ROBERT A. CARL heinlein: SAGAN: ir-lECTIONS ON : DWARFS, UTTL "GREEN MEN AND SPACE TRAVEL AND TALESpF THE* ANCIENT " ASTRONAUTS T^:^:io PLUS? astronauts: SILICON VALLEY* the slowest JAWS 2000 -UFO: :oheapest and over Iran -the %/dst beautiful little space probe ^waytofly thatcould

'. A|isiria58S „j3b[giun-i 109 BP '0.00 DKr onnrui1979 AUGUST

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE EXECUTIVE EDITOR: FRANK KENDIG ART DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO EUROPEAN EDITOR: DR. BERNARD DIXON FICTION EDITOR' BEN BOVA DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: BEVERLEY WARDALE EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT: IRWIN E. BILLMAN ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: KATHY KEETON ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (INT'L): FRANCO ROSSELLINI PAGE CONTENTS Jerry Grey 6 FIRST WORD Opinion 8 OMNIBUS Contributors 10 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 12 FORUM Dialogue 14 EARTH Environment Kenneth Brower 16 SPACE Astronomy Mark R. Chartrand II Bernard Dixon 20 LIFE Biomedicine Stuokey 22 OFFICIAL CIRCLES Politics William K. 24 THE ARTS Media 30 UFO UPDATE Report James Oberg 35 CONTINUUM Data Bank WHITE DWARFS AND 44 GREEN MEN Article Carl Sagan 50 SANDKINGS Fiction George R, R. Martin WIZARDS OF SILICON VALLEY Article Gene Bylinsky and Zhenya Lane 54

THE NOTEBOOKS OF 60 LAZARUS LONG Pictorial Robert A. Heinlein

Interview Joseph E. Brown 70 JOHN D. ISAACS 76 QUIETUS Fiction Orson Scott Card 80 SHARKI Article Kenneth Jon Rose 86 THE FOX AND THE HEDGEHOG Fiction John Anthony West 90 ALOFT Pictorial Nick Engler VAGABOND Humor David Searls 98 129 STARS Comment Patrick Moore 130 EXPLORATIONS Travel Michael Cassutt WARNING COLORS Phenomena Peter Parks 140 144 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 146 1 Opinion Joyce McWilliams m LAST WORD . K 128 PHOTO CREDITS Published 11 1979 by Omni International Ltd. All lights reserved. OMNI 1979 (ISSN 0149-8711). U S Voiume 1 Number Copyright © this Omni Ltd Cover art for month's in Canada by OMNI Publications International =»™*™ "» ™„,nl in IheUnited States and simultaneous,, J*« s a painting by the English 7006. Distributed artist Peter Goodteitow, MDislAflon Ltd. 16-18^ entitled The Illustrated Man. :.- t » "shers An, sum 1 - inwhde i I in- F born in coincidental. Subscriptions^ U.S., C ra ™° Goodfettow, who was and real places or persons living or dead is *FO-JW« »W ; * en,Son etc..toOMNIMagazine,PO.Box908,„ i- r , 1950, studied at the Central LV 420-1894. Second-class postage paid at New ,735. Posimastei. Send form 3579 ,o Farmingdaie addiess. Tel, (516) of Art in London His art School edcon i mailer , al esponsoiitr to return unsolicited Y k N of the editors become the property ,ot the elements Letters to OMNI or Us i reflects thereot .emain the sole property ol Omni International. portions published such purposes whole or in part, and ma, therefore be used tor surrealist and symbolist schools. magazL and are assumed intended tor publication and lepubiication in 4 OMNI 3

however, jumped in with lots Whatever happened to the Grand Tou' of governments, yen, and rubles. The the solar system? Why was Skylab, the of francs, marks, Carter administration finally recognized on.'/ U.S. space station, lost in a fiery six years late. America is now descent to Earth? Why are the Canadians, the signs- catch-up ball in the only profitable, the French, the Germans, the Japanese, playing tax-revenue-producing business in space. and the Russians developing more much-heralded space shuttle. advanced communications satellites than Item The orbital test was originally the Americans, who pioneered whose first tot March 1379. will be iucky to space-communication technology? Why is scheduled off the ground by March 1980. The the space shuttle having so many get philosophy did NASA problems 7 same old shoestring 1971 the Office of Manage- Because the U.S. space program: in again. In Budget said, in effect, "You get operates on a shoestring, that's why ment and five billion dollars. That's it. Not a penny Back in the days of the race to :he moon do the best you can." there were virtually no limits on space more. Go is an ungainly; only partly spending. National prestige was at stake. The result camel (a horse designed by a, But times are different now. The Vietnam reusable lacking the reusable orbital War, double-digit inflation, and burgeoning committee), vehicle ("space tug") so critically social concerns have generated a major transfer needed for many of its projected missions. change in public attitudes. Proposition 13 shuttle -which is great- but haunts the halls of Congress and the White We'll have a least a year late (and mission House. The "suit? Whatever does got it will be at are already stacked up solid done gets done literally on a shoestring. "customers" or three years), it won't be Item: The Grand Tour, a remarkable for the first two nearly as efficient, reliable, cost-effective, opportunity to swing scientific spacecraft it will or flexible as it might have been, and past all the outer planets of the solar more than the system- an opportunity that presents still cost a billion dollars original shoestring estimate. itself only once in centuries— was deemed we've compromised one of "too expensive.™ The recent Voyage' flyby -Again mankind's most impressive and most « Again we've of Jupiter, spectacularly successful useful advancements in order to save a though it was, could have been the compromised front. forerunner of equally successful visits to few bucks up the most graphic denunciation one of mankind's the outer planets, but the Grand Tpur Perhaps budgetary attitude - most impressive and mission was delayed out of existence, its of this shortsighted Cousins in an "window" foreclosed by the inexorable was offered by Norman useful American Institute of most movement of the planets around the sun. address to the and Astronautics' annual advancements in Item: Skylab plummeted to Earth. There Aeronautics meeting in Washington last February: was much furor about the prospective order to save a danger of that reentry, but few persons with a bang nor few bucks up front recognized the real tragedy of Skylab's "The world will end neither whimper, but with the strident cries of plunge: It signified the loss of the oniy U.S. a cost-benefit ratios. If space station. What was the reason for :it!.e men devoted to ratios governed our failure? In 1969 NASA's recommendation cost-benefit had would have become a for a permanent manned orbiting station history, Socrates surfaced during the post-Apollo mood of baby-sitter, Newton an apple polisher, Bruno court jesters. national parsimony. We launched Skylab Galileo and Giordano out gondola instead— a lash-up literally thrown Columbus would have taken a Jefferson together out of hardware left over from the concession in Venice. Thomas tax collector, John canceled final Apollo missions (albeit with would have become a

. . written limericks . and almost wondrous skill and success). The Milton would have would have changed his crux of this penny pinching, however, was Albert Einstein and stayed in Germany" that it could have been placed in a higher name orbit, which would have kept it in space for is valuable no, decades, at a cost (in 1972-73) of only a Space technology too — few hundred thousand dollars. too necessary to our national and globa a Item: The United States decided in 1973 well-being to be developed on lessons are there to be that communications-satellite technology shoestring. The _

it right from now onl DO was sufficiently well developed to be iearned. Let's do turned over to industry. Now there's of public nothing basically wrong with that Jerry Grey, the administrator American institute of philosophy. But U.S. industry did not policy for the Astronautics, is the pickup the long-term, high-economic- Aeronautics and of Enterprise, a new book that risk research and development, which Is author shuttle. classically the government's role. Foreign focuses on the space \ DRJlfUIISU!

recent probe. suspense that's guaranteed to make your i hey're calling it the new mecca of about the most space Keep the lights on; the terror high technology, and nothing like "Everything else was too far away and too flesh crawl. expensive, except maybe the starts on page 50. it exists anywhere else in the damned stubborn, quick on the trigger, world. Birthplace of electronic games and moon. And who wants to go there? We've Crafty, and "smart" are all outstanding traits of home computers, of some of the world's been there about six times, and it always Robert A. Heinlein's memorable character most advanced supercomputers, of looks like Winnemucca!" Since his first appearance impressive laser technology, and of Because of meager funding, scientists Lazarus Long. Heinlein's 1941 novel Methuselah's machines that can understand human at TPL were forced to scrap their long- in Children, Lazarus Long has become one speech and can talk back, Santa Clara established plans for exploring the fiction's most popular per- Valley has become home to the twentieth lesser-known outer planets and concen- of science sonalities. We've added color to this century's most daring and innovative trate instead on much more "convenient all venerable character, to form a stunning explorers. Known familiarly as Silicon bodies." Despite subtle differences, the — pictorial "The Notebooks of Lazarus Valley, this stretch of land between the findings concur on one point: There Santa Cruz Mountains and San Francisco definitely is life on the third planet! Author Long" (page 60). in Besides providing yet another Bay provides the setting for a techno- David Searls provides the humor appearance by the ever-popular Orson logical revolution of startling proportions. "Vagabond" (page 98). Scott Card ("Quietus," page 76), this "It's where two bright Stanford students, During the past 30 years attempts to offers the versatile John William Hewlett and David Packard, protect ourselves from shark attacks have month's fiction Anthony West ("The Fox and the started their company in a one-car greatly improved. Researchers are 86), whose works garage," says Fortune magazine writer becoming more confident that antishark Hedgehog," page include Serpent In the Sky: The High Gene Bylinsky. "Hewlett-Packard now defenses will be both inexpensive and of Ancient Egypt (Harper & Row, employs 42,000 people worldwide, with totally effective in the not-too-distant Wisdom nonfiction novel, and a few works annual sales approaching $2 billion-" future. Marine specialist Kenneth Jon 1979), a of of fiction, Call Out the Militia (E. P. Dutton, In "The Wizards of Silicon Valley" (page Rose presents a detailed glimpse some 1967) and Osborne's Army (William 54), Bylinsky and coauthor Zhenya Lane of these incredible devices in "Shark!" arrive Morrow, 1967). West is currently working on profile those scholars and soldiers of (page 80). The day will soon when The Sound of Healing (Wildwood), a fortune who have made Silicon Valley the you will enter the sea without fear of allowing the shark to play its proper nonfiction work scheduled for 1980 technological haven it is today. One attack, publication in the United Kingdom. English-born computer manufacturer role as merely an animal, with common monster Finally, Carl Sagan contributes an says, "The effect on Earth of Silicon Valley animal instincts, not the mindless in "White Dwarfs and it out to be. intriguing expose will be as dramatic over the next two we've made Green Men." The astronomer-lecturer centuries as the effect of Dr. Louis Undoubtedly the strongest science- examines the ancient-astronaut theories Leakey's discoveries on the evolution fiction story to come along in a long time, R. R. Martin, will made fashionable by pop archaeologist of man." "Sandkings," by George Erich von Daniken and others, with "Earth was the only choice left," said Dr. be remembered as one of Omni's most particular emphasis on the Dogon tribe of OzmoZdilmidgi, mission director at outstanding works, You won't want to miss Turn to 44. OO Thought Propulsion Laboratory (TPL), this gripping tale of mounting horror and Mali. page

8 . OMNI 3 GUCCIONE editor & publisher KATHY KEETON associate publisher OMNI INTERNATIONAL LTD CDRnnnuaiicMToajs THE CORPORATION Bob Guccione {chairman and president) Kathy Keeton (sen/or vice-president) Irwin E. Billman {executive vice-president) Anthony J. Guccione {secretary-treasurer) EDITORIAL Editor: Editor in Chief: Bob Guccione; Executive Frank Kendtg; Managing Editor: J. Anderson Dormar Scot Morris; Arti- Edward Rosenfeld; Fiction Editor: Ben cles Editor: Worth a Thousand Words Brilliant Spider Humor Editor: Bill Lee; European Editor: Dr. Bova; course of a not-too-lengthy I have, in the Bernard Dixon; Associate Editors: Owen Davies, Kath- Since the late 1950s and early 1960s the Kathleen well-rounded lifetime, leen Stein; Assistant Editors: Richard Levitt, phenomenon of unidentifiable objects in but overwhelmingly Copy McAuliffe, Eric Rosen;CopyCft/ef:GinaE. Grant; myself in absorbing as much the sky has progressed from'"flying indulged Editors: Robert Boylan, Charles J. Attardi; Editorial (distastefully printed matter as can possibly be Assistants: Suzanne Stoessel, Christine Pullo, Susan saucers" to U.EO.s to UFOs

occasion I have been moved CapuioiContributing Editors: Monte Davis, Dr. Christo- pronounced you-foes), out of which has digested. On pher Evans, Dr. Patrick Moore, OBE, Durk Pearson, thank various developed the study of "ufology" The by word or script to Sandy Shakocius, William K. Stuckey to self-indulgence for mania of the previous decade has been contributors my ART Spider brilliantly. I do so now, to tempered somewhat in the 1970s to the doing so Art Director: Frank DeVino; Associate Art Director: are Robinson, for "God Is an Iron" [May 1979], Lynda Chyhai; Designer: Marian Levine; Photo Editor: point where more rational approaches Hill though not at all as an Hildegard Kron; Staff Photographer: Pat now taken in the investigation of this And, afterthought, to Omni magazine, for ADMINISTRATIVE phenomenon. consistently making my choice of V.PJDirector of Advertising: Beverley Wardale; V.P.I The gallery of such photographs carried Director: Moore; V.P.I self-indulgences so delightful. Public Relations Alma in your April issue is perhaps the cream of Administrative Services: Jeri Winston; V. P. /Production Jana Elliot and I was VPlGeneral Counsel: Joseph M. the crop of UFO images, Director: John Evans; Dallas, Tex. Kraft; Midwest Advertising Manager: Norm Kamikow; impressed by the fact thatthey were War'/ Marketing Manager: Controller: Marc Bendesky; presented in an objective light and not Sales Operation Manager: Ralph Perricelli; Nat'l fake. Fearsome Faces Robert Cas- heralded to be either genuine or Richard Fogel ; Nat'l Circulation Manager: Of all the interviews published in Omni so tardi; Newsstand Distribution Manager: Vincent A picture is worth a thousand words, Sommer; Li- Wilson's certainly the most DeLisi; Direct Sales Manager: Penny that in the case far, I find E. O. some say; I would submit Fierman; Advertising Pro- quor Sales Manager: Paula mind-prodding one, since it deals so of such is anything but the case. duction Director: Ton! Wagner; Advertising Admin- UFOs directly with all of us [Interview, February istration Manager: Inge S. Schmidt; Editorial Produc- Much store is placed in photographs— Director: sociobiological explanation of tion Associate: Linda Bogdanoff; Research too much. The emphasis placed on a 1979]. The Carol Rossant; V.PiCirculation, Marketing, and Pro- originating from a photograph during a UFO investigation is racism and xenophobia motion: Bob Guccione, Jr. predisposition to identify with one's own usually blown all out of proportion. In fact, ADVERTISING OFFICES group (or to mistrust strangers) makes if it cannot be proved that a photo was Wardale) Omni Publications In- New York (Beverley feelings, be they weak or in way, then it is much sense. These ternational Ltd., 909 Third Avenue. New York, N.Y "doctored" faked some up in all societies. A good 10022. Tel. (212) 593-3301. Telex no. 237128. classed as genuine, and the whole or strong, show Midwest (Norm Kamikow) Omni Publications Inter- Omni issue. incident gains an almost indisputable example is found in that same national Ltd., 111 East Wacker Drive, Suite 2036, Kenneth Brower's Earth I to Detroit credibility. This is akin to saying, Because am referring Chicago, III. 60601. Tel. (312) 565-0466; in which he expresses his (Christine Meyers) Omni Publications International the moon covers the sun during a solar column, Maple, Suite 204, Birmingham, Mich. Guayaquil's Ltd., 950 E. It is uneasiness at the aspect of eclipse, then it must be the same size. 646-3646; West Coasi (Isabel R. 4801:1, Tel. (313) inhabitants. Our "gringo" eyes may find Kliegman) Omni Publications International Ltd., 8732 all a matter of perspective. indigenous faces a little fearsome at Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90069. Tel. (213) A photograph should be a very weak the (Peter Goldsmith) Omni is 652-8070. U.K. & Europe compiled first, but to say that they are cutthroats W1H link in the chain of evidence Publications Ltd., 68 Upper Berkeley St., London with investigation. The more going too far. I've had nice times 7DH. Tel. (01) 262-0331. Telex no. 919865. during a UFO southwestern Colombia, who, empirical, unfakable evidence is the real people in EDITORIAL OFFICES with I first them, filled me thing to zero in on during an objective when met York 909 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y, 10022. New doubts. One can't necessarily judge by Tel. (212) 593-3301. Telex no, 237128. West Coast investigation. 90069. alone. 8732 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, Calif. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who is mentioned in looks Tel (213) 652-8070. London 2 Bramber Road, John E. Lattke the copy accompanying the excellent West Kensington, London W14 9PB, England. with Caracas, Venezuela I sure, agree Tel. (01) 385-6181. Telex no, 919865. photo layout, would, am U.K. & European Editions me on this point about photographs. Managing Director: Alan Root; Advertising Director: Indisputable evidence will not be Newts in Dark Caves Public Relations: Molly McKetlar R. F. Norman [May Peter Goldsmith; gathered through pretty pictures. Cross Your correspondent have been misled by the BUREAUS correlation and checking out of similarities 1979] may of interview [January Washington, DC: William R. Corson, 1707 H St., and differences between cases will precise wording my Hans-Hohn, Enzian- did contain N.W, Washington, DC, Berlin: provide the best base to work from. 1979]. Nevertheless, the text Andre Fodor, 98 strasse 1, Berlin 45 Rio de Janeiro: Natural Rejection could line is this: Seeing is my comment that Rua Mexico, 15th floor, Rio de Janeiro ZC39 The bottom Natural Selection, but that the Budapest: Paul Kirlyhedgyi, 5 Regi posta utca., believing, but a photograph is only as be called Budapest 5, Hungary Zagreb: Cedomir Komijenovic, former name is "more descriptive." good as the paper it is printed on. Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Strebrnjak 96, Jon Stone When newts that live for many gener- AUGUST Nova Scotia, Canada ations in dark caves become blind, or CONTINUED ON PAGE 128 ALOGUE FDRURfl

would have kicked out of the required to power such a laser In which the readers, editors, and parapsychologists be Advance- to be tremendous. As only 6 percent of a correspondents discuss topics arising out American Association for the paranor- laser's total input can be effectively and theories and speculation of ment of Science now raises the of Omni the laser plateau. utilized, that plus the distance general interest are brought forth. The mal debate to an ominous the parapsy- beam would have to cover to destroy a views published are not necessarily those By purging science of safe would only lessen the is removing the only target at a range olthe editors. Letters for publication chologists, Wheeler which paranormal effectiveness of that weapon. mailed to Omni Forum, Omni creditable means by should be govern- As a taxpayer, I hope that the Magazine, 909 Third Avenue, New York, claims can be effectively investigated. BrendaCalia Thomas ment, for purposes other than navigation N.Y. 10022. will keep St. Paul, Minn. tracking and communications, laser technology out of the war field and Plateau Ominous more worthwhile Computer Warfare spend our tax dollars on In his interview with Omni [March 19791 distressed by projects. Arthur C. Clarke inveighs against the I was fascinated and STG 3 Alan Majeski global Jonathan V. Post's article "Cybernetic War" "astrology people" who prophesy Navy technology represented U.S. calamity in 1982. [May 1979]. The San Diego, Calif. These prophets of doom are not exemplifies modern science's most They are two Cambridge- fantastic achievements in recent history: astrologers. the physics, etc. In an article entitled "Cybernetic War" trained physicists, John Gribbin and computers, lasers, nuclear author, Jonathan V Post, mentions that Stephen Plagemann, whose best-selling But these achievements are recently militaristic implications. scientists in Geneva have potboiler, The Jupiter Effect, exemplifies overshadowed by containment of that soon as a announced the first kind of irresponsible and fallacious It is unfortunate as the thought that I always is recognized as antimatter. have reporting Clarke attributes to the fringe. developing science strictly a fictional device it is clothed in antimatter was The theory advanced by these sci- having military capabilities, "national security." used in the television series Star Trek. I do entists—that the planets falling within a secrecy in the name of complicated not recall ever hearing of such an 60-degree arc on one side of the sun will The advent of ever more has escalated announcement being made. If this is true, seriously affect the earth — is not sup- and spphisticated weapons don't you think the majority of your readers the arms race to hysterical levels. It has ported by past experience. It is not between the scien- would like to hear more about it? I know supported by anything, least of all by created a vicious circle surprised that in the paranoid public. would. I was somewhat astrology. tists, the military, and take a such an article there would be so little Clarke's and Frank Kendig's mutual Sooner or later we will be forced to continuing build- mentioned about something so bigl Omni contention that Uri Geller has been responsible look at the only magazine for which I have stood world, before it is s the discredited is totally unsubstantiated. up of arms in the at the newsstand, waiting every month for Geller has been subjected to rigorous too late. on the shelf. Please Stuarl D. MacDonald each issue lo be put scrutiny on three continents, and the Gatos, Calif. keep 'em coming. findings are conclusive: His abilities are Los David G. Morrison paranormal. Furthermore, professional Francisco, Calif. article "Cyber- San magicians were indeed called upon to I enjoyed very much the fact that I to the observe Geller for legerdemain and to netic War," and can attest more One year ago scientists at CERN in Geneva attempt to duplicate his feats. The the military is steadily becoming store antimatter for the first computers for our nation's were able to magicians were hopelessly outmatched. I dependent upon time by using a technique called ICE, or refer to Charles Panati's The Geller Papers defense and lasers stochastic cooling. The system utilized a (Houghton Mifflin, 1976) for an objective As Post stated, computers that linked, but to 2-billion-electron-volt storage ring treatment of this matter. have their futures inextricably contained the antimatter for a period of 85 Both Clarke and Kendig cite magician say that "lasers can be used directly as hours. — Ed. James Randi as having categorically weapons" makes me somewhat skeptical. Granted high-energy lasers can refuted Geller I would like to know where his article "Cybernetic War," Jonathan V. But it would not In singular fact has been documented. vaporize flesh and metal. this antimatter as a render the aggressor's laser Post spoke of the use of To be sure, Randi is a very efficient mouth- take much to weapon and of how it would be controlled. he totally useless. Any substance that did not piece for the debunking fraternity; substance laser at Post spoke of antimatter as one personally profits from maligning Geller absorb the electrons of the beam that could destroy every type of regular paranormal population, but the specific wavelength in which they were and the entire mention, and would guite safe from such matter. But what he did not his credibility is seriously in doubt "generated" be

probably did not think of , is that there may John Wheeler's recommendation that an attack. Furthermore, the energy CONTINUED ON PAGE 135 —

EARTH By Kenneth Brower

still pretty downy," he said. "It was lie supine on trays like these. one is r. Carl Koford led the way past might condor's scientific probably killed the same year it came out tall, gray rows of museum cases, I read the labels. The and the of the nest." then up a flight of stairs and names were felicitous. The condor the He demonstrated how the young bird past more museum cases. We were in a other American vultures belong to defends itself in the nest. Putting his head scientific mausoleum—the Museum of family Cathartidae, from the Greek down, he hissed and hit at me awkwardly Vertebrate Zoology of the University of kathartes, "a cleanser," from katharos, recalled the dignity with his wingtips. Then he looked California at Berkeley—and the navy-gray "pure." The etymology seem a grisly embarrassed. He had forgotten himsefr for cases filled the place. The air was cool in what might sometimes responsible a moment and had become a condor. and smelled faintly of naphthalene. At the occupation. The vultures are Their Several detached flight feathers lay at far end of the room, bone-white atop the for a catharsis of the landscape. to the bone the foot of one bird, and Koford now navy gray, too big to fit inside, was the job is to take things down picked up two of them. "Individual skull of a gray whale. Dr. Koford turned again. The condor's generic name is califor- feathers are over twenty-four inches long," hard right, into an aisle between two Gymnogyps, its specific name Holding a feather in either hand, navy-gray rows. He did not have to pause nianus. Gymnogyps derives from gymnos, he said. gyps, Greek for he extended his arms, pointing the feather to read the number. He knew this aisle by Greek for "naked," and neck are tips outward. "The length of the wing heart. "vulture." The condor's head and adaptation that bones is about the same as in a human's "You can tell the condor case," he said, naked of feathers, an itself more easily arms. So this would be the wingspread." nodding upward. "It's the biggest one." He allows the bird to clean : work, "Eight feet?' I estimated, too quickly. was right. The case labeled "Cathartidae" afterthe gruesome "Nine," he said. He stood with his wings was twice as long as the others. He "This one is a juvenile male shot near fingering extended. He had forgotten himself again. reached high to undo the hasps. Pasadena in 1908," Koford said, in the narrow, navy- retired a tag tied to the foot. 'And this one was For a moment, there Koford is a trim, graying man : 1886." his fingers gray aisle, he soared. now, but youthful in his movements and taken in He burrowed expression. He wore an old red-checked into the downy neck of another young bird, for there. "This Riding the wind currents above the shirt, with frayed holes in one shoulder. His as if searching something chaparral-covered California hills, condors face was pleasantly weathered from a life make a musical, whistling sound as air spent observing animals in the field spills past their pinions. 'As if," Peter vicunas in South America, monkeys in has written, "all the grace and Puerto Rico, prairie dogs on the prairie, Kaplan freedom of flight were expressed in a few and, at the beginning of his career, singing notes." condors in southern California. The distinctive feature of condor flight is He removed the front panel, setting it on high stability in soaring. The condor's the floor. An invisible cloud of naphthalene "loading"— its ratio of body weight to wing escaped the case and enveloped us. surface is heavy, nearly twice that of Inside the case were tour horizontal trays, — the turkey vulture. Turkey vultures can and Koford rolled out the lowest. For an quickly, but in any kind of to ascend more instant I felt like a relative called down turbulence they wobble markedly by the morgue to identify a cadaver. Clearly, comparison. Sailing on the thermals, though, the corpse on the tray was no kin condors hold rock-steady. Human of mine. The bird was enormous — in life, observers, even experienced ones, often condors weigh nine kilograms or mistake condors for transport planes, and more —and it lay on its back. There were planes for condors. Condors can soar for two others supine behind it. 1 studied the an hour without flapping their wings. They great hooked beak, designed to tear at eight or more without foot, can glide for minutes carcasses. I ran my finger along a turning and can travel about 16 kilometers which, uncurled, would have had the span on one tack. of a human hand. With a fingertip I tested Gymnogyps is a survivor of an epoch the pinpoint of a talon, designed to hold a when the scale of life was larger. In the carcass down while the beak tore. There Pleistocene Era condors appear to have left in were, I knew, only about 30 condors been more abundant in North America the wild. It occurred to me that sometime than black vultures or turkey vultures. The early in the next century, perhaps sooner, smaller vultures, perhaps, were unable to the only California condors on the planet One of the last of the California condors. CONTINUED ON PAGE 134 14 OMNI 1

Bv Mark R. Chartrand III

found that Saturn iurns in a little more than or "ears." It wasn't until 1655 that y the end of next month, much of handles, | slightly more slowly than planet Christiaan Huygens saw more clearly, with ten hours, just . our information about the object on instrument, that Saturn had a ring Jupiter. This means that an I Saturn will be obsolete. Pioneer a better Saturn's equator is traveling 36,900 it. At the same time he discovered 11 will fly past Saturn on September 1, around less than Saturn's largest satellite and the kilometers an hour just slightly giving us the first-ever close-ups of that Titan, system. the escape velocity of Earth and a quarter unusual gaseous giant. largest moon in the solar into view as that of Saturn itself. Not allot our information will be More satellites came 1671 Another half century went by before changed. We have long known exactly telescopes were improved. In Cassini—who moved George Phillips Bond, an American, found how much time Saturn takes to go once Giovanni Domenico Observatory and the satellite Hyperion (in 1848), and yet around the sun (29.46 of our years), how to the new Paris another 50 years passed before William star changed his name to Jean-Domi- far it is from our system's central (a oddball of found lapetus, and in the Pickering found the real mean distance of 1.427 billion kilometers) nique— Phoebe, Not only is this next year he discovered Rhea. In 1675 he Saturn's system, and that its orbit is slightly elliptical and distant Saturn not just one ring, but satellite much more from inclined 2.5 degrees from the earth's orbit. found that there was is counter to least two, separated by a dark gap, than any other, but it moving What will find is unknown, but we at we Until named Cassini's Division. In all the others, in a retrograde orbit. hope for detailed views of the planet's which he discovered two more moons, Phoebe's discovery only one other "surface"— really the top of Saturn's 1684 Cassini Dione retrograde satellite was known —Triton, of atmosphere—and of its satellites. We will Tethys and passed before Sir William Neptune— and the discovery of Phoebe look for a magnetic field, new rings, and A century pair of moons, Mimas caused considerable consternation possible new satellites. Herschel found a astronomers. One anonymous It Herschel who first among Through most of our history Saturn's and Enoeladus. was speed astronomer committed his vexation to remained unknown, for the eye alone measured the planet's rotational rings the Saturn's speed had proved to verse, with a parenthetical addition by see them. In 1610 Galileo, with his Measuring cannot Harvard ' Menzel, of very difficult, because Saturn has no late Donald first crude telescope, saw that Saturn be prominent features that can be seemed to be in three pieces, and he very Phoebe, Phoebe, whirling high planet rotates. Herschel wondered whether the planet had tracked as the In our neatly plotted sky, Phoebe, listen to my lay, Won't you swirl the other way? Never mind what God has said; We have made a law instead. Have you never heard of this Nebular hypothesis?

It prescribes, in terms exact, Just how every star should act, Tells each little satellite Where to go and whirl at night. (Disobedience incurs Anger of astronomers, Who—you mustn't think it odd— Are more finicky than God.) And so, my dear, you'd better change Really we can't rearrange All our charts from Mars to Hebe,

Just to fit a chit like Phoebe.

Now we know that Saturn has at least 1 satellites, Janus was discovered in 1966, and an unnamed one, the innermost, was found just last year. Pioneer may show us others. There are some odd things about these satellites. Titan has a thick atmosphere Saturn. consisting of hydrogen and methane. The revelations Pioneer 1 1 will soon send back from Voyager 1 mosaic of Jupiter foretells the CONTINUED ON PAGE 137 16 OMNI E LIF

By Dr. Bernard Dixon

of Homo sapiens. Yet ne year ago this month a pupils and making speech or even scourge the same bacterium visits frequent minuscule bacillus growing in swallowing impossible. Thick, vile saliva upon wildlife. Botulism is the canned salmon produced a rare interferes with the victim's breathing, and disease major natural cause of death of ducks in tragedy'in Great Britain. The immediate the muscles then weaken, precipitating death the western United States, for example, result was four serious illnesses, two of respiratory paralysis and by The scenario here is interesting. Strong them fatal. Over the long term, another dire suffocation. winds wrench aquatic plants adrift, consequence befell the food company Despite the fact that they received uprooted along a shore or concerned: a £2-million (approximately speedy treatment (chiefly huge doses of leaving them stricken lakeside. Invertebrates feed on the rotting $4-million) shortfall in profits. antitoxin), two of the four persons last vegetation, and, as the oxygen level. falls, The cause of all this, Clostridium with botulism in Britain summer Bacteriologists C. botulinum begins to multiply in the botulinum, measures 1 micrometer by succumbed to the poison. consume the infected, about 3-4 micrometers (one millionth of traced the organism to just one damaged putrid mass. Ducks their Pass Cannery in Alaska. poisoned material and then die, a meter); it is not easy to grow even tin from the False investigations bodies becoming riddled by further in the laboratory. Yet the accidental For three months, while bacteria, making more poison to contamination that led to its proliferation were being conducted, Unilever the outbreak. Flies settle on, inside a single can of John West salmon, suspended all sales of tinned salmon and perpetuate off, the decaying carcasses; the marketed by Unilever, triggered off recalled products made at the plant. Sales and feed flies help to promote the wider spread horrendous infections of a sort that had lost then and since slashed the company's with the of disease. been unknown in the United Kingdom for profits by an amount comparable But what is the purpose of this virulent at least 20 years. The fatalities and later millions of dollars lost earlier this year toxin? Unlike snake venoms, it cannot be massive losses in sales provide a grim when Britain's road-haulage network and a defensive weapon against reminder of the influence of microbes on docks were immobilized by a lengthy considered predators. Unlike the endotoxins, which human affairs. strike of truck drivers. partly responsible for the food C. botulinum is not a common cause of Thankfully owing to modern develop- are poisoning caused by Salmonella, it is not human disease, as are typhoid and ments in food processing, C. botulinum part of the structure of the bacterium itself. cholera bacilli and the legions of various has become a rare and unnatural apparent role in the bacteria that ravage us from time to time The toxin plays no botulinum. If the with food poisoning. These malevolent internal metabolism of C. ability to pro- microorganisms are pathogenic by organism is deprived of its

it just as well as before. design: Their life-style involves invading duce toxin, grows on the precise our guis, producing disease as they go. Although research mechanisms and molecules involved in C. botulinum is feared for its consummate microbial disease has burgeoned recently skill in manufacturing the most potent toxin of this fiendish poison is still known to mankind. Given the right the purpose unknown. Its existence is all the more conditions, it does so in foodstuffs. And puzzling when we remember that, unlike the resultfor anyone ingesting it is sudden, bacteria do not need to calamitous, and invariably fatal illness. viruses, many cause disease. All viruses are necessarily One peculiarity of this pathogen is that it parasitic, and all are capable of causing is an anaerobe: It multiplies only in the This is certainly not true of absence of oxygen. Otherwise, in the disease. general, certainly not true aerated conditions that are necessary for bacteria, in and of botulinum, in particular. most bacteria to flourish, it merely C. antibiotics first discovered, survives, as a hardy spore, awaiting the When were puzzled over their significance. next period of oxygen starvation. Bottled scientists bacteria really make such substances or canned food can provide that Did so that man could turn them into drugs to circumstance. Even if only one tiny spore infections by other bacteria? has escaped sterilization, C. botulinum treat caused Not at all. now know that antibiotics may thrive. By a quirk of biochemistry the We play an important role in regulating bacillus then synthesizes its deadly microbial populations in soil and water. Yet botulinus toxin. Ten millionths of a gram we still do not understand why a humble can kill a person. And the form of death is bacillus, deprived of oxygen, generates a chillingly abhorrent. The toxin paralyzes poison more lethal than plutonium. DO nerves of the eye and throat, dilating the Incut 20 OMNI —

r E E OFFICIAL CIRCLES By William K. Stuckey

nation's capital (now 1 ew men contrast more sharply in pervasive frustration with Big Brother neighborhood of the black and Hispanic). His background or appearance than government and that it "represents a predominantly Senator Mark Hatfield, the demand for debureaucratizing America." mother taught him how to read —he in schools and, in short handsome Baptist college dean and Community Technology , incidentally, is doesn't believe — of high school at Oregon Republican, and Karl Hess, the also the title of Hess's latest book (Harper order, he dropped out a Washington city editor at writer, welder, and supporter ot the Black & Row). Any 1980 presidential candidate fifteen, was writing speeches for Panthers, Barry Goldwater, the SDS, the who ignores it stands to lose the truly twenty, and began that Birchers, Prince Piotr Kropotkin, and the considerable vote of the "Don't Tread on the Republican party. He capped 1964 for Barry right not to pay federal income taxes. Me"s; the national referendum supporters career with his speech (then) Under the surface, however, they are not who want not only to send Washington a Goldwater, and particularly with that controversial "Extremism in only ideological brothers, but ideological message but to make it binding; the most phrase: of liberty is no vice; moderation in Mean Little Brothers. Hatfield is about the 1984-is-nearly-here intellectuals; and the defense justice is no virtue." only living politician whom the politics- Karl Hessian tech-erhooders who shout, pursuit of Experiment, hating Hess would support for the "I'd rather do it myself." There are a lot of (In his book The Dosadi created, presidency, and Hatfield notes {seriously?) mean little brothers out there. (Prediction: Frank Herbert—author of Dune — that he would ring doorbells for Hess. Both Governor Jerry Brown of California soon a most Hess-like society, the Gowachins, believe that individuals can learn and will imply that he was the silent coauthor of who gave their highest honors to those discredited accomplish just about anything they want Community Technology. Hess, however, lawyers who most thoroughly to and will not only lose ground but slide doesn't coauthor anything with anybody.) the law.) lost in I Goldwater 1964, and Hess was blissfully toward slavery if they allow any Hess not only preaches what call large institution—government, corporation, populist science; he also practices it. How out of a job. He drove trucks, learned

it, welding, the late 1960s was church, union, etc. —to do the learning he drifted into it, what he did with and and by and accomplishing for them. They believe, what he is doing now should become one hanging around with the Black Panthers Society. in short, in neighborhood government as a of the great American folktales. and the Students for a Democratic basic governing unit of the United States, Hess, a Filipino-German, who is as An astonishing change, observers noted. and to hell with both public and private American as Plymouth Rock, was born 56 Not at all, as Hess told me recently over Big Brothers. years ago in the Adams -Morgan the kitchen table of his self-built solar Hatfield, by far the more mainstream of home in West Virginia. the two, would pass laws to provide "The SDS was like Senator Robert A. neighborhood independence —allowing Taft come to life, a superb organization," taxpayers, for example, to retain up to 80 he remarked as my jaw unhinged. "They percent of their federal income taxes to believed in participatory democracy use for local purposes. The free-wheeling and that's my passion —and Hess would have his small communities isolationism— they called it anti- declare unilateral independence from imperialism —which is fine with me. As

Washington by using a combination of President, I would immediately break science, technology, and town-hall relations with all nation-states and meetings. establish ties with all neighborhoods on Rather radical thinking, until you realize Earth, But I was particularly close to the that politicians as diverse as Ronald Panthers, absolutely the best of the black Reagan and Senator Edward groups. They were straight individualist although Kennedy—along with Tom Hayden and Republicans in their actions, other elements of the old New Left— have their newspaper was bullshit." spoken kindly of increasing a Hess drifted back to Adams-Morgan neighborhood's independence from and, with his wife and a physicist friend, government and from corporations by began an astounding—and highly employing "community technology" to successful —experiment in little-brother self-reliance. He became frustrated with fulfill its own survival needs. Note also that a Carter-appointed Presidential New Left partisans who would talk theory Commission on Neighborhoods this past into the night but didn't know how to do spring reported that the flourishing anything. He wanted to prove that neighborhood-government movement technology was great— not a killer— if you controlled it. :: came into being because of the public's Karl Hess, author of Community Technology. understood and He wanted CONTINUED ON PAGE 127 22 OMNI "

TELEVISION THE ARTS By James Delson

with Mars.' It was coming Kimball related. "He took all sorts of segment to deal i ven before Star Wars and 2001- A earth at that time, fifty liberties with space and even more with in very close to the i Space Odyssey brought the miles or something. Waif said, Earth. things that might happen there. This million i feeling of space home to thing. Pal made wonderfu 'Yeah, right away.' American television audiences had flown wasn't a bad Disneyland at had to lose yourself in his Immersed in his dream of to the moon and beyond. They were led films, but you the time, Disney gave Kimball con- It different scale. But we dealt info the vast reaches of space by none logic. was a than he a little more logical, siderably more creative freedom other than Walt Disney. Disney melded in something that was would have allowed earlier. "He might have together a variety of diverse scientific and using known facts." had run a series gone for more of a documentary feel, technical elements to present a truly Collier's magazine the Fifties began, downplaying the fantasy stuff, but he realistic approach to the special effects of dealing with space as said. "We leading scientists of the trusted me to do it well," Kimball space travel. Disney's three-part television showing what the the future of colonization didn't know exactly what the state of the series on space. Man in Space, Man and time predicted for military use of art was when we started the picture. We the Moon, and Mars and Beyond, and travel in space and the Braun. At the borrowed both ideas and could only get it through Von presented first in the 1950s, was produced space. Disney to create what time he was working on his first satellite. and directed by Disney animator Ward scientists from the articles it a one-shot Explorer 7 . He was doing almost as Kimball, with scientific input from Wernher was originally planned as a Rockets and Space. hobby. But to understand the situation, you von Braun, Willy Ley, Dr. Heinz Haber, and program, to be called initial reasons for initial meeting, at which have to get back to the Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger "Walt called an following the things. Kimball, now retired from the Disney he said, 'Let's do something fighting the Air Collier's articles and Von Braun's theories "The Navy was always Studio, still runs the only private backyard with a general Force, which was fighting the Army, and all railroad and model-train museum in the and so forth.' We came up appropriations. filled up the whole room for prestige reasons. For country. He talked recently about the concept and then have the of the intended show, For budgets. The Navy wanted to television trilogy and suggested we see with all the aspects satellite, the looked at all this prestige of launching the first the new Disney release, King Arthur and Rockets and Space. He Von and said, Vanguard rocket. I don't know how the Astronaut. during the second meeting here for two Braun felt about it, but we had already "George Pal, the creative force behind 'Gee, you've got enough

developed Explorer 1 , and the Navy knew Destination Moon and The Conquest of shows.' At our third meeting I said, 'Look, he was taking appropriations money to Space, was dealing with science fiction," we have this idea of breaking off a third develop his sideline when he was supposed to be working on modernizing and improving the V-2 missiles. But he wasn't interested in killing people He wanted to take the lead in space travel. Well, when people got wind of his satellite work, they told him to stop. He was very

bitter about it for a time, because he thought America could have beaten the Russians into space by a year. in "It was our idea to bring Von Braun as an expert. And he jumped at the chance because he was trying to publicize his idea. Collier's had been the best coverage he'd had, but he realized the potential of television. Millions of people would be looking at a Disney show, and with the prestige of the Disney name this would be a big step forward in his campaign to get ;i-rt{i. the Pentagon off their ass and do something about the space program." 200): A Space Odyssey was the first major film to use what is now known as the "hardware" approach to outer space, Moon. because of the rough look of the A "space walk" as depicted for television, in the Disney production of Man and the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 142 . 24 OMNI .

THE ARTS By James Delson

spirited, he doubtful that many filmgoers have Live Twice; sophisticated brainwashing recently won Oscar. Quiet, but It'sever stopped to think how important a techniques were used on daughters of physically resembles the men who sell lotion in television part science fiction has played in the world leaders in On Her Majesty's Secret after-shave commercials, his graying hair topping 17-year, 11-film cycle of films about the Service ; a laser-armed communications English features. After he world's most famous spy, James Bond satellite was used to threaten the world in distinguished film industry nearly all Struck by the glamour, the gunplay the Diamonds Are Forever; and American, had worked in the effects for over gimmickry and the wisecracks, one British, and Russian submarines were his adult life, and in special his greatest creative period comes away moved more by the overall "sea-jacked" in The Spy Who Loved Me. two decades, Bond series. effect of the component parts than by any Each subsequent film has been more began on the involved in low-budget films specific element. Under closer exami- grotesque, more improbable, and more "I'd been bigger and better nation, however, scientific speculation gimmick-laden than the last, but the saga and had graduated to always traces a continuous thread through of James Bond has proved successful for pictures, but the Bond films

I thought that the series. almost two decades. seemed magical to me. had finger and Over time there has been a gradual And now comes Moonraker — at $25 someone just sort of pointed his

just materialized. Once I proliferation in Bondian gadgetry as each million, the costliest Bond to date. Derek all those things

started however, I realized that film attempted to surpass its immediate Weddings, one of 1979's Academy on them, just like every other film. Just predecessor in creating newer, better, Award-winning special-effects men (for they were hard work. more original, and, ultimately, more Superman), was Moonraker's supervisor bloody Die expensive toys to feed the audience's of special effects, serving on his fourth "I started on Live and Let [1973], first had insatiable appetite for electronic Bond film. "Of course, I've actually been which was also the picture that Like all complexity. The correlation between working on Superman II for a while now," Roger Moore as James Bond.

films, it a special-effects man's elaborate gimmickry, as created by the Meddings said, "but I suppose it's all right Bond was people into film's special-effects men, and box-office to spend some time making Moonraker." dream, because essentially go to Bond do his stuff, profits has remained constant: More of the We were sitting in the restaurant of the cinema houses see his stuff is our creation. On Live and former results in more of the latter. Pinewood film studio, an hour outside of and Moving with the times, the Bond central London. As we talked, well-wishers Let Die we had to really outdo what had pictures in pictures have constantly been aimed at came up to congratulate Meddings on his been done in the Sean Connery the current audience, not the one that went order to get the audience to accept Roger a hell of a task, you to see the last film. Properly infused with as James. He had the most current technology and utilizing know. A hell of a man to follow. Sean incredible variations on the materiel of Connery current-day news items (supertankers, "I always think back to who was of Basil moon shots, communications satellites), Sherlock Holmes and think they have moved ever closer to science Rathbone. Nobody has ever played well he did. He's the one fiction as the Cold War has receded from Holmes as as the with the consciousness of world leaders. Albeit who comes to mind. And same Connery in the East-West rivalry of the Fifties poor Roger. He's always got Well, whole picture was dominated Ian Fleming's first few Bond the shadows. the to fit into books, the later offerings (both in print and laid out to give Roger a chance

It like, 'Let's stick him into on film). have cast aside the the part. was his cloak-and-dagger aspects for more every possible situation and let him act out, get colorful, larger-than-life items, most of way out of it; then, as soon as he's one.' lot of people have which are of a scientific provenance. him into another A but this is a Scientific gadgetry for military or civilian accepted him as Bond now, use has been at the core of most Bond matter of opinion. The Man with the Golden Gun the films: Dr. No in Dr. No misguided U.S. "On script didn't hold together. To me it was missiles; in Goldfinger the villain planned but Christopher to contaminate Fort Knox with a one of the worst Bonds, stylish villain that the level 'particularly dirty" bomb; Thunderbal! saw Lee was such a up." the world held at ransom by those who had was brought came "skyjacked" nuclear weapons; both When The Spy Who Loved Me Russian and American astronauts and along, Meddings and the effects team usual, that it had to beat ail their craft were-"space-jacked" in You Only Moonraker, the $25-rnil!ion James Bond movie. were told, as CONTINUED ON PAGE 142 26 OMNI THE ARTE By Stephen Demorest

surface is are powerful magic to an art when publishers rejected his proposal Basically, a photoconductive which They that come for a book of album-cover art but flipped charged with static electricity, artist, these visions dry powder. The powder is then sliding out of the black box at the over the quality of his Xerox color samples. attracts a push a transferred to paper or fused to it by heat. press of a button. He casts an image "it's really instant gratification; you later you see Carlson spent ten frustrating years being under the spel! of three swooping colored button, and thirty seconds what you've got. Then you can make some rebuffed by companies such as IBM, lights, and it returns vivid as a again, and out RCA, and Kodak before the Haloid dream —textured, richly colored, changes, push the button back what it called hallucinated. comes a modified version. It's ideal as a Company agreed to ("dry writing") and made Born and bred to be imitative drones for fast, inexpensive way to develop themes. xerography stock-market history. the business world, color-copying "We've found a lot of artists using copy to It wasn't Xerox, though, but 3M machines like 3M Corporation's machines, from Robert Rauschenberg Corporation's Don Conlin and Dr. Douglas Color-in-Color and the Xerox 6500 have people just fooling around in Des Moines. up with the first surprised and captivated their masters Peter Max had a color machine he was Dybvig who came with dry-color machine in 1968. their with the infinite range of their personalities. using for drawings, Larry Rivers works

it Color-in-Color system involves red-, After a decade of continuous exploration, multiples. He'll take a sketch and copy

it and blue-filtered light exposures new ideas capable of sustaining an artist's and then color in fifteen or twenty green-, successively iron-oxide powder relentless addiction to discovery keep different ways until he comes up with the that zap This intermediate I Mylar sheets. floating out of the slot. Thanks to unique combination he wants. would say any on coated causes assistance from the scientific community, major artist who's had anything to do with image conducts heat that yellow, magenta, and the color copier has become the modern printing has at one time or another fooled microencapsulated the other side to burst, thus graphic artist's most essential new tool. around with color xerography. If cyan dyes on Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci had printing a multihued blend on the plain "I think the machine is an intimate miracle," says Patrick Firpo, coauthor of had a Xerox machine, they'd have whaled paper. During their investigations, Conlin and Copy Art, the first thorough layman's guide with it." Dybvig took the unusual step of consulting to the copy machine. Firpo, who used to Dry copiers are based on an artist, Sonia Landy Sheridan. As stage rock-and-roll light shows at New electrophotographic process that was a veteran concerned with a York's Fillmore East, got hooked on copy developed in 1938 by Chester Carlson. a teacher, she has been broad range of imaging systems for over 30 years, the past 10 as head of the Generative Systems program at Chicago's School of Art Institute. She seems to have scant respect for those who "don't know more than to press a button" and will patiently lecture you like an old-fashioned schoolmarm on the classic "Meet Mr. Wizard" home-style techniques involving carbon paper, static electricity, and lemon juice. "We have a program here-that's ten years old and that's trained maybe ten thousand people with the help of 3M Corporation. We've set up machines from northern Minnesota to Texas, and our students have taught at UCLA. The young people coming up now have not just discovered this stuff. The teaching has been going on for well over a decade." Nevertheless, the simplicity of the copy operation encourages anyone coordinated enough to stab a button to try his hand (actually just his finger) at creating "art." Color machines are now available at copy

centers in most major cities, and the rates Jack Kaminsky made Guggt nheim by superimposing three b/w photos on color Xerox. CONTINUED ON PAGE 133 28 OMNI What kind of man owns his own computer?

