An exchange of view
I was sitting in a taxi on my way to Wellesley, a handful of American monopoly money in my back pocket. I had no real idea what I was getting myself into. I had come from the University of Manchester to study at Wellesley College for a semester, cross registering at MIT. Boston and Wellesley would be my home for the next five months, before heading back to Manchester for my final year. Both extremely exhausted and simultaneously extremely enthusiastic (an unnerving mix of feelings), I arrived in a snow covered Wellesley. As I was to discover, my expectation and the reality can be two very different things.
Ballet, minus tutus and drama
For eight years, I took classical ballet lessons three times a week, or when we were in rehearsal for a play, six times a week. I made my two very best friends there between pirouettes and bleeding toes; we spent our teen years dancing, competing, and laughing while growing up together. However, that magic shattered when I entered college, and my afternoon and evening classes overlapped with the ballet studio schedule. I wasn’t able to attend ballet anymore — until now.
Events Apr. 03 - Apr. 09
Events apr. 03 – apr. 07 Tuesday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) How to Find a UROP: a discussion about UROP projects presented by the UROP Staff — 5-233 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Selecting a Medical School Workshop — 4-231 Wednesday (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Transportation@MIT and MIT Transportation Club present a talk by MIT alum Robin Chase ’86 — 32-123 (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) What is Happiness and How Do You Get It?: A discussion on the nature of happiness — 32-D461 Thursday (11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) 2012 Spring Career Fair — W20 (Student Center) (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Adapting Journalism to the Web: experiments and ordeals on the news frontier — E14-633 Friday (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Being a Woman at MIT: Conversations You Can’t Have On-Campus — 32-4 (R&D Common) (7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) European Short Film Festival at MIT — 10-250 Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Project X Physics: A discussion on Project X accelerator technology — 26-414 (Kolker Room) Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Go ahead, cross the line Plyometric workouts give cardio and strength training
Looking for a full-body workout to do at home? Plyometric circuits offer intense combinations of cardio and strength training and can be done in 10–15 minutes every day. So the next time you’re looking for a change of pace at the gym or a tough at-home workout, consider incorporating some or all of the drills in this circuit.
Events Calendar Mar. 20 - Mar. 26
Events Mar. 20 – mar. 24 Tuesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) MIT President Search: Student Forum — 3-442 (7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MISTI and Amnesty International present a Film Screening: Khodorkovksy — 10-250 Thursday (12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) Energy 101 : The UN Framework for Climate Change, lectures aimed at providing basic understanding on various topics in the energy field — 66-144 Friday (2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.) Earthsickness: Circumnavigation and the Origins of Planetary Consciousness — E51-095 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Emerson Scholar Student Recital: Sherman Jia and Vincent Cheung — Killian Hall (14W-111) Monday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Buoyancy Waves, Density Currents, and Their Possible Roles in Intensifying Continental Convection — 54-915 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) An Update from ATLAS: Recent Results and the Road Ahead — 26-414 (Kolker Room) Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Surviving, remembering, and fighting back
What better reason is there to pull an all-nighter than to support the worldwide fight against cancer? This weekend, over 1,000 people sacrificed a night of sleep to participate in the Relay For Life event organized by the MIT chapter of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC).
