COMPUCOP: PUTTING THE BYTE ON CRIME

[Willi
CELEBRITY
J
THE ZOO
INVENTIONS
SPECIAL
 —

onnnji
VOL. 12 NO. 11 AUGUST 1990

EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE

PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON
EDITOR: PATRICE ADCROFT
GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO
MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE FOX
ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FUNCHUM

8 20
First Word Body
By Art Agnos By Kathleen McAuliffe
Earthquakes could topple If your ulcer
any number of has been acting up lately,
U.S. cities, so shouldn't
we be prepared?
V __ ^^_
_^g^ft I^H^k
!^W
maybe
than your job that's bugging
it's more

San Francisco's mayor

his
Agnos offers
advice on preventive
measures.

12
w*^-?S^^ ^^H

'
you. Medical
researchers have found
a bacterium that
may cause those painful
gut reactions.

Omnibus
The Who's Who
of contributing authors.
mMaja^^
W -i^^^z
^^^^KBp
L^^^^^^ W
•%• 'm By Jessica Speart
22
Earth

14 W^r^- -^^*m The cold war: Freezing

Communications m., --^ ,M eggs, sperm,

^^ ^
and embryos is becoming
Readers' writes.
^a=- 5=sfct_ the latest tactic
the battle to replenish

*^^m
in
16 the planet's
Forum endangered species.
Congressman Bob Wise
25
and Compute
magazine's Peter Scisco
1
w,
^^^^r Continuum
offer their views
on computer privacy and
the right to
-j ^ is
Who's certifying that
organic produce
100 percent natural?
access personal data. Out of touch?
The English now have
18 scientific proof
Space Cover art: Stanislaw Femandes that physical contact can
By Joseph Baneth Allen has received many electrical shocks. His be pleasurable.
Knitting, weaving. airbrush-and-watercolor painting The blind leading the
and ceramics —no, these Live captures those thrills of energy "the
— Bat sonar
blind:
aren't summer incredible feeling you can for the sight impaired?
camp classes; they're the do anything, like skydiving, like riding a Caressing, stroking,
future of our motorbike, (ike being alive'" and other stimuli that
nation's space program. says Femandes, an international artist. stunt growth.

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07601 Dstnbuted m the U K ryCOMAG ':v.-!;\<;:i. Horn We^i iisytcn. orxtvi. L;B7 'QE. England. Entire contents copyrighted. i I

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 34
onnrw 65
Crime Bytes Back Antimatter
By Linda Marsa Look up in the sky! More
and Don Ray than 50 people
Kids playing cops looked, including a space
and robbers in the next research scientist,
century are more but no one can explain the
likely to be armed with a mystery cloud.
laptop computer Nuts and volts: Will the
than a gun. Whether it's computer become
espionage,
theft, the crystal ball for high-
or sabotage, technology lech soothsayers?
will change the The French are leaping
way crimes are committed from cliffs and
and the way bridges — not for love
they're combated. but for fun.
Heavenly inspiration:
40 A physician has
Trouble in Paradise assembled an entire Bible
By Peter Gorman library on computer
Trips through Ihe Amazon disc, because God asked
jungle finally him to do it.

led Gorman to the Matses,

an Indian tribe 108
who are still hunter- Games
gatherers. But By Scot Morris
the thrill of finding a Try and match up famous
native people people and their
is now dampened — his little-known inventions.
enthusiasm was
not only infectious but no
almost fatal. Star Tech
By Joe Aquene
44 Picks from the Consumer
Fiction: The Catch Electronics Show.
By Robert Silverberg 50 58
The peaceful new world Pictorial Interview 112
seemed too good Once Upon a Time in By Bill Lawren Last Word
to be true. The soil was America What an adventure to roam By Roberto Santiago
rich, the weather By Bob Berger the earth, stand Whose grandmother
temperate, the natives American ingenuity is atop volcanoes, or delve started those
unobtrusive. Just evident in the miles below the universal myths about the
the kind of place you designs and mechanics of sea, but for geochemist horrible things that
would want to the nineteenth- Harmon Craig happen to kids who use
settle, or so it seemed. century patent models. it's all in a day's work. four-letter words?

SPECIAL SECTION: PAGE 75

Introducing Omni's new sister publication,
Compute. The complete magazine of home computing.
Compute offers you news and views, from the
software and hardware to notes from the hacker
latest in
underground. This preview features game
reviews, interviews with computer scientists, plus info
for Macintosh, Amiga, and DOS users.
 An earthquake could wreak havoc "on
a scale never experienced from a
natural hazard in the history of this
nation," predicts a recent study
United States Geological Survey
(USGS). The next "big one,"
seismologists say, may not happen in
Los Angeles or San Francisco or
anywhere else in California but could
occur along a little-known and mostly
forgotten fault line in Missouri.
USGS investigation also says that 39
states face the threat of a major quake
(from a variety of fault lines running
throughout the country). At risk: many
big cities, from New York to Seattle.
Nearly every U.S. city is vulnerable to
some form of natural disaster. Floods,
hurricanes, earthquakes, and forest
fires claim lives and threaten property
every year. Yet local officials, burdened
with daily crises such as homeless-
ness, AIDS, and drug abuse, postpone
disaster planning.
Earthquake preparedness has never
IAJDRD
By Art Agnos
been a passing fancy in San Francis-
co. Every April 18—the anniversary of
the devastating 1906 quake
firemen,
police,
and other emergency person-
—
nel take part in drills to sharpen their
responses in case oi a real disaster. In
^Nearly every U.S. addition, each year San Francisco's
community is vulnerable fire fighters assist schools and hospitals
inconducting evacuation procedures.
to natural disaster.
Throughout the city, firemen also teach
Yet local officials, burdened citizens first aid, search and rescue
with crises such techniques, and instruct junior high
school students in how to perform cardio-
as homelessncss, AIDS. pulmonary resuscitation.
and drug abuse. These annual drills serve to override
our denial mechanism, to remind us that
postpone disaster planning.^ San Francisco rests between two major
'ault lines, the San Andreas and the
hayward faults, either of which could
violently shift without warning. Though
people in other parts of the country
may not feel the need to prepare
na'ural disaster, as we do in
nss of life and destruction would be
greatly reduced in other cities if some
orotective measures were taken before
no onset of a crisis situation.
Much of the damage to private
omperty inSan Francisco Bay Area
the
lorn the October 17 Loma Prieta earth-
quake occurred in the Marina and
South of Market neighborhoods. Many
bf ck apartment buildings erected on
landfill in the early 1900's suffered
extensive damage as the landfill Settled
dii-ing the tremor. Old, unreinforced
brick buildings are the structures that
usjally kill people in California earth-
auakes. A collapsing facade of one
rujrh building killed six pedestrians on
South of Market Street last October,
Seismic experts now believe that rel-
atively inexpensive retrofitting or sup-
per! systems could have prevented the
.tensive damage in the. Marina and
Scuth of Market neighborhoods. Retro-
' trmg
that can help prevent s
damage to older buildings -: .-;
bolting wood frames to the fc-^ro=non,
adding steel connectors to lou-xia-
by the tion girders and posts, and ass ng "ein-
forcement panels to the stem and
foundation walls under the stn,ct_"e.
While securing city buildings a
earthquake damage, engineers
housing experts, and economists -vjst
determine the benefits of each
The structural alteration against a variety of
factors. Will retrofitting an old brick
structure ensure its stability against
earthquakes of varying degrees? How
many lives will be saved. by these
changes? And what social and financial
costs will each upgrade create?
None of these questions would be
critical if seismologists could predict
exactly when and where an earthquake
was going to strike. Unfortunately,
though seismic technology has vastly
improved since the time of the 1906
quake, scientist's still haven't devel-
oped instruments to forecast the proba-
bilityof an earthquake in the way they
can predict a hurricane
mologists monitoring faults across the
country, however,hope
or flood. Seis-
to one day
discover the warning signs believed to
occur before a quake hits.
In the meantime, home owners and
renters should examine their buildings
forearthquake hazards. Exterior
chimneys can be the most dangerous
part of otherwise safe residences.
Depending on^a chimney's location*
size, and age, might need to be
it
reinforced. Water heaters should be
secured to a wall to prevent fire and
water damage that can occur when a
gas line is broken by a falling water
heater. Bookshelves should also be
bolted to a wall so they don't toppie;
San Francisco responded to the
October earthquake with selflessness.
for a Automobile and bus drivers got out
California, of their vehicles to direct traffic through
intersections without signal lights.
Citizens became volunteer fire fighters
as they rushed water hoses from the
cityS fireboat in the Bay to burning
buildings blocks away. Strangers
helped the injured get to hospitals for
treatment. And crime declined.
Public officials like to issue assur-
ances that be taken care
everyone will
of in a major disaster.
the aftermath of
In the best of cases may happen,
that
but it would be irresponsible to cre-
ate a false sense of security. During
a natural disaster people should expect
to be on their own- for 48 to 72 hours.
We live in an age of 24-hour news.
when other people's tragedies come
to life across our television screens Bi .-.
regularity, dulling our sense of vul-
nerability. But disasters don't happen
only to other people. They can. and
do, happen to us. Be prepared OO
Art Agnos is mayor of San Franaeot,
 Qnnruii
From cloak-and-dagger dinners
•
tocannibals and territorial tigers, our writers
traverse the earth for a good story
will

A | hether they're sifting The irony: Somewhere in its bow- utes to Psychology Today, Nation-

UU I

previously
I through investigative
reports or exploring
unknown cultures,
els,the FBI has a file on Marsa
from her former student radical
years. Nowadays, however, the
al Wildlife,
Sitting in
and The Scientist
a tiny office in a tiny
building. Jessica Speart inter-
Omni writers brave new paths. In revolutionary child of the Sixties viewed the Cincinnati Zoo's
"Crime Bytes Back" (page 34), writeson finance, health, and oth- Betsy Dresser (Earth, page 22).
writers Linda Marsa and Don Bay er issues in the pages of Family "And when she went to pour my
Contributors, combine forces in their tale of Circle, Redbook, The Los Ange- coffee," Speart says, "we were so
clockwise from cops and robbers: To uncover les Times, and other publications. immersed in conversation that
top left: the facts, Marsa sometimes Marsa's cohort in crime Ray she almost grabbed the wrong
Peter Gorman, dined in dark corners and seclud- lives like a true-life detective. Au- container and it was like, 'Oops!'
BillLawren, ed restaurant booths with high- thor of A Public Record Primer: I didn't even want to know what
Kathleen level government officials. Being An Handbook (ENG
Investigator's was in Speart is a travel writ-
I't."

McAulifie, fed "off the record" comments Press) and a reporter for NBC, er who has also been published
Linda Marsa, and anecdotes she couldn't use, CBS, and ABC, Bay has instruct- in Reader's Digest.
and Jessica Marsa says, " kept waiting for the
I
ed LA police officers in the art of Where does one go to relieve

sky to open jp and swallow me." creative crime investigation. those gnawing stomach pains
Peter Gorman known as ulcers7 Kathleen McAu-
("Trouble in Para- liffe (Body, page 20) has come

dise," page 40) of- up with her own surefire remedy.

ten goes beyond "A week's dose of blueberry pan-
the usual tourist cakes and lobster in Maine
routes, seeking worked for me," quips McAuliffe.
out landscapes of Currently in fine form, McAuliffe
strange and haunt- has been plagued with an ulcer
ing beauty in condition for years perhaps a re- —
South America, In- sult of her being a frequent con-
dia, and other ex- tributor to Omni? Formerly a se-
otic places. While nior writer for U.S. News and
not living on the edge, Gorman World Report, McAuliffe has also
writes for The Earth First! Jour- written for The New York Times
nal, World, and the Organization Magazine and Reader's Digest.
of American States' Americas. "As a child, thought my tin I

Misadventure seems to find Jo- can telephone was an original

seph Baneth Allen (Space, page idea," says Bob Berger ("Once Up-
18) against his will. While on his on a Time in America," page 50).
first journalism assignment, Allen "We all invent things to make our
was mistaken for an international lives easier, but the early patent
antiques thief and detained for models are fascinating because
three hours. On another occa- they seem so childlike." Berger is
sion, a close encounter with a fe- a musician and singer as well as
male tiger resulted in the feline's a playwright, having won the
spraying urine all over the unsus- 1988 Eugene O'Neill award for
pecting journalist. Allen has writ- his screenplay titled Gas.
ten for Final Frontier, USA Today, Five-time award-winner
Nebula
and The State. Robert Silverberg ( "The Catch,"
"Harmon Craig may be the page 44) has edited the presti-
last of the swashbuckling scien- gious anthology series New Di-
tists," says Bill Lawren (Interview, mensions (Harper & Bow) for
page 58), who fondly recalls his many years. He and his wife. Kar-
exhausting meetings with the en Haber, recently also became
geochemist. "He is a force of na- the coeditors of the Universe 1
ture. Asking him a question is anthology series (Daubteday). Sil-
like uncorking a hydrothermal verberg is the author of At Win-
vent; the answers flow on and on ter's End and The Ne» Spring-
and on...." Lawren also contrib- time (Warner Books) DO
 '

cDnnnnuruicATorus
READERS' WRITES:
From the halls of politics to
the halls of medicine

Well Worth ihe Wail of the day-to-day frustrations of rising

I must tell you that am duly impressed
I
costs" and a better understanding of
with your amazing magazine. Omni has legislation concerning underprivileged
fast become one of my true passions. children.To propose that on the basis
The have is that read it
only problem I I
ofgender alone women have a more
cover to cover within two days and it comprehensive ken of these issues is
seems ;ike an eternity before the next preposterous. Men and women are
issue arrives. Your staff of brilliant equally capable in a" areas, including
authors and reporters has quite a knack politics. As Schneider says, it's high
for grabbing the reader by the brain. time that more women break into the
The topics are never blase or passe\ national government scene. But
Schneider must realize that it will be
which guess is why eagerly anticipate
I I

the arrival of each issue. because of women's knowledge in all

Kimberley Dennis areas. If she continues to say that
Waterbury, CT women have a clearer understanding in

certain areas, she only delays the

Leave You Laughing inevitable acceptance of women in all

Although Omni is far from being a areas of life.

comic strip, the humor in your magazine Brian Smith

is as delightful as a Sunday morn- Sudbury, MA
ing spent with the comics. The sarcas-
tic (and occasionally sardonic) quips Joy Can Come in the Mourning
in the Continuum section, as well as the I was amused but not shocked by the
cartoons throughout the magazine, "drive-by body viewing" option of
contribute to Omn/'s unique character. involved funeral parlors [Antimatter,
Thanks for the laughs! May 1990]. And people thought sliced
Don Carteaux bread was convenient! What next?
Republic of the Marshall Islands When people drop dead, will we be
able to view them in the convenience of
Microkillers our own homes via a computer mo-
Cheers to you and Kathleen McAuliffe dem? Perhaps those who cannot afford
for"The Killing Fields" [May 1990], computers will have a telephone-
an excellent piece of work. found it I television option that will let them dial
very insightful and truly cognizant 1-300-thedead, key in the deceased's
of a problem of which few are aware, Social Security number, and the body
Although we have had many tech- willappear on their TV screen. Who-
nological advances in the past few dec- ever said saying good-bye can't be fun?
ades, as well as advances in med- Maria J. Pisano
icine and its practice, we have yet to Jersey City, NJ
conquer the explosive proliferation
of new viruses, wonder what kinds of
I Typos Run Their Course
advances these once-cultivated In reference to your article "FY A Su- I,

diseases have made. Maybe it's time perlative Guide to the Hows and Wise"
to introduce these diseases to our [April 1990], the listing under Colo-
new advances instead of vice versa. rado Free University — "Art The
Brut:
Julee Lamb Untamed Expression of the Uncon-
Downey, CA scious" — is actually an offering of Arche-
typos, a Jungian dream study center.
Women Belong in the House and Senate Although we have offered the course
I have always found OrnniXo be a under the Colorado Free University
fascinating, intriguing, and invigorating several times, those interested should
magazine. The First Word by Represen- contact Archetypos, 807 East Tenth
Claudine Schneider in the May
tative Avenue, Denver, CO 80218.
1990 issue fulfilled my expectations. I
Claudine Y. Jeanrenaud
was shocked, however, when she said Director, Archetypos
women have "firsthand knowledge Denver DQ
 FDRunn
PLAYING THE DATA GAME:
A congressman and a computer magazine
editor choose sides over privacy
you charge to
Everything
your credit cards— along
with your buying prefer-
ences, residential address, and
perhaps your phone number is — check the Social Security num-
stored somewhere on a comput-
er. Should this information be avail-
able to anyone who wants it? We
asked Congressman Bob Wise
(D-West Virginia) and Peter Scis-
co, editor of Compute magazine,
Are we In good for their views.
hands? With
more and more CONGRESSMAN BOB WISE
information As becomes easier to gath-
it
er and manipulate material
about people so that you can de-
on o
velop profiles of those people,
must ask questions. What is
appropriate balance for the
should we have of federal and, in particular, per-
the right to sonal data, and who will monitor
control who the flow of data? There is no one
place— or person— in Congress
that daily looks at the federal
role in privacy and what's happen-
ing with federal information.
The federal government not on-
ly has more and more access but
also the ability to centralize infor-
mation. The question then be-
comes, Should this accumulated
information be available to busi-
nesses? For instance, think our
I
Government Information, Justice,
and Agriculture subcommittee
"
was instrumental stopping
in
the TRW Corporation [a credit
bureau] from letting the Social
Security Administration (SSA)
bers that TRW had for millions of
people. We felt that was not a
proper role for the SSA.
I don't think people fully
ciate what is happening
gathering and data use today.
For example, by filling out a rou-
tine questionnaire card at the su-
permarket, they've gotten them-
selves put into a system that can
become part of huge databases
readily available on computer
we reels. You're talking about millions
the ofnames, with more than 1 00 cat-
use egories into which people are clas-
sified. That's a sweeping accumu-
lation of data.
From a consumer marketing
standpoint people may want
that, but can this information be
used otherwise? For instance, by
campaign consultants trying to tar-
get people for elections? Would
you want that information bought
by the FBI? I'm not trying to
make a value judgment, but
must look at what we want so we
can prepare ourselves.
The Data Protection Advisory
Board we are proposing will con-
stantly be dealing with issues
that come up, trying to look at all
and advise Congress as
sides,
well as the private sector. It may
be that the advisory board,
through its develops leg-
activities,
islation that Congress adopts. But
at this point, it's not a regulatory
board. We're not really talking
appre- about constraints as much as try-
indata ing to establish guidelines.
PETER SCISCO
Two hundred years ago, a few
American revolutionaries penned
theBill of Rights. They could not
have imagined the forms or in-
tensity of the information that
faces us every day. Even so,
they understood the power of
free access to and dissemination
of that information. And they
used that understanding to pro-
tectthemselves from tyranny.
Technological advances have
taken us into a new world of infor-
mation. Computer networks, sat-
ellite communications, fax ma-
—
chines these are the weapons
of democracies worldwide. Infor-
mation has become a valuable
commodity of the postmodern
age. Legislation should not halt
what has become both a stan-
dard business practice and a man-
ifestation ofour rights.
At the same time, banks, retail-
ers,and local governments are col-
lecting an enormous storehouse
of factsabout American consum-
ers.The release of those data to
sophisticated information ped-
dlers causes just concern and
has prompted legislation de-
signed to curb unrestricted ac-
cess and use of that information.
But restricting access on any lev-
el could revoke the privileges we
enjoy as Americans.
The rise of personal technolo-
gy is affecting every citizen, call-
we ing for the surrender of partial
privacy for the bounty of true
democracy. Now is the time to
see if we can live up to the guar-
antee we drew for ourselves two
centuries ago. DQ
 HEAVENLY FEATS OF CLAY:
Ceramic composites may help NASA
build a better starship

propulsion system of the Nation- gineer at NCSU's College of

They were weaving
panel using hand-held
the
al Aerospace Plane, "We're al- who leads the ceramic
Textiles,

spinners— about the size ready exploring the use of ceram- work at the MMRC. To create
of old air-driven jacWiammers. ic composites in the nozzles and shapes from the fiber, El-Shiekh
From their tips oozed a goopy ce- turbopumps of rocket engines to and his team are developing ma-
ramic fiber, a clay-metal compos- get higher temperatures and chines that weave composites
was hard as steel, light, much greater lift potential," says into three-dimensional shapes
ite that
and workable. Just thought
the of Stan Levine, head of the Ceram- such as cylinders and cones.
the first astrohardhats on Free- ics Branch at NASA's Lewis Re- Much of this latest aerobraking
dom, trying to bolt and weld search Center in Cleveland. research is actually an extension
If you can't all

NASA considers the light- of technology conceived for the

take the that metal together, pained the
spaceman to imagine. Thank weight and durable stuff truly space shuttle, says Howard Gold-
heat, try silica:
promising. Over the next five stein, chief of the thermal pro-
From the God we don't bend metal any-
years, in fact, NASA has plans to tection materials branch at
orbiter's heat- more, he thought. Nowadays, re-
resistant alspacemen drool goo. give about $10 million toward NASA's Ames Research Center,
ceramic fiber research to the Moffett Field, California.
skin may come Metal can be too heavy and
The orbiter's ceramic insulation
blankets have worked so well
that they've even caught the eye
of French and Soviet aerospace
designers. "Much of the heat-
shield work done by the French
on Hermes and the Russians on
their Buran was based on the shut-
tle," says Goldstein.
Both the European and Soviet
space agencies will undoubted-
ly be paying close attention to

the shuttle again in 1994, when

NASA conducts the Aeroassist
Flight Experiment (AFE).
"The orbiter will launch a two-
hundred-seventy-million-dollar
aerobrake experiment designed,
among other., things, to test the vi-

ability of new ceramic fiber com-

posite insulations used as part of
the aerobrake heat shield," Gold-
stein says.
Once outside the shuttle bay,
the aerobrake satellite, which re-
sembles a lopsided pie in a tin,
some space applica- Mars Mission Research Center wili begin a series of maneuvers.
engines that bulky for
run at high tions — especially for thermal pro- (MMRC) at North Carolina State A solid rocket will
brake
ease the aero-
a trajectory sim-
temperatures tection. So NASA has turned its University (NCSU) in Raleigh. At satellite into

and rust- attention to ceramic fiber a com-— present its team is busy design- ulating return from geosynchro-
low Earth orbit. The infor-
proof materials bination of metal, plastic, and ce- ing the first American manned nous to

ramics. In fact, without this ma- spacecraft to Mars. The ship will mation from this experiment will
that need
the next generation of feature two oversize nose cones eventually allow designers to
no replacement. terial
manned and unmanned space ex- made of composites. "The cone's build aeroassist orbital transfer

ploration vehicles may never get ceramic aerobraking shields will vehicles. These craft will dip brief-

the drawing board. Advanced
off
ceramic fibers will be essential for
aerobraking heat sh'ields, for the
engines in heavy launch vehicles,
and for parts of the airframe
be able to withstand speeds of fif-
ty thousand miles per hour and
temperatures of at least four thou-
sand degrees Fahrenheit," says
and Aly El-Shiekh, a mechanical en-
ly into the atmosphere, where
greater aerodynamic loads en-
able them to change altitude or
inclination of the desired orbit.
— Joseph Baneth Allen
 SODM
IN THE BELLY OF THE BUG:
Ulcer researchers report an unsuspected culprit that
Americans can't stomach— bacteria

The co-worker you just

saw bent over his desk
in misery is more likely to
be suffering from heartburn than
heartache, and chances are the
cause of his problem is a peptic
expect to do so for a lifetime.
Researchers have now an-
nounced a startling
that could lead to an outright
—
cure rather than just a treat-
—
ment for ulcers. The most com-
searchers envision vaccinating
everyone against both gastritis
discovery and ulcers soon after birth.
Robin Warren, a pathologist at
Royal Perth Hospital in western
Australia, first spotted the germ in

ulcer. These painful irritations of mon cause of these stomach dis- 1979 when he took stomach bi-

the stomach's gastric lining and turbances, they say, is a cork- opsies from patients with a vari-
the duodenum (the entrance to screw-shaped microorganism ety of intestinal ailments. Col-
the small intestine) strike 1 out of called Helicobacter pylori, which leagues greeted his discovery
every 50 Americans each year. In burrows into the wall of the stom- with skepticism, however: The
1987 alone the National Center ach, making victims susceptible standard wisdom held that the
for Health Statistics recorded a to virtually any irritant. Onee re- stomach'was too acidic to sup-
whopping 4,580,000 new cases search determines the best proto- port a resident microbe. No one
of peptic ulcer. col of antibiotic treatment, doc- took Warren very seriously until
Until recently doctors consid- tors should be able to cure ulcers 1981, when Dr, Barry Marshall, a
ered ulcers a life-style disease within a few weeks of diagnosis. gastroenterologist now at the
brought on by too much stress or Further down the line some re- University of Virginia Medical Cen-
excessive consumption of alco- ter in Charlottesville, confirmed
hol, coffee, spicy food, or even as- the findings. Marshall isolated He-
pirin. Ulcer patients got lectures licobacter and showed that it
on changing their habits, along shields itself from acid by invad-

with prescriptions for widely her- ing the mucus sheathing the in-
alded "miracle drugs" like Zantac side of the stomach. Once in
and Tagamet, introduced a dec- place, the bug appears to trigger
ade ago, which work by inhibit- an inflammation of the lining char-
ing the secretion of stomach ac- acteristic of gastritis or, in severe
ids to give ulcerous lesions a cases, an erosion of the wall that
chance to heal. Because ulcers develops into full-fledged ulcers.
tend to recur, patients who relied Clearly, Helicobacter pylori was
on these drugs could generally not the only organism that could
cause such trauma, but it did
Vaccinating seem to be a leading suspect:
babies against Marshall extracted the germ
ulcers would from 90 percent of gastritis pa-
ensure that tients and 80 percent of those
a healthy stomach with ulcers.
(top) stayed Similar findings emerged from
that way; an anti- a large study conducted in Ire-
biotic cure land in 1988 by Dr. Cornelius
can be expected Dootey, now an assistant profes-
soon for sor of medicine at the University
the treatment of of Southern California. Dooley
ulcers (right). found Helicobacters 85 percent
of patients with ulcers, 80 percent
of those with gastritis, and 50 per-
cent of those suffering from an in-
flammation of the esophagus.
While doctors gradually began
to accept Helicobacter's associ-
ation with gastric disturbances,
many believed that was a cofac-
it

tor rather than a cause. They ar-

gued that the organism might be
an opportunist that had simply
found an already weakened stom-
OM PAGE 12
 EARTH
ANIMAL HOUSE:
Suspended in icy liquid nitrogen, snow leopards, tigers,
and rhino wait for life at the Cincinnati Zoo

