[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events

George Mokray gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Dec 12 16:37:41 PST 2010


MIT

----

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Response to the Gulf Oil Spill and National Energy Security
Speaker: Juliette Kayyem, Assistant Secretary of DHS for  
Intergovernmental Affairs
Time: 4:15p–5:30p
Location: 66-110
MITE Seminar Series sponsored by IHS Cambridge Energy Research  
Associates

As the Assistant Secretary of DHS for Intergovernmental Affairs,  
Juliette Kayyem played a major role in coordinating federal, state and  
local efforts to respond to the Gulf oil spill, working with the White  
House, the Departments of Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, Labor, and  
Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, Small  
Business Administration, and other government agencies with existing  
resources and programs in place to assist the response in the Gulf  
region. She will speak about the effort. An esteemed security and  
counterterrorism expert, Ms. Kayyem will also address the broader  
issue of energy security as a national concern.

About the Speaker

Ms. Kayyem has a unique understanding of the state and local homeland  
security needs, having previously served as Massachusetts' first  
Undersecretary for Homeland Security and the Governor's Homeland  
Security Advisor. She was responsible for developing statewide  
policies on homeland security, with a focus on all hazards strategic  
planning, prevention, and response; information sharing;  
interoperability; and energy security.

Prior to joining Governor Deval Patrick's administration, Ms. Kayyem  
served as Executive Director for Research at the Kennedy School's  
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and as a lecturer  
in public policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School for Government,  
teaching classes on law, homeland security and national security.


Web site: mit.edu/mitei
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:
Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey at mit.edu

----------------------------

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Foreclosures, House Prices, and the Real Economy
Speaker: Amir Sufi (Chicago Booth)
Time: 4:00p–5:30p
Location: E62-276
Foreclosures, House Prices, and the Real Economy

Web site: http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/6295
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Sloan Finance Seminar
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu

--------------------------------

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
MIT China Forum presents China's Economy: What's Next?
Speaker: Richard B. Freeman, Jun Fu, Shan Li, Qi Bin
Time: 4:30p–6:00p
Location: 32-141
In August 2010, China formally overtook Japan as the second largest  
economy in the world. While developed economies are still mired in low  
growth and high unemployment, China's economy has soared to new  
heights since 2008. However, there are signs of uncertainty and unease  
as inflation rises in China and its real estate market experiences one  
of history's biggest bubbles.

So what's next for China's economy? A distinguished panel of experts  
on Chinese economy, as well as business practitioners, will sort  
through these conflicting perspectives.

Panelists: Richard B. Freeman, Ascherman Chair, Harvard University  
Department of Economics, Jun Fu, Dean of the School of Government,  
Peking University, Shan Li, Vice Chairman, UBS Investment Asia, Qi  
Bin, Director-General, China Securities Regulatory Commission Research  
Center.

Reception and welcome begins at 4:30 p.m. Panel discussion is at 5:00  
p.m.

Web site: global.mit.edu/index.php/initiatives/china/china-forum
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Greater China Strategy Group
For more information, contact:
Jenny Liu
(617) 258-9846
---------------------

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Expanding Computing Power to Support Research Needs while being  
environmentally sensitive and energy efficient

Speaker: James Cuff

Time: 7:00p–9:00p

Location: E51-345

IEEE/ACM Joint Seminar Series
Exploring the edge of computing technology.

In the past 4.5 years, Harvard University's research computing  
resources have grown from 200 to over 12,000 processing cores, putting  
significant strain on data center resources and the wide area  
networking infrastructure available on the Cambridge campus. I will  
discuss the tactics for building both the organizational and physical  
infrastructure which now supports over 2,000 researchers in fields as  
diverse as astrophysical modeling of the early universe, high speed  
genomic sequencing whose data output more than doubles each year, the  
search for the Higgs boson and advanced economic and financial  
modeling. This research involves large amounts of data and algorithms  
which may not scale well. (Some of the algorithms are NP complete.)  
Economies can be achieved by sharing a physical infrastructure  
operated by a team of research computing associates and staff. In this  
context the research computing group have deployed approx 2PB of  
storage and 40TF of GPGPU computing to support and complement  
traditional 12,000 core x86_64 infiniband connected systems. I will  
also explain the now obvious need for Harvard's active involvement in  
the new multi institutional Massachusetts Green High Performance  
Computing Center.

