Events Nov 12 - Nov 18
Events Nov. 12 – Nov. 18 Tuesday (1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) Very Small Arrays: Data Graphics at the New York Times — 32-G449 (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Secularism, Sexuality, and Sectarian Conflict lecture — 3-133 (5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.) Ancient & Medieval Studies Speaker Series: Does Virtuous Activity Constitute Happiness? Two Case Studies in Plato — 14E-304 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) Gender and Nationalistic Violence: What We Can See in the Movies — E40-496 (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Skincare for Busy People — 56-162 Thursday (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Soap Box: The Science of Remembering (and Forgetting) with Ki Goosens — MIT Museum (6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) The High Stakes World of Mobile Payments — 34-101 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Musing, Schmoozing & Sushi, interfaith dating conversation — W11 Small Dining Room Friday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Paleogenomics 2.0: A Planetary Perspective — 54-915 (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) “Fungineering” or, Thinking Outside the Building — 3-370 Saturday (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Boston Asian American Students’ Intercollegiate Coalition conference — 26-100, Lobdell, Building 32 Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Do Minority Candidates Benefit from Anonymous Job Applications? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment — E51-151 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Naming ceremony for the Memorial Lobby — Lobby 10 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Breaking rules and transforming the economy
How is technology fundamentally transforming our economy and our day-to-day lives? The Cyberposium, a day long conference at Harvard Business School, brought together students, thought leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and academics to gather in thought-provoking panels to address how technology is impacting society and businesses today. MIT students from all courses and MIT alumni met at the event, excited about the panels on the future of mobile technology, sharing economy, wearable devices, social influence, education and health technology (and many others) and ready to engage in dialogue about Techonomy 2.0.
Dean Obeidallah
“Immigrants work hard. Last year at this very time, we had Hurricane Sandy going on. In my neighborhood in New York, every American restaurant closed. What was open? Chinese restaurants. How do I know that? I look out my window, and the Chinese delivery guy I know is on his bike, delivering food because somebody ordered delivery during a hurricane. Ok, I ordered delivery. Because I knew he’d be there, and there he was!”
Events Nov. 05 - Nov. 11
Events Nov. 05 – Nov. 11 Tuesday (2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Feeding the world without consuming the planet, conference — E51-115 (4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) MIT Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar: Is Syria Being “Lebanized” or is Lebanon Being “Syrianized?” — E51-376 Wednesday (10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.) No Exit from Pakistan: America’s Tortured Relationship with Islamabad — E40 - 496 Thursday (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) 8.02x Online & 8.02 TEAL Residential: how each course can be used to improve the other — Whitehead Institute Auditorium (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Sonia Livingstone: “The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age” — E14-633 Friday (3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.) Leo Marx’s Machine in the Garden 50th Anniversary: A Symposium, book talk Saturday (12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Girls Day, women in science in engineering — MIT Museum Sunday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Sangam’s Diwali Night cultural show — Kresge Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events Oct. 29 – Nov. 04
Events Oct. 29 – Nov. 04 Tuesday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Nanotechnology from Laboratory to Space, with speaker Brent Segal of Lockheed Martin (refreshments at 3:45 p.m.) — 34-101 Wednesday (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Soap Box: The Science of Remembering (and Forgetting) with speaker John Gabrieli, sponsored by the MIT Museum — N51 Thursday (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Essay writing for graduate & professional school applications, sponsored by MIT Global Education & Career Development — 37-212 Friday (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble presents Hamlet (tickets $12 online) — W20-202 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Affiliated Artist Concert: Heng Jin Park, piano; Gabriela Diaz, violin; and Jing Li, cello, sponsored by MIT Music and Theater Arts — 14W-111 (Killian Hall) Saturday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Dean Obeidallah comedy show ($5 MIT student, $10 non-MIT student, $15 non-student), sponsored by Muslim Students’ Association— 6-120 Sunday (6:00 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.) Solar eclipse viewing (if weather permits), sponsored by observe@MIT and EAPS — 37 roof Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) “Do People Want to Know Their Lifespan?” with speaker Emily Oster, sponsored by the MIT Undergraduate Economics Association and the Economics department — E51-335 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) The High-Frequency Trading Arms Race: Frequent Batch Auctions as a Market Design Response, with speaker Eric Budish, sponsored by the Applied Theory Workshop — E19-758 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
THE NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Cities at your feet
Ants are one of the underappreciated wonders that you can find in your own backyard. In many ways, they are like humans: They have complex societies, agriculture, and war, and are powerful enough to shape the environment around them. There are also a lot of them — about ten quadrillion in the world, making ants far more populous than all of mankind. Ants are deceptively diverse. Besides black, they come in vibrant colors, from red to green to glittering blue, and they vary in size so much that the smallest ant species could build its nest inside the head of the largest.
