[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Oct 21 17:57:52 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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Monday, October 22
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"From Predicting Disinfection Byproducts to Carbon Sequestration and Inflammatory Diseases"
October 22, 2012
12
Harvard, Lab for Integrated Science and Engineering, Room 303, 15 Oxford Street, Cambridge
William Mitch, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University
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The Predictive State: Science, Autonomy, and the Future of the Indian Climate
Monday, October 22, 2012
12:15pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Martin Mahony (University of East Anglia/Harvard 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
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"Oil Dependence: What Does it Really Cost Us?"
Monday, October 22, 2012
12:15pm - 1:45pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
David Greene, Corporate Fellow, Energy and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/events.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at harvard.edu
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Public Perceptions of Wind Energy Projects in Massachusetts
October 22, 2012
12:30 pm
Tufts University, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Maria Petrova, Postdoctoral Fellow, CIERP
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Thirty Years of Texas Instruments' Digital Signal Processing: What's Next?
Monday, October 22, 2012
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 37-252, 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Gene Frantz, TI Principal Fellow; Fernando Mujica, Director, System Architectures Lab; Texas Instruments, Inc.
MTL/RLE Special Seminar
Independent of who is telling the story, digital signal processing (DSP) is a relatively new concept. At Texas Instruments, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the programmable DSP this year. That birth 30 years ago was the result of many discoveries made in research labs such as at MIT. In this talk, we'll only focus on that part of the DSP story in which we played a prominent role. We will start with our first programmable DSP, the TMS32010, and tell how DSP moved from being magic to being a permanent part of our lives. We will finish with a few predictions of what the future might hold for these amazing processors which take the theories of signal processing and make their magic much more than an illusion.
Web site: http://www-mtl.mit.edu/htmlemail/ti_dsp.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Research Laboratory of Electronics
For more information, contact: Laura von Bosau
253-4021
vonbosau at mit.edu
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The Political Economy of Saudi Crude Pricing
Monday, October 22, 2012
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jennifer Peck (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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Digital State: Industrial Districts and the Emergence of Minnesota's High Tech Economy
Monday, October 22, 2012
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Thomas Misa, Babbage Institute | University of Minnesota
STS Fall 2012 Colloquia
Wine and Cheese reception in the 3rd Floor Balcony of Stata from 3:30-4, followed by a lecture/discussion on topics of Science, Technology, and Society.
Web site: web.mit.edu/sts
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Randyn Miller
253-3452
randyn at mit.edu
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China’s Environmental History over the Very Long Term
WHEN Mon., Oct. 22, 2012, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Harvard University
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies: Enviroment in Asia Series
SPEAKER(S) Robert B. Marks, Whittier College
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO lkluz at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE Robert B. Marks is Richard and Billie Deihl Professor of History at Whittier College in southern California. His most recent book is China: Its Environment and History (2012).
LINK http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/robert-marks
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Starr Forum- Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Monday, October 22, 2012
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kamer Daron Acemoglu, John Tirman
A book talk with Daron Acemoglu
Co-author/ MIT economist and John Tirman, executive director MIT CIS
About the book: http://whynationsfail.com/ Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
About the speakers:
Kamer Daron Acemoglu is a Turkish-American economist of Armenian origin. He is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and winner of the 2005 John Bates Clark Medal.
John Tirman is the Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: starrforum at mit.edu
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EPP Talk with Gus Speth
Monday, October 22, 2012
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Author Gus Speth will betalking about his new book, America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): EPP
For more information, contact: Nina Tamburello
617.253.1509
epprequest at mit.edu
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Water Lecture Series: River Monster: The Epidemiology, Ecology, and Pathobiology of Cholera
WHEN Mon., Oct. 22, 2012, 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) John Mekalanos, the Adele H. Lehman Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and the Head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School
COST Free
CONTACT INFO 617.495.8600
NOTE The Radcliffe Institute's Water Lectures Series will be relatively informal presentations by Harvard faculty, followed by discussion with attendees, on topics that approach water from multidisciplinary perspectives. The collegial events are intended to present, and potentially to link, faculty interests, in order to learn more about research currently under way and to foster connections across Harvard schools.
LINK http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2012-john-mekalanos-water-lecture
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"Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter."
Monday, October 22
7pm
Harvard Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Wylie Dufresne, wd~50.
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Nerd Nite:
Monday October 22, 2012
8PM
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
$5
The lineup:
Talk 1. “Here Lyes ye Body: a Field Guide to 18th- and 19th-Century Gravestones” by Anna Rothman
Talk 2. “Heads or Tails? Adventures in Coin Tossing” by Alex Bloemendal
Featuring Nerd-appropriate tunes by DJ Claude Money
For more info on our speakers and their talks, click http://boston.nerdnite.com/2012/10/18/nerd-nite-102212/
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Tuesday, October 23
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What: Food Days at Babson College
When: October 23rd and October 24th, events all day
Where: Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley MA
Who: Speaker line-up + full agenda at http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/the-lewis-institute/Pages/Babson-Food-Days.aspx
FREE [except for Food Day lunch, which is $5 cash] and open to the public
Registration required at http://www.foodday.org/10671/food_days_at_babson_college (Please note: a separate registration is required for the 5:30-7pm session at https://activedata.babson.edu/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/23/2012&todate=10/23/2012&display=Day&type=public&eventidn=2776&view=EventDetails&information_id=9110)
Last October – on the 1st national Food Day – Babson College President Len Schlesinger announced the launch of Food Sol, an incubator for food-system innovation. A year later, Food Sol is thrilled to celebrate our 2nd year in conjunction with 2nd annual Food Day. On October 23rd and October 24th, Food Days at Babson College will celebrate and accelerate food entrepreneurship of all kinds – convening local and national chefs, change-agents, designers, writers, students, policy-makers and pioneers. Entrepreneur-in-Residence Andrew Zimmern (best known as the host of Bizarre Foods) will be on campus both days co-hosting with us.
Food is everybody’s business. So Babson Food Days is for everyone. Please bring your friends, family, colleagues and peers – and please come.
Rachel Greenberger
Director, Food Sol at Babson College
www.foodsol.org
774-270-0139 | rgreenberger1 at babson.edu
@businessforfood
Boston Sustainable Agriculture Examiner
Eat the change you want to see in the world.
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"Learning from Google."
Tuesday, October 23
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Steve Levy, senior writer, Wired magazine; author of In the Plex.
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Why Electoral Integrity Matters
WHEN Tue., Oct. 23, 2012, 12:25 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel 2nd Floor, 1737 Cambridge Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Pippa Norris, McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO xtian at wcfia.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/schedule/schedule.htm
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How to Start a Resilience Circle, including How to Have a One-to-One.
Tuesday, October 23
3pm ET (12pm PT)
Webinar registration at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/904558998
As you know, small groups are a great way to enhance community resilience in tough times, build a strong social movement to create change, and have fun. As Thomas Atwood put it recently, "Small consciousness-raising groups were the lynchpins of the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the women’s movement."
Join me and Thomas for a disccussion about how to organize a group, including:
how to communicate about Resilience Circles and small groups with others
using “One-to-One” conversations to invite participants to your group (read more here)
finding participants through base communities and the “linking method”
different kinds of small groups that might work in your community, such as Resilience Circles or affinity groups.
