An MIT student in Jeopardy!
For $1200: A computer message that something’s wrong; a classic one in DOS said, “abort, retry, fail?”
Institute Double Take
This photo is of the colorful MIT sail boats in front of Boston’s Back Bay. It is an HDR (high dynamic range) photo, meaning that it is a composite image of three different exposures that have been superimposed on one another. HDR was used to bring out the details in the shadows during the sunset. A small aperture was used to have both foreground and background in focus.
Solid to the core
Last week, Fresh Start discussed how adding weights to your workout routine can boost your endorphins, resistance to injury, and metabolic rate, helping you lean out faster than with cardio alone. Now that we’ve talked generally about planning workouts, we’re going to begin focusing on specific muscle groups. Next time, we’ll examine workouts to keep you lean and balanced, starting with a core routine you can do at home every day.
Overheard@MIT
LA talking to student in Course 6 class: *bursts out in laughter*Student: What’s so funny?LA: Oh, I was just thinking of a piece of code I saw earlier.
Events Feb. 28- Mar. 05
Events feb. 28 – mar. 03 Tuesday (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) 2012 MIT Excellence Awards: annual celebration of outstanding staff members (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Equity Bank: Redefining Business in Africa, presented by Dr. James Mwangi, reception to follow — E62-276 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Artists Beyond the Desk Presents the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players: a concert celebrating Frederic’s 39th birthday — Killian Hall (14W-111) Thursday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) CSAIL Presents: Electrical Engineering and the World of Entertainment — 32-123 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Phillip A. Sharp Lecture in Neural Circuits — Singleton Auditorium (46-3002) Friday (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Photons as a Probe for Discovery with the CMS Detector — Kolker Room (26-414) (6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) The Anime Club shows Fate/Zero — 3-133 Monday (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Semiconductor Quantum Optics: New Frontiers for Information Processing and Precision Measurements — 34-401 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) City Design and Development Lecture: Shrinking Cities — 10-485 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Lifting weights, losing waists
Now that you’ve had a chance to get comfortable with keeping your Workout Book (See Feb. 14 “”), it’s time to start thinking about what workouts to put in it. Today’s article is an introduction to weight training: its benefits and how to incorporate it into your weekly routine. But first, let’s clear up some myths about working out and weight training in particular:
Events Calendar Feb. 21 - Feb. 27
Events feb . 21 – feb. 27 Tuesday (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Composer Forum: Erin Gee, a lecture demonstration about her upcoming piece for the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna — Lewis Music Library (14E-109) (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Book Launch: The Technologist, New York Times bestselling novelist and Cambridge local Matthew Pearl releases new book — MIT Museum (N51) Wednesday (3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MIT Program in Polymer Science and Technology Polymer Seminar — 66-110 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Slowing of Continental Collision: Implications of the Forces that Resist Plate Motion— 54-915 Thursday (1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Special Talk on the Brain and Cognition: Ron Meir PhD, Technion — 46-3002 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) IDEAS Spring Generator Dinner: learn about IDEAS Global Challenge — Lobdell (W20-208) Friday (6:00 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.) America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments (fee admission sponsored by Active Minds @ MIT) — 10-250 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Mozart Marathon Concert: Harbison’s Token Creek at MIT — Kresge Auditorium Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) The Jefferson Lab Science Program - Highlights and Outlook — 26-414 (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) How Does Information Technology Affect Hospital Costs? — E62-650 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events Feb. 14 - Feb. 20
