[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - January 3, 2015

George Mokray gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Jan 3 10:57:19 PST 2016


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, January 4
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1pm  Perfect Forward Secrecy

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Tuesday, January 5
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8am  Boston TechBreakfast: Akili Software, Inc., Attollo Tech, Prattle, and More!
12pm  List Projects: Ann Hirsch
6pm  Free Software and Your Freedom
6pm  BASG Jan 5: The Clean Energy Transition
6pm  #TechHubTuesday Demo Night - January

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Wednesday, January 6
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2:30pm  The Impact of Poverty on Cognitive Function, Decision-Making, and Productivity
4pm  Biology-inspired nanotechnologies for molecular imaging and therapy
7pm  Webinar: Update from Paris

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Thursday, January 7
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11am  Displaying Data and Models on a Digital Globe
1:30pm  Nonprofit and Policy
5:30pm  EnergyBar!
7pm  When We Fight, We Win!:  Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World
8:30pm  When We Fight, We Win! Launch After Party - Cambridge

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Friday, January 8
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11am  Links of Arctic Change to Midlatitude Weather
12pm  January Community Table
6pm  Film screening: Design Is One 
7pm  Ignite Craft Boston 2016

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Saturday, January 9
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10am  The South Asian Anthropocene: Ecology and Society in South Asia in the climate era
11am  City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp

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Sunday, January 10
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2pm  First Hand Report from COP21, with Judy Schwartz and Tom Goreau
5pm  Neuroscience for Society:  Aging Brain

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Monday, January 11
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10am  Contemporary Geometric Beadwork:  Open Source Innovation in an Ancient Field
10am  Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Global Challenges of Water/Food Security
11am  Magnetic Fusion Energy: A Vision for Getting There Sooner
1pm  Confidential Research Information Management: Security and Privacy Key Concepts
7pm  Billions and Billions of Planets and the Red Dwarfs That (Mostly) Host Them
7pm  The Geography of Genius:  A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley

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Tuesday, January 12
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10am  Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Agriculture Systems in Tropical Zones
1pm  Waste Management 101: Day 1
1:30pm  Scientific Communication
6pm  The Role of Business in Climate Change
6:30pm  The Connected Soldier
7pm  Georgetown Energy Prize Block Captain Kick-Off 
8pm  IAP Contra Dance: group theory set to live folk music

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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

Note on Between the World and Me
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2016/01/notes-from-between-world-and-me.html

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Happy Merry New and Bah Humbug

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Monday, January 4
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Perfect Forward Secrecy
Monday, January 4
1:00p–2:30p
MIT, Building 4-270, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Speaker: Andrew Sutherland
Over the past five years virtually every major website (Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, Amazon, Wikipedia, ...) has switched over to the ECDHE-RSA (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Rivest-Shamir_Adleman) protocol for secure key exchange. They have done this in order to achieve what is known as "perfect forward secrecy". I will explain how this protocol works, the mathematics that lies behind it, and why it is so important.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Mathematics, Department of

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Tuesday, January 5
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Boston TechBreakfast: Akili Software, Inc., Attollo Tech, Prattle, and More!
Tuesday, January 5
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD - Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations. 
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :) 

Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast: 
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat 
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements 
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs! 
Akili Software, Inc.: Savii Care - Michelle Harper
Attollo Tech: upace - Rachel Koretsky
Prattle: Prattle Central Bank Index - Evan Schnidman
*** OPEN ***
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words  Boston TechBreakfast 

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List Projects: Ann Hirsch
Tuesday, January 5
12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
MIT, Building E15, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Ann Hirschs work in video and performance considers the effects of technology on popular culture; many of her projects examine how young women are portrayed and present themselves in social media and online. Hirsch who often characterizes her work as research has started a YouTube channel for one of her personas which gained a cult following, appeared as a contestant on a reality television show, and created a series of works loosely based on her pre-teen experience in an online chat room in the 1990s.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
Contact: Mark Linga (mlinga at mit.edu)
More info: 617-253-4680

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Free Software and Your Freedom
Tuesday, January 5
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM 
Central Bistro Restaurant (private room), 101 Arch Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/january-5-at-600pm-at-rotary-club-hear-free-software-foundation-founder-gnu-creator-and-internet-tickets-20020186918
Cost: $20

Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation Founder, GNU creator and Internet Hall of Famer 
Join our monthly Rotary Club meeting to hear a great guest speaker and catch up on all the fun and friendships we form as professionals who Connect for Good. This is a very special meeting to start 2016 We're featuring guest speaker Richard Stallman, the famed free software activist and computer programmer who founded the Free Software Foundation, created the GNU General Public License, leads the GNU mass-collaboration project for a free and open computer Operating System, and is a member of the Internet Hall of Fame. Not to mention he's earned 16 honorary degrees including 10 doctorates and 3 honorary professorships. Richard Stallman will be talking about "Free Software and Your Freedom" because he's campaigned for 30 years for software to be distributed in a manner such that its users receive the freedoms to use, study, distribute and modify that software. Software that ensures these freedoms is termed "free software" -- not in the sense of graits / free-of-charge, but in the sense of free as in the freedom for anyone to freely tinker with it. He has said many times that "Free software is the first battle in the ilberation of cyberspace." And that Free Software that you can study, modiy and distribute is a basic human right alongside privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. You will hear more than a fabulous speaker at this meeting. You'll connect for good with trustworthy professionals. You'll hear why Rotary is legendary worldwide for its 1.2 million members in 34,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary is the World's Most Generous Network of Business Professionals. Rotary is the largest private donor of college and graduate school scholarships. Rotarians through their generosity have virtually eradicated Polio in the past 30 years through immunizing over 2.5 billion children, saving an estimated 10 million children from contracting polio. You should be part of Rotay. And just by attending you'll help fund the Rotary Foundation which is one of the world's largest humanitarian charities with other 2,000 active projects worldwide. We have no political or religious agendas -- we're just honorable professionals around the world. Make it happen; Connect for Good. Get your tickets early; we have room for only 40 people. Light Hors d'Oeuvres served. Dress code is business casual / professional.

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BASG Jan 5: The Clean Energy Transition
Tuesday, January 5
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Cafe - 5th Floor, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/basg-jan-5-the-clean-energy-transition-tickets-19942311992
Cost:  $10 - $12

It took longer than most of us would have liked, but universal recognition that we need a clean energy economy now seems undeniable. On January 5th, 2016, we will talk about how we get there together. 

The evening begins promptly at 6:00 PM with a special one-hour screening of The Last Mountain from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Presentations and discussion thereafter will focus on the realities of the fossil fuel economy; how we, as citizens and communities, can help accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy; the challenges triggered by the transition; and how communities, organizations and each of us can participate.

What will make all of this real and personal are our speakers’ views into the struggles and successes of two communities right here in MA that are already living this transition -- Salemand Somerset, home of Brayton Point, our last operating coal plant.

Eric Grunebaum is Chief Business Development Officer at TeraCool LLC. He advises startup companies and facilities owners on clean energy and efficiency projects. Previously he was a real estate developer and producer of documentaries, including the theatrically released film, The Last Mountain, which focuses on coal, highlighting a WV community proposing a 328 MW wind farm on nearby mountain ridges rather than strip mining them for coal. Eric has also been active in efforts to bring revenue neutral carbon pricing to MA. 

Christophe Courchesne is the Chief of the Environmental Protection Division at the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office. Before this role, Christophe was a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation's New Hampshire office where he focused on advocacy and litigation to fight climate change and advance clean energy. He has also practiced environmental, energy, and land use law with Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston and clerked at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for Justice Robert J. Cordy. Christophe graduated from Harvard Law and U Mass at Amherst.

Representative Lori A. Ehrlich is serving her fifth term as the State Representative for the Eighth Essex District, representing Marblehead, Swampscott, and Lynn. Lori holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from Lehigh University, an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a CPA for thirty years in one of New England’s large regional firms as well as managing her own practice. Prior to her 2008 election, Lori founded two public health nonprofits and led the charge to clean up coal ash from the drinking water for 80,000 residents in Salem, Beverly and parts of Wenham. 

Join us and our co-host, the Sustainable Solutions Lab at U Mass Boston and the Conservation Law Foundation, for this conversation about the transition we are all working hard to speed along. Hopefully you’ll agree that there’s no better way to start into the new year.  -- Carol, Holly, Tilly.

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#TechHubTuesday Demo Night - January
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
TechHub, 3rd Floor 212, Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville

Demo Night is a chance to see what the top startups are working on, these are the people that are changing the future of business & tech! 

Follow the # all day to see other demos taking place in Bengaluru and then London. 

Each startup has 5 minutes to demo their product in front of a live audience, it's not a pitch but an opportunity for each startup to explain (and show) what they have been working on. After each demo there is live Q&A with the audience. The idea is to foster innovation and iteration. It's not about slamming the presenter!

Afterwards, stick around for beer and wine, network or take a look round the space.

Agenda
6:00 - Doors open. Meet people and get your first drinks.
7:00 - 8:00 Presenters Demo
8:00.... Networking

Follow us https://twitter.com/TechHubBoston

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Wednesday, January 6
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The Impact of Poverty on Cognitive Function, Decision-Making, and Productivity
Wednesday, January 6
2:30PM-04:00PM	
MIT, Building E51-151, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Frank Schilbach, Assistant Professor of Economics
This lecture provides an overview on recent work in behavioral development economics, with particular focus on poverty. I will provide a framework and discuss empirical evidence of different ways in which poverty may interfere with individuals' ability to make sound decisions and to be productive at work, including (i) recent work on scarcity by Mullainathan and Shafir, (ii) visceral factors such as sleep, pain, and nutrition, and (iii) stress.
 
Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Beata Shuster, E17-201G, 617 253-8883, BSHUSTER at MIT.EDU

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Biology-inspired nanotechnologies for molecular imaging and therapy
Wednesday, January 6
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Nicole Steinmetz, Case Western Reserve University

Biological Chemistry Seminar Series

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Chemistry Department
For more information, contact:  Betty Lou McClanahan
617-253-0630
blm at mit.edu 

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Webinar: Update from Paris
Wednesday, January 6
7:00 PM
Webinar
RSVP at http://www.massclimateaction.net/update_from_paris_20160106

This webinar is presented by MCAN's board member, Sonia Hamel, who attended the United Nation Conference on Climate Change in Paris.