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The Opposite of Property: How the Grimm Brothers Helped to Create the Public Domain (And Why Perhaps That Wasn't So Great)
WHEN Tue., Oct. 23, 2012, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Warren House 201, Kates Room, 1 Prescott Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Committee on Degrees in Folklore & Mythology
SPEAKER(S) Valdimar Tr. Hafstein
COST Free and open to the public
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“In Organic We Trust” ─ Film Screening and Panel
Tuesday October 23
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, Main Branch, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Panel: Prof. Emily Broad, Harvard Law School; Andrew Gunther, Pres. Of Animal Welfare Approved; Melissa Kogut, Executive Director of the Chef’s Collaborative
Louisa Kasdon, Moderator. Founder of Let’s Talk About Food and Food Editor of The Phoenix
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Wednesday, October 24
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October 24
Food Day
http://www.foodday.org//
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What: Food Days at Babson College
When: October 23rd and October 24th, events all day
Where: Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley MA
Who: Speaker line-up + full agenda athttp://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/the-lewis-institute/Pages/Babson-Food-Days.aspx
FREE [except for Food Day lunch, which is $5 cash] and open to the public
Registration required at http://www.foodday.org/10671/food_days_at_babson_college (Please note: a separate registration is required for the 5:30-7pm session at https://activedata.babson.edu/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/23/2012&todate=10/23/2012&display=Day&type=public&eventidn=2776&view=EventDetails&information_id=9110)
Last October – on the 1st national Food Day – Babson College President Len Schlesinger announced the launch of Food Sol, an incubator for food-system innovation. A year later, Food Sol is thrilled to celebrate our 2nd year in conjunction with 2nd annual Food Day. On October 23rd and October 24th, Food Days at Babson College will celebrate and accelerate food entrepreneurship of all kinds – convening local and national chefs, change-agents, designers, writers, students, policy-makers and pioneers. Entrepreneur-in-Residence Andrew Zimmern (best known as the host of Bizarre Foods) will be on campus both days co-hosting with us.
Food is everybody’s business. So Babson Food Days is for everyone. Please bring your friends, family, colleagues and peers – and please come.
Rachel Greenberger
Director, Food Sol at Babson College
www.foodsol.org
774-270-0139 | rgreenberger1 at babson.edu
@businessforfood
Boston Sustainable Agriculture Examiner
Eat the change you want to see in the world.
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Tufts School of Engineering Campus Sustainability Day with a conversation wtih Will Thompson, E99.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
12:00-1:30 PM
Tufts, Robinson Hall, Room 253, 212 College Avenue, Medford
Pizza to follow
RSVP at http://solarstartup-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=304
About Nexamp:
Nexamp delivers integrated solutions from project development and financing through construction and asset management. Nexamp has installed more than 175 solar projects totaling more than 16 megawatts of solar generating capacity, including a 4.5 MW project for Westford Solar Park, New England’s largest privately owned solar energy facility (right). The company also oversaw the installation of a 485 kW project at the Chelmsford Crooked Spring Water Treatment Facility, which was name a distract award winner for energy and water conservation by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
http://www.nexamp.com/
About Will Thompson:
Will Thompson is a senior vice president and co-founder of Nexamp. Will’s renewable experience includes hundreds of rooftop and ground site feasibility assessments, and the successful development and implementation of five wind, 60 thermal and more than 12 megawatts of photovoltaics installed across Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In addition, Will currently manages the operations and maintenance of more than 9 MW of PV. Will earned his B.S. in environmental engineering from Tufts School of Engineering in 1999.
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Open Access to Health Research: Future Directions for the NIH Public Access Policy
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
12pm-1:30pm
Wasserstein Hall, room 3019, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Peter Suber, Director of the Harvard Open Access Project, Berkman Center Fellow, author of Open Access; Amy Brand, Assistant Provost for Faculty Appointments and Information; Winston Hide, HSPH Professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; Patrick Taylor, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; Director of Ethics Analysis and Applications in the Informatics ProgramStaff Scientist, Children's Hospital Boston, (Formerly Chief Counsel for Research Affairs at Children's Hospital and Former Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center.
Moderators: Scott Lapinski, HMS Digital Resources and Services Librarian and Open Access Liaison; June Casey, HLS Librarian for Open Access and Scholarly Communication
In 2008, the NIH Public Access Policy became a statutory mandate, requiring "that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication." As a way to stimulate progress in health research and clinical practice, as well as relieve a financial burden on a public who must otherwise rely exclusively on highly expensive journal subscriptions to access tax-funded research, the NIH Policy has already been deemed a success. In the past 4 years, the mandatory NIH Public Access Policy has brought compliance rates up from 4% to roughly 75%, however, there is still work to be done. What are the strategies that institutions and researches should be considering to address that remaining 25% "non-compliance" with the NIH Public Access Policy? How can we further expand public access to tax-funded research articles, and support our faculty and students in this endeavor?
Institutional Open Access resolutions such as Harvard’s Open Access Policy have helped accommodate the NIH Public Access Policy requirements, but as yet, medical schools have been slow to adopt institutional level open access policies, including Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health - What have been the challenges? Furthermore, in May, the Harvard Library Faculty Advisory Council issued a public letter calling on faculty to promote open access scholarly publishing, noting "Many large journal publishers have made the scholarly communication environment fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive". Howcan we work together to help achieve each of these goals and expand Open Access to biomedical and health research?
The panel will followed by two brief "101" sessions on individual-level implementation of both the NIH's Public Access and Harvard's Open Access mandates. The event will conclude with a raffle for several copies of Peter Suber's Open Access, and he will be available for book signing.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Scholarly Communications, the Right to Research Coalition & Universities Allied for Essential Medicines & HLS Advocates for Human Rights
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The growing trade in software security exploits: free speech or cyber-weapons in need of regulation?
Wednesday, October 24
12:00pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room 2012, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2012/10/soghoian#RSVP
This event is co-sponsored by the HLS Journal of Law and Technology
Christopher Soghoian, Principal Technologist & Senior Policy Analyst, American Civil Liberties Union
Over the past year, the public has started to learn about the shadowy trade in software security exploits. Rather than disclosing these flaws to software vendors like Google and Microsoft who will then fix them, security researchers can now sell them for six figures to governments who then use them for interception, espionage and cyber war.
These flaws are only useful for their intended purpose if software vendors remain in the dark about them, and if fixes never reach the general public. As such, the very existence of government stockpiles of software security flaws, whether for law enforcement, espionage or military operations means that government agencies are exposing consumers, businesses and other government agencies to exploitable security flaws which could otherwise be fixed.
What should be done, if anything, about this part of the security industry? Are researchers who sell exploits simply engaging in legitimate free speech that should be protected? Or, are they engaging in the sale of digital arms in a global market that should be regulated?
About Chris
Chris Sogohian is the Principal Technologist and a Senior Policy Analyst with the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Soghoian completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 2012, which focused on the role that third party service providers play in facilitating law enforcement surveillance of their customers. In order to gather data, he has made extensive use of the Freedom of Information Act, sued the Department of Justice pro se, and used several other investigative research methods. His research has appeared in publications including the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and been cited by several federal courts, including the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Between 2009 and 2010, he was the first ever in-house technologist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)'s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, where he worked on investigations of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Netflix. Prior to joining the FTC, he co-created the Do Not Track privacy anti-tracking mechanism now adopted by all of the major web browsers.
