Justin Jones lifts his sweat-stained cap with one hand, rakes his shaggy hair to the right and pulls the cap back down. He does this a lot over the course of 20 minutes. It is almost compulsive.

When his hair is longer, he has a habit of flipping it. That’s why, sophomore pitcher Matt Flemer says, the U. California-Berkeley baseball team calls Jones “our Zac Efron.”

“I go with it,” Jones says, smiling. “It’s cool to have a nickname, I guess.”

Keep pitching like he has and Jones, the Bears’ left-handed freshman, may find himself with a more distinguished title by the end of the season. Right now he is 8-2 with a 2.62 ERA, leading the conference in innings pitched (72), and a big reason why this young Cal team is 22-11 and second in the Pac-10. Barring some second-half meltdown, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year is a good bet, and National Freshman of the Year a legitimate discussion.

“It’s unbelievable what he’s doing,” says Flemer. “And we’re kinda lucky to have him, because he did get drafted (out of high school) and fairly high. You don’t see a lot of those guys come to college.”

But here Jones is, precisely because he found college-this college-too good to sacrifice for the instant gratification of a contract, signing bonus and professional label. He got the chance to attend his dream school and chose not to pass it up.

“It just fits my personality,” says Jones. “I’m a laid-back guy and I’ve always loved the Bay Area, Berkeley. I guess you can say I’m kind of hippie without the title? I don’t know. I just love the atmosphere.”

Jones is so laid-back that when Bears pitching coach Dan Hubbs called him about two years ago to express the program’s interest, the then-Oakdale High senior was lying-not jumping-on the trampoline in his backyard.

His reaction was, “Wow, that’s pretty intense.” No word on whether he sat up.

Last Saturday, Jones requested that Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” be played over the speaker system while he warmed up prior to the first inning. Bemused, the guys working the sound, used to blaring out rap and AC/DC, shrugged and said, “This is what he wants.”

One of his favorite things to do around here is walk down Telegraph, because “the diversity on that Avenue is amazing.” That includes the food, but it’s mostly about the people. He likes talking to people in general. He carries out conversations with the homeless every chance he gets.

“I was walking with my girlfriend and I think a girl said, ‘You look good,'” says Jones. “And I was like, ‘Well, thank you!’ And she goes, ‘No, not you. You’re not good-looking at all. I’m talking about your girlfriend.'”

“Stuff like that-I love stuff that catches me off-guard.”

He smooths the hair again, but by this point you realize that it’s an exception to the rule-one of the few things about which he is meticulous. Compare it to something more grandiose like, say, his pitching mentality, which he describes as: “I just kind of throw the ball.”

That’s part of what makes him so good. Take his last outing against Washington. In the fifth inning of a 1-1 game, he has two runners on with two out and two strikes on the Huskies’ No. 3 hitter-and hits him with an inside fastball.

On this day, Jones is being nagged by a persistent cough and has no command of his curveball, which is normally his best pitch. That means he’s working solely with a fastball and changeup.

He falls behind Washington’s cleanup hitter, Pierce Rankin, 2-0, but works the count back to 2-2. He misses with a fastball down and in, then comes right back inside on the full-count pitch with another fastball. It jams Rankin and he hits a fly ball to center field.

Jones gives up one earned run in 8 1/3 innings and gets the win.

“We always talk to our guys about being able to stay in the moment, not let the moment be too big,” says Hubbs. “Be able to relax in the moment so you’re able to make the pitch. I think he’s the epitome of what that means. He doesn’t get rattled. He doesn’t have to try harder in the bigger spots, he just has to make a good pitch.”

Jones internalizes much of what he’s thinking. When he told the coaches on his unofficial visit to Cal that it had always been his dream school, it was news to his own father.

That was the summer before his senior year of high school. He saw a football game, walked the campus with the coaches and was offered a scholarship right there.

“We talked on the way home,” says his father, Stanley. “And I said, “If it’s a place you want to go, call now.”

Jones could have waited. He hadn’t used any of his five official visits to college campuses.

So he thought about it-for a day. Then he called and committed.

But the draft was still to come, and the following summer, in the wake of being selected in the seventh round by the Chicago White Sox, Jones warmed to the idea of turning pro out of high school. He even backed down from his original “firm number,” the amount of money he was asking from Chicago, which indicated that he was leaning towards signing.

“I really wanted to go,” says Jones. “I really wanted to play baseball-that’s what I want to do with my life.”

Still on the fence in mid-June, Jones attended the Summer Bridge program at Cal, which is geared towards easing the transition into the university for accepted students.

