PDF of This Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WEATHER, p. 2 TUE: 65°F | 55°F MIT’s Mostly cloudy Oldest and Largest WED: 63°F | 46°F Newspaper Rain showers THU 58°F | 43°F Chance of showers Volume 131, Number 24 tech.mit.edu Tuesday, May 3, 2011 First open house in over 30 years draws 20,000 Organizers deem it ‘tremendous success’; MIT ponders holding more frequent open houses By Ethan A. Solomon departments, student groups, and EDITOR IN CHIEF MIT divisions were asked to in- dependently develop open house To the outside world, MIT can events, underscoring the largely de- be an intimidating place. Films like centralized organizational process Good Will Hunting and 21 have por- behind Under the Dome. Opera- trayed the Institute as an exclusive tions like information booths and — and sometimes snobbish — club security were, however, organized of scientists and engineers. Last Sat- on the level of the entire campus. urday, MIT set out to change all that David A. Mindell ’96, chair of by hosting its first open house in the MIT150 Steering Committee, more than 30 years, dubbed “Under was pleased with the open house, the Dome.” noting that nothing like it has hap- An estimated 20,000 visitors pened in recent MIT history. Since came to MIT for demonstrations, MIT’s last open house was over tours, and exhibits hosted by MIT 30 years ago, Mindell said that the student groups, academic depart- open house was “nothing anybody ments, and administrative divisions. on campus had done before.” He From demonstrations of the Wright said there were no significant secu- Brothers Wind Tunnel (Building rity incidents. 17), to a UH 60 Black Hawk fly-in Paul A. Lagacé ’78, open house to Briggs Field, to the Baker House co-chair, described the day as a piano drop, MIT hosted 312 events “tremendous success.” He indi- in five hours. Children especially cated that, despite the 30-year gap seemed to enjoy the day-long affair between MIT’s last open house and — and availed themselves of oppor- this one, the next open house might tunities to climb campus artwork. come sooner. MANOHAR SRIKANTH—THE TECH Still, not all of MIT was open. “Everybody is excited about the Children learn the inner workings of a joystick-controlled robotic manipulator during a technology dem- Labs which could not allow visitors opportunity to do this again,” said onstration at the Stata Center during MIT’s Under The Dome open house celebration on Saturday afternoon� inside opted to bring demonstra- Approximately 20,000 attendees visited campus for the first open house in over 30 years, part of MIT’s 150th tions to public spaces. Academic Open house, Page 11 anniversary celebrations� For more photos of Under The Dome, see p� 11� Boston celebrates death of Osama bin Laden Maseeh to have binding lottery Students moving into Maseeh “To secure RBA and to create a Hall next term will not be able to strong stable community from the enter the re-adjustment lottery. day the dorm opens its doors, the Maseeh Hall is an RBA dorm, Housemasters agreed that selec- and like McCormick, students tion of Maseeh would be binding,” who place in Maseeh in the sum- Nicholson said mer lottery will have to live in that Although the decision for this dorm. Virginia L. Nicholson ’12, coming fall is set, Maseeh’s binding Phoenix Group president, con- RBA status will be reviewed to see firms that Maseeh will still partici- if that will be changed in the future. pate in REX, but students will not “Whatever benefits are gained have the option to move into Mas- by making RBA binding, we need eeh in the re-adjustment lottery to decide if those outweigh the — which about a third of incom- benefits of participating in REX,” ing freshmen enter. The dorm will said Daniel D. Hawkins ’12, UA still hold events open to the entire Housing Committee chair. campus. —Stan Gill Stem cells still alive Courts support legality of research GREG STEINBRECHER—THE TECH By John A. Hawkinson In the case, former MIT professor A crowd mostly composed of college students gathered at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Com- STAFF REPORTER and adult stem cell researcher James mon late Sunday evening to celebrate the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden� Two days ago, President L. Sherley sued the U.S. government Barack Obama announced that bin Laden was killed by a joint ground operation of the Navy SEALs Human embryonic stem cell re- to prevent the NIH from funding hu- and the CIA� The crowd sustained itself for almost two hours with an ebullient atmosphere, chanting searchers — at MIT and elsewhere — man embryonic stem cell research, and occasionally