[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - April 7, 2013
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Apr 7 18:40:34 PDT 2013
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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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, April 08
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12pm Environmental Justice in China: A Case Study in the Complexities of Law & Social Change
12pm Understanding and Designing Complex Sociotechnical Systems
12pm "The Costs and Benefits of Carbon Taxes in China"
4pm Demography of the Future
5pm Junot Díaz: A Conversation
6pm "The Genius of Jobs, Einstein, and Franklin"
7pm ACT Lecture | Nora Alter: Listening to Marker
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Tuesday, April 9th
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12pm "China Wired: Internet Activism in the PRC."
12:15pm The Devouring Dragon: How China’s Rise is Reshaping the Physical World
12:30pm Disruptive Innovation in Washington, DC
2pm #citychat: Transit Equity in Growing Cities & the Istanbul Case
3pm What is a Smart City?
4pm Broad Data: What happens when the Web of Data becomes real?
4:15pm Oil Dependence, "Oilpacity," and U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa
5pm "What Then Must We Do: Straight Talk About The Next American Revolution."
6pm The MassChallenge Sampler: Episode VIII: Entrepalooza
6pm “Tap Into Boston’s Water Sustainability Network”
6:30pm Cities of Wood
6:30pm Kitchen Gardeners Get-Together
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Wednesday, April 10
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10am Adapting to Change in Marine Ecosystems - A Stakeholder Science Forum
12pm [MIT Energy Club] Discussion Series: "Li-Ion Battery - Lithium Ion Battery and Its Role in the Transportation Sector"
1:10pm Innovation in American Government: Change and Continuity Over Two Decades
3pm The Gettysburg Project: Understanding and Revitalizing Civic Engagement
4pm Rethinking Carbon Capture and Sequestration
4pm How Mobile Disrupts Social As We Know It
4:10pm Reinventing Urban Democracy in New York and Somerville
4:10pm "Intensive Margin of Electrification: Evidence from Rural India."
5:30pm Environmental Lawlessness
6:30pm The Neuroscience of Musical Improvisation
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Thursday, April 11
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12pm Promoting Biodiversity Literacy: The Encyclopedia of Life
3pm Japan Roundtable 2013: Perspectives from Japan on Nuclear Issues
4pm Harvard Climate Rally
4pm It's all about energy! The impact of computational materials science
4pm BioEnergy Lecture Series - Why is Project Development Perfect for MIT Engineers?
4:15pm Impact Investing: Shaping an Industry by Tackling Systemic Barriers
5pm Legatum Lecture ~ Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism
5PM News or Entertainment? The Press in Modern Political Campaigns
5:15pm Urbanism, Spirituality and Well-being Symposium
6:30pm A City is (Not) a Tree: New Models of Urban Space
7pm "A Better Future for A Better Cambridge"
7pm Peter Matthiessen at MIT to receive the Thoreau Prize
7pm Urban Films: Up the Yangtze (2008)
7:30pm Boston Area Solar Energy Association Forum: 350 Massachusetts (350ma.org) Local Grassroots Growing
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Friday, April 12
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
International Development Conference
9am Crisis Management Workshop and Simulation with Amb. Christian Dussey
4:30pm Starr Forum: On the Rocks: China and Japan in the East China Sea
5pm Second Fridays at the MIT Museum: Let's Talk About Tech, Baby!
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Saturday, April 13
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
International Development Conference
9am Cultivating a New Food Economy: Putting People and Planet First
Tufts New Economy
9am International Seminar on the Environment – Development Relationship in Bangladesh
9:30am Deep Capture: Psychology, Public Relations, Democracy, and Law
12pm Cambridge Mini Maker Faire
6:30pm International Development Night
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Sunday, April 14
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
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Monday, April 15
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
11am Tumblehome Learning Science Book Fair & Book Talk Series
4pm The Prospects for a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East
5pm The Food-Water-Energy Nexus and the Challenge to Sustainability
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Tuesday, April 16
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
11:30am Resilience, Adaptability, and Sustainability of the Built Environment Workshop
12pm University Endowments and Universal Owners: The Sustainability Challenge
12pm "Anthropogenic Change and the Fate of Pollination Services."
4pm Mathematics at Google
6:30pm REFRESH BOSTON: DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON
7pm Grassland Restoration: Reversing Global Warming While Meeting Human Needs
7pm Film Screening: "YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip"
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Event Details
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Monday, April 08
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Environmental Justice in China: A Case Study in the Complexities of Law & Social Change
WHEN Mon., Apr. 8, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, The Morgan Courtroom, Austin Hall Room 308, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Law, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR East Asian Legal Studies
SPEAKER(S) Zhang Jingjing, Edward S. Mason Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO mzaisser at law.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/eals/events.html
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Understanding and Designing Complex Sociotechnical Systems
April 8, 2013
Noon – 1pm EDT
MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series
Register sat http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_040813/sussman-webinar-sociotechnical-systems.html
Joseph M. Sussman, JR East Professor, MIT Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
About the Presentation
This webinar is designed for engineers, managers, policy makers, health care professionals, educators, students, and others, across industries and disciplines, throughout the world. During this session, MIT’s Joseph M. Sussman, the JR East Professor of MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will:
define sociotechnical systems;
describe their components and characteristics;
discuss how we approach them;
describe how design solutions must focus not only on the advanced technologies that characterize contemporary life, but also on their relationship to the organizations and institutions through which they function;
discuss examples drawn from various fields.
We invite you to join us!
Free and open to all
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"The Costs and Benefits of Carbon Taxes in China"
Monday, April 8, 2013
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Land Lecture Hall, 4th Floor, Belfer Building, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Chris P. Nielsen, Executive Director, Harvard China Project, School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS); Mun S. Ho, Visiting Scholar, Harvard China Project (SEAS) and Visiting Scholar, Resources for the Future
Please note our alternate location! (right below Bell Hall, where we usually meet).
Lunch will be served.
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
Louisa_Lund at harvard.edu
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Demography of the Future
WHEN Mon., Apr. 8, 2013, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Center for Population & Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) Herbert L. Smith, professor of sociology; director, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
COST Free
NOTE These Monday seminars are open to everyone: faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral fellows and students.
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population-development/events/pop-center-seminars/
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Junot Díaz: A Conversation
WHEN Mon., Apr. 8, 2013, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Taylor Seminar Room, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, One Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Harvard Writers at Work Lecture Series is co-sponsored by the Harvard College Writing Program, the Harvard Extension School Master’s Degree Program in Journalism, Harvard Review, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and the Harvard College Program in General Education.
SPEAKER(S) Author Junot Díaz
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO ellen_tuttle at harvard.edu; 617.495.2342
NOTE Join us for a conversation with Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, provocateur, science fiction enthusiast and MacArthur Genius Award winner. Díaz's books include"The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao" and "This is How You Lose Her."
LINK http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/eventsitem.aspx?id=100037
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"The Genius of Jobs, Einstein, and Franklin"
WHEN Mon., Apr. 8, 2013, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Gymnasium, 18 Mason Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Humanities, Information Technology, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The History of Science Department at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Walter Isaacson
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO rothschildlecture at gmail.com
NOTE The History of Science Department at Harvard is pleased to welcome its 2013 Robert and Maurine Rothschild presenter, Walter Isaacson. Isaacson is president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, former president and CEO of CNN, former managing editor of TIME, and author of the recent biography, Steve Jobs, in addition to biographies of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Kissinger.
LINK http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/news.html
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ACT Lecture | Nora Alter: Listening to Marker
Monday, April 08, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Nora Alter
Chair and Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University
Nora M. Alter's teaching and research focus on twentieth and twenty-first century cultural and visual studies from a comparative perspective, and she published the first English-language study of director Chris Marker in 2006. In her talk, Alter investigates Marker's complex use of sound, paying particular attention to how music operates on multiple registers in order to expand the cinematic frame both temporally and spatially.
Her other publications include Vietnam Protest Theatre: The Television War on Stage (1996) and Projecting History: Non-Fiction German Film (2002). She co-edited Sound Matters: Essays on the Acoustics of Modern German Culture (2004) with Lutz Koepnick. Alter also published essays on German and European studies, film and media studies, cultural and visual studies, and contemporary art. She is currently completing a new book on the international essay film and has begun research for a new study devoted to sound.
Spring 2013 Lecture series
Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form
CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/2013-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
For more information, contact: Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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Tuesday, April 9th
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"China Wired: Internet Activism in the PRC."
Tuesday, April 9
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker series with Keith Richburg, Fellow at the Institute of Politics and China correspondent forThe Washington Post from 2009-2013.
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The Devouring Dragon: How China’s Rise is Reshaping the Physical World
WHEN Tue., Apr. 9, 2013, 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE CGIS Building, Room S153, 1730 Cambridge Street, Harvard University
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
SPEAKER(S) Craig Simons, journalist
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO lkluz at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE Craig Simons will chart how China’s rebirth has raised our planetary metabolism and why its impacts are almost certain to spike before they plateau. Simons will address the roots of China’s environmental crisis and examine how China’s rise fits into the larger global history of environmental change and what its near-certain continued economic growth could mean for the physical planet and efforts to stem the rising damage caused by deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
LINK http://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/event/craig-simons
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Disruptive Innovation in Washington, DC
April 9
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2013/04/khanna#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET.
Derek Khanna, Visiting Fellow at Yale Law's Information Society Project / Contributor to National Review, Human Events, the Atlantic & Poltix.
How can a complacent Congress address real and systemic problems related to technology and antiquated legislation? I will present a strategy for achieving positive technology policy reforms in Congress. Overall, I argue that we need to re-framing the policy questions, win small battles, and develop a working coalition. I will detail some key areas of reform of which I have been involved.
About Derek
Derek Khanna is a Yale Law Fellow with the Information Society Project, a columnist, policy expert and thought leader on technology and innovation. He has experience on two Presidential campaigns and working for the House and Senate, where he worked for Senator Scott Brown. Until recently, he was a staff member for the House Republican Study Committee, where he authored the widely read House Republican Study Committee report “Three Myths about Copyright Law.” In the two months since he was on Capitol Hill he has taken on the largely unknown issue of phone unlocking and created it as a national issue by spearheading a modern digital advocacy campaign. His unprecedented and unfunded campaign on cellphone unlocking included a White House petition that achieved over 114,000 signatures, which led to a White House endorsement, an FCC investigation, and several pieces of legislation to allow for unlocking. He has spoken widely, since his time on the Hill he has spoken at the Consumer Electronics Show, South by Southwest, Conservative Political Action Conference, Princeton University, Freedom to Connect, and has made regular appearances on television. He is also a prolific writer, as a regular contributor to the National Review, Forbes, the Atlantic, Townhall, Daily Caller, and Human Events. He also has several law journal articles that will be published this spring. While only 25, Derek is considered to be an up and coming thought leader on technology policy.
