[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - June 29, 2014

[George Mokray]

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, June 30
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9:30am  The Brain-Computer Interface

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Tuesday, July 1
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Climate Change in Four Dimensions
12:30pm  MOOCs and the Science of Learning

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Wednesday, July 2
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12pm  Reading Frederick Douglass: Communal Reading on Boston Common of "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”
6pm  Millennium Conversation on "Standing Our Ground: Civil Rights, Justice, and the Law”

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Tuesday, July 8
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8am  Boston TechBreakfast: Inwiter, Senseware, Codeship, Howler, and More!
12pm  Freecycle and Farmers' Market on the Plaza
12:30pm  w4m: The End of the American Red Light District
7pm  Music-Tech Meetup 7/8 – Learn. Teach. Demo. Eat!

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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com

Why the Nazis Never Built an Atomic Bomb
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/28/1310235/-Why-the-Nazis-Never-Built-an-Atomic-Bomb

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Monday, June 30
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The Brain-Computer Interface
Monday, June 30
9:30am - 2:30pm
Northeastern, Room TF378, 140 The Fenway, Boston
RSVP at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/354802/BCIWS3006.pdf

Christoph Guger, CEO, g.tec medical engineering GmbH.   

Talks and a hands-on seminar.   

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Tuesday, July 1
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Climate Change in Four Dimensions
online course
RSVP at https://www.coursera.org/course/4dimensions
Cost:  free

This course views climate change from a variety of perspectives at the intersection of the natural sciences, technology, and the social sciences and humanities.

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MOOCs and the Science of Learning
Tuesday, July 1
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/07/reich#RSVP
This event will be webcast live on http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/07/reich at 12:30pm ET

with Berkman Fellow, Justin Reich
Millions of learners on platforms like edX and Coursera are generating terabytes of data tracking their activity in real time. Online learning platforms capture extraordinarily detailed records of student behavior, and now the challenge for researchers is to explore how these new datasets can be used to advance the science of learning.  This talk will examine current trends and future directions in research into online learning in large-scale settings.

About Justin
Justin Reich is an educational researcher interested in the future of learning in a networked world. He is the Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow, based in the Office of the President and Provost at Harvard University, exploring the possibilities and limits of online learning through the HarvardX platform. He is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and a visiting lecturer in the Scheller Teacher Education Program at MIT. Justin is the co-founder of EdTechTeacher, a professional learning consultancy devoted to helping teachers leverage technology to create student-centered, inquiry-based learning environments. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University, where he led the Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities project, a Hewlett Foundation funded initiative to examine how social media are used in K-12 classrooms. He writes the EdTechResearcher blog for Education Week, and his writings have appeared in Educational Researcher, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. Justin started his career teaching wilderness medicine, and later taught high school world history and history electives, and coached wrestling and outdoor activities.

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Wednesday, July 2
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Reading Frederick Douglass: Communal Reading on Boston Common of "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”
Wednesday, July 2
12pm
54th Regiment Memorial, Boston Common (Across from State House)

Join us for an alternative 4th of July celebration, a communal reading of Frederick Douglass' famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"
This even will give an opportunity for community members to gather and read the speech together, and to reflect upon the meaning of the speech in the current day.
This event is hosted by Community Change, Inc., Mass Humanities, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and is co-sponsored by several community organizations. The full list can be found at http://communitychangeinc.org/node/344

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Millennium Conversation on "Standing Our Ground: Civil Rights, Justice, and the Law"
WHEN  Wed., July 2, 2014, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE  Museum of African American History, 46 Joy Street, Beacon Hill, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION	Education, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR	Museum of African American History
SPEAKER(S)  Charles Ogletree, moderator - Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.
Michael Curry - President of the NAACP Boston Branch; recently elected to serve on the NAACP National Board.
Avi Green - Co-chair of Scholars Strategy Network Working Group on Protecting and Expanding the Right to Vote; former Executive Director of MassVote.
Mariama White-Hammond - Co-founder of Project Hip Hop and the Civil Rights Tour for Greater Boston area youth
COST	General admission: $5; youth (13 - 17) and seniors (62+): $3; MAAH members and children 12 years and under: free.
CONTACT INFO	rsvp at maah.org or 617.725.0022 x22
NOTE	  Join Professor Charles Ogletree for the 2014 'Millennium Conversation' with on the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on July 2, 1964. A distinguished panel will share critical perspectives on the Civil Rights Act and other landmark decisions, and shed new light on a growing number of controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws. Add your voice during this important forum. Hosting the conversation in the African Meeting House will honor the memory of black and white abolitionists who stood their ground for human rights, just laws, and equal education centuries before the modern civil rights movement.
LINK	www.maah.org