Events FEb. 14 – Feb. 20 Tuesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) An excess of needles in the haystack? The hunt for new physics at ATLAS — 26-414 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) What is Massachusetts Doing to Address Climate Change: From the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to the Global Warming Solutions Act — 4-145 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) Triple Agent: Lessons from the CIA’s Disaster at Khost, Afghanistan — E40-496 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Civic Media Session: “What’s Your Information Diet?” — E14 6th floor Thursday (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) HSA Speaker Series:“Coming to a city near you? Economic Crisis and Social Unrest in Greece and Europe” talk by Professor Kalyvas — 4-231 (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Athlete Ally, LGBTQ event presented by Hudson Taylor — Rockwell Cage Main Court Friday (6:30 p.m.) LSC shows The Tree of Life — 26-100 (7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Tapas served by Spain@MIT — NW35 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Radius: Edward Cohen 20th Memorial Concert — 14W-111 Sunday (12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Salsa/Rueda Dance Workshop — W20-202 (3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Olympics Uber Alles: A Play by Samuel J. Bernstein and Marguerite Krupp — W16-035 Monday (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Anime showing of Bodacious Space Pirates — 2-105 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Fall in love with fitness at MIT
Everyone at MIT has a unique fitness story. Some of us are varsity athletes or gym rats, who somehow manage to pack 12 to 20 hours a week of sports into our already bursting schedules. Others gave up on exercise long ago due to the demands of classes and research. Some of us lie somewhere in between: former athletes who’ve fallen out of condition, those who want to work out, but don’t know how or don’t seem to be very good at it. Some of us love running; some of us hate it. Some of us are too self-conscious to try. One thing each of us has in common is a desire to be healthier. Even top athletes aspire to greater heights. Unfortunately, whether you’re a novice or a pro, at a place like MIT, sometimes these goals can seem impossible to achieve.
Valentine’s Day isn’t the only day for love
Ciao Amore! Today is Valentine’s Day, the most [enter your adoring or snide comment here] day of the year. Maybe you’ve already heard those public serenades isolating someone’s sweetheart in an awkward, yet adorable, way. Or perhaps you’ve avoided such encounters like the plague? Either way, it is Valentine’s Day and here are some things one can do. But first, humor me and read about my “beef” with this holiday.
The first semester of Maseeh Hall
This summer, while filling out the housing lottery, I’ll admit that I was apprehensive about moving into the newest dormitory on campus. What would it be like? How would I even know if I would like living there? Questions like these raced through my mind, until I realized that my peers and I could seize this opportunity and have an impact on a new MIT community. We could pioneer original traditions, develop the culture, and leave a mark on the dorm. When Maseeh Hall opened in August 2011, a group of 462 diverse residents moved in, and the dorm took off from there.
Events Feb. 07 - Feb. 13
Events feb. 07 – feb. 11 Tuesday (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Daylight Simulation in Design — 7-431 (The Long Lounge) Wednesday (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Spacewar! Turns 50: MIT Celebrates Its Earliest Computer Game — Outside 32-123 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) How the Ionosphere of Mars Works — 54-915 Friday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) The Darwin-Lincoln Birthday Forum: A discussion of Darwin, Lincoln and the struggle for human equality — Killian Hall (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Taking Inventory of the Universe: Exploring the Mystery of Dark Matter with the MiniCLEAN Experiment — 26-414 (Kolker Room) Saturday (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) TechTalks 2012: A series of short lectures by prominent figures in the tech industry — 10-250 Monday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Music Author Book Release: Seeking the Infinite by Dr. Frederick Harris — 14E-109 (Lewis Music Library) (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Vicky Chow, Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Cage Recital — Killian Hall Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Dr. Grammarphile
“You’re dog was tracking mud all through there house. I was literally so embarrassed that I thought I’d die!”
Events Feb. 1 - Feb. 6
Events feb. 01 – feb. 04 Wednesday (12:30 – 1:30 p.m.) Class of 2015: Get to Know Your Faculty — 4-145 (1:30 – 2:30 p.m.) Gravitational Lensing is Fantastic!: A lecture about gravitational lensing and its applications in astrophysics — 6-120 Thursday (12:00 – 1:30 p.m.) Class of 2014 and 2015 Alumni Class Connections Luncheon: Meet MIT alumni for a talk about careers and how MIT shaped their lives — Mezzanine Lounge (W-20) Friday (5:00 – 8:00 p.m.) Maslab Final Competition: come see robots smash walls, hurl balls, and compete for glory! — 26-100 (8:00 – 9:00 p.m.) Roadkill Buffet Improv Comedy Show — 6-120 Monday (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MIT Techfair 2012: MIT’s biggest student-run tech expo — Rockwell Cage Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Pickup lines? Try meaningful conversation
Hello lovely readers of The Tech! This week I’m going to tell you about how to get to know someone better whom you find romantically interesting. This article is advice for someone interested in a potential relationship, so if you want tips on one-night stands or random hook-ups, you might want to look elsewhere.
