Most college students aspire to achieve fantasy lives: making an abundance of money, living in an attractive, spacious house with an amazing, no, perfect partner and companion. However, it so often happens that our procrastination, lethargy, and fall into the temptations of college-life vices land us, by way of sub par r
Celebrating union of life and music: Marleys take over Bayfront
The legendary Bob Marley’s family along with R&B co-headliner India Arie will be heating up Miami this weekend with the 11th annual Bob Marley Festival, “Songs of Freedom” Tour on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2004. Taking place at Bayfront Park Amphitheater at 3:00 p.m., the concert is a celebration of the late Bob Marley, commemorating his revolutionary artistic abilities and all the amazing contributions he has made to reggae music. Aside from the beautiful India Arie, famous for her breakout hit “Video,” Stephen, Damien and Julian Marley, Steel Pulse, Capleton, Culture, Johnny Dread, Soldiers of Jah Army and Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boyz are scheduled to appear. The cost of attendance is $28.00 and children under the age of 12 get in free, with one stipulation – bring 4 canned goods that will be donated to feed the hungry in South Florida and the Caribbean. The food collecting efforts have not gone unnoticed; over the past ten yeas, more than one million cans of food have been collected, continuing in the service of late legend Bob Marley. Past performers have included Lauryn Hill, Foxy Brown, DMX and Erykah Badu, along with many others. The show will take place rain or shine and tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster or by calling Bayfront Park at 305-358-7556. For more information, go to www.bobmarleymovement.com. So travel downtown to enjoy the celebration of music and of life.
Marcus Washington can be contacted at m.washington2 @umiami.edu.
Big Apple and MIA: Not so far apart
Expect the Grove to be busier than usual this weekend and not just because the whole student population has revived from hiding in the wormhole dorms from last weekend’s rainy disaster. The New York International Music Festival is taking over Coco Walk, and it won’t stop for three more days. Starting yesterday, with the VIP Opening Night Networking party at the Artist in Residence Gallery, located on Coco Walk’s second floor, revelry for the festival will be ongoing from 12:00 pm to 12:00 am each day. In coordination with AMC Theatres and Independent Film Quarterly magazine, the festival promises high-quality entertainment, including musical performances, independent movie screenings, industry panels and as usual parties packed with beautiful people, true to MIA style.
And although the name of the festival denotes music only, the New York International Music Festival, members and participants of the New York International Film and Video Festival and the New York Art Festival will be in attendance, making the Grove a mass fusion of industry reps, talented artists, and of course the regular movers and shakers that come with the territory. Name dropping follows: Time Warner, Fox Networks, MTV, Miramax Films, VIBE, Warner Bros., and finally Rolling Stone.
But aside from all the regular hype, the festival will be turning heads. With almost 48 musical acts performing each day, bars of hip-hop, R&B, folk, jazz, country, and straight up rap will be ringing throughout the streets that many of us have become all too familiar with. Some names that are rumored to be in favor with industry “people” include rapper Eugene Burns, aka Big Nu, wannabe pop diva Mikel, solo hip-hop artist
Briefs
Swimming and Diving
Sophomore Martyna Krawczyk touched in with a season-best time of 2:18.67 in the 200-yard breaststroke for the University of Miami swimming and diving team in a narrow loss to in-state foe Florida Atlantic on Saturday afternoon in Boca Raton, Fla.
The Hurricanes took first place in three events against the Owls, finishing first in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, but could not overcome FAU who won the meet 165-123.
Krawczyk’s mark in the 200-yard breaststroke bettered her previous mark of 2:19.21 by nearly half a second.
Junior Katalin Ferenczi took two first place finishes for the Hurricanes, sweeping the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events. Ferenczi finished with a time of 58.30 in the 100 and 2:03.71 in the 200.
The Hurricanes automatically took the diving portion of the meet, as FAU did not submit a team.
Miami returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 7 for their final dual meet of the season, traveling to Ft. Pierce, Fla. to face Indian River Community College.
Football
Middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma leads a group of 10 Miami Hurricanes who have been selected to the 2003 Big East All-Academic Football team, the league announced Thursday. Vilma, a Finance major who is a two-time Verizon Academic All-America honoree, earned his third All-Academic honor from the conference and led Miami to a tie for the league’s most honorees.
Senior Nate Jones of Rutgers, a cornerback and kick return specialist, was named the winner of the Big East/A
Hamilton provides rebounding and defense
Gary Hamilton has an important job on the men’s basketball team. His role is to play defense and get rebounds, two areas where the team is hurting for production.
