[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Apr 22 13:16:59 PDT 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
---------------------------------------------------------
************************************************
---------------------
Monday, April 23
--------------------
Harvard College Global Energy Initiative Renewable Energy Demonstration
Monday, April 23, 2012
cmamxin at college.harvard.edu
Outside the Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GEI is planning a renewable energy demonstration for Earth Day
weekend. We are using solar energy to power a stereo and also charge
your cellphones. We have information on Harvard's commitment to
renewable energy and what you can do to get involved. We also will
have a raffle for different neat solar technologies!
--------------------------
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY SPRING LECTURE SERIES: Evaluating Energy
Technologies Against Climate Targets
Monday, April 23, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, Long Lounge (AVT), 77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge
Speaker: Jessike Trancik, Assistant Professor, MIT, Engineering
Systems Division
To meet commonly cited climate change mitigation goals, a major
transformation in the global energy supply infrastructure is needed.
Given the changing performance of technologies over time, how do we
compare energy supply options to one another? Which technologies are
poised to make a significant dent in greenhouse gas emissions? In this
talk, I will present a statistical analysis of the dynamics of
technological change, and a model relating general features of a
technology???s design to its rate of improvement. I will also discuss
ways to derive performance targets, in a format that is useful to
engineers, from climate change mitigation scenarios.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, Building Technology Program
For more information, contact:
Alexandra Golledge
253-0463
agoll18 at mit.edu
-----------------------------
Living Sustainable Development: Opportunities for Planets, Places, and
People
WHEN Mon., Apr. 23, 2012, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Nye A, 5th Floor Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School, 5
Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
and the HKS Sustainability Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Willian Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International
Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; co-director,
Sustainability Science Program
CONTACT INFO karin_vander_schaaf at harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5795/living_sustainable_development.html
------------------------------
Building the #Knowosphere - How new ways to share and shape ideas can
help build durable progress on a finite planet
Monday, April 23, 2012
3:00p–4:15p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth Blogger, the New York Times
Andrew Revkin is the senior fellow for environmental understanding at
Pace University's Academy for Applied Environmental Studies and writes
the award-winning Dot Earth blog for The New York Times. He has spent
nearly three decades covering subjects ranging from the assault on the
Amazon rain forest to the troubled relationship of climate science and
politics.
From 1995 through 2009, he covered the environment for The Times as a
staff reporter. His quarter century of coverage of global warming has
earned most of the major awards for science journalism along with the
John Chancellor Award for sustained journalistic excellence from
Columbia University. Revkin has been a pioneer in multimedia
communication, blogging and shooting still and video imagery in
farflung places. He has also carried his journalism to a new
generation in The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top
of the World, the first account of Arctic climate change written for
the whole family. His other books are The Burning Season, which was
the basis for a much-lauded HBO film, and Global Warming:
Understanding the Forecast.
Revkin lives in the Hudson River Valley with his wife and two sons. In
spare moments, he is a performing songwriter and plays in a folk-roots
band, Uncle Wade.
Web site: http://mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars/revkin.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change,
Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC), MIT Energy
Initiative
For more information, contact: Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey at mit.edu
----------------------------
Trusting Truth: The Path to Avoiding Gridlock in Public Dialogue
WHEN Mon., Apr. 23, 2012, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South Building, Room S-250,1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International
Conflict
SPEAKER(S) Ron Susskind, A.M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence,
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy
School of Government
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks: dhicks at wcfia.harvard.edu
NOTE This is a public event
----------------------------
The shale gas revolution: Technological enablers and environmental
considerations
Monday, April 23, 2012
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 4-237, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Francis O'Sullivan, Research Engineer and Executive Director
of the Energy Sustainability Challenge Program at MITEI
Energy & Environment Community Lecture/Discussion Series
The emergence over the past decade of economically recoverably shale
gas resources in the U.S. has been characterized by some as a
revolution, with its national importance being stressed in the 2012
State of the Union address, which called for every possible action to
safely develop this energy. Nevertheless, contemporary shale gas
development has not been without controversy. Significant concerns
have been raised regarding water pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, and uncertainty surrounding estimates of the resource
scale. This talk will explore how shale gas has risen from being a
niche marginal source of gas to the point where it is now supplying
more than 25% of all U.S. gas production. The technologies that have
enabled this remarkable growth will be discussed and in particular,
the process of hydraulic fracturing will be described. In addition,
the environmental challenges associated with shale gas development
will be outlined and some of the possible pathways to safe and
sustainable long-term shale gas production will be discussed.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energy-environment at mit.edu
-----------------------------
2012 Freeman Lecture- Climate Change and Water Resources:
Characterizing Uncertainties for Decision Makers
Monday, April 23, 2012
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E51, Wong Auditorium / Ting Foyer, 2 Amherst Street,
Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Richard N. Palmer Department Head and Professor Civil and
Environmental Engineering University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Freeman Lecture
Scientific evidence tells us that global climate is changing. However,
precise impacts on natural and man-made systems are less certain.
Estimating climate change impact on river flow, water supply
reliability, and ecosystem response requires careful application of
global or regional circulation models, hydrologic models, and
ecosystem response models. This presentation addresses each type of
model, but focuses on characterizing climate information uncertainty
when advising large-scale, public decision making. We begin by
describing forecasted impacts of climate change on the US. Next,
techniques to translate these broad climate shifts to the watershed
scale in a fashion useful for decision making are described. We then
address how best to frame this information for decision makers.
The presentation contains examples of the use of general circulation
model output in past water resources studies. The examples highlight
how stakeholder engagement in evaluating potential climate change
impacts significantly improves the understanding of uncertainty,
increasing the likelihood that the results will be used in real
decision making. The presentation concludes by discussing limits of
these techniques and suggests how such limits may be overcome by the
next generation of engineers and scientists.
Please note:
Reception: 6 p.m./ Lecture: 7 p.m.
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering, BSCES
For more information, contact: MIT Staff contact
617-258-8685
-----------------------------------
ACT Lecture | Michael Eng - Sound and Semiocapitalism: Affective Labor
and the Metaphysics of the Real
Monday, April 23, 2012
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Michael Eng,Professor of Philosophy, John Carroll University,
University Heights, Ohio
ACT Spring 2012 Monday Nights Lecture Series:
Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form
This talk will analyse the sonic and affective turns that have
appeared relatively recently in both contemporary art practice and
current critical thought from the standpoint of what Franco 'Bifo'
Berardi has termed "semiocapitalism." Though the attention to sound
and affect is typically held to be a remedy to the excesses of the
past few decades (occularcentrism, the preoccupation with
discursivity, and the persistence of form, to name but a few), affect
is precisely that which contemporary capitalism in its financialized
form exploits as a productive force. Are the sonic and affective
turns, then, actually extensions of semiocapitalism? Michael Eng's
areas of research include sound, philosophy of the image, philosophy
and architecture, and post-Heideggerian aesthetic theory.
