Life in the cement bunker
Over the course of four years at MIT, I’ve come to realize the meaning of IHTFP. I distinctly remember the senses of anguish: the smell of a blown op-amp at 2AM, feeling powerless when MIT cut eight varsity sports, the taste of another Red Bull while trying to finish that computational biology project, and listening to the collective groan of freshmen getting back their physics exams. The visions of paradise are even more vivid: watching our professor race to erase multivariable calculus equations in 10-250 before the boards could reset, observing a unanimous vote of the faculty to approve an experiment that could bring together the fall career fair and the September student holiday, and seeing it start to snow right before my first crew regatta. During the weeks since class ended, I’ve found myself thinking about how unique some of these experiences are to MIT and identifying the common thread behind them: our community and its insistence on the freedom to explore.
HDAG is failing to keep students informed
A new link to “minutes” from the House Dining Advisory Group meetings was posted on the House Dining Review website last week. The document communicates frustratingly little concrete information and highlights the extent to which HDAG has failed to deliver on its promise of transparency and student engagement.
Tall tales, tamed truth How shifting baselines turn the past into myth
Last week, my dad and I had yet another conversation about privacy. It makes him nervous to consider what gets broadcast where and stored away by whom on the World Wide Web. Chances are, your parents feel similarly about the explosion of tell-all networking sites and one-click shopping pages that save your credit card info and life history details. Meanwhile, many of us don’t bat an eye when asked to supply birth dates and cell phone numbers, while a string of relationship dramas play out across our Facebook walls.
Israel Innovation Week is just Israeli public relations MIT should not support Israel’s attempts to polish its image.
Science and technology should be used to benefit humanity, not to destroy it. Sadly, MIT’s Global Education and Career Development Center (GECDC) betrayed this principle this past weekend when it co-sponsored a weekend of exhibits, presentations and events billed as “Israeli Innovation — Healing the World through Technology” at the Museum of Science. Israeli Innovation Weekend (IIW) was co-sponsored by the Consulate-General of the State of Israel to New England, which is also one of the events top donors; nearly half of IIW’s steering committee is made up of consulate staff.
A new problem for a new age
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood made the case to an audience of MIT students and faculty that technological distractions in the car constitute an “epidemic” — each year, 6,000 people die because someone was texting or making a call while on the road. And Secretary LaHood is right. Distracted driving is a problem. But the Department of Transportation’s plan to tackle this challenge in the same way they taught us to wear seat belts and not drive drunk might have some problems of its own.
Three simple steps to group project success
Group. Project. These are possibly two of the most dreaded words to an MIT student, inducing fears of getting stuck with the slacker partner or pulling an all-nighter to throw together a half-effort project. At least, this is how those two words make me feel. So when I heard that I would be working on not one but <i>three</i> group projects in my classes this semester, I was dismayed, to say the least.
Bringing MIT technology to the world
MIT announced this week that it would be assisting neglected disease research by putting its patents into a patent pool sponsored by pharmaceutical company GSK for use by neglected disease researchers around the world.
The goals of Palestine Awareness Week
In very few ways does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “resemble domestically sticky political conflicts in the United States.” Still, people would have you believe otherwise. People would have you believe that the conflict is merely a squabble over land, with hardheaded opponents on each side, or a poorly managed government soiling an otherwise unanimous peace. Most people know how difficult it can be to get steadfast opponents to agree on anything. So, is this the case here?
In defense of Dodd
Though byzantine on paper, at its heart, the Senate financial reform bill of Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) is sweet and simple. We will expand the resolution authority of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation so that it will be able to do more than simply place small-to-mid-sized banks in federal receivership.
Spill, baby, spill!
Ladies and Gentlemen, add British Petroleum to your list of gas stations to avoid. While “Beyond Petroleum” had some success with a massive rebranding campaign that briefly convinced the public that the petrochemical giant was greener than Greenpeace (see a troubling 2008 UK study), the ongoing Gulf of Mexico spill will surely smear its green, floral logo.
Corrections
A headline about Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel incorrectly stated his age. Dudamel is 29, not 28. He turned 29 in January.
Focused on the wrong thing
In many ways, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resembles domestically sticky political conflicts in the United States and other developed nations with which we are more familiar. Consider wealth redistribution: there are two sides to the argument, each unwavering as they see their argument as both practically and morally correct. These views are enforced by a list of facts each side is capable of producing at a moment’s notice: “taxing the rich is economically inefficient; the poor need to be taught how to improve their own situations,” or “equitable distribution improves the opportunities of the poor, and boosts economic output by increasing the productivity of the disadvantaged.” Here is the problem: both statements contain some truth. What you believe depends on your values and point of view; the analysis can support any statement.
The false dichotomy
For politicians, depicting the conflict between right and left as a matter of markets vs. governments is convenient. It allows liberals to portray their opponents as anarcho-capitalists who believe that the fire department should be privatized, and lets conservatives pretend their rivals want the government to make every medical decision for its people. So long as this either-or binary paradigm is accepted by the voters, politicians don’t need an intellect capable of explaining difficult and nuanced policy trade-offs — instead they simply need the money to run ad campaigns reminding voters of the past successes and failures of governments or markets.
Working so your internship works for you
Congratulations! You’ve landed yourself a summer internship. In today’s difficult job market, that’s quite an accomplishment. However, that same difficult job market is going to make excelling at your internship even more critical. While you might be using your internship to get real-world experience, escape the ivory tower for a few months, or just to earn some extra cash, remember this: companies use internships to evaluate potential future employees.
The invisible
When we think of leaders, we frequently think of those most visible transformational figures whose foresight, charisma, and bravado forever shaped the world. However, this view is simplistic, and simply not sufficient to capture the full meaning of leadership. Like the “great men/women theory” of history, which attributes the chronology of the past to the actions of a few, this perspective on leadership ignores one of its most important characteristics — the fact that leadership is a collective phenomenon. The great man/woman does not exist without need, cannot function without support, and cannot succeed without belief. And so this article is for you, the oft-forgotten many whose desires and actions set the stage for the so-called great men and women.
Corrections
A story last Friday about the Boston Marathon gave the incorrect middle initial for Jared J. Markowitz G, who placed 47th. His middle initial is J, not M.
Breaking the silence
Rewind forty years and a few days to the very first Earth Day in 1970. One topic was on everybody’s mind: the growing human population. Scientists and environmentalists, eyeing exponentially increasing numbers, made dire predictions about mass famine and warfare as humanity outstripped the planet’s ability to provide space and resources.
Mr. Obama, tear down this wall
It is popular wisdom that immigrants are a drain upon our country. They’re stereotyped as either violent criminals, diseased, or wards of the state. We’re told that they steal American jobs, put a strain on our natural resources, and fail to integrate into our society. As immigration reform begins working its way through Congress, (and as Arizona goes insane), it is important to set the record straight and review the reasons why expanding legal immigration is in the interests of the United States.