Sloan Grad Student Dead After Fall From E19
Han D. Nguyen G was found dead this morning in the parking lot of E19, apparently having jumped from the roof of the building. Nguyen, age 25, was a PhD student in marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Final Blue Ribbon Dining Report Removes Some Unpalatable Recommendations
The final report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Dining to MIT, dated May 11, 2009, recommends that the existing House Dining program be dismantled and replaced with a declining-balance program. But in the report, the committee says it does not recommend a mandatory meal plan for all students, charging students in dining hall dorms an “opt out fee” where they would pay to eat nothing, or turning the MacGregor Hall convenience store into a dining hall.
Decision on Housing License for ATO Postponed to June
Members of the ATO fraternity will not be allowed to move back into their house yet, the Cambridge License Commission decided at a hearing on Tuesday. The commission voted to take the matter “under advisement,” and will reconsider granting a housing license at a meeting in June.
Urban Studies and Planning Students Walk In on Dept. Committee Meeting
Last Wednesday, a group of over 10 students in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning walked in on a faculty committee meeting at the Black Sheep Restaurant in Kendall Square to demand a clearer mechanism for student input into future of the department and the handling of budget cuts.
Video: Lunar Lander Hack Removal
MIT facilities workers (and hack removal specialists) remove the largest and most difficult part of the Apollo 11 lunar lander hack from the Great Dome: the welded steel base, too large to fit through any door. The hack went up just before sunrise on Sunday, May 17 and was removed midday on Tuesday, May 19.
Public Health Experts Tracked Harvard Swine Flu to MIT
Anita Barry, a veteran disease investigator for the city of Boston, was at Logan International Airport, briefing officials about a worrisome new virus, when her cellphone jangled.
MIT Astronaut Returns to Space to Make Final Hubble Telescope Fixes
Seven astronauts blasted off Monday for one last dance with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Crush, Push, Stack! 2.007 Robots Compete in Junkyard Challenges
Edward M. Grinnell ’11 won the 2009 2.007 design competition last Thursday with a robot that stacked bales of “trash.” Pablo J. Bello ’11 was the runner up, losing in the final round by two points. Grinnell and the three other top finishers won a trip to Tokyo for the International Design Contest, to be held in August. All top four finishers received cash prizes and full licenses to SolidWorks. Grinnell received the extra prize of being carried by 2.007 professor Daniel D. Frey PhD ’97 for a victory lap.
New Student Financial Services Director to Be Announced, Barkowitz Leaving for Columbia
MIT will soon have a new director of Student Financial Services, according to Dean for Undergraduate Education Daniel E. Hastings ’78. Hastings will announce the new director “within the next few weeks,” he said.
ATO Completes Repair To House; Expects CLC Housing License Today
The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity may regain the housing license to its house on Memorial Drive, depending on the results of tonight’s Cambridge License Commission meeting.
Book Publishers Face Digital Piracy Problems
Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her. No wonder. She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy of one of her most enduring novels, “The Left Hand of Darkness.”
Shorts (left)
The global recession sapped demand for all kinds of commodities — like steel and grain — yet small burlap bags are still arriving by the planeload at Russia’s state-owned diamond company.
A Little Bit of Everything
It’s becoming that time of year when terms like “pop up thunderstorms” or “hit-or-miss showers” are often found in the forecast. When one minute it is sunny, the next it can be pouring rain. As we transition to the summer season, if there is sufficient convection, moisture, and lift, this can trigger thunderstorms. Today’s chance of thunderstorms may make you wonder how there can be thunderstorms when it’s not that hot. This is because the convection from today’s scattered thunderstorms is “upside down.” Typically, convection is trigged from the strong heating at the surface. Instead, the instability here is from the cold air aloft. This too can drive buoyancy differences and help initiate thunderstorms.
At Obama Health Care Meeting, Goals Not Shared
President Barack Obama engineered a political coup on Monday by bringing leaders of the health care industry to the White House to build momentum for his ambitious health care agenda.
Iran Frees American Reporter Jailed for Espionage
An Iranian-American journalist sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of spying for the United States was released Monday, a legal turnabout that removes an obstacle to President Barack Obama’s opening to Iran but illustrates the volatility of the Iranian government.
Pentagon Replaces Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David D. McKiernan, was forced out Monday in an abrupt shakeup intended to bring a more aggressive and innovative approach to a worsening seven-year-old war.
