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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 1992)
Music Review 'Baby Animals' displays talent from down under By Chris Eklof The Battalion Baby Animals "Baby Animals" Imago Sometimes it takes a while for an album to catch on. Baby Animals' self-titled debut album was released about a year ago, but has only recently started to get much attention. Late last year. Van Halen an nounced that Baby Animals would replace Alice In Chains as the opening act on their tour. At that time, few Americans had heard of this Australian band. That did not last for long as ra dio stations quickly jumped onto the bandwagon and started playing songs off of "Baby Ani mals." The listeners' desire to find out who Van Halen's open ing act was, forced the radio sta tions to play their songs. Baby Animals are a basic four-piece band with Dave Leslie on guitar, Eddie Parise on bass, Frank Delenza on drums and Suze DeMarchi on lead vo cals. DeMarchi is nice-looking lady and this album proves that she can sing even better than she looks. The song that initially re ceived the most notice was "Painless," a slow, rhythmic song that made Baby Animals seem like an unusual choice to open for Van Halen. However, the rest of the album proves that this song does not reflect the true nature of the band's music. Baby Animals do some heavy rocking on about half of their songs. These tracks are driven by the guitars of Leslie and the power of DeMarchi's voice. "Ain't Gonna Get" and "Rush You" even have a bit of thrash touch to them. "Ain't Gonna Get" is the hardest song on the album and it gives De Marchi the opportunity to voice her anger towards men's sexual attitudes. She says, "If all you want is a little piece of ass / All you'll get is a little piece of me." "Early Warning" kicks in with a pounding drumbeat, then Leslie's feedback-laden guitar takes over the song and make some serious noise (it is good noise, though). Two of the slower tracks seem to borrow from the styles of other artists. "Make It End" could easily been mistaken for an Edie Brickell song with De Marchi's warbling on this ex tremely slow moving song and the guitars on "Break My Heart" sound like they came straight off of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game." The best of the slow songs is "Working For The Enemy," which has a catchy chorus that DeMarchi moans her way through and the song's bassy tone gives it a mystic quality. "Baby Animals" displays the talents of the people from down under. This Aussie band rips through their songs with a pas sion on the hard stuff and han dles themselves well on the slower stuff, too. The case of Baby Animals' recent success once again demonstrates the high value of exposure. If they had not been picked up for a national tour, then this album would probably have slipped through the cracks and Baby Animals would still be relative unknowns in America. Tour Guide Applications available NOW at the Aggieland Visitor Center * Applications accepted March 5-13 For More Information call 845-5851 One More Time... This is your TV This is your TV with AggieVision Buy AggieVision. Texas A&M's only 60 minute VHS video yearbook. Only $29.95 + tax. Order in Room 230 Reed McDonald today. Professor realizes boyhood dream as high-energy physicist By Timm Doolen HUY NGUYEN/The Battalion Dr. Robert Webb, a high energy physicist, is working on projects for the super conducting supercollider, scheduled to be operational in 1999. The Battalion Dr. Robert Webb wanted to be a scientist ever since he was a young boy. "When I was growing up, there was a lot of science in the news, with Sputnik and the atom bomb," he says. "Science was fea tured on the news and television shows. Science intrigued me." Thirty years later, he's at the top of his field in high-energy physics, and is working on devel oping projects for the new super conducting supercollider (SSC) which will become operational in 1999. Although the field of physics and science in general has changed over the past decades, he says it is still as interesting as when he first discovered its attrac tions as a boy. "What I've learned is that what I thought might be sexy and exciting to do when I was a kid has changed somewhat since those times," he says. "Evolution in the field keeps up your expecta tions. I haven't become bored or disillusioned. It's as exciting as when I was a kid." Currently he is working on proposals for the supercollider, which will cost an estimated $8.5 billion to construct and maintain. And there are only two experi ments planned for use in the SSC. But don't get the idea that the experiments, which run $500 mil lion apiece, will mean the SSC is under-used. The two experiments, which involve hundreds of scien tists from dozens of universities, will be 24-hour a day experiments that might last up to 10 years. Although the high cost of the SSC project has drawn criticism from many sid'es, Webb defends the expense as necessary for the advancement of science. "In pure research, it's like art," he says. "You do it for the sake of looking at it. And in the future, it might have economic impacts. "In hard economic times, peo ple might find it more necessary to eat than buy a picture, but they still appreciate art. A world with out