To his credit, Hamilton has tried to fill that role, averaging 4.4 rebounds per game in about 17 minutes of action. However, his numbers have not risen from last season like he would have hoped, and the ‘Canes are still struggling in these areas.
“Coming into the season, I just wanted to play my role, which was to grab rebounds and play defense,” Hamilton said. “I hoped my numbers would be bigger than they were last year, but it hasn’t happened so far.”
Hamilton, a sophomore who comes off the bench for the ‘Canes, gives them depth inside and has potential to be a key contributor. His offensive game has not shown much yet, but his role on this team has not primarily been to score.
“We really need his rebounding numbers to go up because we have enough scorers on this team,” Head Coach Perry Clark said. “Certainly, it will help him if he can make open shots, but we are small on the perimeter so we need him to rebound.”
As a freshman, Hamilton picked up the slack for the injured Will Frisby with his aggressive rebounding and defense. The ‘Canes struggled as a team, but Hamilton showed promise for the future.
“Coming in, Gary was a real pleasant surprise last year because he gave us a lot defensively and rebounding the basketball,” Clark said. “He has worked on his offensive game and on getting better offensively and as he continues to work on his body and get stronger, he can give us a really good low post presence. When he is at his best, he can play low post defense better than anyone in the league.”
Hamilton really picked up confidence in his basketball abilities in tenth grade, and since then, he has worked hard to get himself into a position to succeed in the sport in the future. He comes from a basketball family, with three younger brothers, an older brother, and an older sister. His three younger brothers all play basketball.
“My three younger brothers all play, and they try to compete with me and tell me that they are so much better than me,” Hamilton said.
Off the court, Hamilton is polite and thoughtful, but very quiet until he gets to know someone. On the court, he is a complete opposite.
“I try to play mean and aggressive basketball on the court,” Hamilton said. “My dad always tried to push me to work hard to keep getting better.”
The improvement of Hamilton would be a huge boost to the ‘Canes defense and rebounding. As of today, the ‘Canes are 13-8 and are trying to keep their chances at the NCAA Tournament alive. Rebounding and defense are key ingredients to getting there.
“We can still make the NCAA Tournament if we play hard and win these next couple of games,” Hamilton said. “We just need to play better, and if we can do that and eliminate mistakes, we will take care of business.”
Darren Grossman can be contacted at d.grossman@umiami.edu.
Women’s basketball drops second game in a row
The women’s basketball team is officially in their first slump of the season as they dropped their second straight game on Saturday afternoon 76-69 to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
The No. 17 ‘Canes (16-3, 5-3 Big East) fell behind early and could never make a substantial run the rest of the way. Anytime Miami would get close, one of the three Scarlet Knights to score in double figures would shoot down any hopes of the ‘Canes getting a come-from-behind victory.
Point guard Yalonda McCormick led Miami with 23 points as the ‘Canes dropped their second straight home game to a Big East foe after a 59-50 loss against Notre Dame earlier in the week. McCormick sees a common trend in both losses.
“In both games we waited until the end to hustle, and by then it was too late,” she said.
Rutgers jumped out to a quick 12-6 lead, but back to back three-pointers by McCormick and Tamara James tied the ballgame up at 12. On the ensuing play, McCormick stole the ball and was fouled as she scored on a lay-up to give her a traditional three-point play and Miami a 15-12 lead.
Rutgers climbed back on top and at halftime they led 35-30. The ‘Canes came out on a 7-0 run to open up the second half as they held Rutgers scoreless in the opening 4:03.
But the story of the day was how the ‘Canes couldn’t control All-American Cappie Pondexter as she poured in 25 points. Chelsea Newton hit nine of 11 shots and finished with 21 points on the day for the Scarlet Knights. Head Coach Ferne Labati had a simple explanation.
“We just felt that if we could be able to take back about five of our possessions in terms of our decision making, the final score would be in our favor,” Labati said.
Chanivia Broussard scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half, but the ‘Canes dug themselves too much of a hole as Rutgers opened its largest lead of the day at 57-46 with 8:21 to play.
“We came out and played too relaxed in the second half when we should have been a lot more intense,” McCormick said.
The ‘Canes never cut it to less than three points the rest of the way as the crowd of 1,547 tried desperately to get the ‘Canes a lead late in the game. The spectators were all over the referees after a clear shot clock violation wasn’t called on Rutgers with a little over two minutes remaining.
Rutgers got the rebound and it subsequently led to two free throws by the Scarlet Knights that gave them a six-point lead and not to mention the valuable time that was lost for the ‘Canes. Labati was less than pleased by the call.
“The shot clock violation that wasn’t called hurt us because we didn’t get the ball,” Labati said. “We worked, worked, worked really hard, and we still didn’t get it.”
