Issue 119, Volume 75

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Issue 119, Volume 75

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Pianist excels at nationals

By Robert Garcia The Daily Cougar

Robert garcia The Daily Cougar

UH music student Geraldine Ong finished third in the national finals competition for her three-round piano performance at the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition.

UH doctoral candidate Geraldine Ong walked away in third place at the national finals of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition on March 22 for her piano performance in Albuquerque, N.M. Ong gained entry into the elite competition of only seven participants in the piano category by winning first place in two preliminary regional and district competitions, one in Texas and the other in Louisiana.

“My professor, Nancy Weems, told me about the competition two days before the entry deadline and said she thought I should do it,” Ong said.

Ong’s performance at the competition consisted of three rounds in which she performed a 40-minute recital by composers such as Beethoven, Russian Alexander Scriabin and Frenchman Maurice Ravel.

Ong said she was pleased with her performance and placing in the competition, but she had to stay concentrated.

“We can’t carry our pianos

around with us, so one thing I had to focus on was that I needed to control the piano because every piano is different,” she said. “That was my main focus, to make sure I got what I wanted across.

Following her completion of a bachelor’s degree from Missouri State University, Ong attained her master’s degree in music, studying under an associate professor at Northwestern University, Alan Chow.

“I saw him my freshman year, and it was my first big concert and see PIANO, page 3

UH keeps up with new technology Online classes, fresh devices change the way students are educated

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By Michelle Villarreal The Daily Cougar With technology constantly growing, UH has kept up by offering students online classes, providing interactive Web sites and being a part of social networks. These advancements provide an increase in the educational experience as well as more learning tools.

The UH Writing Center offers a Live Meebo Chat, where students can receive help with things such as grammar, citations and revisions.

“Some come looking for grammatical help just because they’re looking for some sort of quick fix, but for that we usually refer them (to) other places,” staff assistant Ben Lummis said. “It’s mainly just to clarify services we have here now that people aren’t sure about. We just started these general consultations and people are curious about how to sign up, how to get here, where to go and what it’s going to entail.”

The Live Meebo Chat has been active for about four years now and will continue to help students as long as they keep using the chat.

“Basically we just try to send them places to find other sources and do research for them and point them in the right direction on how to get going,” Lummis said. “We’re trying to meet with students at their point in the writing process and help them move forward.”

UH utilizes distance learning sites such as Blackboard Vista and V-Net, and while these may be common to students here, that is not always the case for others.

Kinesiology sophomore Catherine Paquet is an international transfer student from Canada who is new to the technological system.

“We didn’t use as much technology at my school in Montreal,” Paquet said. “It was very old fashion in its methods.”

Paquet takes advantage of the technology at UH, specifically the public computers available for student see TECH, page 3

Safiya Ravat The Daily Cougar

The Muslim Student Association came in second place with 25 competitors and against 10 other Texas universities at the annual Texas MSA Showdown hosted by University of Texas at Austin. The UH team brought home 11 winning medals.

Triumph over failure gg

Muslim Students Association captures surprise finish at statewide tournament

By Safiya Ravat The Daily Cougar After years of little enthusiasm, the UH Muslim Students Association won second place at the fourth annual Texas MSA Showdown hosted by University of Texas at Austin on Sunday.

Showdown, a tournament with more than 14 competitions ranging from sports and film to arts and Quran, invited college MSAs around Texas to showcase their talents while reflecting on Islam.

This year, more than 250 students competed from 10 different Texas universities, including UT, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice and UH. “Showdown is a conglomeration of

different MSAs coming together for the sake of God, to promote unity and to create brotherhood and sisterhood,” Showdown student organizer Zignat Abdisubhan said.

UH’s participation in the event has declined in past years. One time, it sent only six competitors to contend with UT’s 30 and A&M’s 50 competitors. This year, 25 competed, almost tripling the number in the past.

“School spirit is increasing at an exponential rate within the MSA,” UH MSA Vice President Faisal Siddiqi said. “I have not seen this phenomenon as long as I’ve been a student here. It’s a sign of the general increase of school spirit that is present throughout campus.”

Decked out in red shirts and red

headscarves and yelling “Whose house?

Coogs’ house!” throughout the UT campus, the UH MSA made its presence known.

“Definitely lots of spirit from UH,” Abdisubhan said. “I never saw a person that wasn’t in red. Y’all asked, ‘Whose house?’ Well, it was definitely y’all’s house.”

Along with school spirit came school winnings. Of the 25 UH competitors, 12 won in their individual competitions.

UH brought home 11 winning medals and scored the second most points of all competing schools, beating A&M and falling just short of UT. “I think we showed everyone what see MSA, page 3

2 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Daily Cougar

CAMPUS BEAT FORECAST Wednesday

Thursday

75˚60˚

75˚63˚

CALENDAR

Online applications are available on the Dean of Students website at: www.uh.edu/dos For more information, call 713.743.5470 Criteria include: demonstrated leadership and enthusiasm; a minimum 2.5 GPA; enrollment in at least 9 hours; Junior or Senior classification at the University of Houston.

Application Deadline is Thursday, April 1, 2010

E-mail and calendaring: 10 a.m.-noon, Social Work Building, Room 110L. These classes are free to students, faculty, staff and alumni in good standing. The classes are taught on Windows-run machines. Registration is required to reserve a seat in a class. After a 5-minute grace period, unfilled reserved seat are reassigned to those on standby. This course is an introduction to Outlook 2007. Course descriptions and online registration can be found at www. uh.edu/ittraining Conflict resolution: 3-4 p.m., Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, Room 1038. These are workshops offered through UH Wellness, a department of Learning and Assessment Services in the Division of Student Affairs. The mission of UH Wellness, a campus-wide education and prevention program, is to promote healthy choices and create a healthier, safer learning environment across all dimensions of wellness, including: social, spiritual, intellectual,

CO R R E C T I O N S

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Order your 2009-2010 yearbook

by Friday, April 2, 2010!

