- The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 3, 1986 - Page 3
Congress
may
consider
largest defense cuts ever
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger will seek a $320 billion defense authorization
this year but Congress likely will respond with the largest
defense cut in U.S. history, according to the chairman of
the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), said Weinberger could ex-
pect to receive no more than $260 billion for fiscal 1987
beginning Oct. 1 because the severe limits posed by the
Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction plan. And he said cuts
in defense authorization could range from $60 billion to
$90 billion or more.
Cuts of that magnitude will force Congress to probe the
foundation stones of Reagan administration defense and
national security police, questioning, for example, the
nation's continued ability to pay for extended U.S.
military commitments around the world or for the Pen-
tagon's drive to build a 600-ship Navy, Aspin said
In a freewheeling interview, Aspin, who has headed the
Armed Services Committee for the last year, appeared to
relish the consequences of Gramm-Rudman, contending
they were brought on by the Reagan administration's at-
tempt to play politics with the looming budget deficit.
"Anybody who could see these numbers and play out
these scenarios knew that Gramm-Rudman would mean
just enormous cuts in defense," he said. "You can't tell
me that anybody who is serious about defense would do
that. I think it's really pretty appalling."
"I am taking more than a perverse delight in this,"
Aspin said, responding to more questions.
Under the Gramm-Rudman formula, automatic,
across-the-board reductions would go into effect unless
Congress either raises taxes or strikes a bargain with the
president to make other spending reductions to meet the
Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction goal.
Under the automatic reduction plan, half of the cuts
come from defense and half from non-exempted social
programs, a proportion to which Aspin referred as the
"50-50 cut."
Daily Photo by ANDI SCHREIBER
Solid rockets have unreliable history
Lights, Camera, Action!
Gregory Hutton captures Thursday's basketball game against Northwestern on tape for the Video Yearbook.
Groundhog promises early sprmg
PUNXSUTAWNEY. Pa. (AP) - A
reluctant, sleepy groundhog named
Punxsutawney Phil was dragged from
his Gobbler's Knob burrow at dawn
yesterday and failed to see his
shadow, predicting an early spring for
only the seventh time in 99 years.
"In the cold light of the dawn...he
failed to see his shadow behind him.
Punxsutawney Phil declares spring is
on its way," proclaimed James
Means, president of the Punx-
sutawney Groundhog Club.
GROUNDHOGS, also called wood-
chucks, performed similar duties at
other places around the country, and
some people admitted it was an ex-
cuse to get out and have fun.
Phil, a 10-pound male shoved into a
an electrically heated and lighted
burrow hours before yesterday's
ritual, last predicted an early spring
in 1983. Unlike other years, the an-
noyed woodchuck didn't bite Means'
fingers during the five-minute
ceremony, although Means said he
was bitten Saturday.
If the groundhog had seen his
shadow, folklore says six more weeks
of winter follow, which happens
anyway. Spring begins March 20.
FOR THE record, the National
Weather Service, in a long-range
forecast issued last week, predicted
colder and wetter-than-normal
weather for the East and Midwest
through April.
About 1,500 spectators stood most of
the night in the fallen snow and a 45-
degree drizzle to cheer Phil's
pronouncement of an imminent end to
wintry weather.
"I came 400 miles just to see Phil. I
enjoy coming to places like this," said
Roy Clark, of Newport News, Va., a
retired government worker. "Do you
know about the flying chicken contest
in Ohio and the cow-chip fling in
Oklahoma?"
But Means' straight-faced insisten-
ce of the groundhog's spontaneous
prediction was betrayed by fellow
tuxedoed, top-hatted club members,
who whipped out preprinted placards
proclaiming warmer weather to
come.
The club's 12-member Inner Circle
decides the prediction days in advan-
ce regardless of Groundhog Day
weather on the flood-lit, wired-for-
sound knoll about three miles outside
this factory town of 7,600.
(Continued from Page 1)
PROBLEMS with a booster nearly
caused disaster during the eighth
shuttle mission in October 1983.
Astronaut Dan Brandenstein repor-
ted that a nozzle on a rocket motor
came within a fifth of an inch of bur-
ning through. Had it burned through,
he said, the result would have been
"catastrophic," with the craft going
into a pinwheeling motion. He
believed the five astronauts on board
would have been killed.
NASA's acting administrator,
William Graham, said yesterday in an
interview on NBC that the boosters
were at first heavily instrumented to
monitor their performance.
But he said the rockets worked so
successfully that there were "no
credible failure modes that we could
identify," and most of the sensors
were removed earlyin the program.
Only four sensors remained on the
boosters used for Challenger, and of-
ficials said there was no data
monitored during liftoff at Mission
Control to indicate a problem.
Solid rockets have a history of
unreliability dating to ancient China,
when they were propelled by char-
coal, potassium nitrate and sulfur.
Unlike rockets fueled with liquids
such as kerosene, solid rockedts can-
not be throttled an thus are uncon-
trollable. Once a solid is ignited, it
will burn until the fuel is exhausted. It
cannot be shut down and, often, it
cannot even be calmed down.
By the time the shuttle program
was in its design phase, however,
engineers had found they could desing
solid rockets that burned reliably at a
set rate, gibing a predictable thrust.
NASA decided to team two solid
rockets with the three powerful liquid-
fuel main engines to give the shuttle
the 4 million pounds of thrust it
needed to leave Earth.
