Governor Patrick Selected to Speak at 2009 Commencement
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, leader in clean energy policy and proponent of education and research, will give this year’s commencement address. Those involved in the decision and student leaders praised the choice, while students’ opinions ranged from impressed to indifferent.
Technology Leaves Fingerprints on the Stimulus Bill
To rally support for his administration’s economic recovery bill last week, President Barack Obama invited about a dozen chief executives, seven of them from technology and energy companies, to the Oval Office.
Brass Rat Unveiled;LHC, Koch Highlight New Additions to Ring
Unveiled amid laughter and hijinx at Kresge Auditorium last Friday, the Class of 2011 Brass Rat features a forward-facing beaver and all the usual winks and nods, this year depicting the goddess Athena, hackers on the Dome, and a salute to the newly-completed Large Hadron Collider.
Ragon Donates $100 Million to Start HIV Research Institute Near Kendall
MIT alumnus Phillip T. Ragon ’71 pledged $100 million last Wednesday to fund a multidisciplinary research institute dedicated to developing an HIV vaccine. The Ragon Institute will bring together scientists, engineers, and doctors from MIT, Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital under Bruce Walker, an AIDS researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Mingling Wit with Wisdom, Ninja Motivator’ Teaches
Josh Shipp is in your face, but on your side. Last Sunday evening, the twenty-something “motivational ninja” spoke at Kresge Auditorium to a crowd of about 200, pausing in between wisecracks to encourage students to make positive choices.
Trimmed Bill Still Offers Vast Sums for Education
The economic stimulus bill that is expected to win passage in the Senate on Tuesday would provide about $83 billion for child care, public schools and universities.
Obama Aides Clashed Over Bank Bailout Plan
The Obama administration’s new plan to bail out the nation’s banks was fashioned after a spirited internal debate that pitted the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, against some of the president’s top political hands.
Obama Makes Case As Stimulus Bill Clears Hurdle
President Barack Obama took his case for his $800 billion economic recovery package to the American people on Monday, as the Senate cleared the way for passage of the bill and the White House prepared for its next major hurdle: selling Congress and the public on a fresh plan to bail out the nation’s banks.
Shorts (right)
Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines’ inappropriate use, federal drug officials announced Monday.
Shorts (left)
A female suicide bomber hiding among refugees fleeing the war zone in northern Sri Lanka killed at least 20 soldiers and eight civilians at a checkpoint on Monday, the government said.
In Anbar, Election Slogans Replaced By Language Of War
The postelection curfew has been lifted, the threats of violence muted after the intervention of envoys from the Iraqi army, the central government and the U.S. Marines. A cacophonous bustle has returned to the filthy, shattered streets of this provincial capital, once a base of the Sunni insurgency.
Warm Advection to the Rescue
Everybody knows it gets warmer when the sun is out, but sometimes we get some help from the wind. Normally people associate a winter wind with cold, since the flow of air removes heat generated by the body. However, when a strong, persistent wind blows from the southwest, the wind may transport warm air from the southern part of the country to New England. Meteorologists call the transport by wind of an atmospheric property (in this case heat) advection.
Palestinians Stop Paying Israeli Hospitals for Patients
Scores of Palestinian patients being treated in Israeli hospitals, a rare bright spot of coexistence here, are being sent home because the Palestinian Authority has stopped paying for their treatment, partly in anger over the war in Gaza.
The Crisis Within and the Voice Abroad
Even here at MIT, with so many students and faculty interested in finding solutions to the great problems of our world, very few have knowledge of the humanitarian catastrophe currently unfolding on the island of Sri Lanka.
Sports Shorts
The nationally-ranked No.7 MIT men’s track and field team hosted Williams and Coast Guard in its first indoor meet of the season on Saturday afternoon at the Johnson track. The Engineers picked up 13 event wins and earned 171 points on their way to a comfortable win over second-place Williams (117.50). Coast Guard earned 87.50 points for third place.
Brouhaha Rhythm
The practice of gift-giving around this or any other time of year can be a tricky proposition. Excellent gift ideas abound, but giving the right gift to the right person (at the right price) often requires a certain element of finesse that tends to come and go, at least for me. Gimmicky gifts only make matters more complicated, with their often-overestimated merit invested more in novelty than practical use. Sure, that Christopher Walken bobblehead seemed ironic and amusing back in December, but when someone opens up their gift in a bag because you couldn’t be moved to wrap it yourself (sorry, Mom), is it really going to produce the “audible gasp and speechlessness” or “hyperventilating gush-fest” reactions you were hoping for?
Ramblings From Hell
When I was four, I told my mother that I wanted to grow up to be a cocktail waitress. “I never want to leave home,” I said, “I want to stay here with you forever.” Whenever I remember this, I laugh, until I realize that seventeen years later, my desires aren’t so different.