Download an order form from uh.edu/houstonian and return it to Room 7, UC Satellite (behind Starbucks).

Do it before it’s too late!

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78˚59˚

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TODAY

To promote service to the University of Houston by recognizing students for their outstanding contributions to the quality of campus life through service, leadership and spirit.

Friday

occupational, physical and emotional wellness. These workshops promote various dimensions of wellness and are offered to support student development, to increase retention, and to provide students with skills-building opportunities throughout the semester.

WEDNESDAY Cougar Social Media showcase: 8:30 a.m.-noon, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library. Breakfast and registration opens at 8:30 a.m. Faculty and staff are invited to attend a keynote and a series of brief 20-minute sessions about the uses of social media in academia.

This will be a casual, fun, interactive mini-conference with an opportunity to meet the presenters and ask all your questions. Madhuri Kumar is the Keynote Speaker. She’s the current Program Director of the Teaching with Technology Group at the C.T. Bauer College of Business at UH.

» Report errors to editor@thedailycougar.com

The Daily Cougar misidentified the reporter for “Family movie makes for good date night” (Thursday, Life and Arts). Callye Peyrovi wrote the article.

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use and the class material that can be accessed and discussed online.

“Sometimes it is hard to catch everything in class,” Paquet said.

“So using the things online helps me be more on top of what needs to be done, because I quickly and easily have access to it.”

For the kinesiology department, technology has provided advancements with their experiments. They recently received a machine that allows them to calculate body mass index when experimenting on mice.

Associate professor Brian McFarlin performed a case study on his kinesiology class to see if technology improved student’s performance.

“It’s a case report of my efforts to create a better learning environment,” McFarlin said.

UH students, such as junior Lauren Sponberg, notice the increase in technology not only for the learning experience, but also with the precautions taken towards cheating.

“For my college algebra class, we have to go into a special testing center to take exams on the computer,” Sponberg said. “It’s really high-tech. We sign in with our fingerprints just to make sure we’re not cheating. I never imagined that taking a test would ever be like that.”

PIANO continued from page 1

continued from page 1

we’re really made of,” UH MSA President Mohamed Radwan said.

“Being a commuter school, UH might be a little smaller, but I think we have a much greater bond than a lot of the other schools.”

Though some students expected the big win, many members of the

UH MSA team were pleasantly surprised.

“We were the underdogs,” Siddiqi said. “We felt like the underdogs, and we knew that we were. But as the competition progressed, we started to feel more confident in ourselves, in our team and in our efforts to succeed.”

This unexpected finish, Siddiqi said, is just one step in UH’s way to the top spot.

“We see that UT and A&M, not only in their sports, but in other activities, have very strong school spirit and thus always succeed,” Siddiqi said. “UH has not been very well known for that, but now you can see us coming out of the shadows and becoming a very strong contender among the Texas schools in the future.” news@thedailycougar.com

news@thedailycougar.com

it’s never seemed like a chore. It’s always been easy and fun,” Ong said.

She chose to come to the U.S. to further her music studies. She realized advancing in her desire to become a master pianist in Malaysia was limited.

“The music scene back home is not very developed, at least not Western music … it’s not an ideal place to study music,” she said.

Although Ong enjoys performing and competing in piano recitals, her ultimate desire is easier to achieve.

“What I’d really like to do is to be a professor at a university, to teach other students,” she said.

Weems said that Ong’s award is very prestigious.

“It is a highly visible honor for our school of music at UH,” Weems said. “As her teacher, I am very proud of her accomplishment, and of the recognition that it brings not only to her, but to our music program.” news@thedailycougar.com

SAFIYA RAVAT The Daily Cougar

The UH Muslim Student Association beat Texas A&M University and fell right behind the University of Texas at Austin for second place. The team said it brought a lot of Cougar spirit and confidence for this year’s annual competition.

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I thought ‘Oh my goodness he’s amazing’.” Ong said. “I was blown away and thought ‘I want to study with him’.”

Similarly, Ong was drawn to the UH Moores School of Music to get her doctoral degree in the fall of 2009, by admiration of Weems, her principle teacher in private studies.

“She was a guest artist when I was at my undergraduate school, and that’s when I first met her.

When I was doing my master’s, I asked professor Chow about maybe auditioning for my doctrine at UH, and he thought ‘definitely’, as they’re good friends also,” she said.

Ong has been surrounded by music her entire life. She was born and raised in Seremban, Malaysia, where Ong’s mother is a piano teacher.

“I’ve been taking lessons since I was three and half years old and

MSA

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continued from page 1

The expansion of technology varies all over the country, which is how students are able to experience various methods.

UH alumna Marcelle Gakam discovered conference classes when talking with her cousin.

“She once had a conference class with a similar class in another university in another state,” Gakam said. “Apparently, with the use of video projectors, cameras and microphones, they were able not only to hear but see the students in their classroom and vice versa. She told me this was one of her most interesting lectures.”

Communication student Rawan Zaidan said that her entire psychology class was uploaded on the video sharing Web site, YouTube.

“I liked it on YouTube because it would upload quickly, and I could pause it and go back and watch the lectures again and again if I needed to,” Zaidan said.

There are other advancements in technology that are used by students that are not provided through the University, such as Notehall, which allows students to buy and sell study materials, Facebook and iPod’s.

“My iPod is amazing,” kinesiology student Nadia Agha said. “Between being able to quickly look up a random question and checking e-mail, it makes doing things for classes so much easier.”

UCE

TECH

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 n 3

Have you been misquoted? Though The Daily Cougar strives for accuracy and fairness in its reporting, mistakes happen. Please report any errors you see in the paper to the editorial staff. Corrections will run on Page 2 as needed to amend the record. To report a correction, e-mail editor@thedailycougar.com or call (713) 743-5362.