Rather revolutionary, the whole idea of owning your oti your desk— is a computer that answers only to you. own computer? Not if you're a dipiomat, printer, scientist, Apple Computer. It's less expensive than timesharing.

inventor. . . or a kite designer, too. Today there's Apple More dependable than distributed processing. Computer. It's designed to be a personal computer. To Far more flexible than centralized EDP. And, uncomplicate your life. And make you more effective, q fOj, at less than $2500 (as shown), downright affordable. It's awise manwho owns an Apple. J^*. -*fU If your time means money Apple can help you ,W J iXP) visit y°ur *ocal computer store. make more of it. In an age of specialists, the most ^* , Hfc You can join the personal computer successful specialists stay away from uncreative revolution by visiting the Apple dealer in drudgery. That's where Apple comes in. your neighborhood. We'll give you his name

: Apple is a real computer, right to the core. So just like when you call our toll free number big computers, it manages data, crunches numbers, keeps (800) 538-9696. In California, records, processes your information and prints reports. You (800) 662-9238. concentrate on what you do best. And let Apple rest. do the Apple Computer, 10260 *^fc0* Apple makes that easy with three programming languages— Bandley Drive, -.WlJP^^ including Pascal—that let you be your own software expert. Cupertino, »W CiO^ CA 95014. .—rf»* Apple, the computer worth not waiting for. Time waiting for access to your company's big main- frame is time wasted. What you need in your department — E UFD UPDATE By James Oberg

early three years ago a attended the debriefing of an Iranian F-4 concerned. The officer in charge, Major spectacular UFO appeared in crew and on some news clippings and a General Yousafi, went out to see for starlike the night sky over Tehran, few telephone calls. Nobody, it seemed, himself and saw a bright object. m the case. They (In fact, the planet Jupiter was near its Iran. In past ages comets were said to had actually researched foretell the fall of kings. Perhaps in this had merely agreed that it sounded like a maximum brilliance in the east.) A check space-minded era flying saucers fulfill the good story. with radar at the Babolsar and Shahrokhi same function. Turmoil was soon to topple Better yet, considering Iran's political air force bases showed nothing unusual. brilliance the shah. situation, it seemed certain that nobody But Yousefi, surprised by the The UFO chased by Iranian Air Force else would ever be able to investigate the of the light, decided to scramble an F-4 F-4 fighters on the night of September 19, story adequately. Thus, the reported UFO Phantom jet, an extremely unusual event, 1976, spawned a baffling story, claims of a could remain safely unidentified forever. as most Iranian jet pilots are very cover-up by the United States, and a But the mystery of the UFO was due more inexperienced in nighttime air operations. legend that went far beyond the drab facts to the political confusion surrounding the UFO investigators have been frustrated of the event. Late in 1977 the National incident than to the details of the case because the UFO's direction and the Enquirer selected the incident as the itself. pursuing Phantom's flight path have never

"most scientifically valuable" UFO case of It certainly sounds like a good story. been adequately described. Explanations 1976. A special "blue-ribbon panel" of During the thrilling encounters the Iranian and searches for contradictions in the UFO experts sponsored by the newspaper pilots appear to have been in fear for their accounts are therefore fruitless. testified that the Iranian UFO represented lives. Earthly explanations seem weak According to a debriefing summary a genuinely unexplainable phenomenon. next to human terror. given by the U.S. Air Force, this F-4 Skeptics, of course, quickly pointed out Shortly after midnight on September 19, suddenly experienced a communications that the UFO "experts" had relied princi- 1976, Mehrebad Air Force Base received blackout and returned to base. Since it pally on a two-page summary prepared by several phone calls. Some civilians had had been chasing a UFO, though there is a bored U.S. Air Force officer who had spotted a bright light in the sky and were nothing to indicate that it had gotten close, the experts immediately decided that the UFO had caused the blackout. A second jet had been launched ten

minutes after the first. It, too, tried to approach the UFO, which appeared to recede constantly as the pilot, Lieutenant Jafari, approached. (That, incidentally is exactly how a distant light in the sky would have appeared.) But suddenly the UFO seemed to attack the second F-4. In the published accounts the pilot reports seeing an object suddenly break away from the main UFO and come at the jet head on. Jafari tried to fire an AIM-9 missile, one of the Sidewinder series, but "his weapons-control panel went off" and froze his attempt. At the same time his communications blacked out. These reports, based on tape record- ings of the air-to-ground communications, were played for newsmen the following day. What is interesting about them is that the account of the failures on the first jet was based on a story told by the second pilot the next day The tape recordings played for the reporters evidently failed to mention the loss of communications. The electrical failure on the second jet, UFO flew along a rural road in Diamante Entre Rios, Argentina, for a few minutes in July 1976. however, seems to have been quite real. 30 OMNI Since the Iranian Enquirer's "best cases" over the years. He The pilot panicked and put his plane into a air-traffic controller. allowed to has often uncovered information that the steep dive as the smaller UFO zoomed military personnel were not gifts, the money was donated pro-UFO investigators had not found or right at him, then passed inside his turn accept cash Lion and Sun, the Iranian had chosen not to tell the public. and slid back to the origi nal object for "a to the Red Cross. Klass's difficulties in attacking this case perfect rejoin." eguivalent of the Red the According to Dr. James Harder, were compounded by distance and by Such maneuvers are remarkable. If they that been of civil engineering at the web of military security had had taken place as described, however, it professor Berkeley and wrapped around it. The language barrier would have been even more remarkable University of California at in his path. of research for the Aerial promised to throw more snares for Jafari to see them. In fact, he thought director Research Organization, a In fact, some cynical observers of the the object was getting closer because it Phenomena privately civilian UFO group, "the strange world of UFOria was getting brighter. In a dead-on long-established because suggested that the Iranian case had been approach the object would not appear to case was particularly important, chosen over a hypnotic-regression UFO it provided evidence for long-range move in the sky at all. As for the electronics. You kidnapping in Kentucky primarily because maneuvers seen during the pilot's jamming of fire-control research. but [the it would prove impossible to panicked dive, they seem similar to can always jam communications, If so, the panel has been partially maneuvers reported by other pilots who, capability] to jam the electronics of fire successful. Klass has not yet issued a full misjudging the range to an unknown light control within the plane is something that Recently, firmly established before." report on his investigation. in the night sky, have miscalculated the has not been Dr. Frank though, he told Omni that he has turned object's flight path. Another panel member, Utah up some very interesting details. "I have Based on the information at hand, we Salisbury, a plant physiologist at University, dismissed any possible talked with several American technical just do not know what took place between State in Iran," he beforehand: "If a UFO cannot representatives who were that jet and the light. We may never know, explanations natural or psychological recounted. "Two were at Shahrokhi. They and this uncertainty must please UFO be explained as a weapon, offered an explanation for the electronic experts who have been touting the case phenomenon, hoax, or secret outage experienced by the second F-4." without ever investigating it. Klass promises to publish his findings in The story is not over, though. Another the near future. object appeared, dropping from the The dramatic story of the panicked pilot, purported mother ship. The F-4 attempted Jafari, trying to fire his Sidewinder missile to approach it, and the pilot reported with a frozen weapons-control panel also seeing a light on the ground—presumably turned out to have been garbled in the the one that had dropped from the UFO retelling. Experts from the Tactical Air some minutes earlier. The light dazzled Command told Klass that the weapons Jafari's eyes, wiping out his night vision. panel has nothing to do with the While returning to the air base, Jafari Sidewinder, which is fired from another noticed some radio interference. Later he electrical circuit entirely. reported seeing another UFO pass over "Most important to me," Klass him. When prompted, ground controllers concluded, "the Iranian Air Force never in the airport tower also saw a light in the called in American experts to do a sky. thorough checkout for damage." The UFO story was everywhere in the In examining this case, Klass noted that Tehran newspapers for days afterward. fireballs had been seen in the skies over Military attaches at the U.S. embassy Morocco that same night, and a noted the account, had it translated, and jet liner had reported a bright Iranians, Portuguese forwarded it to Washington. The eastern part of the Atlantic puzzled. But as time fireball over the meanwhile, seemed 1976. UFO above Indonesian waters, Ocean. To some, this suggests that the went by, they were less and less alarmed. UFO was streaking westward at high Early in October the shah himself brought existence scientific UFO speed. To skeptics, it reveals the up the encounter during a ceremonial visit then it's of high interest to of a bright meteor shower that could have by American astronauts. They, too, were investigation. This case meets this frightened Iranian criterion. Too many witnesses in highly helped confuse the unable to explain it. The actual event had barely ended responsible positions were involved for us pilots. Because of recent events in Iran, when the myths began to grow. First came to think of hoaxes or hallucinations." statement presents a summary nvestigations seem to have reached a a story that the U.S. government was This But Klass is continuing to judgment, its list of alternatives is dead end. trying to hush it up by keeping its files as far as "secret search for American engineers who were secret— files that were nothing more than incomplete. And the panel in Iran at the time. The idea that the . translations of Tehran newspaper weapons" are concerned, for "sighting" was really a series of accounts and an account of the Iranian lacked the top-secret Soviet records Iranian and American coincidences and panicked pilots' debriefing. Later stories told of a that date. Even misidentifications, while possible, humanoid space creature that had records were unavailable. That avenue of still and has not yet been established. attacked local farmers during the research is definitely untrod— investigation, this likely to remain so forever. Without a thorough dogfight In St. Louis, Missouri, UFO buffs Salisbury, along with panel ranian case should never have received claimed that the Iranian jet had been Harder and of the Los the official pro-UFO enddrsements that it kidnapped by the UFO and that the pilot members Dr. John L. Warren, Dr. has garnered. Nor should it be so widely had never been found. The Iranian UFO Alamos Scientific Laboratory, and Leo of Wyoming, in flaunted as the best proof that UFOs are was well on its way to becoming a classic. Sprinkle, of the University that real. Of course, it could be the best if there Official sanction of the case came last Laramie, were evidently convinced that could not are no better cases to rely on. That in itself January 31, when the National Enquirer here at last was a UFO case be a harsh indictment of the quality publicized the decision of its experts. The be solved by archskeptic Philip J. Klass. would of UFO evidence available today! paper gave a check for $5,000 to the Klass, a Washington-based aviation Anyone recently returned from Iran who ambassador from Iran at the time journalist and author of two books on UFO insights into this case can contact Ardeshir Zahedi, on behalf of the four cases he claims to have solved, has made has National Philip Klass through this column. DO pilots, an airforce general, and an a habit of investigating the

32 OMNI coruTimuufui

D v_ V_ OG

November a worker at Union Carbide's Texas City, between Sun Belt states and skin cancer; estrogen use and LastTexas, vinyl chloride plant complained to the Occupa- melanoma (a deadiy skin cancer); estrogen use and cancer of tional Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that the uterus; smoking and lung cancer in women; and, for some as he and a number of his fellow employees had suffered yet unexplained reason, a decrease in breast cancer in women cam tumors. Two weeks later inspectors from OSHA found that under forty years of age. 1 1 workers did indeed have tumors. A quick check of Monsanto's The information developed by SEER has already saved some Texas vinyl chloride plant turned up five more cases. lives and could save many more. However, the entire agency has The workers suspected all along that their jobs were giving only 35 workers and a total budget of $20 million. Compared to them cancer. OSHA's conclusion was more guarded: "The inci- the cost of cancer— $30 b/7//on per year— the amount is ludi- dence would appear to be higher than expected" and "one of the crously spare. To be more effective, Schneiderman said, more chemical agents associated with this type of tumor is vinyi-chlo- than ten times the staff would be needed and a reporting system -ide monomer," read the OSHA statement of February 14, 1979. would have to be set up for the entire nation. By this date, however, most of the brain-tumor victims were SEER personnel, for instance, would like to follow the health already dead. A computerized early-warning system might have records of residents in the area of the nuclear accident at Three saved them. Unfortunately, most human carcinogens today are Mile Island. The ideal way to do so would be to base records on dentified only after the workers have died. social security numbers, but federal law states that such num- "The truth is that we do not know who is exposed to what bers may be used only for purposes of social security. Schnei-

carcinogens and how much exposure they have," admitted Dr. derman has mixed emotions, as do other epidemiologists, if Marvin Schneiderman, associate director of science policy for social security numbers or some other effective tracking system the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and former director of SEER were used, would the information gathered then be vulnerable to

: Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results). SEER was establ- law enforcement officials, insurance companies, and employ- ished by NCI in 1973 to obtain information on the incidence of, ers? No one would deny such Big Brother dangers exist. How- and mortality from, tumors in the United States. It gets its informa- ever, safeguards could be established. Epidemiologists could Bon from 10 million hospital records. But hospitals often fail to be protected by confidentiality laws, just as doctors, lawyers, record job histories accurately or completely. "If we were to take and clergymen are. Codes could be used and participants couid those records literally we would believe that all occupations were be given a choice of providing further information or remaining either 'retired' or 'housewife,' " Dr, Schneiderman said. anonymous. The information provided to SEER includes area of residence, Every primary cancer diagnosed should be reported to a site of tumor, condition of the patient, and how the diagnosis was computer facility. Pertinent information, such as current and established. But even such meager information can pay off. former places of employment, current and former areas of resi- SEER epidemiologists picked up a high incidence of lung cancer dence, family medical history, habits, hobbies, and diet, should along the southeast coast and in Maine. They placed an indus- be included, impossible? Impractical? Such information already trial map over the area and discovered a concentration of wood- exists about most of us. Credit bureaus and insurance com- -dustry facilities. They thought that this was the answer. But panies base decisions upon such data. when investigators went into the area, they were surprised at With sufficient information, epidemiologists could pinpoint tfhat they found. Instead of the wood industry being the common those cancer-causing agents to which we are exposed, and

"-nominator, shipyard work during World War !l was. The iung- steps could then be taken to protect us before it is too late. For the ;cicer victims had been employed years before in places where vinyl-chloride workers in Texas, the clock ran out. ssbestos, a lung carcinogen, had been used. We have a choice. Risk privacy or risk cancer. SEER epidemiological studies have also made correlations -RUTH WINTER CDQJTimuunn

holes, the remains of PSORIASIS CURE sessions, but this rate com- SF INVENTIONS black pares favorably with other collapsed stars that suck in which have recur- Computers, lasers, holo- all matter and light around If you're one of those un- therapies, test-tube babies, them. They have speculated fortunates afflicted with "the rence rates ranging from 45 grams, communications about white holes that spit heartbreak of psoriasis," percent to 95 percent. satellites—science fiction out matter. Theorists believe there's a new cure: Take a —Joel Davis that these black and white bath in the Dead Sea. holes may somehow be con- Dr. Willy W Avrach, direc- FOOD APPEAL nected as tunnels through tor of the Dead Sea Interna- space and time. tional Psoriasis Treatment The texture of your food Even SF movies have been Center, has found that a may be more important in prophetic. German film- month of bath treatments in appeal than taste. "Foods maker Fritz Lang wanted to the fabled body of water is like potato chips, raw car- heighten the drama of his just as effective as traditional rots, and nuts are popular 1929 movie, Woman in the hospital therapy, according because of texture, not be- Moon. So he added a to the Journal of the Ameri- cause of taste. And some have countdown from ten sec- can Medical Association . foods, like lettuce, onds. Later NASA adopted The highly saline waters of prominent texture but no the idea of counting back- the Dead Sea, in combina- taste," explains Dr. ChoKun wards for the space tion with ultraviolet rays from Rha, associate professor of program. sunlight, can clear up the food-process engineering at — Kenneth Jon Rose skin disease. And the results Massachusetts Institute of Of the 1,631 Technology. Her present goal are spectacular. BEES AND MELONS patients whose data were is to find foods that might analyzed by Dr. Avrach. 95 have better structure, or tex- As if producing honey and percent showed improve- ture, than the real thing. cross-pollinating flowers ment during the four-week "Free-water release" Robert Heiniein "invented" weren't enough, bees have therapy session. Forty-four (juiciness) is one prime con- Waldo, a remote-control arm. been found to be useful percent had recurrences sideration, says Dr. Rha. And now for growing melons. The U.S. within four weeks after the a promising material for con- has invented these and Department has trolling water release is the many more. Agriculture placing cell-wall material of cranber- Cleve Cartmill wrote, in a discovered that ries after their juice has been 1944 story called "Deadline," beehives in cantaloupe extracted. a detailed description of the fields increases both the size the number of A tiny amount of the cran- atomic bomb. Yet neither he and berry material mixed with nor the rest of humanity then melons. contain- water becomes like knew about the secret work Four hives, each applesauce. Tasteless, the of the Manhattan Project. ing 30,000 bees, on an Indi- cranberry ceils catch water One of the greatest SF ana farm caused enough extra pollination to increase in tiny sacs, much as juice is writers, Robert Heiniein, of melons by 23 encapsulated in fruit cells. predicted correctly a long the number "The capsules, with an aver- hiatus in space exploration percent. In addition, indi- 10 age diameter of about ten after people walked on the vidual melons averaged microns, could be layered moon. He also invented, in a percent heavier than those in 2.2 kilo- with protein from soy or corn, 1940s story, the mechanical a control group— and help solve the problem arm, or Waldo, that is used grams each, instead of 2.0. believe that of the 'juicy steak' goal," Rha today to move radioactive Researchers is enough says. Cranberry-cell walls material. one hive per acre changes. Al- also offer the prospect of Space warps, the fic- to induce the the demand for bee- making synthetic fruit or tionalized tunnels through ready other foods, including the universe, may someday hives is up sharply among spreads. become reality. Scientists melon farmers. Dead Sea mud bath; The waters "caviar" and food discovered — Stuart Diamond may be good for the skin. — Alton Blakeslee have already 36 OMNI —

OLD CONDUCTORS Philharmonic, is now 90. WEIGH-IN that most of the 40 human

"I couldn't find a prema- deaths caused by tigers There's something healthy ture death in any of the great A process that will touch each year in the Sunder- Ecout conducting a major conductors," he says. every American was quietly bans—a 1 ,300-square- symphony orchestra, ac- Not only do leading mae- completed last fall —the kilometer area along the Bay icrding to a California stros die at advanced ages, standardization of weights of Bengal—could be pre-

and measures for the first vented if the tigers had more time in 100 years. fresh water. Forced to get by Each of the 50 states, with salty water, the felines Puerto Rico, the Virgin Is- undergo a chemical imbal- lands, and the District of ance that can be corrected Columbia were given 53 sets by eating humans, who con- of weights and measures by stitute high-quality food, the National Bureau of Stan- Hubert Hendrichs, the Ger- dards. Copies of these mea- man scientist who authored sures will be distributed to the study, reported. local inspectors, who will The victims are usually check everything from the honey collectors, fishermen, calibration on gasoline or woodcutters who frequent pumps to the scales in the the mangrove swamps that supermarket. Weights and cover most of the Sunder- measures that are off by bans. The latest tiger popu- even a fraction of a percent lation in the Sunderbans is can cause the overcharg- estimated at 430. ing —or undercharging In an attempt to end the of millions of dollars a year. human carnage, the govern- The standards from which ment of India plans to build Igor Stravinsky lived to be 88. Longevity of conductors has been these measures were made giant troughs in the region attributed to world recognition and "gratifying stress." are no longer physical, ex- and to fill them with fresh physician and amateur but they remain productive cept for the kilogram, which water for the tigers. —S.D. musician. Dr. Donald H. At- almost until their death. Atlas is defined by a platinum- las, of the school of believes that the "sense of indium cylinder. The meter, medicine at the University of fulfillment that comes with once defined by a platinum- California at San Diego, world recognition" contrib- indium bar, is now defined found that the mean age of utes to the longevity of con- by wavelengths of light. The death for 35 famous conduc- ductors. Stress is often second, once kept by care- tors selected at random was present, but it is "gratifying fully built mechanical clocks, 73.4 years. stress." Atlas discounts the is now measured by the

The life expectancy of the theory that the energetic arm radiation cycles of a average American male is waving of today's conduc- cesium-133 atom. — S.D.

only 68.5 years. . tors provides exercise that Some conductors died at prolongs life. The early con- THIRSTY TIGERS very advanced ages, includ- ductors, he noted, scarcely ing Leopold Stokowski, at moved their arms; yet they, Bengal tigers have been 95; ArturoToscanini, at 90; too, reached advanced killing people in certain re- Igor Stravinsky, at 88; Walter ages. — Barbara Ford gions of India and Damrosch, at 88; and Bruno Bangladesh for decades Walter, at 85. Although no "Law of Thermodynamics: because the tigers don't women were in the group 1. You cannot win. have enough fresh waterto studied, Dr. Atlas notes that 2. You cannot break even. drink, according to a study Nadia Boulanger, the first 3. You cannot get out of the financed by the World woman to conduct a full game." Wildlife Fund. What do you serve a thirsty tiger? concert of the New York —Anonymous The research concluded Anything he wants. caruTiruuurm

MIRAGE Under these conditions, light THE WORST OF exposed to asbestos fibers rays are bent around the ASBESTOS while constructing ships dur- A "high latitude" mirage curvature of the earth. The ing World War II. Research- that makes distant lands vis- stronger the inversion, the Add asbestos to the list of ers say that as littie as one has ible may explain how Norse more bending. With a high miracle products with a dark day's exposure been seamen discovered North degree of bending, the side. Asbestos has been found to cause cancer three America around a.d. 1000. earth's surface looks like a The high latitude, or Arctic, saucer, and landscapes and mirage differs from other ships normally out of sight

mirages in that it reflects below the horizon are raised something that actually into view on the saucer's rim. exists, in this case a real The effect can last for days landscape that lies 6e/ow, or and cover thousands of beyond, the horizon. kilometers. Two University of Manitoba Lehn and Sawatzky spec- (Canada) scientists, Wai- ulate that an Arctic mirage al- demar H. Lehn and H. lowed Eric the Red to see Leonard Sawatzky, specu- Greenland from his home late that the mirages allowed in Iceland and emboldened explorers to "see" between him to make the 300-kilo- distant landfalls in the North meter voyage despite con- Atlantic. Lehn has calcula- trary winds and currents. tions showing that the feat is There is at least one re- theoretically possible. cent report of this mirage. In An Arctic mirage is 1939 a sea captain saw a caused by a temperature in- mountain in Iceland from version created when the air 500 kilometers away. An Arc- Warren Beatty (shown with Julie Christie) turned the hair dryer into a immediately above the tic mirage is the best expla- phallic symbol in Shampoo. Now it's a potential health hazard. earth's surface is colder nation for the sighting. than air at higher elevations. — Barbara Ford used widely as a fi reproofing, decades later. Asbestos has heat-resisting, and noise- also been found in the drink- controlling materia! in ing water of Atlanta, Boston, ceilings, brake linings, iron- Philadelphia, San Francisco, ing boards, insulation, ce- and Seattle. ment, and furnace-patching Compared with other can- compounds. Now the miner- cer risks that people face al's fibers are being linked to daily—from cigarette smok- lung cancer. ing to eating food addi- The U.S. Consumer Prod- tives—asbestos exposure is uct Safety Commission has not considered particularly asked for the voluntary recall deadly. But scientists believe

of millions of hairdryers, that it is another of the mate- which may be blowing as- rials that is contributing to bestos fibers into the faces the rising rate of cancer, of their users. Authorities are which claims 1,000 lives

still trying to gauge the each day in the United health effects of asbestos States.—S.D. flaking off from school ceil-

ings, for which it was used "Our time is a time for extensively until the early crossing barriers, for erasing 1970s. old categories —for probing around." Photos are identical except that in photo at left the lake is frozen and Moreover, several million McLuhan the air higher up is warm, causing wall-like mirage above horizon. naval-shipyard workers were —Marshall 38 OMNI .

SOLID HYDROGEN increased pressure until the highest, with a 60, but most from the air and even from liquid was converted into a of the country is rated be- outer space. NASA and Scientists have taken a dense crystalline solid at tween 2 and 4. USGS research and aerial- major step toward turning room temperature. More The report, of course, as- mapping aircraft provide a hydrogen into a metal, which pressure increased the sumes that there is an identi- bird's-eye view of our world they think could become a density. cal efficiency for ail so- from 610 to 19,716 meters The solid form of high- lar collectors. To compare overhead. Landsat satellites density hydrogen could various systems and to ob- provide even loftier pictures make an efficient, nonpollut- tain general information on from 920 kilometers up. ing fuel for nuclear-fusion solar energy, you can call the Skyiab, which orbited much reactors or could become a National Solar Heating and lower, has also contributed to rocket fuel, aircraft fuel, or Cooling Information Center the government's photo explosive, says the National in Philadelphia, toil-free, album of the earth. Science Foundation, which 800-523-2929. Or write the All of these photographs recently released the Car- center at Box 1607, are available to the public. negie research. — A.B. Rockville, Md. Black-and-white prints, some 20850.—S.Q color slides, and even infra- SOLAR ECONOMICS red images can be had for SAY CHEESE! prices ranging from $1 to $50. A solar-collector system To order photos, write to: can supply twice as much At this very moment the User Services, EROS Data heat in New York City as in U.S. government may betak- Center, Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Rochester, New York, ap- ing a picture of your house. 57198. You'll be sent a pack- proximately 420 kilometers And for a reasonable fee you et of information and an Billings, away. Montana, gets may be able to buy one of order form. If you want a as much solar energy as St. these pictures. specific area —such as your Louis, Missouri, whose NASA and the U.S. old in Liquid hydrogen: Pressure neighborhood the latitude is about 800 Geological Survey (USGS) Bronx —indicate it on a road can turn it into a solid. kilometers to the south. are capable of photograph- map or give latitude and superconductor, leading to How far south you live is ing our country (and others) longitude coordinates. far more compact and effi- not necessarily the key indi- cient electric generators and cator of how successful a ' : :> w transmission lines. Hydro- solar-collector system in your . is the SNS&at* gen main stuff of the will ^ area be, according to the universe and is contained in National Oceanic and Atmo- :,:»' the sun, water, and the spheric Administration human body fNOAA). Cloud cover, al- By creating tremendous titude, and air pollution also pressures with diamond- affect the amount of solar anvil cells, two scientists of energy that a building re- the Carnegie Institute's ceives. Geophysical Laboratory, NOAA's Air Resources Drs. Peter M. Bell and Ho- Laboratories in Silver Spring, kwang Mao, developed a Maryland, has published a new form of solid hydrogen booklet showing the relative that they believe brings them solar-heating value for closer to making metallic localities throughout the hydrogen. Soon, they hope, United States. The report they may demonstrate that assigned the regions around metallic hydrogen might be Lake Ontario and in central made at room temperature. Washington State a heating

Beginning with liquid hy- value of 1 , the lowest. Key EROS has a full library of photographs —all for sale—taken from drogen, the experimenters West, Florida, was rated high-altitude planes and spacecraft. Above: the San Francisco area CDRJTiruuunn

UFO TIPS multiple-witness cases are LOW-CAL SEX minute were recorded during far more valuable to UFO re- occupational or professional Nine percent of adult searchers than single ones. Indoor sportsmen who activity in contrast to an av- Americans have seen an un- There's a good chance think they are keeping in erage of 1 1 7.4 beats per identified flying object your UFO will turn out to be a shape by doing their work- minute during coitus. (UFO), according to a recent natural phenomenon outs in bed are in for a rude Thus, while your chances Gallup poll. This means awakening: Mother Nature is of suffering a fatal coronary there have been about 13 the original energy conser- during sex are "virtually million UFO sightings. Unfor- vationist. No matter how en- nonexistent," according to tunately, many witnesses thusiastic or athletic your Dr. V. K. Tallury, a New York who report sightings provide sexua! activities, your body cardiologist, sex won't make inadequate information. converts calories to energy you thin, either. It would take There's always the chance at the stingy rate of 4.5 the sexual athlete about 13 that you will be the one con- calories per minute—or 270 hours to lose a pound as fronted with that once-in- calories per hour. compared to 7.5 hours for a a-lifetime UFO sighting. Researchers at Case tennis player. And if it took Here's what to look for to Western Reserve University two martinis to get you make your UFO report a sig- School of Medicine discov- into the mood, you might nificant one: ered this fact while conduct- find your workouts rather fattening. « Note the precise time of ing studies on postcoronary day and how long the UFO patients who wore continu- Varying positions also stayed in sight. ously monitoring electro- seems to have little effect on • "Measure" the object's cardiogram devices. The caloric intake. In fact, Dr. Tal- size, but avoid descriptions original purpose of the study lury deflated the concept of such as "big as a house." In- was to discover how stressful sex as athletics by pointing stead, estimate size in de- sexual activity is on the heart out that "sex is about as grees. Compare the UFO to of the postcoronary patient. strenuous as walking up a J. Alien Hynek stresses need for the size of the moon (half a The findings: Sex was less flight or two of stairs— or additional witnesses. degree), the width of your stressful than many people's walking briskly for one or two thumb held at arm's length (meteor, aurora, cloud) or a jobs. Heartbeats of 1: )cks."— Sherry Romeo (one and a half degrees), or man-made device (airplane, the width of an outstretched weather balloon, satellite). fist {ten degrees). But if you see something

• Describe its position in the truly baffling, report it to one sky. Don't say it "hovered 200 of the major private UFO re- feet away," as distance is search groups. (Government very hard to judge. Estimate agencies may accept your its altitude in degrees above report, but nothing will be the horizon. Again, you can done with it. ) Each of the fol- do this by using fist or thumb lowing groups will respect

widths. If you can also supply your privacy, if you wish, and compass directions, all the you can be sure the report better. will be examined by an ex- • Note specific details: perienced investigator: Cen- shape, color, or changes in ter for UFO Studies, 1609 shape or color. Sherman Avenue, Evanston,

• Most important, get other III. 60201; Aerial Phenomena Organization witnesses to write down their Research , observations as soon as 3910 East Kleindale Road, possible after the sighting. J. Tucson, Ariz. 85712; Mutual Allen Hynek, astronomer and UFO Network, 103 Oldtowne director of the Center for Road, Seguin, Texas 78155. Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice may have had a good time, but doctors UFO Studies, says —Terrence Dickinson warn thai, calorie-wise, they'd have been better off playing tennis. 40 OMN! EATING WATCHES standing in New York City's Georgia, Dr. Jay P. Sanford since 1965, involving 677 Grand Central Terminal for a reported that the microbe people and 99 deaths. All If you ate your luminous- year, because of the radioac- finds its way from the ground but four of the outbreaks dial watch, you'd get a dose tivity in the train depot's into the evaporation pans have been in the United of radiation equal to about granite structure.) and filters of big air con- States.—J.D. 25 X rays. Luminous dials With characteristic under- ditioners. With the right tem- perature and humidity, the NEWS ON BEER bacillus multiplies and is AND POT spread throughout the air- conditioned building. A Maryland scientist's Legionella hemophilus in- search for a more effective fects only 2 percent of those cholera vaccine has turned

exposed to it, but it wouldn't up good news for beer have even that high an at- drinkers. For pot smokers

tack rate if it weren't for the there's good news and bad. very life-style of Americans, Heavy beer drinking claims Dr. Sanford, who is produces high levefs of dean of the School of stomach acid, according to Medicine of the Uniformed David Nalin, of the University Services University of the of Maryland's Center for Health Sciences in Bethes- Vaccine Development.

da, Maryland. He says the These acids kill bacteria and disease may be contracted protect beer drinkers from only by someone whose res- diarrhea. piratory system has been Marijuana, on the other polluted by such things as hand, lowers stomach-acid smoking or drinking. levels. This may protect pot You'd get as much radiation by spending a year in New York's Grand At least 18 separate out- smokers from peptic ulcers, Central Terminal as you would by eating a luminous-dial watch. breaks of Legionnaires' dis- but it also makes them more contain small amounts of statement, researchers at ease have been reported prone to cholera and other radioactive tritium, radium, Oak Ridge National Labora- diarrhea-causing diseases. or promethium paint. U.S. tory, which made the study, In other words, Nalin sug- government researchers re- said the likelihood of such gests, if you drink the water cently conducted tests to high exposures from swal- south of the border you may determine the possible lowing watches "is very low be safer quaffing Dos Equis health dangers posed by the .and near zero in most afterward than smoking materials. cases."— S. D. AcapulcoGold. The average American Nalin's research team can expect to get about LEGIONNAIRES' hopes to test these impli- 100-200 millirems of radia- DISEASE cations soon. The stakes are tion per year from natural higher than just finding a sources, such as the sun The seemingly innocuous cure for Montezuma's Re- and rocks. And under nor- germ that causes Legion- venge: Nonchoieraic diar- mal circumstances luminous naires' disease has been rhea is the number-one killer watches give off only 0.3 to 2 found, but the real cause of jWKUKWYBM of infants outside the U.S. millirems per year. the mysterious malady is Eventually, Nalin says, he But if you were to eat a deeper and even more in- WIBHSME would like to examine watch, you could get as nocuous: air conditioners OPEN stomach-acid levels of re-

millirems . . much as 500 in . and the American Way of turning Mexican tourists. your gastrointestinal tract, Life. Right now he is on a two-year according to government At a symposium held re- research program in Paki- figures. (Oddly enough, cently at the Center for Dis- Famous Philadelphia hotel was stan, testing the stomachs of you'd get just as much from ease Control in Atlanta, also victim of the disease. heavy hashish smokers. coruTiruuunn

IMPRINTING TURTLES leys, which are found along to Malcolm Bliss Mental my interest in bioiogical and the Gulf Coast, may be Health Center, a psychiatric environmental factors and Since the late 1940s the drawn back to Rancho hospital in St. Louis, re- their effects on psychiatric number of ridley sea turtles Nuevo by sensory informa- searchers found that on cer- illness," Dr. Meir Strahiievitz has dwindled from an esti- tion acquired when they tain high-pollution days psy- told Omni. In St. Louis he mated 40,000 to fewer than hatch. chiatric admissions either had the nearly ideal condi- At egg-laying time, climbed or dropped, de- tions to explore this interest. biologists held plastic bags pending on what pollutant "We had this large psychiat- under the females to catch predominated. ric hospital and an air- the eggs before they could On days when the St. pollution-control center on drop into the sand. Haif the Louis atmosphere was rich the next block," he explained. eggs were then flown to in carbon monoxide and ni- The team's findings indi- South Padre Island, where trogen dioxide, the number cate that people suffering they were incubated in the of patients admitted for al- from alcoholism and organic sand. coholism and organic brain brain problems may be par- As a control, the other half disorders increased notice- ticularly sensitive to some were placed in Rancho ably according to Drs. Meir yet-undiscovered disturbing

Nuevo sand. After the eggs and Aharona Strahiievitz and effect of N0 2 and CO. It may hatched, the young turtles researcher John E. Miller. also be that the pollutant NO were flown to Galveston, The opposite was true on cancels out some of the up- Texas, so that their develop- days when there was a high setting effects of the two ment could be carefully mon- level of nitrogen oxide, a other gases. The St. Louis itored. In February and May form of which is nitrous report even recommends groups of the turtles, tagged oxide, or laughing gas, often checking out nitrogen oxide for identification, were re- used by dentists for relaxing as a treatment for alcoholism leased from beaches in their patients. and organic brain problems. Florida. "The study sprang from — Douglas Colligan Ridley sea turtle: Catching its The biologists plan to re- eggs in plastic bags. peat the procedure, but they 20,000. The problem: The are cautious. "We hope they species' only known nesting will imprint," says Dr. Sylves- place in Rancho Nuevc, ter, but he added that suc- Mexico, is an open hunting cess will not be known for ground for predators, includ- "five to six years." ing humans, some of whom —Joseph A. Gambardello prize the eggs as aph- rodisiacs. BRAIN POLLUTION In a unique experiment to save the turtle— Lepido- Bad air can affect the chelys kempii— from ex- brain as well as the body, tinction, American and sometimes for the better, re- Mexican scientists are at- ports a team of scientists tempting to recondition the from St. Louis, Missouri. reptiles to shift their age-old Carbon monoxide (CO) and nesting place to a protected nitrogen dioxide (N0 2 ) may site in South Padre Island promote alcoholism, for National Seashore, in Texas. example, while the pollutant The process is called im- nitrogen oxide (NO), a printing. known anesthetic, appears Larry Mauro, 40, lifts off in the first-ever solar-powered manned flight, to feel better. Dr. Joseph Sylvester, Na- make people at Flabob Airport, near Riverside, California. Solar celts on the wings tional Marine and Fisheries' After comparing a were charged for one and a half hours. The electricity was stored in southeast division "turtle meticulous 149-day record of batteries, then released in this first flight, which lasted about 1.5 man," explains that the rid- air pollution with admissions minutes. Mauro reached a maximum altitude of 12 meters. 42 OMNI wHEDtoMRft-

GR£€N moi-

)/d ancient astronauts visit the Dogon?

BY CARL SAGAN LI

I lumanity has -already achieved interstellar spaceflight. With a gravitational assist from the planet Jupiter, the Pioneer 10 and 1 1 and the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft have been boosted into trajectories that wilt leave the solar system for the realm of the stars. They are very slow-moving spacecraft, &A kind of Galactic Survey may keep an eye on emerging worlds and seek out new planets.^

z-r.z te the fact that they are the fastest ings for several million, and civilization for evidence of extraterrestrial contact: Su- X e;"3 ever launched by our species. perhaps 10,000. merian legends and astronomical cylinder m\\ of of Ihe> take tens thousands years to It is not inconceivable that there is a kind seals; the Biblical stories of the Slavonic ~=.e typical interstellar distances. of Galactic Survey, established by cooper- Enoch and of Sodom and Gomorrah; the effort is _ness some special made to ating civilizations on many planets Tassili frescoes in North Africa; the ma- 'act will ~e~ them, they never enter another throughout the Milky Way galaxy, which chined metal cube allegedly found in an- z sreiary system in all the tens of billions of keeps an eye (or some equivalent organ) cient geological sediments and said to be years of future history of the Milky Way on emerging planets and seeks out undis- displayed in a museum in Austria; and so galaxy. The star-to-star distances are too covered worlds. But the solar system is very on. Over the years I have continued to look large- They are doomed to wander forever far from the center of the galaxy and could as deeply as I am able into such stories and i the dark between the stars. But even so, well have eluded such searches. Or survey have found very few that require more than :~ese spacecraft have messages attached ships may come here, but only every 10 passing attention. for the :c :hem remote contingency that at million years, say—with none having ar- In the long litany of "ancient astronaut" some future time alien beings might inter- rived during historic time. However, it is also pop archaeology, the cases of apparent ;=cr the spacecraft and wonder about the possible that a few survey teams have ar- interest have perfectly reasonable alterna- "eings who launched them on these pro- rived recently enough in human history for tive explanations, or have been mis- z gious journeys. their presence to have been noted by our reported, or are simple prevarications, If are of constructions we capable such ancestors, or even for human history to hoaxes, or distortions. This description a: our comparatively backward technolog- have been affected by the contact. applies to arguments about the Piri Reis ical state, might not a civilization thousands The Soviet astrophysicist I, S. Shklovskii map, the Easter Island monoliths, the z' millions of years more advanced than and I discussed this possibility in our book, heroic drawings on the plains of Nazca, ours, planet of on a another star, be capa- Intelligent Life in the Universe, in 1966. We and various artifacts from Mexico, Uz- c e of fast and directed interstellar travel? examined a range of artifacts, legends, bekistan, and China. Interstellar spaceflight is time-consuming, folklore and from many cultures and con- Yet it would be so easy for emissaries difficult, for us, and expensive and perhaps cluded that not one of these cases pro- of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization also for other civilizations with substantially vided even moderately convincing evi- to leave a completely unambiguous calling greater resources than ours. But it surely dence of extraterrestrial contact. There are card of their visit. For example, many nu- would be unwise to contend that concep- always more plausible alternative explana- clear physicists believe that there is an "is- tually novel to the physics approaches or tions for the evidence that are based on land of stability" of atomic nuclei, near a engineering of interstellar spaceflight will known human abilities and behavior. hypothetical superheavy atom with about not be discovered by us sometime in the Among the cases discussed were a 114 protons and about 184 neutrons. All future, reducing cost and travel time. number later accepted by Erich von Dani- chemical elements heavier than uranium It is evident that for economy efficiency ken and other uncritical writers as valid (with 238 protons and neutrons in its nu- and convenience, in- cleus) spontaneously terstellar radio trans- decay in cosmically mission is much su- short periods of time. perior to interstellar But there is reason spaceflight, and this to think that the bind- is the reason why our ing between protons own efforts have con- and neutrons is such centrated strongly on that stable elements radio communication. would be produced if But radio communica- nuclei having about tion is clearly inap- 114 protons and 184 propriate for contact neutrons could be with a pretechnologi- constructed. Such a cal society or spe- construction is just cies. No matter how beyond our present clever or powerful the technology and clear- transmission, no such ly beyond the tech- radio message would nology of our ances- have been received or tors. A metal artifact understood on Earth containing such ele- before the present ments would be un- century. And there ambiguous evidence has been life on our of visitation by some pianet for about 4 bil- advanced extrater- lion years, human be- Art of the Dogon (leftj and heroic drawings of Nazca, Peru: Are they proof of alien visits? restrial civilization in 47

^||^gjj^ -»* of the an- sible for them to have deduced. the dimmest reaches of our past are reminiscent of the legends But, according to Temple, the Dogon go Or consider the element technetium cient Egyptian civilization, and some an- Dogon further. They hold that Jupiter has four satel- whose most stable form has 99 protons and thropologists have assumed a weak is encircled by a ring. It cultural connection with ancient Egypt. The lites and that Saturn neutrons. Half of it radioactively decays to of of Sirius, central to the is perhaps possible that individuals ex- other elements in about 200,000 years, half heliacal risings seeing calendar, were used to predictthe traordinary eyesight under superb of the remainder is gone in another 200,000 Egyptian Nile conditions could, in the absence of a tele- years, and so on. As a result, any tech- inundations of the as- scope, have observed the Galilean satel- netium formed by stars with the other ele- The most striking aspects of Dogon recounted by Marcel lites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. But ments billions of years ago must all be gone tronomy have been anthropologist working in this is at the bare edge of plausibility. Unlike by now. Thus, terrestrial technetium can Griaule, a French While there is no rea- every astronomer before Kepler, the Dogon only be of artificial origin, as its very name the 1930s and 1940s. the planets moving cor- account, it is impor- are said to depict indicates. A technetium artifact could have son to doubt Griaule's circular, orbits. is no earlier Western rectly in elliptical, not only one meaning tant to note that there Dogon folk be- More striking still is the Dogon belief Similarly, there are common elements on record of these remarkable information has been about Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Earth that are immiscible; for example, liefs and that all the invisi- tunneled through Griaule. The slory has They contend that it has a dark and aluminum and lead. If you melt them to- British ble companion star, which orbits Sirius gether, the lead, being considerably recently been popularized by a (and, Temple says, in an elliptical orbit) heavier, sinkslothe bottom. The aluminum writer, Fi.K.G. Temple. state that the almost all prescientific once every 50 years. They floats to the top. However, in the zero-g In contrast to Dogon hold that the planets companion star is very small and very conditions of spaceflight there is no gravity societies, the special metal called well the earth rptate about their axes heavy, made of a in the melt to pull the heavier lead down, as as Earth. the sun. This is a con- sagala, which is not found on and exotic alloys, such as Al/Pb, can be and revolve around course, be achieved The remarkable fact is that the visible produced. One of the objectives of NASA's clusion that can, of as Copernicus star, Sirius A, does have an extraordinary early shuttle missions will be to test out without high technology, dark companion, Sirius B, which orbits it in such alloying techniques. Any message an elliptical orbit once each 50,04±0.09 written on an aluminum /lead alloy and re- years. Sirius B isthe first example of awhite trieved from an ancient civilization would dwarf star discovered by modern as- certainly attract our attention today. matter is in a state called rather trophysics. Its t is also possible that the content 6 They have knowledge that relativistioally degenerate, which does not than the material of the message would exist on Earth, and since the electrons are clearly point to a science or technology cannot be had save not bound to the nuclei in such degenerate beyond the abilities of our ancestors: for with a large telescope. it can properly be described as example, a vector calculus rendition of- matter, metallic. Since Sirius A is called' the Dog Maxwell's equations (with or without mag- Thus they had contact Star, Sirius B has been dubbed the Pup. netic monopoles), or a graphical repre- with an advanced technical At first glance, the Sirius legend of the sentation of the Planck black-bbdy dis- civilization. But Dogon seems to be the best candidate tribution for several different temperatures, evidence available today for man's past or a derivation of the Lorentz transformation which one —European or ancients contact with an advanced extraterrestrial of special relativity. Even if the extraterrestrial?^ civilization. As we begin a closer look at this could not understand such writings, they story, however, let us remember that the might revere them as holy. Dogon astronomical tradition is purely oral, But no cases of this sort have emerged, that it dates with certainty only from the despite what is clearly a profitable market 1930s, and that the diagrams are written for tales of ancient or modern extraterres- in (Incidentally, there is it is a very rare insight with sticks sand. trial astronauts. There have been debates demonstrated, but to of earth. It was some evidence that the Dogon like frame on the purity of magnesium samples from among the peoples the pictures with an ellipse, and that Temple purported crashed UFOs, but their purity taught, however, in ancient Greece by perhaps may be mistaken about the claim that in was within the competence of American Pythagoras and by Philblaus, who the planets Dogon mythology the planets and Sirius B technology at the time of the incident. A held, in Laplace's words, "that stars were suns, move in elliptical orbits.) supposed star map said to be retrieved were inhabited and the themselves When we examine the full bbdy of Dogon (from memory) from the interior of a flying disseminated in space, being Such teach- mythology, we find a very rich and detailed saucer does not, as alleged, resemble the centers of planetary systems." variety of contradictory structure of legend—much richer, as many relative positions of the nearest stars like ings, among a wide an inspired guess. anthropologists have remarked, than those the sun; in fact, a close examination shows ideas, might be just The ancient Greeks believed there were of their near geographical neighbors it to be not much better than the "star map" there earth, fire, water, and Where there is a rich array of legends that would be produced if you took an old- only four elements— constructed. is, of course, a greater chance of an acci- fashioned quill pen and splattered a few air —from which all else was there dental correspondence of one of the myths blank pages with ink spots. Among the pre-Socratic philosophers with a finding of modern science. A very With one apparent exception, there are were those who made special advocacy for likely to If it had later spare mythology is much less no stories sufficiently detailed to dispose of each one of these elements. make such an accidental concordance. other explanations and sufficiently accu- turned out that the universe was indeed of elements than of But when we examine the rest of Dogon rate to portray correctly modern physics or made more of one these not attribute remarkable mythology, dd we find other cases haunt- astronomy to a prescientific or pretechnical another, we should philosopher ngly reminiscent of some unexpected find- people. The one exception is the remark- prescience to the pre-Socratic of them ings in modern science? able mythology surrounding the star Sirius who made the proposal. One was right on statistical grounds The Dogon cosmogony describes how that is held by the Dogon people of the bbund to be examined a plaited basket, way, if we have several the Creator Republic of Mali, in West Africa, alone. In the same cultures, round at the mouth and square at the bot- There are at most a few hundred hundred or several thousand should not tom. Such baskets are still in use in Mali thousand Dogon alive today, and they each with its own cosmology, we then, have been studied intensively by an- be astounded if, every now and an thropologists only since the 1930s. There purely by chance, one of them proposes also impos- are some elements of their mythology that idea that is not only correct but : r =_. "he Creator upended the basket and

jsec : as a model for the creation of the y z —the square base represents the sky

ana :ne round mouth, the sun. I must say T&i this account does not strike me as a T~ = rkable anticipation of modern cos- ~: :gical thinking. In the Dogon representation of the crea- Don of the earth, the Creator implants in an egg two pairs of twins, each pair com- prised of a male and a female. The twins are intended to mature within the egg and I fcise to become a single and "perfect" an- drogynous being. The earth originates when one of the twins breaks from the egg before maturation, whereupon the Creator sacrifices the other twin in order to maintain = certain cosmic harmony. This is a varie-

gated and interesting mythology, but it does not seem to be qualitatively different ;r om many of the other mythologies and 'eligions of humanity. The hypothesis of a companion star to Sirius might have followed naturally from

:ne Dogon mythology, in which twins play a central role, but there does not seem to be any explanation this simple about the period and density of the companion of Sirius. The Dogon Sirius myth is too close to modern astronomical thinking and too pre- cise quantitatively to be attributed to

chance. Yet there it sits, immersed in a body of more or less standard prescientific iegend. What can the explanation be? Is there any chance that the Dogon or their cultural ancestors might actually have

been able to see Sirius B and observe its period around Sirius A? White dwarfs, such as Sirius B, evolve from stars called red giants, which are very

luminous and, it will be no surprise to hear, red. Ancient writers of the first few centuries of the Christian Era actually described Sirius as red —certainly not its color today. In a conversation piece by Horace called "Hoc Quoque, Tiresia" (How to Get Rich Quickly) there is a quotation from an earlier lime lias come. work that says, "The red dog star's heat whose split the speechless statues." CardQuartz. Quartz As a result of these less than compelling The Canon accuracy ancient sources there has been a slight in a watch, Canon accuracy in a calculator. temptation among astrophysicists to con- sider the possibility that the white dwarf Quartz technology. It's the most stopwatch, calendar and alarm. Sirius B was a red giant in historical times reliable in timekeeping today. And, of course, Canon accuracy in

and visible to the naked eye, completely And now Canon's combined it computing that's always been ahead swamping the light of Sirius A. In that case with their reliable calculator tech- of its time. perhaps there was a slightly later time in nology to bring you Canon's slim, stylish CardQuartz, the evolution of Sirius B when its brightness their versatile, styl- ) available in handsome black or was comparable to that of Sirius A, and the ish CardQuartz. silversatin finish. It leaves all relative motion of the two stars about each A Canon memory other timepieces behind. other could be discerned with the eye. calculator that's also _^...,_.. Others in our Card But the best recent information from the v:s Calculator series. theory of stellar evolution suggests that a sophisticated time- aaaaa 08* aaaaa aaa The handy LC-51. there simply is not enough time for Sirius B piece. Complete with the stylish LC-6.S the ultra-thin to have reached its present white-dwarf a qi a LC7.

state if it had been a red giant a few cen-

turies before Horace. What is more, it would Where quality is the constant factor. seem extraordinary that no one except the Dogon noticed these two stars circling each other every 50 years, each alone being one of the brightest stars in the sky Canon There was an extremely competent school ELECTRONIC CALCULATORS

CONTINUED ON PAGE 116 FICTION SANDKINGS

His interest piqued when told of the creatures' proficiency for warfare and worship

BY GEORGE R. R, MARTIN

^^imon Kress lived alone in a sprawling manor house among dry, rocky hills fifty kilometers from the city. So, when he was called away unexpectedly on business, he had no neighbors he could conveniently impose on to take his pets. The carrion hawk was no problem; it roosted in the unused belfry and customarily fed itself anyway. The sham- bler Kress simply shooed outside and left to fend for itself; the

little monster would gorge on slugs and birds and rockjocks. But the fish tank, stocked with genuine earth piranha, posed a diffi- culty Finally Kress just threw a haunch of beef into the huge tank.

