Visiting Professor Discusses ’08 Election
<i>From Northwestern University, to Stanford, to MIT, Professor Marc Meredith of the Political Science Department is truly a traveling scholar. Earning masters degrees in both economics and political science, Marc examines today’s political scene with the eye of an economist. He currently teaches Quantitative Research Methods I (17.800), a graduate class where students apply statistical techniques to politics in order to better understand and predict social trends. When it comes time to predict the next president, Marc will be one step ahead, applying game theory to the society in which we live. While his field is rigorous, Marc also finds time to enjoy his many hobbies including running, football, poker, and ping-pong.</i>
YouTomb Takes Stock Of YouTube Takedowns
On April 6, 2008, a clip of an Oklahoma police officer assaulting a man appeared on the popular video-sharing site YouTube. Tagged with “police,” “brutality” and “beat up,” it received over 20,000 views in the ten brief days that it was available.
Lucian W. Pye
Retired MIT political science professor Lucian W. Pye, one of America’s leading China scholars, died Sept. 5 in Boston after a long illness. He was 86.
Michael Hammer ’68
Michael Hammer ’68, a research affiliate with MIT’s Engineering Systems Division who also previously taught as a professor of computer science and was a lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management, died Wednesday after collapsing from apparent cranial bleeding last month. He was 60.
$12 Laptop Featured at Int’l Dev. Design Summit
Goodbye $100 laptop, hello $12 laptop. Well technically, it’s only a keyboard, but it just needs to be plugged into a TV.
MIT Climbs Back to 4th in US News & World Report Ranking
After last year’s fall to seventh in the <i>U.S. News and World Report</i> rankings due to changes in reporting test scores, MIT climbed back to the number four spot among national universities. The increase was due in part to improvements at MIT, but may also be chalked up to other institutions’ scores decreasing.
More Freshmen Place Out of Biology in Advanced Standing Exams
The Class of 2012’s performance on the advanced standing exams (ASEs) was markedly different from last year’s as freshman performed better on the biology exams but poorer on the physics exams. And for the second year, results on the newly rewritten Math Diagnostic for Physics Placement exam was used to limit enrollment to the popular 8.012 alternative to 8.01.
News Briefs
MIT will no longer consult students before releasing their birth dates or information about their awards or honors, though it will not publish this information in directories, Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75 announced in an e-mail to students on Aug. 25.
Sororities Get Forty Fewer Members, Pi Beta Phi Still To Bid
Sorority recruitment wrapped up Wednesday night, bringing in approximately forty fewer members than last year. Recruitment this year was marked by the presence of the new sorority, Pi Beta Phi, and keeping the move from fall to spring recruitment that began last year.
Google Maps Now Has Georgia
Two weeks ago, <i>The Tech</i> reported that in Google Maps, the country of Georgia was a blank slate. As of Wednesday, Sept. 3, Google has added cities for the countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
Eric Sollee
Fencing came so easily to Eric Sollee that he was elected captain of Harvard’s freshman squad not long after picking up the sport, and went on to become an All-American, placing fifth in the NCAA championships in 1952.
Refusing Strip Searches, Siddiqui Denied Visitors and Calls, Misses Her Indictment
The MIT alumna arrested mid-July in Afghanistan failed to appear for her indictment in federal court in Manhattan yesterday. Aafia Siddiqui ’95, refuses to be strip-searched, so she cannot make court appearances, receive visitors, or use the telephone. She has had minimal contact with her lawyers since mid-August.
The Tech’s Summer News Recap
<i>Compiled by Arkajit Dey, Natasha Plotkin, and Marissa Vogt.</i>
Broad Receives $400 Million Endowment Donation
Eli and Edythe Broad, who are giving away a multibillion-dollar fortune made in real estate and insurance, announced on Thursday their biggest gift so far, a $400 million donation to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Student Loan Art Program Opens At the MIT List Visual Arts Center
Want art? For free? If your bare, ugly walls are driving you up the wall, you can come by the List Visual Arts Center between now and Sept. 14 to enter a lottery for a piece of art for your dorm room this year.
Old Ashdown Closed For Renovations and Repairs
Building W1, formerly Ashdown House, closed on August 15 as workers prepared to renovate it into an undergraduate dormitory. Actual construction will not begin until the building is inspected and cleaned up, according to Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75.