[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - November 6, 2016
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Nov 6 10:45:53 PST 2016
Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Index - Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings. Keep scrolling, please.
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Monday, November 7
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12pm An Alternative Path for the Evolution of Biological Nitrogen Fixation
12pm PAOC Colloquium: A metabolic constraint on the biogeography of marine species
12pm Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future
12:15pm Radiation and Restoration: The Politics of Ecological Care
12:30pm The 2016 Presidential Election: What's at Stake?
2:15pm The More We Die, the More We Sell? A Simple Test of the Home Market Effect
3pm Ethan Phillips, Partner at Bain & Company
4pm Discussion with Gustavo Dudamel
4pm Harvard Origins of Life Second Annual Prize Lecture
5pm True Listening: An Evening with Acoustic Ecologist Gordon Hempton
5:30pm Defining and Measuring Gentrification
6pm Digital Colonialism?: Thoughts on the Ethics of Digital Recreations of Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites in the Middle East
6pm Speaker Series: John Thompson, Chairman of Microsoft
6pm Digital Colonialism?: Thoughts on the Ethics of Digital Recreations of Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites in the Middle East
6pm ACT Monday Night Lecture Series presents: Dividuum with Gerald Raunig
6pm Boston New Technology November 2016 Startup Showcase #BNT71
7pm 2016 Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series: Delicious Decomposition: Tales from the Cheese Caves of France
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Tuesday, November 8
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12pm Anything but Barren: Fungal biodiversity in the Pine Barrens
12pm Environment and Geography: The Political Ecology of the Silk Road
2:30pm Challenges of Change: An Experiment Training Women to Manage in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector
2:45pm The State as Organized Crime: Industrial Organization of the Police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
4pm A community-based approach to planning for the effects of climate change on shellfishing in Wellfleet Harbor
4pm Narratives of Hope: Science, Theology and Environmental Public Policy
6:30pm Passive House Massachusetts
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Wednesday, November 9
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11:30am Microelectromechancial Systems Based on Biological and Biodegradable Materials
12:15pm Advocacy in Contested Times: A Conversation with Tawakkol Karman
12:30pm Local Sustainability: Climate and Health at Harvard and in Boston
1pm Pyrrhic Progress – Antibiotics and Western Food Production (1949-2015)
2pm Waste Enterprise Series: Building Bricks from Recycled Paper
3:30pm China's National Cap-and-Trade Program: The Promise and the Reality
3:30pm Polymeric Tools to Manipulate Innate Immunity: Probing a Code Without a Key
4pm Artificial Intelligence: A DARPA Perspective
5pm Electricity Market Design: Political Economy and the Clean Energy Transition
5:30pm Education and Transformative Justice: A Community Conversation about Connections, Questions, and Action
5:30pm The Blessed and the Damned: The Solovetsky Islands from Monastery to Gulag
5:30pm SheDemos 2016
6pm Dark and Stormy: Reflections on the Election
7pm Small World, Big Data: From online dating to the emergency room
7pm Celebrating Randy Weston’s Archive at Harvard
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Thursday, November 10
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8am Boston TechBreakfast: Smartick Method, and More!
8am HOME ENERGY LABELING INFORMATION EXCHANGE (HELIX) SUMMIT
11:30am Building Waste Ventures in Emerging Markets: A Panel Discussion
11:45am Kate Williams, CEO, 1% for the Planet
12pm The CLUC Study: Chickens living in urban coops
12pm Exploring the impacts of major atmospheric anomalies on the contemporary global food system
12pm Arab World: Human Rights and Democracy vs Stability?
1pm Green energy drives the future—Opportunities and challenges with energy revolution
3pm xTalks: 'Playful Rehearsal' - Designing Practice Spaces for Teachers
4pm Ants, Plants, and Bacteria: Symbiosis as a driver of evolutionary diversification
4pm Natural and anthropogenic contributions to stratospheric aerosols
4pm Active Matter: From Colloids to Living Cells
4:15pm The Human Condition in the Anthropocene
6pm Nature is Never Finished: Land Art Conservation in the 21st Century
6pm #FuturePub Boston
6:30pm Sustainability Collaborative
7:15pm Marcel Zaes in concert
7:30pm Roxbury Community College - A Green Urban Campus
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Friday, November 11 - Sunday, November 13
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The MIT Energy Hackathon
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Friday, November 11
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6pm From Jazz to Hip Hop: Radio as a Turnstile between White and African-American Cultures
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Saturday, November 12
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9am Permablitz in Tim's Yard - cob oven, herb spiral, fruit trees and more
9am Cambridge Climate Congress Closing Plenary
12pm Holiday BINJ 2 [Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism]: Journalistic Boogaloo
12pm TechII Forum 2016 (Tech Invention & Innovation Forum)
1pm Running for Local Office Workshop
7pm Berta Caceres Movie (in defense of rivers in Honduras)
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Monday, November 14
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12pm Making Decisions in a World Awash in Data: We’re going to need a different boat
12pm Which Social Cost of Carbon?
12:15pm Ruderal Ecologies: Re-Thinking Urban Infrastructure in a World of Rubble
3:30pm The Geography of Separate and Unequal: Modern-day Segregation in Boston
4:15pm 1989 in Global Perspective and the Rise of Neoliberalism
5:45pm Toxic Beauty: Environmental Justice and Workers’ Rights
6pm Artfare: How Art Makes Sense of Cultural Upheaval
6pm Cambridge Mothers Out Front Community Meeting
6:30pm Is Equality Fair?
7pm A Shot in the Dark (Matter)
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Tuesday, November 15 to Thursday, November 17
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ABX 2016
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Tuesday, November 15
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8:45am Living With Water: A Conversation on Climate Change and Resilient Cities
12pm Fire, Mammal Browsers, and the Origins of African Savanna
12pm The End of Ownership
12pm Latin American Seminar Series: How Gang Activity in Neighborhoods Undermines Democracy: Impacts on Electoral and Non-Electoral Participation in El Salvador
1pm Climate Change & Global Health Seminar
4pm Molluscan vulnerability to ocean acidification across life stages
5pm HUCE Special Lecture: Bob Perciasepe on Challenges for the New President
5:30pm Are We Serious This Time?: Media, Politics, and Community
6pm Urban Farming Micro-Credential for Parachute Teachers
6pm Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Larry Wilmore
6pm Yes, Humans Really Are Causing Earthquakes
6pm Pedal-Powered Innovation from Rural Guatemala: The Bici-Tec Story
7pm Love for Sale: Pop Music in America
7pm Mending the Tower of Babel through the Science of Bilingualism
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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
Two from Joe Gould’s Teeth
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2016/11/two-from-joe-goulds-teeth.html
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Monday, November 7
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An Alternative Path for the Evolution of Biological Nitrogen Fixation
Monday, November 7
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geo Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Eric Boyd, Montana State University
EPS Colloquium Series
http://eps.harvard.edu/event/department-colloquium-series-16
Contact Name: Sabinna Cappo
scappo at fas.harvard.edu
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PAOC Colloquium: A metabolic constraint on the biogeography of marine species
Speaker: Curtis Deutsch, UW
Monday, November 7
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Curtis Deutsch (UW)
Oxygen played a key role in the evolution of marine ecosystems. However, oxygen has not generally been considered a major constraint on the contemporary biogeography of species outside regions of exceptionally low O2. I will present a combination of physiological, climate, and species distribution data, to argue that the limits of several diverse species ranges are governed by the ratio of oxygen supply and demand, even in the well-oxygenated Atlantic Ocean. These limits correspond to an energetic requirement for organismal activity of about 2-5 times that at rest, a ratio that is shared by most terrestrial species. This metabolic constraint is rapidly tightened in the presence of climate warming due to the combination of warmer water and less O2. I will use Earth System Models to investigate and compare the loss of aerobically viable habitat in two periods of interest – the climate change projected for the 21st century and the end-Permian mass extinction.
About the Speaker
Changes in the physical climate system are known to perturb a variety of biological processes at a wide range of scales. Some of these processes are able in turn to influence climate by altering Earth's radiative balance, e.g., through the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The complexity of the resulting climate-biosphere interactions provides a rich array of phenomena to investigate. Such investigations are both intellectually challenging and socially relevant, as human activities increasingly alter Earth's climate and biological systems.
The fundamental purpose of my research is to contribute to a coherent understanding of the interactions between biogeochemical cycles and the climate system so that we may better understand past and predict future changes in the environment. Because these interactions involve diverse processes occurring on many spatial and temporal scales, numerical models with varying degrees of complexity are necessary for synthesizing and clarifying current understanding. To date my research has focused primarily on modeling connections between ocean biogeochemistry and climate from human to geological time scales. In each of my research themes, I strive to construct simple quantitative models that are guided by observational constraints and oriented toward conceptual understanding.
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Energy and Climate: Vision for the Future
Monday, November 7
12pm – 1:30 pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Contact Name: cepr at hks.harvard.edu
617-495-8693
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
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Radiation and Restoration: The Politics of Ecological Care
Monday, November 7
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Laura Martin, HUCE
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issues in science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
Contact Name: sts at hks.harvard.edu
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The 2016 Presidential Election: What's at Stake?
WHEN Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Case Study Room (S020), Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Michael Dukakis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University; Democratic Party Nominee for the President of the United States (1988); and Governor of Massachusetts (1975-79; 1983-91)
Moderated by Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/calendar/upcoming
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The More We Die, the More We Sell? A Simple Test of the Home Market Effect
Monday, November 7
2:15p–4:00p
MIT, Building E52-324
Speaker: Heidi Williams (MIT)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
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Ethan Phillips, Partner at Bain & Company
Monday, November 7
3:00pm – 4:00pm EST
MIT, Building E51-325, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://sloangroups.mit.edu/energy/rsvp?club=energy&club2=energy&id=317290
Are you interested in the energy value chain? AND consulting?
Join us and hear from Ethan Phillips, Partner at Bain & Company, who will talk about the current macro outlook for supply and demand and implications for various players across the energy value chain.
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Discussion with Gustavo Dudamel
WHEN Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Learning From Performers
COST Admission free withÊtickets required, limit two tickets per person. Available beginning November 1 for Harvard students and affiliates in person or by phone, 617.496.2222; and November 3 for the general public in person, by phone, or online (phone and online orders subject to service fees) through the Harvard Box Office at Farkas Hall, 10-12 Holyoke St., Cambridge.
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu
TICKET INFO The Harvard Box Office 617-496-2222
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Harvard Origins of Life Second Annual Prize Lecture
WHEN Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Emerson Hall, Room 105, 19 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Origins of Life Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Dr. John Grotzinger, Chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Grotzinger was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. For his great contributions to understanding the co-evolution of life and environment on early Earth, Grotzinger received the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal from the National Academy of Sciences – awarded once every five years. For his work in the geology and geochemistry of hydrocarbon exploration, he was honored with the 2012 Halbouty Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
CONTACT INFO Kelly Colbourn Moreno, Coordinator of Academic Programs, Outreach and Events
kelly.moreno at cfa.harvard.edu
DETAILS We are honored to announce Dr. John Grotzinger, Chair of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at California Institute of Technology, as The Origins of Life Initiative's second annual Prize Lecturer.
4:00PM Lecture Emerson Hall 105, 19 Quincy Street
5:30PM Reception Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street
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True Listening: An Evening with Acoustic Ecologist Gordon Hempton
WHEN Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, 5 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion, Special Events
SPONSOR Office of Student Life
CONTACT studentlife at hds.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join internationally acclaimed acoustic ecologist, Gordon Hempton, as we listen to sunrise circle the globe, hear snow melt and whales sing, and discover that the Earth is music, clear enough to hum all day. And let’s re-examine our widely held belief that the human ear evolved to hear human speech. We will listen to nature sounds that fit neatly into our peak hearing sensitivity (2 kHz-5 kHz) and speculate about the evolutionary consequences of detecting these sounds over great distances. During modern times with our global environmental crises, is it enough to hear ourselves or must we, as a species still subject to the laws of survival, once again listen to what the Earth is telling us? This audio presentation will change the way you listen to the natural world around you.
Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton has circled the globe three times in pursuit of the Earth’s rarest natural sounds. His sound portraits which record quickly vanishing natural soundscapes have been featured in People magazine and a national PBS television documentary, Vanishing Dawn Chorus, which earned him an Emmy. Hempton provides professional audio services to media producers, including Microsoft, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel. Recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, he is coauthor of One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2010). Gordon Hempton speaks widely on the importance of listening.
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Defining and Measuring Gentrification
WHEN Monday, Nov. 7, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Building, Starr Auditorium, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
SPEAKER(S) Ingrid Gould Ellen and Daniel T. O’Brien
DETAILS Gentrification is a common and controversial topic in urban planning, but do we have a consensus on what the term actually means? Do we have accepted standards by which we can track it?
Join us for a discussion with Ingrid Gould Ellen, Visiting Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT, Paulette Goddard Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner, and Faculty Director of the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy; and Daniel T. O’Brien, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University and Co-Director, Boston Area Research Initiative.
Cosponsored by the Boston Area Research Initiative, the Harvard-Mellon Urban Initiative, the GSD Department of Urban Planning and Design, and the GSD Loeb Fellowship.
LINK http://jchs.harvard.edu/event/defining-and-measuring-gentrification
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Digital Colonialism?: Thoughts on the Ethics of Digital Recreations of Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites in the Middle East
Monday, November 7
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambrudge
Speaker: Erin Thompson
"CULTURES OF UPHEAVAL"
FALL 2016 AGA KHAN PROGRAM LECTURES
Web site: http://akpia.mit.edu/fall-2016-lectures-events-cultures-upheaval
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
617-253-1400
akpiarch at mit.edu
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Speaker Series: John Thompson, Chairman of Microsoft
Monday, November 7
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/speaker-series-john-thompson-chairman-of-microsoft-tickets-28694380665
Microsoft Chairman, John Thompson is joining Epicenter CEO Paul Krasinski for an informal fireside to discuss technology, innovation, leadership and his Boston roots. Mr. Thompson will speak to the creative and innovative minds to both inspire concept creation, as he understands the power of the creative economy where ideas are currency. John and Paul will discuss the creative process, development of successful products and building a collaborative culture. Epicenter is honored that John Thompson will spend his evening with Boston, the City he credits with the launch of his career.
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Digital Colonialism?: Thoughts on the Ethics of Digital Recreations of Threatened Cultural Heritage Sites in the Middle East
Monday, November 7
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Erin Thompson
"CULTURES OF UPHEAVAL”
FALL 2016 AGA KHAN PROGRAM LECTURES
Web site: http://akpia.mit.edu/fall-2016-lectures-events-cultures-upheaval
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
617-253-1400
akpiarch at mit.edu
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ACT Monday Night Lecture Series presents: Dividuum with Gerald Raunig
Monday, November 7
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building e15-001, The ACT Cube, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Gerald Raunig
ACT Monday Night Lecture Series presents: Dividuum with Gerald Raunig
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Department of Architecture, Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT), swissnex, Goethe Institut
For more information, contact: Marion Cunningham
617-253-5229
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Boston New Technology November 2016 Startup Showcase #BNT71
Monday, November 7
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MassChallenge Space, 23 Drydock Avenue, 6th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/234904042/
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Please enter at 23 Drydock Ave and take an elevator to the 6th Floor. Look for our check-in table. Type the first few letters of your name on the screen and tap your name to print your name tag.
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2016 Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series: Delicious Decomposition: Tales from the Cheese Caves of France
Monday, November 7
7 p.m.
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sister Noella Marcellino, Abbey of Regina Laudis, subject of PBS documentary “The Cheese Nun”
Now in its seventh year, the series is organized by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
The public lectures are based on the Harvard course “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” but do not replicate course content.
All talks will take place in the Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford St., Cambridge, Mass., Hall C) and begin at 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted
Each presentation will begin with a 15-minute lecture about the scientific topics from that week’s class by a faculty member from the Harvard course
Seating for all lectures is first come, first seated
If you have questions regarding the public lecture series, please contact science_cooking at seas.harvard.edu.
2016 Chef Lecture Dates
Monday, Nov. 21
Title TBA
Science Center Lecture Hall C, 7 p.m.
Nathan Myhrvold, (@ModernCuisine), former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, author of “Modernist Cuisine”
The Harvard College Course
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Alícia Foundation developed the General Education science course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” which debuted in the fall of 2010. The course uses food and cooking to explicate fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering. (Watch a video about the course.)
While limited to currently enrolled Harvard undergraduates, the class, which brings together eminent Harvard researchers and world-class chefs, is available to others on-campus through the Harvard Extension School and online through the HarvardX platform (details below).
Instructors
Michael Brenner, Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and Professor of Physics; Harvard College Professor
Pia Sörensen, Preceptor in Science and Cooking
David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics
Lab Design/Implementation
Pere Castells, Unitat UB-Bullipèdia
Science and Cooking at Harvard Extension School
A version of “Science and Cooking” will be offered for credit through the Harvard Extension School in Spring 2017. Registered students will have access to the expertise and support of Harvard teaching staff, and will participate in an on-campus weekend in our cooking lab.
