its dials, video screens (located fore, aft, and on one side), computer displays, and astrograph, as well as that holy of holies, the trajectometer.

Once in the proper reclining position, he had trouble bending over at the waist to

attach all the loose cables, hoses, and wires— the ones dangling from his suit— to the terminals sticking out of the seat. Every time he leaned forward, his suit would bunch up in the middle, pinching him, so

that it was no wonder he confused the radio cable and the heating cable. Luckily each was threaded differently, but he had to break out in a terrific sweat before discover- ing his mistake. As the compressed air in- stantly inflated his suit with a whishing noise, he leaned back with a sigh and began to fasten his thigh and shoulder straps, using both hands. The right strap snapped into place, but CASIO'S the left one was more defiant. Because of His sweaty fingers squeezed the hand- the balloon-sized neck dam, he had trou- grip. Luckily, it had a rough finish. Does LCD ALARM ble turning around. So he had to tumble everyone work up such a sweat? he won-

around blindly tor the large snap hook. Just dered. Probably — il crossed his mind just CHRONOGRAPH then he heard muffled voices coming over before the earphones snarled, "Zero!" Sleek Styling, his earphones: "Pilot Boersf aboard His left hand instinctively pulled back on mark. :cision Performance AMU-eighteen! Lift-off on automatic count- the lever untn it rcactned the halfway down of zero. Attention, are you ready?" There was a terrific blast, and his chest It Can Cost More, "Pilot Boerst aboard AMU-eighteen and and skull were. flattened by some resilient, But it Can't Do More! ready for lift-off on automatic countdown ol rubberlike press. The booster! was his last zero!" the cadet fired back, though] before his eyesight began to dim.

TREMENDOUS VALUE Damn that hook, anyhow! At last it But only a little, and then not for long. clicked into place, and Pirx sank back into Gradually his vision improved, though the only the $4995 the soft contour couch, as bushed as if he'd unrelenting pressure had spread to just returned from a deep-space probe. rest of his body. Before long he could twenty-three, twenty-two, make out all the video screens -at least "Minus— twen " The count rambled on in his ear- the three opposite him-now inundated phones wi'h a steady patter. with a torrent of milk gushing from a million "Zero!" a voice blared in his earphones. overturned cans.

All at once Pirx heard a muffled but pro- .' must be breaking through the clouds. longed rumble, his conlour couch shook, he Ihought. and flickers of light snaked across the He was just starting to make himself armrest io raise glass canopy 1 comfortable, pressing the suddenly went it thee nc oa the seat in back, when he astrograph. The crib' Wnere's the crib sheet? Continuous This was mat awfully important detail he Liquid Crystal the He Display ;:k with h 1 ; eyes now totally the swarm of pulsating OUALITY: CASIO f ib sheet had slipped down What would you ihinfc 0' z wateo wi'l' mineral glass .!ur couch. He tried to bend lens, Tiper-.'iou:. !o st::^.?.; l'.:i!% quartz reliability, as held back by his torso ! -' vy i.-j ii a resistant to 66 leeU'l div:i'.g dnp:h. shock resbt-;::*, :::< fainter, more like a distant thunderstonn t a moment to lose with a tairas'K ir-arre; i ;..:!:* His Disio Alarm Chrono- its:: oeidre giving way to a dead silence. ion as if perched on top of this watch, $49.95 it is a fantastic buy. graph is ana at Then a hissing and a humming, but so g tower, he flipped open his until CHECK THESE FEATURES: sudden he had hardly anytime.to panic. k-which now had n thigh pocket and • Display hours, ninulss. i;^-)--. AM PM. Also a light The automatic sequencer had activated been his [or nigh] viewing. the previously dormant screens, which nt plan from the envelope. A • Calendar Functions include date and day. were always disconnected by remote mental blackout. Where the hell is orbit control to protect the camera lenses from B-sixty-eight. anyway? That must be it M iIb :;i;sign.i"3n Mnn. a :ili-a;rr bi.l sMajiivg Ui;.'M' being damaged by the blinding atomic there' He checked the trajectory and went sounds lo remind or awaken you. blast of a nearby launch. into a roll. Much to his surprise, it worked. • Stopwatch Inactions: On co-miend stopwalco dis- controls sure come in Being strapped to his seat, except for a 1 These automatic play \'t°j.x. k sr-;« ir.LfrRSSiis \i.-i'.) I-Tics wr Ik still feeling of weightlessness, he hardly iiupivatcM :;:;nl runs iu rur Car e.so switch to and handy, thought Pirx. He was miles

1 1 1 '.'.' '.'' 1 1" gravitation. i 1 : af'K'- forward Ion ::: g a wi ul away in his thoughts when his hair sud- noticed the loss of The Ing eilher operation. denly stood on end underneath his screen was blanketed with stars, with a • "minutes Esciron-c slopMlch iiTcs seconds, and dome-shaped helmet. brilliant white border skirting the very bot- "2 "srilii (:' jewi'cls 1.:: 10 "ou-s. Separate 'lime out' My Gawd. I'm next. Now it's my turn! tom. The lateral screens showed nothing feature permits stopping and restarting ol timer. suddenly flashed through his mind. but a star-studded black void, But the deck • L;ng lite L Ihiun rialisry ifn:lu:i:d. e/ves up to three screen ah! Earth was now so immense liBars ol carliiLuu- Lse Defers replsceme-nf Is "Pilot Pirx aboard AMU-twenty-seven!" — necessary. The voice booming into his ear roused him that if took up the whole screen, and he

• One year rnanulaclurer's warranty. from his predicament. "Lift-off on automat- feasted his eyes on it as he flew over at an ic countdown of zerol Attention, are you altitude of seven hundred kilometers at Why Shop By Mail? ready, pilot?" perigee and twenty-four hundred kilome- ihcocmrj i;.y msii s ocnve-'ie":. easy ana fun We Ship isn't Greenland ',;-,\. yelling; ters at apogee. Hey. thai orders :j'(i'':-i y :o your ho"ie -j nil ;:u ''ol ifc'-zz a. Not yet! he felt like instead he said. "Pilot Boer-Pilot Pirx aboard AMU- down there? But before he could verify

it already sailing over . . . . was twenty-seven and ready for . uh . lift- what was, he off on automatic countdown of zero." northern Canada. The North Pole was He had been on the verge of saying, capped with iridescent snow, the ocean "Pilot Boerst." because he still had stood out round and smooth — violet-black, Boerst's words fresh in his memory. "You like cast iron — there were strangely few CHEDIT CARD BUYERS: TO QflQEfi CALL TQLL FREE like nut," he said to himself in the ensuing si- clouds, and what few there were looked 21 HOURS A DAY gobs of watery splattered on top of To order in California call toll tree (800) 432-7451 lence. Then the automatic countdown- mush why did these recorded voices always Earth's highest points ot elevation. 854-3831 have to sound like an NCO? barked, He glanced at the clock. He had been ." min- . . for DWS markeling intBmallonjl, Dcpl. SB, 3S0-* Ra :•" ' "Minus sixteen, fifteen, fourteen spaceborne exactly seventeen Cisu .<,-. Ci.^.-ii. :>«;» Pirx broke out in a cold sweat. There utes. was something he was forgetting — some- It was time to pickup PAL's radio signal, thing terribly important, a matter of life and to start monitoring the radar screens as he death. passed through the satellite's contact ." "', .". their six, five, four . . zone. Now. what were names again? ,

position quadrant four, perimeter RO? No— JO. And let's see. their numbers it tlew over him at a distance of roughly raluna, Over." were ... He glanced down at the flight four hundred meters, possibly more, and sector PAL, all navigation lights on. both ships started transmitting plan, stuck it back into his pocket along gradually overtook him, When JO with the navigation book, and turned up "PAL PELENG to A-seven Terraluna. at the same time, Pirx switched on the se- much the intercom on his chest. At first there was one-hundred-eighty-point-fourteen. one- quence selector, but there was too fly, course. just a lot of screeching and crackling — hundred-six-point-six. Increasing linear interference. The buzzing of him cosmic interference. What system was deviation. Out." I'll hang myself! It never occurred to out of the question PAL using? Oh, yeah — Morse code. He lis- "Albatross-four Aresterra. calling PAL that such a remedy was tened closely, his eyes glued to the video Central, PAL Central. Am coming down for because of the effects of weightlessness. screens, and watchedas Earth slowly re- refueling, sector two. Am coming down for Just then he sighted both ships on the volved beneath him and stars scudded refueling, sector two. Running on reserve radar screen. They were following him on by— but no PAL. supply. Over." parallel courses, spaced no more than nine Then he heard a buzzing noise. 'A-seven Terraluna, calling PAL PELENG kilometers apart, which was prohibited; him to Could that be It? he wondered, but im- being in the pilot ship, it was up to mediately he rejected the idea. You're The rest was lost in the buzzing. Then si- make them adhere to the prescribed dis- crazy. Satellites don't buzz. But what else lence. tance of fourteen kilometers. Just as he location of the blips on could it be? Nothing, that's what. Or was it "Central to Albatross-four Aresterra, re- was checking the something else? fuel quadrant seven. Omega Central, re- the radar screen, his old friend the fly A critical malfunction? iuel quadrant seven. Out." landed on one ot them. In a fit of anger he his navigation book at it, but the book Then he spotted it. They would pick out this spot to rendez- threw deflected by the blister's Plexiglas It was a giant, of a fly, one of those ugly, vous', thought Pirx. who was now swim- was greenish-black brutes specially designed ming in his sweat-absorbent underwear. wall; instead of sliding down, it bumped ceiling, where, because of the to make lite miserable— a pestering, This way I won't hear a thing. against the aimlessly about in pesky, idiotic, and by the same token The fly was describing irenetic circles on zero gravity, it fluttered unruffled, the fly strolled shrewd and cunning fly, which had miracu- space. Seemingly lously—and how else?— stowed away in merrily on its way across the screen. the ship's control cabin and was now zoom- 'AMU-twenty-seven Terraluna to JO-two

I in are ing about in the space outside the blister, ditto JO-two. have you range. You occasionally ricocheting oif the illuminated hard aboard. Switch over to parallel course *Pirx stuck his instrument gauges like a buzzing pellet. with a correction of oh-point-oh-one. Stand completion of maneuver. Out." Whenever it took a pass at the computer, legs inside, braced himself by on earphones like a four- Gradually the distance between the it came over his against the metal engine prop plane. Mounted on the com- blips began to widen, all communication puter's upper frame was a backup micro- housing, scooted down the being temporarily interrupted by the fly as it little promenade phone, which gave a pilot access to the flexible chute embarked on a noisy computer outside the encapsulated seat in around the computer's microphone. Pirx without so much as touching the event his on-board phone was discon- had run out of things to throw; the flight book was still hovering overhead, lithely nected and he found himself without a the . . . rungs. laryngophone. One of the many backup flapping its pages. "Rungs are , , . for goners. ? systems aboard the ship. "PAL Central to AMU-twenty-seven Ter- outer Bzzzzz ... He winced; the fly was crawl- raluna. Abandon quadrant, abandon transsolar ing around on the computer, in the vicinity outer quadrant, am assuming of the mike. Then nothing, dead silence, as course. Over." would try to screw things up! Pirx it stopped to preen its wings. You lousy He hell I care bastard! the computer's console, as if hell-bent on mentally fumed, What the do that Then a faint but steady bleeping came catching up with its own shadow. about the transsolar? Anyone knows have over his earphones: dot-dot-dot— dash — 'Albatross-four Aresterra, Albatross -four spaceships Hying in group formation dot-dot— dash -dash — dot-dot-dot — Aresterra to PAL Central, approaching priority. He began shouting in reply, and in dash. quadrant seven. Request radio guidance." this shouting of his there was vented all his Okay, Pirx, now keep your eyes peeled! The radio static grew steadily fainter until impotent tury, caused by the fly, to PAL he told himself. He raised the couch a lit- it was drowned out by the buzzing. But not "AMU-twenty-seven Terraluna catch the following Central. Negative, am not abandoning tle, as if to take in all three video screens at before he managed to once, checked the sweeping phos- message: "JO-two Terraluna, JO-two Ter- outer quadrant, to hell with your transsolar. phorescent radar beam, and waited. raluna, calling AMU -twenty-seven. AMU- am flying in triformation. AMU-twenty- Though nothing showed on the radar twenty-seven. Over." seven, JO-two ditto JO-two, squadron Pirx AMU-twenty-seven Terraluna, Out." screen, he distinctly heard a voice calling: / wonder who he's calling, mused, leader hell with your 'A-seven Terraluna. A-seven Terraluna, and he nearly jumped out of his straps. / didn't have to say, "To sector three, course one hundred thirteen. AMU, he wanted to say, but not a sound transsolar.'' he thought. That'll cost me a PAL PELENG calling. Request a reading. could he emit from his hoarse throat. His lew points for sure. Oh, they can all damn Over." earphones were buzzing. The fly. He closed well go to hell! I'll probably get docked for

the fly, too. Oh, crap, how am I ever going to hear my his eyes. two JOs now? "AMU -twenty-seven to JO-two Terraluna, It could only have happened to him. A fly I just Smiga The buzzing in his earphones suddenly position quadrant four, sector PAL, am turn- Wow. big deal! He could see stopped. A second later a shadow fell ing on navigation lights. Over." and Boerst bursting a gut when they got

fly. It the first across his face, from above, much as if a He switched on his navigation lights- wind of that crazy-assed was lift-off that he caught himself bat had landed on an overhanging lamp. It two red ones at the side, two green ones on time since of Boerst. But right now he didn't was the fly, which was now crawling across the nose, a blue one aft— and waited. Not a thinking the blister and-exploring its interior. The sound except for those made by the fly have a moment to lose, because PAL was blips were coming with greater frequency "JO-two ditto Terraluna, JO-two Terra- dropping farther and farther behind. They ." . . in formation for a five , . flying good now, and it wasn't long before he sighted luna, calling Buzz-buzz, hum-hum had been the eighty-meter-long aluminum cylinder, Does he mean me? minutes. mounted with an observation spheroid, as 'AMU-twenty-seven to JO-two ditto Ter- "AMU-twenty-seven to JO-two ditto 152 OMNI .

