Outer Space

--The wide-open spaces of Oklahoma apparently aren't wide enough for one farmer. Elmer Graham, 73, of Walters, says he has offered to give $1-million worth of wheat to the Soviet Union if it will take him along on a spaceflight. "I'd a heap lot rather go up with the United States, but they quit that after that accident," Graham said, speaking of the Challenger shuttle explosion that killed the seven crew members.

The United States and the Soviet Union, without notice, began talks Tuesday aimed at possible cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, a State Department spokesman announced. The U.S. delegation to the talks, which are being held at the National Academy of Sciences, is headed by John Negroponte, the assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and scientific affairs. The Soviet delegation is being led by Ambassador Alexander Tiradov.

Tomato seeds exposed to the rigors of space travel for six years seem to be germinating normally, scientists said. The first small batch of seeds recently returned from a NASA satellite were put on display this week, and they are apparently sprouting normally in a germination test that began last Saturday, said a spokesman for Park Seed Co., which provided the seeds for the experiment. In addition to the 12.

"Martians" and earthlings are meeting at Poindexter Park this week to learn about the solar system and its inhabitants. It's not a case of little green men teaching humans in Moorpark a thing or two about life beyond Earth's atmosphere. Instead, 20 young scientists of tomorrow are getting a hands-on education in outer space at a weeklong day camp sponsored by Science Adventures, a Huntington Beach-based company that provides science instruction and materials for schools.

"Earth to Lily Tomlin. Earth to Lily Tomlin: Are there signs of intelligent life in the universe?" Tomlin addresses that theme nightly in her one-woman show, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," which she's now performing on stage here at the Doolittle Theatre after winning a Tony Award as best actress in the play during a successful 13-month run on Broadway. On Tuesday, she looks at the universe more scientifically on a PBS "Nova" segment titled "Is Anybody Out There?"

The desperate needs today of humans on Earth blur our vision of the future. When we ask whether we can afford more piloted adventures in space, there is an imperative to compare the cost with those of earthly needs. The comparison is not favorable to our space endeavors. But in fact, the equation doesn't add up.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT Stanley Tookie Williams wanted to kill me. I thought he wanted to kill all of us pootbutts who didn't gangbang, and that fear informed how I lived my life as a boy. Thirty years later, I don't believe in the death penalty, and I don't want the state to execute Tookie. But I do want the people who grew up in better neighborhoods and now want to lionize the gangster to understand just how hellish he made many people's lives.

It is one of the charms of the capital that, while the State Department was hearing from its negotiators in Geneva that the world was no safer from nuclear wrath; while 12 people were being killed in riots in South Africa and many more were dying in wars in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Iran and Iraq; and while mankind in a score of places continued to show questionable ability to govern the planet, a group of Americans, with the blessing of government, gathered in Washington to discuss how the human

Relax. After the horrifying vain theatrical promo clip for Michael Jackson's upcoming "HIStory" album, it was reasonable to fear the worst for anything related to the project. But the video for "Scream," an unedited version of which was previewed Monday night at a Sony Records album release party in Los Angeles, is not the worst.

"Space . . . is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." --Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Or to put it another way, it takes 30 years for a spacecraft traveling at 50,000 miles per hour to leave our solar system. And another 300,000 years to reach the nearest star.