REX drastically shortened
Dozens of undergraduates comprised a passionate audience at yesterday evening’s emergency UA meeting, called in response to the proposed shortening of Orientation by the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming. Elizabeth C. Young and Julie B. Norman, associate dean and director, respectively, of the UAAP, discussed the planned changes to Orientation, including the re-scheduling of Advanced Standing Exams (ASEs) and the extension of Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs (FPOPs), but most discussion centered around the proposed reduction of Residence Exploration (REX) from three days to one.
Bad Ideas weekend a surprising success
Frosting eating contest; human dogsledding; 10 ^ 4 cookies; the Green Building Challenge; the 7-11 Challenge. At East Campus this weekend, it was all about bad ideas.
Railroad may see commuter traffic by 2012
Simmons residents may need to get used to a lot more train whistles come 2012. Last year, Massachusetts purchased the railroad tracks between Albany and Vassar Streets and has proposed to the Cambridge City Council that it be used as part of a commuter rail linking Boston’s North Station and Worcester. That may mean as many as twenty trains will run along the north edge of MIT’s campus every day, potentially as early as next year.
Corrections
An article published on Jan. 19 about a 37 percent increase in Finboard allocations incorrectly attributed the increase solely to a higher over-allocation percentage. Between the Summer/Fall 2010 Finboard cycle and the IAP/Spring 2011 Finboard cycle, available funds increased by 20 percent from $100,628 to $121,170. The remainder of the total allocation increase is due to the over-allocation percentage, which was raised from 10 percent to 30 percent.
UNTITLED
Competition Winner Frosting Eating Contest Victoria M. Enjamio ’14 Green Building Challenge Team: Varsity Lightweight Men’s Crew Individual: Cameron S. McAlpine ’13 Taco Bell Eating Contest Eliot Avila ’14 Human Dogsledding 1st place: Team Teach for Spark from ESP 2nd place: Team Beef Erection from 2nd East
IS&T begins ID card-based printing plan
Printing out a pset? Make sure you have your MIT ID on hand. On Friday, IS&T changed over several pilot printers to the Pharos “hold-and-release” system, which requires students to swipe their card to complete the print job. Pharos will be the future of printing at MIT.
Economy Hardware will remodel, CCTV moves in
Economy Hardware, a store frequented by members of the MIT community, closed its doors earlier this winter to undergo renovations. Economy Hardware owner Larry Friedman confirmed that the store will reopen sometime in mid-spring at a reduced capacity, sharing the space with Cambridge Community Television. CCTV has also signed a lease with the MIT Investment Management Company on the space formerly occupied by Economy at 438 Massachusetts Ave.
Shorts (left)
MOSCOW — A day after an airport suicide bombing that investigators suspect was organized by Islamic militants, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed retribution. President Dmitry A. Medvedev lashed out at low-ranking subordinates at the airport for failing to stop the attack, and a number of initiatives were announced to prevent future terrorist acts.
Shorts (right)
Each year, federal inspectors find illegal levels of antibiotics in hundreds of older dairy cows bound for the slaughterhouse. Concerned that those antibiotics might also be contaminating the milk Americans drink, the Food and Drug Administration intended to begin tests this month on the milk from farms that had repeatedly sold cows tainted by drug residue.
Obama proposes national effort to ‘win the future’
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called Tuesday night for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy.
Financial meltdown was ‘avoidable,’ inquiry concludes
WASHINGTON — The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.
NRA clout hurts firearms research
In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, Ariz., the familiar questions inevitably resurfaced: Are communities where more people carry guns safer or less safe? Does the availability of high-capacity magazines increase deaths? Do more rigorous background checks make a difference?
More snow on the way
Another nor’easter is headed toward the Boston area, and it will bring more snowfall to the region tonight and tomorrow morning. However, as of Tuesday there was still a considerable amount of uncertainty as to the severity of the storm’s impact. The storm, which was centered over the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, will be tracking northeastward along the Atlantic coast of the United States throughout the day today. The exact track that the storm takes will dictate the amount of snow that we receive, since sharp precipitation gradients mean that a slight deviation in track direction can translate into a large difference in snowfall totals.
King’s Speech leads Oscar pack
LOS ANGELES — The Oscar race turned into a wild scramble Tuesday morning as The King’s Speech moved out front when nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced. True Grit surged into second position, and The Social Network, which had seemed a front-runner,was matched by Inception, followed closely by The Fighter.
In schools, effectiveness does not equal experience
Much to my delight, education reform has once again taken the national stage over the course of last year. Due to the publicly hyped Race to the Top program, the documentary Waiting for Superman, and the release of the latest Programme for International Student Assessment report, which yet again placed the U.S. in the middle of the pack in education, the public is demanding changes to our education system. Terms like merit-based pay, teacher tenure, and high-stakes testing have become more and more pervasive in American conversations over the last year. Yet even after a year of talk, public opinion has yet to converge on what should be done.
Can we make government more efficient?
As the U.S. Congress (belatedly) hammers out this year’s federal budget, our politicians and pundits have focused their attention on three questions. First, how important are the activities that government performs relative to the private enterprise that it supplants? Second, how redistributionary should our system of taxes and spending be, both in terms of how much we take from the rich to give to the poor, as well as how much we take from future generations to give to the present? And finally, which presents the greater risk: a failure to provide Keynesian stimulus today, or a potential debt crisis tomorrow?
FILM REVIEW Dark and perfect
Darren Aronofsky is a director who seems to love to explore the dark side of human nature, and there’s a whole lot of that to explore. It’s easy for us to pawn off our dark side on the orcs and demons in stories, and on some deeper level it probably makes us feel better about ourselves. But every villain, monster, and atrocious real-world act in our recorded history was the creation of human beings.
Volleyball scores Newbury victory
In its first home match of the 2011 campaign, the nationally-ranked No. 8 MIT men’s volleyball posted a 25-21, 25-19, 25-13, victory over Newbury College in a North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) New England Division contest on Jan. 18. With the win, the Engineers improved to 4-0 on the year and in conference action while the Nighthawks saw their ledger dip to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the league.
Upcoming Home Events
Wednesday, January 26 Women’s Basketball vs. Coast Guard 6 p.m., Rockwell Cage Men’s Basketball vs. Coast Guard 8 p.m., Rockwell Cage Thursday, January 27 Men’s Volleyball vs. Emerson College 7 p.m., Rockwell Cage Friday, January 28 Rifle — Bean Pot 5 p.m., DuPont Range Saturday, January 29 Rifle — Bean Pot 9 a.m., DuPont Range Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Coed Invitational 12 p.m., Johnson Track Women’s Basketball vs. Springfield College 1 p.m., Rockwell Cage Men’s Ice Hockey — MIT/Boston Bruins Alumni Game 2 p.m., Johnson Rink Men’s Basketball vs. WPI 3 p.m., Rockwell Cage
Sports Shorts
MIT skiers raced with their largest team yet in slalom and giant slalom events at Waterville Valley on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. On the women’s side, top-placing Chyleigh J. Harmon ’14 earned her best finish Saturday at 41st. Captain Jillian R. Reddy ’11 strongly led the rest of the team, finishing 56th. Rounding out scoring were Sarah J. Laderman ’12 in 63rd and Jennifer L. Hawkin in 64th. Newcomer Alix M. de Monts ’13 was disqualified. Sunday, however, all of the MIT women finished in a pack and recorded their best team result yet. Hawkin came in 60th, Harmon 61st, Reddy 63rd, de Monts 65th, and Laderman 66th. It was a personal best USSA points race for Hawkin.
