Campus Birth Control Expenditures Increase
In health centers at hundreds of colleges and universities around the country, young women are paying sharply higher prices for prescription contraceptives because of a change in federal law.
MIT Early Applicants Increase As Harvard Stops Its Program
Early applications increased by 13 percent this year, to a total of 3,937 applicants. The increase comes as Harvard and Princeton Universities eliminated their early admissions programs. The rise, however, falls far short of increases at other competitive institutions such as Yale University.
Psych. Departments Ignore Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis and its ideas about the unconscious mind have spread to every nook and cranny of the culture from Salinger to “South Park,” from Fellini to foreign policy. Yet if you want to learn about psychoanalysis at the nation’s top universities, one of the last places to look may be the psychology department.
Killing of University of Chicago Student Unsettles Campus Life
The students stood in a circle on the campus quadrangle at the University of Chicago and held slender white candles as they remembered a gentle graduate student from Senegal who was killed early Nov. 19, weeks before he was to receive his doctorate.
News Briefs
Legatum, a private investment firm with an interest in sustainable development, gave MIT a $50 million structured gift to create the new Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, according an MIT press release. The LCDE hopes to offer a fellowship program for graduate students, starting in the 2008–2009 academic year and to “create a platform for sustainable development,” according to the center’s Web site.
Market Fears Prompt Sell-Off; Treasuries Hit 3-Year Low Point
Concerns that problems in the credit market could push the economy into a recession drove investors to the safety of Treasuries on Monday and led to a sell-off of stocks.
Fall This Week, Winter Next Week
Now that Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror, I have started wondering when that first accumulating snow of the season will arrive and really enhance the holiday feel. The first flakes of the season last week were somewhat of a surprise and also seemed sudden because of all the warm weather preceding it, but the average date for the first trace of snow in Boston is actually Nov. 4. For measurable snow, the average date for the first 0.5 inch is Dec. 5. I’m not sure if we will make it by that date this year, but the weather pattern looks to be favorable for chances of snow in the coming weeks. Until then, however, the forecast looks seasonally cool but not frigid.
Israelis and Palestinians Try to Plan Peace Talks as Bush Outlines Speech
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made progress on Monday toward completing a joint statement for the planned Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md., and President Bush appeared ready to paper over remaining differences between the two sides with his planned speech on Tuesday.
Youths Clash With Paris Police After Teens Die in Car Accident
Dozens of youths clashed with police on Monday for the second night in a row in a working- and lower-class suburb north of Paris, throwing stones, glass and firebombs against large contingents of heavily armed riot police officers and moving nimbly from target to target on several fronts, torching cars and a garbage truck.
Defense Secretary Urges Increase In Diplomatic Efforts, Negotiation
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called Monday for the U.S. government to commit more money and effort to “soft power” tools, including diplomacy, economic assistance and communications, because the military alone cannot defend America’s interests around the world.
Shorts (left)
The District of Columbia has the highest rate of AIDS infection of any city in the country, nearly twice that of New York, and the disease is being transmitted to infants, older adults, women and heterosexual men at an epidemic pace, according to a report released Monday by city health officials.
Hard-Liners in Middle East Resist Peace Efforts of U.S.
The leaders of Hamas on Monday espoused a hard line against Israel at a conference that they and the militant Islamic Jihad faction convened in Gaza on the eve of the American-sponsored Middle East peace gathering in Annapolis, Md.
Corrections
Because of an error in the MIT Police press log, James Hames was incorrectly listed as the person arrested on Oct. 25, 2007. Paul Gerrands of 50 Quincy St., Cambridge, Mass. was arrested for larceny of a bicycle.
Sports Shorts
The MIT women’s ice hockey team began its 2007-08 campaign with a pair of Eastern College Athletic Conference games on the road. The Engineers lost to the University of Southern Maine, 4-2, on Nov. 16 and were defeated by New England College, 11-0, the next day.
MIT Men’s Basketball Defeats Emmanuel, Curry, and Suffolk
Following a win at the Emmanuel College Tip-Off Tournament Consolation Game last Sunday, MIT men’s basketball netted two more victories against Curry College and Suffolk University last week. The team can be seen next tonight at 7 p.m. in a home game against Gordon College.
Ask SIPB
If you’ve used a computer for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly wanted to have a backup of older versions of the files you’re working on. You may also have wanted to let multiple people edit a document and track the changes each has made. In this week’s Ask SIPB, we’ll discuss version control, the traditional solution to these two problems, and walk through using <i>Subversion</i>, a popular, modern version control system.
Squid vs. Whale
I was going over my holiday shopping list (yellow sweater, new toys for Winston Beagle …) when I started thinking about all the things I used to want as a kid. The “what do you want for Christmas holiday sweepstakes” was an intense game of brinkmanship in my family.
Cipher in My Cereal
This morning, a mysterious letter appeared in the mailbox of our friend Bill B. Rogers. By the looks of the fancy letterhead, watermarked paper, and wax-sealed envelope, the message in the letter is important. However, the letter itself makes no sense. Below is a copy of the text — who is our friend, and can you help him decipher his letter?
Through My Eyes
Remember the dilemma from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” where a prisoner was released into an unfamiliar, bright world? Seeing only dark and shadows created by a single fire behind him, the cave was the only world the prisoner had known. The unchained prisoner only returned to the cave to enlighten his fellow prisoners and was unable to adjust back to the dark, chained environment.
India and MIT: A Conversation About the Future
<i>Rao SCD ’92 is currently a professor of applied mechanics at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai.</i>
