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NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Relish: Blue Nile serves up some finger-lickin' fun

By Tim Pawul & Mimi Arnold

If you have an open mind when it comes to food and are willing to venture 15-20 minutes off campus for an uncommon eating experience, Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant should be at the top of your list. With a wide variety of Ethiopian selections - including combination platters that allow you to share and sample a spectrum of vegetables, meats, fish and spices - you can get a taste for the cuisine in no time. With an array of inexpensive, meatless dishes, Blue Nile also appeals to vegetarians, so wash your hands and be prepared to dive in fingers-first.Ambiance

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Ojala to travel with team despite injury, aims for April comeback

By Jonathan Myers

A college baseball pitcher in his senior year often experiences an unfair stigma from his status. To the casual observer, being a senior starter implies that you were either passed over during the previous year's Major League Baseball draft or that you maintain an insignificant role on the pitching staff, willing to resign yourself to another season of sunflower seeds and chewing gum in the bullpen. But for right-handed pitcher Mike Ojala, the fact that he's a senior has few of these connotations. Indeed, the moniker of "senior" belies the immense talent he has exhibited over the three years he has worn a Rice uniform.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Chefs enter culinary combat in today's Samurai showdown

By Cindy Dinh

Three top chefs from North, South and West Serveries will duke it out today in a cooking competition complete with sugar, spices, flames and knives. The Servery Samurai showdown, which begins at 3 p.m. in West Servery, gives chefs two hours to prepare a nutritiously balanced entrée using all of the ingredients from a five-ingredient mystery basket. The winner will possess the title of Culinary Shogun 2010.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Women find success within friendly confines of Galleria

By Chris Pettijohn

Judging by the women's tennis team's home victories this weekend, playing indoors is the way to go for the Owls (5-3). After two tough losses in California last week to No. 12 University of California-Los Angeles (7-1) and Pepperdine University (3-3), Rice swept No. 54 University of Arizona and Texas Tech University in what proved to be a bounce-back weekend for a squad looking for traction.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Unique character, programming of KTRU merit support for blanket tax

By Carina Baskett

We Owls, with our college system and quirky traditions such as Beer Bike, Night of Decadence and Baker 13, take pride in a campus experience that puts the average university to shame. For over 40 years, KTRU has served as an integral part of that tradition. In 1967, a few Hanszenites transmitted a two-watt signal through the buzzer system of the college, dubbing it KHCR (Hanszen College Radio). Now KTRU (the "TRU" is "The Rice University") broadcasts a 50,000-watt signal at 91.7 FM that is heard all over Houston.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Niemann finally making name for self in majors

 

The newest Owl to make his mark in the majors is right-handed pitcher Jeff Niemann, the former ace of the 2003 Owls' vaunted pitching staff that led the team to a national championship. In his rookie year with the Tampa Bay Rays last season, Niemann compiled an impressive 13-6 record and finished fourth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. The Thresher's Yan Digilov spoke with the hurler about his thoughts on Rice, Rays and rain. Rice Thresher: I know that you got to hang out with some of the guys the other week in the alumni game, but how often do you get to come back to Rice these days?

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Rice ready to tussle with nationwide competition

By Natalie Clericuzio

As the baseball team begins its campaign for the 2010 College World Series, anyone can see that its path will not be an easy one. On Rice's regular season schedule, the fifth-ranked Owls will face five preseason Baseball America top-25 teams, including three matches against top-ranked University of Texas, who finished as national runner-up in last year's CWS. Rice will also meet No. 11 Texas Christian University, No. 18 East Carolina University, No. 19 University of San Diego and No. 21 University of Southern Mississippi in their regular season slog.And if that weren't enough, the team will start its season today with a three-game series against a Stanford University squad that is ranked 25th by USA Today.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Baseball 2010: The Climb

By Ryan Glassman

When evaluating the legacy of legendary Rice University baseball coach Wayne Graham, it is easy to pinpoint a few accomplishments as the most telling of the coach's career. Under Graham's guidance in 1995, the Owls qualified for their first NCAA Tournament in school history, the first of 15 straight NCAA appearances for Rice. In 2003, Rice captured its first-ever National Championship in the most successful, storied season in the program's entire history.But a date that flies under the radar in defining Graham's legacy is June 7, 2004, the date of the Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft. On that day, Rice alums Philip Humber (third selection overall), Jeff Niemann (fourth) and Wade Townsend (eighth) made MLB draft history by becoming the first trio of college teammates to be selected within the first 10 picks of the draft. That record still stands and is as good a testament as any to the baseball acumen Graham holds.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Prof. Emeritus Gordon dies

By Josh Rutenberg

Distinguished Professor Emeritus William E. Gordon, age 92, died last Tuesday following complications that arose during a recent hip surgery.Gordon has been recognized worldwide for his invention of the Arecibo radiotelescope, a device that uses radio waves to observe the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere along with other atmospheric bodies. He oversaw the construction of a large-scale observatory based on his radiotelescope design in the karst foothills of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, for which the device is named. The Arecibo Observatory received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Milestone Award and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Landmark Award. Gordon was one of only a handful of people to earn both awards.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Freshmen invited to new colleges

