[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - February 9, 2014
George Mokray
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Feb 9 15:53:35 PST 2014
Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index
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Monday, February 10
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12pm "Environmental and Technology Policy Options in the Electricity Sector: Interactions and Outcomes"
12:15pm Modeling without "Target" Maps: Scientific Cooperation on Atmospheric Pollution in the Cold War
12:30pm Technology Invigorating Architecture
2pm Zen and the Arts of Liberal Ministry
3:45pm Effects of climate change on birds
4pm "Great Lakes to Salt Flats: A Hydrological History of the American West over the Last 25,000 Years”
4pm The Meaning of Mandela in Today's South Africa
4pm In the Wake of Traumatic Events: Population Health Consequences and Their Causes
5:30pm Hate Crimes in the Heartland
6:30pm Secrets Revealed: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
7pm Afghanistan Present and Near Future - Will the US really Leave?
7pm Science by the Pint: The hidden cognitive biases of good people
7pm Scanner/Vitiello Presentation
7:30pm The Future Can't Wait: Why Taking Action on Poverty Matters
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Tuesday, February 11
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The Day We Fight Back
8am Boston Society of Architects/AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) forum: AIA 2030 Challenge report roundtable
12pm David Carr
12:30pm How Dungeons & Dragons and Fantasy Prepare You for Law and Life
12:30pm Losing Containment: Filming in the Nuclear Waste Sites
3pm BCSEA Webinar: The Carbon Bubble - Unburnable Fossil Fuels, with Mark Campanale
3:30pm Socialization Ain't Always Nice: Order, Disorder, and Violence in the Post-Cold War World
4pm “The Most Important Topic Political Scientists Are Not Studying: Adapting to Climate Change”
4:15pm Why Defense Will Never Work: Defending the network from cyber-attack
4:15pm Placebo and Prayer: Why Prayer Practice May Help Heal
4:15pm Emergency Operations at Institutions of Higher Education
5pm The Ethicist's and the Lawyer's New Clothes: The Law and Ethics of Smart Clothes
6:30pm Passive House New England: Monthly Presentation
7pm BYO: Climate as Site
7pm SRC Forum Lecture with Paul Farmer
7:30pm Flood of Technologies for the Developing World: What Works
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Wednesday, February 12
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10am American Grand Strategy and the Nuclear Revolution
11am Ideas in Action Virtual Conversations in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab & MacArthur Foundation
12:10pm Environmental limitations, energetics, and ecological patterning
1pm Wind Energy Lecture
2:30pm A Moral Educator Reflects on Teaching a High School Class on Race and Racism to a Diverse Group of Seniors
4pm "Mechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing and Related Seismicity"
4pm The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures by Herbie Hancock; Set 2: Breaking the Rules
4pm Building an Agenda-Driven Politics at the Grass Roots
4:30pm The Origins of Freedom: The Continuing Debate Over Equality: Lincoln and Darwin @ 204
5pm Building a Vibrant Social Enterprise Ecosystem in Massachusetts
5:30pm MIT Community Forum on East campus/Kendall gateway design
6pm "Transportation Showcase"
6pm Mass Innovation Nights #MINFoodie6
7pm Global Health Panel
7:30pm IFFBoston Screening Series "THE WIND RISES" Written and Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
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Thursday, February 13
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Exhibition: "The Thinking Hand: Tools and Traditions of the Japanese Carpenter"
11am MIT Energy Fair
1pm Design Guidelines for Transit Supportive Communities
4pm Crossing the 2014 Climate Divide: Scientists, Skeptics & the Media
5pm "Play in the Age of Computing Machinery"
6pm Cambridge Climate Protection Action Committee
6pm Games Forum Demo Night
6:30pm HackLab: Hack Night at the Innovation Lab
7pm IDEAS Global Challenge Spring Generator Dinner
7pm Elizabeth Kolbert discusses The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
7pm BASEA Forum: Up on the (Green) Roof…. and Boston's Article 89
7:30pm Entrepreneurs without Borders
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Friday, February 14
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National Preach-In on Climate Change
8am Innovations in Sustainability & Resiliency
11am "Integrated Learning, Optimization, and Prediction for Machine Intelligence"
12:30pm Heterogeneous Reservoirs in the Marine Carbon Cycle
5pm Second Fridays at the MIT Museum: How People Connect
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Saturday, February 15
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8am MakeMIT 2014
8:30am Suffolk University African Business Conference 2014 "Africa Uplift: Investing in the New Frontier"
12pm American Energy Data Challenge “Apps for Energy II” Hackathon
6pm ID Hack 2014
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Sunday, February 16
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2:50pm The DISSENT Approach to Anonymous, Interactive Communication on the Internet
6pm Genetically Engineered Foods: A community film screening and discussion in Jamaica Plain
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Tuesday, February 18
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8am Boston TechBreakfast: Abine, Gradeable, InsideTracker, 1sqbox, HubEngage
12pm Caryl Rivers, professor of journalism, Boston University
12:30pm Talking to Strangers: Chinese Youth and Social Media
1pm Crowdfunding for Nonprofits with Razoo
1:15pm "Geology Rules: Unconventional Development of Oil/Gas from Shale Formations"
2:30pm Corruption, Intimidation and Whistleblowing: A Theory of Inference from Unverifiable Reports
6pm Boston New Technology February 2014 Product Showcase #BNT38
6:30pm The Speculations of Max Tegmark: Mathematics and Multiverses
6:30pm Cyberspace and Urban Space in Networked Social Movements
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Flourishing
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/flourishing.html
A Different Way to Look at Carbon in China
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-different-way-to-look-at-carbon.html
China's Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Various Scales and Perspectives
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/chinas-carbon-dioxide-emissions-various.html
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Monday, February 10
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"Environmental and Technology Policy Options in the Electricity Sector: Interactions and Outcomes"
Monday, February 10, 2014
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Harvard Kennedy School, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Carolyn Fischer, Senior Fellow and Associate Director, Center for Climate and Electricity Policy, Resources for the Future
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
Louisa_Lund at hks.harvard.edu
Lunch will be served.
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Modeling without "Target" Maps: Scientific Cooperation on Atmospheric Pollution in the Cold War
Monday, February 10, 2014
12:15pm - 2:00pm
Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
Rachel Rothschild (Yale, History of Science)
Abstract: In the late 1960s, Scandinavian scientists discovered that rainfall across the southern parts of their countries had been increasing in acidity over several decades, which they feared could lead to serious environmental consequences. Known as “acid rain,” the problem soon became one of the most important environmental issues in the region. During the early 1970s, Norwegian atmospheric scientists determined that foreign power plants were the likely source of the air pollutants that cause acid rain, including those in Eastern Europe. However, with the European continent divided by the Cold War, the prospect of investigating the problem with the Communist bloc initially seemed impossible. This talk will explore how a European-wide cooperative effort to study acid rain eventually came about and the ways in which ongoing Cold War tensions influenced these research efforts, particularly security concerns about releasing data and doubts about engaging in scientific collaboration across the iron curtain.
Biography: Rachel Rothschild is a PhD Candidate in the Program in History of Science and Medicine at Yale University. Her dissertation, A Poisonous Sky: Scientific Research and International Diplomacy on Acid Rain in Europe, analyzes how scientific consensus was reached on acid rain, the use of scientific expertise in forming environmental policies, and the role of intergovernmental organizations in securing international agreements on transboundary air pollution. Prior to Yale, Rachel earned a B.A. in History of Science from Princeton University, as well as certificates of study in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing.
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
sts at hks.harvard.edu
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Technology Invigorating Architecture
Monday, February 10, 2014
12:30 pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Forrest Meggers, Princeton University School of Architecture
Building Technology Lecture Series
A talk in the Building Technology Discipline Group Lecture Series in the Department of Architecture
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Anne Simunovic
617-253-4412
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Zen and the Arts of Liberal Ministry
WHEN Mon., Feb. 10, 2014, 2 – 4 p.m.
WHERE Rabinowitz Room, Andover-Harvard Theological Library, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Office of Ministry Studies, Buddhist Ministry Initiative
CONTACT Julie Barker Gillette, x6-5586
NOTE Please join the Buddhist Ministry Initiative for a lecture by the Rev. James Ishmael Ford, a UU Worldonline columnist, Zen Buddhist priest and senior guiding teacher of Boundless Way Zen, as well as senior minister of First Unitarian Church of Providence, Rhode Island. Ford is the author of several books, including If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break: Field Notes from a Zen Life (Wisdom Publications, 2012). He writes the Monkey Mind blog.
This lecture is part of the Buddhist Ministry Initiative Colloquium series.
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Effects of climate change on birds
Monday, February 10, 2014
3:45p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Refreshments, 3:45 pm, Ida Green Lounge
Speaker: Cagan Sekercioglu -- University of Utah
Birds are among the most widely studied organisms on earth and represent an important indicator group for studying climate change. Tropical mountain birds, flat lowland birds, coastal forest birds, and restricted-range species are especially vulnerable. Species that experience limited temperature variation and have a low basal metabolic rate will be the most susceptible. Increased rainfall and extreme weather events such as heat waves, cold spells, typhoons, and hurricanes will exacerbate the influence of climate, as will synergy with other threats (e.g. habitat loss, emerging diseases, invasive species, and hunting). Habitat loss can increase bird extinctions caused by climate change by nearly 50% - each degree of surface warming can lead to approximately 100 to 500 additional bird extinctions. Networks of protected areas need to be designed with climate in mind; 92% of currently protected areas may become climatically unsuitable in a century. Topographical diversity, wide elevational ranges, high connectivity, and integration of human-dominated landscapes should be considered for conservation management. Most vulnerable birds are not currently considered an extinction threat due to a lack of knowledge systematically, and a lack of regular data-gathering on their ecology and distributions - rectifying this is an urgent priority. Locally based, long-term monitoring and adaptive conservation programs are essential to protect birds against climate change.
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Weekly talks given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, meteorology, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jen DiNisco
617-253-2127
jdinisco at mit.edu
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"Great Lakes to Salt Flats: A Hydrological History of the American West over the Last 25,000 Years”
Monday, February 10, 2014
4:00pm
Haller Hall (Geo Museum 102), 24 Oxford Street 1st Floor, Cambridge
Dr. David McGee, MIT
Post-talk Reception to follow at Hoffman Lab 4th floor
EPS Colloquium Series
Contact Name: Sabinna Cappo
scappo at fas.harvard.edu
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The Meaning of Mandela in Today's South Africa
WHEN Mon., Feb. 10, 2014, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Room K-354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict
SPEAKER(S) Greg Marinovich, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from South Africa and Nieman Fellow
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks: dhicks at wcfia.harvard.edu
NOTE Free and open to the public
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In the Wake of Traumatic Events: Population Health Consequences and Their Causes
WHEN Mon., Feb. 10, 2014, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) Sandro Galea, Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
CONTACT INFO ksmall at hsph.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/population-development/events/pop-center-seminars/
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Hate Crimes in the Heartland
WHEN Mon., Feb. 10, 2014, 5:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, WCC 2019 Milstein West B, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film, Law, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School's John Hamilton Houston Institute on Race and Justice
SPEAKER(S) Charles Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and vice dean for clinical programs at Harvard Law School
DIRECTED BY Rachel Lyon
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.hatecrimesheartland.com
CONTACT INFO David Harris: dharris at law.harvard.edu
NOTE Following the film, Professor Charles Ogletree will lead a dialogue on race relations in the U.S. with the film's director and national and local leaders.
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Secrets Revealed: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, 6:30-8pm
Somerville Public Library (Main)
79 Highland Avenue, Somerville
Sponsored by the Sierra Club and State Rep. Denise Provost
The TPP has been represented as a trade deal to harmonize tariffs and promote trade among the countries involved, however, this deal includes many other details that are being hidden from the American public. The agreement has been described as a "stealthy delivery mechanism for policies that could not survive public scrutiny."
Why is this agreement with such purported benefits, being hidden from Americans while on a fast-track to be passed by Congress? Join us as we uncover what they're hiding, by reviewing reports and leaks, and addressing the impacts on the environment, local economy and workers. We will also discuss how we can work together to help stop the TPP Agreement.
On bus routes 90 (Central Sq-Wellington) and 88 (Davis-Lechmere), and 80 (Arlington-Lechmere).There is free parking.
Click here for details and to RSVP.
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=170941
For more information: phil at sierraclubmass.org
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Afghanistan Present and Near Future - Will the US really Leave?
Monday, February 10, 2014
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle Street, Cambridge
Kathy Kelly with Afghan Peace Volunteers
What are the conditions for women and ordinary people?
What are the effects of the US drone war on people in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan?
What should we be doing in response?
Kathy Kelly, coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-violence, has recently returned from Afghanistan where, as a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, she lived in a working class neighborhood of Kabul. This was her 13th trip to Afghanistan since 2010. She continues to be a voice for the voiceless in war zones.
