MIT prepares for the Frankenstorm
MIT is closed today due to considerations for Hurricane Sandy. There will be no classes, and all non-essential personnel will be off work for the three shifts of the day. Most of MIT Medical is closed, though Urgent Care is open.
EdX platform integrates into classes
Nearly six months ago, Harvard and MIT announced the launch of edX, billed as a new online learning platform that would revolutionize education for students around the world seeking. But the universities associated with the nonprofit venture — which now include the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Texas system schools — are also in it to improve their residential classes. This fall, several courses that MIT students are taking on campus — including freshman General Institute Requirement 8.01 (Physics I) — are also making use of edX software.
How safe is the food?
You’ve probably heard of the horror stories of finding lizard tails in salads or clumps of hair in soup. You probably think, or at least hope, that it never happens to you here in Cambridge. But how safe, really, is the food you eat around campus?
MIT Together for wellness
Now that MIT students are halfway through their first semester, they have had enough time to gauge how they are doing so far this year, academically and otherwise. Last week, MIT launched MIT Together, an initiative aimed to de-stigmatize and de-mystify asking for help in the MIT community. The core of MIT Together is a new website, together.mit.edu. On the site, students can find listings of student help services ranging from academic resources to mental health support.
Interactive: an introduction
Since February 2004, the City of Cambridge has made available on its website a regularly-updated database of restaurant inspection reports. Our team scraped the data that was available online, including each restaurant’s name, location, and history of violations. We classified these restaurants into four basic categories: on-campus options (including dining halls), shops, fraternities, and food trucks. These restaurants were plotted on a map of Cambridge along with line charts that show the number of violations they accrued over time. Finally, we scraped data from local search and reviews website Yelp to provide more contextual information about these businesses. We will continue to renew this data as it is updated in the future.
VMware to provide software for HarvardX CS50x
EdX and VMware, Inc. announced an agreement yesterday to provide VMware software to those taking HarvardX’s CS50x course, Introduction to Computer Science. All students enrolled in CS50x will now have access to VMware Fusion 5 and VMware Workstation 9 — virtualization software that allows users to run different types of virtual machines (Windows, Linux, etc.) on their computer — for the duration of the course at no charge.
One-fifth of ’16s receive fifth week flags
203 freshmen, about one-fifth of the freshman class, received fifth-week flags last week. According to Julie B. Norman, senior associate dean and director of the office of undergraduate advising and academic programming (UAAP), 37 of the 203 freshmen who got a flag received more than one. The number of freshmen who received who received flags is on par with that of previous years.
Ford closing three plants in European downsizing
The Ford Motor Co. has broken from the pack of troubled European automakers, announcing deep cuts that include shutting three factories in the region and eliminating 5,700 jobs.
The calm before the storm…
Ever heard the above phrase? Well, our region’s weather is expected to shift dramatically over the next several days. The weekend will have tranquil conditions, similar to the weather from earlier this week. Mostly sunny skies, light winds, and normal temperatures will continue today and tomorrow. Some cloudy skies may linger this morning, but nearby high pressure and dry air should erode those clouds by afternoon. Highs will remain in the mid 60s°F (17-19°C).
Shorts (left)
JERUSALEM — Israel maintained its official silence Thursday over Sudan’s accusation that the Israel military was behind an air attack that destroyed a weapons factory in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, early Wednesday.
Obama and Romney set to raise $1 billion each
President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are both on pace to raise more than $1 billion with their parties by Election Day, according to figures released by the campaigns Thursday.
Bad luck and missteps make GOP climb steeper
WASHINGTON — The Indiana Senate candidate Richard E. Mourdock’s reintroduction of rape and abortion into the political dialogue this week is the latest in a series of political missteps that have made the Republican quest to seize control of the Senate a steeper climb.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday that he and other top military commanders “felt very strongly” that deploying U.S. forces to defend against the fatal attack last month on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, was too risky because they did not have a clear picture of what was happening on the ground.
Iran said to complete underground nuclear enrichment plant soon
WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials from several countries say Iran in recent weeks has virtually completed an underground nuclear enrichment plant, racing ahead despite international pressure and heavy economic sanctions in what experts say may be an effort to give them leverage in any negotiations with the United States and its allies.
On a frenetic day, Obama votes and Romney is for change
WORTHINGTON, Ohio — Mitt Romney adopted the mantra that fueled his opponent’s victory four year ago, casting himself as the candidate of “big change” Thursday in Ohio as he began to outline a closing argument in the state that could decide the race.
CORRECTIONS
A reporter’s notebook last Friday misstated the name of the first place winner of the Elevator Pitch Contest. The contest was won by Andrea B. Colaço, not Andrea Glaco.
The other side of love
In This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz, MIT Professor of Writing, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and recent winner of a MacArthur Genius Grant, speaks on love. We’ve all heard love stories before, so in the strictest sense this book isn’t anything new. A mother’s devotion to her family and love for her children drives her to withstand crippling captivity in fettered domestication; an older brother abuses his family in protest over his own medical decline; a cheater faces the cold, splintering reality that he’s fucked up one too many times and the love of his life is gone for good.
Remembering the days the abyss gazed back
When a reporter mentioned the Cuban missile crisis during a White House briefing, then-press secretary Dana Perino “panicked a bit” because she didn’t know what it was. “It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I’m pretty sure,” she ventured. One day in particular, Oct. 26, 1962 (exactly 50 years ago) was arguably the single most dangerous moment in human history, with the United States and the Soviet Union on the verge of unleashing upon each other thermonuclear Armageddon. Ms. Perino’s candid admission is often depicted as a funny, self-deprecating anecdote. Call me paranoid, but it gave me goose bumps: I think such a pivotal event, and the lessons it taught us, should not be forgotten.
ARCHITECTURE@MIT: More than objects
This is the second of a two-part Q&A series spotlighting two campus pavilion projects designed and built by MIT Master of Architecture students.
Men’s soccer shuts out Elms College 8-0 Monday
Following an upsetting loss to Coast Guard over the weekend, the MIT men’s soccer team turned things around quickly when they shut out Elms College 8-0 on Monday night. The Engineers improved to 10-4-1 for the season, while the Blazers dipped to 6-7-2.
MIT Swapfest
CAMBRIDGE — John, a merchant cleaning out his garage at the behest of his wife, set up a table early Sunday morning on Albany Street. On this table one could find a smorgasbord of electronic parts and old computer chipsets next to a tray of wrenches and hammers, all of which were for sale at modest prices. Once he was set up, he sat down listening to an old radio — no word on if it, too, was for sale — and waited for customers to start rolling in. In the background, the hammering of a typewriter could be heard next to a demonstration booth for the old Enigma computer. John was one of hundreds of buyers and sellers who flocked to the MIT campus for the MIT Radio Society’s Swapfest held Sunday, Oct. 21.
