The Battalion
Wednesday • July 16,199
Russians seek help of American astronaut
Vital repairs to space station Mir put off as doctors assess Commander Tsibliyev’s heart conditio:
the 11 -year-old space station, including J
collision, a fire in February and numeit '
MOSCOW (AP) —With Mir’s comman
der potentially sidelined by heart problems,
Russia’s Mission Control turned to NASA on
Tuesday—proposing that the American as
tronaut on board try to repair the crippled
space station.
Tapping Michael Foale to join the diffi
cult fix-it task would be the biggest assign
ment ever for an American on the Russian
Mir — and the riskiest. NASA said it would
take “a good, hard look” at the request.
Vital repairs on the damaged spacecraft
have been delayed as long as 10 days while
doctors look into Russian commander Vasi
ly Tsibliyev’s heart trouble. If Tsibliyev’s re
cently discovered irregular heartbeat turns
out to be a serious medical problem, Foale
may have to don a spacesuit himself to help
bring the station’s energy system back up to
full power.
Russian space officials also need to get
the go-ahead from the American astronaut
himself.
"We haven’t talked to Foale about that
yet,” Mission Control chiefVladimir Solovy
ov said. "Back on the ground, he said he
would be eager to do a spacewalk.”
Foale said before the flight that he would
love to do a spacewalk on Mir—though he
hadn’t had emergency repairs in mind.
Officials still hope the two Russian cos
monauts in the three-man crew will be up
to carrying out the repairs themselves after
they are rested.
Tsibliyev’s surprise heart trouble forced
officials to postpone Tuesday’s scheduled
practice session for the repairs, designed to
fix damage caused when a cargo ship col
lided with Mir on June 25, punching a hole
in the Spektr module and ultimately halv
ing the Mir’s power.
The new setback pushes back the vital
repair mission from Saturday until the last
week of July.
While lives aren’t in danger, the Russians
are eager to solve the problem before the
next crew arrives Aug. 5.
"We have problems with power,”
Solovyov said. “If we are unable to go into
the Spektr to solve it, we will have to con
sider how much energy will be spent when
there will be two crews on board.”
A successful repair job would give the
Russians a chance to fulfill their goal of
keeping the aging Mir manned to the end of
the century — and repair some of their
space program’s battered credibility.
Russian doctors met throughout the day
Tuesday, debating the best treatment for
the 43-year-old Tsibliyev, who complained
Monday of heart problems.
Igor Goncharov, deputy mission con
troller in charge of medical affairs, said Tsi
bliyev had no previous health problems and
the primary cause might be lack of sleep re
lated to a string of Mir mishaps.
Tsibliyev, who has been on Mir since
February, has faced serious problems on
try;
equipment breakdowns.
"This crew had enough stressful!
ments,” Goncharov said. "It’s natural
tension, emotions flying high, thefeelL
responsibility— all of this has increased) DM
emotional pressure and could affect!
condition.”
Goncharov said the commander felt
pain and his condition should imprort
he takes medicine and the crewisgitt a “ e
more rest.
Tsibliyev or Russian crewmateAlea
der Lazutkin had been scheduled to mil
the delicate trek into the Spektr—oneoli
modules that make up the orbital
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Jet evacuated
after engine
catches fire
BOSTON (AP)—A US Airways
jet with more than 80 people
aboard was evacuated lltesday at
Logan International Airport and
doused with foam after an en
gine caught fire just before take
off. No serious injuries were re
ported.
The fire started as the DC-9 was
backing away from the gate for a
flight to Pittsburgh, said US Air
ways spokesman Rick Weintraub.
Passengers evacuated by way of
the plane’s emergency slides.
“I looked out and saw the
chute coming down,” said Ken
Powtak, an auto parts salesman
who was in the airport. “I saw one
or two people slide down. Then I
noticed both emergency exits
open and people jumped onto
the wing and then onto tarmac
and ran away from the plane.”
Some suffered bruises and
Educators plan private high school for gays, lesbians
DALLAS (AP) — Three educators be
lieve it’s high time for a Texas high school
that caters to gay and lesbian teen-agers.
Becky Thompson, Pamela Stone and
Wally Linebarger are starting such a school
themselves.
The trio have leased a 4,000-square-
foot ramshackle brick building in a strip
mall near Dallas Love Field and plan to
open the Walt Whitman Community
School on Sept. 2.
Although it’s being set up for homosex
uals, the school will accept any student, re
gardless of sexual orientation, said
Thompson, who will serve as director. No
students have signed up yet.
"We want to be all-inclusive,” she said.
“We want to be a school that people are
saying, ‘Oh, gee, I want to go to that school
because it is tolerant.’ They might not even
be gay.”
The purpose of the school, named after
the 19th-century gay poet, “is to create an
atmosphere of tolerance, an acceptance of
sexuality confusion and opportunities for
personal growth so that each individual
student can become a fully functioning
and healthy member of society,” accord
ing to its mission statement.
