NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2008
3A
CAMPUS
LGBT group allies itself with activism
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
jtrimble@kansan.com
Queers and Allies has revamped its gay pride night and will also engage in more activities than in the past.
Queers and Allies is starting the semester off at the Granada with "GTV," formerly known as "Pride Night."
GTV REPLACES PRIDE
NIGHT
Korrie johnson, Topeka junior and activities coordinator for Queers and Allies, said the name was changed to "GTV" because the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St., had recently been renovated and now included a light and video display system. She said the "G" in "GTV" didn't necessarily stand for gay, but could also mean
GranadaTV because of the new equipment.
"It will be just like pride night, but better," Johnson said. "We want
to make sure everyone knows that anyone is welcome, and it's not just for the gay community"
Johnson said the new lights and TV equipment gave the Granada more of a dance club feel.
There is no cost for current Queers and Allies members for each Wednesday's "GTV." For everyone 21 and older, the cost is $5, and for
"We want to make sure everyone knows that anyone is welcome,and it's not just for the gay community"
Last night at the Granada, Queens and Allies hosted a drag show. Participants dressed in drag, requested a certain song from the DJ, then performed the song on stage.
KORRIE JONSON
Activities coordinator for Queues
and Allies
and Queers and Allies will officially host "GTV" the first Wednesday of every month. The lobby opens at 9 p.m. The event will start at 10:30 p.m. and last until 2 a.m.
those underage, the cost is $7. For every person, $2 goes to Queers and Allies to help support future pride nights and events.
"GTV" is scheduled for every Wednesday at the Granada.
"I'm very excited about this
semester", Johnson said. "Mainly because we completely revamped our constitution last semester and we added a pride week and an activism coordinator"
INCREASED ACTIVISM
Johnson said that Queers and Allies had never done activism events in the past, and that they were actively doing a lot more to increase visibility in the Lawrence and KU communities. They have also started to coordinate activities in Kansas City.
Megan Vall, activism chair from Topeka, is planning activities for Queers and Allies for this month, which includes readings of banned books for national Banned Books Week from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. The first banned book reading will take place at The Toy Store, 936 Massachusetts St. An officer from
Queers and Allies will read "And Tango Makes Three," by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
The book depicts two male penguins living in a zoo who want to be parents. The two bring an egg-shaped rock to their nest and begin to take turns keeping the rock warm. The penguins' zookeeper replace the rock with an actual penguin egg. The book is based on a true story that took place in New York City's Central Park Zoo.
"It's really important that we show people that these books aren't scary," Vail said. "Usually the books are just about love."
Vail said the reading would be primarily for the 6-to-10 age group, and Queers and Allies would continue to read bad books if the first reading had a good turnout.
books usually focused on racial topics, many books across the country were being banned because they had a homosexual theme.
Rachel Gadd-Nelson, Kansas City sophomore and spokeswoman for Queers and Allies, said she was really excited about banned books week because the queer community could relate so much to it.
"Every year banned books (week) focuses on the fact that the book has something to do with the LGBT community," Gadd Nelson said. "But we felt there was a need to focus on the fact that it's not just a gay theme."
Gadd-Nelson said the group would mainly be reading children's books and members were excited about adding other books to the list.
Edited by Kelsey Hayes
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Large pieces of ice drift off after separating from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. A chunk of ice nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away.
Ice shelf the size of Manhattan breaks away from Canadian island
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO — A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.
Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press that the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separates in early August and the 19-square-mile shelf is nowadrift in the Arctic Ocean.
"The Markham ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Mueller.
This comes on the heels of unusual cracks in a northern Greenland glacier, rapid melting of a southern Greenland glacier, and a near record loss for Arctic sea ice this summer.
Mueller also said that two large sections of ice detached from the Serson Ice Shelf, shrinking that ice feature by 47 square miles — or 60 percent — and that the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has also continued to break up, losing an additional eight square miles.
Mueller reported last month that seven square miles of the 170-square-mile and 130-feet-thick Ward Hunt shelf had broken off.
And earlier this year a 160-square mile chunk of an Antarctic ice shelf disintegrated.
