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Volume 124, Number 4 Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Friday, February 13, 2004 Bush Appoints Vest To New Commission By Kathy Lin said, “This assignment is a call to NEWS EDITOR major national service and I will MIT President Charles M. Vest work to the best of my abilities has been appointed by U.S. Presi- together with my fellow members to dent George W. Bush to a commis- accomplish the goals of this inde- sion that will review the nation’s pendent Commission. The issues to intelligence capabilities and be addressed are of profound impor- processes with regard to weapons of tance.” mass destruction. Vest is one of three academic The Commission on the Intelli- figures to serve on the committee. gence Capabilities of the United He will serve alongside Henry S. States Regarding Weapons of Mass Rowen, Professor of Public Policy Destruction, created via Executive and Management at Stanford Grad- Order on Feb. 6, will report its find- uate School of Business, and ings and recommendations to the Richard Levin, President of Yale President by the end of March 2005. In an MIT press release, Vest Vest, Page 15 MIT Begins Conducting PETER R. RUSSO—THE TECH The site of the future Media Lab expansion on the corner of Ames and Amherst Streets, as seen from the Green Building. Since the project stalled, the former location of building E10 has remained an Student Billing Online empty lot. By Mike Rolish Chauncey said. STAFF REPORTER “This is a customer service ini- MIT is phasing out paper stu- tiative,” said Cynthia Stanton, com- dent bills this spring as it transitions munications officer for Student Lack of Funds Slows Construction to MITPAY, a new electronic Financial Services. billing system that will go online on In addition, the Institute expects By Kathy Dobson Among these projects are a new at the corner of Albany Street and will go online on Feb. 19. to save money by switching over to STAFF REPORTER arts building, an east campus pro- Massachusetts Avenue in front of According to Sandra Chauncey, the new system. Chauncey cited Several construction projects on ject, a new physics building, and an the MIT nuclear reactor, where a director of student accounts for Stu- envelope, paper, printing, banking, and around the MIT campus have extension to the Media Lab. parking lot is currently located. The dent Financial Services, only one and labor costs that would not be been slowed down or put on hold location will serve as a “window for copy of a student’s bill will be sent because of budget cuts and difficul- Arts Center in design the city into art at MIT,” said John from February to June. The bill MITPAY, Page 14 ties in raising funds. A Music and Theater Arts R. Curry, executive vice president will be sent to students only; dupli- Teaching Laboratory is in the initial of the Institute. cate bills have been discontinued. stages of design and will be “con- The purpose of the new facility Starting in July, paper bills will sidered for further design work is to provide classroom, studio and be discontinued entirely, and all pending progress on fundraising,” rehearsal space to the growing per- billing information will be present- according to the most recent Town forming arts activities around MIT, ed online through MITPAY. Gown Report presented to the Cam- said Alan Brody, associate provost “Instead of getting a paper bill bridge Planning Board by MIT. for the arts. The construction of delivered to them at their residence, The Teaching Laboratory is space solely dedicated to perform- students will get an e-mail alerting expected to be approximately them their bill is ready,” Chauncey 36,000 square feet and to be located Towngown, Page 18 said. Students to control billing Students will have to specify a different billing address on WebSIS Russell G. Clisbee if they want the bill to go some- Russell G. Clisbee, a custodian at MIT, passed away on Monday, where other than their term address, Feb. 9. According to an e-mail written by Rod Garcia, director of including a parent’s residence. The admissions for the Sloan School of Management, Clisbee was an next bill will be sent to that address employee of MIT for 23 years. on Feb. 13. The MIT Police received a call around 8 a.m. on Monday from Students will access MITPAY someone who said that the door to a men’s bathroom on the first floor through WebSIS, Chauncey said. of E51 would only open a few inches and that he could see someone They will have the option of speci- lying on the floor inside, said John Di Fava, director of security and fying up to six additional people to campus police services. access their financial records Lt. Albert F. Pierce Jr., one of the officers who responded to the through the SFS web site. Current- scene several minutes after the call, said that there was no indication ly, parents do not have access to of foul play. student financial records via Web- The MIT police checked the body for vital signs and contacted the SIS. Cambridge Fire Advanced Life Support. Clisbee was later pro- “The students are in control,” nounced dead. Following standard procedure, the investigation was Chauncey said. handed over to the District Attorney’s office, Di Fava said. MITPAY also will enable elec- The investigation “is not being treated as suspicious,” said Seth tronic payments via the Automated Horwitz, a spokesman for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Clearing House (ACH) Network, Office. He said that it appears that Clisbee died of natural causes. an electronic money transfer sys- Clisbee was in his late 50’s, Di Fava said. tem, Chauncey said. “Currently, Clisbee is survived by two members of the MIT community: his the only way we can take payments wife, Elizabeth A. Mulcahy, an administrative assistant in the admis- from students and their families is sions office, and his brother, Paul F. Clisbee, a maintenance mechanic check, money order, or cash,” she in the department of facilities. said. According to an obituary in the Globe, Clisbee also has a daughter, Kimberly, and another brother, Calvin. A wake was held yesterday System to save on cost, hassle BRIAN HEMOND—THE TECH evening, and a funeral followed by a mass will be held today. “We looked at best practices at The lights of Building 10 reflect off a sheet of ice coating Kil- “Known to always sport a smile and a slanted cap, Russell was a other universities. With electronic lian Court. Temperatures will drop to well below freezing valued member of the Sloan community who will be missed,” wrote billing, service to students and their towards the end of the weekend. Garcia. families increases dramatically,”

Women’s bas- Comics NEWS World & Nation ...... 2 ketball wins A revamped Harvard-MIT Opinion ...... 4 with a buzzer Matchup brings new hope to the Features ...... 7 beater. lonely this Valentine’s Day. Arts ...... 10 Events Calendar ...... 13 Page 19 Page 13 Page 17 Sports ...... 20 Page 2 THE TECH February 13, 2004 WORLD & NATION ‘Vagina Monologues’ Premiere Sept. 11 Panel Requests Info In China Halted By Censors THE NEW YORK TIMES BEIJING From Bush, Cheney, Clinton Eve Ensler once said she named her one-woman play “The Vagi- na Monologues” because the word vagina makes people feel anxious By Philip Shenon potentially embarrassing questions in Washington that he was willing and awkward. “I say it because I’m not supposed to say it,” she said. THE NEW YORK TIMES about intelligence and law-enforce- to answer questions from the panel, The challenge to social norms made the play a sensation in the WASHINGTON ment in the months before the Sept. although it was not clear if he was United States. But in China, where the word vagina carries even The independent commission 11 attacks, or refusing to testify, willing to testify in public: “The greater shock value and is rarely spoken in public, “The Vagina investigating the Sept. 11 terror providing Democrats with election- commission has invited me to meet Monologues” roiled the wrong people — the country’s censors. attacks said Thursday it would seek year rhetorical ammunition to argue with them in private, and I look for- This week, propaganda officials ordered the indefinite postpone- public testimony from President that the White House is ward to being of assistance.” ment of the play’s China premiere in Shanghai, nominally the coun- Bush and Vice President Dick stonewalling the inquiry. Hamilton would not predict what try’s most Westernized city. In the capital, Beijing, authorities Cheney about intelligence agency Bush could be expected to be the commission would do if Bush, stopped an avant-garde art gallery from staging an informal, nonprofit warnings that they might have questioned closely about an Oval Cheney and their immediate prede- rendition of “The Vagina Monologues” that had been scheduled for received before the attacks, a move Office intelligence briefing that he cessors refused to answer questions Valentine’s Day. that could provoke a new show- received in August 2001 that sug- from the panel — specifically, Though Ensler’s play addresses some still-sensitive women’s down between the panel and the gested that al-Qaida might be plan- whether the commission would con- rights issues and violence against women, the content does not appear White House. ning terrorist strikes using commer- sider subpoenas to try to compel tes- to have set off official censure. Instead, it is simply the word vagina, The panel said a similar request cial airplanes. The White House has timony from any of the four men. which appears in most standard Chinese dictionaries but is almost for public testimony was being refused to make the briefing papers “We’re a little too early in the never printed in the mainstream media, that broke an unwritten rule. made to former President Bill Clin- public but has confirmed news process,” he said. “I certainly don’t ton and former Vice President Al reports about their existence. want to speculate about what the Gore, as well as senior Bush admin- The commission’s vice chair- options would be. I guess historical- Despite Veto Threat, Senate Backs istration officials, including Con- man, Lee H. Hamilton, a former ly that would break new ground.” doleezza Rice, the national security Democratic congressman from Indi- This week, the commission, $318 Billion For Highways adviser; George J. Tenet, the direc- ana, said that testimony from Bush known formally as the National THE NEW YORK TIMES tor of central intelligence; Attorney and Cheney, as well as from Clinton Commission on Terrorist Attacks WASHINGTON General John Ashcroft; Defense and Gore, was “important to us in Upon the United States, debated The Senate approved a $318 billion highway and mass transit Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and trying to assess the flow of informa- whether to use its subpoena power measure on Thursday in the face of a presidential veto threat and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. tion relating to terrorist activity to gain access to the daily intelli- resistance from conservatives who accused their colleagues of The White House declined to say going into the highest levels of both gence digests that were presented to embarking on a spending spree despite a rising deficit. whether Bush or Cheney would sub- administrations.” Bush in the months before the Sept. After easily defeating a series of challenges aimed at cutting the mit to questioning before the com- “We’re interested in knowing 11 attacks. cost of the measure, senators voted 76-21 in favor of the six-year pro- mission — either at public hearings their recollection of events,” Hamil- The panel decided against the posal, which exceeds by $62 billion the spending level President or in private. ton said in a telephone interview, subpoena after the White House Bush has said is acceptable. In a television interview broad- adding that the commission had agreed to allow all 10 members of “As a fiscal conservative, I say that I believe in spending more in cast Sunday, Bush promised to already “initiated contacts or was in the commission to review a summa- certain areas,” said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the chairman of the cooperate with the 10-member the process of initiating contacts ry of the documents. Environment and Public Works Committee. “One area is national bipartisan commission. But when with the two presidents and the two There is precedent for presidents defense, one area is infrastructure.” asked if he would submit to ques- vice presidents, and I believe we are to provide testimony while in office While the bill had strong support from most Democrats, Republi- tioning, the president said, “Per- making progress in setting up meet- — but almost always in criminal cans spent the day in a pitched intramural fight over the price tag of haps, perhaps.” ings with them.” investigations. For instance, Clinton legislation that is developing into an early test of Republican willing- After the commission’s A spokesman for Clinton provided sworn testimony to the ness to hold down spending. Some conservative Republicans said announcement on Thursday that it declined to say if the former presi- independent counsel that investigat- their colleagues were ignoring the implications of a deficit estimated would seek Bush’s testimony, the dent would testify before the panel. ed the Whitewater matter, and he to be $521 billion this year to win local road and bridge projects. White House spokesman, Scott “President Clinton supports the was questioned under oath in 1998 McClellan, told reporters that the work of the 9/11 commission and in a sexual misconduct lawsuit. request was among the “issues that has been cooperating with it,” the The commission, which is led by Fall Return Of Shuttle Is Doubtful we’ll continue to discuss with the former president’s office in New Thomas H. Kean, the former THE NEW YORK TIMES commission. York said in a statement. “However, Republican governor of New Jersey, WASHINGTON The panel’s request leaves Bush any questions regarding specific has had a strained relationship with It is becoming doubtful that space shuttle flights will resume this with an uncomfortable choice: requests should be directed to the the White House since its creation, fall, as NASA has planned, because there have been problems devel- between testifying before the com- commission.” which was initially opposed by oping some required safety upgrades, the agency’s administrator, mission and answering a host of Gore said in a statement issued Bush. Sean O’Keefe, said on Thursday. O’Keefe, speaking at a hearing of the House Science Committee, said there was a “very low prospect” of shuttles returning to flight during the Sept. 12 to Oct. 10 launching period because more work Clark Plans to Endorse Kerry, was needed to modify the external fuel tank and develop a device to inspect the heat shield. O’Keefe would not speculate whether the shuttle would fly before next spring if it missed launching this fall. Daylight launching oppor- Dean Makes Appeal for Voters tunities of only a few days are available in November and January, but some NASA officials have questioned if that is enough time to By Jodi Wilgoren can beat George Bush.” people in Oshkosh. perform all the preparations for a first flight. THE NEW YORK TIMES “If you think Dennis is the right “Judy still makes house calls, I Efforts to understand and reduce the loss of foam insulation from MADISON, WIS. person to vote for, then please vote used to,” Dean said at a forum in the fuel tank have been expanded to include more of the 154-foot-tall Just two days after abandoning for him, never settle for the lesser Oshkosh. “We are going to make structure, he said, requiring more testing. In addition, work has been his bid for the Democratic presiden- of two evils,” he said, “but we are one more house call. It’s going to going slower than expected in developing imaging instruments that tial nomination, Gen. Wesley K. able to raise the money and I have be Jan. 20th, 2005.” would be attached to a boom on the shuttle’s robot arm for examining Clark plans to endorse Sen. John an executive record that allows me Dean told reporters while travel- heat tiles and other remote parts for possible damage. Kerry of Massachusetts on Friday, to go after George Bush.” ing between campaign stops that if aides to the senator said. At the same time, Dean lumped he loses the Wisconsin primary on The endorsement is to come at a in the same boat his two main rivals Tuesday, “we will not stop the cam- morning rally in Wisconsin, which in the Wisconsin primary, Kerry paign,” but that he had not yet fig- holds its primary on Tuesday, the and Sen. John Edwards of North ured out what form it might take. Another Arctic Blast, Temporarily aides said. Clark, who withdrew on Carolina, saying, “they are good He said he would not go into debt Wednesday after placing third in people, but they come from inside to stay on the trail. By Michael J. Ring the Virginia and Tennessee pri- Washington it’s another world, it’s “What I’ve said is we’re not STAFF METEOROLOGIST maries, confirmed that he would a world that has forgotten ordinary going to have a quixotic campaign Two more mild days are in store at the beginning of this long week- meet with Kerry, but he declined to people.” that I know I can’t win,” he end, before passage of a clipper system which will bring a return to Jan- talk about any endorsement. A few minutes earlier, Dean explained. “We’re not going to do uary-like temperatures, at least for a few days. “Whether I’m in this race or not mischaracterized the two senators’ that. The definition of that we’ll The cold front, currently stretched over south-central Canada, will is less important to me than the position on financing the recon- have to leave to later.” drop southeastward over the next few days. Ahead of the front, south- opportunity to speak out and make struction of Iraq. Making the point, Asked about Democrats who are westerly flow will prevail, bringing warmer-than-normal temperatures a difference in this country,” he as he always does, that the $87 bil- concerned that his criticism of over the next 48 hours. There is an outside chance that Saturday’s high said on Thursday on the CNN pro- lion appropriated for Iraq and Kerry could weaken the party’s could reach 50°F (10°C). A few flurries may occur as the front passes gram, Inside Politics. “I’m looking Afghanistan could have paid for eventual nominee, Dean scoffed: overnight Saturday, but accumulation should be minor. forward to seeing John tomorrow. universal health insurance, Dr. “In light of the things that I’ve gone After the frontal passage, winds will shift to the northwest, and much And I’m looking forward to going Dean said “we’re paying for it through, I think that would be colder air will prevail. Sunday will be over 20°F colder than Saturday. to Wisconsin.” because two of the people I’m run- laughable.” This cold air mass will be temporary, however, and temperatures should Even as Clark made plans to ning against decided it was OK to Edwards held one event in Wis- rebound by the middle of next week. endorse Kerry, who has emerged as pay it,” adding, “those guys made consin on Thursday, delivering his Most of the country will share our quiet weather this weekend. The the frontrunner for the Democratic the wrong choice.” standard remarks about the privi- two exceptions are the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest states, which nomination, Howard Dean made a In fact, Edwards and Kerry both leged winning out over everybody may both see heavy rain this weekend. direct appeal to Clark supporters. voted against the $87 billion appro- else at a rally in a community cen- “I ask for your help,” Dean, the priation, although they had both ter in Racine. He then flew to Los Weekend Outlook former governor of Vermont, said voted in favor of the resolution Angeles for a fund-raiser and to Today: Partly cloudy with seasonably mild temperatures. High near here. “Wes Clark and I have one authorizing the initial Iraq invasion. greet voters there. 43°F (6°C). thing in common: We are both not The rally in Madison came dur- Edwards took questions from Tonight: Partly cloudy. Low near 25°F (-4°C). from Washington, D.C.” ing a day of campaigning focused the crowd in Racine, which includ- Saturday: Increasing cloudiness and warmer. High near 47°F (8°C). Dean also asked supporters of on health care Dean and his wife, ed dozens of high school students, Saturday night: Cloudy with flurries. Colder with lows near 15°F (- Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio to Judith Steinberg Dean, who is also but his drive to reach voters was 9°C). back him instead, telling several a physician, toured two health clin- apparent. Before he began answer- Sunday: Sunny but cold. High near 20°F (-7°C). Low near 5°F (- hundred students at the University ics, one on the university’s Madi- ing he whispered to an aide, “Are 15°C). of Wisconsin that “only one of us son campus and one for uninsured they old enough to vote?” February 13, 2004 WORLD & NATION THE TECH Page 3

