Special Projects

A Fighter's Paradigm

Just a few years after the climax of baseball's steroid era, in the wake of a constant flow of NFL players through federal prison and amid constant allegations of officials' game manipulation in the NBA, the integrity of America's Big Three sports has never been under more scrutiny. As such, it is little wonder that many fans have begun looking to alternative sports to feed their competitive sides. But while disc golf and bocce ball are still on the outside looking in, mixed martial arts has taken the nation by storm, generating a wave of excitement and bringing an incredible blend of varied martial arts into the living rooms of millions.

Eyeing the Oscars: Brian picks his favorite flicks from 2009

On Tuesday, all eyes will be on Hollywood as the 2010 Academy Award nominees are announced. Ten movies may be set to be nominated for Best Picture - not five, as in years past - but that does not mean there is any less debate about the ballot. Which movie will take home the top honors?Who were the best actors and actresses of the last year? And is there any category in which Avatar will not be nominated? What follows is a summary of the best movies of 2009 in two parts. At the end, I name some probable Oscar winners and a few movies which might receive surprise nominations. But first I list my five favorite films of the last year -I'll leave the debate about the 10 best to others. These are not necessarily predictions of which films will get Best Picture nominations; instead, read them as one avid moviegoer's attempt to sort out his favorites from a great year at the movies.

National media distorts image of Muslims

It's Christmas day. You see that foxnews.com has published an article stating that a "Muslim terrorist tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner packed with 300 people just moments before landing." Soon, you notice that other major media networks follow suit. "Oh, God," you groan. "Not again. What's wrong with these Muslims? What are they thinking?"I can't tell you what those so-called "Muslims" were thinking. I can't jump inside their heads to discover why they commit these merciless, terrifying acts in the name of "Islam." But I can tell you what I think. Simply put, I feel outraged at these terrorists' disgusting perversion of my Islamic faith. I am ashamed to see the way my faith is being portrayed in mainstream media, and I think the world needs to understand the real meaning of Islam, a word derived from the Arabic concept of "salaam," or peace. With this column, I would like to give you a new perspective of my religion.

KTRU Top 35: Week of 01.24.2010

Letters to the Editor

Online Comment of the Week

Up, up and a-weigh

Your heart rate is not the only thing that will rise on your next trip to the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. "Lift," an otherworldly installation piece by New York artist Aurora Robson, commands attention, drawing all eyes upward upon entry to the building.The sculpture, which hangs above the Rec Center lobby, is comprised of a large central orb, which Robson calls "Big Boy," and several smaller structures made of recycled bottles and bottle caps held together by thousands of rivets. University Art Director Molly Hubbard said the artist drew inspiration for the piece from solar flares.

Men's tennis sweeps away season's first competition

Last week, junior Oscar Podlewski said the men's tennis team was "foaming at the mouth" to get the season underway. After a pair of 7-0 sweeps to begin the spring slate, it's easy to see where all that foam came from. The 34th-ranked Owls rabidly tore apart Lamar University and Prairie View A&M University last weekend, in a manner as near to perfection as possible. Disregard the fact that Lamar and Prairie View A&M lack the prestige or the recruits to push them into the top 75, and forget the fact that these two squads were scheduled as little more than tune-ups for the unwieldy ranked foes that will soon beset Rice. These factors, if anything, should have lulled the Owls into a stupor of overconfidence.

Rice's 'best value' ranking drops

Following a year marked by numerous budget cuts and nearly $1 billion lost from the endowment, The Princeton Review, in conjunction with USA Today, ranked Rice seventh in the nation for "best value private college" for 2010, a drop from previous years. In 2009, Rice ranked fourth and in 2008, Rice ranked first in the same survey. The university has been in the top 10 in the category for five of the past six years.

Owls split matches with Islanders, Longhorns to begin spring season

The women's tennis team discovered last weekend that the University of Texas is not just talented at football; they know something about serving aces as well. The Owls (1-1) managed to get one point on the board, but their play was not nearly enough to take down the 31st-ranked Longhorns (1-0), who took the weekend match 6-1. Before the team faced off with Texas, however, it began its spring season with a win against Texas A&M Corpus Christi last Wednesday. Due to poor weather conditions, the team could not play its season opener on campus at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium, and, at the last minute, had to move its match to the indoor courts at the Galleria. But the sudden change of venue did not throw the Owls off their game, and they ended up on the winning side of a 6-1 decision.

