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Telomeres and Telomerase: Past, Present and Future Established 1881 WEATHER, p. 2 MIT’s Oldest and TUE: 55°F | 40°F Largest Newspaper Rain WED: 50°F | 32°F Partly sunny tech.mit.edu THU: 43°F | 25°F Partly sunny Established 1881 Volume 133, Number 11 Tuesday, March 12, 2013 REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK UA elections coming up Chief Google economist talks on next week! Undergraduate Association election week begins at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 18, and students can vote online data, statistics, and Google tools at vote.mit.edu until 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 23. The Spring 2013 UA elections will fill the 2013-2014 UA President/Vice President positions and the Class Coun- Lecture focuses on using Google Trends, Correlate, Surveys cils for each class. There are two tickets running for UAP/ EstablishedBy Anthony Yu 1881 ees were graduate students eager to VP this year: Cory D. Hernandez ’14/John Kongoletos ’14 STAFF REPORTER learn more about applying “big data” to and Sidhanth P. Rao ’14/Devin T. Cornish ’14. business. The lecture began with quick According to their platforms, Hernandez/Kongoletos Yesterday afternoon, the Under- remarks from UEA President, Ting — who have both had experience within the UA — cite graduate Economics Association host- Mao ’14 and a glowing introduction of “[restoring] trust in the UA” as their mission, saying that ed a lecture by Google’s Chief Econo- Varian by economics lecturer Sara F. the UA is meant to be “an entity that provides a voice to mist, Hal R. Varian ’69, on “Predicting Ellison, who credited him for inspir- undergraduates.” Their vision includes recruitment and the Present with Search Engine Data.” ing a new generation of information student engagement, and ensuring UA accountability Hal Varian, an MIT alum, taught at economists. based on those sources of input. UC Berkeley for several decades before Varian’s lecture focused on three On the other hand, Rao/Cornish are marketing them- becoming Google’s Chief Economist in Google Tools: Trends, Correlate, and selves as UA outsiders, indicating that “the sole func- 2010. He is one of the several influential Consumer Surveys. He began with tion of the UA” is to ensure the success and happiness voices in the emerging field of big data, light-hearted set of questions: “What of every MIT student. Along those lines, they’ve broken particularly noted for saying in The day in the week receives the most their vision down into mutual support in the MIT com- McKinsey Quarterly that being a stat- searches about hangovers?” Appar- munity, student center renovations, and undergraduate istician would be “the sexy job” in the ently, searches about hangovers peak education. next decade. I thought attending the every Sunday with an outlier on Jan. 1, The Tech and the UA are co-hosting the annual UAP/ lectureEstablished would be a great opportunity 1881 eliciting guilty chuckles from the au- VP debate at 7 p.m. this Thursday, March 14, on the first for me as an economics student. dience. This laughter was even more floor of the student center. I arrived at the lecture hall about 10 pronounced when Varian highlighted Platforms of the candidates running for UA President/ minutes early, not expecting to see a that searches about vodka peak a day Vice President and the Class Councils can be seen online giant crowd. However, by the time 4:30 before searches about hangovers. He at http://elections.scripts.mit.edu/candidates/. Check rolled around, E51-345 had filled its ca- presented other statistics, including back in Friday’s issue of The Tech for coverage on the UAP/ pacity of 128 with standing room only. the peak in the search term “civil war” VP debate and in-depth interviews with the candidates. COURTESY OF UNIVErsITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Although billed as an undergraduate —Anne Cai Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian. event, it was clear that most attend- Varian, Page 11 US Attorney General questioned on Swartz U.S. Attorney General Eric H. zeal Establishedand, I would say, even miscon 1881- Holder was questioned by Senator duct,” said Cornyn. John Cornyn (R-Texas) last week over But Holder said Swartz was never the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. At really facing 35 years in prison and a Senate Judiciary Committee over- that three to six months was much sight hearing, Cornyn asserted that more likely. the penalties Swartz faced for mass “[The] news reports about what downloading JSTOR articles via MIT’s he was facing was not consistent with network were disproportionate to the what the interaction was between magnitude of the crime. the government and Mr. Swartz,” “He was charged with crimes that said Holder, who added that plea of- would have carried a