NEWS
12/4/08 6:00pm
News in Brief: Felon on campus, MOB in Thanksgiving Day Parade, plus more
RUPD pursues felon on campus
RUPD pursues felon on campus
[Editor's Note: While Tomb Raider: Underworld was released across all platforms, this review only covers the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game.]It was only two short years ago that developer Crystal Dynamics resurrected the troubled Tomb Raider franchise with Tomb Raider: Legend and then followed up with a solid remake of the original Tomb Raider just one year later. Can Eidos and Crystal Dynamics pull off a three-peat this year with Tomb Raider: Underworld?
$450 billion. What is that number? The estimated cost for the rest of the Iraq War? The amount of money needed to bail out all the faltering companies in the United States? Actually, $450 billion is approximately how much Americans spend on Christmas each year. Each year, we shop for hours in crowded malls and stress over figuring out the best gifts for friends and family - and don't forget the standard Black Friday articles about accidental deaths and mass chaos. We stretch our budgets and seek the best deals to spend those dollars and cents on numerous purchases of video games, DVDs, designer clothes, jewelry, furniture and other items all for the sake of providing a gift for someone for the holiday. After all, you wouldn't want to be the jerk who didn't give a gift to someone who gave you one, would you?Christmas is a holiday that is loathed by many and loved by many. People complain about the much-too-early advertising and Christmas decorations. There are people who despise the Christmas music of Bing Crosby blasting from the speakers and the holiday lights tripping them on their way across the living room. On the other hand, there are people who love the holiday atmosphere, Christmas cheer, spiked eggnog and trips to the ice skating rink. Either way, one cannot deny the ridiculous amount of money put into this holiday. And for what purpose? Was Christmas made so that we could all buy gifts for one another? Was it made so that your aunt could buy you another sweater vest from Banana Republic? Or should we consider the greater meaning of Christmas?
In times of international turmoil and political hostilities, connections between countries can still be forged through neutral institutions like universities. Last month President David Leebron and five other American university presidents traveled to Iran to visit the Iranian minister of science and research technology as well as four universities highly regarded for their science programs. "The basic idea was to start a conversation about where science is going in the 21st century and lay some groundwork for increased interactions between Iranian and American universities and faculty and institutions," Leebron said.
Radio Myanmar (Burma) opens a door to sounds that are not often heard in this part of the world.The album's assortment of radio recordings from Yangon, Myanmar, from the spring of 2007, as well as tracks from 1994 through 2002, showcase Sublime Frequencies' signature style of interspersing "legitimate" recordings with soundscapes, ambient noise and radio-swill interludes. The album presents a broad spectrum of programming from the Burmese state-controlled radio station: Myanmar's Voice.
Welcome to the Backpage's Voyage 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 for your eyes. Please enjoy and send any comment to backpage@rice.eduThis week's article comes from the October 16, 1947, issue of the Thresher and is divided into two ?rst-person accounts. All of the original text has been reproduced, including misspellings and grammatical errors.
With the Academy Awards just a few months away, Hollywood often releases a slate of films competing for a late Best Picture nomination. Among this year's releases is Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle, known for reinventing the typically dark drug genre by making it comical in Trainspotting and also making zombies freakily fast in 28 Days Later.Slumdog Millionaire has a very original premise, centering on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the wildly popular American game show. Jamal Malik (played admirably by newcomer Dev Patel) is an orphaned teenager who has spent the majority of his youth stealing and begging just to get by. He has overcome incredible odds to make it on the show and is now on the verge of winning 20 million rupees (around 500,000 American dollars). Doctors, lawyers and teachers have never reached the final question, but Jamal inexplicably knows all the answers. The police and the game show host believe that Malik is cheating, but Jamal has a different theory: it is destiny. Using cinematic flashbacks, director Boyle shows us that the clues to the answers for every question correspond with key events in Malik's life.
After visiting Provo, Utah, and Austin in the past two weeks, the Owls, 2-4 on the year, return home to the renovated Tudor Fieldhouse this weekend before they break for finals. The Owls need just two victories to eclipse their win total from last year after picking up wins against North Florida University and Cal Polytechnic Institute at the Basketball Travelers Invitational hosted by Brigham Young University two weekends ago.
In preparation for the upcoming administrative changes for club financing, the Student Association created a Club Finance Committee on Oct. 26 to serve as a liaison between club treasurers and the university administration. The committee is responsible for representing student club interests when working with Vice President for Finance Kathy Collins and Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman in regard to club accounting policies and finances. The committee will also work closely with the Graduate Student Association.
Four Christmases may advertise itself as a funny, family-oriented Christmas movie, but it falls short on both claims. With comedy rooted in slapstick bathroom humor punctuated by bursts of tacky innuendo, it will leave the audience both disgusted and uncomfortable.The film introduces audiences to Kate (Rendition's Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Fred Claus's Vince Vaughn), the modern couple whose commitment is to never commit to each other - or each other's families. Annoyed by the friction of both of their divorced sets of parents, Kate and Brad never visit their families and instead go on vacations over the holidays. One year, unfortunately, they are caught in the act of leaving for vacation and must visit every single parent: her sex-obsessed mom (Step Brothers' Mary Steenburgen), her surprisingly classy dad (Pride and Glory's Jon Voight), his New Age mom (Hot Rod's Sissy Spacek) and his redneck dad (Lucky You's Robert Duvall), along with all of their siblings (including Flicka's Tim McGraw and Iron Man's Jon Favreau). This gives a total of four Christmas celebrations, hence the title of the film.