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#citychat: Transit Equity in Growing Cities & the Istanbul Case
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
2:00p–3:00p
Online @MITCoLab (https://twitter.com/MITCoLab)
On Tuesday, April 9th at 2:00 p.m. EST / 6:00 p.m. GMT / 9:00 p.m. in Istanbul (EEST), @MITCoLab (https://twitter.com/MITCoLab) will host a live #citychat (https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23citychat&src=savs) conversation on Twitter about social inequalities in urban transportation, automobile dependency, and the relationship between transit and human rights. We???ll look at the case of Istanbul, but we want to hear perspectives and issues from all cities.
Web site: http://colabradio.mit.edu/citychat-transit-equity-in-growing-cities-t
he-istanbul-case/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Community Innovators Lab
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What is a Smart City?
Tuesday, 9 April
3:00 PM
Tufts, Halligan Hall room 111A, 161 College Avenue, Medford
At Schneider Electric, we define a smart city as efficient, sustainable and liveable.
Efficient means improving the efficiency of a city’s underlying urban infrastructures – its water network, its gas network, its electricity network, its transportation systems, its emergency response systems, its buildings, its hospitals, its public services etc.
Sustainable means reducing the environmental consequences of urban life – reducing the city’s carbon emissions, regenerating some districts, planting trees, creating parks, planning the city differently.
Finally, liveable means becoming a more pleasant place to live, work and play – for its residents as well as for its visitors and commuters. Attractiveness matters – it means building the talent-pool the city needs, the housing market its people needs, providing the cultural events that bring the spotlights.
Schneider Electric’s unique, collaborative approach
Solutions to cities' immediate challenges,
Integration for increased efficiency,
Innovation for a holistic sustainable future,
Collaboration to make it all happen.
Suad Mohamed, Principal Engineer, Schneider Electric Industry Business. Suad is a key technical contributor to the Schneider Electric projects. In her role she is responsible for architecture, design, implementation, and test of the firmware. Suad has been working for Schneider Electric for the last 5 years. Prior to that Suad worked at a number of high-tech companies in the area of networking and high availability as a technical lead and individual contributor; including Lakeview Technology, IronBridge Networks, Cereva Networks Inc., and Availant Inc. Suad Holds MS. in Computer Science and BS in Electrical Engineering.
Sunita Patel is a Principal Verification Engineer/Associate Lead for Schneider Electric, North Andover, USA. She has Progressive 10 years of professional experience in Software Development life cycle. Moreover, throughout her career she has been developing test strategy for testing process, testing scenarios, test plan along with reporting & analyzing test results. Also she automates the software Test Tool, using the scripts like Perl, PHP and brings uniformity to the process. Sunita has been working for Schneider Electric for the last 6 years. Prior to joining Schneider Electric, she was a Software Test Engineer at a high-tech company including Cognex Corporation and Nortel Networks. Sunita holds a B.S Degree in Computer Science. Also taken Courses towards Information Technology from Boston University, USA.
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Broad Data: What happens when the Web of Data becomes real?
Tuesday, April 9 2013
4:00PM to 5:30PM
Refreshments: 3:45PM
MIT, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jim Hendler, Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
"Big Data" is used to refer to the very large datasets generated by scientists, to the many petabytes of data held by companies like Facebook and Google, and to analyzing real-time data assets like the stream of twitter messages emerging from events around the world. Key areas of interest include technologies to manage much larger datasets (cf. NoSQL), technologies for the visualization and analysis of databases, cloud-based data management and datamining algorithms.
Recently, however, we have begun to see the emergence of another, and equally compelling data challenge -- that of the "Broad data" that emerges from millions and millions of raw datasets available on the World Wide Web. For broad data the new challenges that emerge include Web-scale data search and discovery, rapid and potentially ad hoc integration of datasets, visualization and analysis of only-partially modeled datasets, and issues relating to the policies for data use, reuse and combination. In this talk, we present the broad data challenge and discuss potential starting points for solutions. We illustrate these approaches using data from a "meta-catalog" of over 1,000,000 open datasets that have been collected from about two hundred governments from around the world.
Bio: Jim Hendler is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, and the Head of the Computer Science Department at Rensselaer. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Experimental Multimedia Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), serves as a Director of the UK’s charitable Web Science Trust and is a visiting Professor at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK. Hendler is the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. Hendler was named one of the 20 most innovative professors in America by Playboy magazine and was selected as an “Internet Web Expert” by the US government.
Host: Lalana Kagal, CSAIL
Relevant URL: http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~hendler/
Broad Data: What happens when the Web of Data becomes real?
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Oil Dependence, "Oilpacity," and U.S. Foreign Policy in Africa
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
4:15p–5:30p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kairn Klieman, Associate Professor of History, University of Houston
Present-day oil producers in Africa suffer from the "oil curse" or the "natural resource curse"; despite massive influxes of oil revenues, economies stagnate, standards of living decline, and governments become increasingly authoritarian and corrupt. Western institutions and governments currently insist on increased "transparency" as a solution, focusing on policies that reduce possibilities for the misappropriation of oil revenues by the African elite. Drawing on historical data from U.S. and African archives, this paper will argue that petroleum, as the most necessary and strategic commodity of the 20th century, generated a plethora of forms of opacity involving a much wider array of actors. By analyzing the role of U.S. oil companies and U.S. foreign policy in Africa since 1940, new insights are provided as to the origins of the oil curse, the political impact of oil dependence in Africa, and the complex networks of "oilpacity" (as per Coronil) that aided U.S. economic expansion after World War II.
MITEI Seminar Series
A year-long series of seminars given by leaders in the energy field sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative.
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/node/2266
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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"What Then Must We Do: Straight Talk About The Next American Revolution."
Tuesday, April 9
5:00 PM
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/352063451569459/
New Economy at MIT will be hosting the one and only Gar Alperovitz as he discusses his groundbreaking new book "What Then Must We Do: Straight Talk About The Next American Revolution."
Gar is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland. He has been responsible for some of the most influential and important analyses of new forms of work, community, and cooperative ownership. He is the cofounder of The Democracy Collaborative, a research institute developing new strategies to build community wealth, including an innovative network of green worker cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his work as a leader of the New Economy movement, he is an acclaimed historian of US foreign policy.
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The MassChallenge Sampler: Episode VIII: Entrepalooza
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Second Floor Rotunda at The Faneuil Hall Marketplace, 1 Faneuil Hall Square, Boston
RSVP at http://mcsamplerentrepalooza.eventbrite.com
A showcase of startup resources and community in Massachusetts!
The finale of the MassChallenge Sampler highlights the most important component for any entrepreneur- Access to resources!
We welcome all companies, organizations, and individuals with a vested interest in supporting entrepreneurs to showcase their resources they are providing. Startups are welcome to browse the extensive market and identify which resources are best for their ventures.
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“Tap Into Boston’s Water Sustainability Network”
April 9, 2013
6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Boston University School of Arts and Sciences, Room 522, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
BeCause Water, a Boston-based social enterprise that empowers water activism, will be hosting, “Tap Into Boston’s Water Sustainability Network,” at the Boston University School of Arts and Sciences, Room 522, on April 9, 2013 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The objective of the event is to encourage discussion about the repercussions of bottled water (Environmental, Health, Financial), and provide options for solutions in the form of activism.
Co-hosting the event with the Sustainable Business Network (SBN), the event will feature a screening of the film Tapped, a guest-speaker panel with respected water professionals from various fields, and a networking segment to connect industry professionals with aspiring activists.
6:00-6:50 pm- "Tapped" the movie
6:50-7:30 pm- Speakers Panel Discussion
7:30- 8:30 pm- Networking
Jill Appel - Concord Conserves- Jill Appel, CPA, MPH, has 30 years of experience in consulting, project management and health care finance. A community activist since supporting the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Concord in 2006, Jill is currently a member of Concord’s Sustainable Energy Committee. In 2011 and 2012, she ran the campaign to bring Concord’s historic single-serve bottled water bylaw to Town Meeting. The bylaw passed in April 2012, and went into effect on January 1, 2013.
Russ Cohen - Department of Ecological Restoration- Russ works with the The Massachusetts DER which serves to restore and protect the rivers, wetlands, and watersheds of the state. They conduct projects to revitalize environmental sites and protect public water resources.
Kim McCabe - An educator at heart, Kim McCabe is dedicated to raising awareness about the ecological impacts of our daily actions and inspiring people to live healthier, greener lives. Last fall she was able to take a break from her educator position at the New England Aquarium to volunteer as a researcher on the Plastics at SEA expedition in the North Pacific Gyre. For 5 weeks she was able to experience the Giant Pacific Garbage Patch first hand and help evaluate the impact it is having on marine life. She is also the Rise Above Plastics coordinator for Surfrider Foundation's Massachusetts chapter and writes a blog about her personal plastic footprint and sharing ways to reduce our waste (wastewatchers.wordpress.com).
Joshua Das - MWRA Joshua is an expert in drinking water and public health, having worked in the field for over 15 years. Joshua holds a Masters degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in Environmental Health, with a focus on water. For the past ten years, he has worked as the Public Health Specialist at the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. His job at the MWRA entails water quality monitoring and reporting, oversight of system-wide sampling, disease surveillance, and educational outreach to universities and community groups across the Boston area. While much of his work has focused on the domestic water supply, he has also worked on several developing country projects on improving drinking water and sanitation including in Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Rebecca Liebman - Rebecca is a student at Clark University majoring in Global Environmental Studies and Entrepreneurship. At Clark she is leading “Take Back the Tap,” an initiative to install water filling stations around campus and provide every student with reusable water bottles. She spent a month is Western Europe studying the placement of recycling bins in European cities compared to American cities and lived in a rural village in Kenya for a few months over the summer starting a business with community members. She is currently working for Freight Farms, an environmental company that grows produce in shipping containers, allowing people to grow food anywhere using hydroponics. Rebecca lives by the motto, with the freedom to do anything comes the responsibility to do something.
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Cities of Wood
WHEN Tue., Apr. 9, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Jonathan Levi
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/cities-of-wood.html
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Kitchen Gardeners Get-Together
Tuesday, April 9th
6:30 - 8:30pm
Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library, 45 Pearl Street (off Massachusetts Avenue), Cambridge
Free and Open to the Public
April Topic: getting ready for spring planting
As spring approaches, many of us are thinking about starting our gardens. Some of us are beginners with a lot of questions. Some of us have a lot of experience to share. A lot of us would love the opportunity to talk to other gardeners about our common interest.
Jules Kobek of DIO Skillshare will be facilitating a monthly get-together of kitchen gardeners to discuss informally our practices, problems, and successes as vegetable gardeners. Each monthly meeting will have a specific topic for general discussion, but there will also be time set aside for individual questions.
Topics can include: deciding what vegetables to grow for your specific situation and needs; soil fertility; insects, good and bad; plant diseases; and succession planting.
Topics will be limited to kitchen gardening: growing food for yourself, family, and friends.
Participants will be sharing from their own experience. There will be no formal presentations.
Not covered: commercial growing, fruit and nut trees, beekeeping, chickens, or other animals. These are all specialized areas that requires a different set of skills and knowledge.
