Don’t vote!
Your vote doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t. You can do the math yourself — imagine a close House race in which each voter has a 51 percent chance of voting for one candidate, 49 percent for another, and around 300,000 voters are expected to turn out. What are the chances that the marginal vote matters, i.e. without your input, the race would split exactly 150,000 to 150,000?
Letters to the Editor
I read your article about the redevelopment of the 181 Mass. Ave. Analog Devices by Novartis with great interest. This site had a sophisticated microfabrication facility that easily could have been transformed into a new nanofabrication facility for MIT’s use. Having a state of the art nanofabrication facility is essential to achieve excellence in nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Why TEAL works
In the years leading up to 2000, the MIT Physics Department realized it had a problem. Despite great lecturers such as Walter Lewin, attendance at physics lectures fell 40 percent by the end of the term. In addition, an average of 10 percent of students failed 8.01 (Mechanics) and 14 percent of students failed 8.02 (Electricity and Magnetism). So MIT did what it does best: It solved the problem.
The strength of the Latino vote
The political stage has been tarnished, and the politicians greased up by the yearlong mudslinging. Mean words have been exchanged. Feelings were hurt. Losers will go home crying. This is better than ESPN — this is politics at its dirtiest. Incumbent Democratic Senator Harry Reid will face off against the menacing newcomer Republican and Tea Partier Sharron Angle in the upcoming Nevada Senate race.
Letters to the Editor
I was pleasantly surprised the other day to find that the Smoot marks on the Harvard Bridge had been repainted. Some markings died off (3OH!3 which popped up last year didn’t last) while other clever new ones like the “214 Smoots” mark appeared. Also, an unappealing bit of vandalism near the 60 Smoots mark has been kindly painted over. However, as I was walking to class, a few things stuck out to me. All the characters had rough outlines, the font and size was wildly varied, and instead of an interesting variation of yellow, purple, and green markings, there were simply three blocks of a single color along the bridge. By the time I reached campus, I was slightly disappointed to find myself thinking that the repainting of the Smoots had been done with less care than in the past.
MIT Investment Management Company disregards the City of Cambridge
<i>Editor’s note: This was an open letter was addressed to MIT President Susan Hockfield.</i>
Abortion: A question of values
I don’t like writing about social issues. In part, this is because they seem so insignificant. Why should I care about the passage or overturning of Prop 8 (a gay marriage ban in California) when that state already offers domestic partnerships that provide all the same rights as marriage? Does it really matter whether a violent criminal spends his entire life behind bars or is put to death? How can the issue of marijuana legalization rate more highly in anyone’s mind when Social Security is insolvent?
A comprehensive look at the <br />‘It Gets Better’ campaign
As president and vice-president of G@MIT (GLBT at MIT, a student group at MIT devoted to creating a queer-positive environment), we thought it would be important for us to contextualize and point out a few concerns to Michael Veldman’s ’14 opinion piece published on October 19.
“It Gets Better” on the right track
In response to Michael Veldman’s piece regarding the “It Gets Better” campaign, I can’t help but wonder: Is the concern truly about the project itself, or his perception of celebrity charity showboating?
Foolish and common
In this Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, Paul Krugman PhD ’77 has written a little piece called “Rare and Foolish.” In it, Krugman laments the concentration of rare earths mining industry in China, saying it has given them extraordinary leverage over other nations, and lambasts U.S. leaders (particularly Bush) for letting the industry slip away into foreign hands.
“It Gets Better” needs to do more
In an October 15 column in <i>The Tech</i>, Andy Liang expressed his support for the “It Gets Better” campaign, started in response to the recent suicides by LGBT youth. On the face of it, the campaign seems impossible to criticize — what could be wrong with giving hope to desperate and lonely gay teenagers across America?
Taste requires quality; nutrition is more about quantity
What were they, those three fundamental human requirements, now superseded by our busy working lives as we eat, sleep and drink on the job? A human being will typically sleep for approximately one third of their life, but when it comes to time spent eating, the time allocated to nutrition varies significantly between cultures and individuals. Personally, I spend maybe two hours a day cooking and eating, which is not much when split between three or four meals. I like to cook because I like to eat, not the other way around. For me, the cliché, “You are what you eat,” when interpreted literately, captures the importance of nutrition. If your typical diet consists of potatoes, beef and a dash of soy sauce, there’s no denying that physically, you’re a slightly oriental Irish Texan.
HDAG got lost in groupthink
In fall 2008, Chris Colombo became dean of student life of MIT. He was an experienced administrator, having worked at Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University, but he did not understand MIT. He did not understand how the cultures of MIT dorms support students through a challenging undergraduate experience. He did not understand the independence of MIT students. Most importantly, he did not understand the profound financial plunge many MIT undergraduates take when they enroll. But he did have an idea when tasked with fixing MIT dining.
Now or never
The Republicans are going to take back the House of Representatives. With a little luck, and some defections by moderate Democrats (both “R-Nelson” and “R-Lieberman” have a certain <i>je ne sais quoi</i> about them), they could assume control of the Senate as well.
Global warming not worth the fight
Global warming is real. It is predominantly anthropogenic. Left unchecked, it will likely warm the earth by 3-7 C by the end of the century. What should the United States do about it?
Letters to the Editor
Editor’s note: This is an open letter addressed to President Hockfield.
Evanescent evidence — where’s the beef?
In a self-righteous screed published in <i>The Tech</i> on October 1st, the Executive Board of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) purported to clear up the “facts” concerning the expulsion of Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE) due to alleged hazing. The Executive Board of the IFC apparently wants the MIT community to believe that Review Boards of the IFC Judicial Committee know hazing when they see it, based on the definition in Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 269, Section 17. That would be a more compelling argument if the MIT IFC Policy for Risk Management properly quoted the definition of hazing, shown below with annotations for correcting the Policy’s version to the actual statement of the law from the web site of The 186th General Court of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (i.e., the Massachusetts state legislature):
It gets better
In an ideal world, the “It Gets Better” campaign would not need to exist. In an ideal world, we would not see teen suicide reports happening weekly. In an ideal world, every child would grow up happy and healthy.