TALK TO US: Contact Kursten Phelps or Leita Schultes at (785) 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN EXTRA
WWW.KANSAN.COM
9A
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL CAMPUS EDITION.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2001
WSJ.com
© 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
What's News-
In Business and Finance
Key economic reports provided growing evidence of a slowdown.
Economic Bulwarks Show Weakness
Consumer confidence plunged in October to its lowest level in seven years, the Conference Board reported, as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sapped optimism about job security and the economy. Consumers have been one of the main factors preventing the economy from sliding into recession. But many economists now believe a recession is inevitable because of the fallout from the attacks.
Likewise, the housing market, which had been one of the economy's few remaining bright spots, saw big sales declines in September. Sales of existing homes plunged nearly 12%, their biggest tumble in six years. And new-home sales fell 1.4%. The housing market "no longer can provide the support to the economy that it has in the past year," said David Orr, chief economist at Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C.
Other reports showed rising layoffs and tumbling orders for capital goods, and there are few signs of a rebound in business investment.
Travelers Bypass The Bright Lights
Wary of air travel and high-profile resorts, more Americans are vacationing in smaller, sleepier spots they can drive to.
Among the destinations seeing business surge since the terrorist attacks: Reno, Nev., a gambling mecca about four hours from San Francisco; and Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a resort town about three hours north of New York whose heyday predated the rise of jet travel.
Walt Disney Co., for one, is trying to counter the trend with a big marketing push to lure visitors to its parks. After pulling its television advertising for about three weeks after the attacks, Disney now is spending tens of millions of dollars on TV ads and placing spots in unsold slots on its ABC and ESPN networks.
Bayer Will Still Profit From Discount Cipro
Under pressure from the U.S. government to cut its prices, Bayer Corp. announced what it termed a "historic" accord last week to sell the government Cipro, the anthrax-fighting antibiotic, for 95 cents a pill. But generic makers and critics say the pact is still enormously profitable.
A Bayer spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's costs and pricing on Citro. Helge Wehmeier, president and CEO of Bayer Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's Bayer AG, said in a statement, "Bayer is fully committed to supporting America in its war on bioterrorism."
Ranbaxy Inc., a generic-drug maker in Princeton, N.J., has offered to sell the pill for 40 cents apiece in the U.S.,"and we'd still be making money at that price," said Dipack Chattara], Ranbaxy's president. Ranbaxy's parent company, based in India, sells a generic form of Cipro there for about 30 cents a pill. "It's a very easy product to make." Mr. Chattara] said.
Cipro's wholesale price in the U.S. averages $4.67 a pill. Bayer normally sells it to the U.S. government for $1.77 a pill.
Intel's Moore Gives Caltech $600 Million
THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 29.2001
In the largest donation ever to a university, Gordon Moore, cofounder of Intel Corp., and his wife, Betty, are giving $600 million to the California Institute of Technology.
"I think they do marvelous things and they have more marvelous things they'd like to do if they had the resources," said Mr. Moore, 72
Sputtering
U. S. retail prices for regular gasoline, in dollars
Source: Energy Information Administration
years old, who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech, in Pasadena,Calia,in 1954.
Sony Uses PlayStation To Boost PS2 Sales
Sony, Corp.'s PlayStation franchise will soon face competition from Nintendo Co.'s Gamecube and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, the software giant's first foray into the video-game industry. Sony's response: Use the original PlayStation, a technological dinosaur, to grab more of the lower end of the market, where Nintendo's handheld Game Boy reigns. The strategy aims to ensure consumer loyalty to PS2, the PlayStation's popular successor.
Sony plans to release a portable version of PlayStation along with a slew of new kids' games, including one based on the wildly popular "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" book and movie of the same name. The film is scheduled for release on Nov. 16.
For Windows XP,
No Sudden Impact
Microsoft held a splashy introduction for its Windows XP software, but analysts said the product probably won't provide much of a kick to the moribund PC industry, at least not right away.
And although the program does promise greater reliability than its predecessors and lots of snazzy new features, some critics say its links to other Microsoft services are designed to help the company dominate the Internet, just as it now controls the computer desktop.
Dell Computer Corp., meanwhile, which used custom-made PCs to rocket to the top of the PC market, introduced a prebuilt PC called the SmartStep, designed to compete with off-the-shelf models sold in chain stores.