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Tiny Mars is a Planetary Embryo
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Professor Nicolas Dauphas, University of Chicago
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/lectures
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jacqui Taylor
617-253-2127
jtaylor at mit.edu
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What makes Big Visual Data hard?
Wednesday, October 24 2012
4:00PM to 5:00PM
Refreshments: 3:45PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 Patil/Kiva, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Alyosha Efros, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract: There are an estimated 3.5 trillion photographs in the world, of which 10% have been taken in the past 12 months. Facebook alone reports 6 billion photo uploads per month. Every minute, 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. Cisco estimates that in the next few years, visual data (photos and video) will account for over 85% of total internet traffic. Yet, we currently lack effective computational methods for making sense of all this mass of visual data. Unlike easily indexed content, such as text, visual content is not routinely searched or mined; it's not even hyperlinked. Visual data is Internet's "digital dark matter" [Perona,2010] -- it's just sitting there!
In this talk, I will first discuss some of the unique challenges that make Big Visual Data difficult compared to other types of content. In particular, I will argue that the central problem is the lack a good measure of similarity for visual data. I will then present some of our recent work that aims to address this challenge in the context of visual matching, image retrieval and visual data mining. As an application of the latter, we used Google Street View data for an entire city in an attempt to answer that age-old question which has been vexing poets (and poets-turned-geeks): "What makes Paris look like Paris?"
Bio: Alexei "Alyosha" Efros is an associate professor at the Robotics Institute and the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. His research is in the area of computer vision and computer graphics, especially at the intersection of the two. He is particularly interested in using data-driven techniques to tackle problems which are very hard to model parametrically but where large quantities of data are readily available. Alyosha received his PhD in 2003 from UC Berkeley under Jitendra Malik and spent the following year as a post-doctoral fellow in Andrew Zisserman's group in Oxford, England. Alyosha is a recipient of CVPR Best Paper Award (2006), NSF CAREER award (2006), Sloan Fellowship (2008), Guggenheim Fellowship (2008), Okawa Grant (2008), Finmeccanica Career Development Chair (2010), SIGGRAPH Significant New Researcher Award (2010), and ECCV Best Paper Honorable Mention (2010).
Contact: Sheila Marian, 617-253-1996, sheila at csail.mit.edu
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Is a Conflict with Iran Inevitable?: Nuclear Arms Control: Past, Present,. and Future
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building E51-275, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Gary Sick, Columbia University
Dr. Gary Sick is a Senior Research Scholar, and adjunct
professor of international affairs, and former director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. He served on the National Security Council staff under Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis and is the author of two books on U.S.-Iran relations, in addition to several other edited books and articles dealing with U.S. Middle East policy. Mr. Sick is a captain (ret.) in the U.S. Navy, with service in the Persian Gulf, North Africa and the Mediterranean. Mr. Sick has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. He is the executive director of Gulf/2000, an international online research project on political, economic and security developments in the Persian Gulf.
Gary Sick blogs at http://garysick.tumblr.com/
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sts/news/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Randyn Miller
33452
randyn at mit.edu
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Integrated Risk and Uncertainty Assessment of Climate Change Response Policies
October 24
4pm
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Room L-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Howard Kunreuther, University of Pennsylvania
Seminar is open to the public
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The World at Night: One People, One Sky!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 54-100, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Babak Amin-Tafreshi
A talk by a world-recognized photographer, Mr. Babak A. Tafreshi who's going to present a lot of cool photos from the sky at his talk. If you're interested in photography and/or astronomy, you definitely don't want to miss this unique talk. Below, you could read a brief biography of Mr. Tafreshi and to know more about him and his work, you could visit the follwoing links:
http://www.twanight.org/newtwan/index.asp
http://www.dreamview.net/dv/new/index.asp
About the speaker:
Babak A. Tafreshi is a photographer, science journalist, and astronomy communicator working with all kinds of media. He is the founder and director of The World At Night (TWAN) program, a board member of Astronomers Without Borders organization, a contributing photographer to Sky&Telescope magazine and National Geographic News, as well as a photo ambassador for the European Southern Observatory. Babak is an Iranian who currently lives in Germany but he is always on the move, and could be anywhere, from the heart of Sahara to the Himalayas or Antarctica. Babak received the 2009 Lennart Nilsson Award, the world???s most recognized award for scientific photography, for his global contribution to night-sky photography.
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/452491964789445/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: N/A
Sponsor(s): Persian Students Association of MIT
For more information, contact: Persian Student Association
persian-officers at mit.edu
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A scientist's eye view of research for sustainable energy
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
4:45p–6:00p
E51-115, Wong Auditorium, Tang Center, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ellen Williams, Chief Scientist, BP
We face one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century: providing more and more energy to meet rising demand, but keeping it affordable, secure, reliable and sustainable. But "sustainable" means different things to different people - from discovering and recovering more oil and gas to minimizing the constraints on natural resources used in energy. In this talk, Ellen Williams will outline the importance of scientific research to both finding new solutions and providing trusted data to underpin informed decisions about energy, water, land and minerals.
She will also discuss the importance of effective industry/academic research partnerships to address the challenges of sustainable energy and illustrate this with examples of BP collaboration with MIT and other leading academic institutions.
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/calendar/scientists-eye-view-research-sustainable-energy
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
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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
WHEN Wed., Oct. 24, 2012, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Museum of Natural History, Geo.Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Ethics, Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Museum of Natural History
SPEAKER(S) Steven Pinker, Harvard psychology professor
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617-495-3045
NOTE To mark the paperback edition of his bestseller, Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker discusses why violence has been diminishing for millennia and and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence. Free evening parking for the lecture in the nearby 52 Oxford Street garage
LINK http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php
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Urban Films: Manufactured Landscapes
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (2006): Follows Edward Burtynsky through China as he documents the evidence and effects of a massive industrial revolution through stunningly beautiful large-scale photographs of quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams. Co-sponsored by the MIT China Urban Development Group. Directed by Jennifer Baichwal.
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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Harvard Sustainable Food Project Food Day Film and Discussion
Wednesday, October 24
7-9 pm
Phillips Brooks House Association, Parlor Room, Harvard University (northwestern corner of Harvard Yard), Cambridge
The Harvard Sustainable Food Project is putting on our second annual Food Day Event. Our idea for this year is centered around a series of short films by the Food MythBusters that debunk myths surrounding sustainable food production. The first film, which comes out on food day, will address the notion that we need industrial agriculture to feed the world. The Harvard SFP will thus screen this short film and follow it with discussion and a presentation on the feasibility of sustainability, along with some local, sustainable, homemade snacks.
The Harvard Sustainable Food Project is putting on our second annual Food Day Event. Our idea for this year is centered around a series of short films by the Food Mythbusters.
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SHIFTCHANGE: PUTTING DEMOCRACY TO WORK
Oct. 24
7 pm
Tufts University, Barnum 104, 163 Packard Avenue, Medford
An inspirational new documentary by veteran award-winning filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin about the real possibilities offered by worker cooperatives during this time of industrial decline, chronic unemployment, and systemic economic crisis. Lively stories of secure, dignified jobs, in democratic workplaces including Boston’s own Equal Exchange and the path-breaking Mondragon Cooperative Corporation.