Events Oct. 22 – Oct. 28
Events Oct. 22 – Oct. 28 Tuesday (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Sloan Coders Intro to Python workshop (bring laptops) — 32-124 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) LSC and American Australian Association show Australian short films — 10-250 Wednesday (11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) The Smallest Man-Made Jet Engine (Guinness World Record), with speaker Alexander Solovev — 13-2137 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) The Year Without Pants: WordPress, Your Career & The Future, Q&A with speaker Scott Berkun — E25-111 Thursday (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MISTI Netherlands info session, sponsored by MISTI, the Center for International Studies, and the MIT-Netherlands program — E40-496 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) A Sweet Trip Through Italy (2nd annual), sponsored by ARCADE and MITALY — 32-162 (Forbes Cafe) Friday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Family Weekend Concert presents: Celebrating Master Composers, free concert with the MIT Wind Ensemble, MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, and Rambax — W16 (Kresge Auditorium) Saturday (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Cena a Las Seis, sponsored by the Latino Cultural Center — Walker Memorial Sunday (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Legal aspects of business in China, in the USA and in between, with speaker David L. Woronov, sponsored by MIT China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum — E51-145 Monday (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Business etiquette workshop, sponsored by MIT Global Education & Career Development — 12-122 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Jeans
When talking about American style, jeans are an obvious topic. Jeans were invented in the United States by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873. They were initially produced specifically for heavy-duty workers who needed protection from hazardous environments, but they are now one of the staples in the fashion industry. Despite the history and fame of jeans, we usually don’t see their aesthetic beauty. The first thing that comes to mind when you think of jeans might be something like “blue.” Come on, we need to know more than that!
THE NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: A glacier’s gift
I’m from Vermont. My state has many trees and a few people. When you combine those two things, you get delicious maple syrup. In October, you also get hordes of tourists — the so-called “leaf-peepers.” Vermont calls itself the Green Mountain State, but it is really now, when the mountains are red and orange, that the forest gets the most attention. With winter approaching, trees pump the precious chlorophyll from their leaves and store it safely in their roots, revealing other leaf pigments that were previously obscured by green: the carotenoids (yellow/orange) and anthocyanins (red).
Events Oct. 08 – Oct. 14
Events Oct. 08 – Oct. 14 Tuesday (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Truman Scholarship Info Session, sponsored by MIT Global Education and Career Development — 1-150 Wednesday (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) Boston Babywearers visit MIT, featuring Jenny the Juggler — 10-105 (Bush Room) (7:15 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.) Mastering the Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI), sponsored by Prehealth Advising (registration on CareerBridge required) — 12-172 Thursday (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Mathematics department shows The Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan — E25-111 Friday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) LSC shows World War Z (tickets for $4 in Lobby 16) — 26-100 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Symphony Orchestra Concert (free in advance to MIT community, $5 at door) — W16 (Kresge) Sunday (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) International Folk Dancing — La Sala de Puerto Rico Monday (2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Jason Adasiewicz, Garrison Fewell, and Eddie Harris featured on WMBR’s Research & Development program — 88.1 FM Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Sweaters
The summer weather is slowly fading away, as you can tell from the abrupt change in temperature over the past few days. You’re starting to pull out your warm garments in an attempt to avoid getting a cold. You might already have a few jackets and coats to fight off the cold, but they seem too heavy for early fall. And so I present to you the sweater, which is one of the best types of clothing that is both lightweight and warm.
