'""■‘mlESDAYMARCH 5, 2002
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VOLUME 108 • ISSUE 107
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
.r\8cM domestic pet cloning sparks debate
rnnorlAH r ^
By Emily Peters
THE BATTALION
ist reported jc
Mensive begi’
against Talik
strongholds •
Ighan provncs-
\qL\\ researchers have stirred up
ghaniSTW whirlwind surrounding their
ToraBen st | eat; doning a cat in conjunction
® Gardez^_ h a private company that plans to
y—r*—^inircialize pet cloning.
' • '^“Controversy about the effects of
T^*/ “nitlv. has been aroused by recent
jfslhat fonnerly cloned mice and
/Khost e p have developed obesity, and
, .lly, the first cloned sheep, has
e l||P e d arthritis.
Psychologists and the Humane
Society denounced the project.
Three years ago a private million
aire offered $3.7 million to a universi
ty that would clone his beloved pet
dog. Missy. A&M realized the scien
tific breakthroughs the money could
produce, bid for the grants and won
partly for its prestige as the first uni
versity to clone numerous species,
including pigs, goats and cattle.
A&M researchers created Cc ,
short for “carbon copy”, as a step in
the “Missyplicity” project.
People already have paid the private
company working with A&M, Genetic
Some owners try to get
another pet that is as simi
lar as possible with the same
breed, same color, but that
typically doesn’t work
— Dr. Sandra Barker
professor of psychiatry
Savings and Clone, $900 to have their
pet’s cells stored until research allows
for commercial pet cloning. Gift certifi
cates are offered online for cell storage.
The company hopes to commercial
ly clone a dog in the next few years and
offer limited experimental cloning of
customers’ cats within the next year.
Dr. Sandra Barker, professor of
psychiatry at the School of Medicine
at Virginia Commonwealth
University, said that in her experience
counseling people who have lost a
pet, the grieving period can be com
parable to losing a family member.
Replacing a pet is not the answer.
“Some owners try to get another
pet that is as similar as possible with
the same breed, same color, but that
typically doesn’t work,” Barker said.
“Those are the people trying to avoid
the grief process, and they often have
had to return the pet.”
Barker said pet owners looking to
replace their old pet will be disappointed
with current cloning technology, where
color is unpredictable and personality
may not compare to that of the lost pet.
Genetic Savings and Clone
addresses this issue through a state
ment that pets will only have some of
See Cloning on page 7 A
9 U.S. soldiers
killed in raid
Americans lead Operation
Anaconda in Afghanistan
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RANDAL FORD • fHE BATTALION
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WASHINGTON (AP) — As
many as nine American soldiers
were killed and 40 more were
wounded Monday when two
U.S. helicopters took enemy fire
during the most deadly allied air
and ground offensive of the war
in Afghanistan.
The U.S. assault, code-named
Operation Anaconda, marked a
new approach. Instead of relying
on Afghan forces to take the fight
to the al-Qaida, with U.S. troops
in support, the Americans took
the lead. Afghan, Canadian,
Australian, German, Danish,
Norwegian and French forces
were supporting.
U.S. ground troops and
pilots were operating at eleva
tions between 8,000 and
11,000 feet, said Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld,
cold, icy and snowy “like the
Rocky Mountains in the mid
dle of the winter.”
Army officials said Apache
attack helicopters had been hit
with extraordinary amounts of
small arms fire but were able to
continue their assaults. Air
Force AC-130 gunships, armed
with howitzers and 40mm can
non, were serving as the ground
troops’ airborne artillery.
Air Force bombers and Navy
and Air Force strike aircraft had
dropped more than 350 bombs
by Monday.
The men killed Monday were
not the first U.S. casualties in the
new offensive, which appeared
far from finished. Army Chief
Warrant Officer Stanley
Harriman, 34, of Wade, N.C.,
was killed in a ground attack
Saturday shortly after American
forces, joined by Afghan and
other allied troops, began the
offensive against hundreds of
fighters of the al-Qaida terror
network and the fonner ruling
See Soldiers on page 7A
ensen criticizes middle class
By Jessica Watkins
THE BATTALION
ie bomber, nr: r
lied, includir; ■
Id and sever..
ice said. Americans need to stop the systemized brutality the
nothing tod. government inflicts on other countries in its war on
ms nothingtc orism, said Dr. Robert Jensen, professor of journal-
ration. this hii. at the University of Texas. Jensen spoke to A&M
jer ofinnocer dents Monday at a program on “Radical Citizenship
>n Dore GolReactionary Times,” hosted by the Campus Greens,
defend the pdnladdition to being a professor, Jensen is a free-
cer for several progressive journals. He is known for
/owed toatti itroversial comments he made after the Sept. 11
ito two Wesitcks, writing that the World Trade Center bombing
three days. 1 ? “no more despicable than the massive acts of ter-
gunmen, pollsm — the deliberate killing of civilians for political
killed in thf poses — that the U.S. government has committed...”