Ms. Kelly is known for her decades of peace activism. She was on the floatilla to Gaza. She has been in Gaza to witness the suffering of Palestinians following "Operation Cast Lead." Between Gulf War I and II, Ms. Kelly made over 25 trips to Iraq leading humanitarian delegations and documenting the effects of use of economic sanctions against Iraq..
Ms. Kelly founded "Voices in the Wilderness," co-coordinates "Voices for Creative-Non Violence." She is renowned among the Catholic Worker Community. She has received and been nominated for numerous awards including: USA Teacher of Peace - Pax Christi, and Woman of Courage" - Peace Abby Courage of Conscience. She is an author of book(s) documenting her experience " Other Lands Have Dreams". And, she has been a prisoner of conscience in US Federal Prison.
United for Justice with Peace (Greater Boston) and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Boston Branch are pleased to offer an evening of conversation with Kathy Kelly about the US presence in Afghanistan and how the peace and justice community should respond.?
United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice.
info at justicewithpeace.org
617-383-4857
http://www.justicewithpeace.org
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Science by the Pint: The hidden cognitive biases of good people
February 10
7pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville
Dr. Mahzarin Banaji
Banaji studies unconscious thinking and feeling as they unfold in social context. She has primarily studied social attitudes and beliefs in adults and children, relying on multiple methods including cognitive/affective behavioral measures and neuroimaging (fMRI). With these, she explores the implications of her work for questions of individual responsibility and social justice in democratic societies. Her current research interests focus on the origins of social cognition and applications of implicit cognition to improve organizational practices. Her book with Anthony Greenwald, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, was published in 2013 by Delacorte Press.
For more information on her research and teaching, seehttp://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~banaji/
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Scanner/Vitiello Presentation
Monday, February 10
7 pm
MIT, Building e15-001, Act Cube, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) and Stephen Vitiello's sonic work investigates bodily experience and spatial practice.
Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) is an artist and composer working in London. Since 1991 he has been intensely active in sonic art, concert production, installations and recordings. His albums include Mass Observation (1994), Delivery (1997), and TheGarden is Full of Metal (1998). His work has been presented throughout the United States, South America, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Stephen Vitiello is an electronic musician and media artist. His sound installations have been presented internationally including at MASS MoCA, the 2002 Whitney Biennial, the 2006 Biennial of Sydney, the Cartier Foundation, Paris and in many public spaces. Vitiello is an Associate Professor in the department of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Free and open to the public.
This program is part of a semester-long residency produced in collaboration with the Center for Art, Science and Technology.
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The Future Can't Wait: Why Taking Action on Poverty Matters
Monday, February 10
7:30 - 9pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Featuring Steven Gale, Senior Advisor for Strategic Opportunities at USAID
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Tuesday, February 11
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The Day We Fight Back
On Anniversary of Aaron Swartz's Tragic Passing, Leading Internet Groups and Online Platforms Announce Day of Activism Against NSA Surveillance Mobilization, dubbed "The Day We Fight Back" to Honor Swartz & Celebrate Anniversary of SOPA Blackout
How Internet Users Can Help:
Visit TheDayWeFightBack.org
Sign up to indicate that you'll participate and receive updates.
Sign up to install widgets on websites encouraging its visitors to fight back against surveillance. (These are being finalized in coming days.)
Use the social media tools on the site to announce your participation.
Develop memes, tools, websites, and do whatever else you can to participate -- and encourage others to do the same.
Contact: Blair FitzGibbon, 202-503-6141
https://thedaywefightback.org/
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Boston Society of Architects/AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) forum: AIA 2030 Challenge report roundtable
Tuesday, February 11
8:00 AM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
During the summer of 2013, the BSA Committee on the Environment compiled and analyzed data representing 137 projects by Boston-area firms participating in the AIA 2030 Commitment. What can this study tell us about our progress? How can we leverage this data to further the goal of sustainable building through the A/C/E industries?
Emil A. Cuevas, Assoc. AIA of the Harvard University Office for Sustainability and Nick Gianetti Assoc. AIA present the report; Mark Warren and Connor Jansen of WSP, Philippe Genereux AIA of SMMA and Jim Stanislaski AIA of Gensler join the discussion.
Preview the BSA 2030 Commitment report at http://www.architects.org/sites/default/files/AIA_BSA%202030%20Report.pdf
Sponsored by WSP Group.
Meetings are free and open to all, but RSVPs are required. Email rsvp at architects.org with "COTE 2/11 in the subject line.
For more information on getting to BSA Space, including accessibility and parking, visit bsaspace.org/about.
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David Carr
Tuesday, February 11
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with David Carr, media and culture columnist for The New York Times.
More information at http://shorensteincenter.org/news-events/
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How Dungeons & Dragons and Fantasy Prepare You for Law and Life
February 11, 2014
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/02/gilsdorf#RSVP
This event will be webcast live (on this page) at 12:30pm ET.
Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, in conversation with Jonathan Zittrain
How is a lawyer like a wizard? How does a courtroom resemble an epic battle? How is a casebook like the Dungeon Master's Guide? If you played Dungeons & Dragons in another age, or today, then you know this enormously influential role-playing gaming, which shaped the video gaming industry and geek culture, can be perfect training ground for law and life. This low-tech, pencil-and-paper-and-dice game teaches us how to solve problems, be a heroic leader, and achieve a common goal in a collaborative group environment. But the skills, rulebooks and "laws" required to play D&D --- whether understanding complex "to hit" charts or inventing the backstory of an evil Witch King -- can especially apply to law students. What Dungeon Master or lawyer doesn't need to parley with a foe? In this informal talk and conversation, critic and journalist Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, discusses how D&D's inherent storytelling skills can champion a role for creative play space in both your work and leisure life. We'll also discuss the push and pull of laws and rules vs. imagination in a game like D&D, a book series like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, or any fantasy world, and the role of the dungeon master/author/world-builder in the consistent (or inconsistent) application of these rules and standards, and how this all might apply to the imaginary world of law, too.
Jonathan Zittrain will join Ethan Gilsdorf for a conversation about how D&D can be a perfect training ground for law and life.
About Ethan
Ethan Gilsdorf is a journalist, memoirist, critic, poet, teacher and 17th level geek.
He wrote the award-winning travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.
Based in Somerville, Massachusetts, Gilsdorf writes regularly for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Salon.com, BoingBoing.net, PsychologyToday.com, Washington Postandwired.com. He has published hundreds of articles, essays, op-eds and reviews on the arts, pop culture, gaming, geek culture and travel in dozens of other magazines, newspapers, websites and guidebooks worldwide. He has also published dozens of poems in literary magazines and anthologies. [More...]
About Jonathan
Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His research interests include battles for control of digital property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, human computing, and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education.
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Losing Containment: Filming in the Nuclear Waste Sites
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
12:30pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Special Series on Post-Disaster Japan featuring:
Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor and Director, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University
Robb Moss, Professor and Chair of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
Moderator: Susan Pharr, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics
Co-sponsored by the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, and Harvard University Center for the Environment
http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/event/peter-galison-harvard-robb-moss-harvard-losing-containment-filming-nuclear-waste-zone
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BCSEA Webinar: The Carbon Bubble - Unburnable Fossil Fuels, with Mark Campanale
Tuesday, February 11
3:00 PM EST (noon PST)
Webinar
Reserve your free Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/138159178
Fossil fuel companies and oil producing nations have confirmed reserves, with firm plans to extract them, of enough fossil fuels to generate about 2,975 GT CO2e - five times more than can be burnt if we are to avoid 'disastrous' climate change.
In 2012, these reserves were valued at US $4 trillion of share values and US $1.27 trillion in debt; a further US $650 Billion was spent on exploration for yet more reserves.
What will be the effects on the financial system if these are stranded assets? What are the financial risks of holding or buying them now ? And how could these funds be re-allocated to safe renewable energy sources which will have more secure future returns ?
And what are the consequences for coal, oil and natural gas expansion and exploration plans, and the governments and companies involved?
In preparation for the webinar, an edited report of their work in 2013 at http://www.bcsea.org/blog/guy-dauncey/2014/01/30/carbon-tracker’s-work-2013
Mark Campanale is Founding Director of The Carbon Tracker Initiative (http://www.carbontracker.org) in London UK. He conceived and originated the ‘unburnable carbon’ thesis which was picked up by Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone Magazine and has since taken on huge global significance. He was editor of Unburnable Carbon, are markets carrying a carbon bubble?, and the 2013 report Wasted Capital.
Mark is responsible for strategy, board matters and developing our capital markets framework analysis. Prior to forming Carbon Tracker, Mark had twenty years experience in sustainable financial markets.
See BCSEA's previous webinars at http://www.bcsea.org/past-webinars
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Socialization Ain't Always Nice: Order, Disorder, and Violence in the Post-Cold War World
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
3:30p–5:00p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jeff Checkel
Dr. Checkel is Professor of International Relations and Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security at Simon Fraser University
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Political Science, Security Studies Program
For more information, contact: Blair Read
bmread at mit.edu
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“The Most Important Topic Political Scientists Are Not Studying: Adapting to Climate Change”
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Harvard, Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Featuring Debra Javeline, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame; Fellow, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies; Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies; Fellow, Nanovic Institute for European Studies; Affiliated faculty, Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative
Chaired by Dustin Tingley, Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy, Department of Government, Harvard University.
A seminar jointly sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
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Why Defense Will Never Work: Defending the network from cyber-attack
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
4:15pm
Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Library, Littauer-369, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Prof. Jim Waldo, HU CIO; Mr. Stephen Boyer, CTO BitSigh
The National Security Program and the Belfer Center are co-sponsors of a study group for American military affairs. Panelists Prof. Jim Waldo, Harvard University’s Chief Technology Officer; Mr. Stephen Boyer, CTO of BitSightTech; and several National Security Fellows with over 50 years of experience in cyber provisioning, defense, forensics, and intelligence will discuss why current approaches to cyber defense won’t work in the future. This moderated panel will explore how recent data breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus, and other high-profile retailers are just the tip of the iceberg. Panelists will also explore new and innovative approaches to defending the cyber environment. Bring your questions for a lively discussion about the future of Cyber Defense.
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Placebo and Prayer: Why Prayer Practice May Help Heal
Tuesday, February 11
4:15 – 5:45 PM
Belfer Case Study Room, CGIS South Building – 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge.
Keynote address by Tanya Luhrmann
The RWJF-funded Placebo Seminar Series continues on February 11th with an address by Tanya Luhrmann, Watkins University Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. Her books include Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft, (Harvard, 1989); The Good Parsi (Harvard 1996); Of Two Minds (Knopf 2000) and When God Talks Back (Knopf 2012). In general, her work focuses on the way that ideas held in the mind come to seem externally real to people, and the way that ideas about the mind affect mental experience.
Discussants will be: Arthur Kleinman (Anthropology, Psychiatry), Anne Harrington (History of Science), and Ted Kaptchuk (Medicine).
Registration not required. For more information: 617-945-7827
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Emergency Operations at Institutions of Higher Education
Tuesday, February 11
4:15 - 6:00 PM
Harvard, 124 Mt. Auburn Street,Suite 100/Room 106, Cambridge
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The Ethicist's and the Lawyer's New Clothes: The Law and Ethics of Smart Clothes
Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014
5:00 pm (doors open at 4:45 p.m.)
Harvard, Sheerr Room, Fay House,10 Garden Street, Cambridge
A lecture by I. Glenn Cohen RI '13, Professor of Law and Codirector of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School
From enhanced exosuits for members of the armed services to clothing that spies on you, this lecture will focus on legal and ethical issues pertaining to the future of smart clothes.
Lecture is free and open to the public.
A video of this lecture will be shared on the Radcliffe Institute website in February.
The smart clothes science lecture series is part of the Academic Ventures program at the Radcliffe Institute and examines the science and ethics of designing materials that improve and protect lives. A larger, one-day public symposium on the topic took place on Friday, November 15, 2013.
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Passive House New England: Monthly Presentation
February 11, 2014
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
Jim Newman of Linnaean Solutions will be discussing the broader environmental impact of high-performance construction. Part of the elegant simplicity of Passive House is its laser focus on operating energy.
There can, however, be drawbacks to that focus. Jim will offer his perspective on considering the broader environmental context in which a Passive House project might be evaluated, including such aspects as embodied energy, transportation energy, and opportunity costs.
To learn more about Passive House New England, visit architects.org/committees/passive-house-new-england.
Click "Register" to attend.
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BYO: Climate as Site
WHEN Tue., Feb. 11, 2014, 7 p.m.
WHERE Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Environmental Sciences, Ethics, Exhibitions, Lecture, Special Events, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Lize Mogel, Jane Marsching, Emily Eliza Scott
COST Free and open to the public
NOTE Bring Your Own: Voices of the Contemporary at the Carpenter Center
Presenters: Lize Mogel, Jane Marsching, and Emily Eliza Scott. This panel brings together three artists, activists, and researchers working to bring awareness and visibility to the complex and uneven territory of climate change and the environment.