An online version of the course is also available as a HarvardX course.
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Tuesday, November 8
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Anything but Barren: Fungal biodiversity in the Pine Barrens
Tuesday, November 8
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room (125), 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Ning Zhang, Rutgers University
Herbaria Seminar Series
http://huh.harvard.edu/calendar/upcoming/news/herbaria
HUH seminars are free and open to the public.
Contact Name: Barbara Hanrahan
bhanrahan at oeb.harvard.edu
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Environment and Geography: The Political Ecology of the Silk Road
Tuesday, November 8
12 PM
BU, Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road, Boston
Julie Klinger, PhD
More information at http://www.bu.edu/asian/2016/10/12/event-environment-and-geography-the-political-ecology-of-the-silk-road/
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Challenges of Change: An Experiment Training Women to Manage in the Bangladeshi Garment Sector
Tuesday, November 8
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Chris Woodruff (Oxford)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Organizational Economics
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
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The State as Organized Crime: Industrial Organization of the Police in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Tuesday, November 8
2:45p–4:00p
Harvard, Harvard Hall 104, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Speaker: Raul Sanchez de la Sierra (University of California at Berkeley)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Development Economics Seminar
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
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A community-based approach to planning for the effects of climate change on shellfishing in Wellfleet Harbor
Tuesday, November 8
4:00 - 5:00pm
BU, CAS 132, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA
Speaker: Seth Tuler, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary and Global Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Shellfish play a vital role in the ecology of Wellfleet Harbor andrable to climate fish stocks in the northeastern US. Climate change is predicated to cause changes in sea levels, air and water temperatures, intensity and frequency of precipitation, and water chemistry. In this presentation we will share the process and outcomes of the Working Group on Climate Change impacts on shellfishing in Wellfleet Harbor. The Working Group is a community-based group with broad representation from the shellfish industry and the Town, whose purpose was to identify: threats to shellfishing in Wellfleet Harbor from climate change, the role of shellfish in mitigating impacts from climate change and other environmental hazards in Wellfleet Harbor, and strategies to increase the resilience of Wellfleet and its shellfishery in a time of climate change. A community-based approach empowered local stakeholders to take a more active role in planning for climate change and provides . The Working Group produced reports, a website, and a systems dynamics model to characterize the risks and vulnerabilities for the shellfish fishery and local community due to a changing climate – both today and into the future.
Bio: Seth Tuler is an Associate Teaching Professor in his research interests more generally are concerned with public participation and developing tools to inform planning about social impacts and vulnerabilities to risk events. He is interested in applying insights emerging from research to practical applications in a wide range of policy arenas, including climate change adaptation planning and marine fisheries management.
BU’s Seminar Series on Climate Change
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Narratives of Hope: Science, Theology and Environmental Public Policy
Tuesday, November 8
4:00PM TO 6:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room 429, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Program on Science, Technology and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School invite you for a discussion with Tom McLeish, Durham University, with introduction by Sheila Jasanoff, HKS. Light refreshments will be served.
Recent analyses of public debates on nanotechnology, GMOs and other environmental impasses have unearthed powerful, yet submerged, driving ‘narratives of despair. Their religious resonances (e.g. ‘Pandora’s Box’, ‘Sacred Nature’) suggest a search for countering ‘narratives of hope’ within theological sources. A close reading of the ancient Book of Job, alert to resonances with natural philosophy, recasts ‘science’ as a deeply human, social and ancient. Jobhas spawned a rich literature of environmental commentary; we attempt to shape a deeper story of purpose in engaging nature, through classical, patristic, medieval, and early modern sources into a framework for late modern technologies. The resulting reconciliatory ‘Theology of Science’ meets the narratives of despair head-on. It suggests a transformation of the way political discussions of 'troubled technologies' are framed, and pathway to mobilising religious communities in support of a healthier public debate
Contact Name: Shana Ashar
shana_ashar at hks.harvard.edu
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/workshops/narratives-of-hope/
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Passive House Massachusetts
Tuesday, November 8
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Suite 200, Boston
RSVP to mduclos at deapgroup.com Subject: Passive House MA 11/8
Price: This meeting is free and open to all
Residential Ventilation - new requirements, new systems, new issues
Until recently, residential ventilation has consisted mainly of installing bath fans and kitchen exhaust hoods, but that has changed with the new code requirements for testing, and with tighter houses driving the need for balanced ventilation. Learn why something as simple as a bath exhaust fan may not deliver anything close to the specified air flow, and why. New homes in Massachusetts. must have ventilation flows measured by an approved 3rd party that meet a written specification – or no Certificate of Occupancy. See data from exhaust only and balanced ventilation systems that graphically depict a surprising difference in CO2 levels. Learn what ‘commissioning’ means, and why both Passive House and ENERGY STAR require verification of ventilation system airflows.
To learn more about Passive House Massachusetts, visit http://architects.org/committees/passive-house-massachusetts
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Wednesday, November 9
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Microelectromechancial Systems Based on Biological and Biodegradable Materials
Wednesday, November 9
11:30a–1:00p
MIT, Building 34-401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Mark Allen, University of Pennsylvania
MTL Seminar Series
MTL seminar speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research, manufacturing, or policy. This series is held during the academic year on Wednesdays at noon. The seminars are open to the public. Lunch is served at 11:30am
Starts a half-hour earlier than usual. Lunch begins at 11am.
Web site: https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mtlseminar/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact: Shereece Beckford
617-253-0086
beckford at mit.edu
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Advocacy in Contested Times: A Conversation with Tawakkol Karman
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer 4th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Initiative, The Future of Diplomacy Project
SPEAKER(S) A seminar with Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni Activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS A seminar with Tawakkol Karman, Yemeni Activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Moderated by Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, HKS.
Co-sponsored by the Future of Diplomacy Project.
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/7210/advocacy_in_contested_times.html
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Local Sustainability: Climate and Health at Harvard and in Boston
Wednesday, November 9
12:30–1:30 pm
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB G-13, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-sustainability-climate-and-health-at-harvard-and-in-boston-tickets-26841970055
Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Assistant Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment
Heather Henriksen, Director, Harvard University Office of Sustainability
Austin Blackmon, Chief of the Environment Energy and Open Spaces, City of Boston
Limited seats, registration required.
The environments in which we live are changing fast. To keep people healthy and alive, we must prevent diseases caused by turbulent weather, pollution, and increasingly crowded cities.
Hear from Heather Henriksen, Director of Harvard University Office of Sustainable, and Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space, City of Boston, and learn about our new Master of Public Health in Sustainability and the Global Environment.
This speaker series will celebrate the Center for Health and the Global Environment’s 20th year, and introduce you to pressing issues students will explore in the Sustainability, Health, and the Global Environment program at the Harvard School of Public Health. In this program students will learn the latest research techniques, and have opportunities to connect with leading edge thinkers in global businesses and governments who are focused on the connection between people, their health, and their surroundings. We are accepting applications beginning Fall 2016.
Join us to learn from leading global health experts, and talk with faculty members actively working to solve some of the greatest public health challenges facing us today. To learn about other topics in the series visit http://www.chgeharvard.org/events.
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Pyrrhic Progress – Antibiotics and Western Food Production (1949-2015)
Wednesday, November 9
1:00pm
Lunch served at 12:30pm
Harvard Medical School, Countway Library of Medicine, Lahey Room, fifth floorm 10 Shattuck Street, Boston
RSVP at https://civicrm.countway.harvard.edu/index.php?q=civicrm/event/register&id=84
Dr. Claas Kirchhelle: Research Associate, University of Oxford’s Martin School and the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine; Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College
This presentation will examine the history of antibiotic use in Western food production. It will ask why antibiotics were introduced to food production, track the development of agricultural antibiotic use on both sides of the Atlantic, and explore why regulations designed to curb bacterial resistance and antibiotic residues differ in the US and Europe.
Dr. Claas Kirchhelle’s work addresses the history of antibiotic use, resistance, and regulation on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2016, his dissertation Pyrrhic Progress was awarded the University of Oxford’s annual Dev Family Prize for the best thesis in the field of history of medicine.
Free and open to the public.
Registration is required. To register, use our online registration form or email us at ContactChom at hms.harvard.edu.
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Waste Enterprise Series: Building Bricks from Recycled Paper
Wednesday, November 9
2 p.m.
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
RSVP required: https://goo.gl/forms/3MUfe7ydrAhUV8QD3
Refreshments will be served!
In the context of MIT IDEAS Inclusive Waste Management Prize, the MIT Waste Alliance is welcoming Elijah Djan from Nubrix to speak about his project.
Nubrix is a project from South Africa that creates sturdy construction-grade bricks from recycled paper. The plan is to partner with the government to provide cheaper housing for low-income earners who live in shacks.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to submit them in advance to trashiscash at mit dot edu
This event is generously sponsored by the Graduate Student Life Grant and the MIT Innovation Initiative.
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China's National Cap-and-Trade Program: The Promise and the Reality
Wednesday, November 9
3:30PM TO 4:45PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Wang Pu, Fellow at the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS.
Co-sponsored by the China Project, SEAS, and the Environment and Natural Resources Program, HKS.
China Project Seminar Series
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/calendar/event/92611
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
tiffanychan at seas.harvard.edu
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Polymeric Tools to Manipulate Innate Immunity: Probing a Code Without a Key
Wednesday, November 9
3:30p–4:45p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Aaron Esser-Kahn, School of Physical Sciences, U. California/Irvine
Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM) Seminar Series
PPSM sponsors a series of seminars covering a broad range of topics of general interest to the polymer community, featuring speakers from both on and off campus.
SEMINAR 3:30 PM REFRESHMENTS 3:00 PM
Web site: http://polymerscience.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM)
For more information, contact: Gregory Sands
(617) 253-0949
ppsm-www at mit.edu
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Artificial Intelligence: A DARPA Perspective
Wednesday, November 9
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Refreshments: 3:30 PM
MIT, Building 32-D463 (Star), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Launchbury, Director, Information Innovation Office (I2O) , DARPA
Abstract: Recent, powerful technology developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are being harnessed to support many different applications, yet fundamental limitations still exist. This talk will explore this powerful technology that DARPA has catalyzed for decades and that is now poised to move in surprising new directions.
Bio: Dr. John Launchbury is the Director of the Information Innovation Office (I2O) at DARPA. In this role he develops strategy and works with I2O program managers to develop new programs and transition program products.
Before joining DARPA, Dr. Launchbury was chief scientist of Galois, Inc., which he founded in 1999 to address challenges in information assurance through the application of functional programming and formal methods. Under his leadership, the company experienced strong growth and was recognized for thought leadership in high-assurance technology development.
Prior to founding Galois, Dr. Launchbury was a full professor at the OGI School of Science and Engineering at OHSU (Oregon). He earned awards for outstanding teaching and gained international recognition for his work on the analysis and semantics of programming languages, the Haskell programming language in particular.
Dr. Launchbury received first-class honors in mathematics from Oxford University, holds a Ph.D. in computing science from the University of Glasgow and won the British Computer Society's distinguished dissertation prize. In 2010, Dr. Launchbury was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Contact: Lauralyn M. Smith, 617-253-0145, lauralyn at csail.mit.edu
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Electricity Market Design: Political Economy and the Clean Energy Transition
Wednesday, November 9
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EST
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Bill Hogan, Harvard
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Education and Transformative Justice: A Community Conversation about Connections, Questions, and Action
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)
DETAILS As a part of the Transformative Justice Series, Kaia Stern, lecturer on education at HGSE and co-founder of the Prison Studies Project, will be moderating a panel and discussion on these important questions. How do we understand justice? What are the connections between under-resourced schools, trauma, and mass incarceration? From cradle to prison cell, how do we give educators the tools needed to work for justice that transforms individuals, relationships, and communities?
The panelists include Ernesto “Eroc” Arroyo-Montano, Educator at United For a Fair Economy; Melissa W. Bartholomew, Racial Justice and Healing Practitioner; Mariam Durrani, Postdoctoral Fellow in Education at HGSE; David J. Harris, Director of The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School; and Autumn White Eyes, Ed.M. Candidate at HGSE. A special announcement will also be given by Tracie Jones, Assistant Director for Diversity and Inclusion Programs at HGSE.
This event is co-sponsored by Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, Harvard Memorial Church, Philips Brooks House Association, Prison Studies Project, and Harvard Divinity School.
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The Blessed and the Damned: The Solovetsky Islands from Monastery to Gulag
Wednesday, November 9
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Roy Robson
Roy Robson is Division Head, Arts and Humanities, Professor of History, Penn State Abington. He has twice served as the expert-in-residence on the National Geographic Expeditions tour of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
A professor and author of more than sixty books, articles, and reviews, including "Solovki: The Story of Russia Told Through Its Most Remarkable Islands" (2004), which the New Yorker called "an epic drama of spiritualism and savagery."
Robson has studied Russian history for 25 years and has traveled extensively in Russia as a Fulbright scholar. His newest book, "Exploring the Sacred World", will appear in 2016.
Russia @ MIT
Part of the Focus On Russia lecture series and the Architecture at the End of the Earth exhibition series.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MISTI MIT-Russia Program, MISTI, History Office
For more information, contact: Ekaterina Zabrovskaya
617- 324-2793
zabroves at mit.edu
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SheDemos 2016
Wednesday, November 9
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
C Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shedemos-2016-tickets-27032100741
#SheDemos is a collaboration between SheStarts and Babson’s WIN Lab built to highlight high-growth female founders and their startups in the city of Boston. The night will begin with over a dozen startups showcasing their products to the public, followed by the top five teams pitching their products to a panel of esteemed judges. At the end of the pitch sessions, one winner will be announced and awarded thousands of dollars worth of in-kind prizes. Those not in the final five still have a chance to bring home prizes as the "fan-favorite", determined by the company that garners the most public votes.
Interested in showcasing your company? Startups with at least one woman founder are eligible to apply. Applications are open until October 22 and can be found here.
Up to ten will be selected to showcase and up to an additional 5 teams will be selected to demo live at the event. Selected teams will be notified by October 31.
The demo event will be held on November 9, 2015 at C-Space. The winner of the demo competition will be selected and announced at the event by a panel of judges.
Our esteemed panel of judges will include:
David Chang, Entrepreneur & Angel Investor
Shereen Shermak, Director, Good Growth Capital
Galen Moore, Editor in Chief, Streetwise Media
Deb Kemper, Golden Seeds Angel Investment Group
Payal Agrawal Divakaran, .406 Ventures
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Dark and Stormy: Reflections on the Election
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Emerson Hall 105, 19 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Danielle Allen (Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University)
David Laibson (Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics, Harvard University)
Jill Lepore (David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History, Harvard University)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO humcentr at fas.harvard.edu
617-495-0738
DETAILS Seating is limited.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/dark-and-stormy-reflections-election
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Small World, Big Data: From online dating to the emergency room
Wednesday, November 9
7pm - 9pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Auditorium, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
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Celebrating Randy Weston’s Archive at Harvard
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Horner room at Agassiz Theatre, 5 James Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts, Lecture, Music
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Hutchins Jazz Research Initiative, the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard Office for the Arts, and Harvard College Library
SPEAKER(S) Randy Weston, Robin D. G. Kelly, and Professor Ingrid Monson
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice
TICKET INFO Tickets available Oct. 26th, first come, first served. limit 2 per person
DETAILS Randy Weston in conversation with Robin D. G. Kelly
Highlights of the collection with Ingrid Monson, and
A performance by Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Quintet
LINK http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events-lectures/events/november-9-2016-700pm/celebrating-randy-weston’s-archive-harvard
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Thursday, November 10
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Boston TechBreakfast: Smartick Method, and More!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD, Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/226656155/
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 Food & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
Smartick Method - Conchi Ruiz
*** OPEN ***
*** OPEN ***
*** OPEN ***
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston
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HOME ENERGY LABELING INFORMATION EXCHANGE (HELIX) SUMMIT
Thursday, November 10
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
MA Department of Energy Resources, 2nd floor, 100 Cambridge street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/home-energy-labeling-information-exchange-helix-summit-tickets-28365997462
This November, HELIX is hosting it's inaugural free, full day event where attendees will learn and help shape the first-of-its-kind effort to automate the transfer of home energy data to Multiple Listing Services (MLS) across the Northeast region. Providing real estate professionals with access to verified, independent home energy information will enable sellers to better market their properties, empower buyers to make better informed investments, and promote wiser use of energy by homes in our region – all while being completely voluntary and avoiding the privacy concerns of disclosing actual tenant energy usage.
This inaugural summit will include the latest updates from the project team as well as interactive breakout sessions that will directly influence the development of HELIX. Because input and support from across the industry is critical to the long-term success of this project, this event is free for anyone interested to attend.
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Building Waste Ventures in Emerging Markets: A Panel Discussion
Thursday, November 10
11:30a–1:30p
MIT, Building 32-144, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP required: http://bit.ly/2epan1D
Speaker: Panel discussion featuring Wecyclers, Protoprint, GreenChar, and Fruiti-Cycle
Contact information: trashiscash at mit dot edu
Lunch will be served!
