Special Projects

Bounty Hunter fails to capture action aficionados

The good news, ladies, is that your boyfriend might willingly accompany you to see The Bounty Hunter. The title suggests a testosterone-fest packed with action sequences, but The Bounty Hunter is actually a chick flick that features a few guns and a splash of suspense. Granted, the movie's marketers should get credit for using a title that might scam reluctant boyfriends into seeing the film, but be warned: The Bounty Hunter is not an action film.Nicole (He's Just Not That Into You's Jennifer Aniston) is a successful investigative reporter whose sleuthing is cut short when a warrant for her arrest is issued for a minor traffic accident. Bounty hunter - and Nicole's ex-husband - Milo (Law Abiding Citizen's Gerard Butler) re-enters Nicole's life to bring her in for the reward, but on their way back to jail, they begin to fall for each other all over again and unravel Nicole's original case in the process, with some help from Nicole's lounge singer mother (Christine Baranski, "The Good Wife"), Nicole's nerdy co-worker Stewart (Jason Sudeikis, "Saturday Night Live") and local bartender Jimmy (Up in the Air's Adam Rose).

Duncan selects Head Resident Fellow

After months of searching, the Duncan College Head Resident Fellow Search Committee selected History Professor Kathryn de Luna from a pool of 12 applicants as the college's new head residential fellow. De Luna will replace current HRFs Luis Duno- Gottberg and Marnie Hylton, who will become the first Duncan College masters. HRF is a new college position created specially for Duncan and McMurtry College. Although the position is similar at both colleges, with HRFs meant to help masters both administrate and help students, Duncan's HRF will have a special focus on working with new students.

Photo: Jacks are for kids

Houston Mayor Annise Parker (Jones '78) greets members of the audience who were assembled for what turned out to be a jack by Jones.

Cooler talk with Office Party

Fresh off their victory at KTRU's Battle of the Bands last month and in the midst of preparations for their slot in the 2010 KTRU Outdoor Show on April 10, Jones sophomores Shawdon Molavi, Ryan Oringer and Jesus Cortez, and freshman Daniel Sprinkle took a moment from their busy schedules to sit with the Thresher and talk about important topics ranging from eagles to dinosaurs to chinchillas while still leaving time to ponder the band's future.Rice Thresher: So how did you guys form up?

HERE celebrates hip hop in Houston

Rice rolled out the red carpet Tuesday to honor the first recipient of the Houston Enriches Rice Education Project Legacy Award. Students, professors and Houston rappers gathered March 23 in Keck 100 for the ceremony, where a panel discussed the significance and contribution of hip hop in Houston over the last 25 years. Houston Enriches Rice Education, known as the HERE Project, began in 2007 as an effort to help immerse students in culture under the direction of Humanities Professor Anthony Pinn.

Beer Bike rescheduled for Sunday

The biggest player at this year's Beer Bike was not a college, a biker or even one of the coordinators - rather, nature has dominated this year's parade and races. Thanks to Saturday's inclement weather, all of the races but the alumni race have been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.Beer Bike Coordinator Brian Henderson said he and the other Beer Bike coordinators made the decision to postpone the student races because of concerns about safety and how enjoyable the event would be.

Baseball bested by San Diego twice, Texas once

The baseball team traveled to the University of San Diego this past weekend in hopes of extending its three-game winning streak. But the Owls (12-10) were unable to continue their winning ways, dropping the first two games before winning the finale thanks to a late-inning rally on Sunday. However, the biggest result of the week for Rice cannot be found in the standings. Senior pitcher Mike Ojala made a successful pitching return on Friday afternoon, almost exactly nine months after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow.

Women dominate Broncos, look to rematch with Buckeyes

While most of Rice's student body was still in their beds last Sunday, recovering from Beer Bike the day before, the No. 44 women's tennis team had to be up and ready to face old rival Western Michigan University. After a bump in their season last week versus Wichita State University (5-8) and No. 33 University of Tulsa (12-5), the team worked on problems that showed the week before in practice and met to revisit team goals in order to focus the team for the rest of the season.

Despite rain, Will Rice dashes to victory

Thanks to last Saturday's inclement weather, most students participating in this year's Beer Bike parade were soaked even before balloons started flying. Although all of the student races were rescheduled for this Sunday (see adjacent story), the alumni participated in a beer run, which Will Rice College won. Will Rice finished just seconds ahead of Brown College, whose penalties put them behind 16 seconds.