singing� Police officers stood nearby to monitor the energetic gathering� The students can rest easy … at least for now. on the grounds that it violates a Con- seemed to be predominantly from Boston University and MIT, with sparser showings from other area After five months of waiting for gressional appropriations rider bar- two different courts, the U.S. legal ring federal funding of research that colleges� system has taken one small step to- destroys human embryos. ward permitting that research to Sherley, who is black, was denied continue. But it will be months be- tenure by MIT in 2006. This led to a fore the case is fully resolved. Friday hunger strike by Sherley and an ac- Kendall Band Preservation Society. Go make some mu- morning, the United States Court of rimonious dispute over the tenure IN Short sic at the Kendall/MIT MBTA station. The MIT Awards Convocation will be held in 10-250 to- Appeals for the District of Columbia process; Sherley claimed his tenure voted 2-1 to dismiss a preliminary decision was a result of racism. He is day at 4 p.m. MIT will recognize students, faculty, and staff Already thinking about next semester? Pre-registra- injunction barring the National Insti- now a researcher at the Boston Bio- for contributions they have made to the MIT community. tion for classes opened yesterday. tutes of Health from funding human medical Research Institution, which embryonic stem cell research. does not support Sherley in this case. Amar G. Bose ’51 donated a majority of Bose Corpo- The MIT150 Brains, Minds, and Machines sympo- That injunction had been on hold Sherley, like all BBRI investigators, is ration stock to MIT in the form of non-voting shares, sium will be held today through Thursday in Kresge (stayed) while the court heard an ap- expected to fund his own research, according to an announcement from the MIT News Of- Auditorium. fice last Friday. For more, see pgs. 15, 17. peal in the case, Sherley v. Sebelius, including his salary. so researchers have been able to con- In a 21-page decision, Judge Send news information and news feedback to tinue their work during these past Douglas Ginsburg wrote: The Kendall Band has been fixed thanks to the MIT [email protected]. months. The case was argued before the three-judge panel on Dec. 6, 2010. Stem cells, Page 12 KeeP the Bush PREFROSH inVade THE TECH These aren’T Just OsaMA Bin SECTIONS World & Nation � � �2 Why did the Class of 2015 pick MIT? taX cuts PUMPKINS Laden is dead Opinion � � � � � � � � �4 CAMPUS LIFE, p. 18 Contrary to what Dems Glass art master Dale If you haven’t heard, Fun Pages � � � � � � �6 say, the Bush tax cuts BREAKING THE CODE Chihuly’s work is live at the get out of that cave Arts � � � � � � � � � � � �9 are sound fiscal policy� Boston MFA� you’ve been living in� Campus Life � � � �18 OPINION, p. 4 Central Square Theater does ARTS, p. 10 WORLD/NATION, p. 2 Sports � � � � � � � � �20 Alan Turing� ARTS, p. 9 2 The Tech Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Bin Laden DNA match is D likely a parent or child Emblem of evil in the US, While federal officials said that analysis of DNA from sev- eral relatives helped confirm that it was Osama bin Laden who was killed in the military raid on Sunday, they have not yet icon to the cause of terror disclosed the relationships of the family members whose DNA was used. By Kate Zernike afterward he remained an elusive, He waged holy war with modern WORL Officials said they collected multiple DNA samples from and Michael T. Kaufman shadowy figure frustratingly be- methods. He sent fatwas — religious bin Laden’s relatives in the years since the Sept. 11 attacks. And THE NEW YORK TIMES yond the grasp of his pursuers and decrees — by fax and declared war N they said the analysis, which was performed the day bin Laden thought to be holed up somewhere on Americans in an email mes- was killed but after his body was buried at sea, confirmed his Osama bin Laden, who was in Pakistan and plotting new attacks. sage beamed by satellite around identity with 99.9 percent accuracy. killed in Pakistan on Sunday, was Long before, he had become a the world. Al-Qaida members kept Some scientific experts said on Monday that if results re- a son of the Saudi elite whose radi- hero in much of the Islamic world, bomb-making manuals on CD and ally were so accurate, at least one of the sources was likely to cal, violent campaign to re-create as much a myth as a man — what communicated with encrypted have been a close relative, like a child or parent with whom he a seventh-century Muslim empire a longtime CIA officer called “the memos on laptop computers, lead- shared half his genes.