DID YOU KNOW? The city of Portland, Oregon was named for Portland, Maine.

What a coincidence that Matt's entry on thanking parents came on Sam's Mom's birthday! Happy birthday, Sam's Mom!

Anyway, you may have seen the MIT homepage today when you were like, "ARRRRRGHUS!! I NEED TO KNOW IF I GOT IN TO MIT!! MAYBE THEY SPONTANEOUSLY DECIDED TO POST THEIR ADMISSION DECISIONS AT 10:37 PM TODAY! URAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!" In doing so, you may have noticed that it was advertising the MIT Coal Study, an interdisciplinary work prepared by some of MIT's most noted energy professors detailing the future of fossil fuels in the United States. Although renewable fuels and turkey carcasses are awesome and everything, considering that like 3% of our current energy comes from renewable sources, to be honest, we aren't going to satisfy the 10^18 Joules per year that the US needs in a sustainable fashion anytime soon. So, until we get a big sustainable infrastructure in place, coal--with carbon sequestration in place--might not be a bad transitional solution.

But speaking of sustainable energy, I just found out that Biodiesel@MIT, a student group started by Joe '08 and eventually joined by just about everybody I've ever met, just won a $25,000 grant from MTVU and GE. Seriously! $25,000! Won by somebody whose house I have been inside! ARGH! All I've been doing tonight is sitting in my room listening to Ween, meanwhile Joe '08 won $25,000 to save MIT.

So I got this e-mail this morning from my 10.491: Integrated Chemical Engineering II professor, Dr. Gregory "take your hands off the keyboard" McRae.

Dear 10.491 ICE Students:

Yesterday in Washington we released the MIT "Future of Coal" report -- there was a lot of interest in the findings and especially the involvement of Course 10 ICE students. I will present a summary of the findings in class on Monday. In the mean time your can see the report itself at

web.mit.edu/coal (See today's MIT spash page and in particular look at the Acknowledgements Section. You may also recognize the table of numbers in Box 1 of the Executive Summary --they were derived from your answers to Homework problem number 1)

or just a few of the press articles at

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1114446307

I will see you in class on Monday, have a good weekend and remember the final report is due very soon!!

Cheers

Greg

Last year's senior class had the opportunity to contribute to this report with their 10.491 projects. We, on the other hand, are still contributing to the future of coal research at MIT, because Professor McRae is kind of a big deal.

But what have I contributed? Oh, basically nothing, I feel like! I've been on grad school visits for the past 3 weeks, which are basically like CPW except with even more free stuff and free airfare, and swanky hotel rooms instead of the floor in my dorm room. Thanks to my visit to California last weekend, I now have sunburn to the point where my skin is peeling off, and it's 30 degrees outside. It's surreal. I think my group would beat my face, if they weren't all really nice girls who live in Next House.

Anyway, the moral of the entry is that you shouldn't pick a Calfiornia school over MIT, because you will probably get sunburn and die.

I had this rule that I would write a blog entry before I would allow myself to play Super Smash Bros. Melee tonight, but I think I should change that to write like 10 pages of our final report before I write a blog entry, before I play Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Also, this entry will be updated by tomorrow morning. I promise!

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

first post!!!

Posted by: Estefi on March 16, 2007

First Post!

SSBM FTW!

Posted by: Snively on March 16, 2007

Or, for those of you who hate acronyms. . .

Super Smash Brothers Melee For The Win!

I challenge anybody to take me on next year, I'm deadly with Samus. I'll bring the Wii yo, battle to the death!

Posted by: Snively on March 16, 2007

you're the best person alive.you're the best person alive.<3

Posted by: Jess on March 16, 2007

hmmm...is it bad that that's basically exactly what I do? The first bit about wondering if MIT spontaneously put decisions up? Yeah, that's me.

Posted by: Elizabeth on March 16, 2007

haha I was confused and thought decisions WERE spontaniously posted. Do alot of MIT students own cars, or do alot of them save their money for tuition?

Posted by: nick on March 16, 2007

Thanks to MIT for taking a stand against enviromental destruction. So many people are shocked when you tell them it will take years for alternate energy to replace oil, and then there are those who still debate global warming...
On another note, I have also been checking for an early release of decisions. The time approaches so slowly and so quickly all at once...

Posted by: Katherine on March 16, 2007

Best of luck to all the regular decision applicants

Posted by: 0 on March 16, 2007

thx anonymous and ya all the best to all the regular decision and deferred applicants

Posted by: reddy on March 16, 2007

So, yeah, that ARGGGGGHHHHUS person? That's basically me. I just keep checking every time I get on the computer.

And Snively, you're on! I rock with Kirby. Sounds crazy, I know, but I can make that little guy as annoying as an unsolved acronym.

