[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - June 22, 2013

Sun Jun 23 10:02:58 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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Retiring NE's Coal and Oil Electric Plants
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/21/1217536/-Retiring-NE-s-Coal-and-Oil-Electric-Plants 

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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index

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Monday, June 24
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8pm  Nerd Nite

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Tuesday, June 25
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8am  Trending USA - a Future Foundation briefing
1:30pm  From the Alps to the Atlantic: Water in a changing climate
4pm  Secular Versus Islamist Polarization in Egypt on Twitter
6pm  Climate Ride Social with Boston Cyclists Union
6pm  REWIRE: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection
6pm  Boston Green Drinks - June Happy Hour
6:30pm  Power Plants and the Freshwater Crisis
7pm  Code for Boston Monthly Demo Night: Random Hacks of Kindness Special Edition!

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Wednesday, June 26
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6pm  Learning from Citizens’ Calls: Using the Boston Mayor’s Hotline

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Thursday, June 27
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5pm  "Ways to reduce CO2 emission, use of CO2 as syngas, other ways to lower the CO2 concentration in the air, carbon capture technologies (pre-and post-combustion, oxyfuel, chemical looping)
6pm  Mattapan to Ruggles in 12:  Solar Personal Rapid Transit 
6:30pm  The Pollinators' Corridor
7:15pm  Wearable Computing Meetup:  Next idea: Which one are we going with?

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Friday, June 28
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evening  Central Square Dance Party

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Saturday, June 29
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10am  PirateCon 2013 
2pm  TOHOKU: Road To The Future

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Sunday, June 30
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11:30pm  350MA.org - People's Action Assembly

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Event Details

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Monday, June 24
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Nerd Nite
Monday, June 24
8PM
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge
$5

Talk 1 – “Books Made Out Of Science!” by Nellie McKesson
Talk 2 – “Comics and Healthcare” by Cathy Leamy

More information at http://boston.nerdnite.com/2013/06/13/nerd-nite-62413/

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Tuesday, June 25
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Trending USA - a Future Foundation briefing
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 
8:00 AM to 10:30 AM (EDT)
Smith & Wollensky (Boston - Back Bay Castle), 101 Arlington Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7120205727/es2/

Understanding the future is important for brands and organisations.  Getting the insight that allows you to identify and translate what this means for your business is crucial.

Future Foundation, the leading consumer insight and trends consultancy, is hosting an exclusive  breakfast at Smith & Wollensky's Back Bay Castle restaurant to bring the best in our new US research to a limited number of business leaders.  Over the course of the morning, you'll learn about the hottest new trends sweeping the USA, hear about our brand new nVision USA service and get a sneak preview of our latest wave of research which has uncovered some startling truths about the American consumer. 

We will also be unveiling:
Our predictions for the hottest trends for 2013 and beyond
A first look at our annual US trends download
An exlusive conversation with Future Foundation trends specialists, including Richard Nicholls, who will be fresh from presenting a keynote speech at the ESOMAR 3D Digital Dimensions conference

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From the Alps to the Atlantic: Water in a changing climate
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
1.30pm to 4.30pm, with subsequent networking reception and visit of PlanetSolar
The Exchange Conference Center, 212 Northern Avenue, Boston

Scientists of the University of Geneva and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute will present their findings about the impacts of climate change on the water global cycle, from “the water tower of Europe”, the Alps, to the Atlantic Ocean. This event is geared towards the scientific community and will feature keynote remarks by Professor Susan Avery, President of the WHOI, and Professor Martin Beniston of the University of Geneva, Initiator of the DeepWater-Project as well as the EU-FP7 ACQWA. For more details on the DeepWater-Project, click here.

