Census Offers a Snapshot Tinted by Recession
A smaller share of Americans married, drove to work alone, owned a home or moved to a new residence last year than the year before.
White House Pushes In States’ Races
The White House’s intervention in the race for New York governor is the latest evidence of how President Barack Obama and his top advisers are taking an increasingly direct role in contests across the country, but their assertiveness has bruised some Democrats who suggest it could undercut Obama’s appeal with voters tired of partisan politics.
Shorts (left)
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s 66-page report assessing the conditions in Afghanistan is serving to catalyze the thinking of a president about what he can realistically accomplish in this conflict, and whether his vision for the war and a commitment of U.S. troops is the same as his general’s.
Ousted President Returns to Honduras
Three months after he was expelled in a dawn coup, the deposed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, sneaked back into his country on Monday, forcing world leaders gathered in New York to refocus their attention on the political stalemate to the south and presenting a new challenge to the de facto government.
More Variable New England Weather
A friend of mine once said, “You can tell that it’s fall when the skies are clear and blue.” And while this did apply to many of our high school afternoons, it isn’t quite as cut and dry here in Cambridge, where the weather varies more dramatically. Yesterday was such a day with completely clear skies due to high pressure off the coast. Today should also be fairly clear, with a few clouds here and there.
Shorts (right)
Two days after the execution of a convicted rapist-murderer was halted when technicians were unable to inject him with lethal drugs, a federal judge ordered Thursday that the inmate be deposed for a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s lethal injection procedure.
New Missile Shield Inverts Old Cold War Thinking
The new plan that President Barack Obama laid out for a missile shield against Iran on Thursday turns Ronald Reagan’s vision of a Stars Wars system on its head: Rather than focusing first on protecting the continental United States, it shifts the immediate effort to defending Europe and the Middle East.
Lab Technician Charged With Murder of Yale Student
Before there was blood, the high-technology lab at 10 Amistad St. at Yale University was a model of efficiency. The mice and rats and rabbits stayed locked in cages. The technicians responsible for their well-being circulated like emergency room nurses. Researchers hunched over the cages for hours, intent on claiming a breakthrough.
China’s Economy Is Back, While U.S. Still Ails
Just eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global downturn.
SEC Seeks To Ban Flash Orders
It is an obscure art of Wall Street, a technique that gives a scattering of traders an edge over everyone else and the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to stamp it out.
Italy Ponders Afghan Pullout After Deadly Blast
A powerful suicide bomb that killed six Italian soldiers here on Thursday prompted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy to declare that his nation had begun planning to “bring our young men home as soon as possible.”
A Break in the Clouds
Today’s weather will offer a reprieve from the cool, dreary weather that MIT has experienced over the past couple days. A change in wind direction means that warmer air from over land will blow in from the West, instead of cool ocean air from the East. As a result, temperatures will reach the high 70s°F, instead of hovering around the 60°F mark as they did on Wednesday and Thursday.
Killing Of Yale Student Not A ‘Random Act,’ Police Say
Annie Le was so focused on academics that, even though she was the valedictorian of her high school class and her classmates voted her “most likely to be the next Einstein,” she filled out 102 applications for scholarships.
Shorts (right)
Google, long seen as an enemy by many in the news industry, is making a bold attempt to be seen as a friend with a new service it hopes will make it easier for readers to read newspaper and magazine articles.
Shorts (left)
A new audiotape, reportedly from Osama bin Laden, says that President Barack Obama is no different from his predecessor and warns that anti-American attacks will not stop unless the United States ends the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wall Street’s Math Wizards Are Tweaking Their Formulas
In the aftermath of the great meltdown of 2008, Wall Street’s quants have been cast as the financial engineers of profit-driven innovation run amok. But the real failure, according to finance experts and economists, was in the quants’ mathematical models of risk that suggested the arcane stuff was safe.
Pakistan Army Suspected of Extrajudicial Killings in Swat
Two months after the Pakistani army wrested control of the Swat Valley from Taliban militants, a new campaign of fear has taken hold, with scores, perhaps hundreds, of bodies dumped on the streets in what human rights advocates and local residents say is the work of the military.
Typical Fall Weather
As we enter the second week of classes, we will experience variable weather typical of fall in New England. After a rainy and cool Friday and Saturday this past weekend, the last two days have been sunny and warm. This weather will continue today as we will enjoy a mostly sunny day with pleasant temperatures in the low 70s°F.
Russia Says Sanctions Against Iran Are Unlikely
Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Thursday all but ruled out imposing new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, brushing aside growing Western concerns that Iran had made significant progress in recent months in a bid for nuclear weapons.