[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - November 24, 2013
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Nov 24 12:44:22 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://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, November 25
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11:45am MIT Humanitarian Speaker Series: Rich Serino, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
12pm Refining the climate role of tropical cyclones: Key constituents of the summer Hadley cell?
12pm "Europe, Russia, and the Gas Revolution: Firms and Geopolitics in the Age of Shale"
12:15pm Interrogating the Anthropocene
2:30pm “Constraints and Portfolio of Clean Energy Vehicles towards a Sustainable Society”
2:30pm Welfare Effects of Lengthened Copyright Protection
4pm State Capacity and Economic Development: A Network Approach
5:15pm "India’s Energy Scenario: View from the States"
5:30pm Management As A Technology?
7pm Sustainable Development for LIberia
7pm Modernist Cuisine
7pm ACT Lecture | Tarek Elhaik: The Incurable-Image
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Tuesday, November 26
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12pm The Ríos Montt Trial: What Happened, and What's Next?
2:30pm Equilibrium Dynamics in a Fluctuating Environment
4pm "An Open Conversation about Internet Communications Privacy"
4:15pm More than Moore Opens the New Semiconductor World
5:30pm "Radioscapes: Acoustic Modernities"
7pm "The Unknown Known" Screening and Discussion
7pm Green tech Entrepreneur Forum & Brainstorming
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Friday, November 29
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Holyoke, MA Zero Net Energy Student Design Competition
1pm Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction
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Sunday, December 1
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Master Urban Gardener registration
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Monday, December 2
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12pm "Understanding climate model biases in Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude variability"
12pm Systems Thinking and the Inevitability of the Dreamliner Delays
12pm Double Dividend: Environmental Taxes and Fiscal Reform
1:30pm "The Egyptian Transition: The Betrayed Revolution"
3:15pm The Legacy of Bayard Rustin: Civil Rights Icon
4pm Nanostructured Materials and Systems for Biomedical Applications
4pm Worker Mobility in a Global Labor Market: Evidence From the United Arab Emirates
5:30pm Network Structure and the Aggregation of Information: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia
7pm "Evolution culinary theory"
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Tuesday, December 3
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12pm (Re)designing Democracy for the Long Term
12:30pm Cooperation in a Peer Production Economy: Experimental Evidence from Wikipedia
4pm How vegetation alters water motion, and the feedbacks to environmental system structure and function
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Towel Wrapped Round a Dowel - a simple balance exercise tool
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/24/1258108/-Towel-Wrapped-Round-a-Dowel
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Event Details
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Monday, November 25
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MIT Humanitarian Speaker Series: Rich Serino, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Monday, November 25, 2013
11:45a–1:00p
MIT, Building E51-615, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Rich Serino, Deputy Administrator of FEMA
In this installment, "Logistics and Innovation at FEMA: Lessons from the Past and a Direction for the Future," Rich Serino, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will discuss his experiences at FEMA and innovations for the future.
Richard Serino was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate as FEMA's Deputy Administrator in 2009. In this role, he works directly with Administrator Craig Fugate to promote the "whole community" approach to emergency management, which seeks to build, sustain, and improve the Department's capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. Drawing on 35 years of state and local emergency management, Mr. Serino strives to improve FEMA programs through financial accountability, improving the use of analytics to drive decisions, advancing the workforce, and fostering a culture of innovation.
Humanitarian Logistics Lecture Series
The Humanitarian Logistics Lecture Series talks, organized by the MIT CTL Humanitarian Response Lab, are free and open to the MIT community. Refreshments are provided with support from the Center for International Studies.
Web site:http://ctl.mit.edu/events/mit_humanitarian_speaker_series_rich_serino_federal_emergency_management_agency_fema
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for Transportation & Logistics
For more information, contact: Sarah Smith
617-253-4592
sajsmith at mit.edu
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Refining the climate role of tropical cyclones: Key constituents of the summer Hadley cell?
November 25, 2013
12pm-1pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Benjamin Schenkel (SUNY Albany)
Abstract: An important focus of ongoing research in tropical meteorology is why there are, on average, 60 tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) per year and how this number may vary in response to climate change. Greater understanding of current and future trends in TC activity may be achieved by determining whether TCs have a substantial impact upon the climate. While the precise atmospheric role of TCs in climate remains uncertain, recent research has suggested that TCs may play a role in atmospheric meridional heat transports given the strong correlation between aggregate TC activity and meridional heat transports during the following winter. Building upon prior work, the present study seeks to advance our understanding of the potential climate role of TCs by quantifying whether TCs are responsible for transporting significant quantities of total energy (i.e., sum of kinetic energy, latent energy, potential energy, and sensible heat) from the NH tropics into the Southern Hemisphere (SH) tropics during the peak of TC season.
Speaker's website: http://www.atmos.albany.edu/facstaff/schenkel/
MASS Seminar
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/mass-seminar-benjamin-schenkel-suny-albany
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC), Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
mass at mit.edu
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"Europe, Russia, and the Gas Revolution: Firms and Geopolitics in the Age of Shale."
Monday, November 25
12pm-1:30pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Rawi Abdelal, Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management, Harvard Business School
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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Interrogating the Anthropocene
Monday, November 25, 2013
12:15pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin Room 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Andrew Barry (University College London, Human Geography)
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.