For a draft program, see http://www.swissnexboston.org/deepwater-conference-outline

If you would like to register, please contact Sebastien Hug, Project Leader, at Sebastien at swissnexboston.org

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Secular Versus Islamist Polarization in Egypt on Twitter
Tuesday, June 25
4 pm
MIT, Building 32-GD463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Ingmar Weber, Qatar Computing Research Institute

We use public data from Twitter, both in English and Arabic, to study the phenomenon of secular vs. Islamist polarization in Twitter. 
Starting with a set of prominent seed Twitter users from both camps, we follow retweeting edges to obtain an extended network of users with inferred political orientation. We present an in-depth description of the members of the two camps, both in terms of behavior on Twitter and in terms of offline characteristics such as gender. Through the identification of partisan users, we compute a valence on the secular vs. Islamist axis for hashtags and use this information both to analyze topical interests and to quantify how polarized society as a whole is at a given point in time. For the last 12 months, large values on this ``polarization barometer'' coincided with periods of violence. Tweets are furthermore annotated using hand-crafted dictionaries to quantify the usage of (i) religious terms, (ii) derogatory terms referring to other religions, and (ii) references to charitable acts. 

The combination of all the information allows us to test and quantify a number of stereo-typical hypotheses such as (i) that religiosity and political Islamism are correlated, (ii) that political Islamism and negative views on other religions are linked, (iii) that religiosity goes hand in hand with charitable giving, and (iv) that the followers of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood are more tightly connected and expressing themselves ``in unison'' than the secular opposition. Last on least, by looking at the international network of whom retweets whom abroad, we find evidence for an increased influence of Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the Islamists, whereas the US and Western Europe seem to have more influence on the secularists. 
I’ll also share a public web demo that allows to explore the hashtag polarization between these two camps over time. 
The talk is based on joint work with Kiran Garimella (@QCRI) and Alaa Batayneh (@Al Jazeera) that has been accepted at ASONAM’13. 

Ingmar Weber is a senior scientist in the Social Computing Group at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI). His academic career has continuously drawn him further South with stops at 52.2°N (Cambridge University), 49.2°N (Max-Planck Institute for Computer Science), 46.5°N (EPFL), 41.4°N (Yahoo! Research Barcelona) and 25.3°N (QCRI). His recent work focuses on how user-generated online data can be used to answer questions about society at large and the offline world in general. Ingmar is co-organizer of the ``Politics, Elections and Data'' (PLEAD) workshop at CIKM 2012 and 2013, contributor to a WSDM 2013 tutorial on ``Data-driven Political Science'' and is co-editor of a Social Science Computing Review special issue on ``Quantifying Politics Using Online Data''. He loves chocolate, enjoys participating in the occasional ultra-marathon/triathlon and tweets at @ingmarweber.

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Climate Ride Social with Boston Cyclists Union
Tuesday June 25
6-8pm
The Point, 147 Hanover Street, Boston

An open social event for past, present, future and potential participants in the Climate Ride NYC-DC and their supporters in the Boston Cyclists Union (BCU). Come meet fellow cyclists, support your favorite Boston area BCU Team riders and enjoy free appetizers from The Point.

Find this event on Facebook - RSVP and feel free to invite friends!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/152124424975610/

Can't attend the social Tuesday evening, but interested in doing the ride itself or supporting the BCU team? http://tinyurl.com/BCU-ClimateRide2013

Climate Ride NYC-DC (http://www.climateride.org/rides/nyc-dc) cruises through the green, rolling countryside of the Atlantic coast, connecting these two bustling cities via backroads, sleepy farm country, and historic towns. The ride will take place September 21st - 25th, 2013. Ride with us to raise awareness about climate change and biking as a viable transportation alternative. In the evenings, Climate Riders will get to hear inspirational speakers from all corners of the green energy, sustainability, and cycling worlds, and get to know fellow riders working toward the same goals.

Other questions? Contact phil at bostoncyclistsunion.org

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REWIRE: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection:  A book launch with the author, Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the MIT Center for Civic Media
Tuesday, June 25
6:00pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East ABC, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Reception to immediately follow the book talk.
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2013/06/rewire#RSVP
The event will be recorded and posted to our website in a few days.