lurried his sweat -absorbent JO-two Terraluna. II is now twenty hours something thai seven minutes. Insertion parabolic orbit underwear to ice. Terraluna to commence at twenty hours ten Above the dashboard a while panel had ." that, bul.it minutes. Course one hundred eleven . . come undamped. Not only was ComputerLand And he read off the course data from the starling to work its way down, a millimeter at flight sheet, which, by a feat of acrobatics, a time. It had probably been loose to begin he was able to retrieve from overhead. The with, he reasoned, and all the vibrating dur- two JO ships radioed their reply. PAL ing the recent yaw maneuvers— Pirx's dropped out of sight, but he could still hear handling of the ship hadn't exactly been pressure it signaling ever so faintiy. Or was that the fly gentle — had loosened- the he was hearing? clamps even more. With the acceleration For a moment the fly seemed to multiply, still running at one-point-seven-g, the to be in two different places at once. Pirx panel kept inching its way down as if it were rubbed his eyes. It was just as he sus- being pulled by an invisible thread. Finally pected: There was not one. but two of them. it sprang loose altogether, slid down the Where did the second, one come from? outer side of the Plexiglas wall, and settled Wow I'm really a goner, he reflected with motionlessly on the deck, exposing a set of. absolute cairn, without- a sign of any emo- four gleaming copper high-voltage wires tion. He even felt relieved somehow, know- and fuses at the back. all An electri- ing that it no longer mattered. Either way he Why the panic? he thought. loose. big deal! was sunk. His thoughts were diverted by a cal panel has come So : A it? glance at the clock: It was 2010 hours, the ship can get along without a panel, can't time he himself had scheduled for the ma- There we.'e still twenty-seven minutes of neuver, and he had yet to even place his accelerated flight to go when it hit him that hands on the controls. once the engines were shut down, the The daily grind of training exercises must panel would Decomc weightless. Could it

have taken its toll because without a mo- do any damage? he wondered. ment's hesitation he grabbed both control What were the flies up to? He followed sticks, pressed first the left one and then them with his gaze as they zoomed and the right, and all the time kept his eye on the buzzed and circled and chased each other trajectometer. The engine responded with a around the outside of the blister before

hollow roar until it gradually tapered off to a landing on the back of the fuse panel. whisper. Ouch! Something landed on his That's when he lost track of them. forehead, just under his visor, and re- He took a reading of the two JO ships on mained stationary. The navigation book! It the fadarscope: Both were on course. The was blocking his vision, but he couldn't face of the moon now loomed so large on

brush it aside without removing his hands the front screen that it took up half of it. He from the controls. His earphones were alive recalled how during a series- of seleno- and astir as the two flies went about pursu- graphic exercises in the Tycho Crater (316) 461-6502 ing their love life on the computer. If only I Boerst, with the help of a portable theodo-

it, feeling lite . . . what a pro that guy was! had a gun on me, he thought, the Damn (402)391-6716 navigation book start to flatten his nose with Pirx kept an eye out for Luna Control on the the increase in acceleration. In desperation outer slope of Archimedes. It was camou-

he began tossing his head around like a flaged so well among the rocks that it was madman: he had to be able to see the almost invisible from high altitude, all ex- trajectometer, for crying out loud! Suddenly cept for the smooth surface of the landing the book crashed to the floor with a strip with its approach lights— when in the

bang— and small wonder: At four-g it must night zone, that is, and not, as presently,

have weighed nearly three kilos-. He im- when it was illuminated by the sun. At the mediately decelerated to the level required moment the base was straddling the cra- by the maneuver and at two-g he put the ter's shadow line, the contrast with the levers on hold. He threw a glance at the blinding lunar surface being so intense that

mating flies. They were not the least bit it overpowered the weaker approach lights.

fazed by the acceleration; on the contrary, That's funny— I don't hear any more they looked to be in seventh heaven. buzzing. He glanced sideways and From now until the end of the accelerated flinched. flight he would have a little time to kill. Two-g One of the flies was sitting and cleaning was tolerable, despite his combined its wings on the exposed side of the panel, weight of one hundred forty-two kilos. How while the other fly was busy courting it. A many times had he spent up to a half-hour few millimeters away, its copper terminal

in the centrifuge at four-g? gleaming below the spot where the insula- He verified the position of the two ships tion ended, was the nearest cable. All four and again thought of Boerst, picturing to cables were exposed, about as thick in himself very the movie star he diameter as a pencil, and all in the one- how much Miirii /i>-.B«: must have looked. What a jaw that guy had! thousand-voll range, with a contact clear- Not to mention that perfectly straight nose, ance of seven millimeters. It was just by

it seven. Once, . that knew those steely gray eyes . . You can bet he accident he was didn't have to rely on any crib sheet! But as an exercise, they had torn down the Pirx come to think of it; so far neither have I . . entire circuitry system, and when He adjusted the automatic reducer to couldn't come up with the exact clearance, achieve a zero acceleration after eighty- his instructor had read him off the riot act. three minutes, as instructed, and then saw In -the meantime, the one fly took time off 154 OMNI BffOK YOU BUY COMTOUlfI WISITl COMPUTERLAND

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should sette inserted in the floor. The cassette from its wooing and started venturing out to shut oft the power. Or maybe he

it out to locked. Natch! He tried along the live terminal. A harmless enough just sit back and give a chance to work on turned be yanking on the lid; it wouldn't give. The key. thing to do— unless, of course, it suddenly its own. golanurgetohopovertothenextone, and, The engineers had thought ot every- Where was the key? to do when There was no key. He tried forcing the lid ludging by the way it sat there, humming, at thing—everything except what panel luck. the very end of the terminal, that's precisely a fly gets into your cabin, a fuse again. No you wind up with He sprang to his feet and stared blindly what it intended to do. As if it didn't have comes undamped, and the forward screen, where, its surface room enough in the cabin! Now, Pirx such a screwy short circuit! into kept shorting out. no longer silver but an alpine snow-while. thought, what would happen if it put its front Meanwhile the lights

it. But there loomed a gigantic moon. Craters feet on the one wire and kept its hind feet Something had to be done about now came into view, their long, serrated shad- on the other? Well, so what if it did! In the what? All had to do was to flip the ows creeping stealthily along the surface. worst case it might cause a short circuit. Simple. he floor behind He could hear the radar altimeter clicking But then — a fly! Would a fly be big enough master switch, located in the it operat- his shut off all the main steadily away. How long has been to do that? But even if it were, nothing much seat. That would 7 green digits could happen; there would be a momen- power circuits and trip the emergency sys- ing he wondered. Little in the dark, he read off his tary blowout, the circuit breaker would tem. Then all his worries would be. over. flashed and altitude: twenty-one thousand switch off the current, the fly would be elec- Hmm, he thought, not bad the way these present trocuted, and the power would be re- buckets are rigged. kilometers. Boerst would have The ship was now flying a perfectly stored—and goodbye fly! As it in a trance, He wondered whether straight course, gaining velocity as the re- he kept his eyes fixed on the high-tension been as quick on his feet. Probably, if not sidual acceleration reached point-two-g . . left! box, secretly cherishing the hope that the quicker . Yikes, only two minutes Not tor sat up. and the moon's gravitational pull grew fly would think better ot it. A short circuit enough time the maneuver! He stronger. What to do? What to do! He was nothing serious, a minor foul-up, but He had clean forgotten about the others. 'AMU-twenty-seven squadron leader rushed back to the cassette and kicked it. who knows what else might happen . . .? metal casing refused to budge. Only eight more minutes of gradual de- The Hold everything! My Gawd, how could I celeration until touchdown. He was still have been so stupid! All he had to do was staring at the dial when there was a flash. to find a way to reach the other side of the Then the lights went out. It was a momen- blister. there was a way! Near the exit. tary blackout, lasting no more than a frac- And

fly . . . 4Tfre embarked at the point where the blister narrowed tun- tion of a second. The fly! he thought, and he nellike to form a funnel ending with the air waited with bated breath for the circuit on a . . . promenade around the lock, there was a special lever painted a breaker to flip the power back on. It did. computer's micro- bright enamel red, beneath a plate that The lights stayed on for a while- dimmer Pirx out of emergency only and more orange-brown than white- phone. had run read for control systems the lever was all that was before the fuse blew a second time. A total things to throw; One switch of raise the glass cocoon a meler blackout. Then the power came on again. needed to flight still the book was off the ground, leaving just enough clear- Oft again. On again. And so it went, back ance underneath. Once on the other side, and forth, with the lights burning at only half hovering overhead, all he had to do was to clear the lines, and their normal amperage. What was wrong? lithely flapping its pages . ? with a piece of insulation . . During the brief but regular intervals ot light the handle in less than no time. he managed, with considerable squinting He was at You moron! he thought, and he grabbed and straining of the eyes, to pinpoint the the metal handle and yanked until his trouble: The insect was trapped between shoulder joint cracked. The lever, its metal two of the wires, a charred sliver of a corpse Re- rod glistening with oil, was fully extended, that continued to act as a conductor. Terraluna. calling JO-two ditto JO-two. Will but the blister hadn't wiggled an inch. In Pirx was far from being in a state of porting short circuit in control room. be lunar-inser- stunned bewilderment, he stood staring at panic. True, his nerves were a trifle frayed, necessary for me to postpone equatorial the glass bubble, at the video screens but, then, when had he ever been com- tion maneuver for temporary moonlight, at the blinking light . to with . . . exe- ablaze pletely relaxed since the launch count? The orbit . uh . indefinitely. Proceed the lever again, clock was barely legible. Fortunately, the cute maneuver at previously designated overhead ... He jerked on even though it out as far as it would go. instrument panel operated on its own light- time. Over." was leader Ter- Nothing. ing system, as did the radarscope. And "JO-two ditto to squadron lunar-insertion The key! The key to the cassette! He fell there was just enough juice being supplied raluna. Will commence joint equatorial orbit. flat on the floor and searched under the to keep the backup circuits from being maneuver for temporary There nothing to be seen except tripped, but not quite enough to light the You are nineteen minutes away from lunar seat. was crib sheet. cabin. landing. Good luck. Good luck. Out." the in the The lights blinked; the circuit breaker Only four minutes left until engine cutoff. Pirx hardly heard a word because switched. when the lights dimmed, Well, that was one load off his mind— the meantime he had disconnected the radio- Now cast everything in a stark, reducer was programmed to shut the en- phone cable, the air hose, and another the moonlight gine down automatically. Suddenly an icy small cable (his straps were already un- skeleton-bone white.

it his feet it's ait over, he thought. Should he fire the chill ran down his spine. How could the kill done). No sooner had he made to encapsu- kill switch flashed a ruby-red. The ejection rocket and bail out in the switch work if the circuit was shorted? than the without any For a second he couldn't recollect cabin sprang briefly out of the dark, only to lated seat? No, it wouldn't work; parachute wouldn't whether they operated on the same circuit, be plunged back into an orange-brown atmospheric drag, the yell, but there whether these were the main fuses for the blur. The engine cutoff had failed. The red brake. Help! he wanted to could call in dis- rocket's entire power supply Of course, signal light kept staring at him from out of was no one to whom he all to do? There they had to be. But what about the reactor? the dark, imploringly A buzzer sounded: tress, He was alone. What just to way out! Surely the reactor must have had its own the warning signal. The automatic reducer had be a inoperative. Fighting to his bal- He scrambled back to the emergency power network . .. was keep arm out of its The reactor, yes, but not the automatic ance, Pirx jumped behind the contour lever and almost tore his so frantic he wanted to cry. It switch. He knew because he had set it couch. socket, now

. . . the key? himself. Okay, so now all he had to do was The master switch was housed in a cas- was all so dumb Where was

156 OMNI .

And why the malfunction in the emergency lever? The altimeter. With one sweeping glance, he read off the displays: ninety-five YOU CAN TAKE IT WITH YOU hundred kilometers. The saw-toothed ridge of Timocharis now stood out against the luminous background in sharp relief. He even had visions of where his ship was about to drill a hole in the pumice-covered rock. A loud crash, a blinding explosion,

and . . During a brief interval of light, his franti- cally shifting gaze fell on the set of four copper wires. The little black speck span- ning the cables— all that was left of the incinerated fly— was clearly discernible. even from a distance. Sticking out his neck and shoulder like a soccer goalie about to make a flying save, Pirx lunged forward with all his weight. He was knocked almost unconscious by the force of the collision.. He bounced off the blister's Plexiglas wall like an inflated inner tube and crumpled to the floor. The outer shell did not so much as jiggle. Struggling to his feet, panting, with a bleeding mouth, he got ready to make another flying lunge at the Plexiglas wall. That's when he happened to glance down. The manual override. Designed to give rapid, full-thrust acceleration in the ten-g range. Operated by direct mechanical con- trol and capable of providing an emergen- cy thrust lasting less than a second. But the greater the rate of acceleration, he suddenly realized, the faster his de- scent to the lunar surface. Or would it be?

