[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - November 4, 2013
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Mon Nov 4 17:51:33 PST 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
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/18/1248761/-What-I-Do-and-Why-I-Do-It
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Pattern Language for an Urban Agriculture System
http://solarray.blogspot.com/2013/10/pattern-language-for-urban-agriculture.html
Energizing Sustainable Cities: Slouching Towards Net Zero in Two Degree C Hotter World
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/10/energizing-sustainable-cities-slouching.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Tuesday, November 5
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12pm Ana Navarro
12pm When History Takes a Wrong Turn: The Diffusion of Authoritarian Rule in Latin America & Europe
12:30pm The Fight for the Future: How People Defeated Hollywood and Saved the Internet--For Now
12:30pm "Planetary Science from Stratospheric Telescopes: Low Cost Access to Near Space"
12:30pm North Korea's Dual Pursuit of Nuclear and Economic Development
2pm Feeding the World without Consuming the Planet
2:30pm Conflict Resolution and Organizational Influence
4pm How the Food Giants Hooked Us
4pm Modeling and Simulation of the Manufacturing of New Particle-Based Materials: Multiphysics of Additive and Laser Processing
4pm Black Art Demanded Action: Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden, Duke Ellington, and the Jazz Shape of Modern Culture
4pm Drinking Water: A History
4:15pm Beyond the Crisis Symposium: Social Resilience and Sustainability
4:30pm Is Syria Being "Lebanized" or is Lebanon Being "Syrianized"?
6pm Exploring the Digital Transformation of Healthcare
6:115pm Free WBUR Event with Tom Ashbrook, Envisioning a Healthy Life
7pm StoryCode BOSTON: WGBH's Bill Shribman; Paul Turano's immersive urban wanders
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Wednesday, November 6
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Crowds and Climate: Mobilizing Crowds to Develop Ideas and Take Action on Climate Change
10am No Exit from Pakistan: America's Tortured Relationship with Islamabad
12pm Cooperation in Social Networks, and the Cost of Stability
12:15pm Porkopolis: Industrializing Pigs and People in American Agriculture
2pm Prison USA: The Dilemmas of Mass Incarceration
4:10pm Too Many Checks, No Balance: Partisan Brinkmanship or a Shrinking Presidency as the New Normal?
4:10pm “Life Saving Information: Mortality Risk Reduction from Air Quality Index Forecasts”
4:15pm Planning for and Responding to Pandemic Influenza: Another Example of a Complex Sociotechnical System
5:30pm Media Lab Conversations Series: Jillian York
6pm We Are Change Boston
6pm What Is Cultural Entrepreneurship? What Does the Challenge Entail?
6:30pm Design Session - Hacking Somerville Happiness
6:30pm Principles for Design & Humanizing Big Data with Data Visualization
7pm SITN Lecture - Big Data in the Postgenome Era
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Thursday, November 7
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Crowds and Climate: Mobilizing Crowds to Develop Ideas and Take Action on Climate Change
12pm Reproductive Rights Around the World
12pm This Mess We're In: The Changing Landscape of Digital Surveillance
12pm Foreign Policy in a New Global Era: Perspectives from the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia
1pm Energy 101 Sessions - Energy in the Built Environment
3pm What is the information content of an algorithm?
4pm "The Generation of Form in Biology: Principles of Mechanochemical Patterning"
4pm Shooting (from) the Moon: NASA, Nature, and the New Left during the Vietnam War
4:15pm Social Physics
5pm Seamus Heaney: A Memorial Celebration
5pm "The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age"
5:30pm Architecture / A Second Modernism: Roundtable /
5:30pm How Can We Make Water Desalination Less Energy-Intensive?
6pm Guts & Bugs in Health and Disease
6pm No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin
6pm EnergyBar: SURGE Accelerator Edition
6:30pm Taking the Stand
6:30pm Mass Incarceration & Racial Inequality: The New Jim Crow
6:30pm Ignite Data Boston
7pm How to Save the Oceans and Feed the World
7pm Urban Films: Shift Change (2013)
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Friday, November 8
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8am Boston TechBreakfast
8:30am Historic Preservation Workshop
11:45am Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr. Beverly Scott, CEO/General Manager of the MBTA
12pm Fukushima-derived Radioactivity in Pacific Biota: Risks, Research Opportunities, and Nature Being Amazing Environmental Science and Engineering Seminars
12pm Morocco: the Media & the Arab Spring
1pm Military Involvement in Humanitarian Relief: 3 Perspectives
3pm Functional Materials for Energy Applications: Insights from Atomistic Modeling
3:30pm A Forum on Fossil Fuel Divestment
4pm Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects
5pm MIT Does Food
7pm Should We Engineer the Mosquito?
7pm Boston Aaron Swartz Hackathon
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Saturday, November 9
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Music Hack Day
1pm Grooversity Percussion Festival 2013! Music, Peace and Justice
2pm Fascinating Fungi of Fresh Pond
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Monday, November 11
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11am Exploring the Technical and Economic Factors Underlying Internet Spam
12:15pm "The Dystopian Presented as the Utopian: Does the Internet lead us to forget what we know about life?"
4pm “Making Class Work: Migrant Labor, mobile Capital, and the Creating of an Industrial Regime in Massachusetts”
6pm Sustainable mobility systems
6:30pm Anarchy Apiaries: Bee Esoteric with Sam Comfort
7pm Science & Cooking: Catalytic Conversion—Enzymes in the Kitchen
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Tuesday, November 12
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12pm "The Road to War: Absent Congress, Baffled Media."
1pm Very Small Arrays: Data Graphics at the New York Times
4pm Electrochemical Pathways towards Sustainability
4pm Microelectronics: An Industry in Transition
4pm "Secularism, Sexuality and Sectarian Conflict"
5pm "Dis-Owning Nature: The BRCA Gene Patents and the Supreme Court"
5pm Gutman Library Book Talk: Leading Educational Change: Global Issues, Challenges, and Lessons on Whole-System Reform
5:30pm Innovative Product Dev. : What the FDA's 'Innovative Initiatives' Enable
6pm "Food, Biodiversity, and Climate Change."
6pm "The Moment of Truth: Math, Media and Mystery."
6pm Divest the Commonwealth: A Panel of Local Climate Heroes, and Dessert Reception
6pm Mass Innovation Nights MINFun
7pm How the Wounded Return from America's Wars
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Event Details
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Tuesday, November 5
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Ana Navarro
Tuesday, November 5
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Ana Navarro, Institute of Politics Fellow; former National Hispanic Co-Chair for Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 Campaign; political contributor at CNN and CNN en Español.
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When History Takes a Wrong Turn: The Diffusion of Authoritarian Rule in Latin America & Europe
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
12:00pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, CGIS South S-250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kurt Weyland, Lozano Long Professor of Latin American Politics, Government, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
Opportunity for comments and questions to follow presentation.
The Tuesday Seminar Series is co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Contact:
Sophie Jampel, sjampel at fas.harvard.edu
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The Fight for the Future: How People Defeated Hollywood and Saved the Internet--For Now
November 5, 2013
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/2013/11/lee#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET
Edward Lee, Professor of Law & Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
This talk will explain how a grassroots movement involving millions of people was able to defeat money, politicians, Hollywood, and the copyright lobby, all in the name of a "free and open Internet." People used Facebook, Twitter, other social media, blogs, and websites to organize and launch protests against SOPA and ACTA, two controversial copyright proposals in the United States and European Union that many feared would lead to Internet censorship. Participants will learn how the Internet helped people fight for their Internet freedoms--and do the unthinkable in stopping powerful lobbyists and the entertainment industry in their effort to clamp down on online piracy at all costs.
About Ed
Edward Lee is a Professor of Law and the Director of the internationally recognized Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He graduated summa cum laude from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy (highest honors) and classics, and cum laude from Harvard Law School.
His Boston Review article The Day Wikipedia Went Dark was published on the one year anniversary of the Wikipedia blackout. As a contributor to the Huffington Post, he has written various articles related to the Internet, copyright, and pop culture. As a law professor, he has written extensively about free speech and copyright law, and the history of the freedom of the press. Previously, he worked with Lawrence Lessig at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, including on Eldred v. Ashcroft and Golan v. Holder, two of the most significant cases involving the First Amendment and copyright law.
Links
http://thefightforthefuture.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/thefightforthefuturebook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edleeprof
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"Planetary Science from Stratospheric Telescopes: Low Cost Access to Near Space"
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
12:30p–1:30p
MIT, Building 54-517 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Eliot Young
Planetary Internal Colloquium Series (PICS)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
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North Korea's Dual Pursuit of Nuclear and Economic Development
WHEN Tue., Nov. 5, 2013, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations co-sponsored by the Korea Institute
SPEAKER(S) Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea Studies and director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO wnehring at wcfia.harvard.edu
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Feeding the World without Consuming the Planet
November 5, 2013
2:00PM-5:30PM
MIT, Building E51-115, Wong Auditorium, Corner of Amherst and Wadsworth Streets, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1iN6EMHdbe8VH93qS8ioNNiJz10-6Z0WB2jln4WBTQ48/viewform
Confronting global environmental change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Changes to water, land and climate will affect the future of food and agriculture. The MIT Food Symposium will bring together industry experts and researchers to share their perspectives and gain a better understanding of how research can address these global resource challenges.
This event is free and open to the public. Please register in advance to help us prepare appropriately.
There will be live online streaming of the event on November 5th atglobalchange.mit.edu/foodsymposium
AGENDA
2:00 – 3:00pm: Climate, Food, Water, Energy Nexus
3:00 – 4:00pm: Agricultural Resources and Inputs
4:00 – 5:00pm: Agricultural Commodity Markets, Food and Consumers
5:00 – 5:30pm: MIT View: Unique Contribution to Finding Solutions
Contact E-mail: alligold at mit.edu
Event URL: http://globalchange.mit.edu/foodsymposium
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Conflict Resolution and Organizational Influence
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Heikki Rantakari USC/Visiting MIT
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Organizational Economics
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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How the Food Giants Hooked Us
Nov 5, 2013
4pm
MIT, Building E19-623, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Michael Moss is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, published by Random House in 2013. He has been an investigative reporter with The New York Times since 2000. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2010, and was a finalist for the prize in 2006 and 1999. He is also the recipient of a Loeb Award and an Overseas Press Club citation. Before joining the Times, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has been an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Eve Heyn, and two sons.
http://ksj.mit.edu/seminars-news/seminars/how-food-giants-hooked-us#sthash.kTN9EDH9.dpuf
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Modeling and Simulation of the Manufacturing of New Particle-Based Materials: Multiphysics of Additive and Laser Processing
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 3-370, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Tarek I. Zohdi, UC Berkeley
Recently, several manufacturing applications have arisen that involve the dynamic of response of particulate systems in the presence of strong electromagnetic fields. In many cases, there is significant multifield coupling, which requires methods that can capture the unique and essential physics of these systems. In this presentation, I discuss the modeling and simulation of three such applications:
(1) Charged particulate jet sprays and droplets, with applications motivated by microtechnology (electrostatic copiers, inkjet printers, powder coating machines and a variety of small-scale manufacturing processes), where a successful analysis requires the simulation of flowing particulate media involving simultaneous near-field interaction between charged particles and momentum exchange through thermo-mechanical contact.
(2) Rapid, energy-efficient, compaction and sintering of materials comprised of heterogeneous powders, which is of critical importance in emerging technologies where traditional manufacturing processes may be difficult to apply, with specific applications to electrically-aided sintering, which utilizes the material's inherent resistance to flowing current, resulting in Joule-heating to bond the powder components. The process has great promise, since it produces desired materials without much post-processing.
MMEC Seminar Series
The Mechanics: Modeling, Experimentation, Computation Seminar Series of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/mmec/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MechE Seminar Series
For more information, contact:
Tony Pulsone
617.253.2294
pulsone at mit.edu
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Black Art Demanded Action: Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden, Duke Ellington, and the Jazz Shape of Modern Culture
WHEN Tue., Nov. 5, 2013, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Music
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Robert G. O'Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO hutchevents at fas.harvard.edu, 617.495.3611
NOTE
Nov 5: Antagonistic Cooperation/Ecstasy of Influence: William Butler Yeats, Ralph Ellison, Billie Holiday
Nov 6: Pieces & Parts, Repairs & Reparations: Romare Bearden, Toni Morrison, Louis Armstrong
Nov 7: Cool and Funny: The Cakewalk Aesthetic of Josephine Baker, Mark Twain, Duke Ellington
Lecutures are free and open to the public.
A Q+A and reception will follow each lecture.
LINK hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu
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Drinking Water: A History
When: Tuesday, November 5
4-5:30 pm.
Harvard, Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard
Do you feel guilty about drinking bottled water or worry about fracking? Professor James Salzman who holds joint appointments in Law and Environmental Science at Duke University and is the Leo Gottlieb Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School will speak about his latest book, Drinking Water: A History, followed by tea.
Please RSVP by return email to neighbors at harvard.edu. Limited to 50 people.
