MIT Graduate Student Develops Fighting Robots

Jamison Go, Robot Engineer At MIT

Are these the kind of fighting robots that will eliminate humans? 

[From article]
The hulking, heavily armed remote control 
robots that battle to the death, sending sparks, flames, and pieces of metal flying around the ring were the inspiration for a local engineer who recently put his own warrior machine to the test.
It was years ago when a young Jamison Go first saw the fighting robot show “BattleBots” on television that he decided he wanted to become an engineer. More than a decade later, Go is in the midst of a Ph.D. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had the chance to throw a robot of his own into battle during an appearance on the show last week.
[. . .]
The hulking, heavily armed remote control 
robots that battle to the death, sending sparks, flames, and pieces of metal flying around the ring were the inspiration for a local engineer who recently put his own warrior machine to the test.
It was years ago when a young Jamison Go first saw the fighting robot show “BattleBots” on television that he decided he wanted to become an engineer. More than a decade later, Go is in the midst of a Ph.D. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had the chance to throw a robot of his own into battle during an appearance on the show last week.
[. . .]
In addition to fulfilling his childhood dream of designing a battle bot, Go said the process of building the machine provided him with a valuable learning experience.
SawBlaze is made up of MIT graduate students, and is just one of at least four teams ­— including one undergraduate team — affiliated with the school.
Only one team, Overhaul, has advanced in the tournament. That fight will air July 21.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/07/mit_team_joins_robot_battle_on_tv

MIT team joins robot battle on TV
Fulfullment of dream
Jordan Graham

Boston Herald

Sunday, July 03, 2016

Cambridge Fire Department Saves MIT Dorm, No Injuries

[From article]
A fire broke out this Tuesday afternoon on the roof of Random Hall dormitory at 282 Mass. Ave. on the MIT campus, forcing an evacuation of the building. No injuries were reported in the two-alarm fire, and by 3:35 p.m. firefighters had knocked it down, according to safety officials.
Massachusetts Avenue between Albany and Sidney streets was closed for some time, which caused heavy traffic, according to police.
Random Hall is MIT's smallest dormitory, providing housing for 93 residents.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20160621/breaking-no-reported-injuries-in-2-alarm-fire-on-roof-of-mit-dorm-in-cambridge

BREAKING: No reported injuries in 2-alarm fire on roof of MIT dorm in Cambridge
By Natalie Handy
nhandy (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Jun. 21, 2016 at 4:32 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

* * *

282 Mass. Ave. fire. 

Photo by Paras Bhatia.

[From article]

The roof of Random Hall, a four-story MIT building being renovated at 282 Mass. Ave. burst into flames around 3 p.m. The fire went to two alarms before being brought under control.

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/fire-mass-ave-near-mit-goes-two-alarm

Roof of MIT building on Mass. Ave. catches on fire
By adamg

Tue, 06/21/2016 - 3:14pm
* * *


Photo: Cambridge Police

[From article]
Fire crews responded to a fire at MIT on Tuesday.
The fire was located on the roof on Random Hall on Mass. Ave.
The Cambridge Fire Department responded to the scene.
Residents were evacuated.
No injuries have been reported.

http://whdh.com/news/crews-respond-to-fire-at-mit-dorm/

Crews respond to fire at MIT dorm
7 News
WHDH-TV Boston MA

MIT Celebrates 100 Years After Moving To Cambridge, MA

https://youtu.be/obD_nK9VanE

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160511/NEWS/160519099

'Only at MIT:' Institute celebrates 100 years in Cambridge with unique parade
By Natalie Handy
nhandy (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted May. 11, 2016 at 8:20 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

https://youtu.be/TwtbojtIAMI

Report Four Youths On Bicycles, Attack MIT Grad Student, Two Others In Cambridge, MA

Young people on bicycles, Not In Cambridge, MA

[From article]

Police are looking for four juveniles who are accused of robbing an MIT student in Cambridge.
Police said it happened Sunday morning near the area of Brookline and Pacific streets. The victim said the suspects threatened him with a knife and demanded money.
He said he was then hit on the head and the robbers took his iPhone and wallet. They then fled on bicycles.
Cambridge Police are investigating other similar incidents from over the weekend.

http://www.whdh.com/story/31805519/cambridge-police-search-for-four-suspects-involved-in-robbery-of-mit-student

MIT student robbed at knifepoint in Cambridge
Posted: Apr 25, 2016 6:05 AM EDT
Updated: Apr 25, 2016 4:45 PM EDT
WHDH-TV Boston MA

Career Cambridge, MA Conman Arrested in New York City

Photo:JEFFERSON SIEGEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Jeremy Wilson went before judge Heidi Cesare wearing a grey Harvard Law School hoodie, dark blue
jeans and a grim expression.