GM Agrees to Sell Hughes to EchoStar
General Motors Corp. agreed sell its Hughes Electronics Corp., subsidiary, including the DirectTV business, to EchoStar Communications Corp., the owner of the Dish Network Service. The $2.8 billion deal, which came after News Corp., withdrew its offer, would join the nation's biggest satellite-TV companies. Because of that, it is almost certain to face intense regulatory scrutiny.
the restaurant industry is launching its first-ever advertising campaign to encourage Americans to dine out. The industry lost 103,000 jobs in September...Cracking the Code: After years of trying, 7-Eleven Inc., with the help of Kraft Foods scientists, has finally come up with a sugar-free Slurpee.
Odds & Ends
By Don Arbour
Delays at the Baggage Scanner
How to contact us:
Campus Edition@wsj.com
Security experts, worried travelers and government officials are imploring airlines to scan checked baggage for bombs now that suicidal terrorists have struck domestically.
State-of-the-Art Machines Are Slow, Inaccurate; Fruitcakes Trip Alarms
RV ELLIOT SPAGAT
But will airlines do that? Not likely.
Fewer than 150 sophisticated luggage-s scanning machines capable of detecting bombs and plastic explosives were scattered at 47 U.S. airports at the end of September. Even though the Federal Aviation Administration paid for them - at a cost of about $1 million apiece - airlines complain that they are slow, cumbersome to operate and notorious for sounding false alarms.
"We're dealing with first-generation, first-generation-and-a-half, equipment," says Dick Doubraw, managing director of security for the Air Transport Association, a trade group for major airlines. The airlines refer questions on security matters to the group instead of discussing them themselves.
Early Days
L. 3 Communications Holdings Inc., one of only two companies certified by the FAA to make the explosive-scanning machines, says false alarms sound for about 22 of every 100 bags. But that rate that would create chaos if each one of those pieces of luggage had to be opened and searched. The other certified company, InVision Technologies Inc., has a similar rate. The problem is that the machines look for things that are dense, meaning that that shoes, pots and even fruitcakes can set off alarms.
- Heading Overseas? You May Need a New Resume
Job seekers who wish to work abroad need to research prospective employers and create "culturally correct" CVs and cover letters, says Mary Anne Thompson, an expert on global career issues.
- Planning Helps Students Turn Hobbies Into Careers Peder Nelson, a student at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., loves skiing and mountain biking. Here's how he's linking his academic program to a career that allows
Second-Year M.B.A.s Face a Tight Job Market
With employers trimming their ranks and cancelling campus visits, M.B.A. students are adapting by interviewing with companies they wouldn't have considered two years ago.
from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
him to spend lots of time in the great outdoors.
handling. Even if the FAA supplied hundreds more machines to expand screening to all domestic flights, aviation experts say the process would bring maddening waits for passengers.
With so many glitches, the FAA planned to wait until 2009 to begin phasing in requirements for airlines to scan all checked bags for explosives at U.S. airports. When the suicide hijackings that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon spurred calls for a much faster pace, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said the agency could move the date up to 2004.
Similarly, consumer advocates are dismayed by the lack of progress since Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, the result of a plastic explosive in a bag. Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project in Washington, D.C., says the government and airlines simply haven't wanted to spend money.
"Completely unacceptable," said Philadelphia Mayor John Street after she announced the accelerated timetable at a conference of mayors last week.
THIS WEEK AT:
COLLEGEJOURNAL.COM
Before Sept. 11, the FAA required only that airlines scan bags of domestic passengers whose reservation information posed security questions, estimated at $3% to $5% of all travelers, according to Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead. Using their computer systems, airlines flaged suspicious activity using closely guarded criteria, such as a passenger's travel history and how a ticket was purchased, and set aside suspect bags for scanning. But since Sept. 11, the FAA has begun requiring airlines that have advanced scanners to use them continuously, not just to check luggage of suspicious passengers.
**camping up**
InVision, which made nearly all of the 142 explosives scanners in use at 47 U.S. airports as of the end of September, was producing four machines a month before Sept. 11. The company says it can ramp up to as many as 50 a month if it moves to round-the-clock production. L-3 was making two to four machines a month before Sept. 11 and says that in six months it can step up production to 35 to 40 a month.