The piranha could always eat one another if he were detained

longer than expected. They'd done it before. It amused him. Unfortunately, he was detained much longer than expected this time. When he finally returned, all the fish were dead. So was the carrion hawk. The shambler had climbed up to the belfry and

eaten it. Kress was vexed. The next day he flew his skimmer to Asgard, a journey of some two hundred kilometers. Asgard was Baldur's largest city and boasted the oldest and largest starport as well. Kress liked to impress his friends with animals that were unusual, entertaining, and expensive; Asgard was the place to buy them. This time, though, he had poor luck. Xenopets had closed its doors, t'Etherane the Petseller tried to foist another carrion hawk off on him, and Strange Waters offered nothing more exotic than piranha, glowsharks, and spider squids. Kress had had all those;

PAINTING BY ERNST FUCHS ——

on himself; actually, there were only three cas- he wanted something new, something that "We have only just opened this shop have fran- tles standing. The fourth leaned, a crum- would stand out- BaldurT the woman said. "We broken ruin. The three others were Near dusk he found himself walking chises on a number of other worlds, how- bled, You crude but intact, carved of stone and sand down Rainbow Boulevard, looking for ever. What can I sell you? Art, perhaps? have Over their battlements and through their places he had not patronized before. So have the look of a collector. We some carvings." rounded porticoes tiny creatures climbed close to the starport, the street was lined by fine Nor T'alush crystal crystal and scrambled. Kress pressed his face importers' marts. The big corporate em- "No," Kress said. "I own all the about a against the plastic. "Insects?" he asked. I see poriums had Impressive long windows, in carvings I desire. came to "No," Wo replied. "A much more complex which rare and costly alien artifacts re- pet." well. Smarter lifeform?" ifeform. More intelligent as posed on felt cushions against dark drapes "A than your shambler by a considerable that made the interiors of the stores a mys- "Yes." amount. They are called sandkings." tery. Between them were the junk shops "Alien?" course." "Insects," Kress said, drawing back from narrow, nasty little places whose display "Of stock. From Celia's the tank. "I don't care how complex they areas were crammed with all manner of "We have a mimic in kindly don't try to only will it are." He frowned. 'And offworld bric-a-brac. Kress tried both kinds World. A clever little simian. Not this talk of intelligence. These eventually it will mimic gull me with of shops, with equal dissatisfaction. learn to speak, but things are far too small to have anything but Then he came across a store that was your voice, inflections, gestures, even fa- the most rudimentary brains." different. cial expressions." "They share hiveminds," Wo said. "Cas- I have Itwasvery nearthe port. Kress had never "Cute," said Kress. "And common. tle minds, in this case. There are only three I something exot- been there before. The shop occupied a no use for either, Wo. want organisms in the tank, actually. The fourth cute. I detest cute small, single-story building of moderate ic. Unusual. And not died. You see how her castle has fallen." I own a shambler. size, set between a euphoria bar and a animals. At the moment expense. Kress looked back at the tank. temple brothel of the Secret Sisterhood. Imported from Cotho, at no mean litter of "Hiveminds, eh? Interesting." He frowned time to time I feed him a un- Down this far, Rainbow Boulevard grew From again. "Still, it is only an oversized ant farm. tacky. The shop itself was unusual. Arrest- I'd hoped for something better." ng. "They fight wars." The windows were full of mist— now a "Wars? Hmmm." Kress looked again. pale red, now the gray of true fog, now "Note the colors, if you will," Wo said. She sparkling and golden. The mist swirled and iThe black castle pointed to the creatures that swarmed over eddied and glowed faintly from within. the nearest castle. One was scrabbling at Kress glimpsed objects in the window was the first completed, it. To his eyes, it things he the tank wall. Kress studied machines, pieces of art, other followed by the still looked like an insect. Barely as long as could not recognize— but he could not get fortresses. his fingernail, six-limbed, with six tiny eyes a good look at any of them. The mists white and red all around its body. A wicked set of sensueusly around them, display- set flowed Kress . . . sat mandibles clacked visibly, while two long, ing a bit of first one thing and then another, on the couch, so he could fine antennae wove patterns in the air. An- then cloaking all. It was intriguing. tennae, mandibles, eyes, and legs were As he watched, the mist began to form watch. He expected sooty black, but the dominant color was the letters. One word at atime. Kress stood and . . . . . now. war to break out T> burnt orange of its armor plating. "It's an read. Insect," Kress repeated. WO. AND. SHADE. IMPORTERS. ARTIFACTS. ART. "It is not an insect," Wo insisted calmly. LIFEFORMS. AND. MISC. "The armored exoskeleton is shed when The letters stepped. Through the fog the sandking grows larger. If it grows larger. Kress saw something moving. That was this size, it won't." She took Kress I think df cute. In a tank enough for him, that and the lifeforms in wanted kittens. That is what by the elbow and led him around the tank to I understood?" their advertisement. He swept his walking Do make myself ever the next castle. "Look at the colors here." cloak over his shoulder and entered the Wo smiled enigmatically. "Have you He did. They were different. Here. the store owned an animal that worshiped you?" she sandkings had bright red armor; antennae, Inside, Kress felt disoriented. The interior asked and legs were yellow. again. But I mandibles, eyes, seemed vast, much larger than he would Kress grinned. "Oh, now and Kress glanced across the tank. The deni- have guessed from the relatively modest ddn't require worship, Wo. Just entertain- castle were off-white, ceil- zens of the third live frontage. It was dimly lit, peaceful. The ment." said, still with red trim. "Hmmm," he said. ing was a starscape, complete with spiral "You misunderstand me," Wo told him. "They "I wor- "They war, as I said," Wo nebulas, very dark and realistic, very nice. wearing her strange smile. meant even have truces and alliances. It was an All the counters shone faintly, to better dis- ship literally." alliance that destroyed the fourth castle in play the merchandise within. The aisles "What are you talking about?" for this tank. The blacks were becoming too I you," Wo were carpeted with ground fog. It came "I think have just the thing numerous, and so the others joined forces almost to his knees in places and swirled said. "Follow me." radiant count- to destroy them." about his feet as he walked. She led him between the "Amusing, ers and down a long, fog-shrouded aisle Kress remained unconvinced. "Can I help you?" no doubt. But insects fight wars, too." She almost seemed to have risen from beneath false starlight. They passed mist into anothersection of "Insects do not worship," Wo said. the fog. Tall and gaunt and pale, she wore a through awall of of large "Eh?" practical gray jumpsuit and a strange little the store, then stopped in front a Kress thought. Wo smiled and pointed at the castle, cap that rested well back on her head. plastic tank. An aquarium, closer Kress stared. A face had been carved into "Are yeu Wo or Shade?" Kress asked. "Or Wo beckoned. He stepped and wall of the highest tower. He recognized saw that he was wrong. It was a terrarium. the only sales help?" ?" abdut it. It was Jala Wo's face. "How . . . "Jala Wo, ready to serve you," she re- Within lay a miniature desert two tinted scarlet by "I projected a hologram of my face into plied. "Shade does not see customers. We meters square. Pale sand and quartz the tank, then kept it there for a few days. have no sales help." wan red light. Rocks: basalt of the tank The face of god, you see? I feed them. I am "You have quite a large establishment," and granite. In each corner sandkings have a ru- heard of stood a castle. always close. The Kress said. "Odd that I have never and ccrrected dimentary psionic sense. Proximity telep- you before." Kress blinked and peered athy. They sense me and worship me by "I am intrigued," he admitted. "If only with sand and rock. Then they installed a using my face to decorate their buildings. they weren't so small!" special lighting system, both to provide the All the castles have them, see." They did. "Yours can be larger. These sandkings dim red illumination the sandkings pre- On the castle, the face of Jala Wo was are small because their tank is small. They ferred and to project holographic images serene, peaceful, and very lifelike. Kress seem to limit their growth to fit available into the tank. On top they mounted a sturdy

marveled at the workmanship. "How do space. If I moved these to a larger tank, plastic cover, with a feeder mechanism they do it?" they'd start growing again." built in. "This way you can feed your sand- "The foremost legs double as arms. They "Hmmm, My piranha tank is twice this kings without removing the top of the tank,"

even have fingers of a sort, three small, size and vacant. It could be cleaned out, Wo. explained. "You would nofwant to take flexible tendrils. And they cooperate well, filled with sand ..." any chances on the mobiles escaping." both in building and in battle. Remember, "Wo and Shade would take care of the The cover also included climate-control

all the mobiles of one color share a single installation. It would be our pleasure." devices, to condense just the right amount

mind." "Of course," Kress said, "I would expect of moisture from the air. "You want it dry, but "Tell me more," Kress requested. four intact castles." not too dry" Wo said. Wo smiled. "The maw lives in the castle. "Certainly" Wo said. Finally one of the four-armed workers

Maw is my name for her— a pun, if you will. They began to haggle about the price. climbed into the tank and dug deep pits in The thing is mother and stomach both. the four corners. One of his companions

Female, large as your fist, immobile. Actu- Three days later Jala Wo arrived at Simon handed the dormant maws over to him, re- ally sandking is a bit of a misnomer. The Kress's estate, with dormant sandkings moving them, one by one, from their frosted mobiles are peasants and warriors. The and a work crew to take charge of the in- cryonic traveling cases.

real ruler is a queen. But that analogy is stallation. Wo's assistants were aliens un- They were nothing to look at. Kress de- faulty as well. Considered as a whole, each like any Kress was familiar with —squat, cided they resembled nothing so much as castle is a single hermaphroditic creature." broad bipeds with four arms and bulging, mottled, half-spoiled chunks of raw meat. "What do they eat?" multifaceted eyes. Their skin was thick and Each with a mouth. "The mobiles eat pap, predigested food leathery and twisted into horns and spines The alien buried them, one in each

obtained inside the castle. They get it from and protrusions at odd places upon their corner of the tank. Then the work party the maw after she has worked on it for sev- bodies. But they were very strong, and sealed it all up and took their leave. eral days. Their stomachs can't handle any- good workers. Wo ordered them about in a "The heat will bring the maws out of dor- thing else. If the maw dies, they soon die as musical tongue that Kress has never mancy," Wo said. "In less than a week well. The maw ... the maw eats anything. heard before. mobiles will begin to hatch and burrow up

You'll have no special expense there. Table In a day it was done. They moved his to the surface. Be certain to give them scraps will do excellently" piranha tank to the center of his spacious plenty of food. They will need all their

"Live food?" Kress asked. living room, arranged couches on either strength until they are well established. I

Wo shrugged. "Each maw eats mobiles side of it for better viewing, scrubbed it would estimate that you will have castles from the other castles, yes." clean, and filled it two thirds of the way up CONTINUED ON PAGE 101 \\ WIZARDS OF SILICON VALLEY

California's new

' Gold Coast ' owes its remarkable legacy to a handful of visionaries

BY GENE BYLINSKYAND ZHENYALANE

Silicon Valley is not some barren lunar crater or black crevice in the ocean's depths.

Rather it is a lush triangle of unusual real estate stretching 30 miles to the south of San Francisco, along placid San Francisco Bay, to the Santa Cruz Mountains. In this verdant place where prune orchards and

wildflowers blossom even in February, something else has burst into full

bloom: 1 ,000 innovative science and '>jj^ high-technology companies flying flags like Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Syntex, Varian, Atari, Andros, and Zoecon. From the first seedlings of this new empire— planted barely a century ago —Silicon Valley has become the world's leading center for industrial innovation. Silicon Valley also mass-produces millionaires. Fortune magazine estimates that no fewer than 500 high-technology millionaires live

there, many of them still in their late twenties and early thirties. No comparable mecca of high tech exists anywhere else. The closest

counterpart is Boston's Route 128, : -> that golden crescent of high- technology firms hugging the outer reaches of Beantown. But Silicon Valley long ago surpassed Route 128 in both the number of companies and the diversity of their products.

Aerial view of Silicon Valiey highlights Palo Alto (middle lett) as the nerve center o! the world's most innovative technologies. £ Dramatic growth of industry in the area has caused employment to expand at seven times the national rate. 9

growth of radio by building the first major Birthplace of electronic games and wireless station and by establishing the first home computers, of those tiny comput- wireless contact from an airplane to the ers-on-a-chip known as microcomputers ground. Federal Telegraph became the and of the world's most powerful super- dominant force in this nascent industry. computers, of cordless telephones and The company proved to be the nursery of digital thermometers, of laser technology the first generation of the valley's wizards, and computer memories, of food colors for among the many bright young men it and additives ingeniously designed to be attracted in addition to DeForest were such harmless to the body—Silicon Valley is all men as Charles Litton, who later founded that with much more to come the giant Litton Industries, starting it in a Surprises like an artificial heart that re- garage in San Carlos, quires no potentially poisonous nuclear An event almost as dramatic as that fly's fuel, bacteria engineered to make human monstrous march was the invention of the insulin, computers that understand human loudspeaker by two former employees of speech and taik back— all are under inten- Federal Telegraph, Peter Jensen and E. S. sive development in Silicon Valley's spar- Pridham. One day in 1917 the two men set kling laboratories. up their apparatus on Mare Island in San In some ways Silicon Valley is like Francisco Bay, From a window the loud- medieval Spain, a launohpad for great ex- speaker faced the dock in the city of Val- peditions into new worlds. But no territory in lejo, about a quarter of a mile away. The the world's history has launched more far-

town's streets were deserted , but there was reaching, heavily financed journeys to un- a man on the dock. Jensen's voice boomed known places than this tiny valley at the over the loudspeaker, asking the startled edge of the Pacific. man to remove his hat. He promptly did, "The effect on Earth of Silicon Valley apparently thinking he had heard a voice will be as dramatic over the next two William Hewlett: An empire begun in a garage from heaven. That year Jensen and centuries," says resident and computer on Pridham established the Magnavox Co., manufacturer John Peers, "as the effect And it was right here, as you can read a clapboard house at which manufactures loudspeakers and that [Dr, Louis Leakey's discoveries in] the plaque outside a white the marching radios. Rift Valley will have on the evolution of 913 Emerson Street, that Federal Telegraph continued to breed man," tramp of a common housefly ushered in the While working at the company, The Santa Clara Valley— to give Silicon electronic age and paved the way for the other giants. Valley. Frederick Kolster developed the radio de- Valley its proper name— is located on San wizards of Silicon on that tection finder. In 1921 Ralph Heintz founded Francisco Peninsula. It extends as far It was a dramatic moment Kauffmann. This company de- south as San Jose, the newest California memorable day in 1912 when a group of Heintz and built advanced shortwave radio metropolis, which to the surprise of many excited young men leaned over a table to vised and of transmitters, including those used by Rear non-westerners is already bigger than watch a housefly saunter across a sheet E. Byrd in his South Pole Pittsburgh or Minneapolis. At the northern drawing paper. The fly's footsteps were Admiral Richard tube, making them explorations. tip of the peninsula are all the attractions of amplified by a vacuum man most responsible for the snow- that jewel of cities, San Francisco, and sound like the steps of a marching soldier. The buildup of new high-technology across the scenic bay are the distant lights This was the first application of the vacuum balling of companies in and around Palo Alto before of Berkeley and Oakland tube as a sound amplifier and generator Frederick Ter- electromagnetic waves. The tube's inven- World War II, however, was TRACKS OF THE FLY of the fa- tor was Silicon Valley's first true giant: Lee man. The son of the developer Stanford-Binet intelligence quotient No description of Silicon Valley would be DeForest. mous studied as an under- complete, however, without mentioning The vacuum tube made possible such (I.Q.) test, Terman Stanford and took a doctorate Palo Alto, cradle of the first budding electronic wonders as radio, television, the graduate at electrical engineering from MIT In 1925 technologies in the area. Palo Alto is split long-distance telephone, electronic com- in he began teaching a course in radio en- right down the middle by El Camino Real, puters, tape recorders, and electronic eyes gineering at Stanford and soon started the the broad highway that runs much of the that open doors in stores and office build- university's radio communications labora- length of California. Stanford University ings. tory. He attracted gifted students, and the and Stanford Industrial Park, along with DeForest and his associates were then the laboratory spread. But it such various other citadels of science and working for the Federal Telegraph Co., in fame of scarcity of local technology as the Stanford Linear Ac- Palo Alto, the oldest American radio com- bothered Terman that the the jobs forced most of his graduates to go into celerator and Linus Pauling's Institute of pany. But development of electronics in "exile in the East," and so he began to Science and Medicine, lie to the west of El San Francisco Bay Area dates back even them to start companies near Camino. earlier, to the turn of the century. Talented encourage the the university. To the east is the city of Palo Alto itself. young men living in the area propelled • Judging from activity under way only the first harvest of innovative products has been

reaped from the valley T>

The biggest payoff came in 1937 when standard, and more recently it has intro- two of his brightest students, William duced that revolutionary microcomput- Hewlett and David Packard, started a er— a computer-on-a-chip. which has led company on a part-time basis in the one- to the creation of many new consumer and car garage of the house where Packard industrial products. This pioneering, in and his wife lived. The two young inventors turn, has contributed to the emergence of began by making an audio-oscillator, a still other new companies, which are incor- device that generates signals of varying porating the tiny electronic devices into frequencies. Terman recalls that he could new consumer products. always tell when the fledgling firm had re- One of the microcomputers' most spec- ceived an order. "If the car was in the tacular applications has been the creation

garage, there was no backlog. But if the car of electronic games. Nolan Bushnell, an was parked in the driveway, business was engineer who went to Silicon Valley after good." having worked his way through the Univer- That garage shop is known today as the sity of Utah by operating a game arcade in Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest a local amusement park, was largely re- producer of electronic measuring devices sponsible for the birth of electronic games. and equipment. The company now em- Bushnell began in a proverbial garage. ploys more than 42,000 people worldwide, (The process of small-company formation including some 12,000 in Silicon Valley. The in Silicon Valley, incidentally, has been company's annual sales are approaching honed to the point where in some industrial $2 billion. parks budding entrepreneurs can rent a Many otherfamous companies came out garage, complete with a roll-up door, and

of Stanford University. I n 1 937 Professor Wil- two or three offices adjoining it.) Later liam H. Hansen teamed up with Sigurd and Bushnell moved the company he named Russell Varian, young brothers and back- Frederick Terman: Benefactor of young genius. Atari into a medium-sized one-story build- yard inventors in Palo Alto, to develop the ing alongside an apple orchard. Inside this klystron tube. A variant of the vacuum tube, to cash in on this electronic technology. building long-haired kids assembled the klystron generates strong microwaves A brilliant scientist, Shockley gathered games to the sound of rock music. More that can be focused like the beam of a around him a large group of gifted elec- recently Atari has moved into huge quar- searchlight. The klystron tube became a tronics specialists whom he had picked ters in nearby Sunnyvale. A cavernous foundation of radar and microwave com- from big companies and universities game room off the main lobby is usually munications, and out of it grew Varian throughout the country. In 1959, however, filled. -.with excited youngsters playing Associates, a lucrative and prestigious his operation fell apart as those bright fabulous electronic gadgets for free. For company young men, led by Robert N. Noyce, then the most part, they are employees' children

During World War II Terman headed a big only thirty-two, left and, with the backing of celebrating their birthdays. defense electronics project at Harvard, Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp., The remarkable growth of Silicon Valley where, among other things, he developed founded Fairchild Semiconductor in Moun- companies is a wonder to behold. One year the aluminum chaff, which Allied bombers tain View, near Palo Alto. While there, Noyce you may visit a company founder in dropped on Germany and Nazi-occupied became the coinventor of the integrated crammed quarters shared with a handful of countries to confuse the Germans' radar. circuit, the successor to the transistor, fellow dreamers. Next year you may be vis- When Terman returned to Stanford, he con- which now jams thousands of micro- iting him in a spacious factory, which turns tinued to fan innovative flames. In another miniaturized transistors onto a tiny chip of out data disks, or whatever he makes, like pioneering move, for instance, he set up silicon. He also built up Fairchild Semicon- so many McDonald's hamburgers. Stanford Industrial Park near the university ductor into a $150-million-a-year operation. That kind of growth is what has made which became the prototype of such He left in 1968 and with his friend Gordon E. employment in Silicon Valley expand at facilities. It induced still more companies to Moore, a talented chemist who had con- seven times the national rate during the locate in the area. tributed some of the major advances in past five years and almost twice as fast as

Although it may seem as if Terman built semiconductor technology, founded Intel elsewhere in California. Jobs go begging Silicon Valley singlehandedly, there were Corp., in Santa Clara. About 14,000 people for both specialists and the unskilled. This other influences on the area's growth. Wil- are now employed at Intel, which expects year an estimated 19,000 jobs will be avail- liam Shockley, coinventor of the transistor, to have sales of about $500 million this year. able in Silicon Valley. for instance, returned to Palo Alto, his boy- MICROBOOM The beautiful setting and attractive job hood town, in 1955 and set up Shockley market have drawn many newcomers to the Transistor Corp. The transistor, of course, Intel became the brightest star in the hot- affluent communities of the valley. Real- was the successor to the vacuum tube, test high technology going; semiconduc- estate prices have soared, and housing is perfected in Palo Alto 40 years earlier, and tors. The company pioneered a computer now in very high demand. Many workers Santa Clara Valley was the logical place memory chip that has become an industry have begun to commute to the area from the outskirts, making automobile-gener- lems have largely been overcome. Innova- do these two ambitious capitalists think the ated pollution an increasing problem. The tion in the semiconductor area, he thinks, is wave of the future is going to be? cost of living is high, too. mostly over— at least for the time being. "If you look across the horizon," Perkins biological." Yet most people already in Silicon Valley Maybe so. But to find out for sure, we had says, "we think the next wave is with the financial backers of these would not exchange it for any other place to check BIOMED WHIZ KIDS on Earth— so enamored are they of the cli- contemporary Merlins who have the ability mate and their surroundings, which in- to transform equations into LED wrist- Two other giants of the valley, Alejandro cludes a friendliness and informality not watches, desktop computers, and bacteria (Alex) Zaffaroni and Car! Djerassi, actually going. The usually encountered in the big cities on the that breed human insulin. got this biological revolution born in Mon- East Coast. In their suite atop the Embarcadero Cen- smooth-talking Zaffaroni was ter, which houses their operation—with tevideo, Uruguay, the son of a banker. He BECKONING MECCA sunlit panoramas of San Francisco hills and started out by studying medicine, but, as - often happens, a brilliant instructor soon The valley is also changing in subtler billowing sails on the bay—neither Gene so redirected his interest into biochemistry. ways. It is, for example, becoming more a Kleiner nor Tom Perkins seemed much in exciting professional, and less a manufacturing, alarmed about any decline in innovation in The instructor had explained ot the carbon atom in center. Now the young fortune seekers are the valley terms the central role colonizing such obscure places as Aloha, With good reason. Venture capitalists organic chemistry, and Zaffaroni decided Michigan, and Nampa, Idaho, where they Kleiner and Perkins—whose previous suc- to explore that role. He came to the Univer- obtained doctorate are putting up plants because land and cesses include Fairchild Semiconductor, sity of Rochester and a laser in biochemistry there. Soon his brilliant labor are cheaper. It has gotten harder to which Kleiner helped start, and a what is known become a millionaire in the valley, partly company that Perkins founded and sold to flashes of insight produced textbooks as the Zaffaroni because of higher taxes and restrictive Spectra-Physics, the major laser-produc- in chemistry federal regulations. However, new com- ing company in the world — are more active System, a method for separating steroid panies are continually being formed in the than ever with new and successful com- compounds by paper chromatography. served a stepping-stone valley, and young men continue to get rich. This method as of steroids Spreading applications of microcomput- toward large-scale production pharmaceutical companies. Several ers, in particular, have reeently given rise to by years later Zaffaroni became executive a whole battery of companies that man- vice-president of Syntex Corp, in Mexico ufacture home computers —among them Bacteria engineered • City, where he led the company's pioneer- Apple Computer, Inc., Video-Brain Com- insulin, drive toward the synthesis of the birth- puter Co., and Cromemco— as well as to produce human ing control pill and other advanced drugs. chains of computer stores, such as Com- an artificial heart and ByteShops. At this stage the ubiquitous Fred Terman puterland on nuclear Entrepreneurs now arrive from faraway not dependent enters the picture once more. In his effort to Stanford University's chemistry places to establish companies in the valley. fuel, computers that build up Terman, the university's John Peers came all the way from England department, as can understand speech- Djerassi to because he felt that Silicon Valley offered vice-president, asked become the best expertise for manufacturing his Silicon Valley is a professor there. Djerassi did so-—without product a talking computer leaving Syntex. Djerassi is the father of the unusual — ail that with more to come. 5 called Adam. For similar reasons, David birth-control pill, which he developed while and Doris Bossen moved to the valley from working for Syntex. He would be a giant Columbus, Ohio, and started Measurex anywhere. Born in Vienna, Austria, of a Corp., a highly successful company that Bulgarian father and an Austrian mother, makes computer-guided controls for paper both physicians, he was expected to follow mills and other manufacturing plants. As panies. Tandem Computers, specializing in their footsteps. Like Zaffaroni, however, they explain, "Paper mills are in the woods in multiprocessor "fail-proof" computers, Djerassi was drawn into chemistry by an because that's where their raw materials was one of the few companies able to go outstanding instructor, receiving his Ph. D. for enter- from the University of Wisconsin in 1945. are. We are here because ou r raw materials public in 1977, a tough year such are brains." The Bossens knew that the prises. Another of their new brainchildren, Medicine's loss has been chemistry's gain; types of diverse specialists they needed Genentech, a firm working in recombi- according to a friend who is a Nobel could be found only in Silicon Valley, and nant DNA, has already successfully engi- laureate, Djerassi has done enough high- they found them easily. neered bacteria into microscopic facto- quality work to win two or three Nobel There is a lot more company develop- ries that churn out human insulin. prizes. ment to come. According to Bob Noyce, "Another one of our companies," Kleiner Both highly creative and imaginative in- semiconductor wizard and cotounderof In- says, "is developing an artificial heart." dividuals, Zaffaroni and Djerassi have formation of tel, the applications of microelectronics That company is Andros, in Berkeley. since been responsible for the have yet to create a change as fundamen- 'Although we're looking at many different four pioneering companies, all located in Djerassi, in tal in our society as the automobile did. But companies, and helping to develop some Palo Alto. To accommodate a he predicts that they will create such a here," Perkins says, "I don't think we'd modern rnountain-comes-to-Muhammad change in applications where "slices" of dream of financing a new semiconductor move, Syntex relocated its entire research electronic brainpower will be incorporated company." The costs of doing that have and its manufacturing operation to Palo into a myriad of products for the home, soared into tens of millions of dollars. Alto—thus bringing still another high- Zaffa- office, and factory—from the telephone to Kleiner and Perkins sometimes lend technology company into the area. the computer-controlled lathe. The recent money to new businesses and leave them roni came from Mexico to head the Syntex appearance of those ubiquitous electronic to their own resources, but they often take a operation. While both men were with Syn- wristwatches, pocket calculators, and more direct interest in new companies. tex, they originated Syva Corp., which in electronic cash registers is just the first Both Tandem and Genentech, for example, jointly with Varian Associates engaged swelling of the ocean of products roaring are being run by people who worked for the manufacture of medical instrumenta- pioneering up on those slices of electronic intelligence Kleiner and Perkins in those same Embar- tion, and Zoecon Corp., a firm created by Noyce and Moore. cadero Center offices before setting out to the applications of hormonal regulators of As for semiconductor devices them- chart new seas. insect growth. Djerassi later left Syntex to selves, Noyce adds, the technical prob- Well, then, if not semiconductors, what direct Zoecon, while continuing to teach 58 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 119 ^Jm •w; r.-

"Don't wait up!' .

The wit and wisdom of science fiction's most renowned character —and his author! THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG

BY ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

^/cience -fiction writers create visions of tomorrow, but Robert A. Heinlein, the dominant figure of twentieth-century science fiction, has created a coherent scenario of the future in a long, interlinked series of novels and shorter works called the Future History series. One of the recurring characters in the Future His- tory series is Lazarus Long —a man who has lived for thousands of years, a man who has traveled to the stars, a man who is in effect immortal. Lazarus Long first appeared in Heinlein's 1941 novel, Methuselah's Children, and 30 years later be- came the central character in his novel Jime Enough for Love A man who has spent dozens of human life- times in going everywhere, living life to its fullest, and surviving it all is a man who has accumulated a vast wealth of wit and wisdom. In The Note- books of Lazarus Long, Heinlein has amassed the key ingredients of Lazarus Long's philoso- phy: his thoughts on the human condition, poli- tics, love, religion, the art of living. Here, then, are just a few of Lazarus Long's choice bits of wisdom. Ponder them carefully. They are precision -engineered to help you (in the words of another science-fiction character) to "live long and prosper." —Ben Bova

Texl excefpled from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long. G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York, (ci Robert A. Heinlein 1973. 1978. 1979. o A generation that ignores history has no past—and no future. You live and iearn. Or you don't live long.J

When a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, social

collapse is not far away. It is time to go

elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it

made it possible to go elsewhere.

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the

"artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.' " The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature"—but beavers and their dams are. Such contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam {erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men), the "Naturist" reveals his hatred for his own race^— i.e., his own self-hatred. — "No man is an island " Much as we may feel and act as individuals, our race is a single organism, always growing and branching —which must be pruned regularly to be healthy. This necessity need not be argued; anyone with eyes can see that any organism which grows without limit always dies in its own poisons. The only rational question is whether pruning is best done before or after birth. • Everything in excess!

To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. 9

What are the facts? Again and again —what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell,'' avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history"—what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.

Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

A human being should be able to change a diaper,. plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning, while those other subjects merely require scholarship. • To be "matter offset" about the world is to blunder into fantasy—and dull fantasy at that— as

the real world is strange and wonderful. 9

Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness

to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.

This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on

his mother's side. I did not laugh; people who

boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

The more you love, the more you can love —and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on

how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just. DO Are we starving the ocean by not dumping enough garbage into it? Are we ignoring the Pacific as an ideal storeroom for nuclear wastes? An unconventional expert attacks some sacred cows iniTER\yiElAJ

things he says would curdle the blood of any self-re- Who is this madman, and why is he saying all these strange Thespecting conservationist. For one thing, oceanographer things about the ocean? John Q Isaacs loudly advocates the storing of radioactive John Isaacs, who spends most of his waking hours tilting at wastes on the ocean bottom. Environmentalists say the wastes popular notions about the sea, may just be the most creative would poison the planet. Isaacs retorts that "oceanic disposal of oceanographer and lover of salt water-in the world. He is no atomic wastes may be the sea's greatest contribution to power for headline-hunting amateur, but a man with impressive credentials humanity." For another, Isaacs opposes sophisticated secondary from more than 31 years of marine research and study. Since 1971

treatment of garbage before dumping it into the ocean. In fact, he has been director of the University of California's prestigious | he'd like to see more waste in the sea. "That doesn't hurt the 25-year-old Institute of Marine Resources (IMR), based in La Jolla. :n ocean," he says. "It helps it-" Perhaps worst of all, Isaacs won't There he presides over an annual budget approaching $5 million, | even spare that great sacred cow of the ocean, the porpoise, from which funds research and public information in awide spectrum of 1 his caustic tongue. He describes the public concern over the oceanic concerns: the nature of the sea itself, its contents and % slaughter of this intelligent beast by tuna fishermen as being boundaries, its interrelated processes, and the effects of man's > "woefully misdirected." In typical Isaacs fashion, he seems more presence and actions. 2 worried about the tuna. "Instead of demanding, 'How do we stop Brimming with what he calls "modified optimism." Isaacs most 7 ' | the slaughter " he suggests, "we should be finding ways to enjoys destroying the popular notion that the ocean, poisoned by

£ preserve the populations of both predators— porpoises and tuna." man, is dying and that nothing can be done about it. "Nonsense," says Isaacs. That's a belief generated by matinee idols of the raphy in a roundabout way Bored with college, he dropped out, oceanic world (are you listening, Jacques Cousteau?), com- becoming a merchant seaman and later a commercial fisherman. pounded by a few scientists "who have come to value problems He has also been a logger and a forest-fire lookout. He returned to more than solutions. college (the University of California) and received a bachelor's

"I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist," he says. I'm a degree in engineering in 1944, at the age of thirty-one. Meanwhile, meliorist. A pessimist says things will get worse, regardless of what he had bombarded Scripps officials with letters seeking a job ("I we. do. An optimist says they'll get better, regardless. But a meliorist thought they could use a layman's viewpoint down there"), and in says they'll get better if we do something about them." 1948 he was hired as assistant oceanographer. Despite his not presently Isaacs's purpose in life, as I MR director, is to "do something having an advanced degree, he's been there ever since, about them." And as a staff member of the Scripps Institution of as professor of oceanography; he was the director of the important Oceanography, which he joined in 1948, Isaacs has literally Marine Life Research Group from 1958 to 1974, was acting chair- roamed the globe to conduct research of his own: studies of the man of the department of oceanography in 1966-67, and has sea's deep-scattering layer, deep-sea photography (his cameras been director of IMR since 1971. once snapped a hitherto unknown species of shark), climatology, He is a gregarious, good-natured man with a flowing, Santa water supplies, sea energy forms, sand transport, and the marine Claus-like white beard who collects quotations as a hobby (they're lecture paper), food web. It was Isaacs who, 25 years ago, proposed that Antarc- sprinkled liberally through every Isaacs and and tic icebergs be towed to northern latitudes as a freshwater source. his La Jolla office, a study in orderly clutter, commands a view of Equally eyebrow-raising was his suggestion, delineated in a for- the Pacific Ocean, whose secrets Scripps scientists have probed mal scientific paper, that the American custom of driving on the for 75 years. right side of the road may be an important contributor to the Despite man's incessant impact, the ocean remains a major, number, duration, and intensity of tornadoes. ('At least fourteen virtually untapped resource for mankind, Isaacs believes. Our percent of U.S. tornadoes are under man's control," he insists.) reporter, Joseph E. Brown, former editor of Oceans magazine, Born in Spokane, Washington, in 1913, Isaacs came to oceanog- began the interview by testing Isaacs's "modified optimism."

Omni: Is man killing the sea? mutagenic compounds and mitotic starving ocean — even in relatively rich Isaacs: That is the widespread assump- poisons, such as dioxin. places of the sea, like the California Cur- of pre- productivity is far below the poten- tion, but I am strongly opposed to this view But to devote immense amounts rent, the

With the exception of effects stemming cious capital for secondary, tertiary, or tial — I cannot conceive that a doubling or from the highly selective nature of his quaternary treatment to avoid feeding the tripling of the input can have any other than fisheries, there is no evidence that man's open sea totally disregards, in my opinion, a beneficial effect. Even primitive people activities can or will alter the general envi- the true nature of the sea. manure their fields. ronment of the open sea. Omni: You made this point about a year In general, we fail to appreciate how the in before a congressional operates. nowhere is this more I was present Las a scientific observer] ago testifying ocean And and watched for more than three years, committee in opposition to the proposed apparent than in the various proposals for most often with horror, the indescribable new Environmental Protection Agency secondary treatment of sewage. Some- violence that was perpetrated on Bikini in rules that would require such treatment. At body has said that secondary treatment the Marshall Islands. Multimegaton explo- that time you discussed how life in the sea [additional treatment of garbage before sions of nuclear devices ripped craters two is actually stimulated by introduction of dumping it into the sea] is just an expensive kilometers wide in the coral reefs. Millions sewage and other materials. Can you give way to pump oxygen into the ocean, a sub- of megacuries of nuclear debris fell into the examples? stance it already has in abundance. And to true. lagoon and into the surrounding sea. I don't Isaacs: Certainly. Just offhand, witness a degree this is of in our accelerated research condone these acts, and I hope that man the doubling fisheries production the Omni: Despite will rapidly pass the phase in which he North Sea over the last two decades, now in the sea during the past few years, then, deems them to be necessary. The point is reluctantly being attributed to the stimulat- we still do not fully understand all that goes that Bikini epitomizes the immense resil- ing effects of the input of domestic wastes. on there? ience of the sea and its creatures. Despite Generally, the same thing holds true in the Isaacs: In the case of disposal of domestic the apparent fragility of the reef and lagoon southern California coastal area. wastes in the ocean, it is more a matter of ecosystems, in subsequent continuous Omni: What you are saying, then, is that as not applying what we do know. Many coun- are planning studies it has been almost impossible to a result of some waste-disposal restrictions tries bordering on the sea discover any abnormalities of these crea- we may starve the ocean of valuable mate- these extremely expensive and highly ad- tures or their populations. rials essential to the survival of fish and vanced municipal waste-treatment plants, Omni: Surely, though, you are not suggest- other marine life. ostensibly to avoid "polluting" the sea with ing that there should be no controls on the Isaacs: Yes. Essentially all man does is organic materials and nutrients. Such poisons and pollutants we put into the sea. take things out of the ocean, and, unlike plans reflect a serious misunderstanding of Isaacs: Of course not. The disposal of any other member of the marine food web, science. high-level radioactive waste in the sea or he does not put back the things that can They neglect these specific facts: that a the deep subbottom must be undertaken regenerate that life. In the eastern Mediter- major part of the adaptation and activity of with the most thoughtful study and caution. ranean this is going to be particularly seri- the creatures of the sea is directed to the As for other waste disposal, such as ous, where even the great inputs from the conversion of waste particles into new or- domestic waste, there must be adequate rivers, including millions of tons of organic ganisms; that most of the sea is starving source control of chemical pollutants. It's material and nutrients from the Nile, are no and particularly deficient in just those sorts insanity to introduce into the sea such longer flowing into that hungry sea. The of material that are introduced by domestic levels of organic mercury or DDT as have Mediterranean is already a starved ocean. waste; that seawater is a toxic material to been discharged in the past into Minamata Ali of man's acts now are going to exacer- most land organisms, such as disease bac- Bay in Japan or at Whites Point in Califor- bate that. teria, and highly inimical to their survival, nia. Also, removal of floatable materials Omni: How would you reverse this trend 9 and that many parts of the sea are even and other advanced primary treatment of Isaacs: We should recycle organic mate- denied the millions of tons of organic mate- sewage must be exercised, and offshore rial into the ocean, at least as much as was rials that once flowed annually from rivers, discharges must be properly designed. naturally introduced. Certainly, man should for the natural flow of these materials is now There must also be continuous monitoring also put back at least as much as he takes being stopped by dams. There is no evi- for important pollutants, such as PCB, or out. Also, since the ocean in general is a dence that the marine discharge of 'sec- 72 OMNI .

. ondary, rather than primary, effluent im- porpoises in their nets while harvesting Isaacs: Of course not. Oil spills are nasty. proves anything, and there are reasons to tuna, one of the factors that led to passage They are insults to the planet. People

believe it may be more disturbing than any of the Marine Mammals Act.] But this ques- shouldn't be allowed to let them happen.

present practice. tion can never be fully answered, because Oil damages birds. It screws up the In other words, these inputs appear in order to do so, you must take porpoises beaches. It fouls rocks. But the thing I really mainly to be beneficial, contrary to the from the sea to study them, and the law object to is how a scientist can take that

proclamations of [Jacques-Yves] Cou- prohibits you from doing this. Thus, the situation —a single oil spill —and keep it steau and [Thor] Heyerdahl. fundamental problem, by law, is difficult to going as a problem long past the point

Omni: What do you believe to be the basis examine, for it questions the law. where it ceases to be one. of this misunderstanding of the sea's pro- Similarly the policy on domestic-sewage Omni: In what way? cesses? effluent discharged into the open sea pre- Isaacs: A well-known scientist several Isaacs: There are some very common cludes research into its actual effects, for years ago investigated an oil spill in a small myths. The bioaccumulation of trace met- this would also question the presumption of cove in Baja California. A small tanker had

als via domestic waste disposal, for in- law. This is the most ominous cut of all. gone aground there. Recently, in comment- stance. The "delicate balance" of the Many of the regulatory agencies in the ing on another oil spill, he said on national marine environment. The alleged all-heal- United States are beginning to adopt the television, in effect, "I've checked this cove ing properties of secondary sewage treat- pose of medieval churches, with regard not every year since, and conditions are not yet ment. And many other cliches and misper- for what is true or right, but for what sup- back to normal." What he did not say is that ceptions that have led us to a serious ports their own delusions of power, omni- for the past eight years the cove's biologi- estrangement from reality. science, and infallibility. cal community has been the richest he'd Omni: Exactly what is this myth of the sea's Omni: You said in a speech in Oregon last ever seen along the Baja coast.