We live in an age of connection, one that is accelerated by the Internet. This increasingly ubiquitous, immensely powerful technology often leads us to assume that as the number of people online grows, it inevitably leads to a smaller, more cosmopolitan world. We’ll understand more, we think. We’ll know more. We’ll engage more and share more with people from other cultures. In reality, it is easier to ship bottles of water from Fiji to Atlanta than it is to get news from Tokyo to New York.

In Rewire, media scholar and activist Ethan Zuckerman explains why the technological ability to communicate with someone does not inevitably lead to increased human connection. At the most basic level, our human tendency to “flock together” means that most of our interactions, online or off, are with a small set of people with whom we have much in common. In examining this fundamental tendency, Zuckerman draws on his own work as well as the latest research in psychology and sociology to consider technology’s role in disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world.

For those who seek a wider picture—a picture now critical for survival in an age of global economic crises and pandemics—Zuckerman highlights the challenges, and the headway already made, in truly connecting people across cultures. From voracious xenophiles eager to explore other countries to bridge figures who are able to connect one culture to another, people are at the center of his vision for a true kind of cosmopolitanism. And it is people who will shape a new approach to existing technologies, and perhaps invent some new ones, that embrace translation, cross-cultural inspiration, and the search for new, serendipitous experiences.

Rich with Zuckerman’s personal experience and wisdom, Rewire offers a map of the social, technical, and policy innovations needed to more tightly connect the world.

About Ethan
Ethan Zuckerman, Director of the Center for Civic Media, is cofounder of the citizen media community of Global Voices.

Prior to MIT, Ethan worked with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University on projects focused on civic media, freedom of speech online, and understanding media ecosystems. He led a team focused on Media Cloud, a project that builds an archive of news stories and blog posts applies language processing and presents ways to analyze and visualize the resulting data. Zuckerman also founded Geekcorp, a non-profit technology volunteer corps that has done work in over a dozen countries, and helped found Tripod, an early participatory media company.

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Boston Green Drinks - June Happy Hour
Tuesday, June 25, 2013  
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Pasta Beach, 30 Rowes Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://june13bgd-es2.eventbrite.com

This June, we are working with SideCar, an on-demand ridesharing service new to Boston.

SideCar uses smartphones to instantly connect everyday drivers with a car with people nearby 
looking for a ride. It’s like getting a ride from a neighbor or a friend.  The service also allows urban dwellers to reduce the environmental impact of driving by increasing their number of car trips.

For our event this month, our partner SideCar is proud to offer FREE RIDES to Pasta Beach. If you haven't had a chance to try out the service yet, here's your chance, and it's on them! Download the app at www.side.cr and join the rideshare revolution. Request a driver and watch on your phone as they drive to your location. By the time you've driven to your destination, you will have made a new friend, saved some money, and promoted green living.

To take advantage of this offer just download the app and enter your trip details. When you enter your trip destination, you'll still see the estimated suggested donation for future rides, but this one's on us (you'll see a screen confirming your free ride once you're dropped off). 

Want to become a driver? Visit http://www.side.cr/drivers to learn more and apply.

Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists.  Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community!
Keep sending feedback to Lyn at bostongreendrinks.com for ideas about speakers or content for the future and mark your calendar for drinks on the last Tuesday of every month.  Also, if you RSVP and can't make it, e-mail us to let us know.

Boston Green Drinks  builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues.  We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
SideCar (side.cr) is the leading on-demand rideshare community. Founded in San Francisco in 2012, SideCar’s community of 700 drivers has facilitated more than 100,000 rides. The 
company’s investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google Ventures and others. The free mobile application is available for download for riders via the App Store for iPhone and 
GooglePlay for Android users. Drivers can sign up to be part of the community at www.side.cr/drive. SideCar operates in San Francisco and Seattle and will expand into more cities soon

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Power Plants and the Freshwater Crisis
June 25, 2013
6:30 PM 
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington St, Belmont

John Rogers, Senior Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge MA. Mr. Rogers is Co-Manager of the UCS Energy-Water Initiative, which focuses on solutions to the waste of freshwater in the production of electricity.

