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Wednesday, July 13, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Welcome, coach
Welcome, Roy Williams.
As only the seventh KU basketball coach, you are one of an elite group of individuals who have enhanced the University of Kansas tradition of excellence on the court and in the classroom.
You have proven your commitment to recruiting the student-athlete and announced your intention to continue to do so here. You have proven yourself a worthy assistant to a coaching legend, Dean Smith.
You must cope with the possibility of a letdown after this season and the short amount of time you have to build your program.
But we're sure you're up to the task, Coach Williams.
David White. managing editor
The court ruled last Friday that death resulting from child abuse cannot bring first-degree murder charges unless preme ditation is proved. The court so ruled by overturning two first degree convictions of murder by child abuse.
State court upholds law that should be changed
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled against innocent children last week.
The main case involved a Johnson County man's conviction in the death of an 18-month-old girl. Robert Lucas was sentenced to life in prison for the death of Shaina Woodside. The other conviction the court overturned was that of Kevin Semisch of Plains, who was found guilty of the first-degree murder of his 7-week-old daughter, Amanda.
The court, in a 4-3 decision, argued that in death from child abuse cases, the law was taking second place to the emotional stir caused by such cases. The court ruled that child abuse could not be used as an underlying felony to support a felony (first-degree) murder conviction. In so ruling, it cited the "doctrine of merger," which prevents two separate crimes from merging into one. Because child abuse is a separate felony from murder, the court ruled, the felony murder statute cannot be applied and premeditation must be proved.
Under the ruling, the child abuser can still be found guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. The penalty for second-degree murder is 15 years in prison. First-degree murder carries a life sentence.
Child abuse can easily be viewed as premeditated without tracing the actual logic of the abuser. In most cases, child abuse is ongoing, sometimes for years. In Lucas's case, the abuse was proved to take place over a period of months. Writing in dissent of the decision, Justice Harold Herd said Lucas "had time to sit back and reflect as he watched (Shaina) toddle around, bruised, burned and fearful."
In defending the law, the court unjustly made it harder to convict child abusers. The legally sound ruling neglects the people the law should be protecting: the victims. The ruling stings all the more because in this case, the victim represents the ultimate in the powerless and unprotected: the child.
The only logical course of action now is for the Legislature to make charges in child-abuse deaths automatic first- and second-degree murder. Without such legislation, the worst of all murders will receive leniency.
Superstrings: new concept of space, time
Grace Hobson; editorial writer
By David White
Managing Editor
Theory of Everything proposes the existence of ten dimensions, not just four
A topic of debate lately in the world of physics and physicists is the existence, or lack thereof, of superstrings, said to be the Theory of Everything. Simply put, superstring theory states that the universe is made up of 10 dimensions; nine of space and one of time. Literally, everything is a result of actions and interactions of these infinitesimal strings. The subatomic particles discovered in atom smashers are not points but microscopic loops of string, and how each string moves determines what kind of particle it is.
The theory behind this is that at the instant of the Big Bang, all nine of the spatial dimensions would have been equal, but when the universe expanded, only the three familiar dimensions expanded with it. The other six remained in tight loops.
This is certainly a leap forward in the understanding of the physical world and its background and basis.
Physicists John Schwarz of Caltech and Michael Green of Queen Mary College of London in 1984 produced a superstring theory that was free of anomalies, which produce aberrations in otherwise safe equations, and infinities, which result from dividing by zero at any
point in an equation.
Edward Witten, a pre-eminent physicist at Princeton, soon endorsed the theory. Certain researchers had been pursuing the idea intermittently and it but took Schwarz and Green to make it work. And make it work they did. Their theory sent physicists running to their math books in search of the necessary equations.
That breakthrough came at a time when research on a GUT, or grand unified theory, had stalled. Researchers pursuing a GUT sought to unify all four forces of physics — strong force, weak force, electromagnetism and gravity. They were grounded by anomalies in certain key questions. Superstrings answered those questions.
And some scientists even postulated that these four forces were, at one time, all one force, all one in a grand unification.