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Beyond the Crisis Symposium: Social Resilience and Sustainability
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
4:15pm - 6:30pm
Harvard, Adolphus Busch Hall- LL1 (lower level conference room), Center for the European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Featuring:
William Clark, Brooks Professor Of International Science, Public Policy And Human Development, Kennedy School Of Government, Harvard University
Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor Of European Studies, Harvard University
Michele Lamont, Professor Of Sociology And African-American Studies, Robert I. Goldman Professor Of European Studies, Harvard University
Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor Of Economics And Philosophy, Harvard University
Introduction By:
Eloi Laurent, Senior Research Fellow, Observatoire Français Des Conjunctures Economique,Visiting Scholar And Professor, Harvard University
Economic standard indicators and models are as dominant in the public discourse as they were five years ago, when the "great recession" suddenly accelerated with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Stock market performance are equated with so-cial progress while GDP growth seems to be the ultimate goal of politics. If we truly want to exit the crisis, we have to understand it and to "recover" from the be-liefs that presided over it: We must find new ways to think about and measure what constitute collective societal success. This conference offers a two hours win-dow into the post-crisis world, beyond economism and short-termism, toward so-cial resilience and sustainability.
Contact Name: Eloi Laurent
eloi.laurent at sciencespo.fr
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Is Syria Being "Lebanized" or is Lebanon Being "Syrianized"?
Tuesday November 5, 2013
4:30-6:30pm
MIT, Building E51-376, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hussein Ibish, Senior Fellow, American Task Force on Palestine
Seminars are free and open to the public
For more information, visit http://web.mit.edu/cis/bustani
Sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the Technology and Culture Forum
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Exploring the Digital Transformation of Healthcare
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
MIT, Building E62, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at ealthcaredigitaltransformation-es2.eventbrite.com/
Payer perspectives on how technology and innovation will help achieve more affordable and higher quality healthcare
The U.S. healthcare industry is poised to undergo a significant transformation. Spending on healthcare has outpaced inflation and economic growth for many years, yet quality still lags on many fronts. This discussion will explore a few of the key trends that are helping drive the changing landscape including: unsustainable costs; the need for better patient information to support the coordination of care; creation of a consumer marketplace through public and private health insurance exchanges; movement from a fee for service reimbursement model for doctors and hospitals to an incentive based reimbursement model; and the need to more effectively engage a consumer in the management of their health.
The discussion will provide a perspective on how payers are reacting to these trends by leveraging a balance of technology and innovation to drive growth in the emerging consumer marketplace; transform business processes and analytics to support incentive based reimbursement; and leveraging an integrated patient health record, artificial intelligence and other decision-support tools to drive better patient outcomes. Finally a key to successfully improving quality and reducing cost is having an engaged consumer or caregiver and we will discuss some uses of mobile, social, medical devices and emerging technologies that will simplify and personalize the way in which that will be achieved in alignment with an individual patient’s needs.
Please note! At the event, we also hope to help connect entrepreneurs to the marketplace and give you open access to Lori Beer to ask her those questions you can’t find the answer to on any website. To help accomplish this, we are going to select 3 start-ups to give their 60 second pitch at the end of the event and get direct feedback from Lori Beer herself. If you would like to pitch, please answer a couple of quick questions here
Speaker Bio:
Lori Beer is currently the Managing Director of L. A. Beer & Associates, which provides strategic advisory services to the healthcare and technology industries. Key areas of focus include helping growth stage companies define a strategic approach and execution plan to scale; enabling companies to drive growth in new markets; and leveraging new technologies and innovation to help transform business models.
Ms. Beer has more than 20 years of technology and related business experience, including more than 15 years at WellPoint. She has a proven track record of driving innovation, maximizing technology investments and delivering cost-efficiency.
Ms. Beer was executive vice president of Specialty Businesses and Information Technology for WellPoint, Inc. She was responsible for a $10 billion business unit which included WellPoint’s Specialty Products, including dental, vision, life, disability and workers’ compensation, and it’s consumer-centric business 1-800 CONTACTS; Federal Government Solutions; WellPoint’s research subsidiary, HealthCore; Information Technology; Information Management, and technology-driven innovation. Ms. Beer was responsible for developing the first commercial health care applications of IBM’s Watson technology, which is expected to help improve the delivery of quality, evidence-based health care to millions of Americans.
Ms. Beer served as executive vice president of WellPoint’s Enterprise Business Services, which included the company's operations, technology, real estate, information management, vendor partnerships, and strategic projects. In this role, she was responsible for driving the business, technology and service solutions to deliver innovative health care products and services to the more than 33 million members of the company's health plans. She led more than 50 percent of WellPoint’s associates and managed a portfolio exceeding $3 billion.
Ms. Beer was featured in MITSloan Management Review, The Digital Transformation of Healthcare, April 2013; Fortune Magazine’s Leadership Series, An Insurer’s High-Tech Reboot, September 2012; was named a Computerworld2011 Premier 100 IT Leader and was the 2011 National Association for Female Executives Women of Excellence Health Care Champion.
Ms. Beer serves on the board of directors for Vantiv Inc., a payment processing and technology solutions provider. She earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Dayton.
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Free WBUR Event with Tom Ashbrook, Envisioning a Healthy Life
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
6:15 PM
Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Avenue, Boston
Envisioning a World Where Everyone Has the Opportunity for a Healthy Life is a photography exhibition and discussion moderated by WBUR’s Tom Ashbrook of On Point at The Institute of Contemporary Art. Speakers include:
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), US House of Representatives
Rajiv Shah (invited), Administrator, US Agency for International Development
Dr. Sania Nishtar, Founder and President, Heartfile
Professor Peter Anyang’ Nyong’O, former Minister of Health, Kenya
Priya Bery (invited), Vice President, Global Partnerships, TOMS Shoes
To RSVP, email
http://www.wbur.org/community/events/envisioning-a-world-where-everyone-has-the-opportunity-for-a-healthy-life
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StoryCode BOSTON: WGBH's Bill Shribman; Paul Turano's immersive urban wanders
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location is shown only to members
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/StoryCode-Boston/events/145636502/
StoryCode spotlights case-studies in current storytelling innovation, immersive narrative, and transmedia.
http://www.storycode.org/
StoryCode Boston intends to be a meetup where our diverse community of creators, producers, educators and innovators can share their knowledge, experience, and analysis in the progressive and convergent forms of storytelling today! Yay!
Our inaugural meetup will introduce the group and feature presentations by Bill Shribman from WGBH, and Paul Turano with his team from Wander, Wonder, Wilderness
In collaboration with MIT Open Documentary Labhttp://opendoclab.mit.edu/
Meetup will take place at MIT and space is limited, so please RSVP to find out exactly where we'll be ;)
"Detectives, Aliens, Bullies, and Poisoners: Four Digital Story Projects from WGBH's Digital Kids Team"
Bill Shribman is the Senior Executive Producer responsible for digital media for kids at WGBH including a dozen apps and the national PBS sites for Arthur, Curious George, Design Squad Nation, and Martha Speaks. These high traffic projects have won many awards including the Prix Jeunesse, an Emmy, and the George Foster Peabody Award. He is the creator of several original broadband projects including The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation and The GREENS. He has written and produced original content for many platforms, from magazines and TV to the iPhone and Wii. His current work includes an app to help kids with autism recognize facial expressions, a forensic science murder mystery iPad app for high schoolers, a digital media literacy project, and a multi-platform environmental science adventure for tweens. His TED-X and TED-Ed talks have focused on his other passion, photography. Bill is currently also affiliated with Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
"Chance encounters and insights inspired by walking through Boston’s public parks and greenways—known as urban wilds."
Paul Turano is a visual artist whose work in film and video and new media incorporates lyrical observational strategies and meditations on personal space, as well as subjective reportage of marginal media events and long form essay films. It has been presented throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Recent screenings include the Pirate Cinema screening at the Maldives Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Sydney Underground Film Festival, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Crosstalk Video Art Festival in Budapest, Hungary,L'Alternativa in Barcelona, Spain, Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris, France. He is the recipient of a Media Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a Moving Image Fund Grant from the LEF Foundation. Based in Boston, he has screened his work at the Harvard Film Archive, the Institute of Contemporary Art and The Museum of Fine Arts and his films have been programmed in over 50 national and international film festivals. He is an assistant Professor of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College and has taught previously at Hampshire College, Massachusetts College of Art, Harvard University, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. The focus of his current work is the exploration of our relationship to natural environments in both local and global ways.
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Wednesday, November 6
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Crowds and Climate: Mobilizing Crowds to Develop Ideas and Take Action on Climate Change
November 6-8, 2013
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts USA
More information at http://www.climatecolab.org/conference2013
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No Exit from Pakistan: America's Tortured Relationship with Islamabad
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
10:00a–11:30a
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daniel Markey
A book talk by Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, as part of the South Asian Politics seminar series
Web site: http://southasianpolitics.net/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Co-sponsored by the Watson Institute at Brown and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard
For more information, contact:
258-8552
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Cooperation in Social Networks, and the Cost of Stability
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Reshef Meir, Harvard CRCS (Center for Research on Computation and Society)
Cooperative game theory is concerned with how groups of agents (people, automated agents, companies, etc.) divide profits from cooperation in a stable way. In many scenarios, the set of stable payoff allocation (the core of the game) is empty, which means that stability cannot be achieved without external subsidy. The minimal subsidy required to guaranty cooperation is known as the Cost of Stability.
Cooperative games on graphs where introduced by Myerson ['77], inspired by the observation that coalitions can only form via social connections. Several researchers thereafter showed that if the social network is a tree, then cooperation can always be achieved without subsidy.
We extend this result to general networks. We prove a tight bound on the cost of stability of any game given thetree-width of the underlying network. In other words, as a network is more similar to a tree, games played over it are inherently more stable.
Joint work with Yair Zick, Edith Elkind, and Jeffrey S. Rosenschein.
The talk is based on the following paper:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6hxv6XOx1PxWjMxU2d4MEU5UnM/edit?usp=sharing
Short bio: I am a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS), having completed my PhD at the School of Computer Science and Engineering of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
My main research areas are Computational Game Theory and Mechanism Design. In particular, I study mechanisms that promote cooperation, stability, and social welfare.
Contact: Carol Harlow
Email: harlow at seas.harvard.edu
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Porkopolis: Industrializing Pigs and People in American Agriculture (Wednesday Seminar Series)
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
12:15pm - 1:15pm
Tufts, Jaharis, Behrakis Auditorium, 150 Harrison Avenue, Boston
Speaker: Alex Blanchette, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University
Alex Blanchette’s ethnographic research on American “factory” hog farms tracks the making of the modern industrial pig from genetic design to post-kill processing. This seminar on corporate biosecurity will analyze how efforts to manage hog disease intimately transform human social and labor relations across a 100-mile radius region of the Great Plains that annually produces some seven million animals.
Contact Information
Charlene Stevens
charlene.stevens at tufts.edu
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Prison USA: The Dilemmas of Mass Incarceration
WHEN Wed., Nov. 6, 2013, 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Emerson Hall, Room 210, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) See website for details
CONTACT INFO humcentr at fas.harvard.edu; 617.495.0738
NOTE Free and open to the public. Seating is limited.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/prison-usa-dilemmas-mass-incarceration
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Too Many Checks, No Balance: Partisan Brinkmanship or a Shrinking Presidency as the New Normal?
WHEN Wed., Nov. 6, 2013, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littaeur Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center
SPEAKER(S) Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press
NOTE Coming close on the heels of the recent federal government shutdown and narrowly avoided default, this discussion will explore the relationship between the president and Congress. What have we learned from recent events about the shifting nature of power between the executive and legislative branches? How have different presidents, in relation to Congress, approached leadership and authority; negotiation and compromise? Is partisan brinksmanship the new norm both in Congress and in the relationship between the president and Congress? What is driving the gridlock? Where is the greatest potential for change? What can individual citizens do?
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/Challenges-to-Democracy/News-Events/Too-Many-Checks-No-Balance
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“Life Saving Information: Mortality Risk Reduction from Air Quality Index Forecasts”
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Harvard, Room L-382, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Joseph Aldy and Marie Abele Bind, Harvard University
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k96249
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
Jason_Chapman at harvard.edu
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.
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Planning for and Responding to Pandemic Influenza: Another Example of a Complex Sociotechnical System
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
4:15p–5:30p
MIT, Building E38-615, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Richard Larson
Please join us for our next fall seminar. Richard Larson is the Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems and director of the Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals (CESF). He will discuss the results of a six-year systems study of pandemic influenza and recommendations at both the personal and systems levels to improve citizen preparedness and response to the flu. A reception will follow the presentation.