Optional exams cultivate independence

Exam week can be wonderful. There are no regularly scheduled classes, no mandatory homework assignments, breakfast opens early and everyone is gearing up for vacation with holiday parties and winter festivities.But the horrors of exam week often outweigh many of the positives. All your friends are shackled to their laptops and textbooks, you have more papers than you want to write, there are more tests than are possible to study for and you find your sleep and meals sacrificed for the looming pressures that abound in that final week of class.

Students rally for Haitians

After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck the southern part of Haiti on Jan. 12, the Rice community is pulling together its resources to support the victims and aid in rebuilding the country. This disaster struck particularly close to home for many Rice students, current and former. Diane Caves (Baker '00) was working for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Haiti, where she was on temporary assignment. She is still missing after the earthquake destroyed the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, where Caves was staying, her husband Jeffrey Caves (Will Rice '00) said.

CIA agent discusses covert ops

For the 150 people in the Kelly International Conference Facility Tuesday night, the unassuming man in a modest brown suit standing behind the podium might not have appeared to have been one of the key players in the CIA's largest covert operation, that of aiding the mujahideen of Afghanistan against the 1979 Soviet invasion. But Milton Bearden, a former agent in the CIA's clandestine services and the station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan from 1986-89, has been used to being covert for years, so don't feel fooled.

Letters to the Editor

Water balloon fight date incorrect

Haitian earthquake moves campus to service

You know how it is. Rice may boast legions of high IQs, but when it comes to politics or international causes, we just can't be bothered.So perhaps it speaks to the magnitude of the tragic Haitian earthquake that shook the world last week, but Rice students have been showing considerable support; even, might we add, a surprising lack of apathy (see story, page 1). In the first two days of their campaign, the Office of International Students and the Rice Student Volunteer Program raised more than $800, thanks to individual donations and funds from an anonymous donor who pledged $1 for each person who participated in the fundraiser. Duncan College also raised $1,000 for the Red Cross, and Wiess College organized a lunchtime fundraiser benefiting Project Medishare. We are truly impressed by the Rice community's charitable efforts; this time, political activism transcended Facebook status updates.

Mental health in universities calls for special precautions

The mental health of college students is in crisis. Over the past few decades, college campuses around the United States have witnessed a dramatic rise in depression, suicides and even sociopathic behavior heretofore unseen. Social theorists have pointed to various causative factors in the general population: increasing isolation of individuals from family and community ties, a culture of expertise that has expanded the definition of deviance and an identity confusion related to a popular culture that no longer ascribes to a monolithic worldview.

Women's basketball rebounds, rises above top C-USA opponents

Last weekend, the women's basketball team faced what could only be called a do-or-die situation. If they lost their two key conference games, they would then slide to 0-4 in Conference USA, an unfortunate return to their earlier season form. If they pulled the games out, however, the Owls would be back in the hunt for conference tournament byes, which could enable them to make a late tournament run. Or they could split the games, earn their first conference win but remain in a muddled land of questions.

A Word With Your Wardrobe: The trouble with buying boots

Alongside my personal battle with the comforts of sweatpants and flip-flops, one of my top nemeses at Rice and around Houston is the weather. This is especially troublesome when it comes to seasons that really should exist, like winter. I once overhead someone describe Houston's seasons as "January and the rest of the year," which is pretty much spot on. The reason I'm bringing weather into the discussion is because over the years it has affected my acquisition of a certain closet staple: boots. For the longest time I owned none, not even rain boots - though that, in retrospect, may have been a poor life choice.

The Matchbox

In the courtyard behind Sewall Hall, hidden out of everyday sight, an institution has emerged that has taken a good chunk of the Rice community by storm seemingly overnight. Much like the university itself, it is smaller than any venue of its kind, yet it produces work that ties the informality of a student-run entity with quality and professionalism. But its location makes it clear that the newest addition to the Rice landscape is not a high quality particle accelerator, nor does it have anything to do with the scientific process. Rather, even in these troubling economic times, funding and support from across campus has been rapidly channeled into something entirely different - a student-run art space housed in a former professor's office, now one of the school's hippest destinations.

H1N1 vaccines arrive

Last week, Rice caught the participation bug spawned by the Center for Disease Control's National Influenza Vaccination Week. The Rice administration, which footed the bill for about 850 vaccinations, offered vaccinations for students, faculty and retirees who showed up in the Kelley Lounge of the Ley Student Center last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.The vaccines were supplied by Walgreens Pharmacy, which gave Rice a bill after the shots were administered.

Video: Sports Roundtable