FCC To Revise Rules on Phone San Francisco Allows Gay Marriages THE NEW YORK TIMES SAN FRANCISCO Connection and Internet Access Two lesbians who have been living together for more than 50 years were married Thursday morning at City Hall, leading the way By Stephen Labaton munications industry and the Inter- companies have been running trials for a host of other same-sex marriages and sparking a heated debate THE NEW YORK TIMES net. offering high-speed Internet service over the legality of the ceremony. WASHINGTON “This represents a commitment through their transmission lines. California family law states that “only marriage between a man Homes could start being con- of the commission of bringing While the technology has been and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Nonetheless, the nected to the Internet through elec- tomorrow’s technology today,” developed, it is not clear whether San Francisco county clerk issued the women, Phyllis Lyon, 79, and trical outlets, and consumers and Powell said. He added that the such a service would be profitable Del Martin, 83, an official marriage certificate and said the act was businesses may find it easier to rules governing the new phone ser- or able to compete in markets dom- legal. They were married by the county assessor. make cheaper telephone calls vices would seek to make them as inated by cable and telephone com- “The marriages will be recognized in San Francisco but I can’t online under new rules that the widely available as e-mail, and panies. But FCC officials noted say how they will be viewed anywhere else,” said the county clerk, Federal Communications Commis- possibly much less expensive than that the vast majority of the Nancy Alfaro. sion began preparing on Thursday. traditional phones because they nation’s households did not yet By noon, three other gay and lesbian couples had been married, Taken together, the new rules would have lower regulatory costs. have high-speed Internet service, and dozens of others, some dressed in wedding gowns and dark suits, could profoundly affect the archi- At the same time, once the rules leaving the market wide open to were waiting their turn. tecture of the Internet and the ser- allowing delivery of the Internet rivals. Martin and Lyon, longtime lesbian activists, met in 1953. vices it provides. They also have through power lines are finalized, In the phone proceedings on “It was exciting” to get married, Lyon said, even though the cou- enormous implications for con- companies could provide con- Thursday, a majority of the com- ple had no ring and learned only Wednesday night that the ceremony sumers, the telephone and energy sumers with the ability to plug their missioners suggested that new could move forward. industries, and equipment manufac- modems directly into wall sockets Internet phone services should “It’s of crucial importance for the movement,” Lyon said. “We are turers. just as they do with any toaster, have significantly fewer regulatory fairly well united behind this because it’s being fought against so Michael K. Powell, the FCC desk lamp or refrigerator. burdens than traditional telephone hard by the other side. If we let them beat us down on this one, it will chairman, and his two Republican Under the new rules, which are carriers. The commissioners also be a longtime before we make other advances.” colleagues on the five-member expected to be completed in com- voted 4-1 to approve the applica- commission said the twin moves - ing months, electric utilities could tion of a small Internet company, and a separate vote to allow a small offer an alternative to the cable and Pulver.com, ruling that its service company providing computer-to- phone companies and provide an of providing computer-to-computer Greenspan Wants Lost Tax computer phone connections to enormous possible benefit to rural phone service, called Free World operate under different rules than communities which are served by Dialup, should not be subject to the Revenues Made Up ordinary phone companies - would the power grid, but not by broad- same regulations and access THE NEW YORK TIMES ultimately transform the telecom- band providers. A number of utility charges as traditional providers. WASHINGTON Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday that Congress should make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent only Guantanamo Prisoners Could Be if it makes up for the lost revenue with cuts in spending or other tax increases. Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan pro- vided modest political support for one of Bush’s top priorities but Held For Years, U.S. Officials Say explicitly disagreed with the president’s proposals on how to pay for By Neil A. Lewis out being charged with any offense. would be too dangerous to release. it. And Eric Schmitt Defense Secretary Donald Rums- The argument that the detentions Permanently extending the tax cuts that Congress passed in 2001 THE NEW YORK TIMES feld is scheduled to discuss the mat- at Guantanamo should be seen in a and 2003 would increase projected deficits by $1.5 trillion over the WASHINGTON ter in a speech in Miami on Friday. wartime context is, however, next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Senior Defense Department offi- One senior Defense Department unlikely to satisfy many critics. Bush’s budget proposal does not address that shortfall in detail, cials said Thursday that they were official who spoke on the condition Michael Ratner, the president of the but it does call for Congress to adopt new spending rules that would planning to keep a large portion of of anonymity said that critics in the Center for Constitutional Rights, restrict its ability to increase spending on discretionary domestic pro- the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, United States and abroad had great- said that “the idea that you could grams. Cuba, there for many years, perhaps ly misunderstood the situation at theoretically keep someone locked Greenspan, who expressed increased alarm this week about the indefinitely. Guantanamo and the need to detain up forever under these circum- prospect of large budget deficits for years to come, called for reinstat- The officials said they would so many people without charging stances is reprehensible.” Ratner, ing congressional restraints that were in force during much of the soon set up a panel to review the them. whose New York-based organiza- 1990s and required lawmakers to offset new tax cuts and spending long-term prisoners’ situation annu- “We feel very much like we are tion has brought lawsuits challeng- proposals. ally to determine whether they in an active war,” said the official, ing the Guantanamo detentions, remained a threat to the United asserting that the civilian law said he was taken aback by what he States or could be released. enforcement model in which people called the administration’s brazen- U.S. May Support Israeli Proposal The officials described the panel are prosecuted for crimes or set free ness. as a “quasi-parole board” that did not apply. “What we’re doing at “It’s nothing to do with law as For Withdrawal would comprise three members Guantanamo is more understand- any person should understand it, at THE NEW YORK TIMES before whom prisoners could per- able in the war context,” the official least since the Magna Carta,” he WASHINGTON sonally plead their case for release. said. said. “How do you know without a The Bush administration, signaling a major shift of policy on the At the same time, the officials said, The official said that while some trial that these people are even dan- Middle East, has indicated that it may support Israel’s new proposal in the coming months they will critics worry about the rights of the gerous?. It all depends on the mili- for a unilateral withdrawal from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, continue to release to their home detainees, the Pentagon was more tary’s word.” according to administration and Israeli officials. governments many other prisoners concerned with “the rights of the But the defense and military A senior U.S. official said that the administration is “taking a they have deemed not to be a con- soldiers having these people not officials insisted that many of the close look” at the policy, and that the president would send three tinuing danger. going back to the battlefield” and prisoners at Guantanamo were “the senior aides to Israel next week to get questions answered before the The officials spoke as part of a the rights of the soldiers’ families worst of the worst.” They said that proposal is endorsed. But administration and Israeli officials say they Pentagon effort to counter sharp not to have their relatives exposed over the course of many months of expect a favorable U.S. response. criticism by members of human to the potential danger of facing the interrogation and grueling intelli- In the past, the administration has maintained that peace can be rights groups and foreign govern- prisoners in combat. gence work, they had come to achieved in the Middle East only by reciprocal concessions agreed ments about the situation at Guan- Many of the prisoners, a senior believe that many of the people upon in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Embracing tanamo, where some 650 people are military official said, remain com- being held were senior operatives Sharon’s plan would depart from that principle by accepting the idea being held under maximum securi- mitted to indiscriminately killing of al-Qaida who had been involved that such negotiations are not possible, at least for now. ty, some as long as two years with- American civilians and soldiers and in active plots against Americans. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said Thursday that a pullout from Gaza would be “a step in the right direction.” Another official said the withdrawal plan, if implemented properly, “could Science Reports M&M Candies Are reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians and improve Pales- tinian freedom of movement.” The Israeli policy, outlined in recent weeks by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, proposed withdrawing Israeli troops and dismanting More Space-Efficient Than Gumballs settlements in parts of Gaza and smaller portions of the West Bank. By Kenneth Chang spheres can be packed together. a second direction, into ellipsoids U.S. officials have expressed concern that it would in effect abandon THE NEW YORK TIMES Neatly stacked, as in a pyramid of (in other words, stretched or the idea of negotiating with the Palestinians to achieve final state- In possibly the biggest advance oranges at a grocery store, spheres squashed so the M&M shape is no hood. in the science of candy since the occupy 74 percent of the available longer circular when viewed from discovery that Wint-O-Green Life volume. Arranged randomly, how- above — like, say, an almond Savers emit faint blue sparks when ever, spheres fill only 64 percent of M&M), then the maximum packing Iran Acknowledges It Received chewed, scientists are reporting Fri- the space. density increases to 77 percent, day that M&Ms pack more tightly In the new research, the scien- more tightly than the simple neat Pakistani Centrifuge Plans in your mouth than gumballs. tists considered spheroids — stacks. THE NEW YORK TIMES Besides being a publicity boost spheres stretched into cigar shapes With the denser packing, each WASHINGTON for Mars Inc., the maker of M&Ms, or squashed into M&M shapes. individual particle is in contact with The Iranian government, confronted with new evidence obtained the research, which appears in the Stacked neatly, the spheroids still more neighboring particles. Thus, a from the secret network of nuclear suppliers surrounding Abdul journal Science, could lead to better take up 74 percent of the space, just ceramic made out of a powder of Qadeer Khan, has acknowledged that it possesses a design for a far understanding of glass — the scien- like spheres. But in random arrange- ellipsoid particles might be stronger more advanced high-speed centrifuge to enrich uranium than it previ- tific term for any solid with a ran- ments, computer simulations and than one made of spherical particles. ously revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency. dom arrangement of atoms or mole- experiments with M&M’s showed While the research ended with The centrifuge, called a “Pak-2” because it marked Pakistan’s sec- cules — and to practical that spheroids could be packed M&Ms, it started with peas. Paul M. ond-generation design, would allow Iran to produce nuclear fuel far developments like stronger ceram- much more densely, filling up to 71 Chaikin, a professor of physics at more quickly than the equipment that it reluctantly revealed to the ics. percent of the space. Princeton, assigned an undergradu- IAEA last year. But it is unclear whether Iran succeeded in building “The questions involved here are “You can just randomly pour ate student, Evan A. Variano, to the new equipment, which is the type that the Khan network sold to really quite deep and quite funda- them and without any effort get reproduce the work of an 18th-cen- Libya in recent years. mental,” said Salvatore Torquato, a something that approaches the dens- tury English clergyman, Stephen Some details of Iran’s shift were reported in Thursday’s editions of professor of chemistry at Princeton est lattice packing,” Torquato said. Hales, who studied the packing of the Financial Times. Iran’s new statements to the IAEA, which last University and an author of the Sci- The density increases, he said, spheres with peas. Hales soaked the year compelled the country to open to fuller inspections, are important ence paper. because “the particle can move peas, which swelled and deformed, for two reasons. They mark the first evidence that Iran did not tell the The research is a more compli- around and rotate to find a more allowing him to see the precise full truth when it turned over to the IAEA documents that it said cated version of a long-studied efficient packing.” arrangement of each pea with its described all the important elements of its program to enrich uranium. problem: how tightly identical If the spheroids are deformed in neighbors. Page 4 THE TECH February 13, 2004 OPINION

Chairman Hangyul Chung ’05 Editor in Chief Brian Loux ’04 Business Manager Roy K. Esaki ’04 Managing Editor David Carpenter ’05

NEWS STAFF News and Features Director: Beckett W. Sterner ’06; News Editors: Kathy Lin ’06, Marissa Vogt ’06, Jenny Zheng ’06; Associate Editors: Waseem S. Daher ’07, Gireeja V. Ranade ’07, Julián E. Vil- larreal ’07; Staff: Jeffrey Greenbaum ’04, Eun J. Lee ’04, Michael E. Rolish ’04, Jay K. Cameron ’05, Christine Fry ’05, Sam Hwang ’05, Issel Anne L. Lim ’05, Jessica A. Zaman ’05, Brian C. Keegan ’06, Lauren E. LeBon ’06, Jennifer Wong ’06, Ray C. He ’07, Tongyan Lin ’07; Meteorologists: Samantha L. H. Hess G, Robert Lindsay Korty G, Greg Lawson G, Nikki Privé G, William Ramstrom G, Michael J. Ring G.

