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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 1978)
Page 10 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1978 Coyotes and electric fencing quite a ‘shocking’ combination Dolly bustin’ to get on stage C&W honors its own By HARVEY LAAS Battalion Reporter A new means of predator control could lead to a shocking experience for Texas coyotes. Dr. Maurice Shelton at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in San Angelo has begun a one-year study to test the effectiveness of electric fences in reducing the number of sheep and goats killed by coyotes. Coyotes are the most destructive predators of Texas livestock. Shel ton said the fences will be a humane way to controling coyotes. They will use the standard type of electric charge that has been used on lives tock fences for years. He said it will not hurt or kill the coyotes, but give them a weak shock to scare them away. to get past the fence.” Shelton said the coyote problem has incresed seriously in recent years. Coyotes are repopulating in agricultural areas where they have not been for years. Coyotes are a serious problem throughout much of the southwest ern United States. In California the coyote population is estimated at 500,000. Reports show that coyotes killed about 13,000 adult sheep and 51,000 lambs there in 1977. feet outside the existing fence. Another plot will test the effsctive- of putting one electric wire eight inches from the ground along the bottom of the existing fence. The study will also indicate if this practice is economically practical. Shelton said it will cost about $300- 400 a mile for the electric fence modifications. He said a new con ventional fence built well enough to have any chance of stopping coyotes costs $3,000-4000 a mile. “We feel reasonably confident that electric fences can reduce pre dator kills,” Shelton said. Shelton’s work will be head- quarted at the Texas A&M Univer sity Research and Extension Center in San Angelo where he is based. Space experts testing shroud The experiment is funded by a $25,000 grant from the U.S. De partment of Agriculture’s Science and Education Administration. “Coyotes are in direct competi tion with man,” Shelton said. “They eat everything from watermelons to sheep. Most barbed or net wire fences do not stop a coyote. They can jump, climb, dig or find a hole He will test the electric fences at several sites around Texas. The sites include Texas Agricultural Experi ment Stations at McGregor and Spur. Coyotes-kills will be compared among 10-acre control plots with conventional fences and experimen tal plots which incorporate the elec tric fences. Shelton said several methods of modifying fences will be tested. One method involves putting a three-wire electric fence about two United Press International TURIN, Italy — American scien tists using the latest techniques of the United States space program worked around the clock Monday to unravel the mysteries of an ancient piece of linen cloth revered by many as the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. The 25 scientists, including IBM computer technicians and experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., began their Battalion Classified Call 845-2611 tests on the Shroud of Turin early Monday. They tentatively have been given four days to complete their work. They are studying the shroud in a second-floor hall of Turin’s 17th- century royal palace complex in top secrecy, with police sentries man ning the gates. The shroud is a piece of linen 14- feet, 3-inches long and 3-feet, 7-inches wide. It bears the negative image of a bearded man who appa rently has been crucified, scourged with a whip, stabbed in the side and crowned with thorns. Many Roman Catholics believe it was the burial shroud of Christ and that the image on it was produced by the radiance of his resurrection. “Our aim is to discover what the image is composed of, its molecular breakdown and secondly what formed the image,” said Kenneth Stevenson, an IBM computer scien tist from Pittsburgh, who is acting as spokesman for the U.S. inves tigators. Also among the American scien tists examining the shroud are Donald Lynn, an image-processing expert from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and scientists from the Los Alamos Testing Laboratory. The shroud had been shown to the public for the first time in 45 years this summer in an exhibition, in Turin’s San Giovanni Cathedral, that ended