Two bright-colored indus-

trial drums dominate
carry only
time,
one egg to term at a
which limits the animals' abil-
from two endangered Indian des-
ert cats whose egg and sperm
were placed in the uterus of a
the former darkroom in a ity to reproduce. For example, the
corner of the Cincinnati Zoo's vet- gestation period for a rhino preg- house cat.
erinary clinic. But what's devel- nancy is 15 months. And the rhi- Because a large number of spe-
oped here will have more impact no won't become pregnant again cies are headed for extinction
on the future than a roll of film. tor another four years. and zoos are hard-pressed to
Here eggs, sperm, and devel- Once Dresser determines an an- save them all, animals that stand
oping embryos of endangered imal's estrus cycle, she injects the the best chance of surviving are
species lie encapsulated in female with hormones that enable given priority. "We have limited
Prized for its straws, floating silently in liquid ni- it to produce up to 30 eggs. space, limited time, and limited re-
horn, which trogen. Held in suspended anima- Then the animal is bred naturally sources," Dresser says. "We tar-
is purported to tion at -383° F, rhino, snow leop- or artificially inseminated, and the geted animals that were endan-
be imbued ards, and Bengal tigers wait in embryos drop into the uterus. gered in the wild and that zoos
with healing frozen anticipation. Dresser collects the embryos and could breed in captivity."
powers. The force behind this frozen freezes them, implanting one in a Topping the list is the black rhi-

no, whose numbers have fallen

from 60,000 in 1970 to 3,500 to-

day, due greed and myth. For

to
centuries many Asians have im-
bued rhino horn with the ability to
cure everything from hemorrhoids
to heart disease. Because a sin-
gle horn can fetch $24,000 on the
black market, the slaughter of rhi-
no is a lucrative business.
Some wildlife experts, howev-
er, question whether Dresser's
work is the best use of precious
conservation dollars. "It's better
to translocate existing popula-
tions," says Bruce Bunting of the
World Wildlife Fund, which spon-
sors programs that emphasize pre-
serving animals. in the wild and bet-
ter antipoaching measures. "Zoo-
bred animals lose that wild
edge." (The Center's annual bud-
the rhino faces zoo, the Center for Reproduction surrogate mother, which will car- get of $320,000 comes from pub-
nearly certain of Endangered Wildlife, is Betsy ry to term. Within a week the an-
it lic and private sources.)

extinction. Dresser, a reproductive physiol- imal can be bred again. Even so, Dresser's efforts in em-
Embryo transfer ogist devoted to combating the Dresser's efforts in embryo bryo transfer may represent the
may hold permanent loss of many of the transfer go back to 1981, when only hope for some of the earth's
the key to its world's mammals. The key to sur- she first experimented with Ben- vanishing creatures. She envi-
future. vival lies in her work with embryo gal tigers. She later initiated the sions shipping frozen embryos to
a technique used with do-
transfer, first transcontinental transfer, flush- zoos, instead of moving live ani-
mestic cattle. But applying the ing embryos from a rare African mals, and even supplementing na-
process to other species, which bongo antelope at the Los Ange- tional parks around the world.
requires knowledge of each ani- les Zoo, then returning to Cincin- "Someday a scientist in Kenya
mal's reproductive system, can embryos in a con-
nati with the live will take a little packet of frozen

be cumbersome. For example, at-
tempts to save elephants with the
technique have failed.
Although females of any spe-
cies produce hundreds of thou-
sands of eggs ina lifetime, some
tainertaped to her body to keep
them warm. Her mission succeed-
ed: Surrogates gave birth to two
bongos. More recently Dresser
merged in vitro fertilization and em-
bryo transfer, producing a kitten
embryos, knock down a female rhi-
no, and implant her," she says. Re-
plenishing the earth's endan-
gered species could be as easy
as restocking a lake with trout.
—
Jessica Speart
 coruTiruuunn
ORGANIC
The sun
stripped
is
down
high and warm over Cate Farm. We're
to shorts and tees, barefoot, bent
over the rows of cukes running up the gentle hill.
The box is playing, as luck would have it, "Born in
the USA," and we're all wailing along with The Boss as we
persuade the white-f lowered weeds to loosen their grip on
the moist Vermont earth. As we bring root systems up
through to the surface and shake them, a bunch of dirt crit-
ters, disrupted in their agricultural endeavors, tumble down
—
with the clods: worms, bugs, snails the gamut.
Cate Farm is one of Vermont's 49 certified organic farms.
And, Richard Wiswall, who farms these 194 acres that lie 12
miles east of Montpelier, has for several years served on the
Vermont Certification Board's Review Committee, a body
that helps assess when, how, and why a particular farm is
ready to be granted certification by the board.
In light of the ongoing hullabaloo over the contamination
and degradation of our food supply by chemical "enhancers"
like pesticides and fertilizers, organic farming is becoming in-
creasingly high profile and widespread. According to a recent
Harris poll, 84 percent of Americans would buy organically
grown food if it was available, and 49 percent would pay
more for a tomato that is firm, not pulpy; flavorful, not flat. A
tomato or cucumber or carrot that is 100 percent natural
from the beginning. Or is it?
Presently pending in the halls of Congress is the Leahy-
Fowler bill, a piece of legislation that essays to set a na-
tionwide standard for what can and cannot be labeled "or-
ganically grown." Until such a time if and when this bill is
passed, you can't be sure what you're paying extra for.
Some states do have laws; others that don't may have an
internal policing system such as Vermont's certification pro-
—
gram one of the nation's toughest. There are some states,
on the other hand, that allow farms to be "self-declared or-
ganic." This literally means that a farmer can decide to hop
on the "green" bandwagon, declare, "Tomorrow I'm growing
organic," stop spraying and fertilizing one field, but perhaps
not all, and slap a few extra cents on every pound he produc-
es. No doubt about it-— a sleazy solution.
The Vermont Certification Board, however, waits one year
FARMI N(
after chemical fertilizers have been used and three years for
chemical pesticides before certifying a farm "organic."
The credo of organic farming is that if you develop good
soil, you will grow healthy produce that is resistant to disease
and animal pests. Dumping chemical fertilizers and pesticides
on a field produces less healthy soil, hence a less healthy
crop. The upshot is, not surprisingly, the more chemicals you
use on your vegetables," the more chemicals they are going
to require. Says Wiswall, "It's like drug abuse: The soil gets
addicted to its chemical 'fix' and needs more."
Keeping plants and soil healthy without chemical as-
sistance, however, is much more time-consuming and labor-
intensive than pouring or spraying on pesticides. The fields
must be weeded, and often, bugs eliminated, by hand, and
fertilizer must be made from compost. This is the primary rea-
son organic vegetables cost more to buy: Quite simply, they
cost more to produce.
Whether organic produce is worth the extra cost obviously
is up to the consumer. Yet there is more to consider than
merely the basic price tag on chemically produced fruits and
vegetables. "There is a huge lobby in Washington pushing
for chemicals," says Wiswall. "We're up against companies
like Monsanto, Uniroyal, and Union Carbide, who do their
best to get legislation passed to favor nonorganic practices
and to keep the cost of nonorganically produced foods
down." What we don't pay for at the grocery store, however,
we do pay for eventually. "In large-scale commercial farm-
ing, the costs are externalized," Wiswall says. The money
you save on mass-produced vegetables will be spent else-
where. "Down the road," he says, "you'll pay the health
costs for consuming chemically treated foods. And you'll pay
the pollution costs for the production and application of these
toxic substances."
So the next time you get a deal on a pound of tomatoes
that were grown on a corporate farm, sprayed with man-
made toxins, picked before they were ripe, and pumped with
chemicals to make them appear appropriately rosy by the
time they were shipped 2,000 miles to your grocer, pause for
a moment to consider. How much of a bargain are they re-
ally?— MELANIE MENAGH
conrnruuurm
monkeys naloxone, a chemi-
cal that blocks the brain's
reception of endorphins, the
monkeys became irritable
and increased their groom-
ing,as if to compensate for
the ensuing lack of endor-
phins. On the other hand,
when the monkeys were
injecled with small doses of
morphine, grooming behav-
ior decreased, as if the
reward for that behavior had
already been provided by
the narcotic, so that the
grooming "fix" was no longer
necessary.
Keverne suggests that
there may be a biological
need for social interaction
through nonsexual touching,
a need so slrong that the
brain rewards touching by
producing a natural high. "I
don'tknow this explains
if
why teenage girls like to do
one another's hair," he says,
"but do suspect that tactile
I vaginal lactic acid."
contact is important for
social interaction at all
levels." — Bill Lawren
"I'd like to live like a poor
When primates preen one another,
curious chemicals man with lots of money."
Getting picky:
flood the brain, says a Cambridge University researcher.
— Pablo Picasso
THE ROOTS OF tored the brains of a group of PHARMACY OF THE
GROOMING monkeys while the animals PHARAOHS
were grooming one another.
Ask anyone who has it The scientists found that The ancient Egyptians
done: Getting a manicure during grooming, the mon- were well-known as skilled
can be curiously pleasur- keys' brains produced in- morticians. As it turns out,
able. So can having your creased amounts of beta- they weren't shabby physi-
hair fixed. If recent experi- endorphin, one of a class of cians, either. They had an
ments with our cousins the chemicals that are often impressive array of home-
monkeys are any indication, referred to as "the brain's made medicines at their
the pleasures of grooming own opium." Endorphins disposal, including an effec-
may be linked to a change in plug into the same brain tive antibacterial cream and
brain chemistry. receptors as such narcotics a contraceptive device much
A
research team led by as opium, morphine, and like today's spermicides.
Eric Keverne, a neuropsy- heroin arid produce similar "About a third of the
chologist at Cambridge feelings of well-being. When ingredients they used in their
University in England, moni- the scientists gaye the drugs had pharmacological
26 OMNI
properties," says Dr. J.
Worth Estes, professor of
pharmacology at Boston
University's School of Medi-
cine,who studied some
1,350 prescriptions deci-
phered from ancient papyrus
scrolls. To fight infection, for
example, the ancient Egyp-
tians relied on an antibacteri-
al salve based on cupric
carbonate, a copper salt
found in green malachite.
They also used honey,
presumably for its germ-
killing action and special
enzymes that transform
sugars into antiseptic hydro-
gen peroxide.
In addition, they devel-
oped a contraceptive vaginal
suppository made from
crocodile dung, sour milk,
and acacia gum. "Recently,"
says Estes, "acacia gum has
been recognized as sper-
matocidal in the presence of
Still to be examined is the
possibility that Egyptians
used rye ergot (a natural
source of LSD) to com-
bat migraine headaches and
prescribed marijuana for a
variety of ills. —Jim Hogshire
t < I
I
1 '
^'-.'^Ar.fe^-.
:':•
\
Walk like a prescription: Croco-
dile dung as a spermicide?
HIGH ART, LOW ORBIT
Many artists struggle to
have their work exhibited in
galleries. Arthur Woods, on
the other hand, intends to
put art in orbit, where the
whole world will see it.
Although this may seem a
remarkably clever way to
sidestep the politics of the
art world, Woods contends
that his Orbiting Unification
Ring Satellite (OURS) Proj-
ect is really a celebration of
planetary unity. The goal of
OURS, Woods explains, is
"to celebrate the themes of
wholeness and peace with a
global collective artwork
decorated by artists from
every country."
In 1992, the International
Space Year, Woods will loft
his first extraterrestrial exhib-
it, a 20-foot-wide ring he
conceived with aerospace
engineer Marco Bernasconi
and made out of an
advanced metal fabric that
should allow the sculpture,
once in space, to expand
and harden in the sunlight.
The "space peace sculp-
ture" will be assembled and
A halo over Earth or just OUR
junk in space?
mi^i^
launched from the Soviet
Union's Mir space station
with live television coverage
broadcast worldwide.
That same year Woods
hopes to dispatch a similar
ring from NASA's space
shuttle. The rings, which
should be visible to
sharp-eyed stargazers, will
orbit the earth for several
days before falling back
toward the earth and burning
up in the atmosphere.
Woods plans a more
durable orbital objet d'art for
the year 2000: a much larger
ring satellite, perhaps a
kilometer diameter, that
in
will circle the earth at a
height of about 500 kilo-
meters. From the ground,
the OURS will be one fourth
the diameter of the
and will be visible for
ten minutes before sunrise
and after sunset in
avoid interfering with astro-
nomical observations. After
circling the earth for
six months the ring will
deploy a solar sail and fly
away into the void. "It will
stay in space forever," says
Woods, "as a monument to
—
our time." Curt Wohleber
'*$&*&&
A
y&m^^
THE RICE STUFF ies were the first in this
country to focus on the oil.
When Japanese and Although the researchers do
Indian researchers discov- not yet know how the oil
ered a few years back that lowers blood cholesterol
rice bran could reduce blood levels, Nicolosi believes the
cholesterol levels, American effect may be achieved by
cereal makers rushed to get compounds in rice called
it into their products. Now unsaponifiables. "These com-
studies at three Massachu- pounds seem to either inhibit
setts universities have dem- the liver's ability to produce
onstrated that the oil cholesterol or block its
extracted from rice husks absorption into the blood-
can do the same thing, a stream," he says. Human
finding that could send clinical trials are expected to
cholesterol-conscious chefs begin by year's end. "We
scrambling for their bottles want to know more about the
of rice bran cooking oil. mechanisms of the unsapon-
Eighteen-month studies ifiables," says Nicolosi.
with hamsters and monkeys "What lets them do this?"
at Tufts, Harvard, and the Before rice bran oil
University of Lowell show becomes a viable alternative
that the tasteless, odorless cooking oils,
to other
moon oil can reduce overall however, the rice industry
about cholesterol by as much as must come up with a
40 percent. What's more, cost-effective way to pro-
order to says Robert J. NicolosI, a duce it. Extraction facilities
professor at Lowell's clinical may be available in Japan,
sciences department, it but few American plants are
about reduces undesirable LDL capable of extracting it.
(low-density lipoprotein) — George Nobbe
cholesterol without affeciing
the levels of "good" HDL "Half the art of inventing
(high-density lipoprotein) consists in knowing what
"
cholesterol. needs to be invented.
The Massachusetts stud- — Herman Hollerith
27
coruTiruuunn
speeding baseball can
For even the hardest of
heads, s speeding baseball
has the potential to be a
lethal weapon. According to
the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission, 35 kids
were killed by baseball
blows to the head and chest
between 1973 and 1983.
Another" 1 6 died from blows
to other areas. So much for
playing hardball.
Might there be some way
to circumvent these unwar-
ranted deaths? Worth, Inc.,
a sports equipment manu-
facturer in Tullahoma, Ten-
nessee, says the problem
would fade dramatically if
the ol' hardball would just
soften up. Simply replacing
a traditional baseball's
rubber-and-yarn core with
2B OMNI
an poiyurethane
interior of
foam plastic could reduce
the likelihood of serious
injury by 70 percent, says
Worth president Jess Heald.
i
Weight, size, and aerody-
namic behavior would re-
main virtually unchanged.
Worth's balls, known as
Reduced Injury Factor, or
RIF, balls, perform like '
standard baseballs but with
one difference. They emit a
dull,low-pitched sound
when hit, as opposed to the
storied crack of the bat.
If the ball makes it into
professional parks, critics
worry that the game might
change. For example, out-
fielders trained by ear to
respond to bat sounds as
defensive data may end up.
say, mistaking a smash to
the warning track for a
routine pop fly. But on the togaze into their partners'
other hand, batters, less eyes for two minutes. It
concerned about being worked like a charm.
injured by a pitch, may "Mutual eye-to-eye contact
become more fearless. did indeed increase feelings
—
Robert Brody of attraction, interest,
warmth, and excitement for
"Baseball is ninety percent each other," says Laird.
physical., and the other half To see if mutual gazing
is mental." was in fact the key, Laird
— Yogi Berra had some of the couples
look at each other's hands
SEE OF LOVE instead or had one partner
look into the eyes while the
Looking for the perfect other looked at the partner's
love spell? Castaway your hand. After polling these
necromancy books: A long, people, he found that they
mutual gaze is the best way might as well have been in
Cupid's arrows hit their
to let separate rooms for all the
mark, says psychologist passion they aroused.
James Laird of Clark Why does mutual gazing
University in Massachusetts. increase attraction? Laird
After watching a young believes that when we
couple in a small cafe, imitate acts of love, our
peering deeply and silently feelings begin to follow suit.
into each other's eyes, "Generally, the more you act
obviously mad about each like you're in love,the more
other, Laird wanted to "see if you will be in love," he says.
we could make people fall in "But the gaze must be
love." He instructed volun- shared, not just performed.
teers —
men and women who Both must participate."
were complete strangers —
Vincent Bozzl
The look of love: When it comes tc, ,„.,...
cording to- a Clark University professor.
 an important collaborator. In
one letter dated 1 901 for
example; Albert wrote to his
love: ''How happy and proud
Iwill be when the two of us
together will have brought
our work on the relative
motion to a victorious
conclusion."
Walker's unorthodox as-
sertions have already raised
hackles among traditional
Einstein scholars. John
Stachel, director of the
Center for Einstein Studies
at Boston University, calls
those assertions "pure
fantasy. She may have been
a sounding board for his
ideas," Stachel says, "but
she was not a collaborator."
The opposition leaves
Walker unshaken. "I'm not
embellishing anything Ein-
stein says," he responds.
'He says they were
collaborators, so say they
I the plant short.
were collaborators, and that
MRS. EINSTEIN she Was a full equal. It's
nothing more than taking
Albert Einstein's first wife, Einstein at his word,"
—
physical stress a result that
, can be seen clearly in trees
on a windy hill, for example,
or when gardeners shake
bonsai trees to keep them
very small.
Braam and Davis stimu-
lated Arabidopsis (mustard
family) plants by gently
rubbing leaves and shaking
stalks,spraying plants with
water, cutting the leaves
slightly, and blowing on
plants with a blow dryer
setting, of course).
Within 10 to 30 minutes,
the."touch" genes triggered
a ten- to hundredfold
increase in the messenger
RNA that is the blueprint for
a calcium-binding protein,
calmodulin. Calcium is
essential to plant growth,
and when calmodulin is
produced, Davis speculates,
the two combined may keep
Stimulated plants attained
only half the height of the
untouched ones and were
stockier: Davis calls this the
environment are not just
sitting there passively,"
Braam says. "If you even
brush a tree, it senses that
and actively responds."
Unraveling the mysteries
of plan! perception may one
day help us better protect
the environment, Davis
says. "We're doing things to
the environment, and we
don't understand how plants
are responding," he says.
(cool "People think plants are
unreactive, but they are
exquisitely sensitive."
— Maura Christopher
"Vietnam was the first war
ever fought without any
censorship. Without
censorship, things can get
terribly confused in the
public mind.
—General William C.
Westmoreland
"The most important thing
about fame is what it means
to those who will never have
it."

mathematician and physicist — Bill La wren bonsai effect. "Plants in the —James Salter
Mileva Einstein-Marie, did
more than keep the house PLEASE DON'T BEAT
clean while he thought: She THE DAISIES
actually helped him develop
the wo rid- renowned theory You'll never bear plants
of relativity, according to say, "Ouch," but they
Evan Harris Walker, a eventually show their dis-
physicist at the U.S. Army comfort at being touched in
Ballistic Research Laborato- —
other ways namely, by
ry at the Aberdeen Proving growing shorter and stockier
Grounds in Maryland. than untouched plants.
Walker bases his claim on Plant molecular biologist
a number of recently Janet Braam and professor
published letters between of biochemistry Ronald
Albert and Mileva. In those Davis at Stanford University
letters,Walker says, there have identified five genes
are at least 13 instances in that are activated when a
which Albert Einstein refers plant is touched or stimulat-
to the relativity theory as ed. The researchers specu-
"our work" or addresses late that the genes stunt
Mileva as though she were plant growth in response to
coruTiruuurm
ECHO VISION
Like bats, which instinc-
tively use their natural
to navigate in the dark,
humans have an innate
themselves
ability to orient
by interpreting the sounds of
echoes. This has led
electronics engineer Adam
A. Jorgensen of Oakland
Park, Florida, to devise a
hand-held sonar sensor that
could enable the blind to
"see" with sound.
Jorgensen's echolocation
system works like a bat's
natural radar: A hand-held
battery-powered instrument,
about 18 inches long,
emits a stream of ultrasonic
signals when aimed in
particular direction. After
measuring the time it
for the signals to bounce
back, the device transmits
the echo return time to
receivers that are worn be-
hind each ear like hearing
aids. Because the ultrasonic
signals are too "fast" for
the human ear to interpret,
the device stretches out the
echo to a more discernible
range by means of an
electronic delay inducer.
"Different people have
different abilities, but with
training and practice a blind
person can hear the dis-
tance as skillfully as reading
Braille," says the inventor.
"They get a sound image
a surrounding room. It's
surprisingly simple, really,
like an advanced hearing
aid." — George Nobbe
"Beware of the Truth. If you
it can demand
find a Truth
that you make painful
changes.
—Frank Herbert
30 OMNI
sonar
a has not been conclusive
takes
ASBESTOS ON TRIAL
Ever since scientists
linked indoorexposure to
asbestos insulation with lung
cancer, people have been
fanatically gutting old build-
ings to remove the
stuff.
now a cell biologist from the
of University of Vermont wants
to call a time-out: The kind of
asbestos usually used as
insulation, says Brooke
Mossman, "does not present
a risk to human health."
According to Mossman,
90 to 95 percent of asbestos
insulation is composed of a
type of asbestos called
chrysotile. Unlike other
Occupational Safety and
Health Administration.
Mossman concludes that
the asbestos scare is "much
ado about nothing. It's a
public panic sort of thing,"
she says. "People are afraid
of liability or of not being
able to sell their houses."
(s the EPA thinking of
revising its standards in light
of Mossman's research?
"We don't differentiate
between types of asbestos,"
says EPA environmental
protection specialist Tom
Tillman. "We recognize that
there's literature that sug-
gests a difference [between
chrysotile and amphibole
asbestos], but the evidence
enough." Tillman says,
however, that his office is
now reviewing Mossman's
report. "Our position could
change," he says.
— Bill Lawren
"They came, they saw, they
did a little shopping.
—Berlin Wall graffiti
fibers, called
amphiboles, which are
shaped like needles, chrys-
otile fibers are curly. This,
according to Mossman, may
make chrysotile asbestos
less likely to penetrate lung
But
tissues and cause lung
cancer. In fact, when
Mossman looked at studies
of 387 public buildings
including 71 schools —she
found that the average level
of asbestos (.00024 fibers
per cubic centimeter of air)
was actually statistical yI
comparable to the level
outdoors (,00039) and far
less than the .2 safe
standard level set by the
EAVESDROPPING
ON KNEES
At one time or another,
almost every weekend
athlete —whether jogger,
hoopster, or tennis nut has —
experienced some sort of
knee injury. In fact, knee
injuries account for as many
as one third of all referrals to
orthopedic clinics. Diagnos-
ing knee problems usually
requires X rays or explorato-
ry arthroscopic surgery.
But now a team of doctors
from The Queen's University
of Belfast, Northern Ireland,
has developed the Knee
Screener: a device that's
capable of diagnosing torn
cartilage — an extremely com-
mon form of knee injury
simply by listening to the
knee move.
To operate the screener,
is torn. By correlating those
vibrations with the position
of the knee, doctors can
easily locate cartilage tears.
The entire diagnostic proce-
dure takes only 15 minutes
and, in preliminary trials, has
been accurate about 86
percent of the time. The
team is now preparing to test
the scanner on several
hundred more patients.
So far, says Queen's
University surgery resident
Paul Maginn, there has been
some interest from doctors
and sports injury clinics in
the Belfast area. Will there
come a day when knee
scanners take their place
beside Nautilus machines in
every NFL training room?
"We're still at an early stage
of development," says
Maginn. "But that's a nice
thought." — Bill Lawren Raw power: Tornadoes are full of sound and fury, and their primary

technicians attach three component may make a powerful automotive fuel.

small sensors around the "The illegal we do
patient's knee. The sensors immediately. The pistons,Hammond says, haven't had much success
pick up the characteristic unconstitutional takes a an old-fashioned
"just like persuading the auto industry
vibrations made by knee little longer. Stanley Steamer." A car to take their idea seriously.
movements when cartilage —Henry A. Kissinger would have
outfitted like this "They don't want to retool
acceleration comparable to the entire industry," says
RUNNING ON THIN AIR gasoline-powered vehicles Hammond. — Steve Nad is

and would produce no

Two years ago engineers smog. Hammond estimates "Men seek out retreats for
James Dooley and Philip that the air-gas mixture themselves in the country,
Hammond were pondering could be sold at about the by the seaside, on the
what would happen when oil same price as gasoline. mountains.... But all this

supplies became scarce
again and gasoline prices
skyrocketed. Then a way to
avoid the problem and cut
back on the world's reliance
on oil came to them, literally,
out of thin air.
Their idea was to build a
car that runs on liquid air
chilled to -315° F. When
added to a little natural gas,
the heated, compressed
mixture would ignite and the
expanding gas would drive
The idea is similar to one
Dooley and Hammond
patented in the mid-Eighties
while they were consultants
at R8D Associates, a
California think tank. At that
time they proposed liquid
nitrogen as a fuel source,
but the team has since
determined that liquid air
would be cheaper and would
provide better mileage.
Despite the soundness of
their design, theengineers
isunphilosophical to the last
degree...when thou canst
at a moment's notice retire
unto thyself.
—Marcus Aureiius
Antoninus
"The sun, with ail the planets
revolving around it and
depending on it, can still
ripen a bunch of grapes as
though it had nothing else in
the universe to do.
—
Galileo Galilei
CDaiTiruuunn

KIWI WIPEOUT intoLake Erie and Lake

Ontario; the other Great
Lakes and the Mississippi
Kiwi, thai tender, lime-
and Hudson rivers are
green treat, is a most
expected to fail to the zebra
discriminating fruit. It likes
mussel hordes sometime in
summers warm but not too
the near future.
hot and its winters cooi but
Europeans have adjusted
not cold. Change those
to mussels in their water
conditions at all and the fruit
pipes by building water
will not grow, a fact that has
conduits extra wide and
the kiwi industry worried
extending them into deep,
about the greenhouse effect.
cold water, which the
Kiwi growers in New
mussels shun. Canadian
Zealand, where a sizable
and American pipes, with
portion of the worid's kiwi
smaller diameters and in
crop is grown, are especially
shallower water, are in
The problem,
at risk.
danger of becoming mussel
according to agricultural
bound, say Commerce
meteorologist Neil Cherry of
Department officials. Wind-
Lincoln University in Canter-
sor, Ontario, has already
bury, New Zealand, is that
spent more than $1 million
the average annual tempera-
scraping pipes to keep water
ture in New Zealand has of
flowing into the town.
itsown accord already Peewee kiwi: Take a good look at what may be the last of a dying
breed things heat up in New Zealand. Besides choking off hu-
increased 1* F over the past if

