Papers disappear, Tech Exec responds
No one joins The Tech because they are bored and looking for a way to kill time; no one at MIT adds an activity to their busy schedules under those conditions. We do it because we have a profound desire to serve the community, present and future, with and accurate, fair, and holistic records of the days we spend at the Institute. This week, nearly half our distribution was taken Friday, and this undermines The Tech’s mission of making timely news easily accessible to the MIT community.
Out of China, a monumental addition to the sci-fi genre: Death’s End
In terms of sci-fi fare, Liu delivers his usual well-crafted showcase of ideas. What makes Liu’s fiction unique is that the science fiction interest doesn’t simply emerge from the introduction of a new technology, but from key shifts in realizations about the universe.
Kubo and the Two Strings strikes a wonderfully balanced note
Kubo’s ‘misses’ are slight and the ‘hits’ are smashing. Excepting the occasional awkwardly timed line, the characters are well written with personalities that play well together. Beetle and Monkey share a few cute, if unoriginal, ‘old married couple’ moments.
Art of the Internet scam
While waiting for the train back to Boston last Thanksgiving, I was approached by a fellow traveler with a tragic story. He had lost his wallet through a recently-discovered hole in his pocket. Now he was stranded in the station with nothing. Would I be able to spare anything? Sure, no problem. I had $5. I would be glad to help out. Sitting on the train a few minutes later, I was kicking myself. Why did I fall for such an obvious scam? How could I have been so gullible? Weeks later, at an art exhibit, I found some answers. In the MIT List Center’s most recent installation, “I Must First Apologize…,” Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige pick apart the art of the online scam. Through a presentation of video and collected text, the duo examines the construction of fake online identities.
MIT likely to rebury 1957 time capsule
MIT will likely rebury the 58-year-old time capsule unearthed last week at the construction site of the future MIT.nano building. The time capsule, uncovered more than nine centuries earlier than intended, currently resides in the MIT Museum.
Double, double toil and trouble
Along the spectrum of villains and traitors, Macbeth falls somewhere between Brutus and Joffrey Baratheon. Spurred on by his wife’s ambitions, he murders his king, his best friend, and a whole family in order to gain and keep the throne. With all the aspirations of a would-be ruler, but none of the guts, Macbeth is truly an unsympathetic character. But what if someone other than Lady Macbeth were pulling his strings? What if the events of Shakespeare’s classic play were actually orchestrated by a cabal of witches?
Artist and theoretical physicist present kinetic sculpture
This past Monday, Kim Bernard, artist in residence at Harvard, visited the MIT List Visual Arts Center to speak on her sculpture, which had been inspired by the “predictable patterns in matter and motion.” Jacob Barandes, a physics lecturer from Harvard, accompanied Bernard to provide a physicist’s perspective on her artwork. Bernard and Barandes presented as part of the Catalyst Conversations lecture series, which hosts speakers who explore the intersection of visual art with science and technology.
More students pass chem & bio ASEs this year
During freshman orientation this year, over 39 percent of the incoming freshman class sat for Advanced Standing Exams to receive credit for a variety of classes. The overall passing rate for ASEs was 59 percent, which is slightly higher than the past two years’ average of 55 percent.
Stand-up comedy and science collide at BAHFest
This past Saturday, students and visitors filled MIT’s Kresge Auditorium for the third annual Festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses. Created by Zachary Weinersmith, author of the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal webcomic, BAHFest featured the outlandish theories of six speakers who competed to give the best argued, most nonsensical scientific presentation.