Special Projects

Common reading selected

This year's Common Reading book will take students an ocean away and back again. The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood, by Helene Cooper, has been chosen as Orientation Week 2009's selection. It exposes students to a coming-of-age story written by a woman who survived a war-torn upbringing in Liberia to eventually immigrate to the United States. The Common Reading selection committee, composed of faculty, staff and students, began searching for a book last fall, Dean of Undergraduates Robin Forman said. A month ago, the list of potential books was whittled down to four: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan, Transforming Leadership: A New Pursuit of Happiness by James MacGregor Burns, Opportunity Urbanism: An Emerging Paradigm for the 21st Century by Joel Kotkin and The House at Sugar Beach.

Online Only: Fast and Furious Review

Fast and Furious is the fourth film in this redundant franchise about car racing and stealing. I don't know what marketing genius came up with this horrendous title, but I'm sure they saved a lot of money on all the unsold toy cars and merchandise collecting dust in a warehouse. Who is going to notice a couple of measly "the"'s missing?Just like they recycled the title, director Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and screenwriter Chris Morgan pretty much recycled the entire plot from the franchise's opening salvo. The film reunites the original four characters: the 'roided-out muscle-head Vin Diesel (Babylon A.D.), washed-up boy scout Paul Walker (Flags of Our Fathers), Michelle Rodriguez (S.W.A.T.), and hottie Jordana Brewster (Chuck). Heading back to the gritty streets of L.A., excon Diesel and agent Walker must put their former feud behind them when confronted with a mutual enemy, a drug lord named Braga. They have to depend on this new and uncertain relationship in order to take down the drug lord.

A Word With Your Wardrobe: Chatting with fashion stylist Andrew Drayton

Houston is not exactly known for being fashionably forward. Though not the most remarkable of observations - since I'm not constantly surrounded by people who clomp around in shoes as big as their face and talk in designer names - I tend to take it for granted. But just when I'm brooding about being in a place that couldn't care less, I run into people who couldn't care more.Stylist Andrew Drayton is one of those people.

Proposed gun bill harmful to campus safety

Houston has had its fair share of gun violence over the years, but Rice, a hedge-lined bubble, has provided students an aura of safety for years on end. But this doesn't just come from the lack of law-breaking denizens calling Rice home. Much of the safety we've come to take for granted stems from the university's desire to check concealed weapons at the door, disallowing unseen weaponry from entering the campus.But if the Texas legislature decides to pass HB 1893, a bill that would allow concealed weapons on campus, all that may change (see story, page 1), and change for the worse.

Friday's Sports Update: Owls push through rain to defeat Thundering Herd

Battling both the Marshall University bats and bouts of intermittent rain, starting pitcher Taylor Wall and reliever Jordan Rogers held off a late-game rally to preserve a 7-5 win for the baseball team on Friday night at Reckling Park.Heavy rainstorms doused the Houston area in the mid-afternoon, pushing the game's 6:30 start time back an hour and leaving less-than-ideal conditions in their wake.

Jazzin' it up

Larry Slezak of the Larry Slezak Quintet plays the saxophone in the Wiess commons during Wiess Jazz Nite on April 9.

Fight for Rice: Moriah achieving world recognition

Many taekwondo enthusiasts, and probably some Rice students, are surely aware that three of the four members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic taekwondo squad hail from nearby Sugar Land, Texas. But what most do not know is that Steven, Mark and Diana Lopez's trip to Beijing would not have been possible without the unflappable efforts of some Rice student. As Mark took silver and Steven and Diana took bronze in Beijng, Rice senior Nir Moriah, the Lopez' training partner, was smiling, knowing that his work with the Lopez's had gotten America a trio of medals.

Despite strong round from Brown, Owls struggle at River Landing

No matter the course or the competition, the golf team seems unable to climb out from the bottom of the board. Rice's disappointing spring season continued with a low finish at the River Landing Intercollegiate this week. Despite the poor team performance, junior Chris Brown provided a semblance of achievement, as his performance at River Landing now has him in the Rice golf record book with the lowest career scoring average and most rounds shooting par or under.

Chaney channels Thorpe to grab first in decathlon

After legendary American athlete Jim Thorpe won the decathlon at the 1912 Olympics, in Stockholm, Sweden, King Gustav V told Thorpe, "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world." While King Gustav V is no longer with us, the fans of Owls' track and field could echo him by giving freshman Clayton Chaney the title of "Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational's Greatest Athlete," as he set a personal best of 6,539 points in winning the decathlon last weekend at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational in Los Angeles, Calif. In addition to Chaney's performance, Rice collected strong performances in the steeplechase, 1500-meter run, triple jump, shot put and discus throw.