100 years. When the

greenhouse effect kicks
says Cherry, the very
specific climatic conditions
needed for successful kiwi
growth could vanish.
If predictions are correct,
the greenhouse effect will
lead not only to hotter
summers, which could
wither the kiwi on its vine,
but also to colder winters,
in. resistant to extreme temper-
atures. But Cherry says that
scientists are having trouble
getting the information they
need from kiwi growers,
commercial reasons tend
for
be very tight-lipped about
to
growing techniques. "A freer
flow of information," Cherry
says, "might lead to a
greater security of the kiwi
ATTACK OF THE
ZEBRA MUSSELS
As if our water supply
who weren't imperiled enough, a
new threat comes from an
inch-long invader muscling
into the aquatic environ-
ment. Vast herds of zebra
mussels are now spreading
across the Great Lakes,
man water supplies, the
mussels have barged into
the food chain of the Great
Lakes with both good and
bad results. The mussels,
which are filter feeders, are
actually clearing up the
murky waters of Lake Erie,
but in the process they're
stripping the lake of plankton
and algae, the food for larval
fish. On the other hand, the

which could freeze it to crop as a whole." colonizing and dogging sudden abundance of mus-
—Bill Lawren water pipes. sels has encouraged diving
death. To make matters
The mussels immigrated ducks from Canada to linger
worse, the warmer summers
"The greatest happiness of from Europe, stowing away in the neighborhood.
could engender more tropi-
in the ballast tanks of ships. Unfortunately, mollusk-
cal cyclones, a serious man is to have probed the
matter for the kiwi, which is knowable and quietly revere Their microscopic larvae lurk eating humans will have no
what is unknowable. in the water that the ships chance to eat the invaders
easily damaged by wind.
One possible solution,
—
Johann Wolfgang von often flush from their tanks out of existence. "There's a
Goethe into the lakes. The larvae rule of thumb," says
says Cherry, is to move the
float with the currents, then biologist Thomas Nalepa of
crop south to cooler areas, a
"Politics is the art of looking affix themselves in thick the National Oceanic and
process that is already under
for trouble, finding layers to stable surfaces, Atmospheric Administration.
way. The trouble is that in it

where they grow to maturity. "If you don'l drink the water
New Zealand, there's only everywhere, diagnosing it
and applying the First spotted in Lake St. from Lake Erie, you don't eat
so much south left. Another incorrectly,
wrong remedies. Clair in 1988, the mussels the mussels."
solution may be to genetical-
—Groucho Marx have since made their way —Gregory T. Pope
ly engineer a kiwi that's more
32 OMNI
 " a

ARTICLE

In tomorrow's world of high-tech

crime, the cops will stake out computers, and the
robbers will wear electronic masks

CRIME BYTES BACK

BY LINDA MARSA AND DON RAY
"Wake up, Carlos,"
begged again. "Captain
Veraldi wants you."
I over and fumbled for
rolled
off button
the transceiver's
to make Courtney and every-
one else go away. But the
instant I hit the button,
I had screwed up.
enough, Veraldi activated the
pager —at full blast.
"jAy, chingada! jYa
desperte, pues! I'm awake,
Goddamn " I said. I picked
it,
up the transceiver and
pressed the answer button.
"Authenticate, please, " the
digitized voice cooed.
I held it near my face and
pried open my right eye.
"There.Recognize that retina?
Recognize all those over-
Courtney sort of dinosaur from the days
when there was lots of cash
around and the bad guys went
face-to-face with their victims.
He and others like him had
been relegated to desk jobs
about the time they retired
I knew McRuff and changed the slo-
Sure gan to "Take a byte out of
crime. " Fighting crime today
a
-
was a whole new game.
me "Someone has hijacked a
by remote control and
jetliner
the Feds 've got one hell of
an explosive situation on their
hands, " Veraldi said. "For
some reason they think they
need your brain. Get on the
next bullet train to Palmdale
international and meet Agent
Ishigaki at the FAA office.
"
She give you the details.
'II

worked veins?" it seems that as my reputa-

"Authentication complet- tion as a computer whiz

"
ed, computer voice said.
the grows, so does the number of
"Good morning, Sergeant agencies thai want my help.
Perez. It's eight-tourteen a.m.,
Saturday, March twenty- TECHNOCOPS AND CYBER-
seventh, twenty-ten a.d. You CRIME. In the twenty-first cen-
have a call waiting. "Iwrapped tury cracking a tough crime
a pillow around the trans- case will still require hundreds
ceiver to muffle Veraldi's bark of hours of tedious investi-
and hit the answer button. gative work. Just about every-
"Sorry, Captain. Hit the thing else in police work,
wrong button again. though, will change. Even Dick
Joe Veraidi was one of the Tracy could be relegated
last of the old-line cops who to a desk job as cops become
came onboard back in hybrids of computer wiz-
the Eighties: no real training in ards and bookish humanists.
computers or sociology— And as law enforcers and

PAINTINGS BY KENT WILLIAMS

their crime fighting arse- ful and oth-
of federal, state,
nals change in the coming er local law-enforcement
years, so, too, will their nem- agencies have also estab-
eses, armed not with guns lished computer crime
but with electronic impuls- squads. At the primary fed-
es, "Muggings, bank rob- eral agencies involved in
beries, and other street computer crime investiga-
crimes will stop in the next tions —
the FBI, the Secret
century as we move to- Service,and the Internal
ward a cashless society," Revenue Service — agents
predicts Gene Stephens, a learn how to investigate
professor in the College of high-tech crimes, which In-
Criminal Justice at the clude tax evasion, bank
University of South Caroli- fraud, and counterfeiting.
na. "Drugs and violent "When agents walj<
crimes of passion will re- through the door with a
main a problem, but most search warrant, they have
crimes will be technological- to know how to retrieve elec-
ly oriented." Embezzle- tronically stored informa-
ment, credit card fraud, tion that is potential evi-
and sim-
wire transfer theft, dence," says special
ilar crimes will entail the agent Stephen Purdy, in
manipulation of data. Felo- charge of the Secret Ser-
nieswill include tapping in- vice'scomputer diagnos-
to electronic networks for tics center, "We can al-
industrial and international ready download the entire
espionage. Others will in- storage contents of a per-
volve sabotaging govern- sonal computer, decipher
ment, corporate, and law- the programs, and recover
enforcement computer sys- erased data files that may
tems with viruses, worms, contain illegal data like
and other rogue programs. credit card numbers or ac-
To combat such activity, QBy the year 2025, the ability
law agents will need de- to tap into people's thoughts may be so highly At the FBI's Forensic Sci-
grees in sociology, comput- ence Research and Train-
er science, or both. Voice-
developed that it may
be illegal ing.Center in Quantico, Vir-
activated computer termi- to even think about committing a crime.3 ginia, and other crime labs
nals will link police officers across the country, scien-
to patrol cars and the court system. They will hook into vast tists are testing sophisticated techniques of gathering and
data banks of fingerprints, genetic codes, holographic im- detecting physical evidence. The results so far have en-
ages, voiceprints, psychological profiles, and physiological hanced crime-scene investigations immeasurably, for ex-
characteristics that will aid in the identification of criminals. ample, with cyanoacrylate, a "superglue" that adheres to
On the street, moreover, Dick Tracy-like two-way wrist ra- the body chemicals in fingerprints, turns them white, and hard-
dios will keep police officers in constant communication ens them. The best-known tool among the new technologies
with their command centers. Serving as precinct satellites, is perhaps DNA typing: By matching the DNA patterns in

patrol cars will be equipped with personal computers and
printers, faxlike machines, and fingerprint scanners replac-
ing the inking and rolling of old-fashioned fingerprinting. At
crime scenes, pocket-size battery-powered computers, op-
erable by voice and touch-screen commands, will replace
detectives' traditional notebooks. Mini-video recording cam-
eras will film and beam images to the FBI, where a panel of
forensics experts will direct the investigation.
"The technical ability to do all of this is in prototype or, in
a few cases, already available." says Hubert Williams, pres-
ident of the Police Foundation, a nonprofit research or-
ganization headquartered in Washington, DC. In fact, a front-
runner in high-tech crime fighting, Missouri's St. Louis Coun-
ty, began its computerized crime fighting network in 1973.
The Regional Justice Information System, or REJIS, now con-
nects police departments, sheriff's offices, prosecutors,
courts, correctional fee. lit es, and parole agencies in 100 com-
munities in four Missouri counties and four in southern Illi-
nois, across the Mississippi River, as well as in the city of
St. Louis. The law-enforcement officers use REJIS to ana-
lyze crime patterns, allocate personnel more efficiently, and
share all the available data pertinent to ongoing crime investi-
gations. One of the major benefits of REJIS: decreasing the
seemingly endless hours behind a desk and increasing the
amount of time officers patrol the streets.
Several counties in California, one in Arizona, and a hand-
hair, saliva, fingernails, semen, or any other body tissue or
fluids left in even minuscule amounts at the crime scene, de-
tectives can identify both the victim and the perpetrator.
But criminals will also benefit from technology. "It will be
easier to plant evidence like a strand of someone else's hair
at the crime scene," Stephens says. And tomorrow's nimble-
fingered technocrooks may be able to break into the data
banks and alter the numerical codes of DNA and fingerprints.
The intruders will be deterred, however, by security meas-
ures that couple the encoding of all the stored information
with user-identification techniques like retina patterns, hand-
prints, and voiceprints. Only an insider working with the crim-
inals will then be able to compromise the system.
A vast network of telecommunications, image scanning,
and artificial intelligence, moreover, will increase efficiency.
The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)
stores digitized images of millions of fingerprints, making an
almost infinite number of precise distinctions between
prints. And the FBI's National Crime Information Center
(NCIC) System currently holds more than 19 million records
related to convicted and wanted criminals, missing persons,
unidentified victims, and descriptions of stolen articles, vehi-
cles, and guns. A criminal justice database used by 64,000
local, state, and federal agencies, the NCIC averages
about 900,000 inquiries a day. By the year 2000 the NCIC
will automatically spot interstate crime trends and alert local

36 OMNI
 — "
police departments about the next like-
ly site tobe hit by criminal gangs or
serial killers. Virtually foolproof name-
searching techniques will abolish the
mismatches that often occur today and
result in suspects being mistakenly re-
leased from police custody.
Another FBI data bank, the Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program
fVICAP), stores information on murder,
rape, child molestation, and arson
cases collected trom police depart-
ments around the country. FBI special
agents analyze all Ihese data, hoping
to detect patterns that will help police
arid prosecutors zero in on suspects.
In addition to VICAP, the FBI is devel-
oping expert systems to emulate in-
vestigators' sleuthing skills. While
there are several prototypes, two Big — chases," he says. "Bionic ears will en-
Floyd and Little Floyd — are already on-
line to assist FBI agents in investiga-
tions of organized crime and racketeer-
ing. "These systems are tremendous
tools that serve asa checklist the way — may be a reality. The ability to tap into
a pilot goes through a preflight check
to ensure that we've conducted a thor-
ough investigalion," says FBI Academy
supervisory special agent William Ta-
foya, a top law-enforcement futurist.
The crime-fighting toolbox already in-
cludes high-tech hardware at the Los
Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and
a few other innovative state and local
police departments. Surveillance
teams use lasers to amplify window vi-
brations and convert them to audible
sounds. Research teams are develop-
ing computerized systems for voiceprint
analysis. The LAPD also uses helicop-
ters with infrared scopes to intensify
ambient light and locate bodies in the
dark, a technology first developed dur-
ing the Vietnam War.
Technologies initially developed by
the military and sounding like they
were lifted from a James Bond movie
will increasingly make their way
lice departments, Stephens predicts.
"The military has been using jet packs
to flymen over battlefields, and can
see police, protected by body armor,
using them during civil disturbances as
well as for traffic control and even car
able them to hear through walls. Police
pilots will telepathically control aircraft
by learning how to harness brain
waves. And by 2025 the Ihought police
people's thoughts may be so highly de-
veloped that may be illegal to even
it
think about committing a crime!"
An arsenal of chemically potent po-
lice weapons may also come out of top
secret research, Stephens adds. Al-
ready the military has developed a sub-
stance to alleviate soldiers' fears on the
battlefield. Similar compounds, mixed
with pleasing scents, "like the aroma of
"
Grandma's apple pie," he says, could
be dispersed over crowds during riots
or volatile demonstrations or even rock
concerts that threaten to erupt in vio-
lence. Sealed in pellets and loaded in
aroma guns, the chemical mixture
could also emotionally disarm rabid crim-
inals. "They're like the soma pills in [Al-
dous Huxley's novel] Brave New
World" Stephens says. "We have the
technology, and the possibilities for po-
lice work are enormous."
into po-
FATCAT INFECTION. On She bullet to
Palmdale, my transceiver went off
I while I was trying to get 20 minutes of
sleep. was my assistant again.
It
"Sorry to bug you, Carlos, " Courtney
said. "But do you know anything about
digital video recorders? Last night i
played back a recording I'd made, and
suddenly everything started jumping all
over the screen. It's happened twice
since I bought the DVR a little over a
year ago. My mother's meeting me for
lunch and bringing the tape with her.
She kicked in her little-girl voice. "You'll
fix it for me, won't you?"
Somehow in'the year she'd been work-
ing for Bakersfield Police, Courtney had
sort of adopted me as a father or some-
thing. Her real dad had skipped out
when she was a baby. I had done the
preemployment background checks on
her myself and knew her mother had di-
vorced the guy before Courtney was
out of diapers.
When I got to Palmdate went
I
straight to the FAA The FBI's Tif-
office.
fany Ishigaki introduced me to three
FAA agents and ushered us into a
small conference room.
"Here's what we have," Tiffany ex-
plained. "A terrorist group has some-
how gotten partial control of our FAT-
CAT satellite and redirected Pacific Rim
Airlines Flight 901. It was supposed to
fly directiy to the Baja California Free Mar-
ket Zone in Mexico, instead, FATCAT's
computer is commanding it to circle the
mountains above Denver Our people
in Washington received a computer mes-
sage demanding that the United
States government release prisoners we
took during the Euro-American trade
war three years ago.
"I don't want to come off sounding
too embryonic," I said, "but why don't
you just override the computer on the
satellite or the plane?"
One of the FAA agents tried to hide
his embarrassment by answering me in
a decidedly poised, self-assured man-
ner. "The Federal Air Transportation Col-
lision-Avoidance Tracking satellite was
placed above the North American con-
tinent seven years ago to eliminate the
human error factor in the air traffic con-
trolsystem. It's empowered to take con-
trolof any aircraft in imminent danger
of colliding with another aircraft or any
stationary object. Its computer is pro-
 . 1

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 .,.- -v^-: V *

TROUBLE IN PARADISE
'V''*. ' -
The jungle was thick, the path overgrown
and close. Around us were signs of In-
dian hunting: trees notched with a ma-
chete and the notches decorated with
bits of animal hair and skin— gruesome
totems to the spirits of the animals tak-
en nearby. The path led from a natural
clearing in the Peruvian
small Matses Indian puebla of our
friend Tumi, an irascible old man hardly
touched by the twentieth century.
There were easier ways to reach his vil-
lage, but we never used them. This was
the route we had cut when we first visit-
ed, the puebla in 1984, and it had be-
come a sort of ritual to reclear the path
whenever we returned. On this trip, how-
ever,when we reached the edge of the
clearing, we weren't greeted
tomary manner. No bedraggled dogs
barked at us; no children shot at us with
featherless arrows; none of Tumi's
gatherer life. "I'll take you into the jun- dangered parrots and small game. But seen you do," he said when he found the infant of one of them, atop his head. grabbed the arms of one monkey as he
gle for four days this time," he said even when carried food, he managed
I me eating the bird. "Now you're begin- He rested the gun against a tree, said took the legs. They held it in the fire,
when asked him to lead me to the
I to lose or give it away. To him the jun-
it ning to understand the jungle." something, then walked back into the burning off its fur, oblivious to the ani-
Matses. "Maybe next year you will re- gle meant killing and being killed. The next day a young Indian silently forest. Moises picked up the gun and mal's screams. Carrying a piece of a ma-
turn and meet them." "Escuche me, Pedro," he said very appeared at our campsite. He was turned to me. "Let's go, Pedro." chete blade, an old woman crawled out
didn't know why needed an intro-
I I deliberately. "This isn't Hollywood. The small and dark-skinned, naked except grabbed our machetes and we fol-
I of a low opening in the leaf hut and took
duction to the jungle. But soon I Matses are hunters. They don't know for an old pair of green swim trunks and lowed the Matses, almost running to the now-dead monkey. She walked to
Amazon to the learned that it was like entering a living about endangered species. Make amis- carrying a long black bow and a hand- keep up with him. An hour later we the stream, gutted the animal, cut it into
organism whose defenses all seemed take with them and we're finished." ful of feathered arrows. His forehead and came upon a small field. Just beyond it pieces, bundled them in some leaves,
to be geared toward keeping me out. After several weeks Moises got word eyes were painted with a sort of red dye. lay a stand of trees; beyond that, a and returned with the bundle to the hut.
The air was thick and oppressive. The from a fisherman that he'd seen signs His mouth was outlined in blue, and small puebla. "Don't say anything. Just The old man finally stood, picked up
odor of decaying vegetation clung to my of the Matses' presence, and we set out long, whiskerlike splinters stuck out imitate me," Moises said. a long black spear, and walked men-
clothes and left a sickly aftertaste in my to find the tribe. We traveled by river- from the flesh of his upper lip. The puebla was little more than a clear- acingly toward us, bellowing as he ap-
mouth. Stinging insects swarmed by the boat for two days on the Ucayali River, None of us moved for several sec- ing along a stream. Around its perimeter, proached, "Don't act afraid," Moises whis-
thousands, their stings festering instant- we came to a village where we bar-
until onds. Finally the man spoke in a gut- posts were spaced at irregular intervals; pered. He waited until the old man had
ly. stumbled on the root-covered jun-
I tered for a peque-peque, an oversize tural language, and to my surprise, Mois- on each hung animal skulls. Along the almost reached us, then raised his shot-
gle floor and cut my hands on razor- canoe with a small motor. From there es responded in the same tongue. He stream's bank children played with gun, aimed at the old man's chest, and
began to bellow back. The two of them
in the cus- stood toe-to-toe, weapons poised, yell-
B -. A.-,., A*'.
PI ... ing at each other fearlessly. They abrupt-
ly disarmed, and the old man turned and
f~. V
Z * - V ^
;

walked toward the hut. "That's how

^mr
wives ran to welcome us. A few charred they say hello," Moises said as he be-
."'•'#-*V;\* gan following the old man.
posts and some black ash were the on- V'-a
ly indication that Tumi's longhouse had
— It was dark and smoky inside the hut,

where we sat on the bare ground. An

ever existed. Only the small hut belong-
ing to his eldest son remained. The rest
ot the village had been abandoned,
W ' 2=T«E '

old shotgun and some clothing lay on a

raised platform, bows and arrows
Six years ago had known nothing
I
propped against it. Leaf bags, animal
about the rain forest except that it was
being destroyed so quickly that if want-
ed to see it would have to do so soon.
i

X™ ,<n
'"%'^H '''''''
b^JP
skulls, and other ornaments hung from
the ceiling. The rest of the hut was criss-
crossed with hammocks, except at the
I
I

flew to Iquitos, Peru, and spent sever- \ "ii.*

* MJr^ E^^W far end, where the fire burned as the
k.
al weeks on the Ucayali River, traveling
by riverboat
where the
ries of pink river
to isolated fishing villages
locals regaled
dolphins that trans-
me with sto-
r
•
v

j.i
,:
\
V
i-

V -
\ 9E9
m£
m y
"$SH^
TLjm'*
^f i§L :
:
old woman roasted the monkey meat.
We sat in silence until the woman
took two arms from the fire, placed
them on palm leaves, and passed them
"Mil '
formed themselves into beautiful wom-
en at night; of electric eels that created
rfaffi
pT '.
^^9
wl r- .
to the old man, who offered them to us.
The meat was sinewy and almost raw,

!W H"A^i^H
""
'i
lightning storms as they danced upon
the waters; of black crocodiles so large
JaSw'
f
:%
1

'

& i - ',*£.,!
J
g
I

HXv'-'
$ v
and had to fight back the urge to vom-
it.
I

Moises gave me a warning look.

>M &&*&
The Matses are one of '\? 1 Left: According to
they could swallow whole canoes; of an- ' "His name is Tumi, and all of the wom-
the most isolated people local folklore, anacondas
&MO> ^HE^H
1

acondas that grew so long they lost the en are his wives," Moises translated as
ability to move, relying on magical mag-
who have adapted to &%?, "
agff 1 ^P5 grow so long they
the old man spoke. "He moved to this
ws 3S^
-
Two can't move; this one's only
'*'.
life In the jungle. Top: .^KfoBffy
place after a jaguar killed one of his
neticpowers to attract food. snort a natural @ &§P*^ M """*'' 18 feet. Top: A Matses
The most spellbinding stories,
though, were about the Matses, canni-
i

hallucinogenic drug that the

icallnu-nu.
'
v
w *"""
prepares nu-nu in the palm
of his hand. Bottom:
sons on the Lubo River. But moving is
getting harder because there are so
bals with painted faces who lived along Child with pet bird; Matses
many huts on the rivers. He called for
Above: Monkey, a staple
the streams deep in the jungle. They the spirits to tell him if this was a good
of the Matses diet. Indians learn early
moved like the wind, spoke with the an- place, He didn't know because no
Bottom right: A Matses youth to respect the flora and fauna
imals, and roamed the forest in search Matses have lived here for a long time.
in their jungle habitat.
of blood, leaving piles of human bones
displays his catch.
^^^^ "When we first came near," Moises
to bleach in the sun. continued "he thought we were bad spir-
,

didn't believe there could still be

I sharp leaves. Everything did was I we started up the Auchyako and spent handed our shotgun and some shells to small bows and arrows. Smoke issued its and he was going to attack us. But

tribes that had not yet become tourist wrong, and each time made a mistake, I the night in the village of an old man the man, who then disappeared into the from an opening cut into the walls of a when he saw we were not killing so many
attractions or case studies for hordes of Moises would explain how the Matses named Esteban, a friend of Moises'. In foliage. "Matses," Moisessaid, smiling. long, low hut made of leaves. Outside, of his animals he knew we were good
anthropologists. Even so, a part of me would do Afterward vowed to find
it. I the morning we started up the Auchyako "I knew they would find us." a second fire burned. And in the center spirits and waited for us: When we
hoped was wrong. And when returned
I I the Matses. wanted to learn everything
I and paddled for two days until was
it Moises, soon learned, had been in
I of the clearing stood the framework of a didn't come he knew we were lost spir-
to Iquitos, asked the local jungle
I they knew and find out how they man- too shallow for the dugout. Then we be- charge of military actons against the longhouse made of saplings. Nearby, its and he sent his son to bring us here.

guides about the Matses. Some said mis- aged to thrive in such an environment, gan hiking, using our machetes to Matses after they'd raided river towns an old man and several women were He knows this is a good place to live if

sionaries had converted the Matses took several more short trips into the
I slash our way through the thick vines, in the Seventies. He had learned their weaving palm fronds into roof sections. even the spirits cannot find it."
years ago; others told me they had nev- jungle with Moises. On each occasion Iate only some rice we'd brought language in their camps since then. The They all bore the jaguar facial markings. We finished eating and put the
er existed at all. Only one guide told me we took fewer and fewer provisions, re- with us and whatever we could gather Matses' facial markings and the whisk- We watched as our guide placed the bones on the ground. Moises took sev-
what wantedI to hear. A short, thick man lying more on what we could glean from from the forest. began to get sick and
I
ers, he said, imitated Ihose of the jag- bloody but still living monkeys by the eral shotgun shells from his pockets and
in his mid-fifties who had spent 30 the forest. The only aspect of our trips on the fourth day hardly had the uar. He had given the man the gun sim- fire. Nursing a baby, a woman took the gave them to Tumi, who took an animal-
years in the Peruvian military as a jun- that bothered me was the hunting. I strength to get out of my hammock. I
ply because he had asked for it. monkey infant and placed it against; her tooth necklace from the wall and hand-
gle survival specialist, Moises claimed tried explaining that I was just a visitor, finally gave in and stole a bird Moises When the Matses returned an hour breast, where it found her free nipple ed it to me. My hands shook as I held it.

that the Matses not only existed but that we could carry food. I tried to make was roasting on the fire. later, he carried two monkeys in a leaf and began to nurse. "Put it on. It's a gift," Moises said,
many still lived the traditional hunter- him understand that he was killing en- "That's the first right thing have ever I sack on his back and a third, evidently A young girl had also joined him and CONTINUED ON PAGE 70

HE RAISED HIS SHOTGUN AND AIMED AT THE OLD MAN'S CHEST. THE TWO OF THEM STOOD TOE-TO-TOE, BELLOWING FEARLESSLY.
 14 Thirdmonth, 2217
The whimwham tree is every-
where in our valley now.
Thickets of them springing up
all around us, as if by

magic. Such beautiful things

they are, too. Lovely
delicate branches, heavy
with pink blossoms,
waving in the air. Thick drifts
of pollen blow- ting up new
ing like gold- shoots. Now,
en snow over a week later, it

the white crust grew practical-

that covers the ly while you
ground. A deli- watched. The
cious musky fra- universe's all-time
grance that re- horror plant. He-
minds you of every- lene had clasped it
thing nice you've to her bosom, and
ever smelled. More ours. The monster
whimwhams sprout all bush, the plague that
the time, a dozen here, a looks like a tree.
dozen there. And so the dis- "You've got a magical
aster spreads, day by gift," my wife told Helene. "The

universe, my father liked to say, way you can make anything flour-
willalways kill you if you give it a ish and grow. A special touch."

chance, and even if you don't. There's a It's just a i matter of caring about
catch in everything. There's a catch in this place for sure. what the plant wants," ^&. Helene said. "Of paying
We didn't know it when we came here. Such a sweet attention. Anyone can ~tP* do it. If you care enough."
world: fertile soil, mild weather most of the year, a soft A few days later a * second little whimwham
warm breeze out of the south every afternoon. Not much sprouted thirty meters away, across the road and up a lit-
rain but enough groundwater to keep the crops going. tle,outside Nick and Natalie Wong's place. Cute and dain-
Spooky native population, indifferent to our arrival. All too ty,at first. Came right up out of the ground, thrived imme-
easy. Had to be a catch. But what? diately, grew like crazy. Within a week it was almost as

I think we're finally starting to find out. big as Helene's original one. No watering basin around it,
16 Thirdmonlh, 2217 no special care: The Wongs aren't the type.
We are just quiet farming folk who can't or won't hack "It must be a runner from mine," Helene decided.

iton worlds where everything is all divided up already. We "What terrific vitality! Not even two weeks old and already
grub in the raw gray soil here to create the baronies and it's sending out runners!"

dukedoms our great-grandchildren will own.
Of course the Ghosties are here, too. But they are very
quiet and they don't seem to give a damn about the bar-
onies and dukedoms we dream about foi iding on what
used to be their world. So we go on pushing the neat lin-
ear streets forward in the valley and power-chopping the
plains into agricultural turf.
Helene's own whimwham, which by this time was three
meters tall, was flowering now. It bore its flowers in
dense, heavy clusters at the tips of its stems. They
looked like swarms of pink fireflies, very intense in color,
so rich that they seemed almost to be giving off heat. Even
after dark you could still see them a block away, glowing
in the dim light of our three splintery moons.