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures/2012-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and
Planning, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu, clauraa at mit.edu
------------------------------------
Exhibit Opening: To Extremes
Monday, April 23
7:00pm-9:00pm
Maseeh Hall, 305 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP: http://toextremes.eventbrite.com/
An exhibition of proposed artworks, To Extremes sought ideas last year
for public art projects on climate from 50 invited artists and
designers. To inform their work, artists and designers referred to
nine dossiers on various themes covered in a major science report on
climate and extreme events released in November 2011. In February a
jury of experts in the visual arts and climate sciences selected the
winners and proposals that would make up the exhibition, which is part
of the Cambridge Science Festival.
On April 23, the winner, Sam Jury, will present her proposal for a
video installation. Along with a proposal by Ms. Jury, the exhibition
includes runner up Dan Borelli and the following artists and
designers: Andrea Frank -- Kalman Gacs -- Sam Jacobson, Irina
Chernyakova, Nicole Goehring -- Bradford Johnson --Marcus Owens and
Jack Becker -- Evelyn Rydz -- Gina Siepel.
---------------------
Tuesday, April 24
---------------------
"Big Media and Where It's Headed."
Tuesday, April 24
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
A Conversation with Gary Ginsberg, Executive Vice President of
Corporate Marketing and Communications at Time Warner Inc.
--------------------------------
Mediated Congregation - Architecting The Crystal Cathedral
Tuesday, April 24
12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/04/robles#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our
site shortly after at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast
Erica Robles-Anderson, Department of Media, Culture, and
Communication, New York University
Within the past thirty years the rise of a new style of worship,
coined “megachurch”, has transformed the American religious
landscape. Blending audio, visual, and communications technologies
within postmodern architectures, megachurches radically re-imagine
Christianity. These re-contextualizations of secular technologies
carry particularly symbolic meaning; for believers, megachurches make
visible God's hand at work in the conditions of 20th and 21st century
mediated social life. They produce conditions for apprehending a
Protestant ethic within the networked worldview.
This talk reads megachurches as part of late 20th century shift
towards conducting collective life in increasingly mobile, mediated,
and distributed arrangements. Based on a case study of a pioneering
and particularly influential institution, the Crystal Cathedral (1955
- present), I trace a series of translations via automobiles and drive-
in cinema (1955 - 1961), then glass, steel, and television (1962 -
1970), and finally architectural postmodernism , satellite television,
and the Internet (1980 - present) by which a traditional narrative of
mythic worldview entered a new technological regime.
About Erica
Erica Robles-Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Robles-
Anderson's work focuses on forms of collective life in mediated
material conditions. She is currently completing a manuscript on the
20th century transformation of Protestant worship through the adoption
of new media technologies and contemporary architectural materials.
Before her position at NYU Robles-Anderson held a joint appointment as
a post-doctoral researcher at HumLab and in the Department of Culture
and Media at Umeå University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication and
a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.
---------------------------
Internet Identity and Reputation
Tuesday, April 24 2012
1:30PM to 2:30PM
MIT, Building 32, Hewlett Room G882, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Gihan Dias, University of Moratuwa
Abstract:
"Who am I?" is a question which has puzzled both philosophers and
ordinary people over the ages. Who we are (our identity), and who
others think we are (our reputation) are prime concerns.
As our life moves on to the Internet, our identity and reputation too
become artifacts on the net.
Your identity comprises a set of identifiers, such as your name,
userid and e-mail address, and a set of assertions about you, e.g., "I
am Ravi's daughter." Your reputation comprises of the set of such
assertions available to an observer, and the significance and veracity
she places on each assertion.
Establishing your - or someone else's - identity and reputation on the
Internet is not straightforward. Each person has many identifiers, and
an identifier may correspond to several people. Obtaining a set of
assertions about a person is very difficult, and establishing their
veracity is almost impossible.
Most current identity systems are based on an authority which defines
and verifies an identity. However, our de-facto identity is much more
social, and is based on a web of relationships rather than an authority.
In this talk, we analyze current Internet identity - and especially
reputation – mechanisms and their weaknesses. We propose strategies
for next-generation identity and reputation systems, based on social
identity.
Bio:
Professor Dias graduated from the University of Moratuwa in 1985. He
was awarded a doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
from the University of California in 1992. In addition to being a
professor in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, University
of Moratuwa, He has served as the Domain Registrar of the LK Domain
Registry since its inception in 1990. Prof. Dias has been instrumental
in setting up and running the academic Internet in Sri Lanka (LEARN)
starting with Sri Lanka's first e-mail system in 1990, and ran the
LEARN network for over 10 years. He has also assisted a number of
Internet service providers in setting up their networks. In 2003/04 he
was a founder Programme Director of the Information and Communication
Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the govt. body responsible for
the development of ICT in the country, and is currently an advisor to
ICTA. Prof. Dias is the Director of both the Centre of Excellence in
Localised Applications (LAKapps) of the University of Moratuwa and The
High Performance Computing Lab at the Dept. of CSE. His current
research interests are in Internet Identity and Reputation, and in
Bandwidth-Constrained and Intermittently Connected Networks.
Contact: Lalana Kagal, lkagal at csail.mit.edu
------------------------------
Automated Construction by Contour Crafting
WHEN Tue., Apr. 24, 2012, 2 – 3 p.m.
WHERE Room 209, Pierce Hall, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied
Sciences campus, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Environmental Sciences, Lecture,
Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired
Engineering at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Behrokh Khoshnevis, professor and director of the Center
for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT), University of
Southern California
NOTE The nature of construction has remained intensely manual
throughout recorded history. A promising new automation approach is
Contour Crafting (CC). Invented by Behrokh Khoshnevis, Contour
Crafting is a mega-scale fabrication process aiming at automated on-
site construction of whole structures as well as subcomponents. The
potential of CC has become evident from experiments with various
materials, geometries and scales. Using this process, a single
building or a colony of buildings may be constructed automatically
with all plumbing and electrical utilities imbedded in each; yet each
building could have a different design which can include complex
curved features. The technology also has astounding environmental and
energy impacts. The entry level implication is especially profound for
emergency shelter construction and low income housing. NASA is
exploring possible application of CC in building on other planets.
This new mode of construction will be one of the very few feasible
approaches for building using in-situ material on planets such as Moon
and Mars, which are being targeted for human colonization before the
end of the century. CC has received international attention and could
soon revolutionize the construction industry.
LINK http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewevent/196/automated-construction-by-contour-crafting
---------------------------------
"Water Cycle Change and the Human Fingerprint on the Water Landscape
of the 21st Century: Observations from a Decade of GRACE"
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
4:00pm
Faculty Lounge, Hoffman Labs 4th Floor, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jay Famiglietti, University of California, Irvine
----------------------------------
"The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the 21st Century."'
Tuesday, April 24
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Carr Center Conference Room, Rubenstein Building (Floor 2, Room 219),
Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Journalist Alex Prud'homme will discuss his new book
Human Rights to Water & Sanitation Program Lecture
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/hr2w/study_group/StudyGroup_2012_02_21.php
Contact Name: Sharmila L. Murthy Sharmila_Murthy at hks.harvard.edu
---------------------------------
Marina Silva- Challenges to Sustainable Development
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E15-070, E15-070 (Bartos Theater), 20 Ames Street,
Cambridge
Marina Silva, Ex-Minister of the Environment, Brazil gives a talk on
"Challenges to Sustainable Development"
*talk will be in Portuguese
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Political Science Department, SHASS Dean's Office, MISTI
For more information, contact:
Adriane Cesa
617-253-6194
acesa at mit.edu
------------------------------
Accelerating Clean Transportation Reception
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5:00-7:00 p.m.