"delicate balance"? year that "problems are our new frontier." Now what is it in a man's mind that makes

Isaacs: People do not understand that the What did you mean by that? him take a flap like that and build it up? Why

"game plan" of the sea is different from that Isaacs: I meant that we have come to value does he keep the controversy going in pub-

of terrestrial environments. Almost all the lic while in scientific reports he admits that creatures of the open sea, unlike those on that cove is at the richest point in its history? land, are born into a highly variable and Omni: Meg Greenfield's concept of "col- stochastic [chance-dominated] system, in onizing"?

which they have little assurance of the na- Isaacs: Exactly. He's homesteaded that ture of their prey predators, associates, or ^The aftermath of problem, and, by God, he doesn't want to

competitors. They eat anything grossly ac- the Bikini multimegaton damage it with the truth. I think this is highly cessible to their mode of feeding and are reprehensible, as are scientists who always nuclear-bomb tests eaten by anything to which they are avail- couch their findings in such language that able. Although this may seem repulsive to has shown us the immense no one but an associated specialist can us, nevertheless it is the way of marine life. resilience of understand. They are thieves, stealing At every step in the two living game plans knowledge from humanity with a thief's of the land and the sea, these differences the sea, and its creatures, argot. are further complicated. And the differ- despite its Omni: To the layman, at least, oil in the sea ences must be recognized if we are not to seems much less of a hazard to human much-popuiarized fragility. be misled in our attempts to deal with 9 health than nuclearwastesdo. Yetyou have man's needs from the sea and his effects endorsed a proposal for dumping nuclear

it in on the ofttimes painful process of his wastes in the sea . .

accommodation on this planet. Isaacs: No, I haven't said that. I said stor- Omni: And the other myths? age, not dumping. There's quite a differ- Isaacs: There is of problems an abundance prob- more than solutions. As Meg ence. Nor have I endorsed it. What I've said

lems, if in fact they are problems, which Greenfield has pointed out, we tend to is that we have a great opportunity to de- have been defined too narrowly or errone- "colonize" problems, greeting each new termine the ocean's capacity for the safe ously or capriciously. Indeed, once these one, real or otherwise, as new and precious storage of waste atomic materials. Obvi- definitions have been recorded on the pris- land for settlement and a joyous, profitable ously, the final solution to their disposal is

tine and persistent tablets of law or policy, existence. In fact, much effort is spent in subject to controversy; it involves providing the enforcing and regulatory agency in- cultivation and refurbishment of the prob- certainty over great periods of time. Fortu-

volved may specifically constrain any re- lem so that it continues to appear fresh, nately, man is presently gaining an unprec- search that questions the validity of the important, and worthy down through the edented understanding of the geological premises under which the law was estab- fiscal years. and geophysical behavior of our planet. lished. Omni: Once again, an example? Omni: You are referring to what we have Omni: Can you cite any examples? Isaacs: Oil in the sea. We seem to think learned about plate tectonics, the theory Isaacs: The Marine Mammals Act, as ad- that oil is immensely and permanently that the continents ride atop huge and ministered, in effect eliminates the possibil- damaging, something introduced only by slowly shifting subsurface plates, causing ity of meaningful inquiry on the tuna-por- man. Certainly the quantities and concen- continents to "drift" and causing earth- poise problem. [The act prohibits the killing trations affecting beaches are unique in quakes where one plate interacts with or capturing of sea mammals, such as por- our era. But oil in the ocean is not unique. another? poises and whales.] The point can be Geological structures eroding away have Isaacs: Exactly. There are large areas of made that marine mammals, including released great quantities of oil; you can the sea that are far from these active zones. fishermen, and birds are a potentially seri- look at the Trinidad or La Brea tar pits and There are regions in the deep North Pacific, ous destabilizing influence on the higher imagine the immense quantities of oil that where we could store nuclear wastes far

pelagic food web. They take from it but only must have gone into the atmosphere and beneath the sediments and nothing would vicariously participate in its maintenance. ocean. Innumerable ships were sunk along crack them open for ten million years. The question should be, How can a bal- our coasts during World War II. Do you see Omni: Have we really learned enough ance be maintained between these groups any great permanent scars from them? about "continental drift" to say with abso- in the face of a selective mortality on the Omni: You're not suggesting that we lute certainty that there are areas well- tuna? [Referring to the controversy over the should tolerate oil spills without trying to do enough defined that we can deposit atomic

fact that fishermen incidentally kill many something to stop them, are you? wastes there safely? CONF'MUED ON PAGE 121 73 . —

FICTION

He had a good life, a good marriage, but the challenge was — death QUIETUS BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

came to him suddenly, a This frightened him. It hours he had not spent with walked out, got into his car moment of blackness he reminded that his It as him father MaryJo, had left her alone in and drove home through a sat at his desk, working and his uncles had all died of their large but childless thin mist of rain that made the late. It was as quick as the strokes. It reminded him of his house. And he imagined her world retreat a comfortable blink of an eye. Before the mother's senility at the fairly waiting for him forever, a lonely distance from the windows of darkness the papers on his young age of sixty-eight. It woman dwarfed by the huge his car. desk had seemed terribly reminded him of something he living room, waiting patiently important, and now he stared had always known and never for a husband who would, who No one ran to greet him at at them blankly, wondering quite believed: that he was must, who always had, come the door. The children must be what they were and then mortal and that all the works of home. upstairs, he realized. The realizing that he didn't really his days would gradually Is it my heart? Or a stroke? children, a boy and a girl half give a what they were damn become more and more trivial, he wondered. Whatever it his height and with twice his and he ought to be going until his death, at which time was, it was enough that he energy, were admirable home now. his life itself would be his only saw the end of the world creatures who ran downstairs Ought definitely to be going act, a forgotten stone whose lurking in the darkness that as if they were skiing, who home now. And C. Mark fall in the lake had set off had visited him, and, as for could hold completely still no Tapworth, of CMT Enterprises, ripples that would in time the prophet returning from the more than a hummingbird in Inc., arose from his desk reach the shore, having made, mount, things that once had midair could. He could hear without finishing all the work after all, no difference. mattered overmuch mattered their footsteps upstairs, that it, first was on the time he I'm tired, he decided. not at all, and things he had running lightly across the floor. had thing in done such a the MaryJo is right. I need a rest. long postponed now silently They hadn't come to greet him twelve it years had taken him But he was not the resting importuned him. He felt a at the door because things in to bring the company from kind, not until that moment terrible urgency that there was their lives, after all, were more nothing to being a when, standing by his desk, something he must do important than mere fathers. multimillion-dollar-a-year the blackness came again, before He smiled, set down his business. Vaguely, it occurred this time a jog in his mind. And Before what? He would not attache case, and went to the to him that he was not acting he remembered nothing, saw let himself answer. He just kitchen. normally, but he didn't really nothing, heard nothing, was walked out through the large MaryJo looked harried, care; it didn't really matter to falling interminably through room full of ambitious younger upset. He recognized the htm a bit whether any more nothingness. men and women trying to signals instantly—she had people bought . . . bought . . Then, mercifully, the world impress him by working later cried earlier today. And for a few seconds returned to him and he stood than he; noticed but did not "What's wrong?" Tapworth could not remember trembling, regretting now the care that they were visibly "Nothing," she said, what it was that his company many, many nights he had relieved at their reprieve from because she always said made. stayed far too late, the many another endless night. He Nothing. He knew that in a PAINTING BY MICHEL HENRICOT know, Brother Tapworth. He's at moment she would tell him- She always told mail and started sorting through it until he doctor, you him everything, which had sometimes noticed, out of the corner of one eye, that the hospital. Operating. There's no way I made him impatient. Now as she moved something dark and massive was blocking can contact him for something like this."

I to do?" silently back and forth from counter to the lower half of one of the windows. He "So what am supposed surprisingly emotional about it. counter, from cupboard to stove, making looked. It was a coffin, a rather plain one, She got coffin out into another perfect dinner, he realized that she sitting on a rolling table from a mortuary. "Do what you want! Push the the street if you want! It'll just be one more was not going to tell him. It made him un- "MaryJo," he called. "MaryJo." comfortable. He began to try to guess. She came into the study, looking afraid. hurt to the poor man!" another question. "You work too hard," he said. "I've offered "Yes?" "Which brings me to is he, and why isn't his family—" to get a maid or a cook. We can certainly "Why is there a coffin in my study?" he Who have a family, Brother Tap- afford one." asked. "He doesn't worth. And he doesn't have any money. I'm MaryJo just smiled thinly. "I don't want "Coffin?" she asked.

did it get sure he regrets dying in our ward, but we anyone else mucking around i.n the "By the window, MaryJo. How just thought that even though he had no kitchen/' she said. "I thought we dropped here?" don't friends in the world, someone might offer that subject years ago. Did you —did you She looked disturbed. "Please little kindness on his way out of it." have a hard day at the office?" touch it," she said. him a irresistible, and Mark Mark almost told her about his strange "Why not?" Her intensity was of getting rid it. 1 told recognized the hopelessness lapses of memory but caught himself. He "I can't stand seeing you touch of the box that night. 'As long as it's gone would have to lead up to telling her gradu- them they could leave it here for a few

it to all tomorrow," he said. A few amenities, and ally MaryJo would not be able to cope with hours. But now it looks like has stay of the coffin staying in the the conversation ended. Mark sat in his it, not in the state she was already in. "Not night." The idea angrily at the coffin. He had too hard. Finished up early." house any longer was obviously repugnant chair, staring her. come home worried about his health and . . "I know," she said. "I'm . glad." to " arrived. left it why us? It's not as found a coffin to greet him when he She didn't sound glad. It irritated him a Who here? And Well, at least it explained why poor MaryJo little. Hurt his feelings. But instead of going been so upset. He heard the children off to nurse his wounds, he merely noticed had quarreling upstairs. Well, let MaryJo handle his emotions as if he was a dispassionate take her mind off observer. He saw himself: important self- it, Their problems would this box, man, yet, at home, a little boy who anyway. made • He went into his could be hurt, not just by a word but by a sat and stared at the coffin for short pause of indecision. Sensitive, sensi- study and picked up the mail And so he two hours and had no dinner and did not tive; and he was amused at himself. For a and . . . noticed came moment he almost saw himself standing a particularly notice when MaryJo few inches away, could observe the out of the corner of one eye downstairs and took the burned potatoes of pressure cooker and threw the amused expression on his own face. that something out the the sofa "Excuse me," MaryJo said, and she entire dinner away and lay down on . . . was blocking . . . one of opened a cupboard door as he stepped in the living room and wept. He watched the the grain of the wood, as subtle out of the way She pulled out a pressure the windows. He patterns- of flakes," she as flames, winding along the coffin. He re- cooker, "We're out of potato looked. It was a coffin. 9 membered having taken naps at the age of said. "Have to do it the primitive way." She bedroom behind a dropped the peeled potatoes into the pan. five in a makeshift small "The children are awfully quiet today," he plywood partition in his parents' grain there said. "Do you know what they're doing?" home. Watching the wood had passing the empty, sleep- MaryJo looked at him with a bewildered been his way of less hours. In those days he had been able expression. if we're in the. market. Or do they sell these "They didn't come meet me at the door. at parties now, like Tupperware?" to see shapes: clouds and faces and bat- their "The bishop called and asked me— tles and'monsters. But on the coffin the Not that I mind. They're busy with own to let the mortuary people leave it wood grain looked more complex and yet concerns, I know." asked me "Mark," MaryJo said. here for the funeral tomorrow. He said no- far more simple, A road map leading up- to lid. draft describing the de- 'All right. You see through me so easily. body could get away to unlock the church ward the A

take it here for a few hours—" composition of the body, A graph at the foot I could we But I was only a little hurt. want to look and of the patient's bed, saying nothing to the through today's mail." He wandered out of It occurred to him that the mortuary the trained the kitchen. He was vaguely aware that would not have parted with a funeral-bound patient but speaking death to mind. wondered, briefly behind him MaryJo had started to cry coffin unless it was filled, physician's Mark in it?" about the bishop, who was right now again. He did not let it worry him much. She "MaryJo, is there a body cried easily and often. She nodded, and..a tear slipped over her operating on someone who might very well He wandered into the living room, and lower eyelid. He was aghast. He let himself end up in just such a box as this. finally his eyes hurt, and he looked the furniture surprised him. He had ex- show it. "They left a corpse in a coffin here And felt guilty having pected to see the green sofa and chair that with you all day? With the kids?" at the clock and about he had bought from Deseret Industries, She buried her face in her hands and ran spent so much time closed off in his study his nights early, He and the size of the living room and the from the room, ran upstairs. on one of few home find and take tasteful antiques looked utterly wrong. Mark did not follow her. He stood there meant to get up and MaryJo But instead he got up and Then his mind did a quick turn, and he and regarded the coffin with distaste. At her up to bed. ran his along remembered that the old green sofa and least they had the good sense to close it. went to the coffin and hands It the chair were fifteen years ago, when he and But a coffin! He went to the telephone at his the wood. felt like glass because number. varnish was so thick and smooth. It was as MaryJo had first married. Why did I expect desk and dialed the bishop's

if the living had to be kept away, pro- to see them? he wondered, and he worried "He isn't here." The bishop's wife wood But the again; worried also because he had come sounded irritated by his call. tected from the touch of a hand. not alive, was it? It was being put into the living room expecting to find the "He has to get this body out of my study wood was terri- into the ground, also to decompose. The mail, even though, every day, for years, and out of my house tonight. This is a varnish might keep it a little longer. He MaryJo had been putting it on his desk. ble imposition." thought whimsically of what it would be like He went into his study and picked up the "I don't know where to reach him. He's a ON PAGE 133 78 OMNI CONTINUED Promising new research may soon shield us from an age-old terror SHARK! BY KENNETH JON ROSE

suntanned young boy swimming with his friends is the first to spot the n shark. He points to its brown dorsal fin only meters away. The other children turn and look. Unconsciously the boy's hand reaches toward a small device belted to his bathing suit; he relaxes,

knowing that the sonic repeller is vibrating its protective song. He looks at his friends. They are laughing. On the hot, sandy beach the swimmers' mothers watch and smile, then rub on some more Shark Away before they enter the water. Elsewhere on choppy Pacific waters two stranded fliers drift in a small rubber raft

and riffle through their emergency kit. Besides the usual food rations and medical supplies, they find a man-sized plastic shark bag and a small metal box containing a penlight battery and several spring-loaded electrodes. The two airmen glance at each other, their faces composed. The sharks are circling now. Yet the pilots know that, however long they must wait for help, they will be safe. Such incidents may actually happen in the next few years. Scientists have realized for quite some time that the shark is neither the mindless monster it's been made out to be nor a willful killer bent on the destruction of human lives, but merely another ani'maf, with common animal* instincts. This viewpoint has become more and more prevalent among biologists, and its greatest impact has been to open the way for the first effective shark repellent. Since they first ventured out on the sea, men have feared the shark. Sailors made "magical" devices to ward off the swim- ming terror, and though these contrivances may have pleased ancient gods, they served only as dessert for the sharks. In the last few decades we have made significant advances in our attempts to pro- tect ourselves from shark attack. Yet many recent means of defense, including nets, bubble barriers, and steel fences, have proved impractical, too expensive to main- tain, or simply unreliable. Now it appears that researchers have become more confi- dent that antishark defenses will be both effective and inexpensive in the not-too- distant future. Their assurance is based on a growing understanding of the shark's physical makeup and senses. Pretend that you are swimming and play- ing in the ocean at a summer resort. Half a kilometer away a shark hears your splash- ing and veers toward the beach- It is searching for food. Do not be surprised that the shark can sense you from such distances. The sound of your splashing is transmitted through

water both faster and farther than it would be through air. Arthur Myberg and Donald Nelson, working at the University of Miami,

in Florida, have found that, although sharks are sensitive to most ocean noises, they seem very interested in pulsed, low-fre- quency sounds. The intriguing thing is that low-frequency pulses are typical of the sounds made by struggling fish—or by swimming, splashing human beings. In one experiment Nelson placed a loud- speaker several meters under the ocean surface and played a sound he had dis- covered sharks found most attractive. Within minutes several gathered around

the speaker, circling it as if it were lunch. Although Myberg and Nelson have yet to discover a sound that repels sharks in- stead of attracting them, a protective noise generator that could be attached to your bathing suit or installed to defend a bathing area is not out of the question. The shark is now 450 meters away from you. Unlike many sharks, it swims near the surface, its dorsal fin knifing the surf as it approaches you. The shark is not an intelligent animal, but

it is a highly adaptable one. Why the shark did not die out with the dinosaurs has baf- fled the scientific community for years. Be- cause the shark's skeleton is composed of cartilage (the materia! that makes up the

flexible framework of your ear), it decom- poses instead of being fossilized after the shark's death. Thus millions of years of evo- lutionary answers have been lost forever under tons of earth. However, harder re-

From top left: Researchers capture, dissect, and strip the toxin from a Red Sea sole (also seen at right), whose potent nerve poison prevents sharks from biting down on their intended prey. .

species that lives in the ocean's mains, such as ancient sharks' teeth, tell a Composed of black dye and copper ace- hand. One is only large as a human finger. fascinating story—one that may give in- tate in a slowly dissolving tablet, the mix- depths as Perry Gilbert, a noted shark expert as- sights into our own future. ture eased the fears of pilots and Navy Laboratory, it little else. The repellent, sociated with the Mote Marine The first chapter of shark history began personnel, did Sarasota, Florida, and with Cornell Uni- more than 300 million years ago in the rest- clearly effective on a few species of sharks in tragically ineffec- versity, has found that even man-eating less oceans of the Devonian Period. At that in laboratory tanks, was the wild sharks that sharks are really not interested in people as time, long before the appearance of dino- tive in keeping away things to eat. Their diet consists principally saurs and flowering plants, much of the really mattered. with chemical repel- of fish. But when a fish is struggling near a land that now forms continents was under The main drawback that after a while in the water bather or is attached to a diver's belt, the water. What little hot, dry land did exist was lents has been effectiveness. They story is different. The shark may well attack the site of fierce ecological competition they begin to lose their worthless. the swimmer because he or she is in the among ferns and other vegetation. soon become completely found in the Red way of the real food. This is one reason why When the sharks arrived in this environ- Recently something Eugenie Clark, people are attacked. Others may be ment, they were but a meter long, not yet Sea changed this picture. many other as intruders in the shark's territo- the terror of the seas. These primitive of the University of Maryland, and attacked waters. Either way, the shark repellents sharks looked somewhat different from scientists discovered a fish that secretes rial in the now being developed may soon make such most of the sharks that range the oceans the fastest-working poison found of the incidents things of the past. today. Modern sharks evolved from them, animal kingdom. The fish, a member that, By the time the shark is within 30 meters as modern man did from Neanderthal man. sole family, emits a chemical even of of it has picked up the turbulent - 5,000 times its weight you, The shark survived because it could when diluted by cre- kill aquatic life. Yet it is streams and vortices your swimming generalize both its physical structure and water, can some of to humans. ates in the water. It does so by means a its eating habits. When the environment virtually harmless complex sense organ called the lateral line. changed, opportunities for shark survival Clark and her colleagues have deter- is effective Common to almost all fish, the lateral line greatly increased. In many ways their his- mined that this chemical an consists of fine, liquid-filled channels that tory has paralleled our own. We have also run under the skin of the head and sides of changed with our surroundings. the body. Inside the channels, clusters of Several scientists have suggested that sensory cells, called neuromasts, connect the shark's mating structures and behavior to the outside through tiny pores. It is the are more similar to those of mammals, and • Sharks are very sensitive neuromasts, which have small hairs reach- to our own, than to those of fish. During ing into the pores, that sense movement in courtship, the male tries to get the female's to ocean noises. the water. attention by bumping into her and lightly Pretend you are swimming At 15 meters, the shark can clearly see biting the back of her head or the fins on her in the sea: Haifa your arms and legs flapping at the surface side. If he succeeds, the female will allow The shark's eye is normally focused for the male to swim belly to belly with her, kilometer away a shark has long-distance vision. Unlike the lens of a much as whales position themselves in heard you and human eye, its lens must be pulled forward mating. Finally the male shark inserts one to discern nearby objects. Eugenie Clark of two penislike appendages, called is heading to the beach, has found that sharks are highly sensitive to claspers, into the female, and life begins searching for food. 5 contrasts of light, shadow, and motion. again. The ability of a supposedly primitive They are not very good at picking out dark, animal to mate as mammals do under- stationary objects. She has even found that scores the method's success. sharks can recognize different shapes. Also surprisingly like humans, some These sharks might be able to learn which sharks bear live young. Most are ovovivipa- them. repellent. Watching a sole tethered target shapes have food behind rous; that is, the eggs are hatched inside shark shark Both the lateral line and the shark's vision the oviducts, and the hatchlings feed on underwater, they found that when a shark's mouth can be fooled by a single device. Dr. Scott their yolk. Several shark species lay thick, approached the fish, the working with the Navy, has in- rubbery eggs on the ocean bottom and locked open and could not bite down. Johnson, vented a man-sized plastic bag that, drawn leave the hatchlings to the whims of the Biochemists at Hebrew University in the around a swimmer, is nearly 100-percent sea. But a few sharks, like the mammals, Jerusalem are now trying to synthesize attack. it be effective in preventing shark are viviparous; the eggs are hatched in the poison. When they succeed, may the Johnson Shark Screen, the oviducts, but a placenta connects the em- applied like suntan lotion. Perhaps it can Named suit large, dark-colored sack is held partially bryos with their mother. In as little as nine or even be incorporated into a bathing out of the water by three air-fflled floats at ten months as many as 70 baby sharks But how much chance is there that you the first the bag's opening. The bag helps contain arrive in the world, equipped to hunt from will ever be attacked by a shark in 9 against the user's odors and movements, thus their very first day. place If nothing else, the odds in favor. Of the 4 billion canceling out the shark's sense of smell, its When the shark is within 400 meters or shark attack are your this planet, only about 100 are lateral line, and its vision, and so protecting so, it has probably heated you by a sense people on year, and only 50 of these the swimmer inside. Still in the testing of smell so acute that It has earned sharks attacked each are killed stage, the Johnson Shark Screen seems to the nickname '''swimming noses." The attacks prove fatal. More people sharks, and promise an excellent defense for sailors shark's nostrils, actually nasal capsules, by venomous spiders than by on the three times as many are killed by lightning. and downed airplane pilots. are located just in front of the mouth , Of the The shark is now five meters away, its bottom of the flat snout. When the shark Not all sharks are man-eaters. of sharks in the world, gray form bolting toward you, mouth open. swims in its characteristic zigzag pattern, it roughly 250 species 27 are known to be dangerous. The The shark has a most impressive bite. is trying to expose both nasal capsules to only kingdom, the 12-me- One incredible example is the 2.5-meter the strongest odors, tracking its prey much two giants of the shark the 16-meter whale dusky shark, which has a biting pressure of as a bloodhound twists its head to sniff the ter basking shark and They eat only the three metric tons per square centimeter. air Sharks may pick up the scent of blood in shark, are both harmless. that drifts just under the ocean's Then there is the matter of teeth. Shark amounts as low as 1 part in 25 million. tiny life surface. They very nearly resemble the ba- "teeth" are really modified and enlarged During World War II the U.S. Navy in- to the front of re- leen whale. There are several sharks that placoid scales that move vented what it thought was an effective are as large as an adult's the jaws. Unlike the teeth of mammals and pellent, confidently called Shark Chaser. mature when they 84 OMNI .

those of other fish, they are not set into the bone but are attached to the gums. The teeth form in rows, the row in front being used and five or more rows of replacement

teeth waiting behind it. Shark's teeth don't wear down. Always moving, the rows slowly migrate like interlocking tombstones to- ward the front of the jaw, where they even- tually fall out. Within a lifetime a shark may produce thousands of teefh. A whole row

can be replaced in as little as a week. Div- ers have reported finding high-tensile cable completely bitten through, with the unmistakable marks of sharks' teeth cut into the metal. Facing these weapons, how can you

hope to get to shore safely if the shark decides to attack? For that matter, what

makes the shark attack in the first place? Not long ago Adrianus Kalmijn, working at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, in Massachusetts, isolated one key factor that decides whether the shark will finally at- tack: Sharks have an electric sense. These sense organs line the shark's snout, looking like tiny pinholes. The holes communicate with an extensive system of jelly-filled canals just beneath the skin. Called the ampullae of Lorenzini, these canals can detect electrical fields as weak as one hundred-millionth of a volt per cen- timeter, a feat equal to detecting the electrical field of a flashlight battery with

electrodes 1,600 kilometers apart in the ocean. Every living organism, including a human JACK NEWTON DANIEL made whiskey being, produces an electrical field in water. Sharks always associate an electrical field in 1866 by a method called charcoal leaching. with their prey and can pinpoint their food with extreme accuracy even when it is We say charcoal mellowing today. buried and invisible under the sand. Al- though the electric sense is effective only Whatever you call it, you start with hard maple within a few centimeters of the food, it is

very reliable. With it, the shark can zero in from the Tennessee uplands and burn it to char. on its prey when the odor and the light are too faint to detect it by smell or sight. You grind this charcoal to the size of small Kalmijn has found that he can substitute the shark's regular prey with electrodes peas and tamp it tight in vats. Then you trickle that look nothing like a fish but simulate a fish's electrical field. The sharks, dependent whiskey down through the vats to mellow its on the electrical signal of the prey will at- tack the electrodes over and over again. taste. Around 1945 we Though biophysicist Kalmijn is working with sharks solely to study their electrical changed the name of this orientation, the day may come when this sense is used to protect swimmers. A de- method from leaching to CHARCOAL vice attached to your swimsuit could both MELLOWED warn when a shark is in the area and deploy mellowing. It seemed a electrodes around your body to confuse it h better of describing it. while you slip out of the water unharmed. way DROP At three meters away from you, the shark But that's the only part suddenly turns and swims off, shaking its 6 head violently. It will not return. You turn off BY the device on your bathing suit and head of Mr. Jack's process that DROP for shore needed improving. It seems reasonable to assume that an effective shark repellent will be made in the next few years. When that day arrives, you Tennessee Whiskey • 90 Proof • Distilled and Bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery will be able to enter the water without fear of (Pop. Tennessee 37352 attack, and the shark, for so long the evil Lem Motlow, Prop., Inc., Lynchburg 361), monster of the seas, will finally become just Placed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Government. another fish. DO 85 FICTION

even when It Isn't easy to reach paradise, you devote all your hardest labor and guile to the task IMAM HEDGEHOG BY JOHN ANTHONY WEST

"But the other side." He resumed was Friday afternoon, pay- "Far out!" said Fox. there that way, his digging. day. Fox was on his way to you'll never get was intrigued,_ It wall is made of solid But now Fox rip off the supermarket. But Man! That though it was getting late, and' along, his head stone. On reinforced concrete as he trotted would soon foundations. Cant you read the supermarket full of new schemes, he was emptying out. tracks by a Man?" Fox pointed to a sign on be stopped in his you to the left. "Hey, Man! What do strange sight. the wall, slightly always want to get to the other side for, Before him, stretching as far Because Hedgehog of life ahead, he had when all the good things as he could see either to the looked straight Rabbits in the noticed the sign. It read: are over here? rioht or to the left, there was a never hedges, Man! Fridays, payday, hfgh wall. At the base of this This wall is guaranteed jammed. You can digging supermarket wall Hedgehog was against hurricane, earth- rip off anything you want. Ev- furiously. holocaust, flood, and quake, erywhere you look, little vixens Now Fox knew that Hedge- all acts of God. bushy tails!" He customer, twitch their hog was a prickly wall is guaranteed This pointed knowingly at his head. edible only under extreme rams, artil- against battering "Use your tuchis, Man. You can and then only by pay- duress, lery, napalm, nuclear attack, all the bread you need culinary make ing assiduous care to of Man and all acts without even working!" technique. guaranteed to This wall is Hedgehog did not under- "Outasight, Pricklypork!" seven days' march withstand stand this latter allusion, and said Fox with familiarity and a and sub- about its perimeter Fox explained contemptuous- derision. "Would you hint of sequent trumpet blast. one, ly. "You don't know that old you're at, mind telling me what guaranteed ter- This wall is Man? Like there are these two Man?" mite- and hedgehog-proof. Pat and Mike. on Irishmen, dig? Knowing his low rating and Sons, Ltd., Adam They both open shops in the the gourmand scale, Hedge- Bldg. Contractors. Jewish quarter. Pat goes hog had no fear. Without ceas- anything," broke. Mike gets rich. Bank- ing his furious digging, he "Builders will say sale closes Pat down. other Hedgehog replied calmly. ruptcy said, "Trying to get to the 'How get to Pat goes to Mike. Says, 1 determined to side, Man. Obviously." "And am

PAINTING BY ERIC PAETZ street were a prob- ing a heavy ladder through a public business, Man, dealing with additives. Vixens? Well, vixens do you stay in occupation for afox. ! an ungentlemanly and lem. But when you came right down to the was all those smart Jews?' Ah! says Mike, much the He had an easier solution. And he asked 'Sure and begorrah, nitty-gritty, they were all pretty he points to his head. length of bread was worth less by the the builder's merchant for a long All have to do is to use your same. And the 'tis easy you groovy-colored nylon rope " tuchis. It looked best-quality, year, even if you used your tuchis.' hooks. would soon be a change of cli- and some grappling Hedgehog was unamused and con- as if there Because the boss was a jackass, he fancy rabbit," he re- mate tinued digging. "Don't to the that though he turned his back on Fox and went up off the super- Strange, thought Fox, plied, "It is dishonest to rip he had ever mentioned stores to fetch the rope. No sooner had so slow on my feet, I'd knew so much, no one market. Besides, I'm Fox availed himself of the of Eridu. Nor in all his comings gone than get caught. Vixens hold little attraction for the Garden the long, longest ladder in the shop and trundled It in mak- and goings had he ever noticed ! interested the likes of me. nor am wall. "I'll off to join Hedgehog at the high wall. "But," he said to Hedgehog, ing a lot of bread." calcu- never get to the However, despite knowledgeable Fox said tell you this, Amigo'. You'll "Chacun a son gout, Man," the find way lations, Fox had again misjudged see why you want other side by digging. We must a amiably. "But I still don't height of the wall. The ladder was nowhere over the top. My curiosity has now been to get to the other side." Follow me, and we'll find a way, nearly high enough. is the Garden of Eridu," said aroused. "That Pondering what to try next, Fox was inter- Hedgehog, digging. Man!" the sound of a passing helicop- "Cool," said Hedgehdg, and he stopped rupted by "Far out!" said Fox, for lack of anything traffic patrol. Immediately Fox long enough to watch Fox leap ter, out on to say. For he considered digging better a scheme in the air, hoping to catch the top had reply unsatisfactory if not de- mightily Hedgehog's builder's merchant's, he had hoist himself over. But high as he While at the "What is there, then, in ledge and liberately irrelevant. acguire a pocketful of not even see the top. He also managed to Eridu that we do not already leaped, he could this Garden of Now, with screwdriver, pliers. vaulted again and again, each time higher, handy tools. have on this side?" he asked, mimicking and soldering iron, he swiftly converted the but in vain. Hedgehog's somewhat stilted syntax. always carried said Hedgehog, Revox tape recorder that he said Hedgehog, "is in- "You see? Not so easy," "The question." two-way radio, attracted the to dig again. with him into a auspiciously phrased. Ask instead: What is and he began attention of the chopper pilot, and bedaz- waited till he caught his breath, and not in the Garden of Eridu that there Is Fox there with a story— a story so eloquent, immediately he hatched a new scheme. zled him side? In the Garden of Eridu there is on this rich in convincing detail over to a builder's merchant so plausible, so no Time." He trotted professional ad- that no one could doubt its veracity. to think. For just a and asked the boss for This made Fox stop a resi- something of a Briefly Fox claimed that he was that were always rac- vice. Now the boss was moment the schemes who, while away on a com- loved to hear himself bray pro- dent of Eridu through his head came to a halt. Upon jackass and ing bined business/pleasure trip, had been There was fessionally. After a lengthy diagnosis, he reflection, he wearied of rabbit. motor- ladder of appro- accosted by tattooed yobboes on off the supermarket, recommended a scaling little kick left in ripping described each yobbo minutely, height. But Fox declared that carry- bikes (Fox since the food was full of chemicals and priate quoted their tattoos, and cited the engine capacities and makes of their bikes). His passport had been stolen. And now, trying also to get back home, he found they had taken his key. Would he. the chopper pilot, therefore drop a lifeline to him, and give him a hoist over the wall— for an ample remu- neration, of course'' But when the pilot looked, he could not seethe garden, nor even the wall. At first he tried to discern Fox's motives, which he knew to be invariably ulterior, and then he thought that maybe Fox was just on a bum trip. But he was too busy trying to unsnarl an interminable traffic jam to delve into the matter. He. too, was concerned about at- mospheric conditions, and he was anxious to get back to base in time for tea. Cutting Fox off the transmitter, he flew the chopper

on its way. that neither It was finally clear to Fox brute force nor guile nor even creative imagination would get him over the wall. Fox spoke sharply to Hedgehog, who was distracting him by pointing to a tiny chip of concrete that he had at last succeeded in dislodging.

Fox dreamed up another, still more au- dacious scheme. He would resort to magic. He trotted along to a bookshop where he often browsed but seldom made a purchase Now this bookshop, like all bookshops, could not make money selling literature, only by peddling and it stayed- in business old porn. But the bookstore owner was a sly dog. He knew that if he took his eyes off how high he climbed, the top of the wall that Fox was jumping up and down, he was Fox, even for a minute, to fetch a set of kept him from the Garden of Endu was still so exasperated. "Into the garden, Man! _r "ose amazing Dutch playing cards out higher, and out of reach. And as he Into the Garden of Eridu!" under Tom the counter—where the hard- climbed, he realized that he had been so "How many times do I have to explain it to core stuff was kept — Fox would have busy trying at all costs to get to the top that you," Hedgehog replied, rhetorically, something else. So he said he was out of he had quite forgotten his original compel- pedantically, unhurriedly "Because in the stock. ling reason to do so. In a flash of intuition, Garden of Eridu there is no Time." Fox accepted this explanation with typi- he understood that climbing was not Fox clapped a hand to his forehead his-

sangfroid to it cal and sauntered over the enough; was essential to know the reason trionically. "Far out! I knew there was a kiddies' department to chat up the pert for climbing as well. And for that he needed good reason !" he shouted. "Come on, Man,

little vixen there. Hedgehog's counsel. shake it!" But she had been warned about Fox. So Assuming that Hedgehog was climbing Something was really going on in the dis- when he told her she had the sharpest, right behind him, he looked down, intend- tance now, but Hedgehog had launched

wettest, blackest little nose he had ever ing to ask why it was that they were there. To into a philosophical and psychological ex- seen, and the beadiest eyes, and the his astonishment, Hedgehog was nowhere planation of the significance of the Garden bushiest tail in the world, she blushed to be seen. of Eridu and of the importance of his quest. nicely, but she said, "No way, Man!" She Squinting, and looking far, far down, Fox Fox cut him short and, taking him by the declined his invitation to meet her in the could just make out a tiny shape scrabbling paw, led him swiftly up the beanstalk to the classics department —where nobody ever away at the base of the wall. top. But as they stepped out onto the wall went. The signs to the west were ominous. Fox that separated She garden from where they Lighting a Turkish cigarette in a long, virtually flew down the beanstalk to where had always been, Hedgehog balked. He amber holder, and blowing the smoke out in Hedgehog was digging. had never been off the ground before, and blue streams through his nostrils, Fox With unhurried solemnity Hedgehog ex- now he suddenly discovered he was afraid begged her to allow him to clear up an plained that he had lost patience with Fox's of heights. Before taking the plunge, he evident misunderstanding. wild schemes; he had decided that Fox wanted to discuss the implications of this For he was not your everyday, run-of- was just up to his usual shenanigans, and newly discovered aspect of his character. the-mill Freddy Fox, of whom she should he had therefore gone back to doing the Unceremoniously Fox pushed him off the rightly beware, he said. Rather he was your only thing he knew how to do, which was to wall and, taking a deep breath, jumped actual Twentieth-Century Fox, in person. burrow away at the wall. after. And from the timeless safety of the "Just call me Twentieth-Century/' he said Fox was beside himself with impatience. Garden of Eridu they watched as the west- breezily. And he was, he said, out on a "Yes, Man, I'm with you. I know all that! But ern sky was rocked by a light that was not rekky, looking for the right someone to star why the devil do we want to go there in the lightning, rent by a sound that was not in his new musical version of Snow White first place?" thunder, and clouds from which no rain fell and the Seven Dwarfs. "Go where?" Hedgehog asked, steadily billowed high in the air, completely obscur- This cast the matter in a new perspec- digging. ing the distant horizon. DO tive. The little vixen knew precisely what Hollywood would do with Snow White, and she had no objection to the full frontals. But she hoped that, if she got the part, maybe they'd find a double for theclose-up work with the dwarfs. She readily assented to meet Fox after hours for a screen test and to bring along the book of fairy tales he requested so that they could run through some scenes. She went at the screen test with so much artistry that they did several takes, momen- tarily distracting Fox. But at last he sent the little vixen packing, giving her a duff check to buy a plane ticket to L.A. and promising her that, with her talent, she would soon be a great star.

He flipped through the fairy-tale book till he came to the one about Jack and the beanstalk. He plucked some seeds from lyiccPgESipg^Q one of the illustrations, then scattered them on the ground in front of the wall. "Now you just watch this, Man!" he coun- seled the skeptical Hedgehog. At first nothing happened. Then Fox wa- tered the seed,s with the sweat off Hedgehog's brow, with the tears of his own impatience, and with a bottle of vintage champagne he'd ripped off from the supermarket and was saving for a special occasion. In a trice the beanstalk grew as high as the eye could see. But Fox had no time to stand around admiring the horticul- ture; there was something in the air. Nimbly he scampered up the beanstalk, oblivious of the jet planes roaring past him. Fox climbed and climbed. But no matter ALOFT weekend astronauts

Rainbow-colored monsters fill the skies. Flying spheres, eight stories tall, glide serenely downwind. No web of contrails; no whine of engines. Just acres of nylon and the occasional hiss of a propane burner—the dragon's breath that keeps these giants aloft. PHOTOGRAPHS BY SEBASTIAN BASTEL Ballooning is, perhaps,

st thing to space travel. 1

Ballooning is, perhaps, the closest thing to space travel. Aloft in a balloon, you are exhilarated by the view— and the quiet. You look down from a majestic silence, broken only by periodic blasts of propane (maneuvering rockets?). There is no sense of motion; the world seems to turn beneath you. • Slowly the hot air -escapes from the envelope, and the balloon sinks to the ground, a writhing, dying dinosaur. 9

landing is as ut if balloon flight is as grand as spaceflight, undignified. You either splash down or bump down— the same choice you have in a space capsule. The basket hits, bounces, drags, finally stops. Slowly the sinks to hot air escapes from the envelope, and the balloon the ground, a writhing, dying dinosaur. Modern hot-air ballooning and manned spaceflight began in the same year. In 1961, when astronauts Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard lifted off, inventor Ed Yost test-flew the first propane- powered aerostat. Today it's not unusual to see half a dozen balloons in a Saturday morning sky. At the 1978 Albuquerque (New Mexico) International Balloon Fiesta (where these photos were shot), 270 balloons launched simultaneously, the largest assemblage of aerostats ever. Why this soaring interest in aeronautics? The answer is the same as for astronautics, although there is no rationale of "terrestrial applications." Samuel

Johnson put it this way in 1 759 as man was about to leave the

earth in machines of his own devising: "I have long

been of the opinion . . . that the fields of air are open to knowledge, and that only ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground."

fields air . 4 The of are open to .

knowledge . . . only ignorance and idleness -need crawl upon the ground. 3 It was radical, it was daring,

but mostly it was cheap VMGHGOND

BY DAVID SEARLS

On March 2, 1979, a rectangular U.S. spacecraft nicknamed "Van" went into orbit around Earth, third planetfrom the sun and our nearest neighbor in the solar system. Overthe next several days "Van" released three sophisticated probes—one to study the planet's "wetside," one tor the "dryside," and an orbiter intended to skim the surface once every tew years. This was the very modest Vagabond Mission, the first such exploration of the blue planet and an effort that has since forced scientists to rethink long-held assumptions about the origin and

composition of all we know, "It's back to the drawing room!" exclaims Dr. OzmoZdilmidgi, Vagabond Mission project director at the U.S. Thought Propulsion Laboratory (TPL), prime contractor for the mission, "The old facts

' are out the window. It will take years of interpretation to replace them."

This is hardly what anybody expected before the mission began. Given Dregg's law —that findings increase

PAINTING BY DEAN ELLIS 2 "

did not fol- yeast in the atmo- The third probe, "Rosebud," square root of fundings—Vagabond struments detected as the earth's auspicious news. "This low its companions directly to the should have produced only a lew short jobs sphere. This was it away into space the possibility not only of life," surface'. Instead headed and some dull articles in obscure journals. indicates should bring it time, "but of food and on a highly unusual path that By the time Vagabond came around to Zdilmidgi said at the back within inches of the planet's surface dip from the river of federal funds for plane- drink as well." certain once every nine years, if all goes well. The exploration, that once-broad stream This likelihood seemed more tary 1988. probe's transmissions became first flyby is scheduled for had slowed to a trickle. When its cup was when the severely el- incoherent just before plop- "Rosebud" followsJhe most filled, Vagabond's budget was a mere slurred and convincing liptical orbit in the history of spaceflight, if $199,999.99— almost a billion dollars less down. It seemed all the more concentrations of not in the history of Newtonian physics. Its than the Viking Mission to Mars and when "Martin" detected planet's wet control calculations are extremely precise. $277,999,800.01 less than the Pioneer salt and other spices on the chief orbital specialist surface. No doubt remained when "Mar- Dr. DusardEggborn, Mission to Venus. very transmissions ended abruptly. at TPL, explains: "We're dealing with a "Most of that was for parrs," Zdilmidgi tin" 's Zdilmidgi says, "Martin was small window here. This baby comes complains. "We had to cover labor costs "Obviously," screaming in from space, scoops up some with.extra hours and grant money for barely eaten." were returned samples, and zooms -off into space again. If humanities projects." Equally striking findings related can damage the "Beans," which followed "Martin" out she comes in too low, she With so little funding, the TPL was forced by out of business trapdoor and into history. After planet; too high, and we're to scrap long-established plans for explor- "Van"'s I we're hilling across half a continent, "Beans" for another nine years. mean ing the little-known outer planets and to bouncing Sun Belt. After about Mach ninety at flyby. Couple inches _ concentrate on more convenient bodies. came to rest in the planet's either way, and we're cooked for sure." checking its innards to verify that every sys- off So TPL lowered its horizons. All the way. survived the landing, "Beans" Even without "Rosebud" "s contributions, "Earth was about the only choice," Zdil- tem had Mission has already pro- at the surface and took 1 the Vagabond midgi says. "Everything else was too far aimed its camera could be developed. vided enough information to make scien- away and too damned expensive, except pictures. Only one tists take another look at what the world is, maybe the moon. And who wants to go what it is made of, and how long it has been there 9 We've been there about six times, around. Or is and it always looks like Winnemucca. In the few shorl months since "Martin" it Elko? I forget which." and "Beans" delivered their startling find- Despite talent and time as short as the sensitive new theories have developed man- 4 Halfway down, ings, several money, Zdilmidgi and his associates and yeast in concerning the origin, composition, aged to put together virtually all the mission instruments detected age of the universe. hardware in a matter of months. Although It the atmosphere. Dr. Clark Safeway, famous astronomer credit must be given to the mission staff, auspicious news. "This and personality from Cornwell University the project owes much to what must be the was and special consultant for media affairs at subcontracting in the his- most resourceful . indicates the possibility TPL, summarizes these new cosmologies. tory of space exploration. life," said he says, "that the uni- developed not only of "It is clear by now," "Van." the mother orbiter, was ' verse was formed by a baking process, a with assistance from a top-flight southern Dr. Zdilmidgi, "but brewing process, or some combination of California custom shop. It was built on a well." of food and drink as 3 both. Dodge chassis and came equipped with a "Most scientists now hold to the Large 40-channel CB radio. Loaf theory. This model assumes that the "Martin," the wetside probe, followed universe rose from afortuitous combination designs supplied by a consortium of prom- of primordial yeast and grain by-products. inent beverage retailers. of Poranoid "A substantial minority believes that the "Beans," the dryside lander, was devel- J. Ralph Sea, president for the subconlractor for the dryside Large Loaf model cannot account oped almost entirely by American Tourista Corp., prime quantity of alcohol present in the universe. named after Dr. lander photographic project, claims that Corp. (The lander was Big conforms with mission This group instead subscribes to the Zdilmidgi's pet cat, the unfortunate victim this disappointment Brew theory, which presumes the a priori prototype dropped from guidelines. of a suitcaselike product he says. "We did this job existence of alcohol, perhaps as a an airplane.) "Hey, come on," twelve of an earlier expired universe. Big Brew the sledlike orbiter, was sub- for a lousy ninety-two dollars and "Rosebud," the universe talking about a camera proponents believe that contracted entirely to a sixth-grade class in cents. And we're with giant party and that matter it across half a continent began a Monktumi, Idaho, here. You bounce expect perfection? Besides, those has been having a good time ever since. The entire payload was shipped to Cape and you who point to inconsis- creeps haven't even paid us yet." "There are some Canaveral, where it was assembled on site Corp., which built tencies in data returned by both Vagabond by volunteer experts from the local Geezer American Tourista vigorous defense. A probes and by space probes in general. Lake Rotary Club. The launch vehicle, an "Beans," offers a less These scientists belong to the Unsteady untested 476- company memo reads: "Frankly, we de- Eastes mccclxiv, was an Unsteady vehicle to hold clothes and State school. In the words of one stage configuration—the largest and most signed the are another matter." State adherent: 'We don't know where it complex design in Eastes's history. eggs. Cameras from the came from or where it's going, but we do The launching took place on a gray win- The marginal results obtained usable photo were computer-en- know that it won't stand still at all.' ter dawn from the rarely used Pad .07, ac- single Whatever the subtle disagreements, all reserved parking space specially hanced to supply details missing from the tually a one important original. enhancement software was three factions concur, on converted for mission requirements. Min- The of trie universe. They all by staffers. The $88.44 cost point —the true age utes later "Van" achieved sky orbit. developed TPL withheld from place the time of creation at about 400 weeks of careful procrastination, was paid for by that amount After at vari- compensate for the 11 years ago. While this figure seems "Martin" dropped through "Van'"s trap- Poranoid Corp. to ance with most of accepted history, Safe- door and descended toward Earth's blue shots that failed to come out. enhanced photo shows a stark as- way sees no problem. expanse. """ - The we need," he says, "is a theory of for phalt-and-g ravel plain topped by a ventlike "What It marked the beginning of the end escaping history that is consistent with our opinions modern cosmology. 'protrusion. Fumes can be seen universe. indicating an active surface. about the origin of the "DO Halfway down, "Martin" 's sensitive in- from the vent,

100 OMNI —

Two days after the table scraps had Kress fed them lavisniy while his image SANDKINGS ceased to fall from their desert sky, four beamed down at them from their sky. Tem- black mobiles surrounded an orange and porarily the wars stopped, All activity was

dragged it back to their maw. They maimed directed toward worship.... rising in about three weeks." it first, ripping off its mandibles and anten- His face emerged oh the castle walls.