Waste management is often an under-appreciated sector, yet entrepreneurial opportunities abound, especially in emerging markets.
In the context of the new Inclusive Waste Management Prize this year, the MIT Waste Alliance, together with Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID) and MIT IDEAS Global Challenge / D-Lab / PIA, will be hosting a panel discussion featuring the following waste-sector entrepreneurs:
Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola from Wecylers (Nigeria)
Sidhant Pai from Protoprint (India)
Tom Osborn from GreenChar (Kenya)
Ben Wokorach from Fruiti-Cycle (Uganda)
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to submit them in advance to trashiscash at mit dot edu
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Waste Alliance, Graduate Student Life Grants, MIT Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development
For more information, contact: trashiscash at mit.edu
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Kate Williams, CEO, 1% for the Planet
Thursday, November 10
11:45am
MIT, Building E62-250, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP: https://sloangroups.mit.edu/sustain/rsvp?id=316549
Kate Williams is a '97 MIT Sloan alum, currently CEO of 1% for the Planet, a nonprofit environmental organization that leads a global network of businesses, nonprofits, and individuals working together for a healthy planet. Kate stepped into her role at 1% for the Planet in May 2015 with a strong leadership track record, including roles as Board Chair of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), as Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, as founder of an agricultural business, and as an elected political official. She brings a deep passion for the power of collective action to all she does and looks forward to sharing her perspective on leadership, cross-sector networks, and the environmental movement. Kate earned a BA in history at Princeton University and an MS in management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Kate lives in Vermont with her husband and two children.
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The CLUC Study: Chickens living in urban coops
Thursday, November 10
12pm - 1pm
Tufts, Rabb room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Marieke Rosenbaum
Ownership of backyard chickens is increasing in urban areas across the nation, and the greater Boston area is no exception. Interactions between family members and chickens are frequent as these birds are often considered pets as well as egg producers. However, little attention is given to public health and bio security concerns that may be associated with backyard chicken ownership. In this study we use a One Health approach, integrating veterinary medicine and environmental health epidemiology, to understand public health risks such as exposure to lead and Salmonella that may be associated with urban poultry ownership in the greater Boston area.
Watch most talks live at https://tufts.webex.com/mw3100/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=tufts&service=1&main_url=%2Fmc3100%2Fmeetingcenter%2Fdefault.do%3Fsiteurl%3Dtufts%26rnd%3D2534427961%26main_url%3D%252Ftufts%252Fj.php%253Fsiteurl%253Dtufts%2526errET%253Dmc%2526MTID%253Dm67c61a87cdb5cfefee82fbc7955c0aa8
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Exploring the impacts of major atmospheric anomalies on the contemporary global food system
Thursday, November 10
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Michael Puma, Columbia University
Major atmospheric anomalies – especially those associated with volcanic eruptions – have led to severe disruptions in crop production throughout history. Unfortunately, today’s complex global food system is not well positioned to deal with such unpredictable events due to mounting pressures associated with climate change, increases in food demand (associated with shifting diets, biofuels, and population growth), and depletion of water resources in key agricultural regions. To gain insight into the scale and magnitude of potential disruptions, it is instructive to examine past atmospheric anomalies and explore the sensitivity of the contemporary food system to such events. Here I explore how the global food system would potentially response to an event like the 1783-1784 Laki eruption. Using a model that simulates short-term responses to a food supply shock originating in multiple countries, I examine how both changes in trade and the distribution of food reserves influence shock transmission. Moving forward, improved insights into the climate impacts of major atmospheric anomalies will help us to better understand vulnerabilities in the global food system.
Speaker Bio: http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/michael.j.puma
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/calendar/event/88526
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Arab World: Human Rights and Democracy vs Stability?
Thursday, November 10
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, Pye Conference Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Lecture by Prof. Mona Makram-Ebeid, CIS Wilhelm Fellow
Expertise: Democratic Transition Middle East and North Africa Egypt
Former Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center; Distinguished Lecturer, American University, Cairo; and former Member of Parliament and Senator, Egypt
Web site: http://cis.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MIT-Arab World Program
For more information, contact: 617- 253-8306
lkerwin at mit.edu
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Green energy drives the future—Opportunities and challenges with energy revolution
Thursday, November 10
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 4-163, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/green-energy-drives-the-futureopportunities-and-challenges-with-energy-revolution-with-decs-zhang-tickets-29056439593
Climate change, energy poverty, and energy security are the global energy trilemma that necessitates a low-carbon transition in global energy structure. Cutting-edge technology and innovation are being brought forth to address energy problems, with low-carbon alternatives such as solar, hydro, wind, tidal, and geothermal-based energy generation. Access to clean, affordable, and reliable energy is a cornerstone for the world’s increasing prosperity and economic growth since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but our use of energy in the 21st century must also be sustainable. Dongfang Electric Corporation, one of the world’s largest power generation equipment manufacturers and power plant contractors, is working with international partners to move toward a green and sustainable future.
Speaker Bio: Mr. Zhang Xiaolun, born in August 1964, is currently director and president of Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC). He graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor degree of Engineering, majoring in electrical engineering, and completed his postgraduate study at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics with an MBA in business and management. He joined DEC in 1986 and has since held various positions, including office secretary, deputy section head of Haikou Engineering Department, deputy section head of office, and secretary to the Youth League Committee. From July 1992 to July 2000, he was the deputy head of office of DEC, executive deputy factory manager, factory manager of Zhongzhou Steam Turbine Works, assistant president of DEC, and deputy general manager of DEC Engineering Branch. From July 2000 to April 2008, he was the director and vice president of DEC. From April 2008 to April 2016, he was the executive vice president of DEC. He has been president and director of DEC since May 2016, and holds the title of senior engineer.
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xTalks: 'Playful Rehearsal' - Designing Practice Spaces for Teachers
Thursday, November 10
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 3-442, MIT Campus
Speaker: Justin Reich
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Every great teacher knows that skill development requires deliberate practice; ironically, teachers themselves have limited opportunities to practice important teaching strategies and moves in low-stakes settings.
In this presentation, Justin Reich, Executive Director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, will describe the ideas underlying this research and showcase prototypes of games and simulations that help teachers rehearse for and reflect upon important decisions in teaching.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
A forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere, xTalks is fostering a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: Justin Reich - 11/10
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): xTalks: Digital Discourses, Office of Digital Learning
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info at mit.edu
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Ants, Plants, and Bacteria: Symbiosis as a driver of evolutionary diversification
Thursday, November 10
4:00PM TO 5:00PM
Harvard, BioLabs Lecture Hall 1080, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Corrie Moreau, Field Museum of Natural History
OEB Seminar Series
http://oeb.harvard.edu/event/oeb-seminar-series-4
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Natural and anthropogenic contributions to stratospheric aerosols
Thursday, November 10
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daniel Murphy, NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division
"A combination of global modeling and PALMS aerosol composition measurements show a stunning contribution of the stratosphere to the aerosol direct effect. Updated PALMS data continue to show a large contribution by organic carbon to aerosol mass in the lowermost stratosphere. A global model that matches the PALMS and other data shows that organics contribute over 30% of the stratospheric aerosol column, with the organics almost entirely below 20 km. Model simulations also show that the non-volcanic stratospheric aerosol has almost doubled since the pre-industrial era. Most of the modeled increase is due to sulfate transported into the stratosphere with a smaller but still significant contribution from emissions of primary organic aerosol. The increase in stratospheric aerosol contributes over 20% of the direct aerosol radiative forcing. The percentage is so high partly because black carbon in the stratosphere does not offset much of the cooling from sulfate the way it does in the troposphere. PALMS data also show that there are still some unsolved puzzles in the chemistry of stratospheric aerosols."
Environmental Sciences Seminar Series
Hosted by: Otto Cordero (ottox at mit.edu)
Serguei Saavedra (sersaa at mit.edu)
Web site: ttps://sites.google.com/site/sergueisaavedra/seminar
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0.00
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Denise Mulcahy
6172588685
dstewart at mit.edu
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Active Matter: From Colloids to Living Cells
Thursday, November 10
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (Pappalardo Community Room)
M. CRISTINA MARCHETTI, Syracuse University
Collections of self-propelled entities, from living cells to engineered microswimmers, organize in a rich variety of active fluid and solid states, with novel rheological and mechanical properties. In this talk I will describe the behavior of such “active materials”, focusing on two examples of liquid-solid transitions driven by active processes. The first is the spontaneous assembly of active colloids in coherent mesoscale structures with life-like properties. I will describe a minimal model of purely repulsive active particles that exhibits motility-induced phase separation into gas and dense liquid phases and jams at high density when crowding overcomes activity. This athermal phase separation has all the characteristic of a liquid-gas spinodal and captures aggregation of the surface-dwelling bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. The second example is motivated by the experimental observation of glassy dynamics in confluent epithelial cell monolayers, where there are no gaps between cells and the packing fraction is always unity. I will present a new theoretical model that captures this behavior by predicting a liquid-solid transition that occurs at constant density as a function of cell properties, such as motility, contractility, and cell-cell adhesion.
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The Human Condition in the Anthropocene
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Thompson Room, Barker Center 110, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard's Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Seminar on Violence and Non-Violence and the the Joint Center for History and Economics
SPEAKER(S) Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, University of Chicago
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617-495-0738, humcentr at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Free and open to the public. Seating is limited.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/human-condition-anthropocene
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Nature is Never Finished: Land Art Conservation in the 21st Century
Thursday, November 10
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lavine-lecture-nature-is-never-finished-tickets-28562277541
In 1972, the American artist Robert Smithson wrote, “I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation. …Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development. Nature is never finished.” Today, Smithson’s massive work of entropic land art on the Great Salt Lake, Spiral Jetty (1970), changes color and texture in relation to changing water levels and sediment deposits, while art world ambassadors have advocated against nearby oil drilling on the basis that it would disrupt the formal composition of the work.
How have earth works of the 1960s and 1970s transformed as a result of the “never-finished” progression of nature, and how do we understand the limits of human intervention in this process? How do curators, conservators, historians and activists interpret and care for earth art within evolving critical frameworks for preservation and ecology?
The 2016 Lavine Lecture presents a discussion between Francesca Esmay and James Nisbet, tackling the complex matter of eroding land forms within the cultural context of shifting categories of nature and culture.
About the Speakers
Francesca Esmay is a conservator whose work focuses on long-term preservation and conservation of minimalist, post-minimalist, and conceptual artworks. From 2001 to 2006, Esmay worked as the first conservator at the Chinati Foundation, a contemporary art museum in Marfa, TX. In 2006, Esmay became the first staff conservator at the Dia Art Foundation, where she worked until joining the Guggenheim Museum in 2010 as the Panza Conservator.
James Nisbet is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and Director of Graduate Studies for the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He works on modern and contemporary art, theory, and criticism, with special interests in environmental history, the history of photography, and media studies. Nisbet’s book Ecologies, Environments, and Energy Systems in Art of the 1960s and 1970s was published by MIT Press in 2014.
About the Lavine Lecture Series
The Leroy and Dorothy Lavine Lecture Series was established to honor the Lavines, two prominent Boston art patrons and longtime supporters of the MIT List Visual Arts Center. The Leroy and Dorothy Lavine Lectures bring to the Boston community distinguished art world figures for talks on modern and contemporary art.
This program is being offered in connection with the HTC course “Landscape Experience: Seminar in Land/Art” co-taught by Caroline A. Jones and Rebecca Uchill in Fall, 2016. Support for the course has been provided by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and the MIT Alumni Class Funds.
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#FuturePub Boston
Thursday, November 10
6:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Digital Science Office, 1 Canal Park, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/futurepub-9-new-developments-in-scientific-collaboration-tech-boston-tickets-28463405813
Free Pizza, Beer and Wine!
Join us for an evening exploring exciting new ideas and technologies in science & publishing! This is the 2nd FuturePub event in the US - typically held in London where it has "already become such a staple of the London science tech/publishing scene" . :-)
So for everyone new to the event, here's how it works:
A selection of quick-fire talks cover a range of new and exciting developments in science & publishing tech.
These all fit into a one hour slot (from 7-8pm), to keep the evening fast paced and fun!
The rest of the evening is then open for discussions and conversations over drinks – we expect a great mixture of attendees from the research, publishing and start-up communities.
After the event, groups usually continue their discussions at a nearby pub -- this time it's even easier as we're running the whole evening – presentations, drinks, pizza, music and all - at the Digital Science Office at 1 Canal Park!
The evenings are designed to be fun and informal - we aim to give those working on new ideas and innovations a chance to present and get feedback on their ideas. And did we mention the free pizza?
Speakers & Talks
We have a great selection of speakers lined up, including:
RedLink - Kent Anderson
See What You're Missing
Peerus - Philippe Chuzel
Being aware of mutations in your research field is essential to being efficient - discover how to monitor your field quickly when facing a tremendous amount of information
Kudos - Rebecca Shumbata
Actionable Insight - Letting the Data Work for You
Kynplex - Grace Xiao
Transforming scientific communication
TetraScience – Alok Tayi
The Connected Lab - How Internet-of-Things and cloud technology are speeding the path to scientific discovery
Doors open at 6:00pm with free pizza and drinks - the talks will kick off at 7pm. Space at the venue is limited, so please register for your free tickets now to reserve your place!
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Sustainability Collaborative
Thursday, November 10
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142 United States
Join us each month for the Coalesce Sustainability Collaborative. Come back for more info on this month's guest as we get closer and email Sierra Flanigan at (sierra at coalesce.earth) for more info.
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Marcel Zaes in concert
Thursday, November 10
7:15 pm to 10:00 pm
swissnex Boston420 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/marcel-zaes-in-concert-tickets-28556138178
Cost: $10
Swiss composer Marcel Zaes is coming to Boston with a string quartet and a solo performance for a double-concert at swissnex Boston. Join us for a night of experimental music, presented in collaboration with Non-Event with musicians Kate Outterbridge, Josie Davis, Ashley Frith and Laura Cetilia.
On November 10, Swiss composer and sound artist Marcel Zaes will be in Boston for a double-concert at swissnex Boston. Join us for a night of experimental music, presented in collaboration with Non-Event and with musicians Kate Outterbridge, Josie Davis, Ashley Frith, and Laura Cetilia.
Marcel Zaes (born 1984 in Bern, Switzerland) belongs to a generation of young Swiss composers, who combine technology-based medial approaches and instrumental music writing, thereby radically extending the concept of “composing.
Currently pursuing his PhD in Computer Music and Multimedia at Brown University, the experimental Swiss composer will be at swissnex for a “double concerto” night on November 10, showcasing the two contrasting aspects of his oeuvre in the U.S. The String Quartet No. 1 “Isomorph” shows a rather manual ability of composing in acoustic music and is a soft, durational, minimalist position. Isomorph is inspired by electronic pure sounds and treats the quartet as if it was a synthesizer. On the contrary, with, his solo-performance “Pulse Geometries” Marcel Zaes himself enters the stage in the role of a performer and creates experimental soundscapes and beats at the intersection of old analogue apparatus and digital technology.
Members of the String Quartet
Kate Outterbridge, violin
Kate Outterbridge recently earned her Masters of Music and Masters of ChamberMusic from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Aaron Berofsky. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelors of Music degree at Boston University, where she studied with Bayla Keyes. Kate enjoys learning and performing a variety of musical styles, including early baroque performance practice, exploring sounds and experimentation with newly composed music, keeping up with her Irish fiddling, and most recently learning Indian Carnatic violin.
Josie Davis, violin
Josie Davis began her musical studies at the age of six with Janet Ciano and Gilda Joffe. She received her undergraduate degrees in violin and sociology at Oberlin College and Conservatory where she was a student of David Bowlin. Josie is currently participating in a two-year fellowship program at Community MusicWorks in Rhode Island where she performs regularly and teaches a full studio of students.
Ashley Frith, viola
Ashley Frith was recently pursuing her masters degree from The Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Lila Brown. She is currently a viola fellow with Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI.
Laura Cetilia, cello
Laura Cetilia, cellist, is a resident musician at Community MusicWorks teaching cello, media lab, and curating the Ars Subtilior concert series which focuses on subtlety in experimental music. She performs avant garde music in her duo Suna No Onna with violist Robin Streb and electroacoustic improvisation with her partner, Mark Cetilia, in their group Mem1. Mem1 has held artist residencies and performed throughout the U.S., Italy, Norway, Israel, England, and the Netherlands.
Event Agenda
7:15 PM Doors open
7:45 PM Opening remarks & concert
String Quartet No. 1 “Isomorph”
Solo Performance “Pulse Geometries”
Followed by networking reception
10:00 PM Doors close
Please note: Tickets can be refunded up to 48 hours in advance. No refunds after.