Freshwater is a critical resource and the supply is rapidly dwindling in an era of climate change. The demand for water far exceeds the rate of natural replenishment, leaving a seriously depleted water table and increased conflict over water rights in many regions. The bulk of our freshwater use is for cooling in power plants and irrigation in large-scale agriculture. In this discussion, John Rogers focuses especially on the problem of power plants. In the United States, 90 percent of electricity comes from conventional thermoelectric power plants—coal, nuclear, natural gas, and oil, and such technologies depend on freshwater cooling. Much of that freshwater is wasted. In a time of critical loss of freshwater, the deployment of alternative energy systems cannot be postponed.

some UCS background on freshwater use by power plants from the UCS: The Energy-Water Collision: Ten Things You Should Know
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/10-Things.pdf

Mr. Rogers formerly managed the Northeast Clean Energy Project, working to implement a range of clean energy and climate policies. He worked primarily on renewable electricity standards and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative and of RENEW, an organization that promotes renewable energy in New England. He also serves on the advisory boards of several nonprofit organizations promoting U.S. renewable energy and global energy access.
John Rogers joined UCS in 2006 after working for 15 years on private and public clean energy initiatives, including as a co-founder of Soluz, Inc., a leading developer of clean energy solutions for rural markets, and as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. He earned a B.A. at Princeton University and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Rogers has been cited by the Associated Press, Business Wire, Boston Globe, Des Moines Register, and St. Petersburg Times, as well as by NPR and Boston’s local PBS and NBC television affiliates.

Who uses our fresh water supply? John Rogers' blog on water usage by power plants and irrigation John Rogers' UCS Blog, The Equation at 
http://blog.ucsusa.org/happy-world-water-day-celebrate-by-saving-energy

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Code for Boston Monthly Demo Night: Random Hacks of Kindness Special Edition!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
7:00 PM to 10:30 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor, Havana Conference Room, 1 Broadway, Cambridge

We'll get our monthly Demo Night events kicked off with a special RHoK edition! In addition to Brigade project teams, all participants in the June 1-2 RHoK Boston event are welcome to come and present their work to show off what you've been up to over the last month. It will be a chance to get some great feedback before submitting your app to the White House Challenge: http://hackforchange.org/submit

Hope to see you there!

At demo nights, Brigade teams will have the opportunity to show off the projects they're working on, celebrate successful work, and discuss blockers they're working through. We may be joined by members of the public, and may have outside guests present their own work to the Brigade community.

There is a pay parking lot underneath the building, and limited meter parking in the area. The MIT parking lot at Hayward St is free after 5pm. The best way to get to CIC is by Red Line.

Please make sure to check in with security when you arrive, and take the elevator to the 5th floor; the Havana room is to the left. Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Wednesday, June 26
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Learning from Citizens’ Calls: Using the Boston Mayor’s Hotline
WHEN  Wed., June 26, 2013, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE  Emerson College, Bordy Auditorium and Theater, 216 Tremont Street, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION	Business, Information Technology, Research study, Social Sciences, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR	Boston Area Research Initiative, an initiative sponsored by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the City of Boston
SPEAKER(S)  Nigel Jacob and Chris Osgood, co-directors, the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics; Dan O'Brien, research director, Boston Area Research Initiative, Harvard's Radcliffe Institute; Eric Gordon, director, Engagement Game Lab and Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College; Marie St. Fleur, director of intergovernmental relations for the City of Boston; Sarah Williams, assistant professor at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and director, MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab
COST  Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO	BARI at radcliffe.harvard.edu
NOTE  This event focuses on cutting-edge collaborations between policymakers and researchers to explore how citizens use the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Hotline and other systems, such as the Citizens Connect smart phone application, for requesting city services.
Registration is required at http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?450410
LINK	http://www.bostonarearesearchinitiative.net/calendar.php