But now —the lousy hidden catch —the whimwhams— My wife told me that Helene's whimwham was in
The first one in the village was Helene Gannett's doing. bloom, and when got a chance went and looked. We
I I

Green Thumb Helene: Take a stick and make bloom. it
It was a pretty little vase-shaped bush, about as big
around as your hooped arms, about as tall as a tall boy
work hard here, and there isn't a lot of spare time. Carv-
ing a settlement out of the wilderness, it takes work, even
on an easy world like this. But when got a chance went
I
I

of ten. Sleek slender pink stems with a glowing red core and looked. A little delegation of Ghosties had drifted into
showing within, like one tube of porcelain wrapped around town about this time, and found them sitting on Helene's
I

another, and elegant horseshoe-shaped turquoise porch, visiting the whimwham, too. There were four of
leaves, and the first budding hints of the glorious flowers them: a male, two females, and an other-over. They gave
to come. Helene had growing just to the side of her
it me that dead-fish smile of theirs. Then they went back to
front door, in a place of honor among the forty or fifty oth- looking at the whimwham. You never know what's on a
er native plants she had gathered and nurtured. Each Ghostie's mind, and it's a bad idea to try to guess. But
plant was set deep in the dark sandy ground, with a high they seemed fascinated by the bush.
rim of earth around it to retain water until was established.
it The other-over turned to me. after a while and said,
Meticulous gardener, Helene Gannett. "What you think? Very nice plant, yes?"
"What do you call it?" my wife asked her. "Very nice, yes."
"Whimwham tree. planted it on a whim. And wham!
I
"We think very nice, too."
Look at grow." it "That's nice you think it's nice," said.
I

Quick, all right. She'd started with a tiny cutting, a mere "Very pretty flowers. Very very pretty pretty."
woody slip. It rooted overnight. Three days and was put it "Very pretty, yes."
46 OMNI
 I wish I liked Ghosties more. They're while after that, down the block by the whimwhams extract from groundwater it

gentle, inoffensive things, peaceful and town hall. Then there was a fourth, and and concentrate it in glands in their
polite. Little slippery creatures, pale a fifth, and then we stopped remember- stems. As they come showering down
green, almost transparent, like squid ing how many there were, because from the leaves, the crystals turn the
that walk upright. They aren't what there were too many all at once. whole area around the tree into an alka-
you'd call but they really
friendly, That was when the horrors started. liflat where nothing can grow except

didn't hamper us in any way as we be- Little horrors first. The whimwhams be- more whimwhams.
gan to settle in and then to expand our gan to go to seed, producing big By this time we had hundreds of the
community across what suppose had I bright red pods. On sunny days the things in the valley, all around, in front
been their territory. Lord only knows pods explode and scatter black pellets, of houses, along the streets, in our lit-

what they thought we were. Gods, may- like buckshot with knife-blade edges, tle park. And out in the plains, too, edg-

be, dropping down out of the sky in a over tremendous distances. Where the ing into the cropland. You could see the
shining chariot. They simply moved seed pellets hit, they slice into the whitened death zone expanding daily
back and found new territories for them- ground and begin making new around them.
selves farther east. Once in a while whimwhams. Eleven of us got hit, too, "We've got to cut 'em down," said. I

they come through town, just sightsee- before we started wearing protective Mike Zhukov seconded me. The vote
ing, sometimes making a little chatter gear. Sam Kingston lost an eye. was unanimous and we got out there
with us. They speak pretty fair Anglic: The old leaves of seeding plants un- with heat spikes and fusion saws. He-
They picked it up naturally, the way dergo a chemical change that fills lene's whimwham was the first to go. In
you'd pick up the measles. them with burning acid. They come the next three hours we took down twen-
The Ghosties and sat there appre-
I loose whenever the wind blows and go ty others.
ciating Helene's whimwham tree for an- whirling through the air like so many lit- Some Ghosties turned up to watch
other five or ten minutes. It was full tle firebrands. If they touch you, the blis- us work.
grown now, higher than her house. I ters bubble for weeks. "They're laughing at us," Bud
was amazed at the way pollen came a few days all the stinging leaves
In Glasnik said.
from it in thick clouds, piling up in had blown off, and the trees grew new "How the hell do you know?" I

mounds. And the aroma of the flowers
was astonishing. It smelled
a perfume my mother used to wear.
Then struck me it was more like the
it
bouquet of new young wine, bubbling
in the cask. Or, maybe, like the warm
soft place between my wife's breasts,
just as she steps out of her bath.
A third whimwham
ones. These new leaves are bigger and asked him. "How the hell do we know
to me like thicker and drip white crystals from what any Ghostie expression really
their horseshoe tips. That was when He- means?"
lene Gannett came running into Town Whimwham discovered,
roots, we
Meeting like a crazy woman. "My are killers. They go down fifty or a hun-
whole garden's dying!" she yelled. "Ev- dred meters, right to the top zone of the
erything but the whimwhams!" water table, and drink it bone-dry in no
The crystals turned out to be sodium time, and go even deeper. There's no
sprouted a little hydroxide: caustic soda, that is. The way to go down that far and dig them
out. You can cut the trunk off, but the
stump will sprout new suckers, often

within hours. If you grub the stump out,

too, the outlying roots will send up suck-

ers of their own. They come up wher-
ever the roots feel like it, often thirty me-
ters away from the site of the tree.
When you haul a cut-down whim-
wham away, you have to be careful
what happens to the pieces. A twig the
length of your finger, if it happens to
land on a moist patch of ground, will
take root right away. Even stray bits of
bark can do it. We had to send the

kids out on patrol, ripping up the new

little whimwhams before they could get

their hooks into the soil. Even so, we

missed about one out of every five, and
by the next morning they were nicely
rooted, helping their big brothers and
sisters to turn our valley into a desert.
Isaid to one of the Ghosties, "How
come this entire planet isn't covered
with whimwhams? What do you do to
get them?"
rid of
"Is no problem," said the Ghostie.
"When whimwham come, we get the
hoogoo bug that eats them. Hoogoo
love eating whimwham."
Of course "hoogoo" what she ac- isn't

tually said. Human mouths aren't capa-

ble of reproducing the sounds the
Ghosties make. But it was something
"You know, I could have sold my soul like that. And it sounded right. Feed the
for a fabulous sum in the Sixties, but like a fool, I waited until the whimwham trees to the hoogoo bug
Eighties and got caught in a buyer's market. why the hell not?
Turns out the hoogoo bug isn't na-
CON I INL'tU ON PAGE 68
In1861 a New this movement.
Yorker named In 1800 he

A. Christian patented
registered a machine (far
his toy rocking right) to
horse (right). gather and
The first press fluted
industry in fabrics.
America to be
mechanized
was textile
manufacture,
and J. H. Browr
contributed to
 —

echoes like a clarion call to

ed a model "not more than signs can and do leave the
inventors throughout the twelve inches square... neatly realm of judgment altogether, for
Eureka, a light made, the name of the inven- some are the miniaturized begin-
A pen! Liquid Paper! tor.. .printed or engraved upon, or nings of American industries: for
Though Archimedes' 2,200- affixed to in a durable manner."
it, example, the McCormick reaper,
Household -old statement came This part of America's patent law a threshing machine that revolu- Clockwise from
chores made down to us, alas, -his model to of 1836 caused a burst of cre- tionized agriculture. left: Tile fac-
easier and demonstrate the theory did not. ativity, resulting hundreds of were and are a nation
in Vife of in- ing and squaring
more efficient:
N. B. Phelps's
Did he in fact construct a mod-
el?If he had lived in America in
—
thousands of models until 1880, ventors, never satisfied with the machine, 1880,
when the law was rescinded. The status quo. After the Civil War in- by C. F. Powers;
the early nineteenth century he nonprofit U.S. Patent Model Foun- ventors submitted 65 different G. Westinghouse,
washing wringer, would have been required to, dation, launched in 1986 by types of clothespins for patent, Jr.'ssteam
patented just to apply for a patent. Not on- then Vice-President Bush, is now each accompanied by a painstak- engine and pump,
in 1876 (right). ly that, but specifications demand-
attempting to raise a $35 million ingly wrought wooden or metal patented in

SV^<¥ purse to collect, restore, and

house these historical pieces of
Americana, pieces that President
Calvin Coolidge, in a moment of
piqued shortsightedness, chose
to auction off in 1926.
models— 100,000 may
The still exist, though at least an
equal number were lost over
the years to fire and disrepair
are as diverse, cockeyed, and cre-
ative as American ingenuity.
Some are highly complex (like a
tile facing and squaring machine example. (Then again, hanging 1870; fulling mill,
invented by Charles Powers in clothes out to dry used to be big used in the
1880), with a craftsmanship bor- business.) In fact, so many Amer- manufacture of
dering on the maniacal; others icans were busy inventing and textiles, by J.
are simplistically constructed supplying models for every imag- H. Trainor,
(like a portable icehouse, invent- inable and supposed benefit to hu- 1874; vegetable
ed by J. E, Lippitt in 1877), as if —
mankind many with the empha- assorter, 1879,
slapped together with childlike en- sis on supposed— that by the designed
thusiasm and not much else. De- late 1860's, applications were in- by H. J. Heinz.
 ing apparatus (that is, an eleva-
tor) by Otis; a steam pump by
Westinghouse; a oarbonizer and
a telegraphic printer by our most
prolific inventor, Thomas Edison.
The laborsaving device is an
American preoccupation, and a
plethora of these exist. Dozens of
models of washing machines, sewr
ing machines, coffee makers,
clothes hangers, and folding
beds were submitted for the an-
ticipated gratitude of and remuner-
ation by a burgeoning army of
creasing at ihe raie of 20,000 an- veals a cornucopia of inventive fer-
any of the models, howev- homemakers. Yes, among these fop row, from
nually. Patent Commissioner From the perspective of a
tility.
are ingenious and craft- were rodent or other animal
er, Lantern
left: Mary Hitdreth's
Samuel Fisher was inspired to century away, we may chuckle I ed with the skill of a mas- traps.It is uncertain whether any- made by J. H. iron holder
state, "We may take just pride in what seem incredibly naive at- ter artisan. Much of our modem one actually beat a path to these Irwin in 1878; from 1875.
our National Museum of the Me- tempts to make life easier. Bit industry, in and miniatur-
infancy inventors' doors, but rest as- 1876 improve-
its Below: The pat-
chanic Arts, but it is questionable these inventors were dead seri ized, can be seen in a vege- sured, you own an original mod-
still if ent office has
whether this museum can be al- ous. To apply, they had to fill ou: assorter by Heinz; a hoist- el of a better mousetrap or any oth-
table the telegraph, no information
lowed to grow at the rate of 5,000 numerous forms, pay an outra- er nineteenth-century patented patented by other than the
square feet per annum." geous fee of £30, and mail their model, the U.S. Patent Founda- Alexander number 267, but
Afire in 1877 solved some of contraptions to Washington, DC. tion would like you to beat a Graham Bell; presumably
the space problem; a third of Therefore a bedbug trap, a dog- path to door, posthaste.
its S.F.B. Morse's it's a locomotive.
ithe models were destroyed. powered treadmill, and an im- In fact, the foundation improvement on
Changing the law a few years lat- provement in plates for desiccat- hopes that collectors his earlier
er solved the rest. But the large were no laughing mat- throughout the country patent for the
number of models that r ter, not to their proud inventors.
willdonate any and all pat- telegraph, 1849;
 JI.LIPPITTS }m
PORTABLf '
|j
»GE HOUSE,,

From left:
)

enl models in an effort to reverse

« a

global warming, pollution, over-

Information on what many, including its execu- population, disease.
tive director, Nancy Metz, consid- believes a
this doll is lost,
but the model er a lack of American interest in fhe foundation
of interest
vival these mod-
in
re-

remains intact; invention. Forty-seven percent of els may help reverse the
J. E. Lippitfs American patent applications downward trend. It has already re-
1877 patent now come from foreigners (it was covered more than 35,000 mod-
helped preserve 10 percent 30 years ago). els and plans to purchase private-

ice during ow to keep American inven- ly owned models (the appraised

transport,
tiveness alive? Invent Amer- value: S23 million) to be housed
ica, a project under the aus- in their own Smithsonian Institu-
although
this model pices of the foundation, sponsors tion building in Washington. The
is missing its
a nationwide annual competition collection go on
will intermittently
in which schoolchildren submit tour to schools across the nation.
wheels; device
for desiccating
models of inventions. Models— If you wish further information

they the key? Visualization is about the U.S. Patent Model Foun-
eggs, P. Cooper,
1876; G. H.
how we make the complex sim- dation or Invent America!, includ-
Chinnock's toy ple, and simplicity is at the ing how to donate a patent mod-
building blocks,
root of great and original el or make a tax -deductible con-

from 1866. ideas —

ideas sorely needed tribution, write the U.S. Patent Mod-
Note that the { to fight theproblems creat- el Foundation, Suite 420, 510
third line spells ed -by an overzealous appli- King Street, Aiexandria, VA
OUt OMNI.
cation of our inventions; 22314— Bob Berger

for %#
 —

A "hot spot" is not the latest nightclub

for this eminent geochemist. He
frequents places miles beneath the sea, where
holes extending more than 600
kilometers belch primordial material from
the hot liquid core of the earth

irUTERV/IEUU

n October 15, 1987, one was down there banging

the research ship Mel-
ville from the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography
was steaming through the
South Pacific some 900 miles
southeast of Tahiti. As the
ship approached MacDonald
on the ship with an enormous
sledgehammer." To Craig the
roiling sea and reverberating
ship meant only one thing;
The undersea volcano Tama-
was erupting, and his
rii vessel
was sitting right on top of it.

Seamount, the scientists saw To most people, such a sit-

the water beneath them begin uation would seem a horribly
to churn and bubble. Loud unlucky accident. To Craig, it
clanging noises began to is- was an extraordinary stroke of
sue from the bottom of the fortune. As a geochemist
ship, "as if." says chief sci- one who puzzles out the work-
entist Harmon Craig, "some- ings of the earth's insides by

PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG KIRKLAND

/<tJ \.
analyzing the chemical composition of his wife, Valerie, field-mapping and sam- to what may be his most important dis
the rocksand gases that it spews forth— pling granites in Wyoming, intermittent- covery. In 1969 he and Brian Clarke,
Craig has roamed the world, inspect- ly tending bar to help finance his work. then a Scripps colleague, found ihat he-
ing the volcanic pipes and crevices He then approached Urey for a thesis lium 3, a rare isotope of helium, contin-
that provide windows into the earth's subject. Urey made him learn to blow ually exudes from ocean-floor volca-
heart. He has climbed into volcanic glass and assigned carbon to him, hy- noes as part of the "degassing" proc-
calderas, or craters, in Ethiopia and drogen and oxygen having already ess unfolding since the earth's birth.
plucked frozen cores from the Green- been parceled out to others. Craig be- Since then, Craig has been tracing he-
land ice cap. He's ridden the famous came entranced with the study of iso- lium 3 "signatures" at submarine volca-
submersible Atvin two miles down into topes, atoms of the same element that noes and "ocean-island hot spots," par-
the abyss of the ocean floor, to places differ in the numbers of neutrons in ticularly along the East Pacific Rise,
where the very sutures of the earth are their "Isotopes," he says,
nuclei. where the gigantic oceanic plates sep-
stitched in fire and smoke. All this in an "gave me a chance to look at rocks, arate. Craig's analysis of helium 3 in the
idiosyncratic search into the interior of shells, organic matter, trees, ocean wa- volcanic gases of Kilauea, a hot spot
the planet, which Craig characterizes ter, diamonds, meteorites everything — volcano in the Hawaiian islands,
as "wrenching truth from the earth." on Earth." Indeed, for his Ph.D. disser- showed that the lavas of those volca-
The grandson of stage actors who tation at Chicago he analyzed carbon noes come from the deepest part of the
owned a theater in Boston, Craig took isotopes in all these diverse sub- earth's silicate mantle.
his turn behind the footlights. But by the stances so thoroughly, according to Craig's global studies of helium 3
sixth grade he wanted to be an ento- one colleague, that his findings became and other isotopes have earned him the
mologist. He collected rocks, insects, "the foundation for the signature of car- Vetlesen prize, the highest award in
and one-celled animals and scoured bon in nature." Craig recalls: "When I
earth sciences, and some colleagues
the BostonCommons for flints. By high- went to college wasn't sure what sci-
I
acclaim him as one of the true inven-
school graduation he'd settled on the ence I was going to concentrate on. tors of modern geochemistry.
physical sciences, which led him in This uncertainty is something that's Bill Lawren interviewed Craig at his

1943 to the University of Chicago, characterized everything I've
where he spent a year before enlisting since, because I have the desire
in the Navy. Ending his naval career work in different fields — geology,
aboard a radar test ship in 1946, he re- chemistry, geophysics, oceanography."
turned to Chicago, where Nobel laure- His turn in the Navy left him fascinat-
ate Harold Urey— the discoverer of ed by the sea, so when offered a job in
—
heavy hydrogen was beginning to pro- 1955 at the Scripps Institution, he
done La Jolla, California, home and his
to Scripps lab, where he often works
geo- from three p.m. until the early hours of
the morning. "By the time we were fin-
ished," Lawren says, "I was ready for
a long vacation. But Craig could have
gone on forever."

duce a new breed of geochemists. jumped at the chance. This fascination,

Craig entered graduate school in ge- particularly with places where the Omni: Is there something archetypal
ology and spent several summers with ocean meets the inner earth, led Craig about your urge to get at the earth's
deepest secrets?
Craig: Perhap's, but I don't know how
to explain it. When I'm at sea, Igo out
on deck at night when no one's there
and experience a deep physical feel-
ing. Sometimes talk to the ocean. It's
I

the same when I'm climbing a volcano

to get samples. don't have any I

breath left because of all the smoking

I did, so it's a terrible effort to climb
things. I feel a certain pride that I've
been able to do it.

Omni: How did you end up sitting on

the erupting volcano?
Craig: We were in the Austral island
chain, which ends in the southeast at
an underwater volcano called Mac-
Donald Seamount, tracking huge
plumes of helium 3 emitted from the
East Pacific Rise. The ocean at the sea-
mount was a vivid green, with muddy
chocolate streaks throughout. Next we
noticed loud noises from under the
ship, banging hard enough to make the
ship shake. Then we saw huge bub-
bles, six to twelve feet in diameter, burst-
ing in clouds of steam and gas. Evident-

ly there was an eruption going on.

We put the ship into the middle of the
green stuff, and when we saw a bub-
ble coming up, we tried to put the ship
over and send a hydrocast [for sam-
it

pling water at different depths] down

through it — harpoon the bubbles.
Bombs of dead-black lava came spew-
ing up, too, and because they were so
hot and full of steam, they floated for
 ENTER THE OMNI/SMITH CORONA 2001:

^CJKD PROPHECY
AND
CHALLENGE WIN..

GRAJND PRIZE: Travel to the luture. An exciting FIRST PRIZE: State-of-the-art Smith Corona
trip for two to Epcot Center . . . plus, $500 cash. Laptop Personal Word Processor and Printer.

Smith Corona, who introduced the very first personal word enhance your business and personal life. Also include futuris-

processor and the first laptop, invites OMNI readers to partic- tic features you would expect to see added by the year 2001.

ipate in the 2001 Word Prophecy Challenge. Grand Prize is

a 4 Day/3 Night trip for two to Epcot Center for a hands-on

MAIL YOUR ENTRY TO: OMNI/SMITH CORONA 2001
experience in high tech adveniurc. phr.; j>500 cash! First
PROPHECY CHALLENGE, BOX 769, GIBBSTOWN, NJ
08027. ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 11/30/90.
Prize, the "iop.s" in bpiops. a Smith Corona Personal Word
Processor 7000 and printer, with features that include a Nn purchase necessary. I'luf, per insiriicii o:v. ishnv:-. Open to residents of
[he contiguous U.S. Winners will be selected ba^eii mi: clarity of expres-
50,000 character inter™! memory and a built-in dictionary
sion, creativity, originality lui-.I in noi- ain- thonglii. Vbid where prohibited.
and thesaurus.
For complete ruins. send u ^lUidurc-seil. '.Mmne..! envelope Lo: 2001
To enter, tell us in 200 words or less in typewritten, double- Word Prophecy Rules. P.O. Bo* 8S\ Gibbiiowri, NJ 08027. Entries must
space format, how using a personal word processor would be received by 11/30/90.

fifteenminutes or so. We managed to ample, is moving northwest there's a — es are coming out dissolved in seawa-
net one lava bomb. continual source of material at a point ter.We get the highest ratios, the most
Omni: Wasn'l this dangerous? deep in the earth's mantle that's punch- helium 3 compared with helium 4, at
Craig: Myojin, a volcano south of Ja- ing its way vertically to the surface. places that go deepest into the earth.
pan, erupted in 1952 with a shipful of This material punches holes through the At Hawaii and in some of the hot spot
Japanese oceanographers over blow- it, oceanic crust like a sewing machine nee- volcanoes in Iceland, in Ethiopia, and
ing the vessel to bits, killing everyone dle stitching up the plate and pro- at Reunion in the Indian Ocean, the ra-
aboard. Nothing was ever found but a duces volcanoes along a line on top of tios are the highest, about thirty times
few pieces of wood. Later, records the holes, as in- the Hawaiian chain. the atmospheric ratio. This is the most
told us that some MacDonald Sea- Hydrothermal vents don'l go very primordial, pristine material on Earth. It
mount eruptions had been two hundred deep. The active magma that heats up has to be coming from very deep in the
times more violent than the one we the water is only a few kilometers be- mantle. Of course there are a lot of oth-
were sitting on. Some people at low the ocean floor. The majority opin- er isotope tracers used to identify
Scripps tried to make something out of ion,however, is that hot spots go well these plumes.
this when we got back, saying we'd down into the mantle, more than six hun- Omni: What was like going down to
it

risked the ship. But Myojin is an arc vol- dred kilometers. Many people now be- the Loihi hot spot caldera?
cano, and these have a lot of water in lieve these hot spots extend all the way Craig: Strange. Loihi is a living, grow-
the lavas, so you get steam blast erup- to the boundary between the mantle ing undersea volcano one thousand me-
tions and huge explosions, like Kraka- and the core. That's a depth of about ters below the sea surface. It's the pres-
toa. The MacDonald Seamount volca- three thousand kilometers, about half- ent site of the Hawaiian hot spot: in
no erupts much more quietly way to the center of the earth. fact, it's the place where the next Ha-
Omnh What's the difference between hy- Omni: How can you tell a hot spot? waiian island is being built. From the he-
drothermal vents and hot spots? Craig: Our way is by looking at the iso- lium 3 and methane concentrations in
Craig: A hydrothermal vent is a fissure tope ratios of the stuff that comes up: water samples, we knew there must be
along the midocean ridges or other for example, the ratio of helium 3 to he- hydrothermal venting down there.
places where seafloor spreading is go- lium 4. A primordial isotope stored in Rocks dredged there indicate that
ing on and new ocean ctust is forming. the deepest part of the earth at the Loihi must have been active about five
Seawater is flowing down into the time it formed, helium 3 has been com- thousand years ago and could erupt to-
cracks and getting heated up as it ing out of volcanoes ever since. Heli- —
morrow or one thousand years from
approaches the active magma. Then um 4, on the other hand, is produced now. But we had no idea what we'd
the hot water rises and flows out. throughout the earth by the radioactive find. We got the Alvin [a deep-sea sub-
Now, a hot spot is somethirtg else. decay of uranium. We can compare the mersible with robotic arms] to Hawaii
As the big continental and oceanic ratio of helium 3 to helium 4 at various and started surveying along the Loihi
plates move — the Pacific Plate, for ex- places such as hot spots where the gas- caldera on the ocean floor. That was