BYO fosters discussion and debate about pressing issues in contemporary culture across Harvard and Boston area communities by bringing to campus emerging figures in contemporary art for informal evening conversations.
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Living as Form (The Nomadic Version).
LINK http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/BYO.html
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SRC Forum Lecture with Paul Farmer
WHEN Tue., Feb. 11, 2014, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE First Church, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion, Special Events
SPONSOR Science, Religion, and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School
CONTACT Cynthia Wigdahl, 617.496.9221
NOTE Paul Farmer comes to HDS to discuss his new book, In the Company of the Poor, written with Gustavo Gutierrez and published in November 2013. Representing several decades of friendship and collaboration between Dr. Farmer and Father Gutierrez, the book locates considerable common ground between the two thinker's respective careers in global health and liberation theology. This event will explore the theological roots of Christianity's preferential option for the poor and the practical challenges of implementing such a worldview.
HDS professor David Carrasco will join Dr. Farmer as a lecture discussant. MDiv candidate Lauren Taylor will moderate. Registration is required at the link below.
LINK http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/srcp/
Full but you can sign up for the waiting list.
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Flood of Technologies for the Developing World: What Works
Tuesday, February 11
7:30 - 9pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Presentation by Bish Sanyal: Director of the Comprehensive Initiative of Technology Evaluation, Ford International Professor of Urban Development & Planning, and Director of the Spurs/Humphrey program
Preceded by a showcase of D-lab technologies including the Leverage Freedom Chair and Portatherm
Poverty Action Week 2014
22,000 children die each day of conditions due to poverty.
Come to Poverty Action Week to learn about what you can do to help
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Wednesday, February 12
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American Grand Strategy and the Nuclear Revolution
WHEN Wed., Feb. 12, 2014, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Law, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Francis J. Gavin, Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies and professor of political science, MIT
CONTACT INFO atom at hks.harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/6258/american_grand_strategy_and_the_nuclear_revolution.html
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Ideas in Action Virtual Conversations in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab & MacArthur Foundation
February 12
11 AM-10 AM (?)
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_0aPo-ZtaOgpujie4SImIfAWddN1KYbgNuFzgxD_zSY/viewform
We want to experiment this year with a number of different ways to advance ideas, i.e. to put Ideas in Action
We have the opportunity to try an interesting new format - virtual conversations using a kind of Google Hangout
We are inviting 10 of our speakers to be hosts of virtual discussion rooms on Feb 12 in which a group of up to 10 people in each room will view a TEDxBeaconStreet talk and discuss it with the speaker and audience members
On the day of the event, attendees will log in to the platform using their gmail account (note: you must have a gmail account). There will be a general welcome for a few minutes and then people will proceed to the session they are interested in (limit of 10 people per session).
In the individual discussion room, participants will hear from a speaker, view a talk and discuss it
We hope this catalyzes interest, ideas, and the potential for follow-up to helpadvance the idea!
If you are interested in helping facilitate or document the conversation (with a blog post we will share on TEDxBeaconStreet.com), please let us know.
This is an experiment and afterwards we will seek your feedback about whether we should continue to host more Virtual Conversations.
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Environmental limitations, energetics, and ecological patterning
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
12:10p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Chris Kempes
Abstract: Understanding the connection between organism traits, environmental conditions, and long-term ecological processes is important for predicting numerous planetary dynamics. I have developed a general energetic model for microbial growth which not only predicts the growth of single cells but also the broad trends in population growth rate across a wide diversity of species. This model is applicable to predicting biogeographic patterns, determining the constraints on life under low energy conditions, and understanding evolutionary transitions. One of the most important results is the anticipated advantage in efficiency that comes with communal living. To investigate this further we have studied a microbial biofilm system both theoretically and experimentally. We find that the cells within the biofilm cooperate in a manner that produces optimal morphology in response to environmental conditions. This system serves as a basic analog for both community dynamics and the evolution of morphology as an important mediator between organisms and their environment. The insights gained in this system can be applied to biogeography, climate and planetary processes at multiple scales and to multiple aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
Oceanography and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series
The MIT Oceanography and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is a student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning climate, geophysical fluid dynamics, biogeochemistry, paleo-oceanography/climatology and physical oceanography. The seminars usually take place on Wednesdays from 12.10-1pm. Students are encouraged to lunch with the speaker. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jen DiNisco
617-253-2127
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Wind Energy Lecture
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
1:00pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 4-145, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Dan Shreve, a partner at MAKE, a wind power consulting firm, will discuss the state of the global wind industry, core demand drivers, and obstacles to higher levels of grid integration. He will also cover new turbine technology trends that support reductions in wind energy???s levelized cost of electricity and progress towards grid parity.
Sponsor: MIT Energy Club
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A Moral Educator Reflects on Teaching a High School Class on Race and Racism to a Diverse Group of Seniors
WHEN Wed., Feb. 12, 2014, 2:30 – 4 p.m.
WHERE HGSE, Larsen Hall, 203, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Civic and Moral Education Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Lawrence Blum
LINK http://cmei-harvard.ning.com/events/lawrence-blum-umass-boston-a-moral-educator-reflects-on-teaching-
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"Mechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing and Related Seismicity"
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
4:00pm
Harvard, 301 Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Dmitry I. Garagash, Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University
Abstract: Hydraulic fracturing has become ubiquitous in allowing to tap vast tight oil and gas reserves in North America and elsewhere in the world. In this method, fractures are initiated and propagated from a well into hydrocarbon-bearing strata by a high pressure fluid injection. Once created, the fractures provide a conductive pathway for hydrocarbons from the reservoir rock to the well. Ability to predict and to better control fracture(s) growth and their final dimensions are essential in achieving the primary goal of fracturing (i.e. reservoir stimulation) and in minimizing environmental impact thereof (e.g. contamination of adjacent strata/aquifers due to excessive growth of the fracture height). In the first part of the talk, we will review the physics and mechanics of fluid-driven fracture growth, as it presents an interesting hybrid of the viscous fluid flow (both in the fracture and through the permeable rock), rock deformation, and rupture. These physical processes are shown to be strongly coupled near the leading edge of a propagating fracture, and their resolution is essential to the accurate fracture growth prediction. The second part of the talk provides an overview of microseismicity, as usually accompanies growth of hydraulic fractures. Induced seismicity is a manifestation of dynamic slippage on pre-existing fractures and faults within the stimulated reservoir rock volume, as prompted by locally perturbed (elevated) pore fluid pressure and/or stress. This slip may lead to dilation of the sheared fractures, and, therefore, stimulate production from the reservoir by increasing its permeability and connectivity to the hydraulic fracture. On rare occasions, dynamic slip induced by hydraulic fracturing is known to grow out into small-to-moderate size earthquakes. Some insight into a) how initially slow, aseismic fault slip may escalate into a dynamic rupture, and b) what may control the dynamic rupture run-out distance (seismic magnitude), is offered by simplified models of slip-weakening frictional faults “unclamped” by a diffusively spreading pore pressure perturbation.
Solid Earth Physics Seminar and SEAS Applied Mechanics Colloquium
Jointly hosted in the SEAS Applied Mechanics Colloquium and the EPS/SEAS Solid Earth Physics Seminar series
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The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures by Herbie Hancock; Set 2: Breaking the Rules
WHEN Wed., Feb. 12, 2014, 4 p.m.
WHERE Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Herbie Hancock
COST Free; tickets required
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/
TICKET INFO Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available at Sanders Theatre's box office and online (handling fee applies). Limit of 2 tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m. on the day of the event.
CONTACT INFO humcentr at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE The Norton Lecturer in 2014 is Herbie Hancock.
THE ETHICS OF JAZZ
4pm, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street
Set 2 - BREAKING THE RULES
Wednesday, February 12
Set 3 - CULTURAL DIPLOMACY AND THE VOICE OF FREEDOM
Thursday, February 27
Set 4 - INNOVATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Monday, March 10
Set 5 - BUDDHISM AND CREATIVITY
Monday, March 24
Set 6 - ONCE UPON A TIME…
Monday, March 31
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/norton-lectures
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Building an Agenda-Driven Politics at the Grass Roots
WHEN Wed., Feb. 12, 2014, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Wasserstein Hall, Room 2019 A, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Tefere Gebre, Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
CONTACT INFO john_trumpbour at harvard.edu, 617.495.9265
NOTE The recently elected executive vice president of the AFL-CIO discusses some of his new ideas for mobilizing the public in the battle for economic justice.
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The Origins of Freedom: The Continuing Debate Over Equality: Lincoln and Darwin @ 204
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 3-333, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: HELEN ELAINE LEE, School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, MIT; JOHN STAUFFER, Program in the History of American Civilization, Harvard University; and JONATHAN KING, Biology, MIT
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born hours apart on the same day, in the same year: February 12, 1809. Although born to differing circumstance, both men played a huge role in the struggle for human equality. Our panel of speakers will offer insights ranging from the voices from slavery and abolition; Lincoln, Douglas and Emancipation; and Darwin's contribution to human equality.
Web site: web.mit.edu/tac
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, The Darwin Bicentennial Project
For more information, contact: Patricia-Maria Weinmann
617-253-0108
weinmann at mit.edu
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Building a Vibrant Social Enterprise Ecosystem in Massachusetts
February 12, 2014
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Audience: Open to the broader social enterprise and innovation community - including impact driven organizations, funders, policy makers, academics and students
Twitter: @sea-mass, @ MassCouncil
Description:
Social Enterprise communities are flourishing in cities and states across the country. Social Venture Partners Rhode Island has been leading an effort to create a dynamic and interconnected innovation “ecosystem” - including practitioners, business leaders, academics, impact investors, students and policymakers – with a goal towards driving economic development and innovation. Their efforts have led to drafting the proposed SEEED Act legislation (The Social Enterprise Ecosystem and Economic Development (“SEEED”) Commission Act (H.R. 2043), which would establish a Commission on the Advancement of Social Enterprise to make recommendations on ways the federal government can support and utilize SEs.
Please join us for a conversation with Kelly Ramirez, CEO of the Social Enterprise Greenhouse (part of the Social Venture Partners network) to learn more about the vibrant Social Enterprise ecosystem in the state of Rhode Island and discuss how we can help catalyze similar growth in the state of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts has an emerging number of individuals and organizations focused on social enterprise and innovation. The Social Enterprise Alliance Massachusetts (SEA MA) acts as a convener in bringing together these diverse but vibrant groups. We hope this event will provide a forum for an engaged discussion on how Massachusetts can similarly connect key stakeholders and strengthen an innovation ecosystem
About the Speaker:
Kelly Ramirez is CEO of the Social Enterprise Greenhouse (part of the Social Venture Partners Rhode network), and creator of the successful SEEED Summit, a collaboration between Brown University and Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (SVPRI), which is the first national conference that focuses on what is needed to build an effective social enterprise ecosystem. Kelly is also a driving force behind the proposed SEEED Act legislation.
Kelly has more than fifteen years of social enterprise and international development experience, advising NGOs, corporations and governments on civic engagement, sustainability, business development and advocacy. Kelly directed the Social Enterprise Initiative at the William Davidson Institute (WDI) and was an adjunct lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She has extensive fundraising, consulting and project management experience with organizations including Aid to Artisans, the Ford Foundation, the European Commission, USAID, the State Department, and Roche. She is active as a board member and volunteer with several non-profits. Previously, Kelly worked as a political analyst for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service, an election monitor for the OSCE, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Slovakia. Kelly received MA Degrees in Public Policy and Urban Planning and a BA in political science from the University of Michigan where she has also done post-graduate work at the Ross School of Business. She was named a 2011 Woman to Watch by the Providence Business News.
About the Sponsors
This event is co-sponsored by the Social Enterprise Alliance Massachusetts and the Providers Council of Massachusetts.
About the Social Enterprise Alliance Massachusetts (SEA MA)
SEA MA was formed in 2010 with the vision of making Massachusetts a national leader in building sustainable social enterprises. SEA MA is a thriving community that comes together to connect, learn and share knowledge to advance the field of social enterprise. We provide education and information, practical tools, and support to improve the profitability and impact of social purpose ventures. To learn more, visit http://sea-mass.org/
About the Providers Council
The Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, Inc. is a statewide association of health and human service agencies. Founded in 1975, the Providers' Council is the state's largest human service trade association and is widely recognized as the official voice of the private provider industry.
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MIT Community Forum on East campus/Kendall gateway design
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
5:30p–7:30p
MIT, Building E25-111, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Design team
As recommended by the Faculty Task Force on Community Engagement in 2030 Planning, MIT has commissioned an urban design study to help us envision the future of our east campus and the Kendall gateway area. An important element of the study process is the gathering of thoughts and ideas from the MIT and Cambridge communities. We are hosting several forums through February 2014 to share our progress and invite discussion and ideas.
Web site:http://web.mit.edu/mit2030/projects/eastcampusgateway/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Campus Planning Office
For more information, contact:
mit2030info at mit.edu
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"Transportation Showcase"
Wednesday, February 12
6pm
MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
An overview of transportation research being done at MIT.