James Cuff is Director of Research Computing and Chief Technology  
Architect at Harvard. He was appointed Director of Research Computing  
for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2007, previously directing  
Research Computing for the Life Sciences Division.


Web site:http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/cufftalk1.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): ACM & IEEE/CS
For more information, contact:
Dorothy Curtis
617-253-0541
dcurtis at csail.mit.edu

----------

Harvard

----------

Confronting Climate Change: Implications for City-Dwellers in Poor  
Countries
WHEN
Mon., Dec. 13, 2010, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE
9 Bow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION
Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR
Center for Population and Development Studies
SPEAKER(S)
Mark Montgomery, professor of economics, Stony Brook University and  
senior associate, Population Council

-------------------------

[TUESDAY] BERKMAN LUNCHEON SERIES on THE UNSTABLE PLATFORMS AND UNEASY  
PEERS OF BRAVE NEW WORLD MUSIC
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
= 
========================================================================
12/14/10, 12:30pm ET, Berkman Center Conference Room @ 23 Everett St.,  
Cambridge, MA
RSVP is required for those attending in person to Amar Ashar (ashar at cyber.law.harvard.edu 
)
This event will be webcast live

Topic: "The Unstable Platforms and Uneasy Peers of Brave New World  
Music"
Guests: Wayne Marshall, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT

Driven by the proliferation of accessible music and video-production  
software and the connective possibilities of the social web, public  
culture is being remade in the wake of user-generated content,  
including the ever curious category of world music. So-called  
platforms such as YouTube or Jamglue play host to new genres, dance  
steps, and remixes from around the world, incubating local scenes and  
circulating aspiring artists' productions to peers near and far. In  
contrast to its creation by a consortium of British music-industry  
players in the 1980s, a multinational network of grassroots producers,  
DJs, and bloggers are renegotiating and redefining the freighted but  
inclusive term. But while this bottom-up revision of world music can  
be seen as a valuable development, queasy connections with its earlier  
incarnation, and the power relations and ideas about difference it  
embodied, also persist.

About Wayne

Wayne Marshall is an ethnomusicologist focusing on the musical and  
cultural production of the Caribbean and the Americas, and their  
circulation in the wider world, with particular attention to digital  
technologies. While a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, he's writing  
a book on music, networked media, and transnational youth culture. He  
recently co-edited and contributed to Reggaeton (Duke University Press  
2009) and has published in journals such as Popular Music and Callaloo  
while writing for popular outlets like The Wire and the Boston  
Phoenix. He holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of  
Wisconsin-Madison and has taught courses at Brandeis, Brown,  
University of Chicago, and Harvard Extension School. He is also an  
active DJ and maintains and runs the blog and website, www.wayneandwax.com 
.

This event will be webcast live; for more information and a complete  
description, see the event web page: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2010/12/marshall

------------------------------

Tuesday, December 14

2:30-4pm

Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS

Richard Nelson, Columbia University
“What Kind of Public R and D Support Makes Sense?”

--------------------------------

ARPA-E Visit: Energy Research Seminar
December 15, 2010 - 10:15am - 11:45am
lisa_matthews at harvard.edu
617-495-8883
Maxwell Dworkin Building 33 Oxford St. Cambridge, MA

Eric Toone, Jonathan Burbaum, David Shum, Nick Cizek , ARPA-E

In Spring of 2009 President Obama announced $400M in American Recovery  
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding for a new agency – the Advanced  
Research Projects Agency, or ARPA-E, an Agency created in 2007 through  
the America COMPETES Act.

