EXCLUSIVE! MYSTERY OF THE SPHINX'S AGE mm s m INSIDE Tl tfhfc« ON BIOTECH INVESTING ELECTROI BY TERRY BISS onnruiVOL.14 NO. 11 AUGUST 1992 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT & C.O.O.: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE DARK SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM DEPARTMENTS FEATURES _ First Word Continuum By Bob Kreek Comedy: It makes life Behind the Screen worth living. at Mystery V: Science Theatre 3000 Communications By Marion Long Readers' writes Comedy Central's hottest 10 show stars Funds robots and terrible movies. By Linda Marsa :\ Big profits in biotech Dark Bogs, DNA, and the Mummy Political Science By Gurney Williams III By Tom Dworetzky Modern science Building unlocks the secrets of information highways bodies 18 from a Florida bog. Mind .:- :. By Joan Griffiths A Modern Riddle of What does *^1 the Sphinx jPfe*^ A A your brain do when you By Robert M. Schoch hear a joke? How old is the 20 Sphinx? 4,500 years, say Style Jem Egyptologists. By David Arneke Try 7,000, says a geologist. Old sneakers get a 52 second wind. Fiction: Two from the Future 22 .-:k. Guys Arts By Terry Bisson By Judith Bell They're only here for High-voltage paintings the art. /: 57 Electronic Universe Interview By Gregg Keizer Do alien cultures have humor? What passes for By Denise Meola Waging war via computer comedy where the starships in Chris Performance artist Rachel 84 Moore's cover illustration come from? Perhaps Rosenthal Games the human race alone possesses turns chaos into art. By Scot Morris the ability to create jokes and to laugh. (Additional New ways to get around art and photo credits, page 70) Anti-Matter OMNI (ISSN 0149-8711) is published monthly in [he United States and Canada by Omni Pu&ficatlons fnternafenal Ltd., 1965 Broadway, New York. NY 10023-5965. Second-class postage paid at New York, NY. and at additional mailing offices. POSTMAS- 1 TER: Send address changes to Omni Magazine, Post Office Box 3041 , Harlan, IA 51537-3041 . Vfolume 14, Number 1 . Copy-jjSj, right © 1991 by Omni Publications International Ltd. All rights reserved. TeM -800-289-6664; (212) 496-6100. OMNI is a^Z7 registered trademark of Omni Publications International Ltd. Printed in the USA by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Inc. and distributed in the USA. Canada, United States territorial possessions, and the world (except Australia and the UK) by Curtis Circulation Compa- ny, 433 Hackensack Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Distributed in Australia by The Horowitz Group. P.O. Box 306, Cammeray NSW 2062 Australia and in the UK by Northern and Shell Pic, P.O. Box 381 , .Millharbour, London E14 9TW. Entire contents copyrighted. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Any similarity between places or persons mentioned in the fiction or semifiction and real places or persons living or dead is coiricktental. Subscniji'o-is: U.S., AFO—$24 one year; Canada and elsewhere—$28 one year. Single copies $3.50 in U.S., AFO, and Canada. Telephone: 1-800-289-6664. The publisher disclaims all responsibility to return unsolicited matter, and all rights in portions thereof remain the sole property of Omni Publications International Ltd. Letters sent to Omni or its editors become the property of the magazine. — — FIRST WORD COMiCS ONLY: Something funny this way comes By Bob Kreek first rule of comedy in two words—but you'd be real- (My wife achieves this effect by The if I it all comparing our salaries.) So who (and love) is not to exa- ly bored blew now and mine it. The second rule then spent the rest of my time tell- can we turn to? Do you know the is written in ancient, undecipher- ing you about my little girls Caro- story about Pagliacci? This man able hieroglyphics and is there- lyn and Katherine. Today's world goes to see a doctor, says he fore incomprehensible, but the is saturated by all forms of media, feels that the weight of the world third rule— and this is the kicker and it's only getting worse. Chan- is going to crush him, that he's go- is that comedy should break the nels that feature "All News," "All ing insane and feels so terribly rules. This leaves us with (A) a par- Court," "All Shopping"; where do alone. The doctor thinks, then adox and (B) a few pretty pic- we pause to laugh? To enjoy our- says, "I know just what you tures of Pharaohs feeding birds selves? And, above ail, to escape need. The great clown Pagliacci for no apparent