Special Projects

Volleyball earns first-round bye for C-USA tournament

The volleyball team entered last Thursday's match against the University of Houston riding high, having won 11 of their last 12. Instead of continuing their winning ways, the University of Houston upset Rice. The loss to Houston dropped Rice to third in the final Conference USA standings, meaning the Owls will have the third seed in the upcoming C-USA Tournament. The tournament began Thursday and concludes with the final on Sunday in Memphis, Tenn. Rice does not play on the tournament's opening day due to their place in the top four of the C-USA standings. Head coach Genny Volpe thought the bye would be extremely beneficial to the team's tournament chances.

Backpage's Voyage Through the Annals of History

Welcome to the Backpage's Journey 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 on your eyes. Please enjoy and send any comment to backpage@rice.edu.This week's article comes from the November 15, 1916, issue of the Thresher. All of the original text has been reproduced, including misspellings and grammatical errors.

The Backpage Interview Series

You know the guy who seems to run every club meeting you go to on campus? In a couple of decades, he'll be Kevin Kirby. Dr. Kirby, the VP for Administration, oversees almost every campus project you could imagine. He met the Backpage at the South Plant on Wednesday to chat about moustaches, the Predator aircraft, why he loves Rice and the Green Bay Packers.BP: We dug up the photo you had when you came to Rice in 2005. You used to have a pretty formidable moustache [see inset]. Where'd it go?

This week's Editorial Cartoon

Lovett is a Cabaret

The success of Lovett College's deservedly well-received I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change ("Lovett's I Love You, You're Perfect needs little change", Feb. 22, 2008) seemed to many a dramatic revival of the college's once-stagnant theater program. Cabaret, directed by Lovett College senior and I Love You... cast member Paul Early, builds upon the spring show's forward momentum and brings a wide assortment of talent to the stage lights, but a few dark spots mar what is otherwise a very enjoyable performance.Cabaret, written by Joe Masteroff with John Kander's music and lyrics by Fred Ebb, explores the relationship between cabaret performer and general debauchée Sally Bowles and struggling young American author Clifford Bradshaw as they weave their way through the hedonistic excesses of Berlin's underbelly during the Nazi rise to power.

Women's cross country headed to nationals after second place regional finish

Running cross-country is a lot like playing poker: Doing well requires practice and skill, but they both require a little bit of luck. Last Saturday at the NCAA South-Central Regional meet, all of these elements came together for the women's cross-country team perhaps for the first time all season. Not only did the team compete in peak shape, but they also ran without anyone on the team battling illness or injury.

Mirror's Edge a leap of Faith

Best known for their work on the Battlefield franchise, Electronic Arts and EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment have gone in a completely new direction with Mirror's Edge, an original title that aims to shake up the first-person genre.Players step into the shoes of Faith, a "runner" living in a gleaming white, futuristic dystopia where the police survey and control all modes of communication. When citizens want to stay under the radar with their information, they rely on runners like Faith to transport their messages across the city's rooftops. The game begins with Faith's cop sister getting framed for a murder she didn't commit, forcing Faith to do some digging around town to uncover the truth.

Global warming consensus only, not fact

Having spent the majority of my college career navigating my way around my science and math requirements (if you need a suggestion for an easy DIII I'm the girl to ask!), I can safely say that I am not a scientist. I am a rational observer of the scientific community and, as a sentient human being, I am susceptible to their discoveries and assertions. Indeed, wizards in lab coats have the ability to shape policies and affect everyone's lives with their findings. Presently, the breathless dictum emanating from on high is that mankind is warming the planet, causing the oceans to rise and killing the polar bears. Once again, I do not claim to be a scientist nor do I claim to know any more about global warming than the next person. What concerns me is that the dogged proponents of man-made global warming are asserting that the debate is "over" because a "consensus of scientists" believes it to be occurring. In my opinion, to declare a debate over and refuse further discussion is to reveal that the argument is weak and cause people - like me - to question any further assertions. As the great and recently departed Michael Crichton once said, "Let's be clear: The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right ... The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period."

This Week in Photos

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Natelson named one of the top 20 scientists under 40 by Discover

Rice has a great number of accomplished professors, but only one has been called the Benjamin Franklin of nanoscience and could potentially be the science adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Discover magazine made the connection between the revered figure of the American Revolution and Associate Astronomy and Physics Professor Doug Natelson in its December issue. The magazine named Natelson as one of the Top 20 Scientists under 40 years old.

College night: respect is a two-way street

Whoever thought of college night is an absolute genius - having an excuse to wear ridiculous costumes all day long is liberating and being able to drink in class feels so wrong, and yet so right. But just as we must temper our drinking so we don't die of alcohol poisoning, we must also temper our college nights so they don't fall victim to the same affliction. Because at this moment, college night is in danger.It started a few weeks ago when Jones College hosted its college night and many Jones students raided Professor Zhiyong Gao's classroom, wreaked general havoc and left a trail of destruction in their wake (See story, page 1). Now, there have been many a crazy college night, but in this case, students left so much debris behind that the custodian who cleaned class afterward became upset and alerted Gao, who filed a complaint with chair of the Math Department and Will Rice College Master Mike Wolfe. Consequently, Brown and Martel colleges hosted their college nights in their respective commons, allowing students to drink while their masters lectured on different topics.

