Special Projects

Men's 2009 Tennis Preview

What is leadership? Is it the respect automatically assigned to the eldest, the veterans and the weathered? Or is it something earned, something found when the obstacles are toughest and the chips are at their lowest? This is the question the men's tennis team has dealt with in the weeks before the dawning of their spring season. Traditionally, those at the top of the ladder - such as junior Bruno Rosa, currently ranked 26th in the nation - would be the ones steering the team. But a glut of highly-touted, highly-talented freshmen has made the idea of team leadership a bit more opaque.

Owls continue search for offense in pair of road losses

After a decisive victory against George Washington University last week, it seemed as though the women's basketball team was on an upswing, but youth and inconsistency once again undercut the Owls' efforts. Rice traveled to El Paso last Friday to take on the University of Texas-El Paso in the first conference game of the season. From the start, the Owls seemed to carry with them the momentum from the win against GW: For the fourth time in two seasons, Rice carried a halftime lead into the locker room.

Science and faith not totally separate, exclusive domains

This winter break, I ran into a peculiar type of person. Most of you know the type I'm talking about - the one who thinks Ann Coulter is funny and who honestly has more respect for the talk show hosts who ridicule our politicians than the politicians themselves. The type who associates to the point of confusion the ideals of our Founding Fathers, those of the Republican Party and those of the Bible. The worst part was that they were related to me.On the other side of things, though, are people like my roommate from last year, whose devotion to the Democratic Party was total and unquestioning. Someone who was disappointed in both Democratic candidates because they were not radical enough. Someone who seemed to take the highly polemic work of Richard Dawkins at face value.

Rice overlooks out-of-state students

Over the last few years, we've seen the introduction of a new campus-wide marketing effort and new slogans and taglines to broaden Rice's footprint in the college market. The driving motivation behind the implementation of all these changes was to break Rice's regionalized reputation as the "Harvard of the South" and to begin to draw students more heavily from schools outside of Texas. While some say that the measures we have taken as a university - making phrases like "Unconventional Wisdom" and "Who Knew?" the most prominent verbal associations with our name - are actually cheapening our reputation, that's not the point of this article.My point is that, for all the money we're putting into advertising, we should be experiencing tremendous returns. But when I go home, most people I talk to have never heard of Rice, and half of those who have don't know whether it's in Houston or Austin. Financing isn't the only support that a project of this scale needs. If we're really trying to draw out-of-state students, the administration - with the help of the Faculty Senate - needs to make efforts to accommodate them.

New hygiene product can aid green effort

Every time I tune into the increasingly prevalent environmental news, everywhere from documentaries to commercials to blogs to newspaper headlines, I tend to feel like the sky is falling and the world is burning (or, rather, melting). It's easy to feel like there is nothing we, as mere players in such a vast system, can do to make a difference. But there is. There is the truism of "recycle, reduce, reuse," and while they are all as important as ever, the "reduce" facet deserves more attention than it normally gets. Well, maybe it is time to look into this "reduce" concept.Luckily, there is something relatively new on the horizon that most people probably don't know about yet. And you'll have to excuse me, guys, because although the environmental issue affects all of us, this column is mainly directed at women. Enter: the menstrual cup.

Men's 2009 Track & Field Preview

The University of Houston Cougars continue to become an increasingly larger target on the Rice University Athletic Department's office dartboard. Not only did the football team circle the final tilt on the 2008 schedule against UH as an important matchup that could possibly make or break their season, head men's track and field coach Jon Warren (Jones '88) has stated that the Houston men's indoor track team will be a competitive rival in the battle for the Conference USA men's indoor track title.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Nocturnal noshing: Because all-night food still loves off-campus.

A diverse student body in a diverse city needs a diverse selection of dining options. Along with T.C. and House of Pies, here are a few more ways to ward off the midnight munchies.

Outer Loop hazard to drivers, pedestrians

A substantial hazard exists that surrounds all of Rice University: the Outer Loop. As someone who has traveled and crossed the Outer Loop several times, whether merely for exercise or as a pathway to reach an alternate destination, I am fully aware of the large number of pedestrians who make use of it daily. For anyone who uses it, the sacred Outer Loop serves as an excellent jogging and walking lane, a convenient route to different parking lots and a barrier that, coupled with the hedges, shields Rice from some of Houston's more unsavory aspects. But the Outer Loop itself presents several dangers to both the students who use it and the drivers who cross it getting in and out of Rice. During the nighttime and early morning hours, the Outer Loop becomes a deadly intersection of pedestrians and cars. I frequently have been the passenger inside a car whose driver nearly crashed into an innocent jogger, a incident caused not only by the alarming lack of light but also by the general dynamics of the Outer Loop. The first impulse might be to blame the driver for his recklessness, but it is not completely his fault.

Halas' cancer work earns Department of Defense nod

The world is always looking for a way to cure cancer or at least find a way to fight it. As it turns out, we may just have to look among our faculty.The Department of Defense named Naomi Halas, a professor of chemistry and electrical and computer engineering, a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow at the end of last year.

