The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 4

A-4 The Orlando Monday. October 12. 1992 Listening on all channels for news of another world The 500th anniversary of Chris topher Columbus arrival in the New World is officially commemo rated today. But there were some events advance. Here a look GENOA, Italy About 20,000 pacifists marched through Genoa on Sunday to protest cele brations marking the 500th anni versary of the landfall in America of Christopher Columbus, the city's favonte son.

The march, under the banner "1492-1992, no more conquests," drew representatives of peace groups from all tv UK AO JO JO 4SS0OATED PRESS Billboard defaced A billboard in Syracuse, N.Y.. honoring Christopher Columbus was vandalized Saturday- A Knights of Columbus chapter had paid for the sign. Police in Syracuse also have ordered patrols to prevent vandalism of a newly remodeled Columbus statue. Group plans to protest monument COLUMBUS from A 1 over the globe. The protesters will have more than a little help in undermining today's celebrations.

Unions opposing government spending cuts have scheduled a 24-hour strike. BERKELEY, Calif. About 200 people turned out for Indigenous People's Day in the first city to officially re-name Columbus Day. People lined up to shake Mayor Loni Hancock's hand. The highlight of the music-filled event at Martin Luther King Jr.

Park was the dedication of "The Turtle Monument." Designed by American Indian artist Lee Sprague. the solar-powered water fountain is to be completed in about two years. 1 SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador El Salvador's Catholic Church asked for forgiveness Sunday for its historical role in the destruction of the indigenous peoples that began with Columbus' arrival in the New World 500 years ago. "There is a lot in these 500 None have been confirmed by a second observation. The search so far has been limited because no one knows which stars to study, and there are literally millions and millions of radio frequencies.

Researchers have had to pick certain "magic frequencies" that they think extraterrestrials would most likely use. The search will change dramatically today when scientists, for the first time, will be able to listen to frequency. NASA will use its Deep Space Tracking Station in the Mojave Desert to sweep the entire sky over the Northern Hemisphere. Later, facilities in Australia will be added to cover the Southern Hemisphere. In addition, the world's largest radio dish, at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, will concentrate on about 1,000 nearby stars that are most like the sun and thus believed to be most likely to have planets with intelligent life.

Every- frequency from one to 10 gigahertz, the entire radio "window" that reaches. Earth's surface, will be monitored. Powerful computers will automatically lock the antennas on whatever signals are received and then run tests to see if the really seem to be coming from a star. They will "look mainly for signals "that technology can produce but nature doesn't," Tarter said If everything adds up, the computers "will sound the alarm," the scientist said. Last month astronomers and engineers involved in the project began consulting with members of all scientific disciplines for suggestions about a reply.

The scientists plan to turn to the United Nations for guidance on how to answer. The space scientists plan to refine their ideas at international meetings in April and October of 1993, then bring them to the U.N. General Assembly's Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The search, however, cannot last forever. If by 2001 the project has been unsuccessful, it may be harder to persuade taxpayers to continue to fund what has been called NASA's search for a "needle in a cosmic haystack." Such a momentous discovery would have such widespread implications that NASA has even consulted with religious leaders to learn more about how humans would deal with discovering that they are not unique.

"We had someone from the Vatican come and do a study, and he summed it up very clearly as he was leaving," Tarter said. The searchers, according to the Vatican emissary, were "looking for God." DISCOVERY from A 1 defies human understanding. The nearest star is so far away that it takes four years for its light, traveling at 186.000 miles per second, to reach Earth. How many of those stars have planets that could support life1 No one knows, but recent evidence suggests that planets have formed around stars, so there may be many other worlds out there waiting to be discovered. Finding them, however, is one of science's most daunting challenges.

The greater the number of planets, the greater the chances of life existing elsewhere. The genesis of NASA's project began many years ago with Frank Drake, then a young scientist who was pioneering in the field of radio astronomy. Drake, now 62, was one of the first astronomers sent to a new facility that the National Science Foundation was constructing in 1960 in Green Bank, W.Va. The first large radio telescope was being built there, and Drake's task was to help decide how best to use it. Many stars emit radio waves, and if human ears were tuned to the right frequency the sky would roar as much as it glows.

As he studied the new telescope, Drake came across a startling conclusion. The 85-foot wide antenna was so large that if it were on a planet circling a star a few light years away, it would be powerful enough to detect faint signals from television stations on Earth. So it ought to be able to pick up similar signals coming from planets orbiting other nearby stars. Drake finally had the instrument he had been searching for. The telescope was hooked up to loudspeakers so Drake and his colleagues could hear any signals coming from two (relatively) nearby stars, and the experiment had barely begun when they heard noises from the' sky that had never been heard before.

But subsequent experiments determined that the signal was some kind of earthbound interference, a common problem. It was a disappointment, but perhaps a fitting beginning for an endeavor that would be plagued by false alarms. Others joined in the effort, most notably Paul Horowitz of Harvard University and the Pasadena, Planetary Society. So far, no one has succeeded, but there have been several dozen tantalizing signals that "had all the right earmarks," Drake said. years for which to seek pardon, and the church must also ask for forgiveness." Monsignor Ricardo Urioste said at a Sunday Mass.

architect with the Syracuse Parks and Recreation Department. "It was the artist's intent to show the interrelationship between both parties." The Case of the Disappearing Indian Heads began back the late 1930s, when the heads were removed from the statue because their bronze composition was staining the stone below them. They disappeared while in storage and reappeared decades later in Orlando. The case is now closed, as far as the FBI is concerned. Although there were some theft suspects, they were never charged, said Les Amann, resident agent in charge in Syracuse.

"The information was so old that it was tough to trace them from an evidence standpoint," Amann said. "That made it doubly difficult." The Atlanta auction house that sold the heads to Snow for $32,400 reimbursed him, said Steve Snively, Snow's Orlando attorney. "It was very amicable," Snively said. "It was very much by mutual agreement. There was no suit or anything." Though Damiano has gotten a peek at the refurbished Indian heads, Amann can only jokingly guess about today's ceremony.

Perhaps, he said, when Syracuse Mayor Tom Young pulls the tarp off the monument, there'll be a sign of their long journey from Syracuse to the South and back to Syracuse again. "It's going to sav, 'Returned bv the he joked. 'ed monument, and the Indian heads are a particular sore spot. "We wish they'd never found them." said Tom Sullivan, coordinator of the Native American Indian Cultural Awareness Program in Syracuse. He expects another 1,000 people to gather today for a march away from the new monument that will end at a rock dedi- cated to local Onondaga Indians, thank-.

ing them for caring for the first Europe-. ans who were ill when they arrived in Syracuse. The march has been dubbed in fliers as the "Memorial March for Mother "Earth and all her life forms and for all the people who have been oppressed, exploited and killed by 500 years of the Columbus legacy." Sullivan said he has received more support for his views since prominent Indian activist Dennis Banks burned Columbus in effigy at a ceremony in front of the monument last Columbus Day. One thing he doesn't like about the Indian heads is their placement beneath the Columbus statue. "They're right at his feet," Sullivan said.

"It's very subservient." City officials don't agree. "There wasn't any subtle innuendos as to social status that other people are playing into it," said Lyle Halbert, landscape MANAGUA, Nicaragua In dian activists gathered here say they'll be grieving, not celebrating, today. "What did he bring here? Complete destruction," said Elder George, a Miskito Indian from Honduras. George and about 400 other Indian, black and female activists from countries ranging from Canada to Chile are gathered for conference to trade strategies on how to win greater autonomy from their central governments and protect their native cultures. Compiled from wire reports.

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