FRIDAY, MAY 5. 2006
NEWS
Party with the arts
Lisa Lipovac/KANSAN
NATION
Moussaoui to spend prison sentence in Rockies
First-year pharmacy students Laura Freeman, of Brookfield, Wis., and Lucy Stun, of Belize City, talk and eat ice cream at the Spencer Museum of Art on Thursday night. Freeman decided to go to the show after hearing about it from a student director. The museum was hosting their annual student party, Transformers; Artists in disguise.
BY ROBERT WELLER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — Zacarias Moussaoui is expected to be shipped
of the Tazewall of the Rockies" to serve out a life term for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks — but he won't have much of a view.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3A
At the Su permax federal prison in southern Colorado, he would spend 23 hours a day in
his cell and have little to no contact with other notorious criminals, including Ramzi Yousef, Eric Rudolph, Ted Kaczynski and Terry Nichols on "bombers row." Or Richard Reid, the would-be shoe bomber he said was to help him fly a fifth plane into the White House.
Even when allowed outside in the high-walled recreation yard, Moussaoui would "see the sky but not the mountains or other terrain," former warden Robert Hood said.
he behaves. Inmates at Supermax also are allowed telephone calls and visitors if they don't act up, though most communications at the nation's most secure federal prison are monitored and the warden wields major discretion when it comes to access. Hood said phone privileges could be as little as 15 minutes a month.
Still, Moussaoui would be afforded religious rights as a Muslim and probably a special diet if
Officials at the prison declined comment Thursday after Moussaoui was formally sentenced in Virginia. Carla Wilson, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons in Washington, would not confirm that Moussaoui will be a Supermax inmate.
Worms
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
"Most people concentrate on the front end and what type of grass worms eat. I thought, well what about all the grass that comes out the other end?" James said.
Avoiding the dismal motel room, he found a construction crew outside with the same idea. Within minutes, James realized they were far from like-minded. After all, the crew was there to dig into the earth to put in a gas pipeline and James was there digging for earthworms. The crew drank beer while James obliged them and listened to their hunting stories. This may have gone on until the question came up, "So what do you do Sam?" The conversation quickly took a turn when James told the crew what he told them.
"One guy kept getting drunker and madder. He was mad that I could actually make a living digging for earthworms and that
His long-standing work partner, George Brown, researcher for the Brazilian Corporation for Agricultural Research, tipped him off on this search. Brown continues to seek James' help because there is not an earthworm taxonomist in Brazil.
I work for a university," he said
Hasiotis caught James while he was on campus, a place James rarely visits. Instead, James digs in the world's soils, in places like the Philippines, the Caribbean and Fiji, looking for earthworms.
Though earthworms can help link to other types of research, like arthritis therapy, some people find it hard to believe anyone could make a living digging in the dirt. James recalls a trip to southwest Texas where he met such criticism.
In Brazil, James recently rediscovered an earthworm, called Fimoscolex sporodochaetux, which was declared extinct in 2003. No one had bothered to look for the earthworm for years, he said.
"Just because something is declared extinct doesn't mean it is," James said. "It just means no one has gone to look for it."
James' interest in the interactions between North America's grasses and grazers led him down the dirty path of earthworm ecology. James noticed earthworms wriggling through bison manure and wondered about the relationship, since earthworms help plow the soil by providing air and circulation. No research had been published on American grassland worms and James decided that would be a good place to start.
"Maybe it is a rural male thing, but not one wants to seem like they are interested in formal education. It is almost taboo. And these guys were representatives of that," James said. Still, they laughed at him and asked "When are you going to get a real job?"
"Sam is one of those adventure-type persons who is not afraid to go to far away places and walk to the middle of nowhere to dig for worms," Brown said, "something that is increasingly necessary to find new species."
As a child growing up in Iowa, he used earthworms for bait when he went fishing. He doesn't mind people using them for bait but he does care if they are being over-exploited.
To which James replied, "I hope I don't have to."
Brown said that it is important to find representatives of all earthworm species because they have many effects on the soil and plant communities, and in turn, human beings. He said that understanding what they do is just a step. Understanding who they are and how to classify them is their first.
There are over 4,000 species worldwide and James sets out to find representatives of each species and also collects worms that may not be classified. He has about 400 un-named worms in his lab now. Based on where researchers have already gone, he heads a different direction.
Florida and Brazil have this problem and the earthworms there are in danger of extinction. The baiting industry is regulated in Florida now, he said, but it is
not in Brazil, although it is illegal to gather wildlife without a permit. The baiting rebels pushing their luck are helping James in a way.
"We see signs on the road that say 'We Sell Earthworms' so we stop, look and we'll buy them if they are interesting. And we preserve them," he said. "We ask where they got them but they won't always tell us."
If he had to do it all over again he said he would be a geologist and not a biologist.
"My oldest daughter Pearl got in a bush that was covered with leeches and she screamed, 'I'm covered with leeches' and at the same time we could hear Sam up ahead yelling, 'I got a worm! I got a big worm!'" she said. "It's always like that in a way, there is always this kind of thing going on." His travels never stop and trips to the Amazon and Europe are in the works.
"I would do geology and spend all day looking for rocks. Wandering for worms is pretty much similar in some ways though."
But for now, the KU researcher continues trailblazing, digging for earthworms all around the world.
James' wife Joy said he was the best person to travel with because he observes more than the average person. Though they may not always get to share in the knowledge because James takes off on his wild worm chase. She said once he started a project he just kept going and doesn't really need to stop to eat and drink. Eight hours climbing mountains in the rain forest without rest and food was a bit much for her and the kids however.
Within a week, James will be walking along the Louisiana coast for specimens before going to finish his work in the Philippines where he has worked extensively and intermittently over the past few years. His family of four accompanied him for six months during one of his visits in 2001. They assisted him in his search in the remote woods.
- Edited by John Jordan