The engineering department will soon expand the diversity of its program content to include social lessons in leadership. Rice alumni John (Lovett '73) and Ann (Jones '75) Doerr donated $15 million to establish the Rice Engineering Leadership Center, which is expected to open next fall, Dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering Sallie Keller-McNulty said. The Doerrs' contribution will be designated to helping Rice students remain at the forefront of new developments in engineering. The gift, specifically for the engineering department, was a rarity, since donations of such magnitude often go to the university as a whole, said Keller-McNutly, who also mentioned the donation will fill a need in the department.
There is no such thing as Spanish. If living in Guatemala, Peru and Chile during the last eight months has taught me anything, it is this: There's Guatemalan, Peruvian, Chilean, Argentinean, Bolivian, Uruguayan and so forth, but no "Spanish," except for maybe in Spain.For those of you who are confused, as you have a right to be, let me give an example: if I told a non-Chilean Spanish speaker, mi pololo estaba ponceando con lolitas cuando fue a caretear, ¿cachai? it's a safe bet that he or she would have no idea that I was trying to say, "When my boyfriend went out partying he was making out with lots of teenage girls, do you get that?" And if I told someone in Central America Nacio la gwawa en la chacra he or she wouldn't understand that I was saying, "The baby was born in the country." And that's just the vocabulary. How about accents - where Spaniards use lisps and Argentineans sound like Italians? Or grammar - in which Chileans terminate tu verbs with -i or how tu barely exists between Guatemalans?
Students taking a break from studying this weekend by sitting down in front of the T.V. for some cathartic viewing might as well replace that Lifetime movie with a visit to the Martel College Commons. But even among the Spirit Committee's decorations, they'd better not expect to find Christmas cheer.From death to alcoholism to arguments over rape and domestic abuse, Martel's new student-written play by Brown College senior Klara Wojtkowska, co-directed with Martel senior Tony Parce, progresses like ten melancholy country songs combined into one.and translated from Polish.
Night-time joggers and commuters will not be left in the dark in Facilities, Engineering and Planning's next project. Light fixtures along the outer loop will be installed beginning February in order to increase the safety of Rice's hedge-lined border with the outside world, FE&P Communications Manager Susann Glenn said. The impending improvements are not the first of Rice's collaborations with the City of Houston to positively impact the space.
At a Wednesday press conference, athletics director Chris Del Conte officially announced that Rice had accepted an invitation to play in the 2008 Texas Bowl Reliant Stadium on Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. The game will be the final chapter in the saga of a senior class that has made an imprint on nearly every column of the football team's history books. "To be able to come and have our student athletes, our fans, our faculty, and students to participate in a bowl game right here in the city of Houston, we couldn't ask for anything better," Del Conte said. "Rice belongs in a bowl and not on a plate."
When they are feeling under the weather, 42 percent of Rice students said they would contact their parents prior to seeking treatment from health services or using online resources like WebMD, according to the Student Health Services survey conducted by the Student Association last month. SA Senators Ryan Fleming and Leticia Camara collaborated on the poll in order to address concerns about student awareness and utilization of Rice's Student Health Services, and to identify areas of possible improvement.
To complete one of the best seasons the women's cross country team has ever had, the team placed 22nd overall out of 31 squads at the NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 24. Considering the temperature at race time was 42 degrees, well below the Houston average, the Owls ran an impressive race. The Owls' invitation to the meet marked the first time a Rice team has ever made it to nationals two years consecutively. And in conjunction with second-place spots at both the Conference USA championship and South Central Regional, the showing revealed Rice's ability to compete at the top levels of collegiate running.
Probably everyone would agree that Rice's comprehensive alert system would be good for notifying students of impending natural disasters, campus closings and crimes in the surrounding neighborhoods. But what about the on-campus presence of a gun-wielding man fleeing the Rice University Police Department?We feel that when a man accused of physically assaulting his undergraduate girlfriend evades police custody by vaulting from the roof of Brown College (see story, page 7), students should be notified of his whereabouts, and we don't mean in an e-mail an hour later. Nevertheless, we are very appreciative that at least some college masters provided the electronic communication, considering others did not even bother with that limited notice.
Two hard-fought games in different venues resulted in two separate outcomes for the women's basketball team in the past several weeks. A second-half surge was enough to give the home team a win against Furman University at Tudor Fieldhouse on Nov. 25, but the Owls could not prevent the University of Arkansas - Little Rock from taking a home victory of its own the Saturday afterwards. Freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart stood out as the scoring leader for Rice in both games. She also registered six assists in each game, along with five rebounds against Furman and six against UALR, despite being the shortest player on the court.