[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - March 12, 2017
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Mar 12 11:44:50 PDT 2017
Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke at world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Index
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Details of all these events are available when you scroll past the Index.
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Monday, March 13
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8:30am National Academy of Sciences Climate Change & Public Health Roundtable
12pm PAOC Colloquium - Changes in the Statistics of U.S. Tornado Reports
1230pm Digital Research in the Development Space - SurveyCTO
6pm Can Aesthetics Disarm Oppression?
6:30pm A Cure for Alzheimer's Disease, 20 Years Early
6:30pm Hacking FOIA: Learn how to Open Government with Public Records
6:30pm Volunteer Solar Orientation
7pm Beauty and the Beast: Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms from Around the World
7pm Refreezing the Permafrost
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Tuesday, March 14
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11am Enhancing Human Capability with Intelligent Machine Teammates
12pm An Introduction to Media Cloud: Mapping the attention and influence of news
1pm Saving Environment with IoT: Smart Watering with Predix
1pm Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Workshop
5:30pm Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto
5:30pm Coal Fired Power Plants in India
5:30pm Exploring Class and Classism
6pm Boston New Technology March 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT75
6:30pm Faculty Speaker: Toward An Artificial Brain
6:30pm Housing Demand & Solutions in Cambridge with ABC & MAPC
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Wednesday, March 15
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7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
11am Redefining Dance & Disability - Lecture/Demo with AXIS Dance Company
12pm Forging Intelligent Systems in the Digital Era
4pm The impact of decarbonization policies on electric system operating characteristics
4pm Reducing Emissions by Pricing Carbon: How Microsoft and Yale are leading the charge
4pm In search of a "Trump Doctrine": Change and Continuity in American Foreign Policy
5pm MBTA Focus40 Public Meeting
5:30pm 2017 Boston Cleantech Open Kickoff
6pm Tiny Cells, Global Impact: A Journey of Discovery with a Microbe from the Sea
6:15pm Divided: Communication and Planning Within Conftested Space and Contemporary Populism
6:30pm MCAN (Massachusetts Communities Action Network) Rapid Response Network Training
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Thursday, March 16
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12pm Industry driving environmental excellence
12pm Elders Climate Action - Mass Chapter Monthly
5pm From Stereopticon to Telephone: The Selling of the President in the Gilded Age
5:30pm BOSTON SEMINAR: Combatting Rising Heat & Rising Demands on Energy Usage
6pm There will be blood: Human genetic studies of blood production and disease
6pm Architecture Lecture with Tarik Oulalou and Linna Choi: Territories of Disobedience
6pm Germany in the New England States (GeNES) - Konsultations: Discussing the Trump phenomenon & social responsibility of scientists
6pm Civic Science Roundtable: GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS: UNCERTAIN CHOICES IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAIN HARMS
6:30pm Civic Engagement Through Technology
7pm The Conservation of Devil Rays
7:30pm Political Rumors in American Politics
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Friday, March 17
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7th MA SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE
8:30am Decoding Violence: Safety Through Social Media
2pm MacVicar Day 25th Anniversary Symposium
3pm PSFC Seminar: Introduction to hadrontherapy and how it can benefit from superconductivity today and in the future
7pm Food Fights and Culture Wars
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Saturday, March 18
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10am Maple SyrupBoil Down
10am TEDxBU Spring 2017
1pm Our Creation Care Leadership Through Organizing
3pm Data Democracy: Finance, Information and Power
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Sunday, March 19
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3pm Portrait of an Artist: The Life and Work of Edward Sorel
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Monday, March 20
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12pm PAOC Colloquium - Brian Rose (U Albany)
12pm Coupling between the land and atmosphere: new insights from models and observations
12pm Limits of Bioenergy for Carbon Mitigation
4pm xTalks/DUET "Evaluating Learning with Evidence - Not Just Course Evaluation Forms”
4pm Kelman Seminar: “Connecting with the Enemy: A Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence”
6:30pm John T. Dunlop Lecture in Housing and Urbanization: Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh
7pm Thirty Seconds to Midnight movie
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Tuesday, March 21