From the makers of Jack Daniel's...
drudgery, moving the Alvin around at
a knot or so and finding nothing.
Finally we found rocks completely dif-
ferent from the black, shiny basalt and
volcanic glass everywhere else. These
were covered with a thick, reddish-
—
brown deposit of iron oxide a hydro-
thermal deposit. When we tried to pick
up a rock with the arm of the submers-
ible, red powder flew up in every direc-
tion. When we finally located the vents,
the water coming out was flowing down-
hill. [In most vents the water coming out
is so hot it rises in huge jets.] This wa-
ter contained so much carbon dioxide
that it was denser than the surrounding
seawater, and because of the tempera-
ture difference, it shimmered.
Omni: You understood this at the time?
Craig: Not completely. When you're
down there, your mind isn't really think-
ing in these physical terms. You're en-
closed in a tiny capsule, and it's com-
pletely dark except where your lights
are shining. All of a sudden you come
upon this scene: reddish deposits all
around and this shimmering cascade of
water flowing gently down the hillside;
huge basalt columns lying around in
great piles. It was like a fairyland or
something out of mythology, Ruined cit-
ies. It was so beautiful and unexpect-'
ed that it left us speechless. We were
parked in a titanium sphere, sitting on
62 OMNI
a column of material that had punched
its way up from the boundary between
the mantle and the core of the earth,
thousands of kilometers below us.
Omni: Where are hydrothermal vents
usually found?
Craig: Originally it was thought that
such vents were at major spreading ax-
es, where the plates are ripping apart
and new lava is coming up to replace
them. But a few years ago we took Al-
vin near the Marianas Trench in a back
arc basin, an active arc behind an ar-
ea where one oceanic plate is diving un-
der another one. We found hydrother-
mal vents almost twelve thousand feet
deep. Now we have found vents in
many other back arc basins, which dou-
bles the number of areas where we can
expect to find'them.
Omni: Describe the vents.
Craig: In the East Pacific Rise vents
you see hills of brown and black oxides
and sulfides, on top of which are chim-
neys growing ten to twenty meters
high. They look like giant candelabras,
so one has the feeling of being in a ca-
thedral. Some of these chimneys have
volcanic black sulfide "smoke" spout-
ing out the top like geysers, at three hun-
dred and fifty degrees centigrade. You
really feelas if you're sitting on the en-
gine of the earth.
There's lots of life; the vents are oa-
ses. The Marianas vents had little de-
pressions —
we call them woks where
thirty-degree water was coming up, and
they were filled with hairy snails,
shrimp, and looked
fish. It
gin of a tremendously fertile, writh-
life,
all ing biomass. There are tube worms
with red tips, giant white clams, mus-
sels, and barnacles. There are hydro-
thermal vent fish sucking up all the nutri-
ents that come up. On one dive we
brought up about thirty of these hairy
snails and had a cookout. They were
marvelous. froze some and gave
I
them to the Explorers Club to serve at
one of their banquets. I'll bet they're
still in the freezer.
At Loihi, though, therewas almost no
life, except a very funny fish with a
small body, large front legs, and a
great huge gaping mouth. It just sits on
the bottom, facing the current with its
mouth open, and lets all the food flow
in. We named it after Bill Nierenberg,
director of Scripps at the time, who has
a reputation, totally deserved, as hav-
ing the highest ratio of talking to listen-
ing in oceanography.
Omni: The French architect Jacques
Rougerie foresees colonies living perma-
nently on the ocean floor. Do you think
that willever happen?
It could certainly happen, be-
Craig:
cause there are enough people who'd
do it, just as there are those who'd live
in space stations. But don't think
I
they'd do it permanently; they'd go
down and live for a year at a time. We'll
probably have something like that twen-
ty to forty years from now. I wouldn't
want to live underwater for a long time,
but a short time would be great. I'd go
down there with a word processor and
get all my papers written. Loihi will be-
come a great tourist spot. In ten years
they'll have submersibles taking people
down to Loihi, almost lite Yellowstone
Park. I already named the area Pete's
Vents, and we left an aluminum sign
down there. You'll see more signs with
hot spring names on them, and the tour-
ists will sail around and see the sights.
Omni: What do you think of Jacques
Cousteau?
Craig: A very interesting and formida-
ble guy. I've never forgotten seeing him
and his son Philippe on the Carson
show, when Jacques disclosed that he
had been an opium smoker in China.
Apparently he had never told Philippe
about this. Philippe was so astounded
that he almost fell out of his chair.
Cousteau has done a lot of living that
people are not aware of.
biological oceanographers have a
am a
Cousteau admirer. Unfortunately, many
poor opinion of him, think he does not
I mines the initial cracking pattern of the
do hard science and only wants pub-
—
like the ori-
To the
drinkers of
Jack Daniel's.
licity. don't see that at all.
I see him I
as a man with an almost fanatic mission
to explain to people what we're doing
to the environment. He's been strongly
affected by seeing the Mediterranean
contaminated with so much junk that
is essentially a ruined sea. He has
been primarily responsible for a lot of
funding and support for oceanography.
Omni: Recent work suggests that the
deep inside of the earth resembles the
surface. There are "continents," "moun-
tains," and "canyons" at the core-man-
tle boundary. There's even a suggestion
of "weather" down there.
Craig: Harvard and Caltech peo-
Right.
ple using CAT [seismic wave] scans to
look at core-mantle interactions believe
there's an almost atmospherelike con-
vection around the core, so that molten
iron rises in equatorial regions and
gets transported to the north and
south, where it actually rains
storms. It may be
related to the hot
spots: Crustal plates move around all
over the earth, while the hot spots are
relatively more fixed. So that means the
hot spots may originate on the mantle-
core boundary. But something deter-
plates. The way South America fits
—
against Africa the crack between the
two continents more or less follows the
same line as the chain of hot spots run-
ning along the Atlantic floor. It's almost
as if the hot spots were responsible for
cracking the two continents apart, pos-
sibly fixing the shapes of the plates.
Omni: What about the direction of cli-
it mate change in the next century?
Craig: I've been doing research on
methane, a greenhouse gas second in
importance to COj. Molecule for mol-
ecule, methane
has more effect than
C0 2 . Methane in the atmosphere
comes from natural sources like
swamps and wetlands, and from cattle,
rice paddies, natural gas, and burning
coal. We used Greenland ice cores to
measure ancient methane levels record-
ed in air trapped as bubbles in the ice.
We discovered that about four hundred
years ago, when Shakespeare was
young, the methane content of the at-
mosphere suddenly began to increase
rapidly and has been increasing ever
down in since. It's now more than double what
it had been for many thousands of
years in the past, obviously due to pro-
duction by man and his animals.
We also drilled some ice cores to use
large amounts of ice to study the car-
bon isotopes in the methane. They
showed a recent increase in C-13, the
heavy carbon isotope. This increase
had to be due to burning of wood, the
only source of methane that high in
C-13. The burning of the world's forests
CONTINUED ON RAGE 105
 —

^The mystery
cloud was seen by more than 50
people in five separate
cities more than 200 miles apart.3

You can't ask for a reported a meteor at

more qualified ob- the time. It's clear
server than Patricia that there was some-
Reiff, senior re- thing in the sky, but
search scientist in the question re-
the department of mains: What?"
space physics and James Oberg, an
astronomy at Rice engineer in the
University. Early one space shuttle pro-
night last summer gram, has made a
she spotted a small, second career out of
very bright cloud in mys-
explaining aerial
the clear western teries. But after look-
skies over Hickley. ing into the Reiff sight-
Texas. She called it ing. he, too, has
to the attention of her come up empty-hand-
family, and within ed."!! has all the char-
five minutes the acteristics of a gas re-
cloud had expanded lease from a sound-
fourfold and dimmed ing rocket," he as-
considerably. More serts, "but whoever
than 50 people in launched it has no!
five separate cities come forward. We
more than 200 miles
apart saw it as well.
Virtually every wit-
ness reported an ob-
ject of the same shape
UFD UPDffTE
and in about the same position
checked with those
who would know and
they have no record
any suborbital
of
launches. But then, there is no international convention
roughly halfway between the stars Arcturus and Spica. on registering such things. You only find out years later."
Reiff calculated the cloud to be at least 700 mites away Strangely enough, Oberg had his own mystery cloud
and nearly 350 miles up. sighting just a couple of months after Relff's. Oberg was
The cloud resembled a gas release from a sounding trick-or-treating with the kids on Halloween when, he
rocket, but a launch, Reiff thought, was unlikely to have says, they saw "quite a strange visual phenomenon.
been scheduled on a Saturday night with scattered thun- There were a lot of clouds in the sky, and the object
derstorms forecast around the country She called the looked to me like a spotlight projecting on the bottom of
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and learned the cloud deck."
that no missiles had been fired that night and that a test Initially other reports from the area confirmed that the

laser, developed by the star-wars program to shoot down
aircraft drones and low-flying rockets, was not functioning
at the time. Checks with NASA/Goddard Space Flight Cen-
ter, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and others failed to re-
solve the mystery.
"It's also unlikely that it could have been the aftermath
of a fireball-type meteor," says Reiff, "since most meteors
disintegrate at lower altitudes. But none of the observers
object was far away. But then "a very good observer" just
north of Oberg said that as he topped a rise In the high-
way, he couid see a refinery bum-off on the ground; it was,
he observed, lighting up the clouds directly above.
The story hofds a simple lesson. "It stresses the im-
portance of watching for anomalous phenomena." says
Oberg. "The more that people come forward, the easier it
is to find a solution."— PATRICK HUYGHE

Ingo Swann Is relying on
a computer, not clairvoy-
ance, to interface with the
future.As the founder and
director of the Manhattan-
based American Prophecy
Project, Swann has com-
bined astrology and numer-
ology with statistical forecast-
ing techniques like cycle
analysis to determine wheth-
er he can generate a
prophecy database. And the
results so tar suggest his
database may be an
accurate indicator of political
and economic events.
Swann, who publishes a
monthly newsletter of his
predictions, also issues
SB OMNI
periodic "alerts" when sign''
cant events are imminent.
An alert last fall correctly
anticipated a20-polntdrop
in the stock market on
November 20. And three
weeks before the govern-,
men! ot Romania toppled,'
his December newsletter
noted that "significant social
upheavals'" would take place
"with special reference to
Eastern Bloc countries."
Swann's methods and
conclusions have yet to
convince professional
soothsayers like Marvin
Cetron. president ol Fore-
casting International, an
Arlington' Virginia, consult-
ing firm on future trends.
"You can try using crystal
balls and chicken entrails to
predict the future," says
Cetron. "You can also take
fivequick drinks and predict
anything. But ft wouldn't
convince our clients. You've
got to use quantitative data."
If Swann's database is at
all accurate, perhaps Cet-
ron's government and corpo-
rate clients should take
heed. Swann's predictions
for the Nineties include the
decline of both Communism
and capitalism and the
formation of a vast Asian
economic community en-
compassing Japan, China,
Korea, and India, as well as
most of the Middle East.
—
Jeff Goldberg
"The constellations were
consulted for advice, but no
one understood them.
—Bias Canetti
"Astrology is framed by the
devil."
—Martin Luther
When John Ellis found
out about a new laser disc
for personal computers that
could store up to 600
megabytes of information, a
supernatural voice gave him
a message. "1 heard God
say, as clear as a bell,
it!'" he says. What God
was talking about. Ellis
claims, was putting a library
ot Bible translations and
research on laser disc.
Ellis, a physician who also
sells computers, now pub-
lishes and markets the Bible
Library, a CD-ROM (read-
only memory) disc for
personal computers,
through his Oklahoma City-
"
based Ellis Enterprises. The
disc contains nine versions
of the Bible, nearly 20
reference works and con-
cordances, Hebrew and
Greek dictionaries, sermon
topics, illustrations, and
more. "It would take seven
hundred forty-seven floppy
discs to hold all this
information," Ellis says, "It's
the equivalent of a stack of
books, three across, thai
would reach to the ceiling."
Though the Bible Library
sells for $595 and requires a
CD-ROM drive, Ellis says
that most buyers are
laypeople rather than schol-
ars or ministers. "It lets them
look up the facts, compare
the original languages, and
make intelligent decisions,"
says Ellis, "without depend-
ing on some seminary."
Has Ellis personally
learned anything new from
working with the Bible
'Do Library? "Well, the word piss
occurs twice In the King
James Version, but it's
called drink of your own
water' fn other versions,
When you look it up in the
original language He- —
—
brew you realize the only
thing you can call is piss,"
it
he says. "So I've fallen in
love With the King James
Version. It's an honest
translation." —
Sherry Baker

he i is! year,
000 French citi-
zens have perched them-
selves atop cranes, bridges,
and ravines and jumped off.
The vast majority survived
the leap, saved by an elastic
rope tied around their ankles
and secured to the top of
their jumping spot But at
least nine people have lost
their lives when the elastic
snapped, according to Re*
ger Bantuk, France's miniSr
ter ot youth and sports.
Why would anyone want
to turn himselt Into a human
yo-yo? "The two to four
seconds of sheer terror you
experience when you throw
yourself over an abyss
apparently causes an Incred-
ible rush," Bantuk says,
French physician Xavier
Maniquet has found that
jumpers' pulse rates can
soar to 200 beats per minute
even before they begin their
" "
free-fall — raising the possibil-
ity that the spor[ could be
deadly for people with heart
problems. Warnings about
the dangers of becoming a
human yo-yo, however,
have done little to dampen
the popularity of the bizarre
new sport. So the French
government has moved to
regulate the activity rather
than ban It.
"We hope io prevent ca-
sualties by designating
relatively safe places, with
set height limits, for the
jumpers," Bantuk says. "The
elastic rope must be the
proper length, and the path
of the jump must be free of
any obstacles."
And since safety prob-
lems have been posed by
thehuge crowds that come
towatch the human yo-yos,
the government is banning
lumpers from places like
bridges, where rubbemeck-
ers can cause accidents.
—Sherry Baker
article on supposed Viking notes that a picture of the
forays into South America is statue with the mysterious
a photograph of a statue at glyphs appeared in Ruins of
No one knows who was San Aguslin on which the United States ot
responsible for sculpting the Nordic-like runes are carved Colombia by Agostino Co-
remarkable stone statues on the headdress. dazzi, published in 1863. "If
thai dot the grassy hills at German archaeologist tourists carved those runes,
the Colombian ruins of San Theodore Preuss. who they may have been Viking
Aguslin. The soulptorsand worked at the site in the tourists," Camby main-
their civilization disappeared mid-Seventies, says the tains. — Rob MacGregor
many years before the markings were graffiti. In his
Spanish conquest. book Prehistoric Monumen- "When you're all alone
But now a new twist to the tal Art. he published two reading, you wish the author
mystery has been added by photos of Ihe statue in that wrote it was a terrific
Kadath. a Belgian ar- question, one with the runes. friend of yours and you
chaeological journal. In a the other without, and wrote: could call him up on the
recent issue, two archaeolo- "Some tourists in our time phone,
gists suggested that Vikings must have carved the runes —J, D. Salinger
visited the site and left their on the statue."
own enigmatic mark. Not In our time, counters "A poet's hair is so strong it-
Among the evidence Raymond Camby, a coau- cuts rock.
presented in the 40-page thor of the Kadath article. He —Korean proverb
 It's frightening to them. watch They
take no hostages. When they finish
with a whimwham, there's nothing left
of it except a fine sandy scatter of or-
ange hoogoo turds that quickly blows
away. Whole sectors of town are totally
whimwham-free now. When some
stray whimwham seedling sprouts in an
area that's already been worked over,
they come back and get it.
With the whimwhams all but gone,
the valley looks strangely bleak and bar-
ren. But we have had some rain lately,
and the sodium hydroxide crusts are
beginning to wash away. Here and
there, a few little green blades of nor-
mal plants are starting to poke through

Romancing the Moment the surface of the soil.

Mostly we stay indoors, waiting for
the carnage to end. Nobody wants to
THE LOVE MEDITATION set foot outside while scattering armies
of huge hideous hoogoos march across
INTRODUCING the land. We love them for what they're
A NEW SYNCHRONIOIY® STEREOPHONIC HOLODYNAM1C® doing to the whimwhams, but you can't
CONTEMPORARY MEDITATION SOUNDTRACK help feeling disgusted at the sight of
them. And a little frightened. So we
FEATURES BROTHER CHARLES' AUDIBLE / SUBLIMINAL AFFIRMATIONS
wait. Presumably, the hoogoos will die
WITHIN THE PEACEFUL AMBIENCE OF HIS MUSICAL / VOCAL
EXPRESSION
once the last whimwham has been gob-
NOW AVAILABLE AT S14.95 THROUGH FINE BOOKSTORES OR BY PHONE bled or else take off for greener pas-
1-800-962-2033 / 804-361-2323 tures, and we'll be able to get back to
CALL FOR A FREE SYNCHRONICITY® SOUNDTRACK our farm work. Presumably.
AND INFORMATION PACKAGE (9AM - 7PM EST) The food supply is dropping pretty
SYNCHRONICS Y® low here. We lost our whole season's

BROTHER CHARLES crop, after all, to the whimwhams.

Right now we're doing all right with ra-
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EXPANSION OF AWARENESS tioning, but we need to get out there
and start planting something soon, now

23 Sixthmonih, 2217 that the rains have come. The question

THE CATCH The pilgrims have returned from

Glopglip with the hoogoos, a dozen big
wickerwork flasks of them. They are the
is

the
off
whether the hoogoos can finish off
whimwhams before famine finishes
us.
tive to this district. But the Ghosties, most hideous insects God ever 18 Eighthmonth, 2217
though they don't really seem to mind spawned, as long as your middle fin- The best summer rains since we
the whimwhams, are saddened that ger, with yellow scorpion tails and shin- came here. Terrific weather for the
they're blighting the whole local land- ing red beaks like razors and huge bulg- crops, except there are no crops.
scape that we have created, our farms ing luminescent green eyes. In the The whimwhams are all gone. The
and gardens and so forth. So they night you can see them crawling hoogoos are still here. And still hungry.
agreed to make a pilgrimage to the Ho- around under the whimwham trees like "Didn't you say," Bud Glasnik asked
ly Land of Glopglip, where the hoogoos ugly little moving beacons. me, "that the Ghosties told you the hoo-
live, and bring some back to get mat- The one thing they are besides ugly goosdon't eat anything but whimwham
ters under control. And no, the name of is voracious. They love to eat, and trees?So when they've eaten all the
the place isn't Glopglip, either. I'm try- what they eat is whimwhams. They whimwhams, they'll go somewhere
ing to find equivalents. start with the leaves, and then they eat else?"
The Holy Land of Glopglip is appar- the stems, and when they reach "I don't remember the Ghosties tell-

ently very far away. The Ghosties are ground deep

level they follow the roots ing me that," I said.
not swift travelers. We've been waiting into the earth, chomping on and on un- "We assumed it, didn't we?" said
a long time for our hoogoo bugs. tilthey have devoured every molecule Bill Gannett. "You bring in one ecolog-
The whole valley is white with alkali of whimwham they can find. Then they ical plague to take care of another, and
flats. Nothing can grow here now but lay eggs, somewhere far down in the itgoes away when it does its job. It

the whimwham tree. The topsoil is poi- ground, and in a few days a new gen- makes ecological sense."
soned with caustic soda and the eration of hoogoos comes boiling forth "Yes," I said. "It does. But that isn't

ground has been sucked dry, parched to go in quest of more whimwhams. what's happening."
clear down to what used to be the wa- In the week they ate every whim-
first "No," Bud Glasnik said. "That isn't
ter table. The whimwham has trans- wham along the eastern side of the val- what's happening."
formed our pretty valley into the kind of ley from Boundary Line to Town Hall. What is happening is that the hoo-
hateful environment that it alone loves. Then they started to work up the mid- goos, having completed their whim-
A sea of pink blooms sways gently dle of town, heading westward, a wham assignment, had eaten all the
in thB breeze. Smooth branches glow steady swarming army. A second gen- new summer vegetation that had
like fine porcelain. Sweet lovable little eration of bugs and a third had come up in the places where the whim-
sproutlings come up wherever you "hatched by then, and they're at work at whams had been. That didn't last
look. It's all terrifically beautiful.. It the edge of the plains, where our farm- long. But they will eat anything. Any-
breaks your heart to see it. land used to be. thing. They ate some of our livestock

68 OMNI
 next, as much as they could gel at be- be they will. Maybe they won't.
fore we sealed the pens. They ate If we haven't starved by then, and it's
be a close thing, the jubjubs
TROUBLE
three cats and most of our dogs. They going to CONTINUED =R0M FAGF 43
attacked Mike Zhukov outside Town that the Ghosties bring-will eat the hoo-
Hall and slashed his leg badly enough goos that wiped out the whimwhams, "Now give him something in return.
to require surgical repair. and we will be back where we started Your machete."
Flamethrowers stop them but don't from, ready to plant the spring crops Accepting the machete, Tumi
stop enough of them. Nothing we have and live happily ever after and found turned his back io us. -

our future baronies and dukedoms. And "Let's go while he thinks we're
seems to poison them. Any lethal dose still

would probably make our land lethal. if you believe that you will believe any- spirits, Pedro."
too, for years to come. We have be- thing. The fierce buzz of hoogoos is all wanted to ask why but kept silent
I

come prisoners in our own houses, we hear when we poke our heads out- as crawled out of the hut behind Mois-
I

with swarms of angry, hungry hoogoos hungry now, and very

crawling up the walls, looking for the
way in so that they can eat us next.
Question: Are they eating Ghosties,
why
too? If not,
The Ghosties must have known
what hoogoos are like. They wouldn't
have brought the critters from Glopglip
side. They're very es. Everyone stared at us, the older chil-
mean, and they aren't going away. dren holding bows and arrows or
There's just enough vegetation sprout- spears at their sides, ready. Moises
ing now in the dewhimwhammed fields looked slowly across the camp, then
not? that used to be our farms and gardens started toward the forest. We'd almosl
to keep them here. reached the edge of the clearing when
Something occurred to me, a little Tumi's voice boomed behind us. We
late in the game, last night. If these jub- froze, Moises holding my arm to keep

and turned them loose so close to jubs and hoogoos and whimwhams are me from bolting, and turned back to the
their own territory they didn't have if all linked in a food chain, and jubjubs hut. Tumi gave a bow and arrows to

some way of controlling them. and hoogoos aren't native to this part one of his sons, who ran to us. "He
Tomorrow Will Nordlund and Bryce of Bryson's World, then whimwhams says you have nothing to hunt with; he
Falk and will suit up and take the land
I
aren't either. So where did Helene Gan- wants you to take them," Moises said.
cruiser and ride across the plains to nett get the whimwham cutting that start- Trembling, took the bow and arrows
I

talk to the Ghosties, if we can find ed all our troubles in the first place? from the boy. Then we. turned and
them. And ask them what they think we Iasked her that. stepped back into the forest.
ought to do to get rid of the hoogoos, "A Ghostie gave it to me," she whis- Since then I've returned to the jun-
now that the hoogoos have taken care pered. Terror came into her eyes. "You gle several times, ending each trip
of the whimwhams, because we're get- won't tell anybody, will you? The with a visit to Tumi. I've visited Matses

ting very hungry and we're also pretty Ghostie brought me just a little slip of camps on a dozen rivers with Moises.
scared. a cutting, and smiled, the way they'll We've always tried to come and go as
29 Eighthmonth, 2217 smile, and said it was a very special spirits, not bringing things they don't
"Oh, yes," the Ghosties told us. "The gift, forme, because my garden was so need or taking things they don't give.
How beautiful all tour guides in Iquitos, howev-
'

hoogoo has an enemy, indeed, yes. nice. And I thought, it is, Not
share Moises respect for the
1

The jubjub bird eats the hoogoo bug." what a lovely plant And it took root er,

The jubjub bird 7 Well, that's not real- right away. But please don't anyone.
tell Matses. When word of our contact got
ly what they call it. But it'll do as an equiv- Please!" out, other guides began taking tourists
alent, it'll have to do, So now we know how a killer tree to Tumi's camp. A trail was eventually

I
said. "Where can we get some jub- from far-off Glopglip happened to get cut from the Aucfiyako fishing village to
jub birds, then?" loose here. And we know, too, what the the puebla, making access much easi-
"They are also found in the Holy big catch here is. The catch is that we er. The tourists took things to trade-

Land of Glopglip." are dependent on the Ghosties to watches, calculators, and all kinds ot
WillNordlund pulled out a keep us alive, because this world is plastic trash the Matses didn't need;
"

mapcube. "Show us where Glopglip is," full of dangers that we don't even be- they left with arrows, spears, clay cook-
he said: gin to understand, and the Ghosties do ing utensils. Every year the family
"Oh, no, how can we? It is the Holy not regard us as friends. They are very seemed more burdened with the ob-
Land." gentle and obliging, and they will go on jects of "civilization." Every year they
"We need to go there. We have to and on that way, bringing us new rem- seemed less like Matses. I knew I had
get some jubjub birds." edies for the calamities that their earli- done the damage with that first visit, but
The Ghosties conferred. No, they er giftshave caused, because it is a po- 1had no way to undo it. My enthusiasm
said, would be sacrilege for them to
it litething to do, and each remedy will to see a people in their natural state

tellus where Glopglip is. But they be worse than the thing it is supposed was now ruining them.
would gladly go there for us and bring to deal with.The Ghosties are willing to Then we found Tumi's longhouse
back jubjubs for the hoogoos, just as go on being helpful forever. It is a cy- burned to the ground and the puebla
they had brought back hoogoos for the cle that probably will not end until we deserted except for the young man
whimwhams. Yes. Gladly. are gone from this place. don't think I we'd first encountered in the jungle. He
"When?" we asked. there are going to be any baronies and had grown up and built a separate hut,
"At pilgrimage time," they said. dukedoms for us on Bryson's World af- began wearing shoes and long pants,
"When is that?" ter all. and now went by the name Antonio. We
"When the year has changed," the A platoon of hoogoos is scrabbling asked what had happened to Tumi.
Ghosties said. across the window right in front of my "My father is crazy," Antonio said in

more months. We can't

"That's five nose as write this, trying to find the
I
the pidgin Spanish he had learned. "He
Could you make the pil-
wait that long. way in to the house. burned his house and left everything
grimage now?" All right, Ghosties. Bring on your jub- here, all of the things people brought
"But that would be sacrilege." jubs. And afterward, suppose, you'll I
He said he wanted to hunt and gath-
him.