This screening will be followed by discussion with film-makers and local worker cooperators. Directions and more information about the screenings here; also see shiftchange.org.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Why Shiftchange is Important: With the long decline in well-paid jobs and today's economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, and growing numbers around the world are ready to employ a different business model to help re-invent our failing economy, generate long-term community resilience and stability, and create a more egalitarian and democratic way of life. Shiftchange visits the more than 50 year old network of cooperative businesses in Mondragon, Spain, and thriving examples of such businesses in the U.S. The film shares on-the-ground experience, lessons, and observations from the worker-owners on the front line of the new economy. Come witness and celebrate together the ingenuity and creativity of worker-owners who are “building the road as we travel” towards a more democratic, just, stable, and sustainable economy.
Sponsors: These Boston screenings of Shiftchange are presented by the Boston Area Solidarity Economy Network (BASEN), a local chapter of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (www.ussen.org), and of the Intercontinental Social Solidarity Economy Network (www.ripess.org), which seek to make visible, link together, and grow worker cooperatives and other alternative and transformational economic practices and institutions. The screenings are co-sponsored by Equal Exchange, Trillium Asset Management, Red Sun Press, Northeastern University Social Enterprise Institute, Somerville Climate Action, Boston Collective Delivery, Ownership Associates, South Mountain Company, JP Forum, JP New Economy Transition, New Economy Institute, Cooperative Fund of New England, the Tellus Institute, Gurmylay: Growing the Green Economy, Al Campbell of the Union for Radical Political Economics SC, and Harvest Co-op. Also cooperating to bring this great film to you are the Worker Owned and Run Cooperative Network of Boston (worcn.org), Jobs with Justice, Democratic Socialists of America, Somerville Rep. Denise Provost, Dollars & Sense, Mass. Global Action, Jewish Labor Committee, Dorchester Community Food Co-op, Occupy Boston Sustainable Economy Working Group, and Boston Workers Alliance.
Featured Worker Cooperatives: Shiftchange visits several worker owned enterprises in North America, and in the Basque region of Spain, to show the diversity of participants, products and ways of doing business in employee owned firms. Each offers inspiration as well as practical ideas about making these enterprises successful. Stories in the film include:
Our own Equal Exchange, Boston MA: Founded in 1986, Equal Exchange is one of the largest roasters of fair trade coffee in the world. Democratically managed by those who work there, Equal Exchange distributes coffee, tea, chocolate bars, cocoa, and snacks produced by cooperatives in the U.S. and other countries. The more than 100 worker owners seek to demonstrate through their successful business, how worker cooperatives and fair trade contribute to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.
Mondragón Cooperative Corporation [MCC]: Begun in the 1950s, the Mondragón co-ops have transformed a depressed area of Spain into one of the most productive in Europe with a high standard of living and an egalitarian way of life. These co-ops produce computer chips, high tech industrial machinery, household appliances, and many other products. They are owned and managed by their workers. Seeing the achievements of the MCC helps to overcome the idea—widespread in North America—that worker run cooperatives can only exist on the economic fringe.
The Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio: This is an ambitious urban redevelopment model, directly inspired by Mondragón, where local institutions and public officials are supporting green cooperatives of previously marginalized, predominantly African American workers, who provide commercial laundry services, install solar energy systems, and grow vegetables in vast urban greenhouses.
Cooperatives of immigrant workers: Often the most marginalized in our current economic system, immigrant workers are starting cooperatives to create secure, environmentally friendly jobs. The non-profit WAGES helps low income women, largely Latina immigrants, organize green house-cleaning cooperatives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Rodney North, 774-776-7398, Rodney at equalexchange.coop
WEBSITE: shiftchange.org; TWITTER: @Shift Change; FACEBOOK: shiftchangemovie
JOIN BASEN! Contact Julie Matthaei, jmatthaei at wellesley.edu or Wayne Clark, rwayneclark at igc.org
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Shari'ah on the Ballot
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
7:30p–9:30p
MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jamal Badawi
**Wondering what exactly the Shari'ah is, or what it's doing on the ballot in states across the US? Join us for a lecture by the renowned Dr. Jamal Badawi, as he demystifies the Shari'ah.**
Discover Islam Series
The MIT MSA is proud to present Discover Islam: a series of events throughout the month of October highlighting the legacy of Islam in science, history, and the arts. We hope you can help us in making this successful, so that we may continue it in the years to come. Visit our website at http://msa.mit.edu/ for more information.
Web site: msa.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Muslim Students' Association
For more information, contact: Executive Committee
msa-ec at mit.edu
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Thursday, October 25
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Beyond Rio +20: Collective Action within the Financial Sector
WHEN Thu., Oct. 25, 2012, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Bell Hall, 5th Floor Belfer, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Conferences, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, Regulatory Policy Program and the HKS Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Introductions by Jane Nelson and moderated by Joseph Aldy. Panelists include: Matthew Arnold, JPMorgan Chase; Lance Pierce, CERES; Gwen Ruta, Corporate Partnerships, Environmental Defense Fund
TICKET INFO RSVP to mrcbg at ksg.harvard.edu
NOTE Lunch will be served.
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The Distinctive Roles of Visual and Verbal Thinking
Thursday, October 25
12 - 1:30 pm
Harvard, William James Hall 765, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
Elinor Amit (Greene Lab, Harvard Psychology)
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The Climate Change Century: Managing our natural resources in the next 100 years
Thursday, October 25, 2012
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM
The Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington Street, 10th Floor, Boston
RSVP at http://manomet-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=365
The Manomet Center is launching a new monthly forum in which our scientists discuss the complex natural resource challenges of the 21st century.
Our first forum is "The Climate Change Century: Managing our natural resources in the next 100 years."
Dr. Hector Galbraith, a special projects scientist at Manomet, will preview his soon-to-be published research on climate change adaptation strategies for wilderness areas. He will identify which habitats are most vulnerable to climate change and talk about the most promising adaptation strategies.
Bring a lunch and join the conversation! Space is very limited, so please register today.
(Complimentary beverages will be provided).
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"New strategies for the identification and characterization of microorganisms scavenging atmospheric trace gases"
Thursday, October 25, 2012
1:30pm
Hoffman Laboratory Faculty Lounge, 4th floor, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Professor Philippe Constant, INRS (Institut national de la recherche scientifique) Montreal
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Stoves, Planes and Automobiles: Capturing and Characterizing Emissions from Incomplete Combustion
Thursday, October 25, 2012
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Eben Cross, Postdoc, Civil & Environmental Engineering, MIT
We are all familiar with the sights and smells of incomplete combustion whether from a diesel bus at the corner of Vassar and Main, a back yard barbeque or a neglected piece of toast in the always-on Parsons toaster-oven. These smells are a complex mix of particulate and gas phase organic species whose chemical composition and emitted concentration vary dramatically across the matrix of possible fuels, combustors, and environmental conditions defining the combustion system. In this seminar I will present results from three different combustion systems: A Haitian cookstove, a CFM-56-2C1 gas-turbine engine, and a 5.9 L medium duty diesel engine. Taken collectively, emissions from these three systems have local, regional and global impacts on air quality and climate. An essential step toward better understanding and subsequently minimizing these detrimental impacts is real-time characterization of the organic emissions. In this seminar I will focus on our recent efforts to measure and quantify emissions of low volatility organic compounds, a class of organics currently not measured with standard techniques.
