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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 31, 1984)
Page 8/The Battalion/Tuesday, July 31,1984 Sally Ride looks forward to next lady in space United Press International SPACE CENTER — Sally Ride, to date America’s only woman to go in space, looks forward to America’s second space flight by a woman. shows you that women still have a ways to go before they’re fully ac cepted,” she said. It has been a year since Ride, 33, made her historic trip, and she is tired of the distinction. She prefers to view herself as a scientist and a member of the astronauts corps. She is currently training for her second shuttle mission, scheduled “I’ll be glad when there are two of us,” Ride said, “so she can take some of the publicity.” Judith Resnik was scheduled to go up in the aborted mission last month that hasbeen rescheduled for Au gust. for October, during which she will serve as flight engineer and operate the Remote Manipulator System — the shuttle’s 50-foot mechanical arm. During the flight, she will super vise from inside the shuttle the spacewalk by astronaut Kathy Sulli van. Ride appeared at a recent inter view with a “Mondale, Ferraro” but ton on her knapsack, and makes no secret of her strong support of the feminist movement. Despite a background in physics, X-ray astronomy, free electron las ers and Shakespeare (her co-major in undergraduate school), Ride said she studies every day for her upcom ing mission. “The women’s movement is im- E ortant,” she said. “I owe them a >t.” She credits the movement with busting the all-male club that was “There’s an incredible amount to learn,” she said. “People assume that astronaut training is physical train ing. But it’s all mental. Working at your desk or in the simulator with a book. It’s really complicated.” once the country’s space program. But, she says, there is still a long way to go before women can claim equal footing with men as astronauts. “The reaction that it (being the first American woman in space) got A member of the 1978 astronaut class, Ride said she waited five years for the opportunity to fly in space. “Astronauts getting a chance to fly in space is often the culmination of years of work.” Corner pocket Photo by STEVE THOM ■ie orig lorms, Ellis Orozco, a junior mechanical engineerng major from South Houston, relaxes with a game of pool Thursday in the Memorial Student Center. Orozco was preparing for a ] ics test and decided to do some practical study. Exotic dangers Officials say smuggling rare animals damages environment Siamese twin madi female Bhg to housing §. Lowt Korin c difficuli Biay ha Bents st Breatiri), | Fewe housing ■983-84 md 2,3 | housing |,215 w Bated. United Press International DALLAS — Ruthless smugglers subject rare animals to conditions so horrifying most of them are doomed the moment they are caught, the chief curator of the Dallas Museum of Natural History said. “The chances are basically 100 percent the poor animal is going to die,” Dr. Richard Fullington said. If animal lovers knew the extent of suffering caused by the smug glers, they would think twice about taking exotic pets into their homes, said Fullington, who added that a shipment of 2,000 spiders; snakes and lizards seized recently at the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport set a new benchmark for inhuman- ity. “It was the most unbelievable act of inhumanity I had seen in my life,” he said. “Everything was just com pletely dehydrated and starving to death.” “The majority of animals cap tured and shipped this way are doomed from the moment they’re collected,” he said, “because they’ll either die in shipment through over packing or total neglect.” The animals were found in crates aboard a Lufthansa flight from Mex ico City June 6.The crates were headed for animal dealers in Swe den, Denmark, Austria, The Ne-' therlands, Switzerland and England. Since the discovery, several more animals have died. Fullington and Murphy found homes for most of the survivors at zoos, museums and universities. Although mistreated animals are obvious victims of the smuggling trade, the illicit dealing poses even more serious problems to human be ings and the environment. Unscrupulous dealers will go “to any length” to profit from the illegal trade, Fullington said. Their greed has caused a serious problem in the tropical fish trade where shady dealers have discovered it is much easier for their collectors to catch tropical fish in the South Pa cific by scattering cyanide around coral reefs and plucking the anesthe tized fish f rom the water, he said. “Once the fish ingests the cyanide it will die,” he said, mut