[From article]
Cambridge Police report the arrest of a New York City man on a variety of charges related to the high life he allegedly tried to settle into for a couple months at a Third Street apartment complex that included draining $70,000 from a local design company's coffers and using some of the funds to lease a BMW SUV across the river in Boston.
Police say it all started when Jeremy Daniel Wilson, if that's really his name, 42, created the best Boston-area persona since Clark Rockefeller: Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham, an Army veteran with traumatic brain injuries from an IED explosion in Afghanistan - and also a pilot for British Airways. Cambridge Police say the earliest they could trace him back in Cambridge was December 3, which makes sense since he was only released from federal prison on Nov. 19 after serving a six-year sentence for impersonating an Army officer and stealing a judge's car.
In Cambridge, police say, the newly minted Asimov-Beckingham set up a local bank account under that name, using several fraudulent documents, including a bogus driver's license, Social-Security card and a Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty. He then got a discount on an apartment on Third Street by claiming to be both a veteran and an airline pilot - even as he was maintaining a $5,000-a-month apartment in lower Manhattan. Oh, and he used his fake discharge papers to sign up for and obtain veteran's benefits, Cambridge PD says.
He also somehow used the ID and more forged documents to suck $70,000 out of a Cambridge design firm's bank account, police say, adding he also stole a computer from MIT.
Police say that on Dec. 31, New York City Police found the BMW. And then, according to New York Magazine, they conned the con man: They contacted him and said the car had been impounded as evidence in a shooting but that he could come by to pick it up - which he did.
At his arraignment in New York on similar charges there, he wore a Harvard Law School hoodie.

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/con-man-long-record-goes-whirlwind-fraud-tour

Con man with long record goes on whirlwind fraud tour of Cambridge, police say
By adamg
Fri, 01/15/2016 - 2:10pm

* * *


DCPI/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
More than 200 forged checks, military uniforms, fake passports from Canada and the U.K., and other false official documents were recovered from the 10 Hanover Square apartment he rented.

[From article]
A seasoned grifter who posed as a wounded veteran and used stolen loot for a Manhattan pad gave a “full, video-recorded confession” to his latest antics — less than two months after leaving prison for similar crimes, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Jeremy Wilson, 42 — whose true name is unknown because of his rampant use of fake identities in a “Catch Me If You Can”-like career of scamming — was ordered held on $1 million bail at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
[. . .]
“The defendant is a brazen criminal who has spent his entire adult life as a con artist and identity thief,” Assistant District Attorney Diego Diaz said.
Wilson went before judge Heidi Cesare wearing a grey Harvard Law School hoodie, dark blue jeans and a grim expression.
He was back to scheming right after his release from prison on Nov. 19 after serving a six-year federal prison sentence “for crimes that included forging the signature of a federal judge, aggravated identity theft, fraud, and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle,” Diaz said.
[. . .]
At the prestigious college, Wilson hung around campus and “stole computers and an MIT corporate credit card.”
“He also was able to obtain a corporate apartment by posing as an executive of British Airlines,” the prosecutor added.
On Dec. 12 in Boston, Wilson allegedly used the name Jeremiah Asimov-Beckingham and fake identification documents to lease a 2016 BMW X3, worth at least $50,000.
Using phony checks and the hijacked bank account of a Boston company, he stole $40,000 and skipped off to New York in his new ride.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-posed-wounded-veteran-held-1m-bail-article-1.2488158

Conman who posed as wounded veteran held on $1M bail after giving 'full, video-recorded confession'
BY SHAYNA JACOBS

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, January 6, 2016, 9:50 PM

PBS Broadcasts Feature Showing Persons With Disabilties as Human Beings

This couple appears in the film to be healthy, handsome and normal. 

After a few years of pestering, with retaliatory threats because of my repeated questions, why persons with disabilities were never portrayed on taxpayer funded PBS stations in Boston, the stations actually (will wonders never cease?) broadcast a few full length features by independent videographers. The one being broadcast in January 2016 on WGBH-TV Boston and other PBS stations shows five people diagnosed with autism and their thoughts on love. They appear to be no different than thoughts expressed by poets and philosophers through the ages, and ordinary people alive today. The definitions expressed are pretty good. Two of the persons shown do not appear to have any serious illness. Nonetheless it is curious that the producer focused on love. Human services industry professionals assist people they declare disabled. Do they ever encourage them to enjoy love and romantic relationships as other people do?


Then there are three (of six) cable access television stations, CCTV, in Cambridge, MA (which receives about $1 million each year from the City). The executive director with a straight face explained to me that they could not find any features showing persons with disabilities to broadcast, as the reason why persons with disabilities seldom appeared on that station. That is Cambridge, MA the host city of Harvard University, MIT and Lesley University. The morally superior city which has a misguided self image as holier than thou.


Permanent host of PBS Greater Boston James Braude, former Cambridge, MA City Councilor omits persons with disabilities from appearing as guests on his show. He continues the tradition of Emily Rooney his predecessor.

