Republican Ed Emmett (Lovett '71) won Harris County judge on Tuesday, defeating Democratic candidate David Mincberg. Emmett was appointed to Harris County judge in March 2007 by the Harris County Commissioner's court. In 1978, Emmett ran for the legislature and served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives.
Every conceivable size and shape of packing Styrofoam covered the floor of the Rice Gallery on Wednesday in a confusion of cultural refuse, from which Michael A. Salter sought to create order and beauty.His exhibit too much, which opened yesterday in Sewall Hall, consists partly of the gray walls covered in a sea of yellow graphic icons that resemble warning signs with isolated and abstract messages. One icon is an anthropomorphic ice cream cone with the grimace and gloves of a boxer. Another is a gumball machine containing an infant in utero. These images are adaptable to viewers' unique personal interpretations.
This week in California, the Pacific Invitational turned out to be the tournament the golf team was waiting for. The Owls' fall season has been markedly weak despite high hopes after a productive summer and a promising transfer arrived on campus. But on Friday before the team left for California, head coach Drew Scott said he was only waiting for a spark to ignite their fire. "We need to have a good week," he said. "We need to have one good tournament that sparks us. We are on the cusp of breaking through."
The baseball team finished the exhibition season undefeated and with a combined batting average of .348 over the four 14-inning games. The Owls' 21-2 win over McNeese State University last Saturday at Reckling Park was the last in a series of two wins over the University of Texas and one over Texas State University.New players continued performing well during this exhibition, as junior Brock Holt, freshman Anthony Rendon, junior Steven Sultzbaugh and freshman Jeremy Rathjen each had three hits. The offensive star of the day, however, was junior Jimmy Comerota. His seven hits and five RBI included one home run and a stolen base. The other Owls who collected multiple hits were freshman Dave Peterson and sophomore Michael Fuda, who had three and four RBI, respectively.
After months of uncertainty, the longest election in history has come to a close and the country can now accurately identify the next leader of the free world. President-elect Barack Obama, having run a brilliant campaign, deserves all the victory and praise going his way. His triumph was indeed historic, and I will be proud to look to him as my country's leader. But although I am enthusiastic, I do have concerns.Throughout the last two years, Obama promised many things and raised our expectations extraordinarily high. Despite the ostensible closure of his campaign, many Americans still do not know for sure where Obama plans to take this country. Yes, we have heard that he is for hope and change, but, as a newcomer with a short resume, voters approached Obama much like a Rorschach inkblot, seeing what they wanted to see, not necessarily what he is.
While participating in the Halloween edition of the twice-monthly Baker 13 run last Friday, Martel College sophomore Will Meyers won a fight with a Fondren Library window, shattering the entire pane in an enthusiastic effort to make his mark (see story, page 1).While we lament the ordeal Mr. Meyers had to endure while partaking in one of Rice's more notorious traditions, and we cringe at the thought of what his injuries could have been had he jumped facing forwards instead of sideways, we feel we must issue a word of caution to all of those who aim to emulate Meyers in the future.
The baseball team continued their preseason success with a 13-6 home win over the University of Texas last Sunday. Rice has now won all three of its preseason games, having already defeated Texas State University 8-4 at Reckling Park last weekend and UT 13-6 in Austin. The Owls will go for an undefeated preseason when they play McNeese State University tomorrow at Reckling Park. After that game, the team has a break until their first regular season contest at California Polytechnic State University on Feb. 20. Rice was able to showcase several of its new players in the scheduled 14-inning exhibition. Coach Wayne Graham sent eight pitchers to the mound in total- freshman Taylor Wall, junior Ryan Berry, junior Mike Ojala, sophomore Matt Evers, junior Zack Harwood, freshman Andrew Benak, freshman Anthony Fazio and senior Jordan Rogers. The lefty Wall started the game and threw two innings, striking out two. Berry tossed three scoreless innings, while Ojala, Evers and Harwood completed two apiece.
Warm sunny weather drew students and donors alike out into the open Friday for the formal dedication of the John and Anne Grove. The grove, which covers the area bounded by Will Rice, Hanszen and Sid Richardson colleges and College Way, is the result of a gift by John and Anne Mullens (Hanszen '63 and Jones '64, respectively). The grove is meant to be a place for student interaction, echoing the experience of the Mullens, who first met in the grove while they were students at Rice, John Mullens said at the ceremony. Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman began the dedication by labeling the grove as a place for students to escape from the stresses of school.
President David Leebron spoke to a packed crowd in Duncan Hall last Thursday while delivering his fourth State of the University Address.Citing Hurricane Ike and its aftermath, Leebron said the year has turned out to be a historically different year for Rice. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, classes resumed after the hurricane with 75 percent of faculty and staff on campus. Leebron said this showed resilience and compassion in responding quickly to the storm. After Ike, the campus suffered $3 million in damage.