This will be a pilot project of three months. If there is sufficient interest, we'll continue year-round.
Call Jules at 617-492-2340 for more information
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Wednesday, April 10
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Adapting to Change in Marine Ecosystems - A Stakeholder Science Forum
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
10:00a–12:15p
MIT, Building E38-300, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP appreciated
MIT SEA GRANT STAKEHOLDER FORUM SERIES
The MIT Sea Grant Stakeholder Forums provide an opportunity for our funded researchers to present their research and current findings to their peers and the public. Audience members and other presenting researchers are encouraged to ask questions and engage in dialogue. The goal of the series is to promote peer-to-peer networking, to connect research to those who can benefit from and apply the findings of MIT Sea Grant funded research, and for MIT Sea Grant to receive input on outreach programs whose goal is to deliver economic, social, and environmental benefits.
In this seminar, social science investigators will present their scientific findings, then answer questions from the audience. Please join us in the conference room to listen, learn and participate in this stakeholder social science forum.
SPEAKERS
Di Jin and Porter Hoagland, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Project: Development of a Scientific Management Framework to Support the Ecosystem-Based Management of Coastal Resources
Seth Tuler, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Project: Improving Understandings of Consequences, Vulnerabilities, and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change Related Hazards
John Duff, Univ. of Massachusetts - Boston
Project: Governance Role of Local Authorities in Marine Spatial Planning: a Legal Assessment of Prospects and Problems
Madeleine Hall-Arber, MIT Sea Grant College Program
Project: Identifying Offshore Space-Use Conflicts
Web site: http://seagrant.mit.edu/press_releases.php?ID=416
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Sea Grant
For more information, contact: Gayle Sherman
617-252-1617
gsherman at mit.edu
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[MIT Energy Club] Discussion Series: "Li-Ion Battery - Lithium Ion Battery and Its Role in the Transportation Sector"
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 5-233, 55 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Aziz Abdellahi
In this round table discussion, Aziz will first give a quick overview of Li-ion batteries, including the current and future state of the electric car market. Then Aziz will lead the discussion between the members of the audience about topics of interest in Li-ion batteries and electric vehicles.
MIT Energy Discussion Series
The Discussion Series is an energy discussion series led by graduate student experts in various energy areas. Suggested preparation readings for upcoming discussions are available on our website.
Open to: the general public
Cost: None
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: Jonathan Mailoa; Michelle Park
jpmailoa at mit.edu; mpark15 at mit.edu
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Innovation in American Government: Change and Continuity Over Two Decades
WHEN Wed., Apr. 10, 2013, 1:10 – 2:30 p.m.
WHERE Taubman 401, Harvard Kennedy School, 15 Elito Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Sandford Borins is a professor of public management at the University of Toronto, and the author of "Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives" (2011)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO christina_marchand at hks.harvard.edu
NOTE Applications to the Innovation in American Government Awards program have provided a forum for the nation’s public sector innovators to tell their stories: stories of persistence, controversy, and vindication. Sandford Borins has used those stories to create databases to characterize the nature and evolution of innovative programs and characteristics of successful innovations. Replicating his path-breaking research of the early nineties (published in his 1997 book Innovating with Integrity), Borins has just completed his analysis of applications to the 2010 Innovations in American Government Awards. He will present both qualitative and quantitative research to account for the persistence of innovation and its necessary transformations.
A light lunch will be served.
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/Innovation-in-American-Government-Change-and-Continuity-Over-Two-Decades
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The Gettysburg Project: Understanding and Revitalizing Civic Engagement
WHEN Wed., Apr. 10, 2013, 3 – 4 p.m.
WHERE Belfer, L-4, Hauser Center Conference Room, Lobby Level, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, HKS; Marshall Ganz, senior lecturer in public policy, HKS
NOTE Frontline with Faculty Series: http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1951/april-10-the-gettysburg-project-understanding-and-revitalizing-civic-engagement/
LINK http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1951/april-10-the-gettysburg-project-understanding-and-revitalizing-civic-engagement/
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Rethinking Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Professor Roel Snieder, Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines
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
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How Mobile Disrupts Social As We Know It
Wednesday, April 10 2013
4:00PM to 5:00PM
Refreshments: 3:45PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 (Patil/Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Monica Lam, Stanford University
ABSTRACT Every computer revolution changes our lives dramatically; so will mobile devices. Mobile devices enable billions of people to capture, share, interact, and consume real-time personal media in new and creative ways. In addition, being devices owned by individuals, they can form an autonomous computing fabric that frees us from the domination of existing centralized proprietary social networking services.
This talk presents an open social mobile (OSM) architecture that combines a novel and natural mobile social experience with a clean architecture that lets users choose different cloud backup services. In addition, OSM is an app platform that makes it easy to create privacy-honoring social apps. This can open up new markets for social and collaborative apps in fields like education, health and businesses, where centralized proprietary services are inappropriate.
BIO Monica S. Lam has been a Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University since 1988, and the Faculty Director of the Stanford MobiSocial Computing Laboratory. She received her PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. Her current research interest is in creating open social computing platforms. She has worked in the areas of high-performance computing, computer architecture, compiler optimizations, security analysis, virtualization-based computer management, and mobile/social software architectures. She is a co-author of the "Dragon Book". Together with her students, she founded MokaFive Inc. in 2005 and MobiSocial Inc. in 2012. Monica is an ACM Fellow.
Host: Rob Miller, MIT CSAIL
Contact: Juho Kim, juhokim at mit.edu
Relevant URL: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/seminar.shtml
-----------------------------------
Reinventing Urban Democracy in New York and Somerville
WHEN Wed., Apr. 10, 2013, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 4th Floor, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Joseph Curtatone, mayor of Somerville, Mass.; Brad Lander, council member, New York City; and Hollie Russon-Gilman, Ash Center
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO bruce_jackan at hks.harvard.edu
NOTE What would happen if citizens got together to decide collectively how budgets are spent? Participatory budgeting began in Brazil, where it is used in more than 100 cities, and has just recently spread to the United States. Council Member Brad Lander helped to spearhead the efforts of eight New York City council members to put their capital budgets, totaling around $10 million, up to this democratic process. He will speak about the vision, the benefits, and the challenges of this exciting new experiment in urban democracy.
Somerville’s Mayor Curtatone has also placed renewed emphasis on the importance of involving citizens in planning. Somerville’s ResiStat program engages residents in forums in each of the city’s seven wards, as well as with specific populations, multiple times each year. These forums provide opportunities for citizens to discuss neighborhood development, challenges, and solutions with city officials and with the Mayor. What impact have these forums had? How does citizen participation transform government? Mayor Curtatone will share his thoughts.
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/Democracy-Seminar/Reinventing-Urban-Democracy-in-New-York-and-Somerville
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"Intensive Margin of Electrification: Evidence from Rural India."
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Room L-382, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge
Ujjayant Chakravorty, Tufts University; Martino Pelli, and Beyza Ural Marchand, University of Alberta.
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
For further information, contact Professor Stavins at the Kennedy School (617- 495-1820), Professor Weitzman at the Department of Economics (617-495-5133), or the course assistant, Jason Chapman (617-496-8054), or visit the seminar web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k89370
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Environmental Lawlessness
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
5:30pm
Milstein West 2019, Wasserstein Hall, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
A talk by Richard J. Lazarus, in honor of the appointment of Professor Lazarus as the Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law
All are welcome. Reception immediately following the talk.
-------------------------------------
The Neuroscience of Musical Improvisation
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
6:30p–7:30p
MIT, Building NW-86, 70 Pacific Street, Cambridge
Join us for a multisensory, multimedia, music-meets-neuroscience experience with TEDx speaker:
Professor Charles Limb, Associate Professor, Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
Faculty, Peabody Conservatory of Music
Johns Hopkins University / School of Medicine
RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fnntfWSSNOsHS6zEN3isGEVrzxT9EytbXwnsADtudDE/viewform?pli=1
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
6 PM (refreshments), 6:30 PM (lecture)
MIT Sidney Pacific Graduate Residence (map:http://goo.gl/gZUmY)
Multipurpose Room (ground floor)
...Also featuring a live jazz combo!
How do freestyle rappers create lyrics off the cuff? How are musicians able to improvise on the spot? What makes their brains tick?
Professor Charles Limb (MD) is a hearing specialist, surgeon, and lifelong musician who researches the way musical creativity works in the brain. Dr. Limb has spent more than a decade studying the brain activity of musicians as they improvise. Known for his brain-imaging studies of jazz musicians, he has expanded his research into another musical genre that emphasizes rhythm and improv: hip hop. He and his team at Johns Hopkins have put freestyle rappers into functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines to see what happens in their brains when they rhyme off the tops of their heads.
His TEDx talk has been viewed more than 750,000 times online: http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv.html
Web site:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fnntfWSSNOsHS6zEN3isGEVrzxT9EytbXwnsADtudDE/viewform?pli=1
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community
For more information, contact: Carrie Cai
sp-cosi-chair at mit.edu
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Thursday, April 11
-----------------------
Promoting Biodiversity Literacy: The Encyclopedia of Life
Thursday, April 11, 2013
12:00pm
Tufts University, Environmental Studies Program, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
James Hanken
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a global biodiversity informatics initiative that launched officially in May 2007. Its fundamental goal is deceptively simple: provide a homepage for every species of living organism. In reality, EOL is an ambitious, even audacious project that seeks to readily make available online and at no cost to the user as much biological information regarding a given species as can be obtained legally and in digital form. In addition to its two core activities, bioinformatics/IT andcompilation of species pages, key components include biodiversity synthesis, learning and education, and scanning and digitization of the primary literature of comparative biology and taxonomy since Linnaeus. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an affiliated consortium of many of the world's largest natural history libraries, performs the latter activity.
EOL is not a taxonomic activity per se, but it has the potential to tremendously enhance the work of practicing taxonomists and systematists, especially those in developing countries, and thereby facilitate the discovery, naming and classification of Earth's biological diversity. As of August 2012, EOL was serving content for more than 1,000,000 of the estimated 1.9 million living, named species. At the same time, BHL had scanned and was making available nearly 40 million pages of scientific literature, representing more than 56,000 titles and 106,000 separate volumes.
EOL seeks the active participation and involvement by both the professional scientific community and citizen scientists in order to succeed and achieve its full potential as a reliable and up-to-date source of information for scientists, educators, conservationists, environmental planners, government policymakers, students, laypeople, and other "consumers" of biological data worldwide. James Hanken will discuss the Encyclopedia of Life and Biodiversity Heritage Library, two of several current projects that together may soon realize the grand vision of a seamless global biodiversity informatics infrastructure for use by science and society.
James Hanken is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Director of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). He received A.B. and Ph.D. degrees in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley. After a postdoctoral stint in developmental biology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, he assumed a faculty position at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He moved to Harvard in 1999, where he also is Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Curator of Herpetology in the MCZ; a member of the Biological Sciences in Dental Medicine Program, Harvard School of Dental Medicine; and a faculty member of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the evolutionary morphology, development and systematics of vertebrates, especially amphibians; his laboratory has maintained field programs in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
He has authored more than 100 scientific publications and edited four books. He also is an accomplished nature and scientific photographer; his photographs appear in several books, field guides and magazines, including Natural History, Geo, Audubon, National Geographic World and Playboy.
