Scientists Lucky to Have Spotted Planet
Were astronomers just lucky when they discovered the planet WASP-18b?
Residence EXploration 2009
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: The Daily Confusion published in Friday's Tech gave an incorrect date for the housemasters' welcome brunch. The event occurs on Sunday, August 30 at 12:30 p.m., not Saturday, August 29.
Institute Planning Task Force Suggests Major Cuts, Changes
No more paper Add/Drop forms? Undergrads forced out of their dorms after three years? Online master’s degrees? GIRs taught during the summer? Shuttered Athena clusters?
After Discussions, EC Residents and Admins Resolve Security Gate Conflict
A new parking security gate is being built between East Campus and Building 66. The gate’s construction sparked controversy among East Campus residents, who feared that the new gate would infringe upon residents’ ability to drive up to the dorm.
Rivest, MD5’s Creator, RemovesEntry from NIST’s Hash Contest
A team lead by Professor Ronald L. Rivest declared this summer that their new cryptographic hashing algorithm, MD6, was not suitable for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-3) competition. Because of new performance requirements for the second round of the contest, the MD6 algorithm no longer met NIST’s requirements.
‘The Tech’ Checks Out 31337 Conferences:Blackhat, DEFCON Spice Up Las Vegas
Code breaking, party going, and general electronic mayhem. These phrases describe the seemingly one constant in the world of information security: the passing of the annual DEFCON and Black Hat hacker conferences. Both held the same week of July 29, 2009 in blazing hot Las Vegas, Nevada, these conferences are the life blood of the industry and hobbyist communities alike.
MIT Partners with Island Nation To Build New Technology School
In line with its mission to advance scientific knowledge “that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century,” MIT is working on a new international collaboration that will include aid in overseeing the opening of a new design-based university and an international design center which will both be located in Singapore.
After Summer Hiatus, Student Center Post Office To Reopen
The MIT Post Office, located in the basement of the Student Center, will reopen and resume regular hours on Monday, August 31 after being closed for six weeks.
About the cuts
MIT’s endowment has shrunk by about 20 percent in the past year, Vice Chancellor Steven R. Lerman ’72 told the Graduate Student Council on Wednesday night. When the endowment shrinks, MIT plans to cut its $1 billion General Institute Budget, spending which doesn’t come from research money.
Police Log
<i>The following incidents were reported to the Campus Police between July 14 and August 19. The dates below reflect the dates incidents occurred. This information is compiled from the Campus Police’s crime log. The report does not include alarms, general service calls, or incidents not reported to the dispatcher.</i>
Temp Housemasters Picked For Senior House
Senior House residents have picked interim housemasters for the next year, after their choice for permanent housemasters was rejected by Dean of Student Life Chris Colombo in early July. Jagruti S. Patel ’97 and her husband Antony N. Donovan ’94, both Senior House alumni, have been appointed as interim housemasters after a brief search.
Can Harvard Trademark Common Phrases? An ‘H’?
Harvard University has sought for decades to protect and profit from its good name, one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Aafia Siddiqui ’95 Scheduled To Stand Trial In October
Aafia Siddiqui ’95, a Pakistani neuroscientist accused of trying to kill American soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, has been found competent to stand trial by a federal judge in Manhattan.
Day-Long E-mail Outage Affects 10,500
Repeated problems have plagued MIT’s electronic mail systems in the second half of July. Failures of the traditional IMAP and the new Microsoft Exchange mail systems caused large portions of campus e-mail to be unavailable for the better part of a day, followed by shorter and smaller outages last week.
Student Center Post Office Closed
The post office in the basement of the MIT Student Center has closed its doors for the summer, as of July 20. The post office is scheduled to reopen on Monday, Aug. 31.
Robbery at Tang Last Friday
On Friday July 31, an unidentified male assaulted and robbed a woman in the laundry room of Tang Hall, the MIT Police said in a crime bulletin distributed Monday.