This year, we will be hosting an inaugural keynote speaker, Jeremy Wertheimer. Jeremy is Vice President of Engineering at Google responsible for Travel. He was the CEO of ITA Software from its founding until it was acquired by Google.
The following industry partners plan to participate in the transportation career fair and view student poster presentations: Booz Allen Hamilton, Caliper Corporation, Steer Davies Gleave, U.S. DOT Volpe Center, AirSage, Cambridge Systematics, AirSage, Cintra US, Economic Development Research Group, Horward/Stein-Hudson Associates, IBI Group, MBTA, Nelson/Nygaard, Norbridge Inc., RSG, Toll International Engineering, Uber, WorleyParsons, and Young Professionals in Transportation.
http://transportclub.mit.edu/showcase.html
transportation.showcase at mit.edu
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Mass Innovation Nights #MINFoodie6
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
6:00pm - 8:30pm
Le Cordon Bleu - College of Culinary Arts Boston 215 First Street, Cambridge
Cost: FREE
RSVP at http://mass.innovationnights.com/content/mass-innovation-nights-minfoodie6
Description:
The first Foodie Innovation event of the year—Mass Innovation Nights Foodie 6 is going to be AMAZING! There are some refreshing, ingenious and fun products to be launched. The Canadian Trade Commission will be sponsoring so there will be some BONUS innovation from the north.
Every month ten companies bring new products to the event and the social media community turns out to blog, tweet, post pictures and video, add product mentions to LinkedIn and Facebook statuses, and otherwise help spread the word. In the last four years, the events have helped to:
Launch more than 550 products
Connect dozens of job seekers and hiring managers
Profile dozens of local experts
Launch a wave of Innovation Nights events around the world (coming soon)
Held once a month, registration and networking at 6:00 p.m., presentations start at 7:00 p.m., the live events allow companies to show off Massachusetts-based innovation. The Experts Corner team has one-on-one conversations with start-ups and entrepreneurs. Innovation Nights are held on site at various venues who donate their space to further the cause of local innovation.
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Global Health Panel
Wednesday, February 12
7:00 - 8:30pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
a discussion on access to healthcare, sustainable initiatives, and healthcare economics around the world // featuring: MGH medical directors Dr. Thomas Burke, Dr. Mehul Mehta, Dr. Ryan Carroll, and Dr. Kristian Olson
Poverty Action Week 2014
22,000 children die each day of conditions due to poverty.
Come to Poverty Action Week to learn about what you can do to help
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IFFBoston Screening Series "The Wind Rises" Written and Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Wednesday, February 12
7:30pm
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
** Admission is FREE **
NOTE: Passes are required. Download and print your pass
(Adobe Acrobat is required to open and print the pass.)
RSVP at http://iffboston.org/year-round/2014_01.php?utm_source=This+Week%3A+Act+of+Killing%2C+the+DocYard%2C+Miyazaki+Screening%2C+and+more%21&utm_campaign=2-4-2014&utm_medium=email
Presented in the original Japanese with English subtitles.
Please arrive early. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and is NOT guaranteed.
Theatre is not responsible for seating over capacity.
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Thursday, February 13
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Exhibition: "The Thinking Hand: Tools and Traditions of the Japanese Carpenter"
WHEN Thu., Feb. 13, 2014
WHERE Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
COST Free, and open to the public
CONTACT INFO rijs at fas.harvard.edu
NOTE On view through March 25
“The Thinking Hand” explores Japanese architecture through the experience of the daiku (master carpenter), and features an extensive set of historical Japanese carpentry tools donated by the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum in Kobe, Japan, to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD). A full-scale traditional Japanese tea house in the sukiya style has been reconstructed for the exhibition.
LINK http://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/programs/calendar.php
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MIT Energy Fair
Thursday, February 11
11am
MIT, La Sala de Puerto Rico, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
contact MIT Undergraduate Energy Club
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Design Guidelines for Transit Supportive Communities
Thursday, February 13, 2014
1pm EST; noon CST; 11am MST; 10am PST
webinar
RSVP at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/518603078
To have access to effective public transit, every step of the user's trip must be accessible, efficient, safe, and comfortable. The transit system must eliminate barriers -- real or perceived -- in order to make it a viable or preferred alternative. The goal of these Design Guidelines for Transit Supportive Communities is to foster reliable, efficient, convenient, and accessible transit, from the customer's front door to the bus.
This free, one-hour webinar will feature Bryce Word, special projects manager with Pace Suburban Bus Services, and Thomas Radak, senior project manager with Pace Strategic Services.
About Pace
Pace is a suburban Chicago transit provider serving tens of thousands of daily riders with fixed bus routes, vanpools and Dial-a-Ride programs. Pace covers 3,500 square miles and is one of the largest bus services in North America. Its fresh approach to public transportation gives the agency a national reputation as an industry leader.
Key Take-Aways
Pace's Transit Supportive Guidelines for the Chicagoland Region present principles and standards that may be implemented by municipalities, designers, engineers, and many others. Ultimately, it is Pace's vision to provide a higher level of bus service to places that actively remove barriers to transit as a viable transportation choice.
Join us Thursday, Feb. 13 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 11 a.m. Mountain, noon Central and 1 p.m. Eastern. (Please note your time zone!)
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Crossing the 2014 Climate Divide: Scientists, Skeptics & the Media
WHEN Thu., Feb. 13, 2014, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE HKS, Bell Hall, 5th floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HKS Belfer Center Environment & Natural Resources Program
SPEAKER(S) Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment reporter, The Guardian; Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University; Peter Frumhoff, Union of Concerned Scientists
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO enrp at hks.harvard.edu
NOTE The science is clear: drastic global climate change due to human activities threatens our planet. Yet, a well-funded international campaign continues to deny the scientific consensus, foment public doubt and oppose action. The media — especially social media — have helped fuel false controversy and climate skepticism. How can climate change communication be improved?
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/6265/crossing_the_2014_climate_divide.html
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"Play in the Age of Computing Machinery"
Thursday, February 13, 2014
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Miguel Sicart
We live in the era of computation and play. Everywhere we look, there is a computer, translating the world around us into patterns for production of labor or consumption of entertainment. And now more than ever, we play everywhere: our work should be playful, as it should be our dieting, our love life, and even our leisure. We play as much as we can, in this world of computers.
In this talk Sicart will look at the culture, aesthetics, and technological implications of play in the age of computers. He will propose a theory of play that includes the materiality of computation in its definition of the activity, and will suggest that our forms of playing with machines are both forms of surrendering to the pleasures of computation, and forms of creative resistance to the reduction of our worlds to computable events.
Miguel Sicart is a games scholar based at the IT University of Copenhagen. For the last decade his research has focused on ethics and computer games, from a philosophical and design theory perspective. He has two books published: The Ethics of Computer Games; and Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay (MIT Press 2009, 2013). His current work focuses on playful design, and will be the subject of a new book called Play Matters (MIT Press, 2014). Miguel teaches game and play design, and his research is now focused on toys, materiality, and play.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu
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Cambridge Climate Protection Action Committee
Thursday, February 13
6:00 pm
City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd floor meeting room, Cambridge
Dwayne Breger, Director of Renewable & Alternative Energy Development at the MA Dept of Energy Resources will make a presentation to the Climate Protection Action Committee. Dwayne will be talking about the renewable energy policy landscape at the state level. Dwayne oversees the Renewable Portfolio Standard and the solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) market, among other things. The presentation is meant to help CPAC understand better what is happening at the state level so that they can assess how communities can complement the state initiatives and plug in.
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Games Forum Demo Night
Thursday, February 13, 2014
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Microsoft, One Cambridge Center (not the Microsoft NERD Center) Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-february-demo-night-tickets-10206719573
The Games Forum is the place to see the newest independent games being built in Boston and network with the people who built them. Each month, we get together to watch five demos, drink beer and eat pizza. We're doing it again this month at Microsoft. Join our community of game developers, designers, creatives, investors and more building across multiple platforms and genres.
Want to demo your game? Complete the form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zBPsqV0L6qOKvSYIy4FjlnujnDatQFH3QbZdbtAXfdw/viewform and we'll be in touch.
Please include your first and last name when you RSVP. Your name must be on the list to get past building security. Also, all guests must RSVP on their own.
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HackLab: Hack Night at the Innovation Lab
WHEN Thu., Feb. 13, 2014, 6:30 – 10:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Innovation Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Information Technology, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Innovation Lab
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.eventbrite.com/e/hacklab-hack-night-213-tickets-10522676609
NOTE HackLab is Harvard Innovation Lab's technical playground for developers and designers to receive mentorship, learn new technologies, start side projects, and collaborate on existing ones.
Join us as we kick off Spring with our first hack night!
6:30 - 7:00 Pizza + Intro to Git talk
7:00 - 10:00 Free Hack - bring your own side project or join an existing team
10:00 - 10:30 Optional Demos - wanna show off your hacking prowess or revel in others? Now's your chance
You:
Bring your own project or come ready to help others in the design and/or development of theirs.
Bring a laptop and be prepared to hack!
We:
Feed you pizza
Bring mentors to help you with your projects
Bring devs/designers from our i-lab teams to connect you with the people developing the coolest startups at Harvard.
Provide awesome space at the i-lab
Give you other free goodies to help you with your projects
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IDEAS Global Challenge Spring Generator Dinner
THursday, February 13
7:00pm
MIT, Building W20-202, La Sala de Puerto Rico, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://bit.ly/UPOCTN
Working on a project to help underserved communities? Need funding?
Want to recruit new members for your IDEAS Global Challenge team? Want to get involved, but don't yet have an idea?
Then join us for the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge Spring Generator Dinner, taking place from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb 13, in La Sala de Puerto Rico.
Come hear tips from past winners of the IDEAS Global Challenge and learn about current social impact projects that teams are getting started on. This is also the chance to pitch your idea and recruit teammates or pitch your skills to get hired onto a team.
Please RSVP at http://bit.ly/UPOCTN, where you can also sign-up for a 60-second pitch opportunity!
The final opportunity to submit a Scope Statement and enter the 2014 competition is coming up on February 25th, so be sure to register on the IDEAS platform soon!
Questions? Contact us at globalchallenge at mit.edu or 617.715.5474
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Elizabeth Kolbert discusses The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Thursday, February 13
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, ELIZABETH KOLBERT, for a discussion of her newest book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and theSumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
"With her usual lucid and lovely prose, Elizabeth Kolbert lays out the sad and gripping facts of our moment on earth: that we've become a geological force, driving vast swaths of creation over the brink. A remarkable addition to the literature of our haunted epoch." —Bill McKibben, author of Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist
"Kolbert accomplishes an amazing feat in her latest book, which superbly blends the depressing facts associated with rampant species extinctions and impending ecosystem collapse with stellar writing to produce a text that is accessible, witty, scientifically accurate, and impossible to put down."—Publishers Weekly
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BASEA Forum: Up on the (Green) Roof…. and Boston's Article 89
Thursday, February 13
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
As he was departing, Mayor Menino stuck out his green thumb and planted "Article 89 - Urban Agriculture", allowing commercial farming in Boston. Article 89 establishes farming as an "acceptable use" in the city's zoning code.
Recover Green Roofs, a Somerville green roof company, helped pioneer this return to our roots, not down on the farm, up on a roof - with rooftop farms.
Non food-producing vegetated roofing has staked out territory in the commercial and residential roofing/waterproofing markets. Recover Green Roofs cultivates both markets, and has partnered with some breakout urban farmers - we will hear about these rooftop food growing projects - to weather the pre-Article 89 appeals process and build innovative rooftop farms. Now they are prepared to reap a promising new crop, doing business in a farm-friendly urban environment.
What are the benefits of green roofs? (hint: many)
How do they pair with solar panel systems? (another hint: good news)
Has this idea caught on in Europe? (no hint necessary)
Come and learn about green roofs and the future of rooftop farms in Boston.
Mark Winterer received an MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University where he became involved with Net Impact, an international organization committed to responsible business leadership. His experience with Net Impact inspired him to develop a business that would contribute to a more sustainable economy while accommodating our growing population, two strengths of green roofs. Mark has helped design and build over 25 green roofs including two rooftop farms: the award-winning Ledge Kitchen & Drinks and the Whole Foods Market in Lynnfield, MA. Mr. Winterer is an accredited Green Roof Professional (GRP), a licensed General Contractor, and Recover's Director of Operations.
Please Join Us! Donations and membership support BASEA.
The Boston Area Solar Energy Association, www.BASEA.org; a chapter of NESEA.
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Entrepreneurs without Borders
Thursday, February 13
7:30-9pm
MIT Building 4-149, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
a panel discussion on social entrepeneurship and how we can make innovations that benefit the under-served through social enterprises
featuring: John Tebes (moderator) Kyle Engelmann from Health Leads, Kevin Saunders from Accion, Eric Reynolds from the D-Lab Scale-ups, Daniel Heyman from Bureh
Poverty Action Week 2014
22,000 children die each day of conditions due to poverty.
