More Odds & Ends by Matt McGann '00
Concerts (on & off campus), doors (on campus), and lectures (also on campus).
I’m a bit under the weather today, and I’m still working on the next Omnibus, so it’s time for more odds & ends…
The band Hot Hot Heat will play a concert at MIT (for MIT students only, sorry) on Friday night, November 11. I saw Hot Hot Heat on a previous tour swing through Boston, and they put on a darn good show.
Of course, this being Boston, lots of bands come through. Within 2 miles of MIT (and within 5 subway stops), you’ll find the following big concerts here over the next few months: Gwen Stefani & Black Eyed Peas (Halloween!), Nine Inch Nails (November 8), Lenny Kravitz & (Boston’s own) Aerosmith (November 12), U2 (December 4-5; this is their second stop in Boston this tour), Dave Matthews Band (December 15), among others. (Death Cab for Cutie was here last week, Rob Thomas the week before, and Ludacris is in town tonight)
Last entry, I posted some photos from my nascent Dorm Room Doors photo series, and wrote, “If you have some dorm room door photos, send them along!” Well, Jo took me up on my suggestion, writing, “I’ve got a door for you, hailing from Beast (2nd East) of East Campus. The arch inscription has been modified from the original. It reads ‘ennyn erufaile bereth moria: pedo mellon a minno.’ I’ll leave you guys to figure out what that means ; )”
The inscription translation is now an open question to be answered by you, as is the identity of the Cosplay from an entry several months ago. So, answer these two riddles, and send me pictures of interesting MIT Dorm Room Doors.
Also, earlier today as I was walking from my office to the subway, I noticed that there was an abnormally large number of interesting lectures on Thursday, including:
- The Big Question: How and When to Exit Iraq: All are welcome to a special CIS Starr Forum, “The Big Question: How and When to Leave Iraq.” The event will be held from 4:00-5:30 on Thursday, October 27, at Morss Hall in MIT’s Walker Memorial. Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen will chair, and will propose a withdrawal strategy. The guest speakers will be Phebe Marr, a leading U.S. historian of Iraq; Jonathan Schell, peace and disarmament correspondent for The Nation; and Bill Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard.
- Peter Diamandis ’83, Chairman/CEO, X Prize Foundation & Zero Gravity Corporation: Entrepreneur and space evangelist Dr. Peter H. Diamandis speaks as part of Dean’s Innovative Leader Series. Competition spurred advancements in aviation’s infancy, and now visionary entrepreneur and space evangelist Dr. Peter Diamandis sees competitive prizes, such as his revolutionary $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, catapulting society to frontiers in space and other technologies. Diamandis, founder, chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, will speak to the MIT Sloan community Thursday, Oct. 27, as part of the Dean’s Innovative Leader Series and in conjunction with MIT Sloan Innovation Period (SIP). He is an appropriate speaker for SIP, an intense week in which students test innovative leadership outside the bounds of ordinary classrooms. A graduate of MIT (SB ’83 and SM ’88) and Harvard Medical School, he has made a career of doing what conventional wisdom held could not be done.
- Water Politics and Earth Democracy: Second in a series on The Future of Water. Speaker: Vandana Shiva, Director, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy and author of Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
- CMS Colloquium: Animation at the Beijing Film Academy: Animation at the Beijing Film Academy with Sun Lijun, dean and professor of doctoral studies at the Animation School of Beijing Film Academy. His works include the short films Little Conch and Good Neighbor, the TV series Three Little Foxes and the feature The Little Soldier Zhang Ga.
- There are also some interesting lectures in Biological Engineering, Physics, and Operations Research.
So many lectures, so little time! Which would you go to, if you could go to only one?
Thursday should be an exciting day! For the blogs, too… (stay tuned)
I am looking forward to the Physics Colloqium next week (thursday in 10-250), Andre Linde’ of Stanford University would be lecturing at MIT!
thats incredible!
Hi Matt, what should I do if my teacher’s rec is late? She can’t mail it out because of Wilma. Also, if I used paper application, can I still check its status on MyMIT?
I love Jo. She makes me so happy.
8.01, not so much. :p
“The doors of Erufaile, queen of Moria: speak, friend, and enter.”
Who’s Erufaile? o_o
I would go to the astrophysics one *_* I miss listening to lectures during lunch…
Matt, With all those bands on campus…you say that MIT isn’t a party place!!!
Tell me one thing if I do retake that SAT II Math (or any other subject for that matter) is only the best score taken into consideration. I mean does the previous and presumably lower score act as a harmful factor or is it completely ignored.
Wow! What an eye-opener!
OMG! Andre Linde! Saad! Tell me more about the lecture when you attend it!!
I’d go to the water lecture.
Hi Matt! Just one more question… Can i submit part 2 without the SAT2 results first? Im taking it on Dec. But Im early to submit my application!
Matt,
Is there any chance MIt can get the Jan test score of the SAT’s.
Hi Mr. McGann!
I’m Victoria, that girl that offered to help at the San Diego information session… the one that goes to Torrey Pines.
I just wanted to let you know that I popped into the counseling office on an errand today and all of the MIT stuff is gone!
I assure you there is no lack of student interest.
“The doors of Erufaile, queen of Moria: speak, friend, and enter.”
Who’s Erufaile? o_o
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Erufaile is Sindarin for Alisha (Or Elisha…its not specifically stated). You beat me too it :( (Darn lack of free time…then again things like writing for Wikipedia are not exactly obligatory…). Eh I never really learned tengwar anyway…just grammar/vocabular from sindarin/quenya. We moved from Georgia to DC this summer…so I had VERY little to do for the month before we got any of our stuff.
I just noticed! he posted the english lettering translation…was that always there?
The door is from John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s fantasy classic, ‘The Lord of the Rings’.It’s the door of the West Gate of Durin(Lord of Moria and cousin of Gimli of the Fellowship) and is the entrance to the Dwarf kingdom of Moria. You guys are probably saying, ” oh no! not another LOTR geek!!”. But I say that the movie, good as it is, has ruined the magic of the book. In the movie, all that happens is the moon shines and the gate is visible but read it’s description in the book. It has a greater impact.
And U2 is performing in Boston twice in one tour! We had to struggle to get them to do ONE concert in India! Another reason to join MIT.
Yes, I believe it was always there. It was part of the comment of the girl who had the picture of the door int he first place.
wee such a pretty language. Our engineering teacher said some kids in England take it as as a high school class o_o