Saturday. An estimated 3.33 million persons saw it during the 43-day display. Tests being carried out on the shroud included X-ray and X-ray fluorescence analysis, infrared thermal testing, spectroscopy, computer-enhanced photographic analysis, mosaic photography and ultraviolet light examination. Scientists also were carrying out “celluloid tape tests,” in which a strip of magnetized tape is pressed on the surface of the shroud and lifted off for examination of particles removed. The Rev. Peter Rinaldi of Port Chester, N. Y., president of the U.S. Holy Shroud Guild, said the room where the shroud is being studied “looks like a control center for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ” United Press International NASHVILLE — Buxom Dolly Parton said she “busted out the front” of her new dress just be fore she was named Country Music Association entertainer of the year Monday night. But she said she would have “run on stage naked’’ to accept the award. She didn’t have to. She bor rowed a mink stole from some one in the audience and bounced — well covered — onto the stage to collect her prize. “I had this dress made hoping I would win,” Parton said in her acceptance speech. “But a few minutes ago I was hoping I wouldn’t because I just busted the front out of it. “I guess it’s like my daddy said — you shouldn’t try to put 50 pounds of mud in a five-pound sack. “It’s nice and pretty to put on the mantel in case you have kids,” she said about her award. “You can say, ‘Look at what mommy did.’” CMA and network officials made frantic last-minute changes in the schedule when singer Tammy Wynette, who was scheduled to present awards. canceled her appearance hours before the broadcast. Wynette is recuperating from bruises suf fered last week when she was ahducted from a Nashville shop ping center and driven 80 miles before being released. Crystal Gayle, sister of long time country star Loretta Lynn, was named the top female vo calist for the second consecutive year. “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” made famous by Gayle, won Song of the Year honors writer Richard Leigh. Don Williams, the drawling “Gentle Giant” best known this year for his album Country Boy, ” was named male vocalist of the year and skipped up to the stage wearing his cowboy hat and blue jeans, unlike most of the other performers who were de cked out in tuxedos. Ronnie Milsap, the blind pianist-singer who won top en tertainer, album and male voc alist honors a year ago, claimed the album of the year award again. “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away", lively and suggestive tune aU ., «,v1 •<» j 7' Lord, h e ]. '' ' m givit flov a girl who declares me when I say I think f] in.’ The Oak Ridge Boys, former gospel quartet tunW contemporary country since. 110 originated during World Warp r!' won vocal group of the yearly ors and their back-up E r 0lm The Oak Ridge Boys Band, named instrumental group oftk year. he wol lotatd t Phi Kenny Rogers and DottJ^ ^ 'I maktl say The Kendalls — former St. Louis barber Royce Kendall and his teen-age daughter Jeannie — won single of the year honors for West, who sang Anyone Wl* Isn't Me Tonight,” during tki |. e show, were named vocal duo ^ Fi the year. P s Roy Clark, a veteran of picl at i,tle f ? < , and singin' who has won previotf" ^ CMA awards ranging from entei. tainer to comedian of the yeail was back in the winner's cirdL again, chomping on a cigar asb“ ein accepted the instrumentalist) the year award. Louis Marshall Jones, a picker and comedian dubbfi| “Grandpa” at the ripe old age 22 more than 40 years ago, m selected as the 31st person toii| inducted into the Country Mui Hall of Fame. Motorcycle training first on city streets Also taking part in the scientific tests is Professor Max Frei, the Swiss criminologist who has studied pollen taken from the shroud for more than 12 years. He concluded the linen cloth is more than 2,000 years old and was once in ancient Palestine. When the scientific experiments are completed, the shroud will be returned to its gold and silver case and locked in a chapel of Turin Cathedral where it has been held for the past 400 years. United Press International SAN ANTONIO — On Saturday mornings some local motorists are startled to encounter Julio Esparza herding a half-dozen motorcycle riders in bright orange vests proc laiming “student drivers” buzzing down city streets. Esparza, head of the driver’s edu cation program for Edgewood School District, and his two