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RECYCLES

ces will e i p r e t s a m t Contest ners of the r A a i n a RecycleM splay, and the win test be on di roup con G a i n a M Recycle ounced. n n a e b o s will al

be part of the green uh solution!

www.uh.edu/recyclemania

4 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Daily Cougar

OPINION

COMING WEDNESDAY: Why are there provisions in the recently passed health care legislation that deal with student loans?

EDITOR Alan Dennis E-MAIL opinion@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/opinion

THE DAILY COUGAR

EDITORIAL CARTOON

editorial B oard Ronnie Turner, Editor in Chief Matthew Keever, Managing editor Patricia Estrada, News editor Hiba Adi, News editor Phillipe Craig, Sports editor Robert Higgs, Sports editor Travis Hensley, Life & Arts editor Alan Dennis, Opinion editor Jarrod Klawinsky, Special projects editor

STAFF EDITORIAL

UH gives students even less incentive to stay on campus

F Dick Hite Jr. The Daily Cougar

Students right to help community Many UH students seem to think that all their counterparts at the C.T. Bauer College of Business care about is money; the thinking is that business students don’t care about anything but Harold themselves.

Arnold However, there are many student organizations working to dismiss this belief, one of which is the student organization for supply chain management — the American Production and Inventory Control Society.

Located at the business school, APICS is on a mission to change this belief through helping people who sometimes go unnoticed — especially the elderly and children at various local schools.

APICS, with the assistance of the Salvation Army, recently donated time to an assisted living community, playing bingo with its residents.

Elizabeth Osorio, a senior at the

business school and APICS vice president of external activities, helped organize the event. From a young age, Osorio has spent time helping others; she, among others, enjoyed visiting the assisted living community and spending time with people who no longer have families to talk to.

The students all felt rewarded for their efforts afterward, and each took away a great deal from the experience.

“We learned (that) a smile and a few hours can make a difference in someone else’s life,” Osorio said. “They just wanted someone different to talk to and laugh with.”

Osorio said she couldn’t have put this trip together on her own; she was happy to see that 11 other individuals had volunteered their time as well.

Everyone involved had so much fun that Osorio said they plan to go back to the community in April.

Muhammed Elgassier, a business senior and president of APICS, said, “Life is more than the possessions we

can carry; it’s more about the lives you can positively touch.”

Aside from working with the elderly, APICS is also doing work with several local schools.

About 30 volunteers helped faculty members host a field day Saturday at one such school.

Their efforts reminded students of what being a kid is like, and showed the school what the business school is all about — giving back to the community.

Students at the business school are taught to care about the bottom line of whatever endeavor they may be involved in, but also to be shepherds of the community.

Through these acts of giving back, students in the business school are simply showing their Cougar pride and providing leadership for future generations, not just for students, but for future corporations as well.

Harold Arnold is a business senior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

Motorcycles solve parking problem Parking is one of the most pressing issues for students at UH. Faced with rising gas prices and being forced to walk increasingly long distances to class, many students have opted to ride Joel Yelton motorcycles to school.

A plethora of bike types are represented on campus. Motorcycles take up less space and are easily maneuverable; riders also receive the benefit of the closest parking proximity to buildings on campus.

Despite these advantages, however, there are also inherent dangers in riding.

Motorcyclists are nearly invisible to drivers of four-wheel vehicles and must learn to ride defensively, especially in inner-city traffic.

Furthermore, motorcycles do not feature the same advanced safety systems, such as seat belts, crumplezones and airbags, as cars. It is almost

impossible to fall down on the street while riding one and not get seriously injured.

With technology improving as quickly as it does, it’s becoming more and more common to find machines that have more horsepower than a small car at one-fourth of the weight.

This can make for much more fun than one would get from driving a car, but unfortunately also means much more danger.

Factor in that as young college students, many riders on campus are largely inexperienced and are sometimes adrenaline junkies, and the results can be deadly.

Student riders often navigate traffic in little more than a T-shirt and jeans for protection; some of them wear helmets, but many do not.

But there are solutions that allow riders to master their machines, go fast, be safe and have fun.

Several organizations in Houston offer programs known as track days — events held on a closed road racing circuit where all bikers are welcome.

Riders are assigned to groups according to skill, insuring that those who want to ride around the track at 160 miles per hour will not interfere with riders who prefer a more leisurely pace.

Instructors follow riders and work with them in intermittent classes throughout the day. Proper braking technique, faster cornering and other maneuvering skills are taught in classes.

At the RideSmart Motorcycle School, students learn how many feet per second they travel at 50, 60, 70 and 80 mph. Students also learn how many feet are lost in reaction time (the time it takes to see an object, realize it is in your way and grab the brake), which can make for a sobering wake-up call. see YELTON, page 12

or those who are unaware, the Starbucks and the C-Store in the UC Satellite now close at 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. as they once did earlier in the semester. While our opinions are obviously biased because The Daily Cougar offices are in the UC Satellite (and yes, we need our coffee), this seems to us a failure on the part of the UH administration.

Isn’t the University trying to achieve flagship status? And to do this, shouldn’t they be encouraging Isn’t the students to stay on campus later, which could in turn University lead to higher involvement in trying to extracurricular activities? achieve That’s our two cents, at least. flagship But then again, perhaps status?

UH is trying to cut back on spending and save us hardworking, penniless students some green when our next tuition checks are due.

Wrong.

Every night, as we leave our offices (or every morning, technically), we walk past the dozen or so televisions in the game room/pool hall that are never turned off. Then we walk outside and look left toward the dining hall; the televisions there are on all night, too.

So, the University has apparently decided to cut back on what students want — places to sit, relax and have a cup of joe — while failing to recognize how much money they could save by just turning off the TVs. And yes, we have tried to do it manually; it doesn’t work. They’re on some sort of automatic system. Don’t believe us? Try it for yourself.

On a side note, it’s ironic that UH has decided to go green with Recyclemania and the reusable to-go containers (which are another issue entirely), but have failed to be environmentally friendly in the most obvious of ways: If you’re not using it, turn it off.