Dillard, Casey selected in fifth round of NFL Draft

Although they may have slipped further than expected, a pair of former Owls will be playing in the NFL this summer. The Jacksonville Jaguars selected former Rice wide receiver Jarett Dillard in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, and eight picks later, the Houston Texans chose former Rice tight end James Casey.Dillard and Casey become the first Rice tandem selected in the NFL draft since 2003, when Ryan Pontbriand was taken in the fifth round by Cleveland and Brandon Green was selected in the sixth by Jacksonville.

Online Only: Rice Dance Theatre's Retrospection a visual treat

This weekend, Rice Dance Theatre will be commemorating 30 years of dance at Rice with its spring performance, Retrospection. The show offers a little something for everyone, with dances that range from traditional to contemporary.The show features three guest choreographers: Jennifer Wood, a local Houston choreographer who is the Artistic Director for Suchu Dance; Leslie Scates, RDT Director and Assistant Director for Dance Programs at the Rice Recreation Center; and Chris Lidvall, the RDT Coordinator and staff member of the Rice Recreation Center's Dance Program. All contributed a dance each to the show, but without a program to describe which is which, they are nearly indistinguishable from the dances that have been choreographed by the students themselves, which just goes to show the high caliber of the performances that take the stage.

Student insurance plan requires balance

Rice University has invested considerable effort in recent years to improve health insurance coverage for students. Success can be measured in many ways, improved care and lower costs among them. By those measures, we have been successful. Negotiating a student insurance plan is a complex task with many different considerations: How much overall cost should students bear? What essential services do they need? What kind of provider network best serves students? Is the insurance company stable? Should all students on the plan pay a higher cost for a few students who may become ill, or should overall costs be kept to a minimum with students who become ill paying for a higher percentage of their care?

Rice receives grant for compiler research

A team of Rice scientists are a chip off the old block, or rather, their work will be. Five Rice professors received a $16 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for their research on improving the efficiency of programs running on processors. Comprised of specialists spanning various sectors in the fields of computer science and probability and statistics, five Rice scientists have come together to work on the platform-aware compilation project, also called the PACE project. Computer systems, including ones found in iPhones and other cell phones, use compilers to translate human phrases and code into binary zeroes and ones that a machine can operate on, computer science professor Krishna Palem said.

This week's Editorial Cartoon

KTRU Pick of the Week: One Day

The album One Day features several great talents in the world of electroacoustic improvised music. On one side of the collaboration is Toshimaru Nakamura, one of the originators in the genre of electroacoustic music, and on the other side is English, the duo of Joe Foster and Bonnie Jones.Nakamura performs on no-input mixing boards, while English features Jones performing on a group of circuit boards and delay pedals as Foster plays the trumpet with various effects utilized at will.

Soarin'! Flyin'! Dancin'!

Rice Dance Theatre will be celebrating 30 years this weekend with its spring performance, Retrospection. The show runs tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. in Hamman Hall. Tickets are $8 general and $5 for students and RDT alumni.

Proposed plan to honor donors disrespectful

The Thresher has a new policy: If any individual, group or organization wishes to donate at least $4.6 million to us, we will put their names and logos on the front page. After all, what would be better than honoring them in the place that people see most often?Such is the thinking behind the new project to honor Rice's major donors (see letters, page 2). As you can see, people are up in arms over the proposed design - concentric ellipses surrounding Willy's statue in the academic quadrangle. And since we aren't allowed to sign our names to those letters, we will express our resentment to this proposed plan with an editorial.

This Week's A&E Slideshow

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Summer Construction Plans (Slideshow)

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Tuesday's Sports Update: Bobcats jump over baseball team in rare Reckling win

The baseball team continued its recent up-and-down stretch with a 4-1 home loss to Texas State on Tuesday. Bobcats (34-12) starter Garret Carruth (4-2) tossed seven strong innings, limiting the third-ranked Owls to just one run on seven hits. Rice (31-12) starter Andrew Benak (1-1) struggled out of the gate, and after a pair of runs on three hits the freshman was replaced by Mark Haynes to close out the first inning.The loss is Rice's second in the last four games and third in the last seven, a foreboding stretch for a team that usually finds itself unbeatable in the late stretch of the season.