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Tuesday, July 8
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Boston TechBreakfast: Inwiter, Senseware, Codeship, Howler, and More!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD - Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (map)
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/155722952/

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

Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat 
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements 
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs! 
Inwiter - Prabhakar Bellamkonda
Senseware - Serene Almomen
Codeship - Florian Motlik
Howler - Hunter
*** OPEN ***
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words

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Freecycle and Farmers' Market on the Plaza
Tuesday, July 8
12–6 pm
Harvard, Science Center Plaza, One Oxford Street, Cambridge

Join the Harvard Law School, SEAS, FAS Green Program and the Food Literacy Project for a FreeCycle at the Harvard Farmer’s Market. Clean out your home or office for the summer, bring reusable items you don’t want, and take away new treasures. Donations welcome from 9 am onward, and items will be available to take away from 12-2pm.

Shop the Harvard Farmers' Market every Tuesday through October on the Science Center Plaza!

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w4m: The End of the American Red Light District
Tuesday, July 8
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at

with Journalist and author, Melissa Gira Grant
The history of the American red light district is quite brief – from railroad signal lights to hotel bathroom selfies – and clouded in myth. Soon it may be lost. In this talk, journalist Melissa Gira Grant (author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work) will reconsider how communication technologies shape sex-for-sale, proposing that sex work has merged with the network. We'll surveil the police, missionaries, media, and politicians who created and command this space, and discuss what we can learn from how sex workers have remained a step ahead.

About Melissa:
Melissa is a writer and freelance journalist, covering sexuality, politics, and technology. Her book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Verso, 2014) challenges the myths about selling sex and those who make them. Her reporting and commentary appears in The Nation, Wired, The Atlantic, Glamour, The Guardian, In These Times, The Washington Post, Dissent, Slate, Salon,The American Prospect, Reason, Jezebel, and Valleywag, among other publications, and she is a contributing editor at Jacobin.

She speaks regularly to audiences worldwide at institutions such as Duke University, the New School, Third Wave Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, and the UC Berkeley Labor Center, and at events including South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW), re:publica (Berlin), NEXT (Copenhagen), and the International AIDS Conference.

Melissa has been a member of the Exotic Dancers’ Union (SEIU Local 790), and a staff member at St. James Infirmary (the only occupational health and safety clinic in the United States run for and by sex workers).

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Music-Tech Meetup 7/8 – Learn. Teach. Demo. Eat!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Cambridge Innovation Center, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Music-Technology-Group/events/189351182/

Free pizza and drinks will be provided.
Breakaway Group Networking/Music Ideation Exercise
Featured Presentation
3-4 product demos by meetup group members and music-tech startups
Free mingle and network

DEMO/PITCH YOUR PRODUCT 
As per usual, the second hour of the meetup will be dedicated to product demos. This should be a product you've built, or are in the process of building but is demonstrable. For consideration, email [masked] and include:
Your Name 
Name of product/app/technology/etc 
High level description of product 
Link to the product
Demo Format: 5 minutes plus 5 mins for Q&A. Think more live demo, less pitch. We'll have a mobile connectors and DVI/HDMI/VGA ports. If you've demoed before you're welcome to submit and pitch a different product. 

Thanks and we'll see you on July 8th! RSVP now! 

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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, July 9
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OpenBio Codefest 2014 
Wednesday, July 9 and Thursday, December 10
hack/reduce, 275 Third Street, Cambridge

This is a great opportunity for open source bioinformatics developers to meet and work collaboratively. We hope to have developers from projects such as BioPerl, BioJava, Biopython, BioRuby, Galaxy and GenomeSpace in attendance. Everyone is welcome to attend.

More information at http://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Codefest_2014

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Explorations of human disease: The bacterial frontier
WHEN  Wed., July 9, 2014, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION	Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR	Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
SPEAKER(S)  Ami Bhatt
COST	 Free; registration required
TICKET WEB LINK  http://bacterialfrontier.eventbrite.com
CONTACT INFO	events at broadinstitute.org
NOTE	  How do you unravel the cause of a new human disease? For Ami Bhatt, the answer involved solving a DNA puzzle. Faced with a human disease of unknown bacterial origin, Ami used a combination of DNA fragments from diseased tissue and several computational methods to piece together an explanation. What she discovered was the genome of a new species of bacteria believed to have caused the disease. Ami will talk about her discovery and its possible implications for the future of infectious disease.
LINK	http://www.broadinstitute.org/partnerships/education/midsummer-nights-science/midsummer-nights-science-2014

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Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day
Wednesday, July 9 
7pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline

Lauren Clark
Making beer in New England hasn’t always been easy, with the challenges of scarce ingredients, legal hurdles, and public indifference. Freelance journalist and former bartender Lauren Clark (founder of drinkboston.com) truly deepens our appreciation for the perfect pint with the history of New England brewing, going back four centuries and starting with the Pilgrims.

