[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Aug 28 21:38:31 PDT 2011
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
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Climate CoLab: Brainstorming Global Climate Change
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/25/1010648/-Climate-CoLab:-Brainstorming-Global-Climate-Change
Editor's national Climate CoLab plan: http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/5/planId/14620
The Editor's international plan is a series of notes at http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/4/planId/14623
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VENTURELAB SUSTAINABLE VISION
Date: 8/26/2011 - 8/30/2011
Location: Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive,
Cambridge, MA 02142
Time: 9:00am - 7:00pm
Audience: Students and faculty from the Boston area and around the
country working on ventures for the developing world
Description: Please note that this is a week-long workshop: August
26-30, 2011
VentureLab Sustainable Vision is a 5-day intensive workshop for
students and faculty working on projects and ventures for the
developing world. Students from Boston University, Northeastern, MIT
(including Legatum fellows) Harvard and Tufts will meet and work with
students from other programs around the country, to develop strong,
sustainable business models that create products or services for the
benefit of people living in poverty.
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/VentureLabSustainableVision/tabid/823/Default.aspx
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Monday, August 29, 2011
300 of the world's best design theses on view at SA+P: Archiprix
Time: 9:00a–8:00p
Location: MIT, 7-431, On the 4th floor above Lobby 7, at 77
Massachussets Avenue
A major exhibit on view throughout the summer at the School of
Architecture + Planning is presenting 300 of the world's best thesis
projects in architecture, urban design and landscape architecture.
Sponsored by Archiprix International, the biennial exhibit is the
largest such presentation in the world -- more than 1,400 universities
were invited to nominate their best graduating students -- and offers
a rare opportunity for assessing current trends in design education
around the world and architecture in general.
Hosted by SA+P's Platform for Permanent Modernity, a research program
in the Department of Architecture, the exhibit opened May 30 as part
of a two-week international event that also features intensive six-day
workshops for about 100 of the students represented in the show,
conducted at MIT by prominent designers from leading architecture
schools in the United States.
Web site: http://www.archiprix.org/2011/
Open to: the general public
This event occurs daily through August 31, 2011, except May 30, 2011
and June 6, 2011.
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Arts at MIT
For more information, contact:
Alexander D'Hooghe
617 308 7386
adhooghe at mit.edu
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Importance of The Nonprofit Sector Panel Discussion
WHEN Mon., Aug. 29, 2011, 3 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Belfer Building Weil Town
Hall (BL1), 79 JFK Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special
Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
SPEAKER(S) Christopher Stone, Hauser Center Faculty Director and Dick
Cavanagh, Adjunce Lecturer in Public Policy
COST Free and open to the pulic
CONTACT INFO maryann_leach at harvard.edu
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/hauser/
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Monday August 29, 5:30p
Dudley Branch Library, 65 Warren Street, Roxbury, MA 02119
Are teachers and unions really to blame for failing public schools?
What's the difference between traditional public schools and charter
schools? What are tests like the MCAS used for and who uses them? Who
is reforming our public schools, and who is funding these changes?
What do parents, students, and teachers think about improving schools?
If you would like to talk to public school teachers and community
members about these questions, please join us for a screening of "The
Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman" - a response to the
film "Waiting for Superman" that highlights voices of parents,
teachers, and students.
Trailer: http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/?page_id=316
Presented by Teacher Activist Group (TAG) Boston
www.tagboston.org
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Monday August 29, 2011 — 8pm at Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge In Central Square
$5
Featuring Nerd-appropriate tunes by Claude Money
Talk 1. “Mumblecore: The Movement That Didn’t Roar” by Maria San Filippo
Talk 2. “How Do People Heal? An Integration of Acupuncture, Meditation
and Placebo Research” by Jessica Shaw
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
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Getting Molecules to “See the Light”: Nanostructures and Instruments
for Biomedical Detection
Date: 08/30/11
Time: 10:00 am
PHO 339, 8 Saint Mary’s St., Boston, MA
Refreshments will be served
Prof. Brian T. Cunningham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department of Bioengineering
His group focuses on the development of nanophotonic surfaces, plastic-
based nanofabrication methods, and novel instrumentation approaches
for biodetection with applications in pharmaceutical screening, life
science research, environmental monitoring, disease diagnostics, and
point-of-care patient testing.
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BU ECE Seminar with Professor Catherine Rosenberg
11:00 am on Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Location:Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary’s St., Room 428, Boston
URL:http://www.bu.edu/ece/files/2011/08/08-30-11-Rosenberg.pdf
How Can the Internet Help Smarten the Grid?
With Professor Catherine Rosenberg, Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada
Faculty Host: David Starobinski
Abstract: This seminar presents the research activities on Smart Grids
by the Information Systems and Sciences for Energy (ISS4E) laboratory
co-founded by Professors Rosenberg and Keshav at the University of
Waterloo. After a brief introduction on smart grids and their
similarities with the Internet, two research projects will be
presented. The first is on dimensioning transformers and storage using
probabilistic analysis. The second one, on demand response, proposes a
solution to take advantage of the elasticity inherent to most major
home appliances.