Tune in with us to see what happened at the conference, to see her photos and hear her impressions, and to hear her thoughts on what it means for Massachusetts! 

Sonia Hamel
Sonia serves non-profits, governments and foundations in the areas of climate, energy and transportation policy.  She specializes in work with states to launch successful climate programs and policies. 

Sonia served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for nearly 30 years, coordinating air quality, energy and climate protection programs.  Based in the Office for Commonwealth Development, she was the state lead in the development of the highly successful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap and trade program for the electric sector and wrote and developed the first Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan and launched the national Carbon Registry. Ms. Hamel also served as the Massachusetts Director of Air Policy and Planning for 10 years developing one of the most aggressive air pollution programs in the U.S., with a focus on vehicle emission standards and power plant clean up.  

Her clients have included:  The Georgetown Climate Center, Ceres, The Energy Foundation,  Environmental League of Massachusetts, The British Embassy,  The Union of Concerned Scientists, The New England Clean Energy Council, and numerous state governments including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Colorado and California.

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Thursday, January 7
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Displaying Data and Models on a Digital Globe
Thursday, January 7	
11:00AM-12:00PM	
MIT, Building 54-1827, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Glenn Flierl, Professor of Oceanography
The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences have been hosting a two foot diameter spherical display system.  If you have data or interactive models you'd like to see visualized on the sphere, come to the sessions to learn how it can be done and to figure out better ways and how to present information using the iGlobe.  Or try to make a compelling environmental movie using the sphere, an auxiliary screen, and sound.  Or come if you'd just like to experiment with the way things look projected on a spherical surface.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Glenn Flierl, 54-1626, 617-253-4692, glenn at lake.mit.edu

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Nonprofit and Policy
Thursday, January 7
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
MIT, Whitehead Auditorium, Nine Cambridge Center, Cambridge

Michael Hammerschmidt, Vice President for Development, Life Sciences Foundation 
Juli Klemm, PhD '95, Head of Cancer Biology and Genomics Section, National Cancer Institute
Dr. Robert Lillianfeld, '03, Director of Corporate Relations, Seeding Labs
Mark Smith, PhD '14, Co-Founder, OpenBiome

Would you like to do science whose profit is the betterment of our world? This panel will gather speakers with a diverse range of experience in the nonprofit and government sectors.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Biology

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EnergyBar!
Thursday, January 7
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville

About EnergyBar: EnergyBar is a monthly event devoted to helping people in clean technology meet and discuss innovations in energy technology. Entrepreneurs, investors, students, and ‘friends of cleantech,’ are invited to attend, meet colleagues, and expand our growing regional clean technology community.

Light appetizers and drinks will be served starting at 5:30 pm

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When We Fight, We Win!:  Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World
Thursday, January 7
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store welcomes author/activist GREG JOBIN-LEEDS, AgitArte’s DEYMIRIE HERNÁNDEZ and JOSÉ JORGE DÍAZ, and activists GIBRÁN RIVERA, STEVE MEACHAM, and LISA OWENS, and key artists and organizers from City Life/Vida Urbana, the Schott Foundation for Public Education, the Johnson Family Foundation, and more, will discuss the art and stories in When We Fight, We Win!: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World. With an introduction by Greg, performances by AgitArte, and a lively Q&A. Points of discussion include how social movements intersect, key components of transformative organizing, why art and storytelling are crucial, and ways for aspiring activists to get involved.
About When We Fight, We Win

Same-sex marriage, #BlackLivesMatter, the DREAM Act, the People’s Climate March, End the New Jim Crow, Occupy Wall Street, the fight for a $15 minimum wage—these are just a few of the remarkable movements that have blossomed in the past decade, a most fertile and productive era of activism. Now, in a visually rich and deeply inspiring book, the leaders and activists of these and other movements distill their wisdom, sharing lessons of what makes—and what hinders—transformative social change.

Greg Jobin-Leeds joins forces with AgitArte, a collective of artists and organizers, to capture the stories, philosophy, tactics, and art of today’s leading social change movements. When We Fight, We Win! weaves together interviews with today’s most successful activists and artists from across the country and beyond—including Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, Bill McKibben, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Karen Lewis, Favianna Rodriguez, Rea Carey, and Gaby Pacheco, among others—with narrative recountings of strategies and campaigns alongside full-color photos. It includes a foreword by Rinku Sen and an afterword by Antonia Darder.

When We Fight, We Win! will give a whole generation of readers the chance to celebrate and benefit from a remarkable decade of activism—a decade that shows just how ripe these times are for social transformation.

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When We Fight, We Win! Launch After Party - Cambridge 
Thursday, January 7
8:30 PM - 11:00 PM 
Old Cambridge Baptist Church, 1151 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/when-we-fight-we-win-launch-after-party-cambridge-tickets-20062814418

Celebrate the book launch ! Join us at theAfter Party with DJ, performances and more! We know #whenwefightwewin 

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Friday, January 8
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Links of Arctic Change to Midlatitude Weather
Friday, January 8	
11:00AM-02:00PM	
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Polar vortex, snow-mageddon, arctic amplification of global warming, extreme weather, melting ice-caps and permafrost - these may be the first signs of a changing global climate. The arctic is particularly vulnerable to variability and change. And these changes are remarkably linked to our mid-latitude winter weather. Come learn about the physics and ways to enhance long-range climate forecasts.

Contact: Dara Entekhabi, 48-216C, 617 253-9698, DARAE at MIT.EDU

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January Community Table
Friday, January 8
12:00 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Boston

Community Table is for eaters, entre­pre­neurs, and students of food to connect and exchange ideas. A model created by Babson’s Food Sol, the design is always one table, one conversation, with the collective driving the content. People have reported finding partners, expanding networks, and reaching retail all as direct results of attending Community Table. We hope you’ll join the conversation to network, discuss, connect and learn from others doing awesome work in the city!

Please bring your business cards, your lunch, and food to share with the group! Community Table is all about FOOD so we encourage attendees to bring samples of their products and consider this event an opportunity to showcase your newest recipes and flavors.

We’ll see you there!
Lauren, Sarah & Ally @ Branchfood

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Film screening: Design Is One 
Friday, January 8
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/film-screening-design-is-one-tickets-18136275087
Cost: $8 - $12

Adhering to the self-proclaimed motto, If you can't find it, design it, their achievements in industrial and product design; graphic and publication design; corporate identity; architectural graphics; and exhibition, interior, and furniture design have earned worldwide respect and numerous international awards for more than 40 years. After Massimo brought the Helvetica typeface to America in 1965, he and Lella moved on to a diverse array of projects, including New York Citys subway signage and maps; the interior of Saint Peters Church at Citicorp Center in New York City; Venini lamps; Heller dinnerware; furniture for Poltrona Frau; and branding for Knoll International, Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Ford, and American Airlines. This screening is part of the BSA Space Film Series covering a variety of design topics. Complimentary refreshments and popcorn will be served.

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Ignite Craft Boston 2016
Friday, January 8
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
MIT, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street,  Room 123, Cambridge

Craft, Community, and 5-Minute Talks

Ignite Craft Boston is an Ignite event with a crafty crowd. If you had 5 minutes on stage to talk about your crafty passion in Boston, what would you say? What if you only got 20 photos or visuals, and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world, folks have been putting together Ignite events to show their answers.

For more about this event please visit Common Cod Fiber Guild's website at: http://www.commoncod.com/ignite/

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Saturday, January 9
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The South Asian Anthropocene: Ecology and Society in South Asia in the climate era
Saturday, Janaury 9
10:00AM-02:00PM
MIT, Building 4-145, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Rajesh Kasturirangan, Research Affiliate
South Asia will dominate the Anthropocene in several ways: for one, it will have more people than any comparable region in the world, making it the most anthropocentric place in the anthropocene. Second, many of the challenges of this era will arguably surface first in South Asia: conflict over air, water and other natural resources, climate adaptation and migration, human non-human conflict and ideally, new ways of living within our means and with harmony in nature. The South Asian Anthropocene poses theoretical as well as empirical challenges to social scientists and humanities scholars who specialize in the sub-continent. Whether that scholar is an economist, a historian or an anthropologist, s/he will have to grapple with ideas that have traditionally been neglected in their scholarly communities. They will have to expand their horizon to include the non-human world in unprecedented ways; they will also have to create new philosophical and political conceptions for understanding these new developments. This seminar is an attempt to understand the South Asian Anthropocene by bringing together scholars working in the humanities and the social sciences. Our hope is that by exchanging ideas and empirical findings across disciplines, we will be better positioned to understand the future of South Asian societies. 

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City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
Saturday, January 9
11:00a–12:00p
MIT Coop at Kendall Square, 325 Main Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Ben Rawlence
Book talk and signing with author, Ben Rawlence, about his latest work, "CITY OF THORNS: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp."  
Former Human Rights Watch researcher Rawlence (Radio Congo: Signals of Hope from Africa's Deadliest War, 2012) tells the distressing story of Kenya's vast Dadaab refugee camp, where nearly 500,000 people fleeing civil war in nearby Somalia live in a "teeming ramshackle metropolis" the size of Atlanta. Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted during a series of extended visits to Dadaab since 2010, the author plunges readers into this hellish city of "mud, tents and thorns," where three generations of displaced persons have lived amid malnourishment and disease.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_010916_cityofthorns.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free 
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306

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Sunday, January 10
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First Hand Report from COP21, with Judy Schwartz and Tom Goreau
Sunday, January 10
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
One Fayette Park, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Biodiversity-for-a-Livable-Climate/events/227761102/
We're a small non-profit so a $10 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away based on ability to pay.

POTLUCK AND DISCUSSION
We've all heard the hype, hope and happenstance emanating from the recent COP21 climate negotiations in Paris.  Now you can hear the inside story first hand from two of our friends who were there, both experts in their respective fields and popular speakers at our conferences.  Tom Goreau is a biogeophysicist and reef restoration expert with experience in climate and land management going back to before the climate negotiations began in 1992.  Judy Schwartz is a journalist whose ground-breaking book, Cows Save the Planet, opened up wide-ranging discussion on eco-restoration, which presents the most effective and promising approaches to addressing the climate dilemma.

