[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Oct 16 18:53:14 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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I'll be away next Sunday so this week's edition is expanded. Next
edition will be published on Monday, October 25 and the regular
schedule will resume in two weeks.
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GREEN SOLUTIONS EXPO and WORKSHOPS
12pm – 5pm
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Newton Harvest Fair
Newton Centre Green
A Newton/Needham Chamber of Commerce Expo with solutions you need to
reduce your carbon footprint & over 50 exhibitors held under a big
tent held from 12-5pm in Newton Centre during the Newton Harvest Fair.
Continuous entertainment, food and games for the kids. Tips on how be
more environmentally friendly and live a "green" life style.
See exhibitors with green products, services and ideas.
Come to our expert workshops every hour.
Find out how you can convert to solar electricity without paying
thousands and reduce your electric bills.
Find out how to save money on energy and reduce your carbon footprint.
These workshops and more will help you save money and the environment
at the same time!
Green Life Style Workshops: Under the big tent
http://greendecade.org/green-solutions-expo.html
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Monday, October 17, 2011
What would have happened to the ozone layer if chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) had not been regulated?
Speaker: Paul Newman (NASA)
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: MIT, Building 54-915
MASS Seminar
The MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) is a student-run weekly
seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research
concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g.
societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take
place on Monday from 12-1pm followed by a lunch with graduate
students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors,
post-docs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by
graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with
individuals outside the department, but faculty and post docs
certainly participate.
MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar Series
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/mass
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Roberta Allard
253-3382
allard at mit.edu
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Towards Robotic Laundry
Speaker: Pieter Abbeel, UC Berkeley, Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences
Date: Monday, October 17 2011
Time: 2:00PM to 3:00PM
Location: MIT, Building 32-D463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Host: Leslie Kaelbling, MIT CSAIL
Contact: Teresa Cataldo, cataldo at csail.mit.edu
Since Rosie the Robot first debuted on television’s “The
Jetsons” in 1962, the futuristic image of a personal robot
autonomously operating in a human home has captivated the public
imagination. Yet, while robots have become an integral part of modern
industrial production, their adoption in these less well defined and
less structured environments has been slow. Indeed, the high
variability in, for example, household environments, poses a number of
challenges to robotic perception and manipulation.
The problem of robotic laundry manipulation exemplifies this
difficulty, as the objects with which the robot must interact have a
very large number of internal degrees of freedom. In this talk, I
will present our research towards enabling a general purpose robot,
such as a Willow Garage PR2, to perform laundry. Our current results
include the ability to fold towels, starting from a bunched towel on a
table, the ability to organize socks, and a still limited-reliability
ability to fold a mix of t-shirts, sweaters, towels and pants,
starting from them bunched on a table.
BIO: Pieter Abbeel received a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from
KU Leuven (Belgium) and received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science
from Stanford University in 2008. He joined the faculty at UC Berkeley
in Fall 2008, with an appointment in the Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences. He has won various awards,
including best paper awards at ICML and ICRA, the Sloan Fellowship,
the Okawa Foundation award, and the TR35. He has developed
apprenticeship learning algorithms which have enabled advanced
helicopter aerobatics, including maneuvers such as tic-tocs, chaos and
auto-rotation, which only exceptional human pilots can perform. His
group has also enabled the first end-to-end completion of reliably
picking up a crumpled laundry article and folding it. His work has
been featured in many popular press outlets, including BBC, MIT
Technology Review, Discovery Channel, SmartPlanet and Wired. His
current research focuses on robotics and machine learning with a
particular focus on challenges in personal robotics, surgical robotics
and connectomics.
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Monday, October 17, 2011
Joichi Ito: Enabling Emergent Voices and Expression Through Technology
Speaker: Joichi Ito
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: MIT, Buidling E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street,
Cambridge
Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions -- Creative Responses to
Conflict & Crisis
Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab (USA)
Enabling Emergent Voices and Expression Through Technology
Respondent: TBA
Moore's law and the Internet have dramatically reduced the cost of
producing and distributing information. This has greatly lowered the
cost of collaboration and has empowered a qualitatively different
"public" to think, express, and act without, or in spite of, central
authority. These changes and advances in technology enabled
interventions such as low-cost video cameras in the case of WITNESS;
blogs (Global Voices); or open hardware and software used to build,
distribute, collect and visualize data from geiger counters
(Safecast). Ito will discuss how these trends relate to media,
citizenship, academics, and conflicts. Joichi Ito was named Director
of the MIT Media Lab in April 2011.
The Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions -- Creative Responses
to Conflict & Crisis Fall 2011 lecture series investigates initiatives
and modes of intervention in contested spaces, zones of conflict, or
areas affected by environmental disasters. We will explore whether
artistic interventions can transform, disrupt or subvert current
environmental, urban, political and social conditions in critical
ways. How can these interventions propose ideas, while at the same
time respecting the local history and culture?
Web site: act.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public.
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, School of
Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan Pallone
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Materials Day Symposium and Poster Session 2011
Time: 8:00a–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building W-16
Computational Materials will be the focus of this year's Materials
Day. Computational methods have reached the point at which predictions
of materials structures and properties can be made before they are
demonstrated in the laboratory. This has led to new breakthroughs in
materials design that have greatly accelerated the development of new
materials and processes that are optimized for a wide range of
applications. Materials Day activities will include a one-day
conference featuring speakers from both inside and outside MIT. A
student poster session will follow featuring 50 to 100 posters with up-
to-the minute research results from the broad materials research
communities in MIT's Schools of Engineering and Science.
