Special Projects

James Tour wins Feynman Prize for nanocar work

Molecule-sized cars complete with buckyball tires may bring new meaning to the term "compact car" thanks to chemistry professor James Tour, who has been awarded the 2008 Feynman Prize for his synthesis of the nanocar.The honor, which recognizes researchers who make significant contributions to the beneficial use of nanotechnology, is distributed by the California think tank Foresight Institute. The award was named after the late physicist Richard P. Feynman, who stressed that an atomic-level understanding of biology and chemistry would be crucial for further developments in the field.

Graduate student dies

Graduate student Han Li, 31, died on Tuesday night after falling unconscious after using a stationary bike at the Recreation Center. Li came to Rice in 2006 from China to work on his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Shortly after 5 p.m. Li was getting off of a stationary bicycle in the weight room when witnesses saw him collapse, Rice Recreation Center Associate Director Evan Stein said. Officials in the Recreation Center alerted Rice Emergency Medical Services, which came to the scene and immediately began administering CPR. The Houston Fire Department later arrived and transported Li by ambulance to Methodist Hospital. His cause of death is unknown. There were no known malfunctions with the gym equipment, Stein said.

Men's basketball plagued by inconsistency

One step forward and two steps back is an approach men's basketball coach Ben Braun hopes will not last in Rice's struggle to find its identity on the court. When students left after final exams in mid-December, the basketball team stayed on the court for a six-game stretch during which they took on some of their most challenging opponents of the year. On Dec. 17, before the Owls took on sixth-ranked University of Oklahoma and one-loss Texas A&M University, they had to take on another university known better for academic rather than athletic strength: Luxury cars filled the parking lot when Harvard, an undersized squad known for its numerous perimeter threats, came to town.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Football takes first postseason win in 55 years

For the first time in decades, the football team won a game that meant more than just an extra mark in the win column. For the seniors on the team, it was the culmination of years of work, a final chance to step on the field with their brothers-in-arms to show the nation what they were capable of achieving. //

Owls snag bowl game victory

Defensive tackle Chance Talbert (87) leads the charge out of the tunnel at Reliant Stadium before the Texas Bowl. Rice defeated Western Michigan University 38-14.See Sports section for stories.

KTRU pick of the week: Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work

Poetry on Record features a diverse collection of poetry on four discs chock full of readings by the poets themselves. The poetry ranges from incomplete fragments to complete works.The different poets' presentations range from flat to enthralling. The exceptional tracks of the album have the power to bring the artists' poetry to life and give the listener a detailed portrait of the poet.

Backpage's Voyage Through the Annals of History

Welcome to the Backpage's Journey through the Annals of History! Because the Backpage can't go online each week, we've chosen to dig up an article from the Thresher's past and put it online for the world to rediscover. We've also recorded two audio readings in case all these words get too burdensome on your eyes. Please enjoy and send any comment to backpage@rice.edu.

Broken U.S.-Bolivia relations require fix

Over the eight years of his presidency, the only two significant elements of President Bush's Latin America strategy have been continuing the War on Drugs and signing individual free trade agreements. The Andean Trade Preferences Act, abbreviated as APTDEA was a perfect example of this strategy. In exchange for cooperation in cocaine reduction efforts, the U.S. signed trade deals with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to allow them to export textiles and other goods to the U.S. market. The APTDEA was a win-win situation: a boon for Latin American producers and a plus for U.S. consumers. Yet just three months ago the White House decided to undermine its own free trade agenda by suspending this agreement with Bolivia.

Marley & Me pleases entire family with lovable characters and plot

Released on Christmas Day, the new movie Marley & Me could not be a better Christmas gift. Presenting an endearing, down-to-earth story filled with adorable Labrador puppies, Marley & Me will leave children and adults alike wishing they had received a puppy under their Christmas trees.Based on the 2005 nonfiction book Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, the film follows the lives of real-life columnist John Grogan (Drillbit Taylor's Owen Wilson) and his wife Jenny (The Break-Up's Jennifer Aniston) through their experiences with their dog Marley. Marley & Me tells part of John's life story, including John buying Marley as a puppy, Jenny's miscarriage, job changes and the births of their three children, by paralleling these events with Marley's unruly behavior, such as Marley digesting Jenny's new jewelry or tearing up the house.

Rice modifies financial aid

Rice Student Financial Services is offering its own bailout in these difficult economic times, not for banks or auto-makers but for incoming freshmen and their families struggling to fund four years of tuition. The changes to financial aid include an increased annual income threshold from $60,000 to $80,000 for families whose need-based aid will not require loans, and a decrease of the maximum amount of loans a student must contribute to their financial aid package from $14,500 to $10,000.