All these projects are conducted in collaboration with Professor
Keshav and graduate students.
About the Speaker: Catherine Rosenberg is a professor in Electrical
and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Since June
2010, she holds the Canada Research Chair in the Future Internet. She
started her career at Alcatel in France and then worked at AT&T Bell
Labs in the U.S. From 1988-1996, she was a faculty member at the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ecole
Polytechnique, in Montreal, Canada. In 1996, she joined Nortel
Networks in the United Kingdom where she created and headed the R&D
Department in Broadband Satellite Networking. In August 1999, Dr.
Rosenberg became a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at Purdue University where she co-founded the Center for
Wireless Systems and Applications (CWSA) in May 2002. She joined the
University of Waterloo on September 1, 2004, as the Chair of the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for a three-year
term. Rosenberg is on the Scientific Advisory Board of France-Telecom
and is a fellow of the IEEE.
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Looking before you leap: the argument for data-driven security
Speaker: Stefan Savage, University of California San Diego
Date: Tuesday, August 30 2011
Time: 3:00PM to 4:00PM
Refreshments: 2:45PM
Location: MIT 32-D463, Star Conference Room
Host: Dina Katabi, MIT-CSAIL
Contact: Mary cDavitt, 617-253-9620, mmcdavit at csail.mit.edu
Computer security is a field that is fundamentally co-dependent,
driven to respond by the actions of adversaries. This dance fuels both
the research community and a multi-billion-dollar computer security
industry. However, to date most efforts have focused on the technical
components of this battle: identifying new vulnerabilities, exploits,
and attacks, building and deploying new defenses, and so on.
In this talk, I will argue for a complementary research agenda based on
understanding the economic forces that drive today's Internet attacks,
deconstructing the underlying value chain for attackers and ultimately
using this information to better focus on security interventions. I
will provide a rough sketch of the modern cyber-criminal ecosystem,
describe its dependencies, and highlight some of the key open
questions that motivate our focus. Using a range of activities,
including our own completed studies, work in progress, and work in
development, I'll illustrate how many of these questions can be
tackled empirically. Finally, I'll discuss the real and significant
challenges in conducting this sort of research and in bringing it to
appropriate stakeholders.
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Green Drinks Boston - August Happy Hour
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (ET)
Kingston Station
25 Kingston St.
Boston, MA 02111
After a successful re-launch of Green Drinks Boston in June, we are
building momentum by announcing our monthly happy hours on the last
Tuesday of each month! Keep sending feedback to Lyn at greendrinksboston.com
for ideas about speakers or content for the future and mark your
calendar for drinks in July.
Green Drinks Boston builds a community of sustainably-minded
Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career
resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging
green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about
sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
http://bgdaug.eventbrite.com/
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Tuesday, August 30th at 7pm
Yochai Benkler
The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-
Interest
brookline booksmith
279 Harvard St. Brookline MA 02446 (617) 566-6660
Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks) is one of
the world’s top thinkers on cooperative structures. In his new book,
he uses evidence from neuroscience, economics, sociology, biology, and
real-world examples to break down the myth of self-interest and
replace it with a model of cooperation in our businesses, our
government, and our lives.
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Harvard/Cambridge Walk for Peace
WHEN Wed., Aug. 31, 2011, 12 – 12:20 p.m.
WHERE John Harvard Statue
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Social Sciences, Special Events,
Support/Social, Working at Harvard
NOTE Nearly 10 years of war. Thousands of American lives, hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi and Afghani lives, trillions of dollars. Come
remember, mourn, and protest.
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BU ECE Seminar with Professor Aydogan Ozcan
11:00 am on Thursday, September 1, 2011
Location:Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary’s St., Room 339, Boston, MA
URL:http://www.bu.edu/ece/files/2011/08/09-01-11-Ozcan.pdf
Photonics Based Telemedicine Technologies Toward Smart Global Health
Systems
With Professor Aydogan Ozcan, Electrical Engineering Department,
California NanoSystems Institute University of California, Los Angeles
Faculty Host: Hatice Altug
Refreshments will be served outside Room 339 at 10:45 a.m.
Abstract: Today there are more than five billion cell phone users in
the world, and the majority of these cell phones are being used in
developing parts of the world. This massive volume of wireless phone
communication brings an enormous cost-reduction to cell phones despite
their sophisticated hardware and software capabilities. Quite
importantly, most of these existing cell phones are also already
equipped with advanced digital imaging and sensing platforms that can
be utilized for various health monitoring applications. This
impressive advancement is one of the central building blocks of the
emerging fields of “Telemedicine” and “Wireless Health.” The success
of these fields will surely increase the quality of healthcare and
reduce the insurance costs in developed countries like the United
States. However, their most important and immediate impact will be to
provide breakthrough technological solutions to various global health
problems including infectious diseases such as HIV, TB or malaria.