No, it would do just the opposite; it would have a braking effect. But wouldn't the reaction be too short to act as a brake? The braking had to be continuous. So much for the override. Or was it? He made a dive for the control stick, grabbing it on his way down, and pulled for all he was worth. Without the contour couch to cushion his impact, he could have sworn all his bones had been fractured when he hit the deck. Another pull on the stick, another powerful lurch. This time he landed on his head, and if it hadn't been for his telescopes helmet's foam-rubber liner, his skull would CELESTRON and telephoto lenses are compact and have been shattered. lightweight. The modern Celestron design means you can

The fuse panel slarted sizzling, the blink- take it anywhere and have it set up and operating in minutes. ing suddenly stopped, and a soft and Under clear, dark, steady skies, the amount of detail seen through steady electric light lit up the interior of the Celestron telescopes borders on the fabulous. As a daytime cabin. telescope, see or photograph ships, planes, The two bursts of acceleration, fired in wild- quick succession by manual control, had life and people at incredible distances with com- been enough to dislodge the tiny sliver of plete clarity. Apertures available from 3-1/2" to carbon from between the wires, thus 14", priced from $245.00 eliminating the short circuit once and for all. Free four-page brochure or send $2.00 for 32- With the salty tasle of blood in his mouth, page full-color catalog on to select Pirx made a diving leap for the couch, but, how and use a Celestron instead of landing in it. he sailed high up telescope. over the back and rammed his head into (he ceiling, the blow softened only some- what by his helmet- Just as he was getting set to leap into the air, the now-activafed kill switch cut off the rocket, and' the last trace of gravitation dis- Celestron appeared. Propelled by its own momen- CELESTRON INTERNATIONAL, 2B35 Columbia St., Box 357B-10, Torrance tum, the spacecraft was falling straight to- ward the rocky ruins of Timocharis. DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED ' . ,

He bounced off -he cc-ii no and spit, and Ihe bloody saliva floated next to him in a galaxy of silver-red bubbles. Frantically he ruEXT onnrui twisted and turned and stretched out his arms toward the couch. For added momen- tum he emptied his pockets and threw their contents behind him, the force of which propelled him downward, gradually and gently. His fingers, now so taut that his ten- dons threatened to snap, at first barely scraped the nickel-plated tubing before getting a firm grip on the frame. He didn't let go. Like an acrobat doing a handstand on parallel bars, he tucked in his head and pulled himself into an upright position, grabbed hold of the seal belt, and lowered

himself down on it. at the same time wrap- ping the belt around his trunk. No! stopping to buckle the belt, he stuck the loose end

between his teeth; it held. Now for the con- trol levers and the braking pedals! The altimeter showed eighteen hundred kilometers to lunar surface. Would he be able to brake in lime? Impossible— not at a velocity of forty-five kilometers per second. He would have to pull out of the nose dive by describing a steep turn. There was no other way. Firing his pitch rockets, he accelerated to two, three, four gs. Not enough! Not nearly enough! As he applied full thrust for the pullout recovery, the lunar surface, shimmering quicksilverlike on the video screen, and so like a permanent fixture until now. began to quiver and slowly subside, his contour couch squeaking under the increasing, pressure of his body The ship was going into arc directly over Ihe lunar sur- ' a steep ULTIMATE FUEL— When matte- striken an:"; airet

lawyers it will. lake a. .quick .change in very- them people— some , sixty accept as eight hundred forty . . seven hundred xenophobic definitions — the fact thai may nave v olated m migration statutes will be- only one.probiem faced by the aliens. Will telepaths who', eavesdrop on people's His eyesight began to dim - the five gs bedrooms be guilty of -telerape? Will the. jury that hears their case have to contain at were beginning to exact their toll — but he least one extraterrestrial? And what about ET/human marriage? For the" legal ins remained conscious. He lay there, partially and outs o- ir'tergalaei.io contact, see our alarming report in next month's Omni. blind, his fingers lightly gripping the con- trols, and felt the seat's foam-rubber cush- !(.;'./ DREAM HOUSE- Dorr :;. ion give way under the g force. Somehow here. High on asnow-cc :d mountain overlook ng Lake Tanoe. Tom Smith spent he couldn't quite bring himself to believe last winter nestled .snug in a house radian! y heaied a-mos; entirely by ihe sun. that he was done for. Unable to move his

.. Smith's home has no bizarre collectors or complex olumnmg. It looks like many lips, he started counting mentally in the other houses :n the resort area and costs less to build than the regional aver- dark, slowly and deliberately; Twenty-one gives exciting details in the next Omni. age. Writer Dans the issueof . . Ronald . . . twenty-three . twenty- . . , twenfy-fwo

four . . since the Barbie Doll's heyday. TOYS— Playthings have come a long way, baby, The At the count of fifty, it crossed his mind Revolution hit toymakers hard. the market this Christmas,. you'll Computer has On that if there were to be an impact, it would line] S/,-jr TusH pnaserF iha: snoo: reared rays nand-h.eid video games with their have to be now. Even so. he kept his hands built-in sereens. talking robots with .microchip brains. In 1977 f;rst- own and on the controls. It was starting to get to him generatlon electronic games there were only four hand-held brain teasers- now — the suffocating sensation in the of grossed $21 million. This year we'll choose from hundreds. games and spend chest, the ringing in the ears, a throat all over $1 billion on them. For a dazzling preview of the- high-lech- wonders being clogged with blood, the reddish-black in stockpiled in Santas cyberneticized workshop., don't- miss the. November Omni, .

He made an attempt to get up, was re- strained by the straps, and fell back against the seat, convinced that he was hallucinating. Out of nowhere the CO sud- denly appeared in the passage separating the glass shell from the rest of the cabin. He stood before him in his gray uniform, fixed him with his gentle gray eyes, and smiled. Pirx was altogether confused. The moment the glass bubble went up. Pirx automatically started undoing his straps, then rose to his feet. The video screens behind the CO went blank. 'A good performance, Pirx," the CO said. DIARY "Quite good." THE OMNI Pirx was still dumbfounded. Then, as he FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL FUTURE. was standing at attention in front of the CO, he did something that was strictly against Not just a diary. A work of art, complete with full-color, illustrations the rules: He turned his head around, twist- (as they appear in OMNI) marking each month, And for every day in your ing it as far as his partially inflated neck schedule-, you'll find an interesting piece of scientific information. dam would let him. Attractively bound in gray suede cloth with silk moire lining, $25,00 To his amazement, the entire access (2.00p&h). tunnel dismantled, hatchway Send to: OMNI DIARY, RO. had been Box 6500, Englewood, M.J. 07631. and all, making it look as it the rocket ship Add'"i?SS_ Send check or money order in had broken in half. In the evening light he U.S. dollars or chargetoAE, MC City made out the catwalk, where a group of or VISA. To expedite your charge people were now standing — the cable rail- State order call 800-526-4797 (except ings, the ceiling girders . . . Pirx stared at N.J.)- Allow 8 weeks for delivery. Check or money order enclosed Bank Amencard (VISA) the CO with a gaping mouth. N.J. residents add 5% tax. P American Express D Master Charge "Come along, son." said the CO, who Account* reached out and shook Pirx's hand firmly,

I i i i i i i i i "On behalf of Flight Command, commend

you and . . . offer you my personal apology. Expiration Date Interbank* ! Mil

{Master Charge Only) Yes, it's . . . only right. Now come along. You can clean up at my place." The CO started for the exit, with Pirx trail-

ing his footsteps, still a little stiff and wobbly , the eyes. He'd reached his physical limits. hold ot the controls: he still had to steer the on his feet. It was chilly outside. A breeze His fingers relaxed their grip, and the ship back onto the assigned orbit. The two was blowing through the sliding panel in control stick slid back of its own. He saw JO ships were nowhere in sight, which the ceiling. Both ships were parked in the nothing, heard nothing. By degrees the came as no surprise. Even so, he had to exact same place as before. Attached to darkness began to lift and turned grayer, complete the mission and report to Luna the nose of each were several long and and breathing became easier. He tried Navigation. Or should he report first to Luna thick cables, droopingly suspended in opening his eyes, only to discover that they Control — because o( the malfunction? space. They had not been there before. had been open the whole time— his eyelids Damned if he knew. Or maybe he should His instructor, who was among those were completely dried out. just keep quiet. No way! The moment he waiting on the catwalk, made a remark, He sat up. touched down, they would spot the which Pirx had trouble hearing through his The gravimeter showed two gs; on the blood — which, as he now noticed for the helmet. forward screen, nothing but star-embel- first time, was splattered all over the ceiling. "What?" he instinctively blurted out, lished blackness. Not a sign of the moon. Besides, the on-board (light recorder would "The air! Let the air out of your suit!" ." What had happened to it? have the whole story on tape — the way the "Oh, the air ..

It was there, all right— below him. He had circuit breaker went berserk, the malfunc- He pressed the valve, and the air made a

. . pulled out of his deadly nose dive and was tion in the emergency lever . Soy a swell hissing sound as it was released. From now cruising up and away with a diminish- piece of machinery these sports give us! where he stood on the catwalk, he could ing escape velocity. He wondered how They might as well send us up in a coffin! make out the two men in white smocks close he had shaved it. The altimeter must Okay, so he'd report it. But where? Then waiting behind the railing. His rocket ship have recorded the exact amount of clear- he had a brainstorm. He leaned forward, looked as if it had a fractured beak. At first ance, but somehow he was in no mood to loosened his shoulder strap, and groped he felt only a strange apathy, which turned take a readout. Suddenly the alarm signal under the seat for the crib sheet. Why the to amazement, then disillusionment, and stopped. My Gawd, it has been on the hell not? Now's when it could really come in finally anger— pure and unmitigated anger whole time! A big help that was! Why not handy. They were opening the hatch of the other hang a church bell from the celling? If At that instant he heard something creak ship. The CO was standing on the catwalk, you're headed for the cemetery, then at behind him. as if a door were being listening to something the men in white least let a guy go out in style! There was opened. smocks were telling him. another buzzing noise, this time very faint: A door? Behind him? He knew perfectly A faint banging noise could be heard

The other fly! it was alive, the bastard! Alive well there was no door behind him, But coming from inside. and buzzing the blister's ceiling. Suddenly even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have Then, trom out of the cabin staggered a he had an awful taste in his mouth, a taste turned around because of the straps. A writhing hulk of a man in a brown uniform,

. . of like similar to thafof. coarse canvas . The streak light fell across the screens, wip- his helmetless head bobbing around a safety belt. He had been munching on it ing out the stars still visible on them, and blurry blotch, his face contorted in a mute absentmindedly the whole time. the next thing he heard was the CO's soft shriek . . He fastened the safety belt and grabbed and subdued voice: "Cadet Pirx." Pirx's knees buckled. DO tea omni MflChJNES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 64

computer therapy seriously. To see how a computer might interrogate a patient with mental problems, Colby turned the exper-

iment around . In the early 1 970s he created a program that could converse in English

and respond to questions as if it were a human paranoid.

Called parry, it was given the identity of a twenty-eight-year-old man who lived with his parents and bet heavily on horses.

. PARRY was obsessed with the idea that he was being stalked by a vengeful bookie. In one experiment six psychiatrists inter- viewed both parry and a real paranoid through a terminal. Asked which was hu- man, they guessed wrong often as not. Interesting as these achievements are, they are all microworld research that deals with restricted domains of knowledge and limited vocabularies. The question is how to extend this to the real world. Roger Shank, of Yale, is teaching com- puters "scripts" about human social situa- tions, hoping to learn how we draw on ex- pectations to extract implicit meaning from ambiguous statements. One of his scripts enables a computer to answer questions

about what happens when it goes to a res- taurant, recalling that paying the check presumes having eaten, and so on. Other programs developed at Yale can scan a newspaper article, summarize the major points, and then update the sum- mary daily as new details unfold in the capacity that Al researchers have begun to as it does only because it had to grow from press. Whether or not this research will suspect that the eye and brain somehow a single cell. Computer vision systems may someday lead to the use of stored knowl- cheat. Perhaps they reduce the data to someday surpass the eye's data-gathering edge for understanding language, it's now manageable proportions by pulling some ability precisely because they do work dif- only a simplistic model of human cognition. trick to avoid processing redundant stimuli. ferently. Industrial vision systems already Ten years ago Al researchers thought In hopes of simplifying the visual infor- improve on human performance in that that if they could teach a computer to talk mation a computer must deal with to digest they don't get bored or show up at work about some artificial situation, they could an image, MIT's David Marr has tried to bleary-eyed from a hangover then extend this language ability to the real convert an incoming picture into what he In the early t960s scientists at Johns world. Now they are less sure. issue, The calls a primal sketch. The light intensities in Hopkins University created one of the first once again, is context and experience. a real image are converted into a "rich mobile robots, affectionately known as the often-repeated One story tells of a machine symbolic description" of the way they Hopkins Beast. Said to resemble a gar- that translated the biblical verse spirit "The change over a visual field. By remembering bage can on wheels, it was entirely self- is willing, but the flesh is weak" from English only where the change occurs, rather than contained, with no external computer link. to Russian again. and back The computer everything in its field of view, the computer Its sole activity was to whir up and down the came back with "The wine is agreeable, can cut its data processing markedly. corridors of its building in a sonar search for but the meat has spoiled." thinks Minsky our brain may store a electrical outlets. Whenever it spotted one, We also acquire much of our knowledge numberof handy reference pictures, which it would home In, screech to a halt, insert its visually, and if computers are going he calls frames. to Suppose, he says, we are plug, and feed. When sated, it pulled away equal our intelligence, they must the do standing in a living room we have never and began its quest for the next outlet. It same. The punch line here is that visual seen before. Wc already 'la-.'e a rough idea had eyes for only one thing; electric-outlet perception may be even more complex of what we'll find in a living room and where coverplates. Its search for "food" was the than language. It's easy enough to dump things will be. So we don't have to start from one "instinct" that kept it going. visual information into a computer. Any scratch and ponder everything in detail. SRI International, then known as the color-TV camera can easily pick up a del- Not surprisingly, research in computer Stanford Research Institute, built a more uge of data. is The problem in what hap- vision inevitably leads us back to the matter sophisticated mobile robot in 1968. pens next. No one understands of how the human experience. As in language Dubbed Shakey because it always brain makes sense ot the information our programming, academic researchers have seemed unsure of its footing, it was about eyes supply. How can we effortlessly pro- found that human intelligence is intimately the size of a small desk-top copy machine, cess a jumble of light, shadow, movement, tied with human perception. It's going to be perched on a mobile base. Its "head" was a and color to recognize that the car speed- very hard to duplicate one without also du- TV camera and range finder, topped by a ing past is-thi.s year's new Jaguar, even plicating the other. radio antenna. Guided by radio from a when we have never seen one before? We may never need to mimic the eye's large nearby computer, Shakey could de- The information continuously processed exact mechanisms, however Our eye is a cipher English commands and figure out by the eye is so far beyond any computer's general-purpose instrument that may work ways to obey them. Told to retrieve a box ,