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Andrew C. Thomas The government’s interest in the union of must follow the spirit of the First Amendment Abandons two people is huge. Children are far better off to the letter and make marriage a purely non- Throughout the entire debate over gay mar- being raised by two parents — the same two, governmental institution. What we know as riage, opponents have constantly reminded ideally — for their entire development, living the civil union, made popular in Vermont as a Free Speech their audiences that marriage should be pre- in a house filled with separate but equal sta- served as it is for historical reasons. History, love. The closed- tus, must not be sepa- though, has rarely been on the side of progress. minded would be wise rate any longer and Thouis Jones But the issue of marriage is a thorny one. to know that their Britney Spears proved in 55 made the standard for It’s a beast with two heads: the religious side, worst fear is false, and all states. Marriage, as Sadly, we are again faced with those who where marriage is a sacred institution by that children aren’t hours that marriage is in far we see it now, can only should be acting to defend free speech on cam- which a man and a woman are blessed by turned gay by expo- be saved by taking it pus but instead choose the easier path of whatever God is called for; and the secular, sure to gay parents, as more danger from impetuous more seriously, not as a squelching it. The which gave us (at the very least) safe, monog- they show the same youth, easy annulment, and the tax break or a weekend recent Additions and amous relationships in the past and tax breaks incidence of homosex- fling, but as the pure, Letter Alterations Review in the present. uality as the general Little White Wedding Chapel idealistic, and glorious goes through the We haven’t yet reached a point in the evo- population (Nature 1, union between two usual obeisance to academic principles (“MIT lution of society where the term marriage has Nurture 0). If this is than it is from people who love people who love each [has] a long standing and deeply held tradition been able to differentiate itself smoothly the only fear of the each other. other. of academic freedom…”), only to pull the rug between the secular and the religious. My intolerant, the case is This change cannot out from under us a few sentences later: solution to the problem? Cut off a head. made: average gay possibly happen “While a banner or poster may express one Guess which one. parents are just as overnight, but it’s the person’s view, [it] does not allow for feedback President George W. Bush insists that mar- capable of raising healthy children as anyone. only way I see that both sides of the debate or exchange of ideas.” riage is a sacred institution, and he’s absolute- But if we accept this, the rest just seems to will be slightly happy. And the acceptance of Based on the quotes from Julie Norman, ly right. Does it need to be protected? I think fall into place. Married couples are more like- gay couples in church is another battle entire- who led the committee, and Benjamin Navot so. But despite the foundation of the govern- ly than single people to buy homes, settle ly, but it’s being debated as vigorously as it is [’07], a student representative [“Clear Ban on ment on religious principles, it was not found- down, and raise families, so what sense does it at the government level. And surely the strong Posters, Flags is Recommended,” Feb. 10], ed by cardinals or rabbis for the advancement make to discourage this? benefits to children alone represent a strong, this idea that one-way communication should- of a particular religious agenda. No govern- Britney Spears proved in 55 hours that compelling interest to the state. n’t be protected is the main justification of the ment should be in the business of advancing marriage is in far more danger from impetu- Clinton knew well enough to make mar- suggestion of the committee. “Things on the the interests of either religion or atheism. So ous youth, easy annulment or divorce, and the riage a state issue with the Defense of Mar- outside of a building aren’t a two-way medi- what is it doing meddling with marriage? Little White Wedding Chapel than it is from riage Act in 1996, which made the recognition um,” according to Navot. He goes on to assert As it stands, marriage should be a sacred people who love each other. So the church of same-sex marriages a same-sex issue. But that Jonathan Goler’s hanging of a flag, since institution — and nothing more. It should be a disagrees? So what? Any church can marry it’s time to rewrite the official definition of it didn’t allow feedback, was “almost harass- recognition between two caring people that anyone they want; they can even marry three marriage, and back up the anti-Clinton image ing in a sense.” Norman said, “We can all they want to spend the rest of their lives people if they like. (I don't believe in desired by the Republican administration. voice an opinion, but we all have to allow together, a recognition shared with their fami- polygamy for reasons of trust, let alone tax Let’s just hope that it sticks to its founding someone who doesn’t agree with us to respond lies, friends, preachers, and deities. It can be breaks, but that’s another column.) principles and removes the gaze of govern- and engage us in dialogue.” These justifica- celebrated with as little as a kiss or as big as a If people are so concerned with the preser- ment from where it knows it doesn’t belong: tions don’t hold up under even the barest of full-blown cathedral wedding and a six-carat vation of the word “marriage” — the union in the personal and religious decisions of its citi- consideration. diamond. holy matrimony of two people — then we zens. If speech on campus is only allowed in two-way media, am I justified in defacing posters with which I disagree? There was a civil-rights display in Lobby 10 last week. Much Ado About Nothing Should the KKK have been invited to protest in front of it? Are lectures now only accept- not devoid of reason and plausibility, and one obscene exposure that should be banned, cen- able if everyone, students included, gets equal Vivek Rao can certainly build a case that anything from sored, fined, and lambasted. time to speak? Obviously, none of these are the temperance movement to saying grace Though we are well aware that sex plays a true, yet they are the only logical conclusions The CBS network presented the Grammy before meals in some way connects back to key role in our daily lives, we are ever reluc- if we accept that two-way communication is Awards with a five-minute delay that the philosophies of the ancestors of the tant to accept that fact in public. Perhaps we the only acceptable form. stretched the definition of “live television.” Founding Fathers. That said, how long will it have some bizarre, subconscious notion that Second, to equate Goler’s flag-hanging MTV has decided to eject a set of its racier be before we start to recognize the unchecked the higher powers that be can see everywhere with harassment is repugnant behavior, for music videos into the doldrums of late night hypocrisy that pervades our attitudes toward except into our bedrooms, strip clubs, adult which Navot should apologize. Harassment is from prime time. A Tennessee woman filed a sex scandals? movie theaters, and stacks of Hustler. We are a serious breach of ethics, and in many cases massive class action lawsuit claiming emo- You can argue that Puritanism made publicly “protecting” ourselves from an evil criminal. Accusing someone of harassment, tional damages to herself and “all Ameri- American sexual values conservative, but that that we embrace in private, and the hypocrisy especially when one knows it might appear in cans,” only to withdraw the suit after claiming doesn’t gel with most elements of our society. seems rampant. a campus publication like The Tech, should be to have proved her point. And the United Hollywood blockbusters catapult to success Now before you start hammering out a let- done only when one is absolutely sure of it. States Congress — yes, the same venerable by showcasing hunks and bombshells. The ter about how conservative sexual values are That Goler was not harassing anyone should institution that devoted sessions and sessions music videos that saturate cable television, necessary for the sake of our nation’s chil- be patently obvious to anyone familiar with to the use of steroids and other performance- despite featuring “clothed” models and dren, consider how such a system has failed to harassment. Moreover, such statements inure enhancing drugs — has initiated a full-scale dancers, are far more sexually suggestive than work in other walks of life. Artificially our community against cases of true harass- investigation into the propriety of a Super most nude scenes. And the pornography cocooning kids away from the vices of adults ment, impeding efforts to address a serious Bowl halftime show. industry, spurred immensely by the Internet, never worked with alcohol, drugs, or crime. issue. All of this because a single breast appeared has reached gargantuan proportions. That’s why youth educational programs are Finally, this brings me to Norman’s com- on television for a few seconds. Yet when something sexual happens on the more widespread than ever before. And if ment. To limit the freedom of speech to those It’s always fascinating to see what the national stage, and not in the confines of our we’re serious about teaching our kids sexual willing to listen might be seen as fair, but this American public will fixate on next. Ask your homes, all hell breaks loose. Sure, former education in middle school to save them from is weak justification for censoring speech. Are average joe who John Edwards is, and there’s President Bill Clinton was stupid to have lied STDs and early pregnancies, let’s try not to religious beliefs therefore never to be talked a fair shot you’ll get a blank look, but is there about his relations with Monica Lewinsky. convince elementary schoolers that Janet about on campus, because there can be no any doubt that he’ll know which singer But is there any question why he lied? Obvi- Jackson’s right breast is an agent of Satan. arguing with faith? If I wear a “Vote Bush” recently exposed her now infamous nipple ously, he had his finger on the pulse of the Just as troubling is the severe lack of per- shirt while walking down the Infinite Corri- piercing? American psyche, and he knew that a sexual spective all of this exemplifies. The outpour- dor, do I have to stop and listen to every Clearly, there is something unique about scandal would rock his political world in a ing of anti-boob letters, articles, committees, Democrat’s opinion in the interest of fairness? the American character that allows the stunt way that it would never come close to if he and press releases rivals the attention given to The simple fact is, the old policy — pulled by Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were the leader of almost any other nation. a variety of key issues in recent years. Why implicitly allowing flags and posters to be to make such a big splash. After all, it is hard Janet Jackson, meanwhile, though certainly aren’t we as passionate about the race for the hung from dormitories — was already a two- to believe that in most of Europe, where nude a very talented musician and singer, has long Democratic presidential nomination, or uni- way medium. If I didn’t like a flag being magazines are displayed liberally at any and relied on her sexy figure and flirtatious gyra- versal health care, or global pollution emis- flown, I could fly a different one, or write a every newsstand, the striptease would have tions to enhance her entertainment appeal, and sions, or the AIDS epidemic in Africa, or letter to The Tech, or protest at 77 Mass. Ave, been more than a drop in a bucket. for decades, the American public has poverty in our own backyard? It’s time for us or just ignore it altogether. All of these are bet- The standard explanation for our country’s embraced her as one of its favorite performers. to get real. ter ideas than banning flags and free expres- remarkably sensitive views on sex revolves Yet when the breasts and butts that titillate us If we really want to secure our younger sion. around the Puritans. Apparently, when the on a daily basis come without the packaging of generations’ future, there are plenty of sub- The ad-hoc committee could have done Mayflower docked in Plymouth, it carried not a thin piece of cloth, the barrier of a pay-per- stantive issues that need our attention, and something good with their mandate. They had only a bunch of disgruntled Europeans, but view fee or the apparent protection of an maybe when we resolve all of them, we can the chance, and sadly, decided to take the easy also a large enough supply of prude values to online adult verification service, entertainment come back and mete out a punishment for and cowardly way out. Instead of shoring up last for four centuries. The Puritan theory is suddenly crosses the line, becoming lewd and Janet and Justin. free expression, and supporting dialogue and exchange of ideas on campus, they’ve decided to put limits on us all. They could have encouraged those that disagree with others to The Ombudsman speak up, to justify their own position, to actu- ally exchange ideas. Instead, they’ve given us all a lazy solution: just stop both sides of the discussion before it starts. This “burn the vil- Fight over facts: UA Goals vs. UAQ&A lage to save it” mentality about difficult speech seems far too common on campus, to the detri- UA Goals checklist/UA Q&A uproar issue with facts reported in the news article ment of us all. John A. Hawkinson (“There were … a number of goals that were Perhaps this is all that could be expected. This issue is a subtle one, and I hope I incorrectly listed as incomplete in The Tech When the committee was formed, Dean Nor- can explain it well; I think it is important. article… we hope that in the future they man explicitly said that it would not be con- Inside this column Last week Tuesday’s Tech ran “UA would be a bit more accurate.”). ducting any polls or surveys to gather student • Inside this column ...... p. 5 Completes Under Half of Fall Projects,” a Prior to the production of that issue, UA input [“‘Alterations and Additions’ under • UA Goals checklist/UA Q&A uproar . p. 5 news story describing the state of various representatives were in discussion with the Committee’s Scrutiny”, Nov. 25, 2003. I sup- • Can’t we fit death on the front page? . . p. 6 projects (“goals”) of the Undergraduate news department about the alleged inaccura- pose two-way communication is a principle • Endowment ...... p. 6 Association. (This was the fourth piece on cies. that only students should live by, not deans. • “Race by the numbers” graphs ...... p. 6 the goals and the first to quantify their In my opinion, sniping between sections Thouis Jones is a graduate student in the • Year in Review captions ...... p. 6 progress.) This week Tuesday, a “UA Q&A” Department of Electrical Engineering and column ran in the features section, taking Ombudsman, Page 6 Computer Science. Page 6 THE TECH OPINION February 13, 2004 UA Concerns; Death on page 1? Endowment Issues Ombudsman, from Page 5 ancies and will publish errata should the article prove to “How do we explain why the dollar value of the endow- include inaccuracies.”), Krishnan says, “I just think it makes ment went down? Well, it’s very simple. The dollars of gifts should not be appear in the newspaper, with the exception of us look silly.” plus the dollars of investment return … were less than the the letters pages (and to some extent, the Ombudsman’s col- UA Q&A claims the “incorrectly listed” goals are “all amount that was spent. So the dollar value of the endowment umn). either completed or have become more significant long-term went down even though the investment return was positive.” Regarding facts, the sections of a newspaper should speak endeavors.” That’s a pretty big “or”; “completed” is very dif- I was also confused by the reference in the article to “lim- consistently and credibly. Not only does this apply to the ferent than “long-term”. ited exposure to hedge funds …” as a possible cause of the news section, where articles should cover all sides of the I think at least one source of confusion was the catego- decline. Bufferd explained that “there is no implication [that] story, but the opinion and features editors take care to con- rization of projects into “Goals Complete as of Feb. 1,” ‘we should have had’” more investments in hedge funds, “or firm the facts claimed in their sections (the letters pages, as “Goals Incomplete as of Feb. 1,” and “Goals with upcom- that ‘we should have in the future.’” Instead, exposure to part of the opinion section, are subject to those constraints as ing/ongoing deadlines.” I was rather confused about the dis- hedge funds was one of the “characteristic differences” well). tinction between the last two. between MIT’s investment strategy and those of our peer If, despite these measures, a published fact is found to be Staff reporter Lauren E. LeBon clarified that all goals institutions. false, it should be corrected in the errata section of the paper. with listed target dates prior to Feb. 1 appeared in the first I have 900 words of notes from talking to him, but I’ll try Parties who are biased about particular previously-pub- two columns and had their status evaluated. Goals with tar- to encourage the news department to do a more detailed fol- lished facts should not be offered space to write about their get dates after Feb. 1 were placed in the 3rd column. lowup. There’s a lot of confusing stuff here and distilling it own interpretation of them. Instead, an unbiased party (gen- UA Q&A claims the “plasma display project” is a signifi- down for normal people to understand is tough, but worth- erally from the news department) should investigate the alle- cant long-term endeavor, but the UA Goals Web site (http:// while. gations of inaccuracy and report back. The results should not web.mit.edu/ua/www/projects/goals.html) still lists a target Ironically, The Chronicle of Higher Education published be accompanied by sarcasm (“If you send your feedback … date of “end of December [2003].” If the UA cannot be a pertinent article on the same day (Feb. 6): “Managing it’ll become a part of the prestigious public record that we bothered to update the target dates on their Web site (which Endowments in 2004” by Verne O. Sedlacek, Sarah E. Clark, like to refer to as The Tech.”); facts should be presented claims to have last been modified on Oct. 10, 2003), they and Timothy Yates. The authors argue that the popular prac- calmly and straightforwardly. should not complain when The Tech observes they have tice of spending 5 percent of the market value of an endow- UA Q&A did not provide a detailed explanation of exact- missed their target dates. ment each year is an outdated practice that made sense when ly which facts were in dispute, nor did it even try. It raised On the other hand, the “coffeehouse reintroduction” has a the real return on endowments was high (7.5 percent from doubts about the entire article (and by implication the news target date of “ongoing” but appeared in the “incomplete” 1992 to 2002), but now that the return is lower, spending 5 department), and only named “a few” of the goals that it column. Looks like a genuine gripe (as is the nominations percent of the endowment risks benefitting current students claimed were classified incorrectly. committee). “at the expense of future students.” According to Bufferd, The Tech would not have printed statements like those in MIT spent more than 5 percent in FY2003. the opinion section without substantiation; they would have Can’t we fit death on the front page? been fact-checked and the allegations clarified. This week Tuesday’s issue carried a news brief, “Custo- “Race by the numbers” graphs To print them in the features section (which is more rig- dian Found Dead,” in a small box at the bottom of page 15. Multiple readers wrote in about the graphs in the “Per- orous than opinion but less rigorous than news) seems laugh- (It was referenced on the front page in the right-hand “inside spectives on Diversity” page in Friday’s issue. Two observed able. box.”) One reader wrote me to complain about this; as he that the multiple shades of gray in pie slices were almost Editor in chief Brian Loux explains that the column is says, “Death is BIG NEWS.” indistinguishable from each other, and that the numbers did “the UA’s chance to [provide] their own stance on things.” The production department explained to me that they not add up to 100 percent. Former executive editor Eun J. Does he somehow think that it shouldn’t be edited, unlike all were initially not informed of the existence of the story until Lee coordinated that section, and in an e-mail she attributed other content in the paper? after the front page layout was drafted, and that the editor in the numerical issues to both round-off error and people of Aside from all the journalistic reasons not to print such chief decided it was not necessary to adjust the front page more than one race. The production staffer who produced the allegations, the mere fact that the UA and the news depart- layout. page concurred regarding the illegibility, and had expected ment were already talking worsens the situation. When pri- I concur with the complaint. When someone dies at MIT, the different grays to be more distinguishable. vate discussion turn into public conversation, human beings it should be on the front page. Everyone should know about get entrenched in their positions and amicable resolution it, not just those who make it to the last page inside the Year in Review captions becomes more difficult. paper. (It is also disappointing that the news brief was so I still haven’t managed to sit down and finish slogging Even Loux, secure in his belief in the prerogative of this short on details.) through The Tech’s Year in Review issue. But the one thing features column to obliquely critique the news section, “felt that struck me was the lack of captions on the photo spreads. they went a little far.” Endowment Photography editor Brian Hemond told me that captions News and features director Beckett W. Sterner OK’d the I found last week Friday’s article on MIT’s endowment would have been easy to do, but that the arts section decided text at the time, but was operating under impression that the [“Net Decline in MIT Endowment”] to be a bit perplexing. not to have them, and other sections chose to be consistent. question being answered was genuine, rather than made up The article attributed the decline to “gifts and pledges, Then-arts editor Jeremy Baskin explains to me in an e-mail, by the UA Q&A authors. Writing in an e-mail, he “now investment performance, and expenditures.” Most of us think “We made a global decision to have no captions in arts for realize[s] the value of having only one official voice … the endowment is an ever-increasing fund, and that the prin- the Year In Review. We viewed the section's purpose as pro- rather than having several statements in different parts of the cipal of the endowment should only grow (based on gifts and viding a telescoped (i.e., opposite of microscopic) look at the paper.” re-investing some of the interest income). As such, it’s hard previous year, and photos were meant to be representative.” I discussed the situation over dinner with former editor in to see how gifts are a component of a decline in value. I think that’s poor. When readers see a photo, they want chief Jennifer Krishnan. Krishnan strongly believe in the I spoke to MIT Treasurer Allan S. Bufferd ’59, and he to know where to look for more details. It’s impractical to boundaries between the sections of the paper, saying it is was able to help me resolve some of the confusion. Bufferd search through an entire year of Tech issues to find the cap- “not appropriate for the column to question The Tech’s says the change in value of the endowment has “three com- tion that originally ran with a photo. The right thing to do is integrity anywhere other than the letters.” ponents”: gifts, which are “always positive”; spending, to run the caption with the photo—every time. About the editor’s note within the UA Q&A (“The Tech which “is always a negative”; and income and “appreciation The Tech’s Ombudsman welcomes your feedback, to is currently discussing with the UA the nature of the discrep- or depreciation of existing assets.” [email protected]. His opinions are his own. A new year, a new term. Isn’t it time you tried something new? Join

