Month: October 2012

Superstorm Sandy slammed into the New Jersey coastline with 80 mph winds Monday night and hurled an unprecedented 13-foot surge of seawater at New York City, flooding its subways and the electrical system that powers Wall Street. At least 10 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm, which brought the presidential campaign to a halt a week before Election Day.

For New York City at least, Sandy was not the dayslong onslaught many had feared, and the wind and rain that sent water sloshing into Manhattan from three sides began dying down within hours.

After four Big 12 contests, the Baylor Bears are still winless in the conference after Iowa State defeated the Bears 35-21 on Saturday. Now is the time for Baylor football to either sink or swim.

Seven games into the season, with a 3-4 record, some trends have become disturbing with this Baylor team. In all four of Baylor’s losses, the Bears are a combined minus-11 in turnover ratio. Aside from just the turnover ratio, the Bears have also failed to capitalize on golden opportunities and make the crucial plays down the stretch that generate victories.

Dr. Kenneth L. Hall, former president emeritus of Buckner International, has been named the new senior vice president for university development and strategic initiatives.

Hall’s new position will entail working with the President Ken Starr’s leadership team on strategic initiatives, such as Pro Futuris, and other university developments, such as new university projects on campus. Hall will begin his new duties on Jan. 1.

As far as exhibition games go, whether a team wins or loses, the result is not included in the season’s win or loss column. Technically, the season for the defending national champion Baylor Lady Bears doesn’t start until Nov. 9, but they see this game as the start to their season.

“We get to get away from playing each other,” junior guard Odyssey Sims said. “We always make each other better: going against each other we compete, but at the end of the day we’ve got to leave it on the court. Just to know that we play Tuesday, it’s really exciting.”

Kung Fu Panda, The Freak, The Beard and all their seed-throwing buddies are on top of baseball — again.

They may be under the radar, unappreciated and unexpected. But they’re unassailable, the winner of two World Series titles in the last three years.

Their sweep of the Detroit Tigers, completed Sunday night with a 4-3, 10-inning win, was simply historic.

No National League team had swept a World Series since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds.

The NBA season starts tonight, and fans in two cities can hardly control their excitement. I’m talking, of course, about Los Angeles and Miami.

If you look back just a year to when the league suffered a lockout, it seemed like the league was going to be shaken up. When the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified on Dec. 8, 2011, it put in place a framework that would prevent “super teams” from forming.

The full-band stylings of Lomelda echoed through the auditorium of University Baptist Church on Friday, with front-woman Hannah Read delivering a solid performance, according to those in attendance.

Lomelda, which started as a solo project by Read, has expanded to a huge local following over the past five years. Their music, which could be called a mellow, harmonic sound, had the audience in awe at the CD release show.

“I thought it was a really cool experience to have such an intimate show with all the instruments put together,” said Corpus Christi freshman Jeaneva Alvarez, who attended the show.

Wednesday’s annual Halloween organ concert will be a different way to spend the holiday and is likely to change some people’s perceptions of the instrument.

“When people think of organ they think of two things: They think of church music and they think of scary spooky,” said Isabelle Demers, assistant professor of organ at Baylor.

Demers, who has only taught at Baylor since the beginning of the year, said she thinks the spooky organ sounds people are used to hearing, such as in film scores, are often synthesized and usually don’t do the real thing justice. She said the organ should be experienced in a hall.

When a 14-year-old girl received a Facebook friend request from an older man she didn’t know, she accepted it out of curiosity. It’s a click she will forever regret, leading to a brutal story that has repeated itself as sexual predators find new ways to exploit Indonesia’s growing obsession with social media.

The junior high student was quickly smitten by the man’s smooth online flattery. They exchanged phone numbers, and his attention increased with rapid-fire texts. He convinced her to meet in a mall, and she found him just as charming in person.

President Barack Obama’s decision to help America’s automakers could end up being what helps drive him back into the White House.

Some 850,000 jobs in this critical battleground state are tied to autos and Obama’s campaign constantly reminds voters they’d be jobless if not for the decision to inject taxpayer dollars into General Motors and Chrysler.

Just 10 when he was arrested for killing his neo-Nazi father, the small, blond child told police he pulled the gun from a low-lying closet shelf and aimed it at the man’s ear while he slept in the family’s California home.

Everyone wants to be right.

As Election Day draws nearer, political campaigns and commentators begin talking more and more about recent poll data, attempting to interpret the results to indicate their candidate is winning. As a result, favorable poll numbers are often exaggerated and unfavorable results are “explained away”.

On average, a person spends up to eight hours a month on Facebook, whether it’s connecting with old friends, feeding your chickens on Farmville or — let’s be real — Facebook stalking.