'And my face? When will they carve my nae and limbs, and carried it through the At first all four carvings looked alike to lace''" shadowed main gate of their' miniature cas- him, but as. the work continued and Kress

"Turn on the hologram after about a tle. It never emerged. Within an hour more studied the reproductions, he began to de- month," she advised him, "and be patient. than forty orange mobiles marched across tect subtle differences in technique and

If you have any questions, please call. Wo the sand and attacked the blacks' corner. execution. The reds were the most creative, and Shade are at your service." She bowed They were outnumbered by the blacks that using tiny flakes of slate to put the gray in and left. came rushing up from the depths. When his hair The white idol seemed young and

Kress wandered back to the tank and lit a the fighting was over, the attackers had mischievous to him, while the face shaped joy stick. The desert was still and empty He been slaughtered. The dead and dying by the blacks— although virtually the drummed his fingers impatiently against were taken down to feed the black maw. same, line for line— struck him as wise and the plastic and frowned. Kress, delighted, congratulated himself benevolent. The orange sandkings. as

on his genius. usual , were last and least. The wars had not On the fourth day Kress thought he When he put food into the tank the follow- gone well for them, and their castle was sad glimpsed motion beneath the sand ing day, a three-cornered battle broke out compared to those. of the others. The image subtle subterranean stirrings. over its possession. The whites were the they carved was crude and cartoonish, On the fifth day he saw his first mobile, a big winners. and they seemed to intend to leave it this lone white. After that, war followed war. way. When they stopped work on the face, On the sixth day he counted a dozen of Kress grew quite piqued with them, but them, whites and reds and blacks. The Almost a month to the day after Jala Wo there really was nothing he could do. oranges were tardy. He cycled through a had delivered the sandkings, Kress turned When all of the sandkings had finished bowl of half-decayed table scraps. The on the holographic projector, and his face their Kress faces, he turned off the projec- mobiles sensed it at once, rushed to it, and materialized in the tank, It turned, slowly, tor and decided that it was time to have a began to drag pieces back to their respec- around and around, so that his gaze fell on party. His friends would be impressed. tive corners. Each color group was highly all four castles equally. Kress thought it He could even stage a war for them, organized. They did not fight. Kress was a rather a good likeness; it had his impish he thought. Humming happily to himself, bit disappointed, but he decided to give grin, wide mouth, full cheeks. His blue eyes he began drawing up a guest list. them time. sparkled, his gray hair was carefully ar- The oranges made their appearance on rayed in a fashionable sidesweep, his The party was a wild success. the eighth day. By then the other sandkings eyebrows were thin and sophisticated. Kress invited thirty people; a handful of had begun carrying small stones and Soon enough the sandkings set to work. close friends who shared his amusements, erecting crude fortificalions. They still did not war. At the moment they were only half the size of those he had seen at Wo and Shade's, but Kress thought they were grow- ing rapidly, The castles began to rise midway through the second week. Organized bat- talions of mobiles dragged heavy chunks of sandstone and granite back to their cor- ners, where other mobiles were pushing sand into place with mandibles and ten- drils. Kress had purchased a pair of mag- nifying goggles so that he could watch them work wherever they might go in the iank. He wandered around and around the tall plastic walls, observing. It was fascinat- ing. The castles were a bit plainer than Kress would have liked, bui he had an idea aboutthat The next day he. cycled through some obsidian and flakes of colored glass along with the food. Within hours they had been incorporated into the castle walls. The black castle was the first completed, followed by the white and red fortresses, The oranges were last, as usual. Kress took his meals into the living room and ate, seated on the couch so he could watch. He expected the first war to break out any hour

He was disappointed. Days passed, the castles grew taller and more grand, and Kress, seldom left the tankexcepl to attend lo his sanitary needs and to answer critical business calls. But the sandkings did not war. He was getting upset. Finally he stopper! feeding them. .

her slightest attention. faces, Simon Kress," she warned him. a few former lovers, and a collection of and no one paid the "Look to your faces." And she departed. business and social rivals who could not Kress smiled at her and shrugged. have a Puzzled, he wandered back to the tank afford to ignore his summons. He knew Malada Blane suggesled they they got together and stared at the castles. His faces were some of them would be discomfited and betting pool the next time still there, as ever. Except—he snalched up even offended by his sandkings. He to watch a war, and everyone was taken with the idea. An animated discussion his magnifying goggles and slipped them counted on it. He customarily considered

It lasted for on. He studied the faces for long moments. his parties a failure unless at least one about rules and odds ensued. Finally the guests began to Even then exactly whaT it was, was hard to guest walked out in high dudgeon. almost an hour But it seemed to him that the On impulse he added Jala Wo's name to take their leave. make out. Jala the last to depart. "So," expression on the faces had changed his list. "Bring Shade if you like," he added Wo was were alone, "it slightly, that his smile was somehow twisted when he dictated the invitation to her. Kress said to her when they so that it seemed a touch malicious. But it Her acceptance surprised him just a bit: appears my sandkings are a hit." well," said. "Already was a very subtle change— if it was a "Shade, alas, will be unable to altend. He "They are doing Wo change at all. Kress finally put it down to his does not go to social functions. As for my- they are larger than my own." and he resolved not to invite to how "Yes," Kress said, "except for the suggestibility, self , I look forward to the chance see any more of his gatherings. your sandkings are doing." oranges." Jala Wo to Kress ordered a sumptuous meal. "I had noticed that," Wo replied. "They castle is Over the next few months Kress and Ahd when at last the conversation had seem few in number, and their about a dozen of his favorites got together died down and most of his guests had shabby." lose," Kress said. weekly for what he liked to call his "war gotten silly on wine and joy sticks, he "Well, someone must Now that his initial fascination with shocked Ihem by personally scraping their "The oranges were late to emerge and get games." it." the sandkings was past, Kress spent less table leavings into a large bowl. "Come-, all established. They have suffered for if his tank and more on his busi- said "but might I ask you time around of you," he commanded. "I want to intro- "Pardon," Wo, sufficiently?" ness affairs and his social life, but he still duce you to my newest pets." Carrying the are feeding your sandkings enjoyed having a few friends over for a war bowl, he conducted them into his living or two. He kept the combatants sharp on a room. constant edge of hunger. It had severe ef- The sandkings lived up lo his fondest fects on the orange sandkings, which expectations. He had starved them for two dwindled visibly until Kress began to won- days in preparation, and they were in a QThe attacking der whether their maw was dead. But the fighting mood. While the guests ringed the others did well enough. tank, looking through the magnifying sandkings washed over the Sometimes at night when he could not glasses that Kress had thoughtfully pro- spider. Mandibles sleep, Kress would take a bottle of wine into vided, the sandkings waged a glorious bat- snapped shut on legs and the living room, where the red gloom of his tle over the scraps. He counted almost sixty miniature desert provided the only light. He dead mobiles when the struggle was over - abdomen, and clung. would drink and watch for hours, alone. The reds and whites, which had recently One of them found an eye . . There was usually a fight going on some- formed an alliance, came off with most of where; when there was not, he could easily Ihe food. ripped it loose. ... start one by dropping some small morsel of "Kress, you're disgusting," Cath m'Lane Kress smiled and pointed'3 food into the tank. told him. She had lived with him for a short Kress's companions began betting on time two years before, until her soppy sen- the weekly battles, as Malada Blane had timentality almost drove him mad. "I was a suggested. Kress won a goodly amount by fool to come back here. I thought perhaps betting on the whites, which had become you'd changed and wanted to apologize." the most powerful and most numerous col- She had never forgiven him for the time his Kress shrugged. "They diet from time to fiercer." ony in the tank and which had Ihe grandest shamble.r had eaten an excessively cute time. It makes them starve castle. One week he slid the corner of the puppy of which she had been tond. "Don't She frowned. "There is no need to time, for tank top aside, and he dropped the food ever, invite me here again, Simon." She them. Let them war in their own and you close to the white castle instead of on the strode out, accompanied by her current their own reasons. It is their nature, that are delightfully central battleground, where he usually let lover, to a chorus of laughter. will wilness conflicts war food fall. So the others had to attack the Kress's other guests were full of gues-' subtle and complex. The constant artless whites in their stronghold to get any iood at tions. brought on by hunger is and de- all. The whites were brilliant in Where did Ihe sandkings come from? grading." They tried. frown with interest. defense. Kress won a hundred standards they wanted to know. "From Wo and Shade, Kress repaid Wo's the from Jad Rakkis. Importers," he replied, with a polite geslure "You are in my house, Wo, and here I am Rakkis, in fact, lost heavily on the sand- toward Jala Wo, who had remained quiet judge of what is degrading. I fed Ihe sand- kings almost every week. He pretended to and apart throughout most of the evening. kings as you advised, and they did not a vast knowledge of them and their ways, Why did they decorate their castles with fight." must have patience." claiming that he had studied them after the his likeness? "Because I am the source of "You no luck when it came Kress said. "I am their master and first party, but he had all good things. Surely you know that?" This "No," lo placing his bets. Kress suspected that should I wait retort brought a round of chuckles. their god, after all. Why on 7 not often Jad's claims were empty boasting. He had Will they fight again? "Of course, but not their impulses They did war the tried to studythe sandkings a bit himself, in tonight. Don't worry. There will be other par- enough to suit me. I have corrected a moment of idle curiosity, tying in to the ties." situation." the matter library to find out what world his pets origi- Jad Rakkis, who was an amateur "I see," said.Wo. "I will discuss nally from. But the library had no xenologist, began talking about other so- with Shade." came listing for sandkings. He wanted to get in cial insecls and the wars they fought, "It is none of your concern, or his," Kress with and ask her about it, but he "These sandkings are amusing, but noth- snapped. touch Wo good-night, then," had other concerns, and the matter kept ing really. You ought to read about Terran "I must bid you Wo slipped slipping his mind. soldier ants, for instance." said with resignation. But as she Finally, after a month in which his losses "Sandkings are not insects," Jala Wo into her coat to leave, she fixed him with a totaled more than a thousand standards, said sharply, but Jad was oif and running, final, -disapproving stare. "Look to your

1D2 OMNI .

Rakkis arrived at the war games, He was Two other guests helped Rakkis slide the and ripped tt loose wiih tiny yellow tendrils. carrying a small plastic case under his tank top slightly to one side, and Malada Kress smiled and pointed. arm. Inside was a spide.rlike thing covered Blane handed his case up to him. He shook But they were sma/7,.and they had no with fine golden hair. the spider out. It landed lightly on a minia- venom, and the spider did r;oi stop "A sand spider," ,u, ,eas Rakkis announced. ture dune in front of the red castle and flicked sandkings off to either side. Its

"From I Cathaday. got it this afternoon from stood confused for a moment, mouth work- dripping jaws found others t'Etherane and left them the Petseller. Usually they re- ing, legs twitching menacingly. broken and stiffening. Already a dozen of move the poison sacs, but this one is intact. "Come on," Rakkis urged. They all the reds lay dying. The sand spider Are you came game, I Simon? want my money gathered around the tank. Kress found his on and on. It strode straight through the back. I'll bet a thousand standards, sand magnifiers and slipped them on. If he was triple line of guardians before spider against the castle. sandkings," going to lose a thousand standards, at The lines closed around it, Kress covered it, wag- studied the spider in its plastic least he wanted a good view of the action. ing desperate battle. A team of sandkings prison. His sandkings had grown they The sandkings had — seen the invader. All had bitten off one of the spider's legs. were twice as large De- as Wo's, as she'd over the red castle activity had ceased. The fenders leaped from atop the iowersto land predicted— but they were still dwarfed by small scarlet mobiles were frozen watch- on the twitching, heaving this mass. thing. It was venomed, and they were ing. Lost beneath the sandkings, the spider not. Still, there were an awful lot of them. The spider began to move toward the somehow lurched down into the darkness Besides, the endless sandking wars lately dark promise of the gate. From the tower and had vanished. begun to grow tiresome. The novelty of above, Simon Kress's countenance stared Rakkis lei out a long breath. He looked the malch intrigued him. down impassively. pale, "Wonderful," someone else said. "Done," Kress said. "Jad, you are a fool. At once there was a flurry of activity. The Malada Blane The chuckled deep in her throat. sandkings will just keep coming until nearest red mobiles formed themselves "Look," said Idi Noreddian, this tugging ugly creature of yours is dead." into two wedges and streamed over the Kress by the arm. "You are the fool, Simon," Rakkis replied, sand toward the spider. More warriors They had been so intent smiling. on the struggle "The Cathadayan sand spider cus- erupted from inside the castle and assem- in the corner that none of them had tomarily feeds on noticed burrowers that hide in bled in a triple line to guard the approach to the activity elsewhere in the tank. But. now nooks and crevices, and well, — watch— it the underground chamber where the maw the castle was -still, and the sands were will go straight into those castles and eat lived. Scouts came scuttling over "the empty save for dead red mobiles, the maws." and now dunes, recalled to fight. they saw. Kress scowled amid general laughter. Battle was joined. Three armies were drawn up before He hadn't counted the on that. "Get on with it," The attacking sandkings washed over red castle. They stood quile still, in perfKoi he said irritably. Then he went to freshen his the spider. Mandibles snapped shut on .array, rank after rank of drink. sandkings, orange legs and abdomen, and clung. Reds raced and white and black— waiting to see what The spider was too large to be cycled up the golden legs to the invader's back. emerged from the. depths. conveniently through the tood chamber. They bit and tore. One of found them an eye Kress smiled. 'A cordon sanitaire," he .

the sand-castle wall. It startled him. said. 'And glance at the other castles, if you this tank and have it destroyed. And you're well." He drew back, blinked, took a healthy will, Jad." going to have to expect a few fines as looked again. Rakkis did, and he swore. Teams of Kress offered her a'hundred standards gulp of wine, and face on the wall was still his. But it mobiles were sealing up the gates with to forget all about him and his sandkings. The twisted. His fs/red. I'll to attempt- was all wrong, all cheeks were sand and stone. If the spider somehow sur- She "Now have add you." bloated and piggish; his smile was a vived this encounter, it would find no easy ed bribery to Ihe charges against leer. looked impossibly malevo- entrance at the other castles. "I should Not until he raised the figure to two crooked He have brought four spiders," Rakkis said. thousand standards was she willing to be lent. Uneasy, he moved around the tank to "Still, I've won. My spider is down there right persuaded. "It's not going to be easy, you now, eating your damned maw." know," she said. "There are forms to be inspect the other castles. They were each a Kress did not reply. He waited. There was altered, records to be wiped. And getting a bit different, but ullimately all the same. left out most of the fine motion in the shadows. forged license from the ecologists will be The oranges had still mon- All at once red mobiles began pouring time-consuming. Not to mention dealing detail, buf the result seemed crude; brutal and mindless out of the gate. They took their positions on with the complainant. What if she calls strous, a mouth the castle and began repairing the dam- eyes. said. reds gave him a satanic, twitching age that the spider had wrought. The other "Lea i her to me," Kress "Leave The unlovely armies dissolved and began to retreat to sort of smile, His mouth did odd, their respective corners. things at its corners. whites, his favorites, had carved a "Jad," Kress said, "I think you are a bit He thought about it for a while. That night The idiot confused about who is eating whom." he made some calls. cruel god. First he got t'Etherane the Petseller "I Kress flung his wine across the room in under his breath. The following week Rakkis brought four want to buy a dog," he said. "A puppy." rage. "You dare," he said for a week, you slim silver snakes. The sandkings dis- The round-faced merchant gawked at "Now you won't eat ..." patched them without much trouble. him. "A puppy? That is not like you, Simon. damned His voice was shrill. "Ill teach you." Next he tried a large black bird. It ate an idea. strode out of the more than thirty white mobiles, and its He had He thrashing and blundering virtually de- room, then returned a moment later with an iron throwing sword in his hand. It stroyed that castle, but ultimately its wings antique and the point still grew tired, and the sandkings attacked in was a meter long, was +When he shoved sharp. Kress smiled, climbed up, and force wherever it landed. moved the tank cover aside just enough to After that it was a case of insects, ar- her, she looked briefly the sandkings give him working room, exposing one mored beetles not too unlike startled. She themselves. But stupid, stupid. An allied corner of the desert. He leaned down and white castle below force of oranges and blacks broke their screamed as she tumbled jabbed the sword at the him. He waved it back and forth, smashing formation, divided them, and butchered down the stairs. them. towers and ramparts and walls. Sand and "I'm hurt," she called-. . Rakkis began giving Kress promissory stone collapsed, burying the scrambling wrist obliterated the notes. and shortly afterward mobiles. A flick of his features of the insolent, insulting caricature It was around that time that .Kress met . . .the screaming started^ Cath m'Lane again, one evening when he that the sandkings had made of his face, point of the sword was dining in Asgard at his favorite restau- Then he poised the dark mouth that opened down rant. He stopped at her table briefly and above the chamber; he thrust with all told her about the war games, inviting her into Ihe maw's his meeting wiih resistance. He to join them. She flushed, then regained strength, squishing sound. All the control of herself and grew icy. "Someone Why don't you come in? I have a lovely heard a soft, choice." mobiles trembled and collapsed. Satisfied, has to put a stop to you, Simon, I guess it's pulled back. going to be me," she said. "I want a very specific kind of puppy," Kress for a wondering Kress shrugged and enjoyed a lovely Kress said. "Take notes. I'll describe to you He watched moment, whether he killed the maw. The point of meal and fhought no more about her threat. what it must look like." had sword wet and slimy. But Until a week later, when a small, stout Afterwards he punched for Idi Nored- the throwing was white sandkings began to move woman arrived at his door and showed him dian. "Idi," he said, "I want you out here finally the they a police w'ristband. "We've had com- tonight with your holo equipment. I have a again —feebly, slowly — but moved, preparing to slide the cover back plaints," she said. "Do you keep a tank full notion to record a sandking battle. A pres- He was to a castle of dangerous insects, Kress?" ent for one of my friends." into place and move on second when he felt something crawling on his "Not insects," he said, furious. "Come, I'll show you." The night after they made the recording, hand. When she had seen the sandkings, she Kress stayed up late. He absorbed a con- He screamed, dropping the sword, and sandking from his flesh. It fell shook her head. "This will never do. What troversial new drama in his sensoriurn, brushed the do you know about these creatures any- fixed himself a small snack, smoked a to the carpet, and he ground it beneath his after it way? Do you know what world they're from? couple of joy sticks, and broke out a bottle heel, crushing it thoroughly long was on Have they been cleared by the Ecological of wine. Feeling very happy with himself, he dead. It had crunched when he stepped he hurriedly sealed Board 9 Do you have a license for these wandered into the living room, glass in it. After that, trembling, off shower things? We have a report that they're carni- hand. the tank up again. He rushed to vores and possibly dangerous. We also The lights were out. The red glow of the and inspected hi'-.seil carefully. He boiled have a reporf that they are semisentient. terrarium made the shadows look flushed his clothing. Where did you get these creatures any- and feverish. Kress walked over to survey Later, after drinking several glasses of way?" his domain, curious as to how the blacks wine, he returned to the living room. He was "From Wo and Shade," Kress replied. were doing in the repairs on their castle. a bit ashamed of the way he had been terrified the sandking. But he was not "Never heard of them," the woman said. The puppy had left it in ruins. by the tank again. From then on, "Probably smuggled them in, knowing our The restoration went well. But as Kress about to open ecologists would never approve them. No, inspected the work through his magnifiers, the cover would stay sealed permanently. others. Kress, this won't do. I'm going to confiscate he chanced to glance closely at the face on Still, he had to punish Ihe

104 OMNI _S&T\IQ

"Hey you guys, we're being transferred to another galaxy!" o

monster," she managed to say, Ihough her He decided to lubricate his mental pro- she swung as hard as she could against mouth was full of blood. And she whirled, cesses with another glass of wine. As he the side of the tank. The sound of the im- Kress's to screaming, and he impossibly the sword in her, and swung finished it, an inspiration came to him. He pact set head with her last strength at the tank. The tor- went to the tank and made a few adjust- made a low, blubbering sound of despair. tured wall shattered, and Cath rn'Lane was ments to the humidity controls. But the plastic held. This time there was a buried beneath an avalanche of plastic By the time he fell asleep on the couch, She swung again. network of thin lines appeared and sand and mud. his wine glass still in his hand, the sand crack, and a Kress made small hysterical noises and castles were melting in the rain. in the wall of the tank. Kress threw himself at her as she drew scrambled up onto the couch. swing. Sandkings were emerging from the muck Kress woke to angry pounding on his back her hammer to take a third and rolled over She on his living-room floor. They were crawling door. They went down flailing across Cath's body. A few of them ventured He sat up, groggy, his head throbbing. lost her grip on the hammer and tried to tentatively out across the carpet. More fol- Wine hangovers were always the worst, he throttle him, but Kress wrenched free and

They lowed . thought. He lurched to the entry chamber. bit her on the arm, drawing blood. He watched as a column took shape, a Cath rn'Lane was outside. "You monster," both staggered to their feet, panting. Simon," living, writhing square of sandkings, bear- she said, her face swollen and puffy and "You should see yourself, she dripping from your ing something—something slimy and fea- streaked with tears. "I cried all night, damn said grimly. "Blood tureless, a piece of raw meat as big as a yorj. But no more, Simon, no more." mouth. You look like one of your pets. How 1 man's head. They began to carry it away "Easy,' he said, holding his head. "I've do you like the taste?" throwing from the tank. It pulsed. got a hangover." "Get out," he said. He saw the ran. it the night before, That was when Kress broke and .She swore and shoved him aside and sword where had fallen

it out," he re- pushed her way into his house. The sham- and he snatched up. "Get emphasis. Before he found the courage to return bler came peering round a corner to see peated, waving the sword for tank again." home, he ran to his skimmer and flew to the what the noise was. She spat at ft and "Don't go near that dare," nearest city, some fifty kilometers away, al- stalked into the living room, Kress trailing She laughed at him. "You wouldn't her hammer. most sick with fear But, once safely away. ineffectually after her. "Hold on," he said, she said. She bent to pick up sev- ..." Kress shrieked at her and lunged. Before he found a small restaurant, downed "where do you . . . you can't He eral mugs of coffee and two anti-hangover stopped, suddenly horror-struck. She was he quite knew what was happening, the gone clear through her ab- tabs, ate a full breakfast, and gradually carrying a heavy sledgehammer in her left iron blade had wonder- regained his composure. hand. "No," he said, domen. Cath rn'Lane looked at him Kress fell it had been a dreadful morning, but She went directly to the sandkings' tank. ingly and down at the sword. dwelling that would solve nothing. He "I didn't mean ... I only on "You like the little charmers so much, Si- back, whimpering. ..." ordered more coffee and considered his mon? Then you can live with them." wanted nearly situation with icy rationality. "Cath!" he shrieked. She was transfixed, bleeding, Cath rn'Lane was dead at his hand. Gripping the hammer with both hands, dead-, but somehow she did not fall. "You Could he report it and plead that it had been an accident? Unlikely. He had run her

through, after all, and he had already told that policer to leave her to him. He would have to get rid of the evidence and hope that Cath had not told anyone her plans for

the day. It was very unlikely she had. She could only have gotten his gift late last Jf¥ night. She said that she had cried all night, ' f and she was alone when she arrived. Very well, he had one body and one skimmer to dispose of. That left the sandkings. They might prove ;«i^jf**- ^ .__ .„._.._ more of a difficulty. No doubt they had all escaped by now. The thought of them * SfWSET * j c^"*W« around his house, in his bed and his I. \ i EuEty EUEWW&- THE SV" TB 1 clothes, infesting his food — it made his "1 ITS JOUB.MW flcRosiTHE SKI flesh crawl. He shuddered and overcame psiur .Afi'ReKiMATEW Behiaip WS

1 <*!.<, his revulsion. It really shouldn't be too hard ea.jvm \ S-.4M w Fact, the wat Tfffi SW APP^/ll to kill them, he reminded himself. He didn't "1 an ITS A*15 MAKSS To MOVK.TOE SUMSBT CAM G£ PAR- have lo account for every mobile. Just the

" ! Ht*-! «iEi-'K> nCL-WiRLV EfftcTii't 1 four maws, that was all. He could do that. *('n- Afriiyr.'; HAue .;.F.itSP/fffOTK£ find them and kill them. He was their god; FWIE now he would be their destroyer. AW SCWS. &Jt«T3!*y MAI* W ""F SEE THb SJWif-T AS A P^U^f M,M He went shopping before he flew back to his home. He bought a set of skinthins that would cover him from head to foot, several - bags of poison pellets for rockjock control, (p.Sfy*Or and a spray canister containing an illegally strong pesticide. He also bought a mag- — nalock towing device. --. When he landed -late that afternoon, he went about things methodically. First he hooked Cath's skimmer to his own with the

magnalock. Searching it. he had his first piece .of luck. The crystal chip with Idi right arm, The sandkings— hundreds of Kress felt like laughing. He decided his Noreddian's holo oi the sandking tight was them moving as one—deserted the body pesticide was unnecessary. No use risking on the front seat. He had worried about that. and assumed battle formation, a field of a fight when he could just let the poison do When the skimmers were ready, he white between him and their maw. its work. Both maws should be dead by slipped into his skinthins and went in- Suddenly Kress had another inspiration. evening. side to get Cath's body. He smiled and lowered his firing hand. That left only the burnt-orange sand-

It wasn't there. "Cath was always hard to swallow "he said, kings unaccounted for. Kress circled his He poked through the (ast-drying sand delighted at his wit. "Especially for one your estate several times, in an ever-widening

carefully, and. there was no doubt of it, the size. Here, let me give you some help. What spiral, but he found no trace of them. When Could have for, body was gone. she dragged are gods after all?" he began to sweat in his skinthins— it was a upstairs, herself away? Unlikely but Kress searched. He retreated returning shortly hot, dry day— he decided it was not impor-

A cursory inspection of his house turned up with a cleaver. The sandkings, patient, tant. If they were out here, they were proba- neither the body nor any sign of the sand- waited and watched while Kress chopped bly eating the poison pellets, as the reds kings. He did not have time for a more Cath rn'Lane into small, easily digestible and blacks were. thorough investigation, not with the in- pieces. He crunched several sandkings under- criminating skimmer outside his front door foot, with a certain degree of satisfaction, He resolved to try later. Kress slept in his skinthins that night, the as he walked back to the house. Inside, he Some seventy kilometers north of Kress's pesticide close at hand, but he did not removed his skinthins, settled down to a

estate was a range of active volcanoes. He need it. The whites, sated, remained in the delicious meal, and finally began to relax. flew there, Cath's skimmer in tow. Above the cellar, and he saw no sign of the others. Everything was under control. Two of the glowering cone of the largest volcano he In the morning he finished the cleanup of maws would soon be defunct, the third was

released the magnalock and watched the the living room. When he was through, no safely located where he could dispose of it

skimmer plummet down and vanish in the trace of the struggle remained except for after it had served his purposes, and he lava bejow. the broken tank. had no doubt that he would find the fourth. It was dusk when he returned to his He ate a light lunch and resumed his As for Cath, every trace of her visit had house. This gave him pause. Briefly he hunt for the missing sandkings. In full day- been obliterated.

considered flying back to the city and light it was not too difficult. The blacks had His reverie was interrupted when his

spending the night there. He put the located in his rock garden, where they built viewscreen began to blink at him. (t was thought aside. There was work to do. He a castle heavy with obsidian and quartz. Jad Rakkis, calling to brag about some wasn't safe yet. The reds he found at the bottom of his cannibal worms he would bring to the war He scattered the poison pellets around long-disused swimming pool, which had games tonight. the exterior of his house. No one would partially filled with wind-blown sand over Kress had forgotten about that, but he think this suspicious. He had always had a the years. He saw mobiles of both colors recovered quickly. "Oh, Jad, my pardons. I

rockjock problem. When this task was ranging about his grounds, many of them neglected to tell you. I grew bored with all

completed, he primed the canister of pes- carrying poison pellets back to their maws. that and got rid of the sandkings. Ugly little " ticide and ventured back inside the house. Kress went through the house, room by room, turning on lights everywhere he went until he was surrounded by a blaze oi artifi- cial illumination. He paused to clean up in the living room, shoveling sand and plastic fragments back into the broken tank. The sandkings were all gone, as he'd feared. The castles were shrunken and distorted, slagged by the watery bombardment

Kress had visited upon them, and what little

of them remained was crumbling as it dried. He frowned and searched further, the canister of pest spray strapped across his shoulders. Down in the wine cellar he could see Cath m'Lane's corpse.

It sprawled at the foot of a steep flight of

stairs, the limbs twisted as if by a fall. White

mobiles were swarming all over it, and as Kress watched, the body moved jerkily across the hard-packed dirt floor O He laughed and twisted the illumination O £> O (S O O o up to maximum, In the far corner a squat o o o o o o *^) o little earthen castle and a dark hole were visible between two wine racks. Kress could make out a rough outline of his face on the cellar wall. The body shifted once again, moving a few centimeters toward the castle. Kress had a sudden vision of the white maw wait-

ing hungrily. It might be able to get Cath's

foot in its mouth, but no more. It was too absurd. He laughed again and started down into the cellar, finger poised on the trigger of the hose that snaked down his . 1

fell Kress advanced, intent on cutting things. Sorry, but there'll be no party to- proached, the blacks halted in their labors back. through them to their maws. night." and formed up into two threatening behind him and All at once the retreat stopped. A Rakkis was indignant. "But what will I do phalanxes. Kress glanced toward him. with my worms?" saw others closing off his escape. Startled, thousand sandkings surged of expecting the counterat- "Put them in a basket of fruit and send he dropped his shovel and sprinted out Kress had been tack. He stood his ground, sweeping his them to a loved one," Kress said, signing the trap, crushing several mobiles beneath misty sword before him in great looping off. Quickly he began calling the others. He his boots. strokes. They came" at him and died. A few did not need anyone arriving at his The red castle was creeping up the walls spray everywhere doorstep now, with the sandkings alive and of the swimming pool. The maw was safely got through; he could not at once. felt them climbing up his legs, infesting the estate, * settled in a pit, surrounded by sand and He then sensed their mandibles biting futilely As he was calling Idi Noreddian, Kress concrete and bafflements. The reds crept plastic of his skinthins. He became aware of an annoying oversight. all over the bottom of the pool. Kress at the reinforced ignored kept spraying. The screen began to clear, indicating that watched them carry a rockjock and a large them and began to feel soft impacts on his someone had answered at the ofher end. lizard into the castle. Horrified, he stepped Then he something shoulders. Kress flicked off. back from the poolside and felt head and crunch. Looking down, he saw three Kress trembled and spun and looked up above him. The front of his house was alive Idi arrived on schedule an hour later. She mobiles climbing up his leg. He brushed sandkings. Blacks and reds, hundreds was surprised to find the party had been them off and stamped them to death, but with launching themselves canceled but perfectly happy to share an others were approaching rapidly. They of them. They were evening alone with Kress. He delighted her were larger than he remembered. Some intothe air, raining down on him. They fell all around him. One landed on his faceplate. with his story of Cath's reaction to the holo were almost as big as his thumb. its mandibles scraping at his eyes for a they had made together. While telling it, he He ran. plucked it away. managed to ascertain that she had not By the time he reached the safety of the terrible second before he his and sprayed the mentioned the prank to anyone. He nod- house, his heart was racing and he was He swung up hose air, the house, sprayed until the ded, satisfied, and refilled theirwine glass- sprayed airborne sandkings were all dead or dying. es. Only a trickle was left, "I'll have to get a mist settled back on him, making him fresh bottle," he said. "Come with me to my The cough. But he kept spraying. Only when wine cellar, and help me pick out a good house clean did Kress vintage. You've always had a better palate the front of the was £ The heavy door turn his attention back to the ground. than I." all him, dozens She went along willingly enough but was still nailed shut, as he They were around him, on of scurrying over his body, hundreds balked at the top of the stairs when Kress them had left it. But of others hurrying to join them. He turned opened the door and gestured for her to it slightly, mist them. hose went dead. precede him, "Where are the lights?" she bulged outward the on The Kress heard a loud hiss, and the deadly fog asked. 'And that smell —what's that pecu- as if warped by rose in a great cloud from between his liar smell, Simon?" some tremendous pressure. shoulders, cloaking him, choking him, mak- When he shoved her, she looked briefly ing his bum and blur. He felt for the startled. She screamed as she tumbled That made Kress eyes hose, and his hand came away covered down the stairs. Kress closed the door and uneasy as did the silence. ,,3 with dying sandkings. The hose was sev- began to nail it shut with the boards and air ered; they'd eaten it through. He was sur- hammer he had left for that purpose. As he by a shroud of pesticide, blinded. was finishing, he heard Idi groan, "I'm rounded stumbled and screamed and began to hurt," she called. "Simon, what is this?" He house, pulling sandkings Suddenly she squealed, and shortly after run back to the from his body as he went. that the screaming started. short of breath. He closed the door behind hurried to lock it. His house was Inside, he sealed the door and collapsed It did not cease for hours. Kress went to him and in carpet, rolling back and forth until he his sensorium and dialed up a saucy com- supposed to be pestproof. He'd be safe on the here. was sure he had crushed them all. The edy to blot it from his mind. feebly. A stiff drink steadied his nerve. So canister was empty by then, hissing show- When he was sure she was dead, Kress poison doesn't faze them, he thought. He Kress stripped off his skinthins and spray scalded him and left flew her skimmer north to the volcanoes should have known. Jala Wo had warned ered. The hot that the could eat anything. He his skin reddened and sensitive, but it and discarded it. The magnalock was prov- him maw his flesh stop crawling. ing a good investment. would have to use the pesticide. He took made another drink for good measure, donned He dressed in his heaviest clothing, thick Odd scrabbling noises were coming his skinthins, and strapped the canister to work pants and leathers, after shaking "Damn," he kept mut- from beyond the wine-cellar door the next his back. He unlocked the door. them out nervously. "damn." His throat dry. After morning when Kress went down to check Outside, the sandkings were waiting. tering, was allied searching the entry hall thoroughly to make things out. He listened for several uneasy Two armies confronted him,

certain it clean, he allowed himself to moments, wondering whether Idi might against the common threat. More than he was possibly have survived and was scratching could have guessed. The damned maws sit and pour a drink. "Damn," he repeated. Mobiles His hand shook as. he poured, slopping to get out. This seemed unlikely; it had lobe must be breeding like rockjocks. carpet. the sandkings. Kress did not like the impli- were everywhere, a creeping sea of them. liquor on the alcohol settled him, but it did not cations of this. He decided that he would Kress brought up the hose and flicked The the fear. He had a second drink keep the door sealed, at least for a while. the trigger. A gray mist washed over the wash away the window furtively. Sandkings He went outside with a shovel to bury the nearest rank of sandkings. He moved his and went to were moving across the thick plastic pane. red and black maws in their own castles. hand from side to side. shuddered and retreated to his com- He found them very much alive. Where the mist fell, the sandkings He munications console. He had to get help, The black .castle was glittering with vol- twitched violently and died in sudden They were no match he thought wildly He would punch through canic glass, and'sandkings were all over it, spasms. Kress smiled. and policers would repairing and improving. The highest tower for him. He sprayed in a wide arc before a call to the authorities,

confidently over a come out with flamethrowers, and . . was up to his waist, and on it was a hideous him and stepped forward Kress in mid-call and groaned. caricature of his face. When he ap- litter of black and red bodies. The armies stopped

10B OMNI He couldn't call in the police. He would know I'm generous. I want you for a bit of castle in the rock garden Irom his vantage have io tell them about the whites in his pest control." point. It stood tall as a man.' Its ramparts cellar, and they'd find the bodies there. She smiled thin a smile. "No need Io use were crawling with black defenders, and a Perhaps the maw might have finished Cath euphemisms, Simon. The call is shielded." steady stream of mobiles flowed down into m'Lane by now, but certainly not Idi Nored- "No, I'm serious. I have a pest-problem. its depths. dian: He hadn't even cut her up. Besides, Dangerous pests. Take of care them for me. Lissandras skimmer came down next to there would be bones. No, the police could No queslions. Understood?" Kress's, and the operatives vaulted out and be called in only as a last resort. "Understood." unlimbered their weapons. They looked in- sat at the console, He frowning. His "Good. You'll need ... oh, three to four human, deadly communications equipment filled a whole operatives, Wear heat-resistant skinthins, The black army drew up between them wall. From here he could reach anyone on and equip them with flamethrowers, or la- and the castle. The reds— Kress suddenly Baldur. He had plenty of money and his sers, something on that order. Come out to realized that he could not see the reds. He cunning; he had always prided himself on my place. You'll see the problem. Bugs, lots blinked. Where had they gone? his cunning. He would handle this some- lots and of them. In my rock garden and the Lissandra pointed and shouled, and her

. how. old swimming pool you'll find castles. De- Iwo flamethrowers spread out and opened Briefly he considered calling Wo, but he stroy them, kill everything inside them. up on the black sandkings, Their weapons soon dismissed idea. the Wo knew too Then knock on the door, I'll and show you coughed dully and began to roar, long much, and she would ask questions, and what else needs to done. be Can you get tongues of blue-and-scarlet fire licking out he did not trust her. No, he needed some- out here quickly?" before them. Sandkings crisped and one who would do as he asked without Her face remained impassive. "We'll shriveled and died. The operatives began questions. leave within the hour." to play the fire back and forth in an efficient, His frown slowly turned into a smile. interlocking pattern. They advanced with Kress had contacts. put through He a call Lissandra was true to her word. She ar- careful, measured steps. to a number he had not used in a long time. rived in a lean, black skimmer with three The black army burned and disinte- A woman's face took shape on his operatives. Kress watched them from the grated, the mobiles fleeing in a thousand viewscreen— white-haired, blank of ex- safely of a second-story window. They were different directions, some back toward the pression, with a long, hooked all in nose, Her faceless dark plastic skinthins. Two of castle, others toward the enemy. None voice was brisk and efficient. "Simon," she them wore portable flamethrowers; a third reached the operatives with the flame- said. "How is business?" carried lasercannon and explosives. Lis- throwers. Lissandra's people were very "Business is fine, Lissandra," Kress re- sandra carried nothing; Kress recognized professional. plied. "I have a job for you." her by the way she gave orders. Then one of them stumbled. 'A removal? My price has gone up Their since skimmer passed low overhead first. Or seemed to stumble, Kress looked last time, Simon. It has been ten years, after checking out the situation. The sandkings again and saw that the ground had given went mad, Scarlet and ebon mobiles ran way beneath the man. Tunnels, he thought "You will be well paid," Kress said. "You everywhere, frenetic. Kress could see the with a tremor of fear; tunnels, pits, traps. . ,

deeply. hadn't touched it. Inn-il Mnr,;;. The f lamer was sunk in sand up io his waist, too The beams and suddenly the ground around him Lissandra gave another order. Her opera- Then he used the lasercannon, crisscross-

methodically until it certain that seemed to erupt, and he was covered with tive discarded the laser, primed an explo- ing was beneath scarlet sandkings. He dropped the flame- sive, and darted forward. He leaped over nothing living could remain intact thrower and began to claw wildly at his own the smoking corpse of the first flamer, those small patches of ground. body. His screams were horrible to hear. landed on solid ground within Kress's rock Finally they came knocking at his door. His companion hesitated, then swung garden, and heaved. The explosive ball Kress was grinning-maniacally when he let and fired. A blast of flame swallowed landed square atop the ruins of the black them in. "Lovely" he said, "lovely." human and sandkings both. The scream- castle. White-hot light seared Kress's eyes, Lissandra pulled off the mask of her skin- ing stopped abruptly. Satisfied, the second and there was a tremendous gout of sand thins. "This will cost you. Simon. Two opera- flamer turned back to the castle, took and rock and mobiles. For a moment dust tives gone, not to mention the danger to my another step forward, and recoiled as his obscured everything. It was raining sand- own life." foot broke through the ground and van- kings and pieces of sandkings. "Of course," Kress blurted, "You'll be well paid, Lissandra. Whatever you ask, just so ished up to the ankle. He tried to pull it back Kress saw that the black mobiles were finish the job." and retreat, and the sand all around him dead and unmoving. you remains to be done?" gave way. He lost his balance and stum- "The pool!" he shouted down through the "What to out my wine cellar," bled, flailing, and the sandkings were ev- window. "Get the castle in the pool!" "You have clean castle down erywhere, a boiling mass of them, covering Lissandra understood quickly; the Kress said. "There's another

it without explo- him as he writhed and rolled. His flame- ground was littered with motionless blacks, there. And you'll have to do

I down thrower was useless and forgotten. but the reds were pulling back hurriedly sives. don't want my house coming Kress pounded wildly on the window, and re-forming. Her operative stood uncer- around me." her operative. shouting for attention. "The castle! Get the tain, then reached down and pulled out Lissandra motioned to Rajk's flamethrower. It castle!" another explosive ball. He took one step "Go outside and get standing by her skim- forward, but Lissandra called him, and he should be intact." Lissandra, back ' Kress mer, heard and gestured. Her third opera- sprinted back in her direction. He returned armed, ready, silent. led to the wine cellar. tive sighted with the lasercannon and fired. It was all so simple then. He reached the them The beam throbbed across the grounds skimmer, and Lissandra took him aloft, The heavy door was still nailed shut, as

it. it bulged outward slightly, and sliced off the top of the castle. He Kress rushed to another window in another he had left But tremendous pres- brought the cannon down sharply, hacking room to watch. They came swooping in just as if warped by some uneasy, as did the at the sand and stone parapets. Towers fell. over the pool, and the operative pitched his sure. That made Kress them. stood Kress's face disintegrated. The laser bit bombs down at the red castle from the silence that reigned about He door while Lissandra's into the ground, searching round and safety of the skimmer. After the fourth run, well away from the the operative removed his nails and planks. "Is about. The castle crumbled. Mow it was the castle was unrecognizable, and here?" he found himself mutter- only a heap of sand. But the black mobiles sandkings stopped moving. that safe in flamethrower. "I don't continued to move. The maw was buried 'Lissandra was thorough. She had him ing, pointing at the want a fire, either, you know." * "1 have the laser," Lissandra said. "We'll

use that for the kill. The flamethrowerprob-

ably won't be needed. But I want it here just in case. There are worse things than fire, Simon." He nodded. The last plank came free of the cellar

door. There was still no sound from below. Lissandra snapped an order, and her

underling fell back, took up a position be- hind her, and leveled the flamethrower squarely at the door. She slipped her mask back on, hefted the laser, stepped forward and pulled the door open.

No motion. No sound. It was dark down there. "Is there a light?" Lissandra asked. "Just inside the door," Kress said. "On the right-hand side. Mind the stairs. They're quite steep." She stepped into the doorway, shitted the laser to her left hand, and reached up with her right, fumbling inside for the light panel. Nothing happened. "1 feel it," Lis-

sandra said, "but it doesn't seem to . . Then she was screaming, and she stum- bled backward. A great white sandking had clamped itself around her wrist. Blood welled through her skinthins where its

mandibles had sunk in. It was fully as large as her hand. Lissandra did a horrible little jig across the room and began to smash her hand against the nearest wall. Again 'and again " 1 "What do you mean, it's a start? That's it. and again. It landed with a heavy, meaty thud. Finally the sandking fell away. She whimpered and fell to his living-room her knees. carpet. At some point he fell had two more bodies down there. It would

"I think fingers it my are broken," she said asleep. When he woke, was pitch-dark in keep growing. And it had learned to like the softly The blood was still flowing freely. She the house. taste of human flesh, he thought. had dropped the laser near the cellar door. He cowered against the couch. He could He began to shake, but "he took control of going "I'm not down there," her operative hear noises. Things were moving in the himself again and stopped. It wouldn't hurt announced in clear, firm tones. walls. They were all around him. His hear- him; he was god: the whites had always Lissandra looked up at him. "No," she ing was extraordinarily acute. Every little been his favorites.

said. "Stand in the door and flame it all. creak was the footstep of a sandking. He He remembered how he had stabbed it Cinder it. Do you understand?" closed his eyes and waited, expecting to with his throwing sword. That was before He nodded. feel their terrible touch, afraid to move lest Cath came. Damn her, anyway. Kress moaned. "My house" he said. His he brush against one. He couldn't stay here. The maw would churned. stomach The whitesandking had Kress sobbed and then was very still, grow hungry again. Large as it was, it been so large. How many more were down Time passed, but nothing happened. wouldn't take long. Its appetite would be " there? "Don't." continued. "Leave it his he He opened eyes again. He trembled. terrible. What would it do then? He had to alone. I've changed my mind." Slowly the shadows began to soften and get away, back to the safety of the city while Lissandra misunderstood. She held out dissolve. Moonlight was filtering through the maw was still contained in his wine cel-

her hand. It was covered with blood and the high windows. His eyes adjusted. lar. It was only plaster and hard-packed greenish-black ichor. "Your little friend bit The living room was empty. Nothing earth down there, and the mobiles could clean through my glove, and you saw what there, nothing, nothing. Only his drunken dig and tunnel. When they got free ...

it it off. I fears. took to get don't care about your Kress didn't want to think about it. house, Simon. Whatever is down there is Kress steeled himself and rose and went He went to his bedroom and packed He going to die." to a light. took three bags. Just a single change of Kress hardly heard her. He thought he Nothing there. The room was deserted. clothing, that was all he needed; the rest of could see movement in the shadows be- He listened. Nothing. No sound. Nothing the space he filled with his valuables, with yond the cellar door. He imagined a white in the walls. It had all been his imagination, jewelry and art and other things he could army bursting out, each soldier as big as his fear. not bear to lose. He did not expect to return the sandking that had attacked Lissandra. The memories of Lissandra and the thing to this place ever again. He saw himself being lifted by a hundred in the cellar returned to him unbidden. His shambler followed him down the tiny arms and being dragged down into the Shame and anger washed over him. Why stairs, staring at him from its baleful, glow- darkness, where the maw wailed hungrily had he done that? He could have helped ing eyes. It was gaunt. Kress realized that it

afraid. "Don't," he it kill He was said. her burn out, it. Why ... he knew why. had been ages since he had fed it. Nor-

They ignored him. The maw had done it to him, had put fear in mally it could take care of itself, but no Kress darted forward, and his shoulder him. Wo had said it was psionic, even when doubt the pickings had grown lean of late

slammed into the back of Lissandra's it was small. And now it was large, so large. When it tried to clutch at his leg, he snarled

operative just It as the man was bracing to had feasted on Cath and Idi. and now it at it and kicked it away, and it scurried off, fire. The operative grunted, lost his bal- ance, and pitched forward into the black. Kress listened to him fall down the stairs. Afterwards there were other noises— scuttlings and snaps and soft, squishing sounds. Kress swung around to face Lissandra. He was drenched in cold sweat, but a sickly kind of excitement possessed him. It was almost sexual. Lissandra's calm, cold eyes regarded him through her mask. "What are you do- ing?" she demanded as Kress picked up the laser she had dropped. "Simon!" "Making a peace," he said, giggling. "They won't hurt god, no, not so long as god is good and generous. I was cruel. Starved them. I have to make up for it now, you see."

"You're insane," Lissandra said. It was the last thing she said. Kress burned a hole in her chest big enough to put his arm through. He dragged the body across the floor and rolled it down the cellar stairs. The noises were louder — chitinous clackings and scrapings and echoes that were thick and liquid, Kress nailed up the door once again. As he fled, he was filled with a deep sense of contentment that coated his fear like a layer of syrup. He suspected it was not his own.

He planned to leave his home, to fly to the city and take a room for a night, or perhaps for a year. Instead he started drinking. He was not quite sure why He drank steadily for hours and retched it all up violently on .

from shadow inlo A sufficient quantity of drink brought him obviously hurl and offended. Something moved the seat of his skim- the easy oblivion he sought. But he woke. Carrying his bags awkwardly, Kress light. A pale shape on a ter- his forearm. Its man- Despite everything, he woke. He had slipped outside and shut the door behind mer. It'was as long as rific and he stank, and he was dibles clacked together softly, and it looked headache, him. He had never small eyes set all around hungry. Oh, so very hungry! For a moment he stood pressed against up at him from six been so hungry. the house, his heart thudding in his chest. its body. his own stomach his pants and backed away Kress knew it was not Only a few meters between him and his Kress wet hurting, skimmer He was afraid to take those few slowly. from inside the A white sandking watched him from atop The moonlight was bright, and the There was more motion steps. antennae had left the door open. The the dresser in his bedroom, its grounds in front of his house were a scene skimmer. He emerged and came toward him, movingfaintly.lt was as big astheoneinthe of carnage. The bodies of Lissandra's two sandking before. tried not to cautiously. Others followed. They had been skimmer the night He flamers lay where they had fallen, one I'll said to burrowed into the shrink away. "I'll . .. feed you," he twisted and burned, the other swollen be- hiding beneath his seats, horribly dry, they emerged. They it. "I'll feed you." His mouth was neath a mass of dead sandkings. And the upholstery. But now the skimmer. sandpaper-dry. He licked his lips and fled mobiles, the black and red mobiles, they formed a ragged ring around licked his lips, turned, and moved from the room. were all around him. It took an effort to Kress sandkings; he had quickly to Lissandra's skimmer. The house was full of remember that they were dead. If was al- careful where he put his feet. They all waiting, they He stopped before he was halfway there. to be most as if they were simply as one, too. seemed busy on errands of their own. They had waited so often before. Things were moving inside that were making modifications in his house, Nonsense, Kress told himself. More Great maggoty things half-seen by the light burrowing into or out of his walls, carving drunken fears. He had seen the castles of the moon. and retreated back things. Twice he saw his own likeness star- blown apart. They were dead, and the Kress whimpered house. Near the front door, he ing out at him from unexpected places. The white 'maw was trapped in his cellar. He toward the faces were warped, twisted, livid with fear. took several deep and deliberate breaths looked up. shapes He went outside to get the bodies that and stepped forward onto the sandkings. He counted a dozen long, white walls of had been rotting in the yard, hoping to ap- They crunched. He ground them into the creeping back and forth across the were clustered pease the white maw's hunger. They were sand savagely. They did not move. the building. Four of them unused gone, both of them. Kress remembered Kress smiled and walked slowly across close together near the top of the things the carrion hawk had once how easily the mobiles could carry the battleground, listening to the sounds, belfry, where weight. roosted. They were carving something. A many times their own the sounds of safety. was recognizable face. It was terrible to think that the maw Crunch, crackle, crunch face. A very ran back inside. He still hungry after all of that. lowered his bags to the ground and Kress shrieked and He col- liquor cabinet. When Kress reentered the house, a opened the door to his skimmer. headed for his umn of sandkings was wending its way down the stairs. Each carried a piece of his shambler. The head seemed to look at him

reproachfully as it went by. * Kress emptied his freezers, his cabinets, everything, piling all the food in the house

in the center of his kitchen floor. A dozen

whites waited to take it away. They avoided

the frozen food, leaving it to thaw in a great puddle, but carried off everything else. When all the food was gone, Kress felt his own hunger pangs abate just a bit, though he had not eaten a thing. But he knew the respite would be short-lived. Soon the maw would be hungry again. He had to feed it. Kress knew what to do. He went to his communicator. "Malada," he began casu- ally when the first of his friends answered,

"I'm having a small party tonight. I realize

this is terribly short notice, but I hope you

can make it. I really do." He called Jad Rakkis next, and then the others. By the time he had finished, five of them had accepted his invitation. Kress hoped that would be enough.

