[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Sep 16 12:28:12 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
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Combatting Election Theft: Some Resources
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/13/1131442/-Combatting-Election-Theft-Some-Resources
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Monday, September 17
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Midlatitude Storms in a Moister World: Lessons from Idealized Baroclinic Life Cycle Experiments
September 17, 2012
12pm-1pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (tallest building on campus)
Jimmy Booth (Columbia)
Abstract: The response of midlatitude storms to global warming remains uncertain. This is due, in part, to the competing effects of a weaker meridional surface temperature gradient and a higher low-level moisture content, both of which are projected to occur as a consequence of increasing greenhouse gases. Here we address the latter of these two effects, and try to elucidate the effect of increased moisture on the development and evolution of midlatitude storms. We do this with a set of highly controlled, baroclinic lifecycle experiments, in which atmospheric moisture is progressively increased. To assess the robustness of the results, the moisture content is changed in two different ways: first by using different initial relative humidity, and second by varying a parameter that we insert into the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The latter method allows us to artificially increase the moisture content above current levels while keeping the relative humidity constant.
Irrespective of how moisture is altered, we find that nearly all important measures of storm strength increase as the moisture content rises. Specifically, we examine the storm’s central pressure minimum, the strongest surface winds, and both extreme and accumulated precipitation rates. For all these metrics, increased moisture yields a stronger storm. Interestingly, we also find that when moisture is increased beyond current levels, the resulting storm has a reduced horizontal scale while its vertical extent increases. Finally, we note that for moisture increases comparable to those projected to occur by the end of the 21st century, the actual amplitude of the increases in storm strength is relatively modest, irrespective of the specific measure one uses.
Speaker's webpage: www.columbia.edu/~jfb2130/
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"The Hidden Costs of Energy,"
Monday, September 17, 2012
12:30pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with James Hammitt, Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences; Director, Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/events.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund Louisa_lund at harvard.edu
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Cellular Service Demand: Biased Beliefs, Learning and Bill Shock
Monday, September 17, 2012
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Cellular Service Demand: Biased Beliefs, Learning and Bill Shock
Web site: http://www.mit.edu/~mgrubb/GrubbOsborne.pdf
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): IO Workshop
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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Religion, Revolution and Constitution: The Case of Tunisia
WHEN Mon., Sep. 17, 2012, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE CGIS, South Bldg, Room S020, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CMES Working Group on Arab Transformative Movements
SPEAKER(S) Yadh Ben Achour, Head of the High Authority for the Achievement of the Revolution Objectives (HAARO), Tunisia
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE Made possible with support from the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Dean of the Division of Social Science, and the Donald T. Regan Lecture Fund.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/3261
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Energy Efficient Wireless Communication: Impact of Energy Harvesting and Processing Energy
Monday, September 17, 2012
Time: 5:30p–6:30p
Location: MIT, Building 4-145, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Elza Erkip (Polytechnic Institute of NYU)
Women in Mathematics Lecture Series
D.W. Weeks Lecture Series
Pizza after the talk.
Web site: http://math.mit.edu/wim/events/seminars.php
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Mathematics, Department of
For more information, contact: Avisha Lalla
617-253-4994
avisha at math.mit.edu
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Berkman Center Open House
Monday, September 17
6:30 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East Rooms, Everett Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Free and Open to the Public
Please tell us if you plan to attend via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/09/openhouse#RSVP
Come to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Fall 2012 Open House to meet our faculty, fellows, and staff, and to learn about the many ways you can get involved in our dynamic, exciting environment.
As a University-wide research center at Harvard University, our interdisciplinary efforts in the exploration of cyberspace address a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. If you're interested in the Internet’s impact on society and are looking to engage a community of world-class fellows and faculty through events, conversations, research, and more please join us to hear more about our upcoming academic year!
Paid part-time research positions will be available in the fall, and you can visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/internships_academicyear to see the current available openings.
People from all disciplines, universities, and backgrounds are encouraged to attend the Open House to familiarize yourself with the Berkman Center and explore opportunities to join us in our research. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Science and Cooking
Monday, September
7p.
Harvard Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
A lecture in Harvard's Science and Cooking series by Bill Yosses, White House Pastry Chef
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Tuesday, September 18
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Process Challenges in Membrane Distillation for Seawater Desalination: Membrane Fouling and Wetting
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Time: 10:00a–11:00a
Location: MIT, Building 3-333, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Hassan Arafat, Water and Environmental Engineering Program, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
CCWCE Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MechE Seminar Series
For more information, contact: Christine Gervais
617-324-4939
gervaisc at mit.edu
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"Changing the Ratio: Why Should You Care?"
Tuesday, Sept. 18
12 p.m.
Harvard Shorenstein Center, Kalb Seminar Room, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Rachel Sklar, Founder, Change The Ratio to increase the number of women in tech; media writer and social media entrepreneur.
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The Diffusion of Microfinance
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Time: 2:40p–4:00p
Location: at Harvard - Harvard Hall 104, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Speaker: Matthew O. Jackson (Stanford)
Web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k89575&pageid=icb.page527126
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Development Economics Workshop
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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United Nations and Islamic Law: Using Islamic Strategies to Achieve Universal Development Goals?
WHEN Tue., Sep. 18, 2012, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Austin Hall West, 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Islamic Legal Studies Program
SPEAKER(S) Siraj Sait
CONTACT INFO ilsp at law.harvard.edu
NOTE Lecture and discussion by Mohammed Siraj Sait (SJD '89), reader and head of research, University of East London. He is a former human rights prosecutor in India and legal officer with UN-Habitat in Kenya, and recently led the evaluation of the UN Iraq development programs. Reception to follow.
LINK ttp://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/
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Writing About China: A Conversation with Christina Larson and Jeffrey Wasserstrom
WHEN Tue., Sep. 18, 2012, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room (S020), 1730 Cambridge Street, Harvard University, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies Special Presentation
SPEAKER(S) Christina Larson, contributing editor at Foreign Policy, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, editor of the Journal of Asian Studies
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO lkluz at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE The speakers will explore the challenges of writing about a country undergoing profound changes at a moment when the worlds of scholarly and general interest publishing are both being transformed.
LINK http://http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/larson-and-wasserstrom
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Jigar Mehta, "The Power of the Crowdsourced Documentary"
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Time: 5:00p–7:00p
Location: MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jigar Mehta, co-creator of "18 Days in Egypt"
Civic Media Sessions
18 Days in Egypt is a collaborative web-native documentary project about the ongoing Egyptian revolution. Co-creator Jigar Mehta will show the power of engaging audiences in the act of storytelling. The talk will highlight their process, success and failures of making the source the storyteller and maintaining journalist values while engaging hundreds to collectively tell the story.
Jigar Mehta is a documentary filmmaker and a journalist. He is currently co-creator of the collaborative documentary project, 18 Days in Egypt, about the ongoing Egyptian revolution. It was a project developed while Mehta was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. Before coming to Stanford, Mehta was a video journalist for The New York Times.
Web site: http://civic.mit.edu/event/engaging-your-audience-in-co-creation
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for Civic Media, Open Documentary Lab @ MIT
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
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Boston New Technology Meetup #BNT21 (21+)
When: Tuesday, September 18
6:30 PM
Where: Boston Globe, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Dorchester
What: Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston area startup community!
This month, see demo's from @OddBostonEvents, @ViralGains, Venture Activism, @Split_Wise, OfferBeam, @Klaviyo and @exoHome!
21+. Free.
RSVP: http://bit.ly/bNT21
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Harvard Thinks Green 2
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
7:00pm
Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Hear 6 all-star Harvard faculty presenting their big green ideas from business, government, science, energy, health, and planning perspectives.