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 tosts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
Science, Technology and Society seminars
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“Constraints and Portfolio of Clean Energy Vehicles towards a Sustainable Society”
Monday, November 25, 2013
2:30-3:30pm
MIT, Building E40-298, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Prof. Masaru Nakano of the Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University
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Welfare Effects of Lengthened Copyright Protection
Monday, November 25, 2013
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Imke Reimers (NBER & Northeastern)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): IO Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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State Capacity and Economic Development: A Network Approach
Monday, November 25, 2013
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daron Acemoglu (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact:
Economics Calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
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"India’s Energy Scenario: View from the States"
Monday, November 25, 2013
5:15pm
Littauer Building, Fainsod Room (Room 324), Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Sudhir Kumar, Indian Administrative Service, Former Secretary of Power, Government of Bihar
Gulzar Natarajan, Indian Administrative Service, Former Managing Director, Eastern Power Distribution Company Ltd., Government of Andhra Pradesh
South Asia Institute Science Technology and Energy Seminar
Co-sponsored with Harvard Kennedy School’s Sustainability Science Program.
http://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/event/indias-energy-scenario-view-from-the...
Contact Name: Meghan Smith
meghansmith at fas.harvard.edu
(617) 496-4289
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Management As A Technology?
Monday, November 25, 2013
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building E19-758, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Van Reenen (LSE)
Previous Title: Firm Performance and Wages: Evidence from Across the Corporate Hierarchy
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Applied Theory Workshop (Joint MIT/Harvard)
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
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Sustainable Development for LIberia
Monday Nov. 25, 2013
7 p.m.
Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth Street, Jamaica Plain
Learn About Sustainable Development for Liberia
Sustainable Development means using GREEN, sustainable, renewable techniques and technologies to replace inefficient modes of providing for ourselves. It is less harmful to the environment and to the people it is being used for.
We now have the opportunity to take action and launch Liberia into the 21st century by using GREEN technology and techniques to build a base for the natural ability of the people of Liberia to thrive! Step up to this challenge by learning what you can do to bring this positive change to West Africa.
WHO: World renowned Solar Expert Dr. Richard Komp will speak
WHAT: Learn about how he will teach local people to design, assemble, install, maintain and repair solar photo-voltaic panels.
WHEN: Monday Nov. 25, 2013 at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth Street, Jamaica Plain, MA.
HOW: Take the Orange line to Stony Brook station. When you come out, take a right onto Boylston and walk 1 block, turning right on Danforth.
RSVP: at otoney at comcast.net or call 617-427-6293.
AND: we will have snacks, videos about Dr. Komp’s work, music and good discussions!
LEARN: How you can help outfit a Liberian worker to become a Solar Technician who can then support their families at the same time as they bring electricity to their country. For $5.99 we can purchase a multi-meter to test electrical output of solar panels and start a Liberian worker on the road to a better life. For $500 we can fully outfit a Liberian Solar Technician so they can have the tools to make a living. These Solar Technicians will help rebuild war-torn Liberia in a Green and sustainable manner. They will learn permanent sustainable skills to help their family, country and planet!
SPONSORED BY: The Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc.
Make checks payable to: the Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc.
281 Humboldt Avenue
Dorchester, MA 02121-2241, USA
Or to donate by credit card go to: https://www.firstgiving.com/ - search for Green Neighbors – click on Green Neighbors – click the Donate button - follow the directions.
For further information, please feel free to contact Owen Toney atsustainableliberia at hotmail.com or call (617) 427-6293.
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Modernist Cuisine
Book signing following the lecture.
WHEN Mon., Nov. 25, 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) Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO; co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; and author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking
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 atseas.harvard.edu….
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 http://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO; co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; and author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking and Modernist Cuisine
Science and Cooking
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ACT Lecture | Tarek Elhaik: The Incurable-Image
Monday, November 25, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Tarek Elhaik
Tarek Elhaik's talk sheds doubt about the proliferation of medial acts deployed under the banner of the "Social." It is in fact still unclear how social media and art practices have emerged as the dominant creative horizons for resisting neo-liberal forms of mediation. Building on his ethnography of curatorial laboratories in Mexico City, Elhaik proposes the concept of the "Incurable-Image" as a point of departure for thinking and working through the malaise of contemporary curatorial and moving-image culture, offering another use of Deleuze's Notes on Societies of Control.
Tarek Elhaik is a media anthropologist, film curator, and Assistant Professor of Media and Culture at San Francisco State University. His work is informed by archival research on Mexican and Latin American avant-garde film and experimental media arts and the ethnography of curatorial laboratories in Mexico City. He has curated several experimental film programs from Latin America and the Arab world at the Pacific Film Archive, Ruhrtriennale, San Francisco Cinematheque, Tangiers Cinematheque, Rice University, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His writings have appeared in books and journals including Framework, Revista de Antropologia Social, and Critical Arts. He is currently completing a manuscript titled The Incurable-Image: Repetition & Curation on a Tri-Continental Scene.
Experiments in Thinking, Action, and Form: Cinematic Migrations
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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Tuesday, November 26
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The Ríos Montt Trial: What Happened, and What's Next?
