The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 30, 1998 - 7

.

a
FStorm
season of
'98 called
devastating
MIAMI (AP) - This year's
Atlantic hurricane season won't soon
be forgotten, an onslaught of storms
that let a staggering trail of death and
destruction across Central American
and the Caribbean.
Six of the named storms -- includ-
ing the season's monsters Georges
and Mitch -- affected the continental
United States and caused millions in
damage.
The season, which started June 1,
winds up today after racking up the
deadliest toll in more than 200 years.
And more of the same is possible
next year, said pioneering hurricane
forecaster William Gray at Colorado
State University in Fort Collins, Colo.
"We are going to see the return of
some of these types of storms," Gray
said. "People have to face up to it. The
insurance industry has a major prob-
lem."
p Gray, who underestimated this sea-
son's activity, said the last four years
have been the most active ever for
hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. He
:expects even more hurricanes in
1999.
Honduran


Teen smoking
increases despite
education efforts

,pR
Al

AP PHOTO
Key West, Fla. residents Brian Goss, George Wallace and Michael Mooney battle 90 mph winds along Houseboat Row in
Key West, Fla., in September. The three sought shelter behind a hotel as Hurricane Georges forced people out of area.

With the gradual fading of the latest
cycle of the El Nino phenomenon,
which tends to suppress Atlantic hur-
ricanes, 1998 saw nine hurricanes and
five tropical storms. In September,
there were four hurricanes at once -
Georges, Ivan, Jeanne, and Karl -
for the first time since 1893.
The Pacific hurricane season,
which also ends today, as about aver-
age with 13 named storms and nine
LS cal for

hurricanes. Howard was the strongest
with 150 mph sustained wind. Only
Isis reached land, and then only after
weakening to tropical storm force.
The atlantic season's last gasp was
Tropical Storm Nicole, which formed
last week and stayed out at sea.
But it was really Mitch that provid-
ed the season's climax.
After forming south of Jamaica on
Oct. 22, Mitch erupted into a

Category 5 storm with sustained wind
blowing at 180 mph and gusts esti-
mated at more than 200 mph, the
fourth strongest Caribbean hurricane
this century.
Then it stalled over Honduras and
Nicaragua with torrents of rain. Its
death toll from floods, storm surge
and mudslides will probably never be
known but is estimated at more than
10,000.

Expensive anti-smoking
campaign considered
risky experiment
The Baltimore Sun
Over the next five years, hundreds
of millions of tobacco-settlement dol-
lars will be poured into campaigns to
keep teen-agers from smoking. Public
health officials better hope the new,
better-financed campaigns are more
effective than those of the last five
years.
Since 1992, even as the federal
government turned up the rhetoric
against smoking and its corporate
salesmen, youth smoking has climbed
dramatically. No one really knows
why.
And because the behavior of teen-
agers remains a mystery, the anti-smok-
ing campaign about to begin on an
unprecedented scale is a costly and
unpredictable experiment.
"I'm not sure we really know how to
reach kids effectively with health mes-
sages," says Ronald Davis, a Detroit
physician and editor of the journal
Tobacco Control. "Kids feel they're
invulnerable, and that makes them hard
to reach.'
"The industry associates its product
with an image that kids want" says John
Pierce, a professor of cancer prevention
at the University of California at San
Diego who studies tobacco marketing.
"How do you counter that image? We
don't really know, because nobody's got-
ten there yet."
What is beyond dispute is the sus-
tained, dramatic increase in youth
smoking, which promises big increas-
es in lung cancer, heart disease and
emphysema in a few decades. The
trend is particularly striking in view
of the continuing, slow decline
among adults.
In 1992, 27 percent of high school
seniors reported smoking in the previ-