Web site: http://mpc-web.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Materials Processing Center
For more information, contact:
Fran Page
617-253-5159
fmpage at mit.edu
--------------------------------
Webinar Kick-Off
Energy Efficiency: America's First Fuel
The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) is pleased to
launch our fifth annual online webinar series. This year’s series
will continue Blueprint for Efficiency, with an emphasis on the latest
developments and opportunities for energy efficiency in the private
sector. Through weekly presentations from leaders in the corporate,
non-profit, and public-private arenas, we will explore a range of
topics around energy efficiency.
This year’s series is a unique collaboration between the Yale Center
for Business and the Environment and the Alliance to Save Energy
(ASE). Founded in 1977, the Alliance is a Washington, D.C. based
nonprofit organization that works solely to promote energy efficiency
worldwide through research, education, and advocacy. ASE encourage
business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders to use
energy efficiency as a means to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner
environment, and greater energy security.
Join Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save Energy, as she
kicks-off this year's series by highlighting why energy efficiency is
America's first fuel. Providing context, Kateri will discuss the
changing landscape of the energy efficiency sector by highlighting the
potential for energy efficiency legislation as well as the new
opportunities emerging across the energy efficiency landscape. Kateri
will explore the necessary tenants to deliver energy efficiency at
scale, and showcase trends being deployed by private sector companies
who are leading by example as they build their own energy efficiency
portfolios.
Title: Energy Efficiency: America's First Fuel
Date and Time: Tuesday, October 18, from 12pm to 1pm (EST)
GotoWebinar URL: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/557211598
Speaker: Kateri Callahan, President, Alliance to Save Energy
Register at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/557211598
Kateri Callahan brings more than 20 years of experience in policy
advocacy, fundraising, coalition building, and organizational
management to her position as the president of the Alliance to Save
Energy. Serving as president of the Alliance since January 2004,
Kateri leads a staff of nearly 100, oversees a budget of approximately
$15 million annually, and works with the Alliance Board of Directors,
which includes Members of Congress, state and local officials and top
corporate and NGO executives, to establish and oversee the core
objectives and strategic plans for the organization. Prior to joining
the Alliance, Kateri served for 11 years as the president/executive
director of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, a nonprofit
organization promoting battery, hybrid, and fuel cell transportation
technologies. She also has served as a director of government
relations for a nonprofit organization, as a non-lawyer professional
at a Washington, D.C-based law firm, and as a legislative assistant to
a U.S. senator.
Save the date for our upcoming webinars!
NRG Energy
Tuesday, October 25, 12-1pm EST
David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy (one of the nation's largest
independent power producers), will discuss a variety of topics ranging
from overcoming regulatory & policy uncertainty to how large utilities
invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy. This will be a
special live-broadcast event as part of CBEY's GE Sustainability
Leaders Speaker Series.
Wal-Mart
Wednesday, November 2, 12-1pm EST
Jim Stanway (Senior Director, Global Supplier Initiatives) and Jim
McClendon (Director of Engineering) will discuss what the world’s
largest retailer is doing to improve energy management and supply
chain efficiency.
Blueprint for Efficiency is supported by the Yale Center for Business
& the Environment and theAlliance to Save Energy. The series will
take place from October 2011 through May 2012. It will be free and
open to the public through online webcasts that will be conducted on a
weekly basis. Each presentation will be recorded and made available
to the global community through Yale University's iTunesU channel.
Do you have an idea for a webinar, or know of someone that you’d like
to hear present? Send us an email at cbey at yale.edu and let us know.
We also welcome any additional feedback!
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The BSA Sustainability Education and COTE will be co-hosting a USGBC-
produced webinar titled The Costs & Benefits of Green Buildings:
Putting the Research into Practice. It offers 1.5 AIA, GBCI and CSI CE
credits, but it requires persons to be present at the event. There is
no charge for the event.
The event will be held on Tuesday, October 18, @ noon @ the BSA.
RSVP to Lauren Burn (LBurn at architects.org) by Monday, October 17, if
you don't want to starve (the BSA generously feeds lunchtime attendees).
The course description:
Green buildings can cost less than conventional ones, but de pending
on a number of factors it's not a guarantee. However, research on the
costs and benefits of green buildings provides evidence suggesting
that they yield a convincing return on investment in addition to other
forms of value. In this session USGBC and three leading experts will
give you the understanding you need to pres ent the business case for
green buildings, including addressing questions about return on
investment, project financing, cost planning, and value beyond cost
savings. Real estate owners, investors, and other building
professionals will leave this training with the knowledge they need to
shape initial project planning and financing.
Learning Objectives
Summarize the current state of cost, benefit and finance research for
new commercial and institutional green buildings.
Describe the various research methods that have been employed to
measure the costs and benefits of green building
Gain practical insights and guidance that you can apply to your own
building projects
Become conversant in the business case for green buildings and value
beyond cost savings, and address questions about project underwriting
and cost planning
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Tweeting the Revolution: agency, collective action, and the
negotiation of risk in a networked ageBeth Coleman, MIT
Tuesday, October 18, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/7000
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our
site shortly after.
This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective
action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where
personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation.
For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian
activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence,
witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is
based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny.
About Beth
Dr. Beth Coleman’s work focuses on the role of human agency in the
context of media and data engagement. She is currently a Harvard
University Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet and Society
and a visiting professor at the Institute of Network Cultures,
Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From 2005-2011, Coleman has been an
assistant professor of comparative media studies at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, where she is the primary investigator of the
Pervasive Media/City as Platform research and design lab. Her book
Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation is published by the MIT
Press. She received her B.A. in literature from Yale University and
her Ph.D in comparative literature from New York University.
