Wednesday, July 31, 2013 // Issue 121, Volume 78
WEEKLY SUMMER EDITION
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
S I N C E
1 9 3 4
CRIME
Court refuses lower bond for suspect Mary Dahdouh News editor
The woman charged with capital murder in the death of a UH professor was refused a lower bond when she appeared in court July 22. Harris County Judge Brock Thomas denied 44-year-old suspect Ana Trujillo’s request to reduce her bond from $100,000 to $30,000. According to Houston Culture Map, Trujillo’s attorneys remain optimistic that evidence they plan to present at an August bond hearing
will secure her release in advance of a trial. Tr ujillo confessed to stabbing her then-boyfriend, Andersson Stefan Andersson, 59, and is expected to offer a plea of self-defense. Andersson’s body was found in his upscale apartment on June 9 with numerous puncture wounds to the head, arms and neck from
a high-heel shoe. Trujillo was still in the apartment when police arrived, and she was immediately arrested. Assistant district attorney John Jordan told a district judge that the couple had been at a bar when Andersson became angry after another man offered to buy Trujillo a drink. Upon returning to the condo, the suspect claims Andersson became abusive as the two argued about plans to visit her STILETTO continues on page 3
Although Ana Trujillo was charged with capital murder in the death of research professor Stefan Andersson, her attorneys are hopeful that she will be released before her trial. | Courtesy of KHOU Houston/Channel 11
FOOTBALL
RESEARCH
Job with Astros gratifies former QB
Survey SNAPs student views
Andrew Valderas Assistant sports editor
Since elementary school, Crawford Jones has wanted to make sports a big part of his life. During rides to school, the former UH quarterback would quiz his mom on stats and trivia just so they could talk sports along the way. When Jones was interviewed as a player, he took mental notes and used them to help when he was on the other side of the microphone. Now he has his chance. Jones, who won the Astros’ “You Make The Call” contest last summer, earned a job as the team’s radio apprentice and in-game host. He said he gets an idea of what an athlete is thinking or feeling in certain situations. He also remembers great questions he would get asked and tries to avoid the bad ones. Jones said his success humbled him because he may not have had the opportunity if he didn’t choose to play football at UH in 2008. During 2008 recruitment, Jones was talking to coaches from Rice about playing for the Owls. However, a call from head coach Tony Levine, who was then an assistant coach, helped make up his mind. “If it weren’t for (Levine), I JONES continues on page 5
Nam-My Le Staff writer
students, four UHCL students and a faculty adviser representing each school. “You can’t really have a low gravity environment on Earth, so the teams stimulate a low gravity environment by flying a 747 carrier. They then climb in the air and combine the decent of the air and the gravity, making the people feel as they have more gravitational pull than usual,” said Kwok-Bon Yue, UHCL’s faculty adviser and professor of computer science. “(When the plane) reaches a very high altitude some of the decent field will cancel the gravitational pull, so for a very brief moment, only about ten seconds, the people inside the aircraft will experience low gravity,
Psychology professor Clayton Neighbors is using a unique approach to finding participants for his research: convenience. Neighbors’ five-year $2.8 million study, titled Social Norms and Alcohol Prevention, asks students for their views on health issues through a fourquestion online Neighbors survey. “We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible. We have a mobile-friendly site, so it’s accessible on your iPads or smart phones,” Neighbors said. “It takes one minute. It’s quick. It’s easy.” SNAP is funded by the National Institute of Health and will survey 1,000 students and examine whether their views on drinking habits are in line with that of their peers. Biochemistry junior Wade Tao
FIRES continues on page 3
SNAP continues on page 3
A team of UH-Clear Lake and San Jacinto College students are working with NASA’s Microgravity University program to research how to suppress fires in low gravity situations, which can aid in many circumstances on space shuttles. While it is not absolute zero gravity, NASA’s 747 Carrier is the closest a person can get to weightlessness on Earth. | Courtesy of NASA
ACADEMICS
UHCL students fight fires in microgravity Laura Gillespie Assistant news editor
NASA’s Weightless Wonder aircrafts, which follow an elliptic path relative to the center of the Earth, are some of the closest approximations of zero gravity on the planet. They have been used for research, training and movie sets since 1959. A small team of students from San Jacinto College and UH-Clear Lake will get to experience one of these flights in order to conduct research on how to suppress fires in microgravity. Students from universities and colleges nationwide submitted their proposals on why they should be chosen for NASA’s Microgravity University program, but only 14 were selected. The team consists of three SJC