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Thursday, June 27
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"Ways to reduce CO2 emission, use of CO2 as syngas, other ways to lower the CO2 concentration in the air, carbon capture technologies (pre-and post-combustion, oxyfuel, chemical looping)
June 27, 2013 
5:00pm - 7:00pm
MIT, Building 68-181, 31 Ames Street, Cambridge

Presenter Howard Herzog

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Mattapan to Ruggles in 12:  Solar Personal Rapid Transit 
June 27, 2013
6:00 PM
Mattapan Library, 1350 Blue Hill Avenue, Mattapan

For more information www.southshoremobility.com 
or the Green Neighbors at (617) 427-6293

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The Pollinators' Corridor
Thursday, June 27 
6:30-8:00 pm 
BNAN, 62 Summer Street, Boston

The Boston Gardeners Council at Boston Natural Areas Network is pleased to welcome Aaron Birk, author of The Pollinators' Corrdidor, to speak on his new graphic novel The Pollinators' Corridor Volume 2.

Birk will be discussing the on-going story of The Pollinators' Corridor, highlighting topics such as seed bombing, prescribed burning, algae biofuels, and guerilla gardening with goats.  In this volume Birk tries to look beyond the domesticated honey bee into the world of native bees, butterflies, and moths.

As a fundraiser for the new novel, Birk will be offering limited edition woodcuts, prints, postcards, and original paintings and drawings from his collection, as well as his first book.

To RSVP, contact Dana at dana at bostonnatural.org. 
Feel free to spread the word, and we hope to see you there!

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Wearable Computing Meetup:  Next idea: Which one are we going with?
Thursday, June 27, 2013
7:15 PM
TBD, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Wearable-technologies-in-Boston/events/122014262/

Tell me what you want to do, and I'll update this meetup accordingly! Check out the Polls section under the "More" tab (right next to the "Discussions" tab on this meetup's navigation bar) to answer specific questions and make yourselves heard!

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Friday, June 28
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Central Square Dance Party
Friday, June 28
Evening     
Massachusetts Avenue, in front of Cambridge City Hall

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Saturday, June 29
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PirateCon 2013 
Saturday, June 29th
10am - 5pm
Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston Street, Boston
Registration is only $10 and free for those under 18.  
Register on-line http://masspirates.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b23c6faf9b34a8a96191c7100&id=3254580866&e=6b0388f33e

PirateCon 2013 is the Massachusetts Pirate Party's 2nd annual ideas conference.

David House, digital activist and founding member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, will give the keynote address.
Panelists and speakers include Michael Morisy of MuckRock, Wendy Seltzer of the W3C, Evan Greer of Fight For The Future, French Pirate Candidate Véronique Vermorel and the incomparable Gregg Housh.

There will be free wifi at the conference.

The schedule is below:
TimeTalk/PanelSpeakers 
10amOpening the Gates: How To Challenge Our Nation's Two-Party Monopoly David House
11am Open Government Michael Morisy, Shauna Gordon-McKeon, Steve Buckley and Barry Rafkind 
noon Government Power in 2020 Kendra Moyer, Gregg Housh, Alex Marthews and Rich Aucoin 
1pm Lunch 
2pm Crowdfunding Peter Dilworth of Wobbleworks and Jordyn Bonds 
3pm Copyright and Internet Architecture: Where Have We Come Since SOPA/PIPA? Wendy Seltzer
4pm Don't Agonize, Organize! Evan Greer, V?ronique Vermorel and Gregg Housh 
5pm How We Will Prevent The Surveillance Dystopia Alex Marthews

You can find out more about the conference at the Mass. Pirate Party website http://masspirates.org/blog/conference/

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TOHOKU: Road To The Future
Saturday, June 29, 2013 
2:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Hancock 309 Gallery, 299 Hancock Street, Dorchester
RSVP  http://tohoku-relief20-hancock309-es2.eventbrite.com/

