MIT’s The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: Sunny, Mid 60s°F (18°C) Tonight: Mostly clear, Newspaper Lower 40s°F (6°C) Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, Highs in the 50s°F (12°C) http://tech.mit.edu/ Details, Page 2 Volume 128, Number 21 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, April 25, 2008 Another Drop Date, Another Piano Drop Jessop, By Nick Bushak get on the ground. tive air. The weather was sunny and rial Dr. from being distracted by the NEWS EDITOR Piano Drop has been held irregu- warm, and students began to congre- event. Also in attendance was a video It’s hard to fire pianos. larly since the initial drop in 1972. gate on the Memorial Dr. side of Bak- crew from a local television station. Bennie That’s what the organizers of The tradition, which commemorates er well before the 5:30 p.m. drop time As the time approached 5:30, Baker House’s annual Piano Drop Drop Date, returned in 2006 after to enjoy an outdoor pay-per-plate bar- anticipation grew. John V. Agard ’11 learned this year, as the victim, a a seven year hiatus, and it has been becue catered by Baker Dining. came because “a piano falling from Elected grand piano, fell six storeys off the held annually since then. Police officers were present to a six story building sounds pretty ex- Baker roofdeck and just missed a tar- This year’s Piano Drop had a fes- discourage cars passing on Memo- citing.” The organizers of the event, Howard D. Kellogg ’08 and George J. Courtsunis ’09, worked on the roof UA P/VP to prepare the piano for its demise. By Michael McGraw-Herdeg The piano was supplied by Delta EXECUTIVE EDITOR Kappa Epsilon. With voter turnout up 13 percent, Finally, the piano was prepared, Noah S. Jessop ’09 and Michael A. and the restless crowd chanted a Bennie ’10 won the Undergraduate countdown. After the shout of “one,” Association elections for president the grand piano was launched off the and vice president. top of Baker’s roof. Jason C. Forte ’09 and Brittany A smaller, vertical piano was po- A. Holland-Marcus ’10 ended up sitioned on the ground, but the grand with 183 fewer votes than Jessop piano dropped from the roof barely and Bennie and were ranked second. clipped its target. As such, some stu- Bradley H. Gampel ’09 and Willard J. dents found the event to be less sat- Johnson ’09 placed third, and Akash isfying compared with prior Piano A. Chandawarkar ’09 and Amanda J. Drops. Maguire ’09 placed last. Yuqiao Huang ’09 said “In past Some class council elections years it seemed to be more explosive were especially close: Class of 2010 and exciting.” Peter Lu ’11 said that Vice President Laura H. Han won by the drop “was pretty lame.” Eren S. a 23-vote margin, and Class of 2011 Sayan ’11 suggested “weaker pia- President Anshul Bhagi received nos.” 18 more votes than runner-up Ian Tim Zheng ’11 brought a pro- Tracy. spective student he was hosting to Piano Drop. “We walked all the way Jessop eyes internal change from Stata to see the piano drop,” he In an interview, Jessop described said. “But we missed it,” he said, be- himself as a “total outsider” and said cause they arrived late. that his top priority would be to “let ERIC D. Schmiedl—THE TECH Although some were a bit disap- the UA become as strong of an orga- Baker residents prepare to send a grand piano to a smashing demise six stories below in the annual nization as it can.” Baker House Piano Drop on Drop Date yesterday. Piano Drop, Page 11 Although the UA has adequate resources, good leaders, and the “in- frastructure to do incredible things Yale Refuses for the school,” it needs to be reorga- Sneaking Into the Boston Marathon? nized in order to be more effective, Jessop said. To Display Prospective leaders are turned off Consider a Mexican Wrestling Mask by the UA because they sense that it By Brian D. Hemond ored tradition of running bandit in age group must run an official time is large, slow, bureaucratic, and has a Divisive CONTRIBUTING EDITOR the Boston Marathon. of under 3 hours and 10 minutes in low ratio of change effected to time Patriot’s Day. For most people, Running bandit, for the uniniti- a previous marathon, plus pay the spent, Jessop said. it’s that odd Massachusetts holiday ated, is the practice of running the $100+ registration fee. Neither I nor He cited inconsistent involve- Abortion Art we get off from work, a time for bar- marathon, or some fraction thereof, my partners in crime were capable of ment by UA senators as one area becues, beer, sans registration. Why? In order this feat. that needs reform. Currently, sena- (hopefully) to gain the privilege of running the Bandit runners, despite their long tors adopt a particular project and Project Reporter’s nice weather, entire 26.22 miles with a number history (the first acknowledged fe- manage it themselves. “People either By