Truth be told, academics were a somewhat daunting prospect. Jones is a self-motivated learner. He was home schooled until the ninth grade and, away from the books, also taught himself to play the piano and guitar. So he bucked against the structure at Oakdale and, while his transcript wasn’t bad, it didn’t jump off the page.

“Coming in I was like, wow, college is probably going to be really tough,” says Jones. “(In Summer Bridge) I took Chicano Studies and College Writing, and it was just easier than high school to me. Just the fact that you’re more on your own, that it was more on me to learn.”

Seeing his son begin to gravitate towards college, Stanley told Justin, “If you think you want to do it, you need to up your value to the White Sox.” So Justin went back to asking for his original firm number. Chicago refused to meet it.

By that point, though, it wouldn’t have mattered.

“I remember asking him when (summer school) ended, ‘Will you be showing up in 10 days,'” says Bears head coach David Esquer. “And he says, ‘Coach, I wouldn’t give this up for any amount of money now.’

“We’ve had kids in the past who have given up Cal because they didn’t know what they were giving up. He had a clear picture of what he would be giving up.”

For one thing, as Hubbs says, Jones would have given up the chance to be a kid for a few more years. You wonder, though, if he ever won’t be. His good-luck charm, a stuffed penguin named Petey given to him by his girlfriend, is present for all of his starts.

He would have given up the chance to prove Hubbs right. While Jones was deciding between school and draft, Hubbs told him that he could someday be a first-round draft pick.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to tell you what to do, but just don’t sell yourself short,'” says Hubbs.

“You never know, but I thought he’d be pretty good.”

So here Jones is, sitting in the home dugout at Evans Diamond, as Bob Dylan plays over the speakers on a Sunday afternoon. Dylan is his idol, Jones says. He plays both the acoustic and bass guitars, loves oldies and “indie-type stuff.” He has thought about bringing his acoustic to Telegraph and jamming with the street musicians, but hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

The song playing is “Like a Rolling Stone,” and although it’s Dylan’s familiar rasp jangling across the empty field, it does not apply here because Justin Jones is exactly where he wants to be.

Supreme Court Justice and former U. Virginia Law professor Antonin Scalia spoke at the UVA Law School Friday to present the 12th annual speech within the Henry J. Abraham Distinguished Lectures Series.

The annual lecture series began in 1999 and is dedicated to Abraham, a well-known politics professor at the University from 1972-1997. Scalia, who taught at the University just prior to Abraham from 1967-71, noted that he was both a “friend” and “fan” of the constitutional law scholar.

In his lecture, Scalia discussed the merits of originalism as a method of constitutional interpretation. The originalist approach, he said, views the Constitution as no different from any other legal text, such as a statute.

“That is to say, the Constitution has a static meaning that does not change from generation to generation,” though its provisions can be applied to new situations, he said, such as the prosecution of libel when disseminated over the radio or the Internet.

Originalism thus focuses on determining the original meaning ascribed to the Constitution, Scalia said.

“To begin with, I deny the premise that law has nothing to do with historical inquiry,” he said.

This inquiry must be conducted in collaboration with lexicographers to determine the historical meaning of words and phrases such as “bear arms,” Scalia said. In addition, scholars also must establish a broader historical context, partly by examining other contemporary legal precedents, including the English Bill of Rights and state constitutions.

“Historical inquiry into the original meaning is difficult,” Scalia said. “I will stipulate that it is not [perfect]. The question is whether it’s better than anything else.”

Scalia contrasted historical inquiry with moral philosophy, which he said justices undertake when they attempt to determine how the meaning of the Constitution should “evolve” over time. In particular, he said history is far more objective than moral philosophy and noted that historical inquiry is essential to any consideration of law.

“No history faculty of any work would consider itself complete without legal experts, and no law faculty would consider itself complete without historians,” he said, discussing the way the fields are interrelated.

The material in historical amicus briefs — much of which is submitted by legal historians — can contribute greatly to the quality and accuracy of originalist interpretation, Scalia said, though he noted he maintains some distrust when academics claim to be disinterested scholars.

“Originalism is not a guarantee against willful abuse, but originalism does not invite [a justice] to make the law what he thinks it should be, nor does it permit him to distort history with impunity,” Scalia said. “The historical evidence will sometimes be indeterminate … But it is not infinitely malleable. The honest originalist will sometimes, indeed often, reach substantive results that he does not personally favor.”

