.. ' LJ .T253 MIT's The Weather Oldest and Largest Today: ~y,~dy,45°F(7°C) Tonight: ~ ending, 28°F (-2°C) Newspaper Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, 32°F (O°C) Details, Page 2 Volume 123, Number 1 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Tuesday, February 4, 2003 MIT Campus Reacts 6.270 Dominated by 'VzctorBraT' ~ Sh ttl D. t ~&~~~:~~FKrlShnan .1.0 U e ISas er "Victor Watson Brar," the robot created by Kenneth J. Jensen '03 and Rhett Creighton '02, dominated Mourning Students, Faculty Pay ~ the field and won this years 6.270 Autonomous Robot Competition. By Nathan Collins '72, a senior research engineer,knew "We were really excited," NEWSEDlTOR Laurel Clark, a mission specialist on Creighton said. "We had a really As somber students, faculty, and Columbia. Oman had worked with fast robot." Many of the other staff of the Department of Aeronau- Clark's husband, John, a Navy flight robots were "good proofs of con- tics and Astronautics entered to pay surgeon. cepts," but they needed more time, their respects, many stopped to write Oman remembered fondly how he said. their thoughts and condolences in an Clark had a penchant for proper Jensen said their strategy was to empty book that sat at one end of the grammar and quality writing and that "keep it simple, stupid." room. "she was absolutelycommittedto the When their imminent victory Photographs of crew of the space idea of long-durationspaceflight." became clear, Jensen and Creighton shuttle Columbia had been projected "It's obviously an enormous celebrated by stripping off their on a screen in the Learning Laborato- loss," Oman said, noting that Clark Junkyard Wars jumpsuits. ry, and the STS-107 mission patch left behind an eight-year-old son. Creighton continued by tearing off and a groupphoto framedthe book. Hers ''was a lifewell lived," he said. his T-shirt and smashing his robot. After a week of signing, ~'we're Astronauts "are prepared to sacri- "Victor Watson Brar" featured going to send it to the astronaut corps fice their lives" to further science, an attacker, which ran much faster in Houston," said Ian A. Waitz, the Crawley said. He compared space than most of the other robots, deputy departmenthead. travellers with early Polynesian pio- attached to the main body of their The event, Waitz said, was an neers, who would "either find the robot by a wire. The attacker moved "opportunity for people to come next island, or they probably would quickly to the opponent's side of the together and share some thoughts." not return." table, blocking any motion by the After Department Head Edward F. Crawley said that more astronauts other robot. Crawley ScD '80, Waitz, and other come from MIT than from any other "I don't see how, if their robot professors spoke, the crowd broke up nonmilitary institution. "MIT is a works, how we can actually beat it," into smaller groups to talk about the place about learning," he said. "Let said Yuran Lu '05, just before his accident. us rememberthe tremendoussacrifice team faced "Victor" in the final For some in the crowd, the loss was personal. Charles M. Oman .PM1 Shuttle, Page 11 6.270, Page 13 lHEATER REVIEW STANLEY HV-THE TECH Rhett Creighton '02 rips off his T~shlrt In Jubilation at Kenneth J. Jensen '03 and his victory In 6.270. Their robot defeated "Kamikaze Finally, A Reason Puppy" 2-1 In the final round of the competition. 1bStay Awake in 10-250 Disconnected Registers Richard Ff!J/I'I/fJI!J'nCfnnes toLife in QED Finally Post Old Charges QED, a bout his life, so engaging, and what By Lauren E. leBon they weren't aware ofthis," McDon- ASSOCIA TE NEWS EDITOR ald said. QED Cash registers disconnected from McDonald added that there will 10-250 the MIT Card Office resulted in be educational sessions held for ven- Jan. 30. 7p.m. delayed TechCASH charges last dors so that they will be able to rec- Written by Peter Parnell month, as the Office finally posted ognize when cash registers are Directed byJon Upsly saved transactions as old as Septem- offline.This information will now be Starri1Ig Jeremiah ber 2002 to student accounts. reported to the Card Officedaily. Kissel. Jordtm Dan" A cash register in Walker Memo- "I can't say they'll perform any rial and two in the Lobdell Food better," McDonald said, emphasizing Court had accumulated the charges that any system is prone to human - dating from September and Octo- error. "We're sorry that it happened. ber 2002 respectively - but because It's up to us to make sure this doesn't the registers were disconnected from happen again." the office, the transactions were not The Card Office has posted an applied until Jan. 7, 8, and 27, said explanation of the card problems on John M. McDonald, the assistant its Web site, at <http://web.mit.edu/ director