ARPA-E was created to fund high risk, high reward transformational  
research to reduce energy related emissions, reduce imports of energy  
from foreign sources, improve energy efficiency in all economic  
sectors, and ensure American technological lead in advanced energy  
technologies.

In only 15 months the agency has awarded over $350M in support of 121  
projects across the energy landscape, including renewable energy,  
biofuels, building efficiency, carbon capture, and the electrification  
of transportation.

This lecture will describe the history and mission of ARPA-E, how the  
Agency and its projects differ from other branches of the Department  
of Energy, and highlight some of the revolutionary technologies  
currently supported by ARPA-E.

     * 10:15 a.m.
       Coffee Break - Maxwell Dworkin Lobby outside G125
     * 10:30 –11:45 a.m.
       Seminar by Dr.’s Toone, Burbaum and Shum with Questions and  
Answers - Maxwell Dworkin G125

Speaker Biography:     Dr. Eric Toone is the Deputy Director for  
Technology, responsible for oversight of all ARPA-E Technology and  
directs the ARPA-E’s Electrofuels program; Dr. Jonathan Burbaum’s  
focus at ARPA-E is in advanced biotechnology applications for biofuels  
and the production of biologically-based chemical feedstocks; Dr.  
David Shum’s current focus at ARPA-E includes: 1) demand response and  
distributed generation, and 2) industrial energy efficiency through  
novel processes and materials.

Host: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

There will also be a tea for students/postdocs with ARPA-E Fellow,  
Nick Cizek in Maxwell Dworkin 119 from 4:00-5:00 p.m.

------------------------------------------


Questionable Warriors: How Masculinity Affects the Waging of War
WHEN
Thu., Dec. 16, 2010, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE
Belfer Center Library, Littauer 369, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION
Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR
International Security Program
SPEAKER(S)
Maya Eichler, research fellow, International Security Program/Women  
and Public Policy Program
CONTACT INFO
susan_lynch at harvard.edu
LINK
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5355/questionable_warriors.html

-------

Other

------

Boston Area Microcredit Coalition Meet Up with Fonkoze & Oikocredit
Monday, December 13, 2010 from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)
Boston, MA

Event Details
Are you interested in learning how to reduce poverty with sustainable  
investments, and sharing this with your community?
Please join us at our pilot informational meeting with Oikocredit  
Executive Director Terry Provance, and other like minded folk. You  
will learn more about Oikocredit, and its mission, and how microcredit  
has helped elevate global citizens out of poverty. Oikocredit is one  
of the world’s largest sources of private funding to the microfinance  
sector.
Oikocredit provides credit and equity to small businesses through  
microfinance institutions across the developing world and directly to  
trade cooperatives, fair trade organizations, and small to medium  
sized enterprises. Oikocredit has raised over $500 million dollars,  
reached 17 million people through their MFI partners, and have  
conducted 842 projects in places like Haiti after the earthquake, in  
conjunction with MFIs like Fonkoze and also with organizations like  
the Grameen Foundation to measure MFI's and their borrower's progress  
out of poverty.
For more information on Oikocredit, please visit www.oikocredit.org
Register at: http://microcreditcoalition.eventbrite.com/
Date: Monday, December 13th
Time: 6-9PM
Venue: 230 Dodge Hall, Northeastern University

For additional inquiries contact Michelle Volberg, Program Manager at mvolberg at oikocredit.org 
  or the Social Enterprise Institute at sei at neu.edu

--------------------------------

Tuesday Dec. 14, from 6 - 7:30 pm, there is a meeting of the Building  
and Grounds subcommittee of the Cambridge School Committee and the  
main agenda item is to hear about our sustainability initiatives.  The  
meeting is open to the public, as always, and will be in the School  
Committee conference room, which is housed for this year at 15 Upton  
Street, b/w Magazine and Pleasant, just a few blocks from the Central  
Square T.

