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NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Resident Evil 5 Review

By Joe Dwyer

Capcom definitely had its work cut out when it announced a sequel to Resident Evil 4, the critically acclaimed 2005 bestseller. The game was such a departure from previous titles in Capcom's beloved Resident Evil franchise in terms of pacing, gameplay and plot that it seemed like a completely new experience, and gamers ate it up. Resident Evil 5 may play like Resident Evil 4 with a new paintjob, with several elements that have been copied over from its predecessor, save for a few major changes, but that works just fine.The game continues the patchwork canon of the venerable survival-horror franchise with players stepping into the shoes of Chris Redfield, who has traveled to Africa to investigate reports of bioterrorist activity. Aiding him on his mission is Sheva Alomar, a native of the region who also works for the same anti-terrorist organization as Chris. What they discover goes far beyond the black-market weapons deal in the game's fictional Kijuju region: Umbrella and Wesker are back with a vengeance and, as always, it is up to the good guys to save the world from undead, tentacled destruction.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Golf team places 10th at Border

By Paul Fitzgerald

Fighting cold temperatures, gusting winds and driving rain all three rounds, the golf team gutted out a 10th-place finish in one of the strongest fields they have faced all year. Rice's three-round score of 902 (+38) tied the Owls with 36th-ranked Vanderbilt University at the Border Olympics, held this week in Laredo, Texas. The Owls next travel to Austin for the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, which runs March 30-31. The tournament, hosted by the University of Texas, features a field headlined by third-ranked Oklahoma State University, Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University. The Owls have 15 days between tournaments and will look to use the time to try and regroup as a team following a period in which they played two tournaments in six days.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Newspapers indispensable to education

By Catherine Bratic

As part of its latest round of budget cuts, the administration of Rice University has decided to cut one of the most important resources that a university campus can have: a subscription to a daily newspaper.At the same meeting where President David Leebron announced a 5 percent increase in tuition, a tripling over the past 20 years - even accounting for inflation - he informed students that their daily subscriptions to The New York Times and the Houston Chronicle would be terminated.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Commentary: In Kobe vs. LeBron, the final verdict reads...

By Prem Ramkumar

When I told my friends about writing a column to determine the best player in the NBA, they all threatened to write letters to the Thresher office to complain about my tremendous bias. True, I am a diehard Lakers fan; I was born and raised in Los Angeles. However, I am first and foremost an NBA fan, so I would rather be true to the game by making an unbiased assessment of the basketball titans of today. The argument boils down to LeBron James, a.k.a. "The Chosen One," and Kobe Bryant, a.k.a. "Black Mamba." (Sorry D-Wade, but you've fallen down more times than you've gotten up.)

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

KTRU Pick of the Week: Dr.Ragtime & His Pals Self-Titled Bonus Disc

By Miguel Quirch

Every week at KTRU, eager DJs scribble out short reviews of music's cutting-edge albums. KTRU's Music Department uses these reviews to judge the quality of the albums it receives and to provide information for the DJs who play them. Each week, a DJ polishes one of these reviews so that KTRU's riches can shine for the larger Rice community. Jack Rose's dual album is a compilation of some excellent bluegrass-folksy-bluesy music that provides interesting insight into the experimentations of an artist that is sure to catch your ear. He takes a combination of old and new and blends the two to form something that borders on growing into a wholly new style that is both enjoyable and soothing to listen to.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

FIRE free speech criticisms unfounded

By Staff Editorial

If you can read this staff editorial, then you will understand why we cannot help but laugh at the "red light" the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has given Rice for the university's free speech policy (see story, page 1). As an organization that deals solely in media, we at the Thresher believe we are in the perfect position to chide FIRE for giving Rice the worst possible rating. FIRE is an organization that, for all intents and purposes, seems to lack credibility as a watchdog organization. We strain to believe that Harvard University, Emory University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago could join Rice in the "red light" category, while Southern Methodist University earns a "yellow light."

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

A Word with your Wardrobe: Galleria Fashion Show and Tell

By Deanne Nguyen

While the Big Five - New York, London, Paris, Milan and Tokyo - are showing collections for Fall 2009, the fourth-largest city in the U.S. is celebrating the here and now with some Spring '09 fun. Last week at the Galleria, Simon Fashion Now presented Houston with its very own three-day fashion presentation, complete with runways as well as bonus style stops to discuss beauty. The first evening, however, was a high fashion event that was invitation-only. Luckily, the Thresher happened to get me and Joel Kahn, a staff photographer, on the guest list.We arrived to see that there was already a socializing buzz about and that almost every fashionable woman in sight was in a pair of pumps, while the men were sharply clad in suit and tie. Shortly afterwards, an omnipresent voice ushered everyone to their seats, and the show began right at 8 p.m., with Saks Fifth Avenue, featuring Christian Louboutin shoes, as the opening act.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Energy and Water Sustainability minor added

By Jocelyn Wright

An interdisciplinary minor in Energy and Water Sustainability was approved by a unanimous vote at the Faculty Senate meeting on March 11. Civil Engineering Chair Pedro Alvarez spearheaded efforts to propose and coordinate the minor, which will examine sustainability from an economic, social and environmental perspective. Professor in the Practice of Environmental Law Jim Blackburn will be director and primary implementer of the minor. Students will be able to declare the minor starting next fall.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Rice Debate advances to nationals

By Josh Rutenberg

Rice Debate will have a chance to defend its title as a top-10 school at speech and debate nationals this month when the 14-member team debates March 27-29 at the National Parliamentary Debate Association National Championship at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.In 2008, Rice placed fifth in the national sweepstakes, with their highest performance in recent memory being second place in 1998.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Stop Kiss too legit to quit

