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THE DAILY TEXAN Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
TASTE OF THAILAND On-campus restaurants offer Western take on Asian cuisine
Longhorns prepare to defend rankings on the road
University Twitter feed grabs attention for influencing social media universe
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NEWS PAGE 6 @thedailytexan
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MEN’S TENNIS
Tweeting up a storm
Friday, January 21, 2011
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Lawmakers propose ban on marijuana substitutes
WEEKEND FRIDAY ‘Reinventing Your Exit’
Allison Kroll Daily Texan Staff
Christian metal band Underoath will play a set at Emo’s on Friday, along with Thursday and Animals as Leaders. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 on Friday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
‘The dude abideth’
The Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek will be showing The Big Lebowski in quote-along format. Tickets are $10. The movie will start at 10 p.m.
SATURDAY Deli Duel
Austin delis will compete Saturday in the Restaurant Throwdown series for the title of the best reuben in the city. The contest begins at 2:30 p.m. at 9503 Research Blvd.
Ape-solutely
The 5K Gorilla Run, a benefit event featuring participants in gorilla suits, starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Austin City Hall plaza. Online registration is available until Friday at 4 p.m. The cost of registration, including a gorilla suit, is $99.95.
Andrew Torrey | Daily Texan Staff
Roberto Martinez reels an oil hose back into a fuel truck on Rio Grande street. Construction between MLK and 24th street is expected to continue until August.
Traveling down Rio Grande Street is even more difficult than usual because of a construction project that a city spokeswoman said is expected to continue until August 2012. The construction is a part of the Rio Grande Public Works Project, to improve and renovate the street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to 29th Street. The project, which began in late December, includes the relocation and renovation of
W PROGRESS ORK IN
By Joe Layton Daily Texan Staff
SUNDAY
‘Buy Your Horse’
91.7 KVRX and Converse are sponsoring a show that includes bands Whiskey Shivers and East Cameron Folkcore. Tickets are $5 and the concert starts at 2 p.m. at 2906 Fruth St.
Campus Watch Reservations required
Colorado Building Garage A non-UT person was found sleeping under a sign that plainly read “Reserved UT System Administration At All Times.” The person was found to have previously been issued a written criminal trespass warning and was taken into custody.
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Quote to note “We didn’t get an NC-17 for what they saw. We got it for what they felt while watching it.” — Derek Cianfrance Director and co-writer of Blue Valentine
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utilities under the roadway, new streetlights, curbs, sidewalks, driveways, trees, reconstruction of the intersection at 24th Street and possible modifications to the existing bicycle lane. C onstruction workers completed the first part of the project, located at the intersection of Rio Grande and MLK, before the beginning of the spring semester. Construction narrowed MLK to one lane, but the road is now fully operational. Repairs on
Rio Grande, from MLK to 24th, started on Jan. 17 and are scheduled for completion in August 2011. City planners are also designing improvements between 24th and 29th Streets, and the city will soon start accepting bids from independent contractors for the renovation. The projected start date for this segment of Rio Grande is August 2011, around the same time as the projected finish date for the
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INSIDE: Austin ranks 36th in nationwide traffic congestion on page 5
Rock and bowl
Scientists and experts will be identifying natural objects, such as fossils and rocks, and archaeological materials, such as arrowheads and pottery fragments, at Texas Memorial Museum on Sunday. The event begins at 1 p.m.
SPORTS PAGE 8
By Jake Hong Daily Texan Staff
Allen Otto Daily Texan Staff
Ethernet inventor takes professorship, brings corporate smarts to technology By Matthew Stottlemyre Daily Texan Staff
A principle inventor of Ethernet joined the Cockrell School of Engineering this month as its only professor of innovation. Robert Metcalfe brings years of private sector and large-scale commercialization experience to the University. He said he hopes his future research here will connect other work at the engineering school to the entrepreneurial system of start-ups and investors in Austin. While working for the Xerox corporation and working on his doctoral dissertation at Harvard in 1973, Metcalfe developed Ethernet along with other researchers, although he is credited as its
principal inventor. Metcalfe then left Xerox and founded 3Com, a network technology company. He said the company standardized and introduced the Ethernet commercially and merged into a part of Hewlett-Packard Co. last year for more than $7 billion. Ethernet provides a basic layer of the Internet — the connection between computers, which are often in the same building, on Local Area Networks. When developing the Internet, computer scientists organized it in layers, Metcalfe said during his first public lecture at UT on Thursday. Physical structures, such as a personal computer, make up the first
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China’s rising prominence is likely to encourage greater enrollment of UT students in study abroad programs to the country, said Tracy Dahlby, the journalism professor with the Reporting China Maymester program. The growing interest among UT stu-
to the fact that computer science is a valuable major, said computer science professor Calvin Lin. Students in both the Department of Computer Science and the McCombs School of Business are heavily recruited by Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon and Google. Lin said he is not surprised so many students pursue computer science degrees because many employers seek
dents coincides with the Obama administration’s goal of doubling the number of students studying abroad in the largest Asian country by 2014. First lady Michelle Obama also stressed student travel to China at a Wednesday speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C., which came shortly after
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Courtesy of Suchada Sutasirisap
A worker throws water out of an ancient metal pot that served as an emergency fire extinguisher in the Gugong, or Forbidden City, in Beijing, China.
Survey pinpoints majors with top career potential Computer science and business majors may have better luck than anyone at finding top jobs in 2011, according to a new job outlook survey. The National Association of Colleges and Employers named the two majors the most desirable to potential employers. UT students have caught on
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Students study abroad in China, learn of upcoming superpower
Bob Metcalfe, future UT professor and inventor of Ethernet, spoke to students and colleagues about the internet and its relation to the energy crisis Thursday.
By Ahsika Sanders Daily Texan Staff
The production, sale and use of synthetic marijuana could become a felony if Texas lawmakers move forward with legislation to ban drugs that mimic the active ingredient in marijuana. State Sen. Florence Shapiro and state Rep. Jerry Madden, both Plano Republicans, introduced the bill after constituents raised concerns about the increasing use of the drugs in North Texas. Synthetic marijuana — more commonly referred to as K2 or spice — is sold in specialty smoke stores and gas stations as substitutes for tetrahydrocannabinol, marijuana’s main ingredient, said Christine Mann, a Department of State Health Services spokeswoman. “Many young individuals have been using K2, and it includes many serious health risks,” Mann said. “It’s a relatively new product, so little is known about its exact contents. We really don’t know what the long-term effects could be.” According to the Texas Poison Center Network, side effects include chest pains, respiratory issues, seizures and nausea. About 474 people reported exposure to marijuana homologs — synthetic marijuana — since January 2010. “If K2 is banned in Texas, we
experts in the field. “It’s been true for years, in terms of job strength, that computer science has been one of the best majors to go into, and I think a lot of students didn’t know that, so maybe that’s catching up with people now,” he said. Computer science is one of the 15 most popular majors for both
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MOST DESIRED MAJORS According to the Huffington Post, other majors employers desire are: • Accounting • Finance • Electrical Engineering • Mechanical Engineering • Business Administration / Management