MIT-SUTD International Design Center, 265 Massachusetts Ave, MIT
Building, N52 3rd floor, Cambridge
Please join the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Clean Energy Program, the MIT
Energy Club, the MIT Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSAA),
and the MIT Economics and Talent Forum (ETF) for a discussion of
ongoing electrified transportation innovation and research at MIT and
local companies.
This is a free event and open to the public. Refreshments will be
provided.
Please RSVP to: laurie at 1620associates.com or 508-479-8034
You can also register through eventbrite: http://mitevevent.eventbrite.com/
-------------------------------
Legatum Lecture ~ Shake the World: Too Good to Fail
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E62-276, MIT Sloan, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: James Marshall Reilly
During this lecture, Reilly will explore how this generation is
changing capitalism for the better, creating, in the process, new
marketplaces and new opportunities as capitalism is harnessed for
global good. Learn how breaking the corporate mold can lead to
astonishing success in which for-profits trump non-profits in creating
sustainable change.
Web site: http://legatum.mit.edu/content/1190
Open to: the general public
Cost: None
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, SEID,
Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development
For more information, contact:
Agnes Hunsicker
617-324-2768
agnesh at mit.edu
-------------------------------
Boston Green Drinks - April Happy Hour
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Kingston Station, 25 Kingston Street, Boston
RSVP at http://april12bgd-es2.eventbrite.com/?srnk=208
The purpose of Green Drinks is primarily FUN, but the events also
enable people to: share new ideas, learn about opportunities to work
for change and to make a difference, discuss the state of the world,
find sustainability’s emerging leaders…Green Drinks can be whatever
you want it to be. So come have a few drinks and meet like-minded
individuals who share your interest in building a sustainable society
and planet.
------------------------------
PechaKucha
Tuesday, April 24
Doors at 6:00pm; Talks at 7:00pm
OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
Free Admission!
An event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in
public. Resting on a format that is based on 20 images x 20 seconds,
it makes presentations concise, keeping things moving at a rapid pace.
-------------------------------
"The Clean Energy Future: Opportunity or Train Wreck?"
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6:30p–7:30p
MIT, Building NW86, 70 Pacific Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Ernest Moniz, Director, MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI)
The MIT Sidney Pacific/Presidential Distinguished Lecture Series
The MIT Presidential Fellows/Sidney Pacific Distinguished Lecture
Series hosts leading thinkers at Sidney Pacific Graduate Residence,
MIT's largest graduate community. Lectures are open to the public and
followed by dinner for up to 40 lecture attendees (by lottery; RSVP
required) and the speaker at Sidney Pacific.
Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and
Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director
of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Prof. Moniz served
as U.S. Under Secretary of Energy from 1997 to 2001 and as Associate
Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in
the Executive Office of the President from 1995 to 1997. He currently
serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and
Technology (PCAST). His principal research contributions have been in
theoretical nuclear physics and in energy technology and policy studies.
Web site: http://goo.gl/lz2wr
Open to: the general public
Tickets: http://goo.gl/lz2wr
Sponsor(s): Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community
For more information, contact:
sp-cosi-chair at mit.edu
-------------------------------
Slow Money Boston Entrepreneur Showcase
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center 5th Floor, Havana Conference Room, One
Broadway, Cambridge
Price: $10.00/per person
We will be bringing together investors, sustainable food entrepreneurs
and leaders working together to rebuild our local food system. Learn
about investment opportunities and how you can participate in
rebuilding local economies based on the principles of soil fertility,
sense of place, care of the commons and economic, cultural and
biological diversity.
We're pleased to announce the businesses presenting at the
Entrepreneur Showcase on April 24th:
Black Earth Hauler: http://www.blackearthhauler.com/
Red's Best: http://www.redsbest.com/shopreds/
City Growers: http://citygrowers.wordpress.com/
Recover Green Roofs: http://www.recovergreenroofs.com/
NH Farm Fresh...Direct! http://www.nhiaf.org
Bootstrap Compost: http://bootstrapcompost.com/
For more details about the showcase or to RSVP, click here:
http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Boston-Slow-Money/events/54328062/
-------------------------
The Solitude of Prime Numbers, film screening
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Film screening and Q&A with writer, Paolo Giordano
Like prime numbers, -suspicious, solitary numbers- which are divisible
only by the number one and by themselves and are forever separated by
even numbers, the two young protagonists are drawn together and pulled
apart by their emotions and wounds. An extremely well told story about
the difficulty of becoming -two- The movie is based on the bestselling
first novel Paolo Giordano wrote while working on a doctorate in
particle physics. Directed by Saverio Costanzo, it was nominated for
the 2010 Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion.
In Italian with English subtitles
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/misti/events/film_series.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MIT-Italy Program,
MISTI, Foreign Languages & Literatures, ISA
For more information, contact:
Griselda Gomez
252-1483
gomezg at mit.edu
-------------------------
Wednesday, April 25
-------------------------
Mass SAVE -Energy Conservation Workshop
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Leslie University, Stebbins Hall Room 301, 31 Everett Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3358042997/es2?srnk=231
Learn ways on how Mass Save programs work and how you can improve your
homes while investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Students...you will also learn tips on civic engagement, social
responsibility and community building related to Energy Conservation!!
We will also discuss some of the things that the Cambridge Energy
Alliance (CEA) is doing to engage our community.
-------------------------------
The Global Teach In
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
12 noon - 4:00 p.m.
encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th flr. Boston
The Global Teach-In will take place simultaneously in seven countries
and multiple cities. This interactive and participatory event will
include discussions by experts, grassroots activists and citizens at
large concerned about developing solutions to policy problems and
creating alternative institutions.
Featuring - Gar Alperovitz, Ellen Brown, Pamela Brown, Nicholas Caleb,
Colin Hines, Oscar Kjellberg, Bill McKibben
From Boston: Aaron Tanaka (Boston Workers Alliance) and Paul Shannon
(Majority Agenda Project)
Austria: Vienna - Canada: Kelowna, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario
- South Africa: Durban - Sweden: Stockholm - United Kingdom:
Birmingham, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; London, England - United
States Ann Arbor, Michigan; Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Boston,
Massachusetts; Burlington, Vermont; Chicago, Illinois; Madison,
Wisconsin; New York, New York; Olympia, Washington; Portland, Oregon;
San Francisco, California; Washington, DC - Venezuela: Caracas
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/361108657261305/
------------------------------
China Urban Development Discussion Series: China's Integration into
Global Industrial Production
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-354, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Edward Steinfeld, MIT Department of Political
Science; Discussant: Professor Bish Sanyal, MIT Department of Urban
Studies and Planning
China Urban Development Discussion Series
China Urban Development is dedicated to bringing together students and
scholars all across MIT campus and beyond who share academic and
professional interests in China's urbanization and development. In the
discussion series, we invite prominent scholars and experts to share
with the discussion series participants their research results,
wisdom, and experiences on issues of regional, urban, transportation,
and housing development, resource and energy use, sustainable
development, local public finance, and the impact of social media in
China. We hope to engage MIT community members across different
academic disciplines and to stimulate discussions of critical urban
issues in China.
