REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Occupy Boston takes to streets
Oct. 10, Columbus Day, marked the Big Labor and Student Solidarity March, the largest Occupy Boston protest so far. Since Sept. 30, Boston-area residents have come together to protest in Dewey Square, acting in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. On Columbus Day, the number of participants in the march was estimated to be around 10,000, according to Nadeem A. Mazem ’06, an Occupy Boston spokesperson and MIT squash coach.
Leland Cheung runs for re-election
Leland Cheung, a former Sloan School of Management student who made headlines in 2009 for being the youngest person and first Asian-American elected to the Cambridge City Council, is running for re-election. This season, Cheung’s main initiatives include promoting the local economy, affordable housing, public education, energy conservation, and government transparency. Cambridge residents will head to the polls on Nov. 8.
CORRECTIONS
A pie-chart infographic published Nov. 2, 2010 incorrectly indicated that 20 percent of respondents to a political survey answered “unsure” when asked which political party best represented their views. Only 13 percent of the more than 2100 graduate and undergraduate students respondents answered “unsure” to that question (though the relative size of pie-chart segments did reflect this).
UA restructuring plans surface again
The Undergraduate Association is developing a new proposal that aims to restructure MIT’s undergraduate government into a more cohesive body. According to a plan released by the UA Restructuring Committee, the UA Senate could be replaced by a council composed of independently elected dormitory and FSILG leaders. If approved, the UA hopes to instate the new government during an IAP transition period.
Register to vote by tomorrow!
Elections are just around the corner! You have until tomorrow, Oct. 19, to register to vote in the Nov. 8 Cambridge municipal elections. The deadline to register in Massachusetts for the Nov. 2 general election passed on Oct. 13.
Shorts (right)
KIEV, Ukraine — President Viktor F. Yanukovich of Ukraine suggested Monday that he is not bending to international pressure to free his political rival, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, despite his desire to complete a deal that would integrate the country with Western Europe.
Shorts (left)
AMMAN, Jordan — King Abdullah II of Jordan, under growing pressure to accelerate political reform and genuine anti-corruption measures, fired his government Monday, eight months after doing so for similar reasons in the early days of the Arab Spring.
US considered cyberwarfare in Libya attack plan
WASHINGTON — Just before the U.S.-led strikes against Libya in March, the Obama administration intensely debated whether to open the mission with a new kind of warfare: a cyberoffensive to disrupt and even disable the Gadhafi government’s air-defense system, which threatened allied warplanes.
Putin defends his decision to seek a return to the presidency
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin confronted criticism over his decision to seek a return to the presidency next year, warning in a television interview shown Monday of a return to the volatility of previous decades should Russia swerve from its current course.
Bank forecasts Eastern Europe will grow more slowly due to debt crisis
FRANKFURT, Germany — A major development bank sharply reduced its growth forecast for Eastern Europe on Tuesday and warned of risks to the region’s banks, another example of how the sovereign debt crisis is radiating outside the eurozone.
Pattern of beautiful weekends and rainy midweeks to continue
Fall has arrived in full force in Cambridge, accompanied by its variable sometimes-gorgeous and sometimes-miserable weather. After two beautiful weekends in a row, it looks as though we will continue the pattern of midweek rain and clouds on Wednesday to Thursday and then go on to have yet another sunny and pleasant weekend.
Supreme Court to hear two human rights cases
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a pair of cases on whether corporations and political groups may be sued in U.S. courts for complicity in human rights abuses abroad.
GETTING OUT OF THE RED Less red with more green
Earlier this year, the Inter-Agency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon, a panel assembled for the purpose of estimating the harm that a ton of CO2 emissions causes to the world, concluded its efforts to put a price tag on greenhouse gas emissions. Using up-to-date scientific assessments and an appropriate time discounting of future harms, the working group concluded that the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal bodies should use $21 as the baseline estimate of the damage caused by releasing a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Taekwondo goes international
This summer, several members and instructors of the MIT Sport Taekwondo club represented the United States as part of the national team at two major competitions: the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships and the World University Games. The club members were competing in the Taekwondo discipline of poomsae, a series of choreographed moves that require power, balance, and flexibility. Poomsae is judged much in the same way that gymnastics or figure skating is scored, according to both accuracy and interpretation.
Soccer nets 2-0 victory against Coast Guard
On a cool, crisp Saturday during Family Weekend, MIT defeated the Coast Guard Academy 2-0 in an exhilarating soccer match at Steinbrenner Stadium. The Engineers earned their first win in the conference, improving their NEWMAC record to 1-3-0 and their overall record to 6-6-0. The Bears, tough competitors for the Engineers, saw their record decline to 1-3-1 in the conference and to 4-7-1 overall. The Engineers started off this season well with a 4-0 winning streak and then suddenly lost their drive and fell to a 0-6 losing streak. This game was essential for the Engineers, as it was a must-win for them to move on to the conference tournament.
Sports Shorts
The MIT rifle team completed its first home match of the season on Saturday, bringing its record to a 6-0. The Engineers won in both smallbore and air rifle competitions against the visiting Wentworth Institute of Technology and John Jay College rifle teams. The MIT team completed the match with its highest scores of the season: 2167 in smallbore (John Jay 1989, Wentworth 1917) and 2222 in air (John Jay 2164, Wentworth 2028). Nigel C. Kojimoto ’12 led the team with a 560 in smallbore and 572 in air rifle, both out of 600 possible points. Elizabeth A. Phillips ’13 scored second highest on the MIT team with a 540 smallbore and a 558 air rifle score. Also contributing towards the win were season-best scores from Jennifer C. de Bruijn ’12 and Michael A. Batista ’12. Though not on the competing team, Kai Liao ’14 shot a personal high score of 538 in air rifle, alongside Christian A. Valledor ’12, Timothy R. Jenks ’13, David Huang ’14, Alvin Mwijuka ’15, and David M. Bocek ’15. MIT’s next home match will be held Oct. 28–29 against Navy and Wentworth.
NERDY WITH A CHANCE OF RANDOM Don’t be a block-head
“Why do you keep playing that game? Shouldn’t you be doing some real work?”
Events: Oct. 18 - Oct. 24
Events Oct. 18 – oct. 24 Tuesday (3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) F/ASIP (Freshman/Alumni Summer Internship Program) Information Session — 4-163 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) MCAT Information Session with Princeton Review — 2-105 Wednesday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner, Carl Dietrich Co-Founder of Terrafugia — See Terrafugia’s “roadable aircraft” — Student Center Plaza (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Liturgical Music Workshop — MIT Chapel Thursday (4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Starr Forum: Border Security in the 21st Century — 66-110 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MTA Composer Forum featuring Professor Tod Machover — Lewis Music Library Friday (5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Turk, Upon Retirement, to Reflect on Being a Humanist at MIT: Lecture with Professor Edward B. Turk — E14-633 (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows Fast Five — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Symphony Orchestra concert — Kresge Auditorium Saturday (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows Paul — 26-100 (9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) MIT Sport Taekwondo Tournament — Johnson Indoor Track Sunday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Diwali Night Culture Show — Kresge Auditorium Monday (6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) RFID SIG: Fashion, Retail & the Supply Chain — 32-141 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Institute Double Take
The Stata Center is brilliantly illuminated on a summerlike day in fall. The rays of the late afternoon sun hit the building at an angle, creating an aesthetically pleasing effect. What is particularly appealing about this photo is the presence of the stairway and its illumination, which emphasizes the amphitheater in the lower half of the photo. The two trees and their seemingly random placement provide for a contrast in this otherwise overwhelmingly orange theme.