it will proba bly live long enough to get to the United States and be sold in a pet shop.” There’s almost no way to tell if a tropical fish was collected with cy anide. “The wholesale fish industry is up in arms over this,” he said. “It is also causing a problem in the islands themselves oecause the natives that are using the cyanide are not being made aware of exactly what cyanide is. “We’ve gotten reports of extreme sickness because when the natives finish their collecting, they take the rest of the fish home and eat them and have an evening meal of cy anide,” he said. The thought of poisonous crea tures escaping from unmarked ship ments ana colonizing a benign envi ronment is a horror movie fantasy and a real life possibility, he said. One example, is the thriving wild population of geckos, a non-poison- ous, lizard-like creature native to the tropics. Although people thought escaped pet geckos or geckos that came to this country as stowaways in ship ments of live plants would be unable to survive Dallas winters, they proved surprisingly adaptable, he said. “They are able to survive the win ters by getting up under the ease ments in and around our houses,” he said. The “awesome” shipment from Mexico included 1,200 tarantulas and 25 scorpions, w'hich created the most concern for Fullington because the extremely poisonous “Durango scorpion” could survive in the north Texas area. “Of the scorpions around the world, it’s the most lethal,” he said of the creatures currently found only in one isolated area of northern Mexico. “If one of those things got out and got distributed around it would be a serious problem.” Fullington isolated the scorpions and worked quickly to identify them. Fortunately, none of them was the Durango variety. “We were very lucky,” he said. The shipment also carried a highly poisonous Mexican beaded lizarcf that was not even listed on the forged invoice. “That’s a very, very dangerous an imal,” Picon said. “The venom of that animal is awesome. We were not aware it was there. It was in a burlap bag, like a pillowcase. Game designed to combat abuse of children United Press International To advance around the board, two or more children, or teams of children, answer questions put by their parents or teachers. The object is to teach the children the cor rect answers to the questions through an open discussion. There are no losers. AKRON, Ohio — Fear replaced necessity as the mother of invention for Tom Beck, who was compelled by personal experience to create a ame to combat sexual abuse of chil- ren. Beck, 32, of Cuyahoga Falls, a fa ther of three boys, became aware of the problem three years ago when he began work as a volunteer with Akron’s Victim Assistance Program. He first was confronted with the victims of abuse. Then, something happened that literally brought the problem home. “Somebody tried to pick up my oldest boy aoout three years ago,” Beck said. “He was five at the time. He ran away like he had been told to. It happened in my own neighbor hood about a block away. That scares you.” Beck, who manages the University of Akron’s radio station, said the problem is far more widespread than most people believe. “The FBI and other people who know tell us that one out of every four girls and one of every seven boys will be sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 17,” he said. “We see several cases here every month and we know there are a vast number of cases that go unreported. And these kids are not the destitute. “They are whites and blacks. They are people with lots of money and people with no money at all.” He said eight young girls have been abducted or murdered in northeast Ohio in the past three years — and neary all the cases in volved sexual assault. Beck said he decided preventive measures were needed. “There just didn’t seem to be the kind of vehicle you need to get some crime prevention literature into the homes,” he said. “It’s a touchy situa tion. A lot of people just can’t deal with it.” So he designed a board game, based on an earlier game he had cre ated to teach fire safety. “Talking and Telling About Touching” is intended to give par ents a way to bring up the subject as painessly as possible. “We made it really cheerful and bright,” he said. “We used a lot of color, trying to make it into such a positive thing so that people will feel a lot better about dealing with it.” The game is intended for children from pre-school through junior high school. The front side of the game board, printed on heavy paper, starts with questions, such as “Who owns your body?” and continues through hypo thetical situations based on actual cases reported to Beck’s agency