Banning persons with disabilities is bad enough. The same show invites black people, women, homosexuals and Muslims to speak about how they experience discrimination. In Braude's mind everybody loves people with disabilities. Not so. They just don't think about them. For Braude every time there is a mass shooting he expresses a bigoted view, stereotyping people with disabilities as dangerous, violent and likely to take up arms and shoot up a theater or school. Braude objects vigorously to stereotyping black people, women, homosexuals and Muslims. But not so much for persons with disabilities, who he continues to insult on his taxpayer funded television show.

The same with CBS News' prestigous commentator, Andy Rooney's daughter, Emily Rooney. She was news director at WCVB-TV, Boston before she moved to public television. She now hosts a weekly show called Beat The Press, where her guests attack and ridicule conservative media errors, but ignore liberal bias. It is humorous to watch them make fools of themselves. Rooney refused to invite persons with disabilities on Greater Boston when she was the host. On Beat The Press she has a regular black lesbian, who hosts the Basic Black show, a few homosexuals, other black Harvard University elitists, but never, never anyone with a disability. For Rooney people with disabilities have no ability to repeat the liberal mantra and are unable to criticize, to listen to, or to read what is written, broadcast, published and posted online.

Taxpayer funded WGBH-TV, Boston's PBS station has a weekly show called Basic Black. Only upper class professional black people, e.g., professors, celebrities, journalists, are permitted on the show, which focuses on how black people can get more power and more money. They discuss how racist white people are, and how they enjoy privileges, which black people do not. People with disabilities are never seen on Basic Black or on WGBH, except as noted herein in recent days on independent shows. Not even black people with disabilities. That too is remarkable.

Harvard University when confronted with its bias against disability, marches out the few black disabled students they allow to matriculate. Never are white people with disabilities recognized at Harvard University. That is a fact. Over the past 20 years I am a tenant at a building owned and operated by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Harvard University campus police employees and building superintendents conducted and conduct a brutal criminal harassment campaign every day and every night. They disturb my sleep every one or two hours. They provoke, insult, ridicule, and humiliate me saying "He's crazy." But when I seek assistance from state and local taxpayer funded human services agencies they tell me, "There's nothing wrong with you." Their students tamper with my home computer, accessing it remotely to sabotage my use. For the elite at Harvard University and on public TV, disabled people are preferred targets for criminal abuse and bullying. No one listens to them and no one gives them a platform to petition for equal treatment by the four major approved victim groups.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/autism-in-love/

link to full video until April 10, 2016 9 [one hour, 13 minutes
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/autism-in-love/

Autism in Love
Independent Lens Production
Broadcast on WGBH-TV
Monday January 11, 2016

More broadcasts in  January 2016 see web page link above

* * *


Filmmaker Sophie and her son Ben

Sophie and Ben
Short about disabled child, raised by alternative family.

Aunt Dona and Grandmother Mimi

Film maker Sophie recognized she was unable to be so unselfish to take care of her aunt as her grandmother took care of her aunt.

Her son Ben, was diagnosed as having autism, as she had a history of autism. Aunt Dona asked to leave public schools in second grade. Ben entered school in second grade.

Ben: "Differences are what makes us human. I mean, imagine if we were all the exact same person. The world would be a boring place! And now since, and since we have differences that makes the, that makes the world an entertaining, that makes the world unique. And I feel like autism and Asperger's Syndrome are just a difference, where your brain is built a different way, and it's completely fine to be different because it's what makes us human."

MIT Dean and Son To Serve Prison Time For Bernie Madoff Scam

Gabriel Bitran, 70

[From article]

A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology associate dean and his son have been sentenced to prison for a hedge fund scam that cost investors over $140 million.



Federal prosecutors say 70-year-old Gabriel Bitran and 40-year-old Marco Bitran were sentenced Monday to 45 months in prison and over $11 million in restitution.


MIT Dome

The two pleaded guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and obstruction of justice last year in connection with their hedge fund businesses, GMB Capital Management and GMB Capital Partners.
Prosecutors say the men claimed they could produce annual returns of 16 to 23 percent based on the elder Bitran's investment theories.