New Stereo Cassette sitting out of reach on a platform, Shakey believe they provide important models ot was smart enough to survey (he room, find human problem solving — a major goal of

Adapter lets you a ramp and shove it against the platform, all Al research. But if computers can play then motor up to claim his objective. He championship chess, mustn't they surely CASSETTES could see, move, touch, and reason. be capable of simulating the human prob- PLAY Unfortunately, Shakey never learned lo lem-solving process? Unfortunately, no. IN YOUR leave his microworld playpen. His intelli- Quite simply, no one knows how we ac- gence was far too limited for him lo roam quire our "common Knowledge." or how we

8-TRACK SYSTEM abroad. The conclusion that unlimited mo- relate it to new situations to produce, "un- bility requires human sophisticatisn halted derstanding." Some researchers are now university research on sentient robots. concluding that intelligence is so entwined

Robot research now rests mainly in the with life itself that it can never be fully re-

pragmatic hands ot industry, which asks produced in a box of silicon chips. only ihat machines be smart enough to The academic debate over what consti- handle their jobs. Although manipulators tutes human intelligence is far from settled. and so-called Plind robots are nothing new Al researchers interested in practical prob- to the industrial scene, until recently they lem solving spend little time worrying

had no sight, no sense of touch, and no about it. And although these uses haven't "brain." Without these they will cheerfully taken the world by storm, they have

screw a bolt into thin air if somebody forgets shown that computers can do more than to put the socket in exactly the right place. play chess. This is all about to change. General The PROSPECTOfl system at SRI aids in •Fits automobile, home. RV. and Motors' vision-equipped manipulators, mineral exploration. A program at Stanford, portable 8-track units called hand-eye machines, are now enter- called dendral, is being used to deduce system molecular structures from the output of •No wiring needed. Slips in like ing the assembly lines. The GM unoriented parls as they come mass spectrometers. At MIT, MACSYMA an 8-track cartridge identifies down a conveyor belt and maneuvers a does high-level algebra for mathemati- •Retains full stereo sound hand to pick them up and fit them to a car cians. J. Q Meyers, at the University of

body or discard them into a reject bin if Pittsburgh Medical School, is developing a With the Stereo Cassette Adapter, you they're not the right size. A robot system diagnostic program called internist, which can virtually double the use of your recently developed at SRI International incorporates his own experience as a 8-track system. And enjoy the lull stereo sound ot your favorite cassettes in your sports both eyes and a sense of touch, physician into a simulation of clinical car, home, or portable 8-track. No longer enabling it to sense when a bolt is not "judgment." And at Stanford, mvcin will do your cassette and 8-track systems screwed in properly. Vision-equipped soon aid in diagnosing blood infections have to be compatible. Wow you can rojDots are slowly going to revolutionize the and meningitis. have a total music collection of both cassettes and cartridges. assembly line. Kawasaki Ltd. is even plan- The thread that connects these pro- The Mora MK 703SR is a precision ning factories run entirely by robots. grams is thai they are restricted to a narrow engineered, sophisticated electronic Charles Rosen. SRI's former director for range of facts. They are what Stanford's component. Its quality is best robotics, says, "Although ten to fifteen per- Feigenbaum calls "knowledge en- demonstrated in the clarity of the sound own Ed still it reproduces— full stereo sound! cent of assembly jobs will be done by gineering." They do not pretend to be exact people for many years, a heck of a lot ot replicas of human thought processes. other jobs can be done by robots." He Rather, they use the computer's vast mem- thinks robots will eventually cut the work- ory and high speed to sift through what for week, shift people into service jobs, and human beings would be an overwhelming make low-cost custom products possible. mountain of information. We avoid being For years Al's most widely known use has overloaded with daia by using judgment to been in computerized chess. Though ma- focus on what is important. Thanks to their chines must struggle to compete with speed, computers can arrive at the same human sight and language, they have result by looking at all their data every time. $69.95 POSTPAID much less trouble with analytic manipula- They may appear "intelligent," but they tell tions. Grand Master David Levy recently us very little about how the human mind won his ten-year-oid bet. made against works. several Al experts, that no computer chess So far, Al research hasn't even come program could beat him by 1978. (See close to reproducing human intelligence. Interview. April 1979.) However, Levy took Al has painfully discovered that our type of only three out of five games against the intelligence cannot really be isolated from program "CHESS 4.7," and he is not plan- the rest of human life and experience. At- ning to renew his bet for another decade. tempts to process visual images, create Computers became unbeatable in language, and solve problems have given checkers several years ago, and Nicholas us a new appreciation of just how complex Findler, at the State University of New York the brain's functions must really be. at Buttalo, seems well on his way to devel- Yet machine intelligence, with computers oping a program that can beat most poker doing things their own way. has almost limit- Sooner or later computers 10-Day Money Back players, regardless of their style. Poker is less potential. will probably duplicate most everyday Satisfaction Guarantee particularly interesting, since winning de- mands a lot more than simple logic. Human human tasks. An artificial intelligence is in- CALL TOLL-FREE: 800-243-9038 psychology is the key to this game. Signifi- deed arising, but it is a species different Conn, residents call 966-9865 cantly, the program's opponents, isolated from human intelligence. It is evolving and playing through a keyboard and TV rapidly and, despite its alien character, is

screen, often cannot tell which of the other adapting nicely to man's world. We have yet

players is the computer. to face the psychological or social implica- P.O. Box 696, 125 Elm Street, Games may seem trivial, Put scientists tions of its Fyi..3tian su;cess. DO the shoulder arm, hand, and right side of EMRJ1ES the coat. Push it halfway down Ihe right ANSWERS TO GAMES (cage 176) side of the coat. Reach up the sleeve,

seize the vest, arid extract it through the 370: The next-highest cube-sum number sleeve. is 371. The number 370 read upside-aown with a Spanish accent is OLE. PUZZLES:

IMPROMPTU MAGIC: 1. CUT-UPS, In both cases the unique solution involves parcels that have the These seven feats, and hundreds ol others, same shape as the original lot but that are are described in Gardners Encyclopedia one fourth its size. of Impromptu Magic , published by Magic, Gardner takes these puzzles another step Inc. and asks whether it is possible to dissect a a. Anyone can produce a tiny puff of

. "smoke" from an "invisible cigarette." Keep your mouth tightly closed, and by pressure of the mouth and cheeks compress the air inside your mouth as NAME: Michael J. Lavelle much as possible. Then open your mouth

HOMETOWN : Brooklyn, New York and let the air drift out. Under the right CURRENT RESIDENCE: San Jose. California humidity conditions, the sudden EDUCATION: B.A. -Philosophy, S.U.N.Y., expansion of the air causes it to condense Stony Brook, New York and produce a small cloud of vapor square into five congruent parts. As with OCCUPATION: Computer Professional these problems, the pieces may be of HOBBIES: Racquetball, basketball, auto b. A 50-cent piece under Ihe tablecloth mechanics, hiking, philosophy absorbs the cigarette's heat so that the AS A ROSICRUCIAN, cloth doesn't get hot enough to burn or be scorched. I HAVE LEARNED TO CONTROL MY LIFE c. A bit of earwax on the end of the match Several years ago as a college student in does the trick. search of truth, I found myself collecting many use- any design, no matter complex or how less facts that did not apply to my life. On hearing d. The distance from the right side of the bizarre, as long as they are identical in size about the Rosicrucian Order, I was skeptical and shield on the eagle to the right margin of and shape. An asymmetric piece.is spent time investigating its claims. Eventually, I the bill is one inch. United States at the top -considered congruent with a mirror-image, became a member—and that was the most reward-

" ing step I have ever taken. of the green side is two inches wide. The flopped-over version of itself. The answer to As a Rosicrucian, I have rectangle containing the words Federal Gardner's problem of parceling a square learned to develop the psychic, subconscious and intellectual levels of Reserve Note at the top of the bill's face into live pieces is unique; There's only one my mind. With this new awareness, I can deal with is three inches wide. The bill itself is Ihree way to do it. We'll show you how next month. people on a deep and positive level, attracting har- sixteenths of an inch longer than six monious conditions to my personal relationships. I inches; eliminate one margin 2. OIL and you AND VINEGAR. Since oil floats on have also learned to maintain an excellent state of come very close to a six-inch rule. vinegar the efficiency expert can easily health. pour the oil from the top of the bottle. He In short, the Rosicrucian teachings have put e. Hold the watch flat, pointing the hour then inverts the corked bottle and loosens me in control of my life.

