MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Cloudy and mild, 50s°F (12°C) Tonight: Showers after 8 p.m., Newspaper lows in the mid 30s°F (2°C) Tomorrow: Mostly sunny and colder, highs in the mid 30s°F (2°C) http://tech.mit.edu/ Details, Page 2 Volume 129, Number 8 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, February 27, 2009 His Name is ‘Zoz.’ Former GRT New Building Process Stars on Discovery Channel Worries Local Board; By Ramya Sankar CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Traffic is Major Issue A team of four engineers pro- totyping a creation — sounds like By Elijah Jordan Turner “The feedback we received from a group project at MIT, right? The ASSOCIatE NEWS EDITOR the neighbors,” Owu said, “is similar only difference? These engineers MIT is meeting resistance from to what they’ve stated in their let- are on TV, in a new show “Prototype neighborhood residents as it hopes ters to the Planning Board and City This” which aired on the Discovery to construct a new building at 650 Council.” Channel last October. One of the Main Street, a parking lot diago- The number of parking spots in engineers is a former Senior House nally across from Tech Square. The the facility and the additional road Graduate Resident Tutor, Andrew 400,000-square-foot project will traffic they will encourage is one Brooks PhD ’07. come before the Cambridge Plan- of the A4NC’s primary concerns. Brooks — or Zoz as he was com- ning Board on Tuesday, Mar. 3, The site is currently occupied by a monly know on campus — left MIT amidst concerns from the Area 4 272-space parking lot, but the pro- shortly after Spring 2006 to join the Neighborhood Coalition (A4NC) posed building would have either “Prototype This” team and spent the that it will bring additional vehicu- 650 or 820 spaces if designated for last two and a half years working on lar traffic to the area and integrate lab or office space, respectively; the show. He completed his thesis poorly with the neighborhood. there would be an underground later in 2006 to fulfill requirements The current plans call for the parking facility in both situations. for his PhD in Electrical Engineering building to be commercial, with The A4NC considers the latter num- & Computer Science. space leased to outside parties. ber too high, especially considering The ground floor will contain retail the site’s proximity to bus routes Early Childhood space, while the upper floors will be and the Kendall and Central T stops. As a child, Brooks was more into able to accommodate either labora- Further, even though the coalition chemicals than computers. “There’s tories or offices. does not take issue with the ongoing only two reasons people get into Sarah Gallop, of the Office of construction closer to campus, there chemistry; it’s either drugs or fire, Government and Community Rela- are concerns that the parking in the and for me it was fire,” joked Brooks. tions, indicated that MIT has been plans for 650 Main Street fails to But he did have an early exposure to working with the A4NC since Oc- consider the spaces created by those computers as his parents gave him a tober, meeting with them on at least other projects. second-hand Apple II+ to play with. four occasions to solicit feedback “We would hope MIT would The 1978 Apple II+ was the first and refine the plans for the build- look at parking as a campus-wide computer he programmed. ing. Director of the Center for Real issue rather than a per-building is- After learning all he could about ERIC D. Schmiedl—The TECH Estate Michael K. Owu ’86 said the sue,” said A4NC member Sarah pyrotechnics in high school, Brooks Andrew ‘Zoz’ Brooks PhD ’07 stands in front of the weather radar A4NC’s concerns were not a surprise Roszler MCP ’05. Gallop and Owu, went on to double major in chemis- dish atop the roof of MIT’s Building 54 one afternoon this February. due to MIT’s continued interaction try and computer science in college. with community members. 650 Main, Page 11 He found himself spending more project where he created an active creating controllable hardware and and more time in the computer lab vision system with cameras that understanding human interactions instead of the chemistry lab. He built could be controlled by the robot. his first robotic system for a class The project sparked his interest in Zoz, Page 10 Cut Dining Costs Five Percent by Showing Your ID Technology Review and News Office If you’re an MIT student, you don’t have to pay tax on most on-campus food purchases. Join Forces To Cut Costs, Redundancy Show your MIT student ID and skip the 5 percent meals tax at An- By Sandhya Rawal their separate governances and that mission of the TR is to analyze the na’s Taqueria, Dunkin Donuts, and many other on-campus vendors — MIT is in the process of com- TR is still independent, and