Bernie Madoff

But authorities say some of the $500 million invested with them was put into Bernard Madoff-connected funds.

http://www.wcvb.com/news/former-mit-dean-son-to-serve-prison-time-for-hedge-fund-scam/37001724

Former MIT dean, son to serve prison time for hedge fund scam
Gabriel Bitran, 70, and Marco Bitran, 40, sentenced Monday to 45 months in prison
UPDATED 9:36 PM EST Dec 16, 2015

Updated: MIT's Lori Berenson Returns To United States, Apologized for Aiding Rebels in Peru

Posted August 16, 2010 5:17 PM ET; Last updated December 4, 2015 3:55 PM ET


Dec. 3, 2015: Lori Berenson, who completed a 20-year sentence in Peru for "collaboration with terrorism" in aiding the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, walks with her uncle Ken Berenson after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. 
(AP)

[From article]
An American woman sentenced to 20 years in a Peru prison for conspiring with a leftist rebel group in the 1990s returned to New York on Thursday, smiling as she walked through the doors at Kennedy Airport with her uncle.
Lori Berenson, 46, has been living quietly in Lima with her 6-year-old son since her 2010 parole because she was barred from leaving the country until her sentenced lapsed. Her son, Salvador, left the airport earlier with his grandparents.
"I'm very grateful to all the people who helped me over the years, and I'm glad to be with my family, thank you very much," Berenson said. She had no other comment.
Berenson was questioned by federal officials for hours at the New York City airport, but the U.S. ambassador to Peru, Brian Nichols, told reporters that she did not face any charges in the United States.
A daughter of college professors, Berenson dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and headed to Latin America to support leftist movements, working for rebels in El Salvador before traveling to Peru in late 1994.
[. . .]
She was initially convicted of treason in 1996 by a court of hooded military judges and sent for nearly three years to a frigid prison at 12,700 feet altitude, where her health suffered. She was convicted of "collaborating with terrorism" for assisting the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement as it prepared in 1995 to seize congress and take lawmakers hostage.


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/12/04/american-woman-returns-home-after-spending-years-in-peruvian-jail/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

American woman returns home after spending years in Peruvian jail
Published December 04, 2015
Associated Press

* * *

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/american_apologizes_for_aiding_rebels_upHbIA2hUUS2tPTbH56myI


Lori Berenson

REUTERS
Lori Berenson waits for the start of a hearing which reviews her parole at an anti-terrorism court in Lima, Peru.
NY woman apologizes for aiding rebels in Peru
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Post
Last Updated: 12:20 PM, August 16, 2010
Posted: 12:20 PM, August 16, 2010

MIT Researchers Find Wi-Fi Can Be Used For Through The Wall Surveillance

Using a wireless transmitter fitted behind a wall, computer scientists have developed a device that can map a nearby room in 3D while scanning for human bodies. Using the signals that reflect off these people, the device creates an accurate silhouette (pictured) and can even use this silhouette to identify who that person is.

[From article]
X-ray vision is a staple of sci-fi films and comic books and now researchers have turned this concept into a reality.
Using a wireless transmitter fitted behind a wall, computer scientists have developed a device that can map a nearby room in 3D while scanning for human bodies.
Using the signals that bounce and reflect off these people, the device creates an accurate silhouette and can even use this silhouette to identify who that person is.
[. . .]
With this in mind the researchers have been developing technologies that use wireless signals to track human motion since 2013.
As part of its latest research, the team has shown that these technologies can detect gestures and body movements as subtle as the rise and fall of a person's chest from the other side of a house.
[. . .]
The RF Capture device transmits wireless signals that travel through a wall and reflect off a person's body back to the device.
It begins by scanning the 3D space to capture wireless reflections of objects in the room, including any human bodies.
Since only a small number of body parts reflect the signal back at any given point in time, the device monitors how these reflections vary as someone moves and walks.
[. . .]
The researchers said the technology could have major implications for everything from gaming and film-making to emergency-response and elder-care.
[Yes, and it will enable assassins to target individuals though walls too. Seldom do these high minded research scientists consider the evil potential for their technology, which uniformly is used for unintended purposes.]


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3292246/Forget-X-rays-walls-using-WI-FI-Device-captures-silhouettes-identify-people-stood-CONCRETE.html

Forget X-rays, now you can see through walls using WI-FI: Device captures silhouettes and can even identify people when they're stood behind CONCRETE
The RF Capture device was developed by researchers at MIT
Wireless signals travel through the wall and reflect off the body behind it
This creates a silhouette from which body parts can be identified
Silhouettes can then be compared to a database of bodies to identify who they belong to - and it can even identify which hand their moving
By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 08:06 EST, 28 October 2015 | UPDATED: 10:28 EST, 28 October 2015

MIT Graduate Student Demands Conformity With His Views on Global Warming

Essayist cites "the international community [for an] upper limit of tolerable warming." Using international standards for policy in the United States, white people, a minority in the world, deserve protections from the oppressive majority non white population. Maybe some affirmative action at MIT? Convince Exxon and BP to cease extracting oil. Will essayist petition ISIS in Iraq, Russia, Venezuela to join the ban? Argument that a committee majority recommends action is not a scientific finding. Ethics experts make recommendations, personal opinion, like psychiatry. Spreading disinformation is protected speech. Government agencies and PR flacks do it every day. Is he recommending a bureau of permitted speech?