Hacking Arts
“We believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world.” The motto for invention kit Makey Makey, created by MIT Media Lab students Eric R. Rosenbaum G and Jay S. Silver G, seemed to implicitly set the tone of Hacking Arts as Rosenbaum and his band of randomly chosen volunteers kicked off with an audience-pleasing live performance of MJ’s “Billie Jean.” How did random untrained people come together to spontaneously perform “Billie Jean?” By becoming human synthesizers, of course. Makey Makey, a tiny circuit board that connects to Arduino, allows you to transform anything even mildly conductive into a live keyboard. As people became instruments on stage, linked together with bright colorful wires that were connected to a tiny device transmitting to speakers blasting The King of Pop, all I could think was, “This is so MIT.”
Connecting the dots
Life is full of lessons, and not just those learned in lecture. There are some lessons that you acquire not within a classroom, but through experiences outside the realm of academics. With all the new encounters and hardships and rewards that college brings, these four years are an ideal time to start tackling the big questions — why are we here studying? What is really important in life? What is the meaning of Stonehenge? Little Life Lessons will muse on philosophical questions that college students may face at this turning point in our lives. Perhaps you’ve already contemplated these issues before; perhaps such matters have never crossed your mind. My hope is that this column serves as a springboard for the next step along your path of thoughts.
Events Oct. 01 – Oct. 07
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: A previous version of this events calendar was labeled with the incorrect dates. The calendar is for Oct. 1–7.
Reading for fun
I have a homemade sign hanging up in my office that proclaims “sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” accompanied by a picture of a tipped over teacup, the only thing from Lewis Carroll’s books I was confident enough to draw. I like this quote because it reminds me that scientists aren’t supposed to look at things in mundane ways; we need to be brave and see things differently; we need to tackle the impossible.
THE NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Moth hunting in Brazil
This article is dedicated to my dear friend and mentor Nick Wagerik, who first introduced me to entomology and with whom I spent countless hours roaming New York’s Central Park in pursuit of dragonflies and moths. Nick passed away last week.
Don’t shirt the issue
A t-shirt is one of the most versatile and cheap types of clothing that you can find at any store. Because t-shirts are so common, we usually don’t see the potential in them. In fact, t-shirts can make up a powerful tool in your fashion arsenal when you incorporate them appropriately.
Events Sep 24- Sep 30
Events Sept. 24 – Sept. 30 Tuesday (10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) Water, Water Everywhere: How clean is it? seminar — E38-300 (7:15 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) The World’s Religions: Precepts Practices and Principle Beliefs — W11-Main dining room Wednesday (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Katsura Sunshine presents Japanese Rakugo comic story-telling — 32-123 Thursday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) CSAIL Colloquium: Innovating for Society: Realizing the Transformative Impact of Computing and Communication — 32-G449 (6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) The Future of MOOCs: Prospects and Pitfalls, the MIT Perspective — 34-101 Friday (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows Much Ado About Nothing (2012) — 26-100 Saturday (10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) Animal Petting Zoo — E55-Courtyard (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Living in the Future, talk — MIT Museum Sunday (11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.) MIT Bike Show and Market — N10, Annex parking lot (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MITHAS presents: Violin Maestro Padmashri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman Memorial Concert & biography book release — E51-Wong auditorium Monday (6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.) Archipelago Town-lines: A sustainable model for urban growth, lecture — 7-429 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Hacking my way home
Walking into last week’s t=0 hackathon, the first official hackathon of the school year, I was well aware of my status as a Sloanie, that species of MIT grad student prone to business plan writing and jargon slinging.
Shopping made easy
Welcome to the world of fashion. Sketch Your Look will cover the basics of menswear, such as fit, color, fabric, etc., in a detailed manner. I’m sorry to say I have little knowledge in clothes for women, so I won’t be writing articles specifically for women. However, I believe that women can get inspiration from menswear too.