September 29, 1992

CANNIBALISM, at least among animals, may not be as bad as it sounds. Biologists once considered the eating of an individual's own species a behavioral mistake made by animals that were unnaturally overcrowded or hungry. But after new analyses, scientists have begun to see the consumption of one's fellow beings as a shrewd strategy for survival. In fact, among some species, cannibalism is so common that it has molded some of the animal world's most elaborate social behaviors, including courtship and parental care.

Unless we take action now," wrote Ross Perot in the preface to his deficit reduction plan, "our nation may confront a situation similar to the Great Depression -- and maybe even worse." Relatively few mainstream economists buy Mr. Perot's jeremiad at face value. And fewer still believe that the Perot plan, suddenly in the spotlight again now that he seems poised to re-enter the Presidential race, is more than the roughest of drafts for what amounts to a sea change in budget priorities in the midst of a recession. Nowhere does Mr. Perot tackle the sticky question of how many jobs or how much output should be sacrificed in order to put the plan into effect if the economy has not yet fully recovered. Nor does he acknowledge that the plan asks relatively little sacrifice of those who benefited most from the great tax cuts of the 1980's.

AFTER all these centuries of calumny, the Philistines are finally having some good things said about them. They were not, it seems, deserving of that withering epithet: Philistine. Archeologists are uncovering increasing evidence that the Philistines, arch foes of the Israelites in biblical times whose name became synonymous with barbarity and boorishness, were actually the creators of fine pottery and grand architecture, clever urban planners and cosmopolitan devotees of the grape. If anything, the Israelites, at the time mostly shepherds and farmers in the hills, were the less-sophisticated and -cultured folk.

There was Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, in his wrinkled suit (as usual) on the defensive (again) at a tense public meeting here on Wednesday night. This time, some residents called him a racist because he suspended a black town employee and, before a police investigation was complete, accused the man of skimming town funds. The week before, Mr. Feiner had been defending himself against claims that he had abused his power in this Westchester town by improperly trying to control the independent housing authority.

IN the next several weeks, scientists intend to blast an 11-pound projectile from a 155-foot-long cannon into a California hill. If the novel gun works as planned, the shot will be a long step toward realizing Jules Verne's dream of firing a shell to the Moon. The test shot by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California is intended to demonstrate that an ultra-high-velocity gun hitherto used only for laboratory research can be adapted to send payloads into space at only about one-fortieth what it costs to orbit them by space shuttle. If a projectile from this type of gun were equipped with a small rocket booster, it could be fired directly from the Earth into a lunar orbit, the scientists believe.