[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - December 13, 2015
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Dec 13 10:34:07 PST 2015
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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Index
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Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.
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Monday, December 14
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7pm Soap-bubble physics to visualize and count individual viral pathogens
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Tuesday, December 15
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10am Faculty Forum Online, Alumni Edition: After Iran, Nuclear Energy's Future
12pm Techno-Vernacular Creativity and STEAM
1pm Language Technologies for Understanding Law, Politics, and Public Policy
4:30pm Nanomedicine, Public Health & Uncertainty
7pm Webinar: Update from Paris
7pm CafeSci Boston: Time in Time Again: Reconstructing the Geologic Past through Ancient Protein
7pm #HackWinter Demo Night
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Wednesday, December 16
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7:30am December Boston Sustainability Breakfast
12pm Zero-carbon-emission Aluminum Production by Solid Oxide Membrane-Based Electrolysis Process
12:30pm Climate Change: Health and Disease Threats
4pm Microbiome Engineering: from current practice to future therapy
6:30pm Ignite Boston – Data
7pm Webinar: Update from Paris
7pm Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors Series: Chasing Ice
8pm The Art of Losing: five stories about the cost of science
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Thursday, December 17
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12pm DARPA Robotics Fast Track
4pm War and Human Nature in Modern America
6pm Boston New Technology December 2015 Product Showcase #BNT60
6:30pm A Journey into the Dark Web...
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Friday, December 18
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11am PSFC Seminar: Acoustically-Driven Magnetized Target Fusion at General Fusion
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
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Monday, December 14
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Soap-bubble physics to visualize and count individual viral pathogens
Monday, December 14
7pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville
M. Selim Ünlü (and John H. Connor)
Disease diagnostics have been evolving through the synergistic collaboration of medicine with engineering and science. Clinical tests actually date back thousands of years to the time of Hippocrates, when the color and odor of urine was utilized in diagnostics. Until the 20th century, clinical diagnostics relied mostly on medical history and physical examination. With the advent of the measurement/sensing technologies that provided the ability of detecting trace substances in bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid, in vitro tests have become a cornerstone of clinical practice.
Following the invention of optical microscope in the 17th century, scientists have visualized cells, microorganisms and bacteria and identified previously unknown sources of infection. Viruses, however, remained elusive due to their small size compared to the wavelength of visible light making visualization under an optical microscope practically impossible. Recently, we utilized a fundamental property of light – its wave nature – allowing for enhanced visualization and measurement of minute amounts of material using interference. Using this property of light that makes soap bubbles display wonderful patterns of rainbow colors, we can now visualize and count individual viruses bound on a sensor surface. The ability of counting individual viruses or “digital detection” is a disruptive technology potentially allowing most advanced disease diagnostic tools to become available at a low cost and at the point-of-need. This is similar to how digital audio on compact discs enabled access to the highest-quality music recordings without expensive Hi-Fi equipment. Similar to reading a binary recording (1 s and 0 s), detection of single particles, when possible, is easier than the precise measurement of the ensemble quantities.
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Tuesday, December 15
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Faculty Forum Online, Alumni Edition: After Iran, Nuclear Energy's Future
Tuesday, December 15
10:00a–10:45a
Location: Online
Alumni professors share their research on the future of nuclear energy and arms in the world. Panelist lineup:
Waleed Hazbun PhD '02, American University of Beirut
Martin Lopez-De-Bertodano '83, SM '83, Purdue University
John Mathiason PhD '68, Cornell University
Moderator: Wade Roush PhD '94, Outreach Officer, MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society
Web site: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=28007&content_id=31052
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Alumni Association
For more information, contact: Alumni Learn
alumnilearn at mit.edu
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Techno-Vernacular Creativity and STEAM
Tuesday, December 15
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School campus, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1023, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/Gaskins#RSVP
Event will be webcast live on https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2015/12/Gaskins at 12:00 pm
with Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, STEAM Lab Director at Boston Arts Academy
Dr. Gaskins discusses her model for ‘techno-vernacular’ creative production as an area of practice that investigates the characteristics of this production and its application in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) learning. Her research consists of a study involving workshops conducted between 2013 and 2014 that sought to examine the impact of the following combined methods a) culturally situated design, which connects vernacular art and crafts with standards-based STEM principles and allows users to simulate and develop their own creations; b) art-based learning, which is effective in stimulating the development of 21st century skills such as creativity, learning, and innovation; and c) educational applications of new technologies on underrepresented ethnic groups' learning in STEAM. She has applied this research in her work as STEAM Lab Director at Boston Arts Academy.
