Add Date Today; No Classes Monday and Tuesday The Weather MIT’s Today: Mostly sunny, 80°F (27°C) Tonight: Partly cloudy Oldest and Largest and mild, 64°F (18°C) Tomorrow: Patchy fog early; mostly Newspaper sunny in the afternoon, 80°F (27°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 127, Number 44 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, October 5, 2007 Institute ‘Egg’ Nobel Awards Play Chicken Last Night By Yiwei Zhang Researchers, Nobel laureates, Tests students, and curious people alike gathered Thursday evening to cel- ebrate the Seventeenth “1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony” held in New Alert the Sanders Theatre at Harvard Uni- versity. Created to honor 10 achieve- ments each year that “first make people LAUGH, and then make System them THINK,” the ceremony was By Joyce Kwan complete with hysterical antics, odd NEWS EDITOR science demonstrations, a chicken The MIT Security and Emer- theme, and, of course, improbable gency Management Office initiated a research. campus-wide emergency test drill in Mayu Yamamoto from Japan won late August that consisted of sending the Ig Nobel prize in chemistry for messages via phone, e-mail, and text her development of a novel way to messaging to members of the MIT extract vanillin, the main compo- community. The office, which was nent in vanilla bean extract, from launched on July 1, 2007, serves as cow dung. In tribute to Yamamoto’s a resource center for security-related achievement, Toscanni’s imitated her issues. Approximately 26,000 e-mail achievement and distributed samples messages were sent in under five min- of the resulting ice cream to Nobel AARON SAMPSON—THE TECH Ig Nobel and Nobel Prize winners take the stage together at the close of the Seventeenth 1st Annual Ig utes. laureates seated on the stage. Loud Nobel Prize Ceremony in Harvard’s Sanders Theatre on Thursday night. Thomas W. Komola of the MIT chants of “Eat it! Eat it!” from the Police said the implementation of audience finally persuaded the skep- the United States for their study on The Wright Lab of the U.S. Air for their discovery that Viagra aids the drill was “excellent.” In case of tical Nobel laureates to try a taste the “Side Effects of Sword Swallow- Force received the peace prize for jet lag recovery in hamsters. an emergency, the new system would of their samples. For those brave ing,” described by Witcombe as the their “make love not war” research Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk allow people to react to reality rather and adventurous enough, Toscanni’s meeting of a researcher on swallow- and development of a “Gay bomb” succeeded in making various audi- than word of mouth, he said. is offering a free tasting of the ice ing disorders and the world’s great- designed to make enemy soldiers ence members squirm with her biol- David M. Barber, emergency re- cream today at 11 a.m. at their Cen- est sword swallower. Meyer gave a sexually irresistible to each other. ogy prize-winning census on mites, sponse specialist and member of the tral Square Location. nerve-wracking live demonstration Also with love on their minds, Patri- spiders, insects, psuedoscorpians, Security Office’s three-person staff, The prize in medicine was award- of his infamous sword-swallowing cia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano, crustaceans, bacteria, algae, ferns, said he is confident in the drill’s abil- ed to Brian Witcombe from the Unit- abilities following their acceptance and Diego A. Golombek from Ar- ity to “push out information in a very ed Kingdom and Dan Meyer from speech. gentina received the prize in aviation Ig Nobel, Page 10 short time period” were an emergency to occur. On the day of the Sept. 11 attacks, e-mail messages reached the entire MIT community after several Hockfield, Officials Discuss State of MIT Lawmakers hours, compared to the five minutes By Benjamin P. Gleitzman Energy Initiative, diversity, and task magnet for talent, including focusing it took during the August test, Barber STAFF REPORTER force recommendations were among on recruitment of female, internation- said. President Susan Hockfield, along the more familiar topics discussed at al, and minority students. Consider The size of the MIT community with top MIT officials, presented op- the forum, the Campaign for Students, “We are committed to admitting ranges from 25,000 to 27,000 depend- timistic remarks to a crowd of about global initiatives, and preserving tra- the best students,” regardless of finan- Bill on Costs ing on the time period and definition 300 at Tuesday’s State of the Institute dition also received considerable cov- cial background, Clay said. of the community, Barber said. He de- forum in Kresge Auditorium, ending erage. Clay talked about the Campaign fined the MIT community to include a three year hiatus for the event. Also MIT received over 14,000 under- for Students, a fundraising campaign Of Textbooks students, employees, staff, faculty, speaking at the forum were Provost graduate applications last