Events Jan 25 - Jan 31
Events jan. 25 – jan. 31 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) The Feynman Films: Symmetry in Physical Law — 6-120 (12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) The Class of 2015 – Tips for a Successful Sophomore Year Experience — 4-159 Thursday (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) The Office of Minority Education and UROP host the UROP Expo — Kresge Lobby (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Roadkill Buffet’s IAP Improv Comedy Workshop — 5-217 Friday (8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.) Council on Staff Diversity & Inclusion, Committee on Race and Diversity present the Institute Diversity Summit 2012 — 10-250 (2:00 p.m. –4:00 p.m.) LIFE AFTER MIT: Taking the next step in academic science, advice on obtaining grants — 68-181 Saturday (12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Fixit Clinic XVIII: Fix your broken stuff or learn more about it by disassembling it — 4-409 Sunday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Techiya Social Singing, MIT’s Jewish/Hebrew/Israeli a cappella group! — Lobby 10 Monday (3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) How to Find a UROP: Learn about UROP and how to find a UROP project that is the right fit — 4-145 (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Tech’s Top Teachers Talk Turkey: a session with some of MIT’s best teachers about how to teach well — 4-163 (4:40 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.) MITHENGE (Infinite Sunset); don’t block the corridor — 3rd floor Infinite Corridor Building 8 end Tuesday (10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) Response and Revision: Helping Students Develop their Ideas in Writing — 12-134 (3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) IAP Math Music Recital: the math department’s annual music recital — Killian Hall Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
MIND AND HEALTH Relax your mind and focus
Meditation is a captivating but elusive practice, made famous for its benefits but frustrating for its intangibleness. Some describe it as not thinking about anything, but, then, what happens if you do think about something? If you admonished yourself every time a-triple-chocolate-chip-cookie craving came to mind, you’d soon grow exhausted. Others say a meditative frame of mind bids you to take the opposite approach, by making absolutely no effort to control the mind’s thoughts. For still others, meditation is intent focus on the present moment, for example, feeling the coolness of the air, and the dry crush of fallen leaves underneath one’s feet.
NERDY WITH A CHANCE OF RANDOM Letting the stream of life flow unimpeded
This past year, I turned twenty.
ASK CHACHA Does your recruiter “like” your status?
Hello students of MIT! Let me introduce The Tech’s new advice column, written by yours truly, Chacha. In the future, I’d love to respond to your requests, so go ahead and email your questions (about anything!) to askchacha@the-tech.mit.edu. As for now, here is my advice on how clean your social network should be for potential employers.
Events Jan 18 - Jan 24
Events Jan. 18 – Jan. 24 wednesday (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Bang Your Head! - Heavy Metal 101 — 14N-217 (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Investigating Sherlock Holmes — 32-141 Thursday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) The Annual Hummus Taste-Off — 10-105 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Public Art at MIT — Bartos Theatre friday (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) Dear Diary – Before There Were Blogs presented by MIT Archives — 14N-118 (6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Hacker Movies: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Cowboy Bebop’s “Jamming with Edward”— E15-344 saturday (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Association of Taiwanese Students Cooking Workshop — McCormick Dining (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Showing of De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) — 6-120 sunday (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) 16th MIT European Career Fair — Johnson Athletics Center monday (1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) The Great Recession in Historical Perspective — E51-335 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) The Internet Shouldn’t Work: Networking 101 — 4-237 tuesday (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Dark Energy: The Greatest Mystery in the Universe — 37-252 (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) Screening of Shouting in the Dark — 56-114 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.