We'll start with a half-hour light potluck, then continue at 2:30 with presentations from Judy and Tom with plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.

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Neuroscience for Society:  Aging Brain
Sunday, January 10
5:00 PM
MIT 5th floor Conference room, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Neuroscience-for-Society/events/226153507/

We all get old against our will. What’s changing in the brain? Let’s find it out.  

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Monday, January 11
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Contemporary Geometric Beadwork:  Open Source Innovation in an Ancient Field
Monday, January 11
10:00AM-11:00AM	
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Kate McKinnon, Erik Demaine, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Martin Demaine, Technical Assistant, CSAIL
Kate McKinnon is bringing her intriguing wearable art project, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, to MIT, and giving several lectures, a seminar, and two weeks of hands-on sessions. Explore the recent structural and design work in this ancient art, and learn how to apply this alluring type of modeling to your own ideas.
The scope of the project is explained in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uoCC9MJ2SM

Sponsor(s): Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
Contact: Kate McKinnon, kate at katemckinnon.com

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Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Global Challenges of Water/Food Security
Monday, January 11
10:00AM-11:30AM	
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Chandra Madramootoo - Visiting Scholar, J-WAFS
An overview of global food demands and supplies and how water, limits to crop productivity, and other drivers such as food prices, population, and changing demographics and dietary patterns are affecting food supplies.  Led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, former Dean, School of Ag. and Env. Sciences at McGill Univ.  First of a 4-part series; attendees welcome at any or all sessions.

This seminar series will address a variety of global challenges around water and food security.  Topics include limitations to water use in some selected large basins, surface water/groundwater interactions, the water-food-energy nexus, an overview of agricultural production systems in two agro-ecologic zones (tropical drylands and the wet humid tropics), and the linkage between food and nutrition security and health.

Presentation and discussion will be centered on technological, institutional, governance, and socio-economic constraints to small-holder productivity; water management challenges in the two agro-ecologic zones, and protection of natural resource systems in degraded agricultural landscapes.  Specific topics will include irrigation and water conservation, drainage and flood control, irrigation value chains, and climate smart agriculture.  The series is led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.  Prof. Madramootoo was Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill from 2005 to 2015.

This is a four-part series; attendees are welcome at any or all sessions.

Sponsor(s): Abdul Latif Jameel Worl Water and Food Sec Lab
Contact: Renee Robins, E70-1279, 617 324-6726, RROBINS at MIT.EDU

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Magnetic Fusion Energy: A Vision for Getting There Sooner
Monday, January 11
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Earl Marmar, Head of Alcator Project
This talk will introduce the nuclear fusion option for base-load electricity production using magnetic confinement of high temperature hydrogenic plasma. Starting from the basics of plasma confinement and heating, and reprising a little of the scientific history, we will turn to recent potentially game-changing technology developments in high-field, high-temperature superconducting magnets, which promise a new path for faster and less costly development of this virtually inexhaustible, carbon-free energy supply

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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Confidential Research Information Management: Security and Privacy Key Concepts
Monday, January 11
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
MIT, Building E25-401, 45 Carleton street, Cambridge

Speaker(s): Micah Altman
This tutorial provides a framework for identifying and managing confidential information in research. It is most appropriate for mid-late career graduate students, faculty, and professional research staff who actively engage in the design/planning of research. The course will provide an overview of the major legal requirements governing confidential research data; and the core technological measures used to safeguard data. And it will provide an introduction to the statistical methods and software tools used to analyze and limit disclosure risks.

Failures of confidentiality threaten research integrity, reputation, legality, and funding. Every researcher in the social, behavioral and health sciences must understand how to manage confidential information in research. Successful management of confidential information is particularly challenging because it requires satisfying a combination of complex legal, statistical and technological constants. And the management of this information has grown increasingly challenging because of recent changes in the law, new forms of data collection, and advances in statistical methods for linking data.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries
Contact: Kelly Hopkins (khopkins at mit.edu)
Web site: http://informatics.mit.edu/event/confidential-research-information-management-security-and-privacy-key-concepts
More info: 617-253-3044

--------------------------------

Billions and Billions of Planets and the Red Dwarfs That (Mostly) Host Them
Monday, January 11
7pm 
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville

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The Geography of Genius:  A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
Monday, January 11, 2016
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store welcomes ERIC WEINER, bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss, for a discussion of his latest work, The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley.
About The Geography of Genius

Travel the world with Eric Weiner as he journeys from Athens to Silicon Valley—and throughout history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times.

In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. And, with his trademark insightful humor, he walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?”

This link can be traced back through history: Darwin’s theory of evolution gelled while he was riding in a carriage. Freud did his best thinking at this favorite coffee house. Beethoven, like many geniuses, preferred long walks in the woods.

Sharp and provocative, The Geography of Genius redefines the argument about how genius came to be. His reevaluation of the importance of culture in nurturing creativity is an informed romp through history that will surely jumpstart a national conversation.

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Tuesday, January 12
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Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Agriculture Systems in Tropical Zones
Tuesday, January 12
10:00AM-11:30AM	
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Chandra Madramootoo - Visiting Scholar, J-WAFS
Agriculture production systems in two agro-ecologic zones:  This seminar will describe agricultural production systems in the wet humid tropics and the arid/semi-arid tropics, including cropping patterns, nomadic systems, and soil resources.  Led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, former Dean, School of Ag. and Env. Sciences at McGill Univ.  Second of a 4-part series; attendees welcome at any or all sessions.

This seminar series will address a variety of global challenges around water and food security.  Topics include limitations to water use in some selected large basins, surface water/groundwater interactions, the water-food-energy nexus, an overview of agricultural production systems in two agro-ecologic zones (tropical drylands and the wet humid tropics), and the linkage between food and nutrition security and health.

Presentation and discussion will be centered on technological, institutional, governance, and socio-economic constraints to small-holder productivity; water management challenges in the two agro-ecologic zones, and protection of natural resource systems in degraded agricultural landscapes.  Specific topics will include irrigation and water conservation, drainage and flood control, irrigation value chains, and climate smart agriculture.  The series is led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.  Prof. Madramootoo was Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill from 2005 to 2015.

This is a four-part series; attendees are welcome at any or all sessions.

Sponsor(s): Abdul Latif Jameel Worl Water and Food Sec Lab
Contact: Renee Robins, E70-1279, 617 324-6726, RROBINS at MIT.EDU

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Waste Management 101: Day 1
Tuesday, January 12
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
MIT, Building 4-261, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Lectures from MIT researchers, staff, Casella, and more. RSVP here by Jan. 9: http://goo.gl/forms/7CkcSOoa7H

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Waste Alliance, GSC Funding Board
Contact: Abigail Regitsky (transwaste-execs at mit.edu)
Web site: http://student.mit.edu/searchiap/iap-9289af8f50ebf6b201510e4e36df00c1.html
More info: 4048089934

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Scientific Communication
Tuesday, January 12
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
MIT, Building 68-181, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Lauren Aguirre - Director of Digital Media at NOVA PBS
Diana Chien, PhD - Instructor/Manager at the MIT Biological Engineering Communication Lab
Meghan Jendrysik, PhD - Managing Editor at Elsevier
Nidhi Subbaraman, MS - Science and Technology Reporter at the Boston Globe

Careers in scientific communication strive to deliver scientific content in engaging formats to academic and lay audiences. Come hear how the four professionals on this panel craft the form and content of diverse media to achieve this end.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Biology

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The Role of Business in Climate Change
Tuesday, January 12
6:00 PM
Back Bay Social Club,, 867 Boylston Street , Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Climate-Action-Business-Association-Meetup/events/226058490/

The Climate Action Business Association helps local businesses take targeted action on climate change. We are using this meetup to build a community of like-minded businesses to chat, make connections, and share ideas. Also, we will be polling our members to find a good time that works for everyone! 

More information at cabaus.org org

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The Connected Soldier
January 12 
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
MIT Tang Center, E51-345, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP required at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/the-connected-soldier/
Free for Members, $30 Non-Members, Free for Students & Sponsors

Those of us without a direct connection to the military do not regularly stop and consider that much of the technology that impacts our daily lives has its genesis in the military. Today's soldier is a walking network of systems, connectors, sensors and communications capabilities that define the concept of the internet of things.   A well connected, well informed, lighter loaded soldier of the future means the internet will be part of a soldier’s uniform, as well as his weapons and other equipment. With everything active online, troops will be able to generate a complete picture of the battlefield down to the level of the individual soldier. Advances in soldier technology touch everything needed to protect ground troops - think power solutions, vision technologies, communications protocols, encryption, miniaturization, high bandwidth. And all of this is networked into the intelligent fabric of the soldiers uniform. Wearables, anyone?

The greater Boston community is fortunate in that many of these technologies are developed and integrated here as part of the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center and the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. And, the community has many strong defense contractors that develop technologies to improve the effectiveness of our freedom defenders.  Join us for an evening of demonstrations and presentations while we explore the one of the most sophisticated networked systems of our time - the Connected Soldier.

Speaker
Jean-Louis “Dutch” DeGay has been at the U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) since 2000.  While there he’s been a project officer/equipment specialist on numerous projects for the Marine Corps, Army and Special Operations communities ranging from personal protection to advanced soldier technologies to small combat unit operations. Before going to work at the NSRDEC,  he was a Captain with 10 years of service in the United States Army with a number of assignments including: light, mechanized, airborne and special operations. 

------------------------------------

Georgetown Energy Prize Block Captain Kick-Off 
Tuesday, January 12
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM 
344 Broadway, 4th Floor Conference Room, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/georgetown-energy-prize-block-captain-kick-off-tickets-20125251168

Please join us to launch the 2016 outreach campaign for the Georgetown University Energy Prize. Block Captains, community members, and friends are invited at City Hall Annex for a meet-and-greet, idea share and brainstorm, and program training. Anyone who has helped with the Georgetown Prize or is interested in becoming more involved should join us at this special kick-off event. Bring your friends! Refreshments will be provided. Email Jessica at Outreach at CambridgeEnergyAlliance.org if you have any questions. If you are interested in the block captain role, please fill out this brief survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1p42sY8kriF89vALHh7W_3JjeLcM5LEraPcH0inYtdfQ/viewform

-------------------------------------

IAP Contra Dance: group theory set to live folk music
Tuesday, January 12
8:00 PM - 10:30 PM
MIT, Student Ctr 4th floor, Building W20-407, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Contra dancing is a high-energy dance, directed by a caller and accompanied by exciting live folk music. It's easy to learn, and you'll get to twirl your partner and everyone else's!

