INTERVIEW Mens et Manus
<i>Matthew B. Crawford runs a motorcycle repair shop. He is also a writer and enjoyed a multi-year affair with academia in political philosophy. In his new book </i>Shop Class as Soulcraft<i>, he considers his experiences as white-collar minion vs. self-employed manual tradesman. Crawford argues that for many, the second may be both more economically rewarding and fundamentally satisfying.</i>
BOOK REVIEW Make Yourself Useful
What is the good life? More to the point, what is an attainable good life given our current cultural and economic circumstances? How do we develop and practice what is best in ourselves despite the forces arrayed against us?
INTERVIEW In the Sandbox: An Interview With Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz is a writing professor at MIT. His new novel, published last year, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. <i>The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao</i> is the story of a fat Dominican “ghetto-nerd,” who loves science fiction and fantasy genre more than life, and loves women even more than genre. He’s born and raised in New Jersey, but only finds true fulfillment when he returns home to the Dominican Republic to face the demons of his family’s history.
sMITe Heads to Nationals After Regionals Win Over Dartmouth
The MIT women’s ultimate team (sMITe) took second place at the New England Women’s Regionals last weekend, securing a place at the College Nationals in Boulder, CO this May 16–18.
sMITe Finishes Seventh in Yale Cup After Wins Against Brown, Williams, Vermont
The MIT women’s ultimate frisbee team “sMITe” came in seventh out of 16 teams at the Yale Cup tournament last weekend in New Haven. The tournament brought together top teams from the Northeast that MIT will be playing throughout the spring season in the competition to go to Nationals.
BOOK REVIEW The Error of Our Ways
Does anyone believe that humans are rational? Or are we nothing more than victims of our impulses and emotions, careening randomly from one bad decision to the next like a drunken rodents? In a loosely strung collection of simple experiments, Sloan Professor Dan Ariely argues in “Predictably Irrational” that we behave in ways that fall short of rational, but are highly systematic.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★★ Set Your Sights for the Northern Lights
Picture a girl on the back of a polar bear, bounding across an endless icy expanse with the aurora borealis crackling above, its shimmering veils hiding intimations of a city in the sky. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is a captivating exploration not only of new worlds but new ideas and the possibility of hope in a world with and without God.
Women’s Ultimate Team Places Fifth at Brown Frisbee Tourney
The MIT women’s ultimate frisbee team “sMITe” wrapped up its fall season this past weekend with a fifth-place finish at Huck-a-Hunk-O’-Burnin’-Pumpkin, a 12-team, two-day tournament hosted by Brown University in Portsmouth, R.I.
Eight Members Retain Seats; One Newcomer Elected to City Council
Eight incumbents and one newcomer won election to the nine-member Cambridge City Council in the Nov. 6 elections, according to unofficial results released by the City of Cambridge Election Commission last week. Henrietta Davis, a councillor since 1996, received the highest number of top votes.
Missing Alumnus Found Dead in National Forest
The body of Cambridge resident Edgar R. Gonzalez ’04 was found in Grout Pond in Stratton, Vt. on July 29. Gonzalez had been missing since July 7 when he became separated from his group while hiking during a camping trip in the Green Mountain National Forest.
BU Dental No Longer Available For MIT Students
The Boston University Student Dental Plan will not be available to members of the MIT community this academic year. The plan had been the least expensive of the options available to students in the area and remains open to those enrolled in a number of other local colleges and universities. The Housing and Community Affairs subcommittee of the Graduate Student Council is exploring replacement options.
Health Educator Describes MIT Medical Services
<i>This is the fourth interview in a seven-part series introducing incoming students to some of MIT’s faculty, staff, and student leaders. Today, </i>The Tech<i> interviews Susanna “Zan” Barry, a health educator specializing in emotional health at the Center for Health Promotion and Awareness at MIT Medical.</i>
DANCE REVIEW Ailey in Boston: Where’s the Energy?
The highly acclaimed and accomplished Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre gave an unusually awkward performance on opening night of Ailey Week 2007 in Boston. Alvin Ailey founded his modern dance company in 1958. Following his death from AIDS in 1989, the company, under the artistic direction of Judith Jamison, remains true to its origins by re-staging original works by Ailey alongside more modern works by other choreographers.
What Is to Be Done?
In addition to being Earth Day, April 22 is also the birthday of V. I. Lenin, who in 1902 famously took on the old question of how we can create a better world. His answers may no longer resonate, but some criticisms of capitalism seem increasingly relevant as our economic system faces a new challenge in today's environmental exigencies.
Cap and Trade
<i>Richard Schmalensee '65, PhD '70 is professor of economics and dean of the Sloan School. He is a member of the National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP), a non-governmental bipartisan group which last week released a set of energy policy recommendations. The recommendations are comprehensive, addressing everything from guidelines for vehicle fuel efficiency to increases in research budgets, to, perhaps most importantly, the creation of a viable national emissions trading scheme. Here Professor Schmalensee talks about some of the issues at stake in controlling emissions, and the challenges that lie ahead for fighting climate change. </i>
Man Behind the Scenes
Peter Cooper is the manager of sustainability engineering and utility planning in the Department of Facilities. He has worked closely with student groups on a number of sustainability projects, some of which arose from the Generator events and are currently in progress. He's the go-to man for everything you never knew you wanted to know about how MIT's physical plant is run.
New Grad Dorm NW35 Budget Increased
In a rapid reversal from their position of the last month, senior administrators in charge of overseeing the budget and scope of the new graduate dormitory NW35 have reinstated the fourth floor of the building, which would house 97 out of 548 students. The building is already under construction and is scheduled to open in Fall 2008.