He is Past-president, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists; Past-president, International Society of Vertebrate Morphologists; former Chair, International Board of Directors, of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force; former Chair of the Steering Committee of the Encyclopedia of Life; and former Co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life.
Honors include the von Hofsten Lecture (Uppsala University, Sweden), the Gompertz Lecture in Integrative Biology (University of California, Berkeley), election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an undergraduate teaching award from the University of Colorado Student Organization for Alumni Relations. He serves on numerous editorial boards.
------------------------------
Japan Roundtable 2013: Perspectives from Japan on Nuclear Issues
Thursday, April 11, 2013
3:00pm - 6:00pm
Tufts University, ASEAN Auditorium, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5909528559
Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs Speaker Series:
Japan Roundtable 2013: Perspectives from Japan on Nuclear Issues - Security, Energy, and Lessons from History
Speakers
Moderator: Kelly Sims Gallagher, Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy, The Fletcher School
Session 1: Voice from Hiroshima: Nuclear Weapons in History
Tadatoshi Akiba, Professor by special appointment, Hiroshima University; Former Mayor, City of Hiroshima
Session 2: Nuclear International Security: US-Japan relations and East Asia
TBD
Session 3: Peaceful Use of Nuclear Technology and Private Business
John Yoshinari, Chief Operating Officer, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Ltd.
Closing Speech
Partha Ghosh, Visiting Professor of Strategic and Innovative Management, The Fletcher School
Light meal will be served after the event.
RVSP: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5909528559
Event Concept
Nuclear issues, with its uncertainty and potential, have had great impacts on international society. Japan Roundtable 2012-2013 looks into the nuclear issues the international community faces from three perspectives.
Session 1 introduces what Japan, as the only country that has experienced atomic bombing, has done to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. It has been sixty-seven years since the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took more than 200,000 lives. Although President Obama has called for the creation of “a world without nuclear weapons”, nuclear weapons still constitute the greatest existential threat to all humankind, well exemplified by ongoing nuclear development and stalled talks on nuclear arms reduction. By inviting Professor Tadatoshi Akiba, former mayor of the city of Hiroshima and renowned activist for the elimination of nuclear weapons, we will revisit what nuclear issues mean to Japan through lessons from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In session 2, we will then move on to discuss the role of nuclear power in international security from the perspective of post-war Japan-US relations as well as East Asia. Analyzing how the US nuclear umbrella has helped Japan to achieve economic success, the presentation will reveal how nuclear power has affected the region.
In session 3, we turn to the peaceful use of nuclear technology. The 3/11 great earthquake in Japan in 2011 has been a chance for communities all over the globe to re-examine the risk of nuclear technology in our lives. In this section, we will invite a speaker who can speak from a private sector perspective and who faces both the potential and risk of nuclear energy on a daily basis, to provide us with a multilateral understanding of our nuclear issues.
Sponsored by The Hitachi Center of Technology and International Affairs, Consulate-General of Japan in Boston, The Fletcher School, The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy
Contact Name: Miranda Fasulo
Miranda.Fasulo at tufts.edu
------------------------------
Harvard Climate Rally
Thursday, April 11, 2013
4:00pm
Outside Massachusetts Hall, 11 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
The most important way you can support divestment at Harvard this year....
Care about climate change?
Care about the environment?
Care about the planet's future?
DO something about it at the April 11th Harvard Climate Rally!
Hear from prominent speakers on climate change and what we can do at Harvard!
Meet other students from all over the University!
See President Faust accept over 1000 signatures from Harvard supporting fossil fuel divestment!
http://divestharvard.com/
harvardsjsf at gmail.com
--------------------------------
It's all about energy! The impact of computational materials science
Thursday, April 11, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 4-237, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Giulia Galli, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis
ABSTRACT: We will introduce several problems involved in understanding and controlling energy conversion processes, including solar, photo-electrochemical and thermoelectric energy conversion. Using examples from recent studies based on ab initio and atomistic simulations, we will discuss two intertwined issues: what is the impact of computational materials science on energy related problems? How do we take up the challenge of building much needed tighter connections between computational and laboratory experiments?
Seminars in Computational Science and Engineering
Web site: http://computationalengineering.mit.edu/events/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for Computational Engineering
For more information, contact: Barbara Lechner
blechner at mit.edu
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BioEnergy Lecture Series - Why is Project Development Perfect for MIT Engineers?
April 11, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 56-114 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Arjun Gupta, Project Developer, Harvest Power
Sponsored by: MIT Energy Club
Admission: Open to the public
For more information: Contact MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
---------------------------------
Low Cost, High-Impact Innovative Solutions For the Bottom 2 Billion
WHEN Thu., Apr. 11, 2013, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South, S020 Belfer, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR South Asia Institute
SPEAKER(S) Ashok Gadgil, division director, and faculty senior scientist, Environmental Energy Technologies Division
LINK http://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/event/social-enterprise-seminar-series-9/
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Impact Investing: Shaping an Industry by Tackling Systemic Barriers
Thursday, Apr 11
4:15 – 5:15 pm
Belfer, Weil Town Hall, Lobby Level, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
LUTHER M. RAGIN, JR., CEO, Global Impact Investing Network; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, HKS
Link: http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1942/april-11-impact-investing-shaping-an-industry-by-tackling-systemic-barriers/
----------------------------------
Legatum Lecture ~ Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism
Thursday, April 11, 2013
5:00p–6:30p
E25-111, MIT Whitaker College, 45 Carlton Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Robert Guest, Author, Business Editor, The Economist
Robert Guest, The Economist's Business Editor describes how mass migration is changing the way we live, learn and do business. A century ago, migrants often crossed an ocean and never saw their homelands again. Today, they call - or Skype - home the moment their flight has landed, and that's just the beginning. Thanks to cheap travel and easy communication, immigrants everywhere stay in intimate contact with their native countries, creating powerful cross-border networks. Join us on April 11th for a discussion on borderless economics --- how these networks create wealth, spread ideas and foster innovation.
Web site: http://legatum.mit.edu/content/1282
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact: Agnes Hunsicker
617-324-2768
agnesh at mit.edu
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News or Entertainment? The Press in Modern Political Campaigns
Thursday, April 11, 2013
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic; Mark McKinnon, The Daily Beast
In the 2012 presidential campaign, a handful of media outlets deployed "fact-checking" divisions which reported the lies and distortions of the candidates. Some commentators have argued that these truth-squads exposed the inadequacy of standard print and broadcast coverage, much of which seems more like entertainment than news. This forum will examine the changing role of the political media in the U.S. Is our political journalism serving democratic and civic ideals? What do emerging technologies and the proliferation of news sources mean for the future?
Speakers
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor at The Atlantic where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir "The Beautiful Struggle."
Mark McKinnon is a senior advisor of Hill & Knowlton Strategies, a weekly columnist for The Daily Beast and The London Telegraph, and is a co-founder of the bipartisan group No Labels. As a political advisor, he has worked for many causes, companies and candidates including former President George W. Bush, 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, late former Texas Governor Ann Richards and Congressman Charlie Wilson.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Communications Forum
For more information, contact: Brad Seawell
617-253-3521
seawell at mit.edu
-----------------------------------
Urbanism, Spirituality and Well-being Symposium
Thursday, April 11, 2013
5:15pm - 6:45pm
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall E, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Exploring the Past and Present/Envisioning the Future
Given the sobering pressures of growing population density, climate change, resource depletion and fiscal insolvency which attend the modern City, theologians, public health experts, architects and urban planners must synthesize their knowledge of historical and present-day contexts to envision a spiritually and ecologically sustainable future. The Symposium on Urbanism, Spirituality & Well-being will focus on the potential of the City, including landscaped or wild natural areas, to contextualize our shared “human condition” as well as provide a connection to a transcendent dimension of existence through architecture and the urban setting. The collective momentum from this conversation is intended to seed a lasting initiative on Urbanism, Spirituality and Well-being; we welcome the contributions of scholars, students and practitioners as we work to align and illuminate our vision for past, present and future urbanisms.
The symposium will convene participants from Architecture, Landscape Design, Urban Planning, Religious Studies, Public Health and related disciplines to address the ways in which the sociocultural and physical plan of cities can support collective and individual spirituality and well-being. Each meeting will address one of these three consecutive time frames: Historical precedents, contemporary trends, and future urbanisms resectively.
The symposium is supported by the Science, Religion and Culture Program at the Harvard Divinity School; the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health; the Harvard University Center for the Environment; the International Forum for Architecture, Culture and Spirituality; and the North Carolina State University College of Design
http://www.hds.harvard.edu/usw
Contact Name: Julia Africa
jafrica at hsph.harvard.edu
----------------------------------
A City is (Not) a Tree: New Models of Urban Space
WHEN Thu., Apr. 11, 2013, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Cino Zucchi
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/a-city-is-not-a-tree-new-models-of-urban-space.html
-------------------------------------
"A Better Future for A Better Cambridge"
Thursday, April 11th
7:00 P.M.
Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
How can we plan for urban growth in Cambridge to promote a more diverse, livable, and sustainable city for all residents?
An esteemed panel will address the coming demographic shifts that will put further pressure on the Cambridge's housing market and our transportation systems, and talk about solutions that can make Cambridge a leader in defining a new urban America in the age of climate change.
Frederick Salvucci, Former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and current MIT Professor of Civil Engineering
Barry Bluestone, Founding director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University
Andre Leroux, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance
All are welcome! Please register Online to let us know you'll be participating in the discussion: http://abettercambridge.org/register-forum
Sponsored by A Better Cambridge | Working to build a more diverse and dynamic Cambridge on the path toward sustainable growth.
web: http://abettercambridge.com | facebook: http://facebook.com/ABetterCambridge | twitter: @ABetterCambMA
-------------------------------
Peter Matthiessen at MIT to receive the Thoreau Prize
Thursday, April 11, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen, a three-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and nonfiction writer will be at MIT receive the Thoreau Award for Literary Excellence in Nature Writing, presented by Pen New England. Previous recipients include Gary Snyder (2012), E.O. Wilson (20122) and Gretel Ehrlich (2012). Pen New England makes its home in the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
Web site: http://bit.ly/12iN5Jp
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
For more information, contact: Karen Wulf
kwulf at MIT.EDU
-------------------------------
Urban Films: Up the Yangtze (2008)
Thursday, April 11, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Nearing completion, China's massive Three Gorges Dam is altering the landscape and the lives of people living along the fabled Yangtze River. Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods. The Yu family desperately seeks a reprieve by sending their 16-year-old daughter to work in the cruise ship industry that has sprung up to give tourists a last glimpse of the legendary river valley. With cinematic sweep, UP THE YANGTZE explores lives transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history, a hotly contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. Directed by Yung Chang. An official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Produced by EyeSteelFilm/National Film Board of Canada in association with American Documentary; presented in collaboration with the award-winning documentary series POV (www.pbs.org/pov).