Specifically, utilizing this advanced state-of-the-art cell phone
technology toward point-of-care diagnostics and/or microscopic imaging
applications can offer numerous opportunities to improve healthcare,
especially in the developing world where medical facilities and
infrastructure are extremely limited or do not exist.
Centered on this vision, Professor Ozcan will introduce fundamentally
new imaging and detection architectures that can compensate in the
digital domain for the lack of complexity of optical components by use
of novel theories and numerical algorithms to address the immediate
needs and requirements of telemedicine for global health problems.
Specifically, he will present an on-chip cytometry and microscopy
platform that utilizes cost-effective and compact components to enable
digital recognition and 3D microscopic imaging of cells with
subcellular resolution over a large field of view without the need for
any lenses, bulky optical components or coherent sources such as
lasers. This incoherent holographic imaging and diagnostic modality
has orders of magnitude improved light collection efficiency and is
robust to misalignments which eliminates potential imaging artifacts
or the need for realignment, making it highly suitable for field use.
Applications of this lensfree on-chip microscopy platform to high-
throughput imaging and automated counting of whole blood cells,
monitoring of HIV+ patients (through CD4 and CD8 T cell counting) and
detection of waterborne parasites toward rapid screening of water
quality will also be demonstrated. Further, he will discuss lensfree
implementations of various other computational imaging modalities on
the same platform such as pixel super-resolution imaging, lensfree on-
chip tomography, and holographic opto-fluidic microscopy/tomography.
Finally, he will demonstrate lensfree on-chip imaging of fluorescently
labeled cells over an ultra wide field of view of >8 cm2, which could
be especially important for rare cell analysis (e.g., detection of
circulating tumor cells), as well as for high-throughput screening of
DNA/protein micro-arrays.
About the Speaker: Dr. Aydogan Ozcan received his Ph.D. degree from
the Stanford University Electrical Engineering Department in 2005.
After a short post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford, he was appointed
as a Research Faculty Member at Harvard Medical School, Wellman Center
for Photomedicine, in 2006. Dr. Ozcan joined UCLA in the summer of
2007, where he is currently an Associate Professor leading the Bio-
Photonics Laboratory at the Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering
Departments.
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Assessing Libya
WHEN Thu., Sep. 1, 2011, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Center for Government & International Studies, Knafel 262, 1737
Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Outreach Center at Center for Middle Eastern
Studies
SPEAKER(S) Roger Owen, director, Contemporary Arab Studies Program &
AJ Meyer Professor of Middle Eastern History, Harvard University;
William Granara, Professor of the Practice of Arabic on the Gordon
Gray Endowment, director, Modern Language Programs & director,
Moroccan Studies Program, CMES, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO CMES Outreach Center: cmesoc at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE A free public talk and discussion with Harvard faculty on the
current, historical, and perhaps future history of Libya after Col.
Gaddafi.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2758
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Kwan Hong Lee Thesis Defense: "The Influences of Just-In-Time Social
Cloud on Real-World Decisions"
Friday, September 02, 2011 | 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location: MIT Media Lab, E14-633
Speaker: Kwan Hong Lee
Host/Chair: Andrew Lippman
Participant(s)/Committee: Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, Pattie Maes
It is an open question how our day-to-day decisions will be affected
by the always-on connection to our social networks via mobile devices.
People have difficulty with choices that involve delayed utility. The
immediacy effect of virtues and vices theorized by Daniel Read has
shown that people value long-term and short-term utilities differently
at the moment of decision making, with preferences for short-term
choices that may end up costing in the long-term (vices). This work
presents an empirical inquiry into the effect of just-in-time social
influence in human decision making in the hope that these social
forces can be utilized to nudge people towards decision making that
has long-term benefits while thwarting the forces of the marketers.
The thesis proposes a design and implementation of the just-in-time
social cloud using mobile phones as platforms for just-in-time social
influence. An Open Transaction Network was developed to generate just-
in-time social networks based on the transactions shared by people in
the context of commerce. The Open Transaction Network was extended to
several systems to conduct real-world experiments involving real
choices aimed at understanding transaction behaviors in the social
network and the impact of the just-in-time social cloud at various
scales.
Results show that the mobile commerce environment could be
significantly impacted by augmenting the current methods of mobile
payment with social network-based services that can guide our choices.
The Open Credit Card Framework achieves this by using transactions as
triggers to applications that facilitate just-in-time decisions or
reflections. Different manifestations of the just-in-time social cloud
resulted in different outcomes along the dimensions of taste, price,
and time to decision. The Open Transaction Network can also be used to
filter when and what mobile advertisements people receive to suit
their habits and impulses. Additionally, social connections with
similar transactions can help propagate and filter behavioral
influences through different manifestations of the just-in-time social
cloud.