Please RSVP at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5Y5F8YQ. Complimentary
lunch will be served at 12:10 pm in 9-554; talk starts at 12:30 pm and
ends by 2 pm in 617-259-354.
Web site: http://dusp.mit.edu/cud/cud_series.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, International
Development Group, Graduate Student Life Grants, China Urban Development
For more information, contact:
Xin Li
xinli at mit.edu
---------------------------
The Challenges to Anticipating and Preventing Mass Violence: The
Different Tools of Humanitarian Response
WHEN Wed., Apr. 25, 2012, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge St., Ted and Doris Lee
Gathering Room (S030)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Charlie Clements, executive director, Carr Center for
Human Rights Policy, adjunct lecturer in public policy, Harvard
Kennedy School;
Jennifer Leaning, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of
Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, director,
FXB Center Health and Human Rights;
Nancy Polutan, WCFIA fellow, lawyer and humanitarian official, United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
CONTACT INFO Nirvana Abou-Gabal: nabougabal at wcfia.harvard.edu
NOTE Lunch available at 12:15 p.m.
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/node/7578
-----------------------------
Beyond Kepler: Direct Imaging of Earth-like Exoplanets
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Ruslan Belikov, Space Science and Astrobiology, NASA
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events
Open to: the general public
Cost: $0.00
Tickets: N/A
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Jacqui Taylor
617-253-2127
jtaylor at mit.edu
-----------------------------
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy. "Distributional
Consequences of Water Markets: Local Economic Spillovers from
Agricultural Water-use"
WHEN Wed., Apr. 25, 2012, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Room Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street,
Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Sustainability
SPEAKER(S) Pinar Keskin
LINK http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82245&pageid=icb.page443881
-----------------------------
No Citizen Left Behind Book Talk and Reception
WHEN Wed., Apr. 25, 2012, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Gutman Library, first floor reading room, Harvard Graduate
School of Education, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CMEI Faculty Colloquium in conjunction with the
Gutman Library Distinguished Author Series
SPEAKER(S) Moderated by Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE, Tisch
College, Tufts;
featuring Meira Levinson, associate professor of education, Harvard
Graduate School of Education;
Jennifer Hochschild, Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government at
Harvard University, professor of African and African American studies,
and Harvard College Professor;
Lawrence Bobo, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at
Harvard University;
James Liou, teacher, Boston Public Schools
NOTE "No Citizen Left Behind" combines anecdotes from Meira
Levinson's eight years of teaching middle school in Atlanta and
Boston, political theorizing, and social science analysis. She argues
that the United States suffers from a civic empowerment gap that is as
shameful and anti-democratic as the academic achievement gap targeted
by No Child Left Behind. Levinson shows how schools can help address
the civic empowerment gap by teaching collective action, openly
discussing the racialized dimensions of citizenship, and provoking
students by engaging their passions against contemporary injustices
through action civics. The book also includes chapters on historical
counternarratives, heroes and role models, school culture, and
accountability.
-----------------------------
Science Trivia Challenge - 6th Annual!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
5:30p–9:00p
MIT, Building NE30, Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center
The Science Trivia Challenge is a contest hosted by the MIT Club of
Boston that is part of the Cambridge Science Festival. It's a live
team trivia quiz where contestants are challenged on their knowledge
of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, computer
science, earth sciences, inventions, local contributions to science
and other subjects. The information might be useful or purely trivial
and might test knowledge of scientific methods, theories, or history.
Teams have to be ready for anything, and any team can win! See website
for sample questions, team registration and more information.
The contest is broken into two divisions: a Youth Division, in which
teams must consist entirely of students in middle school and high
school; and an Open Division, in which there are no limits on team
composition. In each division, the maximum team size is five players.
Prizes are awarded to the top teams in each division.
We are thrilled that this event will again be moderated by renowned
MIT Professor Walter Lewin. Teams are entered on a first-come, first-
served basis until the event capacity is reached, so it is best to
register early
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/trivia/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: http://web.mit.edu/trivia/
Sponsor(s): MIT Club of Boston, Alumni Association, Division of
Student Life
For more information, contact:
Bob Ferrara
617-253-7495
rferrara at mit.edu
------------------------------
More Than Money Careers: Discussion and Reception with Dr. Mark
Albion, Bestselling Author and Co-Founder of Net Impact
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
6:30 pm - 9:00 PM
Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive,
Cambridge
http://www.rossboston.org/article.html?aid=324
*** Registration required ***
4th Annual RossBoston Sustainability Event with Dr. Mark S. Albion, co-
founder of Net Impact and New York Times Best Selling author
Join us for an interactive and inspiring evening with Dr. Mark S.
Albion who will discuss the challenges and opportunities of pursuing
rewarding careers that deliver sustainable environmental and social
value. The co-founder of Net Impact, and a prolific author and
speaker, Dr. Albion will lead a discussion on how to create successful
careers with impact and meaning. The evening will feature casual
networking before and after Dr. Albion's presentation. Food and
drinks will be served.
Agenda
6:30 PM Networking reception
7:00 PM More Than Money Careers presented by Dr. Mark S. Albion
8:00 PM Continued networking reception
Registration Required: Cost is $10 for Ross School of Business
alumni, $20 for guests. No fee for current or prospective Ross
students. Registration fee includes cocktail reception with open bar
and hors d'oeuvres. Please register and buy tickets here!!!
About Dr. Albion: Dr. Albion was a student, administrator and
professor at Harvard for 20 years, after which he co-founded six
organizations, including Net Impact. Most recently, he served in the
Office of the President at Babson College, helping to integrate social
values into the college through entrepreneurship of all kinds. A New
York Times Best Selling author, he has written seven books and made
over 600 visits to business school campuses on five continents, for
which BusinessWeek dubbed him, "the savior of business school souls."
In 2010, Dr. Albion became the first social entrepreneur to receive
the distinguished national entrepreneur of the year award, presented
at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, and in that year co-
founded More Than Money Careers, LLC, along with Dr. Mrim Boutla to
support university staff, students and working professionals who are
looking for well-paying social impact work that fits their values. Dr.
Albion's 200 articles, books and award-winning short films can be
found at www.morethanmoneycareers.com and www.makingalife.com.
About Net Impact: Net Impact is a new generation of leaders who use
their careers to tackle the world’s toughest problems. Putting
business skills to work for good throughout every sector, Net Impact
members show the world that it’s possible to make a net impact that
benefits not just the bottom line, but people and planet too. With
more than 280 chapters, students can find a chapter at the world’s top
graduate business schools and undergraduate campuses, and
professionals can connect to a chapter based in cities around the
globe. Net Impact is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in San Francisco.