------------------------
From Neighborhood Watch to Neighborhood Development: Transforming
Revolutionary Energy to Rebuild Egypt from the Ground Up
WHEN Tue., Oct. 18, 2011, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 38 Kirkland St, Room 102,
Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Mona Mowafi, research fellow, HSPH; chair, NEGMA Conference
CONTACT INFO Liz Flanagan: elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2833
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Debt Structure, Entrepreneurship and Risk: Evidence from Microfinance
Speaker: Rohini Pande (Harvard)
Time: 2:45p–4:00p
Location: at Harvard - Harvard Hall 104
Debt Structure, Entrepreneurship and Risk: Evidence from Microfinance
Web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82766&pageid=icb.page450594
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Development Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Convergence of Information Technology (IT) & Smart Energy Technology
(ET)
Speaker: Ahmad Bahai, Texas Instruments
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
MTL Seminar Series
MTL hosts a series of talks each semester known as the MTL Seminar
Series. Speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their
knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research,
manufacturing, or policy. The series is held on the MIT Campus during
the academic year on Tuesdays at 4:00 pm. The seminar series is open
to the public. Refreshments are served at 3:45 p.m.
Convergence of Energy and Communication technologies has prompted many
interesting research projects ranging from new power devices to signal
processing and software. In this talk, we focus on opportunities for
innovation in future energy management systems for mobile systems as
well as high voltage smart grid applications.
Web site: http://www-mtl.mit.edu/seminars/fall2011.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact:
Valerie Dinardo
253-9328
valeried at mit.edu
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Crystalline Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks: Opportunities in
Energy Research
Speaker: Mircea Dinca, MIT Department of Chemistry
Time: 4:15p–5:30p
Location: MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
MITEI Seminar Series
A year-long series of seminars given by leaders in the energy field
sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline solids wherein
inorganic nodes are connected by organic ligands to give rise to
highly ordered and monodisperse micropores with diameters ranging from
0.5 to ~ 2 nanometers. The micropores are responsible for
unprecedented surface areas occasionally exceeding 5000 m2/g, making
MOFs popular choices for energy applications in gas storage or
separation as well as potentially energy storage. The crystalline
nature of these materials also makes them attractive candidates for
studying photophysical phenomena in ordered and/or confined organic
chromophore aggregates. The various applications of MOFs in energy
research will be discussed.
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
----------------------------
The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-
Interest
Yochai Benkler, Berkman Center Faculty Co-Director
Tuesday, October 18, 6:00 pm
Austin West Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
Free and Open to the Public; RSVP required for those attending in
person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/10/benkler#RSVP
Co-hosted by the Harvard Law School Library
Reception to follow
Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks) is one of
the world’s top thinkers on cooperative structures. In his new book,
The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-
Interest, 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.
About Yochai
Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal
Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society. Since the 1990s he has played a part in
characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized
collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in
the networked economy and society. His work can be freely accessed athttp://benkler.org
.
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GreenPort Forum: The State of the Birds
With distinguished ornithologist Christopher Leahy. Chris holds the
Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at
the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He has been a professional
conservationist for more than thirty-five years, most recently as the
Director of Massachusetts Audubon’s Center for Biological
Conservation.
We all know that climate change is real and that weather patterns have
been more unpredictable than ever. How has climate change and other
environmental changes impacted the types and behaviors of local and
migrating birds? What can we expect as temperatures continue to warm?
The birdlife of Massachusetts is exceptionally rich, containing both a
great diversity of species and several populations of global
significance. However, it is also clear that in recent decades, many
Massachusetts bird populations have decreased significantly and
continue to decline. These declines are occurring not just among our
rarest species, but affect a broad spectrum of bird families in many
habitats and include some of the most familiar and beloved birds of
our backyards and countryside –birds that we tend to think of as
common. Please join us for a presentation and discussion by one of the
key authors of the just issued Mass Audubon report “The State of the
Birds” - http://www.massaudubon.org/StateoftheBirds/.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:00pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church
459 Putnam Av, Cambrige
(corner of Magazine St. and Putnam Av)
GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable
Cambridgeport neighborhood
For more information, contact Steve Morr-Wineman at swineman at gis.net
----------------------------
Join us next Wednesday, October 19 at 11am EDT / 4pm PDT for an
interactive webinar about organizing a Resilience Circle!
Register at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/128380358
We’ll talk about how to start a group for your community or
congregation, including:
• finding an organizing partner
• finding participants through "base communities" and the "linking
method"
• how to show the idea of a club or circle with others
• some notes on the curriculum
You will receive a confirmation email after registering with
information about how to join the webinar. View system requirements
below.
Before the webinar, please take 10 - 15 minutes to familiarize
yourself with the Resilience Circle seven-session curriculum.
Contact us (info at localcircles.org) for an electronic copy.
Register for the free webinar here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/128380358
Onward,
Sarah Byrnes
System Requirements:
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows(R) 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Macintosh(R)-based attendees
Required: Mac OS(R) X 10.4.11 (Tiger(R)) or newer
Resilience Circles (also called Common Security Clubs) strengthen
communities, allowing neighbors to come together to get to know each
another, find inspiration, and have fun while preparing for economic
change. Our website is http://localcircles.org/.
