Special Projects

Swimming takes sixth place at SMU Classic

After opening the season with a victory on the first day of competition and a loss on the second at the Phill Hansel Duals on Oct. 9-10 and then placing sixth at the SMU Classic, the swim team feels it has a strong basis on which to build for the rest of the season. Head Coach Seth Huston said he was proud of his team's performance during the two competitions, especially considering the team lost six seniors from last year.

Mentoring gives high school students a hand

Outside of passing AP Chemistry and finding a date to prom, applying to college can be one of the most daunting tasks of a high school student's career. To address this issue, The Mentorship Project, a club formed recently at Rice, held a college workshop in Dell Butcher Hall last Wednesday and Thursday for 125 Houston-area high school juniors and seniors seeking assistance with the college application process, Chair Christina Rojas said. Rojas, a Brown College sophomore, said the workshops were done in collaboration with Project GRAD, a Houston non-profit organization that aims to increase high school graduation and college attendance rates, according to its Web site, www.projectgradhouston.org.

Students will sport scruff

For those of you who missed Muttonchops March this year, fear not: No Shave November begins Sunday. Participants in the month-long event, sponsored by the Hanszen College Men's Resource Center, are expected to allow their facial hair to grow undisturbed from Nov. 1-30. All proceeds from the campaign will go to support the Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation, Hanszen sophomore Josh Herzstein said.

Martel maintains clean record

With just two weekends remaining in the regular season, one cannot help but look forward to the powderpuff playoffs and potential matchups. But as a number of teams jockey for a spot in the semifinals, the past weekend of powderpuff action simply cannot be overlooked. Brown College had a pair of games to get into the playoff hunt, while Sid Richardson College and Wiess College met for the newest chapter in their historic rivalry. But as for selecting the Game of the Week, the decision was not a difficult one. In a battle of undefeated teams, Jones College faced off against Martel College on Sunday afternoon and the two best teams dueled for powderpuff supremacy in our Game of the Week.

This Is It wows audiences with true Jackson experience

This Is It is not a documentary about Michael Jackson's life or the scandals surrounding his death. If a narrative at all, the film shows the process behind putting together a major concert: the auditions, rehearsals and changes that take place before the gates of the stadium are even opened. At its core, This Is It is simply Michael Jackson's last concert tour, miraculously resurrected after the icon's death. Everything about this film is something of a spectacle. Clapping and cheering fans packed the theater, giggling and screaming as the lights went down and the first images flashed onto the screen. It felt like we were all waiting for Michael Jackson to appear right there in front of us. And in many ways, he did. When Jackson arrived on screen, he was energetically singing and dancing as usual, amazing the world with his smooth voice and signature dance moves, as if he had never left.

University address requires transparency

Each fall since 2005, President David Leebron has outlined the university's progress over the previous year, and its plan for the next, in his State of the University address to faculty and students. The session, which is coordinated by the Faculty Senate, has always been open to the Rice community and a Thresher reporter has always been present to report on Leebron's remarks for a news article the following week.Not this year.

Relish: Blue Fish House hooks quality sushi at low price

Sushi: the delicacy that satisfies the stomach and breaks the bank. Couples looking to dine in a qualitysushi restaurant will usually pay $50 for the experience. On the other hand, a venture to a cheaper sushi restaurant will likely result in decreased food quality, a fact thatis not only undesirable but also risky. These realizations about sushi restaurants leave thrifty students with one burning question: Why can't there be a sushi restaurant that combines high-quality sushi with affordable prices? Finally, an answer. After searching long and hard, your intrepid food-reporting duo would like to present the Blue Fish House, a restaurant thatoffers savory sushi at manageable prices and is conveniently located 10 minutes from Rice. We visited the Richmond Avenue location, between Shepherd Drive and Kirby Drive, but there are actually two other locations in Sugar Land and Conroe.Blue Fish House is a small and comfortable eatery sure to quench your sushi cravings without emptying yourwallet.

Paleolithic diet adopts primal, evolutionary health approach

"If it tastes good, spit it out," was how Jack LaLanne, the so-called "godfather of fitness," put it. This maxim for healthy living has now permeated our culture as indisputable truth. Bacon, doughnuts, chocolate and butter will all kill you. Broccoli, beets and cabbage are what we should be eating instead. Setting aside any deeper reasoning for a moment, we know these to be facts, because we feel it in our gut. Because good can only come from doing things we don't enjoy.This belief makes it easy to believe being a vegetarian or jogging grueling distances every day just has to be healthy. Anyone arguing the contrary fights a brutal uphill battle. Scientists seem to change their minds weekly regarding the healthiness of eggs, but we remain dutifully skeptical of anything that tells us we can eat or do things we enjoy and still be healthy.

Dear Denver: Creepy Grad Students or Racist Roomates

Dear Denver, Why do undergrads at Rice think that graduate students are automatically creepy? It's clear to a plurality of grad students that at least 72 percent of undergrads are actually creepier than 87 percent of grad students. Are they just transferring their latent creepiness onto the unsuspecting graduate students?