About Nettrice
Nettrice Gaskins was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She majored in Visual Art at duPont Manual High School in Louisville, KY. She earned a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and a MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. She worked for several years in K-12 and post-secondary education, community media and technology before enrolling at Georgia Tech where she received a doctorate in Digital Media in 2014. Her model for ‘techno-vernacular creativity’ is an area of practice that investigates the characteristics of this production and its application in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). When she is not advancing interdisciplinary education, Ms. Gaskins blogs for Art21, the producer of the Peabody award-winning PBS series, Art in the Twenty-First Century and publishes articles and essays about topics such as Afrofuturism and Ghost Nature. Her essay was included in Meet Me at the Fair: A World's Fair Reader published by ETC Press.
In the past Nettrice has supported the use of digital technologies by students and faculty in all art/media disciplines; worked as a teaching artist for the Boston 100K Artscience Innovation Prize; and was a youth media/technology trainer for Adobe Youth Voices. I was board president of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture and on the board of the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet).
Nettrice presented Black Futurism at We Are City 2014 in Indianapolis, Cybism and Decoding the Letter at ISEA2011 in Istanbul and co-facilitated Augmented Reality in Open Spaces (AROS) at ISEA2012 in Albuquerque, NM. She moderated Enlightenment, Strange Mathematics & Rhythmic Equations at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2014). She was a Digital STEAM research intern at the Smithsonian Institution (2013) and received funding from the National Science Foundation for Advancing STEM Through Culturally Situated Arts-Based Learning (2014).
For Art21 Nettrice authored several blog posts and Polyculturalist Visions, New Frameworks of Representation: Multiculturalism and the American Culture Wars. She wrote Afro-Futurism: Countering Mass Culture’s Reductional Breakdown Through Creative Forms of Representation for Nictoglobe Magazine, and Urban Metaphysics: Creating Game Layers on Top of the World for UCLA's Mediascape.
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Language Technologies for Understanding Law, Politics, and Public Policy
Tuesday, December 15
1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
MIT, Building 32-G882, 32 Vassr Street, Cambridge
Speaker: William Li , MIT CSAIL
This thesis focuses on machine learning techniques to uncover patterns and insights from large, text-based government datasets. First, we present a authorship attribution model on unsigned U.S. Supreme Court opinions, offering insights about the authorship of important cases and the dynamics of Supreme Court decision-making. Second, we apply software engineering metrics to analyze the complexity of the United States Code, revealing the structure and evolution of the U.S. Code over the past century. Third, we trace policy trajectories of bills in Congress, making it possible to visualize the contents of four key bills during the Financial Crisis. Finally, this thesis presents a novel model, Probabilistic Text Reuse (PTR), for finding repeated passages of text. Because text reuse occurs in legal and political documents because documents present similar ideas, different versions of documents are often quite similar, or because legitimate reasons for copying text exists. We illustrate the utility of PTR by capturing the structure of a large collection of public comments on the FCC's proposed regulations on net neutrality.
Contact: William P. Li, wli at csail.mit.edu
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Nanomedicine, Public Health & Uncertainty
Tuesday, December 15
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
BU, 72 East Concord Street, Hiebert Lounge, Boston
Public Health Forum. Speaker: Martin Philbert, Dean, University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Lecture 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Reception to follow. #PHForum2015
More info: http://www.bu.edu/sph/news-events/signature-events/public-health-fora/public-health-fora-2015-2016-2/nanomedicine-public-health-uncertainty/
Contact: Megan Keating
keatingm at bu.edu
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=177109@17.calendar.bu.edu
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Webinar: Update from Paris
Tuesday, December 15
7pm - 8pm
RSVP at http://www.massclimateaction.net/update_from_paris
MCAN will send you the login information before the webinar.
