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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1996)
FINAL DAY CLASS OF '99 CLASS OF '00 Sophomore and freshman pictures are being taken until Friday, Nov. 1 5 for Texas A&M's 1 997 Aggieland. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be in the nation's largest yearbook. Class pictures will be taken 9 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. at 417 Photography 707 Texas Ave. (next to Taco Cabana) Call 693-8183 for more details m TAMU Department of Health and Kinesiology Individual I Mile or 3 mile 3 person relay Challenge TUrkey Walk SaftMxlax Nov. 23,9:OOam Research Park GET ALL THREE! CD "O co O CO "O c o Nation Friday Pag. November 15,1 Police prepared for violence strategy may have backfired.^ ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — For two weeks, members of a black separatist group called for the “execution” of a white po liceman for the fatal shooting of a black motorist, threatening to “burn this city down” unless the officer was charged and fired. The shooting itself had touched off rioting Oct. 24, so police took the threats seriously. They scoured the streets for days, clearing trash bins and al leys of six tons of rocks and bot tles they believe the group stashed as ammunition to use against them. And on Wednesday, the day a grand jury cleared the officer, police prepared to arrest leaders of the group so they would spend the night in jail. But the strategy may have backfired: The group leaders were arrested in front of their headquarters, in full view of al ready seething protesters. Within hours, two police offi cers were wounded by gunfire and seven other people were in jured Wednesday when people angrily took to the same streets where they rioted after Officer Jim Knight shot 18-year-old Ty- Ron Lewis through his wind shield last month. On Thursday, Police Chief Dar rel Stephens faced angry questions from City Council members who wanted to know why the group wasn’t brought under control be fore the looting, arson and shoot ing broke out. “I’m furious. 1 am sorry, but I am furious,” council member Connie Kane told Chief Darrel Stephens. “Why have we waited so long to say that law and order is going to prevail?” Stephens defended the police. “Our effort was not aimed at provoking violence,” he said. “Our effort was aimed at doing whatev er we could to prevent violence.” This time, the violence was less widespread, but more in tense. Police responding to re ports of trouble were met with bullets, rocks and bottles. Passers-by were attacked with concrete and bottles. Police used tear gas and barricades to break up the groups, only to have them reform in new areas. Stephens blamed the violence largely on the small black sepa ratist group, the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. “I don’t believe that this was a spontaneous event,” he said. By early Thursday morning, the streets were quiet, and calm prevailed into the afternoon. The main activity was from city workers, who removed debris and rocks. Extra police were out Race riot Rioting occured again in the same area as the Oct. 24 riot in southern St. Petersburg. St. Pel By Tin St\ Petersburg Gulf <> Mexic □ Tampa Bax - '“nil in v .0) / xda\ Area shown Central Ave 5th Ave. So. Area of riot Tangerine Ave. _<g9§>—~ V f~~Lake Lake Macjgiore Mlwo team DBgher than Ta nli finally me< hen the la (3-6) ro ay at 2:30 dbtball Team ■ d out wh 'an truly deh uiter record. ■Head Cor lldcum said 1 xj’ 30-27 wi Alberts he University Muf Wp) c i 12 indicat -eftial they ha’ >'Poor reco lUll'You go mi iber of th tnd they’ve 1 urnovers,” .aid. “But the Loq^’/ia*.: h(. attentior }l ook at what t *y[o do again; ? j^|A&M and C :m ference p h|)t at advanci )ionship darm fBut A&M ju Policeman shot on the streets. The threat of violent hung over the city since! after the first night ofnidon Stewart s which caused upwards of; ng their sights s lion in damage. B’Oklahoma hing to us rig *$ 2 ADDITIONAL CHARGE AFTER NOV. 21. T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE TO THE FIRST 300 APPLICANTS. PICK UP REGISTRATION FORMS AT THE STUDENT RECREATION CENTER OR 158 READ BUILDING. Biosphere 2 teaches lessons to scientists WASHINGTON (AP) — Biosphere 2, the costly experiment in creating a closed, self-sustaining ecosystem in Arizona, failed in early 1993 because the concrete walls ate up oxygen and left hu mans inside with barely enough to breathe. What was supposed to be a glass-enclosed copy of a pristine and smoothly functioning Earth evolved into a place choked with carbon dioxide and nitrogen, replete with uncontrollable weedy vines. Cock roaches, ants and katydids thrived. “It was the boldest attempt ever” to create a closed ecosystem, said David Tilman, a University of Minnesota scientist, but it failed miserably. “This suggests that there are areas of nature that are sufficiently great mysteries — that we don’t know how to man age them or make them better.” “This is very humbling,” he said. Tilman and Joel E. Cohen of Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York, wrote an analysis of the Biosphere 2 experiment for the journal Science, to be published Friday. Biosphere 2, built in Oracle, Ariz., at a cost of $200 million, was de signed to contain all of the soil, water, air, animals and plants. It was to be a self-contained living system capable of supporting eight humans without help from the outside. The 139,935-square-foot facility had miniature forests, lakes, streams and an ocean that imitated the natural systems sustaining the Earth. Eight people were sealed into the Biosphere in September, 1991, ex pecting to be isolated for two years and to raise their own food, breathe air recirculated by plants living with them, and drink water cleaned by natural processes. In less than 18 months, it was clear the system was terribly out of bal ance, said Tilman. Oxygen concentration dropped from 21 percent to 14 percent, about the same level present at 17,500 feet and barely enough to keep the crew functioning. It was learned later, said Tilman, that the humans were being suffo cated by the Biosphere’s cement walls. “To grow food, they put in very rich soils, which contained a great amount of organic material that bacteria consumed,” said Tilman. “The bacteria used a lot of oxygen, dropping the oxygen levels. The bacteria released carbon dioxide, which became chemically bound up in the ce ment. That broke the cycle.” To enable the eight crew members to complete their stay, the Biosphere was opened and oxygen pumped in. The crew re mained for the project’s full two years and emerged relatively healthy despite the problems that continued to the end. The pro ject also was marred by disputes among the crew and with spon sors over pay and other matters. Long ■ SI e re ta king +O rnf] inci we have a patients legi lose prioritO//V< BOSTON (AP) — People si ing from long-term liver faili the sort often seen in alcot and drug addicts will no lonf A arori Oliv first in line for new organs, ous caree The shift, approved Thr freshmar by the agency that sets lUisl fi ve game wide transplaur policy, / s -lassie this year, at giving top priority to p? 'Jr} 1 * s i nce *he with the best chance ofi5P ar ' n 8*y * n on * ing the operation, rathite^hy by numei those who are the sickest. iension could wi In recent years, somepel ()n Sept. 1 have questioned whethe^ inst *h e bln tients who ruined theirl llvei was bro through drugs or drink desi new organs — a debate thal renewed when Mickey Ma and “Dallas” star Larry Hag! received transplants. Supporters of the new adopted by the United Netwoi Organ Sharing said theywei passing moral judgment on holies or intravenous drugt who often get hepatitis from needles. Rather, they said, the is to make the most out of ail ed number of donated livers. “The criteria that you al’ give the liver to the sickest son was always a suspect d ria,” said George Annas, p^j sor of health law at the Boi University School of Pfi Health. “The real criteria is give the liver to the person can benefit the most from it Some warned that the chi will mean alcoholics and long-term liver patients wilB to wait longer for a new liver, more of them will die waiting.