A Benefit Art Fundraiser for RELIEF 2.0 -
2:00PM - 5:00PM - Gallery open for exhibition / silent auction bidding / raffle entries
5:00PM (approx. 30 min to an hour) - TALK by Robin Low**, founder of Relief 2.0
RECEPTION to start following the TALK
7:00PM - FILM SCREENING of "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" (Lucy Walker film)
8:00PM - SILENT AUCTION & RAFFLES
9:00PM - RECEPTION ends

Robin Low Interview:  http://awe50me.com/2013/04/15/5232/

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Sunday, June 30
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350MA.org - People's Action Assembly
11:30am - 6pm
Worcester State University, 480 Chandler Street, Worcester
RSVP at http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=6273

If you are concerned about the climate and ready to commit to action, you are welcome and encouraged to join with climate activists from across Massachusetts to share ideas and set plans for the climate movement.

On Sunday, June 30, climate activist from across Massachusetts will meet at Worcester State University to celebrate the first year anniversary of 350MA.org and to participate in the People's Action Assembly. We will leave with a vision and an 18-month strategic plan for a stronger statewide climate movement. We will explore the current state of the following themes and define going forward plans for each through November 2014.
Theme 1: Movement Strength
Theme 2: Infrastructure
Theme 3: Engaging Government

Following registration, proceedings will begin at noon and continue until 6:00pm.  A plenary session and introductory remarks will be followed by a lightning round, breakout working groups, and integration of report backs.

We will emerge from this assembly with an updated vision and action plan for confronting climate change in our state.  Everyone who is excited to be a leader in MA is welcome to come, whether you are an veteran or developing leader.  Admission is free, but we ask for a donation, if possible, to cover food and lodging costs.

Contact Craig Altemose
craig at betterfutureproject.org 

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Upcoming
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Boston Mayoral Candidates Environmental Forum
Tuesday, 09 July, 2013
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at http://bostongreenmayor.eventbrite.com

As Mayor Thomas Menino steps down from 20 years of leading Boston, his leadership in the areas of energy and the environment will be missed. At the same time, the transition to a new mayor offers opportunities for enhanced programs and policies on climate protection, sustainable transportation, parklands, green jobs, air and water quality, urban agriculture, and coastal management and many more areas that so greatly affect the quality of life in our communities. At this forum, the mayoral candidates will be given a chance explore a variety of topics related to community, development, jobs, sustainability, and livability in our city.

Contact Eileen Mullen
emullen at environmentalleague.org 

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Counting Carbon: Lessons from the South African Fruit and Wine Industry Initiative
July 12, 2013 
9am ET
Webinar
RSVP at https://mit.webex.com/mit/j.php?ED=39390858&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D

Speaker: Shelly Fuller, Project Manager for the Confronting Climate Change: Fruit & Wine Industry Initiative
The South African fruit and wine industry exports 2.2 megatons of fruit and 412,000,000 liters of wine each year. As the threat of climate change continues to mount, governmental bodies and retailers are beginning to consider labeling schemes and other measures to track and reduce carbon emissions. In addition, the price of fuel will likely continue to rise, providing a potentially more significant incentive to reduce fossil fuel consumption. In response, the South African Fruit and Wine Industry worked together to develop a calculation methodology and local data set to help growers understand their carbon footprints and look for ways to reduce emissions and costs. Shelly Fuller will join us to explain their work to date as well as their next steps for the future. 
Registration is available here: https://mit.webex.com/mit/j.php?ED=39390858&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D.

Suzanne Greene, Project Manager, Environmental Footprinting Initiative
MIT Materials Systems Laboratory | Center for Transportation & Logistics
Phone:  (617) 715-5473
Email:  segreene at mit.edu

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Tech, Drugs & Rock n' Roll 2013
Tuesday July 16th, 2013
4:00PM to 8:00PM EDT
Ziskind Lounge, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e76zqw5acf6e149e

Boston University's Office of Technology Development announces the 4th annual Tech, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll networking event.  

