[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events

George Mokray gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Jan 15 17:01:18 PST 2012


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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Solar as a Cottage Industry  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/15/1055035/-Solar-as-a-Cottage-Industry

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Hacker Movies!
Mon Jan 16
6-10:00pm
MIT, Building E15-344, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

The Wunderkids
War Games (1983)
Hackers (1995)

Since the 1980's, hackers have been a favorite subject of Hollywood  
and television. In this film series, we'll be watching some classic  
(and not so classic) examples from the genre, looking at how the  
depiction of hacker characters has changed over time. After the  
screenings, we'll adjourn for an informal discussion about how these  
different perspectives reflect changes in how hackers are viewed by  
mainstream society, and connections between popular culture depictions  
of hackers and federal computer crime statutes and prosecutions. Also  
featured: popcorn! A collection will be taken up for pizza when people  
are hungry. Come see the movies you like, and stay as long as you like.

Contact: Molly Sauter, (267) 337-3861, msauter at MIT.EDU
Sponsor: Comparative Media Studies

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What is MassChallenge?  When can I apply?
January 17, 2012
12pm - 1pm
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA

Please join us for an information session and lunch at Cambridge  
Innovation Center
Pizza and drinks on us

RSVP at http://mcinfosessioncic117-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=18

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Suggestions?
events at masschallenge.org

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Impacts of a Changing Climate
Tue Jan 17
1-02:00pm
MIT, Building E51-335, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Martin Singh, Megan Lickley, Arthur Gueneau

We have just lived through a year of "weird weather", with a record  
dozen disasters causing over a billion-plus dollars in damages -- and  
this is just in the U.S.. The Globe and other media has written that  
weather is just "unpredictable", a period of "bad luck", an  
exaggerated El Nino: are they right? Is the weather unpredictable, or  
is it a pattern that we need to better understand?

Clearly, it is time to become more aware of the consequences of the  
changes that we are making in our atmosphere and oceans, and to start  
with a better understanding of how our weather is created.

Web: http://globalchange.mit.edu/news/event-item.php?id=470
Contact: Megan Lickley, E19-411, mlickley at mit.edu
Sponsor: Joint Program/Science and Policy of Global Change
Cosponsor: Center for Global Change Science

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Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Poverty and Prosperity
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E51-335, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daron Acemoglu (MIT)

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Economics Other Events IAP

For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu

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Tour of Harvard's Newest Green Laboratory
January 17, 2012
  4:00pm - 5:00pm
Sherman Fairchild Building, 7 Divinity Ave, Cambridge

Join us for a tour of Harvard's newest and greenest laboratory  
building. Sherman-Fairchild (home of the Stem Cell and Regenerative  
Biology Department) opened this summer and features a number of unique  
features, including chilled beams, a grey-water reuse system, a heat  
recovery system, and state-of-the-art lighting technology.

RSVP by January 15.
http://green.harvard.edu/go-green-during-wintersession
Contact Name: gosia_sklodowska at harvard.edu

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"Using smartphones to bring people and causes together"
Tuesday, January 17th, 2011
4:30 - 6:00 pm
Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Belfer Building, Kennedy  
School of Government, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Featured guest: Greg McHale, founder of good2gether

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GreenPort Forum
Tuesday, January 17 at 7pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church, 459 Putnam Ave at the corner of Magazine  
Street, Cambridge

Historical Alewife Restoration Project
Presented by Ellen Mass, President, Friends of Alewife Reservation

Clarification:  The main focus of this presentation will be the storm  
water wetlands restoration project.  The impact of the proposed  
removal of the silver maple forest on the storm water project has not  
yet been scientifically established.  The forum may include discussion  
of the silver maple forest and likely impacts of its removal, but with  
clarity that there is no scientific claim that removal of the forest  
will ruin the stormwater project.