----------------------------
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Disobedience Archive, a Talk by Marco Scotini
Speaker: Marco Scotini
Time: 4:00p–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames
Street
At a time when many still consider the reterritorialisation of the
classic Left as a possible response to the advancing neo-capitalistic
cultural barbarism, Disobedience, an ongoing video archive aims to
provide an alternative model of thought and action, which is wide-
reaching, though the archive is limited in its space-time dimensions.
It is an investigation into practices of artistic activism that
emerged after the fall of the Soviet bloc, which paved the way for new
ways of being, saying, and doing.
Marco Scotini is a curator and art critic based in Milan. He is the
director of the BA and MA of Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at
NABA in Milan, curator of Gianni Colombo Archive and editor of the
magazine No Order - Art in a Post-fordist Society.
Supported in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT, the Program in
Art, Culture and Technology, and NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti,
Milano.
Web site: act.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public.
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan Pallone
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Meet 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner, Carl Dietrich
Speaker: Carl Dietrich Co-Founder of Terrafugia
Time: 4:00p–5:30p
Location: MIT, Building W20, Student Center Plaza
What: 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner, Carl Dietrich Co-Founder
of Terrafugia: http://www.terrafugia.com/
When: Wednesday, October 19th, 2011, 4-5:30 pm
Where: Student Center Plaza
Contact: Shannon O'Brien (617.258.5798)
Come see Terrafugia's "roadable aircraft," the Transition??
Learn about the L-MIT Student Prize: http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-student.html
Enjoy donuts and apple cider!
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Campus Events
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club energy-events at mit.edu
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Ice on a Slippery Slope: The Role of Meltwater Beneath Glaciers
Speaker: Dr. Ian Hewitt, Mathematics Department, University of British
Columbia
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 54-915
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/news/dls.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Jacqui Taylor
617-253-2127
jtaylor at mit.edu
---------------------------
Boston Quantitative Self Meet-Up #7: Measuring the Infinite (on
meditation and the brain)
Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 7:30 PM
SELECTED BY: MICHAEL NAGLE
Sprout, 339R Summer St, Somerville, MA
Hi Boston QS! Our next meetup is scheduled for October 19th, at 7:30
p.m. It's entitled "Measuring the Infinite" -- and is looking at
different ways people measure their meditation practices and broadly
looking at neurofeedback. Speakers will include Rohan Dixit of http://www.brainbot.me
, Cathy Kerr, a researcher at Harvard Medical who studies the
neuroscience of meditation and touch (http://www.osher.hms.harvard.edu/kerrlab/index.htm
), and others with personal meditation projects. If you have a data
set of project you'd like to present, please let me know! There's
still room, and I think some of the best talks are the ones that are
simple & personal anecdotes. For people who are excited by the broader
QS movement, QS co-founder & WIRED editor Gary Wolf'll be at the
event. Note that we're starting a little later than usual. Feel free
to drop in earlier, and people will also be welcome to hang out
afterwards. See you there!
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/bostonQS/events/36541612/?a=ea1.2_grp&rv=ea1.2
----------------------------
October 20, 2011
2:30 pm
Haller Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
"Arctic Armageddon? Can microbial methane oxidation prevent runaway
methane release?" with William S. Reeburgh, Professor of Marine and
Terrestrial Biogeochemistry, University of California Irvine.
Bill Reeburgh received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the
University of Oklahoma in 1961, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in
oceanography from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 and 1967. Before
joining the UCI faculty he was Professor of Marine Science at the
University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is the editor of the American
Geophysical Union journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles. His work is
sponsored by NSF, EPA, NASA and DOE. Visit: http://www.ess.uci.edu/~reeburgh/
Contact Name: Lisa Matthews
lisa_matthews at harvard.edu
----------------------------
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Starr Forum: Border Security in the 21st Century
Speaker: Alan Bersin, Chappell Lawson
Time: 4:30p–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Alan Bersin and Chappell Lawson will speak on border security in the
21st century. Q&A will follow the discussion.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Alan Bersin, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection with
the Obama Administration.
Chappell Lawson, Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and
Director of MISTI
(Professor Lawson served as Executive Director and Senior Advisor to
the Commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection from Sept 2009
- Feb 2011)
This event is Free and Open to the Public.
More details to come.
Web site:http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_100611_bordersecurity.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MISTI, MIT-Mexico Program
For more information, contact:
starrforum at mit.edu
---------------------------
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Earth's Surprising Climate History
Speaker: Paul Hoffman, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology Emeritus at
Harvard University
Time: 6:30p–8:00p
Location: MIT, Building 32-123
The Lorenz Center presents: The John Carlson Lecture Series
The John Carlson Lecture communicates exciting new results in climate
science to the general public. Free of charge, the lecture is made
possible by a generous gift from MIT alumnus John H. Carlson to the
Lorenz Center at MIT.
6:30p.m. Community Reception
7:00p.m. Lecture
Lecture summary - The geological record shows that Earth's climate has
changed in dramatic and surprising ways. Harvard geologist Paul
Hoffman will share his fascination with the give and take between
those who discovered the ancient changes and those struggling to
develop theories of climate change. His story ranges from the
beginnings of climate change as a science to his own involvement in
the controversy over the ultimate climatic disturbance: snowball Earth.