Tonight's dance features live music by Audrey Knuth (fiddle), Jon Cannon (guitar), & Dave Cory (banjo).

Beginners welcome. No partner necessary.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for MIT and Wellesley students. Optional suggested donation $5 other students, $8 general.
Sponsor(s): Folk Dance Club
Contact: MIT Folk Dance Club (contra-request [at] mit [dot] edu)
Web site: http://mit.edu/fdc/contra

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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, January 13
-------------------------------

Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Water Management for Food Security
Wednesday, January 13
10:00AM-11:30AM	
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Chandra Madramootoo - Visiting Scholar, J-WAFS
How can we better manage water to increase food security?  This seminar will address strategies such as new irrigation and drought protection technologies to boost food production in tropical drylands, and drainage water management systems.  Led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, former Dean, School of Ag. and Env. Sciences at McGill Univ.  Third of a 4-part series; attendees welcome at any or all sessions.

This seminar series will address a variety of global challenges around water and food security.  Topics include limitations to water use in some selected large basins, surface water/groundwater interactions, the water-food-energy nexus, an overview of agricultural production systems in two agro-ecologic zones (tropical drylands and the wet humid tropics), and the linkage between food and nutrition security and health.

Presentation and discussion will be centered on technological, institutional, governance, and socio-economic constraints to small-holder productivity; water management challenges in the two agro-ecologic zones, and protection of natural resource systems in degraded agricultural landscapes.  Specific topics will include irrigation and water conservation, drainage and flood control, irrigation value chains, and climate smart agriculture.  The series is led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.  Prof. Madramootoo was Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill from 2005 to 2015.

This is a four-part series; attendees are welcome at any or all sessions.

Sponsor(s): Abdul Latif Jameel Worl Water and Food Sec Lab
Contact: Renee Robins, E70-1279, 617 324-6726, RROBINS at MIT.EDU

-----------------------------------

China's Housing Development Strategy in the "New Normal"
Wednesday, January 13
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-427, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chinas-housing-development-strategy-in-the-new-normal-with-dr-ting-

Speaker: Dr. Ting Shao
Please join us for a roundtable discussion with Dr. TING SHAO, a Tomorrow Foundation Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  

As China has entered into a new development phase of "balanced transition" (also known as the "new normal"), the housing sector is facing tough challenges in maintaining the previous growth rate. In this turning point, the question of how to cultivate new development strategies for both the government and private sectors represents an urgent task. Dr. Shao's talk will focus on three issues: 
1. How to understand the existing market situation; 
2. How to evaluate housing policies; and 
3. How to design a new strategy for stabilizing the real estate sector. 

Dr. Shao obtained a Ph.D. degree in economics from Fudan University. He is a researcher on the housing market and land institution at the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council of China. Currently, he is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, studying the housing market, land institution, and economic growth of China. He participated in the publication of two books: Urban China: Toward Efficient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Urbanization and China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative Society, both by the World Bank Group. 

Lunch will be provided. 

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:  Heather Mooney
617-417-1699
hmooney at mit.edu 

-----------------------------------

Black Earth:  The Holocaust as History and Warning
Wednesday, January 13
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,

Harvard Book Store welcomes Yale University Professor of History and award-winning author TIMOTHY SNYDER for a discussion of his latest book, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.

About Black Earth
In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first.  Based on new sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think, and thus all the more terrifying.  

The Holocaust began in a dark but accessible place, in Hitler's mind, with the thought that the elimination of Jews would restore balance to the planet and allow Germans to win the resources they desperately needed.  Such a worldview could be realized only if Germany destroyed other states, so Hitler's aim was a colonial war in Europe itself.  In the zones of statelessness, almost all Jews died.  A few people, the righteous few, aided them, without support from institutions.  Much of the new research in this book is devoted to understanding these extraordinary individuals.  The almost insurmountable difficulties they faced only confirm the dangers of state destruction and ecological panic.  These men and women should be emulated, but in similar circumstances few of us would do so.  

By overlooking the lessons of the Holocaust, Snyder concludes, we have misunderstood modernity and endangered the future.  The early twenty-first century is coming to resemble the early twentieth, as growing preoccupations with food and water accompany ideological challenges to global order.  Our world is closer to Hitler's than we like to admit, and saving it requires us to see the Holocaust as it was -- and ourselves as we are.  Groundbreaking, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, Black Earth reveals a Holocaust that is not only history but warning.

-----------------------------------

Urban Planning Film Series:  The Overnighters, by Jesse Moss
Wednesday, January 13
7:00PM-9:15PM	
MIT, Building 66-110,  25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local pastor risks everything to help them.  Winner, Special Jury Award for Intuitive Filmmaking: Documentary, 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
"Might bring tears to your eyes\ldots a blue-collar meditation on the meaning of community and the imperative of compassion.''---Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN at MIT.EDU

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Thursday, January 14
----------------------------

Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care: "New Directions in Cancer Care for Nonspecialists"
Thursday, January 14
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
BU, Photonics Center, Room 906, 8 St. Mary's Street, Boston

Speakers: Dr. Sridhar Ramaswamy, Associate Professor of Medicine , Harvard Medical School, Tucker Gosnell Investigator, and Attending Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center; Dr. Lei Xu, Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School; Dr. Sadhak Sengupta, Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Medicine; Dr. Wilson Wong, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University; and Dr. Li Tang, Immunobioengineering Lab, Koch Institute

More info: http://www.bu.edu/cftcc/events/2016-ndcc/
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=178065@17.calendar.bu.edu

-----------------------------------

Water and Food Security Seminar Series:  Water/Food Security for Smallhold Farms
Thursday, January 14
10:00AM-11:30AM	
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Chandra Madramootoo - Visiting Scholar, J-WAFS
This seminar addresses the technological and socio-economic constraints to water and food security for smallholder farmers.  Topics include why smallholder farmers are slow to adopt new crop varieties, agronomic practices, and irrigation. Led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, former Dean, School of Ag. and Env. Sciences at McGill Univ.  Last of a 4-part series; attendees welcome at any or all sessions.

This seminar series will address a variety of global challenges around water and food security.  Topics include limitations to water use in some selected large basins, surface water/groundwater interactions, the water-food-energy nexus, an overview of agricultural production systems in two agro-ecologic zones (tropical drylands and the wet humid tropics), and the linkage between food and nutrition security and health.

Presentation and discussion will be centered on technological, institutional, governance, and socio-economic constraints to small-holder productivity; water management challenges in the two agro-ecologic zones, and protection of natural resource systems in degraded agricultural landscapes.  Specific topics will include irrigation and water conservation, drainage and flood control, irrigation value chains, and climate smart agriculture.  The series is led by J-WAFS visiting scholar Chandra Madramootoo, James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering at McGill University.  Prof. Madramootoo was Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill from 2005 to 2015.

This is a four-part series; attendees are welcome at any or all sessions.

Sponsor(s): Abdul Latif Jameel Worl Water and Food Sec Lab
Contact: Renee Robins, E70-1279, 617 324-6726, RROBINS at MIT.EDU

------------------------------

SPARC: A Small Tokamak for Changing Climates
Thursday, January 14
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Brandon Sorbom, Zach Hartwig, Bob Mumgaard, Daniel Brunner
This talk will introduce the SPARC concept- a minimally-sized, viable tokamak designed to rapidly advance fusion energy by combining non-traditional funding, innovation strategies borrowed from modern high-tech ventures, and recent advances in high-temperature high-field superconductors.

Web site: http://www.psfc.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact:  Paul Rivenberg
617-253-8101

------------------------------

Displaying Data and Models on a Digital Globe.
Thursday, January 14	
11:00AM-12:00PM	
MIT, Building 54-1827, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Glenn Flierl, Professor of Oceanography
The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences have been hosting a two foot diameter spherical display system.  If you have data or interactive models you'd like to see visualized on the sphere, come to the sessions to learn how it can be done and to figure out better ways and how to present information using the iGlobe.  Or try to make a compelling environmental movie using the sphere, an auxiliary screen, and sound.  Or come if you'd just like to experiment with the way things look projected on a spherical surface.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Glenn Flierl, 54-1626, 617-253-4692, glenn at lake.mit.edu

------------------------------

2016 – Cybercrime Reloaded: A Look Back and a Look Ahead
Thursday, January 14
12:00 PM EST	
Webinar at https://securityintelligence.com/events/cybercrimes-relentless-progress-in-2015-a-year-in-review/

As Q4 draws to a close, it is time for the annual review of what cybercrime has evolved into in the year past. Nowadays, it is no surprise to anyone in the know that cybercrime losses will top 2 trillion dollars by 2019, or that cybercrime costs the average U.S. firm $15 million a year. The reason for this rapid and relentless escalation is because the world is no longer dealing with hackers and thieves – rather, 2015 marks the true domination of the Internet by Eastern European mob organizations.

Join our live crimeware-focused session to learn about the methods and trends that shaped cybercrime in 2015, and find out what we expect to see in 2016.

--------------------------------

Sustainability Made Real
Thursday, January 14
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
Harvard Business School, Aldrich 207, 60 Harvard Way, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainability-made-real-tickets-19809055418
Cost:  $0 - $60

Sustainability has taken on a global importance few subjects ever will obtain. Lots of companies, both small and large, have Sustainability Initiatives. But, what do they really mean? What are companies really doing? Join us for an evening with leaders from around the world that are flying in to share their experience and insights with us.
From making products to packaging those products to discarding our products and packaging, choices we make every day have an impact on our economy, our environment and our future.

