Bexley, EC, Random, Baker to receive RLADs in Fall 2013
The Residential Life Area Director (RLAD) program is expanding to include Bexley, Random, Baker, and East Campus, Christina Davis, Director of Residential Life Programs, confirmed. If RLADs for these dorms are found, that would leave Senior House as the only undergraduate dorm without an RLAD.
Unraveling the Enigma - MIT Mystery Hunt 2013
At 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 18. Mystery Hunt team Sleipnir’s Wranglers was prepared for the long haul. Their classroom in Building 12 was outfitted with snacks, caffeine, a chalkboard, and even a webcam so their remote solvers could join the atmosphere of the live hunt. As they excitedly opened the first puzzle, little did they know they would be a part of the longest hunt in history.
Chisholm granted high honor
MIT’s Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm has been awarded the National Medal of Science, one of 12 recipients in 2012, the White House announced in December. The National Medal of Science is annually given to individuals “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge in the physical, biological, mathematical, or engineering sciences,” according to the National Science Foundation. In a White House ceremony this Thursday, President Barack Obama will present the award to Chisholm — the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental engineering, and the 48th MIT scientist to win the honor — for her research in microbial oceanography.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: An inside tour of the MassDOT
MIT students frequently use the T and other MassDOT transit systems; since 2010, our IDs even come with a built-in Charlie Card chip. But most students are unfamiliar with the inner workings of the transit system. I was excited to take advantage of one of the opportunities offered this IAP and take a tour of several MassDOT (Massachusetts Department of Transportation) facilities, including an underground ventilation tunnel system, bus operator training school, and the organizational headquarters for the T.
An optimistic Menino returns to the public stage
In a speech by turns sentimental and unabashedly bullish, Mayor Thomas M. Menino returned to the public stage Tuesday night after a lengthy illness and offered a buoyant vision of Boston, celebrating accomplishments and outlining initiatives for the future.
Meet the RLADs
When the Residential Life Area Director (RLAD) position was announced via a leak from one “Tim Beaver” this summer, students and GRTs alike were up in arms about the impending addition of an administrator to the dorms without prior notification. The RLAD of each dorm is meant to work as both an administrative assistant to the housemaster as well as a source of support for students and GRT. The seven RLADs, two of whom were previously Residential Life Associates (RLAs), started their new jobs in August and moved into the spaces created for them in their respective west campus dorms.
Bexley, EC, Random, Baker to receive RLADs in Fall 2013
The Residential Life Area Director (RLAD) program is expanding to include Bexley, Random, Baker, and East Campus, Christina Davis, Director of Residential Life Programs, confirmed. If RLADs for these dorms are found, that would leave Senior House as the only undergraduate dorm without an RLAD.
Guantanamo defense lawyers seek 48-hour visits
FORT MEADE, Md. — Defense attorneys for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other accused accomplices in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, asked a military tribunal judge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Tuesday to let them stay in prison with their clients for 48-hour periods every six months. But military prosecutors called that request unreasonable, saying the defense should be allowed to visit just once for two hours.
Shorts (right)
WASHINGTON — As Congress and the White House prepare to refight two epic policy battles from the past — a new agenda to stem gun violence and another to address the nation’s heavily criticized immigration system — political, demographic and economic shifts are propelling immigration changes forward as forcefully as they are pulling lawmakers away on guns.
Shorts (left)
MOSCOW — A passenger plane crashed in heavy fog outside of Kazakhstan’s largest city Tuesday, killing 21 people, Kazakh emergency officials said. The crash was the second aviation disaster in the country in a month.
Activists seek repeal of New York’s new gun-control laws
ALBANY, N.Y. — More than 100,000 people have signed online petitions denouncing New York’s new gun laws. Gun owners are contemplating civil disobedience, vowing to ignore a requirement to register guns they own that are now classified as assault weapons. And some are even calling for the impeachment of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Both sides in Syria trade blame for killings in suburb
BEIRUT — Scores of muddied and waterlogged gunshot victims, most of them men in their 20s and 30s, were found dead in a suburb of Syria’s contested northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday. Insurgents and the government accused each other of carrying out the killings in what appeared to be the latest civil war atrocity.
FDA approval for genetic drug to treat a rare inherited disorder
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug Tuesday that not only treats a rare inherited disorder that causes extremely high cholesterol levels and heart attacks by age 30 but does so using a long-sought technology that can shut off specific genes that cause disease.
Judge approves BP criminal settlement
HOUSTON — A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday approved an agreement between BP and the Justice Department for the company to plead guilty to manslaughter and pay $4 billion in criminal penalties for the 2010 oil well blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico that left 11 workers dead.
Active weather is in store for the eastern U.S.
Unseasonably warm temperatures will arrive in New England today ahead of a large, powerful cold front. Before the front pushes through the area late tonight, heavy rain and even some rumbles of thunder will move in this evening and overnight. At the same time, a rapidly deepening low pressure entering southern Quebec will induce strong winds over our area tonight. Southerly wind gusts near 50 mph are not out of the question, lasting through Thursday morning and slowly diminishing later that day. Further south, along the eastern seaboard toward the Carolinas, some severe thunderstorms will fire ahead of the same front through tonight.
CORRECTIONS
The third paragraph Jan. 22’s web update on MIT’s DNS attack ambiguously states that “the hack and subsequent outages were due to a compromise at EDUCAUSE.” The hack and subsequent outages were due to a compromise of MIT’s account at EDUCAUSE, not EDUCAUSE’s databases.
Dishonored: a clever blend of action and stealth
It’s rare to come across a proper stealth game these days — by which I mean it is so rare that it’s hard to know if what I consider good stealth games are even stealth games at all. Maybe it’s the stealth genre that I dislike, and I just happen to enjoy a couple games that call themselves stealth games.
Rifle competes in Beanpot
Competing for the first time since early December, the MIT Rifle team hosted its annual Beanpot competition at the MIT Shooting Center on Friday and Saturday. Shooting against a seven-team field that included No. 17 Akron, the Engineers wound up second overall with an overall score of 4,399. Akron was first with 4,556 points, with Penn State taking third with 4,388 and Coast Guard fourth with a total of 4,301.
Men’s fencing dominates
MIT Men’s Fencing compiled a 4-1 ledger in its final Northeast Fencing Conference (NFC) competition held this past Saturday at Brown University. The Engineers fell to the host Bears (19-8), but defeated Boston College (16-11), Tufts University (22-5), Dartmouth College (15-12), and Vassar College (18-9). The épée team racked up a record of 38-7 on the day while the best individual performance came from Nicholas Sledeski ’16 who won 14 of his 15 bouts in sabre action.