This webinar is presented by MCAN's board member, Sonia Hamel, who will be attending the United Nation Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Tune in with us to see what happened at the conference and what it means for Massachusetts!
Sonia Hamel is an independent consultant advising governments and foundations on climate, energy and transportation policy. She serves as a Senior Associate for the Center for Climate Strategies helping states make decisions to tackle climate change. Sonia also serves as a consultant to the United Kingdom in the area of emissions trading and climate change.
Contact: Carol Oldham
carololdham at massclimateaction.net
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CafeSci Boston: Time in Time Again: Reconstructing the Geologic Past through Ancient Protein
Tuesday, December 15
7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Cafe Artscience, 650 Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/time-in-time-again-reconstructing-the-geologic-past-through-ancient-proteins-with-betul-kacar-tickets-19757172234
Betül Kacar, Harvard University
When accessing our planet's deep past, we have two main datasets to draw upon in reconstructing major transitions in the biosphere: the rock record (i.e., fossils) and the existing biodiversity (i.e., genetic sequences). In this talk, we will explore another methodology — one that allows us to reconstruct ancient genes. We will discuss applications in modern biology that may be helpful for interpreting ancient "biosignatures" recorded in the rocks, and for shedding light on significant past events in evolution.
Speaker Bio: Betül Kacar was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Biomolecular Chemistry. She is a Resarch Project Leader at Harvard's Dept. of Organismal & Evolutionary Biology, where she resurrects inferred ancestral genes in the laboratory and engineers them inside modern genomes, creating ancient-modern hybrid organismic systems amenable to genetic and biochemical characterization. Prior to that, she was a Postdoc with NASA's Astrobiology Institute, where she designed and constructed a bacterial system combining experimental paleogenetics with laboratory evolution. Dr. Kacar is a recipient of research grants from NASA and The John Templeton Foundation, and is a co-founder of SAGANet: The Online Astrobiology Grassroots Network, designed to promote mentorship and outreach activities in science, engineering and related fields.
Do You Plan to Attend? Please join us for drink and conversation. This is a free event, but limited seating is available.
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#HackWinter Demo Night
Tuesday, December 15
7:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center - 5th floor Venture Cafe, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Come see the presentations of the projects from our #HackWinter app challenge! Teams have been working since November 21st on winter-specific apps and projects and will be presenting them in front of a panel of judges on December 15th at the Venture Cafe at CIC. **Please note that the Demo Night will be taking the place of our regular weekly hack night.**
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Wednesday, December 16
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December Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, December 16
7:30 AM to 8:30 AM
Pret A Manger, 185 Franklin Street, Post Office Square, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/december-boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-19661861156
Join us for the December Boston Sustainability breakfast, an informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals together for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time any time between 7:30 and 830 am.
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Zero-carbon-emission Aluminum Production by Solid Oxide Membrane-Based Electrolysis Process
Wednesday, December 16
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
BU, 15 Saint Mary's Street, Rm 105, Boston
MSE PhD Prospectus Defense of Shizhao Su
ABSTRACT: Solid Oxide Membrane (SOM) based electrolysis process is an innovative technology that has been demonstratedto successfully produce many energy-intensive metals directly from their oxides in an efficient, economical andenvironmentally sound way. During the SOM electrolysis process, an oxygen-ion-conducting SOM tube made ofytteria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) separates the pre-selected molten flux with dissolved metal oxide from the inertanode assembly inside the YSZ tube. When the applied DC potential between the cathode, which is in contact withthe molten salt and the anode exceeds the dissociation potential of desired metal oxide, the metal is reduced at thecathode while oxygen ions migrate through the YSZ membrane and are oxidized at the anode. Employing the inert anode allows the oxygen to evolve from the anode and be collected as a value adding byproduct. The development of a zerocarbon-emission aluminum production process utilizing SOM electrolysis is presented in this dissertation prospectus.It is low cost, less energy-intensive and environmentally friendly compared with the state-of-the-art Hall-Hroultprocess for aluminum production. The molten flux used in the electrolysis process are selected and optimized through thermodynamics calculation and experimental characterization. The physical and chemical properties of the molten flux, such as liquidus temperature, volatilization rate, aluminum oxide solubility, aluminum metal solubility, electrical conductivity, and YSZ membrane compatibility are being investigated in order to tailor an appropriately suitable flux composition. Laboratory scale SOM electrolysis are simultaneously being performed employing the inert anode andthe flux composition being developed to demonstrate the feasibility of producing and collecting aluminum using SOMbased electrolysis process while producing pure oxygen as a byproduct. The aluminum product is characterized byscanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). On-going research involvesfurther optimization of the molten flux composition in order to increase the alumina solubility and improving the design and operating condition of the SOM electrolysis cell in order to increase the purity of the aluminum and ensuring the stability for long-term aluminum production. An equivalent DC circuit modeling for the electrolysis process will also be developed in order to minimize the losses and optimize the SOM cell performance.COMMITTEE: Advisor: Uday Pal, MSE/ME; Srikanth Gopalan, MSE/ME; Michael Gevelber, MSE/ME; Adam Powell, PhD, Infinium, Inc.
