A6 - Sunday, May 6, 1984 - North Shore News EE editor Garbled up? t would be unwise to assume last week’s Gallup Poll, which suddenly put the Liberals ahead of the Conservatives by 46% to 40% — an almost incredible 14-point gain in Liberal popularity within a month — is basically inaccurate. The abrupt switch, after two and a half years with the Tories leading by varying percentages, is the biggest in Gallup’s history. Undoubtedly it reflects a delayed reaction to Prime Minister Trudeau’s retirement, plus a renewed interest in the party generated by the leadership race between two widely respected frontrunners, John Turner and Jean Chretien. It must be remembered, however, that the Gallup sample of about 1,000 respondents na- tienwide is not broken down by regions. An intelligent guess might be that a major portion of the switch occurred in Ontario — historically the deciding province in federal elections — and that the latest figures do not represent sentiments in Western Canada. Moreover, the figures are based on the questionable assumption that undecided respondents, in this case 26%, would break down in the same proportions as the decided ones. Finally, of course, Gallup always con- cedes an 8% ‘‘band’’ of error — 4% either way. Nevertheless, Gallup’s record over the years is good enough to provide a strong argument against dismissing this dramatic 14-point sw- ing lightly. Parts of the message may be somewhat garbled but it’s definitely not a message that Tory leader Brian Mulroney can afford to laugh off. It's Spring aybe it’s just coincidence, but every year as soon as the time changes and the evenings become lighter, it seems that people’s spirits also brighten up. We don’t just mean family, friends and neighbors, but the great movers and shakers of the world. Suddenly the great, heavy issues appear to drift away and become lighter. The long winter slide of gloom and doom levels out for a while and we all lift our faces to the warm sun. Coincidence? Who cares. 1068 VOCTR GS CUNT Are WERT VARDOUVER sunday ; Display Advertising 980-0511 al @eBWwG Classified Advertising 986-6222 north shore Newsroom 985-2131 lp | ews Circulation 986-1337 Subscriptions 980-7081 1139 Lonsdale Ave , North Vancouver, BC V7M 2H4 Publlaher Peter ‘open Editor in-Chiet Noel Wright Associato Publishe: Hobe! 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The conventional wisdom has been that their bodies grew far too big for their tiny brains. As a result, they even- tually got what they deserved by becoming too stupid to survive in competition with much smaller but smarter mammals. The following article sug. gests we may have got ut all wrong, and that the dinosaurs may deserve a lot more sympathy than we've shown up to now— ED By PAMELA TAMES A paleontologist at the Na tional Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa has found evidence which suggests that the dinosaurs suddenly became extinct, possibly as a result of natural catastrophe, rather than gradually dying out over milhons of years Dr Dale Russell argues that North American dinosaurs were most diverse in kind, and were flourishing, just prior to them extincuon about 65S millon years ago This differs from the prevail- ing view, according to which dinosaurs were at their most diverse about 75 million years ago, after which they died out as they declined in diver- sity over a 10-million-year period. Dr. Russell’s evidence is based on an examination of the entire known fossil record of all North American dinosaurs. He counted all the different: kinds of dinosaurs that existed in North America, and found that they increased in diversity mght up until their sudden extinction. Before Dr Russell's study, many dinosaur collections had not been adequately ex- amined. Dr Russell thinks that the prevailing view, which favours a decline in diversity, may be incorrect because it is based on an cx amination of a limited number of North America dinosaur fossils If Dr. Russell is right and dinosaurs did not gradually become less diversified and then die out because they could no longer adapt, why did they become extinct? One explanation is extinction as a result of natural catastrophe. ““My favourite model to- day is an asteroid impact model,’’ says Dr. Russell. He refers to the theory developed by Dr. W. Alvarez and his colleagues at the University of Califorma. Dr. Alvarez has suggested that worldwide deposits of the rare element iridium, apparently laid down in a brief time about 64 milhon years ago, resulted from an asteroid striking the earth According to the asteroid impact model, an asteroid 10 kilometres in diameter smashed into the earth and exploded with an energy equivalent to one billion megatonnes of ENT Scien tists speculate that the impact threw up a cloud of asterotd and terrestrial debris which Noel Wright on vacation LETTER OF THE DAY Do all the nuts roll west? Dear bE date The peace march brought out one hundred thousand matehoers more on bess. in the arca and hardly any in the test of Could it be that an unseen hand has tipped the North Amenuan continent Vancouver C anada in such a way thar all the nuts have rotted to the West? Are peo ple here actually so gullible as to think that. should the Western world disarm. the USS Ro wall do the same? Does hobody remember the words of a certain Rus stan leader who claimed that the WSS Ro would cventual ly ‘bury us? Russia ots a treacherous cnemy who understands and admires only oulitary might She is the one who ts cxpor ting terror throughout the tree world She as the one who has caploded no less than five nuclear devices in the first four months of 1984 The USSR has a vesicd interest tn discontent ino the Western world. and cvery peace march held here under mines the defence strategies of the tree world Phiatik Cocnd we strong and south of the border neighbor wants us to par lhapate in our Own sutvival by testing the cruise missile then TP think we should do so Also, 1 tuned ove strange have oa fricndly mation It onus rather that C anadhans on the Pacthe coast kick up such a fuss about the submarine | noec aN Outery Tradent nuctear dons about the shaded the globe for three to six months. Under this umbrella of dust and gases, the Earth would have ‘first cooled and then warmed up like a hot- house as the sun’s infrared rays were trapped under the dust cover. According to the theory the heat built up to the point where the dinosaurs, along with many other species, could not adapt and died out. Dr. Russell's findings seem to support this catastrophic view, since they suggest that the dinosaurs were not dwindling gradually away but were in a period of expansion just before their extinction tte thinks the dinosaurs would have been the first to go in the “‘hothouse’’ and darkness after the asteroid fell. However, he adds, ‘‘therce are still some mystenes in the extinction process The sur vival of freshwater life is a great puzzle to me, and this has to be squared with the chmatic predictions of an asteroid impact. "' (Canadian Sctence News) Russian nuclear submarines making regular runs alorny our Coast, which leads me to beheve that we are harboring a hard corm oof dedi ated Communists whose podbot rs discontent and follow dihe to SOW others dusts sheep I want peace yust as much as anybody, bul not peace a! the capense of my freedom tn other words, bo would rather be dead than ted (Miss) bilecn M._ Scou West Vancouver