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Student Center, Room 483, x3-1541 [email protected] February 13, 2004 THE TECH Page 7 FEATURES How to Eat Like an Asian Dim Sum By Mark Y. Liao darin (because that’s what I speak). Har Gao (Ha Gao/Ha Gao) — my Every once in a while a craze comes favorite of all dim sum dishes. Unless you along that takes us by storm: Furbies, The dislike shrimp (which makes you dumb) this Gin Blossoms, dead baby jokes. Each is by is for you. Encased in a dumpling-like skin now long gone. Along with the Joey should be two shrimp with tiny pieces of Lawrence “Woah” and the waist-tied flannel, bamboo. This dish is steamed, so the shrimp the early ’90s is also marked by Boston’s should be fairly plump (have you ever won- fling with the tapas bar. dered how to explain the Taiwanese word For those of you who don’t know, a meal “kew kew” to a white person?) and can be at a tapas bar is an entire Spanish meal made eaten with soy sauce or, my personal favorite, black vinegar. Shu Mai (Shiu- Mai/Sau-Mai) — another standard dumpling-like dish. It is a pork dumpling with an egg/wonton skin. If the restaurant knows what they’re doing, they’ll also gar- nish each with a slice of sweet pork sausage or maybe hide a piece of shrimp inside. Again, the use of a lit- tle soy sauce or black ROLAND TANGLAO vinegar would not Shu mai (above) is a dumpling-like dish in which one might find shrimp if eaten at a result in stare-downs quality restaurant. All photos are courtesy of Vaneats.com. from the natives. leaf, steam, and serve. Inside the sticky rice should be crunchy on the outside, slightly Pork Spare Ribs could be some dried mushrooms, a piece of chewy in the middle, and have the consisten- ROLAND TANGLAO (Pai Gwat/Pai Gu) — Chinese sweet sausage, a tiny quail egg, or cy of refried beans on the inside. Americans Har gao (above) contains shrimp and shredded bamboo. tiny little pieces of some pieces of pork. simply need to learn about the glory that is up of many small dishes. Think of an entire pork ribs with black bean sauce. This dish is Sesame Balls (Jin Doie/Tsi Ma Cho) — bean paste. meal made up of appetizers. Now, just very tame, and also difficult to do wrong dessert. Personally I’m not a big fan, but I Egg tarts (Dan Ta/Dan Ta) — dessert change the country. Meet the Chinese cousin (ergo, vis-à-vis, concordantly). If they screw can picture myself having pieces of bamboo number two. As a little kid I used to take a of tapas: dim sum. this one up, revisit above for instructions. shoved under my fingernails if I left this out. spoon and only eat out the custard filling. Dim sum refers to a type of Chinese meal Shrimp in Rice Noodles (Cheng These sweet sesame shells are filled with However now I am a firm believer that the that serves mostly bite-sized portions pushed Fun/Tsang Fun) — if you’ve ever had beef either red or green bean paste. The shell flaky crust is just as important. You may around in tin carts by aggressive Chinese chow-fun, it’s want to consider not ordering from the ladies who shove food on your table as if that same rice dim sum place and going to a bakery you were their long lost sister’s neighbor’s noodle wrapped across the street for this one. But if second nephew. around pieces of you’re desperate, by all means surren- My mom says that back in the day, the shrimp. The dish der to the pushy cart-lady. General emperor wanted everything, and the imperial also comes with guideline: they should be the size of a cooks would search far and wide for the sauce and comes coaster, not a large mushroom. Also, most exotic dishes. But like most men of in other varieties, the filling should taste almost like flan. power, the emperor got greedy, so he wanted including beef Steamed BBQ Pork Buns (Cha Siu a conflagration of many flavors in his mouth and pork. Hence, Bao/Tsa Sau Bau) — So you know the with every meal. So each dish had to be the cho fun red colored BBQ pork that’s always small, so he couldn’t get full on a single fla- shouldn’t be served at a Cantonese style restaurant? vor. super squishy or The white puffy skin should be soft and Today’s dim sum is the regular joe’s ver- slimy. Again fluffy, not soggy. If they’re soggy, sion of an imperial dining experience. Below, shrimp should be they’ve been left in the cart too long. I have listed your most basic of dishes. If the plump, people. Also, be careful to take off the tiny dim sum restaurant doesn’t do the following Plump. piece of wax paper on the bottom. Some dishes right, spit on the waiter, make fun of Lotus people do forget and end up hating dim his mother, and march out of the room Wrapped Sticky sum for some “mysterious reason.” singing “I’m Too Sexy.” You’ll never be able Rice (Gnow Mai Remember, these were very basic to return, but who would want to? Gai/Gnow Mi and tame dishes. Next week, we dive The rough English names are listed, fol- Gee) — the name into the realm of more hardcore dim lowed parenthetically by an inaccurate but is pretty self- sum. Until then, as Phoebe’s psychia- nevertheless affective pseudo-ping ying pro- explanatory. Take ROLAND TANGLAO trist boyfriend “Rodge” once said, “easy nunciation in first Cantonese (because dim some sticky rice, Pictured above is lotus leaf-wrapped sticky rice. The lotus leaf ensures on those cookies, OK? Remember sum is from mainland China), then Man- wrap it in a lotus the rice retains its moisture. they’re just food, they’re not love.” What’s Next? New Times, Same Old Dilemma By Ian Ybarra from Harvard Law after earning two MIT while we’re so young. That made me sit a little more thoughtful reasons than “it pays well!” physics diplomas. He holds positions as part- shorter. What’s worse than having to make for choosing our first career branches to climb I have a new acquaintance named Tom. ner at Bingham McCutchen, one of the largest choices that render the greatest impact on our — especially since our starting salaries have Years ago, Tom studied here at MIT and law firms in New York, and President of the lives when we are least prepared? no correlation with future wealth. earned SB and SM degrees in physics. And he MIT Club of New York. Impressive, yes, but “We are prisoners of our time,” Tom said. One student asked Tom what he thought vividly recalls wrestling with questions about not as much as what he shared that night. He explained our cell bars are market condi- about people attending law school without his future, like we are. “Coming to MIT was the best thing you tions and social paradigms which include cur- intentions of actually practicing law afterward. Tom arrived at his first answer during a ski could have done for yourself,” said Tom. rent industry salaries, job glamour, and further His response: “Everyone wants to be Josh trip in Maine. His girlfriend (now his wife) Those three letters on our résumés ensure education required. In his time, there were Lyman.” Of course, Tom was referring to The and he were enjoying some beer and dis- that our technical abilities are taken for grant- only two factors: the renaissance of profes- West Wing’s brash Deputy Chief of Staff who cussing what they should do with their lives. ed, and this is one time when the words “taken sional education and the not-yet-developed holds Harvard undergraduate and Yale Law That’s when Tom decided to attend law school. for granted” are a good thing. In my brief pro- Wall Street market for high-salaried, number- degrees and plays down compliments from Although that setting is unique to his story, fessional experience, I have already watched crunching jobs. The tides have since turned. females as often as he is right about his poli- the factors influencing his decision were the several interviewers casually say to me, “Well, We are offered plenty of high-entry-level tics — nearly all the time. Tom said that the same as those we consider now. we don’t have to go over this,” and skip the wages for using Excel through days, nights, problem with the really “sexy” jobs is that This past January, Tom was invited to cam- quantitative questions. Apparently, it happens and weekends in industries such as financial they are so few and so hard to get. pus to address about 50 people — students, even at Tom’s level. He said people always services and management consulting. More- Yup, it’s a problem. However, I think if we alumni, staff, and friends — as part of an assume he’s the technology expert in the room, over, computing developments have raised IT first distinguish between which jobs the mass- evening networking event sponsored by the even if he’s never heard of the issue at hand. salaries to similar levels. es think are “sexy” and which ones really turn School of Engineering’s Undergraduate Prac- Clearly, this will be a competitive advan- Tom chose law school because it promised us on, we should go after our dreams without tice Opportunities Program (UPOP). As he tage for us in both technical and non-technical to teach him how to apply analytical reasoning hesitation. If we do work we really love, we took the floor in lifeless 4-163, I knew his work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help us decide to human life experiences — something will be content even if we never reach the pin- pedigree alone would be enough to hold the which we will pursue. Tom commiserated, absent from undergraduate education — and it nacles of our chosen fields. And if, for you, crowd’s attention. acknowledging the misfortune of encounter- presented a much more rigorous academic that’s Josh Lyman’s job, great. That leaves Mr. Thomas D. Halket, Esq., ’70 graduated ing the largest forks in the “decision tree” challenge than business school. We too need Toby Ziegler’s spot for me. N i g h t l i n e : def tuv tuv oper oper Page 8 THE TECH FEATURES February 13, 2004 Positive Sinking Ask Keeping Afloat Nutty B By Akshay Patil large waves that pound relentlessly on our small craft as we desper- By Nutty B FEATURES EDITOR ately cling to our seats trying to hang on and not get blown away by FEATURES COLUMNIST Dear Positive Sinking, the hostile winds of the future howling over the unforgiving sea of Nutty B is currently a graduate student at Do you have your own harem of groupies or floozies due to your financial insecurity. MIT. Please e-mail him with whatever ques- enormous popularity and worldwide influence? If not, why not? If Thanks for the praise. I think you’re rather mistaken when you tion you would like someone to listen to, and so, what are you complaining about all the time? You have floozies, say my god awful column is a lot better than what most of you could help him have an excuse to procrastinate at for Pete’s sake!!! muster up. Why, I bet if you put your mind up to it, you could 3 a.m. Please send all questions to askNut- — Satch muster up a much better column than I usually do, when I muster [email protected]. In fact, I don’t have “groupies” or “floozies.” I think I’d rather things… especially things with mayonnaise. have “floozies,” even though I don’t know what they are — they I’m not quite sure how the “dating” parallel fits in, unless you Dear Nutty B, must be better than middle-aged former flower children who follow had a terribly advanced high school whose newspaper had a “per- There is this guy friend of mine that I me around when I’m going “on tour.” sonals” section to it. My high school newspaper was not so blessed. have known for quite a while now. We hang In fact, I probably have very little use for groupies, since I don’t I wonder how well that sort of thing would work at MIT. Do you out all the time but always do so with a really need them to tune my, uhm, computer. I guess they could set think The Tech should start running a “personals” section? Or would group of friends. I have just begun to realize things up for my awesome jam sessions — you know, fluff my couch it just be filled with items like: I like him more and more but I am not sure if cushions, warm up my laptop, open up a text-editor and my inbox, Single Male Indian Computer Science Major (SMICSM), seek- he feels the same about me. I am a shy girl and so on. But I don’t think it’d be very rewarding for them. And I ing Exceedingly Hot Girl Of Any Major With A Sense Of Humor and there is no way I will go approaching have to admit, I’m a bit of a disappointment if you’ve ever seen me (EHGOAMWASOH) to exchange comedic yet uncomfortable e-mail him and ask him if he has feelings for me. perform live. and instant message conversations until he finally works up the Now I just act funny around him and he has According to Merriam-Webster, a floozy is “a usually young courage to casually mention that maybe they should go out for a bite told me I have been sometimes cold and woman of loose morals.” to eat or some other pseudo-date activity which can then leave them sometimes warm towards him. What should I Nope, none of those. Not that I don’t try, but I just don’t have the both incredibly perplexed as to whether or not its really a date but do? I am so confused! stage presence to attract that kind of crowd, I guess. they both sort of dress slightly better than usual just in case it counts — C.G. and the guy can worry about it being too forward to pay for both Dear C.G., Alright Akshay, ya got me. Its 20 minutes before my next class during the excursion and at the end of the night they can have a real- You aren’t one of my friends, are you? If and I don’t have a dollar to my name right now, otherwise I would ly awkward parting which will convince him that he really isn’t good so, come to me and identify yourself. I be putting this time to much better use, like eating. Instead I find at this dating thing and continues to spend most of his time talking promise you we will start going out now and myself smack dab in the middle of an Athena cluster, checking my e- to said EHGOAMWASOH online like the true geek he is. get married in June and live happily ever mail and reading your god awful column. Because frankly, I don’t think many EHGOAMWASOH would after! Actually, it’s not that bad, a lot better than most of us engineers respond to these desperate cries for love. Those poor, poor SMIC- At any rate, I must say, “congratula- here at this school could probably muster, myself included. So as I SMs. tions!” Although you must be feeling butter- skim over your column, I’m inevitably drawn to the final italicized This Valentine’s Day, “Positive Sinking” will be fleeing the state, flies in your stomach, I bet it’s a nice feel- paragraph where you plead shamelessly with your readers to show but you’re more than welcome, in fact encouraged, to send e-mail to ing. Perhaps I am just old-fashioned, but I’ve some interest and shoot you a letter. Kinda reminds me of dating in [email protected] so as to provide fodder for further inane ramblings always believed a relationship built upon a high school now that I think of it. about nothing in general or something on occasion. And if you read gradual friendship is the most romantic and — Nick the word “fodder” and remarked to yourself, “you know, ‘fodder’ is the most likely to last a lifetime. Hmm, I’ve got two dollars in my pocket, so I guess we’re in the sounds a lot like ‘udder,’” well then you, sir/madam, are a pervert. While you think you are shy, have you same boat. A small boat without a sail on a turbulent ocean with Or a thirsty individual who grew up on a farm. thought he may be, too? If you can’t handle approaching him directly with the question, how about dropping some subtle hints? Ask if he would like to have lunch with you to hang out and tell him more about yourself Sex and the SafeRide gradually (don’t dump all the info in one day, or he is going to think you’ve gone insane). It’s always good to get a little personal The Break-up Column first, and I don’t mean your sizes. Just subtly By Danchai Mekadenaumporn else? courtesy to inform the other person that the start to tell him more about your family, FEATURES COLUMNIST Since a break-up can become a volatile sit- relationship is through, even though it may just what you like, and what you don’t like and I Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, but today is uation, you do not want to choose a public be formality. Other crappy ways to back out of am sure he will open up to you, too! Friday the 13th. Time for a break-up column! place to break up with someone. If you’re a relationship are demonstrating dishonesty or Give it some time, and once both parties Break-ups can be rough. The best break-up thinking that it isn’t likely there will be a infidelity, picking fights, and so forth. I under- open themselves up to each other, it will be you can hope for is a friendly, mutual one. But scene, you’re dead wrong. Things can go very stand that you may just want to avoid this per- obvious to you what kind of bond you two a bad break-up can get real bad, real fast. In horribly wrong and you might end up becom- son for the rest of your life, but I assure you really share. Then it will be easier for you to either case, someone usually has to initiate the ing an urban legend. In addition, whatever that it will come back to haunt you later. know how to take the next step. Good luck! break-up proceedings. Just so you can get out talking and explaining you may need to do Karma — what goes around comes around. of your relationship as soon as you can and as will not take place. The best place to break up Dear Nutty B, clean as you can, I’m going to help you out. with a girl would be her room. She won’t be 3. Be real, but be tactful. I am very worried about my future as a First, you must decide when and where the able to break any of your stuff and she can Your significant other may want to know graduate student. Could you please predict break-up needs to happen. I’ve always been a throw you out if she needs to. Don’t do it in why you’re breaking up with him/her. Some- what type of research I should do now, in fan of breaking up with someone ASAP. How- your room. It would suck for her to walk times the answer is painfully obvious — order to be rich and famous later? ever, since today is the day before Valentine’s home alone after getting dumped. Take note: “You’re a man-whore” should suffice if he — Dying under laboratory languor Day, you might have some reservations about all this doesn’t apply if you live together. cheated on you. Most times the answer isn’t so Dear Dying under laboratory languor, that. But if you reason it out, breaking up with If you have decided that a break-up is what obvious and you’ll need to put the other per- If I knew the answer to that question, I someone ASAP is usually the best way to go you need, there are some other ground rules son down gently while still conveying what wouldn’t be here talking to you. I would about things. It doesn’t lead the other person you should know. Follow these and you should you’re trying to say. Don’t list her every fault; probably be sitting in my mansion in Beverly on, it doesn’t drag the relationship out any be golden. but don’t be ambiguous either. Also, please Hills, promoting world peace! So I am going longer, you can move on sooner, and it’ll hurt come up with something better than “I need to say, “No, I cannot predict any type of less for both parties involved. This is a good 1. Don’t have sex with him/her right before space.” research that will make you rich and policy that I (and most people) will stand by. you break up. famous.” Nevertheless, holidays become the huge This will probably leave your not-so-sig- 4. People have feelings; computers don’t. Um… you don’t seem too interested in exception for many people, especially Valen- nificant other feeling used and betrayed. Guys Don’t break up with someone over e-mail your research right now. It’s not important tine’s Day. What’s worse than breaking some- might feel it less than women, but more guys unless you’ve only been dating them online. If whether your current research project will one’s heart on a day meant for love? would feel that way than you’d think. If you you’re breaking up over the phone, there’d bet- make you rich and famous, it’s more impor- Some say that you should allow your sig- really need to have sex that badly before you ter be at least a hundred miles between you tant that you like what you are doing. Per- nificant other a grace period when breaking up break up, make sure that your soon-to-be ex two. These two methods of communication haps the reason you are dying under labora- around the holidays. If the person doesn’t see understands the terms of service. However, I’d should not communicate a break-up in any tory languor is because the project and you it coming, let them down easy — wait until like to add that hitting it once more “for the other case. If you have the means to do so, aren’t exactly a match. If so, perhaps you next week. However, if things just aren’t road” is probably bad policy. then you should break up in person. Otherwise should look around and find something you working out, do it today so that you can party you’ll be labeled as a “heartless bastard.” really like. Or perhaps you just haven’t dis- with all of your single friends tomorrow night. 2. Be a man (or a woman). Man, I’ve heard that one too many times. covered the essence of your project. If you Why should both of you fake your way Not calling for a few weeks might convey I guess you’re ready to be single again. just started it, I’d recommend you to stick through another Valentine’s Day together that you aren’t interested anymore, but it’ll Hopefully the break-up will go well and you around for a bit and see how it goes. when you both could spend it with someone also convey that you’re an ass. It’s common two can still be friends. But don’t count on it. Or maybe you just discovered that you simply don’t like any type of research. If that’s that case, ask yourself what makes you happy. As one of my profs back in college Your blood donation will help save said, “you’ve gotta do something that makes you get a woody just thinking about it” (no the life of a patient with cancer, gender discrimination here; it was merely a Give Life … heart disease, gastrointestinal conversation he and I had). Have you found that something? If not, Give Blood. disease, anemia, fractures and it’s not too late to start looking! trauma, liver, kidney and lung Relax, and while the future reward is important, it shouldn’t be your sole goal of disease, or bone and joint disease. doing research. Otherwise your life is going to be quite tough and boring here! Tuesday 2/17 to Friday 2/20, Student Center, 2nd Floor Hooray for Call 461-2300, x5-2094, or x5-2099 to schedule an appointment. When registering, your donor card or positive identification is preferred but not required. MIT Blood Drive Sponsored by TCA This space donated by The Tech Friday! February 13, 2004 THE TECH Page 9