If you have ideas to share, or questions, feel free to email School  
Committeeperson Patty Nolan (PattyNolan at aol.com) who will pass them on  
to Kristin.  Or you can  contact Kristin yourself  --  Kvonhoffmann at cpsd.us 
  is her email address.

-------------

State Representative Denise Provost and Somerville Climate Action  
present

DIRT! THE MOVIE

followed by a discussion

Tuesday, Dec 14th, 7pm
Third Life Studio, 33 Union Square
(on the section of Somerville Ave. leading into Union Sq.
Do not use Mapquest.  For directions see www.thirdlifestudio.com)

Drought, climate change, and even war are all directly related to the  
way we are treating dirt.

DIRT! The Movie – narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis – brings to life the  
environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil  
has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who  
study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and  
mutually beneficial relationship with soil.

“The best remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is  
connecting them to it again.”

www.DirtTheMovie.org- www.SomervilleClimateAction.org - www.TransitionSomerville.org

Free admission!  For directions (better than Google’s) see www.ThirdLifeStudio.c 
om

----------------------------------------

SMB21 - Social Media for Social Change - The Mobility Edition
Thursday, December 16, 2010 from 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM (ET)
Watertown, MA

Free

Event Details
Boston's Social Media Breakfast is organized by Bob Collins and brings  
together social media experts, business leaders, marketers and  
entrepreneurs for a morning of networking, sharing of ideas and  
discovery.

SMB21: Social Media for Social Change - The Mobility Edition
With the holiday season upon us – it’s important to give thanks for  
what we have and recognize those in need.   As such – our next  
Breakfast gathering will focus on how Social Media is being  
effectively used for Social Change - supporting nonprofits, charities  
and building communities to aid organizations and social movements.
And a key element in driving awareness and support for cause based  
movements is the market and cultural proliferation of mobile devices.   
They are quickly becoming Humankind's primary connectivity tool - for  
discovery, connecting, and supporting one another and causes.
SMB21 will feature presentations by some of the most advanced thinkers  
in cause based social marketing - bringing a fresh variety of first  
hand experiences and mobility driven case studies. Joining them will  
be Steve Krom from AT&T, who will talk about how wireless carriers are  
planning the next generation of network technology to make sure that  
innovators can do more and more with mobility to help promote and  
support important causes.

The Presenters
	• Scott Henderson, Managing Director, CauseShift

	• Laura Fitton, CEO/Founder oneforty.com

	• Joe Waters, Director, Cause Marketing for Boston Medical Center
	• Steve Krom, VP/General Manager for New England at AT&T

As part of the breakfast  - we are holding a drive to support Cell  
Phones for Soldiers so please bring your old cell phones and tech  
gadgets.  Cell Phones for Soldiers, started in 2004 by Norwell, MA  
teens Brittany Bergquist and her brother Robbie, uses funds from  
recycled cell phones to buy prepaid phone cards for active duty  
military members – to help connect them with their families.

------------------------------

MassChallenge Holiday Party
Thursday, December 16, 2010 from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (ET)
Boston, MA


Event Details

Join the MassChallenge team, entrepreneurs, partners and sponsors in  
celebrating our first successful year, which could not have been made  
possible without all of you.

Feel free to bring spouses and friends, just make sure they pre- 
register.

Food and drinks will be provided

When: December 16, 2010 7:30pm-10:30pm
Where: MassChallenge Offices, 14th Floor
One Marina Park Drive
Boston, MA 02210

MassChallenge and the Microsoft New England Research and Development  
Center are co-hosting this event.

Come for Dart Capitalize from 6:30-7:30pm
Rob Toof of ProctorCam will be pitching

----------------------------

Showing Thursday, Dec 16, in Cambridge:

*NOTE: Come early - 6:30pm* - for a special holiday screening of
/"*Special Space Denied: Bethlehem and The Wall*/" (20 min)

Baraka (/blessing/)

Shot in breathtaking 70mm in 24 countries on six continents, */BARAKA/*
is a transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the
human condition like nothing you've ever seen or felt before. These are
the wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature's
own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos.