Web site:http://web.mit.edu/science/events/john_carlson_lecture.pdf
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT School of Science
For more information, contact:
Shira Wieder
617-253-8055
swieder at mit.edu
---------------------------
Writing for the Environment
WHEN Thu., Oct. 20, 2011, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE First Parish in Cambridge, Mass Ave at Church Street, Cambridge
MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies, Environmental Sciences,
Humanities, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cambridge Forum, PEN-New England
SPEAKER(S) Renee Loth and a panel of environmental writers, including
Bill McKibben
Wendell Barry, award recipient
COST Free
CONTACT INFO director at cambridgeforum.org
617.495.2727
NOTE PEN-New England presents its Howard Zinn Award and its Vasyl
Stus Freedom to Write Award
LINK http://www.cambridgeforum.org
------------------------------
Oct 21-23, 2011: Social Movements/Digital Revolutions - Conference for
Organizers & Activists
SM/DR is being called to look at new developments in technology,
social media, journalism and the creative world* from the perspective
of grassroots movements for social justice. *We?re also interested to
discuss and debate some of the key issues facing creators and
progressive organizers today.
The conference will kick off on Friday Oct. 21st at MIT Room 10-250
with a Town Hall Meeting on Media and Democracy. The event will
feature an expert panel - including New York Times' Brian Stelter and
Free Press' Craig Aaron - that will reflect on the future of
journalism, media and democracy through the lens of the new
documentary Page One.
With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and
newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, Page One chronicles
the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest
turmoil. A number of clips from the film will be shown, each will be
discussed by the panel in turn, then the floor will be turned over to
the audience to help determine what this development means for our
democracy - and for grassroots social movements working to revive it.
The conference proper will begin on Saturday Oct. 22nd at Lesley
University's Doble Campus, and will feature panels focusing on our
Social Movements/Digital Revolutions theme. The rest of the weekend
will be filled out with a number of workshops on related topics and
practical tutorials on social media and digital media.
From activists looking for an introduction to our crucial
technologies to experience electronic campaigners, the conference will
have many opportunities to learn and grow. It will also feature
plenaries involving activists from Madison, WI, from England's student
movement and Egypt's democracy movement; among our workshops will be
sessions on Wikileaks and its local implementations, the use of
Facebook to challenge deportations, hands-on privacy exercises, and
the like.
Join in on October 21, 22 and 23!
Conference website: http://digitalmediaconference.org
Download conference flyers here: http://bit.ly/oLQdOu
------------------------------
Reimagining the City-University Connection: Integrating Research,
Policy, and Practice
WHEN Fri., Oct. 21, 2011, 8:45 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10
Garden Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education, Ethics, Humanities, Law,
Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Radcliffe Institute for
Advanced Study in collaboration with the Rappaport Institute for
Greater Boston, and the city of Boston
COST Free; registration is required: http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?424639
CONTACT INFO 617.495.8600
NOTE “Reimagining the City-University Connection” seeks to promote
a new kind of partnership by stimulating mutually beneficial research
and policy relationships involving Harvard and other universities with
Boston and other cities and towns in greater Boston. Scholars and
practitioners from a variety of fields and communities will explore
accomplishments of—and lessons from—several notable university/city
initiatives. The symposium will create novel opportunities to
strengthen existing collaborations and to begin to develop new ones—
particularly those that cross academic disciplines and bureaucratic
boundaries.
Registration is required: http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?424639
LINK http://www.reimagining-the-city-university-connection.com
---------------------------
Friday, October 21, 2011
Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon
Speaker: Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental
Planning and Danya Rumore, PHD Candidate, DUSP
Time: 12:00p–2:00p
Location: MIT, Building 7-338, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon
Sensitive Coastal Environments
There are seventeen National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) in
the United States. These are coastal areas where salt water and fresh
water meet. The four New England Reserves are trying to figure out how
to engage the public in figuring out the best way to respond to
climate change risks. The Science Impact Collaborative is designing a
supportive public educational program to accomplish this.
Web site: http://waterdiplomacy.org/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): EPP, DUSP
For more information, contact:
Nina Tamburello
617.253.1509
ninat at mit.edu
---------------------------
Friday, October 21, 2011
MIT Energy Night
Time: 5:00p–8:30p
Location: MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge
The MIT Energy Night is one of the flagship events of the MIT Energy
Club. The MIT Energy Night is hosted every year at the MIT Museum and
1000+ visitors come together to share their interest in energy. The
purpose of the MIT Energy Night is to showcase the latest energy
related research, technology innovation and entrepreneurship at MIT.
Web site: energynight.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Night, MIT Energy Club, MIT Energy Club- Energy
Night Subgroup
For more information, contact:
Christina Karapataki
857-445-8553
ck333 at mit.edu
---------------------------
Free Event - "A Robot Sent to Destroy Me": The New Media Invasion and
the Future of News, 10/21, 7 p.m.
http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/2047
by Jason Pramas
* <http://www.openmediaboston.org/taxonomy/term/235>
So, ok, the official title of the event is the *Town Hall Meeting on
Media and Democracy* <http://civic.mit.edu/event/town-hall-meeting-on-media-and-democracy
>. But we thought that sounded too low-key; so we decided to zip up
our promotions a bit this week.??Anyhow, Open Media Boston and the other
event co-sponsors - *Free Press* <http://www.freepress.net/>, *Lesley
University* <http://www.lesley.edu/>, *Mass. Global Action* <http://www.massglobalaction.org/
>, *MIT Center for Civic Media* <http://civic.mit.edu/>, and *MIT
Comparative Media Studies* <http://cms.mit.edu/> - are pleased to
invite everyone who wonders about what the rise of social media means
for the future of journalism to come to the famed lecture hall *MIT
Room 10-250* <http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=10> (Building 10, 2nd floor,
Room 250) at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 21st and join us for a fun,
informative discussion. The evening will be hosted by the *Boston
Media Reform Network* <file://localhost/bostonmediareform> with
support from
*Participant Media* <http://www.participantmedia.com/>.