This is a unique event where we celebrate innovation in a high energy fashion. The atmosphere encourages interaction between the business and science communities to build lasting relationships that lead to innovative collaborations.

The Innovator of the Year Award will be announced by Boston University Provost Jean Morrison.

In addition, there will be exhibits by various applied and translational research centers.

This year's musical entertainment will be provided by
Brendan James, an emerging singer/songwriter who specializes in folked-based piano music. For more information, visit his website at http://www.brendanjames.com/

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Applying Systems Thinking to World Hunger:  Seeking Solutions in Agriculture, Food Production, and Sustainability
July 15, 2013
Noon – 1 p.m. EDT
Webinar:  register at https://mit.webex.com/mit/j.php?ED=227203197&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D

Hank Roark, senior staff systems engineer and researcher, Deere & Co., and SDM alumnus

Systems thinking offers possibilities for simultaneously addressing the increasingly urgent and interrelated issues of world hunger and sustainability. This approach can help categorize complex components, such as:
global population, which is projected to increase from 7 billion to 9 billion by 2050
agricultural production, which will likely need to double—largely in the same land area—to provide enough food, fuel, and fiber for all
technological, business, and socio-political challenges that will need to be overcome to sustainably satisfy human needs
This webinar will discuss how to use a systems framework to categorize these components. Sample issues to be explored include:
water productivity improvements
value chain challenges in sugar production
ways to identify the many intersecting engineering systems involved using a socio-technical approach
One goal of the MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar series is to frame methodologies and ways of thinking about issues that attendees can apply in any domain. In addition, this webinar is designed to spark attendees' interest in agriculture, food production, and sustainability.

About the Speaker
Hank Roark has almost 20 years' experience working for large corporations and startups. Most recently, his work and passion have focused on applying systems thinking to address the food needs of the world's growing population. Previous experience includes leading multinational software product development teams, cofounding two companies, and providing consulting services in global finance, telecommunications, and travel and leisure. He has an S.M. from MIT SDM in engineering and management and a B.S. in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

About the Series
The MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.

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"Storage and monitoring (geological, ocean, terrestrial), geologic sequestration of CO2"
July 18, 2013 
5:00pm - 7:00pm 
MIT, Building 68-181, 31 Ames Street, Cambridge

Presenter Ruben Juanes

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Boston Quantified Self Show&Tell #13 (NERD)
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Microsoft NERD New England Research & Development Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Bring ID and come to 1st floor
Price: $5.00/per person
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/BostonQS/events/121586872/

Please come join us on July 23rd for another fun night of self-tracking presentations, sharing ideas, and showing tools. If you are self-tracking in any way -- health stats, biofeedback, life-logging, mood monitoring, biometrics, athletics, etc. -- come and share your methods, results and insights.

6:00 - 7:00 pm DEMO HOUR & SOCIAL TIME
Are you a toolmaker? Come demo your self-tracking gadget, app, project or idea that you're working on and share with others in our "science fair for adults." If you are making something useful for self-trackers – software, hardware, web services, or data standards – please demo it in this workshop portion of the Show&Tell. Please let us know you will be bringing something to the Show&Tell, so we can be prepared for you.

7:00 - 8:00 pm QS SHOW&TELL TALKS
If you'd like to talk about your personal self-tracking story, please let us know in your RSVP or email me (JoshuaKot at gmail dot com), so we can discuss your topic and how much time you'll need. In your talk, you should answer the three prime questions: What did you do? How did you do it? What did you learn?

If you've never been to a meetup before, you can get a sense of what the talks are like from watching videos of previous QS talks.

8:00 - 9:00 pm MORE SOCIAL TIME & NETWORKING
Talk to the speakers, chat with new and old friends, ask other people what they're tracking, and generally hang out and have a great time.

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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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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.

Contact http://www.heetma.com

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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/