as sociates are donating their time to probably the first motorcycle safety course in Texas in which the riders are trained on city streets. Few can disagree that there is a need for motorcycle safety prog rams, especially with statistics that show motorcycle fatalities in Texas increased from 165 to 240 last year. San Antonio has reported 469 motorcycle accidents through Au gust, with 81 percent of them result ing in injuries or death. The progress of Esparza’s class determine whether the may determine Edgewood school board decides to make it a full-time program. “I’m sure some of the other dis tricts will take the lead also. But I wish they would hurry up and do something,” said Esparza, who al ready has put 22 students through the 23-hour course designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, headquartered in Maryland and funded by the five major manufac turers of motorycles. The soaring rate of injuries and deaths on motorcycles — much of it attributed to repeal of the helmet law — has led to skyrocketing insur ance rates for the two-wheelers in Texas, and the high rates are work ing against starting programs such as the Edgewood experiment, accord ing to Ed Johnson, an official of the Traffic Safety Center at San Antonio College. One local dealer bought collision insurance recently on a 500-cc Honda and it cost him $280 for $250 deductible insurance, compared to $120 for his automobile. “Kiic| ridiculous," he said. Johnson and Esparza wentto stin last month in an effort to gt! SUN motorcycle safety course certii® one I and to convince the State Insin Ithey al Board to grant the same 10pr J'olum insurance reduction to cydistsi pass the course as is affon cs say s lakes motorists who complete dmi iy bird [round education instruction. Johnson said Ned Price, chairman of the board, instrtf le prob his staff to devise a rate stmctm id at a ease costs for educational sii s south programs, reducing costs forpr Mrews Cc ing such instruction. 'd' 11 D e P “I think we ll get it. Itsfcaniesa motorcycle equivalent of dri»MBird T education,” Johnson said oftbfjinate classroom hours and 12 riding I oilfield of instruction. B 16 ^ exa M.S.C. Arts Committee PRESENTS ^EXHiBi^ioPi and Sale OF ‘FINE c54 FRINJTS FULL-COLOR REPRODUCTIONS OF MASTERPIECES ! • • - fcaf urtnj -tU coorks of Cha.ya./C Da.U J Mat/SSe, Gauguin J Van Gcyk J Breuyhe( } CezannSj Frankerdhaler, Homer, Hlee, Mro, Nonet Majhite, Picasso, Bern brant Benoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, UZ/eik, und others. over 1200’ different prints and MASTER DRAWINGS TIME* October 9-13 9:00 am -6:OOpm PLACE- Main Concourse MSC $3.00 per print, $7.00 for any 3 “We teach them the cii things about riding a moton We teach them to avoid emen cies. We teach them emerp maneuvers. They learn howto form them on a range, howto over trash on a road, howtoiM sudden lane change without yourself. ” “I’m sure if the insurance* panics took a good, hardlookat program, they’d be more than ! state 1 W( ‘ M ling to honor that (rate reducta ^ we ] As it is right now, they just dffi Esparza said. Local motorcycle dealers do« !ss th an the cycles for both Johnsons Esparza’s classes, just as autoind ^ g ve dealers furnish cars for drivers cation. The San Antonio College w Quid no instruction was done at Kelly Force Base but Esparza went ta! city to take the students — nttl them novices — out on thestreft roject, : The st udents Studf their training, with one insW riding in front, one instructor hind and six trainees in the mi® Johnson said his pilot pro? ever ha charged each student $20 tuiti* Aching fraction of the $75 per student of the program, due largely insurance costs. 45 million stamps b 11 gorillas ? United Press Internation«1 MIAMI — If anyone has J extra trading stamps, the County Zoo would like to have to buy a gorilla. The S&H Green Stamp doesn’t offer gorillas, bu Florida Zoological Society has negotiating with the stamp 00 over the idea of purchasing ST0CI irding t Every ave the In a lit ace dep It’s n< eople ci hat the c o tt ic: o:'- c»vei uit: nit:a ui ? ^ gorillas — a male and tw() , jj — for the new county zoo sc for opening late next year e cost is 45 million stamps demonstration of inflation. The idea came from zoo Dan Brennan who, as direc 0 Erie, Pa., zoo in 1965 le ■ munity stamp drive to buy That gorilla, 13 years ag > only 5.4 million stamps. , “The price of everything 15 , jwhy not gorillas?” Brennan s THE BATT (DOES it daily Monday fthrough Friday C o 0 C 0 C