Overloaded Spam Filters Dropped Some Gmail E-mails Sent to MIT
If your friend swears he invited you to that party, but you never got the e-mail, he might just be telling the truth.
Patrick Proposes Ethics Reform to Curb Corrupt Politicians and Lobbyists
Responding to a rash of public corruption scandals in Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday proposed steeper fines for ethics violations and other improvements to laws meant to keep government officials and lobbyists honest.
Dreamers and Doers: Many Innovators Get Started as Undergrads
Nicolas Naranjo knocked on Evan Kimbrell’s door at midnight.
540 Accepted Out of 5,019 Applicants in a Record-Setting Year
MIT accepted 10.7 percent of early applicants this year, in what may be the most competitive admissions season yet. Out of 5019 applications, 540 students were offered early admission, according to Dean of Admissions Stuart Schmill ’86.
Lauren Tsai ’04
Lauren Tsai ’04, who graduated from MIT with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, was killed Saturday, December 13 in a car crash in Newton. She was 26.
Russia Cuts Gas And Europe Shivers
Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, halted nearly all its natural gas exports to Europe on Tuesday, sharply escalating its pricing dispute with neighboring Ukraine. The cutoff led to immediate shortages from France to Turkey and underscored Moscow’s increasingly confrontational posture toward the West.
Shorts (left)
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida said Tuesday that he would not run in 2010 for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, ending speculation about whether he could renew the Bush brand in Congress.
Shorts (right)
The advertisement on the bus was fairly mild, just a passage from the Bible and the address of a Christian Web site. But when Ariane Sherine, a comedy writer, looked on the Web site in June, she was startled to learn that she and her nonbelieving friends were headed straight to hell, to “spend all eternity in torment.”
Obama Seeks Support for His Plan for the Economy
Two weeks before assuming power, President-elect Barack Obama took his economic recovery package to Capitol Hill on Monday and worked to build a bipartisan coalition to endorse his plan of tax cuts and new spending with an urgent appeal “to break the momentum of this recession.”
Anomalously Snowy Winter?
With both winter and 2009 barely underway, Boston has already accumulated over 25 inches of snow. We are well ahead of a normal winter season’s pace of 9 inches up to this point. Interestingly, the 2007-08 winter season started at a similar pace, with about 28 inches reported by early January. That winter tallied over 50 inches, compared to the 40-inch average.
Israeli Shells Kill 40 At Gaza U.N. School
Israeli mortar shells killed as many as 40 Palestinians, among them women and children, outside a U.N. school in Gaza on Tuesday where they were taking refuge from 11 days of fierce fighting. The Israeli military contended that Hamas fighters had fired mortars from the school compound, and U.N. officials called for an independent inquiry into the incident.
Venture Investors Struggle To Sell Their Start-Ups
In 2008, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists had difficulty cashing out of start-ups, underscoring just how much the financial crisis has pummeled the technology sector.
CONCERT REVIEW Hiromi’s SonicBloom at Berklee Performance Center
I could say that Hiromi Uehara is one part Santana, one part Robert Fripp, and one part Monk, but it wouldn’t do her justice. Brought up in the Japanese conservatory environment and trained at Berklee (joining in 2003), Hiromi has carved out her distinctive musical niche by marrying her traditional, virtuosic training with an avant-garde flavor.
CONCERT REVIEW Bad Plus Play Residency at New York’s Village Vanguard
A little business, a lot of casual. The members of The Bad Plus look less like performers than the awkward guys who forgot to dress up for the dinner party that is 9:00 at the Village Vanguard. Thirty-something yuppies sip at their Cabernet Sauvignon while three dudes jam in the corner. Go to a Bad Plus show and you’ll be as likely to hear a Nirvana cover as a heavily warped version of a Ligeti composition. Bassist Reid Anderson wails out surreal, textured lines while drummer David King lays out a frenetic beat complete with baby toy tambourines and other contraptions as garnishes. Rock out with your Jazz-Purists’-Shock out. Jazz you can almost dance to?
FESTIVAL REVIEW ‘First Night’ Celebration Electrifies Boston
I boarded the 12:30 December 31 New York-Boston bus at the Port Authority, as my peers in line scoffed “I wonder why so many people are going to Boston for New Years.” At the time, that made sense. I had initially planned to stay in New York, but convenience and fatigue turned the Peter Pan bus line into an inexpensive and only slightly sketchy hotel. I knew vaguely that there was an arts festival in Boston on December 31 — the so-called “First Night” — and that it had some pretty slick events. I was down, and I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed that belonged to me.
CONCERT REVIEW Experimental Antics at the Middle East
As I write this, I have yet to form a solid opinion of the Providence-based punk / showtunes / experimental outfit The Viennagram. At once the group is pretentious and unpolished. Its wisdoms are coal on the verge of becoming pearls, sometimes hitting, but often missing. It’s a spaghetti-on-the-wall philosophy, one that, for all but the most virtuosic, is better left for the rehearsal room than for the concert hall.
GAME OF THE WEEK Ice Hockey Wins 7-4 Over Bridgewater in Final Game of 2008
The MIT Men’s Ice Hockey team tallied four consecutive goals in the final 24 minutes, the last two by Justin D. Myers ’11 to complete a hat trick, en route to a 7-4 win over Bridgewater State College in their final game of 2008. Myers was one of five Engineers to find the back of the net while Michael C. Kozlowski G led the team with three assists.
Yale Bulldogs Wear Down Men’s Basketball, 86-63Women’s Basketball Falls to Simmons, 48-40Sailing Captures Second-Place Finish at Rose Bowl Regatta
Facing its first Division I opponent in 18 years, MIT was unable to keep pace with Yale University’s size and depth as the Bulldogs outscored the Engineers by 10 in each half en route to an 86-63 victory on Saturday.