7 Eleventhmonth, 2217 get us the eat the eggs of

flipflap rat to er and fish in the jungle, to be a
The Ghosties have taken pity. They_ the suddenly terrible jubjub. And so on Matses again. He says he now knows
will set out a month early for Glopglip,' and so on. can hardly wait. I DO you and Moises are bad spirits. You
and with luck they'll be back here with brought the tourists. He should have
some jubjubs for us by early spring. May- Copypgnr 1990 by Agberg, Ltd. killed you when he first saw you." DO
70 OMNI

BDDM ->:_;y I'AGF ?
ach an attractive site to colonize.
took an unorthodox demonstration to set-
tlethe matter. Marshall swallowed a
batch of Helicobacter— and promptly
came down with an acute case of gas-
tritis. Biopsies showed that his stomach
was the bacterium.
infiltrated with
Although Marshall made a full recov-
ery within two weeks, another doctor
who volunteered his stomach to sci-
ence was not so fortunate. Three years
after consuming a Helicobacter culture,
he still had a belly full of the bug. What
finally cured him? A whopping dose of
antibiotics and a lot of Pepto-Bismol.
The best strategy for eradicating the
organism incorporates that time-hon-
ored remedy for digestive ills. As far
back as 1915 doctors advocated salts
of bismuth (the active ingredient in Pep-
to-Bismol) as a cure for upset stom-
achs. Although physicians eventually
dropped the treatment, their patients
continue to rely on it to this day.
turns out, there's more
effect of Pepto-Bismol than the "pro-
tective coating action" cited
Salts of bismuth kill Helicobacter.
By itself, bismuth
however, a salts
preparation can keep the organism in
check only by temporarily reducing its
—
numbers. To completely clear the gut
usually requires a course of two antibi-
otics— tetracycline and metronidazole
taken over a two-week. period.
tain biopsies of
ist, they're not
stomach or
sue. And although blood tests and
breath tests to detect Helicobacter ex-
expected to
intestinal tis-
become com-
It Although compounds like Zantac mercially available for two years.
and Tagamet, which reduce the acid Furthermore, researchers are likely to
content of the abdomen, promote recov- face continued resistance from main-
ery from ulcers, the relief is usually short- stream practitioners. "We've spent the
lived. The germ invariably flares up last seventy years thinking that excess
again. "Antacid drugs are a treatment, acid caused gastritis and ulcers,"
not a cure," says Marshall. "People of- says Dr. James Barthel, assistant direc-
ten have to take these medications on tor of endoscopy at the University of Mis-
and off for life." The advantage of the souriSchool of Medicine in Columbia.
one-two combination of bismuth salts "So the discovery of this germ is caus-
and antibiotics, he argues, is that it elim- ing atremendous upheaval in common
inates the disease at its roots, greatly medical thought."
reducing the likelihood of a relapse. The antibiotic approach is troubling
To prove his point, Marshall recruited to some physicians because it pro-
100 ulcer patients testing positive for duces severe side effects— including
the bug and randomly assigned them nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in 30 —
to two treatment groups. He reported percent of patients. "It's probably
the results in the December 1988 issue worth the risk of an adverse reaction if
of the British medical journal Lancet; the ulcer or gastritis is severe and per-
The group treated with bismuth-antibi- sistent," acknowledges Dooley. "But if
otic therapy had an 80 percent cure symptoms are mild, patients should be
rate a year later. In contrast, 15 percent forewarned that the cure may be
of the group receiving only Tagamet worse than the disease." Yet another
As it were symptom-free after 12 months. drawback of the treatment: It's not al-
to the soothing Don't expect your local physician to ways effective. Although antibiotic-resis-
offer the antibiotic therapy anytime tant strains of the bacteria account for
in its ads: soon, however. For one thing, the only many treatment failures, as-yet-un iden-
tesiior Helicobacter currently available tified factors also seem to play a role.
of requires passing a narrow tube called "Antibiotic therapy highly con-
is still
an endoscope through a patient's troversial," cautions Dr. David Graham,
mouth and down his esophagus to ob- chief of digestive disease at Baylor Col-
lege in Houston. "Until we have a prov-
en, safe, and effective therapy to erad-
icate the infection I believe we should
stick to treatments that already have a
proven track record in helping pa-
tients." Graham says he is concerned
that prescribing currently available an-
protocols to kill Helicobacter in-
tibiotic
fections could backfire by ultimately mak-
ing some strains resistant to more spe-
cificdrugs on the horizon.
Undoubtedly, better antibiotics will
soon be available. The sheer -size of the
ulcer market has made banishing the
bug an extremely attractive research tar-
get. In the United States alone, 10 per-
cent of the population will suffer from
ulcers at some time in their adult lives,
and many more will develop gastritis.
"It's the most common infection in the
world," says Marshall.
Fortunately, most people have such
low-level infections that they never de-
velop symptoms. But the germ clearly
exacts a huge toll from aching bellies
around the globe. "Once we have de-
veloped safer, more effective antibiotics
against it," says Barthel, "the next step
is to prevent ulcers and gastritis alto-
gether. The ultimate goal may be to vac-
cinate everyone in infancy just like we —
do for polio."— Kathleen McAuliffe
For more in forma tor: about the process o!
testing tor and treating He;:c.;;>oacter pylori
infections, call the School oi Medicine of
the University cf Virgin a; (804I 924-0970.
COMPUTE
^

S GET DIGITAL
THE AMIGA 3000:
A MULTIMEDIA MONSTER
IBM'S PS/l:
BIG BLUE COMESHOME
IS CYBERPUNK A THREAT
TO THE NATION?
PLUS:
PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST
AS A MAC USER

EDITORIAL LICEfUSE
WELCOME TO COMPUTE
The complete home PC magazine: From
IBM came home again early this
summer with its introducti on of the
PS/1 Big Blue's first consumer prod-
, but lost the hearts and minds of con-
uct since the PC Jr. in 1984. The
nonstandard design of the PC Jr.
made it less powerful than IBM's
higher- priced business machines.
Consumers found the PC Jr. less
useful as well and tossed it over the
rail and into the briny deep of
home computer history. IBM
learned its lesson. On
this voyage,
consumers get a portal to a sea of
information and opportunity.
Apple Computer, a home comput-
er pioneer, staked out its
claim in the consumer market in
the early Eighties. But eventually
the kids from Cupertino, Cali fbi'iiia,
abandoned that claim for
W,
*
i*.
games to business
boomtown of the Fortune 1000.
That strategy saved the Macintosh
sumers. Now Apple is faced with
the dilemma IBM faced in 19S4:
how an inexpensive but
to deliver
computer that will
fully functional
attract consumers but won't hurt
sales to businesses.
The home computer galaxy
volves around this axis of complex-
ity and simplicity. During the last
six years, the most dramatic devel-
opment in personal computer tech-
nology has been the rise of incredi-
own bly fast and powerful machines
that are, without exception, easier
to use than their anemic ancestors.
An invisible machine, one that
the brings home a universe of informa-
THE COfUlPUTE IfUDEX
The 11 top-selling personal com-
puters in the United States:
IBM 50Z, IBM 30.286, Commo-
dore 64C, Apple Mac SE, Apple
IIGS, Apple Mac Plus, IBM
55SX, Atari 130XE and 65XE,
Commodore 128 and 128D*
The top nine software pack-
ages: Wordperfect, Microsoft
Word /DOS, Intuit Quicken, Cen-
tral Point PC Tools, Lotus 1-2-3
version 2.2, Lotus 1-2-3 version
3.0, Microsoft Excel/DOS, Ashton-
Tate dBase III Plus, Microsoft
Works/DOS*
The number of PCs world-
wide: 72 million in the United
States, 35 million in Eu-
rope, 12 mi 11 i nn in Japan,
less than 200,000 in
the USSR, 21 mil-
lion elsewhere.*
The number of
computers in the
United States
used for work
at home: 10.3
million, t
f
tion while it brings down the bar-
riers of access, is now more than
just a dream.
The power—simplicity connection
is also the reason you find this is-
sue of Compute inside Omni. For
more than a decade, Compute has
informed its readers about the possi-
bilities ofhome computing, sharing
re- our discoveries, our strategies, and
our enthusiasm. We present prac-
tical information in language you
can understand, with features, re-
views, news, and analyses. The pub-
lishers of Omni also believe in
that mission. In October, Compute
will again be on the newsstand and
in your mailbox, bigger and better
than ever. Because you can come
—
home again. Peter Scisco
Home PC uses in the United
States: 59.1 percent for games;
55.6 percent for education; 52.9
percent for database manage-
ment; 40.1 percent for comput-
er programming; 61.1 percent
for word processing; 33.7 per-
cent for electronic spreadsheets;
41.4 percent for making
graphs, charts, and tables; 23,4
percent for income tax prepara-
tion; 35.7 percent for budgeting
and financial management; 9,2
percent for stock and portfolio
analysis; 10.7 percent for musi-
cal applications.!
Percentage of U.S. PC owners
who bought their latest machine
during 1989: 18.f
Percent of U.S. PC owners
who strongly agree that by 1995
computers will have a greater im-
pact on us than TV: 47.6.?
Percent of U.S. PC owners
polled who strongly agree that
they are innovators: 28. 4.
Sources; Dataquest (*), LINK
Resources (f).

iru focus
REDDY'5 MACHINE DREAMS-
Tomorrow's home infotainment center
Raj Reddy, a professor of
computer science and robot-
ics atCarnegie-Mellon Uni-
versity in Pittsburgh, al-
ready has the future well
in hand. From his clut-
tered office at the univer-
sity, he beams electronic
mail to colleagues in Par-
is, Tokyo, and California.
Advances in computer and
telecommunications tech-
nology, Reddy believes,
will fostera multimedia ap-
proach to communications
that will allow us to send
each other text, speech,
and pictures from the
home. This new hardware
will create an integrated in-
formation and entertain-
ment center of the future.
Compute: What near-
term technological devel-
opments will permit the
home computer user to be-
come part of a global infor-
mation network?
Reddy: The first is the develop-
ment of the so-called 3-G machine.
That's a computer that has a one
gigaop [a billion instructions] per
second processor, a gigabyte of ran-
dom-access memory, and a giga-
byte of data-bus bandwidth. By com-
parison, today's personal computers
are 3-M machines, as were work-
stations of the early Eighties, such
as the Microvax. A 3-G machine is
a thousand times more powerful
than a 3-M machine.
Compute: How close are we to see-
ing 3-G machines in the home?
Reddy: Five to ten years away.
First we need to break the one dol-
lar per MIPS [million instructions
per second] barrier, however. At pres-
ent the fastest workstations you
can buy cost about five hundred dol-
lars per MIPS. This price should
fall to three hundred dollars by the
end of this year. In five years
will pay ten dollars per MIPS, and_
be less than a decade away
One machine may replai _r stereos, TVs,
five years after that a MIPS
should go for less than a dollar.
Compute: Once we get such power-
ful machines, what will we do
with them?
Reddy: People often ask, Who
needs a 3-G machine? Under the
right circumstances, every man,
woman, and child will need this pow-
er. In fact, the lower your intelli-
gence or education, the higher pow-
er you will need. For example, if
you can't type, then you will have
to talk or write in longhand to com-
municate with a machine. This
will require a 3-G machine: Cursive
script or connected speech takes
one hundred to one thousand mil-
lion operations per second to proc-
ess in real time.
Today you can purchase a high-
definition monitor and such a ma-
chine for one hundred thousand dol-
lars. Itshould cost about a few hun-
dred dollars by the year 2000,
—
may
suming the sales volumes
—
are there about ten mil-
lion units per year. At
that point you will be able
to do things that are impos-
sible today. We will need
this new
software and in-
frastructure before the re-
al demand for such equip-
ment develops.
For example, it would
be nice if Compute were
available at home in full
colorand high resolution
and without shipping it on
paper. It would save the
trees and also allow me to
keep the magazine and to
store it in a way that per-
mits me to do instanta-
neous .information retriev-
al based on its contents.
Right now the factors
that prevent me from do-
ing this are insufficient
computational power, stor-
and PCs. age, and bandwidth. Such
a system, however, would
also need a much higher bandwidth
for sending data between machines
connected by telephone lines. By
way of comparison, a five-hundred-
page novel without photos takes
about a megabyte of computer stor-
age. To transmit it using all-digital-
64K bit ISDN [Integrated Services
Data Network takes about forty sec-
1
onds. A publication with pictures
and color may take about one hun-
dred times more storage and —
then require about four thousand
seconds [more than an hour] to
ship. This is impractical because I
don't want to tie up my phone line
for an hour to receive one maga-
zine. We may need a transmission
rate of at least 1.5 megabits [Tl],
the next level in phone line capaci-
ty, which you could get for a small
connection fee if fiberoptic cable
went into every home. You could
then transmit Compute in less
—
than a minute. Tom Dworetzky
 —
fUEUUS AfUD rUDTES
"HE ICEMAN
Are role-playing games a'threat
security? Plus:
"r^> "Heavy icebreak-
aBjjfiL ers are kind of fun-
^bsF ny to deal with,
even for the big boys. You
know why? Because ice,
all the really hard stuff,
the walls around every ma-
jor store of data in the ma-
trix, is always the produce
of an AI, an artificial Intel-
ligence. Nothing else is
fast enough to weave
good ice and constantly al-
ter and upgrade it. So
when a really powerful ice-
breaker shows up on the
black market, there are al-
ready a couple of very
dicey factors in play.
Like, for starts, where did
the product come from?"
— from Count Zero, page
78, by William Gibson
Welcome to the weird
universe of cyberpunk,
where all data reside in a
vast global matrix. Knowl-
frijiiv is ;.!.«
it is big business. To safe-
guard informational treasure
troves the big boys create ice, a
sort of killer software that attacks
hackers and destroys their minds
if they get caught.
This is science fiction, of course,
as everyone who knows anything
about either the genre or comput-
ing understands. Everyone, that is,
except your local U.S. Secret Ser-
vice employees. They appear to
think that cyberpunk literature pos-
es a threat U> national security.
In March of this year they raid-
ed the offices of Steve Jackson
Games (SJG), a publishing compa-
ny specializing in role-playing
game software similar to Dungeon.-.
and Dragons. The Feds confiscated
a number of different items, includ-
ing computers, peripherals, and cy-
berpunk-related documents.
At the time of the raid, author
Loyd Blankenship was researching.
COMETH
to the nation's
A Mac attack
a book entitled GURPS Cyberpunk,
a new module for SJGs Generic Uni-
versal Role Playing System. While
Blankenship did interview a num-
ber of computer security experts
and self-proclaimed hackers, the
book contains fictional background
information and statistics useful on-
ly to GURPS players.
About a week before the publica-
tion was to go to press, the Secret
Service raided SJG's Austin, Tex-
as, office, confiscating three comput-
er systems, the firm's electronic bul-
letin board system, and all hard cop-
ies and backups of the manuscript,
"After the raid, they were mak-
ing comments about the book, call-
ing it a handbook of computer
crime," Jackson said. "They very
clearly thought that the book was
for hacking into computers, which
is like saying that Dungeons and
Dragons is a handbook for break-
ing into dungeons. These
people didn't understand
the technology they were
policing."
Jackson said that the
agents later claimed the
book was not the target of
the raid, but at press
time the original manu-
script and computers still
had not been returned.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Bill Cook has declined com-
ment. Sounds like com-
puter ignorance in high
places is a greater threat
to our national security
than cyberpunk.
—
Denny Atkin
MAC ATTACK
In a dramatic policy shiit.
Apple is preparing to deliv-
er cheaper Macintoshes.
The company hopes that
this new strategy will al-
low it to capture a signifi-
cant share of the economy-
priced computer market.
Although official spokesmen for
the company refuse to discuss any
details of the new Mac, sources
close to Apple reveal that one of the
new computers is a slotless 6MHz 1
Mac with 2S6K of ROM, one mega-
byte of RAM (expandable to four
antl a single three-and-
a-half-inch floppy drive.
The machine will include a detach-
able monochrome or color monitor
and range in price from $1,000 to
$1,500. Thanks to a software-
based emulator, the machine will
be able to run old Apple II pro-
grams as. well as ihose designed for
the Mac. Although there won't be
room in the box for an internal
hard disk, a built-in SCSI port
will allow up to seven peripherals,
inciuding an external hard drive.
This model is expected to ship in
September or October.
—
David English
 EruTERTAirunnEruT
CONNECT THC DOTS
As games get
The Hulk lifts his opponent, Ran-
dy Savage, high overhead in a
spin, whirls him around, and
slams him to the canvas. The pic-
ture on the screen, although clear
and sharp, isn't from a real bout,
however; it's the display ol'a digi-
tized computer L'aine, MicroLeague
Sports' Mwrols'.ague. Wrestling. In-
stead of representing the Hulksler
and his foes via cartoon characters,
this program uses digitized im-
ages of real grapplers who throw
and punch with lifelike realism.
The software is one of a growi ng
number of new computer games
that use photographic-quality graph-
ics to add punch and power to
their visual presentation. To ac-
complish this, developers convert
photographic and video images in-
to picture elements, or pixels,
'
We '
digital, they're sharpening
up their screen images
spent two hundred to three hun-
dred hours poring over wrestling
films, looking for specific moves
that certain wrestlers are known
for," says MicroLeague Sports pres-
'
:nt Neil Swartz. "For Hulk
i.iogan goivig against Randy
Savage with an atom-
ic drop, we might look
at ten to twenty dif-
ferent matches to
pick the best one."
Converting video
images is not the on-
way, however,
ly that
software developers
have added realism to
their graphics. Some
have turned to still pho-
tography of elaborately
staged depictions of events
in their programs' plots.
Crime Wave, from Access
Software, took such an ap-
proach. The company built
sets, hired actors, and rented
powerful movie lights that
were synchronized to a 35mm
still camera. Photographers
then used specially modified
Nikon still cameras to shoot actu-
al scenes'from the Crime Wave sto-
y line, which revolves around ef-
daugh-
forts to rescue the President's
ter from the clutches of a powerful
crime syndicate. "We devised ani-
mation sequences, and those were
individually digitized," says Access
president Bruce Carver.
The game uses more than 300 ani-
mation sequence? produced in this
fashion. Access's designers project-
ed the 35mm transparencies on a
motion analyzer and then recorded
them with a video camera. For the
digit i/ation process. Carver used a
program from Autodesk called Auto-
desk Animator. "It's a really nice
tool that allows us to take those im-
ages, combine heir palettes, manip-
i
ulate them, and then put them on
the screen, one frame after the oth-
er, to get the type of animation
we're after," Carver says.
A-10 Tank Killer and David
from Dynamix,
Wolf: Seen:! Agent,
alsomake extensive use of digitized
animated and stUI graphic images.
In A-10 Tank Killer, Dynamix
scanned color photographs to cre-
ate digitized graphics. "Once the
images were in the computer, art-
ists manipulated them to put pilots
and planes in front of dilferent back-
grounds," says Larry Luttrell, direc-
marketing at Dynamix. In
tor of
David Wolf: Secret Agent there's
even a sequence in which "we
filmed our actors on chairs, lying on
their stomachs with their arms
sprawled out./' Luttrell explains. Af-
ter the in id, art-
ists electronically removed the
chairs from the scene.
For more information about
these products, contact: Dvnamix,
Box 11806, Eugene, OR 97440,
(503) 343-0772 {A-10 Tank Killer
and David Wolf: Secret Agent); Ac-
cess Software, 545 West 500
South. Bountiful, UT 84010, (801)
298-9077 (Crime Wave); Micro-
l_eague Sports. '2201 Drummond Pla-
za, Newark, DE 19711, (302) 368-
9990 (MicroLeague Wrestling).
—Tom Netsel

HOME WORKER: THE BM
Almost 75 percent of American
households lack computers. IBM
hopes to change that with its PS/1
homo-oriented machine. Priced at
less than $1,000 (for the low-end
model), Big Blue's new offering
will be sold through loading retail-
ers like Sears and Dillard's.
Gone is the unfriendly, cryptic
MS-DOS interface—rep laced by a
self-explanatorygraphic interface,
complete with designs based on fa-
miliar everyday items such as file
folders, books, and telephones. The
mouse that comes with every PS/1
lets you point and click to run pro-
grams or respond to question box-
es— further simplifying use. Even
people terrified of computers
should be producing work, making
communications connections, and
having fun with PS/1 in less than
an hour. Upper-end PS/1 models
even include hard disks that come
already loaded with software.
Once you've plugged in the wires
connecting the- keyboard, box. mon-
itor, and wall socket, you can just
turn the PS/1 on and go to work.
By bundling Microsoft Works
(which includes a word processor.
spreadsheet, database, desktop
accessories, and a communications
program) with the hardware, IBM
has provided the basic applications
necessary to satisfy most household
needs. The PS/Ts communications
program also make,-: if easy to use
Prodigy, the consumer telecommu-
nications service owned jointly by
IBM and Sears.
Moreover, it's easy to add
hardware features to the comput-
er: Itscase slides off with no need
for special tools. Expansion
boards, designed specifically for the
new system, allow users to add joy-
sticks and sound/music capabili-
ties.In fact, the PS/1 bousing ex-
pands vertically —
sort of like a com-
puterized siack of trays should —
Big Blue decide to offer enhanced
multimedia capabilities or other
COflfiPUTE'S F>C
PS/1
j Blue's newest low-cost offering. Plus
help for the DOS-confused
innovations in the future. What command displays your
IBM makes no claim to have con- DOS version?
structed
'
long-sought-after in-
the ' What command can display files
formation appliance" that's as sim- on your screen?
ple to use as, say, a microwave ov- What command do you use to
en. However, the company has tak- make an exact copy of a disk?
en some important strides in that What command can make your
direction. For more than a year, DOS environment larger?
IBM researchers met with consum- What are the names of the two
ers, discussed public perceptions of files that DOS looks for when you
computers, analyzed marketing boot your system?
strategies, and designed equip- What's the XCOPY switch that cop-
ment. "This was a real ies only files with the archive bit
'skunkworks' project," says one set and resets the bit after each
IBM executive deeply involved in copy?
the development process, "We What command tests your disk
took everything from ground zero for lost clusters?
and built machines that answer If you know the answers to all
household needs. "—Keith Ferrell ten questions, you're already a
DOS expert. For the rest of us,
HELP! there's DOS
Help! Flambeaux Soft-
(
What's your DOS IQ? Here are ten ware, 1147 East Broadway, Suite
questions to test it: 56, Glendale. CA 91205; (818) 500-
What does DOS stand for? 0044; S49.95). This hypertext tool
What command clears the makes DOS easy to learn and mas-
screen? ter. Here's how it works:
What's the FORMAT switch that D DM PAGES'
makes a disk bootable?
Soul of a machine: Point -and -click
graphics interface is user- friendly.
new
I i
 .

MfVIIBA RESOURCE
TAKING A LOW-BUDGET DIVE
Dressing a Hollywood set'isn't risky business for
computers. Plus: The Amiga 3000

On the bridge of the pictures of ocean

'

submarine the cap- floors in motion, so-

lain glances nervous- nar images of mis-

siles and subs flash-
ly at the images
flashing on the moni- ing status reports,
tors around him. and a readout of the
"Check that so- battle's progress.
nar reading; I think "We're using a tre-
we've spotted the So- mendous amount of
viet sub." he com- computer graphics
mands the operator. right now," says
A close-up of the Lewis. At least 25 of
screen shows the pic- the film's 90 min-
ture of the two subs utes will take place
clearly. on the bridge with
"Sir, we've got continuous graphics
in full view of the
him. Range is fif-

teen hundred yards, audience.

running silent," Amiga lets C ve!'s producers laugh all the wa; 9 the bank. "Movies like 2010
"What's our anti- had a lot of comput-
sub torpedo status?" the skipper videotape displays, you set up r graphic but most were
your timing and you're stuck with for storytelling; they
asks the boat's weapons officer.
"Forward and aft tubes loaded it," says Lewis, adding, "Because were just, video wallpaper. A lot of
and ready to launch, sir," the offi- we have a monitorfed from a vid- scene* Lake place or tie in to the
cer responds after checking the eo tap coming from the film cam- Amiga information on the screens.

readouts on his monitor. era, we can actually see the actors We tried to have our graphics em-
In the midst of a perilous mission and time our displays to coordinate phasize and make the plot's

that could begin World War III, the with what's going on in real time." points." — Ben and Jean Means
skipper must depend on the accura- Conti agrees. "We can interact
cy of the data on his screens. with the actors and make the appro- MEDIUM COOL: AMIGA 3000
Off to the side are two men just priate screens pop up just when Combine videodiscs, digital audio,

as nervous as the sub's command- they hit the keys," he says. Not on- computer graphics, and animation
er. For them, a problem with DiveFs Amiga-based system
ly is with instantaneous information re-

screen images could also prove cost- more flexible than the old-fash-
ly—about $50,000. They are Joe ioned videotape approach, it

Conti and Richard Lewis, comput- cheaper: $5,000

er artist and director of the mid-
budget Dive! from Warner Broth- The Ami-
ers. If something goes wrong on the gas let Conti
bridge set (such as the above dia- "dress the set'
—
logue which would be out of with
place in their comedy-ad venture
flick), they'll have to reshoot the en-
tire scene.
It's more likely that an actor
will blow a line, however, than any
of the displays will cause a prob-
lem. The reason: Five Amigas
(four with 68030 and one a
68020 processor) running the
monitors give Conti and Lew-
is unprecedented control
over their graphics. "With
 MPPLE MPPLICATIOrUS £ For me, the computer
as a medium for painting fulfills everything
THE CRITICS' PIXECS I ever wanted
of control, creativity,
in terms
and imagination.
At the annual PixelPaint'Competition, Mac's It's an anvil of light.?
the name, fame's the game

It may not be the Academy Mike Wiggins was the first-

Awards, but last year's Second An- place winner in the miscellaneous
nual PixelPaint Art Competition category with Industrial Man.
had its share of bright lights and Wiggins: "I've been doing four-

colorful personalities. More than color digitized images, using sam-

385 entrants submitted works cre- pling, to create a cross between elec-

ated with SuperMai: Technology's and illustration. The

tronic collage

PixelPaint and PixelPaint Profession - computer suits my temperament

al. The best-of-the-show prize
ithas an electronic malleability.
went to Motel Room by Richie Wil- Plus every six months or so there's
liamson and Dean Janoff. a new set of programs that gives
Williamson: "I combined twelve me wider sources to draw from."
pictures in one image, which I feel
shows that the world is getting
smaller and that we need comput-
ers to put it all together in one
room. The machine is a way to slip $2?$) «"
new things in the back door. It's on-
but a great tool. With it
ly a tool,
Ican do the job of a painter or pho-
—
tographer painter, artist, and
conceptualizer all at one console. Art-
ists should, learn to use the ma-
chine because it will help them
grow even if they don't use it direct-
ly in their work."
Steve Lyons won the ErstrplaCS
prize for fine art with Dancers II.
Lyons: "I wanted to capture the
fluidity of dance in the image. I
used the video camera to input a
charcoal drawing and then manip- Finally, the top prize for graphic
ulated the image on-screen to give design went to Didier Cremieux for
it a pointillislic character, broken
his Living Colour.
down into tiny points of color, Cremieux: "I don't like spending
which 1 added on the computer.
time reading manuals. They put
This gives the impression of move- me to sleep like the articles in
ment. Bringing in the computer, I scientific magazines. I was an air-

found new inspiration. Excitement brush artist before I started using

was injected back into my work," the computer, and I find now that
The first- place prize for illustra- working with an airbrush tech-
tion went to second-time winner nique on the screen is similar to
Ron Cobb for Skybox. working with a regular airbrush.
Cobb: "I grew up using watercol- The computer has pushed my tech-
ors, oils, and acrylic. For me, the nique, too. The machine gives me
computer as a medium for painting the advantage of a million options
fulfillseverything I ever wanted in when I'm going from point a to
terms of control, creativity, and point b. It's almost a problem: So
imagination. It's an anvil of light. many more choices and changes
My work depicts a whimsical, Ma- arc possible with one click of a but-
gritte-like vision of order and cha- ton. It's a challenge that involves

os, and that's the thin line an art-

much more decision making."
ist walks using a computer."
—David English
\i 0" ro;
i
 CKEMTIV/ITM
BOOSTING BRAIN POWER
Programs can simulate ecological disasters, teach
city planning, and hone math skills

DATELINE; January 23, 1989: An agement. Should you leave green

earthquake in the Soviet Union
leaves 275 dead and hundreds of oth-
ers injured.
DATELINE: March 24,
The Exxon Vald.es spills 240,000 bar-
rels of oil into the pristinewaters
of Prince William Sound, Alaska,
killing 33,000 seabirds, 146 eagles,
and 980 otters.
DATELINE: September 17-21,
1989: Hurricane Hugo blasts
through the Caribbean and south-
eastern United States, causing 71
deaths find iti bViivi
:
spaces that keep land values high.
or zone things light! \ together to
keep the costs of public utilities
1989: down? If you leave the heavy pollut-
ers alone, your population stays em-
ployed, but your people complain
about the pollution. Get rid of the
polluters ;iiifl the unemployment fig-
ures will skyrocket. Just like a
real city planner, you'll have to
juggle the needs of big bus
with the day-to-day c
—
your citizens. Leslie Eiser

DATELINE: October 17, 1989: SUPER SOLVER SOFTWARE!