Today I look within myself to understand hand toward the sun. Imagine a line the cork just enough to let the desired and control life situations, and rely on my intuition to running from the center of the dial through amount of vinegar dribble out. guide me in decision-making and problem -solving. a point midway between the hour hand And since there is no limit to what I can learn, I will and 12, This line will point due south. If the 3. SYMBOL. 2.3. be a Rosicrucian for as long as 1 can. time is before six in the morning or after six The Rosicrucians are a fraternal, cultural and in the afternoon, this line points north 4. "EENY" DOESN'T COUNT. Deny. educational organ ization and are not a religion. instead of south. If you are south of the FREE BOOKLET equator, these rules are reversed. 5. GOLD! A pound of gold is worth twice Why don't you investigate the Rosicrucian as much as a half-pound of gold. Order to see hotv its teachings may benefit you? f. Hold a raw, unpeeled potato in the left For your (ree booklet entitled "The Mastery of hand and a straw in the right, between the 6. THE MONK ON THE MOUNTAIN. Life," use the coupon below. thumb and middle finger, with the index Imagine two monks walking on the same finger covering the end of the straw. With day, one up and one down, both following practice, it is possible to drive a paper precisely the path that the real monk had straw completely through a potato. A taken and both proceeding at the same The Rosicrucians quick, straight thrust does it; the air rate of speed as the real monk. The two SCRIBE X.F.V. column trapped in the it straw keeps imaginary monks must meet somewhere, Rosicrucian Order, AMORC momentarily rigid enough to cut through that is and the spot that the monk had Rosicrucian Park j the potato. occupied on both trips at exactly the same San Jose, California 95191 U.SA ' of time day. Kindly send me a free copy of The 1 To g. remove a vest without removing Mastery of Life. 1 am sincerely interested in 1 one's coat, first tuck the teft side of the COMPETITION: We apologize for going the inner functions of self. ' coat into Ihe left armhole ol the vest from back on a promise, but space limitations outside. Work the armhole over the left have prevented us from publishing the shoulder arid down over the arm and results of Omni Competition Number 6 hand— the hole will then circle the coat in (partly baked ideas) in this issue. They will back of the left shoulder. Work the hole appear next month, however. And that's a STATF toward the right shoulder, and pass it over promise. DO a walking For about a year they would always stay shoulder. Outside the window the sunlight later at parlies than anyone else; they man froze in mid-stride and had been placed RENT would taunt acquaintances and colleagues darkened as if a shutter CONTINUED FROM PAGE 116 when they were too tired to accompany over it. for scrambled "What do you mean, 'older for nothing'?" street. The light became normal. them to all-night places an- he asked. Terry touched Edith again, this time lay- eggs or a final drink. Sometimes they showing up bright- She looked at him thoughtfully. "It's been ing his hand gently on her bare back. Out- noyed colleagues by matter about five years now, in the real world," she side the window everything stopped, as eyed and rested in the morning, no had gone on, no matter replied. The "real world" for them meant the when a switch is thrown on a projector to how late the party drunk, no-mat- time lived by other people. "But we must arrest the movement. Terry let out his breath how many drinks had been They have spent five years in suspended time audibly. Then he said, "Wake up, Edith. I've ter how loud and fatiguing the revelry. haven't and here in bed . More than that. And we got something to show you." were always buoyant, healthy, awake, been aged by it." it, and they told just a bit smug. They never understood ?" . . could . But after the first year they tired of party- He looked at her. "How nobody. It was relativity, they decided. They went out "I don't know," she said. "But I know we're had found, indeed, a perfect place to- ing, grew bored with friends, and to a not any older than anybody else." gether, where subjective time raced and less often. Somehow they had come never bored with, and He turned toward the mirror at her feet the external world stood entirely still. place that they were himself in it. He was still Edith referred to it as "our little loft bed." and stared at It did not work anywhere but in her loft lives become a youthful, firm, clear-complexioned. Sudr bed— and only when they touched. They The center of their had mattress with a foot-wide denly he smiled, at himself. "Maybe I can could stay together Ihere for hours or days, king-sized foam in bed." and foot fix it so I can shave although there was no way they could tell ledge and a few inches of head were never bored how long the "time" had really been; they room at each end. They Their Weekends became longer. Al- could make love, sleep, read, talk, and no when in that small space. quarrel. though they could not measure their spe- time passed whatever. What they had to learn was not to cial time, the number of times they slept They discovered, after a while, that only if and the times they made love could be they quarreled did it fail, and then the clock counted; both those numbers increased and watch would run even though they once they realized the time in bed together were touching. It required intimacy, even of was "free"— that they did not age while a slight kind— the intimacy ot casual mEach was obsessed with one touching in the loft bed, while the world touching— for it to work. outside was motionless and the sun neither They adapted their lives to it quickly, and single notion: nor set. life's rose at first it extended their sense of pos- immortality. They could live Sometimes they would pick a time of day sibilities enormously. It bathed them in a loft and a quality of light they both liked, and perfection of the lovers' sense of being forever in the they'd stop their time there: at twilight, with apart from the rest of the world and better bed. Deep in themselves empty streets and a soft ambience of light. than it. they became They would allow for the slight darkening Their careers improved; they had more effect, and then they'd touch and stay time for work and for play than anyone else a pharaoh's dream of time sleeping periods, them ever under serious touching for eight or ten had. If one of was end.*) without six or eight orgasms, fifteen meals. pressure— of job competition, of the need They had stopped the omelets because to make a quick decision— one could get of the real time it took to prepare them. Now the other in bed and they would have all the they bought pizzas and prepared chickens time necessary to decide, to think up the and ready-made desserts and quarts of speech, to plan the magazine cover, or to of intimacy that milk and coffee and bottles of good wine review the details of the case going to trial. not to lose the modicum and cartons of cigarettes and cases of Per- Sometimes they took what they called their relativity phenomenon required. But water, and they filled shelves at each Weekends, buying and cooking enough that came easily, too; without discussing it, rier only a small part of self side of the window with them. The hot food food for five or six meals, and just staying in each learned to give Terry the other, to cultivate a would never cool as long as Edith and the loft bed, touching, while reading or to intimacy with were touching each other in the controlled meditating or making love or working. He state of mind that. was distant, remote conflict, yet with a intimacy they now had learned as second had his art supplies in shelves over the bed enough to be safe from practiced yoga nature. They could look at themselves in now, and she had reference books and note controlled closeness. They Transcendental their own mirror and not even think about pads on the'ledge. He had put mirrors on for body and spirit and never told other their ihe other in a conscious way, but if their two of the walls and on the ceiling, partly for Meditation. They each themselves star- fingertips were so much as touching, as if sex, partly to make the small place seem mantra. Often they found they seldom the remote sense of the other was unruffled bigger, less confining. ing at different mirrors. Now by anger or anxiety, then the pizzas on the The food was always hot, unspoiled; no looked out the window shelf would remain hot, the Perrier cold, the time had passed for it between their meals. the second major vehicles in the street motionless, and the They could not watch television or listen to It was Edith who made forever. Terry was in the sky and weather without change No records while in suspended time; no ma- discovery. One day when run- love was needed now, no feeling what- chinery worked while they touched. bathroom shaving, and his watch was to him, in kind of ever—only the lack of unpleasantness and Sometimes for fun they would watch ning, he heard her shout a the slightest of physical contact. people out the window and stop and start cool playfulness, "Qui! dawdling in ihere, There The world outside became less interest- them up again comically, but that soon Terry. I'm getting older for nothing." her voice, ing for them. They both had large bank grew tiresome. was some kind of urgency in and his face off in a accounts, and both had high-level yet un- They both got richer and richer, earning he caught it. He rinsed bedroom. demanding jobs; her legal briefs were pre- promotions and higher pay, and the low rent hurry, dried, and walked to the asked. pared by assistants; three young men in his helped them to.save plenty of money. Of "What do you mean?" he "Get on here, studio made the illustrations that he de- course there was how truly no question of She didn't look at him. up controlled, signed, on drawing pads, in the loft bed. leaving the apartment; there was no other Dum-dum," she said, still in that terrible bore, and "I to touch me." Often the nights were a bed- in which they could stop time— no playful voice. want you her they had to let go of each other if they other place. He' climbed up and laid a hand on 164 OMNI ERATH'S FIRST wanted morning to come — just so they OUTER SPfl« NtUISPRKRI could go to work, a change of pace. But less and less did either of Ihem want fll€Thfcl€HC€ "TH€ N€BULON GRZCTT6" the pace to change. Each had learned to spend "hours" motionless, staring at a mir- ror or out of the window, preserving his or The Parapsychology xnmendng January 1980, with the: her youth against the ravages of real time Journal for Today! tflftTH SINCE and real movement. Each became ob- FIRST CDITION TH€ sessed, without sharing the obsession, • Telekinesis • Astrology FALL OF RTIANTIS! • Precognition * Graphology . with a single idea: immortality. They could Features In the MS first Issue Include: The Unearthly • Out of Body • Tarot live forever, young and healthy and fully • Super Psychics • UFOIogy Stock Market • The True Astrology • Neourtew awake, in this loft bed. There was no ques- • The Quantum Physics tion of interestingness or of boredom; they of Consciousness Nebuwood Gossip » Confederacy. Old-Empire and had moved, deeply in their separate souls, Free-Flanet Military Coverage • Nebu lese Consumer far beyond that distinction, that rhythm of Reports • Lite-Form Comics • Inter-Svstem Class- life. Deep in themselves they had become a pharaoh's dream of endless time; they had -found the pyramid that kept the flow of the world away. One autumn morning thai had been like two weeks for them he looked at her, after NESULON SAZETTE waking, and said, "I don't want to leave this SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT P.O. BOX 23505 place. I don't want to get old." SAW DIEGO, CA 92128 She looked at him before she spoke.

Then she said, "There's nothing I want to do GAZETTE Earth Edition, beginning w outside." He looked away from her, smiling. "We'll D One year (12 Issues) $20.00 SubscriP«°«.s need a lot of food," he said. ,

They had already had the apartment filled with shelves, and a bathroom was installed beneath the bed. Using the bath- room was the only concession to real time; to make the water flow, it was necessary for them not to touch. They filled the shelves that autumn after- noon with hundreds of pounds of food- cheeses and hot chickens and sausages and milk and butter and big loaves of bread and precooked steaks and pork chops and WHY BUY FROM US? hams and bowls of cooked vegetables, all prepared and delivered by a wondering caterer and five assistants. They had cases of wine and beer and cigarettes. It was like an efficient, miniature warehouse. ...our free When they got into bed and touched, she said. "What if we quarrel? The food will all catalog spoil."

"I know," he said. Taking a deep breath, he added, "What if we just don't talk?" will tell She looked at him for a long time. Then she said, "I've been thinking that, too." So they stopped talking, and they turned you why. toward their own mirror and thought of liv- ing forever, back to back, touching.

through the empty shelves on what was for him the next day. he found them in the loft bed, back to back, each staring into a dif- ferent mirror. They were perfectly beautiful, with healthy, clear complexions, youthful WAREHOUSE I figures, dark and glistening hair But they had no minds at all. They were not even like SOUND CO. beautiful children; there was nothing there but prettiness. call toll free The landlord was shocked at what he ,;: VVA-:--iO.JSE E-CUNTJ ',-l'on P.O saw But he recognized soon afterwards 800-235-4160 Box 1007 ), CA 93714 that they would be sent somewhere and in Calif. 805-544-9700 that he would be able to charge a profitable rent, at last, from someone new DO . . .

machine, finally joined by the mysterious suspect from what 'ttle we have examined will enormous repercus- CULTURE fuzzy animal, still busily issuing its ugly today, there be LOST barking sounds. sions. religious questions alone are The dominant male, now The strapped in the machine, appeared to be staggering. Reputalions built over a life- toil will, will Maybe a variation on the old Vestal Virgins holding some kind of large hoop, attached time of study and I shall repeat,

it!" to it, in his hands. come crashing down." cult This is incredible! I can't stand meaningfully around the The leader cut in hastily: "Settle down, all Hot dogs and apple pie. . He glanced silently yet it obvi- of you. Let's not go off the deep end. One The screen went dark. room. They sat and was that they were seething with excite- thing is obvious, to me at least. Every theory The lights came up in the room to show a ous a hoarse whisper: we've ever held about this curious' civiliza- very pensive group of researchers. Some- ment. From somewhere

'Apple pie . . . apple pie, My god, do you tion is now called into question. Let's bring one in the rear finally broke the silence. a semblance of order to this meeting. First "Well, no arches in that one, that's for know what that could mean?" Several pensively. The leader off, I'm going to assign you and, yes, you, sure." nodded too"— he indicated two of the more solemn Another voice picked up the theme: "It's gestured again for silence. try to I Let's just scholars— "to come up with some kind of that furry thing that scares me. Do any of "There, see what mean? remember that we are scientists." theory, or a rational explanation, if possible, you know what language ii was speaking?" brought in. Little of what the word commercial meant. What A third asked, "That machine? Wha! sav- Refreshments were gathered in were they trying to do? Perhaps these were age use of colors! They certainly weren't groups of excited researches visions recorded messages directed al us." inhibited. I'm very impressed by their corners, discussing the incredible ." they just watched. One, who had said The two scholars nodded solemnly as childlike exuberance, and. . had little spoke to his comrades. they began taking notes. "Just wail a minute," the leader broke in. up to now, 1 never thought I'd live to see anything 'And you, over there. Your assignment is "That machine, as you call it. has appeared

like this. It's if we were privileged to to decipher 'B B D and 0.' Was it, perhaps, often in what fragmentary images have as watch the in their daily lives, dr the I Romans a religious order? It'll be a tough one to survived from that time. frankly believe it

barbaric Huns at play. I tell you, this is a crack, but it may be the key. While you're al ."

turning point, a. . it, if any of you have any ideas about this "Shhh," his friend hissed, "back to work." 'tee vee' business, I want them in writing. That phrase, as you know, has appeared They look their seats as the leade'f re- turned Ihe room, his face grave, yet'with over and over in other digs." to

or, Naturally, I did cently published by Sponlak Seven in called sex Supreme Foundationman. of the sensitive which he suggested that for the purposes 'even more curious, self- not go into details, because things have wit- of scholarship we apply the official desig- nature of some of the we fulfillment. But his ' nation of the Tee-Vee Culture to this tribe. nessed today" A sly smile creased; Do you ..." little mention was made of face. "I don't have to tell you what this" will mean for next year's funds." "Yes, I read The leader interrupted, yes. daily existence.^ There were a few muffled cheers from the it, of course. He may be right, but those golden arches may change things. We'll rear. The leader continued: 'As you know carefully from among the just have to wait and see. All right, have you you were selected got that next spool ready?" world's experts for your specific knowledge are hearing today A voice from the darkness at the rear of of the dead language we of for the first time spoken by those who actu- the room mumbled. "I think so. This crazy wasn't a machine at all but a habitation ally it. are a chosen few. Before we machine is a bugger io work." some sort. They apparency lived in those." used We timidly continue viewing, are there any ques- The leader cut him off. "Let's be tolerant. "Uh. . .sir?" the young scholar tions?" Remember, we're dealng with a people of asked. "Is it possible, sir, that Chev-vee, or raised. very minimal technical skills." its variation Chev-ro-lay was the name they A hand was The lights dimmed, the machine whirred, gave to one of their benevolent gods? In "Yes?"

. It's sir. the mystic symbois marched again across what we have just seen, he appears to have 'Ah . . not exactly a question, But

time I the screen, followed by a brief second or given them something for which they are as you know, some back published a

'Y I two of blackness, and then the screen was grateful." monograph on the symbol & R,' which conclusively stood tor the words filled with a great mass of silvery, gleaming "That's the trouble with you radicals," the proved ."

rubicam. and , . metal, some sort of massive grille. The leader said, "always jumping on every young and in: "What's your point?" scene widened to show a large, gaudily bandwagon that comes around. That's an The leader cut speaker continued nervously: "Well, painted wheeled machine covered with interesting thought, and I don't want to in- The strips of silvery material. Again a native hibit you,, but they also had other quasi sir, we know the word young means 'an state,' but rubicam has been family group cavorted around it, their eyes gods. Don't forget, we're dealing with a immature

it is misspelling of gleaming with emotion. The dominant male highly superstitious culture." more difficult. I believe a legendary river, also called ran his hands lovingly over the machine as He glanced around expectantly, en- a which was methodology a chorus chanted: couraging discussion. Rubi-con. Perhaps, using my 0.' that lurry applied to 'B B D & I could conceivably Hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. . "What were Ihose hatches and their A large, furry animal leaped about, making thing? Is it possible that he was ." interrupted again. 'Are you guttural barking noises. Smaller natives, leader? Perhaps they were enslaved by . . The leader apparently the young, opened and closed The leader imperiously motioned for si- suggesting that there might be a connec- these metal hatches, emitting squeals that pos- lence. "Save all this for later when we get tion between Y & R and B B D & O sibly denoted pleasure. down to specifics." symbols?"

. . . just sir. I note that bits of "Yes, America, Chevy's done it again," He stood, facing the team. "I want none "Er possibly, the voice boomed. The chorus chanted: of this released. You hear me? Do not speak material bearing the Y & R symbol were found in the vicinity of this recent dig. There Hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet . . to anyone outside this room about anything ."

. mighi possibly be parallels . as the little band of ancients entered the you have seen. As you no doubt already jusl some 166 OMNI . ..