Confirmed faculty speakers:
Professor Joseph Aldy, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, HKS
Professor James Anderson, Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, SEAS
Professor Amy Edmonson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, HBS
Professor Joyce Rosenthal, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, GSD
Professor Daniel Schrag, Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment; Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, FAS
http://www.green.harvard.edu/thinksgreen
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Wednesday, September 19
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Green Chemistry Breakfast Discussion
Wed, 09/19/2012 -
8:00am - 9:15am
Location: EPA Region 1 - 5 Post Office Square - Boston, MA 02109
For details, link here: http://greenchemistrybfast.eventbrite.com
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Inaugural Celebration Symposium: Infinite Innovation
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Inaugural Celebration Symposium: Infinite Innovation
Time: 9:00a–12:00p
Location: Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT honors President Reif during the week of his inauguration with a series of three symposia organized by Institute faculty. More information, including speakers and program titles, is available online.
These academic events are open to all. No registration is required.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/inauguration/symposia.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: none
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Information Center
For more information, contact: Institute Events
617-253-4795
inauguration at mit.edu
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An Alternate Future: Disruptive Technologies as a Business Case and Warfighting Case and the Role of S&T
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Time: 12:00p–1:30p
Location: MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Rear Admiral Nevin P. Carr, Jr., Retired Chief of Naval Research
SSP Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact: 617-253-7529
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Identifying Human Influences on Atmospheric Temperature: Are results robust to uncertainties?
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge (highest building on campus)
Speaker: Dr. Ben Santer, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/lectures
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
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Digital Musicology of Late-Medieval Polyphony
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Time: 4:00p–6:00p
Location: Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Michael Cuthbert
Web site: http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/digital-musicology-late-medieval-polyphony
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
mta-request at mit.edu
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Crowdfunding Innovation Launch Party - a Mass Innovation Nights event
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Microsoft NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Register at http://crowdfundinginnovation.eventbrite.com/
Ticket before September 14th: $35.00 +$2.92
Ticket after September 14th: $40.00 + $3.19
Event Details
You've heard of Kickstarter, Indiegogo and the crowdfunding craze. Now MIN is getting involved! We're holding a special event on Wednesday September 19th, "Crowdfunding Innovation". Crowdfunding Innovation is designed to help you make sense of what's happening RIGHT NOW in the crowdfunding space. (Everything changes next year because of the JOBS Act.)
Three MIN alumni, Lifecycle, Memory on Hand and Ministry of Supply will tell their crowdfunding stories. The panel will feature:
Lessons learned - What works and what doesn't
How to take advantage of the "rewards" model while the space is at a fever pitch
The pros and cons of waiting for the new crowdfunding model in 2013
What's next for our crowdfunding veterans
Mass Innovation Nights' "Crowdfunding Innovation" Launch Party will feature Boston's best innovation-oriented networking, live music from Kingsley Flood, crowdfunding their second full-length album, and 12 crowdfunders on display!
AltruHelp
Founders Less than Three
Silo – From Board Game To Video Game
DriveLine
LittleBonsai Toothbrush
Stump Chunks "Raise The Barn"
Enterteenment
MuckRock
TechSandBox
Find Your Missing Child
RaceMenu
ZoomTilt: The TV Reset Project
This adds up to good fun, interaction with people who havecool ideas to back, and a showing of our unique brand of local support.
Everyone will receive a special-edition "Crowdfunding Innovation" Flashdrive Wristband fully loaded with a digital "Crowdfunding Innovation Starter Kit".
Who should attend? Everyone involved in a crowdfunding effort! Fans and Friends, Professional Services, Marketers, Backers, and Supporters.
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HOW TO GET BIG MONEY OUT OF ELECTIONS & RECLAIM THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF ‘WE THE PEOPLE’
Wednesday September 19
7 to 9 p.m.
Clark Room, Arlington Street Church, Unitarian Universalist, 351 Boylston Street, Boston
Please join local democracy activists at any of four local appearances by David Cobb, nationally known spokesperson for Move to Amend! David will pull back the curtain on the decades-old farce of how corporations have gotten the Supreme Court to give them constitutional rights originally intended to be reserved for the people alone.Using these rights, corporations and the super-rich are now allowed to spend unlimited sums to influence our elections! The 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision is only the latest in a series of rulings that have brought us the infamous Super PACs.
Meet other concerned citizens who want to reclaim our democracy and get involved in the growing national movement for an amendment to the US Constitution!
David’s talk couldn’t be better timed. This November 6, nearly a third of Massachusetts voters will have the chance to vote on the Democracy Amendment question, a nonbinding ballot question calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate constitutional rights and allow spending limits in political campaigns. Learn more about the Democracy Amendment question at www.DemocracyAmendmentMass.org
Please come!
The talks are free and open to all, with a Q&A and discussion to conclude.
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NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS IN RESILIENCE CIRCLES
Wed, September 19, 2012
8:00PM
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2012/09/20/neighborhood-resilience-circles-for-tough-times
Call in to speak with the host (646) 652-2235h:325375
Resilience Circles, small groups for tough times where people come together to increase their personal security through learning, mutual aid, social action, and community support. This should be a vision listeners can share and act upon immediately in their own neighborhoods.
Our guests will be Sarah Byrnes,Economic Justice Organizer at the Institute for Policy Studies, where she coordinates the Resilience Circle Network and Conrad Willeman who has facilitated the beginning of several Resilience Circles.
The economy is going through a deep transition, and economic security is eroding for millions of people. We’re worried about our financial security and about the future we are creating for our children. Many of us aren’t part of communities where we can talk openly about these challenges and fears.
In response, people are forming small “Resilience Circles” of ten – twenty people. These groups are exploring a new kind of security based in mutual aid and community support, and helping build a new kind of economy that’s fair and in harmony with the earth.
A very informative 5 minute video on Resilience Groups can be viewed at http://localcircles.org.
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Thursday, September 20
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Inaugural Celebration Symposium: A Globally Engaged MIT
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 9:00a–12:00p
Location: Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT honors President Reif during the week of his inauguration with a series of three symposia organized by Institute faculty. More information, including speakers and program titles, is available online.
These academic events are open to all. No registration is required.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/inauguration/symposia.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: none
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Information Center
For more information, contact: Institute Events
617-253-4795
inauguration at mit.edu
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[MIT Energy Club] Energy 101: "Oil and Gas Industry: Conventional and Unconventional"
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Speaker: Junlun Li
Time: 12:30p–1:30p
Location: MIT, Building 1-375, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In this Energy 101 lecture, Li will give a general introduction on the gas/oil industry and its importance. Li will also talk about some hot topics in this industry, particularly about the unconventional gas/oil production.
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.
Open to: the general public
Cost: None
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
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Certificate Authority Collapse
Thursday, September 20, 12:30 pm
Location TBA
RSVP required for those attending in person via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/09/vaneijk_arnbak#RSVP
This event will be archived on our site shortly after at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/
Nico A.N.M. van Eijk & Axel Arnbak, Institute for Information Law
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (‘HTTPS’) has evolved into the de facto standard for secure web browsing. Through the certificate-based authentication protocol, web services and internet users protect valuable communications and transactions against interception and alteration by cybercriminals, governments and business. In only one decade, it has facilitated trust in a thriving global E-Commerce economy, while every internet user has come to depend on HTTPS for social, political and economic activities on the internet.
Recent breaches and malpractices at several Certificate Authorities (CA’s) have led to a collapse of trust in these central mediators of HTTPS communications as they revealed 'fundamental weaknesses in the design of HTTPS’ (ENISA 2011). In particular, the breach at Dutch CA Diginotar shows how a successful attack on one of the 650 Certificate Authorities across 54 jurisdictions enables attackers to create false SSL-certificates for any given website or service. Moreover, Diginotar kept the breach silent. So for 90 days, web browsers continued to trust Diginotar certificates, enabling attackers to intercept the communications of 300.000 Iranians. In its aftermath, Dutch public authorities overtook operations at Diginotar and convinced Microsoft to delay updates to its market-leading web browser to ensure ‘the continuity of the internet’. These bold interventions lacked a legitimate basis.