and others. The back of the board, intended for children of all ages, also is set up as a game and has sections on “Spe cial Family Rules” for touching, an other on “Who Can You Tell?”, a third on “Secrets and Touching” and a final section, “What Should You Do?” To advance around the board, two or more children, or teams of children, answer questions put by their parents or teachers. The object is to teach the children the correct answers to the questions through an open discussion. There are no los ers. A separate guide is provided to tell parents how to conduct the game and act on any information or fears that surface. “People want to talk to their kids about it but don’t know what to say and don’t want to say the wrong thing,” he said. Beck said 90,000 of the games will be distributed free in the Akron area and single copies will he sent to any one outside tne area for $3 by writ ing: Victim Assistance, P.O. Box 444, Akron, Ohio 44309. He said proceeds from sales of the copyright game will be used to create similar tools, just as the proceeds from his fire prevention game were used to finance the new one. “What we hope to achieve is that parents will have a communication tool to help them talk about the sub ject,” Beck said. “Secondly, if a prob lem exists, we want to be able to identify it and give people options as to what to do to solve it.” Homestyle Cooking at its Best JUIxARlT Your choice of: 2025 Texas Ave. Townshire Center Meatloaf Chicken Fried Steak Pan Fried Steak Fried Catfish Chopped Steak Roast Beef Baked Fish Marinated Chicken Breast Two Vegetables Com, Green Beans, French Fries, Baked Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Black-eyed Peas, Okra, Squash, Turnip Greens, Mixed Vegetables Fresh baked biscuits, com bread, pies Only $3.95 Drop by for a light snack after the movies. We’re open until midnight serving sandwiches, pies and light meals. 6 a.m.-12 midnight 775-7642 Books & More Parkway Square Texas AvenueA Southwest Parkway Between Kroger and Baskin-Robbins Reference S1.00 to $5.00 Paperbacks VS Price Trade Books VS Price Records $1.98 up Tapes $2.98 up Aggie Souvenirs Mon.-Sat. 9am-9pm Sun. noon-6pm >'v v x. x'•Cn Vxxxxv n.S.x. xx xvx'x'xxxxx'xxxxxxXXx'x~x'x~x.“x'x'X~, ADULT BOOKS & VIDEO CLUB lla.m.-la.m. 11a.m.-2a.m. MQn.-Thur. Fri. & Sat. 3828 S. College 846-7780 United Press Intemationil 1 The .dents r l ORONK) \J ,-u.- liter) amese twin who was joined combin brother at the pelvis and shiil off'-can single set of genitalia had te|||ormit< changed to female during an otB Stud lion that successfully senantec®ousinj siblings, doctors revealed MoiHhppate in Win and Lin Htut of BunnifSpply a also shared some organs, wercrjMween rated by a 43-member surgid;®ionths in a 17 '/a-hour operationcompliM “A le early Sunday to applause IromsSonimii at the Hospital for Sick Childret ^aid. Doctors said Win was "quite® Whil hie” af ter a second emergenctqlibourag ation undertaken 12 hoursafo; ing for separation to halt bleedingfoueji numbe a small blood vessel. gpinesto Both children were genctn® “Th< male but only Lin received theFj Murra' genitalia in the operation, while® Sine underwent a procedure to give|Sdents 1 female characteristics. “We created a vagina for Will® The removed the male gonads so fehave s will not affect her through mas« ' 7,487 ! nization," said Dr. Robert Filler,‘Scorps i led the surgical team, F up by Doctors said the child will btHthere jected with hormones and will up with female characteristics omei In 1 rease search way o will remain genetically a male will not be able to have children Prior to the operation, doctor: vised the parents that their f could grow to adulthood as two girls, or a girl and a boy. “T heir family wished to have bov and not to have both girls, Filler. He said “Lin was the moreai sive infant and psychological'| yj ie -j seemed the appropriate one tolc <. w j|j S( as a boy.” “Win will need to have «| (psychological) care. It will t years and years,” he said. “They certainly will be bettef than a child who is a paraplej 1 Filler said. “They have excel brains and they will be excellent^ pie.” The children, who have their lives in a hospital in Range Burma, had shared a third, rfC formed leg as well as male genin liver, intestinal and urinary ^ and some bones. Each child now has only onelej | ^ I ambid Unive Ger of fac discus Expar Wi 105 Hoi leman Drive Across Texas Avenue from the College Station w»ti Super Summer Specie ^ Every -o V Monday W 4:30-9:i suppf those $6 Skate Go-Karts t, Waterslidej Golf assist; foreij Or toral Boliv I Princ , 1983, - Battalion Classified 845-2611 sumn teach diffic probl “I teach grad i cause gradi TA’s