The leader motioned for silence. He ap- Ah-vay Littoral. I just knew it. It had to be." accompanied by native drums, screamed; peared deep in thought for a moment. He glanced to the rear, where the FINGER-LICKIN', F!NGER-UCKIN\ "Hmmm. Possibly Just possibly. But these operator was struggling with the machine. FINGER-LICKJW GOOD! people seem to have had hundreds of cults His lieutenant politely asked, "Why do they Various disjointed phrases echoed bearing indecipherable symbolic names. call that area Madison Ah-vay?" around the room. The leader's lieutenant We know of NCR, RCA, NBC, TRW and who The leader, always delighted to show his hissed into his ear. "You could be right. That

knows how many others? I'll leave that sort superior erudition, went on expansively. revolving icon must have been one of their of study to the dusty ones who spend Iheir "Canmut Nine's first dig years ago came major priests!" lives working on puzzles that lead nowhere. across a plaque or shield of some sort bear- The leader, his face stony, nodded. But never let it be said that I stood in the ing that name in the area, and you know "Shhh. Don't tip your hand."

of research. if way So you want to play how he was. He immediately gave the dig The technician, who seemed to have got- around with the It's idea, go ahead. an in- that name, significant or not." ten the hang of the primitive machine, al- teresting thought. Anyone else?" The assistant leaned forward, "Does most immediately announced that he had No one volunteered. Madison Ah-vay mean anything?" another spool ready for action. -"Well, then, let's on." said the leader push I "Yes, suppose it does. Canmut at least 5-4-3-2-1-BEER An interior of a colorful impatiently thought so. Madison was the name of one repository of some sort appeared, row The lights dimmed. They leaned forward, of their early patriots or generals, and upon row of shelves adorned with gaudy some scarcely breathing. Whirrr. Clack- Ah-vay is a Latin word meaning 'prayer' or cubes.. Three females in bizarre costumes ety-clack-clack. A muffled curse from the 'sacred song.' If Canmut was right, the area moved into the foreground. They were rear of the room. The leader's voice might well have been a sacred place of pushing spidery, wirelike contrivances boomed out: "What's the trouble?" leaders. Or perhaps of high priests." filled with more cubes. The three of them I'm sorry," a voice replied, laced with His lieutenant, now thoroughly inter- stopped and reverently picked up some exasperation, "this thing got all ested, unwound asked, "You mean it's possible that mysterious white circular rolls. Their eyes from ." the spool and is tangled . these up. commercials, as we call them, could glazed in ecstasy. They fondled the rolls. A lights The came back up. More muffled stern male arrived, clad in a white uniform. swearing. The leader stared at the ceiling, He resembled a guard, or perhaps an of- feigning great boredom. A few laughed. ficer of some kind— definitely a figure in- Most were afraid to. vested with authority. "Sir, I think I've got it. Those old-timers "Ladies, iNone of them, in please don't squeeze the must have had some trouble with this dumb Charmin!" The three females continued to monster." spite of earlier optimism, had fondle the rolls, with even more intensity. Whirrr. Darkness fell. 5-4-3-2-1 -BEEP the vaguest idea The guard, overcome by emotion, himself Seven multicolored furred bewhis- and began to squeeze a pair. One female kered tiny monsters danced on the screen. that they were about to make piped, "I just cant help it, Mister Whipple." "Meow meow meow meow meow meow a strike that Nervously the guard squeezed even ..." meow meow harder. would probabiy ' large, lumpy female appeared, surpass the A danc- "See, Mister Whipple, they're so squeez- ing in unison with one of the furry creatures. discovery of ably soft!" Together, they sang; the fabled Rosetta Stone. 9 The scene concluded with all four of

. Purina Cat Chow . them fondling the rolls in high excitement. Chow chow chow! As the lights came back on, there was a

Purina Cat Chow . . barely suppressed roar of conversation in Meow meow meow meow meow meow the room. The leader stood and cut through meow meow . . the hubbub with his voice of command. The leader faced the rear and bellowed, .?" be some sort of scripture, or . . 'All right, that's more than enough for our 'Are you sure you have that thing hooked up "Shhh." The leader for silence. first motioned session. Tomorrow I want to hear some right? This is incredible!" "Never give away your theories for free, es- of your theories on what we've seen. Re- ." sir. I "Yes, can't help what . . pecially in this crowd." member, no leaks. I repeat, we must not The leader barked an order. "Put that one 3-2-1-BEER A magnificent pastoral scene allow any of this to get into the wrong aside for special study." burst upon them; green trees, grass, but hands. Get some rest. We'll see you on the The room bristled with excitement. The above all another wildly enthusiastic group morrow" leader asked what was obviously a rhetori- of celebrants, young and old. At the center He and his lieutenant moved toward the cal question. was a rapidly revolving device bearing exit As they left the chamber, the leader, his "Now what in the world Shall" was mysterious wooden animals, upon which voice low and trembling with emotion, said, The eager young scholar piped, "That many of the young were seated. Pennants "We are right. Now it's clear to me. Those creature was what they called a cat. The and banners flew. This curious tightly rolled scene was white scrolls . . . they were wor- ancient Egyptians had them, too. In fact, accompanied by loud pagan music. There shipingl Are you ready for a cosmic they worshiped them." was revealed, high over them all, another theory?" The leader, lost in thought, muttered, revolving device gleaming in the sunshine. They both glanced around conspirator- "Meow Does anyone here know the mean- It resembled a vast spinning container ially as they moved toward their con- ing of friar? Meow." bearing the likeness of a benevolent veyance. The technician called out from the rear. "I white-bearded ancient. "Yes, yes. What is it. sir?" have another one threaded on this thing, sir. The voice boomed: "When Motherneeds The leader muttered almost to himself, "If

Should I run it?" a rest, give her a day off. Go to the Col- we can find out what was on those scrolls, The leader grunted in affirmation. He onel's!" or what they were used for, I believe we leaned to his left and whispered to his A group appeared, bearing containers would know what their civilization was all trusted lieutenant. "You realize that this exactly like the one in the sky, but miniature. about, what they believed in. Do you fol- could mean directorship, my at last. I can They began devouring the contents, while low?" tell you now that I" was worried toward the looking upward in rapt adoration at the The lieutenant gasped, "By Karnak, you end of the dig that it was just another dry bearded ancient's image. could just be right. Yes, you could just be hole, but I always knew that there just had to "The Colonel's eleven secret ingredients right!" besomelhfng of importance in the Madison it make finger- 1 ickin' good ..." A chorus, In high triumph they moved off. DQ BRAVE NEW WORLD EXPLORMTIOnJS By Susan Mazur

visit to the Arabian J*^ Gulf quickly magazine reoons: 'An esMrated $200 Dhabi. Qatar is moving ahead on its own M^^^ dispels Western images of billion is being spent by the Middle East airport at a cost o! 100 million Qatari rivals. # % sheikhs luxuriating in market to get U.S. construction com- Kuwait is expanding its air facilities, conspicuous consumption. The panies to build roads, pipelines, Arabsat. the Arab Satellite Organization, petrodollar has sparked a diverse telecommunications systems, medical expects to launch its first communications scientific revolution thai promises to centers, sports arenas, hotels, residential satellite in July 1982, linking earth stations transform these desert monarchies into accommodations, and schools tor in the Arab world. The package will handle leading centers of technology and thousands of foreign participants in these the equivalent of 10,000 telephone lines, innovation. emerging Now on Arabian projects . . . which wilt then be turned over seven television channels, and a channel sands is a prototype for space to Ihe various governments after for general educational purposes, in colonization that features clean energy construction has been completed." addition to providing direct links among from solar power, quality living space, and Saudi Arabia is committing $142 billion computers in Arab countries. Ihe beginnings of climate by design. as part of a five-year plan to develop its Despite some frenzy to build quickly Arab governments seem particularly resources and to industrialize, Two billion and thus avoid spi'aiinc construction receptive high to technology and its dollars will finance a new international costs, the Gulf countries are refusing to be potential. The West would do well to imitate airport north of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. ripped off. Hisham Qaddoumi, technical Kuwait's new low-cost solar-housing This complex is expected serve 15 to adviser to Qatar's emir, Sheikh Khalifa bin , program. "In my country," says Dr. Safwat million travelers annually by the year 2000 Hamad al-Thani, said in a recent interview: Moustafa. a director of the Kuwait Institute and will include a community for 3,000 "Instant cities are precisely what we don'l for Scientific Research, "the question airport workers, four schools, a mosque, want. We should have a lotal concept of arises: Why should we develop solar and commercial, medical, and what each section will look like at ihe energy when there's so much oil? But we government facilities. A modern air end. ... We have about twenty projects on are not only in the oil business. We are in terminal will accommodate both jumbo our active file [referring to the New Doha the energy business, and we want to stay jets and the Concorde, which may soon fly developmenl scheme to accommodate in this business." a six-and-a-half-hour Mideast-Mew York the country's population increase by Ihe Omni travelers curious about where route. The government of Abu Dhabi has year 2000], and we are being very their gas dollars go will probably find the relained the architect of the Charles de selective as to each one's economic, Arabian Gulf region inviting. Middle East Gaulle Airport to design an airport for Abu functional, and architectural feasibility"

Kuwait is insuring its future by setting aside 700 million Kuwaiti dinars — roughly

$2 billion (effective July 1977)— to which it continually adds 10 percent of the annual state revenue, along with cumulative interest, and by current project spending, which will exceed $17 billion next year. Such projects include Bedouin housing, new hospitals, road construction, and a three-kilometer-wide recreational belt designed to encircle the city of Kuwait with open-air theaters, a monorail, a swimming pool, sports grounds, an ice- skating/roller rink, museums, and a cafeteria,

Private investment also is future- oriented. Kuwait's Alghanim family (of America tor Sale fame) has introduced plans for a worldwide Mideastern gourmet fast-food chain, orchestrated by Hungarian gourmand George Lang, and for Kuwait's first ice-cream factory; the Alghanims are even commissioning fashion designer Betsey Johnson to Water reservoirs combine with revolving ar.-j garaens ;<; inrm Ku:vai!< Tr.wcrs design Lycra/Spandex uniforms for their new, international travel company. revolving cafeteria and viewing platform in However, of the $1 7 billion the Kuwaiti the sphere above. A second tower rises supporting a reservoir; THE government is allocating for projects, a 140 meters, also of significant amount will fund scientific like the firsi. it has a capacity 4.000 DIFFERENT research. kiloliters. In the evening from one's terrace Dr. Richard Williams, associate dean of at the Hilton one can see a magnificent engineering at Georgia Tech, supervised light show while the third column floods INDIA. Ihe design and installation of the first the towers and surrounding sea with color. solar-heating and air-conditioning systems There are 32 striped water towers, the in Kuwait three years ago. The success of Mushrooms, throughout Kuwait. Four Dr. Williams's solar mobile homes and underground reservoirs will be built within greenhouses has enabled Persian Gulf the next year, of reinforced concrete, in Ihe countries to realize Ihe urgency of Al Aqeela. Mina Abdulla. and Mullaa designing a future based on alternative areas— each-with a capacily of 1.9 million energies. Williams has also directed an kiloliters. assessment of Ihe feasibility of By next May KISR expects lo have solar-systems commercialization in established a community of about 50 Kuwait, which was funded by the Kuwait families in a remote desert area of Kuwait. Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). These families will get all their fresh energy. All "There is no organization in the Gulf like drinking water through solar KISR," Williams says. Iheir energy needs, such as the water Under the direction of Dr. Adnan required for agriculture, electrical power, Shab-Eldin, a nuclear physicist schooled heating, and air conditioning, will be met at the University of California at Berkeley in by solar energy. the 1960s, KISR has become an important According to Dr. Moustafa, this built in voice in delermining the feasibility of new 100-kilowalt "solar farm" being now technology for the Gulf. Staffed with young Sulaibiyah. in conjunction with the and vital scientists, the institute recently government of West Germany and introduced a design for solar-powered Messerschmitt-Bdikow-Blohm, of Munich, gat the tours to take We've you water desalination, a process now follows the design concept of the to the most magical place on accomplished directly through electricity distributed absorber system. Sixty-six earth. India. Tours that take you This large-scale solar operation should mirrored "dishes," each having a diameter to the art. To the music. To the prove invaluable to Kuwait, a country that of five meters, will concentrate Ihe sun's people. only 25 years ago imported all its drinking rays inaratioof 300 tol. Luxury tours. Budget tours. water by ship from Iraq. "This type of collector has never been Mountain climbing and trekking Spaces for storing this fresh water have built before," Moustafa says. It's the first tours. (And quite a set of moun- been appropriately enhanced. One such station of its kind, and we are investing developing the know-how for the tains. The Himalayas.) Tours for structure is Ihe Kuwaiti Towers along heavily in Kuwait's project. There is also going to be a storage every taste. And every budget Arabian Gulf Street, opposite the three white capability in the parkland of a hot, tarlike And eveiy one of our tours Hilton Hotel. The tallest of comprising this mosaic landmark organic liquid, though electricity needed includes something very special columns is 180 meters high and supports a large at night will be much less. We expect a very different. round-trip —and A mirrors. water reservoir in its lower sphere, atop problem with sand adhering to the flight Air-India. airline on The will which sit a restaurant and gardens, with a So Ihere will be a special liquid that that really knows India. And really knows how to treat you.

travel agent or fill out See your Failaka island Excavation site of Bronze Age settlements: the coupon. Temple of Arlemis and other ruins of fortress town connected with Alexander I Air-India the Great's eastern expedition in 334 B.C. Park Avenue. \'ow York. \\Y. 10022 1+00 Two hours by dhow from Al Kuwait. Please send me the India Tour Digest.

Science and Natural History One thousand exhibits of science and Museum of Kuwait natural history. Petroleum gallery and small planetarium.

Bronze Age burial mounds, many dating Bahrain, Hili, Urn an-Nar. Off coast of Abu from 3000 to 2000 B.C., and untouched Dhabi, Al Ain.