Contact: 617-566-6660

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Thursday, July 10
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Future Energy Supply and Security in Switzerland
Thursday, July 10, 2014
4:15p–5:45p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Doris Leuthard, Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications DETEC 
Lino Guzzella, Rector and President-elect, ETH Zurich 
Alexander Wokaun, Head, General Energy Research Department, Paul Scherrer Institut 
Introduction by Susan Hockfield, President Emerita, MIT

Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/calendar/future-energy-supply-and-security-switzerland
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:  Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey at mit.edu 

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Friday, July 11
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Watt d’Or:  Best Swiss-Made Energy Projects
July 11- September 14
Northeastern University International Village, 1155-1175 Tremont Street, Boston

More information at http://wattdor.swissnexboston.org

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US-Swiss Energy Innovation Seminar
Friday, July 11
Northeastern University, Boston

Swissnex Boston is proud to bring a selection of Swiss energy projects to Northeastern University. This event will showcase information and products honored by the Watt d'Or, recognizing projects that are helping build a more sustainable future. Energy innovations fall in five categories including: society, energy technologies, system and appliances, renewable energy, energy-efficient mobility, buildings and space.

Speakers:
Doris Leuthard, Swiss Federal Councilor and Minister for Energy, Environment, Transportation and Communication
Steve Director, Provost of Northeastern University
Lino Guzzella, Incoming President ETH Zurich
Richard Schmalensee , Dean Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management
Walter Steinmann, State Secretary for Energy, Switzerland
Barbara Kates-Garnick, Undersecretary, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts
Alexander Wokaun, Deputy Director, Paul Scherrer Institut
Anton Gunzinger, Founder, Super Computing Systems
David Thiel, CEO, Industrial Werke Basel
Donald Sadoway, Professor, MIT
Tom Eischen, Government Commissioner for Energy, Luxembourg
Tony Kaiser, President, Swiss Federal Energy Research Commission
Robert Armstrong, Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Jennifer Rupp, Professor, ETH Zurich
Sanjeev Mukerjee, Professor, Northeastern University
Julien Bailat, Sector Head, CSEM, PV-Center
Tod Hynes, Lecturer, Martin Trust Center, MIT Entrepreneurship
Karin Ammon, Head Promotion Competence Centers for Energy SCCER, CTI
Maren Cattonar,  Innovation Manager for, MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
Tiwari Ayodhya, Head, EMPA, Photovoltaic Laboratory
David Bradwell, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ambri
Dina Pomeranz, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
Jim Matheson, CEO, Oasys Water
Pierre Alain Graf, CEO, Swissgrid
Peter Pauli, CEO, Meyer Burger Technology AG
Grant Allen, Head of Technology, ABB Technology Ventures

If you wish to participate, please apply at info at swissnexboston.org with a CV or LinkedIn profile and “Watt d’Or” in Subject line.

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Saturday, July 12
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Social Media for Community Empowerment: tools & best practices for building successful digital engagement
Saturday July 12
11am-2pm
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston

The first session of Mayor Walsh’s Civic Academy with presentations from City officials, open discussions and a chance to help shape the future of the Civic Academy initiative

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Monday, July 14
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Coasts and Communities with Introduction to Coastal Environmental Science Lab:  A Free Online Course from UMass Boston
July 14 - August 21, 2014
Register at https://umb.umassonline.net/bbcswebdav/users/rrezarta.hyseni/map/index.html

Coasts and Communities is an open online course by the School for the Environment and College of Advancing and Professional Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston. This six-week course aims to introduce participants to fundamental concepts in coastal environmental science and shows how to collect and evaluate data to solve real-world local environmental problems.

Registration is now open for the Summer '14 offering of the course. Course runs from July 14 to August 21, is delivered online in CourseSites LMS, and can be taken for credit by registering through UMass Boston. This summer the course has been redesigned and expanded to include a hands-on online laboratory component through which students will be able to apply in practice concepts from a broad range of topics introduced in this course.