Conversations on Sociotechnical Systems
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Sociotechnical Systems Research Center
For more information, contact:
Jacqueline Paris
jparis at mit.edu
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Media Lab Conversations Series: Jillian York
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
5:30pm - 6:30pm
MIT Media Lab, 3rd Floor Atrium, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Jillian York in Conversation with Ethan Zuckerman
Jillian C. York is Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Her work focuses on free expression, with an focus toward the Arab world, and as such she has written for a variety of publications, including Al Jazeera, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and CNN. Jillian contributed chapters to the upcoming volumes Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communication, Journalism and Society (Palgrave Macmillan; March 2013) and State Power 2.0: Authoritarian Entrenchment and Political Engagement Worldwide(Ashgate Publishing; expected November 2013). She serves on the Board of Directors of Global Voices Online, and on the Advisory Boards of R-Shief,OnlineCensorship.org, Radio Free Asia’s Open Technology Fund and Internews’ Global Internet Policy Project.
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We Are Change Boston
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Barnes & Noble Booksellers Prudential Center, 800 Boylston Street #179, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/WeAreChangeBoston/events/148660652/
Would like to schedule a meeting to discuss interested peoples roles n creating a more dynamic and active media profile for Boston Activism. Including more filming, writing, flyers, public education, youtube video, community access TV, and a weekly news show. All interested to participate and/or have equipment to help in production, please join in. First projects would include a report on the GMO dilemma in Argentina, and the recent "revelations" about our drone program. Looking to actually build a team of journalist's, reporters, and artists that will commit to creating an Alternative news source in Boston. Interested people please respond with recommendations as to time and place for meeting, thank you.
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What Is Cultural Entrepreneurship? What Does the Challenge Entail?
Harvard Innovation Lab
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
Harvard Innovation Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/9055056919/
Join Mukti Khaire, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Marvin Bower Fellow, for a workshop discussing how entrepreneurship can be used as a tool for expanding the role of the arts in society and supporting arts and artists in a sustainable manner. Her talk will answer the question of what exactly is a cultural entrepreneur, and also give an overview of how the Deans’ Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge seeks to support entrepreneurial ventures that also serve a cultural purpose. Professor Khaire will also go through how your proposal will be judged and discuss what elements to address in framing your ideas and hypotheses. She will also address team composition, implementation, financial and regulatory viability, as well as guidance on how to measure impact of these projects. This workshop is part of the Deans' Challenge for Cultural Entrepreneurship. Attendees will have the opportunity to mingle and form teams based on common interests after the workshop.
We check all attendee registrations at the door. Please bring a printed or smartphone copy of your EventBrite registration and Harvard student ID if you have registered as a Harvard Student. Attendance will be limited to registered guests and tickets will not be available at the door.
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Design Session - Hacking Somerville Happiness
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Google Hangout - Online
Will post the URL night of meeting
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/The-Happathon-Project-Hacking-Common-Wealth-Happiness/events/148269222/
Each week we'll work together to design the prototype Happathon data gathering application that enables us to measure Somerville well-being. Attendees include researchers, Somerville staff, Somerville residents, data scientists, developers, and designers, though specific people may vary from week to week.
These design sessions are moving us toward a weekend long programming hackathon where we'll begin iteratively building our designs in code.
During each session we'll sync our efforts and decide small design projects to work on over the upcoming week week.
Here are the previous weeks' notes and videos: http://www.meetup.com/The-Happathon-Project-Hacking-Common-Wealth-Happiness/pages/Session_Videos_and_Notes/
This meetup is online in a Google Hangout. I'll post the web address in the comments a few minutes before the meeting starts.
Agenda
6:30: Introductions
6:45 Review our desired outcomes & strategies in the Outcomes/Strategies/Tactics doc
7:00 Review in-progress activities
7:30: Plan small projects to do this week, divide into teams to tackle them, and plan the week's team coordination.
Related Links
The Somerville Pilot Basecamp Project (You'll get access to this once you sign up to attend a session): http://launchpad.37signals.com/basecamp/2100207/signin
The H(app)athon Project homepage: http://happathon.com
Open Mustard Seed (Tech Stack) (http://docs.openmustardseed.org) from IDcubed: http://idcubed.org
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Principles for Design & Humanizing Big Data with Data Visualization
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (EST)
Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) 5th Floor - Havana Room, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/8839831173/es2/
Note that a valid ID is required for building security. Once you sign in go to the 5th floor and then down the corridor to the Havana room.
Lynn Cherny - Data Vis 101: Principles for Design
I'll condense an intro workshop into 45 minutes and review the principles for successful design with data, including tips on visual encodings, story-finding, and principles for developing exploratory or explanatory visualizations. We'll look at a couple redesigns and award winners, plus maybe a few #WTFvis examples along the way.
Bio: Lynn Cherny is a local data analysis and visualization consultant who works in Python, R, and D3.js. She has a Ph.D. from Stanford in linguistics and spent 18 years as a UX designer and manager before going back to the code side.
Humanizing Big Data with Data Visualization
Data visualization is the human front-end of big data. In order for people to solve problems and make decisions using insights drawn from big data, they need a clear understanding of the stories that are often buried. How can UI designers and data visualization practitioners help make those insights understandable and useful to decision-makers? We all deal with the challenge of how to identify meaningful objects or events in a raw datastream, and present those events to users in a way that provides context and helps them get a qualitative understanding of what is going on. We'll look at approaches to accomplishing this, and how techniques like visual abstraction, attention-management and metaphor can help.
Bio: Mark Schindler is co-founder and Managing Director of GroupVisual.io, a Cambridge, MA consultancy that specializes in making Big Data consumable for human beings through the design of data visualization and data-driven user experiences. For over 15 years, he has designed business analytics and visualization systems for clients like Johnson & Johnson, GE and Eli Lilly.
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SITN Lecture - Big Data in the Postgenome Era
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
7pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Amphitheater, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
Join us for the next lecture in Harvard University's Science in the News Fall Lecture Series, Big Data in the Postgenome Era: What can the human genome sequence do for you?
For those of you not familiar with SITN's lecture format, lectures are free, accessible, and open to the public. All lectures are given entirely by graduate students at Harvard and focus on hot topics in science research and news.
A team of three graduate students each present a 30-40 minute segment, with breaks for questions and refreshments. The lectures last for about two hours, and are often followed by lab tours.
They will have light refreshments before the lecture (coffee, tea, cookies, etc.)
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Thursday, November 7
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Crowds and Climate: Mobilizing Crowds to Develop Ideas and Take Action on Climate Change
November 6-8, 2013
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts USA
More information at http://www.climatecolab.org/conference2013
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Reproductive Rights Around the World
WHEN Thu., Nov. 7, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Wasserstein 1023, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics; the Human Rights Program; and the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School; and the Harvard Global Health Institute
SPEAKER(S) Professor I. Glenn Cohen, Professor Aziza Ahmed, Mindy Jane Roseman
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO petrie-flom at law.harvard.edu
NOTE Lunch will be served.
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This Mess We're In: The Changing Landscape of Digital Surveillance
Thursday, November 7, 2013
12:00pm
MIT, Building E14, Room 344, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://civic.mit.edu/event/civic-media-lunch-morgan-marquis-boire
Morgan Marquis-Boire
For the last couple years, Morgan has focused on tracking and preventing digital attacks against high risk user groups - primarily journalists, dissidents, and activists. Increasingly, these attacks are being carried out by nation-states for espionage and surveillance purposes. Studying campaigns targeting activists in Morocco, Libya, Syria, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during the so-called “Arab Spring” led to analysis of the global proliferation of a variety of ‘Western’ produced offensive solutions.
Against this backdrop, this talk will contextualize recent surveillance revelations with the rise of the commercial market for offensive digital capability. We’ll journey through the response of the security industry and examine how a change in security engineering methodology can help any developer create more surveillance resistant tools and services.
Morgan Marquis-Boire is a senior security engineer at Google specializing in incident response, forensics, and malware analysis. He is a security researcher and technical advisor at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Recently, he has also been working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on issues surrounding dissident suppression in Syria. A frequent speaker at events around the world, his work on digital repression targeting activists has been featured in numerous print and online publications including Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, BBC, Wired, and The New York Times.
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Foreign Policy in a New Global Era: Perspectives from the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia
WHEN Thu., Nov. 7, 2013, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1010, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Harvard International Negotiation Program, Center for European Studies at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) H. E. Miroslav Lajčák, deputy prime minister, Slovak Republic
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO mhamlen at law.harvard.edu
NOTE What are pivotal challenges as Europe negotiates its regional and global identity? Are the lessons learned from the Western Balkans applicable to the Arab Spring? Join us for a discussion with Deputy Prime Minister Lajčák of Slovakia. Opening remarks will be offered by Professor Daniel L. Shapiro, Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program.
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Energy 101 Sessions - Energy in the Built Environment
Thursday, November 07, 2013
1:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 37-212, 70 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Karen Noiva from the MIT Energy Initiative will discuss how energy is used, meassured and modeled at different sclaes of the built environment (e.g. city, town, building).
In addition the session will also cover an overview of policies targeted at managing energy use in the built environment in a more sustainable way including: sustainably technologies, energy conservation policies, zero-carbon cities, etc.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
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What is the information content of an algorithm?
Thursday, November 07, 2013
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 32-D463 , Star Seminar Room, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Joachim M. Buhmann, Machine Learning Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich
Algorithms are exposed to randomness in the input or noise during the computation. How well can they preserve the information in the data w.r.t. the output space? Algorithms especially in Machine Learning are required to generalize over input fluctuations or randomization during execution. This talk elaborates a new framework to measure the "informativeness" of algorithmic procedures and their "stability" against noise. An algorithm is considered to be a noisy channel which is characterized by a generalization capacity (GC). The generalization capacity objectively ranks different algorithms for the same data processing task based on the bit rate of their respective capacities. The problem of grouping data is used to demonstrate this validation principle for clustering algorithms, e.g. k-means, pairwise clustering, normalized cut, adaptive ratio cut and dominant set clustering. Our new validation approach selects the most informative clustering algorithm, which filters out the maximal number of stable, task-related bits relative to the underlying hypothesis class. The concept also enables us to measure how many bit are extracted by sorting algorithms when the input and thereby the pairwise comparisons are subject to fluctuations.
Brains, Minds & Machines Seminar Series
The Brains, Minds & Machines Seminar Series* 2013-2014 is being organized by the IIT at MIT lab (a joint lab between MIT and the Italian Institute of Technology.)The purpose of the seminar series is to bring together students and faculty at CBCL and CSAIL who aim to understand the problem of intelligence in terms of its realization in the mind and the brain.One important focus of the series is on the problem of learning which is emerging as the gateway to understanding and reproducing intelligence, both biological and artificial.*This seminar series was formerly known as "Brains & Machines Seminar Series."
Web site: http://cbcl.mit.edu/seminars-workshops/index.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
For more information, contact:
Kathleen D. Sullivan
kdsulliv at mit.edu
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"The Generation of Form in Biology: Principles of Mechanochemical Patterning"
November 7, 2013
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (The Pappalardo Community Room)
Stephan Grill, Max Planck Institute of Melecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Morphogenesis refers to the generation of form in Biology. Much is known about molecular mechanisms of regulation, but little is known about the physical mechanisms by which an unpatterned blob of cells develops into a fully structured and formed organism. The actomyosin cortex is a thin layer underneath the cellular membrane that can self contract, which drives many of the large-scale morphogenetic rearrangements that are observed during development. How this cortex reshapes and deforms, and how such morphogenetic processes couple to regulatory biochemical pathways is largely unknown. I will discuss two emergent physical activities of the actomyosin cytoskeleton, an active contractile tension and an active torque, both of which can serve to drive flows and large-scale chiral rotations of the actomyosin cytoskeleton. Discussing two biological examples, polarization of the Caenorhabditis elegans zygote and epiboly during zebrafish gastrulation, I will illustrate how active tension drive flows, how molecular constituents of the cortex affect flows, and how morphogenetic patterns can be formed by coupling regulatory biochemistry to active cortical mechanics. A particular focus will be the investigation of how active chiral torques drive chiral flow, and the resulting functions of such chiral activities of the actomyosin cytoskeleton for left-right symmetry breaking in development.
See more at: http://web.mit.edu/physics/events/colloquia.html#sthash.XEK2BDeZ.dpuf
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Shooting (from) the Moon: NASA, Nature, and the New Left during the Vietnam War
WHEN Thu., Nov. 7, 2013, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Robinson Hall, Basement Seminar Room, Harvard Yard
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Charles Warren Center
SPEAKER(S) Neil Maher (N. J. Institute of Technology and Rutgers/Newark)
CONTACT INFO lkennedy at fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://warrencenter.fas.harvard.edu/fsprogramschedule.html
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Social Physics
11/7/2013
4:15pm
MIT, Building E51-335, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Reception immediately following
Speaker: Sandy Pentland
Fine grain data about human behavior, harvested from cell phones, social media, credit cards, and similar media, has given us the ability to quantify the network dynamics of social learning and decision making in real-world situations by use of heterogeneous stochastic network models. These models allow predictions of human behavior in domains ranging from financial decisions to health behaviors to consumer consumption. We can also develop network incentive mechanisms that strongly shape behavior, providing a new approach for addressing tragedy of the commons problems, and shape behaviors to increase productivity of organizations and perhaps even entire cities. Experiments at scales from hundreds to millions of people will be described.