The loss to Rutgers is nothing to be ashamed about, as the team was ranked No. 17 in the latest RPI and their 12-7 record is very deceiving. Six of the seven losses came against teams in the top 35 of the RPI. However, any loss to a Big East team is very hard to swallow, especially at home.
The ‘Canes’ schedule doesn’t get any easier, as they return to the court on Sunday, Feb. 8, when they travel to the home of the defending national champions, the Connecticut Huskies. Labati knows that the Big East is extremely tough this season.
“We’re going to have one huge, great Big East tournament because there are just so many great teams in the conference this year,” Labati said.
Douglas Kroll can be contacted at d.kroll@umiami.edu.
Hurricane Frank becomes basketball mascot
When Brian Stubits accepted a dare from his friends to dress up as a hot dog for the men’s basketball season opener, he had no idea that his outfit would become a fixture at the Convocation Center.
Stubits, otherwise known as Hurricane Frank, had purchased the costume for Halloween. What irked the sophomore from Tacoma, Washington, was how much money he paid for one day’s use of the hot dog. After being egged on by a group of friends, Stubits decided to give the costume a second chance at the basketball game.
“The first game [I wore the costume to], one of the guys from Hurricane Force asked me if I minded if they used me in certain things, like marketing, and if I had a name,” Stubits said. “I told them that I didn’t have a name. All I said to them was that I think Frank would be a good name because I am a hot dog and it’s a personal name. They decided to go with Hurricane Frank.”
Stubits has been a passionate sports fan his entire life, and he attended the high school featured in the movie Ten Things I Hate about You. At his school’s basketball games, Stubits and a group of friends would lead the students’ cheers.
“During basketball games in high school we had a ‘Pit Crew’,” Stubits said. “That’s kind of where my excitement for basketball came from and going to games and being loud, obnoxious, and rowdy.”
Stubits is majoring in broadcast journalism and works on the staff at WVUM, Miami’s student-run radio station. He has done play-by-play on several of the ‘Canes’ basketball and baseball games.
Stubits tries to attend every men’s and women’s basketball games, but sometimes his responsibilities with WVUM prevent that from happening.
“I go to all of the men’s games and I try to go to all of the women’s, but sometimes I get bogged down with radio stuff, like producing and announcing,” he said. “But I just try to get the crowd involved [when I am at the games]. It’s really tough here at school but I have developed a little bit of a following and I lead some of the cheers.”
Stubits joked that the females in attendance at the games have had a mixed response to Hurricane Frank.
“I actually had one of the female cheerleaders wink at me the other day, but I must say that was after I made a witty comment to her,” he said. “At the games, walking around, I usually get a lot of weird looks. Most of the girls laugh; I think they are getting used to it now.”
Hurricane Frank can be found in the front of the student section during most of the ‘Canes’ basketball games. Listen for Stubits’s broadcasts on WVUM, 90.5 FM.
Eric Kalis can be contacted at e.kalis@umiami.edu
Hurricanes fall in OT
The men’s basketball team’s quest to make the NCAA Tournament took a turn for the worse Saturday night.
The ‘Canes led by 10 points late in the second half, but they were unable to close the game out and eventually lost in overtime 87-80 to the Georgetown Hoyas at the Convocation Center.
Darius Rice had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the ‘Canes and Guillermo Diaz also had 20 points in a losing effort.
“I thought this was the best game Darius Rice has played this year,” Head Coach Perry Clark said.
The ‘Canes struggled with turnovers throughout the game and had several late turnovers in the second half that proved to be costly. In addition, they never found an answer for Georgetown’s Gerald Riley, who scored 35 points on 13 of 17 shooting, including seven in overtime.
“We didn’t have an answer for Riley,” Clark said. “He was making shots, most of them tough shots.”
The ‘Canes’ failure to hold a late lead has haunted them at times this season, the last time against Pittsburgh in a game the ‘Canes lost in double overtime. However, the ‘Canes responded from that loss with two tough road wins to get back on track. They will look to do much of the same after this disappointing loss.
“I don’t know what happened,” forward Gary Hamilton said. “We let up and didn’t put things together when we needed to. We aren’t giving up; we can still get to where we want to be if we take care of business the rest of the way.”
After the game, Clark focused more on the costly turnovers as the main reason for the loss. The ‘Canes had 23 on the day.
“I thought we came out and executed the game plan and did a lot of things we wanted to do, but the difference in the game was we turned the ball over,” Clark said. “We faced some defensive pressure and we knew it was coming, but we did a horrible job tonight handling it.”
Another thing that hurt the ‘Canes in this game was taking bad shots and giving Georgetown too many open looks at the basket.