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8:30am Get Smaaht: Grid Modernization in Mass
12pm The Things of the Internet
12:30pm Japan, South Korea, and the Nuclear Umbrella
1pm 5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum: Waste Not, Want Not: Water & Wastewater in Our Commonwealth
4pm User Heuristics: Clinical Decision Support Systems for Advocacy
4:15pm Moving EPA Forward in an “Unhealthy” Climate
5:30pm Driving Change: Autonomous & Electric Vehicles
6pm Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing
7pm The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
7pm Connecting with Inner Peace in an Agitated World
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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
What I See with My Solar Lights
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/03/11/1642381/-What-I-See-with-My-Solar-Lights
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2017/03/pre-suasion-revolutionary-way-to.html
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Monday, March 13
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National Academy of Sciences Climate Change & Public Health Roundtable
Monday, March 13
8:30-5:30 pm
webcast
RSVP at http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/Activities/PublicHealth/PopulationHealthImprovementRT/2017-MAR-13.aspx
The National Academy of Sciences is sponsoring a Roundtable on Protecting the Health & Wellbeing of Communities in a Changing Climate. The roundtable will present plenary speakers and four regional panels on climate change risks to communities and examples of responses on issues such as urban heat islands, food supply, health care delivery, social vulnerability and equity, and other topics. The tentative agenda is posted, so times for the various topics can be checked for webcast viewers.
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PAOC Colloquium - Changes in the Statistics of U.S. Tornado Reports
Monday, March 13
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Michael Tippett, Columbia University
My research focuses on the predictability and variability of the climate system, with emphasis on the application of statistical methods to data from observations and numerical models.
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Digital Research in the Development Space - SurveyCTO
Monday, March 13
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EDT
Tufts, Fletcher School, Crowe Room, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSvp at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-research-in-the-development-space-surveycto-tickets-32655421244
Join Faizan Diwan for an interactive session on what it really means to work for a social enterprise tech start-up and the skills he looks for in job candidates. He will also provide an overview of electronic data collection for research and M&E with a focus on data quality and data security.
As Customer Engagement Lead at Dobility, Faizan works on the SurveyCTO data collection platform, which is used in over 130 countries to collect high quality data on mobile devices in challenging field settings with low or no connectivity. SurveyCTO users include The World Bank, Oxfam, Innovations for Poverty Action, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), John Snow Institute (JSI), and Clinton Health Access Initiative, among many others.
About Faizan
Prior to working at Dobility, Faizan spent several years as a Research Manager for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in Kenya, where he led multiple large-scale impact evaluations spanning the finance, labor, agriculture, and public health sectors, managed the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi, and helped lead IPA Kenya’s efforts to shift from paper-based to digital data collection. He has lived and worked in Pakistan, the United States, Kenya, and Zambia.
About Dobility
Dobility is the company behind SurveyCTO, a mobile platform for data collection in offline/resource-constrained settings. More broadly, Dobility is a technology company dedicated to a social mission: to promote more and better research and analysis in the world by providing affordable, human-usable technology. We focus in particular on technology that plays some small role in the achievement of social aims. Our product, SurveyCTO, grew out of several Harvard-based development economics projects in Tamil Nadu, South India that were hoping to use a mobile platform to conduct fieldwork. The same technical challenges seemed to plague every project, and it became apparent that better technology could dramatically simplify the lives of research team members, reduce project costs, and improve data quality.
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Can Aesthetics Disarm Oppression?
Monday, March 13
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Wiesner Building, Cambridge
Speaker: TANIA BRUGUERA
Tania Bruguera defines herself as an initiator rather than an author. She often collaborates with multiple institutions and many individuals in such a way that the full realization of her artwork occurs when others adopt and perpetuate the models and proposals she creates.