Our evening will be led by Bill Carter of Ashoka.
Bill is a former EPA official, McKinsey consultant, and now head of Ashoka’s, the non-profit agency leading social entrepreneurship and inspiring change makers around the world, work in Africa and head of their Sustainability efforts. Whether Bill is in Africa or helping leaders in Asia develop technologies that help all of us achieve our Sustainability goals, Bill’s vision and insight are well regarded and respected.

Joining Bill are experts from around the globe.
Gary Chamness founder and CEO of Chamness Technologies: Gary is truly at the forefront of American innovation in the creation of compostable products including plates, bowls, and packaging solutions of all types. From his plant in CA, or in his headquarters in Iowa, Gary and his team are proving that sustainable solutions make money. Over the past 20 years, Gary’s other companies have progressively and efficiently mastered disposal of non-toxic waste, composting, dewatering, dredging, and land application solutions. Gary will share with us why brand name companies are now calling his company and what a difference sustainability can make for all of us. 

Michihiko Iwamoto, CEO and founder of JEPLAN, is flying in from Japan to join us. JEPLAN Creates New Recycling Infrastructures & Management Systems that are forever impacting how the entire country of Japan approaches sustainability. Mr. Iwamoto spearheaded a decade long national effort in Japan that increased PET bottle recycling from 20% to 85%. Today his company is introducing a new generation of "total recycling" plants as older plants based on less efficient technology are retired. Just one of JEPLAN's initiatives has led to the recycling of four of the seven million cellphones that Japanese consumers discard every year. JEPLAN will build its first independently owned facility in 2017, whose purpose is to recycle cotton and plastic products into bio-ethanol. Michihiko will share with us what it takes to make sustainability solutions a business and a reality no matter where you are.

Leonard Parker founder of EnNovus Group. Leonard is a leader in the Sustainable Packaging World. Leonard’s EnNovus Group utilizes new technologies for carbon reduction through the implementation of a new sustainable technology, process systems, and the source reduction or elimination of plastics in packaging. Leonard is at the forefront of creating greener packaging systems through technology and innovations and will share how and with whom with us.

Agenda:
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.: Check-in, social hour, sandwiches and refreshments
6:30 - 8:00 p.m.: Discussion and Q+A

--------------------------------

Free Talk: Affectiva - Emotion Recognition Software for Unity3D 
Thursday, January 14
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM 
Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), 255 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-talk-affectiva-emotion-recognition-software-for-unity3d-tickets-20005389659

Free Talk: Affectiva - Emotional Recognition Software for Unity3D with Mohammad Mavadati and Forest Hanford 
A free talk from two seasoned innovators at Affectiva who will demo their game that uses emotion recognition technology! About the Presenters: Mohammad Mavadati, PhD Computer Vision Scientist, Affectiva Inc. Mohammad Mavadati is designing, building and utilizing scalable computer vision and machine learning tools to enable the automated analysis and recognition of emotions. 
Forest Handford Games Evangelist, Affectiva Inc. Forest works as the Games Evangelist at Affectiva where he is working on bringing emotion-sensing capabilities to the Unity platform. 

Playcrafting Boston is the place to see the newest independent games being built in Boston and network with the people who built them. Each month, we bring in some of our most successful local game devs to give free talks on game development, ideas and standards. Join us and gain insight as you meet new friends and network with game professionals from throughout our community. Hope to see you there! 

For Attendees: You must register on Eventbrite.Gov ID is required to gain access to the Microsoft Building. Please include your first and last name when you RSVP. See you all there! 
You must register on Eventbrite. Gov ID is required to gain access to the Microsoft Building. Pleaseinclude your first and last name when you RSVP.See you all there!

---------------------------------

UNITE on the Maker Movement
Thursday, January 14
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
Cantina, 320 Congress Street, Boston
Cost:  $0 - $16.82

Winter’s UNITE will focus on the Maker Movement. Our panel of experts will dive into what it takes to be a maker, drawing from the perspectives of multiple facets of the maker industry. Cantina’s Senior Vice President of Innovation, George White, will be moderating our panel discussion. Panelists include:
Anne Hathaway, Maker Innovation Program Manager at Etsy
Peter Zink, Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University

UNITE on the Maker Movement will be hosted by Cantina, located at 320 Congress Street. Join us for an evening of of networking and great design discussion!

-----------------------------------

Neurologic: The Brain's Hidden Rationale Behind Our Irrational Behavior (Hardcover)
Thursday, January 14
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline
 
Eliezer J. Sternberg
NeuroLogic explores the brain’s internal system of reasoning and illuminates our most outlandish as well as our most stereotyped behaviors. From sleepwalking murderers, contagious yawning, and the brains of sports fans, to false memories, subliminal messages, and the secret of ticklishness, Dr. Eliezer Sternberg shows that there are patterns to the way we interpret the world—–patterns that fit the brain’s unique logic. 

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Friday, January 15
------------------------

Knots and Numbers
Friday, January 15
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
MIT, Building 4-270, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Speaker(s): Haynes Miller
Algebraic topology attempts to extract discrete invariants from flexible geometric configurations. One of the most easily visualized type of topological object is a knot -- a closed loop in Euclidean space. Appearance of simplicity notwithstanding, knot theory has been an active area of study for the past 150 years, and especially in the past three decades. In this lecture we'll study fragments of knots known as tangles, and discover a rational number that serves as a complete invariant for a subclass of tangles called rational tangles. The verification will be by square-dance.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Mathematics, Department of

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Saturday, January 16
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2nd Annual Robot Race 5k: Build-a-Bot Info Session 
Saturday, January 16
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM 
Vecna's Cambridge Research Lab, 36 Cambridge Park Dr, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-robot-race-5k-build-a-bot-info-session-tickets-19825475531

About the Robot Race Info Session This will be an interactive workshop with Vecna's lead engineers and roboticists. At this meeting, the Robot Race lead will discuss the rules of the event, reveal the course, and provide a list of robot kits that can help hobbyists and students get a head start on building their robots. A tour of our machine shop and demos of our robots will follow. About the Robot Race The Second Annual Robot Race will be held on Sunday, April 10, 2016 in Cambridge MA, near the Alewife T Station. The human course is a chip-timed 5k and the robot race is a 100 yard obstacle filled dash. Join us for prizes, food, raffles, and more! The Human 5K is a family-friendly 5K race for individuals, families and teams. Dress up as a robot or bring your unique gadgets and enhancements for special prizes. Register a robot for the Robot Race. Must have a driver (out of line-of-sight for part of the challenge) and a chaperone for the course. Drivers will be seated at the control center. Autonomous or teleoperated robots will complete an L-shaped course as quickly as possible. Robots will be required to receive a Dixie cup of confetti at the corner water stop. Robot categories and waves may be established based on the qualities of the entrants. Register for both the Human 5K and Robot Race on Active.com 

Why Run All proceeds benefit Vecna Cares Charitable Trust [2], a non-profit that delivers technology for a sustainable and scalable healthcare delivery infrastructure in underserved areas around the world. The application of cutting edge innovations in solving today's biggest humanitarian challenges is central to the organization's mission. The Robot Race seeks to engage the community in understanding the power of technology in answering these challenges. Our landmark support of the Ebola response has been recognized by Time Magazine, The Brookings Institute, and Computerworld . Watch this video for more information about our projects at home and abroad. How you can get involved: Sponsor a project Sign up to run as a team Sign up to run as an individual Race a robot This is a unique way to show your support of healthy communities, global health, and STEM activities. We hope you can join us! Read the about last year's event on BetaBoston!

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Come Bio Blitz at the Arnold Arboretum
Saturday, January 16
1:00–3:30pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain

Unseasonably warm weather in Boston has changed how plants and animals hunt, sleep, migrate, feed, reproduce and thrive in our environment. Come explore and investigate how life is adapting to our changing climate in the beautiful Arnold Arboretum this January. Bring your curiosity and a smart phone. We will be uploading our findings to citizen science platform iNaturalist during our (indoor) debrief immediately following our outdoor musings. 
Free, no registration.

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Tuesday, January 19
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Connectomics and Psychopathology: A Tale of Many Regions
Tuesday, January 19,
3-4 PM
MIT, Building 46-3002, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Deanna Barch, Ph.D.
Abstract:  A growing body of research clearly indicates that both functional and structural connectivity within and between core brain systems is a critical determinant of cognitive and affective function in both health and disease. This talk will first briefly overview the state of the art methods for assessing human brain connectivity. Next this talk will illustrate the ways in which variation in brain connectivity relates to variation in cognitive and affective functions in healthy individuals, as well as how impairments in functional brain connectivity relate to impaired cognitive and affective function associated with risk for psychopathology and manifest illness.
Building 46
Location
Building 46 Map

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Wednesday, January 20
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Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, Forum on Data Privacy
Wednesday, January 20
8:30am 
MIT, Building 32-123,  Ray and Maria Stata Center, Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP required at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forum-on-data-privacy-convened-by-the-massachusetts-attorney-generals-office-tickets-19411752073

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to join with the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and TechNet to host a Forum on Data Privacy.  The event takes place on Wednesday, Janauary 20, 2016, from 8:30 am until 12:00 pm, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ray and Maria Stat Center, Kirsch Auditorium, Room 32-123, in Cambridge, MA

Access to consumer data allows businesses to better serve their customers and to develop and deliver transformative products and services. However, unpredictable, unclear, or ineffectual privacy rules and protections threaten the trust, goodwill, and ultimately the investment necessary to support a robust, data-driven economy.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is committed to working with all stakeholders to promote innovation, competition, and consumer privacy. To inform our consideration of these important issues, the AG's office, Berkman Center, and our co-hosts invite participants to join us in shaping a new partnership with a candid exchange of ideas and concerns.

In advance of this meeting the AG's office is particularly interested in hearing your perspectives regarding the following issues.

Do innovative technologies and methods by which businesses collect, share, and use consumer data (e.g. Internet of Things, Big Data, mobile devices/applications, cloud computing) create privacy concerns or compliance challenges? If so, how could these concerns or challenges be resolved or overcome?

Is there a need for more definitive rules or guidance from government or self-regulatory bodies regarding the commercial collection, use, and protection of consumer data? If so, what rules or guidance should be put forth?