Come to Poverty Action Week to learn about what you can do to help
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Friday, February 14
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National Preach-In on Climate Change
Friday, February 14 - Sunday, February 16
To find a participating religious institution, contact http://www.preachin.org
Interfaith Power & Light just received funding that allows it to pass along free online copies of the award-winning film Chasing Ice to congregations who download the National Preach-In on Climate Change kit.
With the extreme winter weather recently brought on by the unusual polar vortex, there is great confusion about climate impacts and global warming. This film shows the long-term impact on glaciers, and how that contributes to sea level rise, and changes in weather patterns.
IP&L will also send you the full Preach-In kit that will help you host a climate sermon and valentine postcard signing activity at your congregation. More than 1,000 clergy of all faiths nationwide will be giving Preach-In sermons, talks, and events on the weekend of February 14-16, 2014.
Together, we're going to have a huge impact as we send thousands of Love Creation valentines to our senators so they hear our call to protect Earth's climate, and thus our children's future and all of Creation. To order your free kit: https://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/50836/t/15471/shop/shop.jsp?storefront_KEY=10
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Innovations in Sustainability & Resiliency
2/4/14
8-10am
District Hall in Boston's Innovation District, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://www.usgbcma.org/civicrm/event/register?id=538&reset=1
Innovations in Sustainability & Resiliency: District scale strategies to enhance values and ensure business continuity
Innovation is driving sustainability beyond the individual buildings to district scale strategies and actions. Boston’s Innovation District, already pioneering new practices, is poised to pursue new businesses and organization models to greatly enhance the sustainability and resiliency of the district.
Building on the momentum of the 2013 EcoDistricts Summit, presenters will discuss how the innovation and EcoDistricts framework can create new opportunities to promote business and community sustainability in ways not met by individual buildings and property owners.
How resilient are we today and how are we not?
How do we maintain asset values and maintain profitability in our properties in the light of climate change? How can EcoDistricts expand our risk mitigation and adaptation options and create new business models that enhance sustainability and resiliency.
How can EcoDistricts advance practices across the broader sustainable communities’
agenda?
How can analytics help? Here’s the state of the art in defining the problem, how can it be
beneficial to everyone?
Speakers Include:
Kairos Shen, Chief Planner, City of Boston
John Aubrecht, President, Longwood Medical Energy Collaborative
Galen Nelson, Director of Market Development, Mass Clean Energy Center
Matthew Gardner, Director, SustainServ
Karthik Rao, Strategic Energy Manager, EnerNOC
Bruce Douglas, Vice President, Natural Systems Utilities
Charlie Reed, Director, Boston Global Investors
Join us for what promises to be an informative and engaging breakfast program at District Hall in Boston's Innovation District.
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"Integrated Learning, Optimization, and Prediction for Machine Intelligence"
Friday, February 14
11:00AM-12:00PM
Northeastern University, 442 Dana Research Center, 442 120 Forsyth Street, Cambridge
Haibo He, Robert Haas Endowed Professor & Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island
Abstract: With the recent development of brain research and modern technologies, scientists and engineers will hopefully find efficient ways to develop brain-like intelligent systems that are highly robust, adaptive, scalable, and fault tolerant to uncertain and unstructured environments. Yet, developing such truly intelligent systems requires significant research on both fundamental understanding of brain intelligence as well as complex engineering design. This talk aims to present the recent research developments in computational intelligence to advance the machine intelligence research and explore their wide applications across different critical engineering domains. Specifically, this talk covers numerous key aspects of the foundations and architectures of biologically inspired learning, optimization, and prediction, with a focus on incrementallearning with stream data, goal-oriented hierarchical adaptive dynamic programming (ADP), and deep learning. Various real-world applications including cyber-physical systems and networks, smart grid, video and image processing, and big data analysis, will be presented to demonstrate the broader and far-reaching applications of our research. As a critical multi-disciplinary research topic, I will also briefly discuss the important future research opportunities and challenges in this field.
Brief Bio: Dr. Haibo He is the Robert Haas Endowed Professor in Electrical Engineering and the Director of the Computational Intelligence and Self-Adaptive (CISA) Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI. His primary research interests include computational intelligence, machine learning, cyber- physical system, and various application fields including smart grid, sensor networks, human-robot interaction, cognitive radio networks and biomedical applications. He authored/co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. His research has been funded by NSF, DARPA, DOD, ARO, NASA, and various industry companies. Currently, he is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and he is also the Chair of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Neural Network Technical Committee (NNTC), Vice-Chair of the IEEE CIS Smart Grid Task Force, member of the IEEE CIS Data Mining Technical Committee, among others. He was a recipient of the IEEE CIS Outstanding Early Career Award (2014), K. C. Wong Research Award, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012), and an NSF CAREER Award (2011).
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Heterogeneous Reservoirs in the Marine Carbon Cycle
Friday, February 14, 2014
12:30p–1:30p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Christopher L. Follett
Doctoral dissertation defense of thesis.
Open to: the general public
Cost: $0.00
Tickets: N/A
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jacqui Taylor
617-253-3381
jtaylor at mit.edu
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Second Fridays at the MIT Museum: How People Connect
Friday, February 14, 2014
5:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
On Valentine's Day, begin your evening at the MIT Museum by exploring a wide range of human relationships - with objects, locations, and other people. Talk with MIT researchers and learn why and how we interact with the world around us.
Web site:http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/secondfridays.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for MIT Card holders; General Admission fees apply
Tickets: MIT Museum
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: 617.324.7313
andhong at mit.edu
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Saturday, February 15
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MakeMIT 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
8:00a
MIT, Building W20-208, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MakeMIT is a hardware hackathon promoting innovation that is geared towards those who are excited and passionate about designing and building. Teams of three to five will compete first in an 18 hour prototyping competition on February 15, 2014. A week later, on February 22, 2013, the top teams will return to MIT for a second opportunity to make their hacks with machine shop access and more materials.
Open to: the general public
This event occurs daily through February 16, 2014.
Sponsor(s): MIT TechFair
For more information, contact: MakeMIT
team at makemit.org
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Suffolk University African Business Conference 2014 "Africa Uplift: Investing in the New Frontier"
Saturday, February 15, 2014
8:30 AM to 5:30 PM (PST)
Rosalie K. Stahl Building, 73 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.su-abc.com
Welcome to the first annual African Business Conference, hosted by African Student Organizations at Suffolk University.
The African Student Organizations, Action Africa Alliance and African Student Association at Suffolk University are exited to invite you to the first annual African Business Conference happening on February 15, 2014.
Through This year's theme "Africa Uplift: Investing in the New Frontier", we will explore the challenges and opportunities of investing in Africa.
The conference will feature distinguished speakers with background in business, government and academia, who will participate in a series of keynote addresses, talks, and panels of discussion. We are thankful to all the business people and young entrepreneurs who are positively impacting the different sectors of development in Africa through leadership and innovation.
This year we are looking forward to welcoming students and faculty from different departments at Suffolk University and other students in the Boston area. We wish that this day be an interesting one for you as you increase your understanding of the business environment in Africa, network with friends young entrepreneurs, current and future business leaders.
We are looking forward to seeing you in February.
Sincerely,
The 2014 African Conference Committee.
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American Energy Data Challenge “Apps for Energy II” Hackathon
February, 15-16
12:00 PM - Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 4:00
hack/reduce, 275 Third Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-energy-data-challenge-apps-for-energy-ii-hackathon-tickets-9978089735
Join hack/reduce and the U.S Department of Energy for the American Energy Data Challenge "Apps for Energy II" Hackathon to develop apps that address some of America’s most important energy challenges.
Teams that participate in the hackathon and demo something they built will be eligible to win prizes. Additionally, teams can continue to work on their app and submit it to the Department of Energy’s American Energy Data Challenge by March 9, 2014 to be eligible for the big cash prize pot - over $70,000 in total prizes!
For the weekend hackathon at hack/reduce, there will be a total of $1,500 for the first place winner, and $1,000 for the second place winners. More information is available here: http://energychallenge.energy.gov.
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ID Hack 2014
6pm February 15th - 10pm February 16th
@ the Cambridge Innovation Center
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/id-hack-2014-tickets-9524585291
The International Development Hackathon (ID Hack) is a 24-hour hackathon that brings together hackers, international development enthusiasts, and NGOs from the greater Boston area to work on projects that will make an impact on international development.
All skill levels welcome!
We have workshops and projects for you whether you’re an experienced hacker, just finished CS50, or have no experience at all. We will be conducting workshops on introductory web development for those without experience.
Why hack for international development?
Enjoy delicious food, compete for $2000+ in prizes, and have fun!
Network with sponsors such as Google, Microsoft, Twilio, Dropbox, McKinsey, and J.P. Morgan., Bridgewater, Intuit, InterSystems, and more!
Work on projects from Partners in Health, Peace Corps, Sana Health, Dimagi, Jana Care, and more!
Use technology to impact the world.
Sign up today AT http://www.eventbrite.com/e/id-hack-2014-tickets-9524585291
The first 100 participants get 5GB free Dropbox space!
Making a difference in the world, networking, great prizes...
I’D Hack for international development ... wouldn't you?
Poverty Action Week 2014
22,000 children die each day of conditions due to poverty.
Come to Poverty Action Week to learn about what you can do to hel
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Sunday, February 16
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The DISSENT Approach to Anonymous, Interactive Communication on the Internet
February 16, 2014
2:50 pm - 4:00 pm
Tufts, Halligan 102, 161 College Avenue, Medford
Speaker: Joan Feigenbaum, Yale University
Current anonymous-communication protocols based on onion routing (OR) suffer three basic flaws: (1) OR’s security properties are largely only informally understood and not readily quantifiable; (2) OR inherently trades security for latency due to serialized relaying; and (3) anonymous disruptors can not only deny service but also defeat anonymity through adaptive denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Existing dining-cryptographers (DC) approaches offer strong resistance to traffic analysis but are difficult to scale and just as vulnerable to disruption as OR. In this talk, we present ongoing work on DISSENT, the first practical anonymous-messaging protocol offering provable anonymity, strong protection against traffic analysis, and provable resistance to anonymous disruption.
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Genetically Engineered Foods: A community film screening and discussion in Jamaica Plain
Sunday, February 16th
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth Street, Jamaica Plain
This event is free and open to the public.
Join with Massachusetts GMO labeling advocates for a screening of the documentary Genetic Roulette (60 minutes) followed by a discussion about what GMOs mean for Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and how we can work together to keep our communities safe and healthy.
What are the health risks associated with Genetically Engineered foods (GMOs)?
What can we do to protect our food and our health?
How can we support efforts to label GMO foods?
Following a screening of the award-winning documentary "Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives," community members will join in discussion with Jack Kittredge, policy director at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association MA Chapter, and Ed Stockman, biologist, organic farmer, and co-founder of MA Right to Know GMOs.
People will hear about the national and statewide movements for GMO labeling and discuss how to take action to declare our right to know what's in our food.
Boston Organics, a local and organic food delivery company, and Life Force Juice, an organic juice delivery company, are co-sponsoring the event and providing light refreshments.
For details and updates on the event, please visit http://www.marighttoknow.org/home/jp
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Tuesday, February 18
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Boston TechBreakfast: Abine, Gradeable, InsideTracker, 1sqbox, HubEngage
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD Center, Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/155722462/
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 February 2014:
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!
Abine - Zach Rachins
Gradeable - Kattie Lam
30 Second Lightning "Shout Outs": JOBS
InsideTracker - Gil Blander
1sqbox - Alexis Coates
30 Second Lightning "Shout Outs": EVENTS
HubEngage - Chris Requena
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words
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Caryl Rivers, professor of journalism, Boston University
Tuesday, February 18
12 p.m.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Speaker Series with Caryl Rivers, professor of journalism, Boston University, blogger on media and politics, commentator on Women’s e-news; and Rosalind Barnett, senior scientist at the Women's Studies Research Center and executive director of Community, Families & Work Program, Brandeis University. Rivers and Barnett are co-authors of The Soft War on Women: How the Myth of Female Ascendance is Hurting Women, Men and our Economy. Co-sponsored with the Women and Public Policy Program.
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Talking to Strangers: Chinese Youth and Social Media
February 18, 2014
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/02/wang#RSVP
This event will be webcast live (on this page) at 12:30pm ET.
with Tricia Wang, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
When we read about the Chinese internet in the Western press, we usually hear stories about censorship, political repression, and instability. But there's a lot more to be learned about life on the other side of “The Great Firewall.”
Based on over 10 years of ethnographic research, Tricia Wang's fieldwork reveals that social media is creating spaces in China that are shifting norms and behaviors in unexpected ways. Most surprisingly, Chinese youth are sharing information and socializing with strangers. She argues that they are finding ways to semi-anonymously connect to each other and establish a web of casual trust that extends beyond particularistic guanxi ties and authoritarian institutions.