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): China Urban Development, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu
-------------------------------
Boston Area Solar Energy Association Forum: 350 Massachusetts (350ma.org) Local Grassroots Growing
Thursday, April 11th, 2013
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
350 Massachusetts (350ma.org) is conducting an urgent campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. The immediate focus is to flood the State Department with the voices of citizens expressing their concerns, before the public comment period closes in mid April.
Eli Gerzon, leader of 350ma.org's Political Accountability team, will give us a "how to" presentation, so BASEA members can quickly and easily join this effort. Eli will also provide an insider's view on the process of expressing one's concerns to elected representatives, with some encouraging anecdotes from his experiences.
Our April Forum will then expand to look at the rapid growth of 350 Massachusetts, which got its start in late 2012 and has organized around several campaigns, namely:
Solutions (renewable energy, public transportation, cultural awareness)
Carbon Tax (aligned with Citizens Climate Lobby for a national carbon tax)
No Gas Mass (opposing potential fracking and increased natural gas infrastructure)
Divestment (encouraging institutions and individuals to divest from fossil fuel businesses)
Tar Sands (not just Keystone XL, but also the Northeast/Line 9 pipeline to Portland, ME)
The seeds were planted by the global 350.org and grassroots for a greener future are growing here in Massachusetts under the leadership of 350 Massachusetts.
The Boston Area Solar Energy Association http://www.BASEA.org
-------------------
Friday, April 12
-------------------
Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
Too many events of interest to cover happening all over the city. Check it out for yourself at
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2013Festival/2013ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
---------------------------------
International Development Conference
Friday, April 12, 2013 - Saturday, April 13, 2013
Friday: The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
Saturday: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy Street (Harvard Square),
Cambridge
Featuring a panel on climate change:
Climate and Development Beyond Kyoto
Twenty years of negotiation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have produced little measurable progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions or enabling the most vulnerable to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The world urgently needs new approaches to international climate and development cooperation that think beyond the Kyoto Protocol’s top-down, legally-binding structure. This panel will bring together leading climate and development researchers and policymakers in a dialogue about building and sustaining momentum toward low-carbon and resilient development through action by non-state actors, including development institutions, local governments, and the private sector.
Register: http://harvardidc.com/registration-2013
http://harvardidc.com/
-------------------------------
Crisis Management Workshop and Simulation with Amb. Christian Dussey
Friday, April 12, 2013
9:00 AM
Harvard, Suite 160, Room 105, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA
Crises are sudden and disruptive. They are complex and characterized by uncertainty as well as high velocity. In this workshop, Amb. Christian Dussey, most recently head of the Crisis Management Center of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will present several instruments leaders can use to bring a sense of order and lead his/her team through these challenging events. He will then facilitate a crisis simulation during which participants will work in groups of 3 or 4. The last hour will be dedicated to discussing the results of the group work. Space is limited! To participate, please enroll here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QNHLTHT.
Sponsored by the Program on Crisis Leadership and the Crisis Management Student Group at HKS.
For more, please visit http://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs/crisisleadership/events
------------------------------
Starr Forum: On the Rocks: China and Japan in the East China Sea
Friday, April 12, 2013
4:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speakers:
Mike Mochizuki, George Washington University
Charles Glaser, George Washington University
Taylor Fravel, Political Science and Security Studies Program, MIT
Yukio Okamoto, Wilhelm Fellow, MIT Center for International Studies
Liu Weimin, Minister Counselor, Chinese Embassy in Washington
Moderator:
Richard Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT
Web site:http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_041213_on_the_rocks.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program, Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: starrforum at mit.edu
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Second Fridays at the MIT Museum: Let's Talk About Tech, Baby!
Friday, April 12, 2013
5:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Massachusetts
Second Fridays
Jump-start your weekend with the MIT Museum during our monthly free night. Explore our exhibitions and enjoy special presentations in the galleries.
Enjoy extraordinary, humorous, and thought-provoking snapshots of the MIT student experience. Through a series of 5-minute presentations, hear undergraduates explain what it means to take a "drink from a fire hose"!
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar.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
----------------------
Saturday, April 13
---------------------
Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
Too many events of interest to cover happening all over the city. Check it out for yourself at
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2013Festival/2013ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
---------------------------------
International Development Conference
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Saturday: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy Street (Harvard Square),
Cambridge
Featuring a panel on climate change:
Climate and Development Beyond Kyoto
Twenty years of negotiation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have produced little measurable progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions or enabling the most vulnerable to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The world urgently needs new approaches to international climate and development cooperation that think beyond the Kyoto Protocol’s top-down, legally-binding structure. This panel will bring together leading climate and development researchers and policymakers in a dialogue about building and sustaining momentum toward low-carbon and resilient development through action by non-state actors, including development institutions, local governments, and the private sector.
Register: http://harvardidc.com/registration-2013
http://harvardidc.com/
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Cultivating a New Food Economy: Putting People and Planet First
Tufts New Economy
Saturday, April 13, 2013
9:00 AM to 4:30 PM (PDT)
Tufts University Chase Center, 10 Winthrop Street, Medford
RSVP at http://tuftsneweconomy.eventbrite.com
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the barrage of negativity surrounding our food systems? Daily we are made aware of food-related problems damaging our economy, our health, and our earth.The new economy framework, defined as an economic system that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet, offers a different lens to view the food system: one that is cooperative, environmentally friendly, socially just, and sustainable. This summit will engage participants in critical analysis, cooperation, and innovation through a day-long series of speakers, workshops, and community connectivity. This interactive and engaging event will take place on April 13th at Tufts University, presented in conjunction with the Tufts UEP Practical Visionaries Workshop and the New Economics Institute. The summit will showcase Boston-based leaders, organizations, and businesses that are leading the way. Please join us for a day of discussion about our food, our economy, and our planet.
Keynote Speaker: Francis Moore Lappe.
For more details about the event see the event website.
Event Cost: We are happy to offer this event free of charge so that all can participate. We will be collecting donations on the event day to help cover event costs such as food and speaker fees. Please consider supporting this event financially.
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International Seminar on the Environment – Development Relationship in Bangladesh
Saturday, April 13, 2013
9:00am - 5:00pm
CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium S010, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
This event will explore how the development partners can more effectively assist countries like Bangladesh in their leap into the middle income status. Also how to enhance the role of international community in this endeavor will come up for discussion in the seminar. The organizing committee requests for your attendance and welcomes papers dealing with all aspects of environment-development in the context of South Asia including a wide variety of topics like natural disasters, climate and weather, water sharing, public health, climate change refugees, government policies and the role of international organizations and development partners.
To register, please contact Mohammed Iqbal Yousuf, Co-ordinator (E-mail:mohammed_yousuf at dfci.harvard.edu or call 617-416-9036)
Organized by South Asian students and professionals at the Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, and Harvard College
Co-sponsored by the South Asia Institute at Harvard University
http://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/event/co-sponsored-event-2/
Contact Name: Mohammed Iqbal Yousuf
mohammed_yousuf at dfci.harvard.edu
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Deep Capture: Psychology, Public Relations, Democracy, and Law
April 13, 2013
9:30-4:30pm
Austin North, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP before April 9 at http://deepcaptureconference.wordpress.com/registration/
9:30 am – Coffee, tea, and pastries
9:50 – 10:10 – Welcome
10:15 – 10:40 – Noam Chomsky
10:50 – 11:15 – Francesca Gino
“Getting Sidetracked: How we are vulnerable to manipulation”
Subtle and seemingly irrelevant factors often influence our behavior in ways we fail to anticipate. In this talk, Francesca Gino will discuss a few of these factors and explain how they could be used strategically by others to change people’s behavior.
11:20 – 11:45 – Susan Linn
“The Deepest Capture: Children, Commercialism and the Corporate Take Over of Childhood”
We are all vulnerable to marketing but given their immature judgment and developing brains, children are even more vulnerable. The consequences of screen-saturated, commercialized childhood are dire for the health of children, the environment, and democracy—marketing sells habits and behaviors as well as products. Susan Linn describes the depth and breadth of the “kids market” and why the movement to reclaim childhood from corporate marketers is so important.
11:50 – 12:05 Q&A
LUNCH
12:35 – 1:00 – Stuart Ewen
“The Phantom of Certitude: Public Relations and the Algorithmic Conception of Life”
In his 1948 essay, “The Engineering of Consent,” Edward Bernays wrote, “Freedom of speech and its democratic corollary, a free press, have tacitly expanded our Bill of Rights to include the right of persuasion.” In this statement, he was only echoing a view that he had been promoting for the preceding twenty-five years, that the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses” was essential to the functioning of a “democratic society.” In this presentation, Stuart Ewen will discuss the ways that compliance professionals’ ongoing efforts to guide and regulate the public mind have mirrored—and continue to mirror—parallel scientific efforts to “control chaos” in a variety spheres, and to produce mechanistic or computational models of life that seek to transform perception- and behavior-management into a predictive natural science. The profoundly anti-democratic intentions and consequences of these trends stand the heart of this presentation. So too stand the bedeviling questions: Is democracy still possible? and What is to be done?
1:05 – 1:30 – Michael Niman
“Journalism in a PR World”
Mike Niman discusses the future of journalism in a PR-dominated communication environment. In particular, he examines the migration of talent from journalism to the PR industry, the collapse of mainstream journalism and the role of an emergent alternative media as American journalism goes through metamorphosis from what it was to what it could become. Journalism is a social good that should equip people to understand and resist spin. Niman argues that mainstream American journalism, rather than rising to this challenge, has transparently succumbed to serving as an arm of the corporate PR industry, thus laying the groundwork for its own irrelevance and collapse. From these ashes, he argues, a new alternative media is emerging, combining the communication skills of the PR industry with a long stubborn tradition of critical inquiry and muckraking.
1:35 – 2:00 – Sut Jhally
“War, PR and the Rectification of Language”
Modern public relations emerged from war-time propaganda and has had a very close relationship with war-making ever since. This paper will examine the common and recurring themes, especially in American propaganda efforts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, right up to current “war on terror.” Close attention will be paid to how public relations persuasion was key to recent events in the middle east.
2:05 – 2:20 – Q&A
2:20 – 2:35 – Break
2:35 – 3:00 – John Stauber
“Myth America: How the Ruling Elite – Red and Blue – Prevent Democracy”
The myth of American democracy keeps alive the two-party system wholly owned and operated by the ruling 1% whose primary objective is increasing their wealth and maintaining the status quo. Over the past ten years the liberal Democratic Party elite has copied the propaganda and political tactics of the right wing — think tanks, echo chamber media, rabid partisan grassroots and dark money SuperPacs. Rich Democrats and liberal foundations are just as committed to preventing democracy as are the Koch brothers. Seeing through this veil is crucial to organizing any independent, democratic movements for fundamental, structural change.
