Volume 132, Number 9
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Established 1881 HAPPY SUPer TUesDAY! Don’T ForGet to Vote! WEATHER, p. 2 MIT’s Oldest and TUE: 42°F | 19°F Largest Newspaper Sunny WED: 55°F | 25°F Sunny tech.mit.edu THU: 68°F | 41°F Partly cloudy Established 1881 Volume 132, Number 9 Tuesday, March 6, 2012 Burton-Conner housemasters step down after eight years Smith advises successor to be advocate for students By Maggie Lloyd projects, including a book that he enjoyable, and rewarding has been COntRIBUtinG EDitOR says “is going to be sufficiently de- really living and interacting with the Established 1881 manding that I don’t think I can students. We leave the housemas- Burton-Conner housemasters be a housemaster and do this sort ter-ship feeling a lot better about Merritt Roe Smith and Bronwyn M. of writing.” The book portrays the M I T.” Mellquist announced that they will American Civil War as a technologi- be stepping down as housemasters cal event, following not battles but The Beginning in an email to the dorm on Feb. 24. innovative technologies and their The idea to become housemas- “This was a very difficult deci- impact on the postwar period. ters began more than 10 years ago at sion to make as we have relished the The duo started thinking about dinner, when the two started talking opportunity to live and work with so the difficult decision to leave Bur- about their relationship with MIT many fantastic residents of Burton- ton-Conner about a year ago. “We students. “I didn’t know the student Conner,” read the email, “Indeed, always have second thoughts, just life side of MIT at all,” Smith said. being your housemasters has been about every day, we have second The biggest factor in their deci- our best experience at MIT. But all thoughts about ‘did we do the right sion came when Smith’s grad stu- good things must end.” thing?’” Smith said, adding “we dent, a GRT for MacGregor, invited Smith has been a professor for want to go out at the top of our him to become a faculty fellow for the Program in Science, Technol- game.” J-entry. This allowed Smith to in- ogy, and Society (STS) and the his- Their eight-year tenure far ex- teract with students outside of the tory faculty for 34 years, and will ceeds their original expectations. classroom. Established 1881continue teaching after he and his “What we initially thought would On the night of Sept. 11, 2001, wife leave Burton-Conner. be a four-year stint has stretched to Smith got a call from the GRT that JOSEPH MAURER—THE TECH “We have a house in Newton eight years, and for a number of rea- changed the way he viewed student Hackers used lighting gels to bathe the interior of Lobby 7 in that has been sitting there for eight sons, it seems that now is the time life at MIT. “He called me up and purple. Like a similar display last year, the hack precedes the Relay years basically, and it’s time for us for us to move on,” they wrote in said, ‘Can you come down tonight for Life, a major fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. to move back,” he said. their email to Burton-Conner. because people are really tense?’ MIT will host a relay on March 10 in the Johnson Track. The opportunity to resettle will According to Smith, “The thing also give Smith more time for other that has been the most interesting, BC Housemasters, Page 10 Memories of junior Brian G. Anderson Recalling the life of ‘a youngEstablished man 1881 who was so spectacularly gifted’ By Steve Bradt When his two brothers, five MIT NEWS and eight years older, invited friends over to play tackle foot- At Brian G. Anderson ’13’s ball, Anderson never hesitated memorial service in Minnesota to join in. “Although he was the on Saturday, friends and family little bro, it soon became clear agreed on certain things about that there was nothing little or the MIT junior: He was fearless timid about him,” his brother and strong. He was brilliant and Ray said. “He would get riled up loved MIT. He was frequently if someone told him he couldn’t barefoot and in trees — often at accomplish something, particu- the same time. larly if that someone was an older “He was a full-speed-ahead, brother.” pedal-to-the-metal type of guy,” his mother, Cecilia Anderson, Silos, skydiving and scuba PRIYA GARG said at the memorial service. “He From a young age, Anderson Anjali B. Thakkar ’12 (pictured at far back) performs “Maanya Shree — Exceptional Women” with mem- was quick as a jackrabbit: both showed a remarkable lack of fear bers of the Abhinaya Dance Company in a guest performance hosted by MIT Natya. The concert paid physically and mentally gifted. of heights. While still a