Americans must make the decision to know what
days searctj government is doing in other parts of the world,
the Balata ((sen said.
, in the Wes>‘‘Without empathy, there is not much hope of chang-
ybreak Sirf the world,”Jensen said. “We have the choice to
)w or not to know. We have the choice to be willful-
,ources sai gnorant. We have the choice to act.”
lammed Dar Jensen said survival of the United States is depend-
a Martyrs Bl on Americans becoming pain-seeking individuals,
e Dheisheh M
“If we want to be more than just Americans we
should seek pain and reduce pleasure,” he said.
Jensen condemned the United States' use of cluster
bombs in the Vietnam and Gulf wars. He said 5 to 20
percent of cluster bombs do not detonate and then
become land mines.
“If we do not act, we are not simply turning our
backs on the children who might bend down to pick up
a cluster bomb, but we are in fact turning our backs on
our humanity,” he said. “Pain is inherently part of the
human condition. Cluster bombs are not.”
Jensen said Americans need to dismiss their middle-
class lifestyles.
“People in middle-class America are willing to sup
port policies of dominance because they believe their
comfort is based on these policies,” Jensen said.
“Standard, middle-class lifestyle in the United States is
unsustainable in the long term. If this way of living was
extended to the whole world, the planet could not sus
tain us.”
Jensen said U.S. citizens should reevaluate what the
war on terrorism is trying to accomplish.
“Next time you are told we are fighting for freedom,
ask whose freedom we are fighting for,” he said.
Travel safety tips
for spring break
h camp.
romptu celO
. ” and fW
hina updates property laws
B
By Araceli Garcia
THE BATTALION
Since joining the World Trade
ganization last year, China has
de many amendments to its intel-
tual property laws to comply with
fO’s regulations, said Chinese del-
ites. visiting Texas A&M Monday
discuss China’s role in the WTO.
The quantity of inventions is
;her for foreign inventions than
nestic inventions in China. The
:rage growth rate of these inven-
ns is 14.7 percent. Fifty percent of
se inventions come from nonser-
e, 10 percent from universities and
aird from enterprises,” said Zheng,
rofessor from a Chinese university
1 an expert in technology transfer.
Currently, China has 1,000 univer
sities and 8 million enterprises.
Six different methods of technolo
gy transfer have been developed for
within Chinese universities. Sixty to
70 percent of the research for new
inventions in China is funded by the
government, and 30 to 40 percent is
funded by enterprises.
The transfer of technology within
universities is about 5 to 10 percent
and the transfer out of universities
constitutes 90 to 95 percent.
Advantages of the transfer of
technology include “different disci
plines, fresh people, (and) new
ideas,” Zheng said.
See China on page 2A
By Anna Chaloupka
THE BATTALION
Spring break is less than a week away,
and while many students are making
plans for the ultimate party experience,
the U.S. State Department is warning stu
dents about conditions that may affect
their safety and welfare during vacation.
Each February, the department distrib
utes information to more than 1,500 college
campuses to alert American students of
hazards they may encounter while on
spring or summer breaks. Drugs, alcohol
and disorderly conduct top the list of what
students should avoid for safe travel experi
ence, whether in the United States or abroad.
More than 1,200 American citizens are
arrested abroad each year on charges of
possession of an illegal substance. The
department said many drugs that are legal
in one country may not be legal in another,
and students should be aware of the laws,
customs and standards of the country they
are visiting to avoid confrontation with
local authorities.
Alcohol is another substance that gets
many students in trouble when on vacation.
The department said students have the mis
conception that local authorities will over-
TIPS FOR FOREIGN TRAVEL
• Be aware of what medications
are legal to carry
• Learn the legal drinking age
• Avoid advertising you are a
foreigner — don’t flash travelers
cheques, passports or rental
car keys unless necessary
Source: US Department of State
CHAD MALL AM • THE BATTALION
look drunken behavior because they are
visitors, but this is not the case. Students
should refrain from public intoxication,
underage drinking and drunk driving.
Dr. Susan Dennis, a Texas A&M pro
fessor and faculty coordinator of a Spanish
immersion program in Mexico, said alco
hol can be the downfall of a student’s
semester break.
“People just go overboard on spring
break,” Dennis said. “When people get
drunk, they really put themselves in a posi
tion for someone else to do harm to them.”
Dennis said if students are going to
See Travel on page 7A
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
Zheng Yongping gives a presenta
tion concerning the implications of
China joining the WTO.
IKStDt
Sports Pg. 1B
Ags face OSU in
tourney
Teams to duel for third time
AggieLife Pg. 3A
High & low
Students search for their
study niche
WEAIHUK
HIGH
A 650 F
A low
25° F
WEDNESDAY
HIGH
70° F
LOW
45° F