Zach's Group

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There is an interesting debate in the field of psychology in regards to adolescent accountability in terms of laws. At point do we stop treating children like children and more like adults? There is a lot of debate in policy making and a lot of law professionals are looking toward social and developmental psychologists for guidance in when and how adolescents mature? Is there a difference between the cognitive and psychosocial? How can we measure cognitive maturity? etc. These are very interesting topics and readings. I have uploaded a paper (first draft!) dealing with one aspect of the debate: how experiments and conclusions are presented and whether "simple" science is "bad" science and if that should be allowed when it comes to guiding policy makers. I've also attached the three papers I drew my conclusions from. The first one is the topic paper followed by a comment paper by another research group. The last paper is a rebuttal from the original group. These papers were given to me by my professor of psychology here at MIT and I'm not sure off the top of my head what journal they were published in. But read, enjoy, and please comment. This is such an interesting topic and I'd love to know what you all think about it.  - Zach

Although every college has a class ring, I have to say that MIT's class ring is one of few that really depicts the culture at the university. Whereas Harvard's ring is more or less the school's coat of arms, MIT's class ring shows all about the culture and class in every part of the ring. Here is an image of the bezel of the class of 2012 ring. MIT's mascot, the beaver (nature's engineer) is posed facing the Boston side of the river, looking out to the future away from MIT. He is holding an hour class which is half finished to symbolize that half of our time here at school is completed. His tail can be seen as blowing the eight ivy leaves away - which I think is self explanatory. Behind the beaver are the letters "IHTFP" which is a common phrase at MIT. It has two meanings: in the beginning of the semester it stands for "I have truly found paradise." and during finals it stands for "I hate this f*cking place." Right above the beaver is the Harvard (Massachusetts Avenue) Bridge which connects MIT to the Boston side of the river, along with the depictions of Fenway Park, the Prudential Center, and the famous Citgo Sign. The four building behind the beaver are 4 very popular ones on MIT's campus. We have the Green Building (the tallest building on campus) as well as Kresge Auditorium. Both the Green Building and Kresge have 12 windows each - this is the 2012 class ring! The other two buildings are the famous small and large domes of MIT. Atop the large dome we can see a lunar lander, a symbol of the hacking (prank) culture that thrives at MIT as well as representing an actual prank that occurred last year. Finally, the sun can be seen with 12 rays shooting out, lighting the Boston skyline. What's strange is the moon partially eclipsing the sun.