More information about the wetlands restoration project is available athttp://friendsofalewifereservation.org/2011-12-19-stormwater-wetland-construction-progress.htm

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Discovering Opportunities for Saving Energy in Buildings
January 18, 2012
10:00am - 12:30pm
New College Theater, 12 Holyoke Street, Cambridge
Interested in learning more about building energy efficiency and the  
steps Harvard is taking to reduce energy consumption in buildings?  
Join the Harvard Energy Audit Team as they conduct an ASHRAE Level II  
energy audit of The New College Theater.

http://green.harvard.edu/go-green-during-wintersession

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Collective Intelligence 101
Wed Jan 18
10:30am-01:00pm
MIT, Building E62-450, 100 Main Street, Cambridge

Yiftach Nagar
Yiftach Nagar is a Doctoral Candidate at Sloan, working at the MIT  
Center for Collective Intelligence.

If you are curious, or puzzled about what “collective intelligence”  
means, in both research and practice, here you will learn what a lot  
of other people have said, and probably get even more confused! I will  
try, however, to create a comprehensive and cohesive picture by  
synthesizing:
1. Theoretical Ideas (spanning philosophy of mind, distributed  
cognition, psychology and… robotics),
2. Empirical Evidence (including neuro-science and social psychology),  
and
3. Applications and Implications for research and practice.

No background needed. This may be of interest to students and guests  
from any discipline.

Web: http://web.mit.edu/~ynagar/www/teaching/IAP2012/IAP2012.htm
Contact: Yiftach Nagar, ynagar at mit.edu
Sponsor: Yiftach Nagar, E62-427, ynagar at mit.edu

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Steps to Limit Future Global Financial Crises
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
1:00p–2:30p
MIT, Building E51-315, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Peter Diamond (MIT)
Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Economics Other Events IAP

For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu

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Random Matrix Theory: Cutting edge research and applications in  
science, engineering, and finance

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

1:00p–2:30p

MIT, Buidling 2-190, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Alan Edelman

Mathematics Lecture Series

Random matrix theory is the natural third member of the sequence:  
scalar probability, vector probability, matrix probability. It came  
last because it was harder, but it is also richer. Pure mathematics  
loves that there is still so much to discover. New applications are  
found every day. Learn a bit today and even more in 18.338 this  
upcoming semester.

Web site: math.mit.edu/classes/18.095/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Mathematics, Department of
For more information, contact:
Sheel Ganatra
617-253-4094
ganatra at math.mit.edu

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Harvard Steam Plant Tour

Thursday, January 18

3:00pm - 4:00pm
Courtyard, 46 Blackstone Street, Cambridge
Learn about the underpinnings of our campus operations by visiting  
Harvard's steam plant and learning about its energy efficiency  
upgrades, witnessing boilers and a steam turbine generator at work,  
and walking through the tunnels.

RSVP by January 15.
http://green.harvard.edu/go-green-during-wintersession
Contact Name: Gosia_sklodowska at harvard.edu

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Photonic Integrated Devices, Circuits, and Subsystems
January 18, 2012
4:00 pm
Room 339, Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston

Jonathan Klamkin

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) offer a means to greatly reduce  
the size, weight, power, and cost, and increase performance and  
reliability of photonic systems. This talk will describe several  
examples of PICs and novel photonic devices including widely-tunable  
wavelength converters, coherent receivers, high-power photodiodes, and  
high-power laser transmitters. The applications for these circuits and  
devices range from wavelength-division-multiplexed systems to antenna  
remoting to long-haul free-space laser communications. The talk will  
also describe recent efforts to establish photonics foundries in both  
the United States and Eu-
rope.

Jonathan Klamkin received the B.S. degree in Electrical and Computer  
Engineering (ECE) from Cornell University in 2002, and the M.S. in ECE  
and Ph.D. in Electronic Materials from the University of California  
Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2004 and 2008 respectively. From 2001-2002 he  
worked at BinOptics Corp. At UCSB he devel-
oped widely-tunable semiconductor lasers, photodetectors, modulators  
and semiconductor optical amplifiers for InP-based photonic integrated  
circuits including coherent receivers and wavelength converters. From  
2008-2011 he was a member of the Technical Staff in the Electrooptical  
Materials and Devices Group at MIT
Lincoln Laboratory. There he served as a principal investigator for  
several programs funded by the US Air Force and the Defense Advanced  
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on photonic integrated circuits for  
microwave photonics and free-space laser communications. Since  
September 2011, has been an Erasmus Mundus Visit-
ing Professor Scholar at the Institute of Communication, Information  
and Perception Technologies, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna,
Pisa, Italy.