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.
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 You
617-253-7145
ryiu at mit.edu
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The Risks and Efficacy of Solar Geoengineering
Thursday, October 25, 2012
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics; Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University
Geoengineering: Science & Governance Seminar Series
Solar geoengineering is the concept of deliberately cooling the Earth by reflecting a small amount of inbound sunlight back into space. It is the only currently known method for reducing temperatures in the short term, and therefore has the potential to reduce many of the worst impacts of global warming. But what would be the side effects, both physical and socio-political? How would it work and who gets to decide if it is deployed? Does humanity have the wisdom and the institutions to govern the development of such a powerful technology in this messy, multi-polar world? This seminar series, held jointly by the Harvard University Center for the Environment and MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, will explore the science, technology, governance and ethics of solar geoengineering. In bringing together international experts, participants will learn some of the greatest challenges and hear opinions on how this technology could and should be managed.
Solar geoengineering may enable a significant reduction in climate risks by partially offsetting climate change due to increasing greenhouse gases. However, this emerging technology entails novel risks and uncertainties along with serious challenges to global governance. Most scientific work on the topic has been published in the last half decade. The talk will include a rough summary of recent findings regarding (a) the climate's response to radiative forcing by stratospheric aerosols, (b) methods of producing appropriate aerosol distributions, and (c) risks. In closing the trade-offs between solar geoengineering, emissions reductions and adaptation in climate policy will be discussed.
Reception will follow.
Web site: http://globalchange.mit.edu/news-events/communications#seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, Harvard University Center for the Environment
For more information, contact: Vicki Ekstrom
617-253-3411
vekstrom at mit.edu
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A Homeowners Guide to Investing in Renewable Energy
Thursday, October 25, 2012
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT)
Energy Sage HQ, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://homeownerguidetorenewableenergy-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=384
The goal of the workshop is to clearly and blunty address many of the questions that homeowners have about investing in renewable energy in Massachusetts.
The workshop is for property owners that are looking to invest in renewable energy and get basic questions answered.
The workshop will be capped at 20 people.
Focus will be on three technologies
Solar PV
Solar Thermal
Ground Source Heat Pumps
Technology
How each technology works
What are the best properties and homes for each technology. How do you know if your home works?
What are the risks for each technology and how are they eliminated
Top 5 questions to ask any contractor that is doing work
Detailed construction timelines and project photos so you can see how each technology is actually installed
Finance and Government Incentives
A Quick review of government incentives available
Rebates vs tax credits vs production based incentives
Buying solar cash vs debt vs 3rd party leases. What are the pros and cons of each
Typicall returns for each technology based on the property
Questions and Answer: Bring them all!
About your Speaker
Chris Williams will be your host. He has designed and installed 300kW of solar PV and plenty of solar thermal and geothermal systems as well. He's the Chairman of the Government Relations Committee at NEGPA, a consultant at Voltaic Solaire in NYC that recently completed the cities first 100% solar powered building, the Chief Marketing Officer at HeatSpring, a leading national renewable energy training company and frequently writes and has been quoted in Greentech Media, Renewable Energy World, Forbes, Climate Progress, Cleantechies, and Alternative Energy Stocks.
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BOSTON BETA :: FREE CULTURE & OPEN SOURCE
10/25/2012
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://bostonbeta.eventbrite.com
The last Boston Beta of 2012 is a benefit for the Free Software Foundation and a celebration of Boston’s leading role in the free software and open source movements.
Boston Beta is part cocktail party, part demo night. Join us for an evening featuring the latest and greatest in free culture and open source:
16 interactive demos from open source & free culture projects
Free-as-in-beer open bar from 7:30 - 8:30 PM (free wine too!)
Delicious gourmet appetizers from Whole Foods Catering
Casual, open socializing with hundreds of founders, hackers, open source geeks, students, bloggers, investors, and more
Beautiful views overlooking the Charles River and Boston’s city skyline as hundreds gather in Microsoft NERD’s 11th-story event space.
Editorial Comment: This event costs $20 for admission but looks to be well worth it.
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"What MUJI and Design Can Offer the World of the Future"
Thursday, October 25, 2012
6:30p–8:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Masaaki Kanai and Hartmut Esslinger
Mr. Kanai is Representative Director and President, Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. (MUJI).
Dr. Hartmut Esslinger is Founder, Frog Design.
Architecture Lecture Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:
617-253-7791
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THE POLITICS OF HANDSOME
Thurs., Oct. 25
6:30-8 pm
Modern Theatre (part of Suffolk University), 525 Washington St., Boston. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Downtown Crossing stop on the MBTA Orange and Silver Lines.
Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University presents “The Politics of Handsome” with Paula Lyons, Joyce Kulhawik, Lauren Beckham Falcone, and Jan Saragoni; discussion moderated by Margery Eagan. Admission is free and open to all. For more information, call Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007 or visit www.fordhallforum.org.
Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Senator Rob Portman, and many other self-described conservatives are the "Mad Men" of politics, evoking the age of Don Draper with retro style. In the shadow of our first African-American president, is this trend a return to a simpler age of the Cold War and domestic abundance? What sparked the trend to run these slicked-back, chiseled-jawed politicians? Two wars, the horrible economy, the need for a "Dad" in the driver's seat to see the USA in a Chevrolet? This all-female panel of Boston personalities, Paula Lyons, Joyce Kulhawik, Lauren Beckham Falcone, Jan Saragoni, and moderator Margery Eaganwill explore some voters’ need to hearken back to when kids respected adults and neighbors knew each other. These days, when our government seems to be turning back the clock on women's issues, can style rescue us from weighty substance?
Further background information on participants:
Margery Eagan
Margery Eagan is a veteran columnist with the Boston Herald, a talk radio host, and a frequent guest on CNN, ABC, Fox News, and the Imus in the Morning radio show. Her commentaries include gender/women's issues, Catholicism, and politics. Eagan was hired as a general assignment reporter at the Boston Herald and started her own column in 1984. She served a "refining stint" as a senior writer at Boston Magazine, and returned to her column at the Herald, where she continues currently. She has received two nominations for GLAAD Media Awards in the category of Outstanding Newspaper Columnist. Eagan also currently co-hosts a morning talk radio show with Jim Braude on Boston's WTKK-FM. She is a frequent presence on local Boston area television, notably WGBH's Greater Boston, on which she often appears as a panelist on that program's Friday evening "Beat the Press" edition, summarizing and critiquing media coverage of the prior week's news events.
Lauren Beckham Falcone
Lauren Beckham Falcone is a sidekick on the “Loren & Wally Morning Show” on Boston’s WROR-FM. As the only on-air female member of the show, she reads the news, shares her thoughts on life, and joins in the general fun of the program. She was the winner of the show’s Dancing with the WROR Stars and donated the $500 prize to the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress. Falcone worked at the Boston Herald for almost 18 years most recently as a columnist writing about pop culture, politics, news and other hot topics of the day. An award-winning reporter and columnist for the Herald, she credits her current success as a pop-culture commentator to watching too much TV as a kid and scouring the Internet too much as an adult.
