Results tagged “utaustin”

For those hoping to avoid all of the pre-festival activities around downtown and looking for a dose of heady science (and really, who isn't?), UT Austin is hosting a special lecture by American mathematician Jeffrey Weeks, entitled 'The Shape of Space."

Concealed handguns on their way to a campus near you? State Senate gave preliminary approval today to a bill allowing concealed handguns on public university campuses.Police searching for the suspect from a mugging at UT this morning. The Statesman now has a nifty online crime map. Round Rock ISD employee steals 100 computers from the district, tries to sell them on Craigslist. CapMetro set to use $10 million loan, if needed. Statewide smoking ban bill, we hardly knew ye. 4-year-old Waco man in stable condition after being stung more than 250 times by bees.

• Texas A&M scientists are starting the zombie invasion. Texas ranchers are actually excited about this.
• Dallas couple found Jesus in a Cheeto. They nicknamed it "Cheesus."
• An 11 year-old Lakeway boy is among the people protesting the removal of trees at Barton Springs Pool. He even has a website and an online petition!

Watch a recently found full-color film detailing the brutal aftermath of the May 11, 1953 Waco tornado. (If you've ever wondered why half of downtown Waco is a parking lot, here's your answer. It wasn't like that until the tornado.) Be careful about jaywalking in front of any cop near UT! Finals week: Don’t forget to have your brain blessed! Gail Collins of The New York Times Op-Ed page calls Texas “a teen pregnancy disaster zone.” (Expert opinion claims abstinence-only education makes Texas a baby-makin’ factory!) Legendary Texas writer Bud Shrake had a fantastic life, and wound up with this great obit. He was even part of history: years ago, he told us that Jack Ruby was sitting on his newsroom desk when JFK was shot. Read his book "Strange Peaches" if you aren't going to his service tomorrow. Students sprinting in skivvies at UT! (SFW)

Next week, thousands of university students across Austin are going to start freaking out when they realize their semester is coming to an end and they have only one test left to raise their grade--their final exam. From late night Wendy's visits and sleeping in public to scantrons and in-class essays, the late-spring ritual usually brings out the worst in college students, but Austin comedian Chuck Watkins, replacing the library with UT's west mall, takes on Finals Week a little differently...

Low turnout for early voting so far. Firefighters talk about yesterday's apartment fire. DPS director resigns amid allegations of touching women in his office inappropriately and other unprofessional behavior. Bill up before state legislature would require sex offenders to register online. Hill Country Galleria files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. UT student may have swine flu. Do you know how much your school district superintendent makes?

• Case with Austin ties coming up before the Supreme Court tomorrow has some wondering if the Voting Rights Act is needed in the Obama era.
• UT Law Prof Stefanie Lindquist discussed the case with KUT's Jennifer Stayton.
• Bill up before the Texas Legislature would ban usage of cell phones in school zones.

• More drugs, please! Texas requests additional pharmaceutical weapons to fight swine flu.
• Deer Park, represent! House declares today Ron White Day. He's the dude from the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” who is clutching the cigar and the scotch.
• If your house gets burgled in the middle of the night this week, your detective might be yawning. APD is switching some detectives to the night shift.

• The Barbara Jordan statue at UT was unveiled today.
• Austin as the capital of New Texas?
• Rep. Mark Strama has an anti-bullying bill this session; Equality Texas wants your help to get it passed.

Tomorrow night, the UT Libraries are hosting a panel discussion on the legacy of Barbara Jordan. Moderated by Texas Politics Project Director James Henson, "When Barbara Jordan Talked, We Listened - A Panel Discussion" will include current State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, Executive Director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Susan Rieff, and former Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs Max Sherman. This panel is free and open to the public.

Tomorrow, April 16, is the two-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. To commemorate the day, as well as to protest proposed state laws allowing guns on campus, a walk-out has been announced at UT. The plan was sent out to UT staff, faculty and students through a student announcement email this morning. Students and faculty are asked to leave their classes at 11:30am and meet up at noon on the South Steps of the Capitol to hear from state legislators and victims of campus violence, among others, on the issue of firearms on campus.

Several Austin establishments have announced alternate hours or complete shut-downs this weekend, due to the Texas Relays. No specific or unified reason has been offered, but all the entities have mentioned safety concerns, poor revenue in past years, and post-SXSW blues.

This Saturday at the Main Mall at UT you will be able to catch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who have actually played at all of the aforementioned festivals, for a free show at this year’s Forty Acres Fest. Past performers at this fest providing music, games, food and fun for all have included The Roots, Common, Little Richard and more. But, this time it’s the Brooklyn-based indie art rockers.