Ramping Up
To ensure competition, Congress has required the FAA to buy the same number of machines from InVision as from L-3. But the L-3 machines have been plagued with questions about bugs.
An L-3 machine at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport "had operational problems from the day it was installed in the spring 2000," Mr. Mead told Congress recently. Between July 2000 and July 2001, it needed to be repaired every 84 hours on average, with more than six hours needed to fix it. Joseph Paresi, who heads L-3's security-systems division, says the scanner's performance has since improved and notes Mr. Mead's findings were limited to one airport. In Vision says it ran into the same kinds of problems as L-3 when it began introducing machines in the mid-1990s.
▲ InVision's CTX5500 can handle up to 384 bags an hour. It is 14 1/2 feet long and weighs 9,350 pounds
In addition, the scanners, which slice and dice suspicious objects into hundreds of pictures, like a hospital CT scan, can each handle only about one planeload of luggage an hour, about 150 bags. With an estimated one billion bags checked each year at U.S. airports, airlines fear a logistical nightmare unless the machines run faster and more accurately.
Airlines have come under criticism for failing to use the machines even after the FAA buys them. The Transportation Department found that airlines screened on average only 350 bags a day in July, far less than the equipment is capable of
What's more, the machines are so big—the fastest one is nearly 16 feet long—that it is hard to find floor space for them in crowded terminals or cramped baggage rooms.
Airlines have other scanning technology at their disposal, including the X-ray machines used to check all carry on luggage. These cheaper scanners can handle more bags and are good at spotting metal, but they are not designed to detect sophisticated explosives. Israel, known for its strict security procedures, uses the sophisticated scanners.
A month after terrorist attacks sent Americans scrambling to their TV sets, some once-avid TV news viewers are tuning out. Doctors and psychiatrists say there is anecdotal evidence that news-media overload is becoming an increasingly common complaint, what with the constant flow of scary developments and myriad news channels now available.
Researchers who study the way Americans consume media say people are on emotional overload. Those pulling back from TV news "still want major developments and they want to have programming interrupted if there are major events that warrant that," says Steve Ridge, an executive with Frank Magid Associates, a media-research and consulting firm in Marion, Iowa. "Once they have an update, they're seeking TV that is going to entertain, relax and amuse them."
Americans Back Off TV News
By SALLY BEATTY
On Oct. 19, the American Psychiatric Association issued 10 guidelines for coping with "bioterrorism anxiety." No. 2 on the list: Stop watching so much TV news. (The No 1 tip: educate yourself, since "facts are frequently less frightening than rumors and myth.")
o news isn't good news, but for some people it might be a good idea for a while.
"If television or other news reports significantly increase feelings of anxiety and helplessness, don't watch or read them," the APA urged.
Nielsen figures show daytime TV viewership fell to about 29 million homes the week of Oct. 14, down nearly 20% from the week beginning Sept. 9, when an average of 36 million TV homes were watching TV, but still above the roughly 27 million homes watching TV at the same time the year before.
The media fatigue some are feeling is a relatively new phenomenon. The last time the U.S. was at war, in 1991, the explosion of media outlets hadn't happened yet. In 1991, CNN and its sister channel Headline News, both part of AOL Time Warner Inc., were available in less than 60 million homes, compared with more than 80 million homes today.
CNN's war coverage sparked a boom in new TV channels and networks. In 1996, NBC and Microsoft Corp. launched the news channel MSNBC, while News Corp. started the Fox News Channel. News media also took their first steps onto the Internet in the mid-1990s.
A student subscription to The Wall Street Journal includes both the print and online (WSJ.com) editions. So, you can be sure that you'll receive the most up-to-date news as well as special tools to help you plan your career.
You won't find a better resource than The Journal for news and industry trends that can help you prepare for everything from life after college to your next spring break.
A successful future starts with The Wall Street Journal.
what's news
With The Journal you'll get:
Knowledge and insight on how textbook theories work in the real world Customizable news when and how you want it Briefing Books and 30-day archives great for company research and interview preparation Summaries of the day's top news stories Small Business Suite tips and tools for starting your own bus mas
For more information about special subscription rates for students, call 1-800-975-8602 or visit info.wsj.com/students
©2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DOWJONES