Bruguera is the current Elizabeth S. and Richard M. Cashin Fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
This presentation will show some of Bruguera's work strategies and discuss some of her key concepts-like Arte de Conducta (Behavior Art), Arte Útil (Art as a tool), Political-timing specific, and Aest-ethics-in the context of current political events.
Joining Bruguera:
Paloma Duong is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently writing a book on postsocialist imaginaries, new media, and participatory forms of culture in contemporary Cuba.
Laura Genes is an artist and Masters of Science candidate in Art, Culture and Technology at MIT. Working through performance and sculpture, her recent projects tackle the question of how to make art "on campus" and how the university environment can be a place to re-activate forms of citizenship that are not as accessible or attainable on a larger scale.
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/about-pages/spring-2017-about-series/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, CAMIT
For more information, contact: Marion Cunningham
617-253-5229
act at mit.edu
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A Cure for Alzheimer's Disease, 20 Years Early
Monday, March 13
6:30pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Davis Square, Somerville
Dr Jonathan Jackson
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Hacking FOIA: Learn how to Open Government with Public Records
Monday, March 13
6:30 PM
Northeastern, Shillman Hall, 115 Forsyth Street, Room 315, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/hackshackersboston/events/238081964/
Ever wish exclusive stories would just come to you? Or wish that you could tap into government databases yourself and see if you could come up with a better solution?
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and public records laws in every state, you can. Join us this Sunshine Week to learn more about how to use public records, meet other FOIA filers, and get your questions asked about how to make the most of these important laws.
The session will include both an overview of the law, advanced techniques, and should be useful for both hacks and hackers looking to peek into the drawers and hard drives of government agencies without risking jail time.
The session will be lead by Michael Morisy, founder of FOIA non-profit MuckRock which has helped pry out millions of pages out of government agencies with over 30,000 FOIA requests.
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Volunteer Solar Orientation
Monday, March 13
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 11th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/volunteer-solar-orientation-tickets-32610902086
Imagine a fossil free Inman Square. Or East Cambridge. Or Fresh Pond. You can help take the steps to get there with our newest volunteer opportunity. Building a coalition with other Cambridge-based organizations, houses of worship, and Resonant Energy Resonant Energy and Solstice, we're focusing on educating residents of specific neighborhoods the benefits of solar power.
You can be a part of bringing the community together around a goal, testing out ideas, and facilitating residents to install solar on their rooftops -- even if they rent or own their apartment, condo, or home.
On Monday March 13th at 6:30 pm, we welcome you to a solar orientation gathering (with snacks) at CIC Cambridge, 11th Floor, Singapore conference room. When you arrive at the lobby, please check-in at the front desk with your ID and then head to the 11th floor. You can come, meet other volunteers, ask any question, and be a part of this vision.
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Beauty and the Beast: Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms from Around the World
Monday, March 13
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Harvard University's MARIA TATAR—the John L. Loeb Professor of Folklore and Mythology and Germanic Languages and Literatures and editor and translator of The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, and The Classic Fairy Tales: A Norton Critical Edition—for a discussion of the Penguin Classics edition of Beauty and the Beast: Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms from Around the World.
About Beauty and the Beast
Nearly every culture tells the story of Beauty and the Beast in one fashion or another. From Cupid and Psyche to India’s Snake Bride to South Africa’s “Story of Five Heads,” the partnering of beasts and beauties, of humans and animals in all their variety—cats, dogs, frogs, goats, lizards, bears, tortoises, monkeys, cranes, warthogs—has beguiled us for thousands of years, mapping the cultural contradictions that riddle every romantic relationship.
In this fascinating volume, preeminent fairy tale scholar Maria Tatar brings together tales from ancient times to the present and from a wide variety of cultures, highlighting the continuities and the range of themes in a fairy tale that has been used both to keep young women in their place and to encourage them to rebel, and that has entertained adults and children alike. With fresh commentary, she shows us what animals and monsters, both male and female, tell us about ourselves, and about the transformative power of empathy.