Karen W. Arenson Notebook and of course, on one’s chest and an electronic ID sink or swim” in this system, which THE NEW YORK TIMES the time-hon- tied to one’s shoe, competitors in my Bandit, Page 14 emphasizes self-motivation, he said. When an exhibition of art proj- Some senators who have not suc- ects by Yale University seniors ceeded have little idea what’s going opened on Tuesday, one was miss- on in the organization, he said. ing: that of Aliza Shvarts, whose Jessop said he plans to revamp performance-art project reportedly this system by getting senators in- involved artificially inseminating volved in UA committees and by herself repeatedly and then self- making sure they stay involved with aborting. their constituencies. A description of the work last The Senate’s next speaker, for- week in The Yale Daily News — mer presidential candidate Jason which said it included videos of her Forte, “will do incredible things,” miscarriages shown on a four-foot Jessop said. “Having him as speaker cube wrapped in plastic smeared is key for the success of the senate,” with Vaseline and what Ms. Shvarts he said. had described as her own blood — He said he is also hopeful about touched off a frenzy of horrified future leadership. “An efficient sen- reaction. ate should attract good senators” But arts professors at universities who care about their living groups, around the country say they are no he said. strangers to controversy. And they Jessop also said he might reorga- say that while freedom of expres- nize the UA’s committees. Some of sion is important in the academic those committees, of which there are more than a dozen, seem unneces- Abortion, Page 16 sary, he said. Finally, student members of In- stitute committees, such as the Com- In Short mittee on Discipline and the Com- BRIAN D. Hemond—THE TECH mittee on Academic Performance, ¶ Third Eye Blind and Howie Day Marathoners round the corner into Kenmore Square beneath the landmark Citgo sign, less than one mile play at tonight’s Spring Weekend from the finish line of the 2008 Boston Marathon. Elections, Page 13 concert in Johnson Athletic Center. Tickets are $15 cash at the door. See snapshots ARTS ¶ MIT is firing Coordinator of World & Nation . 2 Programs and Support for Women from the Global The Tech interviews John Oliver Opinion . 4 Students Lynn A. Roberson at the Poverty Initiative Page 6 end of June and is eliminating her Arts . 6 position from the Division of Stu- conference “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is Comics / Fun Pages . 8 dent Life. formulaic, but not forgettable Sports . 20 Send news information and tips to Page 10 Page 7 [email protected]. Page 2 THE TECH April 25, 2008 WORLD & NATIO N Opposition the ‘Clear Victor’ Pakistan Approaching Peace In Zimbabwe, U.S. Says By Celia W. Dugger THE NEW YORK TIMES PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Deal With Militant Tribes The top American envoy to Africa declared Thursday that Zimba- bwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was the “clear vic- By Ismail Khan with Mehsud, one of Pakistan’s most dent Pervez Musharraf has embraced tor” over President Robert Mugabe in the nation’s disputed election and Carlotta Gall hard-line militants. They have blamed in recent years, to pursue dialogue and called on other countries — including the United States — to help THE NEW YORK TIMES past accords for allowing the Taliban with the militants and to restore calm solve the deepening political and humanitarian crisis there. PESHAWAR, Pakistan and al-Qaida to regroup, fortify their to Pakistan, which has been roiled The diplomat, Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for The Pakistani government is close ties and use Pakistan as a base to plot by suicide attacks. Diplomats and African affairs, said the election results, based on projections by inde- to an agreement to end hostilities with attacks here and abroad. Previously, Afghan officials suggested that the pendent monitors, removed the rationale for any negotiated settlement the most militant tribes in its turbulent members of Pakistan’s new coalition government was trying to show good that left Mugabe in charge, as was proposed Wednesday in an editorial border area, whose main leader is ac- government had said they considered will, while playing for time to bring in The Herald, the state-run newspaper. cused of orchestrating most of the sui- Mehsud irretrievably hostile. stability. “This is a government rejecting the will of the people,” Frazer said, cide bombings of recent months and “We have seen the agreements Though Musharraf, too, negotiat- referring to the Zimbabwe electoral commission’s refusal to announce the assassination of the former Prime they have made before, and they do ed with the militants, he used the mil- who won the March 29 presidential election.