The documentary *Page One: Inside the New York Times* <http://www.takepart.com/pageone
>, which chronicles the transformation of the media industry in the
face of changing economic and technological realities, will frame the
conversation. We will explore how the shifting media landscape impacts
our democracy, and what that means for the news and information needs
of local communities, especially in Boston. Clips from the film will
be shown, several media experts will be asked to share their thoughts
and experience on this changing landscape, and audience participation
will be strongly encouraged.
And how about those media experts? We'll have *Brian Stelter* <http://www.brianstelter.com/
> of the New York Times (who is featured in Page One), *Cindy
Rodriguez* <http://cindyerodriguez.com/> from Emerson College, *Sasha
Constanza-Chock* <http://schock.cc/> from the MIT Center for Civic
Media and MIT Comparative Media Studies, and *Craig Aaron* <http://www.freepress.net/node/122
> from Free Press. *I will be* <http://about.me/jpramas> moderating.
Plus we might have some extra special guests on hand.
Incidentally, the quote in the title of this editorial refers to
something that *David Carr* <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/bio-carr.html
> of the New York
Times media desk says about his colleague Brian Stelter in Page One.
It's a funny scene that reflects the passing of the torch from older
reporters like Carr to younger social media savvy ones like Stelter,
and one of the big reasons we thought it would be a blast to build
this event around the film.
This panel is also the opening event of the *Social Movements/Digital
Revolutions conference* <http://www.digitalmediaconference.org/> -
which we'd love you all to attend. We've *already written about that* <http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/1996
> in detail in these pages, but we'll be putting out a special
editorial on it next week - with a list of speakers and workshops.
Given the role that social media is playing in the rise of the #Occupy
movement nationally, and in the global wave of uprisings from which it
sprung, we think this conversation could hardly be more timely. So we
strongly encourage *#OccupyBoston* <http://www.occupyboston.com/>
folks to come on over to the both the opening panel on Friday, October
21st and the main conference on Saturday, October 22nd.
That's it for now. If anyone has any questions about either event,
just email us at OMB ... info [at] openmediaboston [dot] org. And if
you're coming on the 21st, we'd appreciate it if *you would RSVP* <http://act2.freepress.net/survey/townhall_media_Boston
> so we'll have an idea of how many folks are definitely planning to
attend. Thanks!
/Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston/
----------------------------
2011 Energy Symposium
WHEN Sat., Oct. 22, 2011, 8 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Spangler & Aldrich, Harvard Business School campus
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Conferences, Environmental Sciences,
Exhibitions
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HBS Energy & Environment Club
SPEAKER(S) More than 30 panelists from a range of areas involved in
the energy sector including: conventional, cleantech, investing, start-
ups, consultancy & policy
COST Club members: $15; any students & Harvard affiliates: $25;
industry professionals: $50
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.harvardenergyclub.org/symposium_tickets/
TICKET INFO Online purchase only
CONTACT INFO Lee Hodder: lhodder at mba2012.hbs.edu, Evan Hindman: ehindman at mba2012.hbs.edu
LINK http://www.harvardenergyclub.org/symposium_tickets/
Editorial Comment: Most of the events here are free. There are
sometimes exceptions. A reasonably priced symposium on energy
organized by students at Harvard Business School seems like a useful
exception.
----------------------------
Saturday, October 22, 2011
MIT Press Bookstore Loading Dock Sale
Speaker: Huge Savings!
Time: 10:00a–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building E38, 292 Main Street, Kendall Sq., Cambridge
Literally *tons* of books will be on sale at drastically reduced
prices--up to 90% off their original retail price. Come enjoy huge
savings on slightly worn and overstock books from the MIT Press and
other fine publishers. It's a feeding frenzy for the brain!
Saturday will again be the "no-book-dealers" day. MIT or other
University id will be required for admittance. Please see the website
for more information, or email us with questions.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/docksale.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact:
The MIT Press Bookstore
617-253-5249
books at mit.edu
-----------------------------
Monday, October 24, 2011
12 pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Energy Technology Innovation Policy/ Consortium for Energy Policy
Research
Energy Policy Seminar Series:
Trevor Houser, Peterson Institute for International Economics,
"China’s energy future"
Lunch with be provided.
http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-10-24/energy-policy-seminar
-----------------------------
A World Without Superpowers
WHEN Mon., Oct. 24, 2011, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Littauer 166, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Barry Buzan, Montague Burton Professor Emeritus,
Department of International Relations, London School of Economics
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5602/world_without_superpowers.html
-----------------------------
October 24, 2011
12 pm
Cabot 102, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 160 Packard Avenue,
Medford, MA
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy’s Road
to Durban Speaker Series presents:
Climate Governance at the Crossroads: Experimenting with a Global
Response after Kyoto
A book talk with Matthew J. Hoffman, Associate Professor of Political
Science, University of Toronto
RSVP required. Sign up at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2286262272
Description: The global response to climate change has reached a
critical juncture. Since the 1992 signing of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, the nations of the world have
attempted to address climate change through large-scale multilateral
treaty-making. These efforts have been heroic, but disappointing. As
evidence for the quickening pace of climate change mounts, the treaty-
making process has sputtered, and many are now skeptical about the
prospect of an effective global response. Yet global treaty-making is
not the only way that climate change can be addressed or, indeed, is
being addressed. This book provides an exciting new perspective on the
politics of climate change and the means to understand and influence
how the global response to climate change will unfold in the coming
years.