By Jocelyn Wright

If you have somehow missed the multiple invitations and guest passes but are still interested in transferring to Duncan College or McMurtry College, you are in luck: Applications to transfer to either of the new colleges are still being accepted, and invitations have been extended to the freshmen at Baker College, Brown College, Hanszen College and Wiess College. The Office of the Dean of the Undergraduates elected to extend applications to freshmen at these four colleges because they had the fewest number of transfers overall. Two rounds of invitations were sent out, one last week and one last Monday, inviting first-year students from those colleges to transfer, Associate Dean of Undergraduates Matthew Taylor said.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Across the conference

 

As long as the Owls have been members of Conference USA - since 2006, to be exact - the baseball title has belonged to Rice. Conference domination is nothing new to the baseball team, as the Owls won the title of whichever conference to which they have belonged since 1996. In 2010, eight teams aim to change that. Two other C-USA teams earned a top-25 ranking from Baseball America: No. 18 East Carolina University and No. 21 University of Southern Mississippi. Those two squads are the most likely to give Rice trouble in '10.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Hard times continue for men's basketball

By Yan Digilov

Times continue to be tough for the men's basketball team, which suffered through a loss to the University of Southern Mississippi last Saturday. The middle of the season has been a surprising disappointment and the team has woefully sunk to repeating the same mistakes week after week."It was a familiar theme," Head Coach Ben Braun said about the 66-50 loss against Southern Miss (15-9, 5-5 Conference USA). "I was disappointed again that we had some opportunities to score on the inside, and we didn't score.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Video: Sheikh, Wu face off in SA presidential debates

By Seth Brown

Student Association presidential candidates Selim Sheikh and Tiffany Wu debated Monday night after the SA senate convened. Thresher Design Director Eric Doctor moderated the debate, which included questions from himself and the audience. Sheikh, currently the SA internal vice president, and Wu, the SA treasurer, were allowed one minute each for opening statements and question responses, two minutes each for closing statements and 30 seconds each for rebuttals. Certain answers are paraphrased for conciseness, and quotation marks signify direct quotes.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Eater's Digest: The American Food Fight

By Scott Norgaard

Why has food become such a concern for the modern American? How did this basic human requirement transform into something so much greater? Today, the question of what to eat fails to suggest a simple solution, and purported experts in the subject provide no reassurance. Dietitians, nutritionists, food salesmen, those in agribusiness, the government and the media offer us different, often contradictory advice about what we should and should not eat.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

RESET ignores student awareness

By Christoph Meyer

Over the past few years, Rice appears to have made a serious attempt to clean up its environmental impact. Mindful of its sustainability grade on the Green Report Card, which, according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute, tanked at a C- back in 2007, the university has seen its performance rise steadily above average to a B in 2010. Since Rice has come such a long way in such a short period of time, one may be tempted to assume the university is excelling in its environmental endeavors. The new college buildings, designed and constructed to meet higher standards of sustainability and environmental friendliness, embody these "green" ambitions. However, Rice's total energy costs continue to rise, with no apparent end in sight.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

Envision Grants foster cultures of creativity

By Hallie Jordan

Drawn together by Dr. Seuss, color consciousness, water purification and music, six students were awarded the Leadership Rice Envision Grant last fall. Leadership Rice awards Envision Grants of up to $2,500 to students who have an idea for a project that can help enrich a community in some way. Last semester 13 students applied, up from the usual four to six applicants, and only six were chosen.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

The Thresher's voting recommendations

By Staff Editorial

After weeks of preparation by candidates and referendum representatives, Student Association General Elections began at 11:59 p.m. last night, and will be open until Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 2 p.m. Voting is open at sa.rice.edu and all candidates can be found in this year's Student Elections pull-out, beginning on page 11. For the three blanket tax proposals, the Thresher makes the following recommendations:-By-Law Amendment #2009.01 - KTRU Blanket Tax increase

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

New Beer Bike initiative announced

By Jaclyn Youngblood

While Beer Bike is already a student-run initiative, the future of the event may include even more student voices. At a Student Association meeting Feb. 8, Baker College junior Diana Cahill presented a student initiative that would restrain the power of the campus-wide Beer Bike coordinators. The referendum stems from recent discussion about moving the parade - including the water balloon fight - to the football practice field. Cahill, a former Beer Bike college coordinator, said she was bothered by the absence of an established method for making changes to Beer Bike.

NEWS 2/18/10 6:00pm

RESET to promote green initiatives

By Patrick McAnaney

A few years ago, a group of fellow students and I learned about an exciting new initiative occurring on college campuses across the country. In an effort to combat rising energy costs and contribute to the fight against climate change, students at schools such as the University of North Carolina and the University of Illinois voted to establish sustainable energy funds to implement energy conservation and renewable energy projects on their campuses. The idea has since taken off, with more than 30 schools nationwide establishing similar programs amid high levels of student support.We were curious about this idea and set about conducting research to see if we could institute a similar program here at Rice. We discovered that over the last eight years, energy costs for Rice have quadrupled. Furthermore, over the last three years, on-campus housing fees have risen 20 percent, with a portion of these fees being those same energy costs passed on to students. We also learned about the efforts the university is taking to defray energy costs, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design accreditation for new buildings, construction of the South power plant and installation of a new central energy dashboard system that monitors energy usage across campus.

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