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The Future of Retail 
Monday, July 14
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Harvard University, Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Room K262, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-retail-with-stefanos-polyzoides-and-robert-gibbs-tickets-11969265395
Cost:  $15-25

Bringing Retail Back: Reviving the Urban Market Share
Post War American commercial development has focused on developing in greenfield locations, ignoring many main streets and historic downtowns. While city centers have successfully rebuilt neighborhoods and attracted new residential growth, American downtowns lack even the most basic retail goods and services, and public policy often impedes positive development. Lacking access to basic necessities, urban dwellers must leave the downtown and drive to surrounding shopping centers for their desired shopping needs.
Speakers Bob Gibbs and Stefanos Polyzoides will show that sustainable development and vibrant community life are only possible with a thriving urban economy. In order to make our towns and cities more livable, we need to revive the urban market share - and soon. During this talk the speakers will review case studies including Cambridge, Charleston, and Old Town Alexandria, to discuss the future of urban retail, and the practical role tactical urbanism can play in advocating for widespread economic change.

About the Speakers
Stefanos Polyzoides
Stefanos Polyzoides is a cofounder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and, with his wife Elizabeth Moule, a partner in Moule & Polyzoides, a Pasadena, California practice since 1990. From 1973 until 1997, he was an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. His professional experience includes the design of educational, institutional, commercial and civic buildings, historic rehabilitation, housing, and the urban design of university campuses, neighborhoods and districts.
Mr. Polyzoides has led such projects throughout the United States and around the world, in Canada, South America, Australia, China and the Middle East. He was born and educated in Athens, Greece, and later earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in Architecture and Planning from Princeton University. His career has engaged a broad span of architecture and urbanism, its history, theory, education and design.
Robert Gibbs, ASLA
Robert Gibbs, founder of Gibbs Planning Group, is considered one of the foremost urban retail planners in America and has been active in developing innovative yet practical methods for applying modern trends in commercial development to more than 300 town centers and historic cities here and abroad. Profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Urban Land, Gibbs has, writes The Atlantic Monthly, "a commercial sensibility unlike anything possessed by the urban planners who usually design downtown-renewal efforts."
Gibbs believes that sustainable development and vibrant community life are only possible with a vital commercial life, and that new and old towns alike need intelligent strategies for its survival. These strategies include a well-planned retail mix, advantageous pedestrian and vehicular circulation patterns, and arresting storefront designs. Gibbs has authored many publications, including the books "Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development" and the SmartCode Retail Module. For nearly 20 years, he has taught a course in planning and designing urban retail in the Executive Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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Boston New Technology July 2014 Product Showcase #BNT43
Monday, July 14, 2014
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
NGIN Workplace, 210 Broadway Suite 201, Cambridge
Take the elevator up to the second floor and sign in at the registration table
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/188735482/

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 Questions & Answers. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT43 hashtag in social media posts: details here.

Agenda: 
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with dinner and beverages
7:00 to 7:10 - Announcements
7:10 to 8:20 - Presentations, Questions & Answers
8:20 to 9:00 - Networking

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Tuesday July 15
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Tech, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll
Tuesday July 15
4:00PM to 8:00PM EDT
BU, Metcalf Ballroom, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e8rq49v25fabc5c3&c=76b43cf0-aa86-11e3-8fdb-d4ae528eb27b&ch=77bf1d40-aa86-11e3-9011-d4ae528eb27b

Boston University's Office of Technology Development announces the 5th annual Tech, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll networking event.  

You and your colleagues are invited to attend!  Forward to friends that may want to attend. 

In honor of our 5th anniversary we've expanded and gone all digital! This is a great event that celebrates the intersection of the business and science communities. Join us for a cold drink, hot food, smooth music and a chance to meet the people behind for some exciting new discoveries. This year's event will include:

Presentation of the Innovator of the Year Award by Boston University Provost Jean Morrison.

Exhibits by various applied and translational research centers.

An array of all digital posters displaying the latest advancements and technologies in their field.

Music by Poor Old Shine, an emerging alternative americana band. For more information, visit their website athttp://pooroldshine.com

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GreenPort Forum:  An Urban Foraging Walk 
Tuesday, July 15 
6:30pm
Meet at Gallery 263, located at 263 Pearl Street, Cambridge

with David Craft
Join us for a fascinating walk to identify wild edible plants growing in and near Cambridgeport. Learn the uses and best ways to prepare plants that grow in our own environment. David Craft is an artist, musician, wild edible plant forager, scientist, and a Cantabridgian since 2002. He is the author of Urban Foraging and a board member of Gallery 263.