WHEN Tue., Nov. 26, 2013, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South S-250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR DRCLAS and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Kirsten Weld, sssistant professor of history, Harvard University
LINK http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/node/2163
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Equilibrium Dynamics in a Fluctuating Environment
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ruitian Lang (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Organizational Economics
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa at mit.edu
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"An Open Conversation about Internet Communications Privacy"
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
4:00pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ladar Levison, Lavabit founder and activist
Abstract: Ladar Levison will present a short summary of his motivations for building Lavabit, the U.S. government's attempts to access the emails of his 410,000 users, and his response: challenging the government's requests in court and starting the Darkmail Alliance. He will then open the discussion to questions. This event aims to provide insight into the state of our online communications' security and the role of the U.S. government therein. Come with general questions about internet privacy, specific questions about the technical, legal, and political systems in play, or just to listen.
Bio: Ladar Levison was born and raised in San Francisco, California. After graduating from Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, he attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas. In the wake of the Patriot Act, 2004, Mr. Levison founded Nerdshack, LLC; a company dedicated to providing free and anonymous email service. Over the next ten years, Mr. Levison expanded his business and renamed the company Lavabit, LLC. As of August 2013, Lavabit had expanded to be an email service for over 400,000 users, 100,000 of which paid for Mr. Levison’s services. On August 8, 2013, Mr. Levison made the difficult decision to shut down his business after, in his words, “refusing to be complicit in crimes against the American people.” Now, he balances his work in the technology sector under the Darkmail Alliance with activism and advocacy projects for the protection of internet privacy.
Special CRCS Seminar
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More than Moore Opens the New Semiconductor World
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
4:15p–5:15p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hidemi Takasu, ROHM Semiconductor
The more Moore approach has been brought the remarkable progress to the semiconductor industry. However, this approach is getting difficult to produce excellent performance in comparison with the investment amount for it. Recently, the More than Moore approach is getting more interesting to enhance the value added and it???s differentiation on semiconductor devices. New functions have been created on Si-LSI devices by applying new materials to Si-LSI technology. And new type of complex devices have been invented by merging plural different technology fields such as Bio-technology, Photonics, Micro mechanics, Electronics and tec. Here, CIGS film applied super high sensitive Image sensors, Ferro-electric film applied Non-Volatile logic devices, high efficient power modules used Si devices, m-TAS technology embedded Bio-sensors and more unique devices are presented.
MTL Seminar Series
Refreshments at 4:00 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
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"Radioscapes: Acoustic Modernities"
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
5:30pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Ruben Gallo, Professor, Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies
Description of talk:
"In the early 20th century radio towers broadcast the sound of modernity. Poets, novelists, philosophers and artists tuned in and imagined an acoustic avant-garde. This talk will explore radio-experiments from the 1920s and 1930s that sought to respond to wireless aesthetics."
Architecture/HTC Lecture
HTC - History Theory and Criticism Lecture Series.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, HTC Forum
For more information, contact: Kate Brearley
617-258-8439
brearley at mit.edu
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"The Unknown Known" Screening and Discussion
WHEN Tue., Nov. 26, 2013, 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Film, Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cosponsored by the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard Film Archive, and Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.
SPEAKER(S) Errol Morris, filmmaker; Homi Bhabha, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public; seating is limited
CONTACT INFO http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/contact.html
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/unknown-known-film-donald-rumsfeld-errol-morris
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Green tech Entrepreneur Forum & Brainstorming.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Eastern Bank, 647 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Green-Tech-and-Energy/events/150116912/
You can see into the conference room from the street. Details Below.
The Agenda is:
We will introduce ourselves and tell about our interest, expertise or work (1st hr)
You can give a ~3 to 5 minute elevator speach about your startup if you would like. (We will divide the 1st hour by # of people.)
What stage is your ideas or startup? What is your goal?
Tell what personnel or additional expertise, funding, etc. you are seeking,
Discussion and Brainstorming on (2nd hr)
ideas for viable moneymaking startups,
methods of collaboration, networking, forming teams & partnerships etc.
marketing, media, social media, ideas that have worked well for publicity
Agencies, websites, companies that assist startups
Boston Greenfest & Gov't opportunities.
What would ou like to see in future meetups?
Seminars - We will have seminars by Sustainable Energy engineers and other tech experts as often as possible.
The bank is near the center of Central Sq., where Prospect and Mass Ave cross, - there is a Starbucks on the Northeast corner of the intersection. Next to Starbucks is a Flower shop, and next to that is Eastern Bank. You can see the conference room thru the window, so just wave to us and we will let you in.
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Friday, November 29
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Holyoke, MA Zero Net Energy Student Design Competition
http://www.neseastudentdesigncompetition.org
Register by Friday, November 29, 2013
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Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction
Friday, November 29, 2013
1:00p–4:00p
W33, Rockwell Cage, 106 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Arthur Ganson, Jeff Lieberman
What is the Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction? A grand event that could only happen at MIT! Participants link their mini contraptions together to form one mega chain reaction, which is set off as the event's thrilling culmination.
More than 1,500 people annually attend this fun-for-all-ages "extreme" event!
Join artist and inventor Arthur Ganson (renowned chain reaction creator) will be on hand, and local artist and MIT alumnus Jeff Lieberman, who will create the final reaction link and emcee the event.
Admission includes same day entry to the MIT Museum open until 6 p.m. Includes the new exhibition of kinetic art, 5000 Moving Pieces
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/fat.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Spectators: $15 for adults or $12.50 in advance, $5 for children ages 5-17, students, seniors and MIT ID-holders. Free for children under 5. Spectator fee includes free same-day admission to the MIT Museum, open until 6:00 p.m.