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Energy Projects Showcase

January 18, 2012

4:00p–5:30p

MIT, Lobby 10, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Come see what students are doing in energy! Learn all about the Solar  
Car. Interested in clean tech? Learn how to get involved in the Clean  
Energy Prize competition!

Sponsored by:  MIT Energy Initiative, MIT Energy Club

Admission:  Open to the public

Contact Lucy Fan

yinglfan at mit.edu


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Challenges facing renewable energy technologies in 2012: A panel-led  
discussion
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
6:00 PM
CIC - (Cambridge Innovation Center) - 5th floor - Havana Conference  
Room, 1 Broadway, Cambridge

Initial details to hold the date while we wait for final confirmation  
from panelists /speakers.  This will be a lively group and panel  
discussion of the challenges facing renewable energies in 2012 - more  
details to follow as we get confirmations.

RSVP http://www.meetup.com/H2O-Boston-Water-and-Energy-Technology-Meetup/events/43917192/

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Simple Light

Wednesday, January 18

6:30-8:30 pm

Margaret Fuller House, 71 Cherry Street, Cambridge (off of Main Street  
in Central Square)

Hello Activists looking for work,

Our first meeting will be Wednesday Jan 18 6:30 - 8:30 pm at Margaret  
Fuller House 71 Cherry Street off of Main Street in Central Square.
It is a first meeting with actual and potential sales people  
installation people, and managers. All are welcome and we can talk  
about everything we are working on currently, what is in the pipe  
line, and how we are working together for each others benefit as well  
as ourselves.

Our demo kit shows it all and we have marketing material and sales  
support  material. There is a back office in NJ that generates  
proposals,  1/2  down with acceptable proposal, bulbs and self ballast  
are  shipped and rest of payment is due on delivery. Team installs and  
cleans  up.  Everyone  gets  a piece of the sale, and we have a lot  
of  product to work with.

David Fillingham dfillingham at grrex.com
617 230-1904

Bring science to reality
All kinds of lighting, self balasted and retrofitted.
Part of a group of inventors focusing on low tech solutions.

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Wind Energy 101 - An introduction to wind power technology

Thursday, January 19, 2012

11:00a–12:00p

MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Alex Kalmikov

In recent years, wind energy has evolved from an emerging energy  
alternative into a global, rapidly maturing industry competitive with  
conventional energy sources. Come to learn about the technology that  
enabled this transition, allowing clean, emissions-free harvesting of  
the renewable wind resource.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/wepa/wepa.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative, Mechanical Engineering Dept.
For more information, contact:
Alex Kalmikov
kalex at mit.edu

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“The interaction of capital costs and engineering systems: The case of  
energy-climate scenarios”

Thursday, January 19, 2012

12-1:15pm

MIT, Building E40-298, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Hamed Ghoddusi - Post-doctoral Associate, Leading Technology & Policy  
and Engineering Systems Division

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Environmental Health Colloquium
Thursday, January 19, 2012
12:30pm - 1:20pm
Harvard School of Public Health, Building 1, Room 1302, 677 Huntington  
Avenue, Boston

"Environmental Change and Infectious Disease: The Essential Role of  
Environmental Science"
Justin Remais, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor; Director, Graduate  
Program in Global Environmental Health, Emory University

Contact Name:  Alissa Wilcox
AWILCOX at hsph.harvard.edu
-----------------------



Residential Energy Efficiency to the Max: Building a Net-Zero Energy  
LEED Platinum house

Thursday, January 19, 2012

2:00p–3:00p

MIT, Building E51-376, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: David Miller

Come hear about what went into building the first net-zero energy,  
platinum LEED single family residence that's walking distance from  
Boston's "T". The design goals for this house were nearly impossible:  
to be net-zero energy and platinum LEED, to be extremely durable and  
low maintenance, to fit in and be an attractive addition to an upscale  
suburban neighborhood, and to have similar features as other new  
houses while being built at a comparable cost to houses that have  
conventional energy usage. Hear about the technologies, products and  
services that made this happen. Also, have the opportunity to sign-up  
for a tour.

