Police Log
<i>The following incidents were reported to the MIT Police between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 2007. This summary does not include incidents such as false alarms, general service calls, larcenies, or medical shuttles.</i>
Faculty Discuss Hackers, Education
Administrators are working with the district attorney's office to seek a means of moving the felony trials involving three MIT students out of the Cambridge court system to an internal Committee on Discipline process, according to Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD '75.
Francis E. Low
Francis E. Low, a retired MIT physicist and provost who worked on the Manhattan Project, died of heart failure on Feb. 16 at a retirement home in Haverford, Pa. He was 85.
Wikipedia Citations Banned at Middlebury
When half a dozen students in Neil Waters' Japanese history class at Middlebury College asserted on exams that the Jesuits supported the Shimabara Rebellion in 17th-century Japan, he knew something was wrong. The Jesuits were in "no position to aid a revolution," he said; the few of them in Japan were in hiding.
Used Grease to Power Shuttles
Imagine the oil from French fries being converted into the fuel that feeds an MIT SafeRide shuttle. Biodiesel@MIT proposes to do just that: convert MIT’s abundant supply of used vegetable oil (UVO) into processed biodiesel for campus transportation.
News Briefs
MedLinks will be auctioning off a chance to win a date with students and Institute notables, including President Susan Hockfield, tonight. Twenty students and six faculty members will be auctioned off for the highest bids, with all proceeds going to Tutoring Plus, a Cambridge organization that provides free tutoring to underprivileged middle and high school students. SaveTFP is co-sponsoring the event.
White House Says That New Hedge Fund Regulations Are Unnecessary
The Bush administration and senior regulators said Thursday that there was no need for new regulations that would make the rapidly growing hedge fund industry more transparent or subject to greater oversight, or to protect the financial system from the collapse of a large fund company.
Venezuelan Aid to Bolivia May Surpass $120 Million From US
To understand Venezuela's growing influence here, consider that more than two dozen ambassadors are in this capital city, including those of Bolivia's leading trading partners like Brazil, the United States and Argentina. Yet none enjoy the direct conduit that the Venezuelan ambassador, Julio Montes, has established with President Evo Morales.
Winter, Act III
The bitterly cold President's Day earlier this week appears to be the final gasp of the cold weather regime we had been stuck in for almost five weeks. During that period the mean temperature in Boston was 6.6°F (3.7°C) below the climatological average. This cold regime was preceded by a warm regime of just over five weeks, in which the mean temperature was 10.0°F (5.6°C) above the climatological average. Now, it appears that we are settling into a flow pattern conducive to temperature variations about the climatological average, rather than persistent warmth or cold.
Shorts (right)
More than two years after a pepper-spray pellet fired from a police officer's gun killed a college student as a crowd gathered outside Fenway Park to celebrate a Red Sox victory, the Boston Police Department has said it will destroy the pellet weapons.
Microsoft Loses Patent Dispute Over MP3 Digital File Format
Microsoft was ordered by a federal jury Thursday to pay $1.52 billion in a patent dispute over the MP3 digital file format, the technology at the heart of the digital music boom.
Shorts (left)
Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the South African minister of health whose promotion of garlic and beetroot as protection against AIDS came to symbolize her nation's slow response to the HIV epidemic, is in a Johannesburg hospital with severe anemia and a lung infection, the government said Thursday.
Iran Expands Nuclear Effort In Defiance of United Nations
In open defiance of the United Nations, Iran is steadily expanding its efforts to enrich uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Thursday.
Going Too Far
Upon finding a group of hackers in the MIT Faculty Club after hours last October, the campus police reacted by filing charges of felony breaking and entering against the students. In the subsequent four months, MIT's administration has remained callously uninvolved in the situation. Not only is the police's Draconian reaction to a minor infringement by members of our own community wholly unjustified, but the administration's lack of response to the charges is deplorable.
The Other Side to Racism
Prof. James Sherley's hunger strike and charges of racism against MIT have catalyzed a welcome public dialogue on race relations. We must be careful, however, to ensure balance as we take advantage of this opportunity to improve community standards and understanding: in addition to examining the extent and effect of racism, both within and beyond minority populations, we must also be willing to discuss the problematic role of race-baiting and hyperbole within the public realm.
Letters to the Editor
The Brass Rat is a time honored tradition of MIT and a source of much pride for each MIT student that flaunts it on his or her finger. The ring design itself is evidently the most obvious element of this tradition, as it graces the ring finger of many MIT students and alumni for years, but the tradition extends far beyond these ever-evolving and unique designs premiered each year by the successive MIT classes. One equally important element of the tradition is the appointment of a committee of students, the Ring Committee, to design this ring; another, the Ring Premiere, where the class will for the first time see the design of the newest Brass Rat.
CD REVIEW The Shins' Latest is Nothing to Wince At
What's different? More specifically, what did the flagship indie pop band of this decade lose or gain by waiting almost four years in between releases? The crest of the Shins' popularity was arguably the prominent use of their songs in the hit 2004 film<i> Garden State</i>. A sensible band would've put something out soon after either to capitalize on their newfound recognition or to quickly and decisively steer their music away from any association with idiot-savant/idiot Zach Braff, or — if they're particularly devious — both. Thankfully, the Shins' newest album, <i>Wincing the Night Away</i>, is good enough — great enough, in fact — to make their intentions irrelevent.
Dance Review A Fairies' Night Out
George Balanchine's ballet, <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, conveys Shakespeare's tale of love and magic through a compelling interaction of vibrant visuals, exquisite choreography, and Mendelssohn's stirring score. The ballet debuted in New York City in 1962 and has finally found its way to Boston for the first time.
THEATRE REVIEW My Vagina Is a Tech Article
Last week marked the sixth annual MIT production of the <i>The Vagina Monologues</i>, a series of short skits designed to break the cultural taboos surrounding women's issues. Specifically, the production addresses worldwide violence against women and related atrocities by exploiting the power of theater as a forum for uninhibited speech. Young women — typically one at a time, as the title suggests — deliver stories of love, terror, happiness, strife, and hope as told through their adopted characters, most of which are based on the accounts of actual women interviewed by playwright Eve Ensler.
Overtime Win Sends Men's Ice Hockey to Saturday's Semifinal
Timothy E. Studley '07 knocked in a rebound goal 9:09 into overtime Wednesday night at Johnson Ice Rink, defeating Westfield State College 5-4 and advancing MIT men's ice hockey to the NorthEast Collegiate Hockey Association semifinals tomorrow in Nashua, New Hampshire.
AWARD REVIEW The Scarlett Starlet
Last Thursday, Scarlett Johansson was in Cambridge adding The Hasty Pudding Theatricals' "Woman of the Year" Award (also known as the Pudding Pot) to her entourage of titles for this year, which include <i>Esquire's</i> "Sexiest Woman Alive" and <i>Playboy's</i> "Sex Star of the Year." The Hasty Pudding, a Harvard student organization known for its performance of student-authored plays of a vaudevillian and burlesque nature, awards the Pudding Pot "annually to performers who have made a 'lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.'"