 From Nepal to Kenya, from Australia to Brazil, people try to cope with
the changes that have altered their landscape, crowding them together
and speeding up daily life. The film shows us these alienated people,
but also images of traditions--whirling dervishes and Tibetan
monks--that offer different, peaceful ways of existence.

/?A masterpiece. Dialogue free, it's brilliant in its simplicity; a
series of slow-moving shots mesmerise the audience into a meditation on
life on Earth/." ~ Sam Toy, Empire

/"...An awesome cinematic world tour...../"  ~Stephen Holden, New York  
Times

(DVDs will be available for purchase)

*When/where*
6:30 pm, doors open for refreshments, extra
*7pm, film starts promptly*
243 Broadway, Cambridge - corner of Broadway and Windsor,
entrance on Windsor
*rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos/>*

Please join us for a stimulating night out; bring your friends!
free film, free refreshments, & free door prizes.
[donations are accepted]

"/You can't legislate good will - that comes through education./" ~
Malcolm X

*UPandOUT film series - see rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/ 
videos/>*

-----------------------

New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
December 17, 2010 - 9:00am - 12:30pm
http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp?sel=103
Foley Hoag LLP 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor Boston, MA 02210

"Patrick Administration's Second Term Energy Vision" & "Changes to New  
England's Forward Capacity Market"

Fresh from Governor Patrick's recent election victory, Massachusetts  
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary, Ian Bowles will lay out  
the Administration's energy vision and plans for its 2nd term.   
Assuming the Patrick Administration isn't planning on resting on its  
first-term laurels, expect to hear about important potential  
developments for Massachusetts with implications for all of New England.

Our panel for the day will explore a timely topic--New England's  
controversial Forward Capacity Market (FCM).  The objective of FCM is  
to purchase sufficient capacity (as opposed to energy) for reliable  
system operation for future years at competitive prices, where all  
resources, both new and existing, and supply- and demand-side, can  
participate.  Although the FCM has been in place for several years,  
major debate continues around how much to pay for capacity resources  
(a multi-billion dollar issue), and other important FCM design  
features.  The most recent round of stakeholder briefs on the future  
of FCM were filed at FERC in September, and a FERC order may be issued  
prior to our Roundtable. Joining us to discuss FCM are several leading  
stakeholder experts, including:

Commissioner Paul Roberti, Rhode Island PUC

Bob Ethier, Chief Economist, ISO-New England

Peter Fuller, Director, Market/Regulatory Affairs, NRG Energy
Brian Forshaw, Director of Power Supply, CT Municipal Energy  
Cooperative (and NEPOOL Participants Committee Chair)

Please Note:  the FCM panel will go first, followed by Secretary  
Bowles, who will present at around 11:15 --- after our special holiday  
networking break.

-------------------

Upcoming

------------

MIT Independent Activities Period
January 3 - 28
http://web.mit.edu/iap/

------------

Resource

-----------

Boston Food System

"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post  
announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships,  
programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles  
or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's  
food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take  
place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."

The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food  
system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food,  
farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health,  
environment, arts, social services and other arenas.   Hundreds of  
organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on  
week-to-week is not always well publicized.

Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let  
everyone know about these activities.  Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of  
subscribers.  Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and  
other posting guidelines will be provided as well.

It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs

----------------------

Artisan Asylum  http://artisansasylum.com/

Sprout & Co:  Community Driven Investigations  http://thesprouts.org/studios

Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project  http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation

-----------------------------------------------------

Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents   http://hubevents.blogspot.com

Thanks to

Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the
Boston Area  http://fhapgood.fastmail.fm/site02.html

Boston Area Computer User Groups  http://www.bugc.org/

http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template

http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/

--------------------------------------------------

Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most
Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston
area that catch the editor's eye.

Hubevents  http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.

If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events
email gmoke at world.std.com




More information about the Act-MA mailing list