eadaches set in
hen lights go dim
Jelly Laughlin
fie Print
Ine morning last week, I
te up late because there was
Iwer failure ii i our home,
■ my electric alarm clock
led to buzz. 1 t was at this
bment that I became
■painted with the incon-
[fence
of
modern
lology.
¡though I wouldn’t exactly
liking a shower an event
Il haven’t missed on oc-
sion, it was on the agenda
at [morning, and I was
Bling forward to it. How
■lous it seemed that 1 had
■d such little importance
[running water until then,
■all I received was a com-
Bnt dribble from the shower
I. At the same time I was
■ting, or
more
ap-
Biately, wondering, what
■me was. Was I early or
te? Was I getting ready for
tool a little too promptly, or
as [wasting my time because
asses had already begun?
One thing was certain,
Haver, as 1 stumbled up the
■to the kitchen, I needed
light. I probably induced more
bruises that morning than
Rocky Marciano did in a
lifetime. A cheap butane lighter
(the disposable kind) was my
only resource. The candle
lighted with little difficulty.
I had planned to shave elec
tric that morning, but, of cour
se, that was out of the
question. A straight edge, by
candlelight, was quite risky. I
suffered production of the
“Gotcha” commercial at least
10 times before making a final
take. A dry shave, next time,
will be avoided at all cost.
It was then that I thought,
“Of course, the phone must be
working, why not call the
time.” As I dashed to the
phone with wax dripping on
me and the dining room floor, I
knew that this would be the
one event that would either
make or break this dark,
powerless morning. But that
heartless, mono-sounding muf
fle of a dial tone had been
reduced to silence. Not even
the telephone lines had sym
pathy for me.
Immediately after my en
counter with the telephone, I
felt a twinge of hunger at my
side. But the microwave oven
and electric grill were on the
fritz as well, and my hopes for a
fulfilling breakfast were shat
tered. I had to settle for last
night’s fried chicken. Luckily,
there was enough milk to wash
down the dry, tasteless sub
stance.
With no hand or manual can
opener, and the electric one on
the blink, I figured that tuna fish
sandwiches for lunch were out
of the question. Hostess
Twinkees and grapefruit were
my only alternative.
Getting ready for school had
never been so difficult.
With a wave of sudden
energy, the familiar sound of
the furnace and images of lights
became a reality. I turned on
the radio. The final blow to the
morning came over the radio.
School was closed.
Luckily sweet sleep required
no modern technology. It was
then that I realized my own
human resourcefulness would
do me more good than even
the most efficient pop-up
toaster.
|e age cometh?
Icientist forsees chance of chilly future
« Scott Starnes
(The Print
Me abnormally cold tem-
Mtures Portlanders have
® experiencing over the last
Kh lead one to think the
Btion is' receding into an ice
gel According to Wayne
night, College science in-
mor, the possibility of an ice
■eoccurring is not im-
Bable.
Wright said that during the
& 30 years, the northern
»sphere has been yielding
Ker crops” which implies
Heather conditions have
■warm. “This 30-year
period we are experien-
Hs in itself abnormal com
mito weather conditions
hr the last century. Part of
■ncrease in temperature
Hie attributed to the jet
H,” he said.
drive across the river itself,”
Wright added.
Supposedly, the world
should
be
experiencing
moderately warm temperatures
because the spots or magnetic
fields on the sun are ap
proaching their maximum,
Wright said. Careful research
has proposed that these sun
spots contribute a significantly
to the severity of weather con-
ditons on earth, he said.
But Wright said the in
creased presence of sunspots
should create warmer tem
peratures on the earth which
does not seem to be hap
pening. “We may be experien
cing a polarity change which is
indirectly associated with the
sunspot cycle. A polarity
change occurs when the poles
of the sun are shifted by the
sunspots, which in turn causes
disruptions of the earth’s
weather,” Wright said.
“Precession” was thought to
be one of the causes for the in
clement weather on earth but
Wright said that he personally
rules this theory out. “When
earth is experiencing the winter
months the earth, or in our
case the northern hemisphere
tilts or precesses toward the
sun.. Supposedly, temperatures
should
then
be
more
moderate. We should have
cooler summers and warmer
winters.”
Wright said that mankind
and not Mother Nature may be
to blame for the continual cold.
He said that there exist two
ways that man has possibly
disrupted the weather, one
being the increase in carbon
dioxide and the second being
the contamination by a variety
of particles produced by cars,
fires, and other polluting sour
ces in the air. •
“With carbon dioxide in the
air this creates better chances of
increased cloud formation
which in turn traps the infrared
rays from the sun and transmits
these warm fays to the earth;
On the other hand, the variety
of particle contaminants form a
shield which reflects the warm
infrared rays back out in space
making it colder here on ear
th.”
“I’m optimistic and believe
this cold spell to be a temporary
thing. But the last couple of
years have produced heavy
snowfall which cause the warm
sun rays to be reflected off the
snow and out to space making
the earth a little bit colder all the
time. It could become a self-
perpetuating thing and we
could invariably return to
somewhat of an ice age,”
Wright said.
[Evidently, the jet stream has
gifted to a north-south direc-
■hich is bringing storms in
■the Arctic areas, Wright
■aid. “Before, the jet stream
was moving from the South
He bringing warmer air up
with it. This sudden coldness
we are presently experiencing,
wed possibly by the change
Bet stream is nothing new.”
Hight said that
ap-
.»oximately 40 years ago,
■gon was also experiencing
folder than normal tem-
ftature; “A friend of mine in
lie Dalles àrea said the
-olumbia River became so
pzen that cars were able to
■unas Community college.
? > > .
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