Virginia senior James Pogue, an intern with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, said Scalia’s appearance was a sign of respect, particularly “the respect that he has for [Henry J. Abraham], and he was willing to come here and speak on his behalf.”

Attorneys for former Texas Tech U. football coach Mike Leach filed a fourth amended petition Friday claiming the former coach’s firing was predetermined and done so to help the university save money.

In the filing, six Tech officials are being sued individually for damages: Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, Board of Regents members Jerry Turner and Larry Anders, Tech President Guy Bailey, Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers and Tech Investigator Charlotte Bingham. Craig James, the father of Adam James was also named as a defendant.

One of Leach’s attorneys, Ted Liggett, said Friday that the individuals are being sued — especially Hance, Turner and Anders — because they went “beyond the scope of their job.” Liggett pointed out that it was Bailey and Myers’ responsibility to deal with the Leach situation and no one else should have been involved.

Liggett believes the filings show that Leach’s firing is derived from the contract negotiations last spring.

“We are able to do that under the law whenever and individual acts in a capacity that’s beyond their scope of employment with the university,” he said. “It allows us to seek damage against them individually. And that’s what we’ve done.”

After allegations Leach harmed Tech receiver Adam James surfaced, Liggett said Myers and Bailey were ready to reprimand Leach instead of fire him. But the filings claim that Hance, Turner and Anders wanted to use the James situation to get rid of Leach and save money.

Leach was fired on Dec. 30, 2009, three days before Tech was scheduled to play in the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl. The firing also occurred a day before Leach was supposed to be paid an $800,000 bonus.

But Tech’s attorney Dicky Grigg, said both the lawsuits and Friday’s court filing are acts Leach’s attorneys are using to deter the undisputable facts against them.

“Today’s action by Mike Leach and his attorneys is another absurd act of desperation,” he said in a statement Friday. “This is the legal strategy one deploys when the facts and the law are irrefutably against him.”

Leach’s attorneys have not deterred from the lawsuit against the university. Liggett said that lawsuit is still in effect along with Friday’s filings.

Leach’s attorneys believe the conspiracy to fire Leach has been discovered through text messages and e-mails, which Liggett said are used as exhibits in Friday’s filing.

Liggett said Adam thought his situation with Leach was funny and the Tech receiver thought “Mike shouldn’t have been fired because of that.”

One of Tech’s defenses in this case has been the sovereign immunity claim, which points out that an individual cannot sue the state,  of which Tech is a branch. But Leach’s attorneys believe the Tech administration has waived that through numerous causes, such as the Board of Regents making its own policies and procedures, therefore acting as its own legislative body.

As far as damages are concerned, Liggett said his attorneys are working on that figure daily, but it has not been determined yet.

But Liggett said on Friday that Leach’s attorneys intend to go to trial at this point.

“It seems incredulous to me and I think it has to go with what happens a lot of times in business and in life, ego and pride,” Liggett said. “… He wasn’t the good ol’ boy, button down football coach that they wanted to have for Texas Tech and they were looking for a reason to fire him.”

People from all over the world come to Texas to experience the state’s activities and authentic Texas barbecue. But if you ask the average Texan where to go for the real ‘Texas’ experience, most will point you in the direction of one of the major cities. Austin local Chet Garner is trying to change that tendency and educate Texans about all of the great things Texas has to offer with his show, “The Daytripper.”

“My goal setting out was making a show about Texas for Texans, something special for us,” said Garner, the show’s host, creator and producer.

“The Daytripper” which airs at on PBS, started out as the “Austin Daytripper” where Garner would take daytrips to outside the city limits of Austin and explore local cuisine and activities. The expanded show is still a start-up, Garner said, but so far the eclectic, fast-paced and humorous way in which the show is filmed has gotten a good response.

“It’s very fast-paced and very silly. We grab your attention from the beginning and never let go,” he said.

The show is designed to show people who do not have a lot of time or money that they can go out for a day and enjoy all that Texas has to offer just outside the limits of larger cities. Every episode includes an activity, usually something outdoors, a dining experience and some sort of historic or cultural information about the location. Garner and his crew try to vary the activities in an attempt to cater to everyone.

“Being an Eagle Scout I’m always interested in anything I can do outdoors so the show is very helpful,” said Adam Peeler, a Texas A&M U. senior.

Garner, who graduated with a degree in film from the U. Texas and went to law school at Baylor U., practiced law for three years before deciding to create the “Austin Daytripper.”

“It just never fit and it really was never going to fulfill me,” Garner said. “Everybody has to do what’s best for them so I decided to follow my passion and not a paycheck.”