penalty of up to fers were made before and after the 35 years in prison and a million dollar indictment, carrying penalties of at fine. A superseding indictment which most six months. was filed would have upped both the “There was never an intention prison time and the fines. I wrote a for him to go to jail for longer than letter asking about that prosecution and raising questions of prosecutorial Swartz, Page 12 VANEssA TrEVINO Samuel P. Heilbroner ’13 performs a solo on the alto saxophone. The MIT Festival Jazz En- semble, directed by Frederick Harris, celebrated its 50th anniversary of Jazz at MIT with “Home- News Briefs grown for 50 Years!” on Friday, March 8, 2013. Racy wristbands ing. We appreciate those of you who “That’s a nice dress. It would look noticed the wristbands and pointed great on my floor.” them out to us; please accept our sin- At a “South by Southwest” party cere apology.” p.m. in the Stata Center. The A memorial for Aaron Swartz hosted by the MIT Media Lab in Austin, The blog post mentions that the IN Short theme this year is Safety for Pe- will be held today at 4 p.m. on the Nominations are open for the Texas this past Saturday, wristbands wristbands were distributed by the destrians, Bicyclists, and Drivers. sixth floor of the Media Lab. were distributed to party attendees venue (The Parish Underground) and 2013 MIT Awards Convocation for outstanding contributions to with a variety of flirtatious messages. the organizers did not know about TechCash is now accepted at The 2013 CEE/CDO symposium “Do you wash your clothes with them beforehand. the Institute. Nominations are due Sebastian’s Cafe. All TechCash by Friday, March 15 at 5 p.m. at “New Directions in Computa- Windex? Cause I can see myself in your SXSW is an entertainment and in- purchases made in March have a tion and Their Implications pants.” said another. teractive technology conference that’s http://awards.mit.edu/nominate. 15 percent discount. for Engineering” is happening The wristbands were apparently held in Austin every year. It is a collabo- Thursday. Wolfram Research controversial, inciting the Media Lab ration between the Media Lab, Knight Pi Day is Thursday! MIT Regular Applications for Public Service to apologize on its blog yesterday. Foundation, and Mozilla. Action admissions decisions will Center funded summer fellow- founder and CEO Stephen Wol- “They were offensive and in no way re- be available on Thursday begin- ships and internships are due fram will speak in 34-401 from flect the sentiments of the MIT Media Ed Boyden wins brain prize ning at 6:28 p.m. EST. March 21, at noon. More infor- 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. Lab,” read the blog post. “We don’t like Ed Boyden, an associate professor mation can be found at http:// — and certainly don’t want to support The Transportation Fair is web.mit.edu/mitpsc/whatwedo/ Send news information and tips or disseminate — offensive messag- Prizes, Page 12 Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 internshipsandfellowships/. to [email protected]. whY are secret LIFE OF researchers MIT-WELLesLEY AN EMPhasis SECTIONS World & Nation . .2 On the suspense of doing literature HUMans SPeciaL? RELAY For LIFE on STEM Opinion . .4 reviews. CAMPUS LIFE, p. 10 Ask A-Theist, The See photos from this High schools need to Fun Pages . .6 Tech ’s new column on EVALuatinG 8.02X and 8.02 weekend’s Relay For Life encourage students Campus Life . .10 worldviews. event. to continue in STEM Sports . .16 CAMPUS LIFE, p. 10 On rigor and assessing the edX version PHOTO, p. 11 fields. OPINION, p. 4 of 8.02. LETTERS, p. 4 2 The Tech Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Hedge fund manager found D and jailed on fraud charges Family believes India rape FRANKFURT, Germany — Florian Homm, a flamboyant former hedge fund manager who spent the last five years in hiding, was arrested Friday in Italy and faced extradition to the suspect was killed United States on securities fraud charges, the FBI said. Italian police arrested Homm, 53, at the Uffizi Gallery in By Heather Timmons ously damaged in a bus accident. up for sexual assault cases. The cre- WORL Florence, the FBI said. Homm is accused of defrauding inves- and Niharika Mandhana In addition, they said, he shared his ation of such courts was a direct re- tors of at least $200 million, the FBI said. The most serious of THE NEW YORK TIMES cell in the Tihar prison complex with sult of the uproar over the fatal rape N the four felony charges carry maximum sentences of 25 years several inmates, making it difficult to in December, as thousands of people in prison. NEW DELHI — The family of believe he could have hanged him- across India, long angered by selec- Homm was one of Germany’s best-known financiers before a suspect in a fatal gang rape here self without being noticed.
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