But back to the main issue: Wouldn’t students be more inclined to stick around on campus if they had places to go? As it is now, the only reason we have to stay after classes is to avoid rush hour traffic.

E D I TO R I A L policy STAFF EDITORIAL The Staff Editorial reflects the opinions of The Daily Cougar Editorial Board (the members of which are listed above the editorial). All other opinions, commentaries and cartoons reflect only the opinion of the author.

Opinions expressed in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Houston or the students as a whole.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Daily Cougar welcomes letters to the editor from any member of the UH community. Letters should be no more than 250 words and signed, including the author’s full name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Anonymous letters will not be published. Deliver letters to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to letters@ thedailycougar.com; send them via campus mail to STP 4015; or fax them to (713) 7435384. Letters are subject to editing.

ADVERTISEMENTS Advertisements published in The Daily Cougar do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the University or the students as a whole.

GUEST COMMENTARY Submissions are accepted from any member of the UH community and must be signed with the author’s name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major.

Commentary should be kept to less than 500 words. Guest commentaries should not be written as replies to material already printed in the Cougar, but rather should present independent points of view. Rebuttals should be sent as letters. Deliver submissions to Room 7, University Center Satellite; e-mail them to letters@thedailycougar.com; or fax them to (713) 743-5384. All submissions are subject to editing.

The Daily Cougar

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6 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Daily Cougar

SPORTS

COMING WEDNESDAY: See if the baseball and softball teams were able to keep their winning streaks going

EDITORS Phillipe Craig, Robert Higgs E-MAIL sports@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/sports

Baseball

THE PEOPLE’S GAME

Blowout rouses players

For some clubs, fourth place is best

By Tristan Tippet The Daily Cougar The Cougars will attempt to build off their two games-toone series win over Conference USA foe Central Florida with a strong showing against TexasSan Antonio at 6:30 p.m. today at Cougar Field.

The series win moves UH’s record to 12-10 on the season.

The Cougars are 10-5 in their last 15 games, going back to their win against Missouri in the Houston College Classic.

In Friday’s game, the Cougars had a 3-2 lead after seven, but UCF scored three in the eighth off Chase Dempsay and won 7-4.

UH, and particularly their offense, bounced back to win 7-3 in Saturday’s game and 20-3 Sunday, scoring 20 runs for the first time since 2007 against Princeton.

Travis Trial, who went 3-for5 with four RBIs, a triple and a double, hit a home run in the second game that helped propel the Cougars to victory.

“I think with our team, we just need one little spark, and we play great,” Trial said. “Once something happens, we all come together as a team. If (my homerun) is what (did it), I was glad to do it, because I haven’t really contributed much this year, so it was pretty good to do that.”

The Cougars hope to bring that team play to their game against UTSA. The Roadrunners went 3224 last season, but are struggling to match that success this year.

The Roadrunners, entering their 10th season under head coach Sherman Corbett, are 9-13 and

justin flores The Daily Cougar

M.P. Cokinos’ two runs helped lead the Cougars to a 20-3 blowout of UCF on Sunday. UH will once again look to its freshman slugger for offense when it plays UTSA at 6:30 p.m. today.

1-8 in the competitive Southland Conference.

The Roadrunners have struggled since beginning the season with a five-game winning streak, including winning three out of four against Indiana State.

Since then the Roadrunners, have had only four wins. During that stretch, the Roadrunners got swept by Southland foe Southeastern Louisiana.

Team

W L GB W L Pct

Tulane UAB UH Memphis Southern Miss Central Florida Rice Marshall East Carolina

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Conf.

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THE DAILY COUGAR.COM

17 13 12 11 14 15 13 10 16

Str

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W-1 L-1 W-2 L-1 W-1 L-2 W-1 L-1 W-7

latest victory against Sunderland.

The win was greatly contributed by the return of Fernando Torres, who has scored six goals in the past five games since being injured.

Liverpool seems like a different team when Torres and Gerrard are on the pitch together. Dirk Kuyt and Yossi Benayoun have also had great seasons, and they will all need to be on their best game if their team is to take the fourth position.

Manchester City is also in the running, sitting close to Liverpool.

The season hasn’t been as spectacular as City had hoped after spending more than 100 million pounds on players like Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robinho, but it is still in contention for fourth place.

City has won some big games this year, beating Chelsea twice and Arsenal once. It dropped a lot of points, however, in the middle of the season. After winning five of their first six matches, the Blues tied a record seven consecutive matches, dropping them considerably in the rankings. Since then, it has been two steps forward and one step back for City, and with its upcoming schedule, this all-star team will need to play as a team.

Right now in its current form, fourth position is Tottenham’s to lose. A fourth-place finish and a FA Cup trophy would be an excellent finish to a comeback season.

Liverpool, however, has history and knows what it is like to be in these tight situations. Manchester City has a lot riding on this season, and seeing manager Roberto Mancini blow up when they lost to Everton makes it clear he knows his job is on the line. My final prediction is Tottenham taking fourth, followed by Manchester City, with Liverpool coming in sixth. sports@thedailycougar.com

What are your favorite Jordans?

“I like the 12s. Those are my favorites.

The black-and-reds.

I might need to get those.”

­— Kevin Lewis, guard

0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1.5

OVERALL

Standings accurate as of Jan. 15

see BASEBALL, page 7

Ask the athletes

“I’m going to have to go with the allblack 10s. Those are the ones I liked; they felt the most comfortable.”

C-USA Baseball Standings

For the past month, it has been a two-team race to be crowned champion of the Barclays Premier League. Manchester United and Chelsea have held the reins at Gordon the lead of this Furneaux professional league.

But just as competitive, heading into the last couple of matches, is the battle over the coveted fourth position that allows a team to compete in the Champions League.

The teams in contention for this placement are Tottenham Hotspurs, Liverpool and Manchester City.

Tottenham sits in fourth position, with 58 points and a game in hand, but it has the hardest part of its schedules coming up with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in weeks 34 through 36.