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: 617-253-5927
museuminfo at mit.edu
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Sunday, December 1
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Master Urban Gardener
Applications due December 1 - Apply today!
Master Urban Gardener (MUG) is an intensive, skill-building training for Boston community gardens. Whether you're just getting started or have been gardening for decades, MUG covers everything you need know to thrive in one of Boston's community gardens- from vegetable gardening and composting to community organizing.
Each winter, 30 community gardeners join MUG. Master Urban Gardener is open to Boston community gardeners who demonstrate a commitment to sharing skills with others. MUG consists of 30-hour classroom instruction, followed by 30 hours of volunteer service. Each Saturday session includes topical lectures as well as participatory activities.
Topics Include:
Vegetable garden planning for bigger harvests
Botany and soil science for gardeners
Managing weeds, pests and diseases without chemicals
Composting in community gardens
How to facilitate garden meetings and workshops
Rather than paying a fee, MUGers volunteer service hours to Boston's gardening community. MUG applications are due Dec 1, 2013.
For an application or details, visit http://bostonnatural.org/MUG.htm or call 617-542-7696
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Monday, December 2
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"Understanding climate model biases in Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude variability"
Monday, December 02, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Isla Simpson (LDEO)
Abstract: The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) represents a latitudinal shifting of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) jet stream and is the dominant mode of variability in the SH mid-latitude circulation. A common bias among global climate models is that they tend to exhibit SAM variability that is much too persistent, particularly in the summer season. Many climate forcings such as ozone depletion/recovery and increasing greenhouse gas concentrations result in tropospheric circulation changes that project strongly onto the SAM and therefore the inability of models to simulate natural SAM variability correctly is of concern for the ability of such models to accurately predict future circulation changes. Here the underlying cause of this bias is investigated and results reveal a common deficiency in the simulation of eddy-mean flow feedbacks in the SH mid-latitudes.
Speaker's website: http://www.columbia.edu/~irs2113/
MIT Atmospheric Seminar Series (MASS)
The MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) is a student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Monday from 12-1pm followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and post docs certainly participate.
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/mass-seminar-isla-simpson-ldeo
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC), Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: mass at mit.edu
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Systems Thinking and the Inevitability of the Dreamliner Delays
Monday, December 02, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
Webinar
RSVP at http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_120213/zhao-webinar-dreamliner-delays.html
Speaker: Dr. Yao Zhao, Associate Professor, Rutgers University
About this presentation:
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the fastest-selling plane in the history of commercial aviation, but its development was a nightmare. The first flight was delayed by 26 months, and the first delivery was 40 months overdue with a cost overrun of at least $10 billion. Using the results of a comprehensive empirical study of the actual events and facts, this webinar will offer strong evidence suggesting that the majority of delays were intentional.
Dr. Yao Zhao will:
Describe a mathematical modeling and analysis of economic drivers in joint development programs that showed the 787's risk-sharing arrangement forced Boeing and its partners to share the "wrong" risk. This led each partner into a "prisoner's dilemma" wherein delays were in the best interests of the firms even while they were driving themselves into disaster;
Discuss the reconciliation of the analysis with empirical evidence, which reveals the rationale behind many seemingly irrational behaviors that delayed this program; and
Suggest a new "fair sharing" partnership to share the "right" risk and greatly alleviate delays for development programs of this kind in the future.
This research was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Award No. 0747779.
We invite you to join us!
MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series
This series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.
Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_120213/zhao-webinar-dreamliner-delays.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to all
Tickets: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_120213/zhao-webinar-dreamliner-delays.html
Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division, MIT System Design and Management
For more information, contact: Lois Slavin
617-253-0812
lslavin at mit.edu
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Double Dividend: Environmental Taxes and Fiscal Reform
Monday, December 2
12pm-1:30pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Dale Jorgenson, Samuel W. Morris University Professor, Harvard University
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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"The Egyptian Transition: The Betrayed Revolution"
WHEN Mon., Dec. 2, 2013, 1:30 – 3 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Nye A, Taubman Building, Fifth Floor, Harvard Kennedy School, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Middle East Initiative, HKS
SPEAKER(S) H.A. Hellyer, nonresident fellow, The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., and the Royal United Services Institute, London
NOTE Moderated by HKS Professor Tarek Masoud
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/6213/ha_hellyer.html
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The Legacy of Bayard Rustin: Civil Rights Icon
WHEN Mon., Dec. 2, 2013, 3:15 – 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Division of Continuing Education, Grossman Common Room, 51 Brattle Street, Second Floor, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement
SPEAKER(S) Walter Naegle, partner of Bayard Rustin
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617.495.4072
NOTE On Nov. 20 President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Bayard Rustin, the great civil rights leader and mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King. His partner, Walter Naegle, who accepted the medal will discuss the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and its effect on the Civil Rights movement. Join Bayard Rustin Study Group members to hear Naegle's insights on Rustin and his passion for justice.
LINK http://hilr.dce.harvard.edu/news-and-events/partner-civil-rights-icon-bayard-rustin-talk-hilr
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Nanostructured Materials and Systems for Biomedical Applications
Monday, Dec 2, 2013
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Room 521, Wyss Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston
Speaker: Jackie Y. Ying, Founding Executive Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore
Nanostructured materials have been developed for various biomedical applications. They have been designed as stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems and sustained protein delivery systems. Nanocomposite systems have also been designed to provide simultaneous drug delivery and bioimaging functions as theranostic systems. They can be synthesized with unique carrier materials that offer synergistic therapeutic effects with the drugs to be delivered. In addition, nanostructure processing has been employed in creating synthetic cell culture substrates for the expansion and controlled differentiation of stem cells. Nanotechnology has also been combined with microfabrication to obtain engineered tissue scaffolds and diagnostic devices.