Garner then called his film school friend, Nate Locklear with the idea and together they filmed a pilot episode in Waco. After the show was picked up, Garner and Locklear added Richie Lozano as editor and sound technician, Mary Adolph as production overseer and intern-turned member Kellie Baldwin to form the tight-knit group they call Hogaboom Road Inc.

“There’s no better bonding experience than a daytrip, and we’ve become really close,” Garner said.

“The Daytripper” is planning on coming to College Station during the summer to film an episode. Garner plans to visit the George Bush Presidential Library, eat chicken tenders at Layne’s and Chicken Oil, mountain biking at Lake Bryan and showing off Northgate. Garner said college kids are eager to travel if they have a car and want to do things in College Station.

“I usually go mountain biking around Austin, but I’m always looking for new places,” said Brock Spratlen, a senior computer engineering major.

The next episode airs Saturday featuring Luling, Texas, where Garner and his crew will taste barbecue from two joints set up right across the street from each other.

Then it’s off to jump out of a tree into the San Marcos River before visiting the famous ‘Come and Take It’ cannon of the Texas Revolution and finishing up at the Shiner Brewery to sample beer.

“Traveling Texas is easy, you don’t have to have a lot of money or time,” Garner said. “All these places are right there, just make a decision to go and go.”

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman—famous for blowing things up and testing popular myths on their show “MythBusters”—were honored for their work in propagating humanist values Friday evening by the Harvard Secular Society and the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy.

The Secular Society’s president Lewis M. Ward said at the awards ceremony to a packed audience in Memorial Church that the MythBusters duo won the group’s fourth Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism for teaching people not to blindly accept myths on their “incredibly entertaining show.”

After receiving a trophy inscribed with the duo’s well-known quote—“failure is always an option”—Savage opened his acceptance speech with a reference to the prevalence of new technology.

“I am going to read my speech from my iPad,” Savage said. “I’m not only a humanist, I am an early adapter.”

Savage ultimately concluded from his efforts to understand the purposes of prayer and organized religion that man does not “need religion in order to appreciate [one’s] existence” and instead should rely on his own observations and logic.

Following Savage and Hyneman’s speeches, audience members peppered the duo with questions ranging from future projects to the show’s production.

The pair gave a sneak preview of potential upcoming episodes in responding to a question about the show’s future plans.

“It seems weird to promote a television show in a church, but we have a unified dream of [creating] a human-powered helicopter,” Savage said.

“Square wheels,” Hyneman countered.

With puns and characteristic deadpan humor, the MythBusters kept the presentation lively and entertaining.

“So much of what we see on TV is deliberately designed to deceive, or exaggerate, or promote someone’s agenda, and the MythBusters is the complete opposite,” said audience member John S. Dwyer, who added that he found Savage and Hyneman “extremely funny.”

Past recipients of the cultural humanism award have included creator of the shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly” Joss Whedon, Greg Graffin of the punk rock band Bad Religion, and novelist Sir Salman Rushdie.

To most attendees, Coachella is strictly a music festival. But, as those who have attended know, the large-scale public art is half the reason to be there. Each year the creators of Coachella design environments compatible with the day’s desert heat and the night’s darkness and this year, the organizers have outdone themselves.

The Empire Polo Field that houses Coachella was an art installation in its own right with palm trees lining the parameter lit up with brightly different colors.

One consistent installation was the boxed light show outside of the Sahara tent. By day, a metal box gleamed in the sunlight, but by night, surface light bulbs pulsed to the music in a variety of colors projecting various patterns.

This year’s artistic centerpiece, “The Ascencion,” was a giant 45-feet tall solar origami crane located in the main stage arena. At night, solar-powered, color-changing LED lights illuminate the magnificent crane. As always, the Dew Lab was the place to be during the day.

With constant D.J. changes and misters pumping cool water onto the crowd, it was a great place to beat the heat. And at night, you could have caught some live entertainment as dancers fill the stage with tribal accessories and interpretive dancing, making music a secondary attraction for a short time.

In the middle of the field stood a large clear cylinder, which at night mystified its audience, and provided a tinge of heat. Between the smaller Mojave and Gobi tents sat two large pagodas covered in wind chimes.

What appeared to be ornaments only useful during the day actually lit up to provide a group meeting place at night. Spiked throughout the festival grounds were tall silver pod-like structures gleaming in the sun. But as the sky darkened, they cast a patterned light on the ground.