Letters to the Editor

Arts, VADA stories need clarification

Linguistics plays host to international conference, scholars

To some, the thought of "copy" and "coffee" becoming homophones might be a terrifying thought. To linguists, it is one of many interesting observations presented at the 37th annual New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference, which was hosted by the Linguistics Department the weekend of Nov. 8.Linguists from around the globe gathered at NWAV to discuss topics pertinent to the field of sociolinguistics - which looks at the ways in which language variation carries social or cultural meaning. Although the conference, which was co-sponsored by the University of Texas at San Antonio, was held primarily at Hotel ZaZa in the Museum District, several events were held on the Rice campus. These included an eye-tracking workshop in the phonetics lab in the Department of Linguistics, two meetings in Herzstein Hall Amphitheater and a grad student party at Valhalla.

Erratum

In last week's issue, the Thresher reported in "Esperanza gets record turnout" that the DJ for the formal was Lovett College sophomore Alex Marks. We did not realize that Lovett College junior Evan Gilmore also deejayed at the event. The Thresher regrets the error.

KTRU review-in-brief: GGD's Saint Dymphna

Brooklyn art-noise quintet Gang Gang Dance has for some time straddled the lines between tribal Afro-punk jams and a more subtle, experimental sound bordering on noise. The group's 2005 release God's Money cataloged the beat-centric focus of the quintet at its most fervent and remains an enjoyable album to this day. GGD's past three releases, consisting of two EPs (Hillulah in 2005 and RAWWAR in 2007) and a full-length album (Retina Riddim in 2007), revisit the experimental roots of the ensemble.Their newest release, Saint Dymphna, brings Gang Gang Dance full circle, facing dance-pop and experimental head-on and melding the elements of each genre seamlessly, with a lean toward the dance-y side.

Commentary: Tudor an upgrade but needs tweaks

Not since Autry Court's construction in 1950 or perhaps after the installation of the central air-conditioning system in 1991 have students sat in the stands at a Rice basketball game in such an aesthetically pleasing space. Last weekend ushered in the beginning of a new era in Rice Athletics with the opening of Tudor Fieldhouse.Even though the pregame tailgate itself had low attendance, the students appeared to make up the majority of the crowd at the game and certainly to generate the majority of the cheering during play. With the right side of the student section packed, student support for Rice basketball appeared to be on an upswing. In comparison to the Rice-Texas game at the Toyota Center last season, where there were at most 40 students present, the enthusiasm level certainly increased fairly dramatically.

Jones Graduate School of Management ranked among top 25 in nation

In a time when job security is questionable, it is comforting to know that at least one degree at Rice can earn you money. The Financial Times and The Economist have both ranked Rice MBA programs at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management within the past two months among the top 25 in the nation this year based largely on post-graduate salary, and U.S. News and World Report ranked the Jones School 40th in the nation. These rankings have increased from last year and have been steadily on the rise since 2004, Sean Ferguson, Jones School assistant dean of degree programs, said.

Despite student caricatures, Leebron deserves praise

Editing the Backpage is a wonderful job. I mosey into the Thresher office every once in a while, sit in one of our many comfortable chairs, make fun of our editors in chief, avoid my homework and occasionally write something which I pray my mother will never discover. Sometimes I even make people laugh, but those weeks are few and far between.In those rare moments when I'm not busy scaling the mountain of humor godhood or trying to figure out how to turn my weekly flirtation with libel into a real-life job, I enjoy nothing more than attending the weekly Monday meeting of the Student Association Senate. As elections chair I'm technically required to attend all SA meetings, but this responsibility is its own reward: Nothing gets my blood a-pumping like glancing at the steely, determined gaze of presiding officer Matt Youn or admiring the sharp focus of the nine enthusiastic college presidents or playing "World of Goo" on my laptop while External Affairs Vice President Nick Muscara talks about some tailgate or another.

Quantum: shaken or stirred

Quantum of SolaceBond is finally back in his 22nd film, Quantum of Solace, which landed in theaters last Friday. Picking up an hour after the events of Casino Royale ended, it grabs the audience by the face and doesn't let them go until the credits roll.From the opening car chase to the final showdown, it's clear that this is not your grandpappy's Bond. Gone is the campiness of the Sean Connery/Roger Moore era, and also absent are Q and his fantastic spy gadgets, which had been a staple of the series.

Commentary: Stubborn Portlandite has delusions of grandeur

Eight years ago, I dribbled a worn basketball in my cracked driveway. "Beat L.A.!" yelled a blue-shirted dude passing on his bike.