|
Nature's newsmakers:
Who's that -- or should we say, what's that -- competing for media attention with
the likes of Charles Barkley, separatist Richard McClaren and Governor George
Bush? It's a variety of critters whose antics are covering the pages of metro
sections across the state like stripes on a zebra. We've had rabid bats in Austin
and Houston; an escaped wallaby meet a sad end in Leander; and a campaign
launched by the Abilene Zoo aims to fill a tall order: to find a new mate for
widower Bart the giraffe. And the creature curiosities keep coming: Simba, a Bengal
tiger from a traveling petting zoo in Denton, is being cared for by the Texas
Exotic Feline Foundation after being turned over by its owner to the SPCA; a
Texas-based circus which had two elephants and eight llamas confiscated by the
City of Albuquerque (claiming poor treatment of the animals) is suing to get them
back. On the fine-feathered-friend front: Gaggles of homeless emus released from
unprofitable Texas ranches are jamming farm-to-market roadways in Conroe, while
Bryan is puzzling over the scarcity of its migratory flock of loud, mischievous
brown egrets, mysteriously reduced this year to a handful. (Somebody had better
inform the splendorous migratory whooping cranes which winter here that if they want to get
noticed this year they'll have to do something more splashy than merely touch down.)
 Pop monopoly: The Plano school district has signed a 10-year, $10 million agreement granting "exclusive beverage rights" to the Texas soda giant, Dr. Pepper. Under the contract, only Pepper products will be sold in Plano school cafeterias, vending machines, and at school-sponsored festivals and functions. In return, the district will receive $1 million a year for ten years, and is expected to make at least another $7 million in commissions during that period. The Dr. Pepper Bottling Co. already has similar agreements with other Dallas-area school districts, but the Plano deal is the largest contract in the nation between the company and a public school system. And since the Pepper-purveyors are relocating their headquarters to Plano, students who want to do the Dew or take the Pepsi challenge may just have to get out of town. http://www.drpepper.com/ | Read
previous installments of "The Big Beat." |
Womb with a view:
The dark expanse of
space doesn't usually conjure up images of safety and comfort, but for Houston
scientist and astronaut David Wolf, it serves not only as a personal refuge, but
also as a simulated uterus. Nestled inside Russia's Mir space station, Wolf is
continuing his ten-year research in tissue engineering, and it just so happens
that the weightless effect on board is perfect for his studies. Back on earth,
Wolf had created an award-winning bioreactor to simulate the fluid-like
environment of a womb, where cells could develop three-dimensionally instead of
flat on the surface of a petrie dish. But at a certain point, the cells would get
too heavy and fall -- a problem that the microgravity of space has overcome. And
while Wolf stays busy growing animal kidney cells and other tissue cultures (which
may someday provide insight into properties of skin and cartilage regeneration),
he still has time to e-mail his experiences back to earth. Read his space mail at
http://shuttle-mir.nasa.gov/shuttle-mir/ops/crew/letters/wolf/index.html.
State satire: Not even the proud state of Texas is above the funnin' over at The Onion, the Madison, Wisconsin-based parody newspaper. "Texans Elect Gun," reads a headline from the Nov. 5 issue, which goes on to report Texas citizens electing a .44 caliber revolver to the U.S. Senate: "Showing remarkable political savvy for a first-time candidate, the gun took an impressive 71 percent of the women's vote by prominently displaying its elegant pearl grips and well-tooled leather holster." Even Governor George W. Bush is reported as having confidence that the weapon's "tremendous stopping power will strongly defend Texans' interests on Capitol Hill." Accompanying the satiric piece is a tasteful color photo of the newly elected official -- polished, but not flashy -- supine on a rippling American flag. These masters of lampoonery win our vote, too. http://www.theonion.com/onion3214/texanselectgun.html (11/15/97) |