An earthquake strikes Northern Cal-
ifornia, leaving 67 dead and $7 bil-
lion in damage.
While computers can't cure our en-
vironmental difficulties, they can
help us understand the
forces that cause them.
You can buy programs to
demonstrate the hows,
whys, and wherefores of
earthquakes, glacial land-
forms, habitats, and ecosys-
tems. Other programs of-
fer powerful simulations
that let you test your the-
ories about city plannlii;:.'
and learn ways to cope
with such environmental
problems as earthquakes
and fires.
Earth science i^'oerams.
from both IBM and Educa-
tional Activities, offer tu-
torials on ecology. You'll
read about the ring of fire, get to
explore the effects of different
types of disasters on humankind,
and discover the impact of human
beings on their surroundings. In-
formative, though not necessarily
fun to play, these drill and tutorial
programs can improve your vocab-
ulary and demonstrate the relation-
ships between geological phenome-
na and people.
Populous ($49.95 ), from Electron-
ic Arts, and Brtfderbund's SimCity
($49.95) take hands-on approach
a.
to the managementof man's con-
quest of nature. Of the two, Pop-
ulous is distinctly more
tic —letting you watch your support-
ers set out to conquer other lands.
You can help them along by creat-
ing earthquakes, floods, and volca-
—
noes on command and spy on the
opposing side to see how they deal
with the destruction.
SimCity brings a more construc-
tive attitude to the art of city
WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULAR PRO-
GRAMMING FOR THE FOLLOWING
NEWS FLASH: The Master of Mis-
chief has commandeered the Shady
Glen television station.
your mission: to enter
the offices of the station
and solve the mathemati-
cs! equations in order to
discover which room hides
this villainous vermin.
Quick! Add two plus
two to get the clue. Divide
hv five to Open the door to
the next room. Finally,
multiply to capture the
master himself!
Hidden in the cartoon-
slyie pint of Super Solvers
Outnumbered! is a serious
—
intent to teach math to
children in a painless and
positive way. The game,
from the learning Compa-
ny, is the $49.95 sequel to Super
Solvers Midnight Rescue!
The Learning Company has in-
militaris- cluded an online calculator for use
with the game's problems. The cal-
culator's best feature: It can be
—
turned off great for convincing
kids that they can get. the answers
by working with pencil and paper.
In sum, Outnumbered: presents
math to children with a humorous,
engaging plot and with the fun of
man- —
a video game. Heidi E. H. Aycock

A Mouthful.
Love bytes? Then be absolutely smitten with Powered Partners
you'll
amplified speakers coupled with your computer. Composers hear each
note played in true high fidelity sound. Computer games sound more
exciting. Say Partners and you've
1-800-288-AR4U Powered Partners. Superior Sound Simplified.
AfVllBA RESOURCE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE Bi
trieval, and what have you got? Mul-
timedia. Unfortunately, machines able
to handle thi.? exciting mixture of me-
dia have come with a five-figure price
tag—until now. Commodore's new Ami-
ga 3000 has the horsepower and
costs less than $4,000. Multimedia has
the potential to do for Amiga what desk-
top publishing did for Macintosh.
The Amiga 3000 has both a tech-
nological and a price advantage over
its competitors. If the market contin-
ues to grow, Commodore could find it-
self with a commanding lead in this
new field. That's good news for the
Commodore machine because the Ami-
ga has finished last after PCs and
Macintoshes in the battle for domi-
nance in the small computer aivri;;: [is
biggest problem: many fewer software
applications such as databases, spread-
sheets,and word processors.
With the introduction of the 3000,
however, Amiga has a machine that
can fill a unique niche. It boasts capa-
bilities to handle color and video that
effortlessly rival those of $10,000 Mac-
intoshes and PCs.
The Amiga 3000 is based on Motor-
ola's 68080 microprocessor (the same
as that of the high-end Mae), running
at a blazing clock speed of 25MHz
Bytes.
said a mouthful. Free literature,
(16MHz on the less expensive model).
It has a built-in 68881 or 68882 math
coprocessor, a full 32-bit data bus, ei-
ther a 40MB or 100MB hard disk, and
more than a gigabyte of address
space. Beyond these features, howev-
er, the 3000 is a multimedia wonder
due to its custom set of graphics and
sound coprocessors. These make up per-
haps the most impressive ensemble of
animation and audio circuitry in any
of today's microcomputers.
The custom chip set enables the
ga 3000 to simultaneously animate
graphics, display text, play diijui^en
sounds, and perform common comput-
er functions, such as reading data
uvjii!;
disk, without -Joking down the
:
;
computer's main microprocessor. Oth-
er standard features include a palette
of 4,096 colors, high-detail screen
resolutions, digital [bur-channel stereo
audio, an easy-to -comprehend graph-
ic user interface, and the ability to run
several programs at the same time.
For example, you can display a video
image from a VCR in one window of
the screen, work on an illustration
using a graphic arts package in anor.ii-
:v. run a sure:::'i^i.ei w> balance your
books in a third, write a letter on a
word processor in a fourth, and play
music with a composing package in a
fifth— if you've got enough hands.
—Randy Thompson
cannpuTE'S PC
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 86
You can install the software on a
hard disk or floppy and run it either
as a stand-alone program or as a mem-
ory-resident utility.
TO FIND HELP ON A DOS TOPIC:
1. Type HELP at command line.
2. The program's title screen ap-
pears, followed by a table of contents.
3. Select your desired subject from
the menu, and several screens of in-
formation will appear,
4. Finding this information is
great, but we haven't touched on DOS
Flelp-'s real power yet. When you're
looking at the first screen of DOS com-
mand XCOPY, for example, you'll see
the phrase THIS IS AN EXTERNAL COM-
MAND in bold.
5. Move the cursor to this phrase
and press ENTER. What appears on the
screen is an explanation of external
—
commands. Clifton Karnes
COMPUTE'S SOURCE FILE
Further information on the products ad-
vertised, in this section may be obtained
from the following companies:
Ad Lib Music Card
50 Staniford Street, Suite 800, Boston,
MA 02114; (800) 463-2686 (in the
United States or Canada)
Br0derbund Software
P.O. Box 12947, San Rafael, CA 94913;
(800) 521-6263
Checkfree Corporation
720 Greencrest Drive, Westerville, OH
43081; (800) 882-5280
Computer Direct, Inc.
22292 North Pepper Road, Rarrington,
IL 60010; (800) BUY-WISE
DCS Industries, Inc.
141 Columbus Road, Athens, OH 45701;
(800) 537-3539
Data East, U.S.A., Inc.
1850 Little Orchard Street, San Jose,
Ami-
CA 95125; (408) 286-7074, est 298
GE Information Services
401 North Washington Street, Roekville,
MD 20850; (301) 294-5533
Mediagenic
3885 Bohannon Drive, Menlo Park, CA
94025; (415) 329-0500
P.O. Box 161750, Austin, TX 78716;
(800) 999-4939
Parsons Technology
375 Collins Road NE, Cedar Rapids, IA
52402; (800) 223-6925
Prodigy Services Company
For location of your nearest dealer, call
(800) 822-6922, ext. 597
Software Discounters of America
P.O. Bos 111327— Department OMNI,
Blawnox, PA 15238; (800) 225-7638;
(412) 361-5291
Taito Software, Inc.
267 West Esplanade, Second Floor,
North Vancouver, BC Canada V7M
1A5; (800) 688-2486
SPECIAL SECTIO :

CRIME BYTES
grammed maintain control of the air-
to
craft until completely out of peril.
it is
At no time can the pilot or ground con-
trol override the satellite.
"It looks to me as though someone
just did," I said. "What's the satellite's
computer telling your people?"
"It doesn even acknowledge that
't
901 is up there, " the FAA guy said.
I asked them to have the Pacific Rim
people gather up the flight manifest and
'
all the passengers boarding passes
1
and express-ship them all to my Ba-
kersfield office. "And don't let anyone
touch the boarding passes," I said. "I
want to be able to run them for traces
"
of genetic material.
"So where'd you get your computer
training'7 " Tiffany asked me on
back to Bakersfield. "MIT?"
"In my bedroom," told her. "When I
I was in college at Bakersfield, used
to go exploring —
through other people's
computers. " Tiffany hadn't been around
very long and I figured her superiors
didn't think it necessary to brief her on
my past.
"How'd a hacker end up a cop 9
"One day in '93 I heard about a new
CIA supersecure computer. Impossible
to get into, they said. Well, me and
about twenty thousand other kids
made a run at it I was one of only a
dozen hackers who got in and made it
into the operating system."
"You got that far in?"
"Well, not really. You see, it was all
a sting. Your friends in the FBI jumped
out of thin air and arrested all but one
of us. It was actually more like extortion.
They said, 'You have two choices go
to prison or work for us. Needless to
say, the slammer didn't appeal to me."
"So you joined Bakersfield Police?"
"Not right away The Defense Depart-
ment had me designing a virus they
could use to knock out other countries'
defense systems. Trouble is, the virus
was so good we couldn make our own
computers immune to
hacker got ahold of it
out completely."
"The Great Crash of '98? You were
in on that?"
"i designed the worm that found its
way into every computer in
crashed them all. It's
could be sure we'd kill
HACKING AWAY AT CRIME. The great-
est threat to computer security is
posed by career criminals and their con-
federates working on the inside of cor-
porations, banks, or any other institution
that could be. compromised. Because
daring acts of technological legerde-
main are the forerunners of future
crimes, law-enforcement officials are con-
96 OMNI
cerned about the paths hackers may
take. "Granted, ninety-eight percent of
them will be law-abiding citizens,"
says Frank Milligan, an. IRS internal se-
curitymanager who also cochairs the
Federal Computer Investigations
mittee. "But what about the other two
percent? If sixteen-year-old kids can
break into government and military com-
puter systems, what will these kids be
like inten years when they move into
positions of responsibility?"
Cyberpunks, the second generation
of computer hackers, subscribe to an
arcane code of honor and look upon
cracking supposedly impenetrable net-
works as a challenging rite of passage.
Illicit forays into credit rating bureaus'
confidential files, for instance, have be-
come routine. Like other self-styled cy-
berpunks, Michael Synergy once mis-
ci joyously pulled -ionalo Reagan's cred-
the way it record. He found that 63 other re-
quests for the former president's credi
I But what Sawyer calls "forbidden
^There's
little that can be safely
"
hidden from
prying eyes. Nearly every
unclassified data
network has been penetrated.
Even a classified
network can be susceptible.^
— rating, all from dubious sources, had
' been logged on the same day.
Synergy also recalls roaming
through TRW files and noticing a ques-
tionable collection of some 70D people
who held one specific credit card. It
was puzzling, Synergy thought, that a
credit card company would issue only
't 700 or so cards, rather than the usual
When some
it. thousands. "And their credit histories all
we had to kill it appeared out of nowhere like they — nals sent out over telephones or aircraft
had no previous existence," says the
twenty- three- year-old computer consult-
ant, who legally changed his
name to his computer handle. It
and
the U.S. denly dawned on him that these peo-
the only way we ple were very likely in the federal wit-
the virus. ness protection program.
Even though he risked being prose-
cuted for illega trespassing. Synergy
reported his discovery to the FBI,
which quickly moved to protect the
cardholders' identities. "Otherwise,
they all would have started turning up
dead," Synergy comments. "Bui was
sheer luck that got there first. The
I al Airport; the data were obtained by an
names could have just as easily been
uncovered by organized-crime."
Swapping inside information, of
course, was an accepted part of the
computer ethos among hacking enthu-
siasts in the early Seventies. Today, how-
ever, things have changed, and it's not
Com- easy to enforce a code of ethics when
people are so dispersed. "There's a
question of what to do with forbidden
knowledge in a technological society,"
says Steven Sawyer, another pioneer-
ing hacker and now co-owner of CJS
Systems in Berkeley, California.
Sawyer and other computer profes-
sionals worry that the government will
use unauthorized intrusions by young
computer pranksters as an excuse for
curtailing civil liberties and flagrantly
disregarding constitutional rights. "The
cyberpunk threat is exaggerated,"
says Marc Rotenberg, director of Com-
puter Professionals icr Social Respon-
sibility's Washington DC, office. "And
ifguidelines are not defined, innocent
people could be swept up in the gov-
ernment's electronic dragnet."
knowledge" could fall into the wrong
hands. Convicted and imprisoned for
telephone service theft, hacker John
Draper, for example, had concocted a
device that could be attached to a tele-
phone, allowing him to illegally connect
calls and avoid tolls. Nicknamed Cap-
tain Crunch, he had calibrated his
"blue box" to emit the same tone as the
whistle found in boxes of Captain
Crunch cereal-. While serving his pris-
on sentence, Draper says, "I was co-
erced into teaching other prisoners the
secrets of phone phreaking," or pirat-
ing telephone services. They wanted to
know how to bury phone calls so they
couldn't be traced.
According to William Tafoya, who
seems more like the avuncular small-
town cop he once was than the FBI's
scholarly resident visionary, organized
crime figures use high-tech equipment
to detect telephone taps, body record-
ers, and other sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping technology so they can
circumvent court-ordered monitoring.
Some drug dealers have been known
to use digital data formats to encode sig-
radio frequencies, and decoding de-
vices to monitor radio channels.
last Drug cartels, in fact, have become
sud- so technologically savvy that in 1987,
for example, Colombian drug dealer Wil-
liam Londono eluded prosecution be-
cause of a computer scam: A phony "re-
lease message" on an internal com-
puter instructed his captors to release
Londono from police custody in Los An-
geles. More recently, a pilot received
confidential information from a Depart-
ment of Agriculture inspector at the
il Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Internation-
unauthorized entry into the airport's Cus-
toms Service computer.
 Computers could be weapons in an that eventuality, " he said. "Everyone didn't always work, but it was worth a

array of crimes. In 1980, for example, knows the computer link wouldn't be shot. When the program spit out the an-
an air traffic controller opposed to the down long enough for any planes to col- swer, I couldn't believe what I saw.
Soviet invasion ot Afghanistan attempt- lide. We have more than enough time "This can't be right. Whoever sent this
ed to down a Soviet airliner by re pro- to pick up the communication. phoned in with verbal commands.
gramming its location from one comput- "Maybe so," said. "But that's just
I That means he left voiceprints.
er screen to another in the control tow- enough time for an airplane's transpon- "You're right," Tiffany said, as sur-
er at New York's Kennedy Airport. A der to send a worm up to the satellite. prised as I was. "I'll have our people

"chop shop" in Phoenix used an elec- The satellite would try to relay it to the track down the analog voice recording
tronic bulletin board to sell and take or- ground, but in a solar washout the and trace the prints.
ders for stolen car parts. ground would never receive it and I continued to remotely probe FAT-

"Computer criminals are usually
groomed, intelligent, and articulate.
They don't iit the public's perception of
a crook," says David Geneson, a for-
mer assistant U.S. attorney who prose-
cuted Jonathan Pollard, a Navy analyst
who was convicted of spying for the
raeli government.
Even so, computer crime demograph-
ics reflect those of the crime world
general. According to a 1988 survey by
the National Center for
Crime Data (NCCCD), almost one
of those arrested in California for
well- would never return a cancellation com-
mand So the worm would be free to go
to work inside the satellite's computer.
The people at NASA helped me to
compute when a solar washout at the
New Mexico site would have occurred.
Is- Itwas a week ago at exactly 9: 14:34
Greenwich time. I manipulated FAT-
p.m..
CAT's computer to tell me all the
in planes in the air at that moment and
analyzed the computer's memory.
Computer There were traces of the worm in a trans-
third mission from Pacific Rim Flight 675
com-
CAT's operating system, hoping I
could locate the actual worm and
break the code. I was beginning to
think the plane would run out of fuel be-
fore I could find the worm.
"You won t be ready for this, Carlos,
Tiffany said when the FBI computer cen-
ter reported a match on the voiceprint.
"Turns out the voiceprint belongs to
I Humphrey Bogart. But he's been dead
more than fifty years!"
"Our guy has obviously pieced togeth-
er old analog sound recordings to give
the computer real voice commands, " I

puter crimes are women and nearly told her. "He knows we'd be able to iden-
half are members of minority racial or tify him if he used his own voice.

ethnic groups. "Why didn't he do it the old-fash-

"Our sampling included habitual crimi- —
ioned way with a keyboard?"
nals, petty office embezziers, vindictive i Every "Remember the computer sting I

employees, and bank tellers who had week more than a trillion told you got caught up in when was
I I

run up debts," says Buck BloomBeck-
er, NCCCD director and author of Spec-
dollars is moved
tacular Computer Crimes (Dow Jones/ electronically around the
Irwin). "Employees with access to com-
world, and more
puter systems play the greatest role,
and the opportunities for computer these transmissions are being
crime grow exponentially with the num- intercepted than
ber of people who gain access to cen-
tral computers. And as the technology
banks are willing to admit.3
a kid? Well, the government's comput-
er actually recorded and analyzed the
keystroke patterns of thousands of hack-
ers. They were actually able to identify
of
someone by the speed at which they
typed certain common words, their syn-
tax, and by the common typos they
made. In fact, that's how Blackbeard
eluded everyone.
"

becomes easier to use, people who "Blackbeard?" she asked.

don't understand computers today will "He's the only one who got into the
be able to steal with them tomorrow." operating system and wasn't nabbed
by the FBI. And he did it by recording
BLACKBEARD'S BOGEY It was soon from- Spokane to Des Moines. Someone other hackers' keystrokes. Then he
clear that no one was operating the sat- had manipulated the plane's transpon- apparently put them all in a database
ellite remotely. It had to be a program der to send up the worm at exactly that could call up words he wanted to
introduced into the computer. 2:14:34 P.M., Mountain time. —
type on the keyboard but they would
"That's impossible, " the FAA program- "Tiffany, track down that aircraft and be words that other hackers had
mer told me frpm New Mexico. "FAT- have your lab people search the trans- typed. He went to a lot of trouble to
CAT can only accept commands from ponder for any genetic material. Court- keep from getting caught.
—
our laser and it's as secure as ever. ney, love you," I shouted. "Take
I "Looks to me like whoever's control-
The only other information it receives is those boarding passes to the lab for fin- ling 901 went to the same trouble. Did
from the transponders on the planes be- gerprints and genetic typing. Maybe it ever occur to you this could also be

low. If it detects anything other than
identitication from any plane, the satel-
lite immediately alerts us and awaits in-
structions. Within two minutes, the
ground computer would instruct the sat-
ellite to disregard the unwanted data."
Courtney handed me a note telling
me the FAA s express package had ar-
rived from Palmdale. At the bottom of
the note she reminded me about her
mother and the DVR. Then
"Solar washout, " I totd the program-
mer. "For a couple of seconds twice a
year your laser receiver is precisely
aligned with the sun so that the sun tem-
porarily blinds it. The same thing hap-
pens to TV satellite dishes."
"There was no need to
98 OMNI
our guy's on that plane right now.
Another message came in from the
hijacker, and J told Tiffany to
them send me'the actual raw data as
they received them.
A half hour later Courtney gave me
an update on the boarding passes.
"The tab people say all the genetics
tests check out except one they can't
match with anyone. They want to know
it hit me. if they should do a national trace on it."
"Hell, yes, " I said. "Who knows, he
could be our guy!"
When Washington was ready to
ship the raw message, I fed it straight
-
into a program that would look for
clues as to how the message was in-
program for troduced into the FBI computer. It
Blackbeard?"
What bothered me most was not
have that she figured it out, but that she fig-
ured it out before I did. "Of course it oc-
curred to me. Why do you think I
brought it up in the first place?"
ELECTRONIC HIJACKS. Computer vir-
make electronic walls melt
tuosos can
with the stroke of a key. "Any system
that has dial-up capability [telephone ac-
cess via modem] can be violated by a
smart, dedicated hacker," Milligan
says. There's little that can be safely hid-
den from prying eyes. Just about ev-
ery unclassified data network, including
NASA's, has been penetrated at some
time or other. Even classified networks
could be susceptible to invasions, al-
though government computer security
officials point out that most of the mon-
ey for computer security is earmarked
for the government's classified networks
under the jurisdiction of the National Se-
curity Agency.
On May 13, 1988, as many as six con-
64 minutes to bilk the
spirators took only
FirstNational Bank of Chicago of $68.7
million and dispatch the funds to ac-
counts they had set up under aliases
at banks in Vienna. Their virtually fool-
proof wire transfer scheme nearly
worked —
until checks started bouncing
on accounts from which they had with-
drawn funds. If they hadn't been quite
so greedy and had stolen smaller
amounts, investigators said, the
thieves might have pulled the scam off.
What really troubled banking and law-
enforcement officials: how easy it was
for dishonest employees to exploit the
flaws in the bank's security system.
"II is truly scandalous how little reg-
ulatory controls there are, but security
always takes a backseat to utility,"
says Lance Hoffman, a professor in the
department of electrical engineering
and computer science at George Wash-
ington University in Washington, DC.
"Any kid can go out and, for less than
a thousand dollars, buy the electronic
equivalent of a Saturday night special.
With the right computer equipment, he
can hook up to international networks
and do a lot of damage,"
The potential for major disruptions
in the financial system, air traffic con-
trol, and telecommunications, for exam-
ple —
is staggering. A recent report by
the General Accounting Office reveals
serious security flaws even in the Feder-
al Reserve System, which controls the
nation's money supply. "The Federal Re-.
serve could suffer monstrous diversions
of funds,and a virus could cripple the
U.S. economy," admits one frustrated
government official. "Yet the govern-
ment won't spend the money to install
the necessary safeguards to protect the
Federal Reserve or any other [unclas-
sified] data networks. What's worse,
none of us have any idea what kind of
connections are being made. So wheth-
er they work for the government or for
a major bank, people can dial into the
various systems from home."
More than $1 trillion is moved elec-
tronically around the world every
week, and more of these transmissions
are being intercepted than banks are
willing to admit. Wire transfer theft is one
of the major sources of income for the
Palestine Liberation Organization. And
in a 1 979 case, a Social Security Admin-
istration employee, who turned out to be
a member of a black militant group, man-
aged to divert nearly half a million dol-
lars to a bogus bank account before
someone spotted the scheme.
It's hard to quantify exactly how
much money is being hijacked on the
international data highways. Domesti-
cally, fewer than 50 percent of such com-
puter crimes are ever reported because
companies want to avoid bad publici-
ty. "Often corporations figure the loss-
es are part of the price of doing busi-
ness," says Earl Devaney, special agent
in charge of the Secret Service's fraud
division, housed in a discreet suite of
above a bank in downtown Wash-
offices
ington, DC. "It's only when losses
reach intolerable levels that companies
will institute security features."
Each year $4 billion is also lost in sto-
len data and bootlegged software. Ille-
gal use of telephone access codes
costs the telecommunications industry
at least $500 million a year. The finan-
cial industry admits to $100 million in
illicit electronic fund transfers annually,
and credit card fraud climbed to a
staggering $1 billion in 1989. "In the
next ten years losses could rise to as
much as eight billion dollars, annually,"
says Frank S. Smith III, senior manag-
er for advanced technologies and infor-
mation security services at Ernst &
Young, an accounting and consulting
firm in Cleveland. "It wouldn't surprise
us if it hit ten billion. And this doesn't
include figures for the loss of trade se-
crets, loss of competitive advantage,
and" the loss of customer confidence."
And anytime law-enforcement agen-
cies and corporations implement meth-
ods of thwarting criminals in one area
like imprinting credit cards with holo-
grams to make forge them
it difficult to
the crooks just hatch other schemes,
most involving new technologies ap-
plied to criminal endeavors. With each
advance in computer technology, in
fact, the number of ways to exploit the
systems for criminal ends expands.
Extortionists, for example, could take
control of weatherand surveillance sat-
men could reprogram pace-
ellites. Hit
makers or simply commandeer a hos-
pitalcomputer system and reprogram
a CAT scan to zap patients for two min-
utes instead of two seconds, killing
them instantly.
According to Paul Saffo, a research
fellow at the Institute for the Future in
Menlo Park, California, "Wereally won't
have any idea of what we can do with
these systems until we get a bunch of
kids playing around with them and push-
ing the outer ends of the envelope.
That's the cycle in any new area of ac-
tivity. First the explorers go in, then the
settlers, then come the crooks, and fi-
nally the cops."-
THE BEARDED LADY. -'Command.
Date equals March Swenly-seven, year
equals twenty eleven a.d. Execute com-
mand, " I ordered the FATCAT comput-
er via my own.
 Moments later FAA headquarters
reported the crew had regained control
of 901 and were now landing at Den-
ver. "Nice work, " Tiffany told me. "Bui
what did you do?"
"Back in '98 Blackbeard slipped
through our fingers by changing the
year in his computer's memory, " I ex-
plained. "The virus we sent to all the
computers had a time fuse. As far as
his computer was concerned, the cor-
—
rect time never arrived and so the vi-
rus never activated itself. Apparently the
program Blackbeard sent FATCAT was
designed to execute itself today only.
We just made today go away.
"Brilliant. So you must know Black-
beard's identity. Who is he?"
I always hated questions that lack-
—
ed good answers especially when
they were directed at me. "If I knew
that, he 'd be in jail right now.
I was relieved when her transceiver
sounded before she could crucify my
ego. "Great news. Pacific Rim Airlines
zeroed in on the plane whose transpon-
der sent up the worm last week. And
our lab people found a hair inside the
transponder casing.
Within moments they had fed the work-
up to my computer, which I immediately
printed out. Tiffany and I then went to
see Kevin Morris, the best genetics per-
son in the Bakersfield police lab. He fed
the data from both charts into his com-
puter, and we watched as it superim-
posed one over the other.
"It's not what you were expecting,
Kevin said, "but it's interesting. The per-
son on the first chart has to be the off-
spring of the second,
"Do you have enough data for a na-
tional identification check?"
It would only work if the two people
had previously had their data placed on
file.There were still a lot of people who
were not genetic-typed at birth and had
never been arrested or applied for sen-
sitive jobs. But it was worth a shot.
We walked back to my office to wait
for the results. About 20 minutes later
Kevin walked in and closed the door be-
hind him. He talked in a whisper. "I
couldn't find a record on one of the
charts, but the other one- comes back
to. ..Courtney Kiser.
"She probably got her fingerprints on
one of the boarding passes when she
opened the package from Palmdale,"
Tiffany said.
"That's obvious, " I said. "But the
neticcode says she's the daughter of
whoever tampered with the airliner's
transponder. Blackboard's daughter!"
I called Courtney in and asked her
to sit down. "Courtney when did you
last hear from your father?"
"On my fifteenth birthday, " she said.
"He sent me -a card and his picture.
Why? Is something wrong?"
"Not sure. You have the photo?"
"I'll get " she said. She walked to
it,
102 OMNI
the outside office and brought back a ahead of the law-enforcement agents.
small holographic snapshot of a friend- Even so, a symbiotic relationship exists
ly-looking blue-collar type with a dark, between the two groups of foes. "The
well-groomed beard. The inscription on cops and the robbers depend on each
the back read: "For thirteen years I've other," Saffo observes."The robbers
searched for you in all the gin joints in keep the cops in business, and the
all the towns in all the world. Glad I cops keep the robbers on their toes.
found you. Here's looking at you, kid. Technology has allowed all of them to
Love, Dad." run down a more interesting path."
I carefully handed -the hologram to Effectively policing an increasingly di-
Kevin. "You know what we're looking verse and technologically sophisticated
for. Let's hope there's stilt enough to get society poses a real challenge to tradi-
a genetic typing." tionallaw-enforcement agencies. And
"Something doesn add up, Carlos,
't many experts believe that without co-
Tiffany said, turning to Courtney, "is operation from the community, the
your dad a Humphrey Bogart fan?" cops will be trampled by the robbers.
. "Tiffany," I said sarcastically, "how "The myth is that the police as crime —
would she know that if she hasn't seen fighters, emphasizing militarism, central-
him since she was a baby? Her moth- ization, and control —
can do it all,"
er's coming by in a few minutes to says the FBI's Tafoya. "But in reality,
meet her for lunch. Why don't you wait they can't. Keeping the lid from blow-
and ask her?" ing off in the future requires that law en-
"My guess is her mother's not com- forcement build bridges with the com-
"
ing for lunch, Carlos. Right, Courtney 9 munities it protects and serves, which
will help make neighborhoods safer plac-
es to live."
Indeed, the partnership between the
police and potential crime victims, the
premise behind the idea of community
Qt's hard oriented policing, or COP, is an even
to quantify exactly how much more potent weapon in combating
crime than any high-technology strate-
money is being
gy. In order to win the confidence of the
hijacked on the internationai community, however, the police them-
data highways. selves have to change. "Police officers
wilfhave to be more effective in interact-
In this country less than 50 ing with people, 'understand the dynam-
percent of such ics of communities, and develop new
styles and new philosophies," says
crimes are ever reported.^
Hubert Williams, echoing the views of
other progressive law-enforcement of-
ficials. "The types of background,
skills, education, and experience for the
new breed of police will be very differ-
"Yeah, she just called a couple of min- ent from what we see today. The hard-
utes ago. How'd you know?" line macho types will have to be re-
Sounded like a good question to me. placed by a more professional force
"Yeah, how'd you know?" that is college educated and adept at
"Carlos, you may be a computer ge- problem solving."
nius, but you sure don't know people,
ifCourtney's father were really Black- EPILOGUE. It wasn't easy telling Court-
beard, it wouldn't have taken him till her ney about what was in store for her moth-
fifteenth birthday to find her. Courtney, er. It was even harder telling her what
she went on, "your mother collects old- I could now piece together about her
fashioned videotapes, doesn't she?" mother's past. Genevieve Kiser had ap-
"Uh-huh." parently kept her avocation as a hack-
"And how'd you come to work for Car- er a secret even from her husband and
; ,.-.; her daughter. She had used Courtney
"My mother heard about the opening to keep tabs on me, the one person
and she..." who had come closest to nabbing Black-
ge- "And what does she do for a living?" beard in the past.
"She works for some large European "Can we do this after lunch?" Tiffa-
corporation that installs equipment on ny asked when we sat down to start en-
tering our reports.
'What kind? Transponders?" "Why not, " I said. "How 'bout I buy?"
Kevin suddenly burst into the office I grabbed my overcoat and my transpon-
with the test results and confirmed der holster and told my office door to
what Tiffany had already figured out. open.
"Carlos," she said
'
in a muffled
COP AID. The police are the first to ad- voice, "I think this is the beginning of a
mit that smart criminals are quite agile beautiful friendship.
and will always be at least one jump It was worth a shot. DO
 My act needs
Th»
©
Affcssk
ART CUMINGS
something to capture
"the imagination
of an audience