remains greater impact of new and emerg- see a full list at http://web.mit.edu/dining/locations/retailoptions.html. bining the assets, functions, and beholden to its Board of Directors. ing technologies. You don’t have to pay cash to get the discount, although one Dunkin’ personnel of the MIT News Office The News Office, which has On Jan. 15, Vice President for Donuts employee told this reporter otherwise earlier this month. Some and Technology Review magazine historically been MIT’s external Institute Affairs Kirk D. Kolen- vendors may automatically give you the discount if you look like a stu- in order to cut spending and run communication arm, publishes brander announced a “reorganiza- dent — Anna’s and Subway employees often do so. Other vendors, like communications more effectively. Tech Talk, issues news releases, and tion of Institute Communications.” Cambridge Grill, will ask whether you’re a student. If vendors don’t Jason Pontin, TR’s editor in assists members of the MIT com- In a letter to the MIT community ask, you may need to remind them that you’re a student whose food is chief and the new Director of Com- munity in dealing with the press. on Feb. 19, President Susan Joan tax-exempt. Although it may technically be required, few vendors will munications for MIT, stressed that Technology Review is a mainstream Hockfield said the changes would actually ask to see your student ID. the combination of assets “was not technology magazine published by bring “substantial savings and more By the way, this won’t work at LaVerde’s: they’re not considered to a merger.” He said that Technology Technology Review, Inc., a 501(c)3 effective ways of bringing MIT’s be operated by MIT. Instead they’re owned by a subsidiary of Boston Review and the News Office retain charity and subsidiary of MIT. The story to the world.” University, and lease their Student Center space from the Institute. At Concerns had been raised that LaVerde’s, MIT students, like everyone else, pay a 5 percent tax on Technology Review’s journalistic prepared food. In Short —Michael McGraw-Herdeg News Office, Page 11 ¶ Institute Professor John M. Three people were in line already as Deutch ’61 was appointed to a of Wednesday night. federal intelligence panel on spy satellites, though the appointment ¶ The Campus Police and Cam- was questioned by members of bridge Police will be meeting next Congress. Deutch had served as week to determine a response to the Director of Central Intelligence daylight muggings last Sunday out- from 1995–1996, and afterwards side buildings 32 and E15. was found to have wrongly stored classified informaton on his un- ¶ Barker Engineering Library’s classified computer systems, a se- bound journal collection is moving rious security breach for which he to N57 during March. The move will ultimately received a presidential accommodate repairs to the 8th floor pardon. of Building 10, which has increas- ingly seen leaks and water damage. ¶ The Chorallaries’ nth Annual Concert in Bad Taste is Saturday Send news information and tips to night at 11:59:59 p.m. in 26-100. [email protected]. ARTS World & Nation . 2 Hoobastank’s new Opinion . 4 album disappoints Arts . 6 Page 6 Comics / Fun Pages . 8 SETH A. VILLARREAl—The TECH Waltz with Bashir The Goosebeary food truck reopened on Tuesday, after a temporary hiatus due to a fire at the Sports . 12 building where they use the kitchens to prepare food. The kitchen fire on Jan. 21 did not involve Page 7 Goosebeary but prevented them from running their usual service. Page 2 THE TECH February 27, 2009 WORLD & NATIO N Iraq Invokes Death Penalty Bosnia’s Serbs Threaten For 28 Cultists in Attacks By Campbell Robertson THE NEW YORK TIMES BAGHDAD To Seek Independence Twenty-eight members of a Shiite messianic cult responsible for brutal attacks on Shiite pilgrims in Iraq were sentenced to death on By Dan Bilefsky Srecko Latal, a Bosnia specialist and misuse of finances involving Thursday, said an official from the federal court in Dhi Qar province. THE NEW YORK TIMES at the Balkan Investigative Reporting several key government contracts The condemned were members of the Followers of the Mahdi, itself PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC Network in Sarajevo, the country’s in the Bosnian Serb Republic. They a part of the Soldiers of Heaven, a fringe cult that believes that sowing Bosnian Serb leaders have threat- capital, warned that the West, distract- included allegations concerning a chaos will pave the way for the coming of the Mahdi, the 12th Imam, ened to pull out of state institutions ed by the global financial crisis, Iraq $146 million government building in who disappeared in the ninth century, and who Shiites believe will re- and are pressing anew for indepen- and Afghanistan, was ignoring trouble Banja Luka.