Joichi Ito set to lead Media Lab
Joichi “Joi” Ito, who was recently named the new director of the Media Lab, took the time to talk with The Tech about his ideas and perspective on the future of the Media Lab. Despite not having a college degree, Joi has made a name for himself in the technological and entrepreneurial world. Joi is currently a general partner of Neoteny Labs and chairman of Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating the sharing of intellectual property. Yesterday, Joi announced that he will be helping to launch LinkedIn Japan, a job that he describes in his blog as the “last ‘real job’ before I transition over completely to the Media Lab role.”
Professor’s presidency criticized
Students and faculty at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have become concerned over a recent spate of suicides at the university. Since January, four students and a professor have killed themselves, with the most recent student suicide occurring on April 7. Criticism has mounted against President Nam P. Suh ’59 — an MIT professor emeritus — who has been accused of contributing to the suicides by increasing academic competition through his policies. Nine student suicides have occurred since the beginning of Suh’s presidency.
Global Challenge added to IDEAS
Last Friday, MIT announced the winners of its annual IDEAS (Innovation, Development, Enterprise, Action, and Service) Competition and Global Challenge. Over forty teams, consisting of everyone from undergraduates to non-MIT affiliates, competed for up to $150,000 in awards.
UA Finboard — Summer 2011 Allocations Top Ten Allocations Bottom Eleven Allocations Notes
UA Finboard — Summer 2011 Allocations
Dorms to see renovations this summer
Next House, New House, Random Hall, and Bexley Hall will be closed this summer for renovations, according to the MIT Department of Housing. Scheduled major projects include a new fire alarm and sprinkler system in New House and a new front desk for Next House.
New UA VP appointed
Last night, the Undergraduate Association Senate swore in President Allan E. Miramonti ’13 and confirmed vice presidential appointee TyShaun Wynter ’13. Wynter was one of seven students that applied for the position following the resignation of former Vice President-Elect Alec C. Lai ’13. Wynter is currently New House President, and has not had any previous experience with the UA.
Stem cell plaintiffs propose schedule
In a filing yesterday afternoon, James L. Sherley and Theresa A. Deisher, the two scientists suing the federal government to stop NIH-funded human embryonic stem cell research, have proposed a schedule for the long-stalled case to continue.
Bicyclists disgruntled over Bldg. 26 ramp move
The recent removal of the ramp just west of Building 26 has upset cyclists who rely on that section of sidewalk to go about their daily business. Up until a few weeks ago, the curb from the roadway between Buildings 12 and 24 had a ramp in the center, and bicyclists and skateboarders travelled through the Bldg. 26 underpass and toward the Stata Center.
Shorts (right)
PARIS — The U.N. refugee agency has urged the crews of ships in the Mediterranean to keep watch for unseaworthy vessels carrying migrants from war-torn Libya after a report that a ship with 600 people on board broke up just off the port of Tripoli on Friday.
Shorts (left)
DEPEW, N.Y. — This village of strip malls, car dealerships and working-class neighborhoods is an unlikely stage for a battle between the two major parties in Washington.
Deaths, injuries reported in Yemeni protest march
Security forces and government supporters opened fire on protesters in the Yemeni city of Taiz on Monday, witnesses said, while a doctor confirmed that four people were killed and scores injured after almost a month of stalled negotiations over how and when President Ali Abdullah Saleh would leave office.
Bigger Osama bin Laden raid unit braced for fight with Pakistanis
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.
Record flooding continues
With the warming weather, melting snow has combined with spring rain to raise river levels well beyond flood stage throughout the nation. The hardest-hit areas lie along the Mississippi River from Illinois to Louisiana. In Memphis, the Mississippi has risen to 47.8 feet — just shy of the 48.7 feet record set in 1937.
Syrian official hopes seven-week protests are near an end
DAMASCUS, Syria — The Syrian government has gained the upper hand over a seven-week uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad, a senior official declared Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the leadership believes its crackdown will crush protests that have begun to falter in the face of hundreds of deaths and mass arrests.
House leader Boehner outlines demands on debt limit fight
WASHINGTON — House Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that Republicans would insist on trillions of dollars in federal spending cuts in exchange for their support of an increase in the federal debt limit sought by the Obama administration to prevent a government default later this year.
Toss the bums out
If there is one conclusion to be drawn from half a century of studying the American educational system, it is this: throwing more money at the problem will not solve anything. According to the Department of Education, between 1960 and 2000, the pupil-teacher ratio fell from 25.8 to 16.0, the percent of teachers with masters degrees or higher went from 23.5 to 56.2, and the real amount spent per pupil went from $2,235 to $7,591 in 2000 dollars. What did we get for all that money? Reading and math achievement stayed the same, while science results actually fell. In 2003, our spending per pupil was five times that of Poland, but we actually achieved worse results on the international PISA tests.
Chipping away at fundamental rights
In the past few months, an epidemic of anti-abortion legislation has swept over our country. The recent passage of House Resolution 3, or the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Bill, is but one example among almost a thousand measures working their way through state legislatures. While the bill is vanishingly unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, its language reflects frightening sentiments on the part of House Republicans (and the 16 Democrats who joined them). One of the most shocking effects of the bill’s becoming law would be necessary “rape audits,” conducted by the IRS, to determine if persons who receive federal funding for abortion in case of rape were lying about being raped. As Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) put it, “if you get raped, you better keep a receipt.”