While serving as the de facto standard for secure web browsing, in many ways the security of HTTPS is broken. Given our dependence on secure web browsing, the security of HTTPS has become a top priority in telecommunications policy. In June 2012, the European Commission proposed a new Regulation on eSignatures. As the HTTPS ecosystem is by and large unregulated across the world, the proposal presents a paradigm shift in the governance of HTTPS. This paper examines if, and if so, how the European regulatory framework should legitimately address the systemic vulnerabilities of the HTTPS ecosystem.
To this end, the HTTPS authentication model is conceptualised using actor-based value chain analysis and the systemic vulnerabilities of the HTTPS ecosystem are described through the lens of several landmark breaches. The paper then explores the rationales for regulatory intervention, discusses the EU eSignatures Regulation and abstracts from the EU proposal to develop general insights for HTTPS governance. Our findings should thus be relevant for anyone interested in HTTPS, cybersecurity and internet governance - both in Europe and abroad.
HTTPS governance apprises the incentive structure of the entire HTTPS authentication value chain, untangles the concept of information security and connects its balancing of public and private interests to underlying values, in particular constitutional rights such as privacy, communications secrecy and freedom of communication.
In the long term, a robust technical and policy overhaul must address the systemic weaknesses of HTTPS, as each CA is a single point of failure for the security of the entire ecosystem. On the short term, specific regulatory measures to be considered throughout the value chain may include proportional liability provisions, meaningful security breach notifications and internal security requirements, but both legitimacy and effectiveness will depend on the exact wording of the regulatory provisions.
The research finds that the EU eSignatures proposal lacks an integral vision on the HTTPS value chain and a coherent normative assessment of the underlying values of HTTPS governance. These omissions lead to sub-optimal provisions on liability, security requirements, security breach notifications and supervision in terms of legitimacy and addressing the systemic security vulnerabilities of the HTTPS ecosystem.
About Nico
Nico van Eijk is Professor of Media and Telecommunications Law and Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR, Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam). He studied Law at the University of Tilburg and received his doctorate on government interference with broadcasting in 1992 from the University of Amsterdam. He also works as an independent legal adviser. Among other things, he is the Chairman of the Dutch Federation for Media and Communications Law (Vereniging voor Media- en Communicatierecht, VMC), a member of the supervisory board of the Dutch public broadcasting organisation (NPO) and chairman of two committees of The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER).
About Axel
Axel Arnbak is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Information Law. His research will focus on the regulatory aspects of cybersecurity.
Obtaining his LL.M. degree from IViR in 2009, he was awarded the internet law oriented Internet Thesis Award 2009 and general University of Amsterdam Thesis Award 2010 for his Master's thesis on the fundamental rights aspects of the EU Data Retention Directive and its Dutch implementation.
Upon graduation, Axel joined Bits of Freedom,the Dutch digital rights organization that had resumed its activities just before. Until mid August 2011, Axel was responsible for privacy advocacy and worked on both a national and European level.
Axel received his LL.B. degree from Leiden University (2007), interned at law firm Brinkhof (2008), studied Competitive Strategy and Game Theory at the London School of Economics (2009) and chaired the VeerStichting foundation (2005-2006). Along with his full-time affiliation at IViR, he is a member of the supervisory board at the Stichting Admiraal van Kinsbergenfonds (not compensated).
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Energy Systems Innovation
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 12:30p–1:30p
Location: MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Richard Lester
How can we innovate to address climate change and build healthy economies? CoLab hosts Prof. Richard Lester to discuss innovation in our energy systems, focusing on utility regulatory reform, regional governance models, and the role of the Federal government.
Prof. Lester is Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the faculty co-chair and founding Director of the Industrial Performance Center at MIT. His research focuses on industrial innovation and technology strategy, with an emphasis on the energy and manufacturing sectors. Prof. Lester's new book, Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System (MIT Press, 2011), discusses the three urgent and interrelated problems of climate change, worldwide insecurity over energy supplies, and rapidly growing energy demand. Dr. Lester???s talk is part of CoLab???s Mel King Fellows Forum.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/colab/news-events.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Community Innovators Lab
For more information, contact: Brendan McEwen
(617) 253-5746
bmcewen at mit.edu
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"The Changing Field of Development Finance"
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 3:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Remy Prud-homme is Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Urbanism, Paris XII University
Rethinking Development Theory+Strategy:
Fall'12 Lecture Series as part of the Advanced Doctoral Seminar on Development Theory
Remy Prud-homme is Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Urbanism of Paris, Paris XII University. He has held positions including deputy director of the environment at the OECD, consultant to the World Bank, and a member of WEF Global Agenda Council on the Future of mobility. His work focuses on public finance and transportation.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Alpen Sheth
305-801-7262
alpen at MIT.EDU
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Food Systems Networks That Work: Accelerating Learning and Increasing Commerce NGFN Interactive Webinar
Sept. 20
3:30p EDT
Webinar at http://ngfn.org/resources/ngfn-cluster-calls/ngfn-cluster-calls#sept-20-2012-food
Learn how joining or fostering a food hub or food system network can improve your regional food economy and the strength of each member organization or business. This webinar will feature conveners of food systems networks at the local, state, regional, and even national level. The networks they’ve built have boosted triple bottom lines of member businesses and organizations.
Panelists:
- Rich Pirog, Senior Associate Director, C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Systems, Michigan State University
- Marty Gerencer, Principal, Morse Marketing Connections
- Corry Bregendahl, Assistant Scientist, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University
- Karen Lehman, Director, Fresh Taste
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We Have Never Been Secular: A Theology of Sustainability Metrics"
Thursday, September 20, 2012
4:00pm
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Ronnie D. Lipschutz is Professor of Politics and Provost of College Eight at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, he is engaged in development and teaching of an integrated sustainability curriculum for undergraduates, and research in distributed renewable microgrids.
In this talk, he argues that sustainability metrics, such as carbon “footprints” and similar standards, can be analyzed through the lenses of virtuous or debauched behaviors leading to salvation or damnation, heaven or hell. This relationship is rooted in a long history of theological debates over determinism, free will and salvation. There is theology in quantification.
The growing number of projects and programs to quantify “footprints” and set sustainability standards are intended, on the one hand, to allow producers and consumers to evaluate their behaviors according to some “scientific” basis—although the technical underpinnings of such metrics are very open to challenge. On the other hand, sustainability metrics represent a form of late modern “virtue ethics.” Such standards motivate the consumer to behave appropriately, live a virtuous life, and thereby “save the planet” (and herself, in the bargain).
The idea of quantifying human behavior is also closely related to the theological underpinnings of neoclassical economics and so-called free markets, and social struggles over the role of human intervention in shaping “natural systems.” In tracing this economic theology, not only do we wind our way back through the marginal revolution, labor theories of value and Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand, we also run into the English Civil Wars, Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine.
Contact Name: Lisa Matthews
matthew at fas.harvard.edu
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Emergent Biogeomorphic Patterns in
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Marco Marani, Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Environmental Fluid Mechanics/Hydrology
Join us for a weekly series of EFM/Hydrology topics by MIT faculty and students, as well as guest lecturers from around the globe.
Tidal environments, such as lagoons and estuaries, exist in a constant pursuit of sea level rise. In the process they generate ubiquitous and robust geomorphic structures, such as marshes, tidal flats, and sub-tidal platforms. These structures are shown to be bio-geomorphic in nature, as they emerge from the coupled dynamics of biotic and abiotic processes. At intermediate scales, tidal landforms and the associated ecosystems are shown to emerge as multiple, competing, equilibrium states from the interplay of erosion, deposition, and biostabilization. At a smaller scale, biogeomorphic features in tidal marshes are seen to stem from the ability of vegetation species to actively engineer the landscape by tuning soil elevation within preferential ranges. Each vegetation patch corresponds to one of many competing stable states, which display a varying robustness to changes in the rate of sea level rise, with implications for the overall resilience of marsh ecosystems.