3:05 – 3:30 – Thomas McGarity
“Freedom to Harm: The Lasting Legacy of the Laissez Faire Revival”
Professor McGarity will tell the story of how the business community and the trade associations and think tanks that it created launched three powerful assaults during the last quarter of the twentieth century on the federal regulatory system and the state civil justice system to accomplish a revival of the laissez faire political economy that dominated Gilded Age America. Although the consequences of these assaults became painfully apparent in a confluence of crises during the early twenty-first century, the patch-and-repair fixes that Congress and the Obama Administration put into place did little to change the underlying laissez faire ideology and exploitative practices that continue to dominate the American political economy. In anticipation of the next confluence of crises, Professor McGarity offers suggestions for more comprehensive governmental protections for consumers, workers, and the environment.
3:35 – 4:00 – Jon Hanson
“Deep Capture: Attributions, Ideologies, and Policy”
4:05 – 4:20 – Q&A
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Cambridge Mini Maker Faire
Saturday, April 13
Noon - 4pm
Tennis courts outside Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School/Cambridge Public Library
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International Development Night
Saturday, April 13, 2013
6:30-8:00pm
MIT, Building N51-3rd Floor, 265 Massachusetts Avenue - next to the MIT Museum, Cambridge
IDNight at MIT occurs each spring in collaboration with the Harvard International Development Conference (IDC). The event brings together a diverse audience to learn about MIT international development technologies and projects, and helps build relationships between groups of people who bring many different perspectives to international development. It also promotes social awareness about pressing global issues such as poverty, public health, education, and mobility.
IDNight at MIT is a unique opportunity for MIT students and staff to showcase their projects to a wide range of audiences. It draws hundreds of attendees each year, including a large number of Harvard and MIT students, local scientists and engineers, and participants from the Harvard IDC.
Light refreshments and drinks (ID required) will be available.
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Sunday, April 14
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
Too many events of interest to cover happening all over the city. Check it out for yourself at
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2013Festival/2013ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
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Monday, April 15
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
Too many events of interest to cover happening all over the city. Check it out for yourself at
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2013Festival/2013ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
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Tumblehome Learning Science Book Fair & Book Talk Series
Monday, April 15th, Patriots Day
11am-3pm
First Parish Church, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
A “Best Science Writers” discussion panel will feature three Boston area writers & educators; amongst them are two Pulitzer Prize winners and two National Medal of Science award winners.These writers will discuss how they translate complex research for the general public and other topics of interest to them.
Dr. Edward O. Wilson is one of the world’s most distinguished scientists. He is aHarvard Biology Professor Emeritus, researcher, theorist, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winnerand someone who has turned his passion for insects into a best-selling novel, The Ants. He won the National Medal of Science in 1976 and was named one of “America’s 25 Most Influential People” by TIME Magazine in 1996. Dr. Wilson will release a new book in mid-April, Letters to a Young Scientist.
Amy Dockser Marcus, lives in the Boston area and is a health and science reporter for the Wall Street Journal. She writes frequently about the challenges that patients with rare diseases face in driving research and drug development, citizen science, and collaborations between scientists, and patients. Her work has won many awards, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting for a series of stories about cancer survivors.
Dr. Sallie (Penny) Chisholm is an MIT Environmental Sciences professor best known for her research on ocean phytoplankton and how it influences marine policy & management. She received the National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony in February 2013, and has co-authored two award-winning picture books including Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life in the hopes that it will educate people, both young and old, about photosynthesis and its crucial importance to our world.
The panel will be moderated by the first Pakistani woman string theorist, Dr. Tasneem Zehra Husain. She will soon be releasing her first book, Only The Longest Threadswhere each chapter is written in the voice of a scientist as he/she reflects on a groundbreaking theoretical development which has recently led (or is leading) to a paradigm shift in Physics
The “Writing a Science Mystery Adventure” panel features both local and national writers and educators in a discussion about the art of writing a science mystery adventure.
Ben Carey is a journalist and reporter on psychology and science for the New York Times. In his two mystery adventures for middle schoolers, Poison Most Vial and The Unknowns, kids use science or mathematics to solve the mystery and save those they love.
Gary Braver is the pen name of Dr. Gary Goshgarian, an award-winning professor of English at Northeastern University where he teaches courses in fiction writing and popular culture. He has taught fiction-writing workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe. Gary is the author of eight critically acclaimed suspense novels including Tunnel Vision andFlashback.
Michael Erb is a PhD candidate in atmospheric science at Rutgers University. His middle-grade weather mystery, Kelvin McCloud and the Seaside Storm, recounts the story ofa13-year and his uncle who investigate a wealthy banker’s death in a hailstorm.
The panel will be moderated by physician, educator and author Dr. Pendred (Penny) Noyce, co-founder of Tumblehome Learning, a transmedia publishing company that helps kids imagine themselves as young scientists or engineers through exciting mystery and adventure tales. Her books include The Desperate Case of the Diamond Chip and The Vicious Case of the Viral Vaccine.
The “Science in Science Fiction” panel also features local and national writers and educators in a discussion about topics such as the accuracy, nature, and kinds of science portrayed in science fiction and how science fiction can motivate interest in science.
Maria Sosa is the Project Director for the Science & Literacy for Health Project and the Editor-in-Chief of Science Books & Films at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Education Programs in Washington, D.C. She serves on several advisory boards related to libraries and children's science books.
Dr. Sidney Perkowitz, professor of physics at Emory University, GA has pursued research on the properties of matter and has written more than 100 scientific papers and books. He has conducted many presentations about science to non-scientists and haswritten for the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and the Encyclopedia Britannica. His book Hollywood Science discusses the portrayal of science in more than one hundred films, including science fiction, scientific biographies, and documentaries.
Dr. Debbie Chachra is an Associate Professor of Materials Science at Olin College of Engineering, where she teaches and does research in a range of fields, including engineering design, education and materials science (including studying plastic made by bees). She writes and speaks widely on materials science, design and the future, including participating in the transatlantic Thrilling Wonder Stories event, writing for Warren Ellis’s site, and being interviewed for the New Inquiry. She also is behind the “Daily Idioms, Annotated” Tumblr of words and ideas.
The panel will be moderated by semiconductor inventor/entrepreneur and Tumblehome Learning co-founder Barnas Monteith. Monteith is the most recent Chair of the Massachusetts State Science & Engineering Fair and a member of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, as well as an author for Tumblehome Learning’s inaugural Galactic Academy of Science series including The Furious Case of the Fraudulent Fossil.
All in one place, all on one day: extraordinary panel discussions, author book signings, sciencepicture book read-alouds for children in a room of their own, science books for all ages and kits for sale, and on-going Augmented Reality (AR) demonstrations. AR is an exciting new interactive computer-generated view of a physical, real-world environment on your iPad, iPhone or other hand-held device with graphics, sound and video.
Tumblehome Learning is a Massachusetts transmedia company that helps kids imagine themselves as young scientists or engineers and encourages them to experience science through adventure and discovery. This is donewith exciting mystery and adventure tales as well as fun experiments carefully designed to engage students from ages 8 and up. Each book comes with a set of physical and ultimately online activities that allow readers to reproduce and extend the science they read about. Tumblehome Learning was formed in 2010 by a group of dedicated STEM activists, writers, and software and curriculum developers. More information athttp://tumblehomelearning.com
The Cambridge Science Festival – April 12-21, 2013 Be Curious! The Cambridge Science Festival is an annual celebration showcasing the leading edge in science, technology, engineering, art, and math. A multifaceted, multicultural event every spring, the CSF makes science accessible, interactive and fun! Ten days and nights of events during public school vacation week means there’s something for everyone. Check out the Robot Zoo at our Family Science Carnival; “Party for the Planet” at the Franklin Park Zoo on Earth Day; tour bridges spanning from Cambridge to Boston (and wear comfortable shoes!); laugh along with us as comedians try to guess what experts are researching in some of the more obscure scientific fields. Learn more at www.CambridgeScienceFestival.com.
Contact: Pat Monteith 617-438-3145
pat at tumblehomelearning.com
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The Prospects for a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Noam Chomsky, MIT
Nuclear Arms Control in the Middle East and South Asia
Professor Chomsky, widely acknowledged as one of America's leading public intellectuals, will discuss nuclear weapons in the Middle East and the prospects for a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
Despite the end of the Cold War over two decades ago, nuclear weapons continue to be at the center of debates that dominate international relations today. Yet, the search for a world without nuclear weapons remains as elusive as ever.
Thousands of strategic nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of the US and Russia and hundreds of tactical nuclear weapons are still deployed in Europe without any rationale. The presence of nuclear weapons real or perceived threaten peace in other parts of the world.
Web site: web.mit.edu/sts
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): SHASS Dean's Office, HASTS
For more information, contact: Randyn Miller
617-253-3452
randyn at mit.edu
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The Food-Water-Energy Nexus and the Challenge to Sustainability
WHEN Mon., Apr. 15, 2013, 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Peter P. Rogers, Gordon McKay Research Professor of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University; moderated by Joanna Aizenberg
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617.495.8600
LINK http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2013-peter-p-rogers-water-lecture
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Tuesday, April 16
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Cambridge Science Festival April 12-21
Too many events of interest to cover happening all over the city. Check it out for yourself at
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2013Festival/2013ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
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Resilience, Adaptability, and Sustainability of the Built Environment Workshop
WHEN Tue., Apr. 16, 2013, 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
WHERE Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Education, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Real Estate Academic Initiative at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) David Barron, Harvard Law School
Andreas Georgoulias, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Heather Henriksen, Office for Sustainability at Harvard
Kevin Kampschroer, U.S. General Services Administration
John Macomber, Harvard Business School
Kiel Moe, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Richard Peiser, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Lynn Richards, Environmental Protection Agency & Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Holly Samuelson, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Jay Wyper, Hines
Ann Yoachim, Tulane University & Harvard University Graduate School of Design
COST Free; registration required
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.events.harvard.edu/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x164446b4d6
CONTACT INFO 617.496.1570, henshall at gsd.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.reai.harvard.edu/resilience-adaptability-sustainability-built-environment
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University Endowments and Universal Owners: The Sustainability Challenge
WHEN Tue., Apr. 16, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Belfer, Weil Town Hall, Lobby Level, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) James Hawley, professor, School of Economics and Business Administration; and director, the Elfenworks Center for the Study of Fiduciary Capitalism, Saint Mary’s College of California; senior research fellow, Initiative for Responsible Investment
NOTE Frontline with Faculty Series: http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1876/spring-2013-frontline-with-faculty-series-2/
LINK http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/2222/april-16-university-endowments-and-universal-owners-the-sustainability-challenge/
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"Anthropogenic Change and the Fate of Pollination Services."