Joyce Kulhawik
Joyce Kulhawik, best known as the Emmy Award-winning Arts and Entertainment Critic for CBS-Boston (WBZ-TV 1981-2008), is currently lending her expertise as an arts advocate and cancer crusader. Kulhawik is the President of the Boston Theatre Critics Association and a Member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. Athree-time cancer survivor, she served as the Honorary Chairperson since 1983 for the American Cancer Society’s largest Spring fundraiser and, as a member of the Society’s Advisory Board, continues to raise millions of dollars for the Society and its First Hope Lodge in Boston. The American Cancer Society honored Kulhawilk with its National Bronze Medal Award for her work. She continues to perform as a Guest Narrator and has performed with the Boston Pops, the New England Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Civic Symphony, and the Concord Orchestra.
Paula Lyons
Paula Lyons is an executive communications coach and senior communications consultant. As a sought-after speaker, writer, coach and media expert, she provides clients with the advice of a veteran with experienced on both sides of the podium and platform. Prior to joining Bates Communications in 2004, Lyons earned respect and accolades as a top-rated consumer reporter and familiar face on ABC’s Good Morning America, as well as two major market television stations in Boston, WBZ TV (CBS) and WCVB-TV (ABC). She won a number of regional Emmys for her work and for enterprise reporting from the Associated Press. Lyons is a regular panelist on National Public Radio’s weekly comedy quiz show, “Says You.”
Jan Saragoni
Saragoni & Company founder and President Janice M. Saragoni is a Boston native with more than 20 years experience in media relations, marketing and public affairs. Her firm’s experience in diverse business environments provides clients the ability to develop effective communications strategies and build important relationships that allow them to realize their goals. Saragoni has been named to several notable lists, including Boston magazine’s “Fabulous Forty” and its “Fifty Most Powerful People in Boston.” She is a regular on-air contributor to the “Emily Rooney Show” on WGBH-FM, where she co-hosts the “J-Squared” segment with WGBH-TV reporter Jared Bowen. Active in the public arena, Saragoni served as a director of several distinguished organizations including the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the Massachusetts Lottery Commission, and the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. She is a member of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's Women's Lunch Committee and serves on the Executive Committee of Save Venice, an organization dedicated to preserving that city's artistic heritage.
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Citizens United and a Return to "Traditional American Values"
Thursday October 25
7pm-9pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Mel White, former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, will describe the players and agendas that he believes drove the Citizens United legislation and that continue to propel the over-arching "traditional American values" campaign - a mutually exploitative relationship between religious fundamentalists and wealthy a-religious zealots.
Drawing on more than thirty years in local and state politics, The Honorable Byron Rushing, Majority Whip in the MA House of Representatives, will describe the street-level implications of the
Citizens United legislation, and will reflect on its potential repercussions for our democratic process and identity.
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Friday, October 26
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CONNECTING FOR CHANGE: A Bioneers by the Bay Conference Presented by the Marion Institute
OCTOBER 26-28 2012
NEW BEDFORD, MA
http://www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change/register
A SOLUTIONS BASED gathering that brings together a diverse audience to create deep and positive change in their communities. Join the movement.
Editorial Comment: It costs money but there are many, many good speakers and programs and a pay-what-you-can scholarship option.
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The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents: The Future of Distributed Generation in New England
October 26, 2012
9 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities Chair Ann Berwick kicks off our first panel, The Evolving Regulatory Landscape for Distributed Generation in New England, with a presentation on the Commonwealth's revised net metering rules (including the system/administrator of net metering assurance), and an introduction tothe DPU's soon-to-be-released Notice of Inquiry on Electric Grid Modernization. Next,Christie Bradway, Manager for Renewable Power Contracts at Northeast Utilities, discusses Connecticut's new, innovative approach to supporting distributed generation through renewable energy credit (LREC & ZREC) auctions, and will share the results of the first auction.
Rounding out the panel is a joint presentation on the recently-filed consensus package recommendations of the Massachusetts DG Interconnection Working Group for a revamped DG interconnection process by co-presenters Fran Cummings, VP at Peregrine Energy Group (who represented SEIA and SEBANE in the Working Group) and Tim Roughan, Director of Energy & Environmental Policy at National Grid. Fran and Tim also provide their respective DG and utility perspectives on the evolving DG-related policy landscape in New England.
Today, distributed generation (behind the customer meter) in New England is dominated by solar PV installations, with some CHP, small wind, and other niche technologies. Our second panel, Potential Next Wave DG-Related Resources and Technologies, explores a sampling of resources and technologies that could play an increasing role in the distributed generation field in New England, including fuel cells, anaerobic digesters (now eligible for net metering in MA), and shrouded wind turbines. This panel also looks at the role that battery and other storage technologies can play in firming up distributed generation. We have assembled a wonderful panel of presenters from entrepreneurial DG-related companies, including:
Phil Giudice, CEO & President, Ambri Inc. (battery storage)
Charles Fox, Dir. East Coast Regulatory Affairs, Bloom Energy (fuel cells)
Wayne Davis, Co-Founder/VP Gov't Affairs, Harvest Power (anaerobic)
John Howe, Director of Public Affairs, FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp
Free and open to the public with no advanced registration
Slides and videos from previous Roundtables are available at http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp
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U.S. Renewable Electricity Futures: Are High Penetrations Possible?
Oct 26, 2012
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Ryan Wiser , Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Speaker Biography: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/staff/wiser.html
Contact: Emily Fischer
efischer at seas.harvard.edu
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Assessing Emergency Response to the 3.11 Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Accident in Japan
Friday, October 26, 2012
12:15 p.m.
Harvard, CGIS South Building, S250, 2nd Floor, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Arnold M. Howitt, Executive Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and Faculty Co-Director, Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
Chair: Professor Andrew Gordon, Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History; Former Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Modern Asia Seminar Series, Harvard Asia Center; Co-sponsored with the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and the Program on Crisis Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School.
For more information, visit: http://asiacenter.harvard.edu/events/assessing_emergency_response_311_earthquaketsunaminuclear_accident_japan
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Ocean Dynamics and the Carbon Cycle
Friday, October 26, 2012
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-100, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (the tallest building on campus)
Mick Follows, Senior Research Scientist, M.I.T. EAPS, will be giving a talk to discuss his new book that presents a multidisciplinary approach to understanding ocean circulation and how it drives and controls marine biogeochemistry and biological productivity at a global scale.
A reception will follow at 5:00 p.m. in 54-923 during which Michael will be autographing copies of his book for those who are interested.
Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/authornight/mickfollows
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jacqui Taylor
617-253-2127
jtaylor at mit.edu
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Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist
Friday, October 26
6:00 pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Lecture and booksigning with Maddalena Bearzi
Author and marine biologist Dr. Maddalena Bearzi will share stories and insights from her new book Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist. Bearzi will talk about her experiences at sea, tracing her own evolution as a woman and scientist -- from her earliest travails to her transformation into an advocate for conservation and dolphin protection. She will discuss her research on the dolphins of California and elsewhere around the globe, and how that's leading to a greater understanding of cetacean social behavior and intelligence, as well as the critical environmental problems facing these magnificent creatures. Cosponsored by Harvard University Press. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking in the 52 Oxford Street garage.