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=177661@17.calendar.bu.edu
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Climate Change: Health and Disease Threats
WHEN Wed., Dec. 16, 2015, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE The Leadership Studio | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) Barry Levy, co-editor, Climate Change and Public Health, and former president, American Public Health Association
John Spengler, director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Chan School
Aaron Bernstein, associate director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Chan School
María Neira, director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, WHO
Moderated by Charles Sennott, Founder and Executive Director, The GroundTruth Project
COST Free; RSVP to theforum at hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris is wrapping up, having convened heads of state with the major goal of reaching an agreement to slow global warming. Among these negotiations, the health impacts of climate change have featured less prominently on the agenda than other concerns. Yet, droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution related to climate change produce rippling effects that impact food production, infectious disease spread, chronic illnesses, and more. Dwindling resources force people to leave their homes and abandon traditional lifestyles, creating populations on the move with serious health impacts. In this Forum, public health and policy experts will pick up where COP21 left off, taking on the critical piece of health within the climate change conversation.
LINK https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/climate-change/
Live webcast at https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/climate-change/
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Microbiome Engineering: from current practice to future therapy
Wednesday, December 16
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Mark Smith, OpenBiome
http://www.openbiome.org/
Microbial Systems Seminar
Web site: https://microbialsystems.wordpress.com/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Kathryn Kauffman or Chris Corzett
k6logc at mit.edu or corzett at mit.edu
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Ignite Boston – Data
Wednesday, December 16
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-boston-data-tickets-19499311967
Enlighten us, but make it quick
Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's coming back to Boston. Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is an evening of fast and fun presentations which each last just 5 minutes.
Data
Data is not intuitive. Connect with the big data community and hear from those who have survived, thrived, or died in a data-driven world.
Call for Participation
Do you have something interesting to share about data? A big idea to share? A story waiting to be heard? Submit your presentation to the call for participation.
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Webinar: Update from Paris
Wednesday, December 16
7pm - 8pm
Online
This webinar is presented by MCAN's board member, Sonia Hamel, who will be attending the United Nation Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Tune in with us to see what happened at the conference and what it means for Massachusetts!
Please RSVP below and MCAN will send you the login information before the webinar.
Contact: Carol Oldham
carololdham at massclimateaction.net
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Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors Series: Chasing Ice
Wednesday, December 16
Doors open at 6:45 pm. Movie runs 7:00-8:30 pm.
Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy Street, Boston
You may have heard about Earth's melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers caused by climate change, but seeing is believing. In 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic—to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth's changing climate by documenting the massive melting taking place in our coldest places.
Chasing Ice is the story of one man's mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Come learn about The Extreme Ice Survey, a multi-year record of the dramatic changes in the world's glaciers.
This event is part of a series: Climate Change, Energy, and the Outdoors—an educational series co-sponsored by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Mass Audubon, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
More information at http://www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/live-sustainably/make-the-switch-to-green-electricity/events-workshops/climate-change-energy-and-the-outdoors-series-chasing-ice
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The Art of Losing: five stories about the cost of science
Wednesday, December 16
8 pm.