If you haven’t already noticed, your timelines on Facebook are beginning to appear like MySpace back in the day or the silly emails that were forwarded to your Hotmail account with lEtTeRs ThAt LoOkEd LiKe ThIs.

Four turnovers cost Baylor on the road at Iowa State, falling 35-21 to the Cyclones.

Iowa State quarterback, senior Steele Jantz, finished the game with 381 yards for five touchdowns and an interception.

Sophomore receiver Jarvis West also had a career night with a trio of touchdowns and 99 yards.

The No. 15 Baylor women’s soccer team won their final regular season game over TCU by a score of 2-0. The team finished their season 14-1-4 overall and 5-0-3 in conference play.

Student teams are invited to enter Baylor’s second annual New Venture Business Plan Competition. The contest challenges students to create…

There’s still time to catch a chill.

Fright Night, an event sponsored by Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority in conjunction with the Baylor Activities Council and Student Activities, will continue at 8:00 p.m. today until midnight, with another opening at the same time Saturday night.

The famed “victory or death” letter by Lt. Col. William Barret Travis will come to the Alamo after all for a special display next year.

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday to permit the loan after rejecting earlier requests by the Texas General Land Office to return the letter to the site of a legendary siege and battle for the first time since 1836.

By Maegan Rocio Staff Writer History can spark an inspirational journey when you least expect it, as it did with…

The Downtown Waco Farmers Market will begin accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as payment Nov. 10 with the help of Baylor Campus Kitchen.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is a government assistance program designed to help low-income households buy food.

“Basically, it will open up a new opportunity for those who are on what used to be called food stamps,” said Eastborough, Kan., senior Kylie Aspegren, who is also Campus Kitchen’s Farmers Market coordinator. “They will be able to have fresh produce.”

The opening of the Texas 130 toll road extension went off without a hitch Wednesday, with no major collisions to speak of — then night fell, and the wildlife came out.

Vehicles and animals collided at least three times along the 41-mile road that connects south Austin to Seguin and boasts an 85 mph speed limit, the fastest in the country. Two hogs were hit, and one vehicle struck a deer.

No drivers were injured.

A 103-75 win for the No. 18 Baylor basketball team over the Abilene Christian Wildcats showed the high ceiling for the Bears.

“When you’re in practice and you go against the same guys every day, you tend to pick up their tendencies,” freshman center Isaiah Austin said. “It’s always good to get out there and find out ways to play defense other than against your teammates.”

Saturday is do or die for the Baylor Bears as they travel to Ames, Iowa, to take on the Iowa State Cyclones at 6 p.m. for their homecoming in 40-degree weather.

“We’ve had our first half of the season, and now we’re going into our second half,” head coach Art Briles said. “I don’t know if it’s a good analogy or not, but I use why divorces happen – there’s a variety of reasons, but sometimes it’s because you hear things, you see things, you do things, and sometimes it amounts over time. Then it goes to a point to where you think you can get away from it. What we’re trying to do is start cleaning. We have six games left, and those six games will determine our football season.”

Texas at Kansas: The Longhorns are still ranked in No. 23 in the latest BCS standings and face arguably the worst team in the Big 12, the Kansas Jayhawks. The rushing attack and physicality of Texas should overpower the Jayhawks. Texas is favored by 21 points and the rushing attack led by Joe Bergeron should power to Texas to a comfortable victory. It is Kansas’ homecoming so they should play with added spirit. Prediction: Texas 31, Kansas 21

Brooks Residential College is mad about energy, and it shows in this fall’s Energy Madness Competition results.

Brooks Residential College won the Fourth four-week Energy Madness Competition. Brooks Residential Flats, an apartment complex owned by Baylor, placed second, only one point behind the winner.

14 teams competed in the fall 2012 competition with 15 residence halls. Allen and Dawson residence halls competed as one team and the other residence halls competed individually. Clare Paul, marketing manager for Baylor Facilities & Energy, said the competition has gradually received more participation each year.

Thursday’s two new bill proposals at the Student Senate meeting could prove crucial to student’s comfort during finals.

Senator and Rockwall sophomore Brock Sterry introduced a new bill to student senators that would reform Baylor’s final exam policy if passed and accepted by the university. It will undergo a vote next week. The current policy allows students with three or more finals on the same day to file an appeal with a professor or dean to move one of the finals to a different date. The Final Exam Policy bill proposes that students be permitted to file an appeal if they have three or more tests within 24 hours.

Baylor professes to giving back to the community — and its students are living up to that claim.

Students in the Baylor Interior Design Association will design a collapsible, temporary 400-square-foot dwelling during a national competition sponsored by the Interior Design Educators Council.

The dwelling will be used to aid four-person families that are in need of shelter after a natural disaster has occurred.