*** Registration required ***
http://www.rossboston.org/article.html?aid=324
--------------------------
Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
April 25, 2012
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Boston College, Murray Function Room, 4th Floor of the Yawkey
Athletics Center, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
Award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot has made a career of
probing the intersections between hard science and human experience;
the resulting stories have been as varied as cellular research and
cancer, medical care for pet goldfish, and the science behind personal
motivation. In her bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks (2010), Skloot tells the story of a young black woman who died
of cervical cancer in 1951 and left behind an inexplicably immortal
line of cells known as HeLa. Skloot spent more than ten years
researching Henrietta Lacks, whose cells—harvested without her
knowledge or consent—contributed to scientific advancements as varied
as the polio vaccine, treatments for cancers and viruses, in-vitro
fertilization, and our understanding of the impact of space travel on
human cells. Part detective story, part scientific odyssey, and part
family saga, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks raises fascinating
questions about race, class, and bioethics in America. This event is
presented in partnership with the Winston Center for Leadership and
Ethics.
-----------------------------
Wealth Inequality: The Gilded Road to Ruin?
WHEN Wed., Apr. 25, 2012, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE First Parish in Cambridge, 3 Church Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cambridge Forum
SPEAKER(S) Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies
LInda McQuaig, journalist
Amy Goldstein, Radcliffe Institute, moderator
COST FREE
CONTACT INFO director at cambridgeforum.org, 617.495.2727
NOTE Chuck Collins and Linda McQuaig explore the impact of the
growing wealth gap, and suggest ways to reverse the increase in
economic inequality.
LINK http://www.cambridgeforum.org
----------------------
Thursday, April 26
----------------------
Feedback, Monitoring, and Free Snacks: Management Techniques for Crowd
Work
Thursday, April 26 2012
11:00AM to 12:00PM Refreshments: 10:45AM
MIT Building 32, Patil/Kiva 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Björn Hartmann, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract: In this talk , I will present an overview of recent
crowdsourcing work in my research group. Specifically, I will present
three approaches to improve work quality and increase the complexity
of work that can be completed on paid microtask platforms: 1) Our work
on the Shepherd system demonstrates how timely feedback and self-
assessment can lead to better work and higher worker perseverance. 2)
Our Turkomatic system recruits crowd workers to aid requesters in
planning and solving complex jobs. Requesters can view the status of
workflows in real time; intervene to change tasks and solutions; and
request new solutions to subtasks from the crowd. 3) Finally, I will
introduce an alternative mechanism for crowdsourcing tasks that
require specialized knowledge or skill from workers: communitysourcing
— the use of physical kiosks to elicit work from specific populations.
Bio: Björn Hartmann is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley in EECS,
Computer Science division. He received a BA in Communication, BSE in
Digital Media Design, and MSE in Computer and Information Science from
the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. He received his PhD degree in
Computer Science from Stanford University in 2009. His research in
Human-Computer Interaction focuses on the creation and evaluation of
design tools, end-user programming environments, and crowdsourcing
systems. He is a co-recipient of Best Paper awards at ACM CHI and UIST
in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012.
Contact: Juho Kim, juhokim at mit.edu
Relevant URL: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/seminar.shtml
----------------------------
Energy 101 : Nuclear Fusion
Thursday, April 26, 2012
12:30p–1:30p
MIT, Building 4-159, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Caleb Waugh (MIT Energy Club co-director)
Energy 101 lectures series
The Energy 101 lectures aim at presenting an overview of various
topics in the energy field. These lectures are open to everyone and
require no prior knowledge.
This edition of the Energy 101 lectures will present an overview of
nuclear fusion technology. Scientific, technological and economical
issues will be addressed. No previous knowledge is required. This
event is free and open to the public.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
Aziz Abdellahi (MIT Energy Club)
aziz_a at mit.edu
------------------------------
"Aviation Biofuels: Propelling the World toward a Low-Carbon Future"
Thursday, April 26, 2012
12:30pm - 1:45pm
Tufts University, Murrow Room, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard
Avenue, Medford
CIERP’S Energy, Climate, and Innovation Program presents:
Cristina Haus, Executive Editor, Jet Fuel Intelligence, Energy
Intelligence Group
Open to the public. Convened by the Energy, Climate, and Innovation
Program at the Center for International Environment and Resource
Policy. (A light lunch will be served. No RSVPs – first come first
served.)
Cristina Haus will speak about the development of aviation biofuels
over the last six years, from the military’s early strategic
priorities that led to testing by the Air Force and later the Navy, to
the certification effort for commercial use, to flight tests by
Lufthansa and others, and the current effort to bring these fuels from
technical viability to commercial reality through efforts by NGOs such
as the Carbon War Room and groups like the Commercial Aviation
Alternative Fuels Initiative. She will also discuss the regulatory
framework – what exists and what is missing in terms of a global
climate change agreement for aviation specifically and the world in
general.
Haus, a Fletcher graduate (F’81), has worked at Energy Intelligence
for most of her professional career. She began as a reporter at the
flagship publication Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, and for the last
twenty years has been Executive Editor of Jet Fuel Intelligence. She
attends (and has been a frequent speaker at) Fuel Forums of the
International Air Transport Association, which has taken her all over
the globe. During a brief hiatus from EIG she worked for Bloomberg
Business News and Cambridge Energy Research Associates. She speaks
German, French, Italian and English, each of which she uses often in
her work. Haus has two daughters, one of whom currently attends Tufts
University.
-----------------------------
Coordination Of Emergency Response To Unprecedented Large-Scale Events
Thursday, April 26, 2011
1:30-3:00 pm
MIT Building E62, Room 450, 100 Main Street , Cambridge
Dr. Graham Coates, BSc PhD CEng FIMechE MRAeS CMath, FIMA, FHEA,
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University,
United Kingdom
Video recording of Graham Coates' presentation
Abstract
Coordination is a well-established area of research in disciplines
such as organisation theory, distributed artificial intelligence and
engineering design. More recently, coordination has been recognised as
a key element of emergency response (Militello et al., 2007), however
research in this area is scarce (Chen et al., 2008).
High profile events in the last decade have led to emergency response
becoming increasingly topical and high on the political agenda in many
countries. In practice, emergency response is based on static pre-
planning with assumptions being made about the event. This approach
suffers inflexibility in the face of unprecedented events
characterised by high urgency and the evolving operational conditions.
In research literature, it is recognised that it would be impractical
to assemble an exhaustive list of potential major events and develop
the corresponding response plans (Mendonça, 2007). Thus it is
necessary to develop adaptive approaches for fast and flexible
emergency response, which are applicable to any event.
Research in the area of emergency response is being conducted at
Durham University in close collaboration with Government Office,
Emergency Planning Units, Police Forces, Fire and Rescue Services, and
Ambulance Services. The objective of this research is to develop a
solution to coping with fast changing, unprecedented events on a large-
scale. This will be achieved through the real-time coordination of the
collective efforts and actions of first responders from the multiple
agencies involved in emergency response. In this talk, an overview
will be given of the progress made in the first year of a three
yearEPSRC*funded project, which has focused on the development of a
preliminary framework consisting of a decision support tool and an
agent-based simulation (ABS) environment. The decision support tool
aims to rapidly generate and maintain operational plans for a
coordinated emergency response, which are tailored to the evolving
event. The ABS environment aims to model events in realistic
geographical areas in which agents representing first responders from
the emergency services adhere to the operational plans as closely as
possible. However, depending on the unfolding event, agents will adapt
their actions when necessary such that coordinated emergency response
operations can be preserved and loss of life, injury to people and
damage to property can be reduced.
*Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK)
Speaker bio
Graham Coates is a Senior Lecturer in the Mechanics Group within the
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences atDurham University. He
received his PhD in Computational Engineering Design from Newcastle
University. His doctoral research focused on developing an integrated
approach to real-time operational design co-ordination, which was
realised within an agent-based system working in a distributed
computing environment. This research was partially funded by BAE
Systems and done in collaboration with Strathclyde University. His
post-doctoral research was conducted in the area of process control
and scheduling optimisation on a European Union funded project related
to the development of a technology platform for virtual ship systems.
He has seven years experience working as an aerospace engineer at
British Aerospace Commercial Aircraft (now BAE Systems Regional
Aircraft), and Aerospace Systems & Technologies Ltd (now CAV Aerospace
Ltd). The majority of his industrial experience was gained in the
areas of aircraft structures, aerodynamics, and flight testing.
Industrial projects he has worked on include various structural and
aerodynamic certification aspects of turbo prop aircraft and laminar
flow technology for future aircraft.
-------------------------------
"Geoengineering: Whiter Skies?"
Thursday, April 26, 2012
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Benjamin S. Kravitz, Department of Global Ecology,
Carnegie Institution for Science
MIT Oceanography and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Roberta Allard
allard at mit.edu
--------------------------
Smart Grid and Implications for Wind Power Integration in China
Thursday, April 26, 2012
3:30pm
Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge
CHEN Xinyu, Visiting Fellow, Harvard China Project; doctoral
candidate, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University
http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/seminar%20folder/seminar/ChenXinyu120426
Contact Name: Chris Nielsen
nielsen2 at fas.harvard.edu
---------------------------
The Earth Is My Laboratory: Putting the high-tech in oilfield
Thursday, April 26, 2012
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-231, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Julius Kusuma and Christophe Dupuis. Telemetry Group,
Mathematics & Modeling Department. Schlumberger-Doll Research
Technology has played a major role in shaping how hydrocarbon
exploration and production is done. In this talk we give a brief tour
of some of the state-of-the-art and showcase how technology has
revolutionized the practice of the industry, enabling innovations such
as horizontal drilling, logging-while-drilling, and well-placement. At
the same time, we give a tutorial on how the lifecycle of a reservoir
is managed, including imaging, drilling, logging, sampling, testing,
and completing.
This Lecture will be taught by Julius Kusuma and Christophe Dupuis
from Schlumberger: a leading oilfield services provider, trusted to
deliver superior results and improved E&P performance for oil and gas
companies around the world.
Web site: Schlumberger-Doll Research
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
--------------------------------
Designing Digital Humanities
Thursday, April 26, 2012
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 2-105, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Johanna Drucker, UCLA
CMS Colloquium Series
What is the role of design in modeling digital humanities? Can we
imagine new forms of argument and platforms that support
interpretative work? So much of the computationally driven environment
of digital work has been created by design/engineers that humanistic
values and methods have not found their place in the tools and formats
that provide the platform for research, pedagogy, access, and use. The
current challenge is to take advantage of the rich repositories and
well-developed online resources and create innovative approaches to
argument, curation, display, editing, and understanding that embody
humanistic methods as well as humanities content. Designers have a
major role to play in the collaborative envisioning of new formats and
processes. Using some vivid examples and case studies, this talk
outlines some of the opportunities for exciting work ahead.
Johanna Drucker is the inaugural Breslauer Professor of
Bibliographical Studies in the Department of Information Studies at
UCLA. She is internationally known for her work in the history of
graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, fine art, and digital
humanities.
Web site: http://cms.mit.edu/events/talks.php#042612
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cms at mit.edu
---------------------------
Tsunami Exhibition Opening Reception
Thursday, April 26
5 pm to 7 pm
MIT, Building 7-238, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Camila Chaves Cortes, photographer
http://www.mit.edu/~camila/tsunami/
Exhibition will be on display until May 31, 2012
------------------------------
Healing Earth: An Interfaith Evening of Connection, Community and
Commitment with Bill McKibben
Thursday, April 26
Vigil: 5:30 pm; Dinner and Talk: 7 pm
Vigil at Charles River at JFK Street bridge and walk through Harvard
Square; Dinner at First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge
$15 for dinner and talk, $10 for students, kosher meal available
To sign up, visit http://healingearth.eventbrite.com/
------------------------------
New England's Nuclear Power Plants: Are We Any Safer After Fukushima?
Thursday, April 26, 2012
6:00p–9:00p
Reception: 6 PM
MIT, Building E51-Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Moderator: Bruce Gellerman, Senior Correspondent/Host of National
Public Radio's Living on Earth
Speakers:
Dave Lochbaum, Director of the UCS Nuclear Safety Project
Raymond Shadis, Consultant to the New England Coalition;
Mary Lampert, Director of Pilgrim Watch
Debbie Grinnell, Research Director for the C-10 Education and Research
Foundation.
(Representative Edward Markey has been invited but his participation
has not yet been confirmed.)
The event's goals are to highlight specific safety concerns at New
England's nuclear power plants; advance Union of Concerned Scientists
recommendations to improve their safety; and to engage concerned
citizens, Union of Concerned Scientists supporters, and regional
opinion leaders on the issue.
The event will be filmed, an edited version of which will be posted on
the Union of Concerned Scientists web site and promoted after the event.
PLEASE RSVP via http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/what_you_can_do/nuclear-power-town-hall-new-england.html
Co-sponsored by the the Union of Concerned Scientists and the MIT
Center for International Studies
Web site:http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/what_you_can_do/nuclear-power-town-hall-new-england.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Union of Concerned
Scientists
For more information, contact:
starrforum at mit.edu
---------------------------
Environmental Film Series – Warriors of Quigang, Pipe Dreams, and When
the Water Ends
Thursday, April 26
7:30-9:00pm
Harvard University, Dudley House (Lehman Hall) 3rd floor, 8 Harvard
Yard, Cambridge
Contact: Hannah Lee hannah at seas.harvard.edu
In honor of upcoming Earth Week 2012 & Earth Day 2012 (April 22),
please join your graduate student community in celebrating with a Film
Series!
*Brought to you by Dudley House, GSAS Housing, and Harvard SEAS
Environmental Science & Engineering.
More ABOUT the films:
WARRIORS OF QUIGANG (short) documents villagers in central China who
take on a chemical company [film website]
PIPE DREAM (short) highlights today’s most contested project: The
Keystone XL tar sands pipeline [film website]
WHEN THE WATER ENDS (short) is a film produced by Yale Environment 360
on water and conflict in East Africa [film website]
-------------------
Friday, April 27
------------------
Renewable Energy Market in New England
Friday, April 27, 2012
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Mimi Zhang, Principal Analyst at Sustainable Energy
Advantage, LLC
Renewables have been a big growth area within the energy industry,
largely driven by policy mechanisms such as state-level renewable
portfolio standards (RPS), which have created markets for renewable
energy premiums. In the years since New England states implemented RPS
policies, the regional market has experienced both supply surplus and
shortage driven by long project lead-times and economic and political
uncertainly. Many states are now adapting to technology trends by
implementing distributed generation carve-outs in addition to
incentives for large-scale renewable energy development. The region as
a whole is also tackling transmission constraints and questions around
imports, all while trying to minimize ratepayer cost.