[From article]
2 degrees Celsius, the upper limit of tolerable warming agreed upon by the international community, and by MIT itself.
[. . .]
I’m skeptical that MIT can convince Exxon, BP and the like to forgo extracting fossil fuel reserves
[. . .]



a three-fourths majority of the president’s own climate committee supported MIT’s divesting [. . .] form an Ethics Advisory Council to investigate ties between MIT and entities spreading disinformation on climate change.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151028/NEWS/151025648

GUEST COLUMN: MIT's paltry plan for climate action
By Ben Scandella
Posted Oct. 28, 2015 at 2:24 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle
Ben Scandella is a PhD candidate in MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering.

MIT Climate Change Opponent Objects To Wealthy Donors

Some facts are seldom discussed in extremist climate change rants. Climate research is based on computer models. Can models know what nature will do in the future? Nature adapts to maintain its equilibrium. Nature overcomes whatever man does. The sun has a major effect on climate. Can humans persuade the sun to behave? Geologists and astronomers explain that earth's climate goes through 40,000 year cycles. Is there any evidence over that long a period supporting anxiety of the warmists? David Koch's "bankrolling," of alternative views, also provides funds for research which this concerned MIT scientist supports. Should government require Koch to ask permission from Mr. Supran before he gives his money away?


Geoffrey Supran, MIT

[From article]
with the likes of climate science disinformation bankroller David Koch on MIT's Board, and with our university more dependent on corporate funding than almost any other in the country, anything is possible.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150922/NEWS/150928968

Guest column: MIT Climate Countdown — A call to action
By Geoffrey Supran
Posted Sep. 22, 2015 at 11:45 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge, MA City Council Promotes Affordable Housing

Cambridge, MA City Council July 2015

Does it matter that this consulting organization resides on the MIT campus? Is this another instance of for profit endeavors on tax exempt property? Who said the money is on Wall Street? Here's one more "consultant" giving city officials expensive advice. What do the politicians provide to taxpayers for the salaries (about $100,000 per year now) they get? Are they in the business of middle men hiring organizations to make decisions for them? If taxpayer funds spent on consultants were instead used to house persons without homes, or to create affordable housing would the quality of life improve in the city? What role does the Massachusetts legislature play in establishing guidelines for increasing affordable housing? Has the City Council ever defined what they mean when they use the word "diversity?" 

[From article]
Linkage Fees are the amount of money corporate developers pay the city to help preserve and create affordable housing. For over a decade, the fee has remained close to $4.80 per square foot. Following our recommendations, the fee will be raised to $12, with a $1 increase over the next three years, ultimately tripling the amount of money developers must pay the city toward affordable housing.
[. . .]
These recommendations were reached following a study completed by Karl F. Seidman Consulting Services, who recommended that fees be increased to $10-$12 per square foot.
[. . .]
Cambridge’s diversity is its strength. If we are going to maintain that diversity, we must do everything we can to create and protect as much affordable housing as possible.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150715/NEWS/150718147

Guest column: Significant victory for affordable housing in Cambridge
By Denise Simmons, Dennis Benzan and Marc McGovern
Posted Jul. 15, 2015 at 9:54 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Questions About MIT's Muslim Chaplain

Published on May 10, 2015
Video shows that MIT’s Muslim chaplain Suheil Laher was also an Al Qaeda fundraiser.
MIT Muslim chaplain Suheil Laher used his leadership of the MIT Muslim Students Association as a vehicle for raising money for Al Qaeda causes around the world.
The video especially focuses on the Al Qaeda affiliate in Chechnya, which Laher and his associates lionized, even as MIT trusted him to be its Muslim students’ spiritual guide.
At the end of April, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled a permanent memorial to MIT Police Officer Sean Collier. Officer Collier was gunned down by the Boston Marathon bombers, Chechen refugees Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, three days after they blew up the Marathon.
It is painful to learn that in the late 1990s, there were students at MIT who helped recruit for the Chechen jihad and raised funds for Al Qaeda-affiliated groups operating in the Tsarnaevs’ homeland. It is even more painful that the man who led this fundraising effort was still on MIT’s staff when Officer Collier was gunned down.
MIT President Rafael Reif can be reached at rreif (at) mit.edu or 617.253.0148.

