Students band together to save Band
Pythagoras, Kepler, Galileo may have finally found their saviors — in MIT students. Recently, students formed a group to restore the three musical sculptures in the Kendall T station, which have been in disrepair since at least 2007.
Winston Questions Simonis Firing
At Wednesday’s faculty meeting, Professor Patrick H. Winston publicly questioned the MIT administration on how it handled the layoff of Student Support Services Dean Jacqueline R. Simonis, which occurred in June.
Police Log
<i>The following incidents were reported to the Campus Police between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15. The dates below reflect the dates incidents occurred. This information is compiled from the Campus Police’s crime log. The report does not include alarms, general service calls, or incidents not reported to the dispatcher.</i>
Prof. Patrick H. Winston’s questions to the Administration at Wednesday’s Faculty Meeting
<i>Concerned by what I perceive to be a steady erosion of MIT culture and values, I resolved again to question the Administration, this time during the question and comment period at the end of the Faculty Meeting on 17 February 2010. I posed my questions extemporaneously and wrote them down from memory an hour or so later.</i>
Six elected to Nat’l Acad. of Engineering
Five MIT professors and one corporation member were elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the academy announced Wednesday:
Judge keeps his word to immigrant who kept his
The judge and the juvenile had grown up on the same mean streets, 40 years apart. And in fall 1996, they faced each other in a New York court where children are prosecuted as adults, but sentenced like candidates for redemption.
Malicious software infects computers
A malicious software program has infected the computers of more than 2,500 corporations around the world, according to NetWitness, a computer network security firm.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON<i> </i>— President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama on Thursday, welcoming the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to the White House for a low-profile meeting that nonetheless raised the hackles of China.
Shorts (right)
UNITED NATIONS — The sense of disarray in the global effort to address climate change deepened Thursday with the resignation of Yvo de Boer, the stolid Dutch bureaucrat who led the international climate change negotiations over four tumultuous years.
WEATHER Melting Winter Games
If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you’re probably well aware of the weather problems that have plagued the outdoor Olympic venues, especially Cypress Mountain where the freestyle and snowboard events are being held. Since the sites are selected way ahead of time, there is no way to forecast how the weather will play out during the games themselves. Unfortunately for Vancouver, an exceptionally warm winter has caused a severe shortage of snow at Cypress Mountain. Snow actually had to be transported down from higher elevations in order to firm up the courses. Though there is plenty of snow to be found at Whistler, warm temperatures have caused the snow to be quite soft during the day posing an added challenge to athletes as they adapt on the fly to the changing conditions.
Pilot crashes plane into IRS building; no terror link seen
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Leaving behind a rant against the government, big business and particularly the tax system, a 53-year-old computer engineer smashed a small aircraft into an office building where nearly 200 employees of the IRS were starting their workday on Thursday morning, the authorities said.
Arrest of number two in Taliban was largely a result of luck
WASHINGTON — When Pakistani security officers raided a house outside Karachi in late January, they had no idea that they had just made their most important capture in years.
In surprise move, Fed raises key interest rate
WASHINGTON — Taking a step to normalize lending after holding interest rates to extraordinary lows for more than a year to prop up the financial system, the Federal Reserve on Thursday raised the interest rate it charges on short-term loans to banks.
A new model of public education
<i>This is the last in a three-part series on education reform in America.</i>
Should we bomb Iran?
Last week the hostile-war rhetoric against Iran went up a few notches. Hillary Clinton, the State Department’s warrior princess, declared that Iran is transforming from a theocracy to an outright military dictatorship. Clinton’s statement came after the Senate overwhelmingly voted for punitive sanctions against Iran including denying the Iranian people essential household items such as gasoline.
Corrections
Because of an editing error, a Tuesday article on the MIT-Washington Office stated incorrectly that Scott A. Uebelhart ’98 is a current postdoctoral fellow and is working on a white paper entitled “The Future of Human Spaceflight.” Uebelhart has already finished his postdoctoral work, and published the white paper in 2008.
Interim elections and upcoming campaigns
Composting at MIT is expanding! Composting facilities are now available at Cafe Four and in Stata. Additionally, there are compostable take-out containers at many on-campus dining locations: Bosworth’s, Cafe Four, Steam Cafe, Stata, and Refresher Course.
CONCERT REVIEW Two minds in one work
I anticipated bloodshed, broken bones, or at least tears. On Feb. 7, Jonathan Biss and Richard Goode, two of the greatest pianists alive, played a program of duets. Would these two prima donnas play nice?
CONCERT REVIEW Are they copycats, or merely derivative?
Music grows like old roadways: When the path cut by the avant-garde is narrow and new, only a few people can follow. As the road is widened subsequent artists, larger numbers of fans can travel. Some artists live their entire careers blazing trails for others to follow, and some spend their time retracing the same well-worn path over and over again. Following a fairly established Brit-rock tradition, We Were Promised Jetpacks gallivants along the roads laid out by their predecessors in style, producing ebullient, accessible music for a wide-audience.
MOVIE REVIEW Love Actually for Feb.14th? Think again.
When I saw the trailer for <i>Valentine’s Day</i>, I had an inkling that it would be an American version of <i>Love Actually</i>, featuring the February holiday.
MOVIE REVIEW All the old tropes, none of the horror
There has been a lot of hype leading up to the Universal Studios’ remake of the classic motion picture <i>The Wolf Man</i>. Though there have been a smattering of werewolf movies throughout the decades, the only one that’s really embedded itself in American culture was the original <i>Wolf Man</i> (1941) featuring horror legends Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi. The new <i>WolfMan</i> trailer promised an exciting new take on the old-school thriller, complete with a graphic transformation scene, an overly spooky setting reminiscent of the old film, and the acting talents of Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins.
Alpine skiing wraps up first club season, preps for 2011
Almost a year after losing its varsity status, the alpine ski team has completed its first season as a club sport. Its six members did their best to live and train like nothing had changed; the season went according to plan and everyone is ready to work toward improving next winter.
Scoreboard
Men’s Basketball Wednesday 2/17 at Wheaton College L 84–77 Women’s Basketball Wednesday 2/17 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute L 63–41 Men’s Volleyball Monday 2/15 vs. Lesley University W 3–0 Wednesday 2/17 vs. Harvard University W 3–0
Upcoming Home Events
Men’s and Women’s Fencing: New England Championship Saturday, 2/21 at Mount Holyoke Squash: Collegiate Squash Association Team Championship Friday-Sunday, 2/19-21 at Wesleyan Women’s Swimming: NEWMAC Championship Friday-Sunday, 2/19-21 at Wellesley Men’s and Women’s Track and Field: New England Championship Friday-Saturday, 2/19-20 at Bates
ATHLETES’ CORNER
The swimming and diving teams have just wrapped up record-smashing seasons. Both men and women achieved record-high winning percentages, dominating in almost every competition this season. Nationally, the teams are ranked 5th and 6th, respectively, in Division III.