Tottenham has been the most consistent of the three teams sitting behind Arsenal for several weeks, winning its past five matches and going unbeaten in nine.

It has maintained its form without Robbie Keane, who is on loan to Celtic, and while facing injuries to its best players. Its two losses in 22 games are a testament to the caliber of this league and shows Liverpool and Manchester City what they are up against.

Liverpool has faced its difficulties this season, and many still question if it can make up the ground lost during their midseason slump. Aside from Chelsea, Liverpool faces teams who, on paper, it should beat. It has a habit, however, of giving away points to easier teams.

This has been a difficult season for the Liverpool faithful, who last year watched their team lose only twice and finish in second place.

It has fought its way back and are currently sitting in fifth place, four points behind Tottenham after its

­— Zamal Nixon, guard

“The Space Jams. I guess its because I like the movie.” ­— Aubrey Coleman, guard

“The white-and-black 13s. I had all the numbers, but those were some of my favorites.” ­— Desmond Wade, guard

FEEDBACK: Tell us what your favorite Jordans are.

“I’d say the 1s. No particular color combination, I just like them because they were like (Air) Forces at first.” ­— Kendrick Washington, forward

“The Space Jams. I like the movie — it’s a classic. I like the leather.” ­— Maurice McNeil, forward

SPORTS

The Daily Cougar

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 n 7

SOFTBALL

Cougars hungry to continue winning streak

By Christopher Losee The Daily Cougar Looking to extend their twogame win streak, the Cougars (1914, 6-4 Conference USA) will hit the road to face off against LouisianaLafayette in a doubleheader today.

Earlier this season, UH hosted ULL at the Houston Marriot Invitational and defeated the Ragin’ Cajuns 2-1 in eight innings.

Meanwhile, the Cougars come into the midweek doubleheader after closing a three-game series with an 8-5 victory over UTEP on

BASEBALL

Sunday.

Head coach Kyla Holas does not believe that the wins are something that the team should take for granted.

“There is so much history between us and this team,” Holas said. “They have one of the toughest environments to play in, and those Cajuns are known for their fans, known for their rowdiness and known for their home-team advantage.”

ULL (19-11) is 6-1 at home this season. Under co-head coaches Michael and Steni Lotief, the

Cajuns are coming off of a 45-13 season in 2009. They returned 15 letterwinners and are coming off a winning streak of their own. They won their three games against Western Kentucky over the weekend to carry their own momentum into Tuesday’s game.

At the plate, the Cajuns have two players batting over .350, one of whom has 13 homers on the season.

To win today, the Cougars will have to play their best ball of the season.

“We are going to need to have really good offense,” Holas said. “We are going to have to

match them offensively, which is something that is hard to do.”

Holas made it clear that her team must play mistake-free.

“You have to show up with your bats and score runs,” Holas said, “because their pitching staff is not going to give up a lot and their offense is really good.”

Junior pitcher Amanda Crabtree was diagnosed on Monday with an abdominal strain, and Holas said she could be out for a week. Battling the Cajun offense on the mound will be Baillie Lott and Bailey Watts, who have a combined record of

12-7.

“I still feel like we are a young team,” Holas said. “Age, maturity and experience allows you to stay in the center so that you don’t get too high or too low.”

Adding a bit more history between the two teams facing off this week, Holas graduated from ULL in 1994 and was a pitcher for the Cajuns.

“Every game we play against them is huge,” Holas said. “There is no advantage.” sports@thedailycougar.com

THE UH LIBRARIES present:

continued from page 6

The Roadrunners have struggled on the mound and at the plate. UTSA’s team ERA is 5.67 with an opponents team batting average of .315. On offense, UTSA is only hitting .247. In spite of that, the Roadrunners have a standout in Ryan Rummel, who is hitting .417 after 13 starts.

The teams split their two games last year, with UH winning at San Antonio 14-7, but losing at home 14-8. UH leads the alltime series 14-6. In the past four matchups, UH is 2-2. Prior to that, the Cougars had an eight-game winning streak in the series.

Head coach Rayner Noble said the rest afforded to his key pitchers in the blowout win over UCF will help against UTSA. “I’d like to think that we’ll be ready to play them,” Noble said.

“We’ll have a lot of arms available to get us through that. We’ve been playing two games during the middle of the week, and our staff was tired. But we didn’t have to use Dempsay or (Matt) Creel, and both of those guys needed a little rest.”

exploring the use of social media in academia Wednesday, March 31 from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

At the library, Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion.

Keynote Speaker: Madhuri Kumar, program director of the teaching with technology group at theBauer College of Business.

This event is FREE. For more information and to register, visit http://info.lib.uh.edu/showcase.html

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8 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Daily Cougar

LIFE+ARTS EDITOR

COMING WEDNESDAY: Our green columnist writes about eco-marathon

Travis Hensley E-MAIL arts@thedailycougar.com ONLINE www.thedailycougar.com/life_arts

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

HEALTH & FITNESS

Hot Yoga makes for good stretch The joy of standing half-naked in a room full of people swimming in their own sweat cannot be underestimated. My feet are cushioned from the hardwood floor by a bright purple yoga mat, dimpled like a Robert Higgs cloud, sporting a cherubic portrait of Miley Cyrus; as it turns out, fitness equipment is not something Marshalls heavily stocks.

For the last two months, I’ve been extending my early mornings one day further by waking up at 7 a.m. Saturday to go to a free yoga class at a sparkling studio in Midtown. And not just any yoga, but hot Hatha. If the latter word means nothing to you, you’re in good company. I couldn’t tell you the difference between Hatha, Vinyasa, Pranayama, Yin-yasa or any of the other forms of yoga they teach, which I pulled off the studio’s website for the purpose of listing forms of yoga I know nothing about.

The key word here is “hot.”