“Our shot selection was bad,” Clark said. “We had chances and opportunities but our turnovers killed us. We gave up 17 uncontested shots in the paint in the second half, and that’s way too many.”
The ‘Canes did put four players in double figures, including Rodrigue Djahue, who had 13 points and Robert Hite, who had 12 points, but shot just five for 15 from the field, playing on a badly sprained ankle.
“I thought Rob really toughed it out,” Clark said. “It just seems like we can’t put everything together in the same game; the last two games we don’t turn it over, but we didn’t shoot well. Tonight, we shot the ball well but turned it over.”
The ‘Canes head on the road now to face Rutgers and Georgetown again. The ‘Canes went 1-1 against these two teams at the Convocation Center.
“Certainly, this is not a position I wanted to be in or thought we would be in; I thought in the last three games, we would have won a couple of them, but you have to play the hand you are dealt, so now we have to get tough and get them back on the road,” Clark said. “We already beat Rutgers once, so we are capable of beating them, and we could have won tonight, so we are capable of winning in Washington D.C.”
Darren Grossman can be contacted at d.grossman@umiami.edu.
Limbaugh using the limelight to his advantage
Rush Limbaugh has returned to the airwaves with much fanfare and fan attention. In fact, his first radio show after his long off-air hiatus was his most listened-to program ever, as millions of people tuned in to hear him discuss his problem and how he’s dealing with it in the long, detailed self-help manner usually associated with Oprah Winfrey. Now, I’m not a Limbaugh fan, but I don’t have anything against him, either. The only reason this held my attention was because of the strange sense of irony slowly being woven around his case.
He initially resigned after making a comment on the preferential treatment of black quarterbacks in the NFL. While I don’t know too much about football, it was interesting that he claimed the comment was not meant to be racist, but rather a social commentary about preferential treatment. While I may not agree with what he said, I held on to the idea that, in his own way, he was attempting to advocate equality.
That has to count for something.
Then he was busted for the illegal purchase of prescription painkillers sans prescription. When I first read the amount of money he had been spending on them, I immediately concluded that he had to be dealing, which hasn’t been proven. The irony is that it’s only been a short time, and he’s already back on the air talking about how he has a drug problem, has repented and is working to fight it. That’s great. I would be moved, except this whole affair leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
If he wasn’t Rush Limbaugh, radio personality, but rather Rush Limbaugh, lower-class working Joe, I sincerely doubt he would be on the radio getting paid to chat with his fans. He is not the only one I condemn on this. People were eager to crucify him when it was even implied that he uttered a racist comment, angered over any perceived undermining of equality. Yet many of the same people were eagerly listening to him the moment he came back on the air, welcoming him back into the fold. I don’t doubt that there were more than a few inmates that day who shut off their radios in disgust, and many a gavel passing on sentence at the same time.
Endre Enyedy can be contacted at e.enyedy@umiami.edu.
‘Open source’ opens options for code solutions
What is ‘open source’?
According to the Open Source Initiative (OSI), ‘open source’ encompasses software that freely distributes its source code. What exactly does this mean and how is this important to you?
Every piece of software, from the operating system to the little clock in your taskbar, is “written” as code. Code simply refers to a set of instructions in computer language that makes it easy for human beings to conjure up programs. To a computer, the software itself is nothing more than a string of 0s and 1s, which are, for the most part, incomprehensible to the rest of us. In existence today are three main philosophies regarding this code. The ‘closed source’ philosophy means the end-user (little you typing away at your desktop) gets the program, but not the source code that creates it.
This is largely what happens on the Windows(R) and Macintosh platforms. A closely related philosophy is that of ‘shared source,’ in which the original author agrees to share parts of the code, but not all of it. ‘Open source’ is third and distributes the source code freely to everyone. It should be noted that ‘freely’ does not refer to ‘free as in beer.’ Instead, think of ‘free’ as in ‘freedom.’
The advantages of ‘open source’ are innumerable. Because the entire source code is shared with everyone, every capable programmer in this world functions as a resource. The original author has potentially millions of computer programmers working on perfecting and improving the code, whereas ‘closed source’ companies are limited to only the employees they have, which even in big companies is rarely more than a hundred. Perhaps rather surprisingly, most computer programmers devote their free time to improving ‘open source’ solutions. Economists tend to argue that in a capitalist society this is not feasible. Maybe not in theory, but out there literally millions of people are working on programs in their spare time. For fun.