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Energy Materials Lecture: "The Inverse Problem in Materials Theory:
Given a Target Property, Find the Structure"
WHEN Fri., Sep. 2, 2011, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Pierce 209, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment,
co-sponsored with the Applied Physics Department
SPEAKER(S) Alex Zunger, Chancellor Professor, University of Colorado,
Boulder, Colorado
CONTACT INFO Brenda Hugot: bhugot at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE Alex Zunger’s research field is condensed matter theory of real
materials. His main interest is electronic structure of solids,
nanostructures, and renewable energy materials, as well as in the
development of fundamental theoretical methods for describing the
above, including the “Inverse Band Structure”.
He is an NREL Institute Research Fellow, a fellow of the American
Physical Society, and the director of the newly established U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences (BES) “Center for
Inverse Design” (seewww.centerforinversedesign.org).
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-09-02/energy-materials-lecture-inverse-problem-materials-theory-given-target-property-fi
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Bread and Puppet Theater: Man = Carrot Circus,
with an introduction by Scott Alarik.
Held outdoors on Friday, September 2nd at 6 pm
on the Cambridge Common, near the intersection of Mass. Ave. and
Garden St., Cambridge.
Free performance [pass-the-hat donations welcome], rain or shine. For
further details, call the Boston-area Bread and Puppet Theater
information line 617-800-9539 or log onto www.breadandpuppet.org.
The award-winning Bread and Puppet Theater, from Vermont’s Northeast
Kingdom, presents their Man = Carrot Circus on the Cambridge Common, a
space they have not inhabited since the mid-1980’s. Bread and Puppet
champions a visually rich slapstick style of street-theater that is
filled with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard, along with
masked characters, political commentary, and a lively brass band for
accompaniment.
Man = Carrot Circus, for children of all ages, is based on the
revelation that upright man rooted in dirt was created in the image of
the upright carrot rooted in dirt. Twenty-five Vermont puppeteers and
musicians will enact the issues of the day, not only in how they
affect carrots, but how they affect us all. Some of the circus acts
may be politically puzzling to adults, but usually an accompanying kid
can explain what’s going on. The audience is welcome to examine all
the masks and puppets after the performance, and cheap art will be for
sale. Some examples of Bread and Puppet’s work can be found
atwww.breadandpuppet.org.
Scott Alarik (www.scottalarik.com), who will introduce the show, is
the author of the very recently published Revival: A Folk Music
Novel. He is no stranger to the music, theater, and art scene that
put Harvard Square on the map many moons ago. His novel, along with
Bread and Puppet’s outdoor Circus on the Common, is serving as the
impetus to reinvigorate Harvard Square with an entire month of
reincarnations, complete with the return of the HONK! Parade: Share
The Streets on Oct. 2nd, a Bread and Puppet-inspired procession on
Mass. Ave. leading into Harvard Square’s Oktoberfest. For complete
information on Harvard Square’s “Revival Month” visit www.harvardsquare.com
. For more information on HONK! and the parade that runs from Davis
Square to Harvard Square, log onto www.honkfest.org.
http://breadpuppetcarrot.eventbrite.com/
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Upcoming
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I hope you can join us for the TROMP Benefit at Flatbreads to take
place in 3 weeks on Tues, 9/6/11. A portion of the proceeds of all
pizzas sold (eat in or take out) from 5pm - 11pm will be donated to
TROMP. This is a great time for you to be available to talk to, bowl
with, and eat with our supporters!
Bowl & Eat Pizza to benefit TROMP on Tues, 9/6/11 Flatbreads in
Davis Square
Flatbread & Sacco’s Bowl Haven
45 Day Street, Davis Square, Somerville, MA 02144
EAT & TAKE-OUT: 5pm to 11pm
BOWL: 7pm to 11pm
http://www.trompcambridge.com/index.php
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ROOT CAUSE'S SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM SEMIFINALIST INFORMATION SESSION
Event Details
Date: 9/7/2011
Location: Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive,
Cambridge, MA 02142
Time: 8:00am - 9:30am
Audience: Root Cause's 2011-2012 Social Innovation Forum semifinalists
Twitter: @RootCause
Description: The Semifinalist Information Session is an optional, but
recommended session for all 2011-2012 semifinalists as we want to make
sure that organizations understand both the process going forward and
the expectations for those chosen as Social Innovators. We will focus
on what we’re looking for in the second-round application and how
those applications are evaluated. We will also bring in a 2011 Social
Innovator to speak for a few minutes about his/her personal experience
with the Social Innovation Forum.
