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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 2015)
THURSDAY, JANUARY22, 2015 ! SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I @THEBATTONLINE Rev I: Home at last Missing art is back in Aggieland after almost 25-year absence By Lindsey Gawlik nearly 25-year-olcl mys- tery came to a close earlier this month when a missing painting of Reveille I was returned to Texas A&M. The painting vanished in the 1990s from campus, and its disappearance remained a mystery until the univer sity police received a tip in late 2014. The painting was eventually recovered in San Antonio, and was returned to campus at an unveiling celebration at the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center Wednesday. Brig. Gen. Joe Ramirez Jr., com mandant of the Corps of Cadets, said the painting is a piece of Aggie history and the Corps was glad to see it re stored to Aggieland. Ramirez said the story of Reveille I >— a roadside mutt’s rise to become a popular five-diamond university mas cot— is an important part of Aggie his tory that still resonates with all Aggies. Ramirez said the painting went missing sometime in the 1990s dur ing renovations to the military sciences building, where the painting previously hung. Although it is not clear the circum stances of the disappearance or exact time, Ramirez said the painting simply vanished and was not seen again for almost 25 years until UPD received a call. Mike Johnson, assistant chief of the University Police Department, said UPD officer Russell Rogers received a call on Dec. 2 with information on how to find the painting. “From the valuable information provided by the caller, officer Rogers REVEILLE ON PG. 3 M. BASKETBALL Jones, House lead 2nd half surge in win Vanessa PeAa — THE BATTALION Junior Danuel House tallied 16 points for the A&M 62-50 victory over Missouri Wednesday night. By Conner Darland On the backs of Jalen Jones and Danuel House, Texas A&M stormed back from a halftime deficit to top Missouri and gather its third win in a row. The scoring tandem of Jones and House continued a hot streak with 16 points each in the 62-50 win at Reed Wednesday. Jones, who leads the team in scoring and re bounding, also added nine rebounds. “We knew that we couldn’t let this one slip away from us,” Jones said. “Missouri played a lot of close games this year and we knew that they were going to come at us hard. They gave us the first punch and we knew that we had to him them back. ” Texas A&M opened the second half on a 15-5 run with back- to-back three pointers by House and Jones. The Aggies caught the three-point bug in the second half and never looked back, shooting 46 percent from behind the arc and leading by as many as 15 points. Alex Caruso, the SEC leader in assists and assists per game, chipped in 11 points and dished out three assists in the win. For die Tigers, guard Wes Clark was all over the court with 18 points, six assists and five steals. Texas A&M managed to keep lead ing scorer Johnathan Williams III in check, holding him to nine points and 10 rebounds. The Aggies next head to Knoxville for a noon matchup with Tennessee Saturday. POP CULTURE HEALTH W. BASKETBALL #OscarsSoWhite: Is the 2014 field whitewashed? Hashtag scratches surface of social issue By Victoria Rivas The Academy Awards will celebrate some of the film industry’s criti- » cally acclaimed films from the past year. However, the Academy is receiving some criticism due to the “white washed” Oscar nominee list that was re leased Jan. 15. The lack of a diverse set of nominees inspired Twitter users to fill the site with tweets featuring the hashtag #OscarsSoW- hite. This criticism, which initially brought up a discussion about racial and ethnic representa tion in American cinema, prompted broader ques tions about which mem- bers of society fully partic ipate in the film industry. Some professors and stu dents think by observing the lack of diversity in the film industry, many un derlying social issues can be resolved. Daniel Humphrey, professor of film studies, said a lack of diversity in Hollywood is reflected in the content produced by Hollywood. “One of the things people point out in Oscars is that some of Frederica Shih — THE BATTALION OSCARS ON PG. 3 Tough flu strain leads to epidemic By Sam King Vaccination shots only 23 percent effective Summer, spring, winter, fall and flu — the five seasons of the year. And this flu season has been a rough one. Last week, the U.S. Cen ter for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that this year’s flu vims vaccine is only 23 percent effective. On Dec. 30, after the deaths of 15 children, the CDC na tionally declared the flu of ficially an epidemic. Sarah Mendez, health ed ucation and promotion di rector at the Brazos County Health Department, said the less effective vaccine played a large role in this year’s flu season. Mendez said this year’s vaccine covers some strains of flu, but it did not contain strains of Flu Strain A, or H3N2, which was the strain of flu found most often. “This year the CDC has been doing some studies and found that the different strains of the types of vimses that are in the actual flu shot this year is not matching with what we are seeing as the types of flu that people are getting,” Mendez said. Mendez said the CDC at tempts each year to predict which strains of the flu will be popular to put samples of those in that year’s flu vac cine. This year the CDC missed the mark. Another factor that plays into why the flu is so wide spread this season lies in the "Unfortunately the vaccine this year is not as effective against that strain/' Sofoh M'irxk-zL Brazen: Covnty Ho&if.h Diop^rtmam contagiousness of the flu, a respiratory infection, Men dez said. “So if people cough in their hands, and then they’re touching things, whether it be an elevator button, or a doorknob or a grocery cart at the store, then they can spread the flu vims that way,” Mendez said. While the flu can lead to death in some serious cases, David Teller, associate di- FLU ON PG. 4 No. 22 Georgia up next for Blair’s Aggies By Cole Stenholm Texas A&M wom- ^ en’s basketball head coach Gary Blair started his Tuesday press confer ence with a reference to a classic Ray Charles hit. “Georgia’s on my mind,” Blair said, appropriate as he and his Aggies prepare for No. 22 Georgia. The No. 10 Aggies (16-3, 4-1 in the SEC) have gone 5-3 in their last eight games after winning their first 11. They now face the daunting task of consecutive conference road games against top- 25 opponents, beginning 6 p.m. Thursday in the Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia. The Aggies then take on No. 1 South Carolina on Monday. Fortunately, though, Blair already has a good idea of how to prepare for the first game of the two-game stretch due to his familiarity with Geor gia’s head coach, Andy Landers. “Like I always do, I prepare for the jockey first, the team second,” he said. “And I’ve pre pared for coach Landers for years and years and IV BASKETBALL ON PG. 2 Cody Franklin —THE BATTALION Junior Courney Walker averages 14.7 points per game.