Web site: http://cee.mit.edu/events/60
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Ruth Yiu
3-7145
ryiu at mit.edu
-----------------------------------
Duolingo: Learn a Language for Free While Helping to Translate the Web
When: Sep 20, 2012 | 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Where: Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Luis von Ahn , Carnegie Mellon University
I want to translate the Web into every major language: every webpage, every video, and, yes, even Justin Bieber's tweets.
With its content split up into hundreds of languages -- and with over 50% of it in English -- most of the Web is inaccessible to most people in the world. This problem is pressing, now more than ever, with millions of people from China, Russia, Latin America and other quickly developing regions entering the Web. In this talk, I introduce my new project, called Duolingo, which aims at breaking this language barrier, and thus making the Web truly "world wide."
We have all seen how systems such as Google Translate are improving every day at translating the gist of things written in other languages. Unfortunately, they are not yet accurate enough for my purpose: Even when what they spit out is intelligible, it's so badly written that I can't read more than a few lines before getting a headache.
With Duolingo, our goal is to encourage people, like you and me, to translate the Web into their native languages.
Speaker Biography: Luis von Ahn is the A. Nico Habermann Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He is working to develop a new area of computer science that he calls Human Computation, which aims to build systems that combine the intelligence of humans and computers to solve large-scale problems that neither can solve alone. An example of his work is reCAPTCHA, in which over one billion people -- 15% of humanity -- have helped digitize books and newspapers. Among his many honors are a MacArthur Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship, the ACM Grace Hopper Award, and CMU's Herbert A. Simon Award for Teaching Excellence and Alan J. Perlis Teaching Award. He has been named one of the "50 Best Brains in Science" by Discover Magazine, one of the 50 most influential people in technology by silicon.com, and one of the "Brilliant 10 Scientists" by Popular Science Magazine.
Contact: Gioia Sweetland
gioia at seas.harvard.edu 617-495-2919
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The Price of Climate Risk
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 4:30p–5:30p
Location: MIT, Building E51-115, Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Robert Litterman
MIT Sloan Finance Group presents the inaugural S. Donald Sussman Award Lecture by Robert Litterman.
The S. Donald Sussman Award is presented to individuals or groups who best exemplify Donald Sussman???s career as a successful investor in quantitative investment strategies and models.
Robert Litterman recently retired from a 23-year career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in research, risk management, investments, and thought leadership roles. He oversaw the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group and Global Investment Strategies. Bob is Chairman of the advisory board at Kepos Capital, and for the past six years he has been one of three external advisors to Singapore???s Government Investment Corporation (GIC).
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Sloan Finance Group
For more information, contact: MIT Sloan Finance Group
knixon at mit.edu
--------------------------------
The Theory and Practice of Green Economic Development: Across the USA and Around the World
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 5:00p–6:30p
Location: MIT, Building 7-338, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Don't miss this series of fast-paced presentations, with planners and economic development practitioners sharing their experiences and vision for green economicdevelopment. Presenters include members of the 2012 CoLab Mel King Fellows, a cohort of economic development practitioners from across the USA, and SPURS/Humphreys Fellows, mid-career professionals from across the world engaged in a year of studies at MIT.
Presenters
Mel King Community Fellows
Wilnelia Rivera - Policy and Political Director, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts
Shanna Ratner - Principal, Yellow Wood Associates Inc
Eric Nakajima - Senior Innovation Advisor, Massachusetts Office of Housing and Economic Development
SPURS/Humphrey Fellows
Akmed Baitassov, Infrastructure Project Manager, KATCO uranium mining company, Kazakhstan
Anush Hovakimyan, Executive Director, Goris Tourism Office, Armenia
Abel Kapindula Manangi, Senior Engineer, Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, Zambia
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/colab/news-events.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Community Innovators Lab
For more information, contact: Brendan McEwen
(617) 253-5746
bmcewen at mit.edu
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#YoSoy132: Mexico's Networked Social Movement
Thursday, September 20
5:00pm to 6:30pm
Microsoft Conference Center, One Memorial Drive, First Floor, Cambridge
The role of social media in movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street has been much discussed, and such "hashtagged" social movements continue to appear in multiple latitudes. The panelists will discuss the development of the #YoSoy132 movement, "I am 132" in English, an ongoing student-led activist group that fights for democracy and against media bias in an apparent attempt to impose the next president of Mexico during the recent 2012 general election. The movement embodies the collision between centralized traditional media and distributed social media, and reveals the limitations of social media in reaching beyond those who are already networked. The panelists include a member of the #YoSoy132 and researchers investigating networked social movements.
Speakers: Sasha Costanza-Chock (MIT), Antonio Attolini Murra (#YoSoy132 at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México), and Andrés Monroy-Hernández(Microsoft Research).
Andrew Whitacre, Communications Director, MIT Center for Civic Media
(617) 324-0490
awhit at mit.edu
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"Close-Reading Media Poetics"
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 5:00p–7:00p
Location: MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Avenue, Cambridg
Speaker: Jim Bizzocchi, Simon Fraser University, MIT alum
CMS Colloquium Series
Close reading can be used to explicate works across a variety of dimensions: thematic, cultural, historical, sociological, and others. Bizzocchi's goal is to understand the poetics "the creative decisions" embedded in creative works. He will present his analyses of Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair, Tom Tykwer's Run, Lola, Run, and Gerrie Villon and Alex Mayhew's Ceremony of Innocence (an interactive adaptation of The Griffin and Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantock).
Jim Bizzocchi is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. His research includes work on narrative, interactive narrative, and the evolution of the moving image. He teaches classes in these areas, and is a recipient of the University Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a practicing video artist, creating award-winning works in a genre he calls "Ambient Video". Jim is a graduate of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program (2001).
Web site: http://cms.mit.edu/events/talks.php#092012
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cms at mit.edu
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Urban Films: Dark Days
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Time: 6:00p–8:00p
Location: MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
A documentary film by Marc Singer exploring the underground world of the New York's homeless population.
Urban Planning Film Series
A mostly-weekly series showing documentary and feature films on topics related to cities, urbanism, design, community development, ecology, and other planning issues. Free.
Web site: http://www.urbanfilm.org
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu
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Simulation and Natural Ventilation
Thursday, Sept 20
6pm-8:30pm EST
MIT, Building 1 Room 390, corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Munchies provided.
Presentation Synopses:
Liam Buckley's presentation entitled “Simulating Natural Ventilation” will cover a brief introduction to naturally ventilated buildings; why to naturally ventilate, when to apply natural ventilation strategies and when not to. Liam will also investigate and challenge the recommended codes and standards for naturally ventilated buildings. This presentation will conclude with strategies to naturally ventilate buildings, examine some case studies and discuss the lessons learned.
Stephen Ray's presentation briefly surveys natural ventilation simulation techniques before focusing on CFD, airflow network models, and simple analytical calculations. Specific attention is given to relevant simplifications, complexities that deserve attention, practical modeling tips, and advice for effectively communicating results with clients. The presentation is interspersed with lessons learned from the design of two Japanese office buildings and various MIT experiments.
Speaker Bios:
Liam Buckley – M.Eng., C.Eng. MIEI, ASHRAE BEMP
Liam is a Business Development and Project Manager for IES Ltd. His consulting work includes detailed HVAC energy analysis & optimization, mechanical & natural ventilation analysis, renewable energy systems, occupant thermal comfort, computational fluid dynamics, daylight analysis and artificial lighting design. Liam has experience with multiple natural ventilation design projects on buildings in Europe, Australia and North America.
Stephen Ray, Ph.D., is an MIT postdoctoral researcher whose research focuses on modeling natural ventilation (NV) and monitoring a recently completed NV building in Japan. He has used a variety of NV modeling techniques including CFD, airflow network models, small-scale models, and full-scale mockups to aid the design of two office buildings in Tokyo. Steve worked closely with Taisei, Nikken Sekkei, and Takenaka during these projects and offers a unique perspective on the use of NV simulation among Japan’s best design firms. As part of his Ph.D. research, he helped develop CoolVent, an MIT-designed airflow network model, and validated various CFD models using both full-scale and small-scale experiments.
