Course 17 head, Sloan dean to leave MIT
Richard M. Locke PhD ’89, deputy dean of MIT Sloan School of Management and head of the Department of Political Science, will become the director of Brown University’s Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies in July 2013, Brown announced last Wednesday.
The cause of MIT’s major power loss
What actually happened when MIT and much of Cambridge lost power last Thursday night? Why didn’t MIT’s 20 megawatt cogeneration turbine power the campus like a lighthouse in a sea of Cantabrigian darkness? What was the root cause of the failure?
City of Cambridge gets new City Manager
On Monday night, the Cambridge City Council voted eight to one to install Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi as City Manager for a three-year term beginning June 30, 2013. The current City Manager, Robert Healy, has held the position for over thirty years, but announced this May that he would retire. Rossi has also been a longtime member of Cambridge governance, serving as Deputy City Manager since 1981.
MIT to present new ‘Infinite corridor east’ vision tonight
MIT will appear before the Cambridge Planning Board tonight to present a preview of zoning changes for the campus east of Ames St., which it intends to file with the City later this month. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at 344 Broadway, the City Hall Annex. MIT’s presentation is not expected to start before 8:15 p.m.
UA launches review of W20 and restaurant vendors
Do you have an idea of a restaurant you’d like to see in the student center? On November 5, 2012, the Undergraduate Association (UA) Special Projects committee and the UA working group on dining announced a review of the building with a focus on potential new vendors and changes to the second floor. A website, http://ua.bonfireapp.com/ideas was launched to solicit student opinion on the subject, which will be aggregated and presented to the Division of Student Life (DSL). The site allows students to submit ideas and upvote or downvote existing ideas. As of publication, the most popular restaurant suggestion is Starbucks, with 320 points, followed by Panera Bread with 270 points. The website has received roughly 100 ideas from undergraduates, with several hundred comments and up/down votes.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — Democratic luminaries with ties to the Obama and Clinton administrations, including two former Treasury secretaries and two former White House chiefs of staff, on Tuesday will enter the tax debate with an overhaul plan that would raise an additional $1.8 trillion in the first decade.
Shorts (left)
BRUSSELS — NATO’s plan to buttress Turkey against potential attack from Syria calls for deploying U.S., German and Dutch Patriot missile-defense batteries under the operational control of the alliance’s military command, Western officials said Monday.
Greece offers to buy back debt from investors
LONDON — In a bold bid to reduce its debt burden, Greece offered Monday to spend as much as 10 billion euros to buy back 30 billion euros of its bonds from investors and banks.
Mars Curiosity rover discovery revealed
SAN FRANCISCO — In a sand drift on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered … sand.
Warm weather won’t last
Today will be likely be more than a dozen degrees warmer than the normal temperature for December 4th, as warm air continues to be advected from the south ahead of an approaching cold front.
Automakers report strong November sales
DETROIT — Automakers said Monday that new vehicle sales in the United States rose 15 percent in November, as the replacement of cars and trucks damaged in Hurricane Sandy contributed to the industry’s best monthly sales rate since 2008.
Republicans make counteroffer in fiscal talks with Obama
WASHINGTON — Republican congressional leaders Monday countered President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction proposal with a plan of their own that is far heavier on spending cuts but that embraces $800 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years.
US companies will face tax crackdown in Britain
PARIS — The British government announced plans Monday to crack down on tax dodgers as a parliamentary report criticized U.S. companies for what it described as tax avoidance.
CORRECTIONS
An article published on November 30, 2012 about the new director of digital learning Sanjay Sarma misspelled the name of physics professor John Belcher. The article also said that 8.02x would feature clips from Walter Lewin’s 8.02 course. 8.02x will actually feature his lectures in sequence along with other digital material.
From Africa to MIT
Arthur Musah ’04, MEng ’05, who graduated from MIT in Course 6, left Ghana to come to the Institute in order to pursue a world-class education and engage in the global conversation. Like Musah, five students — Fidelis Chimombe, Mosa Issachar, Sante Nyambo, Billy Ndengeyingoma, and Philip Abel — left their respective home countries of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Nigeria, and One Day I Too Go Fly aims to chronicle their four years at the Institute and how their identities are molded by their experiences.
SPORTS SHORT
Junior Justin L. Bullock finished in third place at Northeastern University’s Jay Carisella Track and Field Invitational, held at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center. He crossed the line in 8:19.12, breaking the MIT record of 8:20.69 set by Ben Schmeckpeper in 2005.
Men’s basketball rolls past Newbury College, wins 91-76
Senior Will Tashman had a double-double of 22 points and 14 rebounds as MIT rolled past Newbury College, 91-76. It was a good afternoon for three-point shooting in Rockwell Cage as the Engineers shot 50 percent from behind the arc and the Nighthawks hit 48 percent of their attempts, led by a 7-of-10 performance by Tim Young ’13, who finished with 25 points.
Events Dec. 04-Dec. 10
Events dec. 04 – dec. 10 Tuesday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MIT Astrophysics Colloquium: The First Stars and Galaxies — 37-252 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Book signing of Logistics Clusters: Delivering Value and Driving Growth by Dr. Yossi Sheffi — E14-633 Wednesday (4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Starr Forum: An American in China talk by James Fallows — E14-674 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Will the Workplace of the Future Have Any Workers? How Computerization is Changing the Nature of Work talk by Professor David Autor — 32-141 Thursday (4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.) Putting IBM Watson to Work — E51-376 (4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Occupy the Future: Justice, Economics, Activism — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT DanceTroupe presents: Fifty Shades of Plié Friday (1:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Thomas Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” 50 Years Later: Reflections on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science — E15-070 Saturday (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows The Polar Express — 26-100 Sunday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Sidney Pacific December Brunch — Sidney Pacific Graduate Residence (1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) A Conversation with The Silk Road Ensemble — MIT Museum Monday (3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) The Arab Uprisings as History talk by James L. Gelvin — E25-111 (5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) Innovation Series Event: Brewing up Bucks: The Business of Beer, 21+ — 32-123 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