MOVIE REVIEW The last eight minutes
Don’t let the title fool you into thinking that Source Code is a hacker movie, or even about anything remotely related to Course VI. “Source Code” refers to a fictional technology that lets people revisit the last eight minutes of a dead person’s life. In the wake of a bombing attack on a Chicago-bound train, the government sends Army Capt. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) into the Source Code again and again to learn the identity of the bomber. Through repeated visits, Stevens falls for his fellow passenger Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) and tries to find a way to save her, even after repeatedly being told by his commanding officers (Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright) that it would be pointless. Source Code, they explain, is “not time travel, but time reassignment.” If that didn’t make sense, don’t worry, because it’s all quantum mechanics and “parabolic calculus.” Tricky stuff indeed.
CURRAN Y. OI ‘13 Before MIT, a world-class figure skater Oi takes sixth place at US National Championships in 2008-2009 season
Nearly 10 years ago, Curran Y. Oi ’13 was picked to skate as a young Scott Hamilton in the Boston stop of Stars on Ice. Since then, he has placed sixth in the 2009 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, beating Olympic competitor Johnny Weir in the short program.
Track and Field hosts New England Championship
The MIT Track and Field teams hosted the New England Division III Outdoor Championships last weekend, as 29 women’s teams and 31 men’s teams gathered at Steinbrenner Stadium on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
TALK NERDY TO ME The lost and found tale of online identity
At the start of the semester, I blogged an image of an ad saying “penicillin cures gonorrhea in 4 hours” with the added quote, “‘And, if you happen to have a really bad hookup, you might need this organic compound the next day.’ —5.12 professor on reasons why you should study organic chemistry.” I knew that many of the people who read my personal blog would appreciate the dorky humor behind the joke. I didn’t expect it to fuel online trolls into releasing my work address, in addition to an incorrect work address for my dad. I also didn’t expect these trolls to misconstrue the quote as my discussing my personal life, let alone as an admission that I’ve contracted gonorrhea. I’ve never contracted gonorrhea — or any STIs, for that matter — but as the picture states, it is curable!
BROUHAHA RHYTHM From the Cradle of Liberty to the City of Angels
Has it been four years already? Good grief. It seems like just yesterday I was watching Looney Tunes and eating Cocoa Pebbles straight out of the box. I think it’s a sign I’m not quite ready to grow up — because that’s exactly what I was doing yesterday. I mean, sure, I’ve been living on my own for a good portion of the past four years, but in a relatively structured environment, with plenty of external financial support (thanks, Mom and Dad). To say that college is a better approximation of real life than high school would be like saying a defective toy boat is superior to a working one as an approximation of the RMS Titanic. Yes, it’s technically more accurate, but there really isn’t a substitute for the genuine article.
NERDY WITH A CHANCE OF RANDOM Fighting awkward with awkward
One evening as I headed home from the Student Center, I was standing in the elevator, minding my own business and thinking about electromagnetic waves and how they propagate in space. Then the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The door slid open, and a couple stepped into the confined space, holding hands. No big deal, right? That’s what I thought — until they started acting all couple-like, hanging onto each other like a pair of positively and negatively charged particles.
MIT150 Sparkle! Campus lights up for FAST event
“You would not believe your eyes / If ten million fireflies / Lit up the world as I fell asleep.”
Afterhours with Richard R. Schrock
Professor Richard R. Schrock somehow manages to do it all. He has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, teaches, does research, has a family, a woodworking hobby, and is starting his own company. At the undergraduate level, he’s taught 5.112 (Principles of Chemical Science). Here, he gives his thoughts on what actor he thinks would be able to fit this role in the movie of his life and explains how he got his start in chemistry at eight years old while making banana-scented esters.
CLUB CONNECTION This is not your grandmother’s spinning club
Fire. That bright orange blaze speaks to a nostalgic part of me, reminding me of toasting marshmallows and chilly nights alternating roasting and freezing. Both a danger and a delight, fire can be tamed and turned into a performance art by those brave and skilled enough to wield it — namely, the MIT Spinning Club.
Events: May 10 - May 16
Events May 10 – May 16 Tuesday (8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Blood Drive, sponsored by ARCTAN — W20, La Sala de Puerto Rico (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Legatum Lecture: Experiences in the Emerging Profession of Technology-Based Entrepreneurship (Speaker: Dr. Noubar Afeyan) — E62-233 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) MIT Chamber Music Society Student Concert — Killian Hall Wednesday (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.) Artists Beyond the Desk presents Windhammer, a woodwind quintet with piano — Killian Hall (7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.) AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) Q&A Session — 4-231 Thursday (4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) GSC Acoustic Barbecue — Stata Center Amphitheater (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) MIT Improvisation Ensemble Concert — Killian Hall Friday (5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Reel World: MIT, a look “behind the scenes” at historic and entertaining films from MIT’s archives — MIT Museum (7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.) LSC shows E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial — 26-100 Saturday (2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.) MIT Concert Band Spring Performance — Kresge Auditorium (7:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.) Social dance with the MIT Ballroom Dance Club — Walker Memorial Sunday (9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) Swapfest — Albany Steet Garage and Lot (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) International Contemporary Ensemble presents works of Keeril Makan — Killian Hall (8:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) Flippin’ for Finals, aka Late Night Breakfast — W20 Lobdell Monday (7:00 p.m.) Professor Walter H. G. Lewin Physics Demonstration and Book Signing — 26-100 Send your campus events to events@tech.mit.edu.
Cheat Sheet aka that random stuff that never shows up on the test
The Tech: You like classical music, so if you had one composer you had to listen to on repeat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Institute Double Take
Browsing through my archive of photos, I was struck by the inherent contrast both in and between these two images. The former, shot on a sunny July 4, depicts the North Court in a state of construction-induced disarray. The photo itself, on the other hand, is clean and crisp — almost frozen.