-------------------------------
Climate Change House Call: The dangers of climate change for US Public Health
September 20, 2012
7:30 PM
The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
Annually, thousands of U.S. emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths can be attributed to climate change. This summer Dr. Wendy Ring, a 56-year old family physician, is riding a bicycle across the country to draw attention to these negative health impacts and to "wake people up to the danger we face and the need to move clean energy to the top of our national agenda." Please join us for this fast-paced and informative talk by a family doctor who can translate the science into the plain English audiences need so they can understand this important issue.
Sponsored by the Boston chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, The Better Future Project, and 350MA.org
Event Contact Info Gary Rucinski
Email: gary.rucinski at gmail.com
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Friday, September 21
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Technology Investment Decisions under Uncertainty: A New Modeling Framework for the Electric Power Sector
Friday, September 21, 2012
Time: 8.00am
Location: MIT, Building 9-152, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Dissertation Defense of Nidhi Santen
---------------------------------------
New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Friday, September 21, 2012
9:00am - 12:30pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
Better Aligning Capacity Markets with Policy/Planning Objectives
Perhaps no development in the history of electricity markets in New England and throughout the US has been more controversial than the emergence of capacity markets. With New England contemplating numerous changes to its capacity market design (partially in response to a FERC order, and partially due to the efforts of ISO and other stakeholders to better align capacity markets with planning and policy objectives), now is a perfect time for a dedicated Roundtable on capacity markets.
In our first panel we will explore evolving regional capacity markets in three ISOs: New England, New York, and PJM. To share both the lessons ISOs are learning and the improvements they are contemplating, we are very pleased to have joining us President and CEO of the New York ISO, Stephen Whitley; Vice President of Market Operations and Demand Response at PJM, Stu Bresler; and Vice President of Market Development at ISO New England, Robert Ethier. We have asked Johannes Pfeifenberger, Principal at the Brattle Group, who has worked with many ISOs in the U.S. and beyond, to lead off the panel with an overview of the role of capacity markets and an "apples-to-apples" comparison of the three ISOs' capacity market designs and performances to date.
For our second panel we have invited a cross-section of leading stakeholder group representatives to share their perspectives on how to better align capacity markets in New England to ensure resource adequacy, while also meeting other important regional policy/planning objectives. Our illustrious panel will include:
Chairman Thomas Welch, Maine Public Utilities Commission
Commissioner Elizabeth Miller, VT Deptartment of Public Service
Peter Fuller, Director of Regulatory Affairs, NRG Energy
James Daly, VP Energy Supply, Northeast Utilities
We have also asked Bob Ethier to join this 2nd panel for the Q & A and discussion among the panelists.
Contact Name: Susan Rivo
susan at raabassociates.org
---------------------------------
Inaugural Celebration Symposium: The Future of Education
Friday, September 21, 2012
Time: 9:00a–12:00p
Location: MIT, Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT honors President Reif during the week of his inauguration with a series of three symposia organized by Institute faculty. More information, including speakers and program titles, is available online.
These academic events are open to all. No registration is required.
Presented in partnership with the Alumni Leadership Council.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/inauguration/symposia.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: none
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Information Center, Alumni Leadership Council
For more information, contact: Institute Events
617-253-4795
inauguration at mit.edu
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Workshop: Changing Energy Behavior in the Workplace
Friday, September 21, 2012
12:00pm - 4:30pm
Federal Reserve, New England Room, 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
“Nothing is cheaper than off” says Frederick Abernathy, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University. This is the mantra for this workshop on workplace engagement around energy efficiency. Engaging employees on energy reduction is the least expensive of all capital investments around energy, and, when the right framework is followed, results can be real and lay the foundation for long term reductions in both the workplace and home.
Attendees will take away the community based social marketing framework in relation to energy engagement, case studies, a campaign to implement immediately including communications materials, and lastly, the opportunity to network and share best practices with Boston’s sustainability professionals.
Workshop Includes:
Lunch with gluten free sandwiches and vegan options
Two speakers on successful energy engagement campaigns
Pledge Card Template
Prompt Resources
Invitation to participate in citywide energy reduction competition
Invitation to post-workshop social
The workshop will be facilitated by Mary Ostafi, Sustainability Consultant for global architecture firm, HOK. Mary manages the firm wide Occupant Engagement ProgramTM, a methodology for engaging occupants, driving green practices, and inspiring sustainable behavior among building stakeholders through strategic engagement, education, and outreach campaigns and events. Prior clients include Cadillac Fairview and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
This event is free for members of A Better City and $25 for non-members through September 14th ($35 after).
REGISTER NOW at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?llr=i7ljcybab&oeidk=a07e6a868ec041509b7
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=i7ljcybab&oeidk=a07e6a868ec041509b7
Contact Name: Megan Ramey
617-502-6240
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Scientific Computing for Movie Special Effects and Virtual Surgery
When: Sep 21, 2012 | 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Where: Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Lunch with speaker, 12:30 pm; Talk, 1 pm
Joseph Teran , Associate Professor of Mathematics, UCLA
Dr. Joseph Teran will talk about some exciting new applications of scientific computing for solid and fluid mechanics problems including the simulation of virtual materials for movie special effects, video game effects and virtual surgery. These new applications all have an increasing demand for physically realistic dynamics of materials like water, smoke, fire, brittle objects, elastic objects, etc. The computational demands arising in these applications are somewhat different than those traditionally considered by scientific computing researchers and many new algorithms are needed to address them. Dr. Teran will discuss these new scientific computing challenges as well as some recent algorithms developed in his lab to address them. Virtual surgery is a particularly exciting application area. A virtual surgery simulator is like a flight simulator for training surgeons (and would-be surgeons) in modern procedures. Dr. Teran will also discuss procedures related to repair and manipulation of soft-tissues. Other topics discussed will include GPU and manycore algorithms for real-time solution of nonlinear elliptic equations arising in elasticity problems and in incompressible flow, cut-cell methods for higher-order accuracy on structured grids and contact algorithms for thin structures.
Speaker Biography: Joseph Teran is an associate professor of applied mathematics at UCLA. His research focuses on numerical methods for partial differential equations arising in engineering. This includes computational solids, computational fluids, multi-material interactions, fracture dynamics and computational biomechanics. One very exciting example of this research is virtual surgery. These techniques allow a surgeon to practice a given procedure on the computer rather than on a cadaver or patient. Other exciting applications include computer graphics and movie special effects at Walt Disney Animation. Teran was a recipient of a 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and a 2010 Young Investigator award from the Office of Naval Research. In 2008, Discover Magazine named him one of the 50 “Best Brains in Science.”
Contact: Natasha Baker
iacs-info at seas.harvard.edu 617-496-2623
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Saturday, September 22
-----------------------------
The 2012 Ig Informal Lectures at MIT
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Time: 1:00p–3:00p
Location: MIT, Building 10-250, 222 Memorial Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Ig Nobel Prize Winners
An afternoon of improbably funny, high-spirited public lectures, in which the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it.
Plus, appearances by previous winners and a special musical performance by "KEROMIN," the Amazing FROGS! Please join us.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/index.html#ig
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
books at mit.edu
-------------------------------------
BOSTON FESTIVAL OF INDIE GAMES
9/22/2012
10:00 am - 10:00 pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
Description: Co-presented by MIT Game Lab and Boston Indies, Boston Festival of Indie Games is a debut celebration of independent game development with emphasis on the New England region. Boston Festival of Indie Games seeks to support and showcase the efforts of independent game developers by providing a free public event that encourages attendees to share and interact with games in various media. Boston Festival of Indie Games is focused on creating an intersection between community, academic and independent interests in game play. At the Microsoft NERD Center, the public can view and play games in our Digital Games Showcase and vote for their favorites.