Chinese youth are discovering their social world and seeking emotional connection—not political change. Tricia argues that this reflects a new form of sociality among Chinese youth: an Elastic Self. Evidence of this new self is unfolding in three ways: from self-restraint to self-expression, from comradeship to friendship, and from a “moral me” to a “moral we.” This new sociality is lying the groundwork for a public sphere to emerge from ties primarily based on friendship and interactions founded on a causal web of public trust. The changes Tricia has documented have potentially transformative power for Chinese society as a whole because they are radically altering the way that people perceive and engage with each other.
About Tricia
Tricia is a global tech ethnographer transforming businesses into people-centered organizations. Utilizing Digital Age design research methods, Tricia specializes in balancing qualitative and quantitative data analysis for institutions to fulfill their strategic goals. She advises organizations (large and small) on how to understand their "users" or "consumers" as people, not just datasets. She’s passionate about her work as a people champion in companies, start-ups, and non-profits. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Nokia and GE and numerous institutions from the UN to NASA.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of technology and culture—the investigation of how social media and the internet affect identity-making, trust formation, and collective action. Through extensive fieldwork in China and Latin America, she has developed expertise on digital communities in emerging economies, leading to the formulation of an innovative sociological framework for understanding user interactions online.
Tricia relishes on-the-ground, hyper-immersive ethnographic fieldwork, which has provided her with a unique understanding of the experiences of edge communities. During her projects she has pioneered ethnographic techniques such as live fieldnoting, which uses social media tools to share real-time fieldwork data. She is a thought leader on integrative approaches of combining Big Data and what she terms, Thick Data.
A Fulbright Fellow and National Science Foundation Fellow, Tricia has been recognized as a leading authority by journalists, investors, and ethnographic and sociological researchers. Her research has been featured in The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, Fast Company, Makeshift, and Wired. She has presented at the Microsoft Social Computing Symposium, Lift, and South by Southwest. She is also proud to have co-founded the first national hip-hop education initiative, which turned into the Hip Hop Education Center at New York University and to have built after-school technology and arts programs for low-income youth at New York City public schools and the Queens Museum of Arts.
She is a visiting scholar at New York University's Interactive Telecommunication Program and Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet Studies. She received her PhD in Sociology at UC San Diego. She is also an advisory board member of Rev Arts in New York City. She is currently writing a book, tentatively titled, Tales from the Chinese Internet, which is about the Chinese Internet as an expressive space in which people uniquely shape their identities in an otherwise rigid society, a phenomenon she calls "the Elastic Self.” Her research philosophy is that you have to go to the edges to discover what's really happening. She is the proud owner of an internet famous dog who balances stuff on her head, #ellethedog.
Links
@triciawang
Tricia Wang's website
Tricia's blog: Ethnography Matters
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Crowdfunding for Nonprofits with Razoo
HandsOn Tech Boston
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM (EST)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/crowdfunding-for-nonprofits-with-razoo-tickets-10277812213
HandsOn Tech Boston is excited to offer our first training on crowdfunding for nonprofits brought to you by Razoo. If you are unfamiliar with crowdfunding, first know that it will change the way you view fundraising forever. Second, crowdfunding is harnessing the power of the internet and the individual to network and pool money together in support of an organization, project, or cause. This is where Razoo steps in…
Razoo is a crowdfunding website for causes. Through revolutionary products and services that inspire and motivate generosity, they are out to create a new generation of “everyday” philanthropists for whom generosity is part of an ongoing lifestyle. There are 28,000+ active nonprofits using Razoo, with $194 million raised together. Razoo hosts 84,000+ fundraiser pages and 1.4 million donations have been made so far.
This training will consist of two parts to get you acclimated with both crowdfunding and the Razoo platform. The first hour will be a general crowdfunding overview, followed by a second hour on using Razoo as your crowdfunding platform and how to set up your nonprofit’s account. There will be a time for Q&A, so don’t fret if you are new to this concept.
Note: In order for full participation in the second half of the session, please do the following:
1. Claim Access to your NPO HERE to gain access to your page before the event. Razoo is FREE to use so there are no set up fees, monthly or annual charges!
2. Make sure to bring your lab top or tablet to the event so you can follow along once you have admin access to your page on Razoo.
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"Geology Rules: Unconventional Development of Oil/Gas from Shale Formations"
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
1:15pm
Harvard, EPS Faculty Lounge, 4th Floor, Hoffman Laboratory, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Anthony R. Ingraffea, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University
Abstract: We will explore some myths and realities concerning large-scale development of the unconventional natural gas/oil resource in shale deposits. On a local scale, these concern geological aspects of the plays, and the resulting development and use of directional drilling, high-volume, slickwater, hydraulic fracturing, multi-well clustered pad arrangements, and the impacts of these technologies on waste production and disposal, and possible contamination of water supplies. On a global scale, we will also explore the cumulative impact of unconventional gas on greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere.
Solid Earth Physics Seminar and SEAS Applied Mechanics Colloquium
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Corruption, Intimidation and Whistleblowing: A Theory of Inference from Unverifiable Reports
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sylvain Chassang (Princeton)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Organizational Economics
For more information, contact: econ-cal at mit.edu
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Boston New Technology February 2014 Product Showcase #BNT38
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
6:00 PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/162436462/
Show your ID and sign in at the security desk in the lobby, then take an elevator to the first floor. The Horace Mann room is the first room on the left, after the kitchen.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT38 hashtag in social media posts: details here.
Products & Presenters:
1. Evibe.com / @Evibe - Less organized and more spontaneous meetups! (Alexis Lewalle / @Lewalle) Tech: Symfony 2, Ember JS, Redis, Twitter bootstrap, Node.js, Pusher, MongoDb, MySql, Socket.ui. www.Evibe.com
2. YesGraph / @YesGraph - Referrals are the best hires. YesGraph is the best way to find them! (Luke Thomas /@LukeThomas14) Tech: Python, Django. www.YesGraph.com
3. Jisto Inc. / @JistoInc - Transforms idle computation cycles in organizations into a powerful virtual private cloud computing platform! (Aleksandr (Sasha) Biberman & Andrey Turovsky)www.Jisto.com
4. Sourceful / @Sourceful - Sourceful helps journalism and PR pros find, vet, and manage contact with people. (Dan Siegel /@realmandan) Tech: Python, Flask, MongoDB.www.Sourceful.io
5. Priori Legal / @PrioriLegal - Connects businesses with trusted, vetted lawyers at below-market, fixed rates! (Basha Rubin / @BashaRubin) Tech: RoR. www.PrioriLegal.com
6. Sqrrl / @Sqrrl_Inc - Secure, scalable NoSQL database for Hadoop powers real-time web applications. (Ely Kahn /@ElyKahn) Tech: Hadoop, Accumulo, D3, Java, Ruby.www.Sqrrl.com
7. HubEngage / @HubEngage - Grows traffic, engagement & sales for businesses and rewards customers, employees and app/web users for things they do every day! (Tushneem Dharmagadda / @Tushneem & Chris Requena / @CERequena) Tech: Microsoft .NET, Java, iOS, Android, Javascript, SDK's. www.HubEngage.com
Agenda:
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with beverages and pizza outside the Horace Mann room
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements
7:10 to 8:30 - Presentations, Q&A
8:30 to 9:00 - More Networking
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The Speculations of Max Tegmark: Mathematics and Multiverses
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Max Tegmark, PhD Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Max Tegmark has a proud reputation as a fearless and unconventional thinker.
In this discussion Dr. Tegmark talks about his new book, which presents fundamental reality as a mathematical entity, his well-known concept of multiple universes, and also how his concepts have developed and what it takes to think outside the box at a time when many scientists are fearful of the risk.
In addition to his own ideas, he describes how many of the conceptual leaps in science --certainly in physics and cosmology-- were initially ignored or rejected.
Dr. Tegmark is making several Boston-area appearances for his book tour. The SftPublic discussion will be a bit broader, covering the book, his work in general, his efforts to break new ground in science.
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Cyberspace and Urban Space in Networked Social Movements
WHEN Tue., Feb. 18, 2014, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Information Technology, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Manuel Castells
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO events at gsd.harvard.edu
NOTE Manuel Castells, University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, will speak on a theme related to his recent book Networks of Outrage and Hope; Social Movements in the Internet Age (Polity Press), with further elaboration in relation to the recent movements in Brazil and Turkey.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office two weeks in advance at 617 496 2414 or events at gsd.harvard.edu
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/lecture-manuel-castells.html
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, February 19
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Nuclear 101: Technologies and Institutions for Nuclear Security
WHEN Wed., Feb. 19, 2014, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Fainsod Room, Littauer-324, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Ethics, Law, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Matthew Bunn, professor of practice, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO atom at hks.harvard.edu
NOTE Bunn's research interests include nuclear theft and terrorism; nuclear proliferation and measures to control it; the future of nuclear energy and its fuel cycle; and policies to promote innovation in energy technologies.
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/6241/nuclear_101.html
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How Social Movements Succeed: Lessons from HIV/AIDS
WHEN Wed., Feb. 19, 2014, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Bell Hall, 5th Fl. Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Ethan Kapstein, University of Oxford and Arizona State University
CONTACT INFO RSVP to mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
----------------------------------
Between Hot War and Cold Peace: The Post-CW Order and the Arab Spring in a Comparative Perspective
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Benjamin MIller, University of Haifa
Security Studies Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact: 617-253-7529
valeriet at mit.edu
-------------------------------------
How Natural Disasters Affect Political Attitudes and Behavior: Evidence from the 2010-11 Pakistani Floods
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E51-376, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jake Shapiro (Princeton University)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Development Economics Workshop
For more information, contact: econ-cal at mit.edu
-------------------------------------
"Science and Technology of Unconventional Fossil Fuel Production"
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
4:00pm
Harvard, 301 Pierce Hall (near McKay Library entry), 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Robert L. Kleinberg, Schlumberger
Abstract: The advent of fossil fuel production from gas shale and tight oil resources has revolutionized the energy economy of the United States. The effects have been widespread, and have included a shift from coal to natural gas in electric power generation, the return of the petrochemical industry from overseas, and a marked improvement in U.S. energy security. However, production techniques such as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) have raised questions about whether these new sources of energy can be exploited in a manner consistent with environmental protection. The scientific and technological foundations of unconventional fossil fuel production will be discussed, and applied to a selection of topics of public concern.
Solid Earth Physics Seminar and SEAS Applied Mechanics Colloquium
---------------------------------------
A Genealogy of the Gift: Blood Donation and Altruism in an Age of Strangers
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building E51-095, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Nicolas Whitfield, McGill University
STS Special Seminar
Special Seminar dealing with topics within the study of Science, Technology, and Society.
Web site: web.mit.edu/sts
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS, SHASS Dean's Office
For more information, contact: Randyn Miller
617-253-3452
randyn at mit.edu
------------------------------------
"The Economics of Attribute Based Regulation: Theory and Evidence from Fuel Economy Standards."
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
4:10pm - 5:30pm
Room L-382, Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
Koichiro Ito, Boston University, and James M. Sallee, University of Chicago.
For further information, contact Professor Stavins at the Kennedy School (495-1820), Professor Weitzman at the Department of Economics (495-5133), or the course assistant, Jason Chapman (496-8054), or visit the seminar web site.
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k96249
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
617-496-8054
Support from the Enel Endowment for Environmental Economics and the Department of Economics is Gratefully Acknowledged
------------------------------
Faith-Based Community Organizing: How Working With the Religious Other Can Save the World
WHEN Wed., Feb. 19, 2014, 5:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Braun Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT Lexi Gewertz, 617.495.4476
NOTE The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) was founded by 45 clergy and community members in 1996 who came together across religious differences to address community needs. This organization is part of a national network of faith-based communities that organize for social justice. How effective is this grassroots model at creating social change? What role does religion play in the politics of power? Join Harvard Kennedy School's Senior Lecturer in Public Policy Marshall Ganz and Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center's Executive Director Yusufi Vali as they lead a panel conversation on the impact of faith-based community organizing.
This event is part of CSWR Junior Fellow Usra Ghazi's conversation series: Interfaith as Antidote: Models of Faith-Based Civic Engagement. RSVP to cswr at hds.harvard.edu.
---------------------------
Thursday, February 20
---------------------------
Re-thinking the Urban freeway
Thu, Feb 20, 2014
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST
Webinar Registration at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/698597710
Across the country, urban freeways are at the end of their design lives, and communities are wrestling with the question of how to deal with them. States and cities have the opportunity to re-think, remove, or re-purpose urban freeway space, which can address environmental and social justice harm and result in significant local economic and social benefits. This webinar considers best practices and solutions for aging freeways that states and cities can look towards to help mitigate freeway impacts and secure a healthy and more prosperous future for the communities these roadways travel through.