This is a free event. Donations to Gallery 263 are welcome.

GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable Cambridgeport neighborhood

For more information, contact Steve Wineman at steven.wineman at gmail.com 

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From The Cell to Cancer
Tuesday, July 15
7:00 PM 
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge

Ana Soto, M.D., Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Integrative Physiology & Pathobiology 
Carlos Sonnenschein, M.D., Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Integrative Physiology & Pathobiology
Despite decades of research, there is still uncertainty about the biological mechanism that triggers cancer. There are several rival hypotheses, and genuine progress in cancer research will depend on determining the correct one. 

The prevailing hypothesis is that the accumulation of mutations in the genome of a single normal cell transforms the cell to a neoplasm. In this view, cancer is a cell-based, genetic and molecular disease. But this hypothesis does not explain all cancers, and the theory has required ad hoc arguments that, for a number of researchers, suggest a basic weakness. 
Since 1999, the acclaimed Tuft University cancer researchers Drs. Ana Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein have developed a different hypothesis. In contrast to the dominant theory, they argue that proliferation is the default state of the cell, and they posit that cancer is a breakdown of tissue organization involving many cells from different embryological layers. 

In this presentation, Drs. Soto and Sonnenschein explain the major cancer theories and how the differences impact research. They discuss experimental evidence for the rival hypotheses, and how such evidence leads –or not— to an explanation of carcinogenesis.

This lecture is the fourth in our 4-part series on health and environment at Cambridge Library.

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Wednesday, July 16
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New Discovery Tools for Digital Humanities and Spatial Data
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building E25-401, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Lex Berman, Web Service Manager & GIS Specialist, Center for Geographic Analysis, IQSS, Harvard University
The library catalog has evolved from the description of items in physical collections into a wide-reaching net of services and tools for managing both physical collections and networked resources. The line between descriptive metadata and actual content is becoming blurred. Librarians and catalogers are now in the position of being not only docents of collections, but innovators in digital research, and this opens up a number of opportunities for retooling library discovery tools. This presentation will present a survey of methods and projects that have extended traditional catalogs of libraries and museums into online collections of digital objects in the field of humanities. In particular, projects that use historical place names and geographic identifiers for linked open data will be discussed. 

Bio: Merrick Lex Berman manages Chinese and Japanese geographic information projects such as CHGIS, the Skinner Archive, and JapanMap. He studied Asian Languages and GeoSciences at UMASS - Amherst and was a Fullbright Scholar at Academia Sinica (Taipei) in Chinese Geography. In addition to developing placename databases, web services and digital collection tools, Lex works on GIS Data Portals, geographic ontologies, and a curriculum for Quantum GIS training.

MIT Libraries Information Science Brown Bag Talks 
Information Science Brown Bag talks, hosted by the Program on Information Science, consists of regular discussions and brainstorming sessions on all aspects of information science and uses of information science and technology to assess and solve institutional, social and research problems. These are informal talks. Discussions are often inspired by real-world problems being faced by the lead discussant.

Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries
For more information, contact:  Shapiro, Randi
6173244988
shapiror at mit.edu 

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Thursday, July 17
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Enchanted Objects:
Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things
Thursday, July 17
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.

David Rose
Harvard Book Store welcomes award–winning entrepreneur and CEO of Ditto Labs DAVID ROSE for a discussion of his book Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things.  In the tradition of Who Owns the Future? and The Second Machine Age, an MIT Media Lab scientist imagines how everyday objects can intuit our needs and improve our lives.

We are now standing at the precipice of the next transformative development: the Internet of Things. Soon, connected technology will be embedded in hundreds of everyday objects we already use: our cars, wallets, watches, umbrellas, even our trash cans. These objects will respond to our needs, come to know us, and learn to think on our behalf. David Rose calls these devices—which are just beginning to creep into the marketplace—Enchanted Objects.

Some believe the future will look like more of the same—more smartphones, tablets, screens embedded in every conceivable surface. Rose has a different vision: technology that atomizes, combining itself with the objects that make up the very fabric of daily living. Such technology will be woven into the background of our environment, enhancing human relationships and channeling desires for omniscience, long life, and creative expression. The enchanted objects of fairy tales and science fiction will enter real life.

Groundbreaking, timely, and provocative, Enchanted Objects is a blueprint for a better future, where efficient solutions come hand in hand with technology that delights our senses. It is essential reading for designers, technologists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone who wishes to understand the future and stay relevant in the Internet of Things.