Register at http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/RootCausesSocialInnovationForumSeptember2011/tabid/821/Default.aspx
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Saturday, Sept. 10th, from 8:30 am (bright and early) until 1 pm, you
can help the Cambridge Zen Center lower its energy bill while you
learn about energy efficiency and maybe a bit about Buddhism. Every
hour a bell will ring to remind us to be mindful for a moment, while
we help steward the planet.
This HEET (http://www.heetma.com) event will be at the Zen Center in
Central Square, Cambridge, which is sure to put you in a better state
of mind by the end of the day.
Sign up here at https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGdQcmxQNHhwU04wYzd2cV9iRDQxdlE6MQ
and thanks.
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The Fall 2011 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
will be on
Saturday September 10
NOON to 2 pm
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday, Sep. 11, 12-2
at Fayette Park
(off Fayette St., across from the former Longfellow School and
library, near corner with Broadway)
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden.
Elegant packaging not required, but please write down plant names.
We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds, houseplants,
catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever."
Contact Helen Snively at HMSnively at aol.com
SOMERVILLE GARDEN CLUB PLANT SALE is on Sat., Sep. 17, starting at 9,
in Davis Sq. Right—a week after our swap. In fact, our nice
leftovers go to their sale. They have great stuff, at good prices,
and lots of advice. Great event—Mark your calendar!
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September 14 and 15
Current TV 24 Hours of Green Programming
WHAT IS 24 HOURS OF REALITY?
24 Presenters. 24 Time Zones. 13 Languages. 1 Message. 24 Hours of
Reality is a worldwide event to broadcast the reality of the climate
crisis. It will consist of a new multimedia presentation created by Al
Gore and delivered once per hour for 24 hours, in every time zone
around the globe. Each hour people living with the reality of climate
change will connect the dots between recent extreme weather events —
including floods, droughts and storms — and the manmade pollution that
is changing our climate. We will offer a round-the-clock, round-the-
globe snapshot of the climate crisis in real time. The deniers may
have millions of dollars to spend, but we have a powerful advantage.
We have reality.
http://climaterealityproject.org/
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Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents
THE REAL PAPER: JOURNALISM THEN & NOW
with Harper Barnes, Jan Freeman, Laura Shapiro, Paul Solman, and Mark
Zanger
moderator Monica Collins
September 15, 6:30-8 pm
C. Walsh Theater
(Boston, MA 02114) Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents “The
Real Paper: Journalism Then & Now” with Harper Barnes, Jan Freeman,
Laura Shapiro, Paul Solman, and Mark Zanger; discussion moderated by
Monica Collins. Thursday, September 15, 6:30-8 pm. Admission is free
and open to all. C. Walsh Theater at Suffolk University, 55 Temple
Street, Boston, MA. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located
near the Park St. MBTA Station. For more information, call the Ford
Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visitwww.fordhallforum.org.
Ford Hall Forum Vice President and former The Real Paper journalist
Monica Collins assembles this riveting The Real Paper reunion
withHarper Barnes, Jan Freeman, Laura Shapiro, Paul Solman, and Mark
Zanger. Hear how this free alternative weekly newspaper’s laudable
format of an employee-run collective was, ironically, its undoing as
the opportunity to sell arose, as did interpersonal conflict. Their
experience with The Real Paper yields surprising views on modern-day
journalism, including sustainable and fair business models, the future
of free newspapers in a world of internet media, and whether
journalists in today’s economy should strike out on their own.
Further background information on participants:
Harper Barnes is a longtime editor and cultural critic for the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch and has written for Rolling Stone and the
Washington Post. He is the author of the novel Blue Monday and
Standing on a Volcano: The Life and Times of David Rowland Francis, a
biography of Woodrow Wilson's ambassador to Russia.
Monica Collins created and writes “Ask Dog Lady,” a humor/lifestyle
column about dogs, life, and love that is syndicated to 400+
newspapers nationwide. Collins also hosts the radio program, “Ask Dog
Lady,” on 980 WCAP in the Merrimack Valley. She is a regular guest on
“The Callie Crossley Show” on WGBH-FM in a continuing series called
“Pup Culture.” Collins is also a communications consultant and media
strategist for non-profit organizations. A former staff writer and
media critic for USA Today and the Boston Herald, Collins has written
for the Boston Globeand various magazines, such as USA Weekend,
ForbesLife Executive Woman, Ladies Home Journal, Vogue, and, of
course, The Real Paper.
Since 1997, Jan Freeman has been writing the Boston Sunday Globe's
weekly language column "The Word". She worked as an editor at The
Real Paper, Boston and Inc. magazines, and the Boston Globe, where she
was a science news editor until she launched her weekly column on
English usage. She is the co-author of Ambrose Bierce's Write It
Right: The Celebrated Cynic's Language Peeves Deciphered, Appraised,
and Annotated for 21st-Century Readers.