Reputed castle of Queen of Sheba Rasal-Khaimah Emirate.

Hot springs Throughout the Sultanate of Oman.

Dubai Museum Silver jewelry.

THE AIRLINE THAT'S DIFFERENT. AMD BETTER. Qatar National Museum Doha, 47,500 square meters. Restored Tall-free numbers; Continent,',] U.S.S0O-223-7776: Amiri Palace; re-creaied N.Y. State: SOO-l-P-SUIS; in N.Y. City: 212-7r,l-(!200 buildings of Old dhow lagoon and marine museum. .

wash the collectors if that happens." As for designing climate, though not yet at the stage ot "weather sculpture," Kuwait is attributing its distinct increases in

humidity and precipitation to its new ecology: those labulous gardens adorning multimillion-dollar villas that Architectural Digest cannot get in to photograph, embassy gardens, public gardens, even those of middle-income villa owners, and numerous produce and dairy farms. Kuwait's ministry of information notes: "A comparatively new attraction in Kuwait —

to those interested in natural history— is

bird life. The building of the oil town of Ahmadi and rapid expansion of the urban sprawl elsewhere have produced new migratory trends in the region. The Ahmadi Natural History and Field Studies Group, for instance, has recorded nearly 320 species, or subspecies, in Kuwait."

Abu Dhabi, too, is engineering its rainfall by foresting a 4-million-square- meter area where no rain is said to have fallen for three years. At a cost of 500,000 dirhams, 80.000 acacias and cedar saplings will be planted around a Bedouin village, adding to the 200 million square Address meters already planted in another part of the country. Slats Zip

Agricultural centers are rising all over the Middle East, and they plainly reflect Telephone Home the dream of Gerard K. O'Neill's High Frontier. With iodine-treated plastic roofs overhead and cooling seawater streaming down side walls, plants that are hydro- ponically fed— receiving every bit of nutrient by tube, drop by drop — produce tons of vegetables and fruits every day ai Its just Sadiyat, an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi, in Dubai, at AI Ain in the Buraimi oasis on the border with Oman, in Saudi Arabia, and in Kuwait. 7hours The emptiness of space is something familiar to all desert people. While the West may have the technical skills to the for future development of civilizations, The majestic Citadelle built nearly ZOO it is becoming increasingly apparent years ago to repel an invasion by Napo- that the peoples of the Arabian Gulf leon that never came, overlooks the Sun. have the New courage to build a new haunting ruins of the Sans Souci Palace, world where royalty once danced the minuet. I In the same time it takes you to fly And this is just one of the many faces IN TRANSIT I to Paris, you can discover the new of Haiti, the Caribbean's cultural and world of West Africa. Luxurious Saudia, the Saudi Arabian airline, prides adventure paradise. I hotels, beautiful art, friendly people Discover itself not only on its stuffed it. Explore it. You'll never for- kibbe, vine . and a culture that predates Christian- get its art. sculpture, voodoo, music leaves, and Arabic coffee but also on the ity. If you want a vacation you'll enjoy French-Creole cuisine and exceptional | most modern fleet in the Mideast with for a lifetime, fly to the New Sun. shopping values. TrisStar 1011, Jumbo 747, 707, and 737 I For more information write to Air flights to most major cities of the IAfrique, Box 10 DCS, Long Island Write for world— including a nonstop Citv, NY 11101. New 68-page York- Dharhan flight four times a week. Visitors Guide. I Saudia is at 747 Third Avenue. New York, Haiti N.Y 10022 (tel. 212-758-4727). Haiti Government Tourist Bureau As for accommodations, Kuwait's Hilton 30 Rockefeller Plaza York. Hotel offers more efficient service than New New York 1 0020 some four-star hotels in Paris. Reservations should be made at least a month in advance, or two if traveling during April or October. Contact: Hilton Address __ International, 605 Third Avenue, New York, \ MR ? JiFRlQUE N.Y. 10016. The telephone number is City State _ ;, Africa begins with Air 212-688-2240. DQ Afnque. PHEOIDfUlEnjA

The quiet of a mounlaintop is shattered by the sound of two bighorn sheep butting heads in this unique photograph by Marty Stouffer. Bighorn sheep, native to North America, are known throughout the world for their fierce mating rituals. The resulting sound can be heard for a mile or more. Butting between two rams can occur at

almost any time, but it is more frequent during the reproductive, or rutting, season. Usually one male establishes superiority over another through these fights, thus winning the "right" to breed with one or

Stouffer took this picture with a Nikon F camera, equipped with a 200mm telephoto lens, in the mountains of Banff National Park in Canada. The photograph is reprinted, by permission of Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc., from the forthcoming book entitled The Peaceable Kingdom, by Ann Guilfoyle. Copyright © • 1979 by Ageditions. DO

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*" -•- ^ ^_ , v^^l

173 72 OMNI .

and around Harrlsburg, Pennsylvania, would agree that the Three Mile Island ar- cheddar FDRURJl gument is anything but "poor. " — Ed

Tranquilizing America censorship. As concerned scientists and price July Vz Dr. Bernard Dixon's article in the issue journalists, you should come out at least of Omnf ["Ill-Defined Parameters"] is cause with a strong editorial condemning censor- for a great deal of concern. This is not so ship and the secrecy surrounding nuclear much because of what the FDA is prevent- power. If Omni does nof support the Pro- ing from being prescribed but because of gressive now. Omni might well be the gov- Dr Dixon himself and his rationale for pro- ernment's next target. posing that we blindly accept capsulized Intellectual freedom, in fact freedom in nirvana from the medicos, general, is essential to both scientific and As is usually the case with proponents of social progress. We're all in this together, massive drugging of the population for and we're going to have to fight if we want to "pathological" or "abnormal" behavior, Dr. regain our freedom. Dixon blithely classifies rashes, vomiting, Fred N. Breukelman and hallucinating as "bothersome, al- Dover, Del. though relatively harmless." What incredi- ble, unmitigated gall! We agree that the prior restraint used Legalized drug addiction through the against the Progressive is a threat to the continual prescription of tranquilizers, First Amendment, and we condemn the ac- mood elevators, etc., which is unques- tion. However, we also feel, along with many tioningly paid for by insurance companies, other journalists and publishers, that the has gone far beyond the epidemic level. course ot action taken by the Progressive National Institute on Drug of Cheddar is almost According to the This kind was not a sensible one. You don't send a extinct. Aged slow. Cured sharp. Abuse, some 98.5 million prescriptions for controversial article to the government and Mellow and mouthfilling. Bursting "minor tranquilizers" were filled between with buttery flavor. Not orange '"'r"" 1 ask it tor its approval, which in ettect is what uaeciar May 1976 and April 1977. Among these inside like commercial Cheddar, the Progressive did. We can assure you the ubiquitous but snowy white— because no coloring, no chemi- "minor tranquilizers" was that Omni will publish first, and then take will cals, no preservatives are added. For halt price I Valium, which accounted for no fewer than : the consequences. This is one of the strong- virgin 3-ib ^!i-- : Nibble ^im.ch ship you the entire 57.1 million prescriptions. According to the as you like without obligation. It not the best Cheddar est ways of preserving freedom of the same source, there were 34 million prescrip- of your life simply return what is left and I will refund press.— Ed. in time period. all your money plus the cost of return postage. tions of Darvon the same Dr. Dixon equates concern about drugs Why this half price offer? Fear of Nukes and their use and abuse with a "Puritan We are gambling that you will like our Cheddar enough number of nuclear-power-plant acci- A rhetorical question, full price. And then again and ethic"; he asks the to order again. ..at dents involving the release of radioactivity again after that. However, only a few prize Cheddars "Who would deny them medication?" I am into the environment have occurred, and at are being allotted for this sampling offer. Therefore afraid that his blustering comes about 20 please respond promptly. We suggest you use our toll leastihree grisly deaths have been directly years too late. As a society, we long ago free phone number below to avoid disappointment. caused by a reactor accident (at the SL-1 Thank you— Gerard Paul. gave up control over the doctors and psy- reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho). chiatrists who prescribe psychotropic [First if you make your Cheddar request within the I agree with Mr. Kendig's statement CHED- medications whose s de effects do indeed next 7 days, we will include (free) the Word, June 1979] that nuclear power isn't DAR CLEAVER shown ahove. It is razor-sharp, make rashes and vomiting from oxy- if evil. is half-a-toot long, and regularly sells for $4.00. inherently No form of technology prenolol look like child's play. inherently evil; only its applications can be Dr. write him- I would suggest that Dixon CHEDDAR REQUEST- considered right or wrong. One mistake self a prescription for a few Valiums and Gerard Paul, Dept. 417-2 made by many persons on both sides of the take a leisurely drive to calm down a bit. I Chseselovers Bide. Box 120C nuclear controversy has been their equat- Westbury. New York 11590 do hope that he does not run into an oxy- ing the antinuclear movement with anti- prenolol patient whose driving is now calm- Paul. Please $hip_me your 3- j[ technology feelings. Yes, Mr. ' er except when he has the "relatively Sharp Aged Farm Cheddar 08- only 7.49 David Forest => ..,=,,—, ,. that the S15.Q0). I may sample oi mwi . harmless" hallucination freeway tree. Waller. Tex. hi n i in notftetwstCbadtfarwmylffe. is actually a demolition derby. ,-.,. p'u-naii! ipisllior J \:\ rsiund dIus the co: LIMIT CHEDDAR TO AN Stephen C. Kozachik of return postage. 1 Poor Argument ADDRESS-NO EXCEPTIONS. (#50008). Citizens Commission on Human Rights

I wish to call your attention to a letter from W Enclosed is 7.43 plus 2.00 shipping & handling Seattle. Wash. DO Or charge to my VISA D MASTER CHARGE. A. Weronko in Omni'a July issue, Lieuten- For RUSH shipment add SI. ant Weronko took a pronuclear stand; be- PHOTO CREDITS Exp, cause of this stand, Omni disregarded his _ date _ Card # _ opinion, using the poor Three Mile Island Pflflff in 20,h cen (y-Fox Jay Kay Klein- F anz Pi- argument, The fact remains that not one F.iy-o:.-:;. n. David Palmer: pageia. page 20. Nicholas Foster page 24 death can be attributed to the U.S. nucle- Stw X ar-power industry, since the nuclear sub- 3a mw: page 34 PBS. page marine USS Nautilus was launched on alHTi page44.CrinsFoss:page52 Movie Star News, pages January 21, 1954. This is afar better safety record than the fossil-fuel industry has Hoi ton* P nolo Fiese; ;tlefs page 55 right C

T,:r,-J,'- 1 page 56

achieved. I believe the American public Save Time- PHONE *BB rig hi 7 left. Pai Hill, page 57 right. Sieve Your Request TOLL-FREE W3M has been coerced by the yellow press long n. page 58 right. Leona- ';' ' enough. ' Call any time,74 hours a day. 7 days 3 week- K even Sat. & Sun. Phone 1-800-327-2777. (In Douglas Love page 10B 1-800-432-7766). VISA or MASTER Florida, New York, N.Y CHARGE card required. Ma:. Klarivem: page 169. flrign r We're certain that the many people living in 174 OMNI "

I was reminded of a show I saw by Vito Acconci, where one wandered through cor- ridors of walls and. by listening closely, could hear personal dialogues being played back through loudspeakers in the

walls. I was reminded of an installation of La Monte Young's "Dream House," where electronic drone tones went on endlessly, where time seemed irrelevant, and where one was free to wander around a large space, picking up different combinations , of the sounds, for as long as one liked. "Sr* '"WW.«jy «# One might even suggest thai gallery music, or musical "installations," as they are often called, comprises one of the most important categories of musical expression to evolve in our time. The category is quite distinct. It brings visual and aural elements together in ways very different from other audiovisual media. It opens up fresh ap- proaches to audience participation, and it allows the audience to come as close to or remain as distant from the artistic experi- ence as they wish,

But perhaps most important, it com- pletely does away with beginnings and endings. Most music is created with the assumption that the listener will hear il from The merengue. Fine restaurants. Casinos. Nightclubs. Discos. Beaches. beginning to end, but installations must be Sports. History. Culture. Theatre. And more. With 41 hotels, large and created with the assumption that the exhibi- small. Excitement night and day in the Dominican Republic. See your tion will be open from, say, one to five every travel agent or write to Dominican Tourist Intormation Center, Dept.O, afternoon : and that visitors will be able to 1 I [dtson Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022. experience the work regardless of when they arrive. In such a situation one must give up traditional concerns with climaxes, with thematic development, and with neat formal structures. At the same time one finds many fresh possibilities. Edmund Scientific Catalog Vogel obviously understands all this. He also understands the importance of technology in making it happen. It is obvi- ously not very sensitive to expect live musi- cians to perform for lorturously long hours in galleries where people will not even be listening much of the time. But such a role is eminently appropriate for electronic equipment, and Vogel is quite at home in this area. He studied physics for seven years and worked in neurophysiological re- World famous SERGAL and search and development before deciding MANTUA kits: large magnificent 51 to concentrate all his energies on artistic replicas (up to " long) with beautiful walnut planking and com- work. Thus, he is able to design his own ponents and cast-brass details. circuitry, and he is as familiar with elec- Virtually museum pieces when Explore Astronomy, E tronics as he is with music and sculpture. completed. Large-scale plans, En- Lasers, Magnets, Weather, Microscopes, all This German artist, now forty-two, has glish instructions, materials in- Photography . . . Over 4,000 Fascinating cluded. Also, hundreds of other Products in Our FREE 1 00 page color exhibited all over Europe. With this, his first superb Italian kits, plans and ac- catalog! Send For Your FREE American show, his work is likely to become Edmund Scientific Catalog, Today! widely known here as well, though not necessarily in galleries. Vogel also creates larger pieces, some of which he conceives ''"'»" ' as stage sets that can be controlled by improvising dancers. Next year he hopes h to be able to collaborate with Richard Bull's New York-based dance company, the Im- |City_ provisationalTJance Ensemble, in a context Clip and Mall Coupon to; I Scientific of this sort. I suspect that the dancers will Edmund I Dept. KNZ0, Edscorp Bldg., Barrington. NJ 08007 be in for a few surprises, just as the visitors "" No, 108 ;ientificCo.1979 at the Arras Gallery were. DO k...... J Festschrift for the Master Gamesman