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Saturday, October 27
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CONNECTING FOR CHANGE: A Bioneers by the Bay Conference Presented by the Marion Institute
OCTOBER 26-28 2012
NEW BEDFORD, MA
http://www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change/register
A SOLUTIONS BASED gathering that brings together a diverse audience to create deep and positive change in their communities. Join the movement.
Editorial Comment: It costs money but there are many, many good speakers and programs and a pay-what-you-can scholarship option.
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Sunday, October 28
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CONNECTING FOR CHANGE: A Bioneers by the Bay Conference Presented by the Marion Institute
OCTOBER 26-28 2012
NEW BEDFORD, MA
http://www.marioninstitute.org/connecting-for-change/register
A SOLUTIONS BASED gathering that brings together a diverse audience to create deep and positive change in their communities. Join the movement.
Editorial Comment: It costs money but there are many, many good speakers and programs and a pay-what-you-can scholarship option.
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10th Anniversary of Interfaith Power and Light
Sunday October 28, 2012
2-5 PM
1st Church in Jamaica Plain, 6 Eliot St, Jamaica Plain
BILL McKIBBEN on Building a Movement with Hope
Dialogue with Massachusetts faith leaders:
Rabbi Katy Allen, Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rt. Rev. Bud Cederholm and Sr. Alice Laffey
CONCURRENT BREAKOUT SESSIONS on:
How to Become a Builder of the Movement - Marla Marcum-350.org
Energizing Congregations to be Climate Change Leaders - Jim Hunt, Grace Medford
Shrink Your Energy Bill &Carbon Footprint at Home and at your House of Worship-- Tom Nutt-Powell, MIP&L & Jason Taylor, HEET
MUSIC OFF THE GRID by Melodeego
All Are Welcome -- Donations Gratefully Accepted
For more information: Vince Maraventano at vince at MIPandL.org
RSVP at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6cs02ge80f52570&llr=evkqo7bab
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Monday, October 29
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"The Political Economy of Oil in Latin America"
Monday, October 29, 2012
12:15pm - 1:45pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Francisco Monaldi, Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor, Harvard Kennedy School; Director, Center on Energy and the Environment, IESA, Venezuela
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at harvard.edu
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"Approach to Net Zero Building"
Monday, October 29, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Claire Maxfield, Director, Atelier Ten, San Francisco
Building Technology Lecture Series
Web site: http://architecture.mit.edu/building-technology/lecture/approach-net-zero-building
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:
617-253-1876
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Sustainable Streets: New York City's New Public Space Visition
Monday, October 29, 2012
5:00p
MIT, Building 10-485, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Andrew Wiley-Schwartz
Andy Wiley-Schwartz is an Assistant Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability at New York City Department of Transportation. He was hired by Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn in 2007 to develop a public space program at DOT and develop a complete street design and planning process for the department. In this capacity he developed and launched the NYC Plaza Program to create new public spaces out of existing streets in communities across New York City. Andy joins DUSP Visiting Scholar Aaron Naparstek in discussing the details of the groundbreaking approach to urban planning and design that has led to the construction of more than 50 new plazas and 21 acres of new public space in North America's biggest, busiest, most politically complex urban environment.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/sidewalks/publicplaza.shtml
CDD Forum - The New Urban Interface
Web site: http://dusp.mit.edu/cdd/event/cdd-forum-new-urban-interface-0
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, City Design and Development
For more information, contact: Sandra Elliott
617-253-5115
sandrame at mit.edu
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MTA Composer Forum presents Peter Whincop, MIT Lecturer in Music
Monday, October 29, 2012
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 14E-109, MIT Lewis Music Library, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Peter Whincop, composer
A Reception will follow.
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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Beyond Walls: Appraising Architecture Vis-a-Vis Material Culture
Monday, October 29, 2012
6:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Pamela Karimi, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
AKPIA at MIT FALL 2012 "AN EVENING WITH..." LECTURE SERIES
Studying the History of Islamic Art & Architecture
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/akpia/www/lecturescurrent.htm
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
253-1400
akpiarch at mit.edu
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Tuesday, October 30
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A Wake-Up Call for American Competitiveness
WHEN Tue., Oct. 30, 2012, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Nye A, 5th Floor Taubman, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government and the Office of Career Advancement
SPEAKER(S) Fred Hochberg, chairman and president, Export-Import Bank of the United States
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. RSVP to mrcbg at ksg.harvard.edu
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"The Changing Media Landscape: Smart News in the Age of Social Media."
Tuesday, October 30
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Chris Hughes, publisher and editor-in-chief, The New Republic; co-founded and served as spokesman for Facebook.
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From Green Tweaks to Systemic Shifts: Urban Sustainability from an Open, Integrated, and Networked Perspective
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-450B, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
EPP Speaker Series with Alex Aylett
Green cities have been a popular topic for decades now. But performance has lagged far behind potential. Drawing on examples from fieldwork in Canada, the US, and Africa, I'm going to look at why, and highlight some possible solutions. Rather than focus on specific technologies or planning principles, this is going to be a talk about people, communities, and municipal institutions. My work on sustainable cities emphasizes networked systems of governance and the socio-institutional dynamics of change. This talk will share some recent ideas on what that approach tells us about efforts to go from marginal tweaks to creating systemic shifts towards urban sustainability.
Dr. Alex Aylett is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow working with JoAnn Carmin in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He is also the Research Director for Sustainable Cities International. He has a PhD in urban sustainability from the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. He has worked on urban sustainability in Canada, the United States, Europe and Africa.
More info on Alex's work can be found at www.openalex.ca
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): EPP
For more information, contact: Nina Tamburello
617.253.1509
epprequest at mit.edu
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"Towards the Probabilistic Earth-System Simulator: A Vision For Weather and Climate Prediction in the 21st Century."
Tuesday, October 30
3p.
MIT, Building 54, 18th Floor Conference Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge (the tallest building on campus)
Tim Palmer
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Climate & Conflict: Heat & Violence
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
6:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Nathan Black
Soap Box: Climate & Conflict
The MIT Museum invites you to contribute to the debate about climate change as we explore fresh new perspectives on politics, profits, and conflict.
Part 3: Heat and Violence
Can global temperature change cause conflicts to heat up? Nathan Black, French Environmental Fellow at Harvard University Center for the Environment, will discuss the link between climate change and civil unrest. Explore how governmental response to climate change can incite or defuse violent conflict around the globe.
Web site: http://mit.edu/museum/programs/soapbox.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museuminfo at mit.edu
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MASSCreative Somerville/Cambridge Regional Kickoff
October 30th
6:00-7:30pm
The Artisan's Asylum, 10 Tyler Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.mass-creative.org/introcambsomer
MASSCreative is coming to Somerville!
Please join the Somerville Cultural Council, Cambridge Arts Council, elected leaders and supporters of the Cambridge/Somerville creative community to introduce MASSCreative on its statewide tour and explore its mission and bold program initiatives to bring resources and attention to Massachusetts' thriving creative sector.
This event is being co-hosted by the following local organizations: Mudflat Studio, Somerville Historic Preservation Commission, HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands, Somerville Arts Council
Katy Hannigan · khannigan at mass-creative.org · 617-350-7610
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Boston Green Drinks - October Happy Hour
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
kingston station, 25 kingston street, Boston
RSVP at http://bgdoct12-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=626
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. Also, if you RSVP and can't make it, e-mail us to let us know.