Contact information:
alison.reggio at wyss.harvard.edu
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Worker Mobility in a Global Labor Market: Evidence From the United Arab Emirates
Monday, December 02, 2013
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-151, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Suresh Naidu (Columbia)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: Economics Calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
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"Accountability and Transparency: National Security, the Media and the Public Good."
Monday, December 2
4-6 p.m.
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 1737 Cambridge Street, Bowie Vernon Room (K-262)
Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution with Joe Klein, Shorenstein Fellow and columnist at Time magazine; and Frank Thorp IV, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, was the U.S. Navy’s chief of information for the Department of the Navy providing strategic communication counsel to the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Joint Communication) overseeing strategic communication initiatives, and chief of media for U.S. Central Command during Iraqi Freedom. Moderated by Donna Hicks, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Co-sponsored by the Program on Negotiation; the Nieman Foundation for Journalism; the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy; and The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
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Network Structure and the Aggregation of Information: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia
Monday, December 02, 2013
5:30p–7:00p
Harvard, Littauer M15, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Abhijit Banerjee (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Applied Theory Workshop (Joint MIT/Harvard)
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
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"Evolution culinary theory"
Tickets will be available on Tuesday, November 26th at the Harvard Box Office, located in the Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
WHEN Mon., Dec 2, 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) Ferran Adrià, elBulli Foundation
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 seas.harvard.edu….
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 http://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO; co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures; and author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking and Modernist Cuisine
Science and Cooking
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Tuesday, December 3
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(Re)designing Democracy for the Long Term
WHEN Tue., Dec. 3, 2013, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Conference Room (Room 226), Ash Center, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center
SPEAKER(S) Éloi Laurent, senior economist at OFCE (Sciences Po Centre for Economic Research in Paris, France) and visiting scholar, Center for European Studies / vsiting professor, Environmental Science and Public Policy.
Michael MacKenzie, Democracy Fellow, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School.
Graham Smith, professor of politics, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, UK and trustee for the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development, currently Ash Center senior visiting scholar.
CONTACT INFO melissa_danello at hks.harvard.edu
NOTE Many of our most pressing political problems involve long-term issues such as environmental degradation, debt accumulation, education spending, or the viability of social policies such as public pension plans. Short electoral cycles create strong incentives for politicians to adopt policies that produce near-term net benefits. Moreover, individuals are often more concerned about their own immediate interests than they are about long-term collective problems. For example, environmental concerns have consistently ranked far behind immediate economic concerns in almost all democracies since the start of the “great recession” in 2008. But is this a structural problem with democracies? Are democracies inherently vulnerable to fall prey to the concerns of the present?
While there are features of democratic systems that create and nurture short-term imperatives, democracies are not without resources for overcoming these challenges. Democracies have the capacity to be dynamic and can, at least in principle, remain responsive to both short- and long-term concerns. If democratic regimes are to overcome their own susceptibilities to short-termism, they need to be equipped to do so.
Please join this seminar for a discussion on (re)designing democracy for the long-term. More specifically, what institutions and practices – constitutional protections, new forms of citizen engagement, alternative metrics and indicators, etc. – can help produce a better balance between the interests of the present and those of the future?
The workshop will begin with short presentations by specialists in the field on aspects of institutional design for long-term decision making and then open up for discussion and deliberation.
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/Re-designing-Democracy-for-the-Long-Term
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Cooperation in a Peer Production Economy: Experimental Evidence from Wikipedia
December 3, 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/2013/12/hergueux#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET.
Jerome Hergueux, Berkman Center Fellow
From Wikipedia to Open Source Software, Peer Production – a large-scale collaborative model of production primarily based on voluntary contributions – is emerging as an economically significant production model alongside firms, markets and governments. Yet, its impressive success remains difficult to explain through the assumptions of standard economic theory.
In this talk, Jerome Hergueux will engage the audience in a reflection about the prosocial foundations of cooperation in this new Peer Production economy, taking Wikipedia as one paradigmatic example. Based on the results from an online game-theoretic experiment in which hundreds of Wikipedia contributors took part, Jerome will assess economics’ traditional understanding of the other-regarding motives that can foster online cooperation. In this process, he will ask the question: how can we start to build a workable theory of individuals’ motivations to freely contribute time and efforts for the provision of global public goods?
About Jerome
Jerome is a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Sciences Po (Department of Economics) and the University of Strasbourg (Institute of Political Studies) specialized in behavioral economics and experimental methods. He is a Research Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (2011-2014), where he does most of his Ph.D. work. At Berkman, Jerome couples tools from experimental economics and computational social science to uncover how social preferences shape our behavior over the Internet. He is strongly involved in Professor Yochai Benkler’s Cooperation project. He is also involved with the Mindsport Research Network, which he helped launch together with Professor Charles Nesson in 2011.