Kress met his guests outside—the mobiles had cleaned up remarkably quickly, and the grounds looked almost as they had before the. battle—and walked them to his front door. He let them enter first. He did not follow. When four of them had gone through, Kress finally worked up his courage. He closed the door behind his latest guest, ignoring the startled exclamations that fortunately, r turned into shrill gibbering, and "The administration unveiled its new economic policies today, but, soon ". the had ar- one paid any attention and no harm was done. sprinted for the skimmer man rived in. He slid in safely, thumbed the Startplate. swore. It and was programmed swollen and feverish. And it almost seemed bodies almost bursting. Inside was awful; to lift only in response to its owner's to throb. strange half-formed organs, a viscous red- thumbprint, of course. Kress backed away and ran to the door. dish ooze that looked almost like human Rakkis was the next to arrive. Kress ran to Three more white mobiles lay in his hall. blood, and the yellow ichor,

his skimmer as it set down and seized Rak- They were all like the one in his bedroom. Kress destroyed twenty of them before kis by the arm as he was climbing out, "Get He ran down the stairs, jumping over he realized the futility of what he was doing. back in, quickly," he said, pushing. "Take sandkings. None of them moved. The The mobiles were nothing, really Besides, me to the city. Hurry, Jad. Ge! out of here!" house was full of them, all dead, dying, there were so many of them. He could work

But Rakkis only stared at him and would comatose, whatever. Kress did not care for a day and night and still not kill them all.

not move. "Why. whai's wrong, Simon? I what was wrong with them. Just so they He had io go, down into the wine cellar don't understand. What about your party?" could not move. and use the ax on the maw. And then it was too late, because the He found four of them inside his skimmer. Resolute, he started toward the cellar. He loose sand all around them was stirring, He picked them up, one by one, and threw got within sight of the door, then stopped. were and the red eyes staring at them, and them as far as he could, Damned It was not a door anymore. The walls had the mandibles were clacking. Rakkis made monsters. He slid back in, on the ruined been eaten away, so that the hole was twice choking in a sound and moved to get back half-eaten seats, and thumbed the the size it had been, and round. A pit, that his skimmer, but a pair of mandibles startplate. was all. There was no sign that there had snapped shut about his ankle, and sud- Nothing happened. ever been a door nai led shut over that black denly he was. on his knees, The sand Kress tried again and again. Nothing. It abyss. boil activity seemed to with subterranean wasn't fair. This was h/s skimmer. It ought to A ghastly, choking, fetid odor seemed to

Rakkis thrashed and cried terribly as they start. Why wouldn't it lift? He didn't under- come from below. tore him apart, Kress could hardly bear to stand. And the walls were wet and bloody and watch. Finally he got out and checked, expect- covered with patches of white tungus.

After that, he did not try to escape again, ing the worst. He found it. The sandkings And worst, it was breathing.

When it was all over, he cleaned out what had torn apart his gravity grid. He was Kress stood across the. room and felt the remained in his liquor cabinet still and got ex- trapped. He was trapped. warm wind wash over him as it exhaled, tremely drunk. It would be the last time he Grimly Kress marched back into the. and he tried not to choke, and when the would enjoy that luxury, he knew. The only house. He went to his gallery and found the wind reversed direction, he fled. alcohol remaining in the house was stored antique ax that had hung next to the throw- Back in the living room he destroyed down in the wine cellar, ing sword he had used on Cath m'Lane. He three more mobiles and collapsed. What Kress did not touch a bite of food the set to work. The sandkings did not stir even was happening? He didn't understand. entire day, but he fell asleep feeling as he chopped them to pieces. But they Then he remembered the only person bloated, sated at last, the awful hunger splattered when he made the first cut, the who might understand. Kress went to his vanquished. His last thoughts before the nightmares took him were about whom he could ask out tomorrow

Morning was hot and dry. Kress opened his eyes to see the white sandking on his dresser again, He shut his eyes again quickly, hoping the dream would leave him.

It did not, and he could not go back to sleep, and soon he found himself staring at the thing. He stared for almost five minutes before the strangeness of it dawned on hirn; the sandking was not moving. The mobiles could be preternaturally still, to be sure. He had seen them wait.and watch a thousand times. But always there was some motion about them: The mandi- bles clacked, the legs twitched, the long, fine antennae stirred and swayed. But the sandking on his dresser was completely still. Kress rose, holding his breath, not daring to hope. Could it be dead? Could some- thing have killed it? He walked across the room, The eyes were glassy and black. The creature seemed swollen, somehow, as if it were soft and rotting inside, filling up with gas that pushed outward at the plates of white armor, Kress reached out a trembling hand and touched it.

It was warm; hot even, and growing hot- ter, But it did not move. He pulled his hand back, and as he did, a segment of the sandking's white exo- skeleton tell away from it. The flesh beneath "You notice how time appears to slow down whenever he starts talking?' was the same color, but softer-looking, " " .

fault, Kress had decided, it will very hungry It was all their communicator again, stepped on a sand- and it hates you, and be for it. was The transformation is taxing. The maw must and they would suffer Lissandra king in his haste, and prayed fervently that eat enormous amounts both before and af- dead, but he knew others in her profession. the device still worked. revenge. This he prom- ter. have to get out of there. Do you He would have his When Jala Wo answered, he broke down So you understand?" ised himself a hundred times as he strug- and told her everything. gled his way eastward, "I can'?," Kress said. "My skimmer is de- and sweated She let him talk without interruption, no others to At least he hoped itwas east. He was not stroyed, and I can't get any of the expression save for a slight frown on her reprogram them. that good at directions, and he wasn't cer- I don't know how to gaunt, pale face. When Kress had finished, start. Can you come out for me?" tain which way he had run in his initial she said only, "I ought to leave you there." panic, but since then he had made an effort "Shade and I will le'ave at Kress began to blubber. "You can't. Help "Yes," said Wo. to bear due east, as Wo had suggested. — once, but it is more than two hundred me, I'll pay several kilometers from Asgard to you, and there is When he had been running for "I ought to." Wo repeated, "but I won't." deal with the hours, with no sign of rescue. Kress began "Thank you," Kress said. "Oh, thank—" equipment that we will need to sandking you've created. You to grow certain that he had miscalculated "Quiet," said Wo. "Listen to me. This is deranged have two feet. Walk. his direction. your own doing. Keep your sandkings well, cannot wait there. You east, as near as you can determine, When several more hours passed, he and they are courtly ritual warriors. You Go due quickly as you can. The land out there is began to grow afraid. What if Wo and turned yours into something else, with siar- as easily with not find him? He would die out their god. You pretty desolate. We can find you Shade could . vation and torture. You were aerial search, and you'll be safely away here. He hadn't eaten in two days, he was made them what they are. That maw in your an from the sandkings. Do you understand?" weak and frightened, his throat was raw for cellar is sick, still suffering from the wound "Yes," Kress said. "Yes, oh, yes." want of water. He couldn't keep going, The you gave it. It is probably insane. Its behav- They signed off, and he walked quickly sun was sinking now, and he'd be com- . ior is . . unusual. toward the door. He was halfway there pletely lost in the dark. What was wrong? "You have to get out of there quickly. The sound halfway Had the sandkings eaten Wo and Shade? mobiles are not dead, Kress. They are dor- when he heard the noise, a fear on him again, filling him, and falls off The was mant. I told you the exoskeleton with it a great thirst and a terrible hunger. when they grow larger. Normally, in fact, it going. He stumbled now heard of But Kress kept falls off much earlier. I have never he tried to run, and twice he fell. The sandkings growing as large as yours while when second time he scraped his hand on a It another re- still in the insectoid stage. is ^Something moved rock, and it came away bloody. He sucked sult of crippling the white maw, I would say. about into light. at it as he walked, and he worried That does not matter. from shadow infection. "What matters is the metamorphosis your A paie shape on The sun was on the horizon behind him. sandkings are now undergoing. As the the seat It was as long The ground grew a little cooler, for which maw grows, you see, it gets progressively Kress was grateful. He decided to walk more intelligent. Its psionic powers as his forearm. until last light and settle down for the night. strengthen, and its mind becomes more clacked * Its mandibles Surely he was far enough from the sand- sophisticated, more ambitious. The ar- ... kings to be safe, and Wo and Shade would mored mobiles are useful enough when the together softly. find him come morning. maw is tiny and only semisentient, but now Kress slowly backed away3 topped the next rise, he saw the with When he it needs better servants, bodies more outline of a house in front of him. capabilities. Do you understand? The It wasn't as big as his own house, but it mobiles are all going to give birth to a new habitation, safety. exactly what was big enough. It was breed of sandking. I can't say shouted and began to run toward it. its Kress it will look like. Each maw designs own, between a pop and a crack. Food and drink, he had to have nourish- to fit its perceived needs and desires. But it One of the sandkings had split open. ment, he could taste the meal already. He will be biped, with four arms and opposa- Four tiny hands covered with pinkish- was aching with hunger. He ran down the ble thumbs. It will be able to construct and of the gap and hill toward the house, waving his arms and operate advanced machinery. The indi- yellow blood came up out push the dead skin aside. shouting to the inhabitants. The light was vidual sandkings will not be senlient. But began to Kress began to run. almost gone now, but he could still make out the maw will be very sentient indeed." a half-dozen children playing in the twilight. Kress was gaping at Wo's image on the the heat. "Hey there," he shouted. "Help, help." viewscreen. "Your workers," he said, with He had not counted on hills were dry and rocky. Kress ran They came running toward him. an effort. "The ones who came out here . . The quickly as he could, ran Kress stopped suddenly. "No," he said, who installed the tank ..." from the house as his breath was "oh, no. Oh, no." He backpedaled, slipped Wo managed a faint smile. "Shade," she until his ribs ached and in gasps. Then he walked, but as on the sand, got up, and tried to run again. said. coming he had recovered, he began to run They caught him easily They were ghastly "Shade is a sandking," Kress repeated soon as again. almost an hour he ran and little things with bulging eyes and dusky . For of . . of . numbly. 'And you sold me a tank . walked, beneath the orange skin. He struggled, but it was use- infants, ah ... walked, ran and sun. sweated freely and less. Small as they were, each of them had "Do not be absurd," Wo said. "A first- fierce, hot He that he had thought to bring some four arms, and Kress had only two. stage sandking is more like a sperm than wished watched the sky in hopes of They carried him toward the house. It like an infant. The wars temper and control water, and he seeing and Shade. was a sad, shabby house, built of crum- them in nature. Only one in a hundred Wo quite large, for this. It was too hot bling sand, but the door was reaches the second stage. Only one in a He was not made it breathed. That was terri- thousand achieves the third and final and too dry, and he was in no condition. But and dark, and of ble, but it not the thing that set Simon plateau and becomes like Shade. Adult he kept himself going with the memory was and the Kress to screaming, He screamed be- sandkings are not sentimental about the the way. the maw had breathed chil- little things that by cause of the others, the little orange small maws. There are too many of them, thought of the wriggling surely crawling all over his house. dren who came crawling out of the cas- and their mobiles are pests." She sighed. now were Shade would know how tle, and watched impassively as he 'And all this talk wastes time. That white He hoped Wo and deal with therfi. passed. sandking is going to waken to full sentience to had his own plans for Wo and Shade. All of them had his face. DO soon. It is not going to need you any longer, He £

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w companion, Sirius B, by direct visual ob- servation. From the relative motions, New- Aftate for WHITG DWARFS tonian gravitational theory permits us to es- timate the masses of Sirius A and B. The just of observational astronomers in Meso- companion turns out to have a mass Sirius B is Athlete's Foot potamia and in Alexandria in the pre- about the same as the sun's. But ceding centuries—to say nothing of the almost 10,000 limes fainter than Sirius A, Chinese and Korean astronomical even though their masses are about the

astonishing if though they are just the same schools —and it would be same and is better they had noticed nothing. (The ancient distance from the earth. These facts can be a much Egyptian phrase for the planet Mars trans- reconciled only if Sirius B has lates to "the red Horus," Horus being the smaller radius or lower temperature. than imperial falcon deity. Thus Egyptian as- But in the late nineteenth century it was tronomy noted remarkable coloration in ce- believed by astronomers that stars of the approximately the same lestial objects. But the description of Sinus same mass had century Desenex: mentions nothing notable about its color.) temperature, and by the turn of the temperature of The Dogon have knowledge impossible it was widely held that the Spectro- to acquire without the telescope. The Sirius B was not remarkably low. Walter S. Adams in Reall better. straightforward conclusion is that Ihey had scopic observations by y contact with an advanced technical civili- 1915 confirmed this contention. Hence, very small. zation. The only question is, Which civiliza- Sirius B must be know today that it is only as big as the athlete's foot and you're tion— extraterrestrial or European? We If you've got vi! using Desenex, you should know Far more credible than an ancient ex- earth. Because of its size and color it is

if Sirius is that A^tate is better. traterrestrial educational foray among the called a white dwarf. But B much independent sti.oies. L'ne medica- In Dogon might be a comparatively recent smaller than Sirius A, its density must be Aftate has been proven to be tion in Accordingly, the con- : scientifically literate Euro- very much greater. more effective in kil ng athlete's foot contact with extremely dense star Lingus than The nedicatkri r, uesonex. .peans who conveyed to the Dogon the re- cept of Sirius B as an of In fact, doctors recommend the markable European myth of Sirius and its was widely held in the first few decades medication in Aftate 14 to lover the white dwarf companion, a myth that has all this century. to 1. medication in Desenex. 14 of superficial earmarks of a splendidly in- The peculiar nature of the companion Aftate is hotter than Desenex. Really the extensively reported in books better. It's the killer. ventive tall story. Perhaps the Western con- Sirius was Sir Arthur tact came from a European visitor to Africa, and in the press. For example, in of the or from the local French schools, or Stanley Eddington's book The Nature read: "Astronomical evi- follow label directions. perhaps from contacts in Europe by West Physical World, we Africans inducted to fight for the French in dence seems to leave practically no doubt in so-called white dwarf stars the World War I, that the transcends anything The likelihood that these stories arise density of matter far , from contact with Europeans instead of of which we have terrestrial experience; in example, the with extraterrestrials has been increased the Companion of Sirius, for inch. This by a recent astronomical finding: A Cornell density is about a ton to the cubic University research team, led by James condition is explained by the fact that the and correspondingly in- Elliot, employing a high-aliiiude airborne high temperature observatory over the Indian Ocean, in 1977 tense agitation of the material breaks up discovered that the planet Uranus is sur- (ionizes) the outer electron system of the rounded by rings— a finding never hinted atoms, so that the fragments can be together," at by ground-based observations. Ad- packed much more closely publication, this vanced extraterrestrial beings viewing our Within a year of its 1928 solar system upon approach to Earth book saw ten reprintings in English. It was including would have little difficulty discovering the translated into many languages, rings of Uranus. But European astronomers French. dwarfs were made of in the nineteenth and early twentieth cen- The idea that white pro- turies would have had nothing to say in this electron degenerate matter had been regard. The fact that the Dogon do not talk posed by R. H. Fowler in 1925 and was other the of another planet with rings beyond Saturn quickly accepted. On the hand, were of suggests to me that their informants were proposal that white dwarfs made matter European, not extraterrestrial. "relativistically degenerate" was 1931 to 1934, in In 1844 the German astronomer F. W first made in the period astrophysicist Bessel discovered that the long-term mo- Great Britain, by the Indian greeted tion of Sirius itself (Sirius A) was not straight S. Chandrasekhar; the idea was astronomers but, rather, wavy against the background of with substantial skepticism by more distant stars. Bessel proposed that who had not grown up with quantum me- skeptics there was a dark companion to Sirius chanics. One of the most vigorous whose gravitational influence was produc- was Eddington. The debate was covered in accessible to ing the observed sinusoidal motion. Since the scientific press and was occur- the period of the wiggle was 50 years, Bes- the intelligent layman. All this was the sel deduced that the dark companion had ring just before Griaule encountered a 50-year period in the joint motion of Sirius Dogon Sirius legend. Gallic visitor A and Sirius B about their common center In my mind's eye I picture a of mass. to the Dogon people, in what was then of this Eighteen years later Aivan G. Clark, dur- French West Africa, in the early part ing the testing of a new 18.5-inch refracting century. He may have been a diplomat, an telescope, accidentally discovered the explorer, an adventurer, or an early an- thropologist. Such people —ior example, he must have thought, is eager-well- Richard Francis Burton —were in West Af- meaning, and ignorant He does not have a rica many decades earlier. copy of this marvelous book, ~ which con- Aftateior r ie conversation turns to is:'ono'~iic.:al tain's the traditions of my people. I shall tell

lore. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, him what it says. The Dogon regale the visitor with their My two other stories recount the adven- Jock Itch Sirius mythology. Then, smiling politely, ex- tures of an extraordinary physician, Dr. D. pectantly, they inquire of their visitor what Carleton Gajdusek, who for many years his Sirius myths might be. Perhaps he re- has studied kuru, a rare viral disease, fers, before answering, to a well-worn book among the inhabitants of New Guinea. For is better in his baggage. The white dwarf compan- this work he was the recipient of the 1976 ion of Sirius current being a astronomical Nobel Prize for medicine. I am grateful to sensation, the traveler exchanges a spec- Dr. Gajdusek for taking the trouble to check than for tacular myth a routine one, my memory of his stories, which I first heard

After he leaves, his account is remem- from him many years ago. New Guinea is bered, retold, and eventually incorporated an island where the mountainous terrain Cruex. into the corpus of Dogon mythology—or at separates almost completely one valley least into a collateral branch (perhaps filed people from another. As a result there is a under "Sirius myth's, bleached peoples' great variety of cultural traditions. Really better. account"). When Griaule made mythologi- In the spring of 1957 Gajdusek and Dr. cal inquiries in the 1930s and 1940s, he had Vincent Zigas, a medical officer with the If you've got jock itch and his own European Sirius myth played back Public Health Service of what was then you're still using Cruex, you should know that to him. Territory of called the Papua and New Aftate is better. Guinea, traveled with an Australian admin- Aftate's medication has been tested This full-cycle return of a myth to its cul- istrative patrol officer from the Purosa Val- and found to be more effective than the medication in Cruex for killing ture of origin through an unwary an- ley through the ranges of the South Fore jock itch fungus. thropologist might unlikely if there sound cultural and linguistic-group region to the Aftate's powerful medication not were not so many examples of it in an- village of Agakamatasa on an exploratory only kills all major types of jock itch fungus, but also helps thropological iore. I here recount a few visit into "uncontrolled territory." Stone im- prevent rein- fection. cases; plements were still in use, and there re- For the relief of painful itching and In the first decade of the twentieth cen- mained a tradition of cannibalism within chafing of jock itch, get Aftate. tury a neophyte anthropologist was collect- each living group. Gajdusek and his party It's the killer. ing accounts of ancient traditions from found cases of kuru, which is spread by Native American populations in the- South- cannibalism (but most often not through west. His concern was to write down the the digestive tract), in this most remote of ,-inil rollow :,:L\-' Jiredicn'; traditions, almost exclusively oral, before the South Fore villages. they vanished altogether. The young Native They decided to spend a few days, mov- Americans had already lost appreciable ing into one of the large and traditional contact with their heritage, and the an- wa'e, or men's houses (the music from one thropologist concentrated on .elderly mem- of which, incidentally, was sent to the stars bers of the tribe, One day he found himself on the Voyager phonograph record). The sitting outside a hogan with an aged but windowless, low-doored, smoky thatched lively and cooperative informant, house was partitioned so that the visitors

"Tell me about the ceremonies o.f your could neither stand erect nor stretch out. It ancestors at the birth of a child." was divided into many sleeping compart- "Just one moment." ments, each with its own small fire, around The old Indian slowly shuffled into the which men and boys would huddle in darkened depths of the hogan. After a groups to sleep and keep warm during the 15-rninute interval he reappeared with a cold nights at an elevation of more than remarkably useful and detailed description 6,000 feet, an altitude higher than Den- of postpartum ceremonials, including ritu- ver's. To accommodate their visitors, the als connected wtr oreacn presentation, af- men and boys gleefully tore out the interior terbirth, umbilical cord, first breath, and structure of half of the ceremonial men's first cry. Encouraged and writing feverishly, house, and during two days and nights of the anthropologist systematically went pouring rain Gajdusek and his companions through the full list of rites of passage, in- were housebound on a high, windswept, cluding puberty, marriage, childbearing, cloud-covered ridge. and death. In each case the informant dis- The young Fore initiates wore bark appeared into the hogan and emerged a strands braided into their hair, which was quarter hour later with a rich set of answers. covered with pig grease. They wore huge The anthropologist was astonished. nose pieces, the penises of pigs as Could there be, he wondered, a yet older armbands, and the genitalia of opossums informant, perhaps infirm and bedridden, and tree-climbing kangaroos as pendants within the hogan? Eventually he could resist around their necks. no longer and summoned the courage to The hosts sang their tradiiional songs all ask his informant whal he did at each re- through the first night and on through the treat into the hogan. The old man smiled, following rainy day. "To enhance our rap- withdrew for the last time, and returned, port with them." as Gajdusek says, "we clutching a well-thumbed volume of the began to sing songs in exchange—among Dictionary of American Ethnography, which them such Russian songs as 'Otchi'chor- had been compiled by anthropologists in nye' and 'Moi kostyor v tumane sve- the previous decade. The white poor man, tit' . . ."This was received very well, and the concrete Agakamatasa villagers requested many native informants as translator, spent the ternatives entirely lacked so a his story, even dozens of repetitions in the smoky South day examining kuru patients and indepen- reality —that many accepted cure disease Fore longhouse to the accompaniment of dently-acquiring information. He returned apart from his ability to the considered the driving rainstorm. the same evening to inform Gajdusek that with penicillin. Perhaps some Some years later Gajdusek was en- he was mistaken about people not believ- the spirochetes in the microscope an of example of white-man myth and gaged in the collection of indigenous ing in the spirits of the dead as the cause amusing magic, and wfign another white man music in another part of the South Fore disease, and that he was further in error in minor origin of disease, they region and asked a group of young men to holding that they had abandoned the idea arrived querying the run through their repertoire of traditional of sorcery as the cause of yaws. The politely returned to him the idea they be- songs. To Gajdusek's amazement and people held, he continued, that a" dead lieved he would be comfortable with. Were amusement, they produced a somewhat body could become invisible and that the Western contact with the Fore people to could for years, it seems to me entirely altered but still clearly recognizable version unseen spirit of the dead person cease 50 that future visitor would.discover of "Otchi chomye." Many of the singers enter the skin of a patient at night through possible a apparently thought the song traditional, an imperceptible break and induce yaws. to his astonishment that the Fore people knowledge of medical mi- and later still Gajdusek found the song ex- The Australian's informant had even somehow had pre- ported even farther afield, with none of the sketched with a stick in the sand the ap- crobiology, despite their largely singers having any idea of its source-. pearance of these ghostly beings. The vil- technological culture. We can easily imagine some sort of world lagers had carefully drawn a circle and a All three of these stories underline the ethnomusicology survey going to an ex- few squiggly lines within. Outside the cir- almost inevitable problems encountered in from a "primitive" people ceptionally obscure part of New Guinea cle, they explained, it was black; inside the trying to extract you sure that and discovering that the natives had a tra- circle, bright— a sand portrait of malevo- their ancient legends. Can be before you and de- ditional song that sounded in rhythm, lent and pathogenic spirits. others have not come music, and words remarkably like "Otchi Upon inquiry of the young translator, stroyed the pristine state of the native myth? Can you be sure that the natives are chomye." If they were to believe that no Gajdusek discovered that the Australian previous contact with Westerners had oc- not humoring you or pulling your leg? discovered a curred, a great mystery could be posited. Malinowski thought he had Islands not Later that same year Gajdusek was vis- people in the Trobriand who had the connection between sexual ited by several Australian physicians, worked out childbirth. asked eager to understand the remarkable find- intercourse and When you be sure natives ings about the transmission of kuru from £Can how children were conceived, they with elaborate mythic patient to patient by cannibalism. Gaj- are not humoring supplied him an prominently featuring celestial in- dusek described the theories of the origin structure you or pulling your leg? Malinowski asserted of many diseases.held by the Fore people, tervention. Amazed, it at all; he who did not believe that illnesses were If a stranger came that was not how was done supplied them instead with the version so caused by the spirits of the dead or that into town and asked where malicious deceased relatives, jealous of popular in the West today— including a babies come from, I'd gestation period. "Impossible," the living, inflicted disease on those of their nine-month you not see surviving kinsmen who offended them, as be tempted to talk about replied the Melanesians. "Do with her six-month- the pioneering anthropologist Bronislaw that woman over there storks and cabbages.^ on voy- Malinowski had recounted for the coastal old child? Her husband has been a island for years." peoples of Melanesia. Instead, the Fore at- age to another two Melanesians were tributed most diseases to malicious sor- Is it more likely that the children or that cery, which any offended and avenging ignorant of the begetting of gently chiding Malinowski? If male, young or old, could execute without they were peculiar-looking sparger came into the aid of specially trained sorcerers. physician had conversed with some of the some babies came There was a special sorcery explanalion older men of the village who were well my town and asked me where his from, I'd certainly be tempted to tell him for kuru, but also for chronic lung disease, known to Gajdusek and who were often Prescientific leprosy, yaws, and so on. These beliefs had house and laboratory guests. They had at- about storks and cabbages. Individually they are as been long established and firmly held, but tempted to explain that the shape of the people are people. Field interrogation of in- as the Fore people witnessed yaws yielding "germ" producing yaws was spiral —the clever as we are. different culture is not al- entirely to the penicillin injections of Gaj- spirochete form they had seen many times formants from a dusek and his group, they quickly agreed through Gajdusek's dark-field microscope. ways easy. having invisible it could I whether the Dogon. that the sorcery explanation of yaws was in They had to admit it was — wonder through the microscope— heard from a Westerner an extraordinarily error and abandoned it; it has never resur- be seen only the Australian physi- inventive myth about the star Sirius— a star faced in subsequent years, fl wish West- and when pressed by in their own mythol- erners would be as quick to abandon obso- cian on whether this "represented" the already important carefully play it back to the lete or erroneous social ideas as were the dead person, they had to admit that Gaj- ogy—did not visiting French anthropologist. Is this not Fore of New Guinea.) Modern treatment of dusek had stressed that it could be caught lesions, as, tor likely than a visit by extraterrestrial leprosy caused its sorcery explanation to from close contact with yaws more with one disappear as well, although more slowly, example, by sleeping with a person with spacefarers to ancienl Egypt, scientific knowledge, in and the Fore people today laugh at these cluster of hard

first time I looked striking contradiction to common sense, early opinions on yaws and leprosy. I can well remember ihe tradition over the millen- But the traditional views on the origin of through a microscope. After focusing my preserved by oral Africa? kuru have maintained themselves, since eyes up near the ocular only to examine my nia, and only in West loopholes, too many the Westerners have been unable lo cure or eyelashes, and then peering farther into There are too many for such a myth to I finally alternative explanations, explain, in a manner satisfactory to them, the pitch-black interior of the barrel, of past extrater- the origin and nature of this disease. Thus, managed to look straight down the micro- provide reliable evidence there are extraterres- the Fore people- remain intensely skeptical scope tube lo be dazzled by an illuminated restrial contact. If likely that un- for trials, I it more of Western explanations for kuru and retain disk of light. It takes a little while the eye think much spacecraft and large firmly their view that sorcery is the cause. to train itself to examine what is in the disk. manned planetary prove lo be the means One ot the Australian physicians, visiting Gajdusek's demonstration to the Fore radiotelescopes will detection. an adjacent village with one of Gajdusek's people was so powerful — after all, the al- of their OO wizards jONTIf-.utS FROM PAGE ruEXT aruirui and direct research at Stanford. In 1968. alter leaving Syntex, Zaffaroni started Alza Corp.. which is putting into practice his novel ideas about drug deliv- ery. Zaffaroni has always fell that methods of dispensing medications have not. pro- gressed much since the time of the ancient Egyptians. So Zaffaroni set out with some novel ideas: delivering drugs through the skin via impregnated patches; developing a birth-control device that releases tiny amounts of progesterone inside the uterus for a whole year; devising drug reservoirs akin to microminiaturized spaceships that, after being swallowed like pills, become anchored inside the body to release finely controlled amounts of medication. Alza has also produced an imaginative offshoot: Dynapol Corp., which is develop- ing another of Zaffaroni's ideas—food ad- ditives and preservatives so structured that they harmlessly pass through the stomach without entering the bloodstream to cause possible damage. This is done by "leash- ing" the smaller additive and preservative molecules to harmless inert molecules that are too big to penetrate the walls of the stomach. Meanwhile, Djerassi's Zoecon—from the Greek word zoe {"life") and con for control —began to explore the fascinating idea of synthetically imitating the growth- regutating hormones that are. naturally present in insects. The idea was to use LIFE FQflMS these as novel insecticides— harmless to humans and other vertebrates but deadly THE MASTER ILLUMINATOR to specific insects. Zoecon has created a number of successful products, already being marketed, including an insect- growth regulator that keeps mosquitoes and flies from maturing into destructive from their harmless larval adults stages. Cousteau on to- under water ph The same product, applied differently, is master image-maker and pre prolongs life of the silkworm, thereby the DSSible—a combination that * inducing it to produce higher yields of silk. This was Zoecon's first product to be in- FOOD FOR ZERO-G—Everybody knows that Tang is the breakfast drink asiro- troduced in Japan. Another of the compa- n-auis. but man does not live on synthetic xt month we'll take ny's projects is aimed at developing in- you on a cook's tour o!. outer space, you'll be introduced to thermostabi- sect pheromones, or sex attractants, as liz&d frankfurters, cobalt-80 ham steaks sxploding chili The fare that NASA is possible lures for use on sticky traps. preparing for the shuttle and other spac is more than just a curlos'% however, Federal regulations have been a barrier because foods for zero-g will soon be g down to Earth. You may soon find to more rapid progress in wider applica- some of fhem on supermarket shelves. Dava Sobet in the September Omni. tions of hormonal insecticides. Instead of encouraging the American farmer to use LIFE FORMS— What? No green men? No ammonia-breathing silicon creatures? something as cleverly contrived and as When we finally meet extraterrestrial life thej wont be if Not according to writer safe as synthetic copies of the insects' own Gene Bylinsky Humanoids evolved to fit condrtions probably not duplicated off hormones, government regulatory agen- Earth. And silicon doesn'i form the cnemical bonds that make life pi cies have been erecting excessive and carbon can do that. So forget about life on Jupiter-style gas gia-* sometimes picayune obstacles in the way, neighbors only on planets that have plenty of carbon anci liquid water, in the next Similarly Alza has been delayed in the in- Omni Bylinsky examines chemistry and evolution for a glimpse of the beings that troduction of some of its devices. (Both may await us among the stars. Artist Wayne McLaughlin illustrates the possibilities. Zoecon and Alza are-now subsidiaries of larger companies. Alza is a subsidiary of WITH SARASWAT1 IN THE BRONX-Exp 'eading research centers of Ciba-Geigy; Zoecon is part of Occidental 3= great. it's not Har- the world , where the competition" is brutal are No, Petroleum; Zaffaroni and Djerassi continue vard or Stanford, but rather a high school lew York Students like Aran/ to head their respective companies,) e have the ability and the brain. e— if they choose to. Read Not one to be deterred by small set- B'ili Stuckey's fascinating profile of triumph and travail at Bronx High School of Sci- backs, Zaffaroni predicts a greal future for ence—a breeding ground for tomorrows Nober laureates— in the September Omni'. .

the applications of the new biology. "It's anywhere," he says, "where for twenty scientists. From these pioneering com- difficult right now to see the future applica- years I've led a completely bigamous life, panies, the Japanese then pump the tions, because we are at the beginning of all that time serving as a professor of newest technology into their own burgeon- ihe recombinanl-DNA technology," he chemistry with a very large research group, ing industries. This has led some inhabit- the of valley to fear that their says. "It was difficult to map out the prod- and not just teaching courses, and at ants the peaceful ucts created by the transistor. But the ap- same time being either a vice-president at abode will someday become a battle-

plications will be far, far wider. Syntex or a president here at Zoecon. I ground between those two erstwhile World "The first things people can see right now think it was worthwhile for both places. War II allies. failure to clone Silicon Valley abroad to do with this new technology are to 1 became a much better academician The produce agents used in pharmacology, and a much better government adviser by is not really surprising. If we look back on therapy, vaccines—produce all the rare spending part of each day running a high- the startling developments that have

it chemicals that are in the body, develop technology industrial enterprise. And I sprouted from this fertile center, would be creative in- plants with higher abilities to fix nitrogen or became a much better and more inno- a mistake to underestimate the with higher protein levels, These are the vative corporate executive by being pri- fluence and spirit of enirepreneurism that a scientist, is difficult individuals men like simplest ideas. If you want to let yourself go marily a which more few outstanding — Djerassi have further out, who is to say we can't construct to learn than business. Business you can Terman, Shockley, and — biological memories — DNA memories? learn on the job. Science you cannot." generated in their wake. Their ability to successful and .The way biological memories are con- It's unlikely that Djerassi could have led transform new ideas into Liberal- has been structed is most fantastic, in very small that kind of life anywhere else. innovative products undoubtedly space." minded universities that encourage pro- a major force in attracting young talent to it remarkable breeding But there is a problem. It's not easy to fessors to participate in company building the valley, making a anchor the technology by patents, since and to serve as consultants are the excep- ground for new industries within less than a the basic work is coming out mainly from tion ratherthanthe rule. Attempts abroad to century's span. The history that they have valley's remarkable com- to create and Silicon Valley's unique the universities. This makes it hard for this duplicate the helped dupli- new industry to develop a capital base. pany-formation process have scored only environment cannot instantly be the most moderate successes, Un- cated. A DELICATE BALANCE daunted, foreign investors have decided to Whatever the future holds, the technologi- cal revolution that flared in Silicon Valley And this is one of the paradoxes of the settle for second best and have already up Valley of the Giants: The scientist- begun pouring funds into Silicon Valley Pla- shows few signs of sputtering out. Judging businessman, just as often as the toons of West Germans can be seen sign- from the myriad new companies started in academician-industrialist, must continually ing into local hotels on visits to semicon- the last few years, only the first harvest has strive to balance pure research with practi- ductor companies in which they now have been reaped from the valley. Time will tell, of cal realities. Djerassi probably has been substantial interests. The Japanese have but one thing is certain: The footsteps the most successful high-wire walker "I'm gone further, setting up advanced com- that Palo Alto fly already have resounded one of the iew people at Stanford, maybe panies staffed by American engineers and around the world many times over. DO

"Ge:~:!:srrien vvgVe hirea o'ticic-ncy experts to cut the dead wood Isaacs: About a kilometer and under six related to energy-intensive uses, tunneling IfUTERV/IEUU kilometers of water. We'd convert the directly into electrical grids, for instance? wastes into a glasslike form or cement or Isaacs: No, they could be used for other ceramic or something of that nature. The purposes. Although salinity-gradient en-

Isaacs: No, I don't think so. But we don't wastes can be largely immobilized and put ergy is a very large potential source, rank^ have to define ail the safe areas of the sea, down in containers with sufficient spacing ing in both total magnitude and energy only a lew of them. Obviously, one doesn't so that the heat generated by them cannot density well above most sources other than want to put nuclear wastes in some place cause convection in the sediments. In the chemical and nuclear fuels, we aren't cer- in where, the next thousand or so years, proper combination, we'd have a land re- tain that it can be utilized with practical they will subject suddenly be to volcanic pository that might generate power for effectiveness, Yet it could be employed activity that will melt them and spew them twenty years while the wastes cool down. internally to desalinate brackish wafer. out, Onedoesn'twantto use a place where Omni: This source of energy—nuclear Thermal-gradient power can produce fresh there will be tectonic fissuring. Nor does power— is only one of many marine water with power or air conditioning as a one'want an area that's subject to upwell- sources that you and the Institute of Marine by-product. Tidal flow can be directed to ing. For instance, one wouldn't store such Resources have been studying. Can you "dredge" estuaries. Waves and current, of materials in the bottom of the Red Sea or touch on some of the others? course, can be employed directly for ship the Gulf of California, which are newly ac- Isaacs: Well, of course there are the ones propulsion. tive places— new features of this plan- we are already utilizing, the fossil fuels that Omni: In a recent paper, "Power from the et—where the continents are beginning to ocean sediments hold. In addition to these, Sea—Forms and Prospects," you slated split apart. Or where there is clearly new the five natural forms of energy in the sea that "an Antarctic iceberg, melted for water subcrustal material coming up and new that have the greatest promise are waves in tropical oceans, should yield some land being formed. It's too uncertain, and swell, tides, currents, salinity gra- thousands of megawatt-years of energy," Omni: Despite what we know about plate dients, and thermal gradients (including Your "iceberg-towing proposal" generated tectonics, is there still some risk? ice). There are also geothermal springs. considerable interest and newspaper Isaacs: Zero risk is unobtainable. You can coverage. Were you dead serious? make the argument that twelve hundred Isaacs: (laughing): Of course, everything I people die every year of leukemia in the do is in dead seriousness. I have no humor of law absence a requiring us to live under or insincerity in my soul at all, three- feet of concrete protect to ourselves Omni: But no one is yet towing icebergs up Essentially, all from cosmic rays. You can argue that a 6 from Antarctica, despite their potential for person can be killed by falling from a five- man does is take things out supplying great quantifies of fresh water meter wall. Yet we don't require all walls to and power. Why nol? of the ocean, less than fifty and, be centimeters high. Nor do Isaacs: Well, it was only Iwenty-five years we require that all bathing in ten unlike be done other I any member of ago that first suggested it. I could spend liters pf water because it can be shown that the marine food my life on a single idea like thai, getting into drowning is possible in liters. one hundred all the complexities and difficulties of it. If web, he We tolerate all sorts of conventional does not put back anyone wants to take that idea and run with hazards. things that are it, I'm happy. But it really got started the But there Omni: have been suggested al- wrong way. It was too far out for the "devel- able to regenerate ternatives to nuclear storage. Do Iife3 you be- oped nations"; so I suspect the Arabs will lieve that deep-subbottom storage is safer be first to do it, although the "easy" tows than burial in the earth? would be to the arid regions of the Southern Isaacs: The ocean becomes a very power- Hemisphere: Australia, South Africa, or ful barrier between these materials and the Chile, biosphere. There are many reasons forthis. Omni: What about harnessing the energy Omni: You've been deeply interested in We know what's going to happen in the of the Gulf Stream with underwater tur- aquaculture as another oceanic resource. deep ocean basins for the next million bines? What do you see as the best potential years. And there are great advantages to Isaacs: That idea exists, but the energy "crops" from the sea? placing these wastes down deep under density is really very low. tf it's so practical, Isaacs: I've written a few articles on that sea-floor sediments. The sediments prob- then, instead of building dams, why hasn't subject. It seems to me that the limiting ably have an immense capacity for ion ex- anyone anchored paddle wheels in the nutrient of the human race is probably pro- change; they're, rich chemically, and the Mississippi River? Or the Amazon? It's a lot tein. Calorific foods are plentiful on the ultimate barrier is isotopic dilution of the easier to do there than in the fast currents of market, but proteinaceous foods are gen- radioactive materials. It makes a great deal the Gulf Stream. erally rarer much and more expensive. I of difference whether radioactive iodine- Omni: And what about the project now think aquaculture will be an important 129 is released in these sediments or in, under way to attempt to extract methane source for such luxury foods, but not for the say, an austere chemical environment like from the fermentation of kelp plants har- bulk of our diet. Wisconsin. There's so much noimai iodine vested from the southern California coasi? Admitting very few exceptions, luxury in the that radioactive ocean the isotope is Isaacs: I'm not so sure about that. If that marine foods are awfully expensive to strongly diluted. Another advantage is the project were mine, my first experiment manage in aquaculture because they are extremely high pressure at those depths, would be to go to the southern bayous and all animals and you have io feed them which prevents the formation of expanding see how much methane I could extract something you could have eaten yourself. steam or gases within any container. Also, from the fermentation of the water hya- No society in the world ever attempted to there fresh are no groundwater supplies cinths there. They're harvested free. Those feed itself on tigers. It takes too many cows: that might be contaminated. The protection hyacinths are a nuisance, and every year a it's more sensible to eat the cows. of such water supplies is an important few million tons are cleared and thrown Omni: Has our long experience with ter- criterion in present plans. Subseabed stor- away. Hyacinths may be as valuable as restrial animal husbandry helped with the age is not often considered for the ironic kelp, because both have the same general development of aquaculture? that there are fresh reason no groundwater properties. At least, it would be a good Isaacs: Yes. but, in general, what man has supplies to protect, place to start. always done in his terrestrial animal hus- Omni: How deep below the sea floor are Omni: The various forms of potential ma- bandry is to stick to herbivores. That's nol to talking we about? rine energy you've mentioned— are they all say that domestic animals don't get a little cleaves our vast fund of knowledge and mGat; after all. while cattle graze, they get not primitive feeders. They're high-level those create pol- an aphid now and then. Chickens eat a few predators. You could raise a lot more shad understanding from who one of the most tragic insects. But cows and chickens are primar- or candlefish or smelt. icy and lead events — insatiable and frightening syndromes of our times. ily herbivores. Now, when you get to the Omni: What else does that mind

Omni: I suspect that your nagging curios- ocean, it turns out that our principal foods of yours wonder about? get where you are today. are high-level predators, such as tuna or Isaacs: Regrettably, wonder is probably ily has helped you you as curious in your days as a salmon. Bui there are some exceptions. the right verb all right! And I hope you are Were fisherman, when you- started out? These are the filter feeders, creafing the equating insatiable with hungry rather than

I Isaacs: Well, I wasn't a fisherman first. miracle of taking very tine particulate mate- with unfiiiable. I am presently working, at in merchant marine and rial—the phytoplankton and detriius —and least on paper, on a number of ideas or started out the far field that then went into the forest service. I found a turning it into organisms big enough to questions, some so outside my

traditional sci- lot of things that were interesting. I also make one hungry The filter feeders occupy I may not be blinded by the found that lay people know a lot. They may a feeding niche that doesn't exist. on land, entific dogma. So I am working on "up- not able to express themselves, but they except perhaps vaguely and tenuously Fil- side-down" irrigation for waterlogged or be understand a great deal. But our system ler feeders just sit there pumping water; the saline agricultural soils; on halophytes denigrates lay knowledge. It's part of the ocean brings the food to them, and they [salt-tolerant plants]; on new kinds of thermophilic alienation, isn't it, between the academi- filter it out. That way they convert very fine marine food-web models, on this is so into large-size food [heat-loving] bacteria that start the fouling cian and the politician? Why . microscopic organisms perplexes me. in one step. So we—the humans— don't of seawater-cooled power plants; measur-

school. I Anyway, I kept going back to suffer the losses from all of the inefficien- ing ocean currents by aerial photographs

always got good grades, but I also grew cies of the ordinary marine food web, of waves; and asking some naive ques-

bored restless. So I left school. I fished We could raise scallops or mussels— tions, such as: Why are there so few and for a few years as a commercial fisherman both filter feeders. Mussel culture is very strongly rotating storms that fall between

on my own boat. I got to wondering what important in some parts of the world, and the dimensions of hurricanes and tor-

I around me. I read a lot. some of Ihe most productive husbandry in was going on learned a little bit about copepods and the world is mussel culture. But not here in

about phytoplankton. Then I became curi- the United States, because there are some of the strange regulations concerning their edibil- ous about the phenomenology ocean: currents, water circulation, rotation. ity. The law says that at certain times of the are regions in letters [Institution HThere I writing to Scripps year mussels are poisonous and can be kept Oceanography], and they sent back used only as fish bait, whether they are the deep North Pacific, far of such irrelevant answers I decided they re- loxic or not. We don't like to eat fish bait. from active zones, I for a job. It took There's another excellent prospect: the ally needed help. applied

could store nuclear me ten years to get hired, but here I am. abalone. It is a strict herbivore, and a luxury where we Omni: In the years since, you must have Its United States is a curios- item. use in the - wastes far beneath the snails very much. developed a personal philosophy. ity because we don't eat nothing would I sediments and Isaacs: Indeed 1 have. even wrote some But if we are going to harvest the ocean, of it down once. A useful philosophy should what do we do? The ocean is mainly a crack them open internally inconsistent. Otherwise one desert-blue. Blue is the color of 'oceanic be for ten million years. 5 might start to believe it to be complete. deserts. Blue water is poor Very little lives Mine qualifies. Here is a relatively consis- in it. The really rich pastures are the coastal part of it: waters, which are brown or green and not tent constrains his thinking into rigor- very transparent, and they are rare. How do Man ously definable compartments. However, we overcome this handicap? We choose Ihe oceans, and all of nature, are oblivious some sort of preferred herbivore, send it nadoes? Or are some chronic diseases to the artificial compartments in which man forth into the sea, let it range for itself, and (coronary disease, cancer, atheroscle- pursues knowledge; and its creatures, its then bring it back for harvest. And, of rosis) the result of our suppressing natural its forces and energies act and course, we can improve the range by pred- physical conditions, such as exercise, elements, interact with such complexity as to consti- ator control and by enriching it also, in fever, and the frequent loss of blood? we've already discussed. tute a superb testing ground of man's full some of the ways I also wonder about black holes and unconstrained and uncompartmented in- Omni: In effect, sea ranching? whether the space-time relationships have tellectual capacity. The ocean presents to Isaacs: Yes, one chooses some sort of not perhaps been extended further than man the challenge of understanding the anadromous fish (one that "homes" on riv- the limits to which they represent the uni- expression of great natural laws — includ- ers or estuaries] and ranches it Such a verse. Perhaps they are just what they ing those of himself— in a foreign, indeed in habit has considerable advantages. One seem to be, bodies with sufficient mass an extraterrestrial, medium. of the few equivalents on land is the rein- and gravity to prevent the escape of light, In solving these problems and those of deer; you send it forth, and it comes back and not some strange singularity trans- employing the oceans to fill man's practic- on a migratory path, on its own. ported into another universe. adven- ideal for sea the able, aesthetic, recreational, and Omni: What species would be I wonder about inflation and whether turous needs, we may find that we have ranching? sadly fragmented field of economics is not reincarnated natural philosophers — un- Isaacs: The shad, perhaps, or any fish that overlooking some such dominating simple compartmented, unfettered, and eclectic runs upriver. You simply raise the young in a rule as "the more resources are expended minds— ranging across, and interrelating, pond and release them; they range out to to no purpose, the more money ap- new sci- their energies, grow, and the sciences. We may also create sea, using own proaches nothing as a value." I wonder ences, cultural proclivities, art, philosophy, then come back. It's exactly like a round- also how Ecclesiastes, Aeschylus, Sol- and lay understanding with up, except you don't use up a lot of costly omon, Lao-tzu, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, nature, law, only (not exclusive) regard for the energy, because the fish cruise, feed, grow, Dante, Osaka, or Franklin understood so due quantifiable, and a dominant and powerful and return on their own. much of the physical universe and man, regard for the conceptual. Then perhaps Omni: Is sea ranching a long-range, future and possessed such sharp foresight and we can more meaningfully approach the it reality? possibility, or is close to prescience. And I wonder, in these far more microcosm of unquantifiable man and what Isaacs: Well, we are already doing it, to a enlightened times, at the deep and un- he indubitably is and can be. DO limited extent, with salmon. But salmon are brirjged gulf in communication that now 132 OMNI .

