"Our students aren't gifted students. They're students who want to come to MIT early Saturday morning for class."

Terrorist Guild Holds World of Warcraft Server Hostage

In-game and in-character, that is. This is really quite funny. Basically, the guild in question, "Imperial Order", has a scepter of some power that they obtained by completing various quests. This scepter, if used to ring a specific gong, would open up new content to the server. But, first they want 5000 gold (it's not clear to me whether this has to be a lump sum from one source, or if they're just demanding that the sum total of tribute from the server be 5000 gold).

Absolutely hilarious, not least because of all the reactions by the kind of people who take this game way too seriously (ok, it's fun - but some people take it way too seriously). But beyond that, I think it serves as a good example of why this game is so popular. Because of how free-form it is, it's not just players acting out a pre-written script (although that can be fun, too - Half Life, Far Cry, even the Journeyman Project). Instead, it's players writing their own script - no pun intended. So you end up with emergent behavior. Emergence is defined as complex patterns arising out of simpler ones; the fundamentals of molecular biology as a result of even more basic chemical properties; the pseudo-intelligent behavior of not-so-intelligent hive insects; gliders and other forms in Conway's Life; flocking behavior. By providing only simple guidelines, Blizzard has allowed for this kind of "innovative" behavior.

This is sort of like what we are hoping for with the redesigned social structure in Simmons. It's modeled after the old lounge system, yes, but it is, we think, more freeform. By making it so that any group of ten or more residents can get $20 a head to work with, we are trying to encourage new uses of this social funding. Under the old system, the primary expenditures were study breaks: pizza or Chinese delivery and a movie for the lounge, a partially subsidized end-of-semester trip to a restaurant, trips to plays/musicals, etc. A few capital expenditures were made; last year, one lounge built DDR pads. This is good - it creates a support network for students by helping to get them out of their rooms and interacting; it provides a vehicle to break the ice and meet people at the beginning of the year. But I (and we) think we can do better.

But under the new system, it's basically, here's your funding; here's what you can't do with it; go nuts. I expect that some of the groups will be similar or functionally identical to the old lounges, which is fine, but I'm hoping (and this is the potential failure point in the plan) that some of the structures we've built in will satisfy that need, and cluster funding will go elsewhere. There's one former lounge that has already done something like what we want: they used their funding to begin setting up a workshop in Simmons, trying to recreate some of the (possibly dying) East Campus culture in Simmons (yeah, technically we're West Campus; in reality, we don't really fit in either category). I want groups to come up with innovative ideas - special interest groups are a start, but I'm sure our residents can come up with something even more innovative. Something that will improve the dorm as a whole.

As one of the GRTs (translation: MIT RAs) pointed out at the last meeting, the Founders' Committee wanted Simmons to be a somewhat experimental. I think a few quotations from the preamble to our constitution could be useful:

According to the MIT administration, Simmons Hall is intended to signal a change from the current standards of dorm life. This is largely true. However, the governance of Simmons Hall will not be a change away from the self-governance model, but formalization and strengthening of it. The Simmons Hall governance model is intended to allow the dorm to have more independence and a stronger voice in the decisions that affect it.

and

There is not a select group of people who handle all the functions of House governance, and whom you can blame if dorm life is not what you want it to be. It is up to everyone. If you want Simmons Hall to be a good place, you have to get involved and make it that way. If you think Simmons Hall sucks, then there’s no one you can blame but yourself.

Principle 4:

If you do not like something, change it. While traditions are important to building culture, the House should not keep doing something simply because people did it the year before, and other people did it the year before that. Times keep changing and the House should keep thinking creatively and coming up with new ways to improve House life.

When I presented the bylaws for discussion at the last house meeting (the vote is next Sunday), I concluded by saying that we saw it as a social experiment - that we wanted to see what new ideas Sims could come up with. I guess my time on Kuro5hin wasn't a total waste, eh?

In keeping with the theme of the day, one of my professors told us, "I'm all for true love, unless it interferes with programming". The Valentine's Day concert here was a theremin recital (and right before my Soviet history class - what are the odds of that?), and I saw the following Valentine's day announcement on facebook:

Saw you soldering for [robotics class]. Your beautiful blue eyes looked so intense. At that moment, the iron short-circuited in your hands -- and so did my heart.

Yup, we're nerdy all right.

For your viewing pleasure: "Tripod", an Australian comedic barbershop-ish trio.

If you live in Seattle and you don't care about football, this was kind of a weird week. Heck, it was even weird here at MIT.

The Lego Suicides. So funny. Morbid, but ... okay, fine, there is no "but". They're just morbid. And funny. But it makes you wonder how much time some people have on their hands - and where do they come up with these ideas?

Murderball has been nominated for an Oscar. If March of the Penguins wins, I'm gonna be annoyed :-P

Anyone who knows me already knows how I feel about Bush's stance on stem cell research. But I bet you've never heard me rant about the importance of human-animal hybrids - chimaeric research.

Oncomouse, anyone? Morquio Mouse? MPS I Dog? Down Mouse? These have all been incredibly useful tools, and some of them were created as human-animal hybrids.

From the post:

[Bush is] trusting that everyone will think he is banning monstrous crimes against nature, but what he's really doing is targeting the weak and the ill, blocking useful avenues of research that are specifically designed to help us understand human afflictions.

I don't know if he knows what he's doing and is trusting that no one else will, or if he's deluded. Doesn't really matter in the end, though,