Events Mar. 13- Mar. 19
Events Mar. 13 – Mar. 19 Tuesday (5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Author Sonia Falero reads her book Beautiful Thing — E51-149 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Awakening the Arab Spring concert presented by Professor Khoury and composer Jamshied Sharifi — W14-111 Wednesday (11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Annual Transportation Fair — Stata Center (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) “Being Sexual in Iran: A Sometimes Contradictory History” lecture by Dr. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet — 4-163 Thursday (12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Traditional Irish music featuring The Ivy Leaf — W20 Lobby (7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Coffeehouse Lounge presents music by Tavonna Miller — W20 Coffeehouse Friday (2:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MacVicar Day 2012: Innovations in Undergraduate Education at MIT presentations (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows We Bought a Zoo — 26-100 Saturday (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Happiness at your Finger Tips! Buddhism = Daily Life — 4-149 (1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Drag Makeup 101 — 50-005 Sunday (3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Boston Israel Folkdance Festival — W16-109 (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Performance by North Indian singer Indrani Mukherjee — Wong Auditorium Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) France, a Flawed Democracy? The 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections — 14E-304 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) AKPIA@MIT Lecture: Modernity, Citizenship and Urban Space: Public Beaches and Swimming Pools in Early Republican Istanbul — 7-431 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events March 6 - March 12
Events Mar. 06 – mar. 12 Tuesday (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) 40th Annual James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award Lecture : “Radicals: Your Life Is In Their Hands” — 10-250 (7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) American Medical Student Association holds MCAT Information Session — 66-144 Wednesday (2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Poverty, Growth, and the Demand for Energy — E51-376 (6:15 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) 2012 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Ceremony — 10-250 (Receptions in Lobby 10) Thursday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Brain and Cognitive Sciences The Hans-Lukas Teuber Lecture: Searching for Collective Behavior in Real Neural Networks — 46-3002 (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) Woman Take the Reel 2012 Film Screening: Ella es el Matador (She is the Matador) — 6-120 Friday (11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) STAGE: a seminar in algebraic geometry and number theory — 2-143 (12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) The Design and Computation Lecture Series presents “Designing Deception in the Magician Craft” — 7-431 Saturday (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) MIT Figure Skating Club’s Annual Exhibition — Johnson Athletic Center Ice Arena Monday (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Legatum Lecture presents Standing on the Sun: The Emerging Economies Drive the Evolution of Capitalism presented by Christopher Meyer — E62-262 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) A Noble Attack on Dark Matter — 26-414 (Kolker Room) Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Core blitz part II
Now that you have some good reasons to get your core in gear, here’s a work out for you! These circuits only take about 5-8 minutes, and you can do them at home! I like to do core and stretch every night right before I go to sleep.
An MIT student in Jeopardy!
For $1200: A computer message that something’s wrong; a classic one in DOS said, “abort, retry, fail?”
Institute Double Take
This photo is of the colorful MIT sail boats in front of Boston’s Back Bay. It is an HDR (high dynamic range) photo, meaning that it is a composite image of three different exposures that have been superimposed on one another. HDR was used to bring out the details in the shadows during the sunset. A small aperture was used to have both foreground and background in focus.
Solid to the core
Last week, Fresh Start discussed how adding weights to your workout routine can boost your endorphins, resistance to injury, and metabolic rate, helping you lean out faster than with cardio alone. Now that we’ve talked generally about planning workouts, we’re going to begin focusing on specific muscle groups. Next time, we’ll examine workouts to keep you lean and balanced, starting with a core routine you can do at home every day.
Overheard@MIT
LA talking to student in Course 6 class: *bursts out in laughter*Student: What’s so funny?LA: Oh, I was just thinking of a piece of code I saw earlier.