The children. The children. Of course introducing the most QUIETUS there were children, This was the urgency he had felt in the office, the reason he had advanced watch in to get home. They had always wanted chil- varnish to 3 corpse, to preserve it. The. dren, and so there were children. Tapworth the world Egyptians would have nothing on us then, always got what he set his heart on. he thought. 'Asleep at last," MaryJo said wearily CENTURION DUAL "Don't," said a husky voice from the door when she came into the room. it was MaryJo, her eyes red-rimmed, her Despite her weariness, however, she TIME QUARTZ face looking slept in. Kissed him goodnight in the way that told CHRONOGRAPH ALARM "Don't what?" Mark asked her. She didn't him she wanted to make love. He had never answer, just glanced down at his hands, To worried much about sex. Let the readers of his surprise, Mark noticed his thumbs were Reader's Digest worry about how to make W* • 2 time under the lip of the coffin lid. as if to lift it, their sex lives fuller and richer, he always zones gives "1 wasn't going to open it," he said. said. As for him, sex was good, but not the local time "Come upstairs," MaryJo said. best thing in his life; just one of the ways plus the time 'Are the children asleep?" that he and MaryJo responded to each anywhere else He had asked the question innocently, Yet other. tonight he was disturbed, wor- In the world but her face was immediately twisted with ried. Not because he could not perform, for Chronograph/ pain grief and and anger, he had never been troubled by even tem- stopwatch allows "Children?" she asked. "What is this? porary impotence except when he had a 1.000'sot timing And why tonight?" fever and didn't feel like sex, anyway. What needs He leaned against the coffin in surprise. bothered him was that he didn't exactly • Alarm can be set to The wheeled table moved slightly under beep at any hour ot the the weight of his body. He didn't not care, either. He was just day or night "We don't have any children." she said. going through the motions, as he had a • Quartz crystal allows £ And Mark remembered with horror that thousand times before, and this time, sud- 15 seconds per month accuracy

she was right. After the second miscar- denly, it all seemed so silly, so redolent of LCD "always visible" digital dispfay riage, the doctor had tied her tubes, be- petting in the backseat of car. felt a He allows easy readability cause any further pregnancies would risk embarrassed that he should get so excited her life. There were no children, none at ail, over a little stroking. So he was almost re- FINALLY A WATCH THAT LOOKS LIKE A

and it had devastated her for years. It was lieved when one of the children cried out. SEIKO BUT COSTS MUCH LESS! The Centurion only because of Mark's great patience and Usually he would say to ignore the cry, dual time chronograpn alarm is the most

advanced watch aya: .wis :ocav Ar-ij at only .349.95. it is dependability that she had been able to would insist on continuing the lovemaking. unquestionably excellent value. Wb are able to matte this otter stay out of the hospital. Yet when he came But this time he pulled away from her, puf on or thousands oi '.'tn.u.ion; .;= 'home tonight. . , He tried to remember what a robe, and went into the other room to t.=: re seIi.hc pi mi aii. because we vs aii.-ninsiid ;! he had heard when he came home, Surely quiet the child down. nAJdle men. We sell iaclory red io you. FunhE'iiurt yon n -!- :i lose tii'.t f-nry t in-sl a:i he had heard the children running back There was no other room. cay e nrcer v'.ii' CTiituibn :::?. Only 5*9.95 in silver one and S59.95 in elegant

and forth upstairs. Surely , . Not in this house. He had. in his mind. "1 haven't been well," he said. been heading for the room filled with a crib, year parts and labor warranty as'viLing s aiiLianrjiisr.sc by :cs~rfCfi-i,y-rnesHaei-ity "If it was a joke, it was —sick." a changing table, a dresser, mobiles, and "It wasn't a joke. It was " But again he cheerful wallpaper But that room had been OUTSTANDING FEATURES • DUAL couldn't, or at least didn't, tell her about the years ago, when they were full of hope, in TIME. Local time always visible ana yoi recall any oilier time zone (such as GMT). Al; strange memory lapses at the office, even the small house in Sandy, not in the home in for night viewing. though this was even mora proof that some- Federal with its Heights, magnificent view • CALENDAR FUNCTIONS include Ihe date ant thing was wrong. He had never had any of Salt Lake City, its beautiful shape, and its • CHRONOGRAPH/STOPWATCH children in his home; MaryJo's and his decoration that spoke of taste and shouted displays up to " 59.9 seconds. orothers and sisters had all been discreetly of wealth and whispered faintly of loneli- I. stopwatch display "'ee;ei :o warned not to bring children around his grief. wall. ness and He leaned against a :e (spin/lap) time while stopwatch con poor wife, who was quite distraught to There were no children. There were no chil- ;=n ;nsi swncii to and from :in"e*e=c,io ,-n modes withg.,1 affect cither's operation" oe—the Old Testament word?— barren. dren. He could still hear the child's cry ring- K ALARM can oe sel to anytime within a 2d hour p And all evening he had talked about hav- ing in his mind.

,"?." : : un,:; ;J liiTi ;• .-.!!=a;an;. out e rec'iie L'.i;. ing children. MaryJo stood in the doorway to their "Honey, I'm sorry," he said, trying to put bedroom, naked but holding her night- Why Shop By Mall? his whole heart into the apology in gown front of her. "Mark," she said, "I'm n Shopping tr/ mail is convenie ' easy, ana tun "So am I," she answered, and she went afraid." ardors promptly to your name or office you can upstairs. "So am I," he answered. Surely she isn't angry at me, Mark But she asked him no questions, and he thought. Surely she realizes something Is put on his pajamas, and they went to bed. wrong. Surely she'll forgive me. And as he lay there in darkness, listening to But as he climbed the stairs after her, his wife's faintly rasping breath, he realized

taking off his shirt as he did, he again heard that it didn't matter as much as it ought. He :-e voice of a child, was losing his mind, but he didn't really CREDIT CARD BUYERS: TO DROER CALL TOLL FREE "1 want a drink, Mommy." The voice was care. He thought of praying about it, but he 2* HOURS A DAY plaintive, with the sort of-whine only possi- had given up praying years ago, though of To order it California call tall tree (800) »3!-7«l

o>e to a child who is comfortable and sure course it wouldn't do to let anyone else : [i ove. Markturned at the landing in time (800) 854-3831 to know about his loss of faith, not in a city mm see MaryJo passing the top of the stairs on where it's good business to be an active DWS nurtull I Interna tlout, 17175 sky Part No.. Juliet! me way to the children's bedroom, a glass Mormon. There'd be no help from God on

1 p water in her hand. He thought nothing of this one; he knew. And not much help from :.„;' -. ,.., i- v .." [ The children always wanted extra atten- MaryJo, either; for instead of being strong, ... r _,',. - .'^ n> : S -:;";.' It:' 11: l'-t: <;:.- tion at bedtime, as she usually was in an emergency, this . "

control of herself, "Mark, I couldn't time she would be, as she had said, afraid. feel like showering and shaving, though keep go would have felt dirty and on without you." Well, so am I, Mark said to himself. He any other day he reached over and stroked his wife's uncomfortable until those rituals were done She sounded as if she was afraid some- going to to him, shadowy cheek, realized that there were with. He just put on his robe and went thing terrible was happen took a some creases near the eye, understood downstairs. He planned to go in to break- and her hands were shaking. He and step toward her. She lifted her hands, came that what made her afraid was not his spe- fast, but instead he went into his study lid of coffin. to him, clung to hinvand cried in a high cific ailment, odd as it was, but the fact that opened the the

shoulder. "I couldn't. I just It took a bit of preparation, of course. whimper into his it was a hint of aging, of senility, of imminent separation. He remembered the box There was some pacing back and_ forth couldn't." "You don't have to," he said, puzzled. downstairs, like death appointed to watch before the coffin, and much stroking of the finally put his under "I'm just not the kind of perspn," she said for him until at last he consented to go. He wood, but he thumbs between sobs, "who can live alone." briefly resented them for bringing death to the lid and lifted. if looked stiff and awkward. A "But even if I —even something hap- his home, for so indecently imposing on The corpse — particularly old, not particularly pened to me, MaryJo, you'd have the them- Then he ceased to care at all —about man, not He was going to say "children." Something the box, about his strange lapses in mem- young. Hair of a determinedly average for of the skin was wrong with that, though, wasn't there? ory, about everything. color. Except the grayness color, body looked completely natural They loved no one better in the world than .1 am at peace, he thought as he drifted the all utterly nondescript that Mark felt their children; no parents had ever been off to sleep. / am at peace, and it's not and so happier than they had been when their two that pleasant. sure he might have seen the man a million times without remembering he had seen were born, Yet he couldn't say it. "I'd have what?" MaryJo asked. "Oh, "Mark," said MaryJo, shaking him him at all. Yet he was unmistakably dead, Mark, I'd nothing." awake. "Mark, you overslept." not because of the cheap satin lining the have Mark remembered again Mark opened his eyes, mumbled some- coffin rather slackly, but because of the And then [What's happening to me?) that they were thing so the shaking would stop, then rolled hunch of the shoulders, the jut of the chin. childless, that to MaryJo, who was old- over to go back to sleep. fashioned enough to regard motherhood "Mark." MaryJo insisted. as the main purpose for her existence, the "I'm tired," he said in protest. fact that they had no hope of children was "I know you are," she said. "So I didn't condemnation of her. The only thing wake you any sooner. But they just called. God's % And so he sat and that had pulled her through after the opera- There's- something of an emergency or his mean- something—" stared at the coffin for two tion was Mark, was fussing over ingless and sometimes invented problems "They can't flush the toilet without some- hours and had at the office or telling him endlessly the one holding their hands." no dinner and did not events of her lonely days. It was as if he "I wish you wouldn't be crude, Mark," were her anchor to reality, and only he kept said. "I sent the children off to MaryJo . . . notice when her from going adrift in the eddies of her school without letting them wake you by MaryJo came downstairs . . own fears. wonder the poor girl (for at kissing you good-bye. They were very up- No such times Mark could not think of her as set." and iay down completely adult) was distraught as she "Good children." onthe sofa . . . and wept$ death, and the damned "Mark, they're expecting you at the of- thought of Mark's coffin in the house did no good at all, fice." I'm in no position to cope with this, Mark closed his eyes and spoke in mea- But Mark thought. falling apart. I'm not only sured tones. "You can call them and tell I'm forgetting things, I'm remembering things them I'll come in when I damn well feel like The not comfortable. that didn't happen. And what if I died? What it, and if they can't cope with the problem man was smelled of embalming fluid. if I suddenly had a stroke like my father had themselves, I'll fire them all." He .Mark holding the lid open with one and died on the way to the hospital? What MaryJo was silent for a moment. "Mark, I was other. would happen to MaryJo? can't say that." hand, leaning on the coffin with the trembling. Yet he fell no excitement, She'd never lack for money. Between the "Word for word. I'm tired. I need a rest. My He was from his business and the insurance, even the mind is doing funny things to me. "And with no fear. The trembling was coming find within house would be paid off, with enough that Mark remembered all the illusions of body, not from anything he could he money left over for her to live like a queen on the day before, including the illusion of hav- his thoughts. He was trembling because the interest. But would the insurance com- ing children. was cold. for someone to hold her pa- "There aren't any children," he said. There was a soft sound or absence of pany arrange fears? Would Her eyes grew wide. "What do you sound at the door. He turned around tiently while she cried out her for her to waken in mean?" abruptly. The lid dropped behind him. they provide someone wear- the middle of the night, when nameless He almost shouted at her, demanded to MaryJo was standing in the doorway, haunted her? know what was going on, why she didn't ing a frilly housedress, her eyes wide with terrors Her sobs turned into frantic hiccups and just tell him the truth for a moment. But the horror. more deeply into his back lethargy and disinterest clamped down, In that moment years fell away and to her fingers dug through the soft fabric of his robe. See how and he said nothing, just rolled -back over Mark she was twenty, a shy and somewhat forever being sur- she clings to me, he thought. She'll never and looked at the curtains as they drifted in awkward girl who was let go. And then the blackness came and out with the air conditioning. Soon prised by the way the world actually me for her to say, "But, again, and again he was falling backward MaryJo left him, and he heard the sound of worked. He waited

it nothing, and again he did not care machinery starting up downstairs. The Mark, you cheated him." She had said into about anything. Did not even know there washer, the dryer, the vacuum cleaner, the only once, but ever since then he had heard his whenever he was was anything to care about. dishwasher, the garbage-disposal unit. It the words in mind into It thing to a Except for the fingers pressing his seemed that all-trie machines were going at closing a deal. was the closest deal- back and the weight he held in his arms. / once. He had never heard the sounds be- conscience he had in his business thought. / It win him a reputation do not mind losing the world, he fore. MaryJo never ran them in the evenings ings. was enough to nor mind losing even my memories of or on weekends, when he was home. as a very honest man. do I if the past. But these fingers. This woman. At noon he finally got up, but he didn't "Mark," she said softly, as struggling to

12H OMNI —

Amy's needs than to his. cannot lay this burden down, because clothing and led her toward the kitchen. to Mark said. "There's something But that jealousy passed quickly like the there is no one who can pick it up again. It I "MaryJo," talk you about." memory of the pain of MaryJo's fingers release her, she is tost. I have to to not pressing into his back, and with a tremen- Yet he longed for the darkness, resenled "Can it wait?" MaryJo asked, even cupboard door dous feeling of relief Mark didn't care about her need that held- him. Surely there is a pausing. Mark heard the lid come off the anything at all, and he turned around to the way out of this, he thought. Surely a bal- opening, heard the coffin, which fascinated him, and he ance between two hungers that leaves both peanut-butter jar, heard Amy giggle and thick." opened the lid again and looked inside. It satisfied. But still the hands held him. All say, "Mommy, not so all, so was as if the poor man had no face at the world was silent, and the silence was Mark didn't understand why he was Mark realized. As if death stole faces from peace except for the sharp, insistent fin- confused and terrified. Amy had a sand- she had people and made them anonymous even to gers, and he cried' out in frustration. And wich after school ever since as an infant she had themselves. the sound was still ringing in Ihe room when started going—even never gained He ran his fingers back and forth across he opened his eyes and saw MaryJo stand- had seven meals a day and happening in the satin, and it felt cool and inviting. The ing against a wall, leaning against the wall, an ounce. It wasn't what was

, faded. him, it rest of the room, the rest of the world looking at him in terror. the kitchen that was bothering and the coffin and the corpse "What's wrong?" she whispered. couldn't be. Yet he could not stop himself Only Mark remained, and Mark felt very tired and very "I'm losing," he answered. But he could from crying out, "MaryJo! MaryJo, come hot, as if life itself were a terrible friction not remember what he had thought to win. here!" heard Amy ask making heat within him, and he took off his And at that moment a door slammed in "Is Daddy mad?" he robe and pajamas and awkwardly climbed the house and Amy came running with little softly. bus- on a chair and stepped over the edge into loud feet through the kitchen and into the "No," MaryJo answered, and she room and impatiently the coffin and kneltand then lay down in the study, flinging herself on her mother and tled back into the coffin. There was no corpse to share the bellowing about the day at school and the said, "What's wrong, dear?" to have you in slight space with him, nothing between his dog that chased her for .the second time "I just need—just need body and the cold satin, and as he lay on it, and how the teacher told her she was the here for a minute." at last the your style, is it? it didn't get any warmer because besf reader in the second grade but Darrel "Really, Mark, that's not attention right friction was slowing, was cooling, and he had spilled milk on her and could she have Amy needs to have a lot of pulled down the lid. The is. I reached up and a sandwich because she had drepped after school. It's the way she wish you silent, and there was no at stay from work with nothing world was dark and hers and stepped on it accidentally wouldn't home odor and no taste and no feel but the cold of lunch to do, Mark. You become quite impossible show that the sheets. MaryJo looked at Mark cheerfully and around the house." She smiled to and left again to winked and laughed. "Sounds like Amy's she was only half-serious back to Amy. "Why is the lid closed?" asked little Amy, had a busy day, doesn't it, Mark?" go

' of holding her mother's hand. Mark could not smile. He just nodded as For a moment Mark felt a terrible stab "Because it's not the body we must re- MaryJo straightened Amy's disheveled jealousy that MaryJo was far more sensitive member," MaryJo said softly, with careful

control, "but the way Daddy always was. , We must remember him happy and laugh- ing and loving us."

Amy looked puzzled. "But I remember he spanked me." MaryJo nodded, smiling, something she had not done recently "It's all right to re- member that, too," MaryJo said, and then she took her daughter from the coffin back into the living room, where Amy, not realiz- ing yet the terrible loss she had sustained. laughed and climbed on Grandpa, David, his face serious and tear-stained because he did understand, came and put his hand in his mother's hand and held tightly to her. "We'll be fine," he said. "Yes," MaryJo answered, "I think so." And MaryJo's mother whispered in her

ear, "I don't know how you can stand it so bravely, my dear."

Tears came to' MaryJo's eyes. "I'm not brave at all," she whispered back. "But the

children. They depend on me so much. I can't let go when they're leaning on me."

"How terrible it would be," her mother said, nodding wisely, "if you had no chil- dren."

Inside the coffin, his last need fulfilled,

Mark Tapworth heard it all but could not

hold it in his mind, for in his mind there was space and time for only one thought: con- sent. Everlasting consent to his life, to his death, to the world, and to the everlasting absence of the world. For now at last there were children. OO "Liberty is knowfjoge-mtensive," he told sponsor of the "National Initiative" bill,

me. "You can't get away from the bastards if which could makethe national referendum

you merely insist on 'rights' from above and a major and lobby-crushing influence in don't use your head and the technology Washington. Also, he has.proposed an ex- destroy [he "economy of scale" arguments lying all around you to ensure your own tremely simple income-tax form, with no of the meg a- industrialists by showing that rights and survival.- loopholes. Hatfield is just too sane to be small was cheaper and more efficient than "If I were elected president, I'd close all taken seriously now big — that it just requires more of your sweat the schools so kids could learn something," •This same savvy candidate must realize

and brains. he said as I was leaving, "I'd end the licens- that this is not just another hnky-dink,

Hess found he could supply much of the ing of all professionals, from doctors to : single-issue , anti-abortionlike group, these neighborhood with protein by raising rain- cosmeticians, so people would learn how little brothers. They represent a complete

bow trout in plywood tanks in apartment to solve their own problems. I would require philosophy of genteel rebellion— get me basements (for about a dollar a pound in that every American child, at birth, be given out of the data banks, my social security costs), Using rooftops, kit empty he also a composed ot a three-quarter-inch number is none of your business, I'll take raised bumper crops of hydroponically drill, a complete set of screwdrivers and care of myseff until you find a way to make grown tomatoes. The "community technol- wrenches, the Reader's Diges! Complete government and corporations and all the ogy" involved here was learning that a few DO-lt-Yourself Manual, and a thirty-eight other monsters efficient and nonpredatory. of vacant-lot soil in the cups trout tanks special with ammo. Naturally, I would The many arguments against an America produced bacteria that removed destruc- legalize firearms for everyone except the of technologically and governmentally in- tive ammonia from trout waste; that dis- police." dependent neighborhoods— Balkaniza- carded washing machines provided fine Okay, all this is funny and colorful and tion, destruction of American influence water-recirculation systems; clever and that the and highly inventive, but I don't see abroad, it's back to the caves— should be calcite chips available in any garden store the Pentagon/Exxon Axis and their Big thoroughly considered by Ihe little-brother were perfect for filters. Brother allies doing anything but suppress- candidate and be aired publicly. Big "Atypical basement in the neighborhood Brother will be calling him a crank and a could produce about three Ions annually crackpot; so he'd better keep his argu- (emphasis mine] at costs substantially ments clear, solid— and dramatically ap- below grocery store prices," Hess wrote in pealing,

Community Technology. •If our little- brother main man is really 4 / would require that Who, then, needs Supermarkets or a De- clever, he'll seize upon that demon, that partment of Agriculture? every American be given a kit arch-handmaiden of Big Brother, thai digi- His group also built solar collectors out of tal enemy of humanity, the cheap composed of a three- computer cat-food cans, which, mounted on roof- as ihe little brothers' best triend. Why tops, were capable of heating household quarter-inch drill, a complete should the agencies and the multinationals

air to. about 49°C. Another group devel- ' set of screwdrivers and have the monopoly on bugging? With the oped a self-contained bacterial toilet, home-computer terminal, and the appall- wrenches, a Reader's Digest which suggested that any neighborhood ingly cheap (and dropping) cost of micro- could unhook from the city sewerage sys- Do-It- Yourself Manual, processors and related technologies, why tem and avoid its inefficiency and pollution. shouldn't the little brothers fight for access and a thirty -eight special. 9 Plans were begun for an electrically driven lo all those data banks— including Presi- plalform to handle heavy neighborhood dent Carter's unclassified ones? (Official

moving tasks; a peanut-sized chemical Circles will explore this further in -a future factory to make household cleaners, disin- column.)

fectants, and — get this— aspirin; and a •Balkanization? If America becomes a methanol plant to convert garbage into a ing the potential tide of community Utopias federation of f 00,000 or so neighborhoods, gasolinelike fuel, patterned on Hess's proposals Nor do I the cheap computer gives each of them Hess's accomplishments were cheered see scientists surrendering federal grants access to Ihe information, problem-solving

with "Right onl"s al Adams-Morgan's or leaving International Physics in droves in techniques, and heipfu! statistics of all the

town-hall-like assembly But no one moved order to build particle accelerators out of others. It could be a much more unify- to copy them or push the neighborhood cattle guards in Roswell, New Mexico. Un- ing instrument— of the American culture, toward even more imaginative forms of in- less: please understand, not just the Potomac dependence. Welfare dollars were easier •A savvy national political figure moves nation-state — than anything ever to hit and more familiar, Hess concluded bitterly quickly to weld the little brothers into a political science. {noting also that, when Chicago's Rev. cohesive t980 vote. The world might not yet • A proper little-brother leader would prob- Jesse Jackson went to Washington to urge be ready for the radical and revolutionary ably want to redirect much of government Hess-like self-reliance among blacks, "he Hessian Way to Independence (but by loward increasing the skills, general sur- .was almost chased out m town"). 1.984 it might be among the best ways to vivability, and independence of individuals So Hess left Adams-Morgan and built a avoid centralized Orwellian institutions of and neighborhoods. Why shouldn't con- beautiful solar house in the side of a hill, conlrol), although a continued public en- struction men, service workers, gardeners, mostly with bartered materials and ser- dorsement of something like Mark Hat- and other holders of useful skills also be vices, at a total cost of S1 1 ,000. He is help- field's "Neighborhood Corporation" bill teachers for their fellow neighborhooders? ing to convert the Charlestown, West Vir- might give an imaginative presidential Ask the average congressman whether ginia, 'area into one of his independent hopeful a solid voting bloc. Although his he thinks there is any science or technology dream communities through such novel "liberal Republican" record is one of the issue sexy enough to influence the 1980 schemes as convincing the. local voca- most thoughtful the Senate has produced campaign, and he'll probably say that, be- tional school to design area-appropriate in years, Hatfield notes that "the Republi- sides Three Mile Island and nuclear pow- systems to bring freedom from sewerage can party wouldn't nominate me for er's future, the folks just aren't interested. districts, utility companies, supermarkets. sergeant-at-arms — the Helms-Reagan Look closer. It's possible thai technology giant transportation and equipment firms, people seem to want to chase all the real and Mother Science will become the only etc. Hess remains the prototypical Little Republicans out." Other measures he ad- political issues — even inflation can be Brother by not paying the IRS and by living vocates will make Hatfield a principal blamed on misuse or mispricing of tech- almost entirely by bartering his skills. statesman of the little brothers. He is co- nology—of Ihe future. DO 127 drug abuse, invention Colite in your May issue politely CDrmnnunjiCMTiorus If ever I've seen an invitation to your article on so-called mind food must be ignores the largest reason why cigarette OOM-|NUH";FFOM PAl.v f. won't buy it: Colite would signif- it- companies understanding that the icantly reduce the number of cigarettes our simian ancestor;, lose Ihe ability to syn- It has been my wouldn't mind/body is a "closed and bal- sold. State taxation departments thesize vitamin C, it seems to me that this human thrilled with it, either. special kind of Natural Selection deserves anced chemical system,'' which has be become A simple question ^remains: Why doesn't a special name just as a special kind of evolved over millions of years lo marvelously Cohn market it himself? Surely there must mammal deserves to be called a whale. the fantastically complex .and there it one some bright young person out The mechanisms for acquiring abilities and functioning creation that is—without be from human "Intelli- eager to make money who would assist for losing them deserve to be contrasted as shred of assistance Cohn in makihg this valuable product well as compared. gence." it's thing to put certain chemi- available to the public. I. J. Good Now one Linda C. LaVictoire Blacksburg, Va. cals into an unbalanced (sick) human sys- Rutland, Vt. tem in the hope of restoring health, but your balanced Intelligence Drugs article invites us to alter the Believing article by chemistry of our own "well" bodies, and to Seeing Is I just want to thank you for the

month I read James Oberg's Sandy Shakocius and Durk Pearson, "Mind believe that the only "side effects" are those Month after that the authors happen to have noticed so column on the UFO world [UFO Update! Food" [May 1979]. I have taken a daily dose Each time he practically states flat out that oi 126 grains of lecithin and 300 mgs of far.

of reports are faked . It's quite obvious vitamin B-12 since reading the report. Surely these marvelous mind/bodies all UFO still more complex than the au- that he doesn't even consider them a pos- Within 24 hours of the first dosage there ours are thors' [Shakocius and Pearson! under- sibility- was a dramatic physical improvement. I for those who There was a letter in your May Communi- didn't realize the impact, however, until fi- standing of them. Perhaps, chemistry cations column sent in by David A. Schroth, nal-exam week. (I'm a college student.) willingly alter their own healthy who says that people are being suckered Memorizing bulky lists of material has with "mind food," the promise of decreased by UFO "researchers'" and the cases always been painful and rarely satisfactory. dumbness makes it worth the risk. Carl Baumann themselves. Wth all due respect to both of Due to the time limitations in preparing for aftempt to Oswego. N.Y these gentlemen, I beg to differ. my final exams, I made no of believers: material There are five groups UFO memorize; I merely gave the a Those who will not believe in UFOs, even good reading a number of times. Surpris- On Target 1) don't I one; those who 90-perceni Referring to First Word in your May issue, if they were lo see 2) ingly, I found that I had at least Robert Bussard's AIAA believe until they see one; 3) those who recall at exam time. Your article came just in am a member of W planning group and am inti- don't believe until they see one, then find time for me to salvage some poor grades. long-range all issues ad- out that their particular case was false, and E. Montgomery Brunson mately familiar with the you maintain. "If one is false, all Abilene. Tex. dressed. You hit the right issues right on from then on target. Congratulations! You covered a dif- are "; 4) those who believe, no matter what; believe in exceptionally well. and 5) the group I belong to. We "Mind Food" blows my mind. First of all, the ficult subject at UFOs without physical proof and without I regret that it caused you to show up FDA is probably responsible for preventing or sight- it sightings. We do not need proof thalidomide-equivalent tragedies. Isaac Asimov's reception a little tired, but ings to make us believe we are right. Time Next, determining drug dosage by per- was obviously worth Ihe effort. Bill Sauber will do thai for us. centage of daily dry-food intake could kill Midland, Mich. Janice Tonielto someone if the LD50/ED50 is low. Cicero, III. Third, the human consumption of any in- dustrial chemical hardly seems in the best Won't Be Conned Frozen Omni public interest. There was a certain comment made by easily in your March issue that I find it striking to link man's past so Last ot all, a person who wanls to be- Arthur C. Clarke your with his future by merely looking out on the come more intelligent (or whatever), ac- made me very glad I'd bought maga- are the Von still-frozen tundra to the earliest caribou cording to you, gets to choose from such zine. It was: "What annoys me ancient-astronaut migrations and then down to my lap to the side effects as weight gain, stomach upset. Danikens and the peo- of Omni. nausea, headaches, gout, hypertension, ple." The eminent author's observation is latest issue Regina Hennya angina, or smelling like a fish! appropriate. Montreal, P.Q., Canada continue with I, too, am a very anti-Von Daniken per- DO I hope the real researchers son. After reading several of his books (one their work, but until I have unquestionable PHOTO CREDITS of which he wrote in jail —for fraud prescriptions. I'll pass on Ihe mind food. Page 6, Bruce Frisch page 6. Pal Hill page 14 Ted

I .-:: ..". 22 Pai Hill page Kathy Fest perhaps?) and deciding that didn't like :-V; -.iff- page 16 A ASA. page Si :- 1H« W=H D'.n-y =.-=o.,.-tim .-: age 26 Slau them, to say the least, I was again con- Flagstaff, Ariz. ea 30 anfl 32. fronted with one of Von Daniken's theories: UFG :1 '«1oAi,;-|vei/\\'snn,.|l(:C >i:w3-. page 36 left, !«;,:, ~,r. ,-d-..F'i 1 -i- :,-rch.;r^ Inc : page 36 right. the article "Anyone who doesn't believe in my theories Lo-..:, ; I am a medical student, and San- .E.r 1- II. :.,... '! i.MI, pa e 37 iafl. "Mind Food" hit right home, It's really a pity is narrow-minded." age 37 right

1 extraterrestri- '.viil.. n i ' I that that the FDA isn't allowing some of these What a conl dothink : I_8hn. right Co the r: .V:] Idem;) H. page 36 als perhaps did once visit our planet in -•;- drugs to be licensed in the United States. page 39 left Lic/ci.-i'./ Pupniyi-I-.,.!-; emu; ;:>: page The "safer" ones could be in Ihe form of one distant past, but not in the way that Von '.:"iic)h; :,'..». iSvivs: page 41 left. tablets, to be taken in the Daniken and his paid associate J. F Blum- or two convenient !?u-< Shi- page 41 right .vl,J,.. .-.wc: P o-OL page 42 morning. One of my colleagues has per- rich describe. e 42 right. Ely the =i=ii!:l-miir pflges44-iS Mil.!-.:;.. !:->. suaded me to drink 16 ounces of a fruity It's up to Omni now to try to show truth about his •'-•':• :;• public the . . 60-61 misled what .::., I pagea juice 10-15 minutes before taking an exam ;..-.:i . pug« because the available sugar will help the theories .really is. '"..illHiuo: 64 L*-.is: page 65 left. John Tran Ss'Vfisir; Bilge brain function-This doesn't improve long- Gi'ivatic Ofildn. page 65 right. Ca ps C eh;, cava. Hertfordshire, England term memory, but it aids recall, I have pagea 60-81 Flip \K~la-i/So :J --V:>rl-:; pagea B2-63 found. Da.'d J:uhil.'l; page 119 ,'. L;;ng Ass :- v . David Glorius Cold on Colite :,!::! :i., ir i;-, vfn.fc.-j.-;! J. i r:i piigs 12 NASA, page

- .Wooa-i--. !-;. :. '. -,: ales Silver Springs. Fla. Your Continuum piece on Charles Cohn's 132 L)3-,fi.i-i HOW WRONG WE WERE! T

By Patrick Moore

years ago— I think It in our Some was case of nearby moon. During the In 1962 we discovered that the Venusian 1964 I a public lecture — gave 1950s a strange theory, supported by surface temperature is not far short of about the planet Mars. Several some eminent astronomers, notably 550" C. Water cannot remain in the liquid hundred people I attended, and Cornell's Dr. Thomas Gold, held that the state at such a temperature, and the summarized for them what we knew and "seas" were dust-drifts deep and that any clouds contain sulfuric acid. Venus is by suspected aboui the Red Planet, I made a spacecraft that would land on them would no means the friendly, welcoming world series of y'i staiornants, every statement at once sink deep into them. Mind you, that some people expected. Packed up by the best available scientific most practical observers could see flaws Of the more remote planets, Jupiter has evidence every and one was I — wrong! inthis theory, and had no faith in it myself. provided plenty of surprises. Even after

The lecture, I repeat, was given less But it was taken very in the senously World War I astronomers still bel even than ii two decades ago. Yet preceded, the United States and was not finally Jupiter to be a kind of miniature sun. This first successful Mars probe, Mariner 4, disproved until the Soviet automatic probe idea was not disproved until the theoretical which made its fly-by later and sent Luna 9 made a controlled landing and work of Sir Harold Jeffreys in the 1920s. In information that back turned all our failed to sink out of view. reality, Jupiter is composed chiefly of ioeaa preconceivec upa'de down. Before What, than, about Venus? Here we were liquid hydrogen, with a gaseous surface, Mariner 4, we thcugnl Mars flattish had a even more gravely at fault. D, H. Menzei. The Red Spot is not a solid floating surface, at most undulating slightly: that its F L Whipple, and many followers believed "island," as was popularly believed until a atmosphere was compossc chiefly of the planet's surface was covered mainly decade or so ago. nitrogen, with aground of least pressure at by water, surrounded by clouds of water lo. the innermost ol the large Jovian 80 millibars-; thai its dark areas were vapor. It was known that the atmosphere satellites, has given us some real shocks, covered by lowly vegeta'.on, thai :he and was rich in carbon dioxide, so the water On if we have detected the first active white polar caps were layers of frosty would presumably have been fouled by volcanoes ever seen hey or Lai :n. Few material in about a centimeter depth, dissolved gas. If the marine theory had astronomers would have expected Though no one had much faith in the been correct, there would have been anything of the kind. Once again age-old idea. of intelligent Martians, it was ample soda water on Venus, though the automated probes, in this case the still believed that the celebrated "canals" of finding chances any whisky to mix with Voyagers, have upset all our theories. had a basis in reality. it seemed regrettably slight. Stellar astronomy has undergone The probes, beginning wish Mariner 4, equally startling revisions. Red giant stars, have shown otherwise, The Martian such as Antares, were once. believed to be atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide, with yoLj'hfu . They have turned out to be well a ground pressure below ten millibars, The advanced in their life histories. As recently dark regions are not living due to as 1920 Dr. Harlow Shapley, one of the organisms; they are merely "albedo greatest astronomers of all time and the "oai'jros ' ifer.ng from Lhe:r c surroundings man who first accurately estimated the only in their darker hue. The residual polar - size of our Mi «.y Way system -was a ., caps are of ordinary ice and are extremely stoutly defending hisopinion that the thick, There is also soma solid carbon objects then known asspiral nebulas were dioxide, which persists for part oi the parts of our own galaxy rather than Martian year (687 of our days). There are independent galaxies in their own right' no canals. The spiders-web network Thepointtobemade here is that all Peloved of the older observers was purely these mistakes—and many more like imaginary. Finally, Mars is a world of them! —ware made on [he basis of the craters, mountains, valleys, dry riverbeds, best available sc;en:if;c evidence. By Tie and towering volcanoes. year 2000 we may find that many of We were wrong even about the color of locay's ideas are equally wide of the mark. the sky. Most people it expected to be dark Of course, there have also been many blue. In fact, it is salmrjn-pink. neones oased on scientific ignorance. Why were we so wrong? Because, of These fall into a completely different cate- course, we had been observing Mars gory, and I propose to say more about them across a disiance of at least 54.7 million shortly. Meanwhile, it is just as well to re- kilometers, and our knowledge was bound member that our knowledge is still far from to be incomplete at best. 24-ki!ameier-high Ciympus Mens whs complete. We must be prepared for a full We made enormous errors even in the Voyager 1 's rmsi dimmaiic. discovery on rsa's. quota of surprises in the years .ahead. DO DESERTJEWEL EXPLDRPmDTU5

By' Michael Cassutt

of countless took long excursions across the rocky canyon bear the scars mm any of us siill think of Arizona and ^^ ancient upheavals and hold numerous ; moon-walker, Dr. Harrison !] '] 1 as the lasl frontier, ihe home of terrain. One fossils. It's a magnificent guide to our | U I gunfighters, ghost towns, and Schmitt, now a U.S. senator from neighboring Mexico, once worked planet's history. settler forts, but it's time to let that New are no tours The floor of the Grand Canyon is, in outdated image bite the dust. Today's full-time at the center. There open places, as much as 2 kilometers below its Arizonans have their eyes on the high as such, but the center's exhibits are rims. It's a long way down on foot or frontiers of astronomy, biology, geology, to the public. See their presentation on moon or the one horseback, especially since that distance and archaeology. The state is home to geologic mapping of the seems greatly enhanced by the number both the L-5 Society and the Aerial on crater formation. branch canyons and cliffs. Phenomena Research Organization Visitors to the Center for Astrogeology and the size of actual Descending toward a tiny Colorado (APRO), as well as to numerous museums, don't have to travel far to find an kilometers east of River on ancient switchback trails is an Indian ruins, zoological and botanical crater. About 60 Barringer Meteor unforgettable experience. gardens, laboratories, and observatories. Flagstaff is the famed Visitors to the canyon can choose Arizona also offers a staggering variety of Crater, where, 50,000 years ago, the in the between the relatively limited accommo- landscapes, from the rugged mountains, impact of a meteorite ripped a hole across and 180 dations of the North Rim and those of the buttes, canyons, and petrified forests of earth almost 2 kilometers Barringer South Rim, which are more extensive and the Kaibab Plateau, to the cotton fields meters deep. (For more on the our June issue.) have the added advantage of being open ' and cacti of the Sonoran Desert. Crater, see Explorations in landmark in all year round. Be sure to plan ahead, Parts of the stale have a unique By far the most spectacular cuts because the only way from one rim to the starkness that brings to mind sirange and Arizona is the Grand Canyon, which the Plateau other is the long way around. alien worlds. In the late 1960s and early 350 kilometers across Kaibab The underworld of Arizona is just as rich 1970s the Apollo astronauts were frequent in the northern third of the state. The rushing waters and varied as it appears from the towering visitors to the U.S. Geological Survey's canyon was carved by the Geologists estimate cliffs of the Grand Canyon. At Arizona Center for Astrogeology. at Flagstaff, of the Colorado River. Mineral Museum, in Phoenix, you will see where the surrounding area resembles the that this process began over a billion on the young displays of such items as a fossilized lunar landscape. As a prelude to their years ago, before life existed the colorful walls of the mammoth's tooth, a meteorite, and quartz stroll on the moon, the astronauts studied planet Earth, Thus crystals, in addition to samples of all the many ores and minerals found throughout the state. There are also working models that demonstrate techniques that have been used over the years to extract these minerals. Arizona's economy depends in large part on the mining industry. You'll see why Any journey to the center of the earth should rightly begin at Colossal Cave, situated in the southern part of the state, near Tucson. Although you won't travel quite as far as those celebrated explorers James Mason and Pat Boone, Colossal Cave is the largest known dry cavern in the world. Its true extent remains a mystery to

this day. In its past, the cave has served as a refuge for Indians and a hideout for

outlaws. More recently it has attracted the attention of people looking for lost trea- sure—an activity that is not encouraged, You will enjoy exploring the cave's two- kilometer-long trail, and you can walk in relative comfort since the temperature is a constant 22°C (72°F). No special boots or automobiles. clothes are necessary. Paolo Soleri's city of the future, Arcosanti, will be solar-powered and have no 130 OMNI THE ARIZONA EXPERIENCE Cities of Gold. It is also a land of ancient It's possible that plants and animals dwellings and sacred mountains. native to Arizona are as alien lo most of us cliff surviving dwellings are in Arcosanti Martian ferns might be. They have a Many of the as Junction, Arizona, north of Phoenix areas, and some aren't open to the Cordes right to their strangeness. Desert lite has remote 1-17. For information, contact Cosanti, heat public (there's a lot of active archaeolog- on to be tough enough to survive killing but 6433 Doubletree Road, Scottsdale, and freezing ical research going on in the state), and drought, flash floods, 602-948-6145. Perhaps the best Arizona 83523. Phone temperatures. Members of this hardy crew. you can visit some sites. are Montezuma Castle and its Admission fee. from cacti to coyotes, put on their best known companion site, Montezuma Well. It's here show al the Arizona-Sonora Desert ancient Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum garden that that you'll get a vivid idea of how Museum, a modem zoological on a harsh environment. twenty kilometers east of Tucson desert west of Tucson, The peoples adapted to sprawls in the For information, call kilometers south of Speedway Boulevard. should be instantly famillarto Located some 60 terrain 602-883-1380. Open from 8:30 A.m. to Montezuma Castle is a Sinagua anyone who's ever seen a Western movie. Flagstaff, sunset. Admission fee. Indian cliff dwelling that has survived The Desert Museum is the backdrop to for over 500 years. The Old Tucson, the renowned movie location. virtually intact Arizona Mineral Museum multilimbed steep climb up to the top of the cliff is Amid this phalanx of McDowell on the worth the effort, even though Nineteenth Avenue and saguaro cacti you'll find more than 350 certainly inside the Stale Fairgrounds in downtown Phoenix. plants and animals, all visitors are no longer permitted examples of desert A.M. 602-255-3791 . Open from 8:00 face "rooms" themselves. The well, several Phone in their native habitats. You can stand 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, or kilometers to the north, is in fact an to face with a kit fox or a mountain lion to 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. No built by the Smaguas in the weekends from watch the mad dash of a roadrunner, a artificial lake fee. 1400s as part of an ingenious irrigation admission member of the cuckoo family. And you are at difference between a system. There are explanatory exhibits certain to learn the Crater You be surprised to see Barringer Meteor cholla and a prickly pear. There are even both sites. may these early East of Flagstaff, Arizona, on U.S. 40. aquatic exhibits displaying just how much technology glass-walled dawn to dusk. Americans possessed. Open every day from some familiar, and some not-so-familiar, fee. For that matter, the remains of a four- Admission fish and reptiles. The entire complex is observatory access for explorers in teenth-century astronomical designed to permit Southwestern Arboretum near Casa Grande, an hour's Boyce Thompson wheelchairs or strollers. still stand U S 60 west of Superior. Arizona. For an equally drive south of Phoenix. The four-story On The Phoenix area boasts 602-689-2811. Open from tribe called the information, call showcase of natural life. At the tower was built by a impressive 4:30 PM. Small admission fee. like the observatories of 8:30 A.M. to Desert Botanical Garden some 50 Hohokam, and, ancient American peoples as varieties of plants are on display in a such other development of Casa Grande Ruins garden, which has the the Aztecs, it shows a walk-through near Casa Grande on astronomical knowledge almost entirely South of Phoenix, added attraction of such rare desert birds daily from 8:00 am to 5:00 rm. different from that of contemporary 1-10. Open as the turkey vulture and the sparrow workable nonetheless. There is a charge for tours. hawk. Uptown, the Tropic Garden Zoo Europe, but emphasizes small animals of warm.. Guided tours are available. crafts of America's natives are Colossal Cave climates, including Arizona, but not Arts and Thirty-five kilometers east of Tucson on wallabies preserved in the Heard Museum, in exclusively. That explains the Monday through Phoenix. Originally a private art Old Spanish Trail. Open mini-goats, not to mention the downtown and 6:00 p.m., the museum has evolved into Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to enthusiastic family of monkeys that roam collection, holidays 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 extensive display of southwestern silver Sunday and from free on the shaded walks. Explorers with an baskets, pottery, textiles, and rm. Admission fee. children might find the Tropic Garden Zoo work, including the Goldwater especially attractive. artifacts, Botanical Garden of collection of kachinas (primitive Indian Desert To the east of Phoenix, near the town Park. Tempe, Arizona. Phone ceremonial dolls). The Heard Museum Papago Superior, you can see botanical research 602-947-2800. Open daily from 9:00 A.M. also features exhibits on prehistoric life in in progress at the Boyce Thompson and offers lectures. to sunset. Admission fee. Southwestern Arboretum. Managed jointly the Southwest future coexist in Arizona Parks Board and the The past and the by the National Park Lodges Not far from the Heard Museum is Grand Canyon University of Arizona, the arboretum was Arizona. Grand Canyon Village, Arizona 86023. For Rocky Mountain the Cosanti Foundation, home of visionary the first institution in the 602-638-2631. Soleri is currently information, call it architect Paolo Soleri. area to be devoted to plant study when several building a "city of the future" 75 kilometers opened in 1928. Today it features Fria Heard Museum southwestern plants, north of Phoenix at a site on the Agua hundred different Phoenix, Arizona. Arcosanti, from two Italian 22 East Monte Vista, about 100 members of the River. It is called including Open Monday through Saturday from five-kilometer words meaning "beforethings." Here cactus family alone. The to 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Sunday from 1:00 Soleri is constructing a prototype trail takes you from desert to mountain 2,500 human beings 5:00 pm. Admission fee. For information, environments and back again, as the "arcology," a city of 602-252-8848. will live in harmony with their call arboretum is seated on the abrupt border who than in exploitation of Superstition Mountains and surroundings, rather between the Garden Zoo them. Arcosanti will be a city without Tropic theSonoran Desert. Phoenix, a towering structure 6232 North Seventh Street, The ghost of Arizona's former self (i.e., automobiles, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 pm. living quarters, shops, and Arizona. Open before the West was won) is still strongly containing fed day. Phone 602-279-9707. of playgrounds, healed by the sun and every Though it was the last the felt today. none for children. huge terraced greenhouse on the Admission fee for adults; continental territories to join the Union, in from a below. Only a fraction of the 1912, the state has been continuously hillside complete, but what U.S. Geological Survey by Native American tribes for planned complex is inhabited Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, the public. It is a remark- 2255 North of years. Even at present nearly exists is open to thousands 602-779-3311, ext. 1455. and, oddly enough, one quite Arizona. Phone percent of the state's area remains able sight 30 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM. weekdays. of the cliff dwellings of the Open from Indian land. This is where the Spanish reminiscent No admission fee. conquistadores searched for the Seven Sinagua. DO 132 OMNI it but gets boring. The day I started this, Patty Hearst XEROGRAPHI' was apprehended; so 1 made a color-Xerox copy of the New York Post's EMRTIES ANSWER TO GAMES [p.-irje 144: front-page, then photostated it, blew it up,

are reasonable— fifty cents to a dollar a and videotaped it. Then I photographed Nine Card and Hot are both strategically shot. the monitor fo get the scanning lines and identical with tic-tac-toe. In Nine Card, if As a printing tool of remarkable effi- lose the sense of the typeface." we list all fhe triplets of distinct digits from ciency, the color copier's practical applica- To support his art, Sprouse has de- 1 to 9 thai sum to 1&-, they can be arranged tions are apparently limitless: Christmas signed a collection of silk-chiffon dresses in the familiar Magic Square (below) so cards, menus, personalized stationery, derived from Xerox-colored scanning lines thai every row, column, and main diagonal homemade books, and book jackets. But that create optical effects as the" wearer the real fun begins when you "treat" visual moves. (Debby Harry, of the roGk group images, just as record engineers fiddle Blondie, wore one while hosting TV's Mid- 2 9 4 with sound on their studio consoles. Lay night Special.) He also designs record- down a variety of images and your color album covers, which he calls "art for the 7 5 3 collage will smooth out any traces of layer- masses." One Blondie mock-up features a

ing. Copy a black-and-white photo and green Xerox image monitored from Deb- 6 1 8 you'll get an artificially tinted image accord- by's appearance on the Mike Douglas ing to how you balance the color filtration. Show lettering of and magnified cut out a adds up to 15. Memorize this Magic Move your original while the is machine computerized grocery-store receipt. His Square and the Hot grid (below) on which scanning and your copy will be stretched or current project, an Iggy Pop portrait, uses every row, column, and main diagonal has blurred. Make copies of copies of copies the Xerox 6500 to transfer a photo onto a single letter in common, and you will be ad infinitum and watch the ultratextured Dayglo paper. 1 put some orange Dayglo unbeatable. Drawing a card in either

image gradually lose definition, degenerat- paper into the machine, and if came out

ing toward mechanical impressionism. great; but when I tried pink Dayglo paper, One of the most elementary techniques, the machine caught fire." HOT FORM WOES discovered by Sonia Sheridan, is the ther- Public recognition of copy art seems to mal image. "3M was copying sheets of be grudging but inevitable. "This is just like TANK HEAR WASP

paper." she says, "and I discovered that electronic painting, " says Frpo. "The ma- TIED BRIM SHIP you can put objects like lace or plants di- chine doesn't do anything on its own; input

rectly on ihe machine; so in a sense I dis- is controlled by the individual. Eastman covered the thermogram the Ray in is way Man House Rochester doing a retrospec- game is equivalent to making a move in discovered the photogram. You know that tive of the copy process, and the Museum the corresponding cell of a tic-tac-toe Shroud of Turin they say might have Christ's of Modern Art [in New York] is buying board.