Combat tested.

[email protected] W20-483, x3-1541 Page 10 THE TECH February 13, 2004 ARTS The album is so tightly designed and pro- duced that you can appreciate how much dis- Confessions of a Music Snob cipline and time it took to achieve the final product. If you need an embroidery metaphor, “Loveless” is like an elaborate, Shoegazing to My Bloody Valentine complicated quilt that your eyes adjust to, By Andy Lee mentality of the band’s mastermind, Kevin playlist in iTunes? What is so impressive letting you see the innovative textures and Shields. about “Loveless” is not just how it trans- patterns. was halfway through last year’s “Lost in By recording the album, their record label, forms typically confrontational noise into “Loveless” was a critical success, but Translation” when I noticed something Creation, lost most of its own money from something comforting, but how good the ironically, it meant the end for My Bloody unusual. As Bob and Charlotte were tak- recording expenses alone. Incidentally, the songs themselves are. Warm melodies, pow- Valentine. Shields wouldn’t let the band I ing a late cab ride back to their hotel, the band Oasis saved the label by selling records erful riffs, and even a few dance beats help release a follow-up that was inferior and it camera drifted across the bright lights of the in huge numbers. each track find its own strange way to be was rumored that he scrapped full studio Tokyo skyline. My Bloody Valentine had already shaped catchy. albums for just that reason. His other band- The sight conveyed a sense of lazy peace, the musical landscape of Britain with their The opening song, “Only Shallow,” is one mates were tired of waiting around for noth- but strangely, the soundtrack had just become previous full-length album “Isn’t Anything.” of the loudest songs I’ve ever heard and even ing and left to continue their own music its loudest. A wall of sound had crashed With electric guitars that sounded alternately with the volume turned down it can still scare careers. The shoegaze movement never fol- through the speakers and, at first, it seemed like an air raid siren and a sinister blender, the your cat from the room. “Loomer” sounds lowed up “Loveless” either and Britpop like an awkward contrast of sleepiness and album helped inspire a rock movement whose pleasant for something apocalyptic. The soon became the dominant music of the noise. Over time, however, the guitar chords main signature was waves of distortion and romantic centerpiece “Sometimes” is so good early 90s. carved out a melody that surprisingly clicked feedback. that its presence alone makes this album a Though the band bit the dust, elements with the mood of the visuals. These new bands became known as classic. of My Bloody Valentine’s sound can be After the movie, I wondered why the song shoegazers for the indifferent way in which Looking past the keyboard bliss-outs and heard throughout 90s alternative rock, should make any sense for that scene. I would they performed on stage: standing completely droning guitars, these are rock-pop songs at including Weezer’s self-titled debut and have to hear it a couple more times to better still while staring straight down. their core, albeit ones with barely audible especially The Smashing Pumpkins’ understand it… and then a few dozen more Someone could argue that their music was lyrics. The way Shields’ and Bilinda Butcher’s “Siamese Dream.” If you don’t immediately times for good measure. as alienating to their audience as their perfor- voices sit in the mix with the other instruments toss off the headphones in disgust, take a Around 1991, the British band My mance style was. More optimistically, complements the dreamy tone of the album little time to figure this music out and it will Bloody Valentine recorded the song “Some- shoegaze was about experimenting with the extremely well and the lyrics become sec- probably grow on you. I hope someone else times” along with ten other tracks for their sonic texture of the electric guitar rather than ondary to the sound of the words themselves. can get as excited about My Bloody Valen- final album, “Loveless.” The band was simply assaulting the listener’s ears. All the instruments, including the vocals, find tine as I am. already notoriously deliberate in the studio, So why have “Loveless” tracks been a harmonizing balance that must’ve taken And the play count to beat is currently 76 thanks in no small part to the perfectionist zooming up the ranks of my “Most Played” weeks of experimentation to find. for “Sometimes.” No cheating. MTG’s Bat Boy is Bloody Good The All-in-One Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, and Thriller Is a Crowd Pleaser By Ruby Lam STAFF WRITER Bat Boy: The Musical Musical Theatre Guild La Sala de Puerto Rico Jan. 30–31 and Feb. 5–7, 8 p.m.; Feb. 1, 2 p.m. Story and book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe Directed by Kristin Hughes Starring David C. Poland ’04, Nori Pritchard ’06, and Mary Linton Peters ’92 ithout prior knowledge about the story or the musical, I didn’t quite know what to expect when I walked Winto La Sala on Friday night. “Bat Boy,” as the musical is titled, is probably going to be a thriller, I thought, perhaps a story of a hero saving the day in Gotham City, maybe something like Batman and Robin. The story started with an accident of a teenager who was attacked by a bat-human creature which she, along with her two older WAN YUSOF WAN MORSHIDI—THE TECH brothers, discovered in an underground cave. Rick (Peter G Chambers G) threatens to shoot Bat Boy (David C Poland ’04) while The bat boy (David Poland ’04) was then cap- Shelly Parker (Eleanor M Pritchard ’06) tries to intervene. tured and brought back to the town. The townspeople were stunned, frustrated, A surprise in Act I was “Mrs. Taylor’s Lul- as Lorraine, performing his role in a comical and wanted to kill the bat boy. But Mrs. Parker laby,” a short and simple piece, yet beautifully and funny fashion, receiving many laughs from (Mary Linton Peters ’92), the wife of the veteri- performed by Mrs. Taylor (T.R. Jordan ’07), the audience. narian in town, merciful and compassionate, who is actually a tenor. When the audience soon In Act II, “Children Children” was hilarious- kept the bat boy and gave him a home. The solo discovered that Mrs. Taylor was actually a male ly written and comically presented. The per- performance by Mrs. Parker, “A Home For actor, many were amazed. Interestingly, there formers were dressed like animals in the Garden You” was absolutely stunning and brought the were a few other male-female role-swaps in this of Eden, an unexpected sight in a play billed to first highlight in Act I. With a high level of musical. Lorraine (Pete Chambers G), one of be about some kind of bat boy! It was a pleasant vitality and energy, Mr. Parker (Paul Giragos) the townsladies who carries a dog in her bag all surprise and earned a lot of cheers from the presented “Dance With Me, Darling” beautiful- the time (the dog was a real dog, by the way, audience. And just as we thought the story was ly and received big cheers from the audience, and got to prove it on stage!), is also performed going to end, there comes an interesting twist and marked the second highlight in Act I. by a male actor. Chambers did an excellent job — a special relationship between Mrs. Parker and Bat Boy! Though the key role — a bat and a boy, was very chal- lenging, Poland deliv- ered an impressive performance through- out. I was particularly impressed by his voice range, which was clearly demon- strated in his duet with Shelley (Nori Pritchard ’06) in Act II. “Bat Boy” started off as a thriller, con- tinued as a romance, and ended in a tragedy with an interesting twist, but managed to remain comedic throughout. It is a hid- den jewel in the reper- toire of musicals I have seen in the past. A highly recommend- ed piece, “Bat Boy: The Musical,” was an WAN YUSOF WAN MORSHIDI—THE TECH impressive production This space donated by The Tech Bat Boy (David C Poland ’04) and the citizens of Hopefalls, West Virginia, perform the number “I'll show you by the Musical Theater a thing or two.” Guild. February 13, 2004 THE TECH Page 11 Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub and Restraunt

