The value of being seriously funny
Who are those late night orators, keeping real and YouTube crowds from falling asleep? What work do they do and is it worthy of our respect? Should we succumb to the musings and quips of these observational scientists, irrelevant to our culture and irrelevant to our science? Beyond its cackles, laughs, chuckles and giggles, is comedy but an irrelevant escapade into obscurity and inconsequence?
Cash crop
Serious discussions of fiscal reform are usually dominated by the big ticket items: health care spending, Social Security, and taxes. This is sensible — these are the areas responsible for the vast majority of our budget shortfall. But the efficiency losses from these programs are small relative to their size. When we debate them, we are rightfully concerned over the drag they create on our nation’s productivity through disincentives to work. But the broader question, the one that makes reform difficult, is one of wealth redistribution: How much will we borrow from future generations to finance present consumption, and how much will we take from the rich to give to the poor?
UA UPDATES & ANSWERS
The UA President and Vice President met with the DSL and student members of HDAG last Friday. Minutes and slides from the meeting are available at <i>ua.mit.edu</i>.
Moving MIT forward
In September 2011, a new dining plan will be implemented in the residence halls where we are faculty housemasters. This new plan will be one of the most positive developments in the residential system in years. It will elevate the quality of dining significantly by providing nutritious, high quality, affordable meals to our residents. Just as important, the plan will provide a platform for the re-integration of house dining with the educational mission of the Institute.
Too few cracks in the glass ceiling
Everyone knew going in that this primary election would entail huge gains for Republicans. What was predicted by few, and perhaps cared about by even fewer, was the consequence this election would have for the representation of women in Congress: that is, complete stagnation.
Strikeout in Seoul
The moment was ripe with promise. China, after years of careful diplomacy and a burnishing of its image as a gentle giant, had spent the past year bullying its neighbors in territorial disputes and rattling its saber over territorial waters. Pakistan had proved itself an incapable ally in the war on terror, and a re-alignment in Central Asia was needed. North Korea had grown erratic, and a conference with regional allies was needed to determine what should be done. This was a moment of great potential, an opportunity for the U.S. to position itself as a power broker and balancer in the Pacific, to court India as a hedge against Chinese power and promoter of stability in the region, to draw contingency plans with South Korea, and to create the institutions and ties that would solidify a lasting American influence.
Bring the U.S. out of the Dark Ages
Every four years, the United Nations undertakes a review of member nations’ human rights situations. The United States was recently evaluated, and one conspicuous recommendation was that the country abolish the death penalty.
Mankind is made for giving
Our society is provided with numerous examples of high-profile individuals who give a great deal. Among businesspeople, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet first come to mind. Among singers, Bono is arguably the most visible face of philanthropy. Yet they are not alone: countless other businesspeople, singers, actors, and actresses join them in making substantial gifts to charity with the hope of helping others.
UA UPDATES & ANSWERS
Last Wednesday, at the Exec meeting at Senior House, there was a strong discussion on summer housing. The general student input favored more available student summer housing at the respective dorms, especially when space and money permits. Following that was a more thorough discussion on Kendall Square changes and renovations. Various ideas, from grocery stores, boutiques, and coffee shops to live music, event space, and internship offices for startups or UROPs were presented. The UA continues to seek students who are interested in joining a committee that discusses the future of Kendall Square. Please e-mail ua@mit.edu if you are interested.
The President’s balancing act
SATURDAY, NOV. 6: President Obama arrives in Mumbai, India. Down the Air Force One jet ladders, he and his wife wave and smile. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh greets the president and first lady. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan gives Obama a memento, Michelle a bouquet. Hands shake hands. Obama and his wife are led to the Taj Hotel where they will stay the first day of the ten-day visit in Asia.
SURVEY ANALYSIS Political preferences by gender
During the week of October 25, The Tech surveyed 2,145 graduate and undergraduate students, or nearly 20 percent of the student population at MIT, about their political views. On Election Day, November 2, we published a breakdown of some of the more interesting results, and promised to publish more in the coming weeks. Conspicuously absent from our original analysis was a gender breakdown, which is presented here.
Dining changes a long time coming
In 2007 the Institute convened a Blue Ribbon Committee to study dining at MIT. Last spring, the students and faculty Housemasters of the House Dining Advisory Group (HDAG) issued their final recommendation for a new dining program in the residences with dining halls. And last week, the director of Campus Dining issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to food service companies to operate this system.
MIT – poetry = a travesty
Ever felt out of words? Been so angry you went mute? Been in love?
Letters to the Editor
In his November 2, 2010 Opinion piece “The intimate civic duty,” Russell Rodewald misuses a Guttmacher Institute statistic — that half of women having abortions used contraception in the month they became pregnant — to make the claim that birth control is ineffective in preventing unintended pregnancies and abortion. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the statistic.
Derail high speed rail
We all have policy crushes. For Republicans it’s ending earmarks — you can point out a million times how inconsequential earmarks are in the grand scheme of the federal budget, but if your audience is John Boehner or Tom Coburn, you might as well be speaking to a wall. For myself, it’s nuclear power — so what if natural gas is currently so cheap that nuclear has no practical hope of being economical? It’s the principle of the thing, and the principle of nuclear power is that it’s the sexiest way of generating electric charges ever conceived by man.
A good answer
Firefighters, this article is for you. Thank you for coming to our dorms nearly every week to say, “Hi.” Thank you for the forced study-breaks. And thank you for making sure we are all safe. In return, we voted to keep your jobs intact. The defeat of Question 3 ensured this.
TEAL is a step in the wrong direction
More controversial than Obamacare and Lady Gaga’s meat dress combined, TEAL (Technology-Enhanced Active Learning) has been the education choice of MIT’s intro-level physics courses for nearly a decade. The program pioneered a new way of learning physics, a glittering Shangri-la away from the abstract equations and faceless 300-plus person lectures, and into a more intimate setting, focusing on hands-on evaluation of physical principles. At its inception, TEAL faced criticism from students (who petitioned to keep it out of the school) and professors alike, a trend which continued as it moved from the experimental stages to widespread usage. A recent <i>Tech</i> article sang TEAL’s praises; allow my commentary to be the antithesis to that article.