Jerome is primarily interested in applying the analytical tools of experimental and behavioral economics to the understanding of the evolution of culture, broadly defined as any set of norms of cooperation shared by a group of individuals trying to overcome particular collective action issues (be it in online or offline settings). He then tries to assess the relevance of those norms for determining a wide range of economic outcomes at the community level. Jerome originates from the French region of Alsace. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Finance from the University of Strasbourg and Masters degrees in International Relations and Affairs and International Economics and Trade from Sciences Po. Jerome speaks French, English and Arabic, and is heavily interested in the Middle East's politics and culture.
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How vegetation alters water motion, and the feedbacks to environmental system structure and function
Tuesday, December 03, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 3-370, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Heidi Nepf, MIT
For over a century vegetation has been removed from channels and coastal zones to facilitate navigation and development. In recent decades, however, we have recognized the ecologic and economic benefits of aquatic vegetation. It removes nutrients, providing a buffer against coastal eutrophication. Marshes and mangroves provide coastal protection by damping waves and storm surge. Through its ecosystem services, aquatic vegetation contributes economic benefits worth over ten trillion dollars per year. This seminar will first summarize basic concepts in vegetation hydrodynamics, i.e. the physical way vegetation changes the flow field, including the coherent turbulent structures formed within the wakes behind finite patches of vegetation and in the shear layers at vegetation boundaries. Second, using these concepts we will explore two case studies. In the first case, we consider the changes in flow and sediment resuspension as the density of plants within a seagrass meadow increases. In the second case we consider the structure of the wake behind a finite patch of vegetation. Because of its porosity, some flow can pass through the patch, and this delays the formation of the von-Karman vortex street, leaving a region of low velocity and turbulence directly behind the patch [clear region in photo]. Fine particle deposition is enhanced in this region, providing a positive feedback for patch growth in the streamwise direction.
MMEC Seminar Series
Mechanics: Modeling, Experimentation, Computation. Department of Mechanical Enginnering.
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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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, December 4
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Transportation System Resilience, Extreme Weather, and Climate Change
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
12:00 - 12:45 p.m., Eastern Time,
55 Broadway, Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Susanne E. DesRoches, LEED AP BD+C, Assistant Chief, Resilience and Sustainability, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
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xTalks: Online teacher education in Pakistan
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building 12-122, access via 60 Vassar Street or 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Haynes Miller, Dick Larson, Eric Klopfer, and others
MIT faculty members Miller, Larson, Klopfer and others who were engaged in an online teacher training program in Pakistan, will be joined by Vijay Kumar, Brandon Muramatsu & Lourdes Aleman to talk about their experiences and lessons learned from developing a program that highlighted pedagogies and educational technologies used at MIT. The courses in the program featured games-based learning, simulations, visualizations and concept-based applications.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
This series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): OEIT- Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
For more information, contact: Mary Curtin
617-252-1981
oeit-all at mit.edu
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“Weather, Salience of Climate Change, and Congressional Voting”
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Harvard, Littauer L-382, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Erich Muehlegger, Harvard University, and Evan Herrnstadt, University of Michigan
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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FOCUS: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building E62-262, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daniel Goleman
Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college campuses. Working as a science journalist, Goleman reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. His 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books) was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year-and-a-half; with more than 5,000,000 copies in print worldwide in 30 languages, and has been a best seller in many countries. Goleman???s latest book is Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. The book argues that new information technologies will create ???radical transparency,??? allowing us to know the environmental, health, and social consequences of what we buy. As shoppers use point-of-purchase ecological comparisons to guide their purchases, market share will shift to support steady, incremental upgrades in how products are made ??? changing every thing for the better. Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, was published in 2006. Social intelligence, the interpersonal part of emotional intelligence, can now be understood in terms of recent findings from neuroscience. Goleman???s book describes the many implications of this new science, including for altruism, parenting, love, health, learning and leadership.
Web site: http://thecenter.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, MIT Leadership Center
For more information, contact: 617-254-6030
info at thecenter.mit.edu
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Thursday, December 5
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"Nature’s engines: Powering life"
December 5, 2013
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (The Pappalardo Community Room)
Julia Yeomans, University of Oxford
Active systems, from cells and bacteria to flocks of birds, create their own energy that they use to move and to control the complex processes needed for life. A goal of biophysicists to is construct the new theory needed to understand these living systems which operate far from equilibrium. To this end we are asking questions like: How do biomolecules find their way across crowded cells? How do birds, bacteria and cells self-organize into similar patterns? Can tiny marine creatures stir the ocean?
See more at: http://web.mit.edu/physics/events/colloquia.html#sthash.qjSmA0xq.dpuf
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The Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Air Pollution
Thursday, December 5, 2013
4:00pm
Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Aaron Cohen, Principal Scientist, Health Effects Institute
http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/event/Cohen131205
Contact Name: Chris Nielsen
nielsen2 at fas.harvard.edu
Sponsored by China Project, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
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The Piracy Crusade: How the Music Industry's War on Sharing Destroys Markets and Erodes Civil Liberties
December 5, 2013
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
In the name of combating “digital piracy,” the music industry and its allies have spent billions of dollars to lobby for stronger copyright laws, shuttered hundreds of promising businesses, and sued tens of thousands of American internet users. Rutgers University Media Studies Professor Aram Sinnreich investigates the rationale behind these
decisions, and explores their implications for free speech, civil liberties, and market innovation, in his soon-to-be published book, The Piracy Crusade. Ultimately, he argues, we are squandering our best hopes for a functional democracy and a thriving marketplace in the 21st Century in order to chase a phantom in an unwinnable war. Instead, we
must focus on new laws, policies and economic models that reward and thrive on the free sharing of information in cyberspace and beyond.