This edition of one of our most beloved and elemental fairy tales—in versions from across the centuries and around the world—is published to coincide with Disney’s live-action 3D musical film starring Emma Watson, Ian McKellen, Ewan McGregor, Audra McDonald, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci, and Emma Thompson.
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Refreezing the Permafrost
Minday, March 13
7:00PM
Harvard, Geological Museum, Haller Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Can we refreeze the Siberian permafrost? Biodiversity for a Livable Climate hosts Luke Griswold-Tergis, documentary filmmaker, who will explore this question and discuss his filming of Sergei Zimov, a Russian scientist who has brought large herbivores to an area of Siberia's tundra known as Pleistocene Park to study their impact on vegetation growth and soil temperature. Zimov is finding that where the animals are concentrated, the permafrost tends to remain frozen. There is almost twice as much carbon frozen in the ground as there is in the atmosphere; Griswold's introduction to Zimov's unique biological approach to keeping it there is timely and important. His research is highly regarded in Russia and globally.
http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/
Contact Name: Paula Phipps
paula.c.phipps at gmail.com
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Tuesday, March 14
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Enhancing Human Capability with Intelligent Machine Teammates
Tuesday, March 14
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 Patil/Kiva, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Julie Shah, MIT
Abstract: Every team has top performers -- people who excel at working in a team to find the right solutions in complex, difficult situations. These top performers include nurses who run hospital floors, emergency response teams, air traffic controllers, and factory line supervisors. While they may outperform the most sophisticated optimization and scheduling algorithms, they cannot often tell us how they do it. Similarly, even when a machine can do the job better than most of us, it can’t explain how. In this talk I share recent work investigating effective ways to blend the unique decision-making strengths of humans and machines. I discuss the development of computational models that enable machines to efficiently infer the mental state of human teammates and thereby collaborate with people in richer, more flexible ways. Our studies demonstrate statistically significant improvements in people’s performance on military, healthcare and manufacturing tasks, when aided by intelligent machine teammates.
Bio: Julie Shah is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and director of the Interactive Robotics Group, which aims to imagine the future of work by designing collaborative robot teammates that enhance human capability. As a current fellow of Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, she is expanding the use of human cognitive models for artificial intelligence. She has translated her work to manufacturing assembly lines, healthcare applications, transportation and defense. Before joining the faculty, she worked at Boeing Research and Technology on robotics applications for aerospace manufacturing. Prof. Shah has been recognized by the National Science Foundation with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award and by MIT Technology Review on its 35 Innovators Under 35 list. Her work on industrial human-robot collaboration was also in Technology Review’s 2013 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. She has received international recognition in the form of best paper awards and nominations from the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, and the International Symposium on Robotics. She earned degrees in aeronautics and astronautics and in autonomous systems from MIT.
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An Introduction to Media Cloud: Mapping the attention and influence of news
Tuesday, March 14
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Classroom 3018 (third floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/03/MediaCloud#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/03/MediaCloud at 12:00 pm
with Natalie Gyenes and Anushka Shah
Media Cloud is a web-based, open-source tool that tracks media conversations across the globe. A project hosted by the MIT Center for Civic Media and the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, the platform uses big data to aggregate and analyze news content from over 50,000 digital sources. The Media Cloud research team has used this suite of tools to explore a number of issues, from how gender based violence is covered in different media ecosystems, and the presence of public health echo chambers online, to understanding coverage around free basics in India. This conversation will begin with an introduction to Media Cloud and an overview of some of our research findings. We will then move into a use-case demonstration and workshop to explore how Media Cloud may be useful for your own research.
About Natalie
Natalie is a researcher working at the intersection of health and human rights, and will conduct research with the Berkman Klein Center and the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media. She will focus on how digital media portrays and influences issues of global health equity and access, human rights and social norms, and will explore how Media Cloud can be more useful for non-profits and intergovernmental organizations.