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Seamus Heaney: A Memorial Celebration
WHEN Thu., Nov. 7, 2013, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE The Memorial Church, Harvard University, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of English
COST Free and open to the public
NOTE The Department of English at Harvard University invites you to a commemoration and celebration of the poetry and the life of our beloved colleague, Seamus Heaney. In music and words, performed and spoken by members of the department, we will remember, mourn, reflect, and rejoice.
LINK http://english.fas.harvard.edu/news/seamus-heaney-memorial/
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"The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age"
Thursday, November 07, 2013
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Sonia Livingstone is a full professor in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. She is seconded to Microsoft Social Research for fall 2013 as well as being a faculty fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her talk will be based on her current book project, "The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age", based on her ethnographic research with the MacArthur Foundation-funded Connected Learning Research Network. With a focus on young teenagers, Sonia will examine how powerful forces of social reproduction result in missed opportunities for many youth in the risk society.
Web site: http://cmsw.mit.edu/event/sonia-livingstone-class-living-learning-in-the-digital-age/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu
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Architecture / A Second Modernism: Roundtable / Arindam Dutta, Meredith TenHoor, Hashim Sarkis; moderated by Michael Hays
Thursday, November 07, 2013
5:30 pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Arindam Dutta, Meredith TenHoor, and Hashim Sarkis. Introduction by Nader Tehrani. Moderated by K. Michael Hays.
This event is a panel discussion around the publication of A Second Modernism: MIT, Architecture, and the Techno-Social Moment (MIT Press, 2010), edited by Arindam Dutta and comprised of contributions by 25 scholars and educators.
After World War II, a second modernism emerged in architecture, defined by its wariness towards the indeterminacies of aesthetic formalism and aspiring instead to a hard 'expertise' based on rule-based judgment and research protocols emphasizing verification by data. Architectural thought was influenced by linguistic, behavioral, computational, mediatic, cybernetic, and other urban and behavioral models, as well as systems-based and artificial intelligence theories. The book examines the 'techno-social' turn in architecture, taking the MIT School or Architecture and Planning as its exemplar, but going beyond one school of architecture to the research-oriented era itself, and the ways policies, politics, and pedagogy transformed themselves in accord with the exponential growth of institutional power.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:
Anne Simunovic
617-253-4412
annesim at mit.edu
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How Can We Make Water Desalination Less Energy-Intensive?
Thursday November 7th
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm - RSVP
MIT, Building 4-349, Pappalardo Community Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
We'll be providing dinner — please RSVP by Tuesday at midnight at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Fwbdp7MxhIQ6QpdGj9RMlmzsfPfMyzBV93V5tgp5ayg/viewform
Speaker: David Cohen-Tanugi, Ph.D Candidate, Material Science + Engineering
Desalination has long been a major source of water for oil-producing countries and desert nations, but high costs and a substantial energy footprint have prevented this technology from gaining much traction in the rest of the world. But as countries gradually run out of other options, new desalination plants are seeing the light of day in places as diverse as Chennai (India), Tianjin (China) and Carlsbad (California). Is this good or bad news, and what does it mean for the future of energy and water? David will discuss the latest trends in water desalination and the prospects of new technologies to reduce the energy consumption of desalination based on his own Ph.D. research in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering.
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Guts & Bugs in Health and Disease
WHEN Thu., Nov. 7, 2013, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Broad Institute, Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Broad Institute
SPEAKER(S) Ramnik Xavier
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO events at broadinstitute.org
LINK gutsandbugs.eventbrite.com
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No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin
Thursday, November 07, 2013
6:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building 54-100 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Molly Knight Raskin
MOLLY KNIGHT RASKIN will be speaking about her new biography of Danny Lewin, NO BETTER TIME: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius who Transformed the Internet. Following the author talk, there will be a book signing and an opportunity to purchase the book, thanks to the Harvard Book Store.
About the book:
No Better Time tells of Danny Lewin, a young, driven mathematical genius who wrote a set of algorithms that would create a faster, better Internet -- ideas born at MIT in partnership with his MIT professor Tom Leighton.
In 1997, Lewin and Leighton entered the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition (now the MIT $100K) in hopes of attracting the money they needed to fund a content-delivery company they christened Akamai Technologies. Although they lost, Lewin continued to pursue their dream with a passion that caught the attention of both high-level venture capitalists and brilliant young computer scientists. By late 1999, Akamai boasted clients like Disney, Apple and Yahoo.
Danny Lewin's brilliant but brief life is largely unknown because, until now, those closest to him have guarded their memories and quietly mourned their loss. For Lewin was almost certainly the first victim of 9/11, stabbed to death at age 31 while trying to overpower the terrorists who would eventually fly American Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.
Read more: https://nobettertimemit.eventbrite.com/
Web site: https://nobettertimemit.eventbrite.com/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: RSVP at https://nobettertimemit.eventbrite.com/
Sponsor(s): Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, CSAIL, Mathematics, Department of, MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, Harvard Book Store
For more information, contact:
Chris Snyder
3-8653
trustcenter at mit.edu
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EnergyBar: SURGE Accelerator Edition
Thursday, November 7, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://energybar-es2.eventbrite.com
It's time for the next chapter of Greentown Labs' EnergyBar: SURGE Accelerator Edition! Join us Thursday, November 7th in the MassCEC event space at Greentown Labs for a discussion with Jenny Li from SURGE on the qualifications for admittance into their accelerator program!
Drinks/food served around 5:30pm. Dress code is shop floor casual. Please RSVP to help us plan for food and beverages. See you there!
EnergyBar is a bi-monthly event devoted to helping people in clean technology meet and discuss innovations in energy technology. Entrepreneurs, investors, students, and ‘friends of cleantech,’ are invited to attend, meet colleagues, and expand our growing regional clean technology community.
Greentown Labs is a startup incubator that enable entrepreneurs to solve big energy problems. Our mission is to enable a vibrant community of entrepreneurs to work on their visions and to provide access to the space, resources, and funding that allows their early-stage companies thrive. In our new location, in Somerville, MA, just 3.5 miles from downtown Boston, we offer 24,000 sq. ft. of prototyping lab and co-located office space, a shared machine shop and electronics shop, immersion in a growing community of energy and clean technology entrepreneurs, and on-site events and programs designed to enable start-ups to rapidly grow their networks and their companies.
SURGE Accelerator is the only seed fund and early stage accelerator in the world for startups focused on Energy and Water, located in the "Energy Capital of the World", Houston, Texas. SURGE Accelerator is looking for entrepreneurs solving the world's energy and water problems using capital efficient technology.
If you have a big idea, apply for the next three month program and get ready for the SURGE!
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Taking the Stand
Thursday, November 7
6:30 - 8:00 pm
C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk University, 55 Temple Street, Boston
Alan Dershowitz is a legal expert, a scholar on constitutional law and criminal law, and was the youngest full professor of law in the history of Harvard Law School. His client list includes Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, Leona Helmsley, Jim Bakker, O.J. Simpson, and currently Wikileaks’s Julian Assange. Now, in his legal biography,Dershowitz breaks down the critical and complex issues of First Amendment rights, civil rights, abortion, and murder. He also explains the emerging role of science within a trial’s defense beyond what we might have seen on CSI. Sharing his views with moderator Nancy Gertner, a former United States federal judge for Massachusetts, Dershowitz opens up about his famed legal career and personal opinions like never before.
For more information on Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, visit www.fordhallforum.org. Information about Suffolk University’s partnership with the Ford Hall Forum can be obtained by contacting Mariellen Norris, (617) 573-8450, mnorris at suffolk.edu.
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Mass Incarceration & Racial Inequality: The New Jim Crow
Thursday November 7
6:30 - 8:30pm
Brookline Public Library, Hunneman Hall (2nd floor), 361 Washington Street, Brookline
Speakers: Lois Ahrens, Carl Williams, Chuck Turner
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Ignite Data Boston: RSVP via below link to EventBrite
Thursday, November 7, 2013
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
hack/reduce, 275 Third Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://smg26.wpengine.com/registration/#ignite
“Enlighten us, but make it fast”
Featured in various cities all over the country, Ignite presentations give experts, professionals, and just plain geeks the chance to share their passions with an audience. What’s the twist? The presentations only contain 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, leaving presenters with a strict five-minute presentation.
Ignite Data Boston will give attendees the opportunity to see some of the diverse and interesting data projects going on in the Boston area. The concise presentations are sure to be engaging and will leave attendees begging for more. We will have two rounds of presentation with a break in between.
Contact http://bostondatafest.com/registration#dcdcsds
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How to Save the Oceans and Feed the World
Thursday, November 7
7pm
NE Aquarium, 1 Central Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=104541&view=Detail
Andrew Sharpless, CEO, Oceana and author, The Perfect Protein
*Book signing to follow
With Earth’s human population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050—adding the equivalent of two Chinas to current numbers—we need wild fish more than ever to feed us (especially the nearly 1 billion of the world’s poorest people who rely on seafood as their main source of animal protein). The bad news is that wild fish populations are in decline because of overfishing, destruction of habitat and bycatch. We are grinding up small fish such as anchovies, mackerel and sardines into feed for salmon and other farmed animals, even though these overlooked fish are delicious and healthy and could feed millions inexpensively. The good news, as Andrew Sharpless explains, is that if just 25 coastal nations of the world—including the United States—take three steps to better manage their wild seafood supply, our oceans will not only become more biodiverse, they will be far more abundant and capable of feeding hundreds of millions more people every day at a sustainable rate. Sharpless’s message is clear. We can save the oceans and feed the world.
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Urban Films: Shift Change (2013)
Thursday, November 07, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
With the long decline in US manufacturing and today's economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside of the box, to reinvent our failing economy in order to restore long term community stability and a more egalitarian way of life. SHIFT CHANGE tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that respond to this challenge, competing successfully in today's economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces. Directed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin. Co-sponsored by New Economy at MIT. 60 minutes.
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: urbanfilm.org
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:
Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu
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Friday, November 8
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Boston TechBreakfast
11/8/2013
8:00 am - 10:30 am
Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/boston-techbreakfast
Description: Want to see cool new technology? Want to interact with other cool techies, startups, and business folks? Have some time in the morning? Then come to TechBreakfast, a monthly breakfast in Boston, Baltimore, Columbia, DC, and Northern Virginia where entrepreneurs, techies, developers, designers, business people, and interested people see showcases on cool new technology in a demo format and interact with each other . "Show and Tell for Adults" is what we usually say. No boring presentations or speakers who drone on. This is a "show and tell" format where we tell people to show me, don't tell me about the great things they are working on. Each TechBreakfast begins at 8:00am and goes until 10AM (although people usually hang around later). This event is FREE! Thank our sponsors when you see them!
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Historic Preservation Workshop
Friday, November 8th, 2013
8:30AM to 4:30PM
Boston Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon Street, Boston, MA
WHEN -
COST - $80 (includes lunch), RSVP Here
FEATURED SPEAKERS - William Rose, Jean Caroon, James Petersen
Paul Eldrenkamp [Byggmeister] here.
Earlier this year I was approached by the Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill, MA to help them identify opportunities for efficiency and comfort improvements in their historic building. One visit made it clear to me that there was no way that I personally had the expertise to help. But I realized I could assemble a team of NESEA personalities who could provide invaluable advice. So I did. Then it hit me: I wanted to tag along, listen and contribute as they provided that advice - and I knew there would be other professionals in the area who would relish this opportunity as well. So, I'm working with NESEA to convene a workshop on Friday, November 8th, which I hope you'll be able to attend.
Visiting the Waterworks Museum is an amazing experience. It's a spectacular Richardsonian Romanesque structure that still houses the massive pumps that were key components in getting fresh water to Boston at the turn of the last century. The cathedral-like pump room has been turned into a fascinating museum describing the history of Boston's water distribution system. It's a beautiful, sometimes eerie space.
When the pumps were operational, heating the building was never an issue -- the place was like an oven. With the pumps now idle, the moisture and thermal dynamics of the building have changed radically.
The whole building poses classic preservation challenges everywhere you look: How to treat acres and acres of historic windows? How to cost-effectively heat or cool small areas of a massive volume for occupant comfort?
The Boston area is home to countless non-profits whose most significant assets are historic masonry buildings: not only museums like Waterworks but also colleges, private schools, and churches. We need to provide these organizations -- and the architects, engineers, and contractors who work with them -- better tools for being good long-term stewards of these buildings and help them get out of the trap of making an endless series of ad hoc decisions responding to the crisis of the month. This workshop is a big first step towards achieving that goal, and I hope you'll be able to be a part of it.
In closing I'd like to quickly introduce you to the experts who will be speaking at this workshop - a dream team of professionals who have spent their whole careers trying to resolve the tensions that arise when preservation needs butt up against performance objectives.