The University of Texas' Music & Entertainment Committee's annual Forty Acres Fest is right around the corner, and campus is already buzzing with rumors about this year's headliner. We'll let you in on a secret: you'll know who it is tonight, when MEC posts information about the lineup and headliner on its Facebook page. This year's festival is Saturday, April 7 beginning at 7 p.m., and as always, will take place beneath the UT Tower.

• Dell to lay off hundreds of employees.
• New Austin superintendent hasn't stuck with a position for longer than 3 years since the mid-90's.
• When you went to bed last night, the State Senate was still working on the Voter ID bill.

Around lunchtime, many people spotted smoke coming up from the West Campus area. The photo at the left was the view from Whitis and Dean Keeton.

Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet is returning to UT this Thursday—oddly enough, a year and a day after his last appearance on campus—for a chat with UT Austin President William Powers Jr.

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group.

Just this year alone, at the ripe young age of 50, they managed to acquire the archive of acclaimed British author Jim Crace, letters from Tennessee Williams and John Steinbeck, and an ancient Bible written in parallel in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic.

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin gives out about 50 fellowships each year to post-doctorates and independent scholars for research projects "in all areas of the humanities." The funding includes a handsome $3,000 monthly stipend (up to 4 months), plus travel stipends. Applications are now being accepted; the deadline is February 2, 2009. HRC also notes that priority goes to proposals that incorporate the Center's collections, so you'd do well to take a stroll around their impressive collections before coming up with a research topic. [Harry Ransom Center Fellowships]

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin today announced two impressive acquisitions to its already massive collection: letters from cherished American playwright Tennessee Williams and equally cherished American novelist John Steinbeck.

20-year-old Justin Levi McCelvey, a self-described Spurs fan (based off a now-deleted Myspace account), was overheard bemoaning that he "wished he could go into a classroom and shoot everybody," and "blow up this campus and blow up Austin" ... "Virginia Tech style." A fellow student relayed his comments to university counselors, who in turn told the police.

For the third time this month, a student was held up at gunpoint by a man described as standing approximately 6 feet tall with a "medium to muscular build." In each case, the assailant donned a mask and gloves. More disturbingly, the suspect thus far seems to be solely targeting Asian students.

Photos by Steve Hopson.

At the beginning of this month, the world's most powerful supercomputer for open scientific research officially went online at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin. Dubbed "Ranger," the high performance computing (HPC) system consists of an astounding 62,976 microprocessor cores -- put into perspective, the notebook or desktop you're using to read this has one or two at most. It's roughly 50,000 times more powerful than the average home computer. "Ranger is so much more powerful than anything that’s come before it for open science research," said Jay Boisseau, director of TACC, in UT's feature story. "It will be the first time researchers in many disciplines will be able to conduct simulations they have been planning in some cases for many years." Open-science computing means that Ranger's time will be partitioned and distributed across various research projects. Some examples that Boisseau lists off include weather prediction and climate modeling, drug design, materials science, and cosmological calculations (the "big bang"). "Someone’s going to get to run a landmark case, and then they’re going to look at the output and see if they can do better," said Karl Schulz, TACC assistant director and chief scientist on Ranger. "That’s going to lead to breakthrough science because it’s the first time that researchers will be able to run at such a large scale and be able to do it with frequency."

“And among the people whom I got to know, who became not only friends, but heroes, were Barbara Jordan, who taught me a lot about courage, and today would actually be her birthday. I remember all the time about how she got up every single morning, facing almost insurmountable odds, to do what she did. And another was my great friend Ann Richards, who taught me so much about determination. Ann was a great champion for the people of Texas. She also reminded us that every so often it is good to have a laugh about what it is we're engaged in.” -- Clinton

From 7-8:30pm tonight, Austinist live-blogged from the CNN/Univision debate hall. Check it out after the jump, and while you're at it, check out our friends at The Economist, who also live-blogged from here.

Photo by Steve Hopson for Austinist.com
• For those who are watching from home but don't have access to CNN, local PBS affiliate KLRU will be airing the debate on tape-delay, starting at 9pm
• DailyKos has an informative rundown of each democratic candidate's proposed legislation and their record in the Senate (thanks, MikeB)
• Chelsea Clinton will speak at ACC’s South Austin Campus tomorrow morning at 9:45am. The event is free and open to the public

When the debate is done, each of us will take time to reflect on the solemn decision that lies before us...

Austinist photographer Steve Hopson previewed the UT Rec Center, site of tomorrow night's debate.