THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
Jayhawk Idol hits the Beach
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2004
Jayhawk Idol finalist Kasey Cullors, Wichita freshman, sings the University of Kansas Alma Mater and a portion of His Eye on the Sparrow yesterday afternoon on Wesco Beach. Fourteen students auditioned on Saturday to be a Jayhawk Idol, and nine were selected as finalists Jayhawk Idol is the University's spin-off of the television show American Idol. To prove their talent, finalists have to sing on Wesco Beach. Three contestants sang yesterday, three will sing today and three tomorrow at 12:20 p.m. on Wesco Beach. Also up yesterday was Mike Barry, Dallas sophomore, who sang the Alma Mater and a portion of 'I'll Be,' by Edwin McCain, and DeAndrea Herron, San Antonio junior, who sang the Alma Mater and a portion of 'Can't Give Up.' by Mary Mary. Cullors, known as Little Luther; some students in the crowd, said the competition was pretty tough, but it was a fun way to get students involved with homecoming. One of the judges, Jennifer Alderdice, homecoming adviser, said each performer was different, but good in his or her own way. The judges didn't offer feedback to the performers because they didn't want to be rude or mean like Simon Cowell, an American Idol judge, Alderdice said. The winner of Jayhawk Idol will sing the national anthem at the first men's home basketball game, an exhibition on Sunday, Nov. 7, against Emporia State University.
NATION
U.S. Supreme Court back in session
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court returned for another term yesterday and appeared poised to alter the system used for sentencing 64,000 federal criminal defendants a year.
Justice Antonin Scalia said that lucky accused criminals went before merciful judges.
The unlucky, he said, could face a "hanging judge."
The Supreme Court tackled two follow-up appeals to a June ruling in which the court struck down state sentencing systems that gave judges too much leeway, on the opening day of a nine-month term.
Judges, not juries, make factual decisions that affect prison time, such as the amount of drugs involved in a crime, the number of victims in a fraud or whether a defendant committed perjury during trial.
The Associated Press
WORLD
Car bombers flout U.S. efforts to stop terrorism
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents unleashed a pair of powerful car bombs yesterday near the symbol of U.S. authority in Iraq — the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and key government
offices are located一and hotels occupied by hundreds of foreigners. Three other explosions brought the day's bombing toll to at least 24 dead and more than 100 wounded.
More than three dozen car bombings since the beginning of September illustrate the militants' seeming ability to strike at will despite recent pledges by the United States and Iraq to intensify the suppression of insurgents.
The Associated Press
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceShipOne wins X Prize
MOJAVE, Calif. — A stout, star-spangled rocket plane broke through the Earth's atmosphere to the edge of space yesterday for the second time in five days, capturing a $10 million prize aimed at opening the final frontier to tourists.
SpaceShipOne — with test pilot Brian Binnie at the controls then glided safely back to Earth.
The privately built SpaceShipOne took off underneath the belly of a mother plane that carried it about nine miles over the Mojave Desert. From there, SpaceShipOne fired its engine and streaked skyward at about three times the speed of sound on a half-hour flight that took it more than 62 miles high, generally considered the point where space begins.
Katie Hine called it a "fantastic experience" — especially the sight of Earth from space. "There is darkness outside the windows," he said. "It's contrasted starkly by the bright pearl that is the greater California area, which is the view from up there."
"This is the true frontier of transportation," said Marion C. Blakey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who stood near the runway to watch the flight. "It feels a little bit like Kitty Hawk must have."
The reward for the achievement is the $10 million Ansari X Prize, created in 1996 to kickstart the development of privately built rocket ships that could make spaceflight available to the public.
To win the prize, a spacecraft capable of carrying three people had to make two flights to an altitude just over 62 miles within two weeks. The goal was to show that the rocket could go back and forth like a spaceliner.
About an hour after the space-
ship landed, X Prize founder
Peter Diamandis said the altitude was official, and declared SpaceShipOne's team the winner.
X Prize chief judge Rick Searfoss said the spacecraft reached a height of 367,442 feet and speeds of Mach 3.09 during ascent and Mach 3.26 on the way down.
Major funding for the prize came from the Ansari family of Dallas. Diamandis hoped the St. Louis-based Ansari X Prize would have the same effect on space travel as the Orteig Prize had on air travel more than 80 years ago. Charles Lindbergh claimed that $25,000 prize in 1927 after making his solo trans-Atlantic flight.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put more than $20 million into the project, watched Monday's flight from the control room.
"Your heart goes straight to your throat," he said.
The total cost of the project has not been released, but Rutan jokingly noted to Allen yesterday that the $10 million prize covered 40 percent of Allen's costs. That would make Allen's investment $25 million.
The prize money will be spread among the employees of Rutan's company. Scaled Composites, Rutan said.
SpaceShipOne's effort has drawn high-level attention from the U.S. government, and comes at a time when others are preparing for space tourism.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe came to Mojave to watch last week's flight, and the FAA and members of the industry are in talks about regulatory aspects of space tourism, particularly the safety of people on the ground as well as that of the passengers.
The first flight needed to win the X Prize took place on Wednesday, with test pilot Michael Melvill at the controls.
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