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Roxbury Community College - A Green Urban Campus
Thursday, November 10 ‘
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
Ameresco and the Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) Approach
There is a fascinating solar power project underway at Roxbury Community College. Nearly 3,000 panels strong (approx. 1 MW capacity), this solar canopy will cover a parking lot adjacent to the school. Below the parking lot, a geothermal heat pump system (115 wells, approx. 400 ton capacity) will provide heating and cooling to the campus.
Ameresco, Inc., of Framingham, MA, has partnered with the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) to deliver the project by year-end 2017, predicted to save the school nearly $860,000 annually in energy costs. LED lighting and a complete upgrade of the Energy Management System are included in the ESPC. Funding comes from a mix of grants, bonds, incentives and the Clean Energy Investment Program, plus savings from energy generation.
As the first of its kind in Massachusetts, and highly visible to the public (inbound Columbus Avenue, approaching Roxbury Crossing), this project should serve as a shining example of the potential for on-site renewable energy to integrate successfully and upgrade existing facilities toward sustainability goals.
Jim Walker, of Ameresco, will be on hand to introduce the project and answer our questions.
Jim Walker is Vice President, Solar PV for Ameresco, where he is responsible for leading and building Ameresco's solar PV business in the East Region. Jim brings 40 years of diverse energy experience focused on energy efficiency projects, energy supply management contracts and strategies, and solar PV project development for large manufacturing corporations and municipalities. Jim's early career was a Corporate Energy Manager for GTE Corporation. Following GTE, Jim started the Corporate Supply Management Services business unit for XENERGY, Inc.
As a volunteer, Jim created and co-founded the Ignite Clean Energy Business Plan Competition for the MIT Enterprise Forum. He was a Board Member of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge for six years. MIT awarded Jim two honors, including a 2006 Presidential Citation.
Jim earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Sloan School of Management and a BS in mechanical engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
About Roxbury Community College
Founded in 1973, Roxbury Community College (RCC) is a comprehensive, multicultural, urban, student-centered, open-access community college. An Achieving the Dream college, RCC offers associates degree and certificate programs, online courses, corporate community education programs, and lifelong learning programs. The 16-acre, 6 building campus houses classrooms, specialized science and computer laboratories, the Library and Learning Center, the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center and the Media Arts Center. For more information, visit
http://www.rcc.edu/
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Friday, November 11 - Sunday, November 13
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The MIT Energy Hackathon is a weekend long event running from November 11th to November 13th at the MIT campus, and we need you to make it a success!
Companies from different areas of the energy industry come together to propose challenges for hackers to solve in teams. Last year, we had over 200 hackers solving challenges ranging from building energy usage to innovative ways to recreate certain energy cycles. During the weekend, hackers find and present solutions to real-world energy problems in front a panel of judges from various companies.
This event is the perfect opportunity to network with employers, get involved in the energy industry, and push ideas towards future events such as the spring Clean Energy Prize.
Not interested in hacking? We also need volunteers to help man the event!
Plenty of food, drinks, and free swag will be available for all involved :)
Sign up to volunteer or register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdd4P0Edr40c3HPy-YyULOHsLR5o4Xz8Rw6LI6YuCptLRmWkg/viewform
Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/1781185602135337/ and follow on Instagram (@EnergyHackathon) or Twitter (@EnergyHackMIT) for updates and cute photos :)
Feel free to reach out to us at ops-mitenergyhackathon at mit.edu with any questions! See you in November!
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Friday, November 11
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From Jazz to Hip Hop: Radio as a Turnstile between White and African-American Cultures
WHEN Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center, Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Museum of Natural History
SPEAKER(S) Susan J. Douglas, Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies, The University of Michigan
COST Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO 617-496-1027, hmnh at hmsc.harvard.edu
DETAILS Since the 1920s, radio has brought African-American music, voices, and humor into American homes. African-American culture, through radio, helped shape the tastes, cultural practices—indeed the very identities—of many white people, especially youth. Susan Douglas will review this history and argue that despite segregationist employment practices within the industry and racist depictions on the air, radio was the most desegregated of all mass media in the twentieth century. As a medium that denied sight to its audience, radio played a key role in breaking down racial barriers in the United States.
LINK http://hmsc.harvard.edu/event/jazz-hip-hop-radio-turnstile-between-white-and-african-american-cultures
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Saturday, November 12
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Permablitz in Tim's Yard - cob oven, herb spiral, fruit trees and more
Saturday, November 12
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
90 Congreve Street, Roslindale
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Permaculture/events/234626124/
Amirah Mitchell will lead us in a permablitz of Tim's yard
Visit an amazing yard - the yard is totally worth the visit. Learn to build a cob oven, and herb spiral.
BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH and/or BRING FOOD FOR POTLUCK TO SHARE
Garden Raisings are like old-fashioned barn raising, where friend and neighbors descen upon a yard and leave behind a newly installed permaculture garden.
This will be the third Garden Raising (aka permablitz) of our growing network of neighbors from around the greater Boston area. The first one happened in Aida and Nelida's yard in Egleston Square, the second in Kim and Susan's yard in Jamaica Plain, and now in Tim and Kathleen's yard in Roslindale.
So many good people to learn with and from about tips for your garden, permaculture techniques and when you come to help you get to ask others to come to your yard next. Fill out the intake form for Spring 2017 on http://www.bostonfoodforest.org/forest-garden-raising/
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Cambridge Climate Congress Closing Plenary
Saturday, November 12
9am – 4pm
RSVP at https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts/_/calendar/ZTNvbXRscWs5cjNqYm5lbjhxcmduY2V0dmNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ.8tk5euj92jf98d62j987hpcl54?authuser=0
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Holiday BINJ 2 [Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism]: Journalistic Boogaloo
Saturday, November 12
12 PM - 5 PM
Aeronaut Brewing Company, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holiday-binj-2-journalistic-boogaloo-tickets-28545802263
Cost: $0 - $30
A Family-Friendly Fundraiser Featuring Beer, Food, and Silent Auction plus
Pop-Up Performances and Original Carnival Games with Prizes
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TechII Forum 2016 (Tech Invention & Innovation Forum)
Saturday, November 12
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
Harvard University campus, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techii-forum-2016-tech-invention-innovation-forum-tickets-24524422207
Cost: $9 – $15
Join us and explore the new discoveries in technology and science!
TechII Forum features industrial pioneers and researchers from selected sectors. The Forum discusses tech invention and innovation that will make the foremost impact on our future.
TechII of the Year 2016 will also be announced at the TechII Forum.
To participate, click here to vote for your TechII of the Year and win a TechII Pass!
We welcome you to join our discussion in Cambridge, Massachusetts !
For group tickets or any other inquires, please contact us at: info at techii.org
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Running for Local Office Workshop
Saturday, November 12
1:00 - 4:00pm
Mandela Room, Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
With the November election in the final stretch, it’s time to get down to some really serious business - running for local office!
As part of the Massachusetts Pirate Party’s <https://masspirates.org> “run local" initiative, on Saturday November 12th we’re organizing a series of workshops on how to run in a local election. We’re talking town meetings, city councils, and school committees. It doesn’t take a fortune to run, you don?t need an army of volunteers, and the work you do can make a real difference in your community.
If you plan to attend, we would appreciate it if you signed up at:
https://masspirates.org/crew/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=19&%3Bqid=17960
If you’ve ever considered running for local office, then this workshop is for you - even if you’re still on the fence. We’ll talk about logistics (filing paperwork and gathering signatures), ideas for running small but effective campaigns, and what happens after you?ve won the election. The schedule is:
1. What you can do in local government;
2. Running for town meeting;
3. Running for other town and city offices;
4. Discussion on what a local Pirate platform should look like.
People who’ve served in local office are also encouraged to attend, regardless of party affiliation. We hope you’ll share your experiences, and the things you learned while running.
This event will be held in the Mandela Room of the Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, from 1:00 - 4:00pm on Saturday November 12th. The Democracy Center is an awesome place, but unfortunately it is not wheelchair accessible.
We would like to bring this workshop to other parts of the Commonwealth, so if you or your local group would like to host, we are happy to come out over the next few months.
Again, the sign up form is at:
https://masspirates.org/crew/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=19&%3Bqid=17960
Editorial Comment: I support third party efforts and this may be a good learning opportunity whatever party you favor.
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Berta Caceres Movie (in defense of rivers in Honduras)
Saturday, November 12
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Our Savior's Lutheran Church, 28 Paris Street East Boston
The documentary shows the struggle of Berta Caceres in defense of rivers in Honduras. Berta was a leader of the indigenous peoples, women, peasants and worked with other groups in the fight for justice in Honduras.
Attend the event and learn from the struggle and brave fight that Berta Caceres left us as a legacy to those who fight for justice!
Event sponsored by: Proyecto Hondureo and Centro Presente
Support by: Chelsea Uniting Against the War and other organizations
For more information: (617) 610-3784
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Monday, November 14
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Making Decisions in a World Awash in Data: We’re going to need a different boat
Monday, November 14, 2016
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building E25-401, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Anthony Scriffignano
In this session, Dr. Anthony Scriffignano, SVP/Chief Data Scientist at Dun and Bradstreet will explore some of the ways in which the massive availability of data is changing and the types of questions we must ask in the context of making business decisions. Truth be told, nearly all organizations struggle to make sense out of the mounting data already within the enterprise. At the same time, businesses, individuals, and governments continue to try to outpace one another, often in ways that are informed by newly-available data and technology, but just as often using that data and technology in alarmingly inappropriate or incomplete ways. Multiple “solutions" exist to take data that is poorly understood, promising to derive meaning that is often transient at best. A tremendous amount of “dark" innovation continues in the space of fraud and other bad behavior (e.g. cyber crime, cyber terrorism), highlighting that there are very real risks to taking a fast-follower strategy in making sense out of the ever-increasing amount of data available. Tools and technologies can be very helpful or, as Scriffignano puts it, "they can accelerate the speed with which we hit the wall."
Web site: http://informatics.mit.edu/event/brown-bag-anthony-scriffignano
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Libraries
For more information, contact: Kelly Hopkins
6172533044
khopkins at mit.edu
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Which Social Cost of Carbon?
Monday, November 14
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Matthew Kotchen, Professor of Economics, Yale University
Lunch will be provided.
Energy Policy Seminar Series
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: cepr at hks.harvard.edu
617-495-8693
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Ruderal Ecologies: Re-Thinking Urban Infrastructure in a World of Rubble
Monday, November 14
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Bettina Stoetzer (MIT, Global Studies and Languages)
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contact Name: sts at hks.harvard.edu
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The Geography of Separate and Unequal: Modern-day Segregation in Boston
Monday, November 14
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM EST
City Hall-The Hearing Room 801, City Hall Square, 8th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-geography-of-separate-and-unequal-modern-day-segregation-in-boston-tickets-28946999254
Dr. Marcos Luna is a Professor of Geography and the Graduate Program Director for the Geo-Information Sciences program at Salem State University. His research focus is on environmental justice and applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the analysis of social and environmental inequities. In addition to academic research, Dr. Luna has worked with community groups throughout the greater Boston region on issues ranging from transportation equity to voter outreach and climate change adaptation. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in GIS, as well as courses on environmental justice, energy and the environment, and weather and climate. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware, with a focus on Technology, Environment, and Society. He lives in East Boston.
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1989 in Global Perspective and the Rise of Neoliberalism
WHEN Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Basement Seminar Room, Robinson Hall, 35 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR New Directions in European History
SPEAKER(S) Philipp Ther, Professor of Central European History, University of Vienna
CONTACT INFO Alison Frank Johnson afrank at fas.harvard.edu
James McSpadden jmcspadden at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS The talk deals with the intellectual history, the political practice and the social consequences of neoliberalism. The main pillars of this ideology are an idealization of unrestrained free markets, in the belief that they create an equilibrium for all sorts of market imbalances, an irrational faith in the rationality of market agents, and a libertarian antipathy toward the state, as expressed in the myth of “big government.” It also includes some elements of traditional laissez-faire capitalism such as the concept of the “hidden hand”, adding a metaphysical dimension whereby the market is regarded as a last judgment over all commodities. On the practical side, neoliberalism is based upon a standard economic recipe consisting of austerity, privatization, liberalization and deregulation that was codified in the “Washington Consensus” in 1989.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2016/11/1989-in-global-perspective-and-the-rise-of-neoliberalism
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Toxic Beauty: Environmental Justice and Workers' Rights
Monday, November 14
5:45PM - 7:00PM
Harvard, Starr Auditorium, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resource Project invites you for a conversation about promoting environmental justice and workers' rights, especially in underserved communities and with workers in often invisible positions. We will discuss these issues from the perspective of community organizing, law and advocacy, and government regulation and policy – with a focus on opportunities to collaborate across sectors.
Panelists:
Julia Liou, Planning and Development Director, Asian Health Services
Matthew Tejada, Director of the Office of Environmental Justice, US Environmental Protection Agency
Natalicia Tracy, Executive Director, Brazilian Worker Center & Brazilian Policy Center
Trip van Noppen, President, EarthJustice
Moderator: Marshall Ganz, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School
Co-sponsored by HUCE, the Center for Public Leadership, and the HBS Business and Environment Initiative. Open to the public. Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/7209/toxic_beauty.html
Contact Name: Amanda Sardonis
enrp at hks.harvard.edu
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Artfare: How Art Makes Sense of Cultural Upheaval
Monday, November 14, 2016
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Kirsten Scheid
"CULTURES OF UPHEAVAL"
FALL 2016 AGA KHAN PROGRAM LECTURES
Web site: http://akpia.mit.edu/fall-2016-lectures-events-cultures-upheaval
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
617-253-1400
akpiarch at mit.edu
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Cambridge Mothers Out Front Community Meeting
Monday, November 14
6-8pm
Community Room, Cambridge Main Library, 429 Broadway, Cambridge
All are welcome and encouraged to come!
Updating our gas leaks campaign's next steps, preparing for statewide summit
Aiming high in 2017! Brainstorming goals, strategies, pathways to success!
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Is Equality Fair?
Monday, November 14
6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street, Boston
Yaron Brook (Ayn Rand Institute) & Jonathan Haughton (Beacon Hill Institute)
More information at http://www.fordhallforum.org/category/upcoming-forums
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A Shot in the Dark (Matter)
Monday, November 14
7pm
The Burren, Davis Sq, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
Doug Finkbeiner
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Tuesday, November 15 to Thursday, November 17
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ABX 2016
Tuesday, November 15 to Thursday, November 17
RSVP at http://abexpo.com/register
Explore the showroom floor at ABX from November 15 to 17, 2016 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Over 400 exhibitors, new products, live demonstrations, and installations will be featured. The exhibit hall presents a great opportunity to network and learn more about what is new in the building industry.
ABX connects architects, developers, project managers, contractors, landscape designers, builders, and other AEC professionals.
Register now for free admission to the exhibit hall!
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Tuesday, November 15
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Living With Water: A Conversation on Climate Change and Resilient Cities
Tuesday, November 15
8:45AM - 9:45AM
Harvard, 121Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
The Climate Governance Initiative invites you for a conversation with Henk Ovink. Henk is Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (United Nations), Sherpa to the High Level Panel on Water (United Nations) and Principal of Rebuild by Design (HUD, Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force). Henk is also the former Director General of Spatial Planning and Water Affairs for the Netherlands.
Henk (@henkovink) will discuss lessons learned from Rebuild by Design, his current work on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and his take on how cities should address climate change.
http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/resources/gsd-student-group-directory/#climate
Contact Name: Sanjay Seth
sseth at gsd.harvard.edu
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Fire, Mammal Browsers, and the Origins of African Savanna
Tuesday, November 15
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Jonathan Davies, HUH Visiting Researcher, Associate Professor, McGill
Herbaria Seminar Series
http://huh.harvard.edu/event/johnathan-davies
Contact Name: Barbara Hanrahan
bhanrahan at oeb.harvard.edu
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The End of Ownership
Tuesday, November 15
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/11/Perzanowski#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/11/Perzanowski
Recent shifts in technology, intellectual property and contract law, and marketplace behavior threaten to undermine the system of personal property that has structured our relationships with the objects we own for centuries. Ownership entails the rights to use, modify, lend, resell, and repair. But across a range of industries and products, manufacturers and retailers have deployed strategies that erode these basic expectations of ownership. Understanding these various tactics, how they depart from the traditional property paradigm, and why some have been embraced by consumers are all crucial in developing strategies to restore ownership in the digital economy.
About Aaron
Aaron Perzanowski teaches courses in intellectual property, telecommunications and innovation. Previously, he taught at Wayne State University Law School, as a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley School of Information, and as a visitor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Prior to his teaching career, he served as the Microsoft Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and practiced law at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley.
His research addresses topics ranging from digital copyright to deceptive advertising to creative norms within the tattoo industry. With Jason Schultz, he is the author of The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy (MIT Press 2016), which argues for retaining consumer property rights in a marketplace that increasingly threatens them. His book with Kate Darling, Creativity Without Law: Challenging the Assumptions of Intellectual Property (NYU Press 2017), explores the ways communities of creators operate outside of formal intellectual property law.