Tuesday, April 16
12pm
Harvard: Herbaria Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Rebbeca Irwin
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Mathematics at Google
April 16th 2013, Tuesday
4:00pm-5:30pm
MIT, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Refreshments served
Javier Tordable
Abstract: There is a wide variety of mathematics used at Google. For example Linear Algebra in the PageRank algorithm, used to rank web pages in search results. Or Game Theory, used in ad auctions, or Graph Theory in Google Maps. At Google there are literally dozens of products which use interesting Mathematics. These are not just research prototypes, but real Google products; in which Mathematics play a crucial role. In this presentation, I introduce several applications of Mathematics at Google. I begin with a detailed explanation of search on the web and PageRank. Then I show a dozen examples of Google products and the corresponding Mathematics that are used. The presentation has an extensive list of links and references. And it's available in English and Spanish.
Speaker’s Biography: Javier Tordable graduated from the University of Valladolid, Spain with degrees in Computer Science (Ingeniero Superior en Informática) and Mathematics (Licenciado en Matemáticas). He joined Google in 2008 and works currently in Google Seattle.
Please contact Ruby Fu (rubyfu at mit.edu) for any questions.
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REFRESH BOSTON: DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON
4/16/2013
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://refreshboston.org/rsvp/
Description: Refresh Boston welcomes the founders of Design Museum Boston for our April event.
Sam Aquillano & Derek Cascio, founders of Design Museum Boston, will talk about what it takes to create and run a decentralized collection of exhibits across the Boston area, why they started the museum, and where it's going next. They'll also show some behind the scenes planning for Street Seats, an exhibit opening in late April.
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Grassland Restoration: Reversing Global Warming While Meeting Human Needs
Tuesday, April 16
7:00pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church, 459 Putnam Avenue (corner of Magazine Street and Putnam), Cambridge
Allan Savory, an internationally known restoration ecologist, recently gave an electrifying talk to a packed lecture hall at Tufts. People were on their feet after hearing how grazing animals can restore grasslands while pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, replenishing scarce water resources, and increasing global food supply. Now local climate activists Adam Sacks and Jim Laurie are bringing this work to the Northeast. Come hear about our best chance to address the climate emergency and what we can do to promote this effort. Join us!
Jim Laurie is a restoration ecologist, nature philosopher, and teacher. Some of his best friends are dung beetles, methanotrophs (ask him), worms and fungi.
Adam Sacks has been a climate activist since the turn of the millennium. He's been studying Holistic Management since Jim introduced it to him in 2007, and sees it as the only thing that has a reasonable chance of turning our excess carbon into new life.
Information about the Savory Institute at http://www.savoryinstitute.com
Greenport Forum: GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable Cambridgeport neighborhood
For more information, contact Steve Wineman at steven.wineman at gmail.com
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Film Screening: "YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip"
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
7:00pm - 9:30pm
Emerson College, Paramount Center, Bright Family Screening Room, 555 Washington Street, Boston
The Emerson College Bright Lights series presents a screening:
YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip
With director Ben Evans
50 States. 1 Year. Zero Garbage? Called to action by a planet in crisis, three friends hit the road - with hope, humor…and all of their trash - to explore America (the good, bad, and weird) in search of innovators tackling humanity's greatest environmental challenges in this award-winning docu-comedy. Featuring Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and music by Ben Sollee, Mark Geary and more.
Co-Sponsored by the Emerson College Department of Communication, Sciences and Disorders, the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Iwasaki Library, the President's Sustainability Committee, and Student Life.
http://www.yert.com/
Contact Name: Anna Feder
Anna_Feder at emerson.edu
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Upcoming
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Earth Day Fair at Harvard Law School
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
11:30am - 1:30pm
Holmes Field, Harvard Law School, 1545 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
A fun, engaging event to bring the HLS community together and get everyone thinking about environmental issues. A chance to celebrate HLS sustainability successes, let student groups, offices, and local businesses share what they’re doing, and engage the community!
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*BOB MOSES AND KENDRA LARA*
Empowering Youth Through Education: An Intergenerational Objective
Wednesday, April 17th
6pm
Community Change, 14 Beacon Street #605, Boston
The second event of our Anti-Racist Leadership in Action! Series
KENDRA LARA AND BOB MOSES will be continuing our series with a conversation about the effects of racial inequalities in the education system. Collaborating across generations, they will discuss the impact of their work in education and what they have learned about empowering youth to make systemic change.
BOB MOSES, recipient of our Lifetime Achievement award, was director of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) where he revitalized and led several organizations in their efforts to eliminate Jim Crow in the 1960's. Bob also has a PhD from Harvard in W.V.O. Quine's philosophy of mathematics and is founder and President of the Algebra Project, Inc., which uses mathematics as an organizing tool for a Quality Public School Education (QECR) for all students.
KENDRA LARA, recipient of our Emerging Leader award, is a young activist engaging in self-directed studies at Goddard College, focused on developing alternative curriculum for young people who are affected by the trauma of community-based violence and structural oppression. She is also a co-founder of the Beantown Society, a youth program based in Jamaica Plain, with a mission to unite youth in Boston across race, class, culture, and neighborhood to end youth violence.
A $5 donation to benefit Community Change is suggested.
*Please RSVP** by email to kelly at communitychangeinc.org*
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Shadow Lives
Wednesday, April 17
7pm
Cambridge Forum
First Parish Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
British journalist and playwright Victoria Brittain reveals the unseen side of the "9/11 wars:" their impact on the wives and families of men incarcerated in Guantanamo, or in prison or under house arrest in Britain and the US. Her newest book, Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror, shows how these families have been made socially invisible and a convenient scapegoat for the state in order to exercise arbitrary powers under the cover of the "War on Terror". What is our unquenchable thirst for security doing to our tradition of human rights and civil liberty?
http://www.cambridgeforum.org
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Community Gardens: Turning Vacant Lots into Urban Assets
Thursday, April 18, 2013
1pm EST; 12pm CST; 11am MST; 10am PST
FREE WEBINAR: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/559250846?utm_source=SCN+InBox+e-Newsletter
Eileen Horn, Sustainability Coordinator, City of Lawrence, Kansas
This free one-hour webinar features the Common Ground Program, a community gardening and urban agriculture program created by the city of Lawrence, Kansas
In the winter of 2011, the city surveyed its vacant and underutilized properties, identified appropriate sites for agriculture and made these sites available through an application process for citizens. During the 2012 growing season, five pilot sites were opened to the public through partnerships with neighborhood associations, nonprofit organizations and schools. The five sites include two neighborhood community gardens, a youth-focused garden in a city park, a community orchard for free picking, and a market farm coordinated by college and middle school students. In exchange for receiving a free license for use of city property, each applicant created a community benefit plan for their project.
In this webinar, Eileen Horn, sustainability coordinator for the city of Lawrence, will describe the project goals, community benefits, lessons learned, funding sources and partnerships that went into the Common Ground Program.
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Renewable Energy Futures to 2050: Current Thinking
April 18, 2013
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building E19-319
Speaker: Dr. Eric Martinot
The REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report provides a pioneering synthesis of the full range of credible possibilities for the future of renewable energy. The report is not one scenario or viewpoint, but captures the contemporary thinking of 170 leading experts from around the world, including CEOs and parliamentarians, as expressed in face-to-face interviews with the report author. The report also incorporates the results of 50 recently published and prominent energy scenarios by a range of organizations. Conservative projections show 15-20% global energy shares from renewables in the long-term to 2030 and 2050, about the same as the current share. High-renewables projections show shares in the 50-95% range. A range of integration options for electric power grids, buildings, industry, and transport are possible. Annual investment in renewable energy rose from $40 billion in 2004 to over $260 billion today, and several projections reach to $500 billion by 2020 and beyond, from new sources of finance. Strong future growth in national markets is projected from a range of policies and targets, with cases for the US, EU, Japan, China, and India. Projections for global technology markets show cost reductions, technology evolution possibilities, and multi-fold capacity increases. A series of "Great Debates" throughout the report frame current issues.
Category: lectures/conferences: science/engineering
Sponsored by: Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, MIT Energy Club
Admission: Open to the public
For more information: Contact Alli Gold
617-253-6017
alligold at mit.edu
http://globalchange.mit.edu/news-events/featured-events/event_id/537
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WHOSE CHOICE IS DEATH?
Thursday, April 18
6:30-8 pm
Suffolk University Law School, Main Function Room, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
w/ Guy Maytal, M.D. and Marcia Angell, M.D.
moderator Jack Wrobel
With the vote on the physician-assisted suicide initiative coming down to a slim margin this past November, voters of Massachusetts appear torn. Is this dignity or playing God? Mercy or giving up too soon?
Does it give people who are suffering a way to control their own destinies, or people with hidden agendas a way to do away with the vulnerable? And how soon will this issue arise again in our state?
Jack Wrobel, Ford Hall Forum Vice President, moderates a debate that elucidates the issue from each side. Marcia Angell, M.D. (supporter for “Prescribing Medication to End Life” initiative) and Guy Maytal, M.D. (opponent to “Prescribing Medication to End Life” initiative) discuss facts, feelings, and unintended effects while the audience decides for themselves whether physician-assisted suicide should ever be Massachusetts law.
Further background information on the participants:
Marcia Angell, M. D., is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine on June 30, 2000. A graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, she trained in both internal medicine and anatomic pathology and is a board-certified pathologist. She joined the editorial staff of the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979, became Executive Editor in 1988, and Editor-in-Chief in 1999. Angell is a member of the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences, the Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society, and is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Guy Maytal, M.D. is an attending psychiatrist and director of the Psychiatry Urgent Care Clinic at the Massachusetts General Hospital as well as Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He received his M.D. at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his internship, residency and fellowship at MGH. Maytal also completed a fellowship in Psycho-oncology and Psychosomatic Medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has been an active member of the MGH Optimum Care Committee since 2008 and cares for patients with cancer and life-threatening illnesses. His interest is in investigating the tension between medical paternalism and patient autonomy as well as ethical issues surrounding resource allocation.
Jack Wrobel is a retired Air Force officer and a retired Vice President at the consulting firm Shipley Associates. He holds a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Space Physics. Wrobel has served as a Selectman in Westford for nine years and is a is trustee of the J. V. Fletcher Library. He currently is a pro-bono Consultant for nonprofits. An advocate of “life long learning,” Jack has been member of the Ford Hall Forum since 1991 and now serves as a Vice President of the Forum.
Admission is free and open to all. Wheelchair accessible and conveniently located near the Park St. MBTA Station.
For more information, contact Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University: 617-557-2007, www.fordhallforum.org.
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Bitter Seeds - a documentary on GM seeds and farmers' suicides in India
Thursday April 18 2013
7-9:30PM
MIT, Building 4-163, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Followed by Q&A with director Micha Peled
Bitter Seeds explores the future of how we grow things, weighing in on the worldwide debate over the changes created by industrial agriculture. Companies like the U.S.-based Monsanto claim that their genetically modified (GM) seeds offer the most effective solution to feeding the world’s growing population, but on the ground, many small-scale farmers are losing their land. Nowhere is the situation more desperate than in India, where an epidemic of farmer suicides has claimed over a quarter million lives. Every 30 minutes one farmer in India, deep in debt and unable to provide for his family, commits suicide.
Bitter Seeds is the final film in director Micha X. Peled’s Globalization Trilogy, following Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town and China Blue. The films won 18 international awards, aired on over 30 television channels and screened in more than 100 film festivals.
