March 2009

Let's Geek Out!

by Liv on March 14, 2009

in Modern Geekhood

Pi posterI take back all the slanderous stuff I said about March not having a proper holiday. I had completely forgotten about March 14th. You may know it as… Pi Day.

The question is—how will you celebrate? Here are my suggestions:

If you or someone you know/interviewed/counseled applied regular action to MIT this year, admissions decisions will be available—you guessed it—on Pi day.

Finally, if you’re a graduate student at MIT, stop by Ashdown House between 2-4pm to take part in Pi day festivities.

PS: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481 117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233 786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006 606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146 951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749 567351885752724891227938183011949129833673362440656643086021394946395224737190 702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132000568127145263560827 785771342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549585371050792279689258923 542019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998372978049 951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522308253344685035261931188171010 003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303598253490428755468731159562863882 353787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909216420198938095257201 065485863278865936153381827968230301952035301852968995773622599413891249721775 283479131515574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754637464939319

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Looking for a Date Night She'll Never Forget?

by Amy Marcott on March 13, 2009

in Modern Geekhood,Uncategorized

Picture this: You. A date. Running around Building 36 with plastic dart guns shooting at each other. You could have your first “fight” and seek revenge, all in a span of three hours.

Every Saturday night from 8:00-11:00 p.m., the MIT Assassins’ Guild, a live-action role-playing society, hosts Patrol, a high-action combat game with rubber-dart guns. Members of the MIT community, including alumni and their friends, are welcome.

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Arts & Letters Alive

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on March 12, 2009

in Uncategorized

Join MIT’s lively arts scene virtually by watching

"So Hollow" performance.

"So Hollow" performance.

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Yes, You're Just Seeing Things

by Amy Marcott on March 11, 2009

in Research,Uncategorized

Checkershadow illusion

Think the squares marked A and B are different shades of gray?

[Loud annoying buzzer sound].

Koffka Ring

The Koffka Ring illusion.

You’re wrong. And MIT Professor Edward H. Adelson of the brain and cognitive sciences department, who studies perceptual sciences, can prove it. See how the illusion works.

Adelson’s research focuses on topics in human and machine vision, and he also offers several interesting interactive flash demos that unravel other visual illusion mysteries, such as the Koffka Ring (shown right), in which the appearance of the half-rings depends on the overall spatial configuration, and the simultaneous contrast illusion (below).

These visualizations allow you to interact with the images’ components, just in case you’re still skeptical. For the simultaneous contrast illusion, in which the two smaller squares are the same color but look different because of their different backgrounds, you can drag the smaller squares around the page to judge their similarity for yourself.

The simultaneous contrast illusion

The simultaneous contrast illusion

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Want to Know Who Stole Your Hour this Past Weekend?

by Amy Marcott on March 9, 2009

in Authors,Uncategorized

©iStockphoto.com/skodonnell.

©iStockphoto.com/skodonnell.

If you’re like me (and not living in Arizona, Hawaii, U.S. insular areas of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, or most places near the equator), you’re still lamenting the hour lost this past weekend due to Daylight Saving Time (and will be for the next week. Or two).

So if you want to know who to blame, here it is: Kaiser Wilhelm II.

While Benjamin Franklin (starting in 1784) and British builder William Willett (beginning in 1907) were the first champions of daylight saving time measures, Germany was the first to actually adopt it on April 6, 1916, as a wartime measure. Other European countries—and eventually the United States—followed suit.

The U.S. initially took a not-so-fast approach, however. The New York Times characterized daylight saving time as “the Kaiser’s Trick Hour.” The Saturday Evening Post mused, “Why not ‘save summer’ by having June begin at the end of February?” But ultimately, America’s involvement in World War I prompted similar calls to benefit the war effort, and the U.S. adopted a national DST measure on March 19, 1918.

All of this is according to David Prerau SM ’66, PhD ’70, one of the world’s foremost authorities on DST and author of Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005). And yes, that’s Saving, singular, not plural. I can personally vouch for the book. It’s a fascinating look at time.

And why does DST go down at 2:00 a.m.? Because in 1918, that was the time at which the fewest trains were running and would create the least confusion. One final bit of trivia: When clocks jump ahead, trains are instantly an hour behind schedule but they do their best to make up time. In the fall, when clocks are set back one hour, any Amtrak train running on time has to stop and wait one hour before resuming. So passengers in sleeper cars could wake to find their train at a dead stop—and their trip one hour longer than expected.

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I go grocery shopping and Susan Hockfield starts the wave

by cbognet on March 8, 2009

in Uncategorized

I got no work done yesterday and that’s never a good feeling, but I did a few fun things to compensate for my less then astute behavior. MIT now has a shuttle (made possible by a generous donation!) that runs on Saturday mornings/afternoons and goes to Trader Joes and Whole Foods. dsc01337

I did all of my grocery shopping for the week with a friend of mine (he wasn’t shopping, so he just kept me company and then helped me carry my bags – score!) and then we met up with another friend for lunch at the Miracle of Science in Cambridge.

