April 19

April 19, 1995: 4th grade, Bombing of the OKC Federal Building

April 19, 2013: 5th yr PhD student, Ongoing manhunt for terrorist responsible for Boston Marathon explosion and killing an MIT Police Officer on campus

What I remember from that day in the 4th grade was my teacher immediately becoming quiet and somber and making a brief announcement of the event. The silence in the room was heavy, but I didn't understand what her words meant- there's someone who did something bad? Why? Over the next days, I would experience this sadness permeating everywhere I went. 

18 years have passed and it only gets harder to deal with a similar situation. It doesn't matter that the number of casualties are lower. My accumulation of knowledge does nothing to help me better understand why such events happen. The passing of time has just meant that I've seen more manifestations of the darkness that comes in this world. That's forced me to construct a framework of thinking in which it is feasible that a person could carry out a horrendous act on innocent people. 

As I sit here in lock-down in my room, I'm reflecting and searching for hope. I am overwhelmed by the thought of evil infiltrating the very streets I take to the grocery store, to my office. I feel restricted, stuck. Looking outside shows me what evil results in: emptiness. In the moment, evil is terrifying. Afterwards, it leaves emptiness - just as empty as the streets now are devoid of people. 

But the sun is beating down (for the first time in how many months?) and I watch two white birds flying gently back and forth across the river. I'm reminded of grace - the ultimate gift. God has already born the heaviness of sin and evil so that we need not be left with that emptiness. 

To this day, Oklahoma residents remember and honor that horrific event in 1995. It's not merely a thing that happened in the past that we take a moment of silence for once a year. It's something that strongly shapes the attitude of humility, gratefulness, and love that people there live out.

Undoubtedly, something similar will happen here. Bostonians are tough and Cambridge is full of Type A personalities. It will take very little time for us to respond and re-define what it means to call this place home.

I'm encouraged by that- not just because we will experience a one-ness when the terror is over, but because that is a small picture of what God desires us to have with him. Through the most profound act of injustice, we are freely offered unity with God. And that is more than enough.

Light Festival

Culmination of the MIT 150th Celebration was a light festival last weekend:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/fast-light-0509.html

Vote for my team in the MIT Global Challenge

I'm part of a team (Practical Energy Network) that entered the MIT IDEAS/Global Challenge Competition:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/vote-global-challenge.html

If we win the Community Choice Award, we get more funding. Please vote for us!! :)
http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/teams/view/138


Here's our webpage to give you a better idea of what we're doing:
http://energyidea.xvm.mit.edu/doku.php

Nature Editorial on Singapore

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7325/full/468731a.html

Prof on front page of NYT

The professor of the Physical Oceanography class I'm taking was on the front page of the New York Times.
Data she collected in Greenland is what we use in class to learn how to calculate transport processes :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/science/earth/14ice.html?_r=5

MIT's 150th Bday

I go to a school that does some exciting stuff:
http://spectrum.mit.edu/articles/normal/mit-innovations-a-brief-history/

Sad News

Prof. Bill Mitchell passed away.
I had no idea it was coming!
I was going to take one of his classes :(

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/obit-mitchell

McMoon in Science

"McMoon" as my old intern group so lovingly calls it (I mentioned it in a post or two a while back) made it into Science.


http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5971/1322?rss=1

Hunger v. Obesity

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/nyregion/14hunger.html?hpw

ABE Lost at Sea

Aaaah! So sad!

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=7545&tid=282&cid=70487&ct=162

Flour Bakery Opening

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/dishing/2010/02/flour_3.html#comments

Woohoo! Flour Bakery opening close to campus this summer!

Some good acoustic performances

www.fromthebasement.tv

Germans and their Bratwurst

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/world/europe/24bratwurst.html?8ur&emc=ur

Photos from 93,000 feet

My mentee is famous! :)

The first year MechE who was assigned to me as my mentee this year told me about his cool weather ballon/camera side project a few weeks ago (right before their latest launch). And I just now found out that this project has been making it into quite a few online sites.

Ahh these MIT kids impress me. Just wait til you hear about the OTHER side projects they're working on.

Basically, they've carried out a launch on the very low budget of $150, took some amazing pics, and hope to spread this launch know-how to younger students to inspire interest in science.

The weather balloon launch reminds me of the Mars Plane project I worked on in undergrad :) so this was all really exciting for me!



http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/the-150-space-camera-mit-students-beat-nasa-on-beer-money-budget

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-328198

Their website:
http://space.1337arts.com/

Human Space Flight Committee

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/related_documents/summary_report.html

Long time no update

Lots to update on. Not enough time :(

Suffice it to say: summer is awesome. I've been soaking up the sun, eating a lot, doing a lot, spending a lot of money, spending a lot of hours in lab building stuff, and enjoying everything!

I'm now going to hide in a hole for the next semester and hunker down to study for the qualifying exams...