William Rose
William is Senior Research Architect at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on moisture, energy, and effects on the indoor environment. He serves as a consultant to museums and historic buildings on moisture problems, including the Guggenheim Museum, Independence Hall, and the National Gallery of Art.
Jean Caroon (FAIA, LEED)
Jean leads Goody Clancy’s extensive preservation and renovation practice. She has received national recognition for her special expertise in applying sustainable design technology to historic buildings and has been appointed to (Boston) Mayor Menino’s Green Building Task Force and the Advisory Board of the Green Roundtable’s Nexus Green Building Resource Center.
James Petersen, P.E., LEED AP
James founded Petersen Engineering, Inc. in 1992. Over a 25+ year career his passion for energy and the environment has expanded his expertise from his roots in HVAC and plumbing design to include building science, enclosure design and integrated design.
Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
50 Miles St. | Greenfield, MA | 01301
Tel. 413-774-6051 | Fax. 413-774-6053
nesea at nesea.org | NESEA.ORG
Editorial Comment: If you are interested in buildings and energy, this sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
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Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr. Beverly Scott, CEO/General Manager of the MBTA
Friday, November 08, 2013
11:45a–12:45p
MIT, Building W20-306, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Beverly Scott, CEO and General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
MIT CTL Distinguished Speaker Series
Every semester two students from the MIT Transportation Students Group, which is a coalition of graduate students in the Master of Science in Transportation program and the PhD program in transportation, organize the CTL Distinguished Speaker Series in Transportation. This speaker series brings at least three speakers to MIT's campus in Cambridge each semester from fields that are studied by members of the Transportation Students Group, including transit, airlines, high speed rail, and intelligent transportation systems.
The lectures are free and open to the MIT community. Complimentary light lunch is provided.
On December 17, 2012, Beverly A. Scott, Ph.D. was appointed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) General Manager and MassDOT Rail & Transit Administrator. Dr. Scott is responsible for managing the MBTA and overseeing the Commonwealth's 15 Regional Transit Authorities and MassDOT's freight and passenger rail program.
Prior to coming to the MBTA Dr. Scott served as Chief Executive Officer/ General Manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). She was appointed to head MARTA in 2007 by the MARTA Board of Directors???the first female executive to hold this position.
Dr. Scott is renowned throughout the U.S. and North American transit industry for her visionary leadership, results-driven management style; and progressive approach to labor-management relations. Among her most notable industry contributions is her pivotal leadership role in the critical areas of strategic human resources planning, workforce development and employee training. Most recently, Scott was named a "Transportation Innovator of Change" by President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Transportation for her long record of exemplary leadership and service in the transit industry.
Web site:http://ctl.mit.edu/events/distinguished_speaker_series_dr_beverly_scott_ceogeneral_manager_mbta
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for Transportation & Logistics
For more information, contact: Sarah Smith
617- 253-4592
sajsmith at gmail.com
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Fukushima-derived Radioactivity in Pacific Biota: Risks, Research Opportunities, and Nature Being Amazing Environmental Science and Engineering Seminars
Friday, November 8, 2013
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Nicholas Fisher, Distinguished Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University
http://www.somas.stonybrook.edu/people/fisher.html
Host: Elsie Sunderland
Email: esunder at hsph.harvard.edu
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Morocco: the Media & the Arab Spring
November 8, 2013
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is pleased to present Aboubakr Jamai, Moroccan journalist
This event is open to the public; no registration required.
This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
Contact: Liz Flanagan,
elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
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Military Involvement in Humanitarian Relief: 3 Perspectives
Friday, November 8th
1-2pm
MIT, Building E62-446, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
LTC E. Deacon Maddox, USAWC Fellow, ESD
COL J.B. Becker, USAWC Fellow, ESD
CAPT Tim Breitbach, US Air Force, ESD
Join the MIT Humanitarian Working Group for a discussion of some ways that the U.S. Military has assisted in humanitarian relief efforts around the world. This informal panel discussion will feature the personal experiences of three current MIT students who are all active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Deac Maddox will share his experiences planning with military, government, and international partners for the ongoing refugee crisis in Jordan; JB Becker will share his experiences with Operation Support Hope in Zaire, and Tim Breitbach will discuss his time in Honduras and other experiences.
Lunch will be served.
Stay tuned for more exciting Humanitarian events!
Julia Moline <jmoline at MIT.EDU>
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Functional Materials for Energy Applications: Insights from Atomistic Modeling
November 8
3:00 PM
BU, Room 901, 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston
Refreshments served at 2:45 PM
Dario Marrocchelli, MIT
Abstract: Developing new technological solutions that can guarantee a steady supply of clean, renewable energy is one the greatest challenges of our time. Interestingly, current technologies (such as solar, wind, fuel cells, nuclear etc.) are always limited by the materials they use. Indeed, we need to find new material solutions that are cheaper, environmentally friendly, abundant and that have higher performance. This poses a tremendous challenge that can only be addressed with a paradigm-shift approach to materials science, in which previous trial-and-error approaches are substituted by the rational design of materials. To this end, computer modeling is one of the most promising tools at our disposal.
In this presentation I will report on some recent work on understanding the properties of certain energy materials and predicting new ones with higher performance. This was done by combining Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics calculations, with state-of-the-art experimental work. The bulk of my presentation will focus on CeO2 and ZrO2 based materials used as the electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). I will first talk about their chemical expansion (which can cause an SOFC to breakdown), show how we obtained a detailed understanding of the factors responsible for this phenomenon and how we successfully predicted new materials compositions that minimize this effect. Then I will focus on the ionic conductivity of doped CeO2 and explore, computationally, two possible routes to optimize their conductivity: 1) strain and 2) co-doping strategies. I will discuss the limitations and promises of both approaches. Finally, other examples of my work on Li-ion battery materials and oxygen storage capacity materials will also be briefly discussed.
Biography: Dario Marrocchelli is a research scientist at MIT, working in the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. His research interests are the use of atomistic simulations to study the properties of energy materials, used in solid oxide fuel cells, Li-ion batteries, oxygen storage capacity, gas sensors, etc. A recurring theme of his research is the close collaboration with experimentalists and the constant attempt to predict new materials with improved performances.
Before joining MIT as a research scientist, Dario also worked as a postdoctoral associate at Trinity College Dublin and MIT. He did his doctoral work under the supervision of Prof Paul Madden (Oxford). Dario has been awarded several honors, including a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship. His work has been published in more than 25 papers and presented at several international conferences. He is also serving as guest editor of the Journal of Electroceramics.
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A Forum on Fossil Fuel Divestment
Friday, November 8, 2013
3:30pm
Harvard, Sever Hall 113, 25 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
This event aims to create a platform for open and balanced discussion on climate change and what role Harvard should play in addressing it, particularly focusing on the tactic of divestment. The panellists will include four Harvard professors: Rebecca Henderson (HBS), Dan Schrag (FAS, Geology), John Coates (HLS), and James Engell (FAS, English). In addition, prominent climate activist Tim DeChristopher, a student at Harvard Divinity School, will represent the student voice. The discussion will be moderated by the Harvard Undergraduate Council President, Tara Raghuveer and will include questions and input from audience members.
Contact Name: Hannah Borowsky
hborowsky at college.harvard.edu
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Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects
November 8 (Friday)
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Kang Room S050, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Jordan Sand, Associate Professor of Japanese History and Culture Georgetown University
Moderator: Andrew Gordon, Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Reischauer Institute Japan Forum presentation
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MIT Does Food
Fri. 11/8
5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Second Fridays
MIT Museum, 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Featuring Kenji López-Alt, Chief Creative Officer of Seriouseats.com and members of Clover Food Lab
Join the MIT Museum for an evening of food science, cooking demonstrations, and more! We will be exploring the many ways in which MIT students, faculty, and alumni are involved with food - whether as chefs, entrepreneurs, food writers, and everything in between!
Free with Museum admission.
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Should We Engineer the Mosquito?
Friday, November 8, 2013
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston
RSVP at http://mosquitoforum-es2.eventbrite.com/
With Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor and Chair, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health; Co-Chair, Infectious Diseases Initiative, The Broad Institute
Mosquitoes are more than annoying pests -- they’re carriers of the malaria parasite and the virus that causes dengue fever. Every year, malaria infects millions, causing thousands of deaths. Dengue fever is increasing in the US alongside EEE and West Nile virus. Scientists have infected mosquito eggs with malaria-killing bacteria and researched how to alter mosquito DNA to produce birth defects that kill the next generation.
Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes into new environments could bring us closer to eradicating these diseases but may also cause unforeseen consequences. Should we tinker with the mosquito? Come to discuss the potential benefits and tradeoffs.
This forum will help us inform the Provocative Questions section of our new permanent Hall of Human Life exhibition, opening November 16.
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Boston Aaron Swartz Hackathon
Geeks Without Bounds
Friday, November 8, 2013 at 7:00 PM - Saturday, November 9, 2013 at 8:00 PM (EAT)
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://bostonaaronswhackathon-es2.eventbrite.com
Inspired by the work he did and the people he touched, we are organizing recurring hackathons at locations all over the world in memory of Aaron Swartz. The next set will be synchronized on the weekend of November 8-10, 2013. The event will bring together the varied communities that Aaron touched to figure out how the important problems of the world connect, and to share the load of working on those problems. The November 8-10 hackathon series is being coordinated on this wiki page.
The Boston Event
We are honored to host the event 19:00-23:00 Friday and 10:00-20:00 Saturday on the fifth floor of the MIT Media Lab. We feel the tension of being at MIT, while in the allied space of the Media Lab, will encourage participants to contribute to ongoing conversations of MIT's responsibility to its students, and to the awareness of academic and institutional issues.
Schedule
Friday will be dedicated to the exploration and examination of the Boston groups Aaron has touched. A few curated talks will lead the evening, with lots of time for breakout sessions for more in-depth examination of projects and communities.
Saturday we'll work on projects uncovered during the Friday sessions.
Projects
Projects for all locations are listed on the Planning wiki (https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Worldwide_Aaron_Swartz_Memorial_Hackathon_Series#Projects_to_Work_on) , and the ones specifically happening in Boston are:
tor2web and jot2tor : Tor2web makes it possible for internet users to view content from Tor hidden services. It's online in a (mostly) functioning form at http://tor2web.org . Jot2tor is an extension of this allowing users to use Aaron's jottit.com framework to easily create pages hosted on hidden services. Naturally, pages created via jot2tor are accessible from tor2web. Aaron and I actually worked on both of these projects until his death.
Hal Report TL; DR : The report around MIT's involvement with Aaron's case is long and convoluted. We'd like to parse it out in ways that make more sense and give opportunity for people associated with MIT to take action.
Have a project you'd like to see listed? Fork the code for the page or email Willow at bl00 at media.mit.edu
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Saturday, November 9
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Music Hack Day
November 9 - 10
Microsoft NERD, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://boston.musichackday.org/2013/index.php?page=Register for full conference on November 10 demos
More info at http://boston.musichackday.org/2013/index.php
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Grooversity Percussion Festival 2013! Music, Peace and Justice
Saturday, November 9, 2013
1:00 - 6:00 PM
East Somerville Community School (ESCS), 50 Cross Street, Somerville
Free and open to the public!
This event is mostly funded by donations.
Contribute and receive a prize.
For more information on Grooversity and to donate visit: www.grooversity.com
The public is invited to attend the second annual Grooversity Percussion Festival, featuring the theme: Music, Peace and Justice. The mission of the festival is to empower kids and adults to make meaningful, positive change in their lives and in their communities through music and dance. The festival will feature workshops in world drumming by renowned drumming and percussion masters, a panel discussion on Peace and Justice through Music Education, as well as a samba dance class. Featured instructors include:
Latin American Rhythms with Mark Walker (12 grammy wins), Ernesto Diaz and Marcus Santos
Drumset workshop with Sergio Bellotti
Peace and Justice through Music Education panel discussion with Rich Saunders
Samba dance master class with Gabby
In addition, there will be special performances by:
El Sistema Somerville, directed by Dianne Cline
Bloco AfroBrazil
SheBoom
Kids and adults are invited to attend, participate and have a chance to win prizes in this FREE percussion festival. They maywalk in at any time during the event. The festival will also be streamedon-line in real time and may be viewed at www.grooversity.com
Grooversity is a drumming project envisioned by Brazilian born percussionist Marcus Santos. Its mission is to provide community outreach and social change by offering world drumming workshops, courses and entertainment to kids and adults of all ages. Grooversity is making a difference in Somerville, MA, as well as cities and towns in fifteen states across the US and Canada.
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Fascinating Fungi of Fresh Pond
Saturday, November 9
2 to 4:30 pm
Maynard Ecology Center, basement of Neville Place, 650 Concord Avenue, Cambridge
Mycologist Lawrence Millman has identified 231 mushroom species at Fresh Pond Reservation. For the past nine years he has led similar Fresh Pond mushroom forays that give participants the chance to add to this list as well as learn more about the world of fungi. He'll also be selling (and signing!) copies of his beautiful book, Fascinating Fungi of New England, the first guidebook devoted exclusively to New England mushrooms.