Boston Marathon Bomber Sentenced To Death

Left to right
Krystle Campbell, 29
Sean Collier, 27, MIT Policeman
Lingzi Lu, 23, Graduate Student at Boston University From China
Martin Richard, 8

All Killed By Tsarnaev Brothers in April 2013 

[From article]

A jury's ruling today to sentence marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death is "justice" and a warning Boston "will not tolerate terrorism," survivors and police said after the verdict.
"This is nothing to celebrate. This is justice," said first-responder Michael Ward. “He wanted to go to hell and he’s gonna get there early."
The verdict against Tsarnaev, who'll turn 22 in July, was announced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr.'s courtroom clerk Paul Lyness. Tsarnaev showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost a third of her left leg in the bombing, told the Herald she's "happy with the verdict."
"My heart goes out to everyone in the survivor community and to the victims' families," she added. "It's still a lot to process right now."
Only three of the 12 jurors bought into the defense argument that Tsarnaev was influenced by his older brother Tamerlan. The jurors unanimously agreed that Tsarnaev showed no remorse for the marathon attack and its aftermath that killed four young people, maimed 17 and injured hundreds.
The jurors unanimously voted to put him to death for the week of terror.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/herald_bulldog/2015/05/jury_sentences_dzhokhar_tsarnaev_to_death_for

Jury sentences Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death for marathon attack
Friday, May 15, 2015
By: Laurel J. Sweet, Joe Dwinell and Owen Boss
Boston Herald

* * *

Anne Stevenson states, "we hope that Jahar has a road to redemption while he’s behind bars, which includes education and social interactions with others who can help him give peace to those he hurt." Stevenson arrogantly speaks for others, but does not reveal what children value the convicted mass murderer's life, as hinted in the headline. America granted him and his family asylum from an oppressive nation, showered them with gifts, gave them freedom. The brothers showed their gratitude by killing people who did him no harm. American veterans live in shelters and on the streets. What values are promoted by this essayist?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150515/NEWS/150517388

Guest Column: Children of Cambridge value bomber's life
By Anne Stevenson
Posted May. 15, 2015 at 11:26 AM
Updated at 11:33 AM

Cambridge Chronicle

MIT Climate Scientist Questions Global Warming Alarmists

[From article]
his opponents characterize him—variously, a liar, a lunatic, a charlatan, a denier, a shyster, a crazy person, corrupt
[. . .]
A pioneering climate scientist with decades at Harvard and MIT, Lindzen sees his discipline as being deeply compromised by political pressure, data fudging, out-and-out guesswork, and wholly unwarranted alarmism.
[. . .]
In the 1970s, while a professor at Harvard, Lindzen disproved the then-accepted theory of how heat moves around the Earth’s atmosphere,
[. . .]
Over the decades, he’s authored or coauthored some 200 peer-reviewed papers on climate.
[. . .]
an issue of Newsweek declaring all scientists agreed. And that was the beginning of a ‘consensus’ argument.
[. . .]
he is voluminously on record disputing the predictions of catastrophe.
[. . .]
The question at issue is how sensitive the planet is to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (this is called climate sensitivity), and how much the planet will heat up as a result of our pumping into the sky ever more CO2, which remains in the atmosphere for upwards of 1,000 years.
[. . .]
he contends that the “alarmists” vastly overstate the Earth’s climate sensitivity. Judging by where we are now, he appears to have a point; so far, 150 years of burning fossil fuels in large quantities has had a relatively minimal effect on the climate. By some measurements, there is now more CO2 in the atmosphere than there has been at any time in the past 15 million years.
[. . .]
over the past 15 years, as man has emitted record levels of carbon dioxide year after year, the warming trend of previous decades has stopped. Lindzen says this is all consistent with what he holds responsible for climate change: a small bit of man-made impact and a whole lot of natural variability.
[. . .]
The IPCC report itself, weighing in at thousands of pages, is “not terrible. It’s not unbiased, but the bias [is] more or less to limit your criticism of models,” he says. The Summary for Policymakers, on the other hand—the only part of the report that the media and the politicians pay any attention to—“rips out doubts to a large extent. .  .  . [Furthermore], government representatives have the final say on the summary.” Thus, while the full IPPC report demonstrates a significant amount of doubt among scientists, the essentially political Summary for Policymakers filters it out.
[. . .]
the most glaring failure of the models: their inability to predict the 15-year-long (and counting) pause in warming
[. . .]
Almost all funding for climate research comes from the government, which, he says, makes scientists essentially vassals of the state. And generating fear, Lindzen contends, is now the best way to ensure that policymakers keep the spigot open.
[. . .]
“But the environmental movement is highly organized. There are hundreds of NGOs. To coordinate these hundreds, they quickly organized the Climate Action Network, the central body on climate. There would be, I think, actual meetings to tell them what the party line is for the year, and so on.” Skeptics, on the other hand, are more scattered across disciplines and continents. As such, they have a much harder time getting their message across.
[. . .]
Because climate change is invisible, only the experts can tell us whether the planet is sick or not. And because of the way funds are granted, they have an incentive to say that the Earth belongs in intensive care.
[. . .]
One frustrating feature of the climate debate is that people’s outlook on global warming usually correlates with their political views. So if a person wants low taxes and restrictions on abortion, he probably isn’t worried about climate change. And if a person supports gay marriage and raising the minimum wage, he most likely thinks the threat from global warming warrants costly public-policy remedies.
[. . .]
it is well known that the vast majority of “alarmist” climate scientists, dependent as they are on federal largesse, are liberal Democrats.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/what-catastrophe_773268.html