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Latin American Seminar Series: How Gang Activity in Neighborhoods Undermines Democracy: Impacts on Electoral and Non-Electoral Participation in El Salvador
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S-250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) Abby Córdova, DRCLAS Central America Visiting Scholar; Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Kentucky
CONTACT INFO Isade Salcedo (isalcedo at fas.harvard.edu)
DETAILS In Latin America, crime and violence have reached unprecedented levels. The incidence of crime is particularly high in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, where gangs (maras) largely drive homicide rates and many other criminal activities. This presentation evaluates the effects of neighborhood gang activity and crime victimization on citizens’ political participation in the context of El Salvador.
Dr. Abby Córdova is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kentucky, and a visiting scholar at DRCLAS. Her field of specialization is comparative politics, with a focus on public opinion and political behavior in Latin America. Before joining the University of Kentucky, she was a post-doctoral fellow in the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University, where she served as the lead researcher of USAID’s Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) study. She has also been a Fulbright Fellow and worked as a consultant for The World Bank.
LINK http://drclas.harvard.edu/tuesday-abby-cordova?delta=0
Editorial Comment: It occurs to me that perhaps the outcome of USA’s interventions in the Middle East and Afghanistan will follow the model of our interventions in the 1980s in Central America, leaving hollow states behind and many opportunities for new powers to fill the vacuum.
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Climate Change & Global Health Seminar
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE 42 Church Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Global Health Institute
SPEAKER(S) Jonathan Buonocore, Sc.D.
CONTACT INFO andrew_iliff at harvard.edu
DETAILS Harvard Global Health Institute is pleased to invite you to the Climate Change and Global Health Seminar on Tuesday, November 15, 2016, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. featuring Jonathan Buonocore, Sc.D, presenting on “Health Cobenefits of Clean Energy.” Lunch will be provided.
LINK http://globalhealth.harvard.edu/event/climate-change-and-global-health-seminar-series-jonathan-buonocore-“health-cobenefits
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Molluscan vulnerability to ocean acidification across life stages
Tuesday, November 15
4:00 - 5:00pm
BU, CAS 132, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Speaker: Justin Ries, Northeastern University
This project aims to investigate the vulnerability of commercially important calcifying marine mollusks to ocean acidification at various stages of their life history. Recently completed and planned future experiments will investigate the impact of ocean acidification on a range of calcifying marine mollusks at various stages of development. Specific projects include investigating: (1) the impact of ocean acidification on calcification rate, shell properties, and epigenetics of juvenile- and larval-stage Eastern Oysters (Crassostrea virginica); (2) the impact of
ocean acidification and warming on calcification rate and shell properties of larval-stage Slipper Limpets (Crepidula fornicata); and (3) the impact of ocean acidification and warming on calcification rate, shell properties, pallial fluid pH, and proteomics of adult Atlantic Sea Scallops (Placopecten magellanicus). Although experimental studies are ongoing, initial results suggest that early-life-stage mollusks exhibit a surprising degree of resilience to moderate levels of CO2-induced ocean acidification (700- 1000 ppm), but exhibit a nonlinear (exponential) increase in vulnerability to more extreme acidification (2000 - 3000 ppm). Microelectrode studies of pallial fluid pH, coupled with targeted epigenetic and proteomic studies, will aim to identify the mechanism(s) behind this non-linearity in mollusks' response to ocean acidification at various stages of development.
BU’s Seminar Series on Climate Change
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HUCE Special Lecture: Bob Perciasepe on Challenges for the New President
Tuesday, November 15
5:00PM TO 6:30PM
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South S010, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
HUCE invites you for a special lecture with the President of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), Bob Perciasepe. Perciasepe has been an environmental policy leader in and outside government for more than 30 years, most recently as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He is a respected expert on environmental stewardship, natural resource management, and public policy, and has built a reputation for bringing stakeholders together to solve issues.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
laura_hanrahan at harvard.edu
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Are We Serious This Time?: Media, Politics, and Community
Tuesday, November 15
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Semel Theatre, 10 Boylston Place, 3rd Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/are-we-serious-this-time-media-politics-and-community-tickets-28951116569
On November 15th Prof. William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard Kennedy School ,and Dr. Jocelyn V. Sargent, Executive Director of Hyams Foundation, will discuss the implications of the post-election environment and its impact on our communities. Together they will address how we can create a community that ensures the safe arrival of not just Black children, but all children, into a future full of opportunity and hope.
Are We Serious This Time: Media, Politics and Community will be a conversation about current events in our communities.
Bios
Jocelyn V. Sargent
Dr. Jocelyn V. Sargent was previously the Research and Evaluation Program Officer at the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. In that capacity she was responsible for overseeing the foundation’s research and evaluation activities as well as managing grant programs related to mental health research and mental health workforce development. She is an expert on organizational development and the research and evaluation of community development programs. She joined the Hogg Foundation in 2015.
Prior to coming to the Hogg Foundation, Dr. Sargent was a Program Director and Program Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she designed and led grantmaking programs targeting the elimination of racial disparities and improving conditions for marginalized communities. She served on the Racial Equity, Food, Health & Well Being, Education and Learning, and Evaluation teams.
Dr. Sargent served as Program Director of the Institute of African American Research at the University of North Carolina and as Assistant Director for the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. She also was the Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center at City University of New York Graduate Center. Prior to this, she worked at the Open Society Institute as a Program Director and created and administered the Foundation’s Southern Initiative, an innovative program designed to increase the capacity of grassroots advocacy groups and support community organizing across the American South.
Dr. Sargent co-founded the Center for Social Inclusion and served as a research advisor and board member for the organization, which supports advocacy strategies for community-based organizations serving low-income and people of color communities. She has taught politics and research methods at the University of Michigan, Hunter College, New School for Social Research, Barnard College, and Duke University. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
William Julius Wilson
William Julius Wilson is Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. He is one of only 24 University Professors, the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member. After receiving a Ph.D. from Washington State University in 1966, Professor Wilson taught sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1972. In 1990 he was appointed the Lucy Flower University Professor and director of the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Urban Inequality. He joined the faculty at Harvard in July of 1996.
Past President of the American Sociological Association, Professor Wilson has received 45 honorary degrees fro institutions that including Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and New York University. A MacArthur Prize Fellow from 1987 to 1992, Professor Wilson has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Philosophical Society, the Institute of Medicine, and the British Academy. In June 1996 he was selected by Time magazine as one of America's 25 Most Influential People. He is a recipient of the 1998 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States, and was awarded the Talcott Parsons Prize in the Social Sciences by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.
Professor Wilson is the author of numerous publications, including The Declining Significance of Race, winner of the American Sociological Association's Sydney Spivack Award, The Truly Disadvantaged, which was selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the 16 best books of 1987, and received The Washington Monthly Annual Book Award and the Society for the Study of Social Problems' C. Wright Mills Award, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, which was selected as one of the notable books of 1996 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review and received the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award, and The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics. Most recently he is the co-author of There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America, and Good Kids in Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context.
Other honors granted to Professor Wilson include the Seidman Award in Political Economy (the first and only noneconomist to receive the Award), the Golden Plate Achievement Award, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Washington State University, the American Sociological Association's Dubois, Johnson, Frazier Award (for significant scholarship in the field of inter-group relations), the American Sociological Association's Award for Public Understanding of Sociology, the Burton Gordon Feldman Award at Brandeis University ("for outstanding contributions in the field of public policy"), and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Award (granted by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Los Angeles).
Professor Wilson is a member of numerous national boards and commissions, and was previously the Chair of the Board of The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and of the Russell Sage Foundation.
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Urban Farming Micro-Credential for Parachute Teachers
Tuesday, November 15
6:00 pm
Harvard Innovation Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at http://www.parachuteteachers.com/urban-farming.html
Cost: $25
What is the Urban Farming Micro-Credential?
To better prepare you for classrooms, we are excited to offer a micro-credential in Urban Farming. Micro-credentials are bite-sized, practice-based trainings that allow our schools to better understand your qualifications. While the micro-credential is not required for you to teach with us, we believe that it does increase your likelihood of receiving job offers and could lead to an increased hourly rate in our marketplace.
As an Urban Farming teacher, you will learn how to:
1. Frame 21st century food system issues
2. Develop scientific minds through culinary experiments
3. Bridge K-8 students with Boston's innovative urban agriculture initiatives
The Urban Farming Micro-Credential is a competency-based assessment comprised of prep work, in-person training, and a post-assessment. Once the micro-credential is earned, it will be visible on your online profile. The training costs $25 - you can register here!
What is Parachute Teachers?
Parachute Teachers is a marketplace for substitute teachers. Rather then have students watch a movie or complete a worksheet when their teacher is out for the day, we bring in folks from the community to share their talents with students through high-quality enrichment. Schools can book you for a given date and time based on your availabilit
News and Next Steps:
Our first cohort of Urban Farming teachers entered the classroom last month! They bring diverse expertise in nutrition, hydroponics, compost, and much more.
Our next in-person training will be held on Tuesday, November 15 at 6:00 pm at the Harvard Innovation Lab (arrive at 6 pm for light refreshments; we will begin the training at 6:30 pm). If you have a time conflict, please let me know when a more convenient time would be for you. Feel free to spread the word to friends!
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Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Larry Wilmore
Tuesday, November 15
6:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
This year’s Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics will be delivered by comedian, producer and writer Larry Wilmore. The David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism will also be awarded to Nancy Kaffer of the Detroit Free Press.
The Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics commemorates the life of the reporter and historian who set the standard for contemporary political journalism and campaign coverage. Past lecturers include Rachel Maddow, Alan K. Simpson, Ben Bradlee, Judy Woodruff, William F. Buckley, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis.
This event will be ticketed. Tickets are free, but will be distributed by lottery. Visit the Harvard Institute of Politics website to enter the lottery. The deadline for entries is midnight Tuesday, November 8. Winners will be notified via email on Wednesday, November 9. Winners must pick up their tickets at the Institute of Politics at HKS on Thursday, November 10 or Monday, November 14 between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. No exceptions.
This event will also be streamed online on the Harvard Institute of Politics website at http://iop.harvard.edu/forum
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Yes, Humans Really Are Causing Earthquakes
Tuesday, November 15
6:00pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Justin Rubinstein, Research Geophysicist and Deputy Chief of the Induced Seismicity Project, Menlo Park Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
In 2009, the central United States began to experience an unprecedented surge in earthquakes. They soared from an average of 21 per year to over 650 in 2014 alone. This increased seismicity has been found in just a few regions of the country, with a majority in Oklahoma, and is limited to areas of new and emerging oil and gas production. Rubinstein will discuss the many ways in which humans can cause earthquakes, how local geological conditions can influence their impact, and how scientists measure and analyze seismicity. He will also address the actions that states are taking to minimize or stop human-induced earthquakes and how academic scientists, regulators, and the oil and gas industry are collaborating in these efforts.
Presented in collaboration with the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and the Seismological Society of America.
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Pedal-Powered Innovation from Rural Guatemala: The Bici-Tec Story
Tuesday, November 15
6:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building N52, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Carlos Marroquin, David Boudreau, Kate Mytty
Explore innovative bicycle-powered ideas with Bici-Tec founder Carlos Marroquin, David Boudreau from Bikes Not Bombs, and Kate Mytty of MIT D-Lab. The conversation will be followed by a reception with the panelists.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum, D-Lab
For more information, contact: Jennifer Novotney
617-253-5927
museuminfo at mit.edu
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Love for Sale: Pop Music in America
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes DAVID HAJDU—music critic for The Nation and author of Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture—and BOB BLUMENTHAL, a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association, for a discussion of Hajdu's latest book, Love for Sale: Pop Music in America.
About Love for Sale
From the age of song sheets in the late nineteenth-century to the contemporary era of digital streaming, pop music has been our most influential laboratory for social and aesthetic experimentation, changing the world three minutes at a time.
In Love for Sale, David Hajdu—one of the most respected critics and music historians of our time—draws on a lifetime of listening, playing, and writing about music to show how pop has done much more than peddle fantasies of love and sex to teenagers. From vaudeville singer Eva Tanguay, the “I Don’t Care Girl” who upended Victorian conceptions of feminine propriety to become one of the biggest stars of her day to the scandal of Blondie playing disco at CBGB, Hajdu presents an incisive and idiosyncratic history of a form that has repeatedly upset social and cultural expectations.
Exhaustively researched and rich with fresh insights, Love for Sale is unbound by the usual tropes of pop music history. Hajdu, for instance, gives a star turn to Bessie Smith and the “blues queens” of the 1920s, who brought wildly transgressive sexuality to American audience decades before rock and roll. And there is Jimmie Rodgers, a former blackface minstrel performer, who created country music from the songs of rural white and blacks . . . entwined with the sound of the Swiss yodel. And then there are today’s practitioners of Electronic Dance Music, who Hajdu celebrates for carrying the pop revolution to heretofore unimaginable frontiers. At every turn, Hajdu surprises and challenges readers to think about our most familiar art in unexpected ways.
Masterly and impassioned, authoritative and at times deeply personal, Love for Sale is a book of critical history informed by its writer's own unique history as a besotted fan.
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Mending the Tower of Babel through the Science of Bilingualism
Tueday, November 15
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Le Laboratorie Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-learning-cafeteria-series-tickets-27097161339
Gigi Luk, PhD, Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Gigi Luk's research on the cognitive consequences of bilingualism extends across the lifespan. These cognitive consequences include literacy acquisition in children and executive functions in young and older adults. In addition to investigating the science of bilingualism, Dr. Luk has examined how to harness scientific findings on bilingualism to improve educational experience for children from diverse language backgrounds. This presentation will entail recent scientific findings on bilingualism and the potential value of these findings for education.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, November 16
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November Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, November 16
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EST
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/november-boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-28831174820
Join us for the November Sustainability Breakfast - Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals together for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 8:30 am.
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Social Innovator Encore
Wednesday, November 16
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Choate Hall & Stewart LLP, 2 International Place, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-innovator-encore-registration-28402148591
Did you miss the May Showcase? The Social Innovation Forum's 2016 Innovators will pitch again in November.
Join us for our "Encore" breakfast event on November 16!
The event is a great opportunity for those who missed the Showcase to meet our Innovators and hear their presentations. The morning will begin with breakfast and networking, followed by our Innovator pitches.
2016 Social Innovators Presenting at Encore
African Community Education
Budget Buddies
Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association
Dorchester Community Food Co-op
Hale
Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (MassCOSH)
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Neuromorphic Technologies for Next-Generation Cognitive Computing
Wednesday, November 16
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 34-401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Geoffrey Burr, IBM Almaden Research Center
I will describe IBM's roadmap for Neuromorphic Technologies to drive next-generation cognitive computing, ranging from nanodevice-based hardware for accelerating well-known supervised-learning algorithms (which happen to rely on static, labeled data), to emerging, biologically-inspired algorithms capable of learning from temporal, unlabeled data. I will survey the various hardware-centric neuromorphic projects currently underway at IBM Research, and discuss a few in depth.
MTL Seminar Series
MTL seminar speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research, manufacturing, or policy. This series is held during the academic year on Wednesdays at noon. The seminars are open to the public. Lunch is served at 11:30am
Web site: https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mtlseminar/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact: Shereece Beckford
253-0086
beckford at mit.edu
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Book Launch: Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016, 12 p.m.
WHERE Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East BC (2036), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
SPEAKER(S) Cass R. Sunstein, J.D., Harvard Law School
Jerry Avorn, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Abigail Moncrieff, J.D., Associate Professor of Law and Peter Paul Career Development Professor, Boston University School of Law
Moderators: I. Glenn Cohen, J.D., Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School (co-editor) and Holly Fernandez Lynch, J.D., MBioethics, Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center (co-editor)
DETAILS In November 2016, Johns Hopkins University Press will publish Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics, co-edited by Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen, Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch, and Christopher T. Robertson, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, James E. Rogers College of Law, the University of Arizona. This edited volume stems from the Center’s 2014 annual conference, which brought together leading experts to build on the success of the behavioral economics movement in order to further develop scholarly discussion of key issues in health law policy, bioethics, and biotechnology by addressing both broad conceptual questions and more specific policy applications.
Behavioral science has swept the fields of economics and law through the study of nudges, cognitive biases, and decisional heuristics—but it has only recently begun to impact the conversation on health care. Nudging Health wrestles with some of the thorny philosophical issues, legal limits, and conceptual questions raised by behavioral science as applied to health law and policy. The volume frames the fundamental issues surrounding health nudges by addressing ethical questions. Panelists will discuss some of the issues addressed in the book: Does cost-sharing for health expenditures cause patients to make poor decisions? Is it right to make it difficult for people to opt out of having their organs harvested for donation when they die? Are behavioral nudges paternalistic? The contributors examine specific applications of behavioral science, including efforts to address health care costs, improve vaccination rates, and encourage better decision-making by physicians. They wrestle with questions regarding the doctor-patient relationship and defaults in healthcare while engaging with larger, timely questions of healthcare reform.