image on the cloth? I fhink that's very pos- pieces of copy art." If you can play a perfect game of sibly a ihermogram by nature." done Sheridan says, "There's a time lag going tic-tac-toe, you can play a perfect game of More advanced methods, often the re- on. critics The are not educated; if they Hot or Nine Card. You can always force at sult of interfacing the copier with other ma- don't recognize something's form and it leasf a draw against any player and have chines, are being discovered faster than hasn't been written about, they find it very a distinct advantage over an opponent they be "Anything is can documented. fo I pos- hard appreciate. Right now have four- who is hot aware that he is playing a dis- sible," Sheridan believes. "I used to sing teen pieces in a 'Photo in the Seventies' guised version of tic-tac-toe. and talk into the telecopier. [This involves show. They're flowers; so they're easy to sending audibly encoded images over a look at, but in color that's never been seen ANSWERS; QUOTES QUIZ telephone wire. Some artists like to fool with before. artist has level The to be at a above 1. Pride goeth oefo.o destruction. (Not "a the signal before decoding it, thus altering and beyond just the making of pictures and fall")

the visual result.] I designed fabrics some images." 2. To paint the lily (Not "gild") for people, just by saying their Unfortunately, for all their name over imagination, 3. A little learning is a dangerous thing. and over very softly, but you can't sing into artists have been limited by fhe machine's (Not "knowledge") the present machines. They're more com- design, which caters to modest-sized files 4. A penny for your thought. (Not plicated; so if you sing, they turn right off." and forms. They look forward to a wider "thoughts") Besides the telecopier, hookups have in- selection of color, increased precision from 5. Music hath charts io soothe a savage cluded computerized scanning cameras, laser scanners, and paper on rolls or larger breast. (Not "the savage beast") computer-animated films, and video sys- current than the 8Va-by-11- or 8'/?-by-14- 6. Imitation is the sincerest of" flattery. (Not tems. tnch standard. Sheridan envisions small "form of") Firpo's principal interest is the heat- copy systems similar to pocket calculators, 7. Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no transfer process by which images can be which already have little thermal tapes in fibs, (Not "lies") fused on special paper and then ironed them. Meanwhile, she'd like to go on televi- 8. Give him an inch, he'll take an ell. (Not onto a variety of surfaces— furniture, sion to teach basic imaging systems to the "a mile"] lamps, T-shirts, pillows, tiles. "I've also dis- population at large, just as Julia Child 9. Variety is the very spice of life. (Not covered that if you overpaini with oils on top teaches cooking. The more people are in- "spice") of your heat transfer—which is basically an terested, the more rapidly it will develop. 10. The love of money is the root of all evil. acrylic polymer— you get separation when "It's all on its way," says Firpo. "Once (Not "money") the oils dry, which produces this crackly, you've found the secret, the modification is 11. Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop almost Rembrandty Old World look. As you just around the corner If Chester Carlson to drink. (Not "and not a") stumble onto things, they become part of were around today, he'd be delighted that a 12. I only regret thai I have but one life to your repertoire. Accidents only lead' to dis- machine he designed for one purpose is lose for my country (Not "give") coveries of belter things." bigger and being used for multiple purposes, because 13. Beggars should be no choosers. (Not Stephen Sprouse is a young but highly he was truly a man of vision. In the latter "can't"') regarded New York City artist who com- part of his life he turned to Zen Buddhism. 14. Winning isn't everything, but wanting to bines art witrfcommerce to support his His wife believes very much in reincar- win is. (Not "it's the only thing.") That's what experiments. "It's using to technology nation, you know—she talks to him all Lombardi said in a 1960 interview with make art," "I he says. can draw and paint, the lime." DQ Robert Riger. DO . — 3

in condors," he says. "How are these re- down—the feet dropping ten minutes and leased birds going to know about avoiding 300 meters above the ground. He watched EMRTH storms and attacks by eagles, and how will the characteristic yawn of condors on land- they' compete with other birds at the car- ing. He watched them stretch themselves, compele with condors in getting at the cass? There's no precedent to suggest like joggers, before taking off in the morn- that seldom I they giant corpses of that period's megafauna. they can do it. I keep ducks. If put a new ing, and he noted in other ducks, sometimes stretched during the rest of the day. It was the condor, then, that waited on mu- duck with three about 20 sical wings for mammoths and glyptodonts they kill it. Or like hatchery-raised trout. A rare thing happens pages and chlamylheres to die. They watched Trout raised in a hatchery don't act like into Tha California Condor—something Megatherium, the giant ground sloth, and other trout. They're in the wrong part of the especially rare in scientific monographs. Tapirus, the giant tapir, as those antedilu- stream; they're eating the wrong food. A Koford's descriptions of condor anatomy vian creatures struggled in the La Brea released bird is only half a bird." and behavior are lean, clear-eyed, free of visualizable. bird tars, and sometimes they landed and be- The USFWS and the Audubon Society jargon, instantly The came trapped themselves. They broke off dismiss Koford's objections. They are con- comes alive. If the day ever comes when all their soaring and dived to avoid passes by vinced that the condor's plight is desperate that remains of condor flesh and feathers their giant Pleistocene cousin Teratornis, a and requires desperate efforts at salvation. lies on museum trays, then all of condor supercondor weighing 23 kilograms, per- The dismissal of Koford would be a simpler movement and culture will lie between the covers of Koford's book. haps the largest bird ever to fly. Teratornis matter if only he were something other than

died out with the Pleistocene. Gymnogyps the world's foremost expert on this small I knew what I felt about the bold USFWS

I had the last laugh. tribe of huge birds. But that is exactly what plan for condors before met Koford , before his In historical times the California condor he is. His book The California Condor re- hearing his wishful alternatives, emo- ranged as far north as British Columbia, as mains the major work in the field and nearly tion-charged views on the bird with which

far south as Baja California. Today their the only one. he spent his youth. I knew he was right. domain has shrunk to several counties in When Koford was twenty-four, at an age The line, "All free-living condors should

southern California. be trapped . . . and fitted with radio trans- Forty years ago Carl Koford began mitters," was enough for me. I did not have studying condors. Then the population was to read further, to the part about laparoto- performed on the birds 60 birds, he estimates. A subsequent study mies that would be showed that in the period 1946-1963 the and other indignities they would suffer. Koford's view of what a condor is, is the number fell by a third —40 birds survived. <*There is a great deal of The most recent study estimates 30. The subtlest and most complex of all the views

learned behavior in I condor appears to be going the way of debated by birdmen, and thus, think, he Teratornis condors. How will a released has the best chance of being right. February of this year the U.S. Fish and Often something seems to happen to In bird know how to Wildlife Service (USFWS), after consulta- men for whom wildlife becomes a profes- tion with the National Audubon Society, compete with other birds at sion. The USFWS and Audubon people circulated a draft proposal for meeting the have become so concerned with the prob- a carcass? A released * sight of condor crisis. Its first recommendation was lem of the condor that they have lost bird is only half a bird is a great that "all free-living condors should be what a bird is. What use to us trapped, individually marked, and fitted soarer that has been handled, marked, with radio transmitters." A number of the laparotomized, popcorned by zoo crowds, a bird trapped birds would be bred in captivity, and radio-tagged? What use is such and their offspring would be returned to the to itself? wild. Having dreamed up a neat bit of technol- application to min- "It's absolutely unnecessary and proba- when he should have been drinking beer ogy with an biology —a bly harmful and may wipe these birds out with his buddies and running around in iature transmitter—we are compelled to try tar sooner than would happen without inter- Model-A's, he was living instead in a cave it out. It is neat, but it will never tell us as ference," Koford says. Condors live 30 to 40 half a mile from the caves where the con- much about condors as the human eye, years, he notes, and so there is no danger dors lived. He was shooting horses to see with a patient brain behind it, can tell us. of their immediate disappearance. There is whether the condors were interested in the (Those were the instruments that Koford reason to hope thai the condors will recover cadavers. He was traveling the sernides- used in 1939.)

naturally, he believes. The use of DDT has erts of upper and lower California, ques- Along with Koford, I suspect that capture diminished recently; as a consequence, lioning vaqueros about condors they had will do more harm than good, that condors

the brown pelican, for one, is coming back seen. He was photographing the remains can breed themselves better than humans from the edge of extinction. Use of com- of animals after condors had finished with can breed them, To think otherwise is of in pound 1080 to poison mammals is decreas- them. another instance hubris the species low. ing in the condor's range, and there are Mostly, for three years of his life, he was thai has brought condors lewer deer hunters. Koford notes that the watching. He watched the ponderous, And what if nothing can bring the birds

if watching Los USFWS itself estimates that there are 6 or 7 hopping run of condor take-off, one foot back? What Gymnogyps, immature birds among the 30 survivors striking the ground slightly ahead of the Angeles sprawl toward its last hills, has an encouraging increase over the 4 imma- other, the bird covering 5 to 12 meters simply decided it is time to go? Perhaps for bird that tures estimated in 1974. Capture will be before it was airborne. He watched con- feeding on ground squirrels, a traumatic for the birds, both physically and dors in flight: the double dip they execute to once fed on mastodonts, is too steep a fall

glory. If it is for the condor to follow psychically. There is no guarantee that they prevent stalling or losing altitude; the flex from time

Teratornis, it unburdened by will breed in captivity or that zoo-propa- glide, in which the dihedral angle of the should go out gated birds will be knowledgeable enough wings diminishes or becomes negative radio transmitters. about the subtleties of condorhood to sur- while the bird gains speed. He watched Departing, the condors might do us a of mineshaft vive in the wild. We have time enough, he immature birds tilt their tails too frequently, final service, in the manner thinks, to ta-ke several more appropriate overcont rolling. He saw them nearly turn canaries. They might open our eyes. When steps before resorting to measures so themselves over in attempting turns. He the vultures watching your civilization drastic and untried. watched birds descending, and he would begin dropping dead from their snags, it is wonder. "There is a great deal of learned behavior note how early their landing gear came time to pause and DO

134 OMNI had taken him to tly aboard a UFO to Lanulos, a planet he earlier had said was On self-help FDRunn three and a half light-years distant, he re- CONTINUED FROM PAGE \2 plied, "About an hour and a halt," I was so and awareness be different types of antimatter, such as stunned that I forgot 1o ask if that was one- antimatter for hydrogen, antimatter for way or round trip. Later, when viewers ot the A DOCTOR REPORTS: titanium, etc. Antimatter will probably be TVprogramwereabletocallin, one woman found only for natural elements. severely chastised me because, she said,

If this theory is true, then antimatter of my expression revealed that I questioned one element will not affect antimatter of Derenberger's claim, and she added that another element. Thus, the system that his honest face indicated he was clearly Post described would not be necessary. telling the truth, There are two easier methods of using'an- Philip J. Klass timatter as a weapon: 1) If the above theory Senior Editor is true, then the antimatter could be loaded Aviation Week & Space Technology into a warhead whose structure does not Washington, DC. match that of the antimatter When- the an- Kuypers, timatter hits the target, the antimatter and I am most pleased by Thomas Montele- Marcus M.D., Houston regular-matter atoms would annihilate one's treatment of the UFO cultist in his Last "I'd had enough ot philosophy class

I lor something each other, causing the target to "decom- Word. He is correct when he calls the UFO debates. was looking to apply in both my professional and personal life," pose" and fall apart; 2) the antimatter could cult vast, and its size can only be guessed says Marcus Kuypers, M.D. if be concentrated into beam of light, at. But I wonder he is aware that UFO a such "A person I respected recommended as a laser beam. The beam would be fired cults revolve not only around alleged contact- Dianetics. It explained how human beings function and interact. It laid out techniques at the target and it would fall apart as de- ees but around "contacters"— individuals scribed in method 1. The antimatter could who claim to receive "channeled messages" be of the element boron, and the target from extraterrestrials, a kind of telepathic "Dianetics made could be a plane made of a boron compos- correspondence. Though the messages are me more alert, ite in the example described above. usually very vague and uninformative, George Kontogiannis "study groups" spend their time diligently more alive." Albany, N.Y. examining these messages. The contacter for handling illness. or channel very often gains a kind of re- psychosomatic

I thoroughly enjoyed the May issue of spect, formally accorded only to the most "I got rid of severe tension headaches. I in his ar- spiritual of gurus, among the group. Omni. However, Jonathan V Post, was more alert, able to get more ot what I ticle "Cybernetic War," made, in my opin- There seems to be a tremendous need wanted from life.

"I had more energy. I could accomplish in a ion, two misleading statements. He seems among these people not only to believe in

day what I would have out off for two or three to imply that electrons flow through a con- something greater but to believe that this days before.

ductor at a very high velocity and that this "something greater" has a personal inter- Even my friends noticed I seemed more alive velocity is somewhat tied to the speed of est in them, as if they were the emissaries of "Dianetics opened my eyes to the world computations in a computer and the speed a world-transforming New Word. Unfortu- I around me. Because feel good every day, I light. cultists of nately (not that the notice), the New enjoy life and experience it more fully than Electrons in a conductor move at ex- Word is always a coast? ess -spetition of old ever before." ceedingly slow velocities (a few millimeters religious doctrine, soaked in saucer fuel, Dianetics is the first effective science of the mind anyone can understand and use. per second) as compared with the speed and put into circulation as newly revealed Find out tor yourself how Dianetics has of light (2.98 x 10 " millimeters per second). cosmic wisdom. many pi Even though electron speed in a circuit is Jeffrey Benner tials and al small, the current impulse— and thus the DePere, Wis. Buy it. energy transfer in the conductor— Is at the Read it. speed of light. The Iceman Cometh Use it. A laser or an electrical conductor will Referring to Forum, May 1979 ["Planet transmit data at equal speeds since both Farming"]; How can anyone write a letter electromagnetic phenomena transmit en- containing the statement' "no significant ergy at the speed of light. quantities of ice are known to exist on Mars" Joseph Meli when the Viking orbiters show a north polar Lake Havasu City Ariz. cap 2,000 kilometers wide and consisting entirely of water and ice? The ice cap is at Gullible UFOs least several kilometers thick (Crater Send me Dianetics: Bravo for Thomas F Monteleone, for his Koroleu, 90 kilometers wide and approxi- The Modern Science of Mental Health mately perceptive piece "The Gullibility Factor" 15 kilometers deep, is completely by L. Ron Hubbard [Last Word, May 1979], which describes filled). The north cap contains 10 to 40 mil- Dept 0-4A how his practical-joke claim of having vis- lion cubic kilometers of ice, and the perma- Publications Organization ited Woodrow Derenberger's nonexistent frost contains at least that much. And since 4833 Fountain Avenue, East Annex Los Angeles, Calitornia 90029 planet Lanulos aboard a flying saucer was, the much smaller south cap is thought to

is, it and so readily accepted by "UFO be- contain CO a , would be easy (relatively lievers." speaking) to supply heat to evaporate and

I, too, had an interesting experience with induce a mild greenhouse effect, to va- Derenberger during his 1967 tour of Wash- porize more CO; and melt more ice, to va- ington, D.C., radio and TV programs, when porize more CO z , and so on. he described his alleged visits to Lanulos A terraform.ed Mars boring? Not with and told how his extraterrestrial friends such terrain features as Nix Olympica and often droppedTn lor coffee or dinner at his Valles fvlarineris. house in West Virginia. William A, Klein, IV

When 1 asked Derenberger how long it Rye, N.Y Power Base Touch of Class in I was greaily pleased by ihe presentation of I'm so. disappointed you! Why did you do my .article "Industry Goes to Space," in the it? How could you include "God Is an Iron" April 1979 issue. The photography was in your May jssue? You have so much lo outstanding. Of course, we will be using choose from that is exciting and interesting composite plastics instead of aluminum in in science today. Why would you choose to beam machines, but that didn't detract print such a base story as that? There are from the attractiveness of the layout. other science-fiction outlets tor stories of article this caliber. you! too I was disturbed by Frederik Pohl's Not You have much in "Power Play" [April 1979]. I have known and class for that story Have some pride MetaScience Quarterly respected Fred tor many years. However, yourself. A New Age Journal of Parapsychology he is far off base in this article as a result of L, Adams J -32 Kingston, Rhode Island 02381 oversimplification and perhaps a desire to New York. N.Y sensationalize. The answer to the energy • Talaklnasls problem is not to slop right now; we cannot, De gustibus non est disputandum, but • Precognition for many valid reasons. And there are "God Is an Iron" is indeed a classy story, In • Supar Psychics solutions. The size, complexity, and effec- the opinion of the editors. Not every • Pyramldology social institutions are de- science-fiction tale involves spaceships, • Astrology tiveness of our • Kirlian Photography pendent upon the energy that we have ray guns, robots, or jut-jawed heroes.

• Quantum Physics available to support them. I grow very dis- Spider Robinson writes adult fiction, with of Consciousness turbed when a futurist of high reputation real human emotion and strong story such as Fred simply throws up his hands, values. — Ed, While Mass Media slee throws in the towel, and tells us that we are ol paiapsychologists are working diligently 10 doomed. II bothers me when human be- From Russia with Love uncover [he hidden laws ol Ihe Cosmos. Our ings lie down and quit instead of using their Because of the slowness of the APO mail

sian Parapsychology Laboratories, Transcon- brains to solve the problem. It enrages me system, I first received the January issue of tinental telepathy tests. Holographic brain when somebody does it for the overt pur- Omni in late February Since that time I have pose of sensationalism and perhaps the read every article in that issue and sub- r. pr„::;oyr.aoi"iS o covert purpose oi leading us into a cen- sequent Ones (the April issue arrived in trally controlled bureaucratic collectivism. April for some strange reason). For the first

G. Harry Stine time I can say that there is now a magazine

Phoenix, Ariz. that I can read cover to cover nearly nonstop, enjoy each article, and at Ihe fRtt Holograms for all n It is disturbing to read articles on energy, same time learn something from each is- such as "Power Play," by Frederik Pohl, sue.

which are full of inaccuracies and miscon- I especially enjoy the Games section and

ceptions. the Continuum articles. Also, I have been a, With respect to my inlerest, hydroelectric UFO follower/ believer for a long time and power, this article indicated that there is enjoyed the April issue's pictorial im- essentially very tile r emain;r.g potential for mensely development. This is incorrect. At present My issues of Omni get extremely good there are approximately 59.2 million kilo- mileage here; there are many people in my watts of convention a: ceveloped capacity office, as well as scattered throughout the and plants, Which will produce 7.5 million embassy, who await the arrival of the next

kilowatts, under construction. Existing hy- issue as much as I do. I believe that many droelectric projects save the equivalent of subscriptions are forthcoming.

more than 459 million barrels of oil each Keep up the superfine quality of the

year, it is estimated that, potentially, the magazine and don't change a thing! United States could develop an additional Glenn A. Miller 102 million kilowatts, capable oi generating U.S. Embassy the energy equivalent of 656 million barrels Moscow, USSR

of oil annually. In addition, there are in this country over 47,000 dams that do not have Spinoza's God

hydroelectric power plants. Use of these I was puzzled by the Inclusion of the Ein- OMNI dams alone could provide over 54 million stein quotation "1 shall never believe that kilowatts. God plays dice with the world," which ap- TIME CAPSULES. The statements indicating that hydro- peared in the Continuum section of April. electric projects cannot iast forever be- Had Einstein known that that brief utter-

be kept safe for the tuture. Store cause their reservoirs will fill with silt are ance was destined to be thrust about with incorrect. Because the power plant's water such vigor and so often by those deter- Library Case made oi black sirnt intakes must be located significantly below mined to project an image of a "religious" the normal reservoir level, for hydraulic rea- Einstein, he would never have made the sons, silt can only accumulate to the lower statement. The fact is that Einstein did not lip of the intakes. Any silt that enters Ihe believe in revealed religion. Once he was

Send your check or money order reservoir after it accumulates to the intake asked outright whether he believed in God.

($4.95 each; 3 tor r-S. 00. f; i..n S?-:.O0 level would {as with any river) be flushed His reply: "I believe in Spinoza's God, who [j-.wiijs il. USA orders only) to: OMNI of all L.bi-i yCase, PO. Boi5120, Philadelpl downstream through the power plant, pro- reveals Himself in the orderly harmony Pa. 19141. viding an upper limit to silt accumulation. that exists, not in that God who concerns

Complete satisfaction guaranteed Ronald A. Corso Himself with fates and actions of human iionsy rounded. Allow 4 weeks for Federal Energy beings." delivery. Regulatory Commission Roy A. Gallant Washington, D.C. Rangeley, Maine OQ — —

Celestron pressure on its surface is at least as high as Earth's atmospheric pressure, lapetus Beauty In Nature seems to have one dark side, reflecting little light, and one bright side, a much bet- ter reflector. Cassini himself noted a change of brightness and even suggested the cause was a difference in reflectivity. The famous rings ot Saturn are one of the spectacular sights of the solar system. The planet has been deprived of its status as the only ringed planet, for Uranus has some

- small, dark rings, and the Voyager space- craft found a very small ring system around Jupiter last spring. Saturn's rings are cer- tainly the most glorious. There are three or four rings, perhaps more. The two brightest rings are sepa- rated by Cassini's Division. A faint inner ring, sometimes called the Crepe Ring, lies

closer to the planet, and perhaps there is even a fainter ring inside that. Occasional observations have spotted an obscure outer ring, perhaps extending twice as far from the planet as the bright rings. While the trajectory of Pioneer was being planned, the notion naturally came up of flying inside the rings. The decision was finally made and executed with the spacecraft's midcourse maneuver, in 1977,

to play it safe and remain outside the ring system. We know the rings are made of rocks, boulder-sized, covered with ice possibly even made of ice. Shooting inside the visible ring system was asking for a collision, some scientists said. Others were

willing to risk ft to get a closer view. Pioneer 11 was launched from Earth in

1973, a little after Pioneer 10. Both headed for Jupiter Pioneer 11 got there and sent back photographs in December 1974. With an assist from Jupiter —which swung it.

around at high velocity and threw it back across the solar system Pioneer 11 headed for Saturn. Pioneer 10 is following a course outside the solar system. The mission — including both space Celestron telescope will vehicles—cosi about $414 million, or about A expand $2 for each U.S. citizen, spread over more your perception of nature ranging

than ten years of the project. If you think this from unexplored macroscopic

is a huge sum, think again. It is about one views in a tropical garden; striking thirty-ninth the amount spent for tobacco in close-ups in an animal sanctuary; the United 1976 States in alone. In addition dramatic views of the Moon and to their planetary missions, both space- planets; and a journey to a remote craft continue to. send back valuable data twirling galaxy. on the interplanetary environment; they continue to return interest on our invest- Celestron Telescopes for the view home, casual or serious as- ment in them tronomer, University teaching. Telephoto Lenses for the novice As you read this, Pioneer 11 is sending through professional. back so-called far-encounter photo-

graphs. When we see those close-ups, it FOR A CLOSER LOOK—SEND $2.00 FOR GIANT FULL will be with a sense of achievement and of COLOR CATALOG SHOWING HOW TO SELECT AND USE A anticipation. When we recall how much bet- TELESCOPE/PHOTOGRAPHIC LENS. ter the Voyager photographs of Jupiter were, compared with those of the Pioneers, Celestron International and that the Voyagers will arrive at Saturn in 2835 Columbia, P.O. Box 3578-10 a few yeaTs, we can hardly wait. Torrance, California 90503 We can begin rewritingthe books on Sep- (Dealer Inquiries Invited) Telephone (213) 328-9560 tember 1, but stay tuned to this planet. OO .

Titles and quotes with a doubie-take twist coruiPETiTioru By Scot Morris

This contest called not for true 'An Instance of the Pitfalls Prevalent in "Bosco Milk Amplifier. Real Chocolate originality or creativity but for an Graveyard Research." (R. J. Myers, Flavored Syrup/Anif.cialiy Flavored." eagle eye and a sense of the Biometrics, 1963, 19, 643-50.) (Label on a jar of chocolate-milk mix.) absurd. We were looking for passages and — David Rudderow, Wilmington, Del. —James Henriques, Tallahassee, Fla. titles that would cause a reader to do a double-take. "The Unsuccessful Ss i -Treatment of a HONORABLE MENTION:

Considered off the mark were; (1) Case of 'Writer's Block.' " (Dennis Upper, "The concept of the bladder as an inert obvious misprints ("for sale; Two Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, container of urine no longer holds water." bedroom cabin with naughty pine walls."); 1974, 7, 497. The article contains no text (Conclusion in Lancet, 1973, //, 1425.) (2) absent-minded headlines ("World's and no references, but is accompanied by —Evan Rudderow, Wilmington, Del.

Largest Galaxy," "John Wayne Discusses "Comments by Reviewer A," calling it "the

His Life with Barbara Walters"); (3) most concise manuscript I have ever "The Contribution of the Mule to Scientific newspaper double-entendres from sloppy seen— yet it contains sufficient detail to Thought." (Article by R. V Short, J. (or sly) prooireading ("Grandmother of allow other investigators to replicate Dr. Reprod, Pert., Suppl., 1975, 23. 359-64.) Eight Makes Hole in One" and "Club Upper's failure," along with the reviewer's —Terry Ashley, Durham, N.C.

Hears Vegetable Talk"): (4) the gems of recommendation that it be published overworked headline writers ("Beetles Bug without revision.) "Penile Frostbite: An Unforeseen Hazard Bread Bakers and Bog Down Biologists"); —Ken Levasseur, Amherst, N.H. of Jogging." (Melvin Hershkowitz. M.D., in and (5) passages clearly intended as New England Journal of Medicine, satirical ("Write down everything you have "Members of the group holding lesser January 20, 1977.) forgotten," from "The Complete Memory academic rank were encouraged to — Richmond C. Frielund, Ann Arbor, Mich. Test," March Omni; "a running man travels capture and hold open the mouths of the faster than a walking man," from "Static two alligators while the more experienced "Environmental Conditions Inside a Gravity," April Omni). members obtained bacterial cultures." Burning Cigarette." (Richard R. Baker, What we enjoyed most was "laughing in (From Journal of the American Medical Analytical Calorimetry, 1977. 4, 193-202.) church": A passage is far funnier in the Association, 1971, 218, 255.) — Bryan R. Brown, Columbus, Ohio setting of a stuffy scientific journal, a — Jeff Doerner, Los Angeles, Calif. textbook, or an official government report "Plants in Heat." (By Roger M. Knutson in Natural than it is in a newspaper or a magazine. "NOTE: Complaints of discrimination History, March 1979, 42.) For serious collectors of such scientific because of age will be accepted only from — Lesley Willey, Hampden Highlands. silliness, we heartily recommend The persons who are at least 40 and not over Maine; and Bobby Woody, Blbuntville, Journal of Irreproducible Results, official 65 years of age at the time the alleged Tenn. organ of the Society for Basic discriminatory act occurred." (Notice in VA Irreproducible Research, P.O. Box 234, Employee Newsletter, December 2, 1974.) "Scheduled plane crash near New Hope,

Chicago Heights, Illinois 6041 1 — E. Allyn Yount, Danville, Ind. Ga." (Entry in Accident Facts: 1978 Edition, by the National Safety Council.) GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($100): "Mental Travel; Some Reservations." — G. N. Prideaux, New York, N.Y "Port Noise Complaints: Verbal and (Article by Charles L. Richman, David B. Behavioral Reactions to Airport-Related Mitchell, and J. Steven Reznick, Journal of 'Air Pollution in Art and Literature." (By R Noise." (Fred E. Fiedler and Judith Fiedler, Experimental Psychology: Human Brimblecombeand C. Ogden, Weather, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1975, 60, Perception and Performance, 1979, 5, 1.) 1977, 32 (8): 285-91). 4,498-506.) —Andrew J. Rdzsa, Tallahassee, Fla. —PeterWellner, New Berlin. N.Y. —Jack Feldman, Gainesville, Fla. "Abdominal migraine — diagnosis and "Boys Who Menstruate and Later Become RUNNERS-UP ($25 EACH): therapy." (P. O. Lundberg, Headache, July Pregnant," (Archives of Environ- "The Doppler effecl can be demonstrated 1975, 15 (2), 122-25.) mental Health, 1970, 20, 302.) by placing a whistle in the end of a long — Belva Carter, Medical Lake, Wash. — Richard P. Karasik. Saratoga, Calif. piece of rubber tubing, and whirling the tube in a horizontal circle above the head "Stimulus Selection and Tracking During "The Tecopa pupfish has been removed while blowing the whistle." (From Urination: Autoshaping Directed Behavior from the endangered species list because Advanced Level Physics, Third Edition, by with Toilet Targels."(R. K. Siegel, J. Appl. it is extinct." (From the Waterbury 11, M. Nelkon and P Parker, 628.) Behavior Anal. , 197.7, 10, 255.) Republican, March 1979.) —Stephen Burridge, London, England —Richard P. Karasik, Saratoga, Calif. —Susan Murray, Waterbury, Conn. DO 138 OMNI

Australia's Greal Barrier Reef is the home of this copepod, a crustacean of the genus Sapphirina, here showing its distinctive protective coloration. One of the most common characteristics of the animal

mimicry, to ii warning, to advertise inedibility, 1 poisons, r '" -fl^Lfc' ^ ^ other harmful trait. Or it r^^ .1 elicit the "fight or flight" mechanism in • v. predators. The H copepod's outer body is composed of minute platelets that contain miniature grids, which act much like a diffraction H grating. In certain positions the animal appears transparent; in others, the lighl 1 hits these grids in such a way as to sho "' its warning colors. jt Peter Parks, of Oxford Scientific Films, took this photograph on a specially L^fc^^B Kit a J71 constructed optical bench, using a Nikon a body with special Zeiss optics, n-made tungsten lamps, and 1 Kodak Ektachrome film. DO we had to have a crisis, or the whole thing'd be just a goddamn documentary So we rlm ELEVISION had the spacecraft punctured by a meteor- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2i CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2$ ite, Shot the escaping fuel by injecting spaceships. In the Fifties the concept was some kind of red petroleum liquid into wa- the others. What they didn't reckon on was j unknown, "We didn't think of it. We were ter. Our knowledge and tricks weren't as the amazing success of Star Wars, which ' working with artists and designers who developed as they are now Von Braun helped every film in the summer of 1977, were still strapped to earthbound design wanted to use a 'bottle suit'—a mini-rocket and Bond more than others. With a larger- conceptions: streamlining and soft edges ship that had its own motors, arms, and so than-average effects budget, spectacular umbilical scenery, settled into to cut down on wind resistance. All we had forth. They wouldn't have an cord and Moore now the i to go by was the current thought of the time, to the ship, or even a lifeline. The little thing role, The Spy Who Loved Me. made over the Cottier's articles. We took things a little would have its own small servomotor or $100 million, beyond that, but not much. rocket at the bottom and a variety of tools "We really worked hard on that one," ' "Man in Space started off with an audi- that could snap on for various purposes. Meddings remarked. "There was that open- ence crash course in the history of rockets. "The third picture, Mars and Beyond, is ing parachute getaway of 3ond's from the

The approach was light since, if you're my favorite. It deals with more than space. It mountain, the supertanker's 'eating' of the dealing with history, you can generally covers the origins of life. Brought up in a submarines, and our marvelous Lotus un- teach more if you keep people interested. Protestant family where Heaven was up in derwater car. On the Bond pictures every- Space medicine was explained by Dr. the sky and the whole universe revolved thing is supposed to be done for real. So

Haber What would happen to a man in around us, especially Americans, who are whenever we can manage it, we shoot it as space? Then Willy Ley showed how the first better than anyone else, I never bought ii happens. Bur there are some situa: ons satellite would be put into space and why it that. I got a long letter after the first two that are impossible to re-create or that are views, as . . berating about our too risky to try." That's the would stay there. . When we actually shows, me where term spe- made our firs! manned trip into space, Von though space and what was up there were cial effects comes in. It's Meddings and Braun took over. President Eisenhower saw reserved for God alone. We got flak from all John Dykstra (Star Wars) and Douglas the show and called Walt personally and over, but we kept right on ahead. Trumbull (C/ose Encounters of the Third asked to have a print for the Pentagon. "In Mars and Beyond we started out Kind, Silent Running) making audiences "This was all before Sputnik, of course, again with a prelude of cartoons showing think something is really happening when and the pressures to beat the Russians into what everybody had said about the possi- it's being done through miniatures or other space were enormous for Von Braun. When bility of life on other planets, from La Fon- tricks of the trade. we started to work on our next show, Man taine to H. G. Wells. Then we got a little 'After I saw Sta: Wars arc- Close Encoun-

people ters, I lay at night -o out and the Moon, I was sent a Russian maga- more serious, showing what had awake rymg work

I zine, showing how man was going to land thought about the other planets, ending up how would have done them. When I finally

the likeliest to find other with in it on the moon. I put it upon my wall, and Von with Mars as place came up the way the end, was

Braun saw it one night. He read the scien- life forms. We went to the Lowell Observa- totally different, but I arrived at the same tific article that had come with the picture tory and looked through the facts there. sort of thing. * and turned to me rather seriously. 'Ward,' When it came to determining how we might "For instance, the original script called he said, 'looks like we'd better get started,' get to Mars, Von Braun suggested Dr. Ernst for a centrifuge. We were going to do it as a talking about the show, but really meaning Stuhlinger, who'd been working on miniature, but there was a lot of action that if we didn't do something soon, they'd atomic-particle rockets. We showed what it planned to take place around it. We ended beat us to the moon. would be like getting there, how long it up building a full-size working model. It "On our Man and the Moon show we took would take, and so on, based on their cal- couldn't go as fast as a real centrifuge. the same approach in the opening, giving a culations. When we finally made a landing, because we couldn't risk killing Moore. But history of our relationship with it. Stories we pondered what we might find. Well, we with camera speeds we got a terrifying, about the moon, legends, old wives' tales. were proved wrong by time, because the exciting sequence out of it." So the humor brought people in to listen. thrust system and the rocket actually used The centrifuge sequence may be excit- Then we went on to the problems of con- to get to Mars were totally different, and ing, but Moonrake's finale tops anything structing a space conveyor that would take when we got there, the surface was just ever done in the Bond series. "Bond man- man on the first trip around the moon. nothing like what we expected. Nobody ages to get aboard Drax's space station by That's where Von Braun came in again. We ever thought that the place would be cov- knocking out a guard and stealing a shut- were really getting into the hardware as- ered with craters. tle," Meddings said. "He's up there, fight- pects of constructing the first space wheel: "When we were working on the show, a ing off the Drax fighters, when the Ameri- flying parts up into orbit and assembling it few of us went out one night lo look at Mars can marines come to rescue him. It's like in the vacuum of space. Then we flew through a big nine-inch refractor tele- the cavalry arriving when the Indians are around the back side of the moon, which no scope. There was Von Braun and Willy Ley just about to get the upper hand, Well, the one had ever actually seen, and ended up and me and the guy who owned the tele- marines approach in their shuttle and pour

coming back to the space wheel. scope, Rex Bulhannon. And il was the first out to meet Drax's men, who launch them- "The inside of the ship wasn't quite as time Von Braun had seen Mars that close selves from the space station like scientific as the outside, because theory up. We had about five minutes when the parachutists. Except, of course,- they don't didn't go that far yet. We just rented a lot of cloud cover broke and we could see every- drop, they just float out to the action. hokey instruments from a guy in Hollywood thing. Dark spots. The polar caps. Every- There's a big battle in space, with men fir- and did our best, all with Von Braun's ap- one was excited and shouting, and Von ing lasers and being shot to pieces. You're proval, of course." When the show was Braun was so fascinated and thrilled that going to enjoy this one. You really are. people 'Well, what the made, it was thought that a rocket wouldn't he almost was jumping up and down. And "Some say, was be able to carry enough fuel for the round then the computers started going in his story about in the last Bond film, or this

trip to the moon and back to Earth, but head, and he got this faraway look in his one?' I just have to laugh, because every- "developments in horsepower and motors eyes. He started seeing ways of being able one should know by now that you're not went by leaps„and bounds afterwards, far to photograph Mars without the distortion going to see a story. It's the same mad plot beyond what even Von Braun thought." of a telescope, like from space itself. As we in every Bond film. With these, you're not The high point of the show was an EVA, a drove back to the hotel, we'd talk to him, going to learn the secret of life. You're going walk in space, which wouldn't be repeated and he'd answer but he'd be looking over to have your head and your eyes filled up

in real life for more than a decade. "I knew his shoulder at Mars as he did it." OO with magic." OO 142 OMNI o wou DYOU PAYTO-SE "HE FUTURE?

it . Would be worth a thousand dollars . .a million? Could you even putaprice on it? Now, with OMNI, the magazine of tomorrow, on sole today you can! And the price is right! In the knowledge that rheres so much to know learn, do and enjoy

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year s. Lib-scrip": on 12 issues).

Name Games for players, and Barttett's Unfamiliar Quotations

By Scot Morris

"it's as simple as tit-tat-toe, FORM, WASP, BRIM, TANK, SHIP, WOES. three-in-a-row, and as easy as playing The cards are placed face up on the table.

1 PENNY hooky. I should hope we can find a way and players take turns withdrawing cards that's a little more complicated than that, from the pile. The first person to hold three © of the same letter is the winner. Picking a HuckFinn." —Mark Twain, The Adventures of card to prevent one's opponent from get-

Huckleberry Finn f PENNY ting three of the same letter is, of course, part of a wise strategy. Can you discover

We have used [he word game rather a "system" for playing Hot? If both loosely in deciding what diversions to players make their best possible moves, include in this column. This month we stick ,' dime is the game a win for the first player, j to the strict sense of the word; games as a win for the second player, or a draw? contests. Here are some simple two- person arenas in which to test your powers NINE-CARD Select nine playing cards example— and take turns placing them on of strategic. reasoning. with ranks from ace to nine and place the 3-by-3 grid. If neither has won after all them faceup on the table. Players six counters are down, players may begin THE TIC-TAC VARIATIONS alternate picking cards with the object of moving counters. The movement rules can and Other Two-Person Games being the first to get three cards that add , vary in strictness only orthogonal, — up to 15. Is there an optimal strategy? Can adjacent-square moves may be allowed or You probably played your last tic-tac-toe you find a significant conceptual similarity moves along the grid's major diagonals game many years ago. Once you worked between this game and Hot? (Answer: or moves to any diagonal square. A out the optimal strategy and realized that page f 33.) free-for-all game allows moves to any two intelligent players must always draw, vacant cell. the game lost its challenge and appeal. So SLITHER. Another paper-and-pencil game you're unbeatable at ordinary tic-tac-toe. for two players. First draw 30 dots in a 5-by- BOUNDLESS TIC-TAC-TOE, Instead of Big deal! Here are seven variations on the 6 rectangular matrix. Players take turns confining moves to a 3-by-3 square, old three-in-a-row to give you a new players place their marks on a larger perspective. grid — a chessboard, for example—and allow moves to expand in all directions. They still aim to place their marks in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row. The

first player has an easy win if the object is WILDCARD TIC-TAC-TOE. Instead of to place two, three, or four counters in a having one mark X and the other 0, lei row, but if the goal is five in a row, the game players choose either sign, whichever is to is no longer trivial and begins to take some their advantage on a turn. The winner is unexpected shifts. This is an ancient the first to place three in a row of Oriental game that the Japanese call either kind. Go-moku ("five stones"), which they play on the intersections of a Go board. A WILDCARD TOE-TAC-TIC. A combination recent version of this game has been cast of the above. Players can mark either X or in plastic and is marketed as on any move, and the first to place three connecting orthogonal dots (no diag- "Pyramid— The Game of the Ages." in a row loses. In this variation either player onals). Once the slithering line is started. can force a draw it he knows the right you may add a segment to either end, HOT. Canadian mathematician Leo Moser moves. always forming a continuous line. The devised this game in which each word is player who is unable to make a move is the printed on a card: HOT, HEAR, TIED, DRAWBRIDGE. The standard tic-tac-toe loser The illustration shows the end of a rules apply, but one player tries to achieve typical game where no further moves are a draw while the other wins if either of E3 S§y f0y possible. So far, a winning strategy for them bridges three in a row. Slither has eluded us: It seems that games % {JjoSi are won about equally often by players MOVABLE MARKERS. Players have three G3 53 who move first and by those who move counters each—pennies vs. dimes, for ^ £gj second. ! a

MASTERWORDS. The tremendously ODD MATCH. Start with 1 5 matches in a COMPETITION #8: FUTURE BRANDS successful game Mastermind is now pile. Players alternate removing matches, available in pocket-sized travel versions, either one, two, or three per turn. The Who would have believed, a century deluxe professional models, and even object is to be holding an odd number of ago, that someday Americans would buy a electronic solitaire versions. The name and matches after the pile has been divvied soybean imitation of swine flesh, known to the colored-peg arrangement are new, but up. It makes no difference which player all as Bac-o-Bits? Or that there would be a the principle of the game is centuries old. takes the last match. sleep-inducing pill called Nytol? Or that a In one paper-and-pencil variant each service for reaming underground pipes player writes down a secret four-letter THE WORLD'S HARDEST QUOTES QUIZ would be offered under the trade name word, then tries to determine what the Roto-Rooter? other player's word is before his own is The results of our competition for In the twenty-first-century supermarket guessed. Players alternate guessing unusual quotes and titles appear on there will be products whose uses we can four-letter English words and respond to page 138. Below are some quotes that hardly imagine but whose brand names, each other's guesses by saying 1) how may look more familiar. Fill in the blank with no doubt, will have that familiar Madison many letters in the guessed word are also the original quotation. Scoring: correct = Avenue ring. The brand name for an in the target word and 2) how many of average; 1 correct = good; 2 = excellent; adolescence-inhibiting spansule will be as those are "hits," i.e., appear in the same 3 or more = superb! carefully chosen and as closely guarded position in both words. For example, if my Good luck. May the spirit of St. Bartlett as Turns, Coca-Cola, and Kleenex are word is mind and you guess game, I be with you today would say "One letter." If you guessed Space hucksters will give testimonials " for dime, I would say, "Three letters, one hit." If 1. "Pride goeth before Rockaway and Sans-a-beit, two of asteroid repellent. you guessed goat, I would say, "No (Proverbs, 16:18) competing brands letters." Combining this information with When they feel listless and weighted down what you learned from your first guess, you (Shakespeare. King John) after a long day on Jupiter, they'll crack would know that the one correct letter in 3. 'A little— __is a dangerous thing." open a bottle of Gravitonic, the hard soft game is either them or thee, (Pope, An Essay on Criticism) drink that lightens their load with anti-g " Players alternate guesses and record 4. "A penny for your bubbles. each other's responses. The first to (Heywood, Proverbs) Some other products we expect to see determine the opponent's word wins, 5. "Music hath charms to in the twenty-first-century supermarkets: though the round continues until both have soothe " (three words) Suspended-Animation-Eze — guessed correctly. Total the number of (Congreve, The Mourning Bride) long-term sleeping pill. guesses taken over several rounds to 6. "Imitation is the sincerest • Computer Tutor— a training program for determine the overall winner. You can flattery." (Coulton, The Lacon) underachieving robots. • make up for a devastating loss on one 7. "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you Pauling-Pops —vitamin C on a stick, round by achieving a few narrow wins no_ _." (Goldsmith, She Stoops to • Check Mate— a computer-controlled later. Subtract three guesses from your Conquer) chess partner. " score any time your opponent has given 8. "Give him an inch, he'll take • Easy Reader— automatic page-turning you incorrect or incomplete informalion (Ray, English Proverbs) machine. after a guess. 9. "Variety is the of life." • Euclidizer — space-straightening spray This game has an advantage overthe 1 • Preparation R—a lubricant for robots. • plastic version in that both players are II evil." Oedipus Pyrex — glass breasts for simultaneously active. With only one (I Timothy, 6:10) suckling test-tube babies. Mastermind set the coder has nothing to 11. "Water, water, everywhere, do but wait to respond to the seeker's next drop to drink." (Coleridge, Rime The Competition: Send two brand names guess. Also there is more strategy in of the Ancient Mariner) for products that will be available in the twenfy-first century. Postcards only, with thinking up a good code word consisting 12. "I only regret that I have of infrequently guessed letters. Players of but for my country." (Nathan two entries per card, postmarked by different skill levels can compete by Hale) August 15, 1979. All entries become the handicapping: While the beginner is trying 13. "Beggars choosers." property of Omni and will not be returned.

- to guess a three- or. four-letter word, the (Heywood, Proverbs) First-prize winner will receive $100. " experienced player can be trying to 14. "Winning isn't everything, Runners-up (2-10) will receive $25 each. unravel a five-letter word. Time limits can be (Vince Lombard!, to interviewer) Send entries to: OMNI Competition #8, imposed depending on players' sensitivity. (Answers: page 133) 909 Third Avenue, N.Y. N.Y 10022. DO "HE REM IAJDRD By Joyce McWilliams

the have enough strength to use the shift key) item: "One study indicates bug. The chorus of "La Cucaracha," he mews folk song, translates like this: was once a human, a lyric poet, but thai restlessness in cockroaches Mexican migrated into a can foreshadow an earthquake." "The cucaracha, the cucaracha/doesn't died, and his soul olher want to walk/because she hasn't/oh, no, cockroach's body, archie, among If earthquakes can be predicted by things a philosopher, says, "alas observing the "restlessness" of she hasn't/marijuana to smoke." pathos of Cucaracha is. Spanish for "cock- exclamation point/the cockroaches, it might be well for us to but there is some disagreement as ugliness/is only perceived/by us examine in detail in what manner roach," If are of this song. Some say it cockroaches of the world." you cockroaches exhibit their restlessness. to the meaning this, perhaps you will it means "the moved by friends, We should ask ourselves the following doesn't mean "cockroach"; other authorities hesitate the next time you want to crush a questions: When a cockroach is restless, little dancer." And underfoot. Be kind to a suggest it means "a little, dried-up old cockroach does it stare moodily out of the window? cockroach, for it might be another Rod maid." Still others say it means as much as Does it pace back and forth and sigh? "Mairsie Doats" does. There may be some McKuen. Does it swilch channels on the television in his truth the theories that women are Also, archie expresses his pride set every three minutes? Does it wring its to (ihough why is "a dried-up heritage as a cockroach when he says, little feelers? Doe's jt scuttle to the involved here Conversely, "insects were insects/when man was only medicine cabinet to get a Valium tablet? qld maid" smoking marijuana? found why not?) because out ot the song's eight a burbling whatisit." Here we have Does it experience difficulty sleeping? There is also the crux of the matter. Once more, We do not have answers to any of these verses, six deal with women. in Mexico are literature has shown us the way. The questions yet, but this news item is worth a sfory that cockroach races cockroach goes back 300 million years. looking into, for anything that can alert us held in bars. that cockroaches are The cockroach was around before flies to an impending earthquake can save It is quite possible mosquitoes, to say nothing of people. splintered crockery, shattered real estate, somehow connected with marijuana. The and these 300 million years the and broken heads. Therefore, trying to roach clip, for example, is the well-known And in cockroach has not seen fit to change one establish rapport with a cockroach may be clothespinlike device that is used to bit. Cockroaches lived in the dank forests more rewarding than rapping with a smoke a joint down to the end. It could be marijuana tesled on primeval and, showing great powers of dolphin. What, after all, would one say to a 'that in the past was adaptation, moved on into the tract houses dolphin? cockroaches fin bars) before it was used when the forests primeval were cut down However, one of the difficulties of for human consumption and that it was and changed into $150,000 four-bedroom, examining the changing moods of learned thai marijuana, if it was not not harmful Ihree-bath-plus-family-room primeval cockroaches for scientific purposes (or for combined with saccharin, was never know. estates. any purpose, for that mailer) is that to cockroaches. You It boggles the mind, doesn't it, when cockroaches are principally nocturnal. In literature we have Franz Kafka's shorl tale of the one thinks that the cockroach has lived This means that we will have to make our story "Metamorphosis," a through it all the rise and the fall of the observations at night, when the bizarre and the grotesque (you probably — dinosaurs, the invention of the wheel and cockroaches are up and about. wouldn't feel so smug if you were a is: Gregor the skateboard, the French Revolution, the We could cheat and set up an artificial cockroach) whose first line "As Industrial Revolution, the Sexual environment for observing the Samsa awoke one morning from a Revolution. The cockroach careened restlessness of cockroaches, i.e., we troubled dream, he found'himself around under the great tree ferns so long could keep the lights on them all night so changed in his bed to some monstrous kind of vermin." Poor Gregor, through no ago there wasn't even any television. It they would think it is daytime, and we into would follow, therefore, that the cockroach could keep them in a little box that has fault of 'his own, was metamorphosed overnight. imagine knows something that we don't know. It Utile windows and miniature shades that a cockroach You can he chose knows wha! to do with its spare time. And it can be pulled down in the daytime so that the problems Gregor faced. So survive. By keeping its we could study Ihem when we're awake. to solve his problems by dying. The only knows how to antennae to the ground, it knows such This might not work to our advantage, other things necessary to know about that "everything is illusion" (we elementary things as when an earthquake however. It might leave the cockroaches Kafka are that is about to occur. So it becomes restless. sleepy, irritable, and listless, and we are all cockroaches?) and will never be Hence, we have only to observe it closely, wouldn'l be able to fell when they were "Metamorphosis" probably and when we notice that it won't eat, that it restless and consequently wouldn't know made into a musical play. is taking naps at night, and that it is when an earthquake was coming. Then, we find the cockroach archie, in up all hours of the day, it is time we Perhaps an examination of the Don Marquis's archie and mehitabei. staying capital letters when a take the china off the shelves and move to. cockroach in song and story could give us archie (no because typewriter, it not Wyoming. DO clues as to how to approach this elusive cockroach uses a does