Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quiz Bowl CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Chattanooga, Tenn. Both wins gave the team some national ex-' posure. But the national exposure comes in the shadow of teams that have a lot of support from their schools. James said USC’s team gets about $500 a year from USC, not nearly enough to cover travel costs and tournament expenses. “There’s a lot of universities that have a lot of big teams and all that get thousands of dollars,” James said. He said the University of Michigan is probably the top team and the University of Chicago is also a strong contender. USC faced the University of Chicago for the national champi onship five years ago. Usually, rounds consist of 20 questions, along with bonus questions for the teams that answer correctly. At the end of 20 questions, USC was ahead, but at this tournament, the rounds were timed. There was still time on the clock, so the teams had to keep going. Four questions lat er, USC lost by 10 points. “We can do it own our own, but it would be nice to get some sup port” from the university, James said. “We’re using the USC name and beating other schools like Princeton and Vanderbilt, and it doesn’t matter to me, but I would think it would matter to them (USC). They are trying to get into the AAU, and it would show that we can compete with some of the better schools in academic insti tutions." As it is now, the team can’t even get a time slot to reserve a room in the Russell House for practice. So, the team meets three times a week wherever it can find an empty room and runs through sets of practice questions about everything from the Napoleonic wars to Russian author Mikael Bulgakov. “A lot of the actual answers to the questions are pretty obscure to the general public,” James said. “I mean, the people there are just good at it.” He said most people join the quiz-bowl team to add some spice to their resumes or just to increase their general knowledge. “You just learn so much doing it, but the stuff you learn comes up in everyday life,” James said. “You’ll start to know so much more, and you’ll just seem like a smarter person and you’ll just im press your bosses.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Kenya CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Israel and the United States have pushed for a rigorous inves tigation in part because they think it might have been orchestrated by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network. During an Israeli Cabinet meet ing Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he suspected al Qaida was responsible for the at tack, Gissin said. “Formally, of course, we don’t have the conclusive evidence to prove unequivocally that it is al Qaida, but the fingerprints clearly indicate that al-Qaida is in volved,” Gissin said, referring to Mofaz’s remarks. Jamu, the bomb specialist, said investigators found parts of two gas welding cylinders, which they suspect were fastened to the vehi cle’s underside to cause a bigger explosion at the Paradise Hotel 12 miles north of Mombasa. One man, subsistence farmer Khamis Haro Deche, said a brown Pajero pulled into his yard near the hotel shortly after 8 a.m. this past Thursday. He said the slight youngish man in the passenger seat told him in Arabic-accented and halting Kiswahili — Kenya’s official language — that he and the driver were waiting for friends coming from the hotel. The farmer said the car had tinted windows—illegal in Kenya — and when he leaned inside to shake hands, he saw only two peo ple: the driver, described as a stout middle-aged man who did not speak, and the passenger, whom he described as nervous. Previous reports have said there were three terrorists. Shortly after the car drove off in the direction of the hotel, there was an explosion that shook his house, he said. Survivors at the hotel said the blast occurred around 8:35 a.m. “These are not good people; I shook hands with fire,” the farmer said in the light of a kerosene lantern outside his mud-and-palm thatch house. “If you shake hands with a fire, you will be burned,” Although police were still hold ing several men from Pakistan and Somalia they had picked up from a boat in Mombasa’s port for questioning shortly after the at tacks, there was no further com ment Sunday on the progress of the investigation from inside Kenya. A day after the bombing, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Washington, said initial suspicion centered on al Qaida and al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, a Somali Islamic group that was put on a list of international terrorist organizations after the Sept. 11 at tacks on the United States. Election CONTINUED ROM PAGE 1 she agrees the change would allow senators better opportunities to finish their projects. Voting will take place online at http://vip.sc.edu under the “Personal” tab starting Wednesday I at 9 a.m. and ending Thursday at 5 p.m. The results will be posted on line at www.sg.sc.edu and will ap pear in Friday’s edition of The Gamecock. Vickery urged students to participate in the vote. “I think students should be ac tively involved in the elections process and choosing a leader that will represent them well,” she said. First-year civil engineering stu dent Griffin Wheeler said, “If I don’t have anything better to do, then I’ll vote, but I haven’t really even heard anything about it.” Vickery said, “This is an op portunity for students to impact how their student leaders are elected.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail. com Student Leadership Training Conference 200} University of South Carolina • February 1,2003 Discover the world of leadership through exciting worshops & sessions at SLTC 2003. Open to all USC students. Conference will last 8:30am to 3:30pm Cost is 25$ Call 777-7130 or stop by RH235 for more information. I --- ft’s Buy Back time Again! BRING IN YOUR BOOKS AND RECEIVE COLD HARD CASH! ' . .— Monday - Thursday 7:45 a.m. - 6 p.m. Friday 7:45 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Get Cap ft Gown■ Christmas gifts and more! 9 Where vour purchases benefit both you and the scholarship programs ofUSC \ » \ \ . \ . 1 - 1 11 —.. — .. 11 1 111 - ' ' ' ---- '