A SPORT OF WHEEL AND STEEL
GAMERS GET SERIOUS
Wheelchair rugby players out to do more than win games; aim to open doubters’ eyes
Video game tournaments offer cash prizes, tough competition in ‘e-sports’ such as Halo 2
SEE SPORTS PAGE 12
SEE TRENDS PAGE 6
DEFENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT SINCE 1911
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OCTOBER 18, 2006
WEDNESDAY
VOLUME 96, ISSUE 24
Fast-a-thon brings community together By David Saleh Rauf The University Star After 13 hours of fasting, Victoria Dominguez learned to appreciate some of the little things — such as food and drink — that are taken for granted on a daily basis. “It’s a lot of self-discipline,” Dominguez, nutrition sophomore, said. “Going all day without food, you appreciate it so David Racino/Star photo much more.” POST-FAST FOOD: Students lined up Tuesday night in the LBJ Dominguez, along with apStudent Center Ballroom for food at the second annual Fast-aproximately 30 other students thon hosted by the Muslim Student Association. clad in sleepwear, gathered in
San Jacinto Hall at 5:45 a.m. to eat breakfast and commence a day-long fast as part of the Muslim Student Association’s second-annual Fast-a-thon. The event is held to spread awareness about the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. MSA members invited students, faculty and residents to fast for one day to gain first hand appreciation for what Muslims endure during Ramadan, which includes abstaining from food, water, drink, smoking and sexual intercourse from sunup to sundown.
“Now they know what Ramadan is,” said Samer Morad, MSA president. “Once that month comes, they can appreciate what Muslims go through; appreciate what they have for granted, which is food and drink because millions of millions of people are dying of starvation. We’re here throwing away food without even realizing how precious it is.” Morad, manufacturing engineer senior, said the idea for the Fast-a-thon came from other MSAs on college campuses across the country.
“Its something that’s been going on for awhile with other MSAs,” Morad said. “When we became active last year, we decided to go with it.” MSA member Ashraf AlAbiad, manufacturing senior, helped prepare breakfast, which consisted of five dozen scrambled eggs, 35 pancakes, muffins, potatoes and fruit. “I scrambled a lot of eggs today,” Al-Abiad, owner of Cedars Mediterranean Café, said. “We started at the restaurant at 4:30 See FAST-A-THON, page 4
The missing link
Students for Kinky aim to generate buzz, increase student vote
South African dig yields historical finds
By A.N. Hernández The University Star With the Texas gubernatorial elections only 19 days away, a group of students stand tough behind their choice. He’s a Jewish cowboy named Kinky Friedman, who, clad in his trademark cowboy hat and cigar, is no stranger to a bit of controversy. Friedman is one of two independent candidates competing for the governor’s seat. The other independent candidate is State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running under the slogan “One Tough Grandma.” If Friedman or Strayhorn were elected as governor, they would be the first independent to serve since Sam Houston. “If you look at him, right off the bat, he is flamboyant, and that’s his style as a musician and comedian,” said Jeremy Kuykendall. “It lets you see that he is a person. He’s a realist and when he speaks, he is presenting the truth, how he really is, and how he would be as a governor.” Kuykendall, history senior, is vice president of the Students for Kinky Chapter at Texas State. The group’s been an official campus organization since August. He is also a member of College Democrats. The Students for Kinky group has around 40 active members and more people on its listserv. This fall, the group conducted voter registration drives, registering almost 1000 staff members, students and teachers. They organize in The Quad every Tuesday and Thursday to distribute brightly colored pamphlets, bumper stickers and buttons that read “Kinky for Governor 2006.” “I think the legacy of our campaign will be that it got young people interested in getting out to vote,” Kuykendall said. “It’s really not relevant to me who young people vote for. It’s just important that they get active and they get involved.” Kuykendall said the group’s biggest achievement was orchestrating Friedman’s Texas State appearance alongside former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura this September. He said everything the group had worked for was just gearing up toward that moment. Kristin Koerner, communication studies junior, is a member of Students for Kinky. She helped generate buzz in the weeks before Friedman’s scheduled visit to Texas State. Koerner said she had flyers with her constantly and helped pass them out and register voters. She said the most important thing Friedman’s campaign is doing is “putting state politics on the radar” for students who don’t usually pay attention. “We can make a difference as students with our vote. Because students are historically the absolutely worst in terms of voter turnout, just the fact that people care about what is going on in this election and care about what Kinky has to say is important,” Koerner said. “When he spoke on campus, there were people who came who didn’t necessarily agree with his view or who weren’t necessarily going to vote for
By Emily Messer The University Star Walking across the dry land of a region in South Africa called Erfkroon, Britt Bousman struck an archeological gold mine, speckled with ancient artifacts and bones that may reveal mysteries surrounding modern man. “At Erfkroon, there’s a ton of animal bone eroding down and on the surface,” said Bousman, associate anthropology professor and director for the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State. “In some places, it’s hard not to walk on it. You have to step between the bone and be careful.” The 165,000-year-old region was the main site of a South African excavation in which Bousman and two graduate students searched for evidence that may explain the evolution of modern man. The group visited three sites in South Africa from July 10 to Aug. 15: Baden-Baden, Erfkroon and Cornelia, all named after nearby farms. Erfkroon, a three-to-four square kilometer site, was surveyed for artifacts and fossils that are from the same time period of the last two migrations of man. The group found early tools and bones of extinct animals, such as buffalo, antelope and wildebeests. “The main thing we’re interested in when looking at all this work is how human behavior changed as people evolved into modern Homo sapiens,” Bousman said, The research conducted was preliminary; archeologists used a recent dating technique called optical stimulated luminescence, in which the glow of sand grains
See KINKY, page 4
Photo courtesy of Britt Bousman RAISING THE DEAD: James Brink of the National Museum in South Africa removes a 45,000-year-old wildebeest skull during a summer excavation in South Africa.