Register at http://bostonfig.com/registration/ (for presenters)
---------------------------
Sunday, September 23
---------------------------
The Physics of the Kresge Organ, a pre-concert lecture
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Time: 3:00p–4:00p
Location: MIT, Building W16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT organ curator Mark Nelson will speak about the physics of the organ as well as the Kresge Organ in particular, and he will answer any questions.
After the lecture, please join us for the world premiere of Leonardo Ciampa's Kresge Organ Symphony.
This program of all contemporary organ music includes the world-premiere of Leonardo Ciampa's KRESGE ORGAN SYMPHONY, a grand work incorporating Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim themes.
Web site: http://studentlife.mit.edu/organ-concerts
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Division of Student Life
For more information, contact: Christina English
617-253-7707
cenglish at mit.edu
-----------------------------------
World Premiere of Kresge Organ Symphony by Leonardo Ciampa
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Time: 4:00p–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building W16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This program of all contemporary organ music includes the world-premiere of Leonardo Ciampa's KRESGE ORGAN SYMPHONY, a grand work incorporating Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim themes. Also on the program:
Charles Shadle Red Cloud (world-premiere)
Carson Cooman Two pieces for soprano & organ
1. Circe
2. Ostinato Mass
(with Jean Danton, soprano)
Andrea Amici Tre Preghiere
David Briggs Es Ist Ein Ros' Entsprungen (world-premiere)
Geoffrey Dana Hicks Organ Prelude No. 1 (world-premiere)
Please join MIT organ curator Mark Nelson at 3pm for a pre-concert lecture in Kresge. Mark will speak about the physics of the organ as well as the Kresge Organ in particular, and he will answer any questions.
Web site: http://studentlife.mit.edu/organ-concerts
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Division of Student Life
For more information, contact: Christina English
617-253-7707
cenglish at mit.edu
---------------------------
Monday, September 24
---------------------------
Community Atmosphere and Earth System Modeling beyond CMIP5: Seamless Prediction from Climate to Weather
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: MIT, Building 54-915, 3 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Andrew Gettelman
MASS Seminar
Abstract: The past and future evolution of a widely used earth system model, the Community Earth System Model, is discussed. The current status of the model as part of the latest coupled model inter comparison project (CMIP5) will be highlighted. CESM simulation performance is critical regimes is analyzed: such as Arctic clouds and climate change, and on simulations of tropical cyclones. Results of historical and future simulations will be presented. CESM also has a significantly different climate sensitivity to radiative forcing changes from its predecessors. The change in sensitivity is due to changes to the radiation code (forcing) and changes to the cloud parameterizations (feedbacks). These are analyzed in detail, and the causes traced to parameterizations of clouds. Future modeling directions are discussed beyond the CMIP5 version of CESM, and a conceptual framework to consistently go from climate to weather scales will be outlined, with some progress and plans presented.
The MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) is a student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Monday from 12-1pm followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and post docs certainly participate.
Speaker's Website: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cms/andrew/
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/mass
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), MIT Atmospheric Science Seminars, Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC)
For more information, contact: MASS organizing committee
mass at mit.edu
----------------------------------
"Who Pays Fuel Taxes and What Does It Mean for Policy?"
Monday, September 24, 2012
12:15pm - 1:45pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Erich Muehlegger, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/events.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at harvard.edu
-------------------------------------
"Narrating Fukushima: Scales of a Nuclear Meltdown"
Monday, September 24, 2012
12:15pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Shi-Lin Loh and Kyoko Sato (Harvard, EALC/Stanford STS).
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Thursday noon the week before.
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
sts at hks.harvard.edu
----------------------------------
Riding the Unicorn: The Myth of Sustainability
September 24, 2012
12:30p–1:45p
Tufts, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Bruce J. Oreck currently serves as the United States Ambassador to Finland. In that capacity, he has driven the initiation of a complete renovation of the Embassy in Helsinki with a focus on high performance. Later this year Embassy Helsinki will open its Innovation Center, a 100 year old building on target for LEED Platinum EB Certification. The Innovation Center is also slated to be the first U.S. Embassy building to exclusively utilize both interior and exterior LED lighting. And the entire Embassy compound will be the first in the world to utilize both district heating and district cooling (over 90% efficient).
For more information: http://bruceoreck.eventbrite.com/
--------------------------------
"Technologies for Positive Energy Buildings and Communities"
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 12:30p–2:00p
Location: MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Stella Oggianu, Project Leader, Energy Systems, United Technologies Research Center, Connecticut
Building Technology Lecture Series, Dept of Architecture
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:
617-253-1876
--------------------------------
Technology prospects for the U.S. Light Duty Fleet in 2050
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 1:00p–2:30p
Location: MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Deutch, Institute Professor, MIT
In August 2012 the National Petroleum Council released a three-year study, undertaken at the request of Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, to assess the prospects for technology changes to the vehicle and fuel mix of cars and light trucks that could significantly reduce carbon footprint of the vehicle fleet. In this talk, Institute Professor John Deutch, who served as vice chair of technology for the study group, will discuss how this massive NPC study was organized and the results presented in the report, Advancing Technology for America's Transportation Future. He shall comment on the strength and deficiencies of the model constructed to project future possible fuel/vehicle fleet composition. Further, Deutch shall propose an alternative modeling approach that he believes the MIT Energy Initiative should pursue in order to better inform industry, government, and interested citizen groups about the technology and policy choices that exist to shape the composition of the future U.S. light duty vehicle fleet.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey at mit.edu
--------------------------------
Do Prices and Attributes Explain International Differences in Food Purchases?
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: At Harvard - Littauer M16, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Aviv Nevo (Northwestern)
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE IN VENUE
Web site: http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/8116
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): IO Workshop
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
-----------------------------------
Predicting the Effects of Charter School Expansion
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 4:00p–5:30p
Location: MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Christopher Walters (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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RFID Event: What Technology Will Dominate Retail?
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 6:00p–9:00p
Location: MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Although self checkout is a hot topic, turns out that NFC will only be one of the technologies that retailers will and are flocking to. The challenge is to get shoppers into the store. And once in the store to have stellar store operations to make sure they shop - and buy. Oh, and did we say profitable operations? That still counts most.
So what are those technologies? QR Codes, RFID, Mobile, NFC or other wireless methods?
Our stellar panel, who are key innovators and dominators in retail will debate and discuss this very topic. Current market research on Retail trends and purchasing will be shared.
Web site: http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/rfid-sig-event-what-technology-will-dominate-retail-3/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact:
Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge at mit.edu
Editorial Comment: This is a pay event, $30 for non-members of the MIT Enterprise Forum, $10 for members. The Enterprise Forum has a number of events every month throughout the year.
----------------------------------------
Science and Cooking
Monday, September
7p.
Harvard Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
A lecture in Harvard's Science and Cooking series by Enric Rovira, Master Chocolatier
----------------------------------------
MIT Visiting Artists Mel Chin and Rick Lowe
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 7:00p–8:30p
Location: MIT, Building E15-070, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Mel Chin, Rick Lowe, Dayna Cunningham
MIT Visiting Artist Program
MIT Visiting Artists Mel Chin and Rick Lowe present individual projects that engage art in planning diverse and lively urban environments. Active in their own communities and in national initiatives, each deploys art to reinvent locations in need of revitalization. Moderated by Dayna Cunningham, Executive Director of the Community Innovators Lab, a center of planning and development within the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the discussion examines the potential contributions of artists to an urban studies and planning curriculum.
Co-presented by CoLab and the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology.
Web site: arts.mit.edu/va
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: see arts.mit.edu/va
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Arts at MIT, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Leah Talatinian
617.252.1888
arts at mit.edu
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Folk Music Lecture Demonstration: Norman Kennedy, Scottish ballad singer
Monday, September 24, 2012
Time: 7:30p–9:30p
Location: MIT, Building 14W-111, Killian Hall, Hayden Library Building, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Norman Kennedy
Web site: web.mit.edu/mta
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
mta-request at mit.edu
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Tuesday, September 25
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"The 2012 Presidential Campaigns: Big Election, Small Campaigns."