About Anushka
Anushka has a background in data science and media research, and is currently based in Cambridge at the Media Lab. Her primary focus at Civic Media is applying these disciplines to Indian and African media as part of the Media Cloud project.
Anushka's interest is understanding how the news covers specific topics and the effect of different narratives on civic engagement. The long term objective of such analysis is to aid the reverse engineering of both non-fiction and fiction media content to better affect citizen knowledge and participation.
Anushka grew up in India and has previously worked with various non-profits, development agencies, and political parties on ground in rural and urban India.
Media Cloud blog for more information about their research projects: http://mediacloud.org/category/research/
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Saving Environment with IoT: Smart Watering with Predix
Tuesday, March 14
1:00 PM
RSVP at http://paas.ly/2lbCqjf
Learn how IoT and Predix are fighting droughts in California using the Smart Watering System developed at the San Francisco University.
Overview
The environment-related problems are getting bigger and very serious, so there is an urgent need to solve this problems as soon as possible. One of the biggest environmental problem we are facing today is the need to fight droughts. With the growth of Internet of Things, different IoT solutions come to the rescue and create a high variety of solutions that could help cope with these environmental issues.
In this webinar, Abhilash Shrivastava will provide the detailed overview of the IoT application that could help to handle droughts. He will explore how to solve the water shortage problem using the Predix platform and how to reduce costs. This solution can be implemented at small homes as well as at large businesses.
You will learn:
How IoT solutions can cope with droughts—tracking weather data (humidity, temperature, etc.), collecting and examining it, and generating appropriate triggers/actions.
A real use-case and a working demo of Smart Watering System with the usage of GE Predix services.
How to optimize capital allocation by cutting down water bills and avoid lawn destruction due to over-soaking.
Who should attend?
Anyone who is eager to learn how Internet of Things and platforms like GE Predix are changing the world by automating various real-life industry scenarios.
About the Presenter
Abhilash Shrivastava is a web developer at Storied with 5+ years of development experience under his belt. He is also a Graduate Research Assistant at San Francisco State University, serving as a Special Assistant for Data and IT at the Campus Academic Resource Program. At a recent Predix hackathon, his team got the third place in the overall category and also grabbed the categorial prize for the “Most Effective Use of Predix Services.”
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Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Workshop
Tuesday, March 14
1:00-3:00 pm
Cambridge, City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Cambridge
The Compact for a Sustainable Future is holding an energy efficiency workshop for multifamily residential builiding owners and property managers. The workshop has been organized by Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc., which is a member of the Compact.
For more information, contact Veena Dharmaraj, vdharmaraj at cambridgema.gov
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Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto
Tuesday, March 14
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building N50, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Luis Perez-Breva
The MIT Press Bookstore presents innovator and entrepreneur Luis Perez-Breva, Lecturer and a Research Scientist at MIT's School of Engineering, discussing his book, Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong, at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, March 14, at the Bookstore.
In Innovating, Luis Perez-Breva describes a different approach to innovation--a doer's approach developed over a decade at MIT and internationally in workshops, classes, and companies. He shows that to start innovating it doesn't require an earth-shattering idea; all it takes is a hunch. Anyone can do it. By prototyping a problem and learning by being wrong, innovating can be scaled up to make an impact.