As experts on consumer privacy issues or as participants in data-driven businesses, are there problematic business practices you observe that threaten consumer privacy?

Could the Massachusetts Data Breach Notification Act (Mass. Gen. Law c. 93H) be amended to better promote consumer privacy in light of changing technologies? If so, how?
If you would like to respond, please reply in writing by Friday, December 11th to dataprivacy at state.ma.us.

We are currently in the process of developing a forum agenda and panel composition, which will be informed by responses to the questions above. If you are interested in participating or have recommendations for speakers, please contact Assistant Attorneys General Sara Cable (617.963.2827) or Mike Firestone (617.963.2027) or email dataprivacy at state.ma.us. RSVP information to follow.

Please note that all submissions may become part of the public record and subject to public disclosure. We look forward to hearing from you.

-------------------------------------

Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industry
Wednesday, January 20
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
MIT, Building 68-181, 31 Ames Street, Cambridge

David Salim, ImmunoGen, QC analyst
Peter Liu, Amgen, Engineer, Process development
Alison Williams, Pronutria, Director of corporate development
Darby Schmidt, Syros Pharmaceuticals, Principal scientist

Interested in science outside of academia? Come to the biotechnology and big pharma panel! We have scientists from different backgrounds in all different industry positions. Come hear about their day-to-day life and how they got to where they are now.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Biology


-------------------------------------

Planning, Funding, and Implementing Transportation Projects in the Real World (or How It Really Works)
Wednesday, January 20
1:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Eric Plosky, Kate Fichter
As a vital and complex element of any urban or regional environment, transportation infrastructure both affects and is affected by land use patterns, economic development policies, political power-brokering and environmental resources, and so offers a lens through which to study many of the choices and constraints available to today's planners. This seminar will offer a practice-oriented overview of the issues, players and trends most relevant to contemporary transportation planning, as taught by two MIT/DUSP alumni currently working in the field.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:  Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu 

--------------------------------

Aging Brain Seminar Series: Dr. Bradley Hyman
Wednesday, January 20
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building 46-3310, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Dr. Bradley Hyman
Aging Brain Seminar Series 
The Aging Brain Initiative is dedicated to conquering Alzheimer's disease and the dementias of aging through fundamental research into how the brain ages in health and in decline. This multidisciplinary, highly collaborative effort is spearheaded by the Picower Institute and the MIT School of Science. It brings together experts in neuroscience, bioengineering, biology, computer science, artificial intelligence, medicine, health economics and health policy. Their mission is to deliver the basic research that makes possible new tools, technologies and pharmaceuticals to address the challenges of brain aging, always with the aim of moving knowledge quickly from bench to bedside.

Coming Soon!

Web site: https://picower.mit.edu/cms/events/aging-brain-initiative-seminar-series-with-dr-bradley-hyman/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
For more information, contact:  Najat Kessler
617-452-2485

--------------------------------

Urban Planning Film Series:  Public Housing, by Fred Wiseman
Wednesday, January 20
7:00PM-9:15PM	
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

This cinema-verite documentary captures daily life at the Ida B. Wells public housing development in Chicago. The film illustrates some of the experiences of people living in conditions of extreme poverty, including the work of the tenants council, street life, the role of police, job training, drug education, teenage mothers, dysfunctional families, elderly residents, nursery school, and after school teenage programs.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN at MIT.EDU

----------------------------
Thursday, January 21
----------------------------

Displaying Data and Models on a Digital Globe.
Thursday, January 21	
11:00AM-12:00PM	
MIT, Building 54-1827, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Glenn Flierl, Professor of Oceanography
The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences have been hosting a two foot diameter spherical display system.  If you have data or interactive models you'd like to see visualized on the sphere, come to the sessions to learn how it can be done and to figure out better ways and how to present information using the iGlobe.  Or try to make a compelling environmental movie using the sphere, an auxiliary screen, and sound.  Or come if you'd just like to experiment with the way things look projected on a spherical surface.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Glenn Flierl, 54-1626, 617-253-4692, glenn at lake.mit.edu



----------------------------------

Private and Public Storytelling: How to Use Digital and Traditional Technologies for Social Change
WHEN  Thu., Jan. 21, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION	Classes/Workshops, Film, Humanities, Information Technology, Lecture, Social Sciences, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR	Office for the Arts at Harvard
SPEAKER(S)  Neal Baer
COST  Free and open to the public; registration required
CONTACT INFO	617.495.8676
DETAILS  Neal Baer EdM ’79, AM ’82, M ’95 is a pediatrician and television writer who combines his passion for medicine and storytelling to challenge audiences' views on a spectrum of social and political topics. His credits include the TV series “Under the Dome,” “ER” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” and he is the founder of Global Media Center for Social Impact, which uses new media to promote health initiatives around the world. Baer will discuss how compelling stories have the power to transform popular culture and catalyze social change in such areas as health, immigration, racial justice, America’s prison crisis, the environment, LGBT/gender equality, education, reproductive health and rights, and more.
LINK	http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/event/wintersession2016-neal-baer?delta=0

-----------------------------------

Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, and the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East
Thursday, January 21
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room, 1 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Irene L. Gendzier
Book talk and signing with author, Irene L. Gendzier, about her latest book, "Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, and the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East."  

Irene L. Gendzier presents incontrovertible evidence that oil politics played a significant role in the founding of Israel, the policy then adopted by the United States toward Palestinians, and subsequent U.S. involvement in the region. Consulting declassified U.S. government sources, as well as papers in the H.S. Truman Library, she uncovers little-known features of U.S. involvement in the region, including significant exchanges in the winter and spring of 1948 between the director of the Oil and Gas Division of the Interior Department and the representative of the Jewish Agency in the United States, months before Israel's independence and recognition by President Truman. 

About the Author: 
Irene L. Gendzier is professor emerita in the Department of Political Science at Boston University. She is also the author of "Notes from the Minefield: United States Intervention in Lebanon and the Middle East" and "Frantz Fanon: A Critical Study", and she is a coeditor, with Richard Falk and Robert Lifton, of "Crimes of War: Iraq." 

Books will be available for sale at the event 
Refreshments served

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free 
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies

For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
lkerwin at mit.edu 

--------------------------------

Innovation in Transportation Series
Thursday, January 21
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Venture Cafe – Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19ZSmBnmcInxZhUjyahrevaMunOeifqtM6yb05FvUcjk/viewform

What new things can be done to get us moving in Kendall Square?
We need your brain power and innovations to solve Kendall’s transportation challenges. How can we use technology to tell us about Red Line train arrivals, capacity on the cars? How can we communicate about other options when Red Line is down? What are the top ten apps for transit through Kendall? How do we use commuter rail corridors more efficiently? Please join us, we need you!

Hosted by Venture Café Foundation and Kendall Square Association in partnership with MassDOT.

--------------------------------

Boston Talks Happy Hour: The Future of Food
Thursday, January 21
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
WGBH, 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-talks-happy-hour-the-future-of-food-tickets-19360509806
Cost:  $11.54	

The future of food is on the menu.

A Smarter Happy Hour
Grab your friends and join us for WGBH’s take on happy hour—inspiring conversation plus wine and local craft brews for $5 a glass. Hear from and connect with local experts in a variety of fields while enjoying the great company of your neighbors from Boston and beyond. Each event combines short speaking programs, drinks, and a chance for you to join the conversation.

Meet the Host
Edgar runs WGBH's Curiosity Desk, where he digs a little deeper into topics in the news, explores the off-beat, and searches for answers to questions posed by the world around us. His radio features can be heard on 89.7 WGBH's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and his television features can be seen on WGBH's Greater Boston. Follow him on Twitter @ebherwick3.

---------------------------------

Sweating the Small Stuff: The Fun and Fear of Near-Earth Asteroids
Thursday, January 21
7:30 pm
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge

Jose-Luis Galache, CfA
The explosion of an asteroid over Russia in 2013 caught by hundreds of dashcams, and the perennial reminder of the dinosaurs' demise due to an earlier, and bigger, asteroid impact, serve to illustrate the fear that asteroids may inspire in us. But near-Earth asteroids, our closest neighbors in the Solar System, also offer hitherto unimagined opportunities for exploration and resource harvesting. They might even be the stepping stones we require to seed the solar system with space colonies. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, located at the CfA, is on the front line of asteroid discoveries and is vital to the research of asteroid scientists the world over. We'll explore its inner workings and how it contributes to both the fun and fear of near-Earth asteroids.

------------------------
Friday January 22
-----------------------

The Future of Computation in Science and Engineering: "BRAIN + MACHINES"
Friday January 22
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST
Harvard, Science Center Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge 
RSVP at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ebvv64nr261f5f27&llr=odyvocsab

This year's symposium on the Future of Computation in Science and Engineering will focus on the converging fields of neuroscience and computer science/machine learning.  BRAIN + MACHINES will bring together machine learning experts, neuroscientists, academic researchers, and scholars across several fields to discuss what we can learn from the study of structure and function in the brain and efforts to reverse-engineer the brain.  The implications of replacing the human brain with machines and the related benefits and risks for society will be considered.  Other topics to be explored will include how treatments for brain-related problems are being developed through better understanding of the brain led by advances in technology and computation.  

Contact:  Sheila Coveney 
Institute for Applied Computational Science, Harvard University 
617-384-9091 
computefest at seas.harvard.edu 

-----------------------------
Saturday, January 23
----------------------------

Botany Blast: Observing Nature for Citizen Science
Saturday, January 23
9:30am -10:30am
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain

Join Margaret Kosmala, PhD, to learn about her work in ecology, studying the dynamics of natural systems from local to continental scales. Her new online Citizen Science project, found at http://seasonspotter.org, is a fun way to help study the impacts of changing climates by spotting seasonal features of plants. Kosmala’s work is particularly focused on how natural systems respond to human actions, such as climate change, accidental introduction of exotic species, fragmentation, and active management. Come learn about using long-term and large data sets, novel technologies, and the power of citizen science to understand how life works. If you have a laptop or tablet, please bring it to class.
Fee Free, but registration requested

Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

----------------------------------

Transformational Technologies of Tomorrow: Converging AI, Big Data and Robotics 
Saturday, January 23
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM 
Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), Havana Conference Room, 5th Floor, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/transformational-technologies-of-tomorrow-converging-ai-big-data-and-robotics-tickets-20046972033

Panel & Speakers: 1. Suchit Jain, Dassault Systemes 2. Ashish Nadkarni, IDC 
IIT AGNE invites you to the third event in the run up to Leadership Conference 2016, with the theme Leading transformation for a better tomorrow: Technologies that lift the human spirit. Today we google the question that just popped in our head using Siri, set our thermostat using a smartphone and book a ride to the airport on Uber, as Roomba cleans our living room floors. What about dreaming of living in a Smart home equipped with smart appliances, going to the office or on vacation in a driverless car, playing with a smart basketball and riding on a bike with a Smart helmet, monitoring the health of your elderly parents or family while you are on a business trip, and infusing fashion with smart technology embedded in a dress? 

Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, IoT and Robotics are no longer exclusive to the purview of research labs or capital intensive manufacturing environment. Increasingly, tools and knowledge based on the ideas in these domains are becoming common place and fundamentally transforming our lives, the nature of our work, our thinking and our work schedules as well. The sharing economy based on these technologies, pioneered by companies like AirBnB and Uber, has opened up a whole host of options for us as producers and consumers. How is the landscape changing within these domains of knowledge? How are they enhancing our understanding of ourselves, our society and the different environments we function in? How is technology impacting us as individuals, our workplaces and society as a whole? At the same time as new solutions and technologies are harnessed to relieve our pain points, we are facing a different set of challenges arising out of these applications. Explore these new frontiers with our panel on Jan 23rd, 2016. 

Please register to attend an exciting discussion. What: Panel Discussion on the Convergence of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics and Robotics technologies and implications When: 23rd January 2016, 2.00-4.00 PM Where: Havana Conference Room, , 5th Floor, Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142 Registration: Free of cost RSVP:PLEASE REGISATER FOR RSVP AS ADMISSION WILL REQUIRE A PHOTO ID DUE TO BUILDING SECURITY. 

--------------------------
Monday, January 25
--------------------------

Contemporary Geometric Beadwork:  Wearable Sewn Beadwork as a base to Model, Explore, and Animate Structure
Monday, January 25
10:00AM-12:00PM
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Kate McKinnon, Erik Demaine, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Martin Demaine, Technical Assistant, CSAIL
Kate McKinnon is bringing her intriguing wearable art project, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, to MIT, and giving several lectures, a seminar, and two weeks of hands-on sessions. Explore the recent structural and design work in this ancient art, and learn how to apply this alluring type of modeling to your own ideas.
The scope of the project is explained in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uoCC9MJ2SM

Sponsor(s): Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
Contact: Kate McKinnon, kate at katemckinnon.com
Contemporary Geometric Beadwork-Lecture

-----------------------------------

Our First Chance to Study the Atmosphere of a Rocky Exoplanet
Monday, January 25
1:30PM-2:30PM	
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Dr. Zach Berta-Thompson - Postdoctoral Fellow
Learn about the Earth-size planet we discovered around a nearby red dwarf and what it means for the search for life outside the Solar System.

---------------------------
Tuesday, January 26
---------------------------

The Black Church Never Left the Outdoors: Eco-Justice and Environmentalism
Tuesday, January 26
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
BU, School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Room STH Community Center, basement, Boston

Speaker(s): Dianne Glave and Kapya John Kaoma (STH '10)
This is the spring 2016 School of Theology Lowell event and is part of the School of Theology theme for this year and next: Power, Privilege, and Prophetic Witness. 

African Americans have a connection to and understanding of nature, rooted in Africa and going back generations in the United States. Theology, history, and contemporary experience can be traced through environmental activism in and through the church. Dianne Glave, Coordinator of Diversity Development with the Western Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Conference Center, will begin the discussion and Rev. Dr. Kapya John Kaoma (STH '10) will be her discussion partner. This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Lowell Institute. Reception following.

We hope you will join Glave and Kaoma as we attempt to see deeply into African American and pan-African traditions of earth care. 

Registration not required but appreciated. Email Jaclyn Jones, jkjones at bu.edu, to register.

Contact organization: School of Theology Development & Alumni Relations
Phone : 617-353-8972
Contact name: Jaclyn Jones
Contact email: jkjones at bu.edu
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=177586@17.calendar.bu.edu

--------------------------------

Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections):  A History of the Religious Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage
Tuesday, January 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store welcomes Boston University professor STEPHEN PROTHERO, bestselling author of Religious Literacy and God Is Not One, for a discussion of his latest book, Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections): A History of the Religious Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage.
About Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections)

In this timely, carefully reasoned social history of the United States, Stephen Prothero places today’s heated culture wars within the context of a centuries-long struggle of right versus left and religious versus secular to reveal how, ultimately, liberals always win.

Though they may seem to be dividing the country irreparably, today’s heated cultural and political battles between right and left, Progressives and Tea Party, religious and secular are far from unprecedented. In this engaging and important work, Stephen Prothero reframes the current debate, viewing it as the latest in a number of flashpoints that have shaped our national identity. Prothero takes us on a lively tour through time, bringing into focus the election of 1800, which pitted Calvinists and Federalists against Jeffersonians and “infidels;” the Protestants’ campaign against Catholics in the mid-nineteenth century; the anti-Mormon crusade of the Victorian era; the fundamentalist-modernist debates of the 1920s; the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s; and the current crusade against Islam.

As Prothero makes clear, our culture wars have always been religious wars, progressing through the same stages of conservative reaction to liberal victory that eventually benefit all Americans. Drawing on his impressive depth of knowledge and detailed research, he explains how competing religious beliefs have continually molded our political, economic, and sociological discourse and reveals how the conflicts which separate us today, like those that came before, are actually the byproduct of our struggle to come to terms with inclusiveness and ideals of “Americanness.” To explore these battles, he reminds us, is to look into the soul of America—and perhaps find essential answers to the questions that beset us.

-------------------------------
Wednesday, January 27
-------------------------------

MIT on Climate = Science + Action
Wednesday, January 27
8:30a–5:30p
MIT, Building 32-123, Stata Center, Kirsch Auditorium, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

A Symposium Presented by the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) Co-sponsored by the Lorenz Center and the Houghton Fund 
Speaker: Multiple MIT faculty

Touching on everything from the essentials of planetary climate through the complexities of Earth's climate system to the challenges of finding the will to act on our knowledge to address current climate change, the symposium features talks and discussion by faculty experts from across the spectrum of climate research at MIT, and keynote speakers Marcia McNutt (Editor-in-Chief of Science) and Justin Gillis (Environmental Science Writer for The New York Times). 

Web site: https://eapsweb.mit.edu/events/2016/climate-symposium
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:  Kurt Sternlof
(617) 253-6895
kurtster at mit.edu 

-------------------------------------

Mobile Reading Marathon: Arabian Nights
Wednesday, January 27
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
MIT, Multiple Locations, Cambridge

Speaker(s): Diana Henderson
Participants will read selections from "The Arabian Nights" in 4 locations on campus. 
Participants are welcome to any or all sessions throughout the day.	
09:30AM-11:00AM 	14E-304
11:00AM-01:00PM 	Lobby 10
01:00PM-03:00PM 	1-236
03:00PM-05:00PM 	7-338

Tweet as you participate: #ArabianNights

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Literature Section
Contact: Susan Wiedner (swiedner at mit.edu)
Web site: http://lit.mit.edu/event/mobile-reading-marathon-arabian-nights-2/
More info: 258-5629

-------------------------------------

Boston Ignite: Big Data 
Wednesday, January 27
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM 
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-ignite-big-data-tickets-19824106436

Enlighten us, but make it quick Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's back in 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. Big Data Ignite Boston: Big Data is back. Join us for our second evening at the District Hall to connect with the big data community and hear from those who havesurvived, 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. 

-------------------------------------

Urban Planning Film Series:  Herman's House, by Angad Singh Bhalla
Wednesday, January 27
7:00PM-9:15PM	
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Herman Wallace may be the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States---he's spent more than 40 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana. Imprisoned in 1967 for a robbery he admits, he was subsequently sentenced to life for a killing he vehemently denies. Herman's House is a moving account of the remarkable expression his struggle found in an unusual project proposed by artist Jackie Sumell.

Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning
Contact: Ezra Glenn, 7-337, 617 253-2024, EGLENN at MIT.EDU

----------------------------
Thursday, January 28
----------------------------

Displaying Data and Models on a Digital Globe.
Thursday, January 28	
11:00AM-12:00PM	
MIT, Building 54-1827, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Glenn Flierl, Professor of Oceanography
The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences have been hosting a two foot diameter spherical display system.  If you have data or interactive models you'd like to see visualized on the sphere, come to the sessions to learn how it can be done and to figure out better ways and how to present information using the iGlobe.  Or try to make a compelling environmental movie using the sphere, an auxiliary screen, and sound.  Or come if you'd just like to experiment with the way things look projected on a spherical surface.

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Contact: Glenn Flierl, 54-1626, 617-253-4692, glenn at lake.mit.edu


----------------------------------

Implementing the Smart City
Thursday, January 28
6:00 PM
The MEME Design, 288 Norfolk Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Evenings-at-TheMEME/events/227297594/
Go around to the back (or loading dock) entrance. Our office is not accessible from the front entrance. Climb up the stairs to the top (5th) floor. There will be signs pointing the way. Street parking is available along Hampshire St.

The Smart City is not just an abstract vision of urban utopia; it is here, and it is here to stay. The grand promise is that the Internet of Things will help us iron out inefficiencies, using insights generated from Big Data to transform urban life. It promises to improve quality of life and manage the complex systems that make up the city's infrastructure. But what does that actually mean?

THE MEME invites you to an evening of conversation where we will look at how the Smart City is being created, piece by piece, to address the real challenges of life in the city. Join experienced leaders in the field as they discuss how they are researching, developing, and implementing new technology that will change the way we experience urban spaces.

Don’t miss out on the fourth event in THE MEME’s Internet of Things series. We have three speakers confirmed for the panel: Kristopher Carter (the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics), Jutta Friedrichs (Soofa), and Nicola Palmarini (IBM Accessibility / IBM Research).