LINK http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/book-launch-nudging-health-health-law-and-behavioral-economics
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Who Fights for Reputation in International Politics? Leaders, Resolve and the Use of Force
Wednesday, November 16
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Karen Yarhi-Milo (Princeton)
SSP Wednesday Seminar Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: Elina Hamilton
617-253-7529
elinah at mit.edu
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Inclusion, Inc. Unconference
Wednesday, November 16
12:30pm
Tufts, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
How can business play a leadership role in realizing
the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals?
When the United Nations announced the Sustainable Development Goals nearly a year ago, it created a tremendous opportunity for business to demonstrate its role in furthering development. But if business is key to achieving the SDGs, where do we begin?
How can sustainable development be part of a sustainable business model?
What are the strategies and lessons being learned across companies and industries?
What are the key leverage points and challenges businesses face when seeking to engage with the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals]?
We invite you to join The Fletcher School’s Institute for Business in
the Global Context on November 16th for an afternoon problem-solving
these kinds of questions.
Building upon IBGC’s latest round of research on inclusive business activities, and in the spirit of the Inclusion, Inc. and The Inclusive City Solutions Symposiums, IBGC is hosting a sector-spanning “unconference" where participants can roll up their sleeves and turn ideas into action in a collaborative, proactive environment.
Why participate?
You'll identify and problem-solve common leverage points and challenges
businesses grapple with when merging sustainable business and development
What will you get?
You'll leave with industry-specific ideas on how to take action on key UN Sustainable Development Goals, and how to integrate that action into core business strategy
To participate, tell us more about yourself! If selected, you’ll be invited to be part of an interactive afternoon among like-minded practitioners, academics, and graduate students working to make the business case for industry-specific engagement with key SDGs.
Request an Invitation by November 6th
Questions about the unconference?
Contact Katherine Round at katherine.round at tufts.edu
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Signatures of iron cycling in marine microbial genomes and ecosystems
Wednesday, November 16
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Shane Hogle, Chisholm Lab, MIT
Microbial Systems Seminar
Web site: https://microbialsystems.wordpress.com/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Kathryn Kauffman
k6logc at mit.edu
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Compatibility and Investment in the U.S. Electric Vehicle Market
Wednesday, November 16
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Jing Li, Harvard University
Support from Enel Endowment for Environmental Economics and the Department of Economics is gratefully acknowledged.
Environmental Economics and Policy Seminar
https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/16492
Contact Name: Jason Chapman
jason_chapman at hks.harvard.edu
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Conversation with Andris Nelsons
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, 3 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Music, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Music Department
SPEAKER(S) Andris Nelsons, Music Director, Boston Symphony Orchestra. With Tony Fogg, Artistic Administrator, and Mark Volpe, Managing Director
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO musicdpt at fas.harvard.edu
LINK https://music.fas.harvard.edu/calendar.shtml
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Conversation in Civic Innovation: Broadband Equity
Wednesday, November 16
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Roxbury Innovation Center, 2300 Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversation-in-civic-innovation-broadband-equity-tickets-27843972070
Broadband has become an assumed service, and yet in some parts of the state – and even the city – high-speed internet access is limited, unavailable, or unaffordable. Broadband access is necessary to help our students learn, to build small businesses and to enable residents to engage as citizens.
As we type, click, and swipe, it is easy to forget about the underlying infrastructure that supports our online activities. This critical infrastructure is complex and in order to provide equitable access to broadband, physical considerations like fiber infrastructure and broadband readiness of buildings are critical to how we expand access.
In addition, we need to buy service from someone. Should cities pursue Muni Networks like Chattanooga, TN and Westminster, MD or should cities pursue strategies that promote competition and choice. Whether it is provided by a company or a local government, the service that we buy needs to be fast, affordable, and reliable.
Please join us for a discussion on Broadband Equity. Panelists will include:
Keynote: Susan Crawford, Berkman Center
Anne Schwieger, City of Boston
Damon Cox, The Boston Foundation
Sharon Gillett, Microsoft
Chris Mitchell, Institute for Local Self Reliance
Theo Hanna, Tech Goes Home
Moderator: Cathy Wissink, Microsoft
Schedule:
5:30 – 6 PM – Registration and networking
6:00 – 7:00 – Panel Discussion
7:00 - 7:30 – Q&A
7:30 – 8:30 – Post event networking
The Conversations on Civic Innovation is a regular series, co-convened by the Venture Café Foundation and the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center New England.
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Discussion About Regenerative Agriculture
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
6:00 PM
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Leadership-Regenerative-Agriculture/events/235265048/
Once inside Greentown Labs, look for fellow agricultural enthusiasts!
Welcome to our first Meetup! We'll be talking about regenerative agriculture and potential upcoming projects that volunteers can be involved with.
We invite you to join our tribe of like minded people and although this first meeting will be a conversation, future Meetups will involve action, fruit tree plantings, and installations.
People can park in the Market Basket lot or in the Greentown Labs visitor spaces in the church parking lot at 23 Tyler Street.
We look forward to meeting you!
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Bhutan: The Intersection of Climate Change & Health
Wednesday, November 16
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
The Metcalf Trustee Center, 9th Floor, 1 Silber Way, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bhutan-the-intersection-of-climate-change-health-tickets-28702173975
Bhutan is a small Himalayan country that is forging a unique path for national development, emphasizing the multiple facets (not just economic growth) that determine Gross National Happiness. As part of this effort, the country has emphasized development of accessible health care, and has been assisted in this effort by the Bhutan Foundation, as well as faculty and students from the Boston area. But climate change could threaten positive health developments. Join us for this panel event discussing this pivotal intersection, followed by a reception.
Keynote Address:
Dasho Benji
Founder of the Bhutan Trust for Environment and Conservation and currently a special advisor to the National Environmental Commission. He has served in a variety of roles in the Government of Bhutan since 1966.
Panel Moderator
Prof. Anthony Janetos, Director, Pardee Center for the Long Range Future
Panelists
Rich Feeley, Former hair of the Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH)
Kristin Johnson, DrPH Candidate BUSPH, worked with a Bhutanese AIDS NGO in 2014
Dr. James Richter, Massachusetts General Hospital, currently studying the etiology of stomach cancer in Bhutan
Tshering Dukpa, Kysar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences
Tshewang Wangchuk, Executive Director, Bhutan Foundation
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Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize Generator Dinner
Wednesday, November 16
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
MIT Stratton Student Center - Room W20-307, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rabobank-mit-food-and-agribusiness-innovation-prize-generator-dinner-tickets-29026978474
Interested in improving the global food and agriculture system? Have an idea, but need a team, mentor, or access to industry professionals? Interested in food and agriculture, but don't yet have an idea?
Join us at the Generator Dinner for the Rabobank-MIT Food & Agribusiness Innovation Prize! Already have an idea? If you are a current student interested in presenting a quick summary of your idea at the Generator Dinner, please RSVP and fill out this pitch selection form.
The Rabobank-MIT Food & Agribusiness Innovation Prize, sponsored by Rabobank and supported by MIT J-WAFS and the MIT Food and Agriculture Club, is a premier business-plan competition for university and graduate students. This prize is distinct from other competitions because of its specific focus on food and agribusiness and access it will provide successful entrants to the broad business community. Visit our website for more information about the prize and future updates.
The Generator Dinner will provide the opportunity to:
Learn about the challenges in food and agribusiness from the perspective of leaders and entrepreneurs
Pitch and/or hear innovative ideas for improving the food and agriculture industry
Meet other students with similar interests to form teams
Eat great food and network with like-minded individuals
The Generator Dinner is not a pitch competition, but rather an opportunity for students with ideas to share them and recruit team members, and for those interested in participating in the Prize to find students looking for teammates. All students with interest in the industry are welcome. The event is also open to students from other universities and industry experts from the Boston area.
Rabobank-MIT Food & Agribusiness Innovation Prize Timeline: The competition will take place in two stages. First round applications will be due in late December 2016, from which finalists will be selected. Finalists will then be paired with mentors to refine their ideas. Mentors will be leading experts in industry and academia, with experience relevant to finalist submissions. At the Award Ceremony in Spring 2017, finalists will present their business plan and compete to win $25,000 in total prize money will be awarded ($12k, $8k, and $5k for first through third place, respectively).
More about Rabobank: Rabobank Group is one of the largest banks in the world. In the Americas, Rabobank is a premier bank to the food, agribusiness and beverage industry, providing sector expertise, strategic counsel and tailored financial solutions to clients across the entire food value chain, including the crop input, industrial production, manufacturing and processing, trade, distribution, retail, and food service segments.
More about J-WAFS: The Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab, J-WAFS, was established in the fall of 2014 as an Institute-wide effort to bring MIT’s unique strengths to works towards environmentally benign, scalable solutions for water and food systems across a range of regional, social, and economic contexts.
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Meet Switzerland Innovation
swissnex Boston 420 Broadway, Cambridge
Wednesday, November 16
6:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Invitation upon Request at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCOYEdn4RNJ2QGkjUuhe9eHBxAZpCwA46RFtJjD3jgKS8YhA/viewform
November 16, we invite you to join us for an evening with Raymond Cron, CEO of Switzerland Innovation – a nationwide innovation hub bringing together academia and industry.
This is an event geared towards entrepreneurs, researchers, and members of organizations interested in exploring business and research opportunities with Switzerland.
Switzerland regularly ranks as the most innovative country in the world. What’s this small country’s recipe for success? For one thing, it is education. Swiss technical schools and universities rank among the world’s best, and are an important basis for innovation. But in order for universities to produce marketable products and services, they need strong ties to the economy.
In order to facilitate the collaboration between academia and industry, Switzerland Innovation offers universities and companies the grounds to collaborate and to use each others’ research results for the development of marketable products and services. With its five nationwide hubs – Park Basel Area, Park Innovaare, Park Zurich, Park Network West EPFL, and Park Biel/Bienne – Switzerland Innovation provides fertile grounds for innovation and reinforces Switzerland as one of the most innovative countries in the world.
Speaker Bio
Raymond Cron is CEO of Switzerland Innovation since 2015. Prior to this assignment Raymond held top management positions in the Swiss Construction and Real Estate Industry. From 2004 until 2008 he served as Director General of the Swiss Civil Aviation Authority. Aside he serves as a chairman respectively board member of some Swiss companies and institutions. Raymond Cron holds a Master of science in civil engineering of ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich. He did his post-graduate studies in economics and management at BWI of ETH. His full bio can be found on LinkedIn.
Agenda
6 PM: Welcome and opening remarks
6.30 PM: Presentation by Raymond Cron, CEO of Switzerland Innovation, followed by Q&A, networking reception
9 PM: Doors close
Interested? Request an invite at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCOYEdn4RNJ2QGkjUuhe9eHBxAZpCwA46RFtJjD3jgKS8YhA/viewform
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a researcher, or part of an organization interested in exploring business and research opportunities in one of the most dynamic and innovative economies in Europe – request an invite through our form for this intimate event at swissnex Boston. We’ll follow up with you shortly!
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Innovations in Food Tech for Health
Wednesday, November 16
6:15 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Perkins+Will, 225 Franklin Street, Floor 11, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovations-in-food-tech-for-health-tickets-28694957390
Cost: $15 – $20
Technology is rapidly changing our global food system, but what is food tech innovation doing to improve our health?
On Wednesday, November 16th Branchfood will host a panel and networking event on "Innovations in Food Tech for Health," starting at 6:15 PM at Perkins+Will Architecture Firm in Boston.
Panel discussion will include consumer trends in the health/food tech sector, innovative products being developed to promote healthy lifestyles, success stories and opportunities related to startup development and industry focus, and creating environments that foster health and wellness. Attendees include current and aspiring entrepreneurs, students in food focused college programs, those aspiring to build products that create healthy lifestyles, and community members.
Included is a food tech showcase including Poly and Kindrdfood and tasting of innovative health foods being produced right here in Boston including Micro Mama's, Keto+Co, Health-Ade, Perfectly Free and more!
Schedule:
6:15PM - 7:00PM - Networking and Food Tasting
7:00PM - 8:00PM - Panel Discussion + Audience Q+A
8:00PM - 8:30PM - Networking
Panelists:
Janelle Nanos, Business Reporter at Boston Globe Media (moderator)
Janelle Nanos is a writer, editor, and journalism professor in Boston. She writes about ideas, people, and businesses that drive Boston’s innovation economy and was the editor of BetaBoston, spearheading coverage of of technology and innovation. Prior to joining the Globe, she was a senior editor at Boston Magazine, where she edited and wrote features and service packages. Among her varied interests are higher education, public policy, health care, technology, travel, design, food, and politics. She also continues to write regularly for national travel publications and teaches a course in magazine writing at her alma mater, Boston College. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, USA Today, D.C. Magazine, Newsday, Slate, Marie Claire, The Village Voice, Forbes.com, Mother Jones, City Limits, Travel + Leisure Family, and Nerve.com, among other publications.
Kyle Cahill, Director of Sustainability & Environmental Health at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Kyle Cahill is responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day management of a company-wide sustainability program that includes assessing the impact of sustainability practices to the company and community at large. Prior to Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kyle was Senior Program Officer at Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. At Oxfam, he led the organization’s work on poverty footprinting, a process for companies to measure, analyze and improve their impacts on communities in developing countries. Prior to joining Oxfam, Kyle was Director of Corporate Engagement at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) where he worked with the private sector on environmental projects addressing climate change, safer products and materials, water use and waste reduction. Kyle serves on the board of directors of Plant A Fish and on the advisory boards of New Earth and Virid.us.
Tara McCarthy, Co-founder and Chief Dietitian Kindrdfood
Tara McCarthy is the Co-founder and Chief Dietitian at Kindrdfood. Kindrdfood empowers families with a medically limited diet, to navigate food and offers a guided path to great food, making change easier & less stressful. Tara has been a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) for over 16 years. She been on the staff at Boston Children’s Hospital since 2001, during which time, she has cared for a wide variety of patients including those challenged by food allergies, celiac disease, EoE, FPIES and CSID. In addition to counseling at Boston Medical Center, BC Campus School, (a school for developmentally delayed children), and in the homes of many families, Tara also has taught Nutrition courses at Northeastern University and mentored dozens of RDNs. Tara lives in Milton, MA with her husband and three children
Ian Brady, Chief Executive Officer at AVA
Ian Brady is the Chief Executive Officer at AVA, an intelligent eating platform that’s transforming the way people think about food and nutritional health. They’ve brought together some of the best talent in nutrition science, technology and behavioral coaching, along with top tier investors from Silicon Valley to redesign healthy eating experiences. Prior to AVA, Ian was the chief product officer of Kensho and he co-founded and served as a vice president at SoFi. Brady has served as the director of emerging technology at Fidelity Investments, where he was responsible for Fidelity.com as well as retail innovation programs across Fidelity’s web, mobile, and investor center channels.
Jake Cacciapaglia, VP of Media at Runkeeper
Jake Caccoapaglia is the VP of Media at Runkeeper, a leading mobile running app that helps runners of all levels – including beginners – get started with a fitness routine and stick with it forever. Initially launched in Boston, Runkeeper now has more than 45 million users across over 180 countries and has partnered with Fitbit, Loseit!. and others to make health data even more accessible and actionable. Jake was the first non-technical hire after CEO (Jason Jacobs) and has been with the company for nearly five years. During his time at RunKeeper Jake has held roles in community, support and platform development. His is resposible for establishing partnerships with companies like Spotify, Nike, Saucony, New Balance, Walgreens, and Sony.
Presenter:
David Dymecki, Principal at Perkins+Will
David has three decades of experience in the programming, planning and design of athletic and recreation projects. He has lectured and written articles and book chapters on a variety of topics for Athletic Business, National Intramural Recreational Sports Association and the Society for College and University Planners. He has presented on issues ranging from athletic and recreation sports master planning to design guidelines and trends to facilities renovation.
Please bring your ID for security checkin.
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The Port Cafe: Nourishment (Ourselves and our Community)
Wednesday, November 16
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Community Art Center, 119 Windsor Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-port-cafe-nourishment-ourselves-and-our-community-tickets-29012628553
Join us for our November meal! The theme is "Nourishment" for ourselves and our community, as we come together during the season of feasts and family.
We can't wait to share a meal with you!
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Climate Challenges/Clean Energy Solutions
Wednesday, November 16
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
MIT, Building 32 - 123, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-challengesclean-energy-solutions-tickets-29024218218
2-Part Event:
PRESENTATION BY THE TOP-TO-TOP GLOBAL CLIMATE EXPEDITION
The Top-to-Top Global Climate Expedition, a family of climate explorers, is arriving in Boston after having sailed through the Northwest Passage on their 50-foot sailboat, the S/V Pachama. Dario and Sabine Schwörer and their five children have spent more than a dozen years sailing all of the world’s seven seas, setting foot on seven continents, and climbing six of the world’s highest mountains, in an effort to witness, document, and report on climate change and its solutions.