of enterprise services. mitcardltechcash. html>. Normally, MIT's cash registers Several students said they were report transactions to the Card Office suspicious after significant charges through a telephone line. But when appeared on their accounts when the phone line is not connected, they were sleeping or not using din- transactions are stored in the cash ing facilities, on the three days in register. January. Alicia Y. Zhou '06 received an e- ewer vendors inexperienced mail about the confusing charges and Vendors were expected to report checkedher online account balance. when their cash registers went "I noticed that about 50 dollars offline,but "the new vendors weren't had disappeared on my account and experienced with the equipment, so it clicked," Zhou said. Get your Comics NEWS' charm on at The Simmons dining hall opened, World & Nation 2 MIT's~ but fire inspectors locked Sponge Opinion 4 residents out of four lounges. Events Calendar 7 Arts 15 Page 22 Page 6 Page 11 Page 2 February 4,2003 orldCo ·ga ·0 Focuses THE WASHlNGTO POST a ~~~Up, Insulation WorldCom Inc. announced Monday that it will layoff 5,000 employee and reduce operating costs in an effort to cut pending by By Eric alnlc and Matt Lalt moking gun." Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, 2.5 billion a year. WS ANGELES TIMES Four minutes later the craft, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Ander- The nation's second-largest long-distance company is cutting HOUSTO which was flying on autopilot, son, William McCool and Han co ts as it prepares to emerge from bankruptcy later this year. Most A day after losing space shuttle began to pull to the left, computer- Ramon - is scheduled Tuesday at of the layoffs will be in the corporate and admini trative taff, the Columbia and its crew, ASA ized controls compensating for the Johnson Space Center here. company said in a statement. appointed a panel Sunday to investi- increased drag, or wind resistance, President Bush will attend the WorldCom spokesman Brad Burns aid details of the workforce gate the tragedy, and said a more on that side of the shuttle. The drag event. reduction are still being worked out and it is not yet clear how many detailed analysis of the mission's could have been caused by prob- In Washington, a senior adminis- of the company's 6,000 Washington area employee wilJ be included final minutes had focused on a sharp lems with one of the tiles that pro- tration official said Bush, in a in the late t wave of layoffs. But he aid the company expects to con- buildup of heat on the left side of vide insulation from the 3,000- spending plan being sent to Con- tinue to have a "major presence" in Ashburn, Va. Last year World- the craft shortly before it disinte- degree heat, he said. gress Monday, plans to seek a $469- Com laid off 17,000 employees, reducing its workforce to 60,000. grated. "Does that mean something to million increase in NASA's current In addition to cutting 8 percent of it workforce by the end of this In a highly technical, 90-minute us? We're not sure," Dittemore said. $15 billion budget. And Sean month, the company plan to trim 1.5 billion in costs by hutting televised briefing, Ron Dittemore, "It could be indicative of rough tile; O'Keefe, NASA administrator, down parts of it vast fiber-optics networks and rerouting data and the shuttle's program manager, said it could be indicative of scratched or appeared on several television pro- voice traffic through underused facilities. WorldCom said customers technicians with the ational Aero- missing tile." grams to defend the agency's work, will not be affected by changes in its network. nautics and Space Administration ASA investigators have ruled insisting that the agency had not cut had more closely examined the out several other potential causes, comers on safety and pledged an seven minutes before Columbia lost including an on-board fire, major aggressive investigation into what u.s. AiIways Posts contact with Houston's Mission structural failure and terrorism. went wrong. The independent inves- Control Saturday morning. Meanwhile, NASA said remains tigative panel named Sunday will be 794 Million Loss As the spacecraft passed over of several of the seven astronauts headed by retired Navy Adm. THE WASHINGTO POST eastern California toward its had been recovered and identified Harold W. Gehman Jr. Officially U.S. Airways, which has been operating under bankruptcy protec- planned landing in Florida, tempera- from the massive swath of debris known as the Space Shuttle Mishap tion since August, said Monday that it lost $794 million in the fourth tures began to soar, rising 20 to 30 left in Texas and Louisiana by Interagency Investigation Board, it quarter, its 10th consecutive quarterly loss.