Jet lag makes us all a bit cranky and tired, but most of us plan time into our trips for our bodies and minds to recover. For the swim team, relaxation time was not an option as they traveled to Oregon State University this past weekend. The evening they arrived they dove in headfirst and by the end of Friday's meet, they were trailing 56 points behind the rested Beavers. After a night of sleep, the Owls came back out to face OSU for a second day of competition in an additional eight events. Ultimately, though, OSU took first in 13 out of the 17 events and beat Rice 181-136. Tomorrow, nine Rice swimmers will be traveling to Austin, Tex., to compete in the American Swimming Association Open Water Championships. Last year was the inaugural meet and Rice took home the first place title, clinching five of the top nine spots.
Riding a six-game winning streak, the volleyball team faced Tulane University, their stiffest opponent of the season, on Friday. The Green Wave broke the Owls' streak in a hard-fought, five-set match. However, Rice was able to bounce back on Sunday, taking out the University of Texas- El Paso in three sets to cap off a split weekend, their first since the beginning of October. Rice plays a pair of Conference USA road matches this weekend, beginning Friday night at 7 p.m. against the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla. Tulsa sits in fourth place in the conference, right behind Rice, and a Golden Hurricane victory would create a tie for third place. The match will also be a chance for the Owls to exact revenge for a five-set loss to Tulsa on Oct. 5. Senior outside hitter Jessica Holderness said she expects a competitive match.
Guzzling beer may soon be as healthy sipping as a glass of red wine. A team of six undergraduates in Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Jonathan Silberg's biochemistry and bioengineering lab is working on extracting the antioxidant resveratrol found in red wine and splicing it into beer. This genetically engineered concoction will boast the same cancer-fighting, age-defying benefits naturally found in grapes."Resveratrol has a myriad of health benefits like improved cardiovascular function, increased insulin sensitivity for Type II diabetics, and [it] inhibits several proteins known to contribute to cancer," Sid Richardson College junior Taylor Stevenson, who is working on the project, said.
For most of us, Rice exists for four years. We matriculate; we grow up a little; maybe learn something; and move on. Occasionally, we are reminded of the evolution of the school by incoming freshmen: They know almost nothing of what happened before they arrived. The stories of legend from your freshman year never pass to them. There is no oral tradition here. Those legends die when you graduate.And so, when we experience a great shift, we see it as just that: one change among the years we spend here. We're content to watch as "progress" is forced upon us, not because we necessarily agree with the motives or purposes we see in it, but because we see Rice four years at a time. And how much can change in four years?
The football team continued its pursuit of a bowl game with a 42-17 conference win over Tulane last Saturday at the Louisiana Superdome. The Owls won their second game in a row to improve their record to 5-3, 4-1 in conference. Rice needs to win at least one of its next four games to be eligible for a bowl bid, which would be the team's second in three years. Jumping out to a 35-0 lead by halftime, the Owls started firing early against the Green Wave with three touchdowns in the first quarter and two more in the second. Senior quarterback Chase Clement threw two touchdowns to sophomore wide receiver James Casey, one for seven yards and the other for 17, and accumulated two more himself with nine-and six-yard runs.
Who knew that Rice University employs the same lawyer as Roger Clemens, ExxonMobil, Enron's accountants and Anna Nicole Smith's ex-husband?Earlier this fall, Rice was served a wrongful death lawsuit in the case of a football player who collapsed and died at practice in 2006. The athlete, freshman Dale Lloyd II, suffered from undiagnosed sickle-cell anemia and died following a workout which allegedly included sixteen 100-yard sprints. Rice's reaction to the lawsuit was to bring in Houston's own celebrity attorney, Rusty Hardin, to arrange the university's legal defense.
Rice students' lukewarm views about environmentalism and recycling could heat up with initiatives of the Environmental Studies 302 projects, which have renewed campus efforts to increase recycling and raise awareness about environmental issues. ENST 302: Environmental Issues: Rice in the Future, is co-taught by Sustainability Director Richard Johnson and Professor Elizabeth Long. As part of the course, students must design a project that will help make Rice more sustainable. One of the groups is holding an Intercollegiate Recycling Competition, which began Monday and will last through next Friday to promote environmental awareness and recycling habits on campus.
Let's take a peek at how 30 squads will compare to one another. And for all you cinephiles out there, try to spot the movie reference accompanying each team (which will be about as difficult as making Manu Ginobili flop)!
Most first-person shooters funnel players through level after level of monsters or Nazis, holding their hands telling them what to do next and waiting until the end of the game to give them all the badass weapons.Far Cry 2 is not most first-person shooters.