CLEAN ENERGY CEO PANEL DISCUSSION
Peter Rothstein, President of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, will lead a panel of local clean energy CEOs who are delivering solutions that address climate change. The panel of entrepreneurs will discuss how the development of innovative clean energy technologies and services contribute to encouraging climate progress.
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Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University welcome the award-winning author of Philadelphia Fire and Hoop Roots JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN for a discussion of his latest book, Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File.
About Writing to Save a Life
An award–winning writer traces the life of the father of iconic Civil Rights martyr Emmett Till—a man who was executed by the Army ten years before Emmett’s murder. An evocative and personal exploration of individual and collective memory in America by one of the most formidable Black intellectuals of our time.
In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.
In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman's personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.
An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, Writing to Save a Life is completely original in its delivery—an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.
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Jellyfish: Are They Taking Over?
Wednesday, November 16
7pm - 9pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, 1 Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106845&view=Detail
Lisa-ann Gershwin, Ph.D., Director, Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services
Jellyfish! The mere mention of the word sends shivers down the spines of those who have been stung—or don’t want to be. Whereas once only swimmers feared their stings, more and more, it seems, jellyfish are demanding attention in a variety of ways.
Whether they get sucked into the water intake pipes of nuclear power plants and trigger emergency shutdowns, capsize fishing trawlers, kill tourists, or surreptitiously take over ecosystems, reports are drifting in from all the world’s oceans. Join lively and passionate Australian scientist and writer, Lisa-ann Gershwin, as she explains why we are seeing more jellyfish and what it means for our future.
Dr. Gershwin will sign copies of her most recent book, Jellyfish: A Natural History, in the IMAX lobby directly following her lecture.
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From Ebola to Zika: Combating myths and controlling mosquitoes
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Armenise Auditorium at Harvard Medical School, 210 Longwood Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Science in the News (SITN)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO sitnboston at gmail.com
DETAILS Science in the News (SITN) is a graduate student group with a mission to bridge the communication gap between scientists and non-scientists. This event is part of our Fall Lecture Series, given by graduate students to the general public. The event is free and open to all.
LINK http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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FOREVER YOUNG: Looking forward, looking back.
Wednesday, November 16
7 PM
Barn Room
First Parish, 3 Church Street, Cambridge
Cambridge Forum celebrates the legacy and future of folk music as it marks its 50th anniversary.
Join us for a lively evening of music and memories from the early days of the Harvard Square folk scene to the current state of the Americana genre.
Betsy Siggins, raconteur and staffer at the legendary Club 47, will recall her early days in with Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Folklorist Millie Rahn will moderate the conversation, interspersed with music from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Jake Armerding.
Back in the late ’50s, a Harvard Square coffeehouse/jazz club reluctantly let an unknown folksinger on stage, says Rahn. “There was this performer around town, long hair, often barefoot. She’d been playing some of the clubs across the river in Boston. And, of course, her name was Joan Baez.”
In the early days, Club 47 was the place to play for folk musicians in the Boston area and all the greats performed there — Baez, Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters. The space eventually morphed into today’s Club Passim which has given rise to some of the top musicians in the folk world, like Shawn Colvin and Suzanne Vega.
The music scene has changed greatly over the past 50 years. But Cambridge and Club Passim continue to turn out fresh and exciting talent that reflect many influential trends in today’s evolving music world. In the tradition of the Club ’47 legends, musician Jake Armerding embodies the consummate hard-working troubadour. He hails from a Massachusetts family of musicians where he honed his songwriting skills, while also becoming an accomplished violin, mandolin and guitar player. Jake will perform some of his own songs throughout the evening in addition to some classic gems from the Dylan days. Come and enjoy!
This program is made is possible by funding from the Lowell Institute and the Harvard Square Business Association.
November is Folk Month in Harvard Square so indulge yourself. Free and open to all.
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Thursday, November 17-Friday, November 18
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2016 MIT WATER SUMMIT: WATER UTILITIES OF THE FUTURE
NOVEMBER 17-18,
WONG AUDITORIUM, MIT
RSVP at http://www.mitwatersummit.com
Cost: $15 - $150
The MIT Water Club and its sponsors are thrilled to announce the fifth edition of the MIT Water Summit, a gathering of not only students and faculty from MIT and the greater Boston area, but also leaders from industry, finance, government, and academia to explore current problems and potential solutions surrounding water resources.
This year the Summit will focus on political, financial, and technological issues surrounding the future of water utilities around the globe. Stay tuned for updates!
November 17 Panels
VISIONS: AVAILABILITY, SUSTAINABILITY, EFFICIENCY
Separation Technology for Treatment and Recovery
Water-sensitive Urban Design
IT and Big Data for Smart Utilities
ECONOMICS
Pricing a limited resource efficiently
Investing in Infrastructure
Funding research & development
POLICY
Water Rights: Conflicts & Solutions
Water Quality: Safety and Regulation
Water Environments: Protecting Sources
November 18 Talks
FROM VISIONS TO VALUE: LESSONS FROM INDUSTRY
Working with utilities: partnerships and innovative services
Environmental stewardship: efficient private use of public water
Entrepreneurship: Paths from Academia to Markets
Technology Showcase Space: Innovations Coming to Market
SMALL WORKING GROUPS
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Thursday, November 17
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Substantial Warming of Tropical Agricultural Regions Caused by Neighboring Deforestation
Thursday, November 17
12pm - 1pm
Tufts, Rabb room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Avery Cohn
Tropical deforestation can substantially increase nearby air temperature by reducing evaporative cooling. But, because recent tropical forest loss has been concentrated in recently-settled regions with low weather station density, forest loss-driven biophysical warming has likely gone systematically under-detected in temperature records. I’ll present results of research in my group analyzing satellite data to demonstrate that in many locations across the tropics, forests lost from 2000-2013 caused warming that exceeded the warming predicted from global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. I’ll close on a hopeful note—discussing how the finding might
encourage farmers to protect nearby forests.
Watch most talks live at https://tufts.webex.com/mw3100/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=tufts&service=1&main_url=%2Fmc3100%2Fmeetingcenter%2Fdefault.do%3Fsiteurl%3Dtufts%26rnd%3D2534427961%26main_url%3D%252Ftufts%252Fj.php%253Fsiteurl%253Dtufts%2526errET%253Dmc%2526MTID%253Dm67c61a87cdb5cfefee82fbc7955c0aa8
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HUCE Special Seminar: Constraints on the Social Discount Rate Derived from Ethical Ambiguities and Uncertainty about Future Climate Change
Thursday, November 17
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room 440, 26 Oxford Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge
HUCE welcomes Stephan Lewandowsky, Professor of Cognitive Psychology, School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol
Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol. His research examines people’s memory, decision making, and knowledge structures, with a particular emphasis on how people update information in memory. His most recent research interests examine the potential conflict between human cognition and the physics of the global climate, which has led him into research in climate science and climate modeling. His talk will briefly review the ethical issues surrounding the social discount rate and then report a simulation experiment that constrains the value of the discount rate by considering 4 sources of uncertainty and ambiguity: scientific uncertainty about the extent of future warming, social uncertainty about future population and future economic development, political uncertainty about future mitigation trajectories, and ethical ambiguity about how much the welfare of future generations should be valued today.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
laura_hanrahan at harvard.edu
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Guns for Butter: The Rationale for U.S. Military Primacy
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Liviu Horovitz, Research Fellow, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/7207/guns_for_butter.html
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"Blindspot" Workshop with Mahzarin Banaji
Thursday, November 17
12:30p–3:00p
MIT, Building 50-100, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://diversity.mit.edu/event/workshop-on-blindspot-hidden-biases-of-good-people/
Speaker: Prof. Mahzarin Banaji
We all have blind spots: subtle cues that influence our perceptions of others, and how we act towards them. Harvard Prof. Mahzarin Banaji, co-author of the best-seller "Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People", is hosting a workshop at MIT to help community members probe their own blind spots.
The workshop is sponsored by the Division of Student Life and the Institute Community and Equity Office. The workshop will be held in Morss Hall in Walker Memorial and there is no charge to attend, and all MIT faculty, staff, and students are welcome. In addition to a great workshop, DSL and the ICEO will provide free copies of Blindspot to anyone who registers for the event prior to Friday, October 14.
The workshop will be followed by a reception for attendees with Prof. Banaji.
Web site: http://diversity.mit.edu/event/workshop-on-blindspot-hidden-biases-of-good-people/
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Tickets: http//tickets.mit.edu
Sponsor(s): Division of Student Life, Institute Community and Equity Office
For more information, contact: Bob Ferrara
617-253-7495
rferrara at mit.edu
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Photonic Topological Insulators
Thursday, November 17
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (Pappalardo Community Room)
MORDECHAI (MOTI) SEGEV, Israel Institute of Technology
The recent breakthroughs on photonic topological insulators will be discussed, with an emphasis on fundamental aspects that are universal to many waves systems in nature, as well as on new ideas ranging from topological lasers to disorder-induced photonic topological phenomena.
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Colloquium on the History of Psychiatry and Medicine “Madness, Politics, and Society: Toptasi Mental Asylum”
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Minot Room, fifth floor, Countway Library of Medicine, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston MA 02115
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education, McLean Hospital and the Center for the History of Medicine, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
SPEAKER(S) Fatih Artvinli, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine and Ethics, Acibadem University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO For further information contact David G. Satin, M.D., Colloquium Director, phone/fax 617-332-0032, e-mail david_satin at hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS The second in a series of three lectures given as the 2016 Colloquium on the History of Psychiatry and Medicine. The Colloquium offers an opportunity to clinicians, researchers, and historians interested in a historical perspective on their fields to discuss informally historical studies in progress.
LINK https://cms.www.countway.harvard.edu/wp/?p=13270
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OEB Seminar Series - "The Neurobiology of Individuality"
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Biological Labs Main Lecture Hall #1080, 16 Divinity Avenue
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Benjamin de Bivort, Harvard University
TICKET INFO Free and open to the public
LINK http://oeb.harvard.edu/oeb-seminars
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After the Arab Spring in Morocco: Reflections on Historiography, Cultural Diversity, and Human Rights
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Susan Gilson Miller, Professor, Department of History, University of California, Davis
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/after-arab-spring-morocco-reflections-historiography-cultural-diversity-and-human-rights
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Wanton Extinction: Foucault, Wynter, and the Anthropocene
Thursday, November 17
4:30PM TO 6:30PM
Harvard, Boylston 237, 5 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
This talk draws on the work of Michel Foucault and Sylvia Wynter to rethink the Anthropocene. Critically responding to the renaturalizing turn in recent feminist and queer thought, it seeks to articulate an ethics of living through a genealogical lens, engaging deep time and the fossil record as an archive of extinction.
Lynne Huffer is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University. She is the author of Are the Lips a Grave?; Mad for Foucault; Maternal Pasts, Feminist Futures; and Another Colette; and also serves as editor of philoSOPHIA: A Journal in Continental Feminism. She has published academic articles on feminist theory, queer theory, Foucault, and ethics, as well as personal essays, creative nonfiction, and opinion pieces in literary journals and mass media venues.
Sponsored by the Mahindra Center for the Humanities (France and the World Seminar), the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the Harvard University Center for the Environment
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Blocking as Counter-Speech
Thursday, November 17
5:00-6:30pm
Location TBD
Annual Lester Kissel Lecture in Ethics by Rae Langton, Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of Newnham College, University of Cambridge
This lecture is named for the late Lester Kissel, a graduate of Harvard Law School and longtime benefactor of Harvard University's ethics programs and activities.
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Starr Forum: Innovation and Its Enemies
Thursday, November 17
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
A book talk with Calestous Juma
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Web site: http://cis.mit.edu/events/starr-forum-innovation-and-its-enemies
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: 617-253-8306
starrforum at mit.edu
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Climate Change: Ethics in Action
Thursday, November 17, 2016
5:15p–8:30p
MIT, Building 50-140, Morss Hall, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
From record temperatures to extreme weather events, the impacts of climate change are evident around the globe. Yet while the climate threat becomes increasingly clear, the collective nature of its causes and the seeming remoteness of its impacts challenge many of our ethical intuitions. What is our ethical responsibility to take action against climate change? Join other members of the MIT community in a conversation about the ethical implications of climate change and our collective responsibility for action.
Web site: https://climateaction.mit.edu/ethics-forum
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Radius/T&C, Office of the Vice President for Research
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History and Human Rights: A Panel Discussion
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sever Hall 113, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard's Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Seminar on Violence and Non-Violence
SPEAKER(S) Jacqueline Bhabha (Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health)
Bernard Harcourt (Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science, Columbia School of Law)
Samuel Moyn (Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law and Professor of History, Harvard University)
Kathryn Sikkink (Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Carr Center for Human Rights Policy)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO humcentr at fas.harvard.edu
617-495-0738
DETAILS Seating is limited.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/history-and-human-rights-panel-discussion
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Thirty-Eight: The Hurricane that Transformed New England
Thursday, November 17
7:00PM TO 8:30PM
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu
Cost: $5 member, $10 nonmember
The Arnold Arboretum welcomes author, journalist, and natural historian, Stephen Long for a special talk on the forests and the people of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont who were faced with acre after acre of blown down trees after the devasting 1938 hurricane.
The 1938 hurricane was so devastating partly because nobody had any inkling that it was bearing down on them. Stephen Long will show why that happened and place this storm within a historical context of New England hurricanes before and since. Until now, the hurricane’s damage to the region’s forests and the people who relied on them has gone largely unexamined. Throughout this talk, eyewitness accounts and archival photos will illuminate this most destructive weather event to ever hit New England. Long's book will be available for purchase and signing.
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Contact Name: arbweb at arnarb.harvard.edu
(617) 524-1718
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Invasive Species and Carbon Cycling in Coastal Dunes of Cape Cod
Thursday, November 17
7 pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, 1 Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106765&view=Detail
Robert Vincent, Ph.D., MIT, Sea Grant College Program
MIT Sea Grant coastal ecologist Dr. Robert Vincent is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service to study carbon cycling in coastal dune habitats, as well as the effects of historic peat deposits on the establishment and persistence of invasive plants (Phragmites australis). With the increased risk of erosion from coastal storms exposing the once-buried peat deposits, and the challenge of controlling an aggressive invasive species, this dynamic system has a lot going on. Join Dr. Vincent to learn how the research findings from this study will inform future conservation efforts in the region as well as allow us to gain a deeper understanding of carbon cycling in coastal dunes.
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Journalism Panel: Election Coverage
Thursday, November 17
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Northeastern, 425 Shillman Hall, 115 Forsyth Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/journalism-panel-election-coverage-tickets-28432000880
Cost: $5
The Society of Professional Journalists New England Chapter will be hosting five panelist that will discuss their experiences in covering local, state and national elections, including this historic 2016 presidential election.
The five panelists are:
Chris Cassidy, Boston Herald's chief presidential campaign reporter @ChrisCassidy_BH
Paul Steinhauser, NH1's political director and anchor http://www.nh1.com/news-team/
Lauren Dezenski, POLITICO Massachusetts reporter http://www.politico.com/states/massachusetts/staff/lauren-dezenski
Bill Marcus, Fox News Radio New England reporter billmarcus.com
Meg Heckman, past president of the New Hampshire Press Association and lecturer at the University of New Hampshire megheckman.com
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Sustainable Socials with Green Cambridge!
Thursday, November 17
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Plug Cambridge, 618 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Look for our banner!
Come and join Green Cambridge for our monthly meet-up!
We are a group of Cantabrigians dedicated to improving the environment and striving for sustainability. We'll be talking about all things green, giving run-downs on our community, advocacy and organizing work, and just getting to know one another.
Can't make it? We'll be repeating the event the third Thursday of every month! Plus, our organizing and planning meetings happen the first Thursday of every month. Also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.greencambridge.org
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The Future of Synthetic Biology with George Church
Thursday, November 17, 2016
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Broad Institute, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/ACM-Boston/events/235306400/
Information density, longevity and energy costs for DNA are thousands to millions-fold better than conventional storage. Interfacing with biological, audio and visual data is more attractive and natural. The cost of DNA I/O is dropping much faster than Moore's law (3-million fold in 7 years). I/O bio-systems (nano machines) include CRISPR Cas1/2 and Polymerases. A related effort is "Genome-Project-Write" which aims to improve technologies for building and testing human (and many other) genomes.
George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard and MIT and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard.
George is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to genomic science and his many pioneering contributions to chemistry and biomedicine. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). He helped initiate the Human Genome Project in 1984 and the Personal Genome Project in 2005. George invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizers.
George is also the co-author of "Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves". More information is online at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465021751.
This is a joint meeting of GBC/ACM and the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society.
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Friday, November 18
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The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment
WHEN Friday, Nov. 18, 2016
WHERE Harvard Law School, Milstein East B and C conference rooms, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Policy Program
SPEAKER(S) John Bessler
Stephen Bright
Lincoln Caplan
James Forman Jr.
