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Hey Rice Standard Readers!

I will be attending the John McCain event tomorrow and will be live blogging from the press section of the room. So check the Rice Standard website during the speech to get LIVE coverage of John McCain at Rice!

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7:57 AM

T-minus 33 minutes until the ‘Honorable’ Sen. McCain makes his entrance. I’m seated at the rear of the room next to Evan Mintz, the esteemed Editor of the Rice Thresher. This is a good day for Rice Campus Media, no doubt.

I was happy to hear that the University of West Virginia is suing Rich Rodriguez for a third of the buyout amount for his contract. For those of you who don’t know, Rodriguez abandoned UWV after seven years of coaching to replace Lloyd Carr at the University of Michigan. I think its absolutely ridiculous how meaningless contracts have become in professional sports. Last year, as I’m sure we all remember, Todd Graham was able to get out of his contract extension with Rice.

President Bush had a press conference today where he discussed the Iraq War, Congress, and all sorts of other good things. The Washington Post says: “What began as a troubling year for Bush, facing a new, energetic Democratic Congress, ended in triumph for the president as frustrated Democrats nursed their losses.” Now I wouldn’t go that far, but I can say this: the Democratic Congress has not been effective in achieving the goals it set in 2006.

Ok, I know we’re 7-7. I know we have never had a winning season. I know we were dumb enough to keep David Carr at quarterback for five seasons and draft Tony Boselli (who never played one game) as our first pick in the expansion draft. But, I think its time that everyone should start realizing that our Texans are coming around to be a very good football team.

http://planetmoron.typepad.com/planet_moron/2007/11/celebrating-is.html

By the way, that blog is probably the best ever. So consider bookmarking it/adding it to your RSS feed. Depending on how high tech you are.

If you are interested in increasing that variable against you ever getting laid again, I recommend you start with the free http://www.google.com/reader/.

It’s interesting how the same method of protest can be acceptable in one case, and unacceptable in another. When Trinity University’s College Republicans used a bake sale with tiered pricing to ridicule the idea of affirmative action, they were shot down publicly since the method is “too controversial”.

I hope everyone read Scott Berger’s letter to the editor in today’s Thresher. It called for Evan Mintz to be fired because of the article he wrote last week about satanism at Rice. I wasn’t sure what to think about Scott’s ideas until I read what Evan wrote last week. To be honest, I was not sure if Evan’s article was a joke, and I am still uncertain. However, if it was intended to be humurous, I’m sure Evan would have clarified that like he does with the back page.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/arts/music/07prais.html

That’s American culture now. That and the cars and the accumulation of STUFF and the tract housing. Let me tell you, people living in Manhattan have no fucking idea this is going on.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rD9bCdHqU3s

A PSA from the Standard (for those that believe in democracy): if you registered to vote with your Rice mailing address then you’re eligible to vote at the RMC’s Farnsworth Pavilion untill 7pm this evening.

I would like to formally congratulate the Rice Standard for receiving the 2007 Best New Paper award from the Collegiate Network, a group that sponsors alternative campus newspapers. The award was given to us for our “superior content” out of all newspapers 3 years or younger. Everyone who has contributed so far to our little magazine should feel proud over this win! And if you’re still unsure about writing for us, just know that we are award-winning for our quality as a news magazine.

This seems like an interesting documentary – it’s about what actually happens on the ground relating to the most powerful crop in our country.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/kingcorn/trailer/

For more information about the farm bill that expires this fall, check out this website: http://www.farmandfoodproject.org/

Also – drink mexican soda. It will seriously improve your quality of life.

There has been no incoming email since the beginning of the afternoon (if anyone knows exactly when, please comment).

As a friend who works for Rice IT pointed out, “email has become a utility like electricity… this disrupts *everyone*…” And I’m sure heads are going to roll. I’m already searching for alternate email accounts to stay productive this evening.

Class should be cancelled tomorrow!

While I admit I have only seen clips of Al Gore’s famous movie, I must say it’s rather easy to debunk his primary claims regarding CO2 and temperature based on ice core data. The raw data is readily available from here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/vostok/vostok.html, and a quick analysis shows his claims aren’t quite accurate. Check out this article on Fox news for a UK judge’s opinion on the movie: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303525,00.html

Please check out Big Talk, a revolution of campus discourse about theological and spiritual questions, at http://www.betweenaduck.com or join their facebook group: http://rice.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2242231501&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jZld8Zg1aA
The mother of Jesus, theologically insignificant yet worshipped as a demi-god, appears on a garage door.

http://nymag.com/news/features/38961/
A new take on environmentalism – technology is the work of the Devil.

This reminds me of a quote from the Birth of Tragedy:
“The original Oneness, the ground of Being, ever suffering and contradictory, time and again has need of rapt vision and delightful illusion to redeem itself.”