science is a world without art." The two experiments will run simultaneously as protons are smashed together every 16 nanoseconds, or 62.5 million times a second. The experiments are pure re search, done for the sake of sci ence itself, with no immediate benefits to the general population. But on the other hand, it's of immense importance to physicists around the world, because the ex periments might help back up sev eral theories, including the Grand Unified Theory (G.U.T.). The G.U.T. and the Theory of Everything (T.O.E.) attempt to unite the basic forces of the uni verse (electromagnetic gravity, strong and weak forces) into a sin gle force law. The strong force is what holds the nucleus of an atom together. The weak force causes the decay of nuclear particles. Just within the past decade, the electromagnetic and the weak force were linked together. The ex periments at the SSC will not only back those findings up, but will also make headway on the G.U.T. Webb's other main area of re search may be seen by some as more interesting, because of where it takes him - Italy - usual ly twice a year. Underneath a mountain in Italy, Webb and other scientists are constructing a cosmic ray de tector that is intended to detect magnetic monopoles. They do not exist on Earth and cannot be creat ed in the laboratory. What are magnetic monopoles? Webb describes them as magnets with only one end. Instead of a north and south pole, it has only one or the other. This is similar to the charge on particles, positive or negative. While on Earth there is abundant evidence of matter that has a single charge (negative or positive only), there is no matter with a single magnetic charge (north or south only). The detector, which is about as big as a football field, has been in partial operation for three years and has not yet detected a mag netic monopole. After it comes into full operation next year, there will more likely be some activity. The closest man will come to achieving the forces that created magnetic monopoles will be in the new supercollider, which may produce particles with masses on the order of 1000 times the weight of a proton, five times less than is needed to help prove the Theory of Everything. In addition to his research ac tivities, Webb teaches an introduc tory course in mechanics, which he has taught for several years. As to the future, he has about 15 years of work ahead of him just on the SSC project, as well as his ongoing interest in the magnetic monopole. "Then I hope to retire," he says. TEXAS A&M BASEBALL & SOFTBALL SEE YOU AT THE GAME Baseball Mar 6 Next Games vs. Baylor 7:00 Baseball Mar 7 vs. Baylor (2) 2:00 Softball Mar 6 vs. Aggie Toum. All Day Softball Mar 7 vs. Aggie Toum. All Day Softball Mar 8 vs. Aggie Toum. All Day AGGIE BASEBALL ON KTAM...1240 AM Come Celebrate Your Birthday with Isi You and your friends will receive 20% OFF the entire meal!!* (Not including alcoholic beverages) *The Birthday Person will also receive a special surprise We d Love To Have You! 1503 S. Texas Ave ~ College Station = 693-1736 ~ Sun-Thurs. 6am-10pm Fri. & Sat. 7am-11pm TONIGHT... Come See Comedians Rob Weinstein & Mark Walters at Garfields Thursday Nite Live! Tickets: $4 in advance • $5 at the door Be sure and get your tickets as soon as possible. The show sells out fast! FINAL SKI CLEARANCE SALE 20% TO 40% OFF ALL SKI PARKAS, BIBS, POWER JACKETS, AND PANTS, SKI CAPS, GOGGLES, GLOVES, EAR MUFFS, NECK WARMERS, THER-MAX UNDERWEAR, THERMAX SOCK AND GLOVE LINERS, GATORS. tri'State SPORTING GOODS 3600 Old College Rd. Bryan, TX 77801 HURRY FOR BEST SELECTION Open 9-6 Mon.-Sat. 846-1947 Across from Chicken Oil Co. AGGIE RING ORDERS Orders will be taken on the 2nd Floor of the CLAYTON W. WILLIAMS, JR. ALUMNI CENTER until March 6. 1992 for May ’92 delivery. For Undergraduate students to place an order, the requirements are: 1. 30 credit hours must be completed in residence at A&M, if you are a transfer student. 2. 95 credit hours must be completed. 3. A 2.000 cumulative grade point average. 4. Your transcript must not have any registration or transcript blocks for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, etc. Graduate students may place an order if the following apply: 1. You received a degree previously and did not order a ring. 2. You have completed all requirements for May '92 degree and bring a letter of completion from the Office of Graduate Studies, Teague Building. 3. Your transcript must not have any registration or transcript blocks for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, etc. Come to the Ring Office in the Alumni Center no later than March 5. 1992. to fill out an eligibility form. We suggest you come in as soon as possible. You will be given a date to return to check on your status and order your ring, if qualified. The full amount is due when ordering, payable in cash or by check only. Men's Rings Women's Rings 10KY - $283.00 10KY - $162.00 14KY-$385.00 14KY-$188.00 * There is an $8.00 charge for class of '91 and before. These prices are only guaranteed until 5:00 p.m. .March 6. 1992, The full amount is due when ordering, payable in cash or by check only. , S Z S0 Pitchers 8-10 every night No Cover except Thursday with Live Band LIVE BAND Every Thursday $Z cover 'om COLLEGE STATION, TX. « 696-5570 R~-->