RecycleMania starts
The UA wants all students to become RecycleManiacs! For the next two weeks, the UA Committee on Sustainability will be promoting a competition between dorms to see which can recycle the most. The competition will run March 12–23, and progress will be measured from information provided by Facilities on how material is recycled in the dorms.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Veritas Forum inspires discourse
Over 500 attendees congregated in Kresge Auditorium last Friday at 6 p.m. to ponder a single question: “Will Technology Save the World?”
Additional search advisory group members named
With the Presidential Search Committee announced last Thursday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) and the Undergraduate Association (UA) have formed a joint task force of undergraduate and graduate students (see below), six of which are part of the task force’s Executive Team. The group is responsible for gathering student input and advising the Presidential Search Committee as the MIT Corporation selects the next MIT President.
US officials debate speeding up Afghan withdrawal
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is discussing whether to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan by at least an additional 20,000 troops, possibly more, by 2013, reflecting a growing belief within the White House that the mission there has reached the point of diminishing returns.
Shorts (right)
The Asahi Kasei Corp. of Japan agreed Monday to buy Zoll Medical, a health care equipment maker in the United States, for $2.2 billion, becoming the latest Japanese company to expand abroad.
Santorum’s delegate math looks different from Romney’s
WASHINGTON — Rick Santorum’s campaign has begun to argue forcefully that Mitt Romney will fail to win the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president, leaving the decision to a wide-open national convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.
Shorts (left)
BAGHDAD — A recent spate of killings and intimidation aimed at gay Iraqis and teenagers who dress in brash Western fashions is sending waves of fear through Iraq’s secular circles while casting doubt on the government’s will to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens.
Britain taking steps toward legalization of euthanasia
LONDON — A British stroke victim paralyzed from the neck down and suffering from so-called locked-in syndrome won the right Monday to seek changes in a law that would enable a doctor to end what he has called an “intolerable life” without risking murder charges.
Unseasonably warm weather will continue
NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center just confirmed that the past winter was the fourth warmest on record in the mainland United States; it certainly felt like it in Cambridge! A variety of factors combined to set the stage for this warmth, including La Niña conditions in the Pacific, positive phases in the North Atlantic Oscillation, and potentially Earth’s upward trend in global average temperatures (although one must be careful not to confuse climate — which is defined as the long-run average of weather — with weather, which consists of short-scale variations).
China hints at easing monetary policy, adjusting reserve ratio
BEIJING — As China seeks a soft landing for its bubble-prone economy, senior economic officials said Monday that they might encourage bank lending, while also hinting that the country’s currency might not appreciate as fast as it has in recent years — a hot-button issue in the U.S. presidential election this year.
House Republicans split over a bid to revise the budget deal
WASHINGTON — The House is bracing for a rancorous showdown over a 2013 budget plan that has already divided Republicans because of a push by conservatives to cut spending below the level both parties agreed to in last year’s deal to raise the federal deficit.
Anti-abortion legislation continues to proliferate at the state level
Last spring, I wrote about the worrisome nature of the state-level, Republican-led fusillade of attacks on abortion rights. I am sad to report that the barrage has not relented. If you thought that last year’s legislation was shocking, then fetch the smelling salts because this new batch might just knock you out.
CORRECTIONS
A letter from the MIT Armenian Society published on March 2 incorrectly spelled one of the author’s names. He is Arsen Mamikonyan ’12.
Baseball shuts out Gordon College, 10-0, for first victory of 2012 season
MIT used a 16-hit, 10-run offensive attack this afternoon that lifted the Engineers to a 10-0 win over Gordon College. MIT picked up home runs from Bryan A. Macomber ’12 and Parker A. Tew ’15 and six strong innings from Kyle J. Parent ’15 as the Engineers claimed their first win of the season.
Basketball earns first-ever trip to national semifinals
After two wins last weekend, MIT’s Men’s Basketball team earned itself a trip to Salem, Va. to play in the Final Four round of the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in program history. MIT beat Staten Island 83-67 and Franklin & Marshall 69-54 to secure its spot in the Final Four.
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field compete in DIII Nationals
The MIT men sit in fourth place while the women are 22nd after the first day of the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field championship at Grinnell College. Bolstered by three All-America performances, the men totaled 11 points while the women scored in one event Friday and currently have four points.
Surviving, remembering, and fighting back
What better reason is there to pull an all-nighter than to support the worldwide fight against cancer? This weekend, over 1,000 people sacrificed a night of sleep to participate in the Relay For Life event organized by the MIT chapter of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC).
Events Mar. 13- Mar. 19
Events Mar. 13 – Mar. 19 Tuesday (5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Author Sonia Falero reads her book Beautiful Thing — E51-149 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Awakening the Arab Spring concert presented by Professor Khoury and composer Jamshied Sharifi — W14-111 Wednesday (11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Annual Transportation Fair — Stata Center (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) “Being Sexual in Iran: A Sometimes Contradictory History” lecture by Dr. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet — 4-163 Thursday (12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Traditional Irish music featuring The Ivy Leaf — W20 Lobby (7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Coffeehouse Lounge presents music by Tavonna Miller — W20 Coffeehouse Friday (2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MacVicar Day 2012: Innovations in Undergraduate Education at MIT presentations (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows We Bought a Zoo — 26-100 Saturday (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Happiness at your Finger Tips! Buddhism = Daily Life — 4-149 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Drag Makeup 101 — 50-005 Sunday (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Boston Israel Folkdance Festival — W16-109 (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Performance by North Indian singer Indrani Mukherjee — Wong Auditorium Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) France, a Flawed Democracy? The 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections — 14E-304 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) AKPIA@MIT Lecture: Modernity, Citizenship and Urban Space: Public Beaches and Swimming Pools in Early Republican Istanbul — 7-431 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