At least, that’s what initially got me interested in getting out of my comfort zone and trying something new. It was early January, and between the cold of winter and the chill of a recent breakup, I thought a little warmth was just what I needed. So the next Saturday, I sacrificed my sleep, woke up bright and early, packed up my recently purchased and unfortunately decorated yoga mat and drove to the studio — the source, I was sure, of a newfound sense of peace that would soon be filling my life.

It was a brisk, drizzly morning, and my spirits rose as I opened the studio’s frosted glass door and basked in the warmth of the smiling faces that greeted me.

“Is this your first time here?” the attractive young woman behind the front desk asked.

“Yes,” I said, and tried to communicate with my eyes that it wouldn’t be the last.

She gave me a quizzical look, making me wonder about mine, and said, “OK, hun. Just sign this release, and you can put your stuff in one of the cubbies. We lock the doors when the class starts. The studio is down the hall on the right.”

Papers signed, clothes and keys deposited in one of the bright pink cubbies that lined the walls of the front office (so much for soothing colors), I followed her directions to the door through which I would find my haven from the cold world outside.

If you’ve ever, while swimming, jumped from a hot tub directly into a freezing cold pool, you’ll see YOGA, page 9

20th century fox

Hot Tub Time Machine opened Friday, pleasing fans by giving them something thar, though not intelligent, was worthy of a few laughs.

Set dial to the ‘80s ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ takes viewers on a journey to 1986

By Michelle Reed The Daily Cougar Hot Tub Time Machine is an absurdly hilarious trip back into the retro, glamrock world of the 1980s. Filled with thermal leg warmers, over-sized metal hair and approximately 100 minutes of continuous comedic vulgarity, the movie’s unoriginal plot and awkwardly hysterical raunchiness keeps the film afloat.

The movie isn’t for the faint of heart, or someone who wasn’t alive in the 80s or familiar with the time era. The movie begins with Lou (Rob Corddry) an alcoholic, Motley Crüe obsessed hot mess who almost kills himself while rocking out to the metal band in his closed garage while intoxicated. In order to prevent Lou from continuing a life full of drunken mistakes, Adam (John Cusack), a depressed insurance agent who has recently

been dumped, his nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) a young videogame nerd, and Nick (Craig Robinson), a former musician turned dog groomer, travel back to Kodiak Valley, the place of their youth with the promise of epic nights. Once there, the group figures out that their hot tub is actually a time machine and has taken them back to 1986, reinstating their youthful exteriors and foul-mouthed, over-the-top exploits for a good party. Yet, Jacob, the youngster of the group, becomes enthralled by the fear of the “Butterfly Effect,” as he starts to flicker out of his corporeal state. Fretting with the idea of never being born, Jacob pushes the group to live out the days exactly the same as they did before, even if it means that Lou has to get beaten up by a Karate Kid look-a-like and Nick has to cheat on his wife, in which Adam says it’s not cheating, since you’re technically not married yet. The movie becomes so ridiculous with

straight edge raunchiness that it seems a lot had been edited out, and it seems as if the film was meant to be full of jokes and ridiculous scenarios despite a weak plot line.

The plot is easy to detect as the group tries to maintain each day exactly the same, meaning they will do everything completely different. Adam fears breaking up with his girlfriend who stabbed him in the eye with a fork back in the original 1986, and instead finds himself being broken up with and still getting stabbed in the eye with a fork. Nick still finds himself getting on the stage and performing, realizing that he has missed his true calling and Lou, after a drunken onenight stand, realizes that though he hates Jacob with a passion, he is his father and has saved Jacob from never being born. The movie becomes so absurd at times, that it’s see MOVIE, page 9

JACK’S FACTS

Great soundtracks things of rarity Great soundtracks are one of the hardest things to find in movies. Most great movies have an excellent musical score, but finding a movie with Jack a soundtrack you actually Wehman want to listen to after the movie’s over is a different story. With that in mind, I’ve chosen a few excellent movies with amazing soundtracks — and a few movies that were so terrible their soundtrack was the only good quality.

The best soundtrack of all time has got to be from The Graduate.

Simon & Garfunkel deliver their

best songs over and over, and it’s one of the best albums of all time, soundtrack or not. The only thing better is actually watching The Graduate.

Coming in close second is Garden State. Zach Braff may be hit-or-miss when it comes to his movies, but his soundtrack selection is impeccable. It’s like a sad teenager spent a year hand-picking each song on the album; it flows perfectly from song to song and is the perfect compliment to having your heart broken. Or when you just want to see SOUNDTRACK, page 9

FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

While Zack Braff’s movies maybe hit or miss the sound tracks give music lovers something to enjoy about them.

LIFE & ARTS

The Daily Cougar

MOVIE continued from page 8

annoying that all the characters are too consumed with reconfiguring their destinies to decipher how they traveled back in time in the first place. Jacob seems to be the only one with his head screwed on right, as he figures out that the mysterious repairman who randomly shows up throughout

SOUNDTRACK continued from page 8

listen to The Shins and think about Natalie Portman.

Almost any movie based on classic rock has a great soundtrack, and Almost Famous is no exception.

The songs are all from famous artists, but most of them are lesserknown songs. This album is like 93.7 started playing classic rock that people haven’t had memorized for the past two decades.

Coming in on the opposite end

YOGA continued from page 8

know the feeling, just in reverse.

Compared to the icy temperature outside, the outer office had felt positively heavenly. The inside of the studio proper, on the other hand, brought to mind images of fire and brimstone.

Don’t get me wrong; it was a

the movie (Chevy Chase) is actually their magic mystery guide and holds the answer to how they return back to present day. In the end, the characters all make it home alive and find out that the hot tub time machine actually saved their lives.

Although, the movie can definitely be type casted as unoriginal — despite the interesting name — taking plot themes from Back to the Future,

Pleasantville, Sixteen Candles and basically any 80’s movie, director Steve Pink gives the movie just enough backbone to make it relatable and borderline hilarious for anyone who finds dry humor, bodily fluids, purposed dude-ondude scenes, foul language, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll mixed in with lots of alcohol, innocent squirrels and the 80’s funny.

of the spectrum is The Last Kiss. This is the reason why Zach Braff is hitor-miss. Imagine everything that went right with Garden State and then take it all away. That’s The Last Kiss. The only thing that went right with this movie was, of course, the soundtrack, and even then it wasn’t as good as Garden State’s; it was the only thing that made this painful “comedy” (the term is used loosely) watchable. Well, that and Rachel Bilson.