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Monday, November 11
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Exploring the Technical and Economic Factors Underlying Internet Spam
Monday, November 11, 2013
11:00 am
BU, Hariri Institute, MCS 148, 111 Cummington Street, Boston
Geoff Volker, UCSD (CS Distinguished Lecture)
The large-scale compromise of Internet hosts and services form a platform for supporting a range of criminal activity in the so-called Internet underground economy. In this talk I will start by quickly surveying work that our group has performed over the past decade on the problems posed by these threats, and how our research directions have evolved over time in response to them. In the remainder of the talk, I will go into detail on recent work that our group has performed in an end-to-end analysis of the spam value chain. Using extensive measurements over months of diverse spam data, broad crawling of naming and hosting infrastructures, and product purchases from a wide variety of spam-advertised sites, I'll characterize the modern spam ecosystem including system infrastructure, business models, cost accounting, and consumer demand. I'll end by characterizing the relative prospects for anti-spam interventions at multiple levels, initial results of interventions in the payment tier, and where our group is headed going forward. This work is part of a long-standing collaborative effort between UCSD and ICSI. http://www.evidencebasedsecurity.org http://www.sysnet.ucsd.edu/botnets http://www.ccied.org Geoffrey M. Voelker is a professor at the University of California at San Diego. His research interests include operating systems, distributed systems, and computer networks. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in 1995 and 2000, respectively.
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"The Dystopian Presented as the Utopian: Does the Internet lead us to forget what we know about life?"
Monday, November 11, 2013
12:15pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Room 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before
Sherry Turkle (MIT, STS)
STS Circle Lecture at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
Contact Name: Shana Rabinowich
sts at hks.harvard.edu
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“Making Class Work: Migrant Labor, mobile Capital, and the Creating of an Industrial Regime in Massachusetts”
Monday, November 11, 2013
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Harvard, Robinson Hall, Lower Library, 35 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Shaun Nichols (Harvard University),
Presented by the Workshop on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism, with support from the Warren Center
Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Lecture
http://warrencenter.fas.harvard.edu/fsprogramschedule.html
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Sustainable mobility systems
Monday, November 11
6:00 pm
Boston Society of Architects, 290 Congress Street, Boston
To attend, email rsvp at architects.org with "Traffic 11/11" in the subject line.
Sustainable transportation planning leader Jeffrey Tumlin, principal with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, whose work covers urban parking techniques, streamlined transit service, road diets, and overall transportation diversity, identifies transit opportunities for Boston.
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Anarchy Apiaries: Bee Esoteric with Sam Comfort
Monday, November 11, 2013
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Follow the Honey, 1132 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/meetthebeekeepermondays/events/139947672/
Welcome to the House that Bees Built (REST BEFORE LABOR)
In the reflections of Anarchy Apiaries: The End of Time
What is happening? Apart from global warming, apart from a weak dollar and high oil prices, apart from our energy, food, water, economic, and personal crises, why are we so grumpy? Where is the connection that sustains our life force? Are we losing our ability to live in peace with ourselves and care for living things? Well, ask not what your paradigm can do for you- nobody out there has your solution. The generations now seem like separations. Nothing out there is going to change until we change ourselves. What we have brought the Honey Bees to bear is an ecological problem. An ecological problem is a social problem. Estranged, packed-in but alone, we have allowed fear and mistrust to govern our freedom.
Working with Bees is all about overcoming fear. The Hive is love incarnate. The Hive is the window to our new world. It takes patience and emotional energy to dismantle power dynamics; more awkward than a newborn goat. We are rediscovering what it means to live in peace with the insects, the landscape, and each other, outside of the corporate scheme.
They got the bombs but Bees got the numbers. Join together!
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Science & Cooking: Catalytic Conversion—Enzymes in the Kitchen
WHEN Mon., Nov. 11, 2013, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Wylie Dufresne, wd~50, and Ted Russin, Culinary Institute of America
COST Free and open to the public
NOTE The Science & Cooking lecture series runs weekly through the end of the fall semester. A full schedule, including the lecture topics, is available at http://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
Each talk will begin with a 15-minute lecture by a Faculty member of the course, which will discuss one of the scientific topics from that week's class.
For a sample of what is to come, an archive of past talks (from 2010, 2011, and 2012) can be viewed at YouTube.com/Harvard
The popular public lecture series grew out of a collaboration between the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Alícia Foundation in Spain. A related Harvard College course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter," which will be offered to undergraduates for the fourth time in the fall of 2013, uses food and cooking to explicate fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering. Blending haute cuisine with laboratory research, the chefs and food experts teach alongside Harvard faculty members. In addition to lectures and readings, lab work is an integral part of the course, and students perform experiments on topics including heat transfer, viscosity and elasticity, and crystallization and entropy.
This year, for the first time, a version of the Science & Cooking course will also be offered through HarvardX, Harvard University's newest online learning initiative. Registration for SPU27x, the massively open online course (MOOC), is open now at harvardx.harvard.edu.
The Science & Cooking Lecture Series does not replicate the content of either the Harvard College course or the HarvardX online course; rather, these public events are simply meant to inform and inspire with a fresh perspective on culinary science. For more information, visit http://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
LINK seas.harvard.edu…
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Tuesday, November 12
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"The Road to War: Absent Congress, Baffled Media."
Tuesday, November 12
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Marvin Kalb, an American journalist, was the Shorenstein Center's Founding Director and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Very Small Arrays: Data Graphics at the New York Times
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
1:00p–2:30p
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Amanda Cox
Journalism has very little in common with big data. (The data in journalism is almost entirely tiny.) But there may be some similarities, at least in spirit: we both to know things we shouldn't be able to know, depend heavily on asking the right questions and quick iteration, and prefer way more detail than we actually need, at least at the beginning.
I'll review some of the NYT graphics department's "bigger" data collaborations with academics and others, and discuss some of the broader trends in data visualization, as it is practiced by journalists trying to communicate with large audiences.
BIG DATA LECTURE SERIES
Talks will feature distinguised individuals from academia, industry and government including pre-eminent people from all the subfields of computer science that have something to say about data, data processing and analytics, as well as people from organizations that are consumers of Big Data from both industry and government.
Web site: http://bigdata.csail.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Big Data Initiative at CSAIL
For more information, contact:
Susana Kevorkova
617-324-8424
----------------------------------
Electrochemical Pathways towards Sustainability
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Donald R. Sadoway
Imagine a process that produces metal in such a way that the trees are greener in the vicinity of the smelter, that the water is cleaner downstream from the smelter. Imagine an electric vehicle that is superior in performance and competitively priced to one fueled by petroleum. Imagine drawing electricity from the sun even when the sun isn???t shining. Professor Sadoway believes that there are electrochemical technologies capable of meeting all of these challenges. A faculty member in DMSE for 35 years, he co-founded two companies: Ambri, Inc. (formerly Liquid Metal Battery Corporation), which is developing new battery technology for grid-scale electricity storage, and Boston Electrometallurgical Corp., which is developing molten oxide electrolysis for the production of metals. In 2012, Sadoway delivered a TED talk on the topic of inventing the liquid metal battery. In April 2012 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Wulff Lecture
The Wulff Lecture is an introductory, general audience, entertaining lecture which serves to educate, inspire, and encourage MIT undergraduates to take up study of materials science and engineering and related fields. The entire MIT community, particularly freshmen, is invited to attend. The Wulff Lecture honors the late Professor John Wulff, a skilled, provocative, and entertaining teacher who conceived of a new approach to teaching general chemistry and inaugurated the popular freshman subject, 3.091 Introduction to Solid State Chemistry.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
For more information, contact:
DMSE
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Microelectronics: An Industry in Transition
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dennis Buss, Texas Instruments
MTL Seminar Series
Refreshments at 3:45 p.m.
Web site: http://www-mtl.mit.edu/seminars/fall2013.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact: Debroah Hodges-Pabon
253-5264
debb at mtl.mit.edu
-----------------------------------
"Secularism, Sexuality and Sectarian Conflict"
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Saba Mahmood
Fall 2013 McMillan-Stewart Lecture
The Women's and Gender Studies Genevieve McMillan and Reba Stewart Fund in the School of Humanities and Social Science brings scholars of international distinction in the humanities and/or social sciences whose scholarship and teaching focus on women in the developing world and especially on women in the Middle East and North Africa.
The relegation of religion and sexual reproduction to the private sphere is widely regarded as a key feature of modern secular societies. While postcolonial states of South Asia and the Middle East are heir to this arrangement, they are also distinct in that they retain religious laws for the regulation of family affairs. As a result, both minority and majority religious communities of these polities continue to exert a fair degree of juridical autonomy over family affairs. Prof. Mahmood's talk tries to rethink the classical debate around "family law" and "minority rights" by parsing out how the modern secular political order has produced a unique and noxious cathexis between religion, sexuality and gender.
Saba Mahmood is associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, which received the 2005 Victoria Schuck award from the American Association of Political Science. Professor Mahmood's work focuses on the interchange between religious and secular politics in postcolonial societies with special attention to issues of embodiment, cultural hermeneutics, law, and gender/sexuality. Her work is best known for its interrogation of liberal assumptions about the proper boundary between ethics and politics, freedom and unfreedom, the religious and the secular, and agency and submission.
Web site: web.mit.edu/wgs
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Women's and Gender Studies
For more information, contact: The Friendly WGS Staff
3-8844
wgs at mit.edu
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"Dis-Owning Nature: The BRCA Gene Patents and the Supreme Court"
Science and Democracy Lecture Series
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Harvard, Science Center Auditorium D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Chris Hansen, American Civil Liberties Union
Panelists:
George M. Church, Harvard Medical School and Broad Institute
Glenn Cohen, Harvard Law School
Judy Norsigian, Our Bodies Ourselves
Tania Simoncelli, Former Science Advisor, ACLU
Moderated by:
Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard Kennedy School
Contact Name: Lisa Matthews
matthew at fas.harvard.edu
--------------------------------
Gutman Library Book Talk: Leading Educational Change: Global Issues, Challenges, and Lessons on Whole-System Reform
WHEN Tue., Nov. 12, 2013, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Gutman Library Conference Center, Harvard Graduate School Of Education, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Gutman Library and Phi Delta Kappa
SPEAKER(S) Helen Janc Malone, director of institutional advancement, Institute for Educational Leadership; Pasi Sahlberg, director general, Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, Finland; Sherry L. Deckman, assistant professor of social and cultural foundations of education, Ithaca College; Andy Hargreaves, Thomas More Brennan Chair, Lynch School of Education, Boston College; Dennis Shirley, professor of education, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO mark_shelton at gse.harvard.edu
NOTE The featured authors in Leading Educational Change directly address contemporary challenges, misconceptions, and failed strategies, while also offering solutions, ideas, and guiding questions for examination. Unique in its breadth of ideas and diversity of voices, Leading Educational Change is must-reading for education decision makers on all levels, frontline practitioners, and everyone involved with children and adolescent learning.
LINK http://www.gse.harvard.edu/library/malone_book_talk.pdf
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Innovative Product Dev. : What the FDA's 'Innovative Initiatives' Enable
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
East Arcade room, 1 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/8896223845/
Join us and a distinguished panel of local experts for a discussion about the synchronization of technical and regulatory innovation. Based on the experience gained with Kalydeco, the first drug to receive Breakthrough Designation by the FDA and approved in record time to treat Cystic Fibrosis, our panel will discuss how a Breakthrough Designation translates into product development breakthroughs in Manufacturing and Clinical Development.
5:30-6pm Registration
6-7:15pm Panel speakers and Q&A
7:15-8:15 Networking social
Beverages and light hors d'oeuvres will be served
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"Food, Biodiversity, and Climate Change."
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
6:00pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jade D'alpoim Guedes, Harvard Anthropology; Eli Rogosa, Director of the Heritage Grain Conservancy; and Richard Meadow, Director of the Zooarchaeology Lab at the Peabody Museum
Harvard Museums of Science & Culture Lecture
Jointly sponsored by Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Museum of Natural History.
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"The Moment of Truth: Math, Media and Mystery."
Tuesday, November 12
6 p.m.
Harvard, John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Theodore H. White Lecture with the Honorable Alan K. Simpson, U.S. Senator (R-Wyoming), 1979–1997, and the awarding of the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism to Leonard Pitts Jr, columnist, the Miami Herald; winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
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Divest the Commonwealth: A Panel of Local Climate Heroes, and Dessert Reception
Tuesday, November 12th
6-8pm
Cabot ASEAN Auditorium, The Fletcher School, Tufts University. 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
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Mass Innovation Nights MINFun
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
6:00pm - 8:30pm
GameOn, 82 Lansdowne Street, Boston, tucked into the corner of Fenway Park
Register Here: http://mass.innovationnights.com/events/november-12-2013-mass-innovation-nights-minfun
Mass Innovation Nights #56 is going to be a special event -- get your party hat on and get ready for some FUN! It's Fun and Games night, hosted by GameOn, 82 Lansdowne St Boston, tucked into the corner of Fenway Park. We've collected a group of cool, super fun products, including some nifty new games. And MORE! If you are new to Mass Innovation Nights, it's easy to participate.