This is the first in a series of speakers discussing the climate
negotiations that will take place November 28 to December 9 this year
in Durban, South Africa.
Contact Name:
Miranda Fasulo
617.627.2778
------------------------------
Monday, October 24, 3–4:30 p.m.
"Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against
Al Qaeda."
Seminar with Eric Schmitt, terrorism correspondent for The New York
Times, and Thom Shanker, Pentagon correspondent for The New York
Times. Co-sponsored with the Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs. Moderators: Alex S. Jones, director,
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and
Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International
Affairs, Belfer Center.
Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
-----------------------------
What Can Cloud Do for You?
Monday, October 24, 2011, 7:00 PM
Microsoft NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (map)
The Topic: You’ve probably seen the “to the cloud” commercial
and are aware of the hype that makes cloud computing sound like the
next best thing since sliced bread, but do you really know what cloud
computing is? And what it’s not? When does it make sense? And when
doesn’t it? What does it mean to us as software developers, startup
entrepreneurs, and end-users? And how do you sort through all of the
vendors and offerings to determine whose cloud portfolio offers the
most value to you? We’ll look at all of these questions and more as
we spend the evening navigating through the cloudscape.
Meet the Presenter: Jim O’Neil is a Developer Evangelist for
Microsoft covering New England and Upstate New York. For the past two
years or so, he’s been focused on educating developers on the
technologies, architectures, and value propositions of cloud
computing. Most recently he’s presented on cloud computing and
Windows Azure at Sybase TechWave, The Best of TechEd (Rochester), and
MongoBoston.
Boston Tech Event Schedule:
6:30 - 7:15: Free pizza and networking
7:16- 8:00: Jim O'Neil's Presentation on What can Cloud Do for You?
8:01 - ?: Talking the Boston tech job market with experts
fromWorkbridge Associates and Jobspring Partners
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/BostonTech/events/33357482/
-----------------------------
Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the
International Atomic Energy Agency
WHEN Tue., Oct. 25, 2011, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Trevor Findlay, research fellow, Project on Managing the
Atom/International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5618/unleashing_the_nuclear_watchdog.html
-----------------------------
Tuesday, October 25, 12 p.m.
"From Uprisings in the Arab World to Social Unrest in London: The New
Media Ecology and Citizen/State Dynamics in the 21st Century."
Speaker Series with Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the School
of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. She blogs at technosociology.org.
Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
-----------------------------
Doing Science in the Open
Michael Nielsen, author and an advocate of open science
Tuesday, October 25, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/10/nielsen#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our
site shortly after.
From Michael: I'll start this talk by describing the Polymath
Project, an ongoing experiment in "massively collaborative"
mathematical problem solving. The idea is to use online tools --
things like blogs and wikis -- to collaboratively attack difficult
mathematical problems. By combining the best ideas of many minds from
all over the world, the Polymath Project has made breakthroughs on
important mathematical problems.
What makes this an exciting story is that it's about much more than
just solving some mathematical problems. Rather, the story suggests
that online tools can be used to transform the way we humans work
together to make scientific discoveries. We can use online tools to
amplify our collective intelligence, in much the same way as for
millenia we've used physical tools to amplify our strength. This has
the potential to accelerate scientific discovery across all disciplines.
This is an optimistic story, but there's a major catch. Scientists
have for the most part been extremely extremely conservative in how
they use the net, often using it for little more than email and
passive web browsing. Projects like Polymath are the exception not
the rule. I'll discuss why this conservatism is so common, why it's
so damaging, and how we can move to a more open scientific culture.
About Michael
Michael Nielsen is an author and an advocate of open science. His
book about open science, Reinventing Discovery, will be published by
Princeton University Press in October, 2011. Prior to his book,
Michael was an internationally known scientist who helped pioneer the
field of quantum computation. He co-authored the standard text in the
field, and wrote more than 50 scientific papers, including invited
contributions to Nature and Scientific American. His work on quantum
teleportation was recognized in Science Magazine's list of the Top Ten
Breakthroughs of 1998. Michael was educated at the University of
Queensland, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New
Mexico. He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as the Richard
Chace Tolman Prize Fellow at Caltech, was Foundation Professor of
Quantum Information Science and a Federation Fellow at the University
of Queensland, and a Senior Faculty Member at the Perimeter Institute
for Theoretical Physics. In 2008, he gave up his tenured position to
work fulltime on open science.
-----------------------------
Civilian Deaths in War: Why They Matter
WHEN Tue., Oct. 25, 2011, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge,
502, Boston, MA 02115
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Injury Control Research Center
SPEAKER(S) John Tirman, executive director and principal research
scientist of the MIT Center for International Studies; author of "The
Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars"
COST Free
CONTACT INFO hicrc at hsph.harvard.edu
NOTE Open to the public.
Refreshments will be provided.
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/seminar-series/
------------------------------
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
The Spillover Effects of Organized Crime:Evidence from the Mexican
Drug War
Speaker: Melissa Dell (MIT Ph.D.)
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
The Spillover Effects of Organized Crime:Evidence from the Mexican
Drug War
Web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82766&pageid=icb.page450594
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Development Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
----------------------------
Tuesday, October 25, 4:30–6 p.m.
"Political Polarization and Ideas for Restoring Civility to Government
in 2012."
Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on Negotiation, Conflict and the News Media
with Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History
at Harvard University, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of
The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle
over American History; and Mark McKinnon, Reidy Fellow at the
Shorenstein Center and comunications strategist to President George W.
Bush, Senator John McCain, and Governor Ann Richards. Co-sponsored
with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Program on
Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Nieman Foundation and the
Shorenstein Center.
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 1737 Cambridge Street,
Room N-354
-------------
***********
Upcoming
-------------
***********
Boston World Partnerships Hosts:
The Innovation Express, a rolling networking event along the Red Line
on Thursday, October 27th.
Join us in the last car of the Red Line as we travel from JFK/UMass to
Davis and back to Kendall Square’s Cambridge Innovation Center, with
stops along the way to hear from and meet Boston and Cambridge’s most
innovative people.
Learn about the newest trends in our entrepreneurial community and
plug in with the people behind them!
All you have to do is:
1. Head to your nearest Red Line T stop and look for Innovation
Express signs
2. Hop on with us in the last car
AND
3. Come prepared to meet and connect with Boston and Cambridge’s
finest!
The Innovation Express starts rolling at 1pm from JFK/UMass. Please
keep an eye on your inbox for schedule of station visits.
When: Thursday, October 27th
Where: Event kicks off at the JFK/UMass platform and ends with a
networking event at the Cambridge Innovation Center
Time: 1:00pm - Event begins at JFK/UMass platform
2:30pm - Networking finale at the Cambridge Innovation
Center
Cost: Free
Follow this event on Twitter via our handle @ThinkingBoston or the
event hashtag #InnoExpress
Pitch Your Company
We've partnered with Pixability to offer start-ups a chance to have
their elevator pitches professionally video-taped at the event finale
at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Each start-up will be given 3
takes on a 60-90 second pitch of their company. Space is limited, so
reserve your spot by selecting "Yes" under the video option when you
register for this event at http://innovationexpress.eventbrite.com/
-----------------------------
October 28, 2011
New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents: The
Promise and Reality of "Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"
Raab Associates presents:
The 125th NE Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Time: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston, MA 02210
***Free and open to the public with no advanced registration***
October 28, 2011 Roundtable:
The Promise and Reality of
"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"
"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing" are emerging nationally and locally
here
in New England as "hot" topics. Smart grid at the distribution-to-
customer interface promises a range of benefits, from better outage
management, to energy savings from improved voltage modulation, to a
variety of opportunities created by advanced metering. Dynamic
pricing, which entails
a closer matching of rates to actual time-differentiated costs, runs
the gamut from time-of-use rates to real-time pricing.
Our first panel is focused primarily on the broader smart grid issues.
David O'Brien, former Commissioner of Vermont's Department of Public
Service and current Director of Regulatory Strategy at BRIDGE Energy
Group, will set the stage by defining smart grid and its various value
propositions, and describing the mass deployment of advanced metering
by utilities in Vermont. Arepresentative of Oklahoma Gas and Electric,
recipient of one of the largest U.S. DOE Smart Grid Grants, will then
describe its recent full-court press on installing a wide range of
smart grid-related technologies and its pilot on dynamic pricing.
Next, Doug Horton, Smart Grid Project Manager at NSTAR, and Cheri
Warren,VP of Asset Management at National Grid, will describe
theirrespective smart grid pilots. NSTAR's includes a program to
integrate distributed resources into downtown networks, and another to
test dynamic pricing using its existing AMR meters coupled with
wireless communication. National Grid will share what it learned at
its smart grid summit in Worcester in September, and provide a preview
of its upcoming smart grid pilot.
Our second panel focuses in greater depth on national trends on
dynamic pricing. Our lead off speaker, Ahmad Faruqui, a Principal at
the Brattle Group and a national expert on dynamic pricing, will share
his conclusions from analyzing all the dynamic pricing pilots
nationwide. Commissioner Rick Morgan, of the Washington D.C. PUC and
the author of a recent article, "Rethinking Dumb Rates," will discuss
what he learned from D.C's PowerCentsDC™ pilot on dynamic pricing,
and where D.C. plans to go next on advanced metering and dynamic
pricing.Nancy Brockway, former NH PUC Commissioner, MA DPU General
Counsel, and long-time low-income consumer advocate, will close the
panel by sharing some of her concerns about various aspects of dynamic
pricing.
September 16 Roundtable Presentations Online
Speakers' presentations from our September 16th Roundtable, FERC Order
1000 (Transmission Planning & Cost Allocation Requirements);and Future
of Solar in New England, are available on our website: http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp?sel=108
-------------------------
Visit GlobeLab: The Boston Globe's take on the (near) future of news
Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 7:00 PM
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA
Chris Marstall, the Boston Globe’s creative technologist, is throwing
open the doors to GlobeLab, the news organization’s space for
exploring how news is changing. In his words: “We're a space at the
Boston Globe dedicated to understanding, imagining and demonstrating
the (near) future of news & advertising.
“Current projects include wall-screen-sized instagram and twitter
visualizations, a next-gen TV app, a device synchronizer and a
newsroom information radiator. For more information, check out our
recent Nieman Journalism Lab profile or follow us @GlobeLab.”
RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/35976432/?a=ea1.2_lnm&eventId=35976432&action=detail&rv=ea1.2&rv=ea1.2
------------------------------
TEDxCambridge Presents: Thrive
November 19, 2011, Harvard University
You have to apply to attend at http://www.tedxcambridge.com/thrive/
*************
----------------
Opportunity
---------------
*************
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.
*********
-----------
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/
********************************************
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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