reason other the fact that Quayle is our vice is in town tonight; if anything will than that was the easiest thing to president? That's why a comedy cure your blues, it's him." The capture in granite. network is the perfect solution for man begins crying. "Doctor," he So why comedy? Why a need a healthier way of life. sobs, "I am Pagliacci." If only the for Comedy Central, the only all- Higher taxes. Civic strife in East- doctor had had Comedy Central, comedy network that features not ern Europe. Saddam Hussein. maybe Pagliacci would have just classics like Saturday Night Couple this with a new season of been a lot happier. Live and Ernie Kovacs but hys- Beverly Hills 90210 and it's easy Comedy Central's influence is terical new shows like Whose to understand why suicide and, much farther reaching than you Line Is It Anyway? and The A- worse, Karaoke are fast becom- might think. All the comics them- Listl And above all, why can't ing the answer to the insanity of selves are watching us. But ever the "We've got the I find a cab when it rains? the late twentieth century. You're have you wondered how technology All these questions, except for science buffs (I'm a big Star President himself unwinds? Okay, and the talent," the cab thing, can be answered Trek fan if this helps me relate okay. I've heard it said he has a says vice any better) —you know the import- job that occasionally keeps him president Kreeft, ance of being able to heave a col- busy, but what about when he's "which is why lective social sigh at the madness not? We're pretty sure that he's we've got Comedy modern civilization imposes. watching Comedy Central. But Central." Laughter, apart from in my of- that's only half the reason for our fice, belongs everywhere. We existence. We're not just a deli- should be able to laugh at our cious anesthetic. We'll make you problems, at each other, and think. We'll make you re-evaluate. most importantly, at ourselves. And we'll do it all by making you These are the strides we at Com- laugh. The geat comic minds of edy Central wish to make (well, our time perform on our network, that's what they tell me) —to allow and more often than not, it's their a country to rediscover laughter opinions that are the hardest hit- (or at the very least the Post Of- ting. We're what makes the fact fice). Mystery Science Theatre that David Duke nearly became 3000 is a perfect example of Louisiana's governor easier to han- this. Even the premise is goofy: dle — and we're not afraid to tell A man and his two robot compan- you why. Laughter— it's what ions are stranded in space and makes the world go round (apart are forced to watch terrible B- from the physics stuff, but I movies. And do you know why failed chemistry in hie!" school, this programming works? Be- and that's a subject you know a cause it's funny! It understands great deal more zz-zj: ra" i). that whatever is standing in your Comedy. Comic iefef. That's r "~~ way—be it a monster or a mon- where we' e:r z "hat's strous economy— is best dealt what w" sa.e :_- =:-s. the with by laughter. world, a'z ::_:= zesszj make Come evening, after a hard miss'" i :^i " -^ =- = .vhole day's work, we all need to laugh. lo:e=sV:: :~ r DO ™ I I 35 m B I 98 I cannnnuriJicATioms editor_in chief & publisher B KATHY KEETON . president & C.O.O, ' READERS' WRITES: OMN! PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD. The power of positive thought, investing environmentally, THE CORPORATION and art for health's sake Rob Gucdone {chairman of the board- &.C.E-.-O.Y Kathy Keeton (vice chairman) David J. Myerson (president & C.O.O.) William F, Marlieb {president, marketing., , sates, and circulation) Patrick J. Gavin {senior v.p., C.F.O.) Mind Matters fuse to pollute. This is a clipping I shall Anthony J. Guccione. {secretary-treasurer) "Men- save and talk to my friends about. I I especially enjoyed your article John Evans (president, foreign editions such an en- :.. tal Muscle" in the May 1992 Omni. I am thank Omni for publishing (senior v.p., admin, services) . Winston Jeri living proof that the concepts set forth vironmentally aware article that sane, very do- EDITORIAL in this article are valid. Since I was sounds practical, and Ed:tc Cms': Bob Guecione; Editor: Keith Ferral-; Man- for lot of us. m eight years old, I have had diabetes. able a c -j/ig Ediio Carli ie Duf t W. Hoffman I wouldn't live to see my Charles Weintraub; Senior Editor: Murray Co-- -yy-r: R^R Doctors said ;.