Laura Shapiro currently writes as a columnist for Gourmet.com, Gourmet
magazine’s website. Formerly, Shapiro worked as a columnist at The
Real Paper and after that worked for sixteen years as a writer for
Newsweek. There, she covered food, women’s issues and the arts and
won several journalism awards for her work. Her work has also
appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Granta,
The American Scholar, Gastronomica, Slate and many other
publications. Her first book was Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking
at the Turn of the Century. She is also the author of Something from
the Oven: Revinventing Dinner in 1950s America and Julia Child.
Since 1985, Paul Solman has been a business and economics
correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. A business
reporter for WGBH Boston since 1977, Solman was the co-originator and
executive editor of PBS's business documentary series, ENTERPRISE.
Solman was also the founding editor of The Real Paper as well as the
East Coast editor of Mother Jones magazine. Solman began his career
in business journalism as a Nieman Fellow at the Harvard Business
School in 1976. His reporting has won him several Emmys and two
Peabody Awards. Solman has also served as a Professor at the Harvard
Business School, teaching media, finance and business history. He
also co-authored the book, Life and Death on the Corporate
Battlefield. In addition, Solman is the presenter and author of
Discovering Economics With Paul Solman, a series of videos that
accompany McGraw-Hill introductory economics textbooks. Solman also
lectures on college campuses and has written for numerous articles
including for Forbes magazine.
Since 2007, Mark Zanger has worked as the Director of Communications
for the Coalition of Families and Advocates for the Retarded. Also, a
seasoned journalist, Zanger has worked as a freelance writer and
restaurant critic for the Boston Phoenix since 1981. Zanger has
published five books most of which are related to his work as a
restaurant critic. He has previously served as chief editor of
delphiforums.com, op-ed editor ofMetroWest News, and Public
Information Officer for Oxfam America, Inc. Before that he served as
Editor-in-Chief of The Real Paper from 1975 through 1980. Zanger
studied English at Yale University.
-----------------------------------------------------
September 16, 2011
New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable:
Two Timely Topics:
FERC Order 1000 (Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation
Requirements);
and
The Future of Solar in New England
Raab Associates presents:
The 124th NE Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Date: Friday, September 16, 2011
Time: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP
155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor
Boston, MA 02210
On July 21, FERC issued Order 1000, its long-anticipated, 600-plus
page rule on the future of transmission planning and cost-allocation
in the United States. According to Chairman Wellinghoff, "The Final
Rule will profoundly affect the development of our nation's
transmission system in coming decades." One of the many unique
features of this Order is the requirement for integrating federal and
state energy policies (e.g., RPS) in transmission planning and
implementation.
Please join us at our next Restructuring Roundtable as we learn
aboutFERC Order 1000 and discuss its ramifications and implications
for New England transmission and non-transmission alternatives. The
panel will begin with a succinct synopsis by Mason Emnett, Associate
Director of FERC's Policy Office, and a lead FERC staffer on Order
1000. Mason will be followed by a panel of three discussants who will
reflect on how this order will likely impact transmission, renewables,
and other resource planning and implementation in New England.
Heather Hunt, Executive Director of the New England States' Committee
on Electricity (NESCOE), will lead off the panel with reflections
garnered from the six New England State PUCs on Order 1000 and an
update on NESCOE's coordinated competitive renewable procurement and
new interstate transmission siting collaborative. Peter Flynn,
President of FERC Regulated Businesses at National Grid, will provide
a transmission owner's perspective, and Seth Kaplan, VP of Policy and
Climate Advocacy at Conservation Law Foundation, will offer an
environmental perspective.
Our second panel focuses on the Future of Solar in New England. With
photovoltaic prices continuing to drop due to technology breakthroughs
and increasing economies of scale, coupled with new solar-related
state policies, PV installations in New England are on the rise. Our
panel starts off with international solar expert, ChrisPorter, Lead
Downstream Analyst, Photon Consulting, who will talk about the
international technology and price progressions and how they may
impact solar supply and demand in New England. DOERCommissioner Mark
Sylvia will then discuss the evolution of solar-related policies in
Massachusetts, including the Commonwealth's unique SREC market and net
metering rules. We round out the panel with two leading solar
developers as they discuss both the opportunities and on-going
challenges of developing solar projects throughout New England: Dan
Leary, President, Renewable Energy Solutions, Nexamp and President of
the Solar Energy Business Association of New England (SEBANE), and
Bryan Miller, VP of Energy Policy/Sustainable Energy at Constellation
Energy.
------------------------------------------------
THE THIRD ANNUAL URBAN-AG FAIR
CELEBRATING LOCAL GARDENS, GROWERS AND FOOD
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
MT. AUBURN STREET AND WINTHROP PARK (between Eliot and JFK)
The Urban-Ag Fair will showcase incredible locally grown fruits and
vegetables in a judged competition. Visitors may sample recipes
prepared using local ingredients and get tips from local experts on
gardening topics like composting, container gardening, and raising
chickens and bees.