If it wasn’t obvious by just watching it, Twilight was an abomination from a deep corner of hell. By some miracle, though,

its soundtrack was actually quite good. It’s unfortunate that Muse was actually affiliated with this movie (the baseball scene, of all things) but the fact remains: Twilight’s soundtrack is one of the few true guilty pleasures on my iPod. For most movies, soundtracks are a second thought, something that doesn’t get as much attention as the stars on the screen or the director in the chair. With the right attention to detail, though, a good soundtrack can make a decent movie good or save a terrible one.

lovely space for bending yourself into unnatural positions. But as I walked to an empty spot in the room and saw the thermostat set to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, I couldn’t help but wonder what I had gotten myself into.

An hour and a half later, with the voluminous amount of sweat I had shed turning the sticky surface of my mat into a slip-n-slide, utterly exhausted but alive with

the sweetest sense of grooviness even the hippest of hippies couldn’t imagine, I had fallen in love with this weird and ecstatic form of activity called hot Hatha yoga. I’ve been going every weekend since.

So if you ever feel your mind has gone pretzel-shaped, it might be worth finding a place where you can do the same to your body.

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10 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Daily Cougar

UH engages in environment issues

By Nzinga Tchameni The Daily Cougar Students from the School of Arts’ Graphic Communications program and the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture teamed up this semester to create environmentally friendly structures for Japhet Creek Park, Houston’s first Green Fingers Project.

The unveiling of their creations was held Saturday at Japhet Creek Park in the presence of friends and family as well as members of the Japhet Creek community.

“The project, called Dis(solve), is a message-laden collaboration between 21 UH senior students in the School of Arts Graphic Communications program and 12 fourth year students in the College of Architecture,” associate professor Cheryl Beckett said.

Beckett said the students worked within four interdisciplinary teams over a period of nine and a half weeks.

“Dis(solve) consists of nine different structures which are meant to serve as environmental metaphors of how the things we make can work in harmony with nature and ideally return to nature,” Beckett said.

Some of the structures included the Waste Oasis, Filtration Station, Mod Scapes and the Trash Extraction

Device.

Graphics communication senior Rachel Outlaw worked on the team that created the Filtration Station, which in addition to incorporating a shipping container for storage, also has a green roof that will keep the container cooler and act as a filtration system to provide water for washing hands and tools.

“We basically did a lot of brainstorming about this area and what Japhet Creek meant to us and how we wanted to incorporate the industrial nature of it with nature,” Outlaw said. “That led us to the shipping container idea, which has a green roof. The idea is that when it rains, water filters down eventually and comes into a barrel so that the people who work here can have a place to store their tools and also a place for the community members to wash their hands.”

Chris Pine, a fourth-year architecture student, said his team thought that Mod Scapes would represent Japhet Creek in the best way.

“We came up with a dissolvable garden which creates seating by combining bio-degradable boxes with compacted soil and native plants,” Pine said. “The boxes at one point will eventually start to peel away.”

Before this project, most of the students had never heard of Japhet Creek.

“I never knew this was here, but it’s great,” Outlaw said. “I love that Houston is interested in building up the community in this way. And celebrating the fact that yes there was industry, waste and pollution here but now we can turn this into a completely different thing.”

Beckett said the Dis(solve) project was an opportunity to participate in a place and make the efforts needed to positively transform an abused environment through human intervention.

Beckett said that these sorts of projects get the students out of the classroom and allow them to put theories of sustainability into practice toward the betterment of their community.

In addition to giving back to the community, the students from the different fields were able to learn a lot from each other.

“As graphic designers we don’t know much about construction, so we had to lean on the architects for information and vice versa. It was really good partnership, and I think we both learned a lot about our different disciplines,” Outlaw said.

Ramon Arciniega, an architecture student, agreed with Outlaw.

Nzinga Tchameni The Daily Cougar

The Dis(solve) project was created by graphic communication seniors to create environmentally friendly structures at Japhet Creek Park, located on Clinton Drive at Emile Street.

“This was by far, one of the greatest experiences for me because of how smoothly everything just came together,” Arciniega said.

The project gained support of the Japhet Creek community and the members were pleased with the results.

“I’m just really impressed with what they did,” community leader Jim Ohmart said. “I’m curious to see the dissolve part of it, how it looks in six months. And I’m real happy with the attention that it’s bringing to our community. This is going to help in raising community awareness.”

Another community leader said he appreciates the students using the large amount of space available at the creek.

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“What the students have been able to do out here is to define the space so rather than being an empty lot with a beautiful creek running through it that you can barely see from the road; what they have helped to do is to identify the space,” Brian Herod said. “People passing by will know that this is a park and not a place to dump things at.”

The Dis(solve) project was funded by the Greater East End Management District. The City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and the Japhet Creek Community Association provided additional support.

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Coogie by John Palamidy

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 n 11

today’s crossword ACROSS

Limbo by Paulo Aninag

today’s sudoku How to play

Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9; each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9; and each set of 3-by-3 boxes must also contain the numbers 1 to 9.

Previous puzzle solved

1

1 Play horseshoes 5 Boy from Baja 10 Crowds 14 “Laugh-In” name 15 Helicopter blade 16 General vicinity 17 Wolfish look 18 Protozoan 19 Dueler’s pride 20 Prize sharer 22 Japanese mat 24 Blondie’s shrieks 25 Candle lover 26 Nitpicks 29 Supplied, as food 33 AOL or Yahoo!