Brandon Garrett
Bernard Harcourt
Pamela Karlan
Kathryn Kase
Randall Kennedy
Corinna Lain
Sanford Levinson
Evan Mandery
Michael Meltsner
Michael Radelet
Larry Schwartztol
Reva Siegel
Carol Steiker
Jordan Steiker
Christina Swarns
Laurence Tribe
Mark Tushnet
Alex Whiting
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO mworth at law.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment is a multi-panel conference, sponsored by the Criminal Justice Policy Program, that will explore themes in Professors Carol Steiker & Jordan Steiker’s book, "Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment" (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, to be released October, 2016). Visit bit.ly… for the program schedule. Registration is required: Please register at http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/supreme-court-and-capital-punishment/register
LINK http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/supreme-court-and-capital-punishment/register
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Harvard Free-cycle
Friday, November 18
11 am–2 pm
Lobby, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge
Bring any and all surplus furniture, supplies, and equipment to the Lobby of 124 Mt. Auburn Street. Clothing, books, office supplies, kitchen goods, toys, baby supplies, tools, hardware and any thing else reusable is welcome here. Whether or not you donate, you are welcome to take anything you want for free. These Freecycles save money, reduce Harvard’s waste, and conserve the embodied natural resources and energy in manufactured goods.
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Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
Friday, November 18
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Neil Donahue, Carnegie Mellon. Title TBA.
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/calendar/event/88531
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The July 15 Coup Attempt and the Transformation of Civil-Military Relations in Turkey
WHEN Friday, Nov. 18, 2016, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Koray Çalışkan, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Please note: this is a brown bag lunch event; beverages and dessert will be provided.
Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
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Controlling Dynamic Robot Behavior with Optimization
Friday, November 18
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Lunch 12:30pm; Talk 1pm
Scott Kuindersma, Harvard University
Despite the existence of incredible robot hardware, the limitations of our best planning and control algorithms have prevented us from unleashing these machines to tackle critical exploration, automation, and disaster response challenges. This talk will summarize our recent research on designing optimization algorithms that improve our ability to plan and stabilize dynamic motions involving contact in large-scale robots, including the Atlas humanoid robot at the DRC.
Speaker Bio: Scott Kuindersma is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University and the director of the Harvard Agile Robotics Laboratory. Previously, he was a postdoc in the Robot Locomotion Group at MIT CSAIL and the Control Lead for MIT’s DARPA Robotics Challenge team. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2012. His current work is focused on developing algorithms for robust legged locomotion and manipulation, control and estimation for morphing UAVs, and realtime control optimization for human assistive devices.
Website: http://scottk.seas.harvard.edu
Host: Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS)
Contact: Natasha Baker
Phone: 617-496-2623
Email: nrbaker at seas.harvard.edu
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Restoring Oceans, Restoring Climate: Facing Fire & Ice, Food & Water, Flood & Drought
Friday, November 18 – Sunday, November 20, 2016
Friday, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Harvardm 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://bio4climate.org/oceans-conference-registration/
Cost: $150, Students/Low-Budget, $20
Human behavior has led to today’s global warming – can human behavior reverse it as well? We have been searching for – and finding – answers leading to Yes!
In all of our conferences we have faced pressing questions in this era of planetary degradation, mass extinction and climate disruption. We have also introduced many positive and powerful solutions for varied terrestrial habitats across the world, and brought hope to the difficult climate story we are living through.
Now we’re tackling a new and challenging player: Oceans. Covering 70% of the earth’s surface and currently harboring vast amounts of climate heat, many other questions arise:
What roles do oceans play in the viability of life on land?
What roles do terrestrial habitats play in the viability of life in the oceans?
What is the role of those extraordinarily productive “edges” where land and water meet?
What are the ocean equivalents of regenerative management practices on land?
What are the dynamics of ocean life? If you were a bacterium, plankton, squid, fish or dolphin, what would oceans look like to you? What would you ask humans to do to preserve your habitats?
Finally, what are the relationships between oceans and land? How can we manage both for the good of the entire planetary system and the creatures who live here?
As in our prior six conferences, we’ll examine eco-restoration and the power of nature to heal global damage and reverse global warming. We will step beyond our conventional assumptions to hear from forward-thinking scientists, ocean restoration experts, fisheries professionals and activists about the remarkable possibilities of regenerated abundant oceans for a healthy and livable planet, on land and at sea.
Join us for a vast virtual ocean voyage and a weekend of fascination, promise and hope!
Volunteer and scholarship opportunities available – please contact info at bio4climate.org
A word about our ticket prices: On the one hand we want everyone and anyone who would like to attend our conferences to be able to afford to do so. On the other we are a small non-profit with limited resources and need ticket revenue to pay for conference expenses. Our ticket structure is meant to reflect both of those needs. So we ask you to feel free to buy a $20 ticket if that’s what’s comfortably affordable for you, and if you can afford a bit more but not $150, simply make an additional donation here. You’ll also get a free ticket if you volunteer to help before or during the conference. And if a full-price ticket is within your means, we greatly appreciate it. But more important than anything else is that we’d love to have you join us to share in this weekend full of beauty, wonder and hope.
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A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age
Friday November 18
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Daniel Levitin - A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age
We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can process—especially in election season. New York Times-bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin (This is Your Brain on Music) shows how to recognize misleading announcements, statistics, graphs, and written reports revealing the ways lying weasels can use them.
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Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 8:00 PM
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TEDxBeaconStreet 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, November 20, 2016 at 8:00 PM
The Lincoln School, 19 Kennard Road, Brookline
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxbeaconstreet-2016-registration-28292415376
YEAR FIVE: TEDxBeaconStreet 2016 Conference
TEDxBeaconStreet is a unique community event featuring diverse, multi-generational thought leaders from all walks of life. We support contemporary themes and highly interactive learning to facilitate community discussions and envision the impact of emerging ideas. Apply now to attend our fifth annual event.
FRIDAY SCHEDULE
7:00pm - 10:00pm: Escape Velocity Launch Party
Venue: Brookline Teen Center
SATURDAY SCHEDULE
BLOCK ONE
9:00am - 12:00pm: TEDxYouth at BeaconStreet
BLOCK TWO
12:30pm - 6:00pm: TEDxBeaconStreet
Venue: Lincoln School in Brookline
SUNDAY SCHEDULE
BLOCK THREE
9:00am - 12:00pm: TEDxBeaconStreet
BLOCK FOUR
12:30pm - 6:00pm: TEDxBeaconStreet
Venue: Lincoln School in Brookline
We have GREAT Speakers to help celebrate our fifth successfull year. We'll hear from a Congressman, professional teen skiers, Harvard and MIT researchers, a NASA engineer, a parks designer, social justice advocates, educators, and many more!
Meet the Speakers
Our community aims to promote innovations and inspire lifelong learning. Our priority is building an engaged and thoughtful audience, and we're thrilled to include you! If you love TEDxBeaconStreet and want to be more involved, tell us your superpower.
Do you know someone else who should attend? Forward to friends, colleagues, and family, or share event details on social networks using hashtag #tedxbeaconst and follow our blog and Medium page for updates.
For more information, visit: http://www.2016.tedxbeaconstreet.com
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Saturday, November 19
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Renewing our Energy - Mothers Out Front Statewide Summit
Saturday, November 19
10am-4pm
Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston
We'll be celebrating our 2016 wins and setting our 2017 goals
Representatives from each organizing team community needed.
Interested in knowing more and/or attending? contact Cambridge co-coordinator
Zeyneb Magavi (zeynebmagavi at gmail.com)
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Monday, November 21
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McKinsey Energy and Sustainability presentation
Monday, November 21
11:45 am to 12:45 pm
MIT, Building E62-276, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://goo.gl/forms/5EuSysjvcH5cEk1R2
Please join McKinsey & Company's Senior Partner Scott Nyquist for a discussion on climate change, recent progress in policy and technology, and implications for energy companies. Scott Nyquist is a Senior Partner in the Houston Office and a leader in the McKinsey Sustainability and Resource Productivity Network as well as a leader in the McKinsey's Energy Practice. Scott is also on the McKinsey Global Institute Council, which advises on MGI's research on global economic, business, and technology trends. McKinsey's Sustainability and Resource Productivity (SRP) network helps the world's leading institutions make sustainability and resource productivity a core driver of economic performance. SRP's mission is to be the best place to work for people with ambition to make a positive and lasting impact on both clients and environment.
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Talk in Arabic: Egyptian Clothes between Religious Ideology and Social Change
WHEN Monday, Nov. 21, 2016, 12 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Zeinab Taha, Associate Professor Arabic Linguistics, Department of Arabic Language (former Arabic Language Institute), The American University of Cairo
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/egyptian-clothes-between-religious-ideology-and-social-change
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Taking the fingerprints of global sea level rise
Monday, November 21
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Jerry Mitrovica, Professor of Science
Jerry X. Mitrovica joined Harvard in 2009 as a Professor of Geophysics. His work focuses on the Earth's response to external and internal forcings that have time scales ranging from seconds to billions of years. He has written extensively on topics ranging from the connection of mantle convective flow to the geological record, the rotational stability of the Earth and other terrestrial planets, ice age geodynamics, and the geodetic and geophysical signatures of ice sheet melting in our progressively warming world. Sea-level change has served as the major theme of these studies, with particular emphasis on critical events in ice age climate and on the sea-level fingerprints of modern polar ice sheet collapse.
Mitrovica is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. He is a former Director of the Earth Systems Evolution Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and J. Tuzo Wilson Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, where he also received his Ph.D. degree. He is the recipient of the Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America, the W.S Jardetsky Medal from Columbia University, the A.E.H. Love Medal from the European Geosciences Union and the Rutherford Memorial Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. He is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, as well as a past Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
Contact Name: arbweb at arnarb.harvard.edu
(617) 524-1718
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Mexico's Energy Reform
Monday, November 21
12pm-1:30pm
Harvard, Belfer Building, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Lourdes Melgar, Robert Wilhelm Fellow, Center for International Studies, MIT, and former Deputy Secretary of Energy for Hydrocarbons, Mexico
Lunch will be provided.
Energy Policy Seminar Series
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: cepr at hks.harvard.edu
617-495-8693
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Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi
Monday, November 21
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Gökçe Gunel, Columbia
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts at hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
Contact Name: sts at hks.harvard.edu
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2016 Science and Cooking Public Lecture Series: TBA
Monday, November 21
7 p.m.
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Nathan Myhrvold, (@ModernCuisine), former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, author of “Modernist Cuisine”
Now in its seventh year, the series is organized by Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
The public lectures are based on the Harvard course “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” but do not replicate course content.
All talks will take place in the Harvard Science Center (1 Oxford St., Cambridge, Mass., Hall C) and begin at 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted
Each presentation will begin with a 15-minute lecture about the scientific topics from that week’s class by a faculty member from the Harvard course
Seating for all lectures is first come, first seated
If you have questions regarding the public lecture series, please contact science_cooking at seas.harvard.edu.
The Harvard College Course
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Alícia Foundation developed the General Education science course, “Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter,” which debuted in the fall of 2010. The course uses food and cooking to explicate fundamental principles in applied physics and engineering. (Watch a video about the course.)
While limited to currently enrolled Harvard undergraduates, the class, which brings together eminent Harvard researchers and world-class chefs, is available to others on-campus through the Harvard Extension School and online through the HarvardX platform (details below).
Instructors
Michael Brenner, Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics and Professor of Physics; Harvard College Professor
Pia Sörensen, Preceptor in Science and Cooking
David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics
Lab Design/Implementation
Pere Castells, Unitat UB-Bullipèdia
Science and Cooking at Harvard Extension School
A version of “Science and Cooking” will be offered for credit through the Harvard Extension School in Spring 2017. Registered students will have access to the expertise and support of Harvard teaching staff, and will participate in an on-campus weekend in our cooking lab.
An online version of the course is also available as a HarvardX course.
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Tuesday, November 22
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xTalk with Steven Hall, Lori Breslow & Jeff Gore: Active Learning
Tuesday, November 22
4:15p–5:15p
MIT, Building 10-105, Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT professors Steven Hall, Lori Breslow & Jeff Gore will give a panel discussion on active learning and how they are implementing it in their teaching.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/lori-breslow-jeff-gore-steven-hall-active-learning
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): xTalks: Digital Discourses, Office of Digital Learning
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info at mit.edu
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Starr Forum: The Struggle Against Terrorism: Lessons Learned and Next Steps
Tuesday, November 22
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 66-110
Counter-terrorism discussion with Under Secretary of State Sarah Sewall
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Web site: http://cis.mit.edu/events/starr-forum-struggle-against-terrorism-lessons-learned-next-steps
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
starrforum at mit.edu
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Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World
Tuesday, November 22
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes STEVEN JOHNSON, the bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, Future Perfect, and How We Got to Now, for a discussion of his latest book Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World.
About Wonderland
This lushly illustrated history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
Johnson’s storytelling is just as delightful as the inventions he describes, full of surprising stops along the journey from simple concepts to complex modern systems. He introduces us to the colorful innovators of leisure: the explorers, proprietors, showmen, and artists who changed the trajectory of history with their luxurious wares, exotic meals, taverns, gambling tables, and magic shows.
Johnson compellingly argues that observers of technological and social trends should be looking for clues in novel amusements. You’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.
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Opportunity
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Effective Altruism MIT Sloan Meetup Group
http://www.meetup.com/effective-altruism-mit-sloan/
Want to make the world the best place it can be?
Effective Altruism is a worldwide movement that uses rational thinking and science to have the best possible impact. Effective Altruism MIT Sloan is bringing together people from all over the area to share experiences and be more effective by working together.
To learn more about effective altruism, read the introduction on the international EA website (https://www.effectivealtruism.org) or watch Peter Singer's TED talk.
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Discounted Solar for Somerville
As part of the State’s Solarize Mass program, local volunteers and the City of Somerville recently launched the Solarize Somerville campaign to make it easier and cheaper for residents and small businesses to install solar panels.
The program, which is offering information and guidance, free site consultations, and solar panel discounts through November, has set an ambitious goal to inspire at least 200 property owners to sign up for solar —and each of those private solar installations will also benefit the community directly. For every 400 kW in signed private contracts through the program, the program’s solar vendor SolarFlair will donate a system of up to 5 kW for a public or community purpose. All are invited to the program kickoff at a Meet the Installer event on Tuesday, July 26 at 6-7:30 p.m., 167 Holland St. Additional events on topics such as solar basics, financing, and solar for multifamily homes will be announced.
Unique to the program is its neighbor-to-neighbor approach: trained resident volunteers and a designated volunteer Solar Coach are available essentially as mentors. They can, for example, walk anyone through the process, provide general loan program and tax incentive information, and share their own solar experiences. The campaign’s webpage and blog offers useful information, tips, and a link to websites where you can estimate the solar potential of your home and roughly calculate how much solar could save you on your energy bills at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize.
Somerville is one of the most urban communities ever to participate in Solarize Mass, which makes the neighbor-to-neighbor approach especially helpful due to some of the unique challenges here such as multi-family houses with more than one owner. Winter Hill resident Mary Mangan, the program’s volunteer Solar Coach, went through that process and is ready to share helpful tips.
"I'm excited to work with our eager volunteers to help our neighbors understand the benefits of solar power. As a co-owner of a two-family home with solar, I can also offer some insights about how that process went for us," said Mangan.
Also key to the program is the selection of a designated vendor, which allows the program to offer reduced cost installation through bulk purchasing. Through a competitive process, SolarFlair, based in Ashland, MA, was selected. They were also the selected installer for the communities of Arlington, Hopkinton, Mendon, Brookline, Carlisle-Chelmsford, Newton, and Quincy.
"We're excited to be the selected installer for Solarize Somerville, and look forward to speaking with any home or business owners that are interested in reducing their electric bills while also making a great investment," said Matt Arner, the owner and President of SolarFlair.
Quick facts:
Solar systems can be purchased outright (with a payback of about 4-5 years). The Mass Solar Loan program offers rates of 3.25% or less.
Or, for no money down owners can choose a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the system is owned and maintained by a third party, and residents buy back the electricity at a discounted price.
More on-site renewable energy is critical to reducing carbon emissions. It also saves money for residents.
Tax incentives for solar installations include:
Federal Tax Credit: A 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is available for qualified residential and commercial projects
Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Credit: The lesser of 15% of the total cost of the solar electric system or $1,000, for qualified clean energy projects
Five-year Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS): Business owners can depreciate solar electric systems over a five-year schedule
For more information or to sign up for a free site consultation:
Visit the Solarize Somerville webpage at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize for
Helpful information and FAQs
To contact a volunteer or Solar Coach Mary Mangan to discuss solar options and incentives
To set up an appointment for a free site consultation directly with SolarFlair
To find out about events
To volunteer for Solarize Somerville
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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
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
http://www.mapdwell.com/en/cambridge
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment
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
Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Questions? Contact jnahigian at cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Energy Alliance
http://www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit
@cambenergy
http://facebook.com/cambridgeenergyalliance
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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.
The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org
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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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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info at bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 27 and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
BASEN / Boston Solidarity Network Economy: http://ba-sen.tumblr.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 12 PM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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