Posted by: Kelly on March 16, 2007

for those who are worried about how many admissions there are from a particular region: dont worry if 60 pakistanis wwere capable of getting into MIT all wud be admitted and if none was no one would. its ur profile and not an international qouta that matters!! same for all internationals, indian etc
well how many are with me for todays hearing???

Posted by: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudr on March 16, 2007

sorry posted in the wrong blog!!

Posted by: 0 on March 16, 2007

Interesting entry on sustainable energy. I just heard a report about it on NPR.

NPR's Morning Edition article on sustainable energy

Thanks for posting that. When I heard MIT on the radio my ears perked up. Then I logged on and saw this blog entry.

Good luck with selecting a grad school.

Posted by: AnotherMom on March 16, 2007

It is funny to see how we care so much for our home. We clean it, we make rules to preserve it and etc...
EARTH is our home too!!! If we take care of the environment as we do with our home for sure we wouldn't have so many environmental problems.
Sustainable energy is a concrete (and effective) solution to slow down environmental destruction.

I lived four years in the Amazon region, and see how prospectors destroy the Amazon forest is heart killing.

MIT commitment to stop this is a big step in a long way to preserve environment.

Go MIT!!!

Posted by: Susan Virgem on March 16, 2007

Chief Justice,
There is a thing called "diversity", something which universities like MIT try to acheive from their international quota of 110. So, even if 60 Pakistanis are capable of getting in...the fact is they won't be admitted.....

Posted by: Anonymous on March 16, 2007

I,I...

Posted by: The madman who makes people fly (lolol not rly) on March 16, 2007

WOW! cool. That's exactly what makes MIT MIT.

Posted by: PP on March 16, 2007

Bwahaha. I thought I was the only "crazy" person who comes to the MIT site the day before actual postings "just in case." I am glad that I'm not alone. Cheers, everyone. And good luck tomorrow. (Who is going to check at 8 am tomorrow... just in case? Then, at 11:59, 11:59:30, 11:59:45?)

Posted by: Ashley Jones on March 16, 2007

Who blogged first, you or Mr. McGann? hehe

Super Smash Brothers is one of only three non-Sonic video games that I`ve ever played. KIRBY FTW [8

Posted by: Eileen on March 16, 2007

ZOMG I LUV SUPER SMASH BROTHERS MELEE.

Posted by: omega on March 17, 2007

cmon gotta be a link player

Posted by: Jon on March 17, 2007

Thanks for your entry!

BTW, Do you know if it would be possible to major in mechanical eng(biomedical engineering) and double major with management science, and do premed in four years with an optimum/decent gpa for medical school?

Posted by: luckygrl on March 18, 2007

nick -- Maybe 2% of MIT undergrads end up owning cars. Insurance is ridiculous in Boston, there's really nowhere near the dorms or your classes that's convenient to park, and traffic is horrendous. Our campus is small, and Boston really is a walking city. Public transportation here is pretty extensive, so you won't have any trouble getting around without a car. Those who do have cars usually just use it to go out of Boston, for example, to the mountains to go hiking.

luckygrl -- Having met my share of MIT overachievers, I'll tell you that pretty much anything is possible with respect to grades and classes. But you're going to be taking a lot of classes if you try to do that, because there are basically no classes in common between management and mechanical, and then none of those are premed classes. It will really be the lab classes that hurt you, because you'll have to take 2.007, 7.02, 5.310, and the management lab. You might thinking about picking a major that has more overlap with premed, like chemical engineering or biological engineering. My suggestion would be to start off taking classes as if you're going to attempt this "triple major" and then see which aspects of it you like best after 3-4 semesters here.

Posted by: Sam on March 19, 2007

Also, luckygrl, what you may want to do is check out 2A. Course 2 is Mechanical Engineering, and 2A is a track that also gives you a Mechanical Engineering degree, but with fewer required core classes, so you can focus on what you're interested in (in your case, the biomedical side of things). There's a girl who lived on Sam's and my floor and graduated last year who did 2A and pre-med, and is now in med school somewhere. Also, I know lots of people who are 2A and 15 (Management), so that's also very possible. I don't know about doing all three, but it doesn't seem totally out there. And if it's too much, you can always do something like 2A, pre-med, and a 15 minor, which is absolutely possible.

Posted by: Dizzle '09 on March 19, 2007

thank you sm

Posted by: jewel on March 20, 2007

My daughter has applied for Transfer. You give all the details regarding Freshman Application but nothing is mentioned for Transfer Application. Whether the application is received at your end, the latest developments regarding applications, etc. Kindly see to it that you write about the process of transfer applications also in the left column so that the transfer applicants get uptodate information.

Posted by: Mom of prospective student on April 5, 2007

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