And yet, some of the most vocal critics of the new theory are those whose theories were termed radical departures from reality before they were proven: experts in quantum mechanics, something that was itself dismissed as mere talk until proven and accepted in the laws of nature.
In advancing and eventually proving his theory of quanta, German physicist Max Planck dis-
makes use of new principles of chemical physics. Planck hypothesized that instead of a continuous emission, objects gave off a quantum, or unsteady, emission of radiation. Thus, the emergence of the photon.
Planck and other physicists have based their observations of light energy in part on the blackbody, which is an impossible construct that absorbs all radiation at all wavelengths.
A photon is the light flash that results when an electron circling the nucleus of an atom jumps to an orbit of higher or lower energy.
Further folly is found in the uncertainty principle, which states that the position and the velocity of a particle cannot be measured exactly at the same time. To record the necessary measurements, a physicist fires photons at a particle in order to see it. But the problem is that when the photons and the particle collide, the sought-after position and velocity are disturbed. Does the physicist then estimate? Of course.
Sheldon Glashow, a Nobel laureate physicist at Harvard, wrote in a recent issue of the Sciences, "Until the string people can interpret perceived properties of the real world, they simply are not doing physics."
But what of Planck and those
who still look to non-existent black-bodies as yardsticks for their research? And what of black holes, whose existence cannot be proved by sight because they do not let out any light trapped within?
Austrian physicist Erwin Schroedinger, in an experiment designed to test reasoning, said that if he sealed a cat in a room with a flask of poison gas and the flask was set to break if a Geiger counter detected the radioactive decay of an atom with a 50 percent chance of decaying, the only way to know whether the cat survived was to open the sealed room and see.
Yet if all scientists followed Schroedinger's example, the list of revolutionary scientific discoveries would be short enough for one to absorb it all in one glance.
Even now, physicists are trying to eliminate the hidden six dimensions from the superstring theory in order to find evidence that the theory can be proven.
It is easy to dismiss something as untrue or impossible because it cannot be seen. But to accept something that has been proven mathematically, as the superstring theory has been, and that remains unseen (in this case, defying sight) is an important step toward solving the mysteries of this and other universes.
News staff
Laird MacGregor ... Editor
David White ... Managing editor
Hien Bentzsch ... Campus editor
Jiff Moberj ... Assistant campus editor
Tom Stinson ... Sports editor
Dale Fulkerson ... Photo editor
Chris Relation ... Copy chief
Tom Ebler ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Kurt Messersmith...Business manager
Linda Prokop...Retail sales manager
Debra Martin...Campus sales manager
Kevin Martin...Production manager
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Jenne Hines...Sales and marketing adviser
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Other Voices
Bike speed limit a mistake
The City of Seattle is considering the adoption of a speed limit for bicycles on the Burke-Gilman Trail, it was announced recently. Such a move would be a mistake.
The city claims the 15-mph limit would reduce accidents on the trail. Instead, it would force fast-paced cyclists into the street.
What this does is displace the problem. Riding faster in the street is no safer or more desirable than riding fast on the trail. Until motorists respect the presence of cyclists, the street is no place to ride.
Displacement is not the only problem with the proposed speed limit. Enforcement of the law would be difficult and costly. Bicycle radar? High-speed chases? Motorcycle patrols? Tickets and fines? Will cyclists need to carry a license of identification? Burke-Gilman regulation opens the door to regulation of a myriad of recreational trails.
A compromise should be struck between the city and cyclists before the speed limit becomes reality.
The Daily Seattle, Wash.
Historic buildings deserve to be left standing
By Kathleen Faddis Staff Columnist
The English Lutheran Church, 1040 New Hampshire St. Steve Trainer KANSAN
Staff Columnist
It's been a rough year for historic structures in Kansas. A number of them have been either destroyed or threatened with destruction, all in the name of progress or profit.
Last July in Lawrence, eight old houses between Kentucky and Tennessee streets were razed by the Douglas County Bank to make way for expansion. The demolition of the houses, across the street from the boundary of Old West Lawrence, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, infuriated preservationists in Lawrence. Some compared the destruction to that of William Quantrill'sraid on Lawrence before the Civil War.