Cost: FREE
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How the Wounded Return from America's Wars
Tuesday November 12, 2013
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST
First Parish in Waltham, 50 Church Street, Waltham
New York Times Bestselling author Andrew Bacevich and acclaimed war correspondent Ann Jones discuss the lives and treatment of wounded veterans, through the lens of their new books "Breach of Trust" and "How the Wounded Return from America's Wars". Book signing to follow.
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Upcoming
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“On the Long History of Neoliberalism”
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
4:00pm - 6:00pm
CGIS-South, Room S-050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Jennifer Burns (Stanford University)
Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Lecture
http://warrencenter.fas.harvard.edu/fsprogramschedule.html
Presented by Harvard’s International and Global History Seminar
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“Environmental Protection, Rare Disasters, and Discount Rates”
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Harvard, Room L-382, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Robert Barro, Harvard University
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=k96249
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
Jason_Chapman at harvard.edu
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Future of Energy: "Big Unanswered Questions About Our Energy Future."
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
5:00pm
Harvard, Science Center D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
John Deutch, Institute Professor, MIT; Co-chair Secretary of Energy Advisor; Former Undersecretary of Energy; Director of Central Intelligence.
John Deutch is an emeritus Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Deutch has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1970, and has served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Dean of Science and Provost. Mr. Deutch has published over 140 technical publications in physical chemistry, as well as numerous publications on technology, energy, international security, and public policy issues.
John Deutch has served in significant government and academic posts throughout his career. In May 1995, he was sworn in as Director of Central Intelligence following a unanimous vote in the Senate, and served as DCI until December 1996. In this position, he was head of the Intelligence Community (all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and directed the Central Intelligence Agency. From March 1994 to May 1995, he served as the Deputy Secretary of Defense. From March 1993 to March 1994, Dr. Deutch served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisitions and Technology.
From 1977 to 1980, John Deutch served in a number of positions for the U.S. Department of Energy: as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department.
In addition John Deutch has served on many commissions during several presidential administrations. He has served on the President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee (1980-81); the President’s Commission on Strategic Forces (1983); the White House Science Council (1985-89); the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (1997-2001), the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (1990-93); the President’ Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (1996); the Commission on Reducing and Protecting Government Secrecy (1996); and as Chairman of the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1998-99).
John Deutch has received fellowships and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978) and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Research Fellow 1967-69), and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (Memorial Fellow 1974-1975). Public Service Medals have been awarded him from the Department of Energy (1980), the Department of State (1980), the Department of Defense (1994 and 1995), the Department of the Army (1995), the Department of the Navy (1995), the Department of the Air Force (1995), the Coast Guard (1995), the Central Intelligence Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1996) and the Intelligence Community Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1996). He received the Greater Boston Federal Executive Board’s Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Award for exemplary public service in 2002, the Aspen Strategy Group Leadership Award in 2004, and he was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2007. He delivered the 2010 Godkin Lectures on the Essentials of Free Government and the Duties of the Citizen. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council (2008) and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. (2010).
John Deutch earned a B.A. in history and economics from Amherst College, and both the B.S. in chemical engineering and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from M.I.T. He holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, University of Lowell, and Northeastern University. He has served as director for the following publicly held companies: American Natural Resources, Citigroup, CMS Energy, Cummins Engine, Perkin-Elmer, Raytheon, SAIC, Schlumberger and Cheniere Energy. He is a trustee of Center of American Progress, Resources for the Future, the Massachusetts Hospital Physician Organization, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Skolkovo Institute. He has served on the board of the Urban Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Contact Name: Lisa Matthews
matthew at fas.harvard.edu
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SITN Lecture - Math in Nature: Finding Order in Chaos
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
7pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Amphitheater, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
Join us for the next lecture in Harvard University's Science in the News Fall Lecture Series, Math in Nature: Finding Order in Chaos
For those of you not familiar with SITN's lecture format, lectures are free, accessible, and open to the public. All lectures are given entirely by graduate students at Harvard and focus on hot topics in science research and news.
A team of three graduate students each present a 30-40 minute segment, with breaks for questions and refreshments. The lectures last for about two hours, and are often followed by lab tours.
They will have light refreshments before the lecture (coffee, tea, cookies, etc.)
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Cambridge Forum Celebrates Folk Music Month in Harvard Square
Wednesday, November 13
7 pm
First Parish in Cambridge, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Cambridge Forum hosts musician and author Stephen Wade as he takes an in-depth look at the ordinary people who recorded live music for the Library of Congress during the 1930s and '40s. Wade, who first played Club Passim in the '70s, has spent two decades tracking down these folk musicians and now brings their stories to light in an award-winning book, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. Who were these amateur musicians and what role did music play in their lives? What impact did their participation in the field recording projects have on them? How did they contribute to our understanding of American folk culture?
Folklorist Maggie Holtzberg moderates the program
Growing up in Chicago in the 1950s and ‘60s, Stephen Wade started playing blues guitar at age eleven and eventually switched to the banjo. Immersing himself in the banjo, traditional music, and American folklore, he traveled across the United States to research American humor and folk tales and meet with folk musicians in the field. Out of these experiences, he created two award-winning theatrical performances combining storytelling, traditional music, and percussive dance, Banjo Dancing and On the Way Home. He has published numerous essays, reviews, and articles, written and narrated a film, Catching the Music, and released several CDs, including the 1997 Rounder collection, A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings and the 2012 Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition. Since 1996 his occasional commentaries on folksongs and traditional tunes have appeared on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Wade is most recently the author of the book The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (with a companion CD), which recently won a Deems Taylor award from ASCAP. Wade will receive the award in New York City on November 14.
Maggie Holtzberg is the Manager of the Folk Arts & Heritage Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Director of Cultural Programming, Lowell National Historical Park. She is the author of Keepers of Tradition: Art and Folk Heritage in Massachusetts, The Lost World of the Craft Printer, and Portrait of Spirit: One Story at a Time; producer of the sound recording Georgia Folk: A Sampler of Traditional Sound, and co-director/producer of the documentary film Gandy Dancers. <br><br>The program is free and open to the public. Cambridge Forum is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited podcasts are available at www.cambridgeforum.org. Select forums can also be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-2727
email: mailto:director at cambridgeforum.org
website: http://www.cambridgeforum.org
The Adventure of Ideas. The Power of Dialogue.
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Access to the Danger Zone Film Screening, Boston
Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres
Wednesday, November 13, 201
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney Street, Cambridge
RVP at http://accesstothedangerzoneboston-es2.eventbrite.com/
Directed by Peter Casaer and narrated by Daniel Day-Lewis, this new documentary provides a harrowing look at the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid in armed conflicts.
Over 70 minutes, Access to the Danger Zone explores the strategies that Doctors Without Borders has employed to save lives in the world’s worst war zones, including Afghanistan, Somalia, and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—strategies that are tested each and every day. Interviews with key experts from Doctors Without Borders, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations are accompanied by dramatic footage shot in these countries in 2011 and 2012.
After working continuously in Somalia since 1991, Doctors Without Borders was forced to close all of its medical programs in the country in August 2013. In response to what became an intolerable series of attacks against its staff and facilities over the years, the organization made the difficult decision to withdraw from Somalia, illustrating the profound challenges of maintaining humanitarian access, and underscoring the timeliness and relevance of this film.
Join us following the screening for a Q&A with local Doctors Without Borders aid workers, who will share stories from their overseas assignments.
The film screening is free, fully accessible, and open to the public.
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The Business Case for Net Zero and Beyond with Andrea Traber, Integral Group
Thursday, November 14, 2013
9:30 – 11:00 am
Cambridge Public Library, Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/event/9068198225?utm_source=November+2013+Update&utm_campaign=NovEventUpdate&utm_medium=email
Please join us for an exciting presentation by Andrea Traber, Principal of the leading Deep Green engineering firm Integral Group. She and her colleagues are in town for the EcoDistricts Summit, and will be taking a break to share their insights and 'lessons learned' from 41 net zero projects they are currently working on. They will also be discussing Living Building Challenge and District Energy projects. They will share their approach to the projects, the critical considerations, and the business case. If you are still hearing how "LEED is too hard or too expensive," this will certainly blow your mind.
Andrea Traber, AIA, LEED AP, Principal in Charge, Integrated Design Services, Oakland, California
Integral Group is pleased to announce our Principal in Charge of Integrated Design Services, Andrea Traber. Internationally recognized as a green building and sustainability expert, Andrea contributes over 20 years of experience as Project Architect and Principal on numerous green building projects, climate action plans, as well as sustainability and energy programs, to the Integral team.
Delivering a holistic, integrated approach to design is Andrea's mission. Serving as a "translator," Andrea bridges the design and communication gaps naturally occurring between A/E/C disciplines, while identifying opportunities for increased resource efficiency and sustainability through informed building systems design. Her ability to translate complex technical information to understandable and actionable strategies, and alternatives, has resulted in projects which have achieved the highest sustainability and energy efficiency goals. Andrea is keenly aware of, and engaged in, the "energy transition" from centralized energy production to distributed, renewable, community scale energy planning, and she is passionate about the positive future this approach holds for her clients, collaborators and our collective future.
Contact Andrea Traber to learn more about Integral Group's Integrated Design Services, which include sustainability consulting for:
high goal LEED, Net Zero and Living Building Challenge projects;
carbon footprinting;
energy and water master planning;
energy and green infrastructure initiatives;
project planning for passive survivability, adaptation and resilience.
ABOUT ANDREA
In 2013, Andrea joined Integral Group following a seven year tenure at a leading global energy and sustainability consulting firm, where she led the Sustainable Buildings and Communities consulting group in the Americas. During her leadership, she built and led a 30-person team, which performs LEED consulting, commissioning, energy modeling and high performance design for over 100 certified projects, 80 percent of which received Gold and Platinum ratings. Andrea's expertise also includes development and management of leading energy and sustainability programs, such as the Sustainable Communities Program of SCE, long term engagements with Stopwaste.Org, and direct involvement on over 50 LEED projects using all systems. Prior to this, Andrea practiced for 15 years as Architect on many green building and community-scale projects.
Throughout her career, Andrea has dedicated herself as a leader with several green building and sustainability organizations, including the USGBC Northern California Chapter. Andrea served three terms on the Board of Directors, with three years as President, and is currently serving on the Strategic Advisory Board of the Healthy Communities Initiative. Most recently, she co-chaired the host committee for Greenbuild 2012, and the Regionalization Committee for LEED v4. She is a sought after speaker on such topics as zero net energy design, sustainable communities, and green building. In 2013, Andrea was invited by former Vice-President, Al Gore to attend a Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training, where she was named a "Climate Leader." Through this initiative, Andrea is educating communities about climate change and building local networks of climate activists, who work in their own communities and countries demanding solutions.
Integral Group is an interactive global network of design professionals collaborating under a single deep green engineering umbrella. The organization provides a full range of building system design, energy analysis, commissioning and sustainability consulting services, with a staff widely regarded as innovative leaders in their fields. Integral has offices and affiliates throughout North America and around the world. Integral Group currently has 28 LEED Platinum Certified projects, 31 Net Zero projects and six projects pursuing the Living Building Challenge. www.integralgroup.com
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"Controlling and Exploring Quantum Matter at the Single Atom Limit"
November 14, 2013
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (The Pappalardo Community Room)
Immanuel Bloch, Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Over the past years, ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices have offered remarkable opportunities to investigate static and dynamic properties of strongly correlated bosonic or fermionic quantum many-body systems. In this talk, I will show how it has recently not only become possible to image such quantum gases with single atom sensitivity and single site resolution, but also how it is now possible to coherently control single atoms on individual lattice sites and to reveal the presence of individual quantum fluctuations of the many-body system. This unique control has recently allowed us to realize novel quantum crystals of matter using Rydberg atoms. I will also demonstrate how 'Higgs' type excitations occur at 24 orders of magnitude lower energy scales than in high energy experiments and how they can be detected in our experimental setting. Finally, I will show how the unique control over ultracold quantum gases has enabled the creation of negative temperature states of matter and thereby the realization of Bose-Einstein condensation at absolute negative temperatures.
See more at: http://web.mit.edu/physics/events/colloquia.html#sthash.qjSmA0xq.dpuf
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Socially Assistive Robotics: Human-Robot Interaction Methods for Creating Robots that Care
Thursday, November 14, 2013
4:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Maja J. Matarić, University of Southern California
Socially assistive robotics (SAR) is a new field of intelligent robotics that focuses on developing machines capable of assisting users through social rather than physical interaction. The robot's physical embodiment is at the heart of SAR's effectiveness, as it leverages the inherently human tendency to engage with lifelike (but not necessarily humanlike or otherwise biomimetic) social behavior. People readily ascribe intention, personality, and emotion to robots; SAR leverages this engagement stemming from non-contact social interaction involving speech, gesture, movement demonstration and imitation, and encouragement, to develop robots capable of monitoring, motivating, and sustaining user activities and improving human learning, training, performance and health outcomes.