NASA ponders causesqd
(ContinuedfromPage1) would have turned the quid
seconds of flight. hydrogen and liquid oxygen to gas,
There has been published thus increasing the pressure beyond
speculation based on unidentified the bursting point. Hydrogen must be
sources, that the finger of flame kept at minus 423 degrees Farenheit
either burned through the fuel tank and liquid oxygen at 297 degrees
wall and ignited its huge supply of below zero to maintain in gaseous
liquid hydrogen, or that it set off the states.
destruction mechanism by lighting a Graham, askedshow soon shuttle
primer cord. flights might resume, replied that
But Charles Redmond, a NASA there was "no way to say what time
spokesman, said just heating the tank we can go forward."
Trem ors rock Ann Arbor
i
(Continued from Page 1)
But the waves were enough to make
floors and objects tremble. "It felt
like furniture was being moved across
a tile floor," said senior music major
Vartan Agbabian. Agbabian was in
his third floor room at Baits when he
felt the dorm vibrate hard enough to
"rattle Coke cans and make the lamp
shades swing."
THE EFFECTS of the tremor were
less visible to LSA junior Kevin Blan-
ton, who was in Angell Hall at the
time. Blanton, who used to live in
Monterey, Calif., immediately
realized that the slightly shaking floor
was an earthquake, even though, he
said. "I don't associate Michigan with
earthquakes."
"It was a pretty minor tremor,"
said senior aerospace engineering
major Paul Walsh. Walsh was lying
on the couch in his basement apar-
tment when he felt the concrete foun-
dation vibrate laterally, causing plan-
ts and furniture to shake.
"It didn't seem that visible, but I
could see the table moving in relation
to me," Blanton added.
And LSA sophomore Nancy Brom-
berg saw the quake in relation to the
entire world when it struck during her
political science class.
"We were talking about global con-
sequences of international action,"
h Said "It. was lust almostgondly."
appears in Weekend magazine every Friday.
Campus Cinema
Maria's Lovers (A. Kouchalovsky,
1985) - Michigan Theater Foun-
dation, 8 & 10 p.m., Michigan
Theater
Nastasja Kinski and John Savage
star in this drama about a returning
World War II veteran.
16th Annual Ann Arbor 8mm Film
Festival - Eyemediae Showcase, 8
p.m., Eyemediae, 214 N. Fourth
Ave., (662-2410).
Tonight's showing features the
work of Australian avant-garde
filmmaker Dirk de Bruyn.
Performances
Within the Bones of Memory - Per-
formance Network Works in
Progress/Washtenaw Council for
the Arts, 7 p.m., Performance Net-
word, 408 W. Washington (663-0681).
Kay Gould-Caskey's vignettes ex-
plore a time when the earth's people
lived in harmony.
Bars and Clubs
Bird of Paradise - (662-8310) -
Paul Vornhagen and Friends
The Blind Pig - (996-8555) -
Primatones, rock
The Earle - (994-0211) - Larry
Manderville, piano
The Nectarine Ballroom - (994-
5436) - The Wizard, D.J.
Rick's American Cafe - (996-
2747) - Blue Front Persuaders,
oldies rock
Speakers
P.F. Anderson - Readings from
"Despite the Falling Snow," Guild
House, 802 Monroe, 8 p.m.
Manlio Argueta - discussion with
author of One Day of Life, 4 p.m.,
room 124, East Quad.
Larry F. Dahl - "Carbene-Metal
Complexes. New Processes and Ap-
plications in Organic Synthesis,"
Chemistry, 4 p.m., room 1300,
Chemistry Bldg.
Marion Sheldon Pierpont -
James M. Miller - "Vision Con-
siderations in Vehicle Operations,"
3:30 p.m., room 115, Aerospace
Engineering Bldg.
James A. Kulik and Beverly Smith
- Designing and Grading Tests,"
CRLT-TA, 7 p.m., 109 East Madison.
Ken Corba - "Money
Management," School of Business
Administration, 4:15 p.m., Michigan
Room, Assembly Hall.
David Commins - "Class Con-
sciousness in Damascus, 1900,"
noon, Commons Room, Lane Hall.
Henry Russel Lecture - Sharon
Herbert, "Methods in Field Ar-
chaeology Michigan Excavations at
Tel Anafra, Israel;" Judith Laiken
Elkin, "Argentina: Some Dilemmas
of Democratization," Research
Club/Women's Research Club, 8
p.m., Rackham Amphitheater.
William Colburn - "Effective
Lecturing," CRLT, 7 p.m., room 146,
Business Administraton Bldg.
Meetings
Multiple Sclerosis Society -
Counseling group; Significant
Others group, 7 p.m., Washtenaw
United Way.
Tae Kwon Do Club - Practice, 6
p.m., room 2275, CCRB.
Society for Creative Anachronism
-7 p.m., East Quad.
Furthermore
Grant Applications: MCA
Reviewers Give Their Perspective
- Washtenaw Council for the Arts
panel discussion, 7:30 p.m., 117
Liberty.
How Shall We Then Live? - Fran-
cis Schaeffer Film Series, 7:30 p.m.,
Aud. C, Angell Hall.
Introductory Practice Inter-
viewing - Career Planning &
Placement program, 3:10 p.m.
Intel Open House - 4 p.m., room
176, School of Business Ad-
ministration.
Intel - Society of Women
Engineers pre-interview meeting,
8:30 a.m., room 3046, East
Engineering.
Graduate Student Research in the
Humanities on Women and Gender
Issues - Women's Studies program,
nnn room 238A West Engineering.
i::+i. S.ir.., }:i:r-w jv.r :}:'r." -YiSii" P- :.: j::i
x r . .r . ........... ..... . .
.i:s.
^S a{,r1' #
Round Anyw ere we - gg,
This Spring Break, if you and your friends
are thinking about heading to the slopes, the
hGr nr ia hnmPfnr on ci Grevhnnti'Can
then be good for travel for 15 days from the date
of purchase.
So this Snring Break- et a real break.
I