Web site: http://student.mit.edu/searchiap/iap-b010.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Sloan School of Management
For more information, contact:
David Miller
dsmiller at mit.edu

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Crowd-Powered Systems
January 19, 2012
2:50 pm - 4:00 pm
Tufts, Halligan 111, 161 College Avenue, Medford

Speaker: Michael Bernstein, MIT CSAIL

Abstract: Algorithms and design drive many innovations in computing,  
but their reach is limited. However, by looking beyond the user and to  
the crowd, we can grant interactive systems powerful new capabilities.  
This talk will present crowd-powered systems: interactive computing  
systems that embed crowdsourcing and human computation to support high- 
level conceptual activities such as writing, editing and photo-  
taking. Underlying these systems are new programming patterns and  
algorithms to coordinate crowd activity. I will focus mainly on  
Soylent, a word processor with a crowd inside, which coordinates crowd  
workers to produce interactive support for condensing and proofreading  
users' writing. I will also introduce Adrenaline, an exploration into  
realtime crowdsourcing. Adrenaline can recruit a crowd two seconds  
after request, complete simple tasks like five-person votes within  
five seconds, and execute large-scale searches in ten seconds.
Bio: Michael Bernstein is a PhD student in computer science at the  
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research lies at the  
intersection of computer science, crowdsourcing and social computing:  
designing interfaces powered by crowds and interfaces enabling new  
kinds of social interaction. He was awarded the Best Student Paper  
award at UIST 2010, Best Paper Award at ICWSM 2011, the NSF graduate  
research fellowship and the Microsoft Research Ph.D. fellowship. His  
work has appeared in venues like the New York Times and Wired. He  
earned an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from  
MIT, and a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.


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Venture Cafe Night with Microsoft Bing! Simple, Beautiful, and  
Scalable #Food #Mentors
Thursday, January 19, 2012
5:00 PM to 8:00 PM (ET)
The Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center, 4th Floor, 1  
Broadway, Cambridge

Does your online startup need design insights? Are you working on ways  
to present info about complex networks to your clients and need to  
understand what makes visual sense and what doesn't? Need to know how  
to scale your Web application as you hit critical mass?
Take this unique opportunity to chat over great drinks and food with  
TEDGlobal speaker and Bing interaction designer Manuel Lima about  
great design and how to best present complex information. If your  
startup is working on tech issues "under the hood," take your drink  
and plate over to Principal Program Manager Michael Schechter and  
learn more about how your startup can scale to its next high  
performance rollout - with new branding - and what pitfalls to avoid.

Register at http://beautifulandscalable-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=18

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Energy Start-up Workshop

January 19, 2012

5:30p–7:00p

MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Ever wonder what it takes to run a start-up? MIT spin-off companies  
will take you through the challenges and victories of being the  
underdogs in a corporate world.

Companies include:
Liquid Metal Batter Corporation: a spin-off from Professor Sadoway's  
lab at MIT. Their new battery technology aims to revolutionize grid- 
scale power storage. By decoupling power supply and power demand, it  
will enable widespread use of sustainable energy sources and more  
efficient power systems.

Coolchip: licensing patent-pending technologies to overcome the  
limitations of conventional air-based cooler designs. The key insight  
is focusing on the insulating layer of air that forms on critical heat  
transfer surfaces on conventional coolers. The core technologies have  
been developed by researchers at MIT.

OnChip Power: a fast-paced, VC-backed MIT start-up poised to disrupt  
the power supply industry. They are developing a new class of power  
supply systems based on a novel VHF switching architecture.

OsComp Systems (OCS) team of MIT engineers have invented a  
breakthrough, patent-pending technology that reduces operating and  
capital costs of [natural gas] compression by over 30%. OCS makes  
marginal gas wells profitable once again, and increases the margins  
from already profitable ones.

