6B
Wednesday, October 12, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Spacecraft dive ends study of Venus
The Associated Press
PASADENA, Calif. — Magellan hurled to its demise yesterday in the gaseous atmosphere of Venus, ending its four-year mapping mission with one last experiment: a study of the spacecraft's aerodynamics as it descended.
Since there was no way to return Magellan to Earth, scientists ordered the craft into a dive to gather information that will be used in other missions.
The researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory began firing Magellan's thrusters at 7:21 a.m. PDT, sending it through miles of Venus' carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds.
Yesterday afternoon, it was moving at 16,500 mph, but Venus' atmosphere will slow it down so that it will be traveling only 30 or 40 mph when it nears the surface.
"It may get toasted and flutter down. It won't go in like a meteorite," project manager Douglas G. Griffith said. "It will heat up. Maybe things will start to burn into cinders."
The Magellan mission was described as successful beyond expectations:
— Magellan was the first craft to demonstrate the potential of aerobraking, which could be useful to steer the Mars surveyor through atmospheres that are different than Earth's.
Magellan was expected to lose power and contact with Earth, possibly by today, ending the $900 million mission. Exactly what happens to the craft may never be known.
Game theory wins Nobel prize in economics
The Associated Press
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Two Americans and a German won the Nobel prize in economics yesterday for pioneering work that showed companies do business, governments make decisions and armies fight battles much the way people play poker and chess.
Sharing the $930,000 prize are Hungarian-born John C. Harsanyi, a retired professor from the University of California at Berkeley; John F. Nash, a mathematician at Princeton University; and Reinhard Selten of the University of Bonn.
As early as the 1950s the three researchers began work in game theory, a relatively new branch of mathematics that arose out of efforts earlier in the century to understand
Their discoveries have had a tremendously important impact on many disciplines, said the chairman of the Nobel committee, Assar Lindbeck.
competition and cooperation.
Using models such as chess and poker, the theory has developed into a major tool in characterizing modern life. One of its key features is the ability to predict when to bluff, whether the players be companies or people at a card table.
Game theory is widely applied not only in economics but also in psychology, military and political science, helping to explain the strategic interaction between individuals, business and nations alike.
"Eventually, it will give us a higher standard of living because we make better decisions," Hansanyi said from his home in San Francisco.
"It has some similarity with parlor games, which are used in models." Selten said from his home in Koenigswinter, Germany.
"The analysis of these models ... makes it easier for you to understand a lot of strategic interaction," said Selten, the first German citizen to be awarded a Nobel economics prize.
Nash, a mathematician, was singled out for developing what has become known as the "Nash Equilibrium," a formula for figuring out when it is pointless for a player to change strategy.
Selten, who co-wrote a book with Harsanyi on equilibrium selection in games, followed up on Nash's research by creating several such situations and comparing the decisions of their players.
Harsanyi carried the ideas further with his theory of games of incomplete information, in which players don't know all the rules of the game, a situation more like the real world.
It was the second time the economics prize, awarded since 1969, was shared three ways. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Central Bank in memory of Alfred Nobel, the industrialist who invented dynamite.
With yesterday's award, the number of American economic prize winners rose to 23.
Judge to rule Friday on DNA evidence in Simpson trial
Developments yesterday in the O.J. Simpson case:
BLOODY GLOVE: The judge threatened to throw out some DNA evidence, including test results on the bloody glove found behind Simpson's house, because prosecutors waited too long to send the evidence to alab for tests.
PERSONALITY CLASH Opposing counsel continued to get on each other's nerves. The defense of Barry Scheck was particularly peeved by Deputy District Attorney Lisa Kahn's practice of pronouncing his name as "Schect." The judge grew
JUDGE BONKED: Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, while touring a press room, was hit on the head by a TV crew's boom microphone. The judge laughed and left without commenting.
weary, too, telling them: "I am awfully tired of the personality battle going on here. ... All it does is annoy me immensely."
DEFAMATION LAWSUIT. John Dunton, who spent a month in jail rather than testify before a grand jury investigating Simpson's friend Al "A.C." Cowlings, filed defamation claims against the county and police, contending his name was dragged through the mud.
BRONCO MOTION: The defense argued in court papers that evidence seized from Simpson's Ford Bronco should be thrown out because the Bronco was burglarized at a police tow yard. The defense says evidence
WHAT'S NEXT: Second round of jury selection begins today with questioning of prospective jurors on their beliefs, backgrounds and exposure to publicity from the case.
that could have helped clear Simpson — including a receipt with his ex-wife's signature — was stolen.
THE NEWS in brief
Colorado amendment ruled unconstitutional
DENVER
The anti-gay rights amendment that set off a nationwide boycott of Colorado was declared unconstitutional yesterday by the state Supreme Court, which said the amendment denied homosexuals an equal voice in government.
State Attorney General Gale Norton said she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Adopted by the state's voters in 1992, the amendment prohibited local governments from outlawing discrimination against homosexuals.
"The right to participate equally in the political process is clearly affected by Amendment 2," Chief Justice Luis Rovira wrote for the court's 6-1 majority.
The amendment "singles out one form of discrimination and removes its redress from consideration by the normal political process." Rovira said.