The entire event is free, open to the public, and family-friendly.
Cooking demonstrations by local chefs and Cambridge school student
growers will be held throughout the day, along with talks on gardening
topics. Prizes will be awarded for fruits, vegetables, flowers,
honey, eggs, baked goods, preserves/pickles, and beverages, in the
categories of tastiest, biggest, prettiest/most creative, most
interesting/funny-looking, and student grower (under 17).
For basic info and application forms: http://www.harvardsquare.com/Home/Articles/The-Third-Annual-Urban-Ag-Fair.aspx
Please return the forms by September 8. You can also download forms
from www.harvardsquare.com
Questions? hsba at harvardsquare.com or 617-491-3434
For more info/updates: http://www.urbanagfair.com/index.html
-------------------------------------------
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011, 7:00 p.m. Sustainability and
Portland's 5 Ecodistricts: A Discussion with Garry Sotnik
Join us for a a round table discussion with sustainability economist,
Garry Sotnik,visiting from the hub of environmental innovation,
Portland, Oregon. Presenting his paper on Portland's five
ecodistricts, an initiative launched in 2009 in Portland, OR, to
catalyze the city’s transition process towards sustainable
development, Garry will also share his analysis on adaptability: What
does it mean to adapt? What is required for adaptation? And what can
be done to assist human systems (e.g. households, communities,
regions, etc.) in adapting? He will then open the floor for an open
discussion on the role of community organizing within the
environmental movement, the ideas of connectedness and resiliency in
the face of climate change, what could movements in Boston learn from
the large-scale and well-subsidized efforts in Portland, similarly,
what can the Ecodistrict Initiative learn from grassroots and multi-
focus social change organizing?
encuentro 5
33 Harrison Avenue
5th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
Close to Chinatown, Downtown Crossing, and Boylston T stops
www.encuentro5.org
-----------------------------------------------
Join us for the Greater Boston Slow Money Entrepreneur Showcase!
Thursday, September 22
6pm – 9pm
Non-Profit Center
89 South Street, Boston
South Street Conference Center
We will be bringing together investors, sustainable food entrepreneurs
and leaders working together to rebuild our local food system. Learn
about investment opportunities and how you can participate in
rebuilding local economies based on the principles of soil fertility,
sense of place, care of the commons and economic, cultural and
biological diversity.
For investors: The Entrepreneur Showcase will provide access to
sustainable food and farming businesses at different stages of
development from start-up to expansion of existing businesses. The
businesses and initiatives are also seeking different levels of
financing — from small loans to major capital, as well as donations.
Greater Boston Slow Money encourages investors of all resource levels
to attend including institutional, individual, accredited, and
unaccredited investors. This showcase event is not an offer to sell
securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.
For Entrepreneurs: The Showcase is a tightly produced event. Each
entrepreneur will have five minutes and 6 slides to tell their
stories, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A from the audience. Presenters
will also benefit from the networking opportunity specifically
designed to encourage and elevate investor dialog. Throughout the
event, your collateral will be available for attendees, and you will
be mentioned in all promotional materials for the event.
The Entrepreneur Showcase offers all the advantages of a traditional
venture fair and many more. Because of the shared vision that brings
us all together, it is an unparalleled opportunity for you to build
relationships with investors and entrepreneurs from all over the
region. We are confident that, if chosen to participate, you will have
opportunities to make important connections that add value to your
enterprise.
Given the relatively short time horizon, please submit your
application no later than Wednesday, August 31, 2011. Demand for
participation in the Showcase is high; spots will fill up.
To apply: send an email to gbslowmoney at gmail.com and we will send you
the application. It is free to apply, but costs $25 to present and
take advantage of this exciting opportunity.
-----------------------------------------
September 24
Moving Planet: A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels
On Sept. 24th, 2011, on the streets of Boston, join a worldwide event
– Moving Planet – calling on our elected leaders, businesses and
communities to get serious about moving beyond fossil fuels. Come on
bike or on foot, by boat, carpool or public transportation! Come with
your community, your organization, or simply yourself to help make one
big, bold, beautiful statement:
We have the power to build a secure, healthy, just and sustainable
future for our children and our planet!
http://moving-newengland.org/
----------------------------------------
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future public hearing
October 12, 2011
Harvard Medical School Conference Center, 77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood,
Boston, MA
BRC Draft Report to the Secretary of Energy http://www.brc.gov
The Blue Ribbon Commission On America’s Nuclear Future is a
Presidentially-mandated group composed of 16 people to make
recommendations for national radioactive waste policy. The record of
the work the Commission has done over the last year--available on-line
in video form, transcript, written testimony, and public comments all
posted at http://www.brc.gov
These additional meetings in September and October are to collect
public comments on the Commission's draft recommendations. The full
draft report is available here: http://www.brc.gov/index.php?q=announcement/brc-releases-their-draft-full-commission-report
The Commission website states: All public are welcome to attend. Pre-
registration is strongly encouraged but not required. Information
about registration will be available in the near future. The meetings
will not be video webcast. Transcripts of the meetings will be
available on the website, along with all written comments anyone
chooses to offer. Comments can either be made directly to the website
at www.brc.gov or by email to: CommissionDFO at nuclear.energy.gov and
via US postal mail:
Mr. Timothy A. Frazier
Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585
Comment deadline is October 31, 2011. NIRS will share a more complete
set of comments for sign-on in October.