---------------------------------

RPP Colloquium: Integral Human Development and the Moral Imagination: Implications for Religion, Development, and Peacebuilding
Thu., Jan. 28
6 – 8:30 p.m. 
Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge

Religions and the Practice of Peace Colloquium Series
R. Scott Appleby, PhD, professor of history and Marilyn Keough Dean of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, is author or editor of more than 15 books, including The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation; The Fundamentalism Project; Peacebuilding: Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis; and, most recently, The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding.

Integral Human Development (IHD), a concept articulated in Roman Catholic social teaching and resonant in other religious and secular traditions, levels a serious critique at narrowly technical and secular global efforts to build peace, eradicate poverty and provide basic human needs such as health care and education to underdeveloped societies. Reading IHD through the lens of Lederach’s rendering of the moral imagination allows us to envision and elaborate a sustainable partnership between professional development actors, peacebuilders, and religious communities. The talk will unpack and defend this argument.

The event will be moderated by HDS Dean David N. Hempton, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies and John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity.

Space is limited. RSVP is required. Check back for RSVP info.

Launched by HDS Dean David N. Hempton in 2014, this monthly public series convenes a cross-disciplinary RPP Working Group of faculty, experts, graduate students, and alumni from across Harvard’s Schools and the local area to explore topics and cases in religions and the practice of peace. A diverse array of scholars, leaders, and religious peacebuilders are invited to present and engage with the RPP Working Group and general audience. A light dinner is served and a brief reception follows the program.

Join RPP’s mailing list and visit the RPP Initiative at http://hds.harvard.edu/faculty-research/programs-and-centers/religions-and-the-practice-of-peace

Gazette Classification: Lecture, Religion 
Sponsor: Religions and the Practice of Peace Initiative 
Contact: Liz Lee-Hood 
Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/?trumbaEmbed=view%3devent%26eventid%3d115684100

------------------------------

Neuromarketing-palo­oza:  Uncovering What Your Target Audience Is Feeling 
Thursday, January 28, 2016
6:30 PM
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Neuromarketing-Meetup/events/226827015/
	
Emotions are the number one influencer of attention, perception, memory, human behavior and decision-making. And to that end, our featured speaker will be Gabi Zijderveld, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at Affectiva (http://www.affectiva.com/), leaders in emotion analytics and insights. Gabi will be giving a demo of their technology, which delivers insights into people’s emotional engagement with anything from websites to brands, advertising, movie trailers and TV programs.

Making 'Em Click 

In addition, we'll be covering the most effective methods for writing headlines that get more clicks. Headlines are everywhere we look online, whether in websites, blogs, articles, Tweets or emails. We'll be doing a deep-dive into the psychology of why people can't resist clicking on certain headlines yet ignore others. Learn to write irresistible headlines that drive attention, clicks and traffic. 

The event is free, and so is the pizza. 

-----------------------------

The Idealist:  Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet
Thursday, January 28
7:00 PM
(Doors at 6:30)
WorkBar, 45 Prospect Street., First Floor, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store and The Baffler welcome Slate correspondant JUSTIN PETERS and editor-in-chief of The Baffler JOHN SUMMERS for a discussion of Peters' book The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet, a smart, lively history of the Internet free culture movement and its larger effects on society—and the life and shocking suicide of Aaron Swartz, a founding developer of Reddit and Creative Commons.

About The Idealist
Aaron Swartz was a zealous young advocate for the free exchange of information and creative content online. He committed suicide in 2013 after being indicted by the government for illegally downloading millions of academic articles from a nonprofit online database. From the age of fifteen, when Swartz, a computer prodigy, worked with Lawrence Lessig to launch Creative Commons, to his years as a fighter for copyright reform and open information, to his work leading the protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), to his posthumous status as a cultural icon, Swartz’s life was inextricably connected to the free culture movement. Now Justin Peters examines Swartz’s life in the context of 200 years of struggle over the control of information.

In vivid, accessible prose, The Idealist situates Swartz in the context of other "data moralists" past and present, from lexicographer Noah Webster to ebook pioneer Michael Hart to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. In the process, the book explores the history of copyright statutes and the public domain; examines archivists’ ongoing quest to build the “library of the future”; and charts the rise of open access, copyleft, and other ideologies that have come to challenge protectionist IP policies. Peters also breaks down the government’s case against Swartz and explains how we reached the point where federally funded academic research came to be considered private property, and downloading that material in bulk came to be considered a federal crime.

The Idealist is an important investigation of the fate of the digital commons in an increasingly corporatized Internet, and an essential look at the impact of the free culture movement on our daily lives and on generations to come.

------------------------
Friday, January 29
------------------------

HBS Entertainment and Media Conference 2016
Friday, January 29
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM (EST)
Harvard Business School, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/hbs-entertainment-and-media-conference-2016-tickets-19894477919
Cost:  $32.64 - $64.29

Entertainment and Media: The Future of Entertainment
Our annual conference brings together hundreds of HBS and Harvard University students, alumni, faculty, business leaders, and community members to hear from industry leaders. The conference features keynote addresses and panel discussions with senior business and creative executives from the industry’s leading corporations and investors.  
Confirmed speakers include executives from:
Capitol Records
Centerview
CNN
Governor's Ball
HBO
LiveNation
Morgan Stanley
NBC/Universal
Seed & Spark
STX
... and more to come!

------------------------------

MIT Meeting on Quantitative Ecology
Friday, January 29
11:00a–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-349, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge

Speaker: Organizers: Jeff Gore & Serguei Saavedra
This first meeting has the intention to build a network of researchers/labs located in the Boston area working in the field of quantitative/theoretical ecology. This meeting will allow presenters and attendees to introduce their research, exchange ideas, and explore potential avenues of collaboration. 

Speakers: Otto Cordero (MIT), Elizabeth Crone (Tufts), Mick Follows (MIT), Jeff Gore (MIT), 
Tarik Gouhier (Northeastern), Kirill Korolev (Boston University), Pankaj Mehta (Boston University), Babak Momeni (Boston College), Peter Morin (Rutgers), Michael Neubert (Woods Hole), Martin Polz (MIT), Daniel Rothman (MIT), Serguei Saavedra (MIT), Alvaro Sanchez (Harvard), Benjamin Wolfe (Tufts), Elizabeth Wolkovich (Harvard) 

Attendance is free but REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED: Send name & affiliation to mit.qe.meeting at gmail.com Please mention if you would like to present a poster.

Open to: MIT and Participating Affiliated Instititutions
Cost: 0 
Tickets: Send name & affiliation to mit.qe.meeting at gmail.com 
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact:  MIT Meeting on Quantitative Ecology
617-258-8685
mit.qe.meeting at gmail.com 

-----------------------------

MIT Can Talk
Friday, January 29
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
MIT, MIT Museum, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

After a week of preparing, MIT students compete to become a champion orator. Hear their 5-minute pitches and decide for yourself who deserves the laurel wreath!

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free with Museum admission
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
Contact: Jennifer Novotney (museuminfo at mit.edu)
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/~tleng/www/mitcantalk/about.html
More info: 617-253-5927

-----------------------------

Battling of God's Word: Indonesian Muslim Feminists Now
Friday, January 29
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
BU, 121 Bay State Road, Boston

Speaker(s): Nelly van Doorn-Harder Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest College
Texts and strategies Muslim feminists in Indonesia use to counter radical-minded Muslim discourses about the rights and role of women.

Contact organization: CURA
Phone : 617-353-9050
Contact name: Arlene Brennan
Contact email: cura at bu.edu
Source: http://www.bu.edu/calendar/?uid=177669@17.calendar.bu.edu

----------------------------

Global Game Jam 2016
Friday, January 29
5p - 11:45p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32-124 & 32-144, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that in today's heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games - it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.

Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396
Open to: the general public
Cost: free 
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396 

This event occurs daily at 5:00p - 11:45p through January 29, 2016, and also on January 31, 2016 at 9:00a - 6:00p and January 30, 2016 at 9:00a - 11:45p.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu 

----------------------------
Saturday, January 30
----------------------------

Global Game Jam 2016
Saturday, January 30
9:00a–11:45p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32-124 & 32-144, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that in today's heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games - it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.

Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396
Open to: the general public
Cost: free 
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396 

This event occurs daily at 5:00p - 11:45p through January 29, 2016, and also on January 31, 2016 at 9:00a - 6:00p and January 30, 2016 at 9:00a - 11:45p.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu 

-------------------------
Sunday, January 31
-------------------------

Global Game Jam 2016
Sunday, January 31
9:00a–11:45p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32-124 & 32-144, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development. It is the growth of an idea that in today's heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using video games - it is very universal. The weekend stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a 48 hour development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity.

Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396
Open to: the general public
Cost: free 
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-game-jam-2016-at-mit-tickets-19781298396 

This event occurs daily at 5:00p - 11:45p through January 29, 2016, and also on January 31, 2016 at 9:00a - 6:00p and January 30, 2016 at 9:00a - 11:45p.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, MIT Game Lab
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu 

************
--------------
Opportunity
--------------
************

Special Holiday Offer
--------------------------

The Ultimate Really "Green Gift"
Pearl's Premium Ultra Low Maintenance Lawn Seed
Truly Unique, Innovative & Amazing

Winner of MassChallenge Prize & Boston Museum of Science Award
An Eco-friendly grass that needs mowing only once per month!
Needs 1/4 the water of other grass. Guaranteed to sprout.
Stays green year round without toxic lawn chemicals.
12 inch roots sequester 4x the carbon to lessen climate change.

No need to tear up the lawn, plant right over existing grass.
5# bag covers 800 -1000 sq.ft.   People, Pet, Pond & Planet Friendly TM  
WWW.PearlsPremium.com.  Put in Code "Holiday" for 20% off,  
(offer good til December 31, 2015)  tel# 508-653-0800  Jackson Madnick
A portion of your purchase helps us support the important work of Habitat for Humanity

--------------------------

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

---------------------

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).

---------------------

Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ

-----------------------

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.)

*********
-----------
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

--------------------------------------------------

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/

---------------------------------------

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

----------------------

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!

---------------------

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

------------------------

Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston  http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

********************************************
-----------------------------------------------------

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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