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Reuse is the MIT version of the craigslist “free” section, complete with the feel-good philosophy of using resources more wisely. Except way more interesting and not so many questionable free mattresses and couches an hour away in good traffic. You can join the mailing list by sending an email to reuse-request@mit.edu
We could talk about fall and new classes, college football starting back up (Boomer Sooner!), and heck, I’m even excited about the Pats playing again and maybe even catching some MIT sports (I’ve heard the water polo team is intense). Yeah, I’m not sure about you, I’m not so excited about summer being over, but at least a cookout helps with the chill and makes the darker evenings more fun. Come say hi at an Orientation event!  Bye summer!
a mix of classic rock, new stuff and the cheesiest 80s music possible. 1. Take me home tonight- Eddie Money  Me and a robot saxophonist
In an episode of the awesomely funny Flight of the Conchoids, the two man band writes a song to raise awareness for canine epilepsy… Their boss points out that such a song might alienate pro-epilepsy listeners. They proceed ridiculously (as usual) to discuss being pro or anti disease. Seeing this just before my week in DC recently, this inanity seemed a little more a propos than just pure humor: Our representatives in DC really do seem to care about our thoughts on issues. No matter how diverse the topic or the stance. Also, DC seems forced by need for simplicity to phrase things in such black and white — you are either pro- or anti- SuchandSuch Bill, issue, etc. And believe me, in under a week, I met with both senators and a representative’s Legislative Director (LD) from my home state, Legislative Assistants (LA) for both MA senators, many other Congressional LA’s, the chair and two other commissioners from the NRC, Labor Union, lobbyists, DOE, and DOD. I was one of a group of 12 student delegates nationwide as part of the Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation who meet annually to talk to policy makers about the importance of nuclear science engineering and technology, and the need to support education and research. The group, in total, met with about 80 Senators offices (filibuster proof!) along with many Representative offices. And we learned something through all those meetings that you should know too. By virtue of the fact you are on an MIT site, maybe as a prospective student, a current student, or someone just extreeeemely bored, you are likely someone very well educated, and whether you realize it or not, probably someone that others look up to. Maybe you’ve heard that before as I had—for instance, people telling you that you are like the Top Gun of American students. But here’s something our group learned and you need to realize: not only are you [insert all flattering abilities here], you actually have a duty to act as the leader that people already look to you as. You must not downplay your achievements, you have to be confident in them to share your knowledge and expertise with our society, which desperately wants and needs solutions found in your discipline. Not only this, but you and I must attack this duty immediately, not as some nice goal for a non-distinct time in the future. Whether it’s the energy initiative that MIT has taken as a goal, or economic issues, or education issues, you get the picture, our country is in need of leaders to step up right now. And instead of your youth being a hindrance, it is an immense asset—we very quickly found that we could get into meetings that lobbyists and other institutions might not, because these offices are deeply interested in hearing what students across our country are excited about, our educated and passionate opinions on the future. Our delegation actually began 15 years ago to save funding for research reactors, and our congresspeople listened and have been allies to keep this funding going even when DOE would take it out. What could you do with a few like-minded students? The key is to realize we don’t have to go to Washington to do this. There is so much on our campus, in Cambridge/Boston, and Massachusetts that we can do—each of these congresspeople has a home office near to us that we can visit, and MA has very senior senators in Kennedy and Kerry that are even on committees relevant to MIT’s energy focus, as well as health and science. A few of the nuclear engineering students are looking to make some grassroots groups, if you are interested, please send me an email!
Pedestrian topic, I know, but I enjoyed my trip to the grocery store. The marketers at Shaw’s had to have known that “Crispy Hexagons” would be the perfect name for a new cereal, a hit with the under-15 year olds, or maybe the buyers at this Shaw’s thought it sounded like something these nerd kids around here would enjoy. I’m just wondering why I didn’t find them sooner! I will update with a review of Crispy Hexagons vis-a-vis Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the longtime favorite…  The picture uploader said "crunching" when it was downloading... |
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