*************
----------------
Opportunity
---------------
*************
AC Swap – The Cambridge Energy Alliance’s window air conditioner swap
program is in progress. Residents can obtain a voucher for $125 if
they swap an inefficient window AC unit for an Energy Star rated
model This is a limited time offer. Go to the CEA website for
participation details:http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/a-c-swap
----------------------------------------------------
Free Solar Panels for Houses of Worship
From a recent Mass Interfaith Power & Light (http://mipandl.org/) email
"We've recently been talking with DCS Energy (http://
www.dcsenergy.com/) who has an unbeatable offer: if your site
qualifies, they design and install the panels at no cost, don't charge
you for any electricity, and donate the system to your house of
worship after five years. Your only costs will be for a building
permit, possibly a structural engineer to verify that your roof can
support their weight, and any preparatory work such as roof work or
tree removal. If solar panels are so expensive how can anyone give
them away for free? First, there is a federal grant program that is
only available until November that pays for 30% of the cost of the
system. Then there is an accelerated depreciation option that gives
certain kinds of investors another tax advantage. Finally, the state
awards a special allowance called a "Solar Renewal Energy
Credit" (SRECs) to owners of solar electricity systems which are sold
at auctions to utilities who buy them to meet their requirements under
the Massachusetts' renewable portfolio standard. DCS is betting that
the price of these SRECs will remain high. Jim Nail, president of MA
IP&L, has talked to DCS Energy and is currently having them prepare a
proposal for his church, St. Dunstan's Episcopal in Dover. Jim says,
"The references I've talked to have been quite positive about the
program and the company has been very responsive. "If you think your
site might qualify, contact Peter Carli, pete at dcsenergy.com, with the
address of your house of worship and your contact information. He'll
take a preliminary look at your site and advise you if it meets their
criteria."
----------------------------------------------------------
Young World Inventors Success!
Young World Inventors (http://yinventors.wordpress.com/) finished
their Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1036325713/youngworldinventorscom
) to fund insider web stories of African and American innovators in
collaboration successfully.
New contributions, however, will be accepted.
---------------------------------------------------------
What you need to know: The Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur (YSE)
Competition is a global competition created by Staples Foundation and
Ashoka to recognize exceptional young people using innovation and
technology to advance social change and improve their community and
the world.
Who’s eligible?: Young people (age 12-24), living anywhere in the
world, are eligible to apply.
Dates and details: Apply online between June 22 and September 19, 2011.
For more information: http://ashokayouthcompetition.org/
--
Laura Sampath
MIT International Development Initiative
77 Mass Ave, 10-110
Cambridge MA 02139
617.253.7052
Sign up for the 2011 Yunus Challenge Facebook page: yunus2011 at groups.facebook.com
*********
-----------
Resource
-----------
Massachusetts Attitudes About Climate Change – An opinion survey of
Massachusetts residents conducted by MassINC and sponsored by the Barr
Foundation found that 77% of respondents believe that global warming
has “probably been happening” and 59% of all respondents see see it as
being at least partially caused by human pollution. Only 42% of the
state’s residents say global warming will have very serious
consequences for Massachusetts if left unaddressed. The 18 to 29 age
group is more likely to believe global warming is appearing and caused
by humans compared to the 60+ age group. African-American (56%) and
Latino residents (69%) are more likely than white residents (40%) to
believe global warming will be a very serious problem if left
unaddressed. The MassINC report, titled The 80 Percent Challenge:
What Massachusetts must do to meet targets and make headway on climate
change (http://www.massinc.org/Research/The-80-percent-
challenge.aspx), contains many other findings.
----------------------------------------------------
The presentations from the recent Affordable Comfort National Home
Performance Conference are available online at
http://2011.acinational.org/downloadable_resources
Lots of good information from what some call the best energy
conference in the USA on Deep Energy Retrofits to Community Energy
Challenges with details on insulation, heat flow, energy metering,
ducting, hot water, and many, many other topics. If you are a
practical energy wonk, this should make your eyes light up.
--------------------------------------------------
Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track
your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while
controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly
email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
---------------------------------------
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,
contact jmatthaei at wellesley.edu
------------------------
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
********************************************
-----------------------------------------------------
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://sustainability.mit.edu/
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
http://green.harvard.edu/events
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list