Sponsored by:  MIT Energy Club, MIT Energy Initiative

Admission:  Open to the public

Contact Lucy Fan

yinglfan at mit.edu


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Coping with climate change today: Insights from the past
Thursday, January 19, 2012, 7-8:45 pm
Cambridge Main Public Library, Community Room, 449 Broadway, Cambridge

By any measure, climate change is unprecedented. “The earth that we  
knew – the only earth that we ever knew – is gone.” (Bill McKibben,  
Eaarth, p. 27)

But the crisis of climate change, the human crisis, is an old one with  
many precedents that we can learn from as we confront climate change  
in our own lives.

If you are aware that climate change is real and is a looming threat  
to our way of life, the conditions that made human civilization  
possible, and possibly to human survival then you are confronted with  
the choice that defines the crisis:

Should I accept climate change as inevitable, and pursue my own  
happiness and profit as things fall apart, or should I join with  
others and fight it, even though we must live with the certainty that  
we can’t stop it? World War II confronted the French people with more  
immediate threats and similar choices. Shortly after the war, in 1947,  
Albert Camus, a Frenchman who had fought in the resistance, wrote a  
novel about life during the war and reached back to an earlier century  
for a precedent to the shock of the Nazi occupation of France. He  
found it in an outbreak of The Plague, which he set in a modern city  
in North Africa.

We have little living memory of the war that Camus had just  
experienced, yet his precise account of the timeless human condition  
in crises of the past can help us understand how to respond to today’s  
crisis.

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


Wind Energy 102 - An introduction to wind physics and resource  
assessment

Friday, January 20, 2012

11:00a–12:00p

MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Alex Kalmikov

Although usually invisible to the naked eye, wind carries enormous  
amounts of energy. Come to learn about the sources and forces of this  
energy and basic quantitative approaches to its assessment.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/wepa/wepa.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative, Mechanical Engineering Dept.
For more information, contact:
Alex Kalmikov
kalex at mit.edu

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Retooling Our Energy Ecosystem: challenges and opportunities
Friday, January 20th, 2012
11:00 AM
BU, Room 245, 110 Cummington Street, Boston

Robert J. Hannemann, The Gordon Institute and the Department of  
Mechanical Engineering, Tufts University

Refreshments served at 10:45 AM
The transformation of our energy system to meet the needs and  
constraints of the 21st century is arguably the major engineering  
challenge of the next 50 years. As technical leaders, engineers have a  
special responsibility to understand the energy challenge and advocate  
for appropriate responses to that challenge. No single technology can  
produce the “answer”. Furthermore, politics and economic policy are at  
least as important as technology in developing systemic solutions.  
This talk deals with the possibility of such a solution with mostly- 
existing technology, as well as some of the myths and less-well- 
understood characteristics of our energy ecosystem.

Rob Hannemann is the Director of the Tufts Gordon Institute and Chair  
of the Tufts Department of Mechanical Engineering. His technical and  
academic interests are focused on heat transfer, fluid mechanics,  
energy systems, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Hannemann earned  
advanced degrees in Mechanical Engineering from New York University  
(MS ‘72) and MIT (Sc.D.’75) after receiving his BS degree (with  
distinction) from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has extensive
experience as an engineer, manager, and entrepreneur, and is a Fellow  
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

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Energy and Environment Overview of New England

Friday, January 20, 2012

12:00p–1:30p

MIT, Building 4-231, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: John Moskal, EPA New England

Energy & Environment Community Discussion Series

The discussion will provide an overview of the electric generation and  
transmission system for New England, and the environmental, economic,  
and policy factors influencing development in the region over the next  
5 - 10 years. Topics such as renewable energy technologies and energy  
efficiency will be discussed.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club, Energy & Environment Community

For more information, contact:
Energy & Environment Community @ MIT Energy Club

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

Turmoil in the World Economy: A View From the IMF

Friday, January 20, 2012

1:00p–2:30p

MIT, Buidling E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Olivier Blanchard (MIT & IMF)

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Economics Other Events IAP

For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu

energy-environment at mit.edu



***********

Upcoming

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Day 1: Leadership in the 21st Century
Monday, January 23, 2012

10:30a–12:30p

MIT, Building E51-149, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Understanding what makes a person an effective Leader - "The Art of  
Becoming"

