Established 1881 IT’S A MonDAY ScheDULE TODAY! WEATHER, p. 2 MIT’s Oldest and TUE: 48°F | 32°F Largest Newspaper Afternoon showers weD: 37°F | 22°F Mostly sunny tech.mit.edu thU: 35°F | 25°F Established 1881 Partly cloudy Volume 133, Number 5 Tuesday, February 19, 2013 Brass Rat unveiled: 2015 Ring Premiere Ring features Pokémon, Curiosity By Bruno B. F. Faviero was already close to the door of the STAFF REPORTER Z-Center. At 7:45,Established the doors opened and 1881 It was a chilly 37-degrees as the people slowly trickled in as each Class of 2015 began to amass along of the first 600 got a ticket for the the perimeter of Kresge on Friday. giveaways. One lucky ’15, Audrey They came in droves — fraternities, A. Sedal, won a free Brass Rat for sororities, halls, clubs — all indi- being the 15th in line — clever. On vidual groups, and yet on this night the inside, it almost seemed like a united for one reason: the premiere class reunion — people gave each of the Class of 2015 Brass Rat. other flying hugs, and groups co- As one of the few events that ordinated their clothes or body brings the whole class together, it paint, or had signs with the name almost felt like a tailgating party. of the person they were there to Each group entertained itself in dif- cheer for. Ringcomm taking the ferent ways: One sang Jason Mraz’ stage turned into a shouting match “I’m Yours” to the rhythm of a uku- of whose name could be screamed lele, another belted out the “Engi- the loudest. neers’ Drinking Song” and some I made the mistake of sitting sort of ode to East Campus. next to the Alpha Phi and Sig- Others were discussing what ma KappaEstablished sections, and so all I 1881 might be on the ring. The Curios- heard for the rest of the night was ity Mars rover and a DeLorean (the “MEGHAN!!!” and “WE LOVE COL- future of Back to the Future II is LEEN!” When Ringcomm Chair set in 2015) were guessed by a few Matthew T. “Matt” Abel ’15 and BRUNO B. F. FAVIERo—THE TECH students. The growing line snaked Ring Committee Chair Matthew T. Abel ’15 and Vice Chair Michelle H. Lee ’15 introduce the rest of the com- around Kresge, and by 7:10 p.m. it Premiere, Page 7 mittee. Macklemore is Spring Weekend headliner Small crowd attends first State of the The Undergraduate Asso- ber Daniela M. Yuschenkoff vey conducted by The Tech, Undergraduate Association address ciation (UA) Events Commit- ’14. The survey included oth- but responses ranged from tee has announced Mackl- er artists that, according to “Damn, that’s cool” and “I’ll Monday night marked the first State that it is much easier to make validate a emore featuring Ryan Lewis Yuschenkoff, were not touring actually go this year,” to “It’s a of the UA address, headed by UA Presi- statement about student opinion when as the headliner for Spring- far away or Establishedrecording at the band I’ve1881 heard of” and “who dent Jonte D. Craighead ’13. you have the student leaders of the liv- Fest 2013, MIT’s annual con- time of the concert, and also is Macklemore?” “I am confident in saying that [the ing groups — each of the dorm presi- cert event. The concert will be asked students what genres of Tickets will go on pre- UA] is in a much better position than we dents and representatives from the IFC, on April 26 in Johnson, and music they would prefer. sale for MIT students only on were two years ago,” Craighead said at Panhel, and the ILGs — all in the same the opener will be determined Macklemore was a “domi- March 1 for $15. General pub- the opening of the forum. place at the UA Council meetings. in the coming weeks. A survey nant” choice, said Yuschen- lic tickets will go on sale on About 20 students attended the fo- The speech was given in parts by sent by the committee in the koff. “We’re lucky to have March 8, costing $20 for MIT rum portion of the event, with more Craighead, Vice President Michael P. fall showed “overwhelming” him.” Reactions around cam- student and $25 for non-MIT students around at the end just to eat Walsh ’13, Chair of the UA committee support for Macklemore, ac- pus were mostly positive in purchasers. the food. Craighead mentioned that the on education Naren P. Tallapragada cording to committee mem- a man-on-the-street sur- —Bruno B. F. Faviero address was meant to be an experimen- ’13, Secretary General Christine M. tal addition to the periodic UA study Sowa ’14, and Finboard Chair Johna- breaks that occur throughout the term than Kongoletos ’14. The presentation — he attributed low attendance to the outlined what the UA has been doing timing of the event, both to being earlier in the past semester and some