What Catastrophe?
MIT’s Richard Lindzen, the unalarmed climate scientist
JAN 13, 2014

VOL. 19, NO. 17

BY ETHAN EPSTEIN

MIT's Jonathan Gruber Exploits State and US Taxpayers, and MIT

[From article]
Let’s update this script to 2015 to place in context Breitbart News’s revelations of built-in contract fraud at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. If we were to restate it: The doctor (Prof. Gruber) may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself ‘You know what? I make a lot more money (compared to my MIT salary) if I take this kid’s tonsils out award myself lucrative no-bid personal federal and state consulting contracts as direct statutory requirement of the Affordable Care Act -- of which I am the architect.”
These outrageous fees ($500/hour) to Prof. Gruber are required by federal law because his software econometrics model of healthcare exchanges is specifically required for implementation -- not only for the Federal Government but also all the states attempting to set up their own “exchanges.” Prof. Gruber has circumvented competitive bidding and resultant cost-containment by claiming unique proprietary capabilities available nowhere else in the market. This law constituted carte-blanche for Prof. Gruber to write his own highly lucrative consulting contracts with the States.
[. . .]
Gruber has essentially enjoyed a monopoly on economic analysis of Obamacare since February 25, 2009, barely a month after President Obama’s inauguration. On that date, the federal government issued a public notice that “[t]he Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), intends to negotiate with Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D. on a sole sources basis for technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform.”
[. . .]
These contracts resulted in $500 per hour fees to Prof. Gruber personally -- not including separate contracts to pay for his expenses -- resulting in million-dollar-a-year personal compensation (nice work if you can get it!) Americans instinctively know that this arrangement is rotten to the core,
[. . .]
When did it become clear that Dr. Gruber was not only ruling on the technical efficacy of health care reform, but with such rulings also forcing the states to make him a very rich man? Did he properly disclose to DHHS his financial stake? Not being a permanent employee, Prof. Gruber’s DHHS contract probably falls generally under the rules applied by NIH’s Office of Extramural Research, whose definition of Conflict of Interest can be found on here:
“A Financial conflict of Interest (FCOI) exists when the Institution’s designated official(s) reasonably determines that a Significant Financial Interest (defined below) could directly and significantly affect the design, conduct, or reporting of NIH-funded research.”
[. . .]
He also claims 100% ownership in his namesake software model. Creators in the private sector generally owe commercial rights to their work-product to their employers, clients or companies. Prof. Gruber’s IP obligations are doubtless recorded in the MIT faculty employment manual.
[. . .]
Almost all financial fraud arises from falsifying -- in some manner or another -- one of three types of primary commercial documents: 1) forged bank documents; 2) false invoices submitted for payment or reimbursement; or 3) falsified timesheets submitted for compensation for employment or consulting hours.
[. . .]
It appears by the sums involved, that Prof. Gruber was being retained for months or perhaps years at a time for substantial part-time engagements away from MIT. Indeed, Prof. Gruber’s public sector funded personal compensation appears to be higher than that afforded to both the President of the United States and the Governor of Vermont.
[. . .]
The Microsimulation model was surely developed while Prof. Gruber was full time employee at MIT, an educational institution which not only paid his salary but also provided office and classroom space, colleagues, computer resources, students, travel expenses, etc. etc. Again, how did Prof. Gruber attain this model as his sole property?
[. . .]
Prof. Gruber seems to have bypassed his employer, pocketing the federal and state funding directly, without regard to any professional obligations to his colleagues and students.
[. . .]
The suspicion is that he pocketed the money himself and never actually employed anyone[3]. It is inconceivable that this severe accusation has not circulated in Cambridge and environs. Yet in the weeks since this accusation was first published -- in the sense of the “dog that didn’t bark” -- no one has come forward to say: “It’s all a misunderstanding! I am Prof. Gruber’s former student and it was me! I was the one who did the work and billed the time to the Vermont project!” This accusation, if true, clearly could lead to potential criminal charge of contract fraud. While maintaining silence, his colleagues, perhaps resentful and disgusted by his blatant “cashing in,” have not rallied to his defense.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/grubers_grasp.html

March 16, 2015
Gruber's Grasp
By Jerome J. Schmitt

Disability Group Sues Harvard University and MIT to Provide Captions To Online Courses

When humans complain about violations at Harvard University of disability laws, he or she is referred to the university office on disability. As if that office ensures that the university complies with the laws. In Cambridge there is a long existing Handicap Commission (the official name) with jurisdiction over Harvard and MIT. When a violation is brought to their attention the city commission seeks training sessions for the person or group. It seldom forces the issue which is why so many organizations and businesses fail to fulfill their obligations. Disability advocates do not employ PR flacks as other alleged vulnerable groups do. Add the fact that many organizations (Harvard and MIT included?) do not fear non compliance with laws unless there is a likelihood of a lawsuit. That is how today's lawyers advise their clients. There are numerous taxpayer funded disability rights organizations at state and federal levels. Why have they failed to make this happen as the courses were developed? Not too effective. No disability Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.