President outlines plans

During the Student Association meeting Monday night, President David Leebron addressed the decreased endowment, concerns about the proposed Rice-Baylor College of Medicine merger and outlined the overall status of the university. After mentioning a short history of student, faculty and financial trends at the university, Leebron presented his plan for current and future campus expansion and said he intends to keep Rice in the running as a competitive research university while maintaining the small size of the school.

Sports notebook: Baseball beats Bobcats in fall ball exhibition

Rice fans were granted a respite from this fall's poor performances in both football and soccer when the baseball team took the field at Reckling Park last Sunday. This year, the team's fall schedule was cut to one game, so the exhibition against Texas State University was fans' only chance to catch a glimpse of the Owls until the Feb. 19 season opener at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Although the look was limited, it was certainly promising, as Rice came out on top 14-6 in the 14-inning exhibition against the Bobcats. Sophomore southpaw Taylor Wall, who enjoyed a weekend starting job as a freshman last year and will presumably receive the same role next spring, took the hill and allowed two hits and one run over the first two innings.

Letters to the Editor

Online Comments of the Week

KTRU Corner: No Age presents Losing Feeling

There is something unique in the dynamics of a music duo. Roles are duly assigned to each of the two - specific instruments played, singing and songwriting credits, auxiliary forms of multi-tasking - all of which can complement, and sometimes even contradict, the tried-and-true adage that less is more.The noise-pop duo No Age is a shining example of the good that can come from such a duo. Drummer Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall both emerged from the Los Angeles hardcore/punk scene and formed the group after their previous band, Wives, parted ways.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Amelia fails to take flight

Amelia Earhart was known for flying high. Unfortunately the new biopic,Amelia,doesn't quite reach the same heights as its real-life counterpart. Hilary Swank (Birds of America), who portrays Earhart, may bear a striking resemblance to the pilot; this fails, however, to make up for the stilted dialogue and characters, though they are based on real historical figures. The outcome, alas, is a flat movie that fails to live up to its potential. The film opens with Earhart beginning to capture the heart of the American people, displaying her daring escapades and achieving numerous firsts for women. Pushed by her manager-turned-husband George Putnam (Nights in Rodanthe's Richard Gere), Earhart begins as a phony who only wishes to garner publicity - and a boatload of money - for her famous flight across the Atlantic when, in actuality, she was only a simple passenger.

Cirque du Freak scares up a good time

Let's start by saying that, yes, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistantis just another vampire movie based off a series of teen novels. However, this particular film succeeds where its predecessors (ahem, Twilight) have failed, bringing superb casting and production quality to the table. There is no slack-jawed Kristen Stewart or awkwardly inarticulate Robert Pattinson, nor are there the gasping, misty-eyed tween fangirls screaming about Edward's abs. The casting aloneputs Cirque du Freak a bit higher on the totem pole than all those other teenage vampire stories, and the movie's unique plot never fails to entertain.

Soccer gains speed as season winds to disappointing close

If the soccer team had played as well in the first part of the year as they did this weekend, they might be resting their starters in the season finale in preparation for a deep playoff run. Instead, the team's play over the last weekend has resulted in little more than consolation for a team that has struggled and stumbled through a season of coming up just short. On Friday, the Owls (6-10-3, 3-6-1 Conference USA) traveled to Colorado Springs, Colo., to take on Colorado College in the frigid, low-20's contest. Rice persevered through a pair of overtimes to take the Tigers (11-5-2, 7-2-1 C-USA) to a 0-0 draw. With this shutout, the Rice defense had gone 220 straight minutes without giving up a goal.

Commentary: McGwire's return could open Cooperstown doors

Hold on to your syringes - Big Mac is back. Even though the Yankees clinched the American League pennant on Sunday, the most surprising story in baseball Monday was not the Bronx Bombers' return to the Fall Classic. No, that honor went instead to St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's announcement that Mark McGwire, the steroid swinger, will be his hitting coach next season.

New RPC committees increase efficiency

The Thresher has a long, tumultuous history with the Rice Program Council. They plan events, we complain about them, the animosity continues. Last week's staff editorial notwithstanding ("Esperanza planning proves problematic," Oct. 23), however, we've had generally good things to say about RPC in the past year. Last year, they booked a big-name band, The National, for Homecoming, and Ben Kweller for Willy Week, and the on-campus Esperanza impressed even the sharpest of critics. Forget about last year's Rondelet, and RPC seems to be getting better each year.As such, we feel that RPC's idea to step up accessibility is well-founded (see story, page 1). While club membership in previous years may have been somewhat limited, this year's application process allowed interested students the opportunity to join any of the committees. Since our blanket tax monies fund the club, it only makes sense that RPC publicize their organization more and that students, especially underclassmen, get involved.

University address unfairly excludes students

On Monday, President David Leebron spoke to nearly 100 students at the Student Association meeting, displaying his wit and charm to an attentive and concerned audience. After touching on Rice's rise through the rankings, Leebron reached the meat of his presentation: the discussion surrounding the proposed merger between Rice and the Baylor College of Medicine. He handily fielded the subsequent questions, and students left the meeting feeling confident their concerns had been answered.Unfortunately, one question remained: How did this speech and the ensuing discussion differ from the one that occurred just a few days earlier at his State of the University address?