Later, a group of us drove to Rhode Island to watch the MIT Basketball team in an NCCA playoff game. In the end we lost by a few points, but the game was fantastic anyway! MIT even sponsored a few buses to take students to the game, which made for quite the cheering section. President Hockfield and her husband were also in the stands, and at one point a student convinced her to start a crowd wave. Proof below!

dsc01342

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The Rings that Return to Their Masters

by Amy Marcott on March 6, 2009

in In the News,Uncategorized

Always remember, Frodo, the Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found.”
—Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

And so it is with brass rats as well. It seems neither time nor distance can keep an MIT alum away from his brass rat forever. The Dothan, Alabama-based Dothan Eagle recently reported that Hart Dowling ’75, who lost his ring in Cambridge some 26 years ago, has been reunited with his treasured object. At some point, a man named B.R. Drummond found the ring on a sink in a Birmingham, Alabama, gas station but was unable to locate the owner. Drummond’s son took possession of the ring upon the elder man’s death and recently set about finding Dowling. He succeed with help from the Alumni Association and a Google search.

Brass ratAccording to the published report, Dowling will give the replacement ring he subsequently purchased to MIT, who will sell it and donate the proceeds to the Hobby Shop on campus, a place Dowling frequented as an undergrad.

Dowling is not the first alum to be reunited with his beloved ring. Henry Nau ’63 of Maryland twice lost his ring, once in the Pacific Ocean, and it was returned to him. Steven A. Spura ’76, SM ’77 lost his ring for more than 30 years, but thanks to a conscientious treasure hunter, the ring is back on his finger

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In the News: Langer, One Laptop in Action, Women's History, Bicilavadoram

by Nancy DuVergne Smith on March 6, 2009

in Uncategorized

In NatureNews‘ “Profile: Being Bob Langer,” you can spend a virtual day with the leader of the powerhouse MIT lab that is doing breathtaking bioengineering work. Bob Langer ScD ’74 has been called the Michael Jordan of engineering.

Children in war zones gain access to the larger world through laptops.

Access beyond war.

Children in conflict zones like Afghanistan and low-income areas from Ghana to Birmingham, Alabama, are now using laptops developed by One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit founded by Nicholas Negroponte ’66, MAR ’66, at MIT.

Public health pioneer Ellen Swallow Richards, who in 1873 became the first woman to graduate from MIT, was the first person cited in President Barack Obama‘s Women’s History Month proclamation.

Bike-powered laundry.

Pump the laundry.

See a Huffington Post video of a bike-powered washing machine, invented by graduate student Radu Raduta ’05, SM ’08, in demonstrations led by MIT students in Peruvian slums.

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All Hail Mustache March

by Liv on March 3, 2009

in Modern Geekhood

LFM student Daniel Schweizer

LFM student Daniel Schweizer

One of the worst things about March in the U.S. is that it doesn’t include a proper Federal Holiday. For that reason, I’ve had a hard time truly embracing it  (and let me add, this year’s foot of snow on March 1st did not help).

However, my feelings toward March completely changed when I found out about an amazing tradition observed by the students of MIT Sloan’s Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) program. It’s called… Mustache March.

What is Mustache March? It’s part competition, part celebration, and part fundraiser. Drew Hill, a current LFM student explained the rules  in his blog, Better than Cheese:

February 13th: All LFM Mustache March contestants must report for inspection with a clean shaven face.

March 2nd:  Facial hair must be trimmed into an acceptable mustache pattern.  Inspection and pictures for documentation are conducted in the LFM office at lunch time.  As defined by the governing board of this competition: A mustache is defined as an island of hair that is at least 3cm (root to root) from the nearest body of facial hair.  A mustache is an island (no goatees).

March 14th:  Judging will occur at 11:30 in E40-315 and yes, pictures will be taken! Each class will select a chosen representative for each category listed below, and then all LFMs present will vote. Awards will be given for the following categories:

  • Best of Show – The name basically sums it up. This award is reserved for the most spectacular specimen produced over the course of the month.
  • Most Disturbing – When you look at this mustache, goosebumps will appear in places you didn’t know you had follicles. If you saw a layman on the street with this mustache, you’d warn other peoples’ children about this man.
  • Most Fitting – Sometimes the stars align and a man becomes something… more, with a mustache. This award is given to the mustache that makes a man greater than the sum of his otherwise wholly inadequate parts.
  • Dirtlip Award – The little follicles that couldn’t.

The mustached men would like onlookers to donate money to the Red Sox Foundation. Inspired? You can make a contribution online.

And with no further ado, check out a few photos of Mustache March’s current participants. Like what you see? Let us know if you want us to photograph the judging on March 14th.

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MIT Men’s Basketball Team Heads to NCAA Tourney

by Amy Marcott on March 2, 2009

in Athletics,Uncategorized

The Engineers celebrate their 2009 NEWMAC championship.

The Engineers celebrate their 2009 NEWMAC championship.

Yes, you read that right. For the first time in Institute history, the Engineers have landed on the men’s bracket of the Division III NCAA basketball championship tournament, joining 59 other teams vying to reach the finals in Salem, Virginia. MIT takes on Rhode Island in first-round play on Friday, March 6, at 6:00 p.m.

Yesterday, the Engineers ousted Springfield College 76-50 in the NEWMAC championship final to secure their berth. Senior Jimmy Bartolotta—who ranks as the fourth all-time high scorer at the Institute—netted a tournament-high 37 points. The victory marked MIT’s second 20-win season in four years.

NCAA Division III brackets

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