Author: Baylor Lariat

What is real may not be real, so how do we know what’s real?

Some people think of neuroscientists as scientists who sit in a laboratory and just poke and prod brains all the time, but I feel like sometimes people forget the more humanities driven aspect of the major.

Baylor’s neuroscience program is part of the neuroscience and psychology department. The classes we take as neuroscience majors are cross-listed as psychology classes and psychology majors are required to take at least one of those classes as part of their major.

“Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” _ Martin Luther King Jr. (quoting William Cullen Bryant)

Sometimes, oceans are not enough.

In the early 1990s Disney taught us that dreams really do come true, beauty is on the inside and two words that can solve any problem: “Hakuna matata.”

Recently, these movies have been coming back to the big screen in 3D.

The trend started for Disney after the re-release of “The Lion King” brought in around $80 million.

The Waco Star’s talent show and karaoke contest, benefiting the Family Abuse Center, will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at The Phoenix Ballroom, 401 S. 3rd St.

Baylor Opera Theatre presents Gaetano Donizetti’s “Rita” or “The Beaten Husband,” a one-act comic opera at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday in Roxy Grove Hall. This event is free and open to the public

Felix Baumgartner stood poised in the open hatch of a capsule suspended above Earth, wondering if he would make it back alive. Twenty-four miles below him, millions of people were right there with him, watching on the Internet and marveling at the wonder of the moment.

A second later, he stepped off the capsule and barreled toward the New Mexico desert as a tiny white speck against a darkly-tinted sky. Millions watched him breathlessly as he shattered the sound barrier and then landed safely about nine minutes later, becoming the world’s first supersonic skydiver.

Help can come along when it’s least expected.

Because of a $5,000 donation by an anonymous donor, the Humane Society of Central Texas can provide cost-free adoptions for 100 dogs at their upcoming Howl-A-Ween event.

The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Humane Society facility.

wo more drugs from a specialty pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak are now being investigated, U.S. health officials said, as they urged doctors to contact patients who got any kind of injection from the company.

The New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass., has been under scrutiny since last month, when a rare fungal form of meningitis was linked to its steroid shots used mostly for back pain.

No arrests have been made yet in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Waco resident Anthony Levell Degrate, although a suspect has been identified by police. Degrate was killed following an altercation that took place at 2:15 a.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Club Alazan, which is located 6512 West Waco Drive.

Brittney Griner watched the Olympics and wished she was there. Thanks to the WNBA draft lottery, she might know where she’s going.

Before Rio in 2016, or even getting started in the pros next summer, there is still the senior season with the Lady Bears for the fun-loving All-American who can dunk and broke her right wrist in a longboarding accident this summer. Baylor is coming off the NCAA’s first 40-win season and returns every starter from its undefeated national championship team.

Mark Hotton appeared on the high-stakes Broadway theater scene out of nowhere this year, offering to come to the financial rescue of a fledgling Broadway adaptation of the psychological thriller “Rebecca.”

Although the musical’s producers had never heard of Hotton, he successfully sold himself as a globe-trotting moneyman with connections to a wealthy Australian named Paul Abrams. That was before Hotton raised suspicions by claiming that Abrams had suddenly dropped dead.

Moonlight Madness was a success last Friday night. The campus will soon be buzzing with basketball on the horizon, and the teams will look to hang banners in April.

Fans flooded the Ferrell Center for a taste of what they will get when the season starts next month.

“There was a lot of energy, man,” freshman forward Rico Gathers said. “I didn’t expect it to be this live…I can’t wait until the season starts.”

Before Baylor enters the tunnel to run out onto the field at Floyd Casey Stadium, the team hits a sign above the doorway that says “Finish Strong.”

“We aren’t going to put our heads down and throw in the towel,” senior quarterback Nick Florence said. “We still have seven more games left. There is still a lot of football to be played. When it comes to bowls, you are defined by how you finish. We’re going to keep fighting until the end.”

Baylor football fans are feeling a sense of panic this week after the Bears lost 49-21 to TCU on Saturday. I wish I could offer some words of encouragement and tell you that everything will be okay this football season, but some numbers just don’t lie.

Baylor’s defense is one of the worst in all of college football. Of the 124 FBS Division I teams, the Bears defense is ranked 121st in points allowed.

The No. 20 Baylor women’s soccer team had a tough road test this past weekend, taking on the No. 25 West Virginia Mountaineers on Friday night and Oklahoma State on Sunday afternoon.

Road victories are hard to come by in Big 12 play, but the Bears did come away with two draws.

The Bears are now 11-1-4 on the season, and 2-0-3 in Big 12 play.

The up-and-coming rock group “Mutemath” will be performing at Common Grounds at 7 p.m. today.

Today’s Baylor Jazz Ensemble concert will have a little bit of everything.

“I like to have an eclectic program,” said Alex Parker, director of jazz studies at Baylor.

Humor, in my opinion, is one of the best medicines around, especially for a college student. It can be a stress reliever, bring people together or lightly poke fun at certain situations or stereotypes.

Tumblr accounts are compilations of GIFs, a format for image files, using scenarios from movies and TV shows in a blog setting.

Recently mentioned in the debates were the “Bush Tax Cuts,” a set of laws passed in 2001 and 2003 that lowered marginal tax rates for almost all taxpayers. Although the laws were set to expire in 2010, President Obama renewed them until 2012. Now the debate begins a third time as Democrats and Republicans again argue about the cuts’ proposed expiration.

The Baylor Bookstore, the center of all things Baylor, remains the boon and the bane of most of the students that attend this school.

Not only can we get our textbooks and various school supplies there, we can get the latest young-adult fiction (Baylor appropriate, of course) for moderately unfair prices. We can get everything from day planners to the latest Apple products and accessories.

One nation under Gods.

Dr. Paul Froese, associate professor of sociology, and Dr. Christopher Bader, a former Baylor professor, co-authored “America’s Four Gods: What We Say about God & What That Says about Us.”

The book, published in 2010, discusses how Americans view God in different ways.

The innovations of future companies will be in good hands at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative with the help of the new marketing initiative, the Innovative Business Accelerator.

The IBA is an initiative created by the Hankamer School of Business and the office of the vice provost for research.

Scotland moved a step closer Monday to a vote on independence after Scottish and British leaders signed a deal laying the groundwork for a popular referendum that could radically alter the shape of the United Kingdom.

Krista Pirtle Sports Editor With six turnovers, the Baylor Bears fell to the TCU Horned Frogs 49-21, breaking their nine game home win streak. “Very humbling. Very embarrassing,” Baylor head coach Art Briles said. “Very uncharacteristic of our football team over the last four years to turn the ball over that many times and not get any takeaways. It equates to a bad night.” The game started out as any other has this season with a 74-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Terrance Williams, taking all of 26 seconds. Williams finished the game with three catches for a pair…