By Scot Morris

might consider a competitor, has angles of any triangle and the lines always A few years ago me NASA scientists at persons selflessly shared his ideas, contacts, and meet al three points to form an equilateral Goddard Institute in New York City had a of that perfect It he tirst showed us the triangle. The appearance computer that was maintained by an files. was who symmetrical signatures of Scott little equilateral triangle is totally outside tirm. Occasionally the, strange here last month programmers took the computer "down" Kim, which we introduced in Omni Competition #9. Kim created the for a day -or so to make sure it was running "designatures" (at left) to properly. Carl Frederick, who worked at the upside-down long admired. Goddard Space Flight Center at the time, honor the man he has so apparent Gardner's home in suburban New York tells me that it gradually became (appropriately on Euclid Avenue) is filled that these maintenance checks had a and illusions. His strange periodicity: The computer was with curiosities, models, floor is filled with shelves being regularly removed from NASA's office on the third of rare books and stacks of files. He even hands around the first of every month, for file numbers. If there is anything no apparent reason. Finally an explanation has a for interesting to say about the number 32, for unexpected. Euclid could have found it surfaced: The tirst of the month was when object- with his own theorems, but he didn't, Scientific American came out. The example, it's there in the file: An computer experts were borrowing NASA's falling to Earth accelerates at 32 feet per probably because trisections with a ruler water freezes at 32°F; and compass were proved impossible; so machine in order to work out the puzzles in second per second; explored triseciior p'oi.t^ms "This" Martin Gardner's popular Mathematical there are 32 crystal classes: a human nobody discovered until Games.column. has 32 teeth; water can be pumped by geometrical gem wasn't a vacuum to 32 feet under normal the turn of the century, by Johns Hopkins atmospheric pressure: there are 32 mathematician Frank Morley, the father of electrons in the filled fourth energy level writer Christopher Morley. of atoms; there are 32 fundamental Another triangle curiosity is this: If the long-lived particles; Eddington's fine- internal bisectors of the two base angles of structure constant, 137, is the thirty- a triangle are of equal length (below), it is second odd prime; and, of course. intuitively obvious to any geometry student

32 is 2 raised to the power obtained by that the triangle is isosceles. But in fact- adding the digits 3 and 2. most geometry teachers would have James Randi, working as a consultant to difficulty constructing a formal proof, Gardner has been delighting scientists IBM and preparing a promotion (or IBM's Gardner calls this the most insidiously of elementary with his monthly intellectual diversions series 370 computer, once called Gardner deceptive problem in all full Euclidean proof may since 1957. He will be sixty-five on the to.see whether he had any esoterica about geometry— a refers twenty-first of this month. To celebrate the the number. Gardner checked his files, take ten pages or more. He occasion, we devote this month's Games then said, "Yes, three hundred seventy is.a interested readers to a 40-page paper by Henderson, a 1937 paper to theman Time magazine called "The very interesting number It is the sum of the Archibald Mathemagician." cubes of each of its digits. There are only Gardner has more than 30 books in three numbers with this property, and print— not counting numerous children's three hundred seventy is in the middle. books and volumes sold only in magic Can you guess what the next-highest stores. The ninth collection of his cube-sum number is? When you do, it will "Mathematical Games" columns, titled be an 'aha! experience.' " (Randi could Mathematical Circus, will be published by not on first hearing, and neither could we. Knopf this fall. His productivity and Can you?See Answers: pagel 63,)'Another versatility, combined with his shyness— he thing," said Gardner, "if they'll be selling consistently declines all public computers in Mexico or Spain.-you might appearance offers— have given rise to the turn the number upside down lor an rumor that Gardner is not one person but is, interesting surprise," in tact, a pseudonym used jointly by Carl Gardner's files overflow with essay on the internal Sagan and Isaac Asimov. mathematical surprises. Under "triangles" Henderson calls "an bisector problem to end all essays on the Gardner is indeed real — a kind, impish, you might find Morley's Triangle, which internal bisector problem," generous man. Since the first issue of hides unassumingly inside every triangle, lifelong student of magic, Gardner Omni, Martin, whom some narrow-minded no matter what its shape. Trisect the three A enjoys amusing his friends with whatever congruent parcels — all exactly the same 7. TALE OFA TUB. A boy in a bathtub is is at hand. At a dinner table he might (a) size and shape. In another version of this sailing a plastic boat loaded with nuts and in put an invisible cigarette his mouth and puzzle the lot is shaped like the truncated bolts. If he dumps all the cargo into the blow out a tiny puff of smoke or (b) let a equilateral triangle (below), with a smaller, water allowing the boat to float empty, will real lit cigarette rest on a tablecloth without the water level in the tub rise or fall? burning the cloth, (c) He'll shake pepper into a glass of water until the surface is 8. THE TRUCK DRIVER AND THE covered; then with the end of a paper PIGEONS. A truck driver stops just short of match he'll draw an X on the pepper, a rickety bridge. He gets out and pounds which separates where it has been on the side of his truck with his hands. A touched, leaving the shape of a cross on farmer asks him why. "I don't trust that the water's surface. Later he might reveal one-quarter-size triangle taken away In bridge. I've got two hundred pigeons in such esoterica as (d) how to use a dollar each case the solution is unique; There is there, and I'm afraid they're too heavy for bill as a ruler or (e) how to use a watch as a one and only one way to do it. How? it. I'm trying to get them to fly around, to

If sufficiently compass. you are a lighten the load until I get across." appreciative audience, he might (f) drive a 2. OIL AND VINEGAR. An efficiency If the truck's compartment is airtight, paper straw through a raw potato or (g) expert named Gartin promises to bring oil what can be said of the driver's remove his vest without removing his coat. and vinegar to a picnic but shows up with reasoning? Guess how you would perform each of both in the same bottle. "That's stupid." his

- these seven miracles; then check the wife, Charlotte, says. "I like a lot of oil and 9. BIKE TRICK. A rope is tied to the of Answer Page. very little vinegar, but Janice likes a lot pedal of a bicycle. If someone pulls back ."

. Gardner recently told me that he is vinegar and . on the rope while another person holds the thinking of retiring and turning his column "Not stupid at all, my dear," he says, seat lightly to keep the bicycle balanced, overio someone younger and better proceeding to pour from the bottle exactly will the bicycle move forward, backward, acquainted with modern computer the right proportions of oil and vinegar or not at all? techniques. This month's games^ some of each guest wants. the best short puzzles that have appeared How did he do it? in his column over the past 22 years, are a festschrift for Gardner's sixty-fifth birthday, 3. SYMBOL. Place a familiar mathe- in the name of all the Omni readers who matical symbol between 2 and 3 to express hope, with us. that the Master Gamesman a number greater than 2 and less than 3. will never retire. Here are ten problems. The answers to 4. "EENY" DOESN'T COUNT. What the first six problems appear on the four-letter English word ends in "eny"? Answer Page; those for the last four, in Gardnerian tradition, will be saved for next 5. GOLDI Which is worth more, a pound 10. THE ROBBER AND THE BELL month. of $10 gold pieces or half a pound of $20 ROPES. In a high church steeple, two bell gold pieces, or are they worth the same? ropes hang down to the concrete floor

1. CUT-UPS. A man owns an L-shaped through two small holes a foot apart in the lot (below), a square with a smaller 6. THE MONK ON THE MOUNTAIN. One ceiling. An acrobatic thief wants to steal as square, one fourth its size, cut from one morning at sunrise a Buddhist monk much of the rope as he can, but there are began to climb a narrow path to a temple no stairs above the ceiling and no ladders at the top of a tall mountain. He did not or other objects on which he can stand. He walk at a constant speed but stopped must accomplish his deed by climbing up occasionally to eat or rest and reached the the ropes, hand over hand, and cutting temple shortly before sunset. The. next (hem with his knife at points as high as morning he descended the same path, possible. The ceiling is so high, however, starting at sunrise and again walking at that a fall from even a third of its height varying rates but generally at a faster would surely be fatal. Assuming he has pace than his average climbing speed. enough time before the clanging bells Prove that there is a spot along the path wake the custodian, by what means can he corner. He wills the land to his four s that the monk will occupy on each trip at obtain the maximum amount of rope? DO provided they subdivide it into four precisely the same time of day. Answers: page 163. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO > LAJDRD

'By Ursula K. LeGuin

hypothesis put forward by bond with time, "tying down" instants in group Mahana. A Mahanista TheJames Osbold, of the Lick the same manner as a nucleating agent spokeswoman, Dolores Guzman Observatory, though "ties down" free atoms into molecules. The Mcintosh, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, all of magnificently comprehensive, presents process is called chronocrystallization or, states the group's view: "We have— time. If certain difficulties to agencies seeking in the case of acute anxiety, us— almost entirely wasted our we practical solutions to the problem. chronoprecipitation. The resulting do not save it, we are lost. There is not Mahanistas so far Divested of its mathematical formulation, compact arrangement of instants is far much time left." The political affiliation, Dr. Osbold's theory may be described in more orderly than the preexistent random have carefully avoided very approximate terms as positing the "newness," but unfortunately this bluntly asserting that the time shortfall is capitalist existence of an anomaly in the space-time decrease in entropy is paid for by a very the fault of Communist and continuum. The cause of the anomaly is a marked increase in bioinsupportability governments equally. A growing number to Chile have joined failure of reality to meet the specifications In fact, the petroleum/time compound of priests from Mexico the recently of the General Theory of Relativity, appears to be absolutely incompatible the movement, but Vatican denunciation of those although only in one minor detail. Its with life in any known form, even anaerobic issued an official effect on the actual constitution of the bacteria, of which so much was previously "who, while they talk of saving lime, lose souls." universe is a local imperfection, or flaw; -hoped. their own group of social scientists in that is, a hole in the continuum. The present danger, then, as described A The hole, according to Osbold's by team member F Gonzales Park, is that Cambridge. England, continues investigate the calculations, is a distinctly spacelike hole. so much of our free time, or radical time, meanwhile to link of the time shortage In this spatiality lies its danger, since the properly speaking, will be locked into this as-yet-unproved could imbalance thus constituted in the noxious compound, which she refers to as with shortage of temper. "If we show continuum causes a compensatory influx petropsychotoxin (PPST), that we will be the connection," psychologist Derrick from the timelike aspect of the cosmos. In forced to bring up the vast deposits of Groat says, "the temporal-conservation able to act more other words, time is running out of the hole. PPST that the U.S. government has groups might be quarrel." This has probably been going on ever dumped or stored in various caves, effectively. As it is, they mostly since the origin of the universe 12 to 15 swamps, holes, oceans, and backyards, Groat mentioned the "time stretcher," under billion years ago, but only lately has the and deliberately break down the marketed by General Substances leak grown to noticeable proportions. compound, thus releasing free temporal the trademark Sudokron, withdrawn last The propounder of the theory is not radicals. Senator Barry Goldwater and year after tests had indicated thar caused laboratory mice pessimistic, remarking that it might be several conservative Democrats have moderate doses protested. Certainly the process to turn into Kleenex. Informed that the even worse if the anomaly were in the already massive temporal aspect of the continuum, in of reclaiming time from PPST is risky, Rand Corporation was devoting which case space would be escaping, requiring so much oxygen that we might funding to research into a substitute for luck. But they possibly one dimension at a time, which end up, as O. Heiko. a third member of the time, he said, "I wish them but longer hours at it!" The would cause untold discomfort and team, puts it, with plenty of free time no may have to work referring to fact confusion, although, Osbold adds, "In that air. British scientist was the the event we might have time enough to do Heiko states that a single gas-powered that the United States has shortened while retaining 24 something about it." lawn mower moving at less than five hour by ten minutes kilometers per hour can petrolize three hours per day, while the EEC countries, THE NONBIODEGRADABLE MOMENT solid hours of a Sunday afternoon in an foreseeing increasing shortages, have 60 minutes to the hour but A totally different explanation of the time area of one city block. chosen to keep team of allow only 20 hours to the "devalued" shortage is offered by a research BLEEDING HEARTS? THE TEMPORAL European day. the Interco Development Corporation. CONSERVATION MOVEMENT Their approach to the problem, as Meantime, the average citizen in or Chicago, while often presented by N. T. Chaudhuri, an Willing to listen to the cosmological and Moscow of time or internationally recognized authority on the chemical hypotheses, but uncommitted to complaining about the shortage remains, ecology and ethology of the either, is a growing consortium of the deteriorating quality of what to scoff at the doomsday internal-combustion engine, is chemical scientists and laypersons, many of whom seems inclined long as possible rather than .cosmological, Chaudhuri has have grouped themselves into prophets and to put off as measures as rationing. proved that the fumes of incompletely organizations such as Le Temps Perdu such extreme along with Ecclesiastes burned petroleum fuel, under certain (Brussels), Protestants Concerned about Perhaps he feels, Ronald Reagan, that when you've conditions — diffused anxiety is the major the Waste of Time (Indianapolis), and the and day, you've seen 'em all. predisposing factor— will form a chemical driving, widespread Latin American action seen one DO

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