Events Feb. 28- Mar. 05
Events feb. 28 – mar. 03 Tuesday (3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) 2012 MIT Excellence Awards: annual celebration of outstanding staff members (5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Equity Bank: Redefining Business in Africa, presented by Dr. James Mwangi, reception to follow — E62-276 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Artists Beyond the Desk Presents the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players: a concert celebrating Frederic’s 39th birthday — Killian Hall (14W-111) Thursday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) CSAIL Presents: Electrical Engineering and the World of Entertainment — 32-123 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Phillip A. Sharp Lecture in Neural Circuits — Singleton Auditorium (46-3002) Friday (2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.) Photons as a Probe for Discovery with the CMS Detector — Kolker Room (26-414) (6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) The Anime Club shows Fate/Zero — 3-133 Monday (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.) Semiconductor Quantum Optics: New Frontiers for Information Processing and Precision Measurements — 34-401 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) City Design and Development Lecture: Shrinking Cities — 10-485 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Lifting weights, losing waists
Now that you’ve had a chance to get comfortable with keeping your Workout Book (See Feb. 14 “”), it’s time to start thinking about what workouts to put in it. Today’s article is an introduction to weight training: its benefits and how to incorporate it into your weekly routine. But first, let’s clear up some myths about working out and weight training in particular:
Events Calendar Feb. 21 - Feb. 27
Events feb . 21 – feb. 27 Tuesday (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Composer Forum: Erin Gee, a lecture demonstration about her upcoming piece for the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna — Lewis Music Library (14E-109) (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Book Launch: The Technologist, New York Times bestselling novelist and Cambridge local Matthew Pearl releases new book — MIT Museum (N51) Wednesday (3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) MIT Program in Polymer Science and Technology Polymer Seminar — 66-110 (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Slowing of Continental Collision: Implications of the Forces that Resist Plate Motion— 54-915 Thursday (1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Special Talk on the Brain and Cognition: Ron Meir PhD, Technion — 46-3002 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) IDEAS Spring Generator Dinner: learn about IDEAS Global Challenge — Lobdell (W20-208) Friday (6:00 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.) America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments (fee admission sponsored by Active Minds @ MIT) — 10-250 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Mozart Marathon Concert: Harbison’s Token Creek at MIT — Kresge Auditorium Monday (4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.) The Jefferson Lab Science Program - Highlights and Outlook — 26-414 (4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) How Does Information Technology Affect Hospital Costs? — E62-650 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Events Feb. 14 - Feb. 20
Events FEb. 14 – Feb. 20 Tuesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) An excess of needles in the haystack? The hunt for new physics at ATLAS — 26-414 (5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) What is Massachusetts Doing to Address Climate Change: From the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to the Global Warming Solutions Act — 4-145 Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) Triple Agent: Lessons from the CIA’s Disaster at Khost, Afghanistan — E40-496 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Civic Media Session: “What’s Your Information Diet?” — E14 6th floor Thursday (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) HSA Speaker Series:“Coming to a city near you? Economic Crisis and Social Unrest in Greece and Europe” talk by Professor Kalyvas — 4-231 (7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Athlete Ally, LGBTQ event presented by Hudson Taylor — Rockwell Cage Main Court Friday (6:30 p.m.) LSC shows The Tree of Life — 26-100 (7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Tapas served by Spain@MIT — NW35 Saturday (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Radius: Edward Cohen 20th Memorial Concert — 14W-111 Sunday (12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) Salsa/Rueda Dance Workshop — W20-202 (3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.) Olympics Uber Alles: A Play by Samuel J. Bernstein and Marguerite Krupp — W16-035 Monday (7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.) Anime showing of Bodacious Space Pirates — 2-105 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Fall in love with fitness at MIT
Everyone at MIT has a unique fitness story. Some of us are varsity athletes or gym rats, who somehow manage to pack 12 to 20 hours a week of sports into our already bursting schedules. Others gave up on exercise long ago due to the demands of classes and research. Some of us lie somewhere in between: former athletes who’ve fallen out of condition, those who want to work out, but don’t know how or don’t seem to be very good at it. Some of us love running; some of us hate it. Some of us are too self-conscious to try. One thing each of us has in common is a desire to be healthier. Even top athletes aspire to greater heights. Unfortunately, whether you’re a novice or a pro, at a place like MIT, sometimes these goals can seem impossible to achieve.
Valentine’s Day isn’t the only day for love
Ciao Amore! Today is Valentine’s Day, the most [enter your adoring or snide comment here] day of the year. Maybe you’ve already heard those public serenades isolating someone’s sweetheart in an awkward, yet adorable, way. Or perhaps you’ve avoided such encounters like the plague? Either way, it is Valentine’s Day and here are some things one can do. But first, humor me and read about my “beef” with this holiday.
The first semester of Maseeh Hall
This summer, while filling out the housing lottery, I’ll admit that I was apprehensive about moving into the newest dormitory on campus. What would it be like? How would I even know if I would like living there? Questions like these raced through my mind, until I realized that my peers and I could seize this opportunity and have an impact on a new MIT community. We could pioneer original traditions, develop the culture, and leave a mark on the dorm. When Maseeh Hall opened in August 2011, a group of 462 diverse residents moved in, and the dorm took off from there.