The Dalai Lama Supports a Unique Opportunity
At the end of this month, a host of influential people will be coming to MIT to speak at the opening of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. The opening event will be headlined by the Dalai Lama and influential composer Philip Glass. The speakers cover a wide range of disciplines, including ethics, political science, environmental policy, psychology, neuroscience, economics, music, theater, religion, and spirituality. The educational focus of the Center for Ethics is to be similarly multidisciplinary.
A Research System Set Up to Fail
Thomas Friedman has a solution to fix the global energy problem and boost the economy. In his latest book, <i>Hot, Flat and Crowded</i>, Friedman presents it succinctly: “We need 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 things — in the hope that five of them break through.”
UA Update
Before the general proceedings, Senate hosted Provost L. Rafael Reif. The Provost spoke regarding the ongoing efforts to trim the Institute’s budget. Unlike most other institutions of higher learning, Provost Reif noted that MIT did not have a budget deficit the year before the recession hit, and as a result, it is feasible for MIT to make the budget cuts slowly—over the course of three years instead all at once. The Provost hopes that this will enable MIT to come out of the ordeal stronger and more efficient because of the cuts. He likewise ensured that MIT’s goals, such as academic and research standards, are still being held in high regard, despite the financial hold.
Saving Our Sports
Last August, I had no idea MIT had a pistol team. I didn’t even know that pistol was a collegiate sport. “Pistol?” I asked. “You mean like guns?” Coming from a high school whose prime directive in making policy was to avoid lawsuits, it had never occurred to me that a college would allow 17 and 18-year olds to handle firearms. But, in fact, MIT has a thriving pistol team which has captured two national championship titles in the past four years.
Sports: ‘Irreplaceable’ not ‘Unsustainable’
As MIT’s Head Men’s Gymnastics Coach (ninth year), I am not interested in varsity athletics. I am interested in varsity athletics at MIT, specifically because the combination is such a rare one. The number and variety of our varsity programs, the values I have always felt to be surrounding athletics at the Institute, richly complement academic pursuits, and for the greatest number of students possible. At least this is how it’s been. I understand that DAPER must make deep budget cuts — an unfortunate result of the current economic crisis and climate. But, I am concerned that the slated cutting of varsity programs, and a leaner, meaner DAPER, means that less-skilled student-athletes and so-called non-athletes will be shut out of MIT varsity athletics, along with the rare educational experience it affords. And, as this pushes forward with speed, I am concerned that not enough people know about this, especially our alumni/ae. We should be careful; forty-one varsity programs is an Institute gem. Varsity athletics at MIT should serve the best and the brightest students and not just the best and brightest athletes. And, I would feel exactly the same way, be writing exactly the same words, if MIT Men’s Gymnastics was not likely to be cut…
Letters to the Editor
“A Broken Model for Energy Change — Our Current Energy RD&D Isn’t Working” by Gary Shu is an excellent article. The author well pinpointed fundamental problems in the energy field, which I have observed from my own work experiences in the industry and DOE national lab. The bottom-line issue for implementation of any energy efficient or alternative energy technologies is cost. Breakthrough technologies and tenacious development work are needed to bring down the cost of all the nice clean or alternative energies and make them competitive with existing options (largely fossil fuel-based). It seems that the energy research in this country has gone through ups and downs with the oil price so far. A long-term energy technology strategy and highly competitive R&D programs are really needed to come up with hard core technologies and create high value jobs.
‘Believe in Your Financial Future!’
The impacts of the financial recession have finally trickled down to the everyday working man. Everywhere online I see articles blaring offers such as “How to save your family $50 every day” and “10 Things We Overpay For.”
Corrections
A caption in Tuesday’s paper about the Association of Student Activities LEF & ARCADE allocations misleadingly stated that the ASA “forgot” to spend $25,000 last year. According to Treasurer Shan Wu G, the ASA thought the money was unavailable because of miscommunication with the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education, which provided the funding. Both the ASA and the Dean’s office were going through leadership transitions.
How to Enjoy the G-20 Show
The past week was marked by the beginning of the G-20 summit in London which gathered the leaders of the world’s largest economies. The focus of the agenda was the financial crisis and more specifically the coordination of an international stimulus package as well as the development of new regulations for financial institutions.
Reflections from the Arizona-Mexico Border
Since Boston is, at its nearest point, more than 1,800 miles away from the Arizona-Mexico border, it is often easy to forget the effects of illegal immigration into the United States. Features and commentary on the illegal Mexican immigrants and their long journeys in the desert do not adequately reflect the true experiences of these people. However, a week-long visit during spring break to the border towns of Sonora, Mexico and Arizona with 6 other MIT students was an eye-opening experience.
Corrections
An article last Tuesday on the Graduate Student Council elections incorrectly described the past two years’ officer elections as uncontested. While the GSC President elections were uncontested in 2007 and 2008, the Secretary and Treasurer elections have not been. The same article gave an incorrect number of eligible voters for the elections. There are 79 voters, not 69, and they include not only departmental representatives and officers, but also residential representatives and at-large representatives.
Fusion Power Could Be the Answer
Sometimes, it felt like the Bush administration believed blood-letting could purge a man of all evil humors and the universe revolved around the sun. At least government policies supporting scientific research seemed to reflect as much — that we were still stuck in an era where dogma rather than science drove progress.
The Quixotic Search for a Silver Bullet
Take it from a nuclear engineer: there is no future in fusion power. It will never be economical. Even if the very sizable technical hurdles were surmounted — magnetics, plasma physics, materials, and tritium availability to name a few — the capital cost of fusion’s heat island (the reactor sans turbines and other accouterments), would still be 2-3 times greater than that of a fission reactor, on a per-MW basis.
Corrections
The March 20 review of <i>Duplicity</i> incorrectly called the film’s director, Tony Gilroy, the director of the <i>Bourne</i> films. Gilroy is actually one of the <i>Bourne</i> films’ writers. The same article misspelled the lead actor’s last name twice. His name is Clive Owen, not “Owens.”
Letters to the Editor
Gary, I wholeheartedly agree with you, specifically concerning the three main disadvantages of obtaining a PhD (narrow job market, esoteric skill set, drain on passion). I was interested by the statistics regarding America’s loss of domestic applicants and what specific steps Obama and his new administration have done to build-up its STEM research focus. (The recent reversal of Bush’ restrictive stem cell research policy is a good sign.)
Chan: A Strong Leader for the GSC
Tomorrow evening, Graduate Student Council representatives will vote in a contested election for GSC President for the first time in three years. From among the three candidates, Alex H. Chan stands out in his experience, vision, and dynamism, and we believe that Chan is the best person to lead the GSC in the coming year.
Too Big to Fail. Really?
The too big to fail gospel has an aura of conventional wisdom and self evident truth that makes it very hard to debate. It is, however, one of the key assumptions behind the massive government intervention we have been seeing since last year. If these financial institutions were not saved, or so goes the gospel, the entire worldwide financial system would have collapsed and all hell would have broken loose.
An Unconventional Election
The UA election is over, and all candidates who ran should be congratulated for their efforts. Participation in student government is a crucial part of campus life. When more people show interest in on-campus affairs, variety of opinions increases, and it’s more likely we’ll find effective solutions to our problems.