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by Brian Loux

by Jason Burns

ACROSS 41 Shaped like a 3 Composer 31 Disgrace 1 Old geezer dunce’s cap Respighi 32 Acts the squealer 5 Made worse 43 Singer Sumac 4 Croatian-born 38 Of the Russian 15 Comic Johnson 44 Treasuries physicist and inventor alphabet 16 “West Side Story” 47 Operate 5 Altar of stars 39 First to the South Oscar winner 48 Ship’s company 6 Beat it! Pole 17 Makes lace 49 Separating oxen 7 Classic Pontiac 40 Flugelhorn-player 18 Dalton unit 51 Paul Newman letters Chuck 19 Swiped movie 8 NFL squad 41 Borden’s Elsie 21 Go out with 52 Hot spring 9 Alain’s girlfriend 42 Debt letters 22 Greek letters 55 Old-time actress 10 Sotto __ (in an 44 Secret plan 23 WWII battle site Nita undertone) 45 Roosevelt’s 27 Ford’s running 56 Deprive of virility 11 Extension successor mate 61 In addition 12 Darjeeling server 46 Biting pest 28 Jackie’s “O” 62 Pawed 13 Store, as grain 50 Mecca shrine 29 Founds 63 Well in France 14 London flophouses 52 Duel reminder 33 “The Delta of 64 Amuses 20 San Diego suburb 53 Kick a football Solution, page 17 Venus” writer 65 Complexion woe 24 Scattering, as 54 Alan of “M*A*S*H” 34 Stirred from sleep seeds 57 That girl 35 Great Lakes canals DOWN 25 Captivate 58 Boxing great 36 “Lord __” 1 Tomographic 26 Pop the question 59 X 37 Org. of Lions and images 27 Lead balloon 60 H. Ross Perot Bears 2 Sacred story set to 30 Hamstring, for company 38 Machinery part music example Crossword Puzzle Crossword February 13, 2004 The Tech Page 13

Dilbert ® by Scott Adams

Events Calendar appears in each issue of The Tech and features events for members of the MIT community. The Tech makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of this information, and The Tech shall not be held liable for any loss- es, including, but not limited to, damages resulting from attendance of an event. Events Calendar Contact information for all events is available from the Events Calendar web page.

Visit and add events to Events Calendar online at http://events.mit.edu

Friday, February 13 Lumière” (Feb 12-April 4). Free. Room: E15. Sponsor: List Visual Arts Cen- meeting where we design and build the layout and run trains. Visitors wel- ter. come. Students welcome to join the club. (Club members go to dinner 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. – Spring 2004 Direct UROP Funding Deadline. All 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. – Artists in Dialogue. This is in a conjunction with between 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., room may be empty at this time). Free. undergraduate students applying for direct UROP funding must submit their the exhibition, “Son et Lumiere” on view through April 4, 2004. Free. Room: N52-118. Sponsor: Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC). paperwork by 5 p.m. today. Free. Room: 7-104. Sponsor: UROP. Room: LVAC. Sponsor: List Visual Arts Center. 7:00 p.m. – Love Actually. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. – A Study in Sound (90Hz). A computerized sound 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. – Annual Valentine’s Day Potluck Party. Families 7:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. – CSSA Movie Night. Two free Chinese movies. installation by undergraduate Abraham Kunin, created in an independent welcome! Bring your spouse and children. Please bring a dish to share http://cssa.mit.edu/movie. Free. Room: 54-100. Sponsor: Chinese Stu- study with Professor Evan Ziporyn. Hear the sound whirl around the room. (eight servings of a main dish, salad, or dessert). Free. Room: 10-105. dent and Scholar Association, Graduate Student Council, GSC Funding Hear it change with each movement of your head, or as you walk around Sponsor: spouses&partners@mit. MIT Japanese Wives Group. Board. Cybercalling.com. Killian Hall. The premise is simple: the same sound, played out of two 7:00 p.m. - 11:59 p.m. – Chocolate and Anime Valentines. The Lab for 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. – Patrol. Travel to strange new classrooms. Meet speakers perfectly out of phase with each other, will sum to zero at any Chocolate Science will be augmenting our chocolatey Valentines Day anime interesting, unusual people, and kill them! Patrol is a high-action game of point equidistant from the two speakers. This effect, together with the with some chocolates of their own. Afterwards we’ll start our second set of live combat with rubber-dart guns. Shoot your friends, then watch out as beating caused by the frequencies from the two speakers being just out of semester series: “Read or Die, the TV series” (the further adventures of they try to take their revenge. Free. Room: 36-115. Sponsor: Assassins’ tune with each other, causes the apparent motion of the sound, which the Special Operations Branch of the British Museum Library), and Kimi ga Guild, MIT. comes out of, in this case, four speakers. After a little while you start nozomu eien”, about the value of being decisive in your relationships. The 8:00 p.m. – Company of Angels. $8 non-students, $6 students, available hearing sounds you didn’t hear before, and then perhaps sounds that MIT Anime Club shows the best of both recent and classic Japanese anima- in Lobby 10 the week of performances or at the door. Room: Kresge Little aren’t really there. The experience is somewhat surreal. Stay or two min- tion. Showings are open to the public. Free. Room: 4-370. Sponsor: Anime Theater. Sponsor: Dramashop. utes or 20; the sound is slowly changing, so there’s always something Club, MIT, UA Finance Board. 9:00 p.m. – Tang/Edgerton Valentine Rendezvous. Love is alive at new to hear. Free. Room: Killian Hall. Sponsor: Music and Theater Arts 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. – ACF Large Group meeting - Watch Out for Pot- Edgerton on Valentine’s Day! Come over for a great party filled with red Section. holes. After Event: Trouble navigating through MIT waters? (Or just college heart decor, spinning disco balls, and much much more. There will be 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Writers Group. New writers are invited to join life in general?) — Stay for “Advice and cookies!!” Cookies will be freshly music for the romantics and plety of couch space for the even more pub- our weekly Writers Group. Share a piece of your writing with other inter- baked from the oven right after Large Group. Mmm. Free. Room: licly romantic. Everyone is welcome. Perhaps you can meet your special ested and supportive writers. Open to all MIT students, staff, faculty, and McCormick Brown Living Room. Sponsor: Asian Christian Fellowship. someone and make this Valentine’s Night unforgettable. Elegant dress spouses. Free. Room: 14N-417. Sponsor: Writing and Communication 7:00 p.m. – Kill Bill Vol. 1. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. code. Free. Room: Edgerton House. Sponsor: Edgerton House Resi- Center. 7:00 p.m. – Varsity Men’s Ice Hockey vs. Springfield. Free. Room: John- dents’ Association, Tang Hall Residents Association, GSC Funding 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to E-mail at MIT. This quick start son Ice Rink. Board. gives an overview of how e-mail works at MIT and the different e-mail pro- 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. – Bad Thinking From Ivory Towers: Answering 10:00 p.m. – Love Actually. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. tocols that are available. Supported programs for use at MIT are Academic Arguments for Abortion. Bad Thinking From Ivory Towers: described, along with pros and cons of choosing one over the other, brief Answering Academic Arguments for Abortion Scott Klusendorf is the Sunday, February 15 instructions on getting started, and pointers to more information. The Director of Bio-Ethics for Stand To Reason http://www.str.org and has 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. – SP Sunday Brunch. Free. Room: Sidney Pacific “spam” e-mail problem — and what can and can’t be done about it — will lectured at over 35 colleges and universities. He critically analyzes Multipurpose Room. Sponsor: Sidney-Pacific House Council, GSC Funding also be presented. Room: N42 Demo Center. Sponsor: Information Sys- three academic defenses of abortion rights as applied to law, philoso- Board, LEF (Large Events Fund). tems. phy, and theology. Free. Room: 4-163. Sponsor: UA Finance Board, MIT 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. – An Afternoon with Noam Chomsky. A talk by 12:01 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch Seminar. A presentation on Science Pro-Life. Noam Chomsky on US foreign policy. Seating is first come, first serve. Free. Applications International Corporation’s (SAIC) Marine Science and Tech- 8:00 p.m. – Company of Angels. February 5-7, February 12-14 IAP Room: Kresge Auditorium. Sponsor: The Technology and Culture Forum at nology Division. Free. Room: 5-314. Sponsor: 13SEAS, GSC Funding production. Play by Associate Provost for the Arts Alan Brody; directed by Board. MIT, MIT Social Justice Cooperative. Senior Lecturer Michael Ouellette. $8 non-students, $6 students available 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. – The Lord Of The Rings: The Production Challenges 6:00 p.m. – CSC Chinese New Year’s Banquet. Come celebrate Chinese in Lobby 10 the week of performances or at the door. Room: Kresge Little of Filmmaking. A presentation by Richard Sharkey and Matthew Cooper on New Year’s with us! Dinner, entertainment, and lots of fun! $12/members Theater. Sponsor: Dramashop. the challenges of filming “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy. Sharkey was the and $15/non-members. Room: Walker— Morss Hall. Sponsor: Chinese supervising unit location manager and Cooper was the location administra- 8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. – Theme Movie Night. Valentines Movie: “Down Students Club. tor and production legal consultant. A question and answer period will fol- with Love” together with Crepes. Free. Room: Westgate basement lounge. 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. – Movie screening. The movie is The Battle of Koso- low the presentation. Free. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: Office of the Arts, The Sponsor: Westgate Community Association, GSC Funding Board. vo 1389. The movie is in Serbian, no English subtitles. Free. Room: 4-237. Technology and Culture Forum at MIT. Division of Student Life, Office of the 8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. – Romanian Movie Night: Occident. Educational Sponsor: MIT Organization of Serbian Students (MOST), GSC Funding Provost for the Arts. screening of the movie Occident (Romania, 2002) by Cristian Mungiu. Infor- Board. 2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. – Modern Times, Rural Places Seminar. “Black Land mal discussion after the movie. The movie has English subtitles. Free. 7:00 p.m. – Kill Bill Vol. 1. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. Loss in the Rural South: An Ethnographic Film.” Free. Room: E51-095. Room: 4-237. Sponsor: Romanian Students Association, GSC Funding 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. – International Folk Dancing (participatory). Inter- Sponsor: History Office, STS. Board. national folk dancing. Teaching and beginners’ dances from 8 to 9 p.m. A 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. – Continuum Approach to Profile Scaling in Nanos- 10:00 p.m. – Kill Bill Vol. 1. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. mixture of all skill levels from 9 to 11 p.m. Our repertoire includes dances tructure Decay Below the Roughening Temperature. Free. Room: 2-338. 11:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – PB&J Sandwich Making. Stop by for a minute from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, and oth- Sponsor: Physical Mathematics Seminar. and help make sandwiches for the homeless. Free. Room: Student Center ers) as well as other parts of Europe and the rest of the world (Israel, 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. – SSL Seminar (Julien Lamamy). Topic: Mars Rover. Lobby. Sponsor: Hillel, MIT, UA Finance Board. France, Russia, even England and the US). Note: We will move to La Sala de Puerto Rico (on the second floor of the Student Center) if it is available. Free. Room: 37-212. Sponsor: AeroAstro. Saturday, February 14 4:00 p.m. – BCS Colloquium - Peter Somogyi, Ph.D. “From receptors to MIT/Wellesley students free; suggested donation $1 from others. Room: circuits: The anatomy of spike timing in the hippocampus.” Free. Room: 9:00 a.m. – Varsity Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track Coed Invitational. W20-491. Sponsor: Folk Dance Club. E25-117. Sponsor: Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Hosted by Chris Free. Room: Johnson Athletic Center. 10:00 p.m. – Love Actually. $3. Room: 26-100. Sponsor: LSC. Moore. 10:00 a.m. – Varsity Men’s Volleyball Tri-Match. Free. Room: DuPont Gym- Monday, February 16 4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. – Enumeration of Totally Positive Grassmann Cells. nasium. Refreshments at 3:30 p.m. in Room 2-349. Free. Room: 2-338. Sponsor: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. – A Study in Sound (90Hz). Free. Room: Killian 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. – Isshinryu Karate Workout. Free. Room: Rockwell Combinatorics Seminar. Department of Mathematics. Hall. Sponsor: Music and Theater Arts Section. Cage Half-Court. Sponsor: Isshinryu Karate-do at MIT. 6:00 p.m. – Shabbat Services & Dinner. Celebrate Shabbat. MIT Hillel’s 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. – Graduate Christian Fellowship Bible Study. Cur- 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. – Power of Darkness Auditions. Dramashop audi- three religious communities hold Shabbat services at 6 p.m. (Conserva- rently studying the gospel of Luke. Free. Room: Edgerton Apt. 221. Spon- tions for play by Leo Tolstoy, directed by Asst. Prof Jay Scheib. Free. Room: tive, Orthodox, and Reform) A community Shabbat dinner follows at 7 p.m. sor: Graduate Christian Fellowship. Walker 201. Sponsor: Dramashop. Cost for dinner only. Room: Religious Activities Center. Sponsor: Hillel, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. – Isshinryu Karate Workout. Traditional Okinawan 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. – A New Brain Auditions. Bring a prepared song, in MIT. Karate in a Small Club Environment. Free. Room: DuPont Exercise Room. English, and sheet music for the accompanist. Be prepared to do cold read- 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. – GCF Large Group Fellowship Meeting. Winter Sponsor: Isshinryu Karate-do at MIT. ings, and wear clothes suitable for movement. An optional, brief vocal retreat to Toah Nipi. Free. Room: W20-306. Sponsor: Graduate Christian 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. – Artist in Dialogue. This event is in conjunction with warm up will be held on audition nights at 6:50 p.m. Participation in the Fellowship. an exhibition “Son et Lumiere” on view through April 4, 2004. Free. Spon- warm up will not affect casting decisions. Free. Room: Mezzanine Lounge. 6:00 p.m. – Artists in Dialogue. Ann Lislegaard in conversation with curator sor: List Visual Arts Center. Sponsor: Musical Theatre Guild, MIT. Bill Arning — 6 p.m. Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla in conversation 3:00 p.m. – Varsity Women’s Ice Hockey vs. MIT Club. Free. Room: John- 7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. – Graduate Christian Fellowship Bible Study. Studying with Muntadas, an artist who works in photography, video, publications, son Ice Rink. 1 John. Free. Room: Ashdown Lobby. Sponsor: Graduate Christian Fellow- Internet, and multi-media installations, and is a visiting professor in MIT’s 5:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. – Tech Model Railroad Club Meeting. An informal ship. Department of Architecture — 7 p.m. Presented in conjunction with “Son et Page 14 THE TECH February 13, 2004 MITPAY To Replace Paper Bills This July MITPAY, from Page 1 ject manager for Information Systems and Technology. Hallisey was the required under MITPAY. team coach for the Student eBill/ePay Discovery Project, which New system long in the making reviewed the project that eventually MITPAY is the result of several became MITPAY. years of effort by Student Financial “The team really worked very had Services, the Treasurer’s Office, and to make sure that they got recommen- Information Systems and Technolo- dations from other schools that were gy. using it,” Hallisey said. “Many Chauncey pointed out that most of schools have started using it and are the Big Ten and Ivy League schools very happy with the result.” already use similar systems. Further information about MIT- “Many schools have started using PAY and billing issues can be found it and are very happy with the result,” at the Student Financial Services web said Joanne M. Hallisey, senior pro- site, http://web.mit.edu/sfs/.