This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/luis-perez-breva-author-talk-tickets-31724049486
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
books at mit.edu
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Coal Fired Power Plants in India
Tuesday, March 14
5:30 PM
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOUUPAB5q4TLidj2z16dhTyvf8uoSnLqXjcTBgHMsUW4NYmQ/viewform?c=0&w=1
Abstract: India is the world’s third largest producer of electricity, coal-fired power plants produce about 66% of India’s total power. India’s power sector accounts for a large fraction of total emissions in the country; about 47% of CO2, 47% of SO2 and 30% of NOx emissions are traced to thermal power generation. A distinctive feature of India’s expansion of thermal power generation infrastructure is the preferential construction of thermal power plants near coal-mines. As a result, today fewer than 10% of India’s districts (60 in number) account for 90% of India’s installed coal-based generation capacity. We investigate the impact of such concentrated placement of coal power plants on local ambient air pollution and health. We exploit the strong dependence of thermal power plant siting decisions on two exogenous geographical features: (a) proximity of large water bodies, and (b) proximity to geological coal deposits, to construct an instrument variable for district-level coal power generation capacity. Using this instrument variable strategy we investigate the impact of coal power plant construction in India during 2001 to 2015 on local ambient air pollution and health. Our preliminary results suggest that coal-fired power plants lead to substantial increases in air pollution and the incidence of low birth weight (LBW). In particular, we find that a 1 TWh increase in power generation leads to a 3.2% and 0.7% increase in mean ambient SO2 and NO2, respectively, as well as a 13% increase in the incidence of LBW.
Speaker Profile: Anish Sugathan
Dr. Anish Sugathan is Faculty at the Business Policy Area of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, an Associate at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Business and Government, and is a Research Affiliate at the International Growth Center at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests are in the in the area of institutional and governance infrastructure of emerging economies that fosters sustainable development of private and public stakeholders. He teaches 'Strategic Management' and 'Business, Environment, and Sustainability' courses at IIMA.
He is currently researching efficient organizational forms and smarter environmental regulations for the Indian power & energy infrastructure sector. This work includes evaluation of regulations to optimally minimize emissions from Indian coal-fired power plants, and a study of electrification in rapidly growing urban agglomerates in India.
Anish has previously worked with IBM, BHEL, IIM-B, Center for Development Studies and Harvard Kennedy School in various capacities. He is also advising several startups in the clean-tech space. He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering from the University of Kerala, and is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He was the SAP Labs India doctoral scholar at IIM-B, and the Giorgio Ruffolo post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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Exploring Class and Classism
Tuesday, March 14
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm
BEST Hospitality Training Center (Dudley Square), 2201 Washington Street, Boston
Events
RSVP at http://www.classism.org/events/exploring-class-classism-2/
Why is class often so difficult to talk about?
How do the effects of class differences impact our work, our work relationships and our workplaces?
Why is it important to collaborate across class divisions to create more unity, especially in these times?
What is your class story?
Discuss these questions and more at our upcoming open workshop on Tuesday, March 14th. These workshops provide a forum to learn about the effects of class differences and to look at how we all have been affected by class divisions.
Class Action has spent 13 years developing creative ways of asking questions, sharing personal experiences and helping people to engage with issues of class in a meaningful way. Our popular education workshops are highly interactive, engaging and focused on learning from one another in the room.
In this workshop, participants will explore:
How class identities affect our lives, our work and our relationships
How race intersects with class
How we can become more inclusive with others from different class backgrounds than ourselves and why that’s important
How we can build community with people from all class backgrounds
If you have been thinking about bringing Class Action to your workplace, group or religious community, this is an opportunity not to miss. You can come and try a workshop to see how it could be useful for your situation.
Pizza and refreshments will be served upon arrival.
Facilitators
Denise Moorehead
Born into a lower middle class family, Denise Moorehead was raised in Western Massachusetts as an only child for 11 years. Her parents, both “strivers” increased their educational and earning power in conjunction with opportunities previously unavailable to African-Americans thanks to the civil rights movement. They were able to offer Denise dance and instrument lessons, summer camp, French camp and more. As a young child, she was often in the company of upper middle class children in these settings and working class and lower middle children in her neighborhood. Her parents prepared her to fit in with all groups. Today, Denise is a marketing, communications and training strategist working with nonprofits and small businesses as the principal of Moorehead Creative Solutions. She recently cofounded UU Class