Amendment 2, which would have struck down anti-discrimination ordinances in Denver, Boulder and Aspen, was never enforced. It was challenged immediately after its passage and has been the subject of court battles since then.
It was written by Colorado for Family Values founder Will Perkins and approved, 54 percent to 46 percent, by voters in the 1992 election.
MOSCOW
Panic strikes as ruble plummets
MOSCOW — Panicky Muscovites gutted savings accounts and dashed to buy refrigerators and stereos, gasoline and food Tuesday as the Russian ruble suffered its worst one-day plunge against the dollar in two years.
Shock waves from "Black Tuesday" spread as money exchanges ran out of dollars and kiosks closed so enterprises merchants could mark up merchandise.
A free fall of the ruble could endanger Russia's free-market reforms, scare off foreign investors, further squeeze those who rely on imported goods and increase the risks of a recession.
At the same time, a devalued ruble makes Russian exports more competitive and makes it easier for the Central Bank to pay government debts by converting its dollars.
The ruble lost one-fourth of its value against the dollar Tuesday in the worst one-day drop since trading began in 1992. It closed at 3,926 to the dollar at the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, a drop of 845 points.
Bishop try to pacify women
A committee of U.S. Catholic bishops recommended yesterday ways that bishops can improve women's status in the church and alleviate their disaffection despite the Vatican's ban on women priests.
Among the proposals: removing masculine language from some church textbooks and pushing more women into the top ranks of theologians, administrators and activists.
In May, Pope John Paul II gave a definitive no to women ever becoming priests. But, the bishops' Committee on Women in Society and in the Church said his firm stand shouldn't stop the all-male hierarchy in the United States from exploring new ways women can share authority at all levels of church life.
In particular, the U.S. prelates called on the U.S. church to reject authoritarian conduct, establish structures to respond to the concerns of women and encourage women to pursue studies in the traditionally clergy-dominated fields of Scripture, theology and canon law.
BALTIMORE New test may help catch cancer
Doctors plan to begin clinical trials next year of a new $50 genetic screening test to see whether it can save lives by catching cancer in its earliest, most treatable form.
The test, described in yesterday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, identifies repetitive genetic errors called clonal markers associated with certain kinds of cancer.
By comparing DNA drawn from a patient's blood to that taken from urine, sputum or other fluids, researchers are able to identify a variety of cancers.
However, the test so far has been used only on people who were already known to have cancer.
David Sidransky, author of the study and a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, conceded that much research remains and said that Hopkins researchers will begin clinical trials in June to detect bladder and cervical cancer in people at high risk of the disease. The trials could take years.
Fathers let anger out in court
Over objections from defense lawyers, two grieving fathers lashed out in court yesterday at the gang members who raped and killed their teen-age daughters.
As the last of the three was being led from the packed courtroom, Ertman told him. "I'll watch you die. boy."
"We live for the day that you die," a tearful Randy Ertman said after the three defendants were sentenced to death. "You are baby killers."
Such courtroom confrontations stem from the growing victims' rights movement of the past several years. Thirty-five states permit victims to speak at sentencing, according to the Arlington, Va.-based National Victims' Center.
Five other states allow statements from victims to be read at sentencing.
Yesterday, Efrain Perez, 18, Raul Villarreal, 18, and Joe Medellin, 19, showed no emotion during the fathers' speeches. They were convicted last month.
Two other gang members, Peter Cantu and Derrick Sean O'Brien, both 19, were already sentenced to die in the case. A sixth defendant, Vinny Medellin, got 40 years because he was a juvenile.
WASHINGTON
United States wins big in fraud cases
The Justice Department won $1.09 billion in civil settlements and judgments from defense contractors, health care companies and others who cheated the government during the last fiscal year — nearly three times the previous fraud recovery record.
The increase over the old record — $370 million in fiscal year 1993 — was spurred by large growth in defense and health care recoveries and a doubling of recoveries in suits brought initially by private whistle-blowers.
The government now gets more money from civil cases than criminal ones: Criminal fines and forfeitures totaled $400 million and $500 million respectively in fiscal 1994, which ended Sept. 30.
"People are not going to be permitted to cheat the taxpayers and get away with it," Assistant Attorney General Frank Hunger, head of the civil division, said at a news conference yesterday. "Whether a Fortune 500 defense contractor delivers substandard equipment, or a large health care supplier lies about its costs to obtain inflated federal reimbursement, or a doctor falsifies a diagnosis to get paid by Medicare, or a businessman lies on an application for federal funds, we will seek to recover every dime, and more."
The government can seek triple damages for false claims.
WASHINGTON Study shows government waste
Although it's the world's largest single market for computers, the U.S. government does a poor job in buying them, according to a Senate subcommittee.
A year-long study revealed that government agencies often end up with antiquated and poorly designed computer systems that are incompatible with the equipment they already own, said Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine.
"These problems result in uncollected taxes, poorly managed federal spending and incorrect payments to federal contractors," Cohen said. "Taxpayers should be outraged."
The report — "Computer Chaos: Billions Wasted Buying Federal Computer Systems" — was researched and written by the minority staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's oversight subcommittee. It was scheduled to be released today.
Compiled from The Associated Press