Valentine’s Day Flower Sale

Cut flowers, roses, bouquets, and flowering Valentine’s Day plants

First Floor, Student Center 9AM to 6PM Friday, February 13 & Saturday, February 14 February 13, 2004 THE TECH Page 15 Commission To Review Nation’s Intelligence Gathering Ability Vest, from Page 1 Competitiveness, a Washington- “I think Vest is a very capable based group that brings together and honest man and a fine public University. business, university, and labor lead- servant,” he said, but added that he ers to find ways to collaborate on was “not aware” of any instances in Vest familiar to DC leading issues. which Vest has devoted time to Vest has had an extensive histo- Vest has also served on the intelligence matters. ry of serving on various government Massachusetts Governor’s Council There are “quite a few distin- commissions and working with on Economic Growth and Technolo- guished appointees … [but] only politicians. gy and the National Research Coun- one intelligence veteran” on the He was the chair of the U.S. cil Board on Engineering Education. commission, Van Evera said. He Department of Energy Task Force He was previously the chair of the says it will be “a weak commission” on the Future of Science Programs Association of American Universi- because it is lacking in people with from 2002 to 2003, a member of the ties. “deep experience with intelligence President’s Council of Advisors on matters.” Commenting on the Science and Technology from 1994 Van Evera skeptical of commission importance of experience, Van to 2001, and chair of the President’s Professor of Political Science Evera said, “If you don’t know Advisory Committee on the Stephen W. Van Evera said Vest is where the bodies are buried, the Redesign of the Space Station from will be a valuable asset to the com- powers that be in Washington can 1993 to 1994. mission, but has doubts about the keep you away from the touchiest Vest also chairs the Council on progress the team can make. issues.”

The Department of Materials Science And Engineering Cordially invites THE MIT COMMUNITY ESPECIALLY FRESHMEN AND UNDESIGNATED SOPHOMORES To the John Wulff Lecture

Materials Science for the Repair of Humans

Professor Samuel I. Stupp Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science, Chemistry, and Medicine Director of the Institute for Bioengineering and Nanoscience in Advanced Medicine Northwestern University

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

4:30 – 5:30

Room 54-100

Reception following the lecture In The Chipman Room 8-314

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DMITRY PORTNYAGIN—THE TECH Javad Golji ’06 spikes the ball in a match against Johnson and Wales University. MIT caught up and won the match 3-1 after losing the first game. February 13, 2004 THE TECH Page 17 Matchup Inspires Online Love By Waseem S. Daher the MIT community, and members “You don’t have to deal with their ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR of certain colleges in the Boston other personalities,” he said. Valentine’s Day. Usually this area,” Sekora said. would probably mean another Satur- “Students, staff, and alumni” ‘Fling’ parodies Match-Up day night in the Athena cluster. But from Boston College, Boston Uni- Posters advertising the MIT fear not, lonesome MIT geeks — versity, Brandeis, Harvard, Harvard Match-Up have been put up around your prayers have been answered. Teaching Hospitals, MIT, Tufts, and campus. Next to some of them have An online dating service for Wellesley can participate in the ser- appeared posters for the “MIT Boston-area college students, the vice, according to the Match-Up Black Morbid Fling Together.” MIT Match-Up has returned better web site, available at According to its web site, than ever. Last year’s service had http://matchup.mit.edu/. http://fling.mit.edu/, the Black Mor- over 3,200 participants. One step taken to ensure privacy bid Fling Together is for you The organizers say that they is that the real contact information “whether you’re looking for some- have addressed the concerns over of the users of the service is not one to take your mind off your privacy that arose last year in this revealed. When a user browses the recent breakup, someone to distract new version. Match-Up is under database, he or she can view the you from your homicidal urges, or new management, and has added profiles, essays, and pictures of just someone to sit around naked new privacy features including the other users, but he or she only sees drinking beer and shooting up ability to block e-mails from the aliases they have created for with.” unwanted users. themselves, and not their real e-mail The creators of the MIT Fling But maybe Match-Up isn’t your addresses. service declined wrote in an e-mail thing. Fear not, there’s always the If a particular profile strikes a that “we began this service in the MIT Black Morbid Fling Together. user’s fancy, that user can send the spirit of a hack, and feel it would be Partially a parody, partially a match- creator of the profile an e-mail via inappropriate to reveal our identi- ing service, Fling might meet your the match-up service. Here, too, the ties.” needs for something different. user’s privacy is protected. “The The fling service began last year person who is getting [the e-mail] as a parody to last year’s match-up Match-Up evolves from last year will only know that it’s coming service. The service is hosted on a Last year’s service, of the same from your username,” Singh said. computer registered to Jennifer T. name, was designed and run by In addition, MIT Match-Up Tu ’05. Jonathan G. Monsarrat ’89, and was allows users to filter out unwanted MIT Match-Up’s creators did a one-time service which ran only e-mails from other users. “If some- not seem bothered by the fling ser- for Valentine’s Day. one is e-mailing you and you’re vice’s spoof of their site. “We The service, while popular, also really not liking that person, it’s no thought it was pretty amusing,” said shared in a bit of controversy. Mon- problem,” Sekora said. “All you do Kloster. sarrat both ran and participated in is block them, and they can’t search The last day for signing up for the service, matching himself up for you and can’t e-mail you,” he the MIT Morbid Black Fling is with more people than any other said. today at 5 p.m., according to the participant, he said. Sekora, Kloster, and Singh go site. Contact information for the A few Harvard students later further by mandating that anyone matches that the fling service gener- complained to MIT and the Harvard with access to the actual system data ates is then e-mailed to the users police about Monsarrat’s e-mails. cannot participate in the service, to that signed up. The complaints did not result in ensure that there is no conflict of criminal charges, but to assuage interest. potential worries, the service is “For the most part, the service is Solution to Crossword under new management, with more self-running,” Singh said, but in the from page 12 emphasis placed on privacy con- event that something needs to be cerns. changed in the actual user data, The current MIT Match-Up is Match-Up has “core administra- run by Michael D. Sekora ’05, Man- tors.” deep Singh ’05, and David E. “Only the core administrators Kloster ’05. They intend to run the have direct access to user informa- service constantly, not just as a one- tion,” Sekora said. He went on to time Valentine’s Day service. “The say that the identities of these core service is going to be on-going,” administrators would be kept pri- and is not just limited to Valentine’s vate, because they “don’t want any Day, Kloster said. pressure on the core administra- “We plan on running the system tors.” for about a month. The plan is, However, Sekora, Mandeep, and though, to overhaul the entire sys- Kloster were all adamant that the tem,” to improve the efficiency and core administrators would not par- robustness of the service, he said. ticipate in the service. “That is a The service is in need of a guarantee,” Kloster said. revamp, because “a lot of the fea- tures and code are based on last Volunteers get multiple profiles year's system,” Kloster said. To help make sure the service runs smoothly, the administrators New Match-Up focuses on privacy went looking for volunteers. Sign- Privacy is a concern taken quite ing up as a volunteer, which can be seriously by the match-up service. done from MIT Match-Up’s web “All of our users have our personal site, allows a user to create multiple guarantee that we have taken every profiles, “for example one daringly step to ensure their privacy,” sexy and one more reserved,” Kloster said. according to the site. The service, which launched on This reward is offered to encour- Feb. 6, has been wildly successful, age people to volunteer, as “a carrot : boasting a user base of over 1,200 to get people involved,” Singh said. DORM DIRECTOR users as of this writing. However, this should not be a “The purpose of the MIT Match- privacy concern for the users of the Up service is to increase the overall system. When a user is blocked, all social opportunities for members of of his or her personas are blocked. Person in the dorm who always has a good downloaded movie handy.

