Sparse attendance plagues faculty meetings
In a first for this semester, the November faculty meeting reached quorum on Wednesday when more than 30 faculty members showed up. MIT has about 1,000 faculty members.
Gender-inclusive policies expanding
MIT Residential Life & Dining is planning to initiate gender-inclusive housing policies across campus, expanding upon the implementation of such a policy in Random Hall and Senior House. Students opting for gender-inclusive housing would be able to room with people of different genders and gender identities, which would be ideal for students who have preferences about the gender identities of their roommates.
NEWS BRIEFS
The official results of the Cambridge Municipality Council and School Committee elections show no changes in the winners from the previous unofficial results, simply the order of the candidates elected. Four new city councillors: Dennis Benzan, Marc C. McGovern, Dennis J. Carlone, and Nadeem A. Mazen ’06 were elected, while two incumbents: Ken E. Reeves and Minka Y. vanBeuzekom were defeated. Two city council seats will be filled by MIT alumni: Mazen is also MIT’s head squash coach, and Leland Cheung MBA ’12 was reelected.
Task force releases new report on MIT education
In an email to the MIT community yesterday, President L. Rafael Reif released the preliminary report of the Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education. Last February, Reif charged the Task Force to explore “bold” possibilities of the future of MIT education both on campus and for those around the world, in addition to evaluating MIT’s financial model and pricing structures. The work was split among three working groups, focused on the future of the MIT education and facilities, the global implications of edX, and a new financial model for education.
Shorts (right)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Missiles believed to have been fired by a U.S. drone struck an Islamic seminary in northern Pakistan on Thursday, in a rare strike outside the country’s volatile tribal regions.
Karzai says security pact with US should be signed next year
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai stood before thousands of Afghan leaders on Thursday in a watershed moment for his tumultuous rule. Having just come to agreement with U.S. leaders on a security deal that would commit the two countries to a lasting military alliance — and would surely define his legacy — he convened the assembly that would decide the deal’s fate.
Shorts (left)
Frederick Sanger, a British biochemist whose discoveries about the chemistry of life led to the decoding of the human genome and to the development of new drugs like human growth hormone, earning him two Nobel Prizes, a distinction held by only three other scientists, died Tuesday in Cambridge, England. He was 95.
Landmark Senate vote weakens the filibuster
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to eliminate the use of the filibuster against most presidential nominees, a move that will break the Republican blockade of President Barack Obama’s picks to Cabinet posts and the federal judiciary. The change is the most fundamental shift in the way the Senate functions in more than a generation.
France may be returning to recession, new data shows
FRANKFURT, Germany — Hopes that the eurozone could be emerging from years of torpor suffered another setback Thursday when an indicator of economic activity in the region slipped unexpectedly and suggested that France could be sliding back into recession.
Chilly weather ahead
Temperatures cooled down this week, with highs in the 40s°F and lows near 30°F, thanks to a high pressure system influencing the region over the last few days. Although it’s been dry for most of the week, that will likely change today — as a low pressure moves into Quebec, its associated warm front will likely bring us some light rain this morning. Otherwise, temperatures should be mild today, with a high of around 47°F (8°C).
China’s highest court seeks to curtail abuses of justice
HONG KONG — China’s highest court issued demands Thursday that judges bar confessions obtained through torture and avoid applying the death penalty when the evidence is shaky. The directive was unlikely on its own to curb such abuses but reflected a growing official recognition of the need to stop gross injustices, experts said.
MIT should divest from fossil fuels
4,000: The number of people confirmed killed by Typhoon Haiyan, perhaps the most powerful storm ever to make landfall.
CORRECTIONS
An article in Tuesday’s issue on MIT’s Athena clusters misstated the title of Jonathan D. Reed ’02 and neglected to include his middle initial and class year. He is the IS&T Special Liaison to the Students. The same article also listed the incorrect room number for an Athena cluster (37-332 is a cluster, not 36-332). Additionally, the Building 37 clusters have already closed permanently.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
In his letter to The Tech last Friday, Gregory Kravit ’15 presents our community with a profound challenge. He describes with gratitude hearing an MIT professor take a principled stance on financial ethics in research. But Gregory goes on to explain that his own education at MIT has not given him clear ways to think about the moral, ethical and societal context of the advanced technical work MIT is preparing him to do.
Forgotten but not forgiven
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney began filming a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s comeback at the 2009 Tour de France, four years after his last win in 2005. But after the infamous 2013 interview with Oprah, Gibney realized that Armstrong had just been using his documentary to bolster his already crumbling story. Gibney was ultimately able to weave the damning footage of his previous interviews into a story of betrayal to deliver a play-by-play of one of the farthest falls from grace in the history of sports.
Through the eyes of Death and a child
You know you are in for an interesting movie when it is narrated by Death himself. Death first sees our main character Liesel on a train, when he comes to take the soul of her sick and dying younger brother. He is intrigued by her for some reason he cannot place, and follows her life story as it progresses.
This movie’s on fire
Catching Fire — the sequel to the 2012 film The Hunger Games, based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay trilogy — is simply amazing.
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28 Friday (9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Landing Studio presents 99 Marginal: 9 Strategies for Landing Industry in the City. Open through Sunday — 7-408 (9:15 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 2: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14, 6th Floor (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) “Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan” Book talk and discussion with Henry R. Nau and Steve Van Evera — E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) MIT Water Club presents Sea Level Rise on Coastal Urban Design — 66-168 (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Fossil Free MIT presents Chasing Ice: Free Film Screening + Ice Cream — 35-225 (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Guest Artist Series presents: the Jupiter Quartet in the first concert of complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle performances at MIT — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Mocha Moves Dance Squad hosts dance competition Ring the Alarm 2013 — W20 Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 3: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14-6th Floor (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble directed by Frederick Harris, Jr. — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 Sunday (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MIT Gospel Choir Fall Concert — 6-120 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) MIT Folk Dance Club presents International Folk Dancing — W20-491 Monday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) ACT Lecture: Tarek Elhaik: The Incurable-Image — E15-001 (7:30 p.m.) It’s Alive: A series of staged play readings featuring students, professional actors, and faculty directed by Anna Kohler — Killian Hall Tuesday (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Architecture/HTC Lecture: Ruben Gallo, “Radioscapes: Acoustic Modernities” — 7-429 Send your arts events to arts@tech.mit.edu.
Senior competes at worlds Taekwondo athlete competed in Bali on Oct. 31
MIT has many notable students walking down the Infinite: people who excel in their own fields as scientists, engineers, and even athletes. This is the case of Michelle W. Chen, ’14 (known as “Machine” to teammates), who competed with Carissa Fu from Boston University and Miyako Yerick from the University of Texas at Austin on Oct. 31 in the eighth World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Bali, Indonesia.
MIT basketball team beats Gordon, 67-48
MIT used an 8-2 run to close out the first half, breaking open a close game to help them to a 67-48 victory over Gordon College in men’s basketball action Tuesday night in Rockwell Cage. Paul E. Dawson ’15 set new personal highs with 17 points and eight assists to lead MIT. Hans Miersma led the Fighting Scots with 18 points and 13 rebounds.
SPORTS SHORT
This past Sunday, Elena Nulvesu G competed at the Raw Collegiate Cup of Powerlifting held at Northeastern University. Elena, who is a visiting student from the University of Sassari in Italy, was the only competitor from MIT, and she won the competition by lifting 125 kg in Squat, 75 kg in Bench Press and 150 kg in Dead Lift, for a total of 350 kg (which is her personal best). There were 18 total women participating in the competition: 16 from Northeastern University, 1 from Boston University, and Nulvesu from MIT.
