8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 10, 1998 NATION/WORLD Northwest talks continue MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Northwest Airlines and its pilots continued meeting with a federal mediator and a Clinton administration official yesterday in day 12 of the pilots' strike. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater left Minnesota on Tuesday night after meeting with rep- resentatives of both sides, but presidential aide Bruce Lindsey remained as the parties worked with a mediator to find a way to end the strike. The sides have been stalled on issues of pay and job security. As the talks continued under a news blackout at a suburban hotel, two feeder airlines that had sus- pended service because of the strike were making plans to resume flying to 17 smaller towns with no other air service. The U.S. Department of Transportation gave Express Airlines I until 6 p.m. today to develop a plan to serve five markets from Memphis, Tenn., said Phil Reed, vice president of marketing for Express. "It allows us the opportunity to develop a plan to return to some level of flying that's economically feasible, to provide effective flying, not to simply operate an airline," Reed said. Scientist provides evidence of black hole in Milky Way Northwest planes stand immobile at Mineapolls airport as the pilot's strike nears It thirteenth day. Course #807 Test 1 Sat. Sep 12 Class 1 Sun. Sep 13 Class 2 Test 2 Wed. Sep 16 Sat. Sep 19 Class 3 Sun. Sep 20 Class 4 Wed. Sep 23 Get An Edge. 0 Expert Instructors I Guaranteed Results 0 Maximum Class Size of 15 # Unlimited Extra Help # Proven techniques # 5 practice computer GREs THE PRINCETON REVIEW 1-800-2REVI EW MAUNA KEA, Hawaii - Looking too youthful to be a tenured professor, she wears a "lucky sweater" in bright primary colors and munches Oreos and Chips Ahoy - the standard fuel for astronomers facing long, cold nights. At 33, UCLA's Andrea Ghez already has changed the way astronomers think about starbirth. Now, she has put 25 years of speculation to an end by pro- viding the best evidence yet that a mas- sive black hole sits at the center of the Milky Way. She presented her results at a talk in August at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Ghez first shook up the astronomical community with her discovery that most newborn stars appear to be twins. Astronomers have known since the 1970s that roughly half the stars in the universe come in pairs. What was unclear was whether they were born double, or teamed up two by two later in their evolution, like animals on Noah's ark. While still a graduate student, Ghez found that the youngest infants in the stellar family are more likely than older stars to be twins. That means, she said, that stars are probably born double. The discovery has posed a major problem for astronomy because it con- tradicts the prevalent theories of how stars form. The theories describe a sin- gle star condensing out of a glob of interstellar gas. As the gas collapses under the force of gravity, a star is born. Those theories do not provide any good Class 5 Sun. Sep 27 Class 6 Wed. Sep 30 Class 7 Sun. Oct 4 Class 8 Class 9 Class 10 Wed. Oct 7 Sun. Oct 11 Wed. Oct 14 Tests are from 9am-1pm Classes are from 6:30-10pm mechanism to explain the frrnation of double stars. "The (current theory) -ry nicely produces our sun and planet" she said. "But it only produces sigle stars. Nature produces doubles. 'ngle stars might be harder to finc than we thought." Her discovery also raisecthe ques- tion of what happens to all te missing partners of the solitary sta like our sun? "That, we don't undersind,"Ghez said. It is to figure out puzzles f this sort that astronomers come to Kck. But this sky-high lookout omes with a downside. At 13,800 feet, tere's only half the normal supply of oygen, and human brains don't functin at full speed. "I don't think as well up hre," Ghez said. "If I'm working on the ittrument, conversations in the backgrond annoy me. I can't do two things at oce.' Adding to the problm, the astronomers don't get much leep. At dawn, they'll drive downhilito their mid-mountain base, turning irfor some rest just after breakfast. Ty wake around 2 p.m., analyze dataand get ready for the next night's worl Dinner at 4. Then back to the summit, "You put together a diverse roup of people," Ghez said. "And if omeone (makes you angry), you can'tgo out- side to cool off." Not when theemper- ature on the summit is well belo freez- ing on the balmiest nights. Missile defense 111. falls short of launch WASH INGTON (AP) - By aingle vote, Senate Republicans failed yeerday in their effort to speed work on a ation- al missile defense system. The irrow victory for the Clinton adminisation ' came despite GOP warnings that irtabil- ity in Russia and missile tests by orth Korea are posing new security risk The 59-41 vote was one short f the 60 needed to overcome Demoratic delaying tactics. It was identicalto a May 13 roll call. The legislation would order iiple- mentation of a national missile dernse system as soon as it is technologially4 feasible. A similar version is likely ti be debated in the House later this mnth, where it is expected to win apprval. House Speaker Newt Gingrich reitrat- ed his support for the bill. The legislation embraces a sced- down version of the space-bsed defense shield that President Regan proposed in 1983 and which Democats have long derided as "Star Wars" The existing Pentagon program 7ro vides for three years of lead time ace a potential threat has been identifiel. Gen. Henry Shelton, chairpersorof the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a vipr- ous plea on the eve of yesterday's vte for the neasure's rejection - oppisi- tion both sides suggested was a facor in helping to keep it bottled up. All 55 senate Republicans voted br the legislation. Four Democrats as supportedthe program, the same ores who votedfor it in May: Sens. Danel K. Akaka aid Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Ernest F. lollings of South Carolina, and Josepi Lieberman of Connecticut. Senate Najority Leader Trent Lott (R- Miss.) has nade the bill a top item on his 1998 agena, and Republicans view the measure asa good issue for the upcom- ing midten congressional elections. "We areyutting (the nation's) securi- ty at risk uder the current policy," sai Sen. Thac Cochran (R-Miss.) chie sponsor oThe bill. And Senate Armed Services Committee Chairperson Strom Thumond (R-S.C.) asked, "Can we afford ot to do this?" Cochrar and other GOP sponsors cited recet nuclear tests by North Korea andran, and the political insta- bility in Russia, as lending new urgency tcassing such a program. Critics i a national missile defense: system sa§50 billion has been wasted so far on plan that may never work because c the difficulty of shooting missiles ct of the sky. Threats from terrorists r rogue nations are more likely to (me in the form of suitcase nuclear b~nbs or biological weapons, \. \, A.