year, Hock- to begin in 2008, which will address visiting researchers, visiting profes- L. Rafael Reif, Chancellor Phillip L. field said. Of the 12.3 percent admit- specific deficiencies in the financial By April Simpson sors, contractors, and service vendors Clay PhD ’75, and Executive Vice ted, 69 percent of students accepted aid process and augment the Institute’s ThE BOSTON GLOBE among others. President and Treasurer Theresa M. the offer to become a member of the ability to provide need-blind admis- A month into the fall semester, The security office is working on Stone. largest freshman class ever at MIT. sions. The campaign will also provide Nathassia Torchon has already had refining the database that holds the “The state of the Institute is very, Hockfield praised the Institute’s strong fellowship support for graduate stu- two tests in her precalculus class and contact information of members of very strong,” Hockfield said in her draw from young people and outlined is approaching her first history exam. the MIT community, Barber said. The opening remarks. While the MIT efforts to ensure that MIT remains a Institute, Page 11 But the Massachusetts Bay Commu- August drill showed that there are cer- nity College student said she could tainly gaps in the system. Regardless, not afford the $330 price tag for two communication by word of mouth will of the required textbooks until this be necessary to some degree, he said. week. As a result of the Virginia Tech “They always tell you 20 hours shootings in April, many colleges is good enough to work and go to across the country are implementing school full time,” said Torchon, 21, of emergency-alert systems of various Mattapan. “I have to work three jobs types. As reported in the Chronicle of to pay for two books.” Higher Education, two schools, facing Torchon was one of dozens of stu- violence during the past two weeks, dents who attended a Joint Committee successfully used their systems. At on Higher Education hearing yester- Delaware State University, resident advisers knocked on the doors of dor- Textbooks, Page 11 mitory rooms during the night after two students were shot and wounded. At the University of Maryland at Col- In Short lege Park, community members re- ¶ Students must take full respon- ceived a warning on their cell phones sibility for their actions, Chancellor about a violent carjacking near a stu- Phil Clay said in an e-mail to MIT dent dormitory. students Monday, even while cel- Aside from the test drill, MIT’s ebrating traditions such as hacking. new emergency system has not been Clay’s e-mail also said that students used. should avoid academic dishonesty In addition to the test messages, MARTIN SEGAdo—THE TECH and illegal downloading. Dean for President Susan Hockfield speaks at the State of the Institute forum in Kresge Auditorium on the morn- Student Life Larry Benedict, in an Emergency, Page 11 ing of Oct. 2, 2007. e-mail to students yesterday, repeat- ed that sharing copyrighted mate- rial without authorization is illegal. Because of the Columbus NEWS RIAA’s latest round of “pre-litiga- World & Nation ����������������������������� 2 tion letters” targetted 30 MIT IP ad- Day holiday, The Tech will not Undergraduate Association Opinion ���������������������� 4 dresses. publish on Tuesday, Oct. 9. Finance Board allocations Arts ������������������������� 5 ¶ A female student reported to Regular publication will resume for Summer, Fall 2007 Comics / Fun Pages ����������� 12 the police that she was followed by next Friday, Oct. 12. a male in a vehicle on Friday. The Page 9 Sports ���������������������� 16 suspect, captured Tuesday, was iden- tified as Joseph D. Sullivan, a regis- tered Level 3 Sex Offender. Page THE TECH October 5, 007 WORLD & NATION Craig Says He Will Stay in Senate, Bill Passed: U.S. Contractors Though Bid to Alter Plea Is Denied By Carl Hulse THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON In Iraq to Be Under U.S. Law Sen. Larry E. Craig of Idaho, defying the wishes of many in his own Republican Party, said Thursday that he would remain in the Sen- By David M. Herszenhorn filed in the case, and Justice De- also said the FBI was not equipped ate through next year despite a court ruling against him in Minnesota, THE NEW YORK TIMES partment officials have said it was to conduct numerous investigations where he sought to rescind his guilty plea stemming from an under- WASHINGTON unclear whether U.S. law would ap- overseas and that the effort would cover sex sting. With the armed security force ply. Even if enacted, the House bill prove costly. Shortly after a judge denied his request to withdraw the August Blackwater USA and other private would have no retroactive authority Price has been working on the plea admitting to disorderly conduct, Craig said he had reversed his contractors in Iraq facing tighter over past conduct by Blackwater or contractor issue for about three previously announced decision to leave the Senate if he could not get scrutiny, the House of Representa- other contractors.