Having a seemingly unlimited supply of programmers who work for pure joy on software makes ‘open source’ what it is. If millions of people can’t think of anything better to do than to improve software, software will indeed be improved. ‘Open source’ solutions have historically been more reliable and more secure (do you really think that millions of people would compromise security and reliability on their pet projects?). Ask yourself: would you feel more secure in an environment where you are told that you are secure or in an environment where you get to see precisely what is meant by “security” and are granted the freedom to change what you like?
‘Open source’ is not for everyone. If you are a hardcore gamer, stick with Windows(R) – that’s what it’s there for. For everyone else, ‘open source’ offers the same capabilities with better service (yes, even Microsoft Office compatibility).
Felix Boecker can be contacted at f.boecker@umiami.edu.
Is the Orange Bowl about to grow a tumor?
“Whoooaaaa! Oh, no! Sebastian the Ibis is unconscious!”
This is what football season could be like for the Miami Hurricanes if the city of Miami follows through with a $375 million proposal to link a new ballpark for the Florida Marlins to the historic Orange Bowl. Why is this so awful? Cross your fingers I have enough column space.
The proposal calls for the current north sideline of the Orange Bowl to be completely revamped, decreasing seating from 80,000 to 60,000 in the current football stadium, but providing a premium seating tower that major college sports programs lick their lips over.
That very same north sideline for the football stadium would also stand as the right field foul line for the new Marlins’ baseball stadium, which would have a capacity of 35,000 to 40,000. Miami City Manager Joe Arriola said that, while parking was not included in the plan, a parking garage would most likely need to be built to accommodate fans.
The plan has already caused a fuss among baseball fans in south Florida who have been hoping for a retractable roof stadium. This should be the least of our problems; seating capacity and location are more significant issues. The Miami Hurricanes are a perennial winner, and decreasing seating by 20,000 will cause problems for those hoping to catch a glimpse of big games against FSU and Virginia Tech. If schools like Michigan can consistently pack over 100,000 fans in for a game against mediocre competition, it would be a poor business decision by A.D. Paul Dee and Donna Shalala to reduce seating.
And those world champion Marlins? I’ve been in Miami for both of their World Series runs, and I can tell you, the Marlins will not be attracting 40,000 fans to a game. Period. UM would be better served nixing this deal and taking the $100 million renovation offer for the Orange Bowl that also sits on the table.
As for the location, Little Havana doesn’t exactly stick out to me as ideal. If you really want to attract fans, you need to go the route of the San Francisco Giants, who play right on the bay. A baseball park overlooking the 395 bridge to the beach and the Port of Miami could be just the ticket South Florida’s fair-weather fans have been waiting for.
Of course, let’s not even get into the overlapping seasons issue. We should just buy Sebastian a football helmet.
Ben Minkus can be contacted at b.minkus@umiami.edu.
EDITORIAL
In a recent informal Hurricane survey, 23 percent of the vehicles on campus fell under the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration [NHTSA] definition of “large truck or SUV,” but the streets of Miami hardly warrant a need for four-wheel drive, top-notch suspension or hundreds of horses under the hood. But in the superficial strata of South Florida society, form follows fashion: most parking spaces aren’t big enough anyway.
Current NHTSA sets emission standards for light trucks and cars at 22.2 mpg for new 2007 models. The regulations don’t touch the requirements for large trucks or SUVs, which have enjoyed absolutely no regulation when it comes to vehicle emission. Fuel “inefficiency” for these vehicles, such as the V10 Excursion, clocks in at the low teens, and has even been rumored to average single digits in stop-and-go metro traffic.
These figures are obscene, given the advancements in technology that manufacturers have been able to achieve in recent years. Smaller cars such as the Acura Integra get around 30 mpg, and hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic get over 45 mpg.
The abundance of Hummers and Excursions is an unnecessary display of extravagance and over-spending, and more importantly, an all-out affront to the environment.
Driving around in an SUV instead of a fuel-efficient vehicle is about as bad for the environment as a hard night of partying before a final exam is for your g.p.a
. According to the Sierra club, high smog levels cause 159,000 trips to the emergency room, 53,000 hospital admissions and 6 million asthma attacks each summer.
NHTSA is hesitantly entertaining a proposal to make large SUVs and trucks comply with federal fuel standards for the first time ever. This proposal should be at the forefront of the Environmental Protection Agency’s agenda.
The few reasons for stalling regulation – protection of American jobs and American vehicle manufacturers – pale in comparison to the importance of reducing emissions. Unfortunately, Bushie’s economic agenda during election year poses a significant setback to efforts by the greenies to pass legislation.
The problem is that mind comes before matter. Perhaps requiring stringent fuel standards not only for SUVs but across the board for all vehicles would modify the mindset of materialism that pervades Miami culture. But changing the mindset of consumers is about as easy as passing an exam with a raging hangover.