“These are still the kids on the outs, the
ones that are being picked on at school,”
said Thompson, a former teacher and
counselor at the Walden Preparatory School
in the north Dallas suburb of Addison.
^ ^ This population is
a population that was
undeserved in terms of
education.”
Pamela Stone
Grapevine resident
She cited a 1984 New York study that
found that 28 percent of gay and lesbian
students drop out of high school because
of harassment.
Thompson brainstormed the idea in
May with Stone, a Grapevine native who
was director of Walden. Both resigned in
May to pursue new options.
“This population is a population that
was underserved in terms of education,”
Stone said. “There wasn’t anything special
happening for these kids.”
Starting with Thompson, Stone and fine
arts head Linebarger, the three hope to
hire three more teachers to help with math
and science classes as enrollment grows.
The school will seek accreditation later,
Thompson said.
Course offerings will include language
arts, math, natural science, social studies
and electives in either fine arts or human
development.
Attending the school won’t be cheap.
Annual tuition will be $7,000. The founders
hope for sufficient community support to
offer scholarships for those who can’t af
ford the fees.
“I most definitely want us to be a high
school like any other, with a few differ
ences,” said Thompson, a 45-year-old In
diana native who came to Texas in 1982.
Other schools for gay and lesbian
students operate in New York, Toronto
and Los Angeles as partnerships be
tween private groups and local school
districts. The San Francisco public
schools offer programs in all middle
and high schools geared toward gay,
lesbian and bisexual teens.
Stone said none of the three educators
was interested in trying to persuade Dal
las school officials to help with the project.
Cosby admits
affair, denies
paternity claim
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Poll: Medicare solution
appeals to young workers
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WASHINGTON (AP) — If they could afford
it, grandma and grandpa would have to pay
more for Medicare.
That idea, to make better-off elderly peo
ple pay more for their coverage, has struck a
resonant chord with many Americans, par
ticularly younger workers, recent polls sug
gest. And President Clinton has hinted he
may go along.
The plan is drawing stiff resistance in the
House, where members fear retribution from
angry retirees. As a bloc, Americans in their
20s and early 30s don’t vote in high percent
ages, particularly in midterm elections. Senior
citizens do.
“There’s tremendous fear in the House,”
said Ari Fleischer, spokesman for the GOP-run
House Ways and Means Committee.
He said many members vividly recall the
outburst among retirees the last time Con
gress tried “means-testing” Medicare. It was a
1988 law providing catastrophic medical ben
efits, but requiring wealthier seniors to pay a
surcharge for them.
The anger reached the point that a band of
demonstrating retirees chased Dan Ros-
tenkowski, D-Ill. — then Ways and Means
chairman and a principal author — into his
car in his home town of Chicago. They then
banged the windows and the roof.
Congress repealed the law in 1989.
People who are retired, and those near re
tirement, generally feel that they contributed
to Medicare and Social Security through their
working lives and the rules should not be
changed now.
House and Senate negotiators are grap
pling with the divisive issue as they work to
ward a compromise plan to balance the fed
eral budget in five years.
The means-testing proposal, plus other
Medicare provisions, including an increase in
the age of eligibility from 65 to 67, appear only
in the Senate version.
Raising the eligibility age looks dead in
the water and lawmakers are expected to
abandon it.
Polls have shown surprisingly strong sup
port for means-testing.
A poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research
Center showed that those surveyed favored re
quiring better-off seniors to pay more, 60 per
cent to 37 percent.
Strong support for overhauling Medicare
comes from younger workers, who increas
ingly resent paying taxes for generous health
benefits for the nation’s richest retirees. They
worry there’ll be little left for them once mil
lions of baby boomers retire.
The political influence of senior citizens
shouldn’t be minimized, said GOP pollster
Frank Luntz.
“1998 will see some of the lowest voting
in modern history. But you can bet your bot
tom dollar the seniors will still show up,”
Luntz said.
Every House seat is on the ballot next year, as
every two years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Cosby, America’s mosi
beloved IV dad, testified Tuesday that he paidAu
tumn Jackson’s mother $ 100,000 over 20 yearsj
part because she all but threatened to go public
with their brief affair.
Cosby said he also paid for Jackson’s school
ing and gave her a car — but that’s where he
drew the line.
“I will be for you a father figure, butlamnoi
your father,” Cosby recalled telling Jackson, 22,
who claims to be his out-of-wedlock daughter,
During cross-examination, however, Cosbyad
mitted he once wanted to know so badly whetheijsai
Jackson was his daughter that he proposed taking
a paternity test — but backed out because he feared
the media would find out.
Jackson is on trial for al
legedly trying to extort $40
million from the entertainer
by threatening to go to the
tabloids with her story.
Cosby has said he does
not believe he is Jackson’s fa
ther, but concedes he had an
affair with her mother,
Shawn Upshaw. He now de
clines to take a blood test to
determine paternity, and the judge hasruled
that the issue is irrelevant in the case.