[From article]
The suits came after repeated requests made by the NAD to the University to provide accurate captioning, according to the complaint. Harvard is “fully aware that captioning is necessary” for its online content to be equally accessible, the complaint says.
The complaints against both MIT and Harvard claim that the universities have violated the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The first act requires that places of public accommodation “not deny persons with disabilities” its services, and the second stipulates that education institutions receiving federal financial assistance must provide equal access to all individuals regardless of disabilities.
“Harvard and MIT are covered institutions [under these acts] because they both receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support,” Lee said. “The online content and services that the universities provide is for the public as well as the students...I really don’t think there’s really any doubt that these laws apply to Harvard and MIT.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/13/lawsuit-online-edX-discrimination/

Lawsuit Alleges that Harvard's Online Content Discriminates
By HANNAH SMATI,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 12, 2015

Former MIT Professor Charged With Bank Robbery, Claims It Was Art

Joseph Gibbons  
Photo: Steven Hirsch

[From article]
Joseph Gibbons, 61, a filmmaker and “visual artist’’ who taught for a decade at one of the world’s most prestigious universities, has gone rogue, robbing banks as part of his latest “art’’ project.
[. . .]
He entered the Manhattan bank on New Year’s Eve around 2 p.m., wielding a camcorder and politely handed the teller a note demanding a donation for his church, according to court documents.
Rhode Island police had also been hunting for Gibbons, who staged a similar stick-up there in mid-November and made off with $3,000 in cash, authorities said.
[. . .]
He was a visiting artist at Bard College in the ’90s and an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2001-2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.

http://nypost.com/2015/01/10/bank-robber-appears-to-be-screwball-former-professor/

Former MIT professor ‘robs bank,’ films ‘heist’
By Ben Feuerherd and Beckie Strum
New York Post
January 10, 2015 | 4:00am

Professor Gruber, Social Scientist Masquerading As Scientist

[From article]
J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer, the great physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, was an heir of Isaac Newton, who invented modern science. Newton showed that science could be used to manage nature. Ever since Newton, fools have believed that, by analogy, social science could be used to manage human nature. The fact that this has never worked has not diminished the faith of progressives in this idea
[. . .]
It was Oppenheimer that we saw on the Gruber tapes. He took some shots at the public, and opened the progressive kimono by admitting that Obamacare could never have been passed if its supporters had told the public the truth about it
[. . .]
Gruber must think he is an Oppenheimer -- that through his intellect and his academic training, he is in possession of a body of knowledge not available to the public at large and is capable of creating something new and spectacular.
[. . .]
All economics models fizzle when exposed to the subjectivity of value, but that does not diminish the reputations of those who built them. That is the difference between physics and economics. And the difference between the U.S. and the old Soviet Union. And the difference between success and failure in human affairs.
[. . .]
Why, then, does the market work? Because it discards failure. A capitalist economy generates almost nothing but failure. The wealth that we see around us, that supports us all, is those few things that worked. Everything that didn’t work, which was most of the things tried, has been discarded.
But a government bureaucracy rarely discards anything, rarely recognizes failures and rarely changes in light of it. That is why the societies they rule fail. The bureaucracy succeeds -- meaning perpetuates itself and its privileged position - and the society fails. But because the bureaucracy is so entrenched, is so secure in its positions and privileges, it is almost impossible to dislodge it except through military failure.
[. . .]
If we use a literary analogy and if Oppenheimer is the sorcerer, Gruber is the sorcerer’s apprentice. Creating chaos by a misapplication of the sorcerer’s powers.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/jonathan_gruber_sorcerers_apprentice.html

January 2, 2015
Jonathan Gruber, Sorcerer's Apprentice
By Greg Richards

MIT Economist Gruber: New Health Care Law Will Be Unaffordable

MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, Glares At A Stupid American

[From article]
As Gruber continues to withhold documents while he awaits a call-back for more testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the new year, more shocking information is coming to light detailing the deceptions that went into the writing of the health-care law.
Gruber said that Obamacare had no cost controls in it and would not be affordable in an October 2009 policy brief, presented here exclusively by TheDC. At the time, Gruber had already personally counseled Obama in the Oval Office and served on Obama’s presidential transition team. Obama, meanwhile, told the American people that their premiums would go down dramatically.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/30/obama-adviser-jonathan-gruber-in-2009-obamacare-will-not-be-affordable/

Obama Adviser Jonathan Gruber In 2009: Obamacare Will NOT Be Affordable
9:25 AM 12/30/2014
PATRICK HOWLEY