JP Winter Retreat

We, the outdoorsy :) Joint Program students organized a retreat to New Hampshire in February. We rented a huge house and ~50 of us stayed there over a long weekend. Activities like this are the reason that winters in New England can still be fun!
We split up into different groups on Saturday, and I joined the group that went skiing at Attitash. It was sooooo icy that day. I guess by this time of year, very little fresh powder can be found. Yay east coast......
The conditions were so different that it was as if you had to use different techniques to work your way down the slopes.
I was surprised that only one other person out of this group would go up to the top of any of the mountains with me (I don't understand how some of them already shelled out lots of money for their own gear if they aren't brave enough to go on blues.....) Thankfully for Allison, I got to go on some of the tougher trails with a buddy. And....she convinced me to go on a double black. This one went much more smoothly than the double black at Tahoe. That's just because the NE mountains are smaller and therefore easier though.


Check out the huge ice patch!

On Sunday, a group of us tried to find a hill to go sledding on. We ended up driving to someone's property that included an old ski lift (this was the plan proposed when guys were put in charge). We asked the owner for permission to go down it, but he said no. So, we found a small hill to hike up (still hard to do in the snow without snowshoes, especially when going at a fast pace set by a super tall guy).

At the top:

Some of us tried to sled down this hill anyways, even though there were trees EVERYWHERE. Certain people were less successful than others.....

Lunch afterwards:

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Now that classes are done for the semester, it's time to catch up on posting pictures from this semester.....


Went to hear the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform for the first time in February.
They played a couple Mozart arias, a premiere of a modern piece by Schuller, and Brahm's Symphony No. 2 :)

I didn't realize that MIT completely payed for student tickets, so I spent $25 on the College Card like other college students have to. When I went to pick up my tickets, I realized the mistake I'd made. The guy felt sorry for me (maybe just because he thought i was dumb) and gave our group seats REALLY close to the front and in the middle. They were fantastic! I was actually close enough to see detailed finger movement on the strings.

Having seen a few other cities' professional orchestras play, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the BSO. Holding true to the "college town" setting of this city, many in the audience were young and informally dressed. I found this much more enjoyable than the super-dressy, stuffy, old/rich person atmosphere that other places have.




On our way to getting tickets, Jaime (my Spaniard friend) and I decided to check out a few other things in the area. First was the Church of Christian Science's huge building, which we went inside and got an on-the-spot tour of.

Then we went to a music store and I took a goofy picture with the huge Elvis head
Pretty views from the Harvard Bridge

More on Carbon Fiber!

Ok this is really dangerous.
I now know the major steps taken to make a carbon fiber string instrument....






I have a ridiculous amount of experience in laying-up composite materials from my senior design project (in fact, if there's one skill I feel the best at having completed DBF, its that I can lay up stuff all day long). Now that I know they literally just lay-up layers of carbon fiber to make the instruments, I really want to try and make one myself!
All I need is the extra components you add on at the end (fingerboard, bridge, sound post, etc), and a few trials of making a full system that meets my desired sound, and I'm good to go!
This would cost at least an order of magnitude less than what they're being sold for.

This was very dangerous information for me to get a hold of....

Lunchtime Concert Series

The Whitehead Institute (biomedical research center right next to my lab) puts on a free concert about once a month for an hour during lunch.

It's a fantastically refreshing thing to attend in the middle of the day. The artists that come are quite high class too (seems like they all either went to Juilliard, played in the Boston Symphony, or did both). The arts are so alive in Boston!

The first one I went to had the following program:

Performers: Christina Wright, piano, and Sharon Cohen, violin.
Pieces: Brahms' Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op. 47, "Kreutzer"; Janacek's Piano Sonata "From the Street"; J.S. Bach's Partita for Solo Violin in d minor; Franck's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major

The one today was outstanding:
Performers: Carmen Rodriguez-Peralta, piano, and Luis Leguia, cello.
Pieces:
Rayner Taylor's Solo for Cello and Piano;
Luis Leguia's Memories;
Heitor Villa-Lobos' O Canto Do Cysne Negro (Song of the Black Swan);
Brahms' Sonata No. 1 E Min, Op. 38;
Alberto Ginastera's Pampeana No. 2 Rapsodia para Violincello y Piano

All of these were great! I find myself often thinking that the cello gets my pick for the most beautiful instrument.
The last piece was my favorite: diverse in sound and style throughout. It unabashedly explored the FULL extent of the fingerboard, and it had really beautiful harmonic chords. I've got to convince Jennifer to learn this one!!!

So, this cellist also makes instruments. Apparently, he desired a more "beautiful and penetrating cello"than those he had played for a long time, so he eventually ended up building CARBON FIBER CELLOS. You can read more about them at www.luisandclark.com
It's quite apparent that the one he played with gave a fuller, bolder, more resounding sound than a traditional wooden one. It is quite a distinct sound to hear, but one that I certainly was impressed with.
The instruments look realllly sleek too! All black and shiny like a sweet airplane part :)
(I wonder why he doesn't play with a carbon fiber bow though, since those are quite common....)

I'm in the middle of selecting a new violin for purchase and now I really want to try and play one of their carbon fiber violins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I didn't actually get to see Yo-Yo Ma playing a carbon fiber cello. But I can dream....)