Oberon Theater, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
Cost: $12
Meg Rosenburg, Science communicator
Abhishek Shah, Biomedical engineer
Kaca Bradonjic, Theoretical physicist
Erin Podolak, Science writer
Kamau Hashim, Actor and singer
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Thursday, December 17
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DARPA Robotics Fast Track
Thursday, December 17
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, #1, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/darpa-robotics-fast-track-tickets-19808277090
DARPA wants to pay you $150,000 to build your robot. Find out how over lunch Dec. 17 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD) in Cambridge. The Pentagons leading advanced research lab has started theRobotics Fast Track Program to make it easier for roboticists and entrepreneurs to get their projects funded, and they're looking for talented minds to participate. JoinDARPA Program Manager Mark Micireto learn more about the program, and in particular, how the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) is offering up to $150,000 per group to build a robot prototype. An informational session will be followed by the opportunity for individuals and groups to meet Mark privately to answer specific questions about individual projects. Whether you're a roboticist, technologist, or entrepreneur, you'll want to join us for this rare opportunity. Sign-up for the one-on-one meetings will be first come, first served. Spots will be limited so the sooner you arrive the better chance you'll be first on the list. Food and drinks will be provided at thisFREEevent, so no need to stop for dinner on your way from work. Co-sponsored by: Tandem National Security Innovations,Mass Technology Leadership Council, Mass Robotics,AUVSI, BIT Systems, Open Source Robotics Foundation
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War and Human Nature in Modern America
Thu., Dec. 17, 2015
4 p.m.
Harvard Medical School, Minot Room, fifth floor, Countway Library of Medicine, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston
The last in a series of four lectures given as the 2015 Colloquium on the History of Psychiatry and Medicine. The Colloquium offers an opportunity to clinicians, researchers, and historians interested in a historical perspective on their fields to discuss informally historical studies in progress.
Gazette Classification: Health Sciences, Humanities, Lecture
Organization/Sponsor: Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital and the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Speaker(s): Deborah Weinstein, assistant professor of American studies, Brown University
Cost: Free and open to the public
Contact Info: david_satin at hms.harvard.edu
More info: https://cms.www.countway.harvard.edu/wp/?p=12032
Contact organization: Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital and the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Contact email: david_satin at hms.harvard.edu
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Boston New Technology December 2015 Product Showcase #BNT60
Thursday, December 17
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/226731592/
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT60 hashtag in social media posts: details here.
Foley Hoag is in the Seaport West building. Please bring identification and check in at our desk in the lobby. Then, take an elevator to the 13th floor. Enter the glass doors and walk down the hall to your right.
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A Journey into the Dark Web...
Thursday, December 17
6:30 PM
Algonquin Club of Boston, 217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-journey-into-the-dark-web-tickets-19642349797
We hear more and more about the "Dark Web" (or Deep Web) but most of us don't understand what that means. Join Benjamin Brown from Akamai and Will Lefevers of Constant Contact as they dig into anonymization networks and cybercrime.
More details at HackSecure.org
Connecting Boston's cutting-edge tech community with its cybersecurity thinkers and doers.
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Friday, December 18
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PSFC Seminar: Acoustically-Driven Magnetized Target Fusion at General Fusion
Friday, December 18
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218
Speaker: Michel Laberge, General Fusion
Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) involves forming a magnetically confined plasma of about 1e23 m-3, 100 eV, 7 Tesla, 20 cm radius, 100 ms energy confinement time and compressing the plasma by 1000X in volume in 100 ms within a conductive liner. If the compression is close to adiabatic, the final plasma of ~1e26 m-3, 10 keV, 700 Tesla, 2 cm radius, and confined for 10 ms would produce interesting fusion energy gain. General Fusion is developing an acoustic compression system involving pneumatic pistons focusing a shock wave on the plasma in the center of a 3 m diameter sphere filled with liquid lead-lithium. The combination of a low cost driver, good breeding ratio and excellent neutron protection could lead to a practical power plant. We will review the plasma formation and compression results achieved so far and our plans moving forwards. Work on the compression system will also be described.
Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact: Paul Rivenberg
617-253-8101
info at psfc.mit.edu
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Happy Merry New!
Take time for celebrating the return of light as we pass through the night of the year.
Energy (and Other) Events will be back after Christmas (or New Year's).
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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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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development
- http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info at bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
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://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
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
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
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