Speaker: Partha S. Ghosh

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/psgleadership
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming
For more information, contact:
UAAP Staff
253-6771
uaap-www at mit.edu


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


Let’s Talk About Food Presents An Old Fashioned Teach-In on the 2012  
Farm Bill
Sunday, January 29, 2012
2-6 pm with keynote panel at 3:00 p.m.
Cahners Theater, BOSTON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, 1 Science Park, Boston

National experts on the 2012 Farm Bill Weigh In on Legislature and how  
it will affect farms
Panel speakers include:
Marion Nestle, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at New  
York University, author of Food Politics and What to Eat
Representative Chellie Pingree (Maine), Member of the House Committee  
on Agriculture.
Moderator: Let’s Talk About Food Founder Louisa Kasdon.

What do we New Englanders need to know about the Farm Bill? Plenty.  
Spend the afternoon at the Museum of Science and learn why the Farm  
Bill should really be called the Food Bill. Most of us know that the  
Farm Bill is coming up for re-authorization in 2012, but we truly  
don’t understand why and how much (and is some cases, how little) it  
matters to each of us. Join an expert group of panelists to help break  
down what the Farm Bill means to the food and farming industry.  The  
event will take place throughout the Museum of Science and will  
include keynotes, a working session, panel discussions, as well as a  
meet-up room for the community to learn what local organizations are  
doing.

FREE but please register at: http://www.mos.org/events_activities/events&d=5346

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

Envision Boston's Urban Agriculture

Monday, January 30, 2012

6-8:30 p.m.

Suffolk University, Downtown Boston, 73 Tremont Street, 9th Floor*
* Maximum capacity: 150 persons. Must bring some form of I.D. (Drivers  
license, credit card) to clear building security; OR, send your full  
name by January 27 to: john.read.BRA at cityofboston.gov.

Brainstorm the future of agriculture in Boston! Learn about Urban  
Agriculture, taste food samples, and find out how zoning can support  
farming! Featuring Keynote Speaker Will Allen, Founder and CEO of  
Growing Power Inc., former pro athlete, and 2008 McArthur Foundation  
“Genius Grant” recipient for his work on urban farming and sustainable  
food production. Check out the Urban Agriculture Kickoff & Visioning  
Flyer here (http://www.greendorchester.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/UrbanAgriculture-Kickoff-Visioning-Mtg-Flyer-for-1.30.2012.pdf 
)!

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), and  
the Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives are launching a new project to  
update the Boston Zoning Code to support Urban Agriculture (UA) city  
wide. UA is small scale farming that makes healthy, fresh food more  
accessible and empowers Bostonians by creating economic opportunity.  
Examples of urban farming include rooftop greenhouse agriculture,  
aquaponics (fish farming), community farms, farm stands, composting,  
and other fresh food-producing endeavors.

*************
----------------

Opportunity

---------------
*************

*J e s t e r*
**Facebook Profile <https://www.facebook.com/jester.ronin> **¦**
LinkedIn<http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?trk=tab_pro&id=26526883>
**
P a r a n o i d Z e n
jes... at paranoidzen.com*
http://www.paranoidzen.com

Hi All,

I am sending this out to a bunch of lists I'm on, so apologies for  
cross posting effects.

Our new forums are up and running, and they are free for all!  We are  
aiming for this to become a place where Boston area collaborations,  
discussions and skill shares in audio, video, lighting, programming,  
hacking, and other various forms of 'making' happen.

Find them here:  http://cemmi.org/index.php/forum/index

Since its early, I imagine they will go through some serious  
evolutions in terms of organization but we hope you will stop by and  
check them out.  The forums even work on most mobile platforms :)

You can sign in using your Gmail, Google app, or Facebook credentials  
so there is no need to create a new account (we'll be adding a button  
to make that more obvious soon).

If you have any suggestions or changes, let us know, and if you are up  
for helping moderate, please reach out!

Many thanks, and I hope to see you there!

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

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

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://www.BostonScienceLectures.com

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

Arts and Cultural Events List  http://aacel.blogspot.com/

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/





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