Tuesday, September 25
12 p.m.
Speaker Series with Alex Castellanos, political media consultant.
Harvard Shorenstein Center, Allison Dining Room, Taubman Building, Fifth Floor, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
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Infrastructure: The Social Value of Shared Resources
Tuesday, September 25th
12:00pm **please note this is different from our start usual time**
Harvard Law School
RSVP required for those attending in person via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/09/frischmann#RSVP
This event will be archived on our site shortly after at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/
Brett Frischmann, Cardozo Law School
Description via Amazon.com
Infrastructure resources are the subject of many contentious public policy debates, including what to do about crumbling roads and bridges, whether and how to protect our natural environment, energy policy, even patent law reform, universal health care, network neutrality regulation and the future of the Internet. Each of these involves a battle to control infrastructure resources, to establish the terms and conditions under which the public receives access, and to determine how the infrastructure and various dependent systems evolve over time.
Infrastructure: The Social Value of Shared Resources devotes much needed attention to understanding how society benefits from infrastructure resources and how management decisions affect a wide variety of interests. The book links infrastructure, a particular set of resources defined in terms of the manner in which they create value, with commons, a resource management principle by which a resource is shared within a community. The infrastructure commons ideas have broad implications for scholarship and public policy across many fields ranging from traditional infrastructure like roads to environmental economics to intellectual property to Internet policy.
Economics has become the methodology of choice for many scholars and policymakers in these areas. The book offers a rigorous economic challenge to the prevailing wisdom, which focuses primarily on problems associated with ensuring adequate supply. The author explores a set of questions that, once asked, seem obvious: what drives the demand side of the equation, and how should demand-side drivers affect public policy? Demand for infrastructure resources involves a range of important considerations that bear on the optimal design of a regime for infrastructure management. The book identifies resource valuation and attendant management problems that recur across many different fields and many different resource types, and it develops a functional economic approach to understanding and analyzing these problems and potential solutions.
About Brett
Brett Frischmann’s expertise is in intellectual property and internet law. After clerking for the Honorable Fred I. Parker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practicing at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC, he joined the Loyola University Chicago law faculty in 2002. He is currently a professor at Cardozo Law School and has held visiting appointments at Cornell and Fordham. A prolific author, whose articles have appeared in Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, and Review of Law and Economics, among other journals, Professor Frischmann has focused recently on the relationships between infrastructural resources, property rights, commons, and spillovers.
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Cycles of Distrust: An Economic Model
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daron Acemoglu (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Seminar in Organizational Economics
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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Boston Green Drinks - September Happy Hour
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
kingston station, 25 kingston street, Boston
RSVP at http://sep12bgd-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=450
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a Drink at Kingston station and build your connection with our green community!
Keep sending feedback to Lyn at bostongreendrinks.com for ideas about speakers or content for the future and mark your calendar for drinks on the last Tuesday of every month.
Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
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SOCIAL INTEL: GAINING INSIGHTS FROM AN OPEN SOURCE KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY PLATFORM
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
6:00 PM To 9:00 PM
Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Because social media is essentially 'real-time' information, it provides an efficiency mechanism to reduce intelligence time to action if it can be harvested effectively. Fusing social media with traditional intelligence information provides additional context and connections of entities and events, which increases quality, relevance and predictability.
Learn how with IKANOW's open source platform, Infinit.e, your organization can gain valuable intelligence by fusing social media data with traditional enterprise data.
Presentation will be given by one of IKANOW's Intelligence Analysts and food and drinks will be provided by IKANOW.
Register at http://www.meetup.com/Open-Analytics-Boston/events/67990392/
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Green tech Entrepreneur Forum & Brainstorming.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
7:00 PM To 10:00 PM
Eastern Bank, 647 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The Agenda is:
We will introduce ourselves and tell about our interest, expertise or work (1st hr)
You can give a ~3 to 5 minute elevator speach about your startup if you would like. (We will divide the 1st hour by # of people.)
What stage is your ideas or startup? What is your goal?
Tell what personnel or additional expertise, funding, etc. you are seeking,
Discussion and Brainstorming on (2nd hr)
ideas for viable moneymaking startups,
methods of collaboration, networking, forming teams & partnerships etc.
marketing, media, social media, ideas that have worked well for publicity
Agencies, websites, companies that assist startups
Boston Greenfest & Gov't opportunities.
What would ou like to see in future meetups?
Seminars - We will have seminars by Sustainable Energy engineers and other tech experts as often as possible.
The bank is near the center of Central Sq., where Prospect and Mass Ave cross, - there is a Starbucks on the Northeast corner of the intersection. Next to Starbucks is a Flower shop, and next to that is Eastern Bank. You can see the conference room thru the window, so just wave to us and we will let you in.
http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Clean-Tech-and-Energy/events/79994272/
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Upcoming
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Science & Advocacy: The Legacy of Silent Spring
Thursday, September 27
4:00 pm
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
A Discussion Featuring:
Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council
Bill McKibben, Writer, activist, community organizer
Andrew Revkin, New York Times and Pace University
With Harvard Faculty:
William Clark, Harvard Kennedy School
Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School
Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard Kennedy School
James McCarthy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
John Spengler, Harvard School of Public Health
Moderated By:
Daniel Schrag, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring brought concerns about the environmental impact of pesticides to a broad public audience—spawning a grass-roots environmental movement that continues to this day. Join environmental leaders to explore the legacy of Silent Spring, and how science and advocacy interact in the face of our modern environmental challenges.
Contact: Lisa Matthews
lisa_matthews at harvard.edu, 617-495-8883
Editorial Comment: Bill McKibben and others will be presenting a petition to address climate change at Romney Campaign Headquarters in Boston the next day:
WHERE: Romney HQ, 585 Commercial Street, Boston, MA
WHEN: Friday, September 28, 10:30 AM
RSVP at http://act.350actionfund.org/signup/Romney_delivery/?akid=2172.354267.JW8xbH&rd=1&t=2
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Ideastorm
Thu, 09/27/2012
5:30pm - 6:00pm
Location: Venture Cafe (Darjeeling) @ CIC, One Broadway, Cambridge, MA
Description: While computers in Africa remain scarce, mobile phones are ubiquitous. 75% of Kenyans have cell phones, and 99% of internet traffic is mobile. Nairobi has been dubbed "Silicon Savanah" with the new startups riding this wave. What type of businesses can be built on this newly connected emerging economy.
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"Building Greener Communities through Entreprenuership"
Event Date: October 4, 2012
Networking Reception: 7:30 a.m. Breakfast and Speaking Program: 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. Q&A Session: 8:30 to 9:00 a.m.
100 Summer Street, Pokross A Room, Boston
Hear Antje Danielson, the Administrative Director at TIE (Tufts Institute of the Environment), discuss social entrepreneurship.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Technologists, social entrepreneurs, non-profits, community activists, legal professionals, and those with general interest in Massachusetts' cleantech and green space. **Space is limited so please RVSP to reserve your place!**
Antje Danielson is the Administrative Director at TIE (Tufts Institute of the Environment) as well as the graduate interdisciplinary Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) program. She came to Tufts from Durham University (UK), where she served as the Deputy Director for Sustainability, in May 2008. Previously, she worked with the Harvard Green Campus Initiative. A long-time resident of Cambridge, Mass, Antje also co-founded the innovative carsharing company Zipcar. She holds a Ph.D. in Geology from Free University, Berlin.
Contact Information Callie Reis
Email: callie.reis at greenprobono.org
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BLACK ECONOMY, WHlTE PRIVILEGE
Thursday, October 4
6:30-8 pm
Modern Theatre, 525 Washington Street, Boston
with Maggie Anderson (Author) and Thomas Shapiro (Sociology Professor); moderated by Candelaria Silva (Arts Marketer)
Sponsored by the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council.