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The Gettysburg Project: Understanding and Revitalizing Civic Engagement
WHEN Thu., Dec 5, 2013, 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer, Weil Town Hall, Lobby Level, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hauser Institute for Civil Society at the Center for Public Leadership
SPEAKER(S) ARCHON FUNG | Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Harvard Kennedy School
MARSHALL GANZ | Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/hauser/news-events/upcoming-events/20131121
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Meet Your Local Garbage Patch: Surface to Seafloor Marine Debris Cleanup in Boston Harbor and the Gulf of Maine
Thursday, December 5
7 pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, 1 Central Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar/358008333
Rachael Z. Miller, Founder and Executive Director, The Rozalia Project
The oceanic garbage patches get a lot of press, but do you know what is floating right here in Boston Harbor? The Rozalia Project uses underwater robots, nets and hands to clean our ocean from surface to seafloor while studying the problem and running education programs. They operate from aboard the 60-foot sailing vessel American Promise in the Gulf of Maine and Massachusetts Bay as well as from partner docks and vessels throughout the U.S. Rachael Miller, Rozalia Project's founder and executive director, will lead an introduction about the problem of marine debris in our waters here in New England (as well as those thousands of miles away) and follow up with Rozalia Project's trash-hunting adventures, including getting attacked by a lobster, freeing an octopus and making some unusual finds while picking up over 500,000 pieces of ocean trash with 10,500 participants all over the U.S. Register here.
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Friday, December 6
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"The Power of Promise: Examining the Feasibility of A Rapid Expansion of Nuclear Energy in India."
Friday, December 6, 2013
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th Floor, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
M. V. Ramana, Nuclear Futures Laboratory & Program on Science and Global Security, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Princeton University
Science, Technology, and Engineering Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
Louisa_Lund at hks.harvard.edu
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Rambax MIT Senegalese Drum Ensemble
Friday, December 06, 2013
8:00p–10:00p
MIT, Lobdell, Stratton Student Center, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Lamine Toure, director
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
mta-request at mit.edu
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Saturday, December 7
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IdeaStorm- High School Student Entrepreneurship Event
When: Saturday, December 7, 2013
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Microsoft NERD Center 1 Memorial Drive Cambridge
RSVP at http://youngentrepreneurchallenge.com/ideastorm/
Description: IdeaStorm is a mini-version of the Young Entrepreneur Challenge for high school students. And the best part? It's free!
Come into Boston and join other local high school students in a down and dirty brainstorming and business pitch event.
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Sunday, December 8
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HEET Weatherization Work Party
December 8
11am
Temple Shalom, Medford
Come along to help out and learn how to save energy in your own home. Lunch will be served and a good time had by all.
Sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VuuEdaLoCDcnvzjOoQ-VMa8Q79btjjud3ila_uO2fXo/viewform
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Monday, December 9
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"Manipulation of Day-ahead Electricity Prices through Virtual Bidding"
Monday, December 9, 2013
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Lunch will be provided
with Chiara LoPrete, HUCE Fellow
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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Tuesday, December 10
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Time Trade Circle Orientation
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Greater-Boston-area-freegan-and-dumpster-diving-meetup/events/150691282/
I am not attending these (I am already a member) but I thought I'd post them FYI. These are orientations for joining the Time Trade Circle. (You have to attend one orientation to join.)
The TTC is an alternative economy where people trade services for hours, not money. All services are (more-or-less) valued equally, so each hour of work you do is an hour put in your account that you can then spend on someone else's services. Anyway, it being not about money, I thought TTC seemed like a freegan notion, so I thought I'd share here:
https://hourworld.org/bank/?hw=1079
These meetings will be led by Carol. Materials will also be available in Braille. Children are welcome. Please try to arrive on time!
Directions to the Cambridge Community Center
(Wheelchair accessible space):
From Central Square (on the T red line), walk out Western Avenue. There is a traffic light at Howard Street, and a small convenience store on the corner. Turn right. The Center is about 150' from there, on your left, at the corner of Howard & Callender: a large red building with stairs and a ramp in front.
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Bayonne Revisited: Water Partnerships One Year Later
Tuesday, December 10
2 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific, noon Mountain and 1 p.m. Central)
RSVP at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/242689038?utm_source=SCN+InBox+e-Newsletter&utm_campaign=c82bd35a19-UWWebinar11-22-2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_11e7ac761c-c82bd35a19-188562049
This free, one-hour webinar will describe the progress made since United Water and global investment firm KKR signed a water partnership deal with Bayonne, N.J. in December 2012.
Many cities like Bayonne are seeking to limit water and sewer tariff increases while crumbling infrastructure and new regulatory requirements cause ever-increasing demands for capital improvements and spending. The ability to unlock value in existing water and wastewater assets to reduce outstanding indebtedness and/or fund new capital projects while also reducing operational costs, better managing risks, and securing long-term guarantees are among the benefits several other cities are considering by opting for alternative financing approaches. Learn what United Water’s solution has meant for Bayonne over the first year since the deal was closed.
This webinar will feature Joseph P. Baumann, Jr., an attorney representing the Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority, and Dan Sugarman, vice president of marketing & strategy for United Water.
Join us Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 11 a.m. Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 p.m. Central and 2 p.m. Eastern. (Please note your time zone!)