Presented by the Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia and Association for India's Development (MIT-Boston chapters)
Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/events/310885985704788/
Bitter Seeds - http://teddybearfilms.com/2011/10/01/bitter-seeds-2/
Alliance - http://southasiaalliance.org/index.htm
AID Boston/MIT - http://www.aidboston.org/drupal/
Free and Open to all
If anyone wishes to co-sponsor, please write to me - Umang Kumar - umkumar at gmail.com
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Connecting the Dots: Pathways to a New Economy
Clark University New Economy Summit Team
Friday, April 19, 2013
8:00 AM to 7:30 PM
Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester
RSVP at http://neiclarkuniversity.eventbrite.com
We are pleased to announce that Clark University is one of fourteen university partners selected by the New Economics Institute (NEI) to host a free student-led summit. The NEI is supporting Clark graduate and undergraduate students to host a conference that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet using new economy models and approaches. The New Economics Summit themed, “Connecting the Dots: Pathways to a New Economy” will be hosted Friday, April 19th, 2013 at Clark University.
The aim is to address how to develop pathways to a new economy for the City of Worcester by highlighting organizations and contributing stakeholders who are leading the way for this movement. This summit will provide an opportunity to engage the Clark and Worcester community of students, faculty, practitioners, and experts in an exchange of ideas, evidenced-based practices, and available resources.
The outline for the summit will include workshop sessions, panel discussions, and poster session display.
New Economy themes/workshops include:
The New Economy 101
Transforming Money, Alternative Banking Practices
Food and Environmental Justice
Buying Local, The Importance of a Thriving Local Economy
Alternative Business Ownership and Model for a New Economy
The Art of Documentary Filmmaking
Schedule of New Economy Summit - Clark University
8:00am-9:00am: Registration/Light-Breakfast
9:00am-9:55am: Introduction/Keynote Speaker Juliet Schor
10:00am-10:55am: Workshop Session 1
11:00am-11:55am: Workshop Session 2
12:00pm-1:15pm: Lunch/Poster Presentations
1:30pm-2:15pm: Moderated Panel Discussion
2:30pm-3:30pm: Closing/Keynote Speaker Karen Washington
3:45pm-4:30pm: Tea & Social Hour
6:00pm-7:30pm: Film: Bitter Seeds followed by Q&A with Filmmaker Micha Peled
FAQs
What is the New Economics Institute?
The mission of the New Economics Institute is to build a New Economy that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet. More information can be found here:http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/
Is the summit free?
Yes, it absolutely is! Register today and bring along your friends for a full day of discussions and presenters!
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FORD HALL FORUM
AT SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY
presents
Save the Date: Friday 19 April, 2013
20th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP)
Convened in Honor of CIERP’s Director, Professor William Moomaw
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On the afternoon of Friday, April 19, the Fletcher community will host a symposium on campus celebrating CIERP’s 20th Anniversary and honoring the distinguished career of William "Bill" Moomaw,Professor of International Environmental Policy and CIERP’s Founder and Director. The event will be themed around scaling renewable energy.
Please mark your calendars! More details to follow. All are welcome.
The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP), established in 1992 at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, develops innovative approaches to shifting global development onto an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable path. We analyze how economic and social activities impact the environment, and design strategies for meeting human needs without straining the planet’s resources. CIERP advances theory, turns it into practice, educates the international community, and prepares students for careers as global leaders and citizens.
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Singing For The Planet: Songs Against Climate Change
Friday, April 19
7:00 pm
Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston
Warren Senders / Toni Lynn Washington / Dean Stevens
Three Of New England's Most Creative Singers Join Voices Against Climate Change
On Friday, April 19, three singers from diverse musical traditions will join together to draw attention to the global climate crisis. Featured artists are: singer-songwriter Dean Stevens, Hindustani classical vocalist Warren Senders, and Boston's "Queen of the Blues," Toni Lynn Washington. The music begins at 7:00 pm, at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA. Tickets are $20; $15 students/seniors. All proceeds will go to the environmental organization www.350.org. For information, please call 781-396-0734, visit "Singing For The Planet" on Facebook, or go to the event website.
"Singing For The Planet" is the seventh concert in the "Playing For The Planet" series, conceived as a way for creative musicians to contribute to the urgent struggle against global warming. Because the climate problem recognizes no national boundaries, the artists represent musical styles from three different parts of the globe. While Stevens, Senders and Washington sing in different languages and genres, all are virtuoso performers sharing the core values of expression, emotion and honesty. And, of course, all three artists and their accompanists are committed to raising awareness of the potentially devastating effects of global warming. Their choice of beneficiary, 350.org, is focused on building global consensus on reduction of atmospheric CO2 levels - action which climatologists agree is necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes. It'll be an evening of great vocal music, full of exquisite melody, rhythm, emotion and expression - from three singers who are genuine masters of their craft.
Friday, 19 April, 2013
07:00 PM - 10:30 PM
Cost: $20 regular, $15 students & seniors
Event Contact Info Warren Senders
Email: warvij at verizon.net
Phone: 781-396-0734
Website: http://www.warrensenders.com/journal/?page_id=5725
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SUSTAINABILITY: PRACTICES AND POSSIBILITIES
3rd Massachusetts Sustainable Communities Conference
2nd Massachusetts Sustainable Campuses Conference
April 24, 2013
8am - 4pm
DCU Center, Worcester, MA
Conference details at http://masustainablecommunities.com
Register early and save at http://masccc.eventbrite.com
Cost: $45 to $75
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Dave Winer: Using HTML 5 as a platform
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
7:00 PM
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Boulevard, Dorchester
RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/112470182/
Dave Winer, well-known in the developer world for evangelizing open standards in Internet technology, will talk the future of the web as a development platform and opportunities for developers to work together to keep it growing as an open medium. He will also talk about Little Outliner, the new browser-based notepad and organizer from his latest company, Small Picture.
Winer hopes this will be an interactive talk, with lots of comments and questions from people in the room.
Bio: Dave Winer is the founder of Userland Software, Living Videotext and most recently Small Picture. He was instrumental in the creation of RSS, XML-RPC, OPML and SOAP. He has blogged at Scripting News since 1997 (http://scripting.com), was a contributing editor to HotWired, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Technology in 2003-2004 and co-hosted the "Rebooting the News" podcast with Jay Rosen.
More on Dave:
Wikipedia bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer
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Lesley University Forum: Three Towns, One Forest
Imagine The Silver Maple Forest Forever
April 25, 2013
7:00pm
Lesley University Hall, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Home to 20 mammal and 90 bird species.
Environmental education center for youth.
Important floodplain forest in the Mystic River watershed.
Unique Boston area urban wilderness.
Forest is integral to largest city wetlands.
Provides balance against 1700 new housing units
Flood, storm, and climate change protection.
Conservation of Alewife herring spawning run.
Protects new, costly Cambridge storm water project.
Convened by Friends of Alewife Reservation, Green Cambridge and Lesley University
Expert speakers, a call to action!
--------------------------------
RGGI Amendments: Implications for New England & the Nation
April 26, 2013
9 am to 12:15 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents:
Please join us to as we celebrate the beginning of Spring (no snow storm cancellation likely this time)! This Roundtable will consider the recent substantive amendments to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) including an agreement by our six New England states, along with New York, Delaware, and Maryland, to reduce the cap by approximately 45%!
We will review the various RGGI amendments and their rationales, and explore the implications for energy markets in New England and the nation as a whole. Our panel members were all actively and directly involved in the RGGI negotiations, and are well-poised to help us understand the changes and their implications for our region and the nation:
Commissioner Ken Kimmell, MA DEP (RGGI Secretary)
Commissioner David Littell, Maine PUC (RGGI Vice-Chair)
John Quinn, Senior Manager, Environmental Strategy, Exelon
Peter Shattuck, Director, Market Initiatives, Environment Northeast
Brian Jones, Senior Vice President, M.J. Bradley & Associates
Free and open to the public with no advanced registration!!
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MIT Sustainability Summit
Saturday, April 27 and Sunday April 28
MIT Media Lab (E14), 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
The fifth annual MIT Sustainability Summit has the theme of “empowering action” towards sustainability. This reflects the urgency of innovation, leadership, and change at numerous scales, from the individual to the firm and from the city to the world, in light of global environmental threats.
We intend for our attendees to leave feeling empowered to take action towards a sustainable future, either in their existing personal or professional context or in a new one. This is the motivation for showcasing multiple domains of action. We hope that germs of company, product, or project ideas spring from the panels and charettes, and new communities of action emerge out of the formal and informal conversations over the weekend.
Editorial Comment: A paid event ranging from $45 to $150 but may very well be worth it. Sunday is a design charette.
---------------------------------
Boston Quantified Self & IDEO: Health & Wellness Innovation Night
Thursday, May 2, 2013
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Harvard Innovation Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/BostonQS/events/111251842/
These events fill up fast!
Boston Quantified Self & IDEO: Health & Wellness Innovation Night will feature researchers, entrepreneurs and companies who are leading the way to more personalized health and wellness using self-tracking systems. The evening will start with live product demonstrations showcasing cutting-edge innovation that is transforming health and wellness, followed by world-class speakers and finally a compelling panel discussion moderated by IDEO's Life Sciences Chief Strategist Rodrigo Martinez.
SCHEDULED SPEAKERS
Jonathan Farringdon - Director of Informatics, BodyMedia
Jaqueline Thong - Co-founder & CEO, Ubiqi Health
John Moore, MD - Doctor & Technologist, New Media Medicine (MIT)
If you are a designer, tech inventor, entrepreneur, journalist, scientist, health professional or user, please join us for an evening of inspiration packed with great speakers, demos, networking and more!
Boston Quantified Self would like to thank our event partner Harvard Innovation Lab for hosting this event at their amazing facility.
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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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Cambridge Solar Challenge
We're working to get 100 solar-panel installations on residential roofs in Cambridge this summer.
Because of the scale of the project, we've managed to bargain with Next Step Living (the solar installer) to get a:
20% discount for Cambridge residents from May 1st until August 1st. (That's 20% below the state average price per watt installed.) The discount applies whether the solar is purchased outright or leased.
$300 donation to any nonprofit for any solar installations that result from their referral. So, if your church, preschool or other nonprofit persuades a family in its community to sign up for a solar evaluation, and the family ends up installing solar, the nonprofit will earn $300 for its sustainability needs (such as adding insulation, installing efficient lighting, creating a garden, etc.). In this way we double the amount of good we are doing.
You can easily look up your home's solar potential through MIT's solar map (http://www.cambridgema.gov/solar/). Then email us (heet.cambridge at gmail.com) to sign up for a free solar assessment with an expert.
If you are associated with a nonprofit and want to help sign up solar assessments to increase the renewable energy in Cambridge as well as earn money for your nonprofit, email us with questions or to get started.
We will happily attend events at your nonprofit in order to explain how solar works, figure out who has good solar potential and explain how it can save residents money.
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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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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