Panelists: Joan McDonald, Commissioner, New York State DOT, and Billy Fields, Assistant Professor, Texas State University
--------------------------------
"Challenges of Balancing the Chinese Power System with Large-Scale Renewable Penetration"
Thursday, February 20, 2014
3:30pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Zhang Ning, Research Associate, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University; Visiting Scholar, Harvard China Project
China Project Seminar
http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/
Contact Name: Chris Nielsen
nielsen2 at fas.harvard.edu
----------------------------------
Aerosol Forcing: Last Century's Problem
Thursday, February 20, 2014
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Bjorn Stevens, Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology
Since its inception, modern climate science has accepted the fact that the aerosol is one of the most important and uncertain forcings of the climate systems. In the 1970s it was argued that the aerosol radiative effects of the aerosol might portend a new ice age; in the 1980s massive climate change aerosol effects was linked to aerosol production during nuclear wars; in the 1990s it was proposed that aerosols masked a much larger sensitivity of global temperatures to rising concentrations of CO2, and in the last decade aerosol effects on the hydrological cycle and weather extremes have received substantial attention. I will argue that the role of aerosol forcing has been exaggerated, but, to the extent the aerosol is responsible for a substantial forcing of the climate system, this forcing was realized in the middle of the last century and has ceased to be important for present or future changes in the global climate.
Houghton Lectures
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Christine Maglio
617-253-6603
---------------------------------
The Cyberspace Battle for Information: Combating Internet Censorship
Thursday, February 20, 2014
4:00 pm
BU, Photonics Center, 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 339, Boston
Refreshments will be served outside Room 339 at 3:45 p.m.
ECE Seminar with Amir Houmansadr, Postdoctoral Scholar University of Texas at Austin
Abstract: The Internet has become ubiquitous, bringing many benefits to people across the globe. Unfortunately, Internet users face threats to their security and privacy: repressive regimes deprive them of freedom of speech and open access to information, governments and corporations monitor their online behavior, advertisers collect and sell their private data, and cybercriminals hurt them financially through security breaches.My research aims to make Internet communications more secure and privacy-preserving. In this talk, I will focus on the design, implementation, and analysis of tools that help users bypass Internet censorship. I will discuss the major challenges in building robust censorship circumvention tools, introduce two novel classes of systems that we have developed to overcome these challenges, and conclude with several directions for future research.
About the Speaker: Amir Houmansadr is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2012. Amir’s research revolves around various network security and privacy problems, including Internet censorship circumvention, network traffic analysis, and anonymous communications. He has received several awards for his research, including the Best Practical Paper Award at the IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (Oakland) 2013.
-----------------------------------
"BenMAP-CE: A new open source tool for estimating air quality benefits"
Thursday, February 20, 2014
4:30pm - 6:15pm
Harvard School of Public Health, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Building, Room FXB-G11, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
4:30 Refreshments, 5:00-6:15 Presentation and Discussion
with Neal Fann, USEPA, Office of Air Quality and Standard
The environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) is a new open source PC-based tool that estimates the number, and economic value, of air pollution-related deaths and illnesses. The U.S. EPA released version 1.0 of the tool in November, and over the next year will develop new features that enable users to more easily perform Environmental Justice, life table and multi-pollutant analyses.
Society for Risk Analysis Seminar
http://www.sra-ne.org/seminar.htm
Contact Name: Margarita Shablya
mshablya at healtheffects.org
RSVP by February 19 to Margarita Shablya.
--------------------------------
"Who Tunes Whom?: Auto-Tune, the Earth, and the Politics of Frequency"
Thursday, February 20, 2014
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Jonathan Sterne
Auto-tune is a ubiquitous vocal effect in popular music and the best-selling software plug-in in the short history of commercial digital audio software. When used with subtlety, auto-tune fixes slight errors or variances in pitch (usually of singers); when used more drastically, it produces a very recognizable vocal effect, "locking" a voice to a scale, or drastically altering it.
Auto-tune was developed out of reflection seismology technology. In this paper, Sterne gives a cultural history of auto-tune as a form of signal processing, drawing on patent documents, interviews, operational protocols, tuning standards and competing acoustemologies. Auto-tune effects a resource management of the voice. The obvious artifice in its most extreme forms points us back to a centuries-long project to technologize human voices through standards and tuning. While journalists and music fans may argue over auto-tune's relationship to the authenticity of the voice, Sterne shows that it is embedded in a much broader politics of frequency.
Jonathan Sterne is a Professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, and for January-May 2014 a visiting researcher in social media at Microsoft Research New England. He is author of MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Duke 2012), The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (Duke, 2003); and numerous articles on media, technologies and the politics of culture.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu
----------------------------------
Beyond Smart Cities: Design of new urban systems
Thursday, February 20
6:00 pm
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
Ryan Chin, managing director for the City Science Initiative at MIT Media Lab, who has developed numerous technologies, strategies, and designs to address congestion, energy inefficiency, and pollution, outlines new urban vehicle systems while highlighting possibilities for Greater Boston’s space-constrained streets. The talk will also explore innovations in the areas of energy, housing, and food-production systems that may close the gap between what we have and what we need. For example, what if we lived in high-density live/work neighborhoods where 80% of what most people need are within a 20-minute walk?
To attend, email rsvp at architects.org with "Traffic 2/20" in the subject line.
Rights of Way: Mobility and the City on exhibit at the BSA until May 26, 2014
http://bsaspace.org/exhibitions/rights-of-way-mobility-and-the-city/
-------------------------------
Visual Effects: Looking at Seeing
February 20
6:00pm-7:00pm
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Auditorium, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Margaret Livingstone and Dana Clancy
Margaret Livingstone and Dana Clancy will discuss what is known about visual illusions from the point of view of both science and art. Livingstone has recently been investigating the role that depth perception and its lack might play in the work of various artists. She and her team have collected evidence that a number of well known artists, including Rembrandt, might have been stereoblind, and will discuss what this means from the point of view of neuroscience. Clancy will discuss the way that her work “cultivat[es] the viewer’s awareness of shifting points of view in relation to both the paintings and how one experiences real space.” Together, these two thinkers and practitioners will discuss what art and science can tell us about some of the ways in which we experience and process the visual world.
Margaret Livingstone is a neuroscientist working in the field of vision. Her lab in the Neurobiology Department at Harvard Medical School studies the relationship between individual neurons and visual processing at a higher level. She has published widely in the field of vision, and is also the author of the book Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. A side interest of her lab is applying what is known about vision to gain insight into discoveries artists have made about the ways we see.
Dana Clancy is an Assistant Professor of Art at Boston University. Her paintings have been shown in many group shows and in a number of solo shows, including Viewing Space at the Danforth Museum of Art and Points of View at Babson College. Her work focuses on the act of looking and on exploring how one constructs a viewing experience.
Catalyst Conversations @ Broad Institute in collaboration with Kendall Square Association Third Thursday
-------------------------------
#LocalFoodBiz Culinary Entrepreneur Happy Hour
Thursday, February 20, 2014
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
CropCircle Kitchen, Inc., 31 Germania Street, Building I & J, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/localfoodbiz/events/163564202/
Come to our Third Thursday #LocalFoodBiz Happy Hour -- the place for food entrepreneurs to chat, and learn from one another, and warm up with a cold brew. In addition to talking with one another, on February 20th we will have the chance to hear from two different sides of food start-ups, training and financing:
We have the opportunity to chat and learn from Manassah Bradley. He is the senior business advisor at MSBDC and a parter at Loupe Consulting. He is teaching the upcoming business training course specialized for food entrepreneurs.
The Bentley Microfinance Group will also be joining us! They are a non-profit group that gives out microloans to small businesses and hold small business expos at Bentley to help small businesses network.
-----------------------------
The SciEx Meetup
Thursday, February 20, 2014
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N-51, MIT Museum, 275 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Team up with fellow students from the Boston area to enter the cool science video competition (http://sciex.mit.edu). Come to network with science, engineering and art students, eat free food, and find out about the video competition. Can you join forces to create a short video about science or engineering that is as exciting (to the general public) as a video about extreme sports?
free food and drinks!
tutorial on making videos
networking opportunity
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/1420979798142112/?fref=ts
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Tickets: RSVP on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/1420979798142112/)
Sponsor(s): SCIEX, Office of the Dean for Graduate Education, Office of Digital Learning, Graduate Student Life Grants
For more information, contact: SCIEX
sciex at mit.edu
-----------------------------
Innovation, Exploitation, and Documentation in the 21st-Century Slumsn
WHEN Thu., Feb. 20, 2014, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Religion, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard South Asia Institute and the Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Katherine Boo, New Yorker Staff Writer, author of "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity," senior Loeb Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
CONTACT INFO sainit at fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/event/katherine-boo/
----------------------------
Shell Energy Forum
Thursday, February 20, 2014
6:30p–9:30p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Shell invites you to join Christina Sistrunk, VP of Production Assets and Claudia Hackbarth, Manager of Unconventional Gas & Tight Oil, to learn more about how Shell is using advanced technologies to help build a sustainable energy future. Networking with Shell employees will begin at 6:30pm followed by a presentation at 7:30pm. Food and Drinks will be provided. Please RSVP at http://goo.gl/rIJ3cq.
Web site: http://goo.gl/rIJ3cq
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: MIT Energy Club
energyclub at mit.edu
------------------------
Friday, February 21
------------------------
2014 MIT Energy Conference
February 21-22, 2014
http://mitenergyconference.com
-----------------------------------
Digital Technology for Bio-intelligence
Friday, February 21, 2014
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
BU, 8 St. Mary’s Street, Room 210, Boston
Refreshments served at 2:45.
Yong-Jun Shin, University of Connecticut
Although biological or living systems show unique features, they are fundamentally governed by the same physical laws that rule non-living systems. For example, molecular dynamics (statistical mechanics) and density functional theory (quantum mechanics) can be used to model not only carbon nanotubes but also DNA molecules. However, what is often neglected is that some engineering tools, especially digital signal processing and control techniques, can complement conventional physics-based approaches when modeling unique biological features, such as adaptation or robustness, that exhibit intelligence. In this talk, I suggest that various digital techniques, including adaptive filtering (e.g., the Kalman filter) and digital feedback control, can model intelligent features of biological systems. Considering biological complexity, computational models should always be validated using relevant experiments. In that respect, digital modeling approaches can benefit our research efforts as they nicely integrate with experimental data, which are mostly digital these days. Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a relatively new technology that involves the manipulation of discrete and independently controllable micro/nano liter droplets and its suitability as a true lab-on-a-chip platform has been recently proposed. In this talk, I present DMF as an innovative platform for studying the intelligent features of biological systems digitally modeled.
Dr. Yong-Jun Shin is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut (UCONN). His current research interests include biological applications of estimation/control theory, multi-scale modeling of biological tissues, and digital microfluidics/bioMEMS. Prior to joining UCONN, he was a postdoctoral associate in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. He received his M.D. from the Seoul National University College of Medicine in Korea. He was a research associate at the Samsung Biomedical Research Institute (Seoul, Korea) before joining the Micro/Nano Devices and Systems (MiNDS) Lab at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) for his graduate work. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UTD, specializing in computational biology and digital microfluidics.
---------------------------------
"ALIEN CITIZEN: An Earth Odyssey" Performance by Elizabeth Liang
Friday, February 21, 2014
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Written and Performed by Elizabeth Liang
Who are you when you're from everywhere and nowhere? Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey is a funny and poignant one-woman show about growing up as a dual citizen of mixed heritage in Central America, North Africa, the Middle East, and New England.
Elizabeth Liang, like President Obama, is a Third Culture Kid or a TCK. Third Culture Kids are the children of international business people, global educators, diplomats, missionaries, and the military-anyone whose family has relocated overseas because of a job placement. Liang weaves humorous stories about growing up as an Alien Citizen abroad with American commercial jingles providing her soundtrack through language confusion, first love, culture shock, Clark Gable, and sandstorms...Our protagonist deals with the decisions every global nomad has to make repeatedly: to adapt or to simply cope; to build a bridge or to just tolerate. From being a Guatemalan-American teen in North Africa to attending a women's college in the USA, Alien Citizen reflects her experience that neither one was necessarily easier than the other. She realizes that girls across the world are growing into womanhood in environments that can be hostile to females (including the USA). How does a young girl cope as a border/culture/language/religion straddler in country after country that feels "other" to her when she is the "other" Where is the line between respecting others and betraying yourself?
Web site: web.mit.edu/wgs
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Anthropology Program, Foreign Languages & Literatures, Women's and Gender Studies, DeFlorez Fund
For more information, contact: The Friendly WGS Staff
3-8844
wgs at mit.edu
---------------------------
Saturday, February 22
---------------------------
Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) Workshop
Saturday, February 22
St. Paul's Episcopal Churchm 39 E. Central Street, Natick
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?llr=s4blzzbab&oeidk=a07e8rs0p9v554b139a
Sign up for a Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) workshop to be eligible to apply for a Green Improvement Grant or Green Loan and reduce energy costs!