(Boston, MA 02111) Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents “Black Economy, White Privilege” with Maggie Anderson and Thomas Shapiro; discussion moderated by Candelaria Silva. Sponsored by the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council. Thurs., Oct. 4, 6:30-8 pm. Admission is free and open to all. Modern Theatre (part of Suffolk University), 525 Washington St., Boston, MA. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Downtown Crossing stop on the MBTA Orange and Silver Lines. For more information, call Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visit www.fordhallforum.org.
Black businesses lag behind businesses of all other racial groups in every measure of success. Is it necessary – or even possible – for the black community to sustain its own economy? Author Maggie Anderson shares her highly-publicized year-long journey completely living off Black businesses, called The Empowerment Experiment, and how she encountered a community that refused to support its own, an economy that had Black businesses wholly disenfranchised, and virulent criticism from those outside the Black community who called her a racist. Meanwhile, sociology professor Thomas Shapiro warns that blacks are failing in asset accumulation and homeownership, to the point of negating gains in employment and income. Drawing on economic research, social history, surveys, interviews, and their own personal experiences, these authors show moderator Candelaria Silva how racial inequality is transmitted across generations and pinpoint why the black economy continues to suffer.
At the end of the event, the speakers will be signing and selling copies of their books, Our Black Year: One Family’s Request to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy by Maggie Anderson, and The Hidden Costs of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequalityby Thomas Shapiro.
The Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council (GNEMSDC) is a 35-year-old non-profit agency that develops business relationships with and increases procurement opportunities between corporate members and certified Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs). The GNEMSDC recruits private and public entities, hosts events, and provides contacts to facilitate potential contracts to MBEs. It also serves to certify minority businesses.
Further background information on participants:
Maggie Anderson
As CEO and cofounder of The Empowerment Experiment Foundation, Maggie Anderson has become the leader of a self-help economics movement that supports quality black businesses and urges consumers, especially other middle and upper class African Americans, to proactively and publicly support them. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and CBS Morning News, among many other national television and radio shows. Anderson received her BA from Emory University and her JD and MBA from the University of Chicago. She has participated in successful political campaigns for Rep. John Lewis, Mayor of Atlanta Bill Campbell, and Barack Obama's campaign for U.S. Senate. In addition, she has done work for the RainbowPUSH Coalition and was an executive at McDonald's.
Thomas Shapiro
Professor Thomas Shapiro directs the Institute on Assets and Social Policy and is the Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. His primary interest is in racial inequality and public policy. He is a leader in the asset development field with a particular focus on closing the racial wealth gap. “The Hidden Cost of Being African American” was named one of the Notable Books of 2004 by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With Dr. Melvin Oliver, he also wrote the award-winning Black Wealth/ White Wealth, which received the 1997 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award from the American Sociological Association. It also won the 1995 C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and was named an Outstanding Book of 1996 by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. Shapiro’s media appearances include Tony Brown's Journal, The Tavis Smiley Show, Talk of the Nation, CNN, and On Point. His work has been reviewed or discussed in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The American Prospect, The Chicago Sun-Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, CommonWealth Magazine, Newsweek, The Village Voice, and others.
Candelaria Silva
Candelaria Silva is a freelance arts marketing professional, facilitator and writer. She was the director of the cultural economic development program, ACT (Arts, Culture & Trade) Roxbury from its inception in 1998 until August 2007. Silva conceived and developed ACT Roxbury’s signature programs including the Roxbury Film Festival, Roxbury Open Studios, Roxbury Literary Annual, Roxbury Playwright Mentorship, and the Roxbury Discussion Series. She is most proud of being part of the team that rehabbed Hibernian Hall and brought it back to life as well as the four Roxbury Holiday Shopping Guides that were inserted in the Bay State Banner & Boston Globe. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Silva currently serves on the board of The Henderson Foundation.
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Solidarity And Green Economy (SAGE) 2nd annual conference "Another World Is Possible"
9am-4pm Saturday, October 13th, 2012
in Worcester, MA
Much more: http://WorcesterSAGEalliance.org
A day of resource sharing, alliance building, and collective visioning to create and organize around equitable, democratic, and sustainable community economies.
The conference brings together activists, organizers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, local government, non-profits, and other individuals and organizations committed to forging more equitable and sustainable ways of organizing our communities.
***Call for workshop proposals!***
Please fill out your workshop ideas/proposals by 5pm September 12th here: http://www.worcestersagealliance.org/?page_id=112
Matt Feinstein
Co-director, Media and Organizing Coordinator
Worcester Roots Project
w: 508-343-0035
c: 508-335-7783
http://worcesterroots.org
5 Pleasant St 3rd floor
Worcester, MA 01609
What's a co-director and a staff collective? Find out more here:
http://www.worcesterroots.org/about-2/staff-and-board/why-a-staff-collective/
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Hello Makers and Hacker/Makerspaces!
Artisans Asylum, the City of Somerville, and the Somerville Arts Council are hosting the first Somerville Mini Maker Faire in Somerville's Union Square (near Boston), Saturday October 13th 3-7pm, and we're looking for makers!
To make this a success we need YOU, the makers of the area, to come and show off all your cool stuff! If you've got anything you think the greater world of both makers and non-makers might enjoy, this is the place to show it off.
Tell you friends, members, spread the word! The more the merrier, even if its just to stop by and see what the greater New England area had drummed up.
Answer the Call Here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CfMSomervilleMMF
More info here:
www.makerfairesomerville.com
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Food For Free (www.foodforfree.org) invites you to join us at our
Party Under the Harvest Moon
Friday, October 19th
6-10 p.m.
Morss Hall, Walker Memorial Building, MIT, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
In addition to a silent auction, the event will include complimentary food and drink from several area restaurants including:
Andala Coffee House, Area Four, Baraka Cafe, Cambridge Brewing Co., Central Bottle, Chez Henri, Diesel Cafe, Emma's Pizza, Flatbread Pizza, Flour Bakery & Cafe, EVOO, Henrietta's Table, The Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub, Nubar, Ole Mexican Grill, Pacific Street Cafe, Redbones, Rendezvous in Central Square, Royal East Restaurant, Stone Hearth Pizza, Tables of Content, Upstairs on the Square, and more...
There will also be live music from One Thin Dime and the opportunity to meet and chat with Car Talk's Ray Magliozzi and Executive Producer Doug Berman, as well as Here and Now's host Robin Young.
This event is a fundraiser for Food For Free. Food For Free rescues fresh food—food that might otherwise go to waste—and distributes it within the local emergency food system where it can reach those in need.
Through a combination of food rescue, farming, and transportation services, we give food programs year-round access to fresh fruits and vegetables, while our delivery program brings food directly to isolated seniors and people with disabilities.
Our programs address not only short-term hunger, but obesity, diet-related disease, and other long-term health effects of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
In addition, food rescue—also called salvage or gleaning—reduces food waste.
To find out more:
Event: www.foodforfree.org/event
Tickets: http://www.foodforfree.org/ticket-sales
Auction preview: http://www.foodforfree.org/auction-preview
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Food-For-Free/147077179535?ref=ts
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Opportunity
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Boiler Rebate
If your boiler is from 1983 or earlier, Mass Save will give a $1,750 to $4,000 rebate to switch it out for a new efficient boiler that uses the same fuel (i.e. if you have oil, you have to continue to use oil) so long as it is installed by July 31, 2012.
Call Mass Save (866 527-7283) to sign up for a home energy assessment or sign-up online at www.nextsteplivinginc.com/HEET and HEET will receive a $10 contribution from Next Step Living for every completed assessment.
This is a great way to reduce climate change emissions for the next 20 or so years the boiler lasts, while saving money.
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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, see
http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/additional-resources/solar-hot-water-grant-program
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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).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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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.)
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Resource
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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
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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.
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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/
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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
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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
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area http://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://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
http://green.harvard.edu/events
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/
http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar
http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
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