ous 30 days; last year nearly 37 percent
had smoked. Among college students.
over the last four years, the smoking
rate rose from 22 percent of students to
almost 29 percent. Even among black
students, whose smoking rates are far
lower than white students,' the recent
upward trend is sharp.
A generation of young people,
exposed to more education on the
health consequences of smoking than
any of their elders, evidently has decid-
ed to ignore them.
Pierce, who has linked cigarette ad-
campaigns to smoking trends all the
way back to the 1880s, makes the
case that the rise in youth smoking
was engineered by industry market-
ing efforts.
He says the turnaround coincides
with the 1987 appearance of the
notoriously effective Joe Camel,
which persuaded huge numbers pf
young teens to sneak their first puff.
Then coupon programs offering
Marlboro Gear and Camel Cash took
over, converting experimenters into
addicts, Pierce says.
"Every time there's been an innov-
ative campaign in this century, there
has been a huge increase in smoking
among 14- to 17-ycar-olds," he says.
Ridiculous, replies David
Adelman, a tobacco industry analyst
at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in
New York.
"You have to be pretty naive to think
that kids smoke because of advertis-
ing," Adelman says. On the contrary, he
argues: Youth smoking is up in the
1990s precisely because everyone from
President Clinton down to elementary
school teachers has been telling kids
not to smoke.
"Young people like to do what's
prohibited," he says. Health advo-
cates inadvertently have spurred the
smoking boom by enhancing tobac-
co's image as a forbidden pleasure,
Adelman says.

widow to be mayor

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - As she
watched workers pull a body from the trash-clogged
Choluteca River in the heart of this devastated capital,
tears welled up in Vilma de Castellanos' eyes.
"I just ask God to make me strong," she said.
.That's what my husband would want."
And, it seems, what the people of Tegucigalpa
_want as well.
Residents are pushing the grieving woman to
take her late husband's post as mayor of the capital,
which was crippled by Hurricane Mitch's fury.
Carlos Castellanos was killed in a helicopter crash
while surveying the damage.
Now, supporters want his wife to keep alive the

memory of a man affectionately known as "the
hardworking little fat guy" - and possibly to carry
through his dream of becoming president, which he
seemed poised to realize.
"His death left us with a great emptiness," said
Jesus Rubio, who was trying to sell the sand that
buried his home. "He was our hope for change, and
since she was his companion, there is no one better
than her to carry out what he left unfinished."
An overwhelming majority of capital residents
apparently agree.
In a country not known for honest civil servants
- the previous mayor was jailed on corruption
charges - Castellanos seemed the exception.

Already the front-runner for 2001 presidential
elections, the hefty leader forged through whipping
rain into high-risk areas when Hurricane Mitch
struck, knocking on doors to evacuate residents
before the Choluteca River ripped apart his city.
Tegucigalpa suffered its worst flooding in 200
years during the hurricane that killed as many as
7,000 people across the country. In northern
Honduras yesterday, more than 7,000 survivors pre-
pared to evacuate their homes amid fears that more
rain could produce flooding.
In the capital, entire neighborhoods remain
buried. More than 30,000 people are homeless,
about 12,500 unemployed because of the storm.


Clinton Twp.
resident Karen
Spear, a
volunteer for
America's
Thanksgiving Day
Parade, sprays
Detroit resident
Aisha Thomas in
the face with water
Thursday morning
in Detroit. Thomas
was a diamond in
the Alice in
Wonderland float.
C ADRIANA VUGOVICH/Daily
But during the parade all participants wore
smiles - including Santa and his elves.
Eight-year-old Jimmy Holden waved and
screamed to Santa as he passed.
He admitted "the Curious George one with all
the Mans in the Yellow Hats," was his favorite, in
a shy little voice.
"Afraid Santa will hear you?" kidded his father,
Mark Holden of Grosse Pointe.
Holden added his family tries to come to the
parade every year. "But, with two small kids, the
weather doesn't always permit;" he said.

CAR
Continued from Page JA
Engineering, which gives $3,000 and provides space in the Autolab for
the team to work, to the Ford Motor Co., which donates $5,000.
The competition in May will be the continuation of an annual event
that began in 1981 at the University of Texas at Austin. Last year, 96
teams competed (110 had registered, but 14 teams failed to have cars
ready on time). The University's team finished 25th - a drop from its
16th place finish the previous year. That was a steep drop from the com-
petition in 1994 - a year when the University team took first place.
"We are somewhat disappointed," said Brittingham of the decline in
performance.
Ravindra Kharmai, an Engineering senior and co-captain of the
team, said preparation for the 1999 competition began immediate-
ly after the 1998 competition. He said he and Brittingham spend an
average 40 hours per week overseeing the project, which is now
entering the transition period between design and production. The
team used computers to draft designs, but now the team must test
the designs with computer simulations and wooden mock-ups of
key components.
The project is divided into five groups - chassis, electronics, body,
business and engine - each with its own leader. John Matsushima, a
Engineering graduate student, leads the group responsible for the
engine. Matsushima spent five years in Japan working for Toyota, where
he coordinated the production of the Rav 4 engine.
He said working for the formula team differs greatly from his work in
Japan.
"This is actually more fun," he said. "We can spend as much money
as we can to go as fast as we can."
The team hopes to increase the horsepower of the engine, which
comes from a Honda motorcycle, and Matsushima is one of the people

