Hockfield Asks Gov’t To Triple Energy Funding
President Susan Hockfield testified before a House of Representatives committee on energy on Wednesday, making the case for tripling federal funding of energy research.
MIT Class of ’08 Earns $65,324 On Average, According to Career Survey
The MIT students receiving Bachelor of Science degrees in June 2008 were offered a mean salary of $65,324, a 6.9 percent increase over last year, according to data from the preliminary version of the MIT Careers Office’s 2008 Graduating Student Survey. The consumer price index rose about 6.2 percent over the same period of time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Obama Proposes Panoply of Education Programs
Senator Barack Obama learned how hard it can be to solve America’s public education problems when he headed a philanthropic drive here a decade ago that spent $150 million on Chicago’s troubled schools and barely made a dent.
Film Based on MIT Employee’s Book Shown in Toronto
On Tuesday night Scott Campbell watched the characters in his novel walk and talk, frown and dance, paint and make love on a movie screen at a major international film festival. That’s stuff you can see people do at any film festival. For Campbell, it was astounding, since he needed subtitles to figure out what had happened to his book.
Colleges Defend Rising Tuition In Round Table With Senators
Two dozen college presidents and policy experts defended the rising costs of tuition on Monday and argued against forcing colleges to spend more of their endowments.
Panel Studies MIT’s Divestment Process
A five-person panel is in the process of reconsidering how the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility “can be most helpful to the Corporation and the community in general,” Kirk D. Kolenbrander, Vice President of Institute Affairs and Secretary of the Corporation, said on Tuesday.
Siddiqui Diagnosed With Chronic Depression
Aafia Siddiqui ’95 was diagnosed with chronic depressive type psychosis, according to court documents released today. Siddiqui is the MIT alum and Brandeis PhD who disappeared mysteriously in Pakistan in 2003, and is married to alleged terrorist Amar Al-Baluchi, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay.
News Briefs
Five-hundred forty students have enrolled in 7.012, Introductory Biology, this fall, forcing lectures to take place in 26-100 instead of 10-250, as originally planned.
For Lehman Employees, The Collapse is Personal
In the last few days, employees of Lehman Brothers have wrung their hands as the value of their stock evaporated before their eyes. Now, many fear losing their jobs, too.
With Democrats Worried, Obama Plans Sharper Attacks
Sen. Barack Obama plans to intensify his assault against Sen. John McCain, with new television advertisements and more forceful attacks by the candidate and surrogates beginning Friday morning, as he confronts an invigorated Republican presidential ticket and increasing nervousness in the Democratic ranks
Shorts (right)
The trade deficit reached a 16-month high in July as oil prices hit a record, the government said Thursday.
Zimbabwe Rivals Strike a Bargain to Share Power
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai struck a power-sharing deal on Thursday after more than a month of wrangling, but it was still far from clear how the bitter foes would divide the authority to govern.
A West Bank Ruin, Reborn as a Peace Beacon
Pessimism is a steady companion these days for advocates of Middle East peace. A lame-duck Israeli government is negotiating with a weak Palestinian leadership in the twilight of an unpopular U.S. administration. Few forecast success.
I Like Ike?
It was only last week that Hanna swung through and drenched our Saturday night, and now Hurricane Ike is preparing to hit Texas. Ike, the fifth hurricane of the season, developed off the coast of Africa, and reached the status of Category 4 last Thursday with a low of 935 mb and peak winds at 145 mph (230 km/h). After drenching the Turks and Caicos Islands, it was downgraded to a Category 3; in Haiti its floodwaters and mudslides were the cause of 74 deaths; it dropped to a Category 1 after soaking Cuba. Ike now approaches Galveston with winds stretching 115 miles from the center. Storm surges are expected to reach up to 20 feet with 5-10 inches (125-250 mm) of rainfall on Saturday across the Louisiana and Texas coastline. It’ll weaken as it makes landfall turning up eastward through Arkansas and Missouri.
New York Pauses for 9/11 Observation at Ground Zero
Under chill gray clouds that gradually gave way to patches of blue, the city paused Thursday to observe the seventh anniversary of a day that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said “began like any other and ended like no other.”
Shorts (left)
In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, traveled to Cuba and Vietnam after his release in 1969 and became an advocate for progressive causes.
Engagement With Russia: An Undeclared Cold-War
Keith Yost’s opinion column published in the Sept. 9 issue of <i>The Tech</i> titled “Eastern Promises” is fundamentally flawed.
Letters to the Editor
On Labor Day I was biking in Marlborough when I was knocked off the bike by the side view mirror of a truck. I was thrown about ten feet and fell on my back and head. The bike helmet was broken in two places, and aside from assorted bruises and scrapes, I sustained a concussion and a small hairline fracture of my coccyx.
Corrections
An article on Friday about a $400 million gift to the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard, by Eli and Edythe Broad, described the Starr Foundation, another donor to the institute, incorrectly. It is a private foundation, not the philanthropic arm of the insurance company American International Group. (The Starr Foundation was created by Cornelius Vander Starr, the founder of A.I.G., and the foundation’s chairman is Maurice Greenberg, the former chairman and chief executive of A.I.G.)
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ★ Morally Ambiguous
At the center of Claude Chabrol’s <i>A Girl Cut in Two</i> is the kind of pulpy love triangle that the tabloids dream of: a nymphet-like TV weather-girl is caught between a nationally revered literary figure (decades older) and a volatile, dashing heir to a pharmaceutical company fortune. The conflict ends very, very badly.
MUSIC Music in the City of Love
How well do you know the local jazz scene in Boston? If you’re under 21, chances are you have some difficulty getting into clubs. Have you ever attended Boston’s national festival of music? Well, given that Boston hosts no such event, I can say that you haven’t. Spending three months in the city of love, Paris, I’ve realized how closely music and culture are linked — and how much we might be missing out in lovely Beantown.
CD AND CONCERT REVIEW Forget About Phish
Mike Gordon is weird. He’s best known as the bassist from the now broken-up Phish, but also as the author of Mike’s Corner, a section of the band’s newsletter which served as a sort of psychedelic literary repository. Take for example a story he published in October, 1995 with the beginning: “As far as tikes go, Johnald was a wee bit irregular. For one thing, he had an Amrope coming out of his head. You may be wondering, ‘What is an Amrope?’ I won’t piss on you for wondering that. Actually, it’s like an antenna, but it’s got some mold on it. It’s not something you buy at a store, maybe you do buy it in a store.”
Tom Brady’s Injury Brings Out Ill Will, Inappropriate Response
Cheering against teams is a part of sports. So is cheering against individual players, whether you think that the player is dirty, arrogant, or disloyal to former teams (see: Damon, Johnny). But cheering because a player is seriously injured? No true sports fan does that.
The Tech’s Athlete of the Week: Thomas S. Caldwell ’09
Thomas S. Caldwell ’09 has been named the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men’s Soccer Player of the Week in light of his excellent start to the 2008 season. In the three games he has started for the Engineers, Caldwell has built a 3-0 record, made sixteen saves, and shut out two teams. He currently has a .941 save percentage and 0.33 goals against average, having given up only one goal against Endicott College.