34 Tricks 36 Lyon’s river 37 Mystique 39 Do Latin homework 41 Twilight 42 Fountain in Rome 44 Tree nymph 46 Regret 47 Racetrack 49 Mouthed off 51 Dapper 52 Spock’s captain 53 Tattered 56 Ship’s compass housing 60 Jai 61 Part of LED 63 Steel- - boots 64 Hartford’s st.

65 An awful lot 66 Director - Kazan 67 Safecracker 68 Common Market money 69 Wander

DOWN

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©

2 1 Poet’s contraction 23 Off-road vehicles 25 Rumpled 26 Decrees 27 Grab the throne 28 Buying frenzy 29 Mason of whodunits 30 Letter ender 31 Follow upon 32 Faked out the goalie 35 Anwar - of Egypt 38 Getting even 40 Simplicity 43 - fixe 45 Mild expletive 48 Duck’s gait 50 Ice Capades performer 52 Buster 53 Suggestive 54 Shampoo additive 55 Urban threat

30

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1 Bath powder 2 Layered cookie 3 Goulash 4 Weekly program 5 Starts (2 wds.)

6 Living quarters 7 Route for Ben-Hur 8 Kernel holder 9 Eloquent speaker 10 Newspaper’s ID 11 Whale like Shamu 12 Joist 13 Hindu attire

10

5 6 Wild hog 57 Wyo. neighbor 58 Luke Skywalker’s sister 59 Mellow cheese 62 Debtor’s note

2009 United Feature Syndicate INC.

Previous puzzle solved S R T A I C K B L A B S

T O A D

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12 n Tuesday, March 30, 2010

UH needs new way to send messages UH’s Frontier Fiesta annually attempts to bring the entire school together in a huge celebration with barbecue, concert performances and rides. A Sarah tactical error Krusleski by event planners at this year’s celebration, however, may have alienated a significant portion of the student body.

While setting up the event, a crew had to block off two parking lots for the entire week leading up to the event. The closing of these lots affected commuters and car owners residing in the nearby campus apartments at Cougar Place.

Officials at a school as diverse as UH are faced with the challenge of adequately communicating messages to students who may not use computers every day or who may not live on campus.

Finding additional channels through which to communicate with off-campus students is crucial.

Unfortunately, Frontier Fiesta’s event planners did not account for off-campus students when relaying messages about the closed parking lots.

UH Parking and Transportation Services Director Robert Browand said in an e-mail that an alert

about the parking lot closures was posted on the Frontier Fiesta and Campus Activities Web sites, and that a press release was sent to The Daily Cougar on March 15.

Browand also said notices were placed at the parking lots during spring break when class was not in session.

While these notices could have worked with students who live on campus and stayed here during the break, they probably had little effect on students who commute.

Perhaps putting the notices up before spring break, when class was still in session, would have allowed more commuters to see the signs. According to Browand, however, the timing could not have been helped.

“The committee revealed their final event layout and space requirements to us at a meeting on March 5, 2010,” Browand said in the e-mail. “PTS then waited almost a week (March 11) before we were sent the event map showing the areas to be blocked and their intended uses. We then developed our notification material and started advertizing the closures on March 15.”

Campus coordinators who seek to unite students in events such as Frontier Fiesta must acknowledge that students with full-time jobs and families form a significant

The Daily Cougar

EDITORIAL CARTOON

USBICEF

part of the student body. These students lack the free time to keep track of campus nightlife; not every student is interested in Twitter or Facebook and few of those who do use social media networks use them to follow what’s going on with Parking and Transportation Services.

The decision to wait until the Wednesday during spring break to put the parking lot notices up did not effectively reach commuting students who had no reason to visit campus during their time off.

One could argue that because

Frontier Fiesta is an annual campus tradition, people should have expected the lots to be closed. Browand did say that the same parking lots are closed every year to prepare for the event.

New students could not have been expected to know about the closing of the lots, however, and commuters who have to leave campus for work and families may not have remembered this oncea-year occurrence.

Essentially, the coordinators assumed these channels of communication would be sufficient enough to reach all students who commute, are involved in campus life enough to visit campus during a class-free period, follow administration policies using social media technology or live in Cougar Place.

There are more direct ways to contact students without alienating commuters; this communication gap can be rectified in the coming years.

Other organizations at the University, such as the campus police department, utilize a mass e-mail system to directly contact

YELTON continued from page 4

This is not only a safe and fun way to realize the performance potential of one’s motorcycle, but it also translates to safer and more responsible street riding.

Motorcycles are great modes of transportation and fun to ride. Whether a person enjoys cruising through the back roads at a moderate pace or flying down the freeway at triple-digit speeds, attending a track day can only

the thousands of students at UH, so there is no reason why Frontier Fiesta’s coordinators could not have taken the time to arrange a similar method to directly contact all students.

According to a press release on UH’s Web site, the Parking and Transportation Services department allowed economy permit holders to use any lot around campus between March 7 and April 1; it should be commended for doing so.

But that does not excuse the lack of communication to commuters, many of whom may have arrived on campus, found out that their regular spots were taken and proceeded to compete with other economy permit holders for the remaining spaces.

While Frontier Fiesta is an important tradition that unites the campus for a weekend of cook-offs and fun games, future coordinators should be sure to contact commuters through more effective channels.

Sarah Krusleski is a communication senior and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

serve to benefit riders and the drivers around them.

Unfortunately, many riders find out through painful, costly experiences how dangerous street riding can be. Track days improve students’ skills while teaching them to be more responsible and informed riders.

Maybe the lessons from one of the classes could end up being a real lifesaver.

Joel Yelton is an English senior and may be reached at opinion@ thedailycougar.com

Because Chris can be a woman’s name, too.

Though The Daily Cougar strives for accuracy and fairness in its reporting, mistakes happen. Please report any errors you see in the paper to the editorial staff. Corrections will run on Page 2 as needed to amend the record. To report a correction, e-mail editor@thedailycougar.com or call (713) 743-5362.

Come and enjoy the New Breakfast Menu and Deals at your in the Law Center 713-743-5873