4 ms·

There's something so beautiful about a place so dysfunctional that you can't even replace standard office equipment; I know it was alluded to in the article, bu

There's something so beautiful about a place so dysfunctional that you can't even replace standard office equipment; I know it was alluded to in the article, but in case anyone forgot, the MIT Media Lab played a part in Jeffery Epstein and he often leveraged it for good PR https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/business/mit-media-lab-jeffrey-epstein-joichi-ito.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/business/mit-media-lab-je...

PNWChris 6y ago
Some quick additional info, since I wasn’t familiar with all the context. I am glad I looked deeper, I am ashamed to admit I assumed some wrongdoing given he had resigned! Wikipedia notes that he “...resigned from his position[19] as director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, in protest of the Media Lab's involvement with Epstein.”[0] [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Zuckerman#Career https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Zuckerman#Career
- nkurz 6y ago
  Here's Ethan's own explanation of why he left: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/ http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... He's landed on his feet very well. He has a temporary position at Columbia this fall, and then will be starting a tenured job at UMass Amherst next year.
sbierwagen 6y ago
"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- SQueeeeeL 6y ago
  It was heavily alluded too in the article, I wanted to give readers full context, because I don't think Ethan wanted to explicitly call them out in his blog... If the mods have an issue with this comment I can take it down
- bmitc 6y ago
  Ethan Zuckerman explicitly resigned due to MIT’s and the Media Lab’s involvement with Epstein and is thus the reason why he is leaving his office. So the comment you replied to is not unrelated nor a tangent. http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/ http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...
mrgordon 6y ago
People do a lot of creative experiments around that building so it’s not surprising you would want to ask before disassembling someone’s thesis project. To call the place “dysfunctional” because some brilliant grad students constantly try new things is to miss the point (and the spirit of the place) entirely.
- theptip 6y ago
  I think they were referring to the bit where facilities was unable to fix it after the author had removed the original work.
- craftinator 6y ago
  Maybe a better wording would be disorganized =)

PNWChris 6y ago

Some quick additional info, since I wasn’t familiar with all the context. I am glad I looked deeper, I am ashamed to admit I assumed some wrongdoing given he had resigned! Wikipedia notes that he “...resigned from his position[19] as director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, in protest of the Media Lab's involvement with Epstein.”[0] [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Zuckerman#Career https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Zuckerman#Career

nkurz 6y ago
Here's Ethan's own explanation of why he left: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/ http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-... He's landed on his feet very well. He has a temporary position at Columbia this fall, and then will be starting a tenured job at UMass Amherst next year.

sbierwagen 6y ago

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

SQueeeeeL 6y ago
It was heavily alluded too in the article, I wanted to give readers full context, because I don't think Ethan wanted to explicitly call them out in his blog... If the mods have an issue with this comment I can take it down
bmitc 6y ago
Ethan Zuckerman explicitly resigned due to MIT’s and the Media Lab’s involvement with Epstein and is thus the reason why he is leaving his office. So the comment you replied to is not unrelated nor a tangent. http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-media-lab/ http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

mrgordon 6y ago

People do a lot of creative experiments around that building so it’s not surprising you would want to ask before disassembling someone’s thesis project. To call the place “dysfunctional” because some brilliant grad students constantly try new things is to miss the point (and the spirit of the place) entirely.

theptip 6y ago
I think they were referring to the bit where facilities was unable to fix it after the author had removed the original work.
craftinator 6y ago
Maybe a better wording would be disorganized =)