To better understand our current policy mechanisms and how states or
regions can effectively support renewable energy development while
minimizing cost, we will start with an overview of the mechanisms and
their impact to date, with a focus on New England. We will also talk
about some of the challenges and issues that face this and other
regions, and end with some discussion on ways to address these issues
and more effectively achieve our policy goals.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
----------------------
Saturday, April 28
----------------------
The LA Riots: Twenty Years Later
WHEN Sat., Apr. 28, 2012, 9:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Provost Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration,
Department of African and African American Studies, Korea Institute,
Department of Anthropology, Committee on Ethnic Studies, W.E.B. Du
Bois Institute, Hip Hop Archive
SPEAKER(S) Keynote address by Patricia Williams;
Special appearance by David Banner;
Keynote Introduction by Henry Louis Gates Jr.;
Evelyn Higginbotham, Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Lewis Gordon, Luisa Heredian,
Arthur Kleinman, Jim Sidanius, Elizabeth Wong, Gopal Balakrishnan,
Jacqueline Bhabha, Nigel Gibson, Biodun Jeyifo, Christine Rebet, Min
Hyoung Song, Kerry Chance, Ju Yon Kim, Laurence Ralph
Presentations by Harvard College students from the Spring 2012 courses
Economic Rights and Wrongs (Anthropology 1713), Gangsters and
Troublesome Populations (Anthropology 1682), and Interracial
Encounters in Contemporary Ethnic American Narratives (English 90ea)
Performance by Hoop Suite Youth Poets: Deisha Lee, Khelyia Serrano,
Daniel Rivera, Jasmine Cadet
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~anthro/lariots/index.html
CONTACT INFO Kerry Chance (kchance at fas.harvard.edu)
Laurence Ralph (lralph at fas.harvard.edu)
Ju Yon Kim (juyonkim at fas.harvard.edu)
NOTE “The LA Riots: Twenty Years Later” conference brings together
leading scholars, activists, and artists to look back at—and forward
from—the LA Riots. The conference will combine a critical
retrospective examination of the uprising with reflections on
democracy and inequity today, a time of economic crisis and revolution
in much of the world.
LINK http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~anthro/lariots/index.html
--------------------
Sunday, April 29
--------------------
LET'S TALK ABOUT SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD Forum
Sunday, April 29
7:00 p.m.
Museum of Science, Cahners Theater, 1 Science Park, Boston
This presentation is part of the ongoing series Let's Talk About Food.
Register at http://sustainableseafoodforum.eventbrite.com/
Seafood is increasingly important to the human diet, but is the future
of this protein source at risk? This free forum event, featuring a
crash course in "Seafood 101," shares a number of informed
perspectives on threats to fish stocks and to marine ecosystems in the
context of the New England economy. As a participant, you'll engage
with experts in various aspects of the seafood world, such as
fishermen, retailers, environmental scientists, and more.
In small groups, consider and discuss the issue of sustainable
seafood: the complexities and tradeoffs of potential solutions, the
role of technology in the future of seafood, and the role we each play
in finding the balance in an uncertain future.
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
Presented in collaboration with the New England Aquarium's Sustainable
Seafood Program, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Chefs Collaborative,
and the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment.
--------------------
Monday, April 30
--------------------
Webinar: The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem
Monday, April 30, 2012
12:00p–1:00p
Location: Virtual -- Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_043012/webinar-digital-money-ecosystem.html
Speaker: Irving Wladawsky-Berger, PhD Visiting Lecturer, MIT
Engineering Systems Division and MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series
This series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni,
students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate
information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering,
management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.
We are in the early stages of a very important transformation???the
transition to a digital money ecosystem. This transformation is likely
to be among the most exciting, important, and challenging initiatives
the world will undertake in the coming decades.
The transformation involves more than the transformation of money
(cash, checks, credit and debit cards, etc.) from physical to digital
objects that we will carry in our smart mobile devices. It encompasses
the whole money ecosystem, including the global payment
infrastructures, the management of personal identities and personal
financial data, the global financial flows among institutions and
between institutions and individuals, the government regulatory
regimes, and more.
This webinar will present an overview of this digital money
transformation and the technical and societal forces that are driving
it. We will also discuss some of the potential major consequences to
business, the economy, and society in general.
Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_043012/webinar-digital-money-ecosystem.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: See url above
Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division, MIT System Design and
Management (SDM) Program
For more information, contact:
Lois Slavin
617-253-0812
lslavin at mit.edu
-------------------------
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY SPRING LECTURE SERIES: Building Energy Efficiency
Research at the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems
Monday, April 30, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, Long Lounge (AVT), 77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Kurt W. Roth, Director, Building Energy Efficiency,
Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE, Cambridge, MA
Building Technology Spring Lecture Series
Dr.Kurt Roth leads the Building Energy Efficiency Group at the
Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE). His group
works with industry on applied research to develop, analyze, test,
evaluate, and demonstrate advanced energy-saving building
technologies. At CSE, Dr. Roth also is the Principal Investigator for
the Fraunhofer CSE-led Building America Team. Prior to joining
Fraunhofer CSE, he was a Principal in the Mechanical Systems group of
TIAX LLC, formerly Arthur D. Little???s Technology & Innovation
business. Dr. Roth has led several studies funded by the Department of
Energy to assess the energy savings and commercialization potentials
of HVAC, building controls and diagnostics, toplighting, and IT
technologies. In addition, he led analyses to characterize building
energy consumption, including the energy consumed by commercial and
residential IT, consumer electronics, and residential and commercial
miscellaneous electricity consumption. Dr. Roth has presented at
numerous conferences and meetings, and has authored more than sixty
"Emerging Technology" articles for the ASHRAE Journal. He received his
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), all in mechanical engineering, and is a member of
ASES, ASHRAE, ASME, NESEA, and Sigma Xi.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, Building Technology Program
For more information, contact:
Alexandra Golledge
253-0463
agoll18 at mit.edu
----------------------------
Economic Gardening: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Economic Development
WHEN Mon., Apr. 30, 2012, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and
Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Christian Gibbons, director of business/industry affairs,
Littleton, Colorado
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Christina Marchand: christina_marchand at harvard.edu,
617.496.4491
NOTE Littleton, Colorado's Economic Gardening program focuses on
enhancing the city’s home-grown industries to increase job growth and
overall economic prosperity for the region. Launched in 1987, Economic
Gardening gives emerging growth Stage II businesses assistance in
competitive market research, trade area analysis, social media, and
web marketing grounded in a host of scientific theories adapted to
entrepreneurship.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/Economic-Gardening-An-Entrepreneurial-Approach-to-Economic-Development
---------------------------
CDD Forum - Shrinking Cities
Monday, April 30, 2012
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Camilo Jose Vergara
Photographer and MacArthur Fellow
Detroit: The Eternal City of the Industrial Age
The 2012 City Design and Development Forum public lecture series will
bring to MIT emerging and leading thinkers in disciplines influencing
the urbanism of shrinking cities, including: landscape, architecture,
planning, and photography.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Department of
Architecture
For more information, contact:
Sandra Elliott
617-253-5115
sandrame at mit.edu
---------------------------
Nerd Nite
Monday April 30, 2012
8pm
Middlesex, 315 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
Featuring Nerd-appropriate tunes by Claude Money
$5
The lineup:
Talk 1. “Urban Farming: From Backyards to Rooftops”
by Brendan Shea and Jessie Banhazl
Talk 2. “Glam Rock 101 – Wolves in Women’s Clothing: The Differences
between GLAM-rock & glam-RAWK”
by Vadim Akimenko
***********
-------------
Upcoming
-------------
***********
How Can We Feed A Growing World and Sustain the Planet
May 1
4:30pm - 5:30pm
Wong Auditorium, E51-115, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Jonathan Foley, Institute on the Environment,
University of Minnesota
12th Annual Henry W. Kendall Memorial Lecture
http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/henry_kendall_lecture
In his talk, Foley will discuss how increasing population and wealth,
along with changing patterns of diet and consumption, are placing
unprecedented demands on the world’s agriculture and natural
resources. He will propose possible solutions to this dilemma, which
together could double the world’s food production while greatly
reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.