A "flying rr\&r\ —
\ Brilliant/

And the beai/ty

of it is Ka works
for chicken, -feed
 injTERWIEUU
by humans is producing methane at a

FJT
rate of forty liters per day for every per-
son in the world.
Omni: Have geologic processes had
anything to do with the origin of life?
Craig: haven't looked at it in any de-
I

tail, but think life might have originat-

I

ed due to an asteroid impact, the

same phenomenon that people think is

SERIOUS ABOUT THE responsible for the extinction of the di-

WEATHER? NOW YOU CAN nosaurs. Nobody can find a mechanism
tomake the protein molecules that com-
AFFORD A PERSONAL bine to make DNA. Stanley Miller here
WEATHERSTATION! at UCSD [University of California, San
7hc:TJ-.vV'n':|-.|-.frHV:-.'.«;fl-:-j Diego] and others have re-created the
........ ......
'aPr occludes a atmosphere and sent
earth's original

e r n,i :'li!ft-^:i:ii
charges through the gases
electrical
probe, mounting b.iid'.v;;-!.' nrrl 10' of cable-all for and made amino acids. But they can't
make DNA that can replicate itself. An
TEMPERATURE •WIND CHILL asteroid impact might have a larger ef-
WINnniRFfTlON
•a:[::c>:,':s
Vj : •TIME
-AUTO SCAN
energy and organic mol-
fect in putting THE SEARCH FOR
into the atmosphere to manufao
|
ecules
• RAINFALL (OPTIONAL)* 1 YEAR WARRANT
ture these complicated molecules
EXTRATERRESTRIAL
-14-DAY MONEY-BACH GUARANTEE
There might be a nice symmetry here: INTELLIGENCE
DIGITARWEATHERPRO The asteroids hitting the earth made Edited by BenBova arid Byron Preiss
WEATHER STATION: ONLY $179! life, and then after life proliferated, the The modern space science community—
ORDERTODAY:1-800-678-3669, OM impact from asteroids began to destroy
M-F 7AM-5:30 PM Pacific Time
.

6SLE&I49W it.A life giver and life taker in one mech- asN.
'"'
i" ":t- il :.'«<*."•
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—
anism something that comes down ofCaiiforriaaiBerksiev-hasbeBfi'activsly
:StfJU:!TS;i'i
DiCI TAR'
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and bangs the earth at regular intervals.
25 years. Mow, this.extraor-
165 DIABLO AVE, HAYWAKD. <".A <M5-i5 Of course the "origin of life" people all
jy presents an array of eon-
believe life was created only once, suc- the* fo-rer ;i::u\;r;nsi
cessfully, at least: a sort of deist phi- quest for' life -beyond
losophy. But there could have been a : earth..'

lot of "creations." FIRST CONTACT is not a LlrO book, Dot

Omni: What are the latest things you've rather -a provocative examination about trie

been working on? naiu'e of intelligence, the outer limits of our

understanding of bloiogv, and mar-'s place
Craig: Several things that are rather
in the universe. Based upon hard scientific
nice. One is that the primordial neon iso-
fact, the book expioies wtiai we Ktrav/ and
•what we migtit expect-to fjrtcf, .' :

Page 6 clockwise

lien: page 16, Rob C'-.k-inaga IS

All Jerrold, Oak, Hamlin, Ze- age 20, > I cnsi 'JiKSor page !

age 26 top, Tom !.': .iq-::Pholc

nith, Scientific Atlanta, Mag-
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C.S.T. CLOSED WEEK- i3i

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page 67 hottom. E. Pteau/Sygma: page 75, Doug

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109. Es--.-im
I
pages 110 and 111,
topes picture is beginning to fall into
place like the helium isotopes: There is
a "crustal neon" and also a "mantle ne-
on" component. Another nice thing is
we found air that shows the effects of
gravitational stratification.
physical chemists thought this could hap-
ters by two other Scripps colleagues, between theoreticians and people who
Aristotelian scholars whose assump- make measurements is not strong in
tions replace observations to the bitter oceanography. This is probably be-
end! However, the man who invented cause the theoreticians have no well-
the original theory and who is by all esti- developed theory that can be honed
A number of mates our greatest oceanographer, Hen- with measurements but instead have a
ry Stommel—who makes Woods Hole lot of ego about turf infringement by non-

pen in gases in the ocean or Lake Bai- number one in oceanography simply by club members. They are like the Bandar-
kal [in the Soviet Union] and searched his presence — immediately recognized log who harassed tvlowgli until the
for it without success. But recently I the significance of the helium plume in snakes came along. [The Bandar-log
found that gravitational separation of air the South Pacific. He published a new are monkeys in Kipling's The Jungle
—
components exactly as predicted by theory incorporating these results in Books who danced and shouted about
1982. His theory is also completely ig- all the great things they were going to
J. Wiliard Gibbs, who invented thermody-
namics at Yale in 1876, despite the nored by my colleagues in the volume do and promptly forgot them. The boy
fact that they refused to pay him for it on "new concepts" of ocean circulation. Mowgli was kidnapped by the Bandar-
actually takes place at the surface of Recently finished measuring a sim-
I
log and saved by the snakes.]
the earth, in the firn [snow cover] over ilar ocean section in the North Pacific, But second, and more important, is
the polar ice Max Planck's fa-
caps. We've now mous dictum that
seen that the rare new truths in sci-
gas krypton can ence are estab-
be enriched up to lished not by con-
two percent in vincing living sci-
snow just above entists but by wait-
the ice layer at ing for them to die

the Russian Vos- so that a genera-

tok site in Antarc- tion can grow up
tica. So we have unfettered by the
to correct all the intellectual shack-
isotopes of old air les of their prede-
in ice samples for cessors. Unfortu-
these effects. nately, this makes
The other work things slow going
of interest is the We've expanded our IQ for you. .again. . for students, who

revelations the he- atany rate should

InnerQuest III and Junior. For yourself, By yourself.
be advised not to
lium 3 plumes in
the Pacific are giv- Now you can experience wheic-brcir. rhitisir.E. rroiound relaxaiiun, creativity and the therapeutic invest large sums
ing us about the power of hypnosis better than ever with the innerQu^r 111, or IQ junior from Psych -Research, Inc. of money in books
deep circulation The IQ III gives you added feature; such s; dual :unet:..:n bu::c:i.; .
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patterns, programmable memory, l\:!i-y sound, and more. is

1981 published date volume."

I
but in a lUerpacbge. And.a-. shvav;, it'.= yuaravecd or vour money back.*
a paper with John Omni: Did both-it

Lupton, then of er you when a col-

league suggested
Scripps, showing M for injamiwm on atr cmpk& product 9w.
you settle down
that there's a huge
helium-3 plume and become a the-
from hydrother- oretician?
mal vents, emit-
L it ,r -.L-cirteJ

rt'.jrti io:
:
:;>:

i\l tcii ":;:

JO
•
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feab
Jul if

in.mriK
nni «ri::nd.

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InnerQuest Craig: No. In a
ted on the East Pa- IQIII 5595.00 1.800-544-8743
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i-ij.CO for ship-pins and handling (U.S.)
westward all the .
i i. ; .
,
.I. .I i I'ii ncrep e. Little Rock, AR7I2;VM4I2 ence is participat-
way across the Pa- ing in the adven-
cific, some eight ture, taking the
thousand kilometers at a depth of twen- and behold: There is a precisely simi- samples and doing something good
ty-five hundred meters. This flow was in lar plume in the North Pacific extend- we had
with them. Like the experiences
the opposite direction to that predict- ing westward across the Pacific, north when Val and lived on a boat on Lake
I

ed by physical oceanographers and of the equator. 'So there are two huge Tanganyika: At night we'd suddenly be
showed that prevailing ideas about jets of deep water flowing westward surrounded by hundreds of fishing
deep ocean circulation were quite across the Pacific, just north and south boats with lanterns on them, bobbing
wrong. Recently a major volume on of the equator. Thisis a finding virtually up and down, and people playing
—
ocean circulation hailed by the publish- ignored by most oceanographers. drums softly and singing. In the back-
er as "setting the current research lit- Omni: Why do so many scientists ig- ground high up on the Rift Valley
erature in context" —
appeared, edited nore new discoveries? walls, there were tremendous thunder-
by two of my colleagues at Scripps. Craig: think the problem of "recogni-
I storms with huge flashes of lightning,
And although the expeditions we car- tion" ofnew findings is due to two ef- like a war going on above the world. It

ried out to map the oceans more than fects.One, specific to oceanography, was like all the magic you ever
fifteenyears ago verified the helium 3 isthat most of the so-called physical dreamed of as a child when you read
plume, nor one word about the plume oceanographers don't go to sea. So the King Arthur or Beowulf. It's the same
and its meaning appears in that very ex- understanding of the circulation is thing up in the Himalayas or down at

pensive volume: sixty-nine dollars. In more a mathematical "exercise" than the bottom of the ocean in Alvin. You
fact, the same old story appears in chap- "truth-wrenching" business. The rapport can't match that in any other way. DQ
106 OMNI
CELEBRITY MATCHES:
Can you pair up these famous
folks with their patents?

quick-release mechanism
Last monthwho've
we
sought
inventors
looked at
THE CELEBRITIES Q. Panty hose to push up and
that chimera perpetual 1 John Dos Passos (novelist) emphasize the buttocks
motion, and presented a quiz on 2. Albert Einstein R. Re frigeration apparatus
the topic. (Answers appear on 3. Bette Nesmith (mother of Mi-
ANSWERS: INVENTORS
page 109.) This month we salute chael Nesmith of The Monkees)
the two hundredth anniversary of 4. Harry Houdini Dates and patent numbers,
the first U.S. patent and the inge- 5. Danny Kaye where known, are listed.
nuity of celebrities or the relatives 6. Hedy Lamarr 1-G. Dos Passos is listed as co-
of celebs who have acquired pat- 7. Abraham Lincoln inventor of the soap-bubble gun
ents but never received due recog- 8. Herbert "Zeppo" Marx in a 1959 patent.
nition for their inventions. (U.S. pat- 9. Julie Newmar 2-R, In 1930 Einstein was a co-
ents are granted only to individ- 10. Lillian Russell inventor of patent no. 1 ,781 ,541
uals, never to corporations or for 11. Edie Adams 3-B. Bette Nesmith created
computer-aided designs.) 12. Mark Twain typewriter correction fluid and
Not everyone's a Thomas A. 13. Lawrence Welk called it Liquid Paper. The Gillette

Edison. He received a total of 14. Paul Winchell (ventriloquist) Corporation bought her company
1,093 patents (four posthumous- 15. Orviile Wright for $47.5 million in 1979. When

ly), a rate of approximately two

Nesmith died in 1980 she left
THE INVENTIONS half her fortune to her son Mi-
per month throughout his adult
life, and he became famous as A. A heartbeat alarm to be chael and half to charities.
the prototypical worn on the wrist 4-P. Houdini received his pat-
American inven- B. Liquid Paper, typewriter cor- ent for a diver's suit (no.
tor. Other inven- rection fluid 1,370,316) in 1921.
tors have had on- C. Two design patents on 5-K, A patent for Danny Kaye's
ly one idea that lunch boxes noisemaker, no. D. 166, 807, was
became a reali- D. An adjustable strap for the awarded in 1952.
ty. Fred Waring back of vests 6-1, Lamarr, famous for movies

gave us an elec- E. A child's mask in the shape such as Ecstasy (1933) and Al-
tric drink mixer, of an upside-down face giers 0938), with Charles Boyer,
the Waring Blendor. Who was War- F.Ring-shaped cigarette and received patent no. 2,292,387
ing? Bandleader of the Pennsyl- cigar holders with composer George Antheil in

vanians, a popular orchestra. Like- G. A toy pistol that blows 1941. The invention: a classified
wise, people have used the Jon- soap bubbles communications system for sub-
ny Mop, a tool designed for clean- H. Inflatable chambers for lift- marines to control torpedoes (by
ing toilet bowls, without knowing ing boats over shoals intermittently and simultaneously

that its inventor was Dorothy I. A secret communications sys- switching radio frequencies be-
Rodgers, the wife of composer tem for torpedo control tween transmitter and receiver to

Richard Rodgers. J. An artificial heart prevent the enemy from monitor-

The following quiz will test K. A party noisemaker or "blow- ing the signals).
your knowledge of celebrity out'! that unrolls in three direc- 7-H,In 1849 Lincoln, then an

?M inventors. Match the people tions when a person blows into congressman, whittled the
Illinois

if in the first list at right with the the mouthpiece model for his patent of a boat-

inventions below. There are L. A self-pasting scrapbook device himself. No. 6,469 is
lifting

more contraptions than inventors with adhesive pages now in the collection of the Smith-
because at least two of the ce- M. A spring-powered doll that sonian Institution.
lebrities have received more fliesthrough the air, does a som- 8-A. Zeppo Marx patented his
than one patent. Einstein and Or- ersault, and catches a swinging heart alarm in 1969.
villeWright, who are on the list, frame with wire arms 9-Q, Actress-dancer New-
garnered their patents in unexpect- N. A game to help players re- mar's patent (3,914,799): "cheeky
ed fields. The answers appear in member major historical dates derriere" panty hose, in 1975.
the third column of this page. If 0. Travel trunk that turns into 10-O. Russell, the Gay Nine-
you answer five correctly, your a dresser, with drawers, pull-out ties operaticsoprano, patented a
nowledge of patents is
'
mirrors, and storage space for the- dresser-trunk in 1912. Her patent
about average; fen is good; atrical supplies number: 1,014,853.
12, very good; 14, excellent. P. Deep-sea diver's suit with 11— F. Adams was listed on her
 1965 patent as Edith A. Kovacs. le. There is no way to design a for human use. Because it relies
12-D, L, and M. Twain, as wheel so that the sum of the mo- on an outside source of energy
Samuel Clemens, received three ments on one side is always great- (the sun), it isn't classified as a per-
patents. The first, in 1871 (no. er than the sum on the other petual motion machine.
121,992), was for an adjustable, side. Drawings may look persua- 6. DUNKING DUCK, This is an-
detachable back strap for vests. sive if they show the wheel at the other case in which the machine
The scrapbook was patented in instant when it is temporarily over- works without fuel provided by
1873; the history game, in 1885. balanced, but this state lasts for people, but it does rely on an out-
13-C. Welk designed two only part of a revolution. side power supply namely, the — Some celebrities
lunch boxes in 1950 and 1951. 2. WATERWHEEL. It's possible cooling effects of evaporation.
14-E and J. In 1964 ventrilo- for thewaterwheel described to 7. SCHADEWALD GRAVITY EN- e than just
quist Paul Winchell made a raise some
of the water back to GINE. Even if it worked, the en- esfor
child's mask (no. 3,129,001). Of the top (by way of an Archi- gine described last month themselves.
greater significance, however, medes' screw) but not enough to wouldn't be a perpetual motion Page 108, top
was his patent of a plastic heart refill the wheel with sufficient machine, because power is de- to bottom: Edie
pump in 1963. Tested at the Uni- weight to turn the screw again. rived from an outside source, Adams, Hedy
versity of Utah School of Medi- 3. MAGIC MAGNETS. If the namely the decline in gravity. "My Lamarr, Lillian
cine, it reportedly kept a calf alive magnet is strong enough to pull description was a subtle decep- Russell.
for 94 days after its own heart the ball up the ramp, it will be tion," Schadewald told me. "The This page: Paul
had been removed. Winchell's de- strong enough to pull the ball velocity of the moving weight will Winchell
sign, a contender for the first hu- over the hole. That seems obvi- never exceed wftat was when
it with dummy
man artificial heart, lost to ous, but Howard R, Johnson of it passed the bottom, dead cen- Jerry Mahoney.
Robert Jarvik's model. Blacksburg, Virginia, got a 1979 ter, the first time, even if there is

15-M. Orville Wright assigned U.S. patent (no. 4,151,431) for a no friction. The weight
the 1925 patent for a flying doll mag net- powered motor that suf- may pick up speed
to the Miami Wood Specialty Com- fered from the same problem. A at the top, but nev-
pany of Dayton. patent officer, asked how such a er at the bot-
To receive a copy of any U.S. device could get official certifica- tom, so there ^
patent, send the patent number tion, said only that "mistakes do is never any re-

and a check or money order for sometimes get through." al speedup in

$1.50 to: U.S. Patent and Trade- HEAT PUMP. The Stewart
4. the wheei."
mark Office, Washington, DC pump is called a perpetual mo- — Scot Morris
20231; Attention: Copy Sales. tion machine of the second
kind, because it violates the sec- jff^
ond law of thermodynam- -** *
ics, which says that
Here are the answers to July's some energy isalways
quiz on perpetual motion. lost in converting heal
1. OVERBALANCED WHEEL. into work. The 3 Btu
In the most common perpetual mo- ofenergy (theoretical-
tion scheme, heavy balls on a ly obtained.by cool-
wheel shift position so that they ing a pound of water
are far from the center of the 3° F) is not recover-
wheel on the downswing, and clos- able to do useful work.
er to the hub on the upswing. Be- The water won't lower
cause one side of the wheel sup- its temperature unless
posedly always outweighs the oth- it's in contact with a cold-
er, the wheel should theoretical- er body. And the energy
ly rotate forever. But there are in- that is required to power

evitably more balls on the ascend- the condenser to refrigerate the

ing side, so the clockwise and Freon to cool the water will be
counterclockwise torques cancel guess what? —
always more than
each other out. The moment pro- 3 Btu.
vided by a ball is the product of 5. PERPETUAL CLOCK. James
its weight and its distance from a Cox's machine may be consid-
drawn through the ax-
vertical line ered as providing "free energy'
STAR TECH
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 "I just can't get enough of Joseph "That gave the Roman Caesars the
Campbell's The Power of Myth," says impetus to govern!"
Kwame, my longtime African friend. He "That made Jesus give up carpentry

r « smiles and looks around at the other

patrons seated in the restaurant, who
also patiently seek their waiter. He turns
and go into preaching!"
"That made Einstein go into physics
and not into dentistry!"

*^
(o me. f can see his eyes ticker-tape "Do you think Moyers would ever do
with the heroic tales that Campbell a special on the powerof guilt?"
recited to Bill Moyers on the six-part Kwame bites his lower lip.

PBS series. No doubt he'd like to - "You. know, he should," he says. "But
re-create that setting in this restaurant. would really be a downer for viewing
it

"Myth was an important part of audiences to realize that it was our

wjphg my rearing." he says. "Was it true for mothers' chiding stories not ancient —
you in Puerto Rico?" tales of heroism —
that are the root
sure was,
::

say, swabbing a roll- of genius. Remember the one to remind

a
"It I

with butter. Kwame smiles and excit- us we shouldn't eat sweets?"

Hfe*"""*'^ edly leans forward' on the table, rest- "Sure. Which one is your version?'

H ^Q /• n ing his chin in the palm of his hand as

I begin my
acted up one day, my
"After I
tale.
"My grandma once told me that tiny
worms lived in the- sacks of raw sugar
that were brought into our home. And
grandmother told me the story of this kid one time when she caught me tast-
in Puerto Ricowho, after arguing with ing some sugar, she told me to drink a
his grandmother, raised his hand glass of water at once to drown the
at her in a striking fashion. She didn't billions of worm eggs that had just I

—
UUDRD
slap the kid's hand as grandmothers swallowed from tasting that sugar."
in Puerto Rico were supposed to. do id "Did you do it?"
correct this lack of respect and in- — "I didn't have to," he says, finding a

stead let him continue angrily out the roll. "Grandma said that my vomiting as
door and on his. way to school. fast as I did got the eggs."
rid of
By Roberto Santiago "Needless. to say, he was hit by a -
"What about the ship that sailed
truck minutes later while crossing the around the world, endlessly looking for
<mAh, that's not the street. After the' hospital pronounced; little children who would not eat every-

power of myth, " my friend him a goner, he was taken to the thing off their plates?"
morticians for preparation, but, try as "Yes! We had that one!" Kwame
Kwame says. "That they would, they couldn't get his arm to shouts. "I was told that if didn't finish I

is the power of guilt. The stay down. For some reason was it my beets, spies from the ship would
power of guitt frozen in a.perpetual wave, as if hewere dock nearby, and would- be put on that
I

about to hail a cab or whack a handball. ship and Mom would have to bring
is what made Einstein "This presented problems for the-, horns a kid who looKed just like me who
go into physics morticians, who for. hours were would eat his vegetables."
slamming his arm with sledgehammers "Mom said that would' be dropped
instead of into dentistry! 9
I

and jumping on as it were a tree it if off in Biafra. What about you?"

limb that had to be snapped. The dead "Detroit." Kwame takes a deep
boy's parents didn't know what to do, breath and makes the sign of the cross.
so they dressed him in his Sunday "I swear, wound up even eating
I

school suit and sawed a hole through the beets off my sister's plate." Kwame
the top of the coffin to allow for the pauses, looks for the waiter, and
stiff arm. Two days later, during the fu- continues: "How about saying bad
neral, his grandmother finally .arrived- words? Did you have floating letters?-'
and, af g family "And how! If I. would say the Fword,
surrounding the box. squeezed her way Mom would say that a giant F would pop
past them and smacked the arm, out of my mouth, float around like a
causing it to go down. 'Excuse me,' she bee, and slap me across the forehead,"
said, returning to her seat. ..." "My mom said that if said a bad I

Kwame's jaw drops down to his word, a man who had no face would
chest. He looks the way Bob Dylan pick me up on my way home from
looked after hearing Tiny Tim play one school and make me lick the sun."
of his songs. "Puerto Rican myths sure Kwame and look at each other.
I

differ from African myths," he laughs-.
"they sure do," say. "They kind of
remind me of Lenny Bruce's old joke:
had a traditional New York upbring-
ing; It wasn't until was eight that real-
ized my name wasn't Shut Up.'
Kwame leans back and wags his.
Would Moyers ever touch it? Naw!
I "Moyers should touch a real
'I universal myth," Isay.
"What's that?" Kwame. asks.
I I "That waiters appear at your table
when you want them."
never heard that one," he says.
"I

finger. "Ah, that's not the power of heard it once," say.

"I I

myf/i,"hesaystome. "That is the power Kwame shakes his head. "Now, Rober-
'

of guffl!" to," he says, "let's not go confusing

"Forget what Campbell says about myth with fantasy." DO
myth," say. "The power of guilt is what
I

inspired Alexander the Great to con-

quer the world!"