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The East Campus Project will The next dinner is on Wednesday, February 18th. Guests in attendance are: undergo several stages. The first stage, which is halfway through the design phase, will include tearing MIT Pledges to Improve Streetscape Rodney A. Brooks – Director, Computer Science down Dewey Library and putting up By Kathy Dobson and Artificial Intelligence Lab a new 200,000 square foot complex STAFF REPORTER with a library, classrooms, group MIT promised the city of Cambridge to make efforts to enhance Isaac M. Colbert – Dean for Graduate Students study rooms, dining facilities, public the campus landscape and streetscape in the 2003 annual town gown Mary C. Potter – Professor of Psychology, and student space, and housing report. The Institute will add bicycle paths, improve traffic flow and offices, said Lucinda M. Hill, direc- consolidate utility lines around campus. The plans include improve- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences tor of Sloan Capital Projects. ments on Vassar Street, Memorial Drive, and Massachusetts Avenue, Lester C. Thurow – Jerome & Dorothy Lemelson The new complex will also as well as a proposed railroad crossing near NW30. Professor of Management & Economics include underground parking for The reconstruction of the western side of Vassar Street is slated to more than 300 parking spaces, begin after 2005. It will look much like the nearly complete eastern Katya Myer – Hillel Program Director according to the Town Gown side of Vassar Street, with a bike path, trees, and lamps, said Execu- Irwin A. Pless – Professor of Physics, Emeritus Report. tive Vice President John R. Curry. A storm drain collection area will Several other buildings will also be constructed along the street that will separate the athletic fields We are inviting 22 students and 6 faculty, staff and administration members to be replaced.Buildings E32, E33, and from the street. Curry said that he expects the project to take nine the Small Dining Room at MIT Hillel (Building W11). Dinner will be served. E34 will undergo demolition. months once it begins. All attendees are guests of the Dinner@Six program. The Hayward Garage, with 141 MIT submitted a proposal to CSX Transportation on Dec. 10, Attendance is by reservation only. To sign up, please contact Katya Myer parking spaces, is scheduled to be 2003 requesting permission to add a railroad crossing for pedestrians th demolished next year and will tem- and bicycles from NW30 to W59 said Kelley Brown, senior project [email protected] by February 18 . If your seat has been reserved, and you plan to cancel your participation, please notify Katya ASAP! porarily be replaced by surface manager of construction. The proposal originated from students and parking, according to the Town housemasters in NW30 and Sidney Pacific who saw a need for a Gown Report. E56 will also be torn crossing. The dinner starts at 6:00pm down and replaced by an open pub- The partially MIT-funded intersection of Memorial Drive and lic space, said Hill. Massachusetts avenue is still under construction and signalization of off-ramps will be added shortly, according to the town gown report. Green Center will be renovated Memorial Drive will be under construction into the summer. The Green Center for Physics February 13, 2004 SPORTS THE TECH Page 19 Last Second Basket Sex and the Sports Game: Which Gives MIT Women’s Obsession Domineers our Minds? By Yong-yi Zhu not a good mix. Take the Col- to eight players with the five sus- SPORTS COLUMNIST orado Buffalos’ football program. pensions. I guess those guys never Basketball the Win Sex sells sports; everyone Just this week, it was discovered realized what their actions could knows that. In fact, sex sells just that during recruiting parties, adult do to the reputation of an entire By Alisha Schor Rayna B. Zacks ’05. “Against about everything. But what we entertainers would be brought in program. What selfishness in a MCLA, Maria [Hidalgo] played don’t re- to strip, do lap dances, and entice world where many look up to ath- It was one of those movie shots. exceptionally well and really gave alize is the new recruits; apparently the letes as role models. The game was tied, the clock was us a boost. Lauren Tsai [’04] had a Column how mu- benefits of playing for the Col- Speaking of role models, I draining in decimal increments, and great defensive game, especially ch sex is being sold to us all the orado Buffalos was not enough. must bring up Janet Jackson in Maria E. Hidalgo ’04 with steals on the press,” Dooley time. What has recruiting come to shamelessly showing herself to an lofted the ball into the said. Just today, I went on the Sports when students are not attracted to entire world. You talk about sex air. As the time Although not all of Tech’s most Illustrated web site, looking for the pride of being in a particular selling? Just ask any Tivo owner, clicked to zero the ball recent games have had winning out- interesting articles and story ideas. college football program, but are and they should agree. The fact went in to bring the comes, they have nonetheless been Instead, I was accosted by a large instead driven to make their choic- that the Tivo owners and the rest score to 59-57, snap- a display of strong playing and image of Veronica Varekova in es based on how much booty and of the world obsessed so much ping a twelve-game losing streak for skills. Last Saturday’s game against half of a bikini, several references booze they can receive if they over the incident, and many fewer the lady Engineers. NEWMAC opponent Clark Univer- to Anna Kournikova’s appearance attended the college? I must warn on the Patriots’ victory, shows With a 2-15 record and no wins sity showed a brave first half by in the swimsuit issue, and various those recruits on how desperate a how the scandal was much more against any fellow New England MIT, who stuck closely to their pictures of women in swimsuits program may be if they are resort- interesting than the box score. Men’s and Women’s Athletic Con- plan of holding off the Clark (or less) all over the home page of ing to that kind of behavior. When Perhaps we should have the Super ference (NEWMAC) teams, the offense with aggressive one-on-one one of the premier sports maga- Gary Barnett denied knowing of Bowl be the halftime show and 2003-2004 season has been a strug- post defense. zines. I, on the other hand, had to these activities, I completely the Janet Jackson striptease be the gle for the women’s basketball At the break, the Engineers were take the effort to find where I believed him. He has no need for main event. team as they continue to adjust the down only eight points, but unfortu- could get information on the real this, because he has confidence in But that’s not all the sex the style of new Head Coach Kristi nately, the tiring MIT team could sports. I was a bit embarrassed at his abilities to coach students. Per- Super Bowl had to offer. If you Straub. They are making progress not hold off one of the strongest having to go to such a site to find haps, it’s time that the students had pay per view, you could get with the changes, however, and teams in the conference, and the sports news and inspirations for recognized what their coach has to access to the lingerie bowl, in continually put forth their best game ended in a 73-47 loss. Even my writing: after all, I don’t write offer and what the program has to which many models dressed up in effort. “We get along well. There is so, Zacks still managed to record a for Sex and the City. offer on the field. lingerie and competed in a foot- lots of dedication to the sport and to team-high of eight rebounds in the But then, I thought just about Another incident was even ball game. Whoever came up with the team,” Andrea J. Dooley ’06 game, while Hidalgo, who has aver- what has transpired in the last two more serious. This time, it was the the idea must really think they said. aged 8.5 points per game, added ten weeks or so, and it became clear St. John’s Red Storm basketball know what men truly want. Last Thursday’s win against the more points to her total. to me that this web site is just a program that suffered. At least in Perhaps this cannot be helped. Massachusetts College of the Liber- The Engineers have less than a blip in the radar of all the sexual Colorado, nobody was disciplined After all, we live in an age in al Arts (MCLA) was thanks to a half a dozen more games before activity that normally goes on in because everything was legal. At which few things shock us, and strong second half and a never- entering the post-season, where the sports world. I wondered, has St. John’s, many of the players only the shocking can catch peo- give-up attitude. The thrill came not they plan to surprise several NEW- sex taken over sports, or can we were suspended because it was ple’s attention. But you and I are only from Hidalgo’s last-second MAC opponents with the skills they still enjoy a good ballgame? discovered that they had hired a people too, and we can’t be that basket, but also from a tying shot have been honing in practice all Clearly, sex and colleges are prostitute. Now, the team is down shallow, right? coming only 36 seconds before by season. Men’s Track Team Defeats Harvard, Some Earn Spots for Championship By Ben Schmeckpeper In the mile run, the first final of ed in the shot put this year, and his TEAM MEMBER the day, Brian C. Anderson ’04 sole loss in the weight throw came The men’s track team traveled extended his undefeated season as at the hands of teammate and All- down the road to Harvard Universi- he opened a gap on the field by the America winner Chris Kahn. Rest- ty’s indoor track to compete against 600m mark and kept pulling away. ing his injured back, Kahn did not Division I, II, and III schools at the Despite fading a bit over the final compete in the weight throw, but Greater Boston Championships on quarter mile, Anderson finished did heave the shot 48-8 to finish Saturday, Feb. 7. Knowing they with a personal best and a national fourth. would be running on a banked qualifying mark of 4:11.87. Ander- For the second week in a row, track, one of the fastest in the son’s day was not finished, as he Joshua F. Chartier ’06 won the pole region, the runners came prepared returned to the track to win the vault, this time clearing 13' 5.75" to to turn some fast times and hopeful- half mile going away in a stunning secure the victory before attempting ly qualify a few more competitors 1:52.88, the fastest time in the to set a personal record at 14-3. for the New England Division III nation this season. Anderson Unfortunately, during his attempt, Championships, just two weeks capped off his stunning day by Chartier bit through his lip and had away. running his anchor leg of the to abandon his final attempt. Also While the Harvard squad would 4x400 in 49.7 and nearly erasing scoring a victory for the Engineers normally not pose a formidable the 12m deficit he inherited at the was freshman Marcus Carson, con- threat to the Engineers, they were handoff. tinuing to improve in the hurdles. without top performers such as Uzoma A. Orji ’06, who current- The final Engineer to score a victory Zachary J. Traina ’05 and Nestor F. ly leads the nation by a foot and a was Benjamin A. Schmeckpeper ’05 Hernandez ’05, both of whom suf- half in the shot put, had trouble find- in the 5000m. fered hamstring injuries the previ- ing his rhythm after barely fouling The Engineers close out their ous week. MIT expected a close his first attempt at the weight throw. regular season with a home meet SYLVIA YANG—THE TECH battle with the Crimson. At the end Despite his off day, Orji managed to next Saturday. The MIT CoEd Maria E. Hidalgo ’04 looks for an open teammate in Thursday of competition, the Engineers win both the weight throw and the Invite begins at noon and the UA night’s game against Rivier College. The Engineers won 70-55. emerged victorious, with 144 points shot put, winning by over 8 feet and athletics committee will be provid- to Harvard’s 116. 3 feet, respectively. Orji is undefeat- ing pizza for spectators. Page 20 THE TECH February 13, 2004 SPORTS Ticket Craze for Sports Events By Yong-yi Zhu a melange of actually waiting in that as some tickets were sold in the SPORTS COLUMNIST line and sitting at the doctor’s thousands. It does get rather insane When the Boston Red Sox and office. The problem here was that when fans of one crazy baseball the New York Yankees come I did not have any clue how many city get together with fans of anoth- together to play, the games are people were in front of me. er crazy baseball city. (See above: usually in- So I waited, and at 9:17 a.m., I Red Sox-Yankees) credible. finally got the opportunity to But absolutely the most ticket Column The only select which tickets I wanted to crazed situation is the Super thing more exciting than actually purchase. Not only was I ecstatic Bowl. Let’s face it, there’s only watching the game is trying to get at being able to see the game, but I one every year and for most, it’s tickets to the game. also felt brilliant since I saved an absolute dream to go. The face Tickets to all single Boston myself so much time and effort by value of the tickets is already Red Sox home games went on sale not having to go out to the park. $500 a pop, and because there is last Saturday at 9 a.m. There were That joy quickly dissipated, as my only upwards of 80,000 seats for three ways of getting tickets: at the computer crashed at absolutely the fans from 32 different teams, box office, on the phone, and via wrong time (my reaction was many lotteries are involved when the Internet. I had thought about inappropriate for print). When I determining who actually goes. going out to the ballpark but real- finally calmed down, I once again The National Football League ized Friday afternoon that I would went back to trying to purchase gives 5 percent of the seats to the have to wake up ridiculously early tickets, and it was not until 1:34 host city, 17.5 percent to each of in order to get the tickets that I p.m., more than four hours later, the participants of the Super needed; there were already people that I finally purchased a pair of Bowl, 34.8 percent to all the other out in the rain on Friday waiting in bleacher seats to the game I want- teams combined, and 25.2 percent line for the best tickets available. ed. But this made me wonder, to whomever the NFL wants to So, I decided to wake up at how crazy can ticket situations give the tickets to. around 8:50 a.m. to turn my com- get? Is this one of the worst? Think about it, that’s around puter on and get the tickets online. The Red Sox have the craziest 1,000 tickets to each of the 32 It was perfect: I didn’t have to wait situation in ticketing for all of teams not participating in the in the cold; I didn’t have to get up baseball. Last season, attendance Super Bowl in any way. Consider- early. I’d just have to click a cou- was just around 100 percent. I had ing that even with an entire stadi- ple of buttons, and I would be able attended a sold out Sox v. D-Rays um of seats, they usually get filled to go see the Yankees and the Red game, which drastically contrasted up, with only a thousand, people Sox over Patriots Day weekend. to an Orioles v. D-Rays game, don’t have terribly good chance at What I didn’t realize was how where my friends and I had an it. And that can only mean one complicated getting access to entire section to ourselves. thing: super high tickets prices. those tickets can be. The web page Also crazy last year were the Oh, by the way, the game I did not immediately allow me to Chicago Cubs-New York Yankees bought tickets to on Saturday? It purchase tickets, but instead, had series out in Wrigley Field. Tickets sold out by Sunday, and my ticket, me in a virtual waiting room. The that normally cost $12-20 were on for which I paid a total of $38, JONATHAN WANG—THE TECH waiting room would automatically sale from a secondary source for was all of a sudden worth over MIT forward Kyle T. Doherty ’04 goes up uncontested for two refresh itself every 30 seconds. $150-200. Of course eBay had $100 per ticket online. Boy, do I on a fast break. The Engineers defeated Clark University 74- The waiting room reminded me of them available for even more than feel lucky now. 65 in Tuesday night's game.

UPCOMING HOME EVENTS Pistol Stays Strong Against Navy By Tiffany Seto Friday, Feb. 13 gets are placed 50 feet from the fired in 2.5 minutes, 20 seconds, and TEAM MEMBER shooter, and bullets are fired with a 10 seconds. Cheng Liu ’05 took the 7 p.m., Varsity Men’s Ice Hockey, Springfield, On Jan. 31, the MIT pistol team single-shot gun. All-American highest score on the MIT team, Johnson Ice Rink held their first set of matches against David R. Schannon ’04 shot his per- shooting his personal best for the the United States Naval Academy. sonal best, despite having recently season. However, MIT was bested Saturday, Feb. 14 The Navy is well known for their injured his shooting arm. MIT lost by the Navy with a score of 2048- 9 a.m., Varsity Men’s and Women’s Indoor excellent pistol team, always pro- with a score of 1931-2080. 2166. Track Coed Invitational, Johnson viding a challenge for MIT. Though The following event was Before the Navy could return on 1 a.m., Varsity Men’s Volleyball Tri-match, Navy earned higher scores, the MIT women’s sport pistol, where the their eight-hour drive home, an air Rockwell Cage team showed significant improve- shooters fire a total of 60 shots, 30 pistol match was held at 8 a.m. on 3 p.m., Varsity Women’s Ice Hockey, MIT Club, ment from their match the previous of which are in the precision portion Sunday morning. The MIT team Johnson Ice Rink week against the United States and the other 30 shot in the rapid shot their highest score of the sea- Coast Guard. portion. In the precision portion, the son with a 2183, only 41 points The first event on Saturday shooters shoot six strings of five behind Navy’s score. Schannon shot morning was free pistol, where tar- shots, each in five minutes. In the the highest score for MIT, tying rapid portion, also known as duel- Navy for first place. ing, the women must aim and shoot Overall, MIT lost with an aggre- at a target 50 feet down range in gate score of 6162-6470. However, three seconds, with the shooting this is the team’s second highest arms lowered at a 45-degree angle score for the season. Many of the for seven seconds between shots. shooters achieved personal bests Tiffany L. Seto ’06 led the MIT and have improved dramatically. team with her personal best for the Sectionals occur on Feb. 20, and season, trailing the Navy’s team by the scores from this match were only nine points. higher than the scores from last The last event for the day was year’s sectional scores. Coach Will standard pistol. In standard, shooters Hart believes that with some hard fire a total of 60 shots, four five-shot training in the following weeks, the strings in each of three timed cate- team will be well-prepared for Sec- gories. The five-shot strings are tionals. Ski Team Hosts Its First Divisional Slalom Match By Ashley Finan most of the teams that move on to and Jason Christopher nationals are from. TEAM MEMBERS Despite the extreme competitive- On Jan. 31 at Tenney Mountain, ness of the league, MIT has been the MIT alpine ski team hosted its creeping up the rankings in the divi- first slalom race in the MacConnell sion and has a chance at qualifying Division of the United for regionals this year. At MIT’s States Collegiate Ski first hosted race, the women’s team Association (USCSA). had a strong showing, placing 8th, There are ten other despite two of their top racers schools in the Mac- falling. Connell Division, and The men’s team placed 5th, with these ten schools compete in a series individuals placing 7th, 24th, and of races through January and Febru- 26th in the overall competition, ary. demonstrating that it has what it The top five teams at the end of takes to make it to regionals. The JOHN CLOUTIER—THE TECH the season move on to regional ski team’s month-long IAP training Adam Shabshelowitz ’06 dodges around an opposing player last Tuesday night during a game races from which the top five teams camp has come to an end, but the against Babson College. The game was temporarily suspended when one of the rink's windows compete at nationals. The Mac- team has two more weekends of was broken out by a fierce check. MIT went on to defeat Babson 8-2. Connell division is the most com- races to go to prove they’ve got petitive division in the region that what it takes.