By Timothy Faust

"I can do this, you see! Choose me!" urges one of the main characters in one of the most emotional scenes of Stop Kiss. So pleads the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts Theatre Program as its production opens this weekend alongside four college productions (Martel College's I Took My Gun And Vanished, Baker Shakespeare's The Tempest, Sid Richardson College's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Wiess College's West Side Story) and, of course, Beer Bike. After one of the program's strongest years in recent memory, its plea is a legitimate one.Stop Kiss, a 1998 play by Diana Son, might be summarized as the story of a relationship between two women and the tragic results of an act of gay-bashing, but while such an explanation captures the play's main events it oversimplifies the depth of the script. The play is fundamentally about risk-taking and squeezing the most out of life and love - you know, that sort of carpe diem stuff which we're all supposed to love - and its place in the lives of two women, panicky traffic reporter Callie and no-nonsense Midwesterner Sara, as they live their lives in New York City.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Outreach Day exposes students to community

By Cindy Dinh

Whether planting trees, registering children for health insurance or hearing the stories of undocumented workers, Rice students came out in droves last Saturday to volunteer with various organizations in the city as part of Spring Outreach Day, sponsored by the Rice Student Volunteer Program. This was the third Outreach Day of the academic year, a one-day group volunteering event that introduces students to the needs of the Houston community and its social services organizations. Each semester, Outreach Day is coordinated by members of RSVP. Additionally, the Community Involvement Center organizes an Outreach Day immediately following Orientation Week each year.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Service teaches gratitude, perspective

By Michelle Phillips

The sun was at just the wrong angle for driving, glaring straight into my eyes until they felt dry as splintered wood. Just to keep awake, I forced my eyes open wide enough for them to fall out of their sockets; yet the world still passed me by in a blur, and it would be another half-hour ride to the church down the narrow, winding streets of Merida before breakfast; the only good news of the morning was that I was not driving. This was going to be a long day.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Rice's free speech questioned

By Michelle Jin

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit organization that focuses on civil liberties in schools across the country, criticized Rice on March 9 for restricting freedom of expression in its Information Technology policy. FIRE gave Rice a "red light" rating, and on its Web site, the group stated that "[a] red light institution has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech." In an article on Rice's protocols, FIRE cited a Rice IT policy, among five other policies, as an example that threatened free speech on campus.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Leaps and bounds above all the others

By Jonathan Myers

A textbook performance, and a storybook ending. Clearing heights of 5.35, 5.50 and 5.60 meters all on his first attempt, junior Jason Colwick, Rice's pole vaulter extraordinaire, earned himself the title of national champion last Friday at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station, Texas. Colwick came into the championship as the top-ranked collegiate pole vaulter in the nation and did nothing to make anyone at the meet think otherwise. Colwick's championship was Rice's first individual track and field championship since Allison Beckford (Lovett '03) won the 400 meter run indoor title in 2002. Colwick's performance also continued to add to the accolades that Rice pole vaulters have accrued over the years, as five Owls have won championships in the pole vault, including Dave Roberts (Will Rice '73) and Fred Hansen (Hanszen '63).

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

The Last House on the Left Review

By Faheem Ahmed

Since when did Hollywood movies start having such crappy titles? There is actually a Channing Tatum film coming out in a couple of months named Fighting. Really? That's the only thing you million-dollar professionals could think of? Hmm, I wonder what that movie is about. The Last House on the Left, on the other hand, can be given some slack because it kept the title of the Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street series) original that made him one of the greatest horror geniuses of our generation.I fully expected yet another hackneyed suspense remake that had stripped away all semblance of creativity and wit from the original. Fortunately, I was mistaken, and The Last House on the Left was extremely entertaining. The film did not misguide the audience or have any self-delusions of grandeur. It delivers exactly what it promises: an hour and a half of non-stop action, brutal kills and sadistic torture. Sounds like the perfect first date movie, right?

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Listening to "The Songs of Nature

By Joe Dwyer

With all the events, meetings and receptions held in Farnsworth Pavilion, it is sometimes hard to remember that it also serves as an art gallery from time to time. But from now until next Wednesday, artist Charles Liu is showcasing some of his work in an exhibition titled "The Songs of Nature," a stunning collection of landscape and nature-themed ink drawings on rice paper. The artwork covers all the walls around Farnsworth, with one particular panel painting, aptly titled "Big Falls," taking up an entire wall by itself. Each wall takes on a theme of its own that changes as you move around the room.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Tuesday Sports Update: Owls take 12 to down Cardinals

By Dylan Farmer

It took nine pitchers and 12 innings, but the fourth-ranked baseball team finally managed to put away Lamar University on Tuesday evening.Rice (15-6, 2-1 Conference USA) held a 7-4 lead in the ninth inning before relief pitcher Matthew Reckling issued a walk with the bases loaded to allow Lamar to cut the deficit to two runs. The Cardinals tied the game up when the Owls failed to complete a double play one batter later.

NEWS 3/19/09 7:00pm

Final grades signify improvement for men's basketball

By Brody Rollins

Last Thursday's 73-51 second-round defeat against the University of Tulsa in the Conference USA tournament capped the men's basketball team's first season under Head Coach Ben Braun. Though full of ups and downs, buzzer beaters and blowouts, it was a season that saw marked improvement on last year's disappointing finish and raises the expectations for Rice men's basketball in years to come. Though Rice has shown improvement in many areas, a 21-0 run by Tulsa three minutes into the first half showed just how far this team has to go. Playing their second game in as many days, the Owls were unable to keep pace with the Golden Hurricane, who came into the game with the second best record in C-USA. The Owls struggled offensively, as freshman guard Connor Frizzelle was the only Owl in double figures with 10 points. Senior guard Rodney Foster, Rice's third leading scorer with 10 points per game, was held to just eight points on 1-5 shooting.

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