Near the polo field entrance sat large glass and metal pipes that sparkled when under direct sunlight. When you walked by these pipes you could hear them playing sounds much like a light melodic organ.

Though the art might take the second seat to the music for most of the the 80,000 people who attended Coachella this year,  the installations were as unique as ever, creating another visual feast to supplement the sonic pleasures that ran amok at Southern California’s largest music festival.

Both highs and lows have encompassed Ohio State U. quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s career so far, but as he ventures into the second half of his time at the helm, he is still working on that one final word to describe his game as a quarterback: complete.

Best known for his ability to make his opposition pay with his legs, Pryor has rarely been seen as a player who was going to dominate with his arm, until he did so against Oregon.

Whether the 266 yards and two touchdowns against the Ducks to win the Rose Bowl is going to be just one game or an every-game possibility remains to be seen.

Pryor, however, continues to work in order to be known as a quarterback, not just an athlete lining up at the position.

“I felt a little bit like it last year, but I was still going through the motions,” Pryor said. “Last year, I was trying to please people. People were saying I couldn’t play quarterback, and I feel like I was trying to prove people wrong.”

He did at times silence his doubters, especially in the Rose Bowl, where his blend of pass and run finally bewildered a defense. After other games like OSU’s loss to Purdue, however, the talk that Pryor can’t play quarterback was heard loud and clear.

In the second half of his career, Pryor knows he must eliminate the mistakes and mental errors which have affected him in seasons past. He said for him, the game is finally starting to change.

“It’s all about decision making,” Pryor said. “I make a lot better decisions and the game has really, really slowed down. When you first get here, you’re kind of thinking ‘Is this ever going to slow down for me? Is this ever going to be easy like high school?’ Finally, it really slowed down.”

The expectations for him, which were sky high when he stepped onto campus, have continued to rise. Not only his expectations for himself, but those of his fans, teammates and coaches have risen substantially.

He was expected to manage games and limit mistakes, like he did later in the season against Iowa and Michigan. He will now be expected to win games and make plays as the most experienced weapon on a veteran offense.

“He is a junior and the expectations here raise a little bit, meaning within the walls of the folks who are doing this every day,” coach Jim Tressel said. “I think just in general his calmness and his command have improved through the course of these first seven practices, and I think it really began heading in that direction during the month-long bowl practice as well.”

One word will finally stop being used to describe the nation’s former No. 1 recruit: young. At times in the first two seasons, when a pass didn’t find a receiver or the ball was intercepted or fumbled, the fact that Pryor was new to the game of college football was used to buy him more time. That will no longer be the case, as Pryor is now on the backside of his career.

Pryor admitted it took time for him to realize that college football wasn’t going to come as easily as high school football did, when he “was a quarterback who could throw the deep pass 60-yards and would connect with somebody,” he said.

Now Pryor isn’t looking to just find his receiver, but do all the things a quarterback should when completing a pass. He said he has worked tirelessly on timing and footwork, trying to complete a pass to his receivers in stride while also putting the ball on the correct shoulder.

“I never worked on accuracy or did accuracy drills. That’s my girlfriend over there,” Pryor said with a laugh as he pointed to the accuracy throwing net. “I throw through that net all the time, me and coach [Eric] Lichter, and we work constantly three times a week.”

“We come over here for about an hour and he goes to work with me and pushes me hard,” Pryor said. “It’s all about fighting yourself and making yourself better so you can eventually lead the team and make them better.”

For Pryor to finally become a complete quarterback, he will have to master the art of decision making. If the Rose Bowl was any indication of what defenses he will have to deal with in 2010, Pryor will be difficult to contain.

Pryor said his decision-making process will be judged by the game situation and if he feels like he could easily pick up the yards or a first down with his legs, he would do so. He has worked to improve his arm but he doesn’t want to forget what makes him such a threat.

“I never want to lose that part of my game,” Pryor said of his scrambling ability. “You never can because then you are taking away from God’s gift that he gave you. That’s what God gave me, legs and an arm, and now I’m finally getting my arm involved and the defense has a lot of trouble to work on.”

The progression of Pryor has taken part mostly on the field, but he didn’t doubt that he sees changes in himself off the field as well. Maturity and growth is something all players strive to experience, but for Pryor, his progression as a quarterback and even as a person have come full circle.

“I feel like I’m more of a people person now. I feel like I have a relief off my chest,” Pryor said. “I can be just happy all the time and enjoy my teammates and talk with all my teammates no matter who it is and hold conversations with people outside of football. I feel great as an individual and I feel great as a quarterback.”