KTRU Top 35: Week of 03.22.2010

Time, schedule management necessary for increased sleep

A social life, good grades or sleep: The joke is that in college, you can only pick two out of three, or you'd exhaust yourself trying to achieve it all. To a college student, sleep is one of the most precious commodities and at times, a temporarily unnecessary luxury.One of the most important things to learn in college is how to manage time effectively. There are so many opportunities that are thrust your way: research opportunities, internships, athletics, being a part of the dozens of clubs on campus or just making the most of the classes you take at Rice with faculty who are at the top of their field. If you are one of those people who want to do it all, you need to know how much you can take on and to what capacity. But in the midst of all your efforts, you need to find time to sleep.

Eater's Digest:Vegging out

There are many reasons people may choose to become vegetarian. They may become vegetarian for health-related reasons, for animal rights, to protest practices in the farming business or simply to try something new. This week, we'll focus on whether or not being a vegetarian is healthier than an omnivore's diet. Although there are different types of vegetarians - pescatarians eat fish, pollo-vegetarians eat chicken, and even so-called "flexitarians" occasionally eat meat - the most common form of vegetarianism is lacto-ovo-vegetarianism, which allows eating eggs and dairy, but no animal protein. This type of vegetarianism will be our focus.

Tuesday's Sports Update : Baseball unable to make up early deficit, falls to DBU

Rice dug itself into an early hole tonight that it could not crawl out of, and the team fell to Dallas Baptist University 7-6.Sophomore Matthew Reckling (1-1) notched his first start for the Owls (17-13, 4-2 Conference USA) this evening at Reckling Park but could not find control of his pitches, walking three and forcing in a run via a hit batter before being pulled in the first inning.

Online only: This week's crossword

Complete this week's crossword in this pdf!

Messy behavior demonstrates disrespect

I have always felt strange about having Housing and Dining staff clean up after me. H&D staff members take out my trash each day and clean my bathroom on a weekly basis. As someone who was raised with her fair share of chores, I found it odd to shed the responsibility of cleaning up after myself just as I was finally approaching the point of maturity and self-sufficiency. But, realizing there are probably dozens of reasons why the administration rightly employs staff members to maintain students' personal facilities - among them allowing students to focus on their studies - I accepted it.

Jones wins again, at least with silly string...

Jones College sophomore Ellie Grebowski takes part in Jones' jack last Thursday in which Houston mayor Annise Parker's (Jones '78) visit to campus ended with Jones students from the crowd and nearby buildings spraying the other attendees with silly string. See the online update from last Friday and see another photo from the event as well.

Rain no deterrent for men's tennis in three-match sweep

After a season of more valleys than peaks, more struggles and strains than growth and gains, last weekend may have been a sign of changing times for the men's tennis team. Playing host at the 52nd Annual Rice Intercollegiate Tournament, the Owls (9-8) swept the three-match weekend to right a season that had wobbled to the brink. Before the weekend began, Assistant Coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) had said he wouldn't be pleased with anything but a sweep. With his wish granted, Ustundag was as satisfied as expected.

Thursday's Sports Update : Baseball blanks Houston 6-0

Coming off a mediocre 3-5 road trip, the Rice baseball team found its way home to Reckling Park tonight and toppled crosstown rival Houston 6-0. This game, the first in the season series for the coveted Silver Glove Trophy, was the third win in a row for the Owls (15-12, 2-2 Conference USA), who this week dropped out of Baseball America's Top 25 rankings for the first time this season.Sophomore starter Taylor Wall (1-4) got the ball tonight looking for his first win of the season, and he delivered in pristine fashion. The southpaw tossed a complete game-the first of any pitcher for the Owls this season-and surrendered only one hit and two walks with seven strikeouts. The lone Cougar hit came in the first inning.

Beer Bike planning lacks required foresight

Even the best-laid plans for outdoor events can be derailed by weather. However, plans for Beer Bike were not as well-laid as they could have been, and on Saturday a day of frigid showers threw the event into chaos.Although weather forecasts days in advance all but guaranteed rain for the event, as of Saturday morning, Beer Bike was scheduled to occur as planned. It was not until thousands of drunken, shivering college students arrived at the Beer Bike track that the campus-wide coordinators announced that the men's, women's and exhibition races would be rescheduled. Massive supplies of food that were ordered in advance had to be reshuffled, and hundreds of pizzas were left unclaimed, advertised only by some e-mail listservs, in the Rice Memorial Center that afternoon while students at the tracks and at their colleges went hungry. Why not leave the food at the tracks for the duration of the event or at the colleges?

This week's Editorial Cartoon