In March 1988, the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad Co., or Cotton Belt, without obtaining a demolition permit, torched down the 101-year old railroad depot inington, one of the few remaining Gothic limestone deposits remaining in Kansas. The depot had been listed on the state register of historic places the previous year
and had also been declared eligible for the National Register of Historic Landmarks.
Ron Schneider, chairman of the Historic Preservation Task Force, said that passage of a city ordinance was important because it would give the city more direct control and ultimately the final say over whether buildings fall victim to the wrecking ball.
The demolition was accomplished in the early morning hours when most of the town was asleep. Herington residents were angry because they felt that an important part of their history had been wiped out. The railroad company argued that the depot was a dilapidated eyeore and also was in a remote location next to the tracks.
Soon after the eight houses in Lawrence were demolished last July, the City Commission toughened its demolition permit regulations. The new regulations required public notice and a 30-day waiting period. The commission also created a committee that drafted a comprehensive historic preservation ordinance.
So far, the ordinance has been endorsed with some changes by the Chamber of Commerce and the
Dale Fulkerson/KANSAN
All that remains of the Herington train depot is a large pile of rubble.
City Planning Commission. Assistant city manager Mike Wildgen said that it probably would not come up for a commission vote before August.
New state legislation passed in the 1988 session has toughened the historic preservation law, making it more difficult for historic buildings to be altered or destroyed and also establishing a $25,000 fine for failing to go through the proper procedures.
Some Lawrence businessmen have complained that the preservation laws are too cumbersome, that they impede progress and the development of the town. But the laws seem to be necessary if we are to preserve our heritage for future generations.
State preservation laws are now being used to hold up the proposed demolition of the 120-year-old
The State Historical Society is objecting to destruction of the church because it was designed by John Haskell, the Lawrence architect who also designed the Douglas County Courthouse, the Plymouth Congregational Church at 925 Vermont St., and the Castle Tea Room at 1307 Massachusetts St. Haskell was the older brother of Dudley Haskell, the Congressman for whom Haskell Indian Junior College was named. John Haskell also designed the buildings that were built during the first 25 years of the college.
Lawrence Lutheran Church at 1040 New Hampshire Allen Press, which is located across the street and owns the property, wants to tear the church down, again to make way for expansion of the printing company.
Of the 35 buildings that Haskell
designed in Lawrence, the church is one of only 11 remaining.
Lawrence's own railroad depot, almost 100 years old, has been threatened by its owners with demolition since 1984, because it is too close to a dangerous curve in the tracks. A local task force has fought for the depot's survival and has tentatively worked out a plan with Union Pacific Railroad to move the depot back 90 feet from the tracks.
Last year, the Quindaro Preservation Society, a Kansas City, Kan. community group, organized to fight a landfill proposed by Browning-Ferris Industries on the grounds of old Quindaro Town. The town, on the banks of the Kaw River, was a haven for free-staters and abolitionists. Local lore tells of an underground railroad for escaped slaves who went through Quindaro. The town disappeared shortly after the Civil War, and the foundations of the town were unearthened when excavation was begun by Browning-Ferris.
The society feared that it might have lost the battle last spring when Gov. Mike Hayden vetoed legislation that would have allowed the state historical society to acquire the property. But
People travelling in Europe for the first time usually are struck not only by the integrity of architecture of all the little villages, but also by the sense of stepping back into history. It makes the dry facts in the history books come alive.
Landmarks Commission in Kansas City, Kan., has upheld Quindaro's designation as a historical site; and as it stands now, Browning-Ferris will have to either abandon the project or move it to another site.
The United States, though not as old as Europe, does have its antiquities. If we continue to destroy structures as they get old, we will be denying our future generations that same access to the past that Europeans are rightly so proud of.
In a small Cornish fishing village I visited once on the west coast of England, a little stone church that dated back to the 11th century was one of the town's main attractions. A century-old stone church, designed by one of Lawrence's great architects, deserves at least the same consideration.
Kathleen Faddis is a Lawrence senior majoring in journalism.
Andy Morrison/KANSAN
Building ruins of the old Quindaro town on the Missouri River in Kansas City, Kan.