of the in the evening and falling on a Monday initiatives that they have put forth, after a long weekend, when students are such as the Costco-Target shuttle. The likely to be inside doing work. main motivation behind giving these In relation to how the UA’s perfor- presentations, according to Craighead, mance now compared to before the was to reach out to the students more reconstruction, Craighead that it would and let them know that the UA is ac- be “much more difficult in the old struc- tively working to improve life for stu- ture” to get the things done that the UA dents on campus. has in the past year. Craighead said —Stan Gill PSC Summer expedition grant appli- IN Short cations are due on Feb. 22. Check http:// Minor completion forms for final-term seniors are due this Friday. web.mit.edu/mitpsc/expedition for more information. The deadline for CPW events is this Friday! The deadline for EECSCon submissions is tonight at midnight! Turn in your ab- Choose to Re-Use is this Thursday at the stract at http://eecscon.mit.edu. EMILY KELLISON-LiNN—THE TECH mirror sculpture in Stata. Bring stuff start- A large crowd gathers at the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament awards ceremony on Sat- ing at 8 a.m., and come to grab things at 11 Send news information and tips to urday evening in 26-100. a.m. [email protected]. From Mentee ON this DAY in historY... the UNVeiLinG of LUnar new Year SECTIONS World & Nation . .2 Thomas Edison patented the to Mentor the 2015 Brass rat awaY from home Opinion . .4 phonograph on Feb. 19, 1878. On research and And another class sees Crowding into Fun Pages . .5 lessons learned from anD EXactLY 11 Years AGO... their future Brass Rats! Ashdown to celebrate Campus Life . .9 your mentors. Inside the 2015 Ring the holiday. Sports . .16 CAMPUS LIFE, p. 9 NASA’s Mars Odyssey began mapping Premiere. PHOTO, p. 8 CAMPUS LIFE, p. 9 the surface of planet Mars. 2 The Tech Tuesday, February 19, 2013 Netanyahu’s ice cream budget D causes political stir Pipeline call gives Obama new JERUSALEM — His foreign minister had to resign after be- ing accused of fraud. He was sharply criticized for his govern- problems either way ment’s handling of Prisoner X, who committed suicide in pris- on. And now this, which made front-page news in Israel this weekend: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands accused By John M. Broder, indicate what recommendation he Yearwood, compared the rally to WORL of dipping into state coffers for an ice cream budget of $2,700 Clifford Krauss, and Ian Austen would make to the president. Martin Luther King’s 1963 March a year. THE NEW YORK TIMES But this is also a decisive mo- on Washington for civil rights, but, N Pistachio, it was revealed by the proprietors of a gourmet ment for the U.S. environmental he said, “while they were fighting ice cream parlor a couple of blocks from the prime minister’s WASHINGTON — President movement, which backed Obama for equality, we are fighting for ex- official residence, is his favorite (presumably not made with Barack Obama faces a knotty de- strongly in the last two elections. istence.” In front of the stage was a the Iranian kind of nut). Mrs. Netanyahu, they said, appears to cision in whether to approve the For groups like the Sierra Club, mockup of a pipeline, looking a bit prefer French vanilla. much-delayed Keystone oil pipe- permitting a pipeline carrying like the dragon in a Chinese new In a country facing severe cuts in government spending line: a choice between alienating more than 700,000 barrels a day year parade, with the motto, “sepa- after an election that focused largely on the struggling middle environmental advocates who of Canadian crude into the coun- rate oil and state.” ATIO class, and with the Netanyahus’ supposed taste for the high life overwhelmingly supported his try would be viewed as a betrayal, Michael Brune, executive direc- already under scrutiny, news of the prime minister’s weakness candidacy or causing a deep and and as a contradiction of the presi- tor of the Sierra Club, predicted for artisanal pistachio ice cream raised a national outcry. perhaps lasting rift with Canada. dent’s promises in his second in- that Obama would veto the $7 bil- Shelly Yachimovich, the leader of the center-left Labor Par- Canada, the United States’ most augural and State of the Union lion project because of the adverse ty, summed it up as a Marie Antoinette moment and noted that important trading partner and a addresses to make controlling cli- effects development of the Cana- Netanyahu was the one who always spoke of cutting the fat.