But Cosby admitted to defense attorney
Robert Baum that he once told Jacksonheloved
her and, wanting “to settle the issue,” as Baum
put it, had suggested going to Chicago for a pa
ternity test before backing down.
“You feared the test result would be discov
ered by the media?” Baum said.
“Yes,” Cosby said.
Prosecutors said there is evidence to believe
Cosby is not Jackson’s father, including a birtli
certificate naming a Los Angeles truck driver as
her father.
But Baum had said his client was raised to
believe Cosby is her father. He denied she com
mitted extortion and said she was simply en
gaged in a lawful negotiation.
Cosby testified that when Jackson entered
college in Florida, he began speaking to hei
frequently, coaching her to succeed. He pal lei
her picture on “The Cosby Show” set afterslif
Cosby
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gave it to him the one time they met, in thf ftd
early 1990s. Are
“This is to inspire you to go out and beconn kd
something,” Cosby recalled saying, glaringai ^m
Jackson across the courtroom.
Jackson beamed as Cosby arrived to testify
Cosby described his tryst with Upshaw in
mid-1970s. He met her in a Los Angeles hot
and asked her to dance, later inviting her
meet him in Nevada.
“I called her and she came to Las Vegas ani
we spent time. We had sex,” Cosby testified.
Lamps
Continued from Page 1
According to a story by Laura Lane titled
“Housing Services to Phase out Halogen Lamps”
in the April 22 issue of the Stanford Daily Online,
rules to restrict the use of halogen torchieres will
be enforced at Stanford University this fall.
According to a July 29, 1996, press release
from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Com
mission, halogen bulbs can reach a tempera
ture from 970 F to 1,200 F for a 500-watt bulb.
The CPSC also conducted tests during which
250-watt, 300-watt and 500-watt bulbs in
torchiere lamps started fires in nearby com
bustible material.
According to an April 7 story in The Battalion
titled “Halogen Lamp Causes Blaze,” a fire that
burned four apartment units at Travis House
Apartments on Harvey Road was caused by a
halogen lamp.
Elena Bosley, manager ofTravis House, said that
as a result of the fire, tenants are no longer allowed
to have halogen lamps in their apartments.
Bosley said the Residence Life’s policy of ban
ning the lamps in residence halls was good be
cause the lamps are dangerous.
But Jon Mies, fire marshal of College Station,
said that now the fire department does not believe
a halogen lamp caused the Travis House fire.
“When we reconstructed the scene of the ac
cident, the lamp couldn’t reach the point of ori
gin of the fire,” he said.
Mies said he has heard of fires across the
country started by the lamps, and he thought it
was good that they will be banned from A&M res
idence halls. He said lamps with bulbs that do
not produce as much heat are available.
Sasse said the Department of Residence Life
found a lamp that looks the same as the halogen
lamp many students have now, but its bulbs do
not burn as hotly.
Elaine DiGirolamo, assistant to the CEO of
Emess Lighting Inc., which is based outside of
Pittsburgh, Penn., said her company worked
with Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley Labora
tories in California to produce a CEL (compact
fluorescent light) torchiere fixture. This new fix
ture contains a bulb that burns cooler and is
more energy efficient than halogen bulbs.
She said the fixture looks the same as the one
the halogen bulbs are used in.
According to a press release by the Ernest Or
lando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
CFLs reach a temperature of 100 H as opposed to
over 1,000 F that halogen bulbs can reach.
These new lamps have been dubbed
“CoolBrite” torchieres by Emess.
Jason Brooks, operating manager of Texas
A&M Bookstore, said he has been talking to
many companies, including Emess, to get a lamp
in the bookstore that can be used as an alterna
tive to halogen lamps. Brooks said he was trying
to find a company that will sell the lamp at the
best price and will be able to ship them to the
bookstore by August before the fall term staff
The earliest Emess can get the lamps toll
bookstore is mid-September and the priceisb
tween $100 and $120, Brooks said.
Brooks said a prototype of Emess’ lamp is
front of the customer service booth on thefi
floor of the bookstore.
Brooks said the light gives off a lot of light®
does not burn too hotly.
“You can leave it on all day and still touchtl|
bulb without burning your hand,” Brooks si
He said he thinks the lamps will be in reC
stores by October or November, and prices® 1
the lamps should be lower by then.
Williams said he had mixed feelings aboutll 1
banning of halogen lamps.
“I agree with the department because ofsa!'
ty, but the decision will hurt a few people’s pod
et books,” Williams said.
Williams said halogen lamps cost $15to$;
Target in College Station and Wal-mart
percenter in Bryan both carry halogen torchif 1
floor lamps ranging in price from $15 to $50
LaTrina Williams, a Spence Hall resident an
senior chemical engineering major, said she o'
derstands why they banned the halogen lafflf 5 ,
but she still does not agree with the policy.
“College students should know howto®
halogen lamps,” Williams.
LaTrina jokingly said she would make!
own lamp before she would buy one asexp f
sive as the alternative lamps Brooks hash 111
for the bookstore.
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