responsible for achieving the goal. By adding a turbocharger to the
engine and manipulating intake, exhaust, spark timing, fuel injection
and cooling, Matsushima and the engine group hope to boost the
engine's horsepower from 76 to 90.
Another season goal is to reduce the weight of the car by 100 pounds,
which would drop it to 450. Matsushima said the team will be examiri
ing such small pieces as bolts for places to shed weight.
The team aims to complete the car for testing by early March - twn
months before the competition, Brittingham said.
"The building process isn't going to be perfect," he said, adding that
the longer the team has to fine-tune the car before the competition, the
better the car will be.
The co-captains said that in addition to learning about the engineer-
ing of cars, the project has benefits beyond the bounds of engineering-
"Building the race car is a means to an end of developing yourself"
Kharmai said. "It's very rewarding to participate in something from start
to finish and see a final working product."
Brittingham said the project will help make the team members
stronger job candidates. w
"This project is a big resume booster," Brittingham said.
He recounted a story of a Ford recruiter interested only in hiring engi-
neers with masters or doctorate degrees who said he would accept
someone with a bachelors degree if the applicant had worked on the for-
mula car. The recruiter called participation in the project "a golden tick-
et," Brittingham said.
Resume booster or not, the team takes the competition seriously.
Kharmai recalled that before the competition last May, some team
members put in incredibly long hours. "We would come in here at 8 a.m.
and leave at 1 a.m.,' he said.
A sign posted in the team shop may best indicate the team's will to
win.
"What have. you done to beat Cornell University today?" the sign
reads.

PARADE
Continued from Page 1A
* at goes into the parade until you know someone
ho has done it," Farmington Hills resident Jane
Pimpton said.
She said she had a friend who once pulled a bal-
loon. She also said the wind plays a big part in
- how sore a parade participant is when they get
home.
Her friend "complained of sore arms for almost
a week;" Pimpton said.

; , t


Don't Panice
if you think you're pregnant...
call us-we listen, we care.
PROBLEM PREGNANCY HELP
975-4357
Any time, any day 24 hours.
Fully confidential.
Serving Students since 1970.

AAA! EARLY SPECIALS! Panama City! AAA! EARLY SPRING Break Specials! SPRING BREAK '99- Panama City
Room With Kitchen $129! Includes 7 Free Bahamas Party Cruise! 6 Days $279! Beach-The Boardwalk Beach Resort-Spring
Parties! Daytona $149! New Hotspot- South includes Most Meals! Awesome Beaches. Break Headquarters. Packages from $19.00
Beach $129! Cocoa Beach $149! Nightlife! Departs from Florida! 1998 BBB per person.. Closest to Spinnaker and La
springbreaktravel.com 1-800-678-6386. Award Winner! sprngbreaktravel.com 1- Vela. Host of Sports Illustrated Beach Club.'
800-678-6386. Call Now! 1-800-224-GULF.
www.springbreakhq.com



77 " = Spring Breaks :.

r { "
DRIVI YOURSBLf & SAVE
rt .D ;y
.r
t I..r
R--!
- " f t II CI.*1

GjcnGJ:Jit?" hcla
$3 39 q59s

ISI
! !
* Ma
:Call tday! Space is limited ;
1800 648=4849,
www mnvltcm
*~ ~ ~ ~ WW TLIMYILi
U. orcto
I !

ri Travel wasI of 6 small tsbusinesses the
c:4 e n oo utading etics by
Bahamas Party
Cruise $279
5 s Mstesis " Fta. Part""-Inndu Tney
Cancun $399
7M"4 " Ar. otl*W Free Food &A3N ours of Drinks
Jamaica $439
mNl " Air+ HoW " Saw $15on Food & Dkinks
Florida $119
Peme Cit, Daytona.,s.ut. Sewh A Cco.a eonh
SpringWeak Travel - Our 12th Yeau
1-800-678-6386

I

I

~

In

I

alife
filled with uncertainty...
school or confinue
r career as a
water distribttion

...i

..... .....

.. .,..-.. .r. , . ,-rs e-. c cr r. c n'nrn ±n cOCC