Shorts (right)
Sen. Charles E. Schumer has never struggled to find a reason to hold a news conference on a Sunday. But the inspiration for the one on Mother’s Day arrived unexpectedly, when the senator’s cell phone rang during a health care meeting on Capitol Hill last week.
Re-Embracing the Institute’s Mission
The current MIT administration has made a long series of inappropriate decisions on issues of student life and beyond which dismally fail to uphold the core values of MIT. One might ask, however, how can one define those core values? Mightn’t administrators just be doing their best but have a different viewpoint?
Goldilocks and the Three Lessons from the Derivatives Market
Imagine for a moment that you are a commercial bank called the Papa Bear Bank Company. You accept deposits from large businesses and use the money to make loans to other businesses and consumers. The interest on the money you loan out is a little bit higher than the interest you pay to your depositors, and as a result you make a tidy bit of revenue. You use this revenue to pay your workers, dole out dividends to your shareholders, and host the occasional junket in Yellowstone.
Fifty Years of ‘The Two Cultures’
May 7 marked the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s influential talk, “The Two Cultures.” In his lecture and subsequent book, the English writer and physicist described the widening gulf between the humanities and science.
Corrections
A “Stay Tuned…” feature which ran on the front page of the May 8 issue of <i>The Tech</i> incorrectly claimed that the Alpha Tau Omega chapter at MIT had lost its charter from the national fraternity. The article based the claim on minutes from a Cambridge License Commission meeting in January, which state that the chapter “lost their Parent Charter.” According to Wynn Smiley, chief executive officer of the national ATO organization, the chapter is in good standing with the national fraternity. See article, page 1.
Letters to the Editor
As organizers of the Palestine Awareness Week (PAW), we would like to clarify some of the issues and address the inaccuracies and omissions in Stephen Fried’s May 8 opinion piece (“The nth Annual Chomsky Rant in Bad Taste; Are We Moving Forward?”). The piece, which provides a good example of “ranting in bad taste,” suggests that PAW and similar educational activities are counterproductive obstacles to dialogue.
A Word on Palestinian Activism at MIT
In my four years at MIT, I have observed that every effort to present a viewpoint that is somewhat critical of Israel or that is promoting a more fair-handed approach to achieving peace in the Middle East is met with negativity and attempts to stifle expression.
CONCERT REVIEW MIT Symphony Orchestra Performs with MIT Chamber Chorus
Maybe it’s glib to say, but I have a hypothesis that the volume knob has led to the destruction of classical music. The fast-forward and the rewind button too, but the volume knob more than anything else: Music can be painfully loud or imperceptibly soft, but modulating volumes for the sake of homogeneity of the listenable somehow disrupts the ultimate message. Extremity in music makes a very important point, even if it’s uncomfortable to listen to.
RESTAURANT REVIEW The French-Cambodian Culinary Wedding
Though there were no elephants to be found at the Elephant Walk in Boston, my date Eric and I were pleasantly surprised to find a place that serves up elegant Cambodian cuisine as well as original French dishes. The extensive menu is a bit overwhelming at first, but it is well organized into Cambodian, French, and even Vegetarian and Gluten-Free (a rare find in the Boston area). Chef and owner Nadsa De Monteiro, originally from Cambodia, delivers traditional meals but has also created her own inspired recipes that still preserve the flavor of Cambodia.
Elephant Walk Soup Recipe
<b>Chilled Avocado Citrus Soup from Nadsa de Monteiro’s The Elephant Walk</b>
Brouhaha Rhythm
I got my MIT class ring, or “Brass Rat,” last Friday, along with the other jewelry-inclined members of the class of 2011 who bought them, and I have to be honest, it’s taking some getting used to. I consider myself to be a non-aesthetically-minded sort of person (because it sounds nicer than “fashion-handicapped”), and an engraved beaver visible from orbit isn’t what I usually think of as a digital accessory. Yet here I am, staring at the hunk of metal on my finger and twiddling it back and forth like an indecisive electric screwdriver.
Talk Nerdy To Me
When I run into people these days, I sometimes get asked, “Are you still writing your column?” If you’ve been following, my articles, this term, have been much more sporadic, and it’s not because I’m running low on material. If anything, I’ve been having more sex rather than less.