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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GSD Public Lecture Program. "Building for the Future"
WHEN Tue., Oct. 30, 2012, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy St, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard GSD
SPEAKER(S) Werner Sobek
CONTACT INFO events at gsd.harvard.edu
NOTE Educated as both an architect and a structural engineer, Werner Sobek has been a full-time professor at the University of Stuttgart in Germany since 1995. He has also taught at the Harvard GSD, as well as the IIT in Chicago as Mies van der Rohe Professor. He is the founding director of the Institute for Light Weight Structures and Conceptual Design, University of Stuttgart. The Werner Sobek Group was founded in 1992 with branches worldwide.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/werner-sobek-building-for-the-future.html
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Green tech Entrepreneur Forum & Brainstorming.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
7:00 PM To 10:00 PM
Eastern Bank, 647 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Clean-Tech-and-Energy/events/84391012/
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 you 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.
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Upcoming
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“Coal Fired-Sales: Evidence on Incentives in Procurement and Regulation from Power Plant Divestitures.”
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Kennedy School of Government, Room L-382, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Steve Cicala, Harvard University.
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
617-496-8054
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Humanitarian Networking Event
Thursday, November 1
6:30 - 8:30 pm
Orleans, 65 Holland Street, Davis Square, Somerville
RSVP at http://humanitariannetworking.eventbrite.com
Hi All:
Please join us for an informal networking event at Orleans from 6:30 - 8:30PM on November 1st hosted by the Tufts Humanitarian Aid Society. This event was a success last Fall, with professors and students from other schools in attendance. We also had a few practitioners from the area come.
Please forward to anyone with an interest in humanitarian work in the Boston area who might be interested in attending. More details to come closer to the event.
You can register here: http://humanitariannetworking.eventbrite.com/
Hope to see you there!
Julia Moline
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BUSINESS ETHICS AND OTHER OXYMORONS
Thurs., Nov. 1
7-8:30 pm
C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk University
Nitin Nohria (Dean, Harvard Business School) and Tom Peters (Business Author);
moderated by Donna Carpenter (CEO, New Word City)
Two of the foremost minds on business, Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School, and Thomas J. Peters, author of “In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies,” discuss teaching ethics to business students. Nohria and Peters share their wisdom on morally committing to your business, the misnomer of “corporate responsibility,” and teachable behavior versus intrinsic personal character. With guidance from moderator Donna Carpenter, CEO of New Word City, their conversation will span from partnering with others who aren’t ethical to serving the stakeholders. Between purpose and pay-offs, where are our principles in business today?
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Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest in Research Universities
A symposium organized by Dr. David Korn
November 2, 2012
Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Milstein Conference Rooms, 2nd Floor, Harvard Law School
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3787516564
Conflicts of interest are on everyone's minds (and lips) these days, but most of the attention to date has focused on individual conflicts held by doctors, researchers, and others. Institutions can also face important conflicts as a result of their various interests and allegiances, and research universities in particular are at a crossroads. President Obama has called on these universities to collaborate with industry, investors, and agencies to bolster entrepreneurship, commercialize research results, and enhance economic development - and a number of universities have pledged to do so. Should this be a welcome development, or cause for concern? How will this new role for research universities influence their traditional mission to educate and promote reliable, unbiased knowledge?
Please join us at a symposium, co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, to address a number of critical and timely questions regarding institutional financial conflicts of interest in research universities. With a world-class line-up of speakers who have grappled with these issues at some of the highest echelons in which they arise, this event is not to be missed.
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I am pleased to announce that the *Massachusetts Restorative Justice Task Force *will convene a day-long summit *
Building Communities of Care Wherever We Are
Saturday, November 3, 2012
8:30am to 5:00pm
Harvard Law School, Cambridge
Registration and breakfast will be held from 8:30am to 9:00am and the conference will start promptly at 9:00am.
Building Communities of Care Wherever We Are is a day-long gathering that will equip participants with tools to build restorative justice and transformative practices. We will use a "care lens" wherever there is an opening including:
Schools
Youth centers
Domestic violence and sexual assault centers
Faith communities
Prisons
We will explore perspectives, skills, practices and resources to use with different populations and settings. Participants will experience healing dialogue, peacemaking circles and other innovative approaches to create nurturing communities.
Key topics will include the following:
Examine our own mindsets;
Justice, integrity and community values;
Preventive approaches, hope and healing;
Restorative justice and transformative practices in specific contexts;
Circle practice; and
Building the world we want to create.
Space is limited so register today! To reserve your spot, please register at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2DB9RY5
Please distribute this announcement to your networks!
We welcome organizations and networks that would like to sign on as conference supporters. If your organization would like to sign on as a conference supporter, please contact Barbara Best, Children's Defense Fund at bbest at childrensdefense.org
Supporting organizations and networks will be listed in conference materials.
For questions or additional information, please contact Barbara Best,
Children's Defense Fund, bbest at childrensdefense.org (202.320.2328) or
Pierre Berastain, Renewal House, pberastain at uuum.org (214.957.0363)
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Weatherization Barnraising
Saturday, November 3rd
9 am to 1 pm
First Parish Church, Arlington Center
Sign up at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEVsdno4dlBEX3lUZFR0OXlWOWF2RkE6MQ#gid
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Censoring Children
Wednesday, November 7
7pm
First Parish (Unitarian Universalist), 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
MIT's Noam Chomsky and Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance discuss A Child's View of Gaza, the book of Palestinian children's artwork slated for exhibition
at the Oakland Museum of Children's Art. The exhibition was canceled at the last minute without explanation. Have children become pawns in a larger conflict? How has this come about? What does it say about the possibilities for peaceful resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian impasse?
Co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston; American Jews for a Just Peace; and the Middle East Education Group at First Parish in Cambridge.
Cambridge Forum
617-495-2727
http://www.cambridgeforum.org
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL53E08C59DDCA4890
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Thurs 11/8 The Unpeoples & the Elections: A Debriefing with Noam Chomsky, Vijay Prashad & Val Moghadam
No matter how dismal the candidates may be, every US presidential election is made consequential by our prolonged crises of environment, economy, and peace...?
In a surreal political climate where corporations are endowed with the rights of people and people are stripped of the their rights, three distinguished activist thinkers and scholars come together to help us think through the election results and how we should be responding.?
Noam Chomsky, renowned linguist and political philosopher, Vijay Prashad, the incisive commentator and analyst of global politics and chronicler of the "Darker Nations," join the Iranian-born, international relations scholar, feminist and theorist of revolutions, Val Moghadam in a globally-televised evening of conversation and reflection at the Old South Church (http://goo.gl/maps/gHmn1) on Thursday, November 8, 2012, at 7:00 p.m.?
Visit http://www.ChomskySpeaks.org/ for your event tickets (seating is limited); tickets are $15/person or $10 for low income/unemployed/students. Proceeds from the event will benefit encuentro 5 (http://encuentro5.org/).
"Unpeoples" is term from scholar Mark Curtis's (2008) analysis of foreign policy, "Unpeople: those whose lives are deemed worthless, expendable in the pursuit of power and commercial gain."
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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/
Cambridge Civic Journal http://www.rwinters.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/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list