Human-robot interaction (HRI) for SAR is a growing multifaceted research area at the intersection of engineering, health sciences, neuroscience, social, and cognitive sciences. This talk will describe our research into embodiment, modeling and steering social dynamics, and long-term user adaptation for SAR. The research will be grounded in projects involving analysis of multi-modal activity data, modeling personality and engagement, formalizing social use of space and non-verbal communication, and personalizing the interaction with the user over a period of months, among others. The presented methods and algorithms will be validated on implemented SAR systems evaluated by human subject cohorts from a variety of user populations, including stroke patients, children with autism spectrum disorder, and elderly with Alzheimers and other forms of dementia.
Maja Matarić is a professor and Chan Soon-Shiong chair of computer science, neuroscience, and pediatrics at the University of Southern California, founding director of the USC Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems, codirector of the USC Robotics Research Lab and vice dean for Research in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She received her MS and PhD in CS and AI from MIT and her BS in CS from the University of Kansas. She is a Fellow of AAAS and IEEE, and recipient of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Innovation, Okawa Foundation Award, NSF Career Award, the MIT TR35 Innovation Award, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award. Matarić is an associate editor of three major journals, has published extensively, and served on the NSF CISE Advisory Committee, among other advisory boards. She is actively involved in K-12 educational outreach to engage student interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics. Her research into socially assistive robotics aims to endow robots with the ability to help people through individual noncontact assistance in convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education, with applications for children with autism spectrum disorders, survivors of stroke and traumatic brain injury, and individuals with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia.
Computer Science Colloquium Series
Contact: Gioia Sweetland
Phone: 617-495-2919
Email: gioia at seas.harvard.edu
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"Driving the Future Sustainable Collaborative Economy" Robin Chase
Thursday, November 14, 2013
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EST)
MIT, Building 32-155 (Stata Center), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://gwamitlead2013-closingkeynote-es2.eventbrite.com
We are honored to welcome Robin Chase (SM '86), Co-Founder and former CEO of Zipcar, and Founder of Buzzcar and GoLoco, to speak on her pioneering work and ideas on leadership and "why sharing is the future". Chase will share her thoughts on innovation, enterpreneurship, and networking, as well as her unique meassage of why "high integrity" is at the core of her work. A catered reception will follow.
Speaker Biography
Robin Chase is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world, current founder and CEO of Buzzcar, a service that brings together car owners and drivers in a carsharing marketplace, and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community.
Through Chase’s leadership, Zipcar's disruptive technology gives its members on-demand access to cars by-the-hour, revolutionizing people's relationship to their cars and improving the quality of urban life for all. Buzzcar.com empowers individuals to take control of their mobility, without looking to governments or big businesses for solutions.
Chase is on the Board of the World Resources Institute, the US Secretary of Commerce's National Advisory Committee for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and the US Department of Transportation's Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Committee. She served on the World Economic Forum Future of Transportation Council, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation transition team, and the Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force. Chase lectures widely and has been frequently featured in the major media. She has received many awards, including Time 100 Most Influential People in the World, the Massachusetts Governor's Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Start-Up Woman of the Year, Business Week’s top 10 designers, Fast Company's Fast 50 Champions of Innovation, technology and innovation awards from Fortune, CIO, and Info World Magazines, and numerous environmental awards from national, state, and local governments and organizations. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, and was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow.
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Illustrating Thoreau's Maine Woods: A Photographer's Journey
Thursday, November 14, 2013
6:00pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street 1st Floor, Cambridge
A Harvard Museum of Natural History exhibition opening lecture with Scot Miller
Scot Miller will discuss his seven-year project photographing northern Maine for his new book, The Maine Woods: A Photographic Journey Through an American Wilderness. Miller combines contemporary imagery with text from Henry David Thoreau’s classic essay collection, The Maine Woods (first published 150 years ago). He will also screen The Unexpected Journey, a short documentary about the making of the book.
Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.
Members-only gallery preview and reception to follow in the exhibition gallery. RSVP tomembers at hmsc.harvard.edu or call (617) 496-6972
http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php
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"Energy Transparency Triple Play"
Thursday, November 14th
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square
BASEA's loaded for this month's Forum:
On first: 'BERDO', Boston Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, a 2013 rookie ordinance expected to score reduced greenhouse gas emissions by requiring public disclosure of energy and water use, a proven strategy being fielded for larger commercial buildings.
On second: 'Home MPG', an initiative within Mass Save® to find a home's "miles per gallon" energy performance rating to better understand energy use, leading off to smart decisions about energy efficiency improvements.
On third: 'BAR', Building Asset Rating, to streamline the cost and time to home in on commercial building energy performance and achieve greater investment in energy efficiency.
Come hear the pitch from the key players in these City of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts initiatives.
Boston Area Solar Energy Association Forum Series
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
Please join us at this edition of the monthly BASEA Forum Series!
The Boston Area Solar Energy Association,
http://www.BASEA.org; a chapter of NESEA.
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Natural Gas & Electricity Interface Challenges in New England
Friday, November 15, 2013
9 am to 12:15 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
The increasing dependence of New England's Electricity system on natural gas-fired generation has been the subject of intense discussion and debate at the Roundtable and other forums. The recent and upcoming developments listed below make this complex topic once again ripe for a Roundtable panel:
New England States Committee on Electricity's recent release of its commissioned study Gas-Electric Study Phase III: Natural Gas Infrastructure and Electric Generation: Proposed Solutions for New England;
New England Gas/Electric Focus Group Final Report (and recommendations) due out before this Roundtable;
ISO New England's Phase II Detailed Gas Supply Study (due out in November) and also ISO's anticipated FERC FCM (gas-related) performance incentives filing;
Connecticut's recent push for more natural gas space heating, and
MA DOER's current Gas (Distribution) Expansion Study; and
Recent announcements by the owners of two of New England's largest non-gas generators-Vermont Yankee (nuclear) and Brayton Point (coal) , of plans to retire these facilities in the next few years
To discuss these various gas-electric interface developments and their potential impacts in New England, we have assembled an excellent panel:
Heather Hunt, Exec Director, New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE)
Kevin Kirby, VP Market Operations, ISO New England
Don Santa, President/CEO, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America
Sue Reid, VP/Director, CLF (Massachusetts)
Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA)
We look forward to seeing you at the The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable. If you can't make it in person, you can watch it live - free for Roundtable Sponsors and $50 for others. Register at http://clickstreamtv.com/raabevents/?utm_source=first+RT+announce+11.15.13&utm_campaign=1st+announce+11.15.13&utm_medium=email
If you missed our last Roundtable on Modernizing the Electric Grid, you can access the presentations for free, or watch the archival video (free for Sponsors and $40 for others).
Free and open to the public.
No advanced registration!!
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Sustainable House of Worship Workshop
November 16
St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, 1073 Tremont St, Roxbury
Would your congregation like to lower its utility bills? Would you like to do what you can to decrease your use of fossil fuels, and the contribution they make to global warming? Are you interested in learning more about solar energy?
MIP&L's Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) workshop covers all this and more, showing you how to evaluate 24 questions that will give you a comprehensive view of your house of worship's energy us and the largest opportunities for savings.
In this half-day session conducted by Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light (www.mipandl.org) you will learn:
How to track your energy use, cost and carbon footprint
How to find no-cost and low cost projects that can have a big impact on your electricity and heating bills
How to evaluate energy using equipment and systems to determine whether they should be updated
Incentives, rebates and other financial help available through utility companies
How to get solar panels with no upfront cost
There is $10 per person fee to attend the workshop, payable during online registration through PayPal or by check. Light refreshments are included. Doors open at 8:30am and the program starts at 9am.
You will receive a set of worksheets to help you evaluate opportunities for saving energy and a CD with all the workshop materials and other helpful resources.
The November 16 workshop will be held at St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, 1073 Tremont St, Roxbury. Registration will be available soon and if you are interested in attending this one,emailjimnail at mipandl.org to be notified when registration opens.
Who should attend: Parishes are encouraged to send two members from their environment committee, property committee or Vestry. Other members who are interested are also welcome.
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Why Divest from Fossil Fuels?: A Panel Discussion on State Divestment Bill #S1225
Saturday, November 16th
10am-noon
Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
For more, go to 350ma.org/calendar/
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TEDxBeaconStreet 2013
November 16 - 17
Lincoln School, 19 Kennard Road, Brookline
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?llr=gbcymnmab&oeidk=a07e81pmitb0fd95d03
More information at http://www.tedxbeaconstreet.com
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(Not) Getting from Us to We: Expertise as a roadblock to change in U.S. environmental organizations
Monday, November 18, 2013
12:15pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin Room 119
Nate Towery (MIT, STS)
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issues in science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
Science, Technology and Society seminars
All meetings will take place on Mondays, from 12:15–2 pm, in Maxwell Dworkin, Room 119, unless otherwise noted. Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
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Architecture Boston
November 19-21
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Hall C
Register for Exhibit Hall free until October 31 at http://abexpo.com/register/
$15 after October 31
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Majora Carter
November 19
06:30 pm-08:00 pm
Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Lecture/Discussion
Free and open to the public
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The Role of the Free Market in Solving the Climate Crisis
November 19, 2013
7:00-8:00PM
Babson's Sorenson Theatre, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley
Joseph Aldy, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
John M. Reilly, Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, MIT
Gary Rucinski, New England Coordinator, Citizens Climate Lobby; co-creater of a 2016 ballot initiative for a revenue-neutral carbon tax
Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University
Fritz Fleischmann, William R. Dill Governance Chair, Babson College
Contact E-mail: lwvWellesley at gmail.com
Event URL: http://lwvma.org/
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SITN Lecture - Extreme Weather and Climate Change
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
7pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Amphitheater, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
Join us for the next lecture in Harvard University's Science in the News Fall Lecture Series, Extreme Weather and Climate Change
For those of you not familiar with SITN's lecture format, lectures are free, accessible, and open to the public. All lectures are given entirely by graduate students at Harvard and focus on hot topics in science research and news.
A team of three graduate students each present a 30-40 minute segment, with breaks for questions and refreshments. The lectures last for about two hours, and are often followed by lab tours.
They will have light refreshments before the lecture (coffee, tea, cookies, etc.)
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Findings from the Kilowatt Crackdown, a Commercial Office Building Competition in Energy Efficient Operation
November 21
2pm EST
Webinar
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GNKTAcup6Ql9fhOkwVMZMyEw6W4LZWBHTQu13sJqkoQ/viewform
TOPIC: The Kilowatt Crackdown program offers the opportunity for community engagement and competitive dynamics among commercial buildings, in regards to energy efficiency goals. Through a process of benchmarking, auditing, implementation, and evaluation, energy savings can be accomplished. With a focus on operational recommendations, savings can be achieved at a relatively low cost. This session will summarize the goals and strategies of the Kilowatt Crackdown program, as well as commonly found energy efficiency measures.
PRESENTERS: JACK DAVIS - has over 18 years of experience in the energy, development, and marketing fields, and manages JDM’s West Coast clients. Advising clients on strategy development, program design and implementation, and market based environmental initiatives, Jack’s work has led to innovative programs and materials such as Carbon4Square, the Kilowatt Crackdown, the Green Building Opportunity Index, the Deep Retrofit Playbook, and the High Performance Portfolio Framework. Jack serves on the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Responsible Property Investing Product Council and the ULI Northwest Advisory Board. Jack has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and a MBA in Marketing from the University of Minnesota.
KATIE LEICHLITER - Katie Leichliter is a Research Scientist at the University of Idaho – Integrated Design Lab in Boise. She conducts energy efficiency field work, measurement and verification, and operational and investment grade audits. Katie also conducts simulation research for energy efficiency in existing building renewal projects, and has developed stand-alone energy analysis tools. Katie graduated with a Bachelors and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho and spent three years in a private mechanical design practice specializing in BIM, building simulation, and HVAC design. Katie serves on the board of governors of the Idaho ASHRAE Chapter.
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Managing Holistically: Policies and Actions to Restore and Sustain Ecosystem Services
Friday, November 22, 2013
9:00a-12:00p
Tufts, ASEAN Auditorium, The Fletcher School, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
Allan Savory, Rancher and Restoration Ecologist, Founder of the Savory Institute and originator of the Holistic Management approach to restoring grasslands, winner of the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award, and finalist in the Virgin Earth Challenge (watch his January 2013 presentation at Fletcher at http://fletcher.tufts.edu/CIERP/News/more/Allan-Savory-Fletcher-Jan2013)
Hosted by CIERP's Agriculture, Forests, and Biodiversity Program
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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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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
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar
High Tech Events: http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list