Eastwood's engine stalls in Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood has suggested to the press that his new drama Gran Torino will be his final acting appearance. But this disorganized disappointment would be an inappropriate finale to Eastwood's brilliant fifty-year career. At its onset, Gran Torino promises to be many things: funny, tense, moving and original. It fails to deliver on every count.Yes, there are many chances for Eastwood (Dirty Harry) to whip out a gun and terrify bad guys in this movie. His character, a crotchety old man named Walt Kowalski, snarls, speaks almost entirely in racial slurs, confronts various thugs, beats up a guy one-third his age and says things like, "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me." But, for the most part, the film substitutes violence for actual drama.

Commentary: With Darius, the list of issues carries on for miles

My issues with Darius Miles began at a Chipotle.Unlike most, I hate the place. I hate the overpriced food, hate those silver-plated tables, and hate the info-laden cups that tell me why a farmer in Iowa thinks pigs are sexier than Marisa Miller.

News in Brief: Inner Loop flooding; Nanotoxicology commendations

Flooding in Inner Loop due to city of Houston

Rice bowl win both historic and reflective of senior accomplishments

It was a reverse. During the third quarter of the Texas Bowl, Chase Clement sent a lateral, short and sweet, at Jarett Dillard's chest. The All-Everything receiver took the pass as the Western Michigan defense began to swarm, ready to cement a loss of yards. But Dillard, more often known for class than cleverness, wheeled and flicked the ball back to Clement, wide-eyed and wide-open, who popped into the end-zone to give Rice a 30-0 lead.

Left 4 Dead: Bring on the zombie apocalypse

Forget everything you know about co-op shooters; Valve has raised the first-person shooter bar yet again with the release of Left 4 Dead, one of 2008's best multiplayer titles.The game's story is somewhat skimpy on the details, but the main thing to know is that a zombie apocalypse is going on outside, and it's up to the four "Survivors" to blast their way through wave after wave of undead and make it from one safe room to the next. To keep things interesting, players also have to deal with five different "Special Infected" zombies, who have mutated abilities beyond that of a normal zombie grunt: There's the Hunter, who can pounce on Survivors from afar; the Smoker, who can pull Survivors away from the group with his long tongue; the Boomer, whose bile attracts the horde; the Tank, who can beat the living hell out of the Survivors and soaks up a ridiculous amount of damage before dying; and the Witch, who is harmless until players wake her up with flashlights or loud noises, in which case she can kill them in one swipe.

Rice needs help during financial plight

There's nothing easy, nothing fortunate and nothing guaranteed about the current recession.Nobody is unaffected, and nobody without responsibility. So when President David Leebron announces a hiring freeze (see story, page 1), we should not look at the plan as a surprise; rather, we should look at this stoppage as a necessary measure for Rice's fiscal survival during the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.This freeze, the cessation of expansion, puts the campus's status as an elite institution at risk. On average, Rice hires 38 people per month, many of those heading into Housing and Dining and Facilities, Engineering and Planning to accelerate the university's recent growth. Now, you may not find yourself personally affected by the Big Chill, but that doesn't mean that the student body shouldn't chip in to carry us through the mire and muck of these times. Because many service resources will be stretched to the max, a greater burden of maintaining Rice's reputation and good order will fall on the student body's shoulders. It means that students should be more aware of the ramifications of their actions. When a night at Willy's Pub turns into a night of debacles, try to rein the destruction in a bit. Be aware of your surroundings, and keep the mayhem to a minimum.

Owls struggle to gain momentum on road trip

After a five-game road trip that seemed even longer after numerous double digit losses, the women's basketball team may want to heed one of golf's oldest bits of advice: step up and swing without thinking about it. That is exactly what they did upon coming home to Tudor Fieldhouse on Monday, facing George Washington University only 24 hours after an embarrassing 31 point loss to University of Texas-San Antonio.

Green does a world good

This week, Wiess College senior Jeremy Caves showed off his scientific literacy, and in an magnificent showing with the rest of his research team, he won Houston's Recycle Ike contest by suggesting that the city turn the organic waste into Biochar (see story, page 1).While our lengthy stays in the newsroom and away from the lab prevent us from fully comprehending just how remarkable a process this truly is, we do know that by turning Ike's debris into buried carbon, Caves and his crew have taken one more step toward providing a good environment for all of Rice's generations.

New year an excellent time for last push improvements

With the spring semester beginning comes the return of fickle weather the reluctant return to studying and drudgery, and an ardent pursuit of cheap textbooks. But underneath this simple and routine facade lies a somewhat mundane and repetitive but very relevant detail. The most significant distinction the spring semester has over its autumnal counterpart is the fresh start for all involved and the potential benefits this new beginning can contribute to our university. The spring semester is a great way to truly bring about change to campus since it signifies a more communal student experience. The vast majority of those entering the spring semester are officially tried-and-true students; this statement is obviously true for upperclassmen but for freshman, it's an important distinction. Most true freshmen -not to be confused with transfer students - are no longer green and inexperienced in the maze of university life and can now, along with their transfer brethren, be considered fully initiated members of the Rice community. And although some students may have been abroad or on leave during the fall semester, most of the student body present in the spring have experienced the events and controversies that marked the fall term, such as Hurricane Ike and changes made concerning student finances and organizations like the Student Admission Council. These experiences and our reactions to them unite us as a student body, and it is only as a large body of students that we can bring change to campus.

Bedtime Stories not quite bedtime appropriate

Adam Sandler's funny but down-in-the-dumps guy routine just is not working anymore.The act may have come across as comical in The Water Boy, and Sandler got away with it in his recent film I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry because of adequate box office returns.