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"Ancient Lessons for a Sustainable Future in the Fire-Prone Southwest US"
Wednesday December 11th, 2013
Harvard, Putnam Lab, Peabody Museum
12:00 p.m.
a talk by Christopher I. Roos (Southern Methodist University)
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How Does Thoreau Matter? Environmentalism and the Changing American Landscape
Wednesday, December 11
6 pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Free and open to the public
Henry David Thoreau is widely viewed as an icon of the conservation movement and an early champion of America's pastoral landscapes. But do we read Thoreau accurately, or are we missing key parts of his message? What kind of landscape vision might Thoreau advocate were he living within today's complex environmental movement? Environmental historians Conevery Bolton Valencius, Brian Donahue, and ecologist David Foster will explore Thoreau's relevance to our lives today. Reception to follow discussion in the HMNH’s new exhibit, Thoreau’s Maine Woods: A Journey in Photographs with Scot Miller.
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MIT Water Summit
December 12th
8:30am - 6pm
MIT Building NE25 / Whitehead Institute, Five Cambridge Center
RSVP at http://mit.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.aspx?id=294&cid=35&p=1
Free for MIT, $3 for other students, $10 for others
The MIT Water Summit is bringing together experts from industry, academia, government, and investment to discuss the challenges and cutting-edge developments in the water sector.
The all-day event will feature 4 panels:
Who Owns Water?
The Food-Water Nexus: The Buzz
The Water-Energy Nexus
Emerging Water Pollutants
Go to waterclub.mit.edu for more details.
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Evolving Landscape and Regulatory Framework for Solar PV in Massachusetts and California
December 13, 2013
9 am to 12:15 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
Installation of solar PV in New England and other U.S. states has been accelerating rapidly in recent years-due largely to falling PV prices and favorable regulatory mechanisms. In Massachusetts, for example, Governor Patrick's PV target of having 250 MW installed by 2017 was met early this year (nearly 5 years ahead of schedule), inspiring the Administration to set a new, higher target of 1,600 MW installed by 2020! While PV has many benefits related to being a renewable resource that can produce electricity coincident with New England's summer peak, many wonder whether it can be procured at lower cost (i.e., with fewer subsidies).
Come join us as we take a close look at Massachusetts' evolving landscape and regulatory framework for PV. The timing is ripe, as DOER has recently commissioned a series of PV related studies on the PV market, the solar carve-out, and net metering-and is readying new draft regulations on the SREC market. Meanwhile these issues remain an area of keen interest and focus for the Massachusetts Legislature and diverse stakeholders.
We have an excellent panel to help us explore this important regional case study on PV in Massachusetts:
Commissioner Mark Sylvia, MA DOER
Sen. Ben Downing, Chair, MA Joint Committee on Telecom, Utilities, & Energy
Ron Gerwatowski, Senior VP, National Grid
Carrie Cullen-Hitt, Senior VP, State Affairs, Solar Energy Industries Association
To provide a counter-point, and seek lessons being learned from outside the region, we will begin the Roundtable with a presentation on California's evolving PV market and regulatory landscape by Nick Chaset, Special Adviser on Distributed Resources to Governor Brown and the California PUC.
Raab Associates Presents: The 138th NE Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Free and open to the public.
No advanced registration!!
The presentations from our November 15th Roundtable, Natural Gas & Electricity Interface Challenges in New England can be accessed for free on our website at
http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp
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Farm Hack Discussion
Wed 12/18
6pm
Community Teamwork, Board Room (2nd floor), 155 Merrimack Street, 2nd Floor Lowell, Massachusetts 01852
Register for this free event online at: http://farmhack-lowell.eventbrite.com
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/apitronics-farm-hack-new-entry-tickets-9275325749
The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Farm Hack/Apitronics, and Lowell Makes invite you to an interactive dialog between farmers and those who want to help level the playing field for them and help support access to fresh, nutritious and sustainable local food.
Apitronics is a local start-up that is making wireless sensor and automation networks for agriculture better and more affordable. Louis Thiery and RJ Steinert, the company founders, are both board members of Farm Hack, an open-source community for resilient agriculture. As such, they are focused on helping diversified and regenerative farms become more efficient and productive. For more information, visit www.Apitronics.com.
Their systems are built on their own open-source platform encouraging tweaking and innovation on a farm level. The hardware is extremely flexible and designed for prototyping new ideas, but the most common applications include weather stations, field monitors, greenhouse alert systems and automation.
Lowell Makes is a non-profit community workshop and education center located in downtown Lowell, and is helping to organize this event as a way to extend the technical innovation being done by its members into the local farming community. For more information, visit www.LowellMakes.com.
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Opportunity
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Sustainable Minds®, a Cambridge Innovation Center startup, has developed a cloud-based tool that makes it easier to “design greener products right, from the start.” Their Sustainable Minds software lets product designers explore, up front, the environmental impacts of design decisions throughout a product’s life cycle, from materials and manufacturing, to consumables and energy use, to end-of-life considerations such as recycling and waste. More info:http://ist.mit.edu/news/sustainable_minds
Subscriptions Available!
This year the Director of the Sustainability Initiative at Sloan signed up for 100 Sustainable Minds subscriptions. They’ve reserved 30 subscriptions for their courses; 70 are available at no cost to MIT community members. They hope that teams developing products for competitions around campus will jump on the chance to use the software. Contact Jason Jay (jjay at mit.edu) to inquire about the subscription.
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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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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