I’m Endorsing Rationality for President
I’m a positivist. I believe in the power of empirical evidence. I believe that political issues, such as healthcare and education, deserve to be analyzed through the lens of scientific inquiry.
Diagnosing Problems with ‘The Human Factor’
MIT recently launched a fundraising campaign titled “The Human Factor.” Their website, <i>http://thehumanfactor.mit.edu</i>, uses video and text to encourage donations to MIT, outlining several fundamental beliefs about students at MIT. While I am not against getting more money for MIT and its students, as a current student of MIT there are several reasons why I find The Human Factor to be misleading and over-simplified.
Why I Support Barack Obama
The fundamental question we should ask when selecting our next president is — twenty years from now, when I’m raising a family and I look back at this choice, which candidate will have made me and the rest of America better off?
Fizzling Out
John McCain was in trouble before Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama. Now, he’s in a desperate uphill battle just to stay competitive in the race. The former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s endorsement couldn’t have come for a worse time for McCain.
Palin’s Anti-Science Rhetoric
In her first policy speech in Pittsburgh last Friday, Sarah Palin spoke about the need for government programs to aid children with disabilities and disorders, highlighting the importance of scientific research into disorders such as autism:
The Future of Development Policy
There are a lot of big issues at stake this election. Global warming, the war in Iraq, health insurance, and the economy all have earned a prime share of the public consciousness.
Letters to the Editor
The Oct. 14 article “Gender Ratios Vary Widely Across MIT Courses” nicely summarized the statistics on gender diversity within the undergraduate population.
You Can Be the Difference
Last Friday night, I went to an event called “Stand Up” hosted by the Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa (YALDA) at Harvard University. At the event, over fifty students from around the Boston area listened to the words of student leaders, stood up, and pledged to take action against poverty.
Addressing Poverty
Poverty. It’s not a nice thing to dwell on. We hear the word and we conjure up images of malnourished children in Africa, staring at us with their big haunting eyes and distended bellies. For some of us, we recall annoying homeless people who manage to make us feel guilty every time we pass them without putting a quarter into their coffee cups.
Corrections
The Friday, Oct. 10 article “Senior Gets A Second Shot at <i>Jeopardy!</i>” incorrectly reported the age of Anjali Tripathi ’09 in 1999. She was eleven — not nine — when she first appeared on <i>Jeopardy!</i>.
Oprah’s Educational Adventure
“Promote gender equality and empower women” reads the third Millennium Development Goal, put forth by the United Nations Development Programme, to be achieved by 2015. This is an ambitious plan: more than 115 million children worldwide do not attend primary school, of which the majority are girls. Only 43 percent of all girls are enrolled in secondary school and attend classes regularly.
Pharma in Africa
Africa desperately needs drugs to combat AIDS, pneumonia, influenza, meningitis, and other infectious diseases. Not only do they need drugs, they need cheap drugs.
The Challenge of International Development
Ending poverty is the challenge of our generation. Our country is no stranger to challenge.
Injustice, Poverty, and a Sustainability Ethos
While problem sets and exams pile up mid-semester, most of us are shuttling between class and computer, losing sight of the bigger picture while trying to put out academic fires in our own lives. This week, however, MIT’s Global Poverty Initiative invites us to take a step back and remember those less fortunate than ourselves.
The Need for a Nuanced Russia Policy
“A wolf with a limited point of view” — this is how Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (then president) referred to the United States days after Condoleezza Rice spoke on US-Russian cooperation at Boston College in May 2006.
State of the RaceWith 19 Days Left, Where Do We Stand?
It was only a month ago that Democrats had a serious fear of losing the 2008 presidential election. The nomination of Sarah Palin was thought to be the beginning of the end of the Obama juggernaut. This was the first time that McCain had held a lead nationally since May — far before Obama had wrapped up the nomination.
Post-Debate Impressions
Barack Obama and John McCain faced off in their last presidential debate this Wednesday, and by many measures, it was the most interesting of the three rumbles. The senators tackled the economy, healthcare, energy, and for the first time, abortion, education and the nomination of justices for the Supreme Court.
The ‘Joe the Plumber’ Debate
It’s 3 a.m., and my roommate is quiet and asleep. But there’s a phone on my desk, and it’s ringing.
Corrections
Because of a production error, the Oct. 14, 2008 story “Gender Ratios Vary Widely Across MIT Courses” incorrectly described the coloring of a chart showing graduate student gender ratios by major as “mostly magenta.” In fact it is mostly cyan, indicating that the composition of many graduate programs is more heavily male. Also because of a production error, the article incorrectly stated that the chart for undergraduates “has slightly more cyan than magenta” because women are the majority in more departments; in fact, that chart has more magenta than cyan for that reason.