Lead, Follow, or Get In the Way
On the final Friday of June, polar bears cheered, honeybees buzzed, and Emperor penguins locked in the dead of Antarctic winter snuggled happily up to their eggs. At last, the United States was going to lead the world in the fight against climate change.
Models, Schmodels!
As a young high school student in neuroscience summer camp, I was shown the results of a computer model calculation that aimed to simulate cardiac tissue voltage as the electric pulse that kept the heart beating passed through. After being told that the simulation took several days to run, we campers were eagerly expecting to be wowed by displays of incomprehensible complexity, wide-eyed and excited at the prospect of viewing such cutting-edge medical research.
Sixth Coldest June on Record
As you are well aware, June was unseasonably cold. The mean temperature for June was 63.3°F, which ties it with June 1982 as the sixth coldest June on record in Boston since records began in 1872. Average temperatures of various sorts are often reported by meteorologists, such as the average high or low for a particular day of the year. A statistical quantity that is often overlooked is the standard deviation. That is, when a record occurs, how statistically unlikely is that event compared with the mean?
Letters to the Editor
So many of us have enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the dining program offered by the new Ashdown dorm, NW35, that we have taken its presence for granted. The diverse menu, pleasant atmosphere and the surprisingly low prices have been highly convenient and enjoyable, especially for graduate students such as myself.
Weather
June has arrived! As summer nears, so does hurricane season. The National Weather Service has predicted the Atlantic hurricane season, which lasts from June to November, to be near-normal for 2009. According to forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center, there will be a 70 percent likelihood for the Atlantic to experience nine to 14 named storms, with four to seven of these becoming hurricanes.
A Freshman Looks Back
It’s always easy to complain about things. For some reason, humans have the amazing innate ability to hone in on the bad and neglect the good. And at a place like MIT, it’s especially easy to fall into that trap. The rigor of the courses, problem sets, and tests coupled with everything MIT has to offer inside and out of the classroom contribute to the hybrid nature of our unofficial motto, “IHTFP.” Immortalized on every class ring, it is often a cry of frustration (at least mentally) and sometimes invoked as a term of endearment (e.g. “I Have Truly Found Paradise”). It can even be both simultaneously. But whether or not you have ever, or ever will think of MIT as “paradise,” we sometimes forget amidst the dining failures, sports cuts, and housing issues that this place does a lot of things right.
Moral Duty
It seems odd to write advice “to the graduating class of 2009” when I myself am one of the graduates. If you’re reading this during Commencement, I am currently somewhere between Dublin and Dubai, about to begin my new life as a consultant in the Middle East. When I started writing for <i>The Tech</i> back in September, I’d hoped to lay out the beliefs that make me a conservative. Nineteen articles later, I’ve commented on the 2008 election, written policy pieces on everything from education to health care to economics to foreign policy, and even tossed in a few articles on my favorite subject, energy — but I still haven’t gotten to write that defining piece that goes beyond policy prescriptions to core political philosophy. This is the 20th and final article that I’ll written for <i>The Tech</i>. I guess it’s now or never.
‘Welcome to MIT’
When I woke up one morning before the week of finals, I was appalled to discover bags under my eyes. Wailing, I clutched at the mirror and proclaimed aloud, “Look at how MIT has aged me!” When I told my friends my story, they merely looked at me, bleary-eyed, and one of them fixed me with a raccoon-ringed gaze: “Welcome to MIT.”
The Failure of the Task Force on Student Engagement
A little more than a year ago, I sat down with Martin F. Holmes ’08 — my successor as Undergraduate Association President — and then-Graduate Student Council President Leeland B. Ekstrom PhD ’09 to pen a letter expressing our serious concerns regarding the lack of meaningful student involvement in Institute decision making and outlining our proposals for change. The issue of student input, which had begun to resurface as a concern during my term in office, came to a head last year after the Institute’s handling of the arrest of Star A. Simpson ‘10, the surprising announcement of Green Hall’s conversion to undergraduate housing, poor communication regarding the future of W1 and student dining, as well as a number of hacking incidents. After a series of negotiated edits and changes, this letter — which was eventually co-signed by Mr. Holmes, Mr. Ekstrom, Chancellor Phillip L. Clay PhD ’75, and Executive Vice President Kirk D. Kolenbrander — was published in the Faculty Newsletter and called for the establishment of a Task Force on Student Engagement.
How You Will Remake the World
Dear fellow graduating students: Congratulations! Alumni from this institute have unique leverage in shaping how people think. This capital has been earned, over almost a century and a half, by the hard work, integrity, and accomplishments of the women and men who have passed through these corridors. So how will you spend this precious currency?
Re-Embracing the Institute’s Mission
The current MIT administration has made a long series of inappropriate decisions on issues of student life and beyond which dismally fail to uphold the core values of MIT. One might ask, however, how can one define those core values? Mightn’t administrators just be doing their best but have a different viewpoint?
Goldilocks and the Three Lessons from the Derivatives Market
Imagine for a moment that you are a commercial bank called the Papa Bear Bank Company. You accept deposits from large businesses and use the money to make loans to other businesses and consumers. The interest on the money you loan out is a little bit higher than the interest you pay to your depositors, and as a result you make a tidy bit of revenue. You use this revenue to pay your workers, dole out dividends to your shareholders, and host the occasional junket in Yellowstone.
Fifty Years of ‘The Two Cultures’
May 7 marked the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s influential talk, “The Two Cultures.” In his lecture and subsequent book, the English writer and physicist described the widening gulf between the humanities and science.
Corrections
A “Stay Tuned…” feature which ran on the front page of the May 8 issue of <i>The Tech</i> incorrectly claimed that the Alpha Tau Omega chapter at MIT had lost its charter from the national fraternity. The article based the claim on minutes from a Cambridge License Commission meeting in January, which state that the chapter “lost their Parent Charter.” According to Wynn Smiley, chief executive officer of the national ATO organization, the chapter is in good standing with the national fraternity. See article, page 1.
Letters to the Editor
As organizers of the Palestine Awareness Week (PAW), we would like to clarify some of the issues and address the inaccuracies and omissions in Stephen Fried’s May 8 opinion piece (“The nth Annual Chomsky Rant in Bad Taste; Are We Moving Forward?”). The piece, which provides a good example of “ranting in bad taste,” suggests that PAW and similar educational activities are counterproductive obstacles to dialogue.
A Word on Palestinian Activism at MIT
In my four years at MIT, I have observed that every effort to present a viewpoint that is somewhat critical of Israel or that is promoting a more fair-handed approach to achieving peace in the Middle East is met with negativity and attempts to stifle expression.
Corrections
The Friday, May 1 article “Student Tested For Swine Flu; Results Aren’t In Yet” incorrectly reported that an MIT student living off-campus had been diagnosed with influenza A and was being tested for swine flu. The error arose because of a confusion between two cases.
Letters to the Editor
Keith Yost (“Cleverer and Cleverer,” May 5) commits a gross error and perpetuates a fallacy about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, both of which should be corrected.
The nth Annual Chomsky Rant in Bad Taste; Are We Moving Forward?
Contrary to all expectations, the main speaker at this year’s annual Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is… Noam Chomsky. The purpose of this opinion, however, is not to criticize Chomsky’s rhetorical methods (Ophir and Faketerman, Vol. 128, Issue 65) or to contextualize the misleading remarks he makes (Maurer, Vol. 128, Issue 64). Rather, my grievance is with the organizers who continue to give Chomsky a forum to repeat the same message — time and time and time yet again.