using radioactive decay is directly related to the age of the sediment. But Bousman’s hypothesis supported the theory that all modern people evolved from Africa 200,000 years ago. It was not until recently that different groups emerged, he said. The findings at the site warrant a return trip, Bousman said. “It’s got very good animal bone preservation. It’s got a very clear geological stratigraphy, so you know what you’re digging in
at any one point in time,” Brousman said. About 200,000 years ago, early Homo sapiens appeared in Africa. It was not until about 40,000 to 30,000 years ago that the behavioral changes of the evolution of modern man began to show, Bousman said. “It’s in this 200,000 to 30,000-year range that I’m most interested in because that can have sites that date to that time period. See DIG, page 4
Issues of privacy, security taken on at Cyber Security Awareness Day By Eloise Martin The University Star Approximately 50 people attended the Information Technology Division’s second-annual Cyber Security Awareness Day Tuesday in the LBJ Student Center Ballroom. The event featured presentations by speakers from the University Police Department, Mobile Campus, the Austin Police Department High Tech Crimes Unit and Facebook.com. This year’s event was intended to inform students about computer crimes and preventative measures they can take to avoid them. Anjoli Fry, geography re-
source and environmental studies junior, said she decided to attend after she received an e-mail with information about the event. “I am usually interested when student organizations put things on,” Fry said. “Even if I am not involved, I like to attend things and hear about them. You can learn a lot.” Fry said she was mostly interested in obtaining information about preventing computer viruses. “My computer has been messing up a lot, so I browsed and got some information about them,” she said. Shawn Pearcy, computer science and sociology sophomore,
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works for Information Technology and said he felt the presentation was helpful for students, but he had hoped more would attend. “I wish more people would have come,” Pearcy said. “A lot of people have come because they are in computer crime classes, but some people who are here are looking to learn.” The keynote speaker for the event was Chris Kelly, vice president of corporate development and chief privacy officer of Facebook.com. Kelly said although Facebook.com is not free of incidents involving personal information being abused, it does not come as a surprise. “There is no city that has 10
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million citizens and no crime,” he said, referring to Facebook. com as a city. Kelly commented on new networks being added to the site, including high schools and businesses, and said there has been a challenge to expand the site while trying to make users feel safe. “The different networks are an important feature for us having expanded, but we still want to make sure we don’t expose information to the outside world,” Kelly said. Kelly also addressed recent concerns about potential employers using profiles for personality background checks. “The default privacy settings
make it more difficult, but not impossible for someone to view your profile,” Kelly said. “You can use your own privacy settings and select who you want to block. You can even block alumni from viewing your profile.” The ultimate protection, he said, comes from being discreet with information posted on the page. “Don’t put something up you would be embarrassed by,” Kelly said. Kelly said Facebook.com includes four levels of protection: authentication by e-mail address, segmented communities, innovative privacy controls and technical protection. Kelly said
members should be responsible when using Facecbook.com by adding friends carefully and utilizing privacy settings to reflect comfort level. Although students may display a high amount of personal information, which could potentially be viewed by millions of users, Kelly said the information is not as readily available as it seems. “The average user can only view less than a half of a percent of the total profiles,” Kelly said. Facebook.com is currently the largest photo site, with 550 million photos posted. Approximately 25,000 of the 28,000 students at Texas State have a Facebook.com profile.
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