-------------------------------
Sajed Kamal, author of The Renewable Revolution
May 1
5:15 pm
Brandeis, Glynn Auditorium, Heller School, 415 South Street, Waltham
-------------------------------
Making the decision on Residential Solar Power Easy for everyone
Green Drinks Boston/Cambridge
Thursday, May 3, 2012
6:30 PM
Brickyard Collaboration Space, 86 Sherman Street, Cambridge
Ok everyone, it's time to get rolling with some serious GreenDrinks
action to celebrate the beautiful spring in Boston.
On May 3rd, let's meet up to learn about solar electricity in the
state of Massachusetts.
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Green-Drinks-Boston-Cambridge/events/61404752/?a=ea1_grp&rv=ea1
-------------------------------
Wake Up the Earth Festival
Saturday, May 5
11 am - 6 pm
Southwest Corridor, Jamaica Plain
-----------------------
Connect the Dots Campaign
Saturday, May 5
Connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather.
http://www.climatedots.org/
----------------------------
Get Growing festival
Sunday May 6
noon to 6.
Harvard Square on Palmer Street, as part of the May Fair
--------------------------------
FESTIVAL FLORALIA
Sunday May 6, 2
4:30
Hooper-Lee-Nichols House, 159 Brattle Street, Cambridge
A fund-raiser for Grow Native Massachusetts, which encourages us to
use native plants in our gardens. Great event: info sessions, music,
food, native plants for sale.
More info: www.grownativemass.org/programs/festivalfloralia
---------------------------------
Media Lab Conversations Series: Howard Rheingold
Thursday, May 10, 2012
2:00pm - 4:00pm
MIT Media Lab, E14 6th Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
ALL TALKS AT THE MEDIA LAB, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ARE OPEN TO THE
PUBLIC.
THIS TALK WILL BE WEBCAST.
JOIN US ON TWITTER: #MLTALKS
The future of digital culture depends on how well we learn to use the
media that have infiltrated, amplified, distracted, enriched, and
complicated our lives. How we employ a search engine, stream video
from our phonecam, or update our Facebook status matters to us and
everyone, because the ways people use new media in the first years of
an emerging communication regime can influence the way those media end
up being used and misused for decades to come. Instead of confining
his exploration to whether or not Google is making us stupid, Facebook
is commoditizing our privacy, or Twitter is chopping our attention
into microslices (all good questions), Rheingold has been asking
himself and others how to use social media intelligently, humanely,
and above all mindfully.
Rheingold's talk will be followed by a conversation with Joi Ito and
Mimi Ito, as well as Q&A.
Biography: Howard Rheingold, author of best-sellers Virtual Reality,
The Virtual Community, Smart Mobs, and Net Smart,editor of best-seller
The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog, takes audiences on a journey
through the human side of the technology-shaped future. He's been in
on the Web since the beginning, and long before. He's studied Internet
enterprises and started them. Rheingold was the founding executive
editor of HotWired; founder of Electric Minds (named by Time magazine
one of the ten best websites of 1996). He's a participant-observer in
the design of new technologies; a pioneer, critic, and forecaster of
technology's impacts; and a speaker who involves his audience in an
adventure in group futurism. His books are published in Chinese,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Portuguese, Spanish,
and Swedish language editions, in addition to distribution in the
United Kingdom, and the United States. Rheingold has taught as
appointed lecturer at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. He was a
non-resident fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication,
visiting professor at De Montfort University, UK, which awarded him an
honorary doctorate of technology degree. He delivered the invited
Regents Lecture for University of California, Berkeley.
----------------------------
The Spring 2011 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday May 12
NOON to 2 pm
at Fayette Park (near the corner of Broadway and Fayette St., across
from former Longfellow School)
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Saturday, May 19, 12-2
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden.
Elegant packaging not required, but please do write down the names of
plants. We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds,
indoor plants, catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever." Feel free to
just come, chat with neighbors, talk gardening.
Contact HMSnively at aol.com
------------------------------
NEW ENGLAND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FORUM (NEEJF) ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
SUMMIT
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Worcester, Mass (Location to be determined)
9:30—6:30 PM Registration Free / Food Provided
For the first time in New England, residents of low income communities
and communities of color, together with community organizers,
attorneys, public health and environmental professionals and
government officials will assemble for a one- day summit on
environmental justice. At the Summit attendees will share ideas,
learn from one another and plan future work to address environmental
and public health issues that especially affect low income communities
and communities of color. NEEJF is a collaboration of Alternatives for
Community and Environment, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental
Justice and Rhode Island Legal Services.
To register and for more information, please contact Steve Fischbach: neejforum at gmail.com
or 401-274-2652 ext.182
----------------------------
Spring of Sustainability
June 22
http://springofsustainability.com/
Live and webcast conference with Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Van
Jones, John Robbins, Hazel Henderson, Frances Moore Lappé, John
Perkins, Thom Hartmann, Aqeela Sherrills, Julia Butterfly Hill + MANY
others
*************
----------------
Opportunity
---------------
*************
CEA Solar Hot Water Grants
Cambridge, through the Cambridge Energy Alliance initiative, is
offering a limited number of grants to residents and businesses for
solar hot water systems. The grants will cover 50% of the remaining
out of pocket costs of the system after other incentives, up to $2,000.
Applications will be accepted up to November 19, 2012 and are
available on a first come, first serve basis until funding runs out.
The Cambridge grant will complement other incentives including the
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center solar thermal grants. For more
information, seehttp://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/additional-resources/solar-hot-water-grant-program
-----------------------
Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by
having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera?
With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more
comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the
cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer
Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a
hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every
building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or
buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal
images of their property and an analysis online. The information is
password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images
and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building
owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their
images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says
"Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here"
to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will
be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help
you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to
do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money,
not to mention comfort).
---------------------
Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
-----------------------
HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor
Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to
Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass
Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on
your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or
call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living
Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the
services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home
Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call
HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
*********
-----------
Resource
-----------
Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green
Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for
sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha at sbnboston.org
--------------------------------------------------
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.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
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