preschool- homage to various women from Hindu mythology and concluded with expressive dances focusing on the He loved outwitting people, and er, he climbed to the top of a silo plight of women in India. he had an indomitable spirit. on the family’s Minnesota farm, There was nothing he couldn’t do waving and yelling hello to his if he put his mind to it.” startled grandmother below. At Anderson, 21, whose body was age 15, he joined his parents and Alcator C-Mod is hosting an open be performing in W20-308 tonight at 7 found Feb. 20 in his Next House brothers on a rim-to-rim hike of IN Short house on Wednesday, March 7, from p.m. as part of the Coffeehouse Lounge dorm room, was a management the Grand Canyon. Add date is Friday, March 9. The add/ 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tours leave every half- series. (Course 15) major and a member As a child, Anderson “climbed drop form can be found at http://web. hour starting in NW17. of the MIT wrestling team. more trees than anyone else I mit.edu/registrar/forms/reg/AddDrop- The first MITx course — 6.002x: Brian Gregory Anderson was know,” Tom Anderson said. He Change.pdf. The 2012 Lemelson-MIT Student Circuits and Electronics — officially born Nov. 28, 1990, in Redwood was particularly fond of doing so Prize Ceremony is Wednesday, March began yesterday. It can be accessed at Falls, Minn., the youngest of three barefoot — and of walking bare- Quarter 4 PE Registration opens 7 at 6:15 p.m. in 10-250. The winner of http://mitx.mit.edu. sons of Gregory and Cecilia Ander- foot on gravel roads and even at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, March 7 this year’s prize will be announced at son. Weighing 9 lbs., 6 oz., at birth, through ice and snow. “Your feet at http://mitpe.com/registration/ the event. Send news information and tips to he looked like he “had just gone were somehow numb to every mit-undergraduate-student. [email protected]. the distance in a boxing match,” surface you walked on,” Tom An- The MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble will his brother Tom said. “I always knew [he was] going to be tough.” Anderson, Page 13 hoUSE DininG ALcator C-MOD A worLD OF BasKetBALL wiLL SECTIONS World & Nation . .2 It’s not as bad as we Should Congress shutter the project or PROBABILities GO to nationaLS Opinion . .4 originally thought! not? LETTERS, p. 5 How much can we know First time in Institute’s Fun Pages . .7 OPINION, p. 4 is MitX worth it? about the universe? history that team has Sports . .16 FUN, p. 9 reached the Sweet 16. Two sides of MIT’s newest venture. SPORTS, p. 16 LETTERS, p. 6 2 The Tech Tuesday, March 6, 2012 Camp David, not Chicago, D to host G-8 Leadership rift emerges in WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has boasted for months about playing host to the annual summit meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations this May in his home- Pakistani Taliban town, Chicago. But Monday, without explanation, the White House announced a shift to the secluded setting of Camp David, By Declan Walsh jaur Taliban,” one of the men said. strikes in its Waziristan strong- WORL the presidential retreat in Maryland. THE NEW YORK TIMES “This is untimely and can create a hold in the mountainous region of Administration officials and associates, speaking only on the rift amongst the mujahedeen.” northwest Pakistan, and Pakistani N condition of anonymity, said the president in recent weeks be- ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani Simmering tensions between military operations elsewhere in gan discussing the idea of a more intimate setting for the world Taliban faced the prospect of a Muhammad and the head of the the tribal belt. leaders — both to ease their communications and to cut down damaging leadership rift Monday Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah “The TTP’s peak has passed, on the security concerns and traffic tie-ups of a big-city meeting. when the abrupt dismissal of a Mehsud, spilled into the open in it’s on the downslide,” said Kha- “To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 senior commander provoked an January when it emerged that Mu- lid Aziz, a former provincial chief partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp angry reaction in the militants’ hammad had unilaterally entered secretary. “Its people are coming David on May 18–19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a ranks, offering the Islamabad gov- into peace talks with the Pakistani under pressure; they are starting ATIO broad range of economic, political, and security issues,” the ernment a fresh opportunity to government.