General Info
(617) 661-1515
info at harvard.com 

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Tuesday, July 22
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Current and Emerging Uses for Wikipedia in Research
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
1:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 14N-132, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

"Well, actually..." you begin when the topic of Wikipedia's accuracy comes up in conversation. If you've found yourself in this position, come share ways you have effectively used Wikipedia in your own research or in consultation with students and professors. Learn how to use complementary applications to guide you to valuable library resources. Join the discussion on the future of Wikipedia and the information landscape.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries
For more information, contact:  Stacey Snyder
ssnyder at mit.edu 

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Thursday, July 24
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Addressing Climate Change through Community Engagement and Behavior Change
Thursday, July 24 
12pm
webinar
RSVP at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/870393638

featuring David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute

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Silicon: The Most Perfectly Engineered Material
Thursday, July 24, 2014
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Dr. Takao Abe, Shin-Etsu Handotai
Lecture by recipient of 2014 Harry C. Gatos Prize

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, EECS

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Tuesday, July 29
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Democratizing Ideologies and Inequality Regimes in Digital Domains
Tuesday, July 29
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/07/cottom#RSVP
This event will be webcast live on http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2014/07/cottom at 12:30pm ET

Tressie (McMillan) Cottom, Microsoft Research & PhD Student, Sociology, Emory University
Internet studies tends to conceptualize groups as collectivities anchored by shared ideas, interests, and information. Sociologists understand groups as also anchored by identity, social location, and power relationships. It's a tension between groups of affiliation versus ascription. The difference is meaningful for how we understand inequality across digital domains. How can we theoretically and methodologically understand both concepts of group in social media generally and specifically in a case study of informal learning spaces on Facebook and Twitter?

About Tressie
Tressie McMillan Cottom is completing her PhD in the Sociology Department at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

As a stratification scholar, Tressie considers what inequality means both experientially and empirically when corporations are people, supranational corporations like Facebook and Twitter shape the public square, and education is increasingly privatized. Her research primarily mines organizational arrangements and structural processes to better understand inequality across rapidly changing social domains. Her current work examines for-profit college credentials and inequality. She also has a developing research agenda that examines the political economy of emerging “new” media organizations.

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Opportunity
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Intern with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate!
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate (BLC) is a nonprofit based in the Cambridge, MA area. Our mission is to mobilize the biosphere to restore ecosystems and reverse global warming.
Education, public information campaigns, organizing, scientific investigation, collaboration with like-minded organizations, research and policy development are all elements of our strategy.

Background: Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Restoring the complex ecology of soils is the only way to safely and quickly remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the ground, where it’s desperately needed to regenerate the health of billions of acres of degraded lands. Restoring carbon to soils and regenerating ecosystems are how we can restore a healthy hydrologic cycle and cool local and planetary climates safely, naturally, and in time to ensure a livable climate now and in the future.

Our Work: immediate plans include
Organizing the First International Biodiversity, Soil Carbon and Climate Week, October 31-November 9, 2014, and a kick-off conference in the Boston area, “Mobilizing the Biosphere to Reverse Global Warming: A Biodiversity, Water, Soil Carbon and Climate Conference – and Call to Action” to expand the mainstream climate conversation to include the power of biology, and to help initiate intensive worldwide efforts to return atmospheric carbon to the soils.
Coordination of a global fund to directly assist local farmers and herders in learning and applying carbon farming approaches that not only benefit the climate, but improve the health and productivity of the land and the people who depend on it.
Collaboration with individuals and organizations on addressing eco-restoration and the regeneration of water and carbon cycles; such projects may include application of practices such as Holistic Management for restoration of billions of acres of degraded grasslands, reforestation of exploited forest areas, and restoring ocean food chains.

Please contact Helen D. Silver, helen.silver at bio4climate.org for further information.
781-316-1710
Bio4climate.org
SharedHarvestCSA.com

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Climate Stories Project
http://www.climatestoriesproject.org

What's your Climate Story?
Climate Stories Project is a forum that gives a voice to the emotional and personal impacts that climate change is having on our lives. Often, we only discuss climate change from the impersonal perspective of science or the contentious realm of politics. Today, more and more of us are feeling the effects of climate change on an personal level. Climate Stories Project allows people from around the world to share their stories and to engage with climate change in a personal, direct way.

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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/s

Eventbrite:  http://www.eventbrite.com/

Microsoft NERD Center:  http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/

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/