"Reduced sea ice conditions and unusually high air temperatures have facilitated the ice shelf losses this summer," said Luke Copland, director of the Laboratory for Cryospheric Research at the University of Ottawa. "And extensive new cracks across remaining parts of the largest remaining ice shelf, the Ward Hunt, mean that it will continue to disintegrate in the coming years."
Formed by accumulating snow and freezing meltwater, ice shelves are large platforms of thick, ancient sea ice that float on the ocean's surface but are connected to land.
Martin jeffries of the U.S.National Science Foundation and University of Alaska Fairbanks said in a statement Tuesday that the summer's ice shelf loss is equivalent to over three times the area of Manhattan, totaling 82 square miles — losses that have reduced Arctic Ocean ice cover to its second-biggest retreat since satellite measurements began 30 years ago.
Ellesmere Island was once entirely ringed by a single enormous ice shelf that broke up in the early 1900s. All that is left today are the four much smaller shelves that together cover little more than 299 square miles.
"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are
no longer present," said Mueller.
"But today, warmer temperatures and a changing climate means there's no hope for regrowth. A scary scenario," said Mueller.
The loss of these ice shelves means that rare ecosystems that depend on them are on the brink of extinction, said Warwick Vincent, director of Laval University's Centre for Northern Studies and a researcher in the program ArcticNet.
During the last century, when ice shelves would break off, thick sea ice would eventually reform in their place.
"The Markham Ice Shelf had half the biomass for the entire Canadian Arctic Ice Shelf ecosystem as a habitat for cold, tolerant microbial life; algae that sit on top of the ice shelf and photosynthesis like plants would. Now that it's disappeared, we're looking at ecosystems on the verge of distinction," said Mueller.
Along with decimating ecosystems, drifting ice shelves and warmer temperatures that will cause further melting ice pose a hazard to populated shipping routes in the Arctic region — a phenomenon that Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper is welcome to.
Harper announced last week that he plans to expand exploration of the region's known oil and mineral deposits, a possibility that has become more evident as a result of melting sea ice. It is the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that scientists say is the chief cause of manmade warming and melting ice.
NATION
Boeing workers threaten to strike
WICHITA — Boeing's largest union was voting Wednesday on whether to reject a contract offer and strike, a decision that would have a ripple effect on the company's suppliers here far beyond its Kansas employment numbers.
Boeing's Wichita defense plant employs more than 700 machinists, a small fraction of the 27,000 workers represented by the union.
But a strike decision could have an impact on Boeing's suppliers, particularly companies like Spirit AeroSystems, whose main customer is Boeing.
Spirit AeroSystems is looking at several options, including moving to a shortened work week like it did during the machinists' four-week strike in 2005, said spokeswoman Debbie Gann.
"We're a different company today," Gann said. "We've got other non-Boeing customers that we didn't have three years ago."
Valid only at 1601 W 23rd St, Lawrence
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boeing Wichita has a contingency plan in place should there be a strike. But spokesman Jarrod Bartlett said the company is focused on ratification.
Machinists
spokeswoman
Connie
The company appointed the union would recommend rejection and a strike for an industry-leading contract offer," he said.
After a union meeting Wednesday in Wichita, several members said the mood inside the meeting and in the factory favored a strike. But the few hundred workers in Wichita are not likely
ROGER HEFLIN Boeing union member
"Hopefully, we're going to go on strike. Nobody likes it (the offer)."
If the contract is rejected and a strike ratified, a work stoppage would begin at 12:01 Thursday. A majority is needed to accept the contract, but a strike takes two-thirds approval.
The company is "extremely dis-
Kelliher said the offer does not address job security concerns and shifts health care costs, such as higher deductibles and co-payments, more to workers.
to affect the vote by the thousands of workers in Seattle.
"Hopefully, we're going to go on strike," said Roger Hefflin, who said he voted.
843-SUBS (7827)
against the offer. "Nobody likes it."
"The money sounds good, but everything else is bad," said Tracy Faulconer, a flight-line mechanic and 30-year Boeing employee.
He said the contract did not address job security issues and had problems with the seniority language.