Rice team wins Ike contest

Before the Owls reigned victorious in the Texas Bowl, a different group of Owls beat over 200 participants to claim first place in Houston's Recycle Ike Contest. A group of Rice faculty and staff members led by Wiess College senior Jeremy Caves and Earth Science Postdoctoral Research Associate William Hockaday created a proposal to turn the 5.6 million cubic yards of debris, including fallen trees and other green waste, left by Hurricane Ike into atmosphere-friendly biomass charcoal known as Biochar. "There are two things you can do with dry plant material," Assistant Earth Science Professor Carrie Masiello said. "You can burn it, which is to combust it in the presence of oxygen, or you can pyrolyze it, which is to heat it in the absence of oxygen."

Electric Arguments eclectic but electrifying

Sometimes, Paul McCartney just wants to be himself, and when he does, he uses a pen name. "The Fireman" was his pseudonym of choice a decade ago, when it graced the cover of several electronica albums, and now it is back for another effort, Electric Arguments.With this new LP, The Fireman, a duo consisting of McCartney and record producer Youth, branches out into a wide mixture of different styles and sounds, and Electric Arguments thrills listeners with the joy of discovery. Not every song on the album reaches the same height, but this project is a triumph anyway, and the results sound better and better with each new listen.

Pickens lays out energy plan

Concerned by the United States' dependence on foreign fuels and lack of sustainable domestic energy, Chairman, founder, and CEO of BP Capital T. Boone Pickens addressed a full auditorium at a town hall meeting hosted by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy last Tuesday, Jan. 6. In the meeting, Pickens, ranked the 117th richest American by Forbes, challenged the American people to divert one-third of imported oil to domestic energy resources within the next 10 years."I'm gonna put up my money and say what is my solution," Pickens said. "I'm a lone ranger."

Rice good to help families in need

With all the attention recently on the economy, it may come as a surprise to hear that Rice is raising its no-loan threshold, giving higher-income families the opportunity to qualify for a financial aid package that does not include loans (see story, page 1). Taking its lead from Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale, Rice decided last week to increase the annual income threshold from $60,000 to $80,000.Pardon us while we stand and applaud.

Football's Casey leaves Rice to enter NFL Draft

There is going to be a mammoth, Thor-sized hole at Rice Stadium next year. Sophomore James Casey, fresh off leading Rice to its first bowl victory since 1954, announced Monday that he will declare for the 2009 NFL Draft. "After talking long and hard with my wife, with my family, and looking at all the factors, I've decided to enter the draft this year," Casey, who sent in the preliminary draft papers on Dec. 2, said. "I've enjoyed every minute I've had here at Rice. I'll be a Rice Owl 'til the day I die."

Sports not only for athletically inclined

In the movie Milk, anti-gay activist Anita Bryant condemns laws and statutes protecting gay Americans on the basis that permitting them to do whatever it is that gay Americans do - which, as far as I understand, are mostly the same boring things that straight Americans do - would decimate the country and plunge its citizens, perhaps overnight, into severe moral degradation. Bryant and several other characters in the movie (and in real life) make this assertion with the underlying argument that the religion of Christ is the religion of the United States. Unfortunately for them, we know that Christianity isn't the American religion. Sports are the real American religion, and it is our patriotic duty to celebrate them.Rice won a bowl game last week. Maybe you heard about it. Several dozen of Rice's finest (and also #94, kicker Brandon Yelovich) took to the field and punished a motley crew of Michiganders, who deserved to lose because they are bad people and even worse footballers.

Fincher's Curious Case hits the right buttons

Most people don't realize that the success of a film depends heavily on when it is released. The fact that action movies dominate the box office in the late spring and summer is no coincidence. The major audiences for that genre are kids and teenagers who have just gotten out of school. Thrillers and horror movies do best in October (probably thanks to Halloween), romantic comedies and family movies are heavy in November (Thanksgiving) and Oscar-contending dramas flood in during December.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is no exception to the movie-debut calendar rule. It's hard to imagine this film being released at any point in the year other than Christmas. The movie's magical aura fits quite nicely with the spirit of the holiday season.

Freeze on new staff hires starts

In light of the recent global financial crisis, Rice has instituted a temporary staff hiring freeze and is asking that departments reduce their non-compensation operating expenses by 1 percent . The budget reductions should result in total university savings of $600,000, according to Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins.

Speaker choice good, but system needs more fixes

How is it that Stuyvesant High School can book This American Life radio show host Ira Glass for its commencement and Rice University cannot? We have a few ideas about this.Today, the Commencement Speaker Committee announced that the speaker for the 2009 Commencement will be Zainab Salbi, the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, an organization that helps female survivors of war to rebuild their lives through providing them financial assistance and education (see story, page 1). Though Salbi's father served as Saddam Hussein's personal pilot, Salbi herself is not associated with Hussein, as is evident from her body of humanitarian work.