Would you like to save money for your parish? Did you know that the average parish in the diocese spends over $20,000 on energy costs annually but that savings of 20-30% are possible? Do you know Diocesan grant and loan funds are available to assist with energy efficiency improvements that can help achieve these savings? As importantly, reducing your energy use also cares for God’s creation by reducing the greenhouse gases your parish produces.
The Diocese’s Creation Care Initiative can help your parish learn how to reduce its energy use and cost, evaluate potential energy savings projects then purchase needed supplies and equipment.
The harvest has been plentiful! Since the grant program launched in 2011, we have granted nearly $600,000 in Green Grants to 69 congregations, and all have representatives that attended SHOWs to learn the whys and hows of sustainability and reducing carbon footprints. In 2014, we will have another round as we use the resources our diocese’s Together Now campaign has raised.
Consider this: whether you intend to apply for a Green Grant or Green Loan or not, determining the size of your carbon footprint is the first step in energy savings and caring for creation. One of the first steps to being eligible to apply for a Green Improvement Grant or Green Loan is to attend a SHOW workshop.
In this half-day session conducted by Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light (www.mipandl.org) you will learn:
How to track your energy use, cost and carbon footprint
How to find no-cost and low cost projects that can have a big impact on your electricity and heating bills
How to evaluate energy using equipment and systems to determine whether they should be updated
Incentives, rebates and other financial help available through utility companies
How to apply for a Green Grant or Green Loan
There is $10 per person fee to attend the workshop, payable during online registration through PayPal or by check. Light refreshments are included. Registration begins at 8:30 and the program starts at 9.
When you register, you will receive an easy-to-use spreadsheet to calculate your parish’s energy use and cost; you are encourage to fill it out and bring it to the workshop. You may also download the spreadsheet here: http://www.mipandl.org/MIPL_resources/MIPL_HOWUtiUseCost.xls
Who should attend: Parishes are encouraged to send two members from their environment committee, property committee or Vestry. Other members who are interested are also welcome.
REGISTRATION CLOSES FEBRUARY 20TH
Contact Esther Powell
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
617.482.4826 x421
epowell at diomass.org
----------------------------------------
Ideastorm - Free Event for High School Students
Saturday, February 22, 2014
1:00pm - 5:00pm
Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Cafe 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Cost: FREE
RSVP at http://youngentrepreneurchallenge.com/ideastorm/
What is IdeaStorm?
IdeaStorm is a mini-version of the Young Entrepreneur Challenge for high school students. Come into Cambridge, MA to work with the YEC mentor team to develop a new business idea.
When you're here, you'll join other high school students in a down and dirty brainstorming and business pitch event. Complete with coaching from our mentors and lots of prizes to win, IdeaStorm is the perfect exploration of entrepreneurship!
The Run Down
When is IdeaStorm?
The next IdeaStorm will take place on February 22nd, 2014 from 1.00PM to 5.00PM. Registration is now open!
Where is IdeaStorm?
IdeaStorm takes place at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Cambridge, MA at Kendall Square.
Do I have to do anything before IdeaStorm?
Nope! Simply show up and we'll take over from there!
Do I have to register?
We have limited spots so we'd appreciate if you could use the EventBrite registration form below to officially reserve your spot at IdeaStorm. You may also show up at the event and see if there's extra spots.
-------------------------
Sunday, February 23
------------------------
Pecha Kucha Mamak @ MIT
Sunday, February 23, 2014
4:00p–5:15p
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Coyin Oh, Han Hsien, David Feliciano, Nick Sazdanoff, Gabriel Yong, Kelvin Chong
Pecha Kucha Mamak
An evening of informal fun and educational/professional development in the art of concise and on-the-feet presentation skills using the Pecha Kucha 20x20 presentation format. Pecha Kucha 20x20 is a presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and speakers present along with the images. We will have five to six speakers per session where MIT and non-MIT graduate and undergraduate students get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, background, anything interesting, in the Pecha Kucha 20x20 format.
Join us for an evening of fun informal presentations in the 20 slides, 20 seconds format of Pecha Kucha. 6 talented speakers from different schools will be sharing their passions, stories and interests with the audience. Mamak-style drinks and snacks will be provided. This event is free and open to the public. We would love to know in advance if you're coming, so do sign up at the events page! See you there!
Web site: http://masamit.scripts.mit.edu/blog/events/pecha-kucha-mamak-mit/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MITMASA, Graduate Student Council, ASUS
For more information, contact: Weng Hong
wenghong at mit.edu
-------------------------
Monday, February 24
-------------------------
"Tailoring Energy Deployment Policies to Support Innovation in Specific Energy Technologies"
Monday, February 24, 2014
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Joern Huenteler, Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
Louisa_Lund at hks.harvard.edu
---------------------------
Thursday, February 27
---------------------------
Oilfield Technology : How innovation changes the game
Thursday, February 27, 2014
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 3-333
Speaker: Julius Kusuma, Schlumberger
In this Energy Club Lectures Series, Julius Kusuma of Schlumberger will discuss Schlumberger's innovative oilfield technologies.
Energy Lectures Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact: Aziz Abdellahi
aziz_a at mit.edu
------------------------
Friday, February 28
-----------------------
The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents: Evolution of Capacity (and Energy) Market Design in New England
Friday, February 28, 2014
9 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
Dr. Sam Newell, Principal, The Brattle Group
Bill Mohl, President, Entergy Wholesale Commodities
Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Exec. Director, U.S. Electric Utility/IPP Group, UBS Investment Bank
Don Sipe, Partner, PretiFlaherty
Come hear about the competing proposals filed last Friday at FERC by ISO New England and NEPOOL for changes to New England's capacity market design. Dr. Robert Ethier, Vice President of Market Development at ISO New England, will describe ISO's proposed market rule changes developed through its strategic planning initiative to address resource performance in the wholesale market and to implement Pay for Performance in the Forward Capacity Market. Peter Fuller, Director of Regulatory Affairs at
NRG Energy/GenOn, will then describe an alternate proposal supported by NEPOOL. The ISO submitted both proposals together, in what is known as a "jump ball" filing, for FERC to decide.
To provide a broader context for these proposals, we will begin with a panel to discuss the evolution of both capacity and energy market design in New England, including a comparison with other regions. This panel will explore the intended role of capacity markets vis-a-vis energy markets, including where things stand now, and what types of improvements may (or may not) be warranted. We have assembled an excellent panel with deep and broad expertise and experience on this topic.
Free and open to the public with no advanced
registration!
----------------------
Saturday, March 1
---------------------
Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) Workshop
Saturday, March 1
9:00 AM to 12:30 PM EST
Trinity Episcopal Church, 124 River Road, Topsfield
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?llr=s4blzzbab&oeidk=a07e8sp7hkpc2a4f02a
Sign up for a Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) workshop to be eligible to apply for a Green Improvement Grant or Green Loan and reduce energy costs!
Would you like to save money for your parish? Did you know that the average parish in the diocese spends over $20,000 on energy costs annually but that savings of 20-30% are possible? Do you know Diocesan grant and loan funds are available to assist with energy efficiency improvements that can help achieve these savings? As importantly, reducing your energy use also cares for God’s creation by reducing the greenhouse gases your parish produces.
The Diocese’s Creation Care Initiative can help your parish learn how to reduce its energy use and cost, evaluate potential energy savings projects then purchase needed supplies and equipment.
The harvest has been plentiful! Since the grant program launched in 2011, we have granted nearly $600,000 in Green Grants to 69 congregations, and all have representatives that attended SHOWs to learn the whys and hows of sustainability and reducing carbon footprints. In 2014, we will have another round as we use the resources our diocese’s Together Now campaign has raised.
Consider this: whether you intend to apply for a Green Grant or Green Loan or not, determining the size of your carbon footprint is the first step in energy savings and caring for creation. One of the first steps to being eligible to apply for a Green Improvement Grant or Green Loan is to attend a SHOW workshop.
In this half-day session conducted by Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light (www.mipandl.org) you will learn:
How to track your energy use, cost and carbon footprint
How to find no-cost and low cost projects that can have a big impact on your electricity and heating bills
How to evaluate energy using equipment and systems to determine whether they should be updated
Incentives, rebates and other financial help available through utility companies
How to apply for a Green Grant or Green Loan
There is $10 per person fee to attend the workshop, payable during online registration through PayPal or by check. Light refreshments are included. Registration begins at 8:30 and the program starts at 9.
When you register, you will receive an easy-to-use spreadsheet to calculate your parish’s energy use and cost; you are encourage to fill it out and bring it to the workshop. You may also download the spreadsheet here: http://www.mipandl.org/MIPL_resources/MIPL_HOWUtiUseCost.xls
Who should attend: Parishes are encouraged to send two members from their environment committee, property committee or Vestry. Other members who are interested are also welcome.
Location Information: Trinity Church is located just off I-95 at 124 River Road in Topsfield. Click here for directions. The workshop will take place in the Vestry Room/Worship Room space, which is in the office wing. There will be signs to direct you! The space is completely handicap-accessible.
REGISTRATION CLOSES FEBRUARY 27TH
Contact Esther Powell
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
617.482.4826 x421
epowell at diomass.org
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Countersurveillance Hackathon Cambridge
Center For Civic Media
Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 10:00 AM - Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 6:00 PM (EAT)
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/countersurveillance-hackathon-cambridge-tickets-10302010591
The MIT Media Lab Codesign Studio team is organizing, hosting, participating in, and supporting several countersurveillance DiscoTechs (short for “Discovering Technology”) during the spring of 2014, mostly on March 1st and 2nd.
Cool! What’s a DiscoTech?
Our DiscoTechs follow the model developed by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition:
A DiscoTech is a community-based, community-organized, multimedia workshop and fair. At a DiscoTech, participants learn more about the impacts and possibilities of technology, and take part in fun, interactive and media-based workshops. Discotech workshops are designed to demystify technology and create a space where we can inform and engage our community [...] A Discotech utilizes the unique skills and expertise within each community, and morphs to adapt to changing needs. [See http://detroitdjc.org/zines]
Our countersurveillance DiscoTechs are free, open, multi-site events, with confirmed locations in Boston, San Francisco, Palestine, and additional locations TBA (as well as online). This registration page is for the Cambridge event.
What will happen at the Countersurveillance DiscoTechs?
At the countersurveillance DiscoTechs, we’ll focus on creating welcoming spaces where a wide range of people (not just techies and activists!) will feel welcome exploring, learning about, and sharing each others’ experiences with surveillance. At the same time, we’re inviting community organizations, technologists, developers, and designers to come to the DiscoTechs to sprint/hack on projects together. There will be speakers and workshops. We’ll dive in deep to understand surveillance tools, systems, and histories. We’ll also get hands-on with tools and approaches that can strengthen our communities’ privacy, safety, and security. We’ll break down structural inequality in surveillance regimes that disproportionately target people of color, working people, immigrants, and activists. Our goals will be to understand surveillance in everyday life, and to work hands-on with community-based organizations to strengthen countersurveillance strategies and tools.
Awesome! How can I participate?
In Cambridge? We'd love to see you at the event. Just register above. A full list of locations can be found at the DiscoTech page of the Codesign website. If you don't see a place near you, we'd love to support you in starting one where you are!
Projects to be Hacked:
TBD, based on project partners and the codesign studio.
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Concert for the Silver Maple Forest
Saturday, March 1, 2014
7:30pm
The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist, 404 Concord Avenue, Belmont
Tickets: http://www.belmontcoalition.org
Donation $25 or $27 at the door
Featuring: The Loomers
with food baby opening
Contact Save the Silver Maple Forest
https://www.facebook.com/savethesilvermapleforest
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2nd Annual Massachusetts Urban Farming Conference
Saturday, March 8, 2014
8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Northeastern University Student Center, Curry Center, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-massachusetts-urban-farming-conference-tickets-7547919029
The 2nd Annual Massachusetts Urban Farming Conference (UFC) is designed to advance urban farming issues ranging from farming techniques and
business models to climate change adaptation and food security. The UFC contributes to short-term and long-term state-wide strategic planning for a sustainable food system in Massachusetts.
Network with Massachusetts' diverse, multi-sector stakeholders in this dynamic event that looks at current issues, emerging practices and programs, and markets that
can contribute to Massachusetts' urban farming sector resiliency.
For vendor or general information, contact Rose Arruda at MDAR; Rose.Arruda at state.ma.us
For sponsorship opportunities, contact Crystal Johnson at Crystal at isesplanning.com
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"Transit Equity"
Friday, March 21
6:00 pm
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
John A. Powell, professor of law, African American Studies and Ethnic Studies, and executive director of the Haas Diversity Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, will speak about transit equity's key role in Boston's upcoming transportation visioning. To attend this free event, emailrsvp at architects.org with "Traffic 3/21" in the subject line. Seats are extremely limited. Reserve yours today!
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Opportunity
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha at sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei at wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events/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/events/index.php
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar
High Tech Events: http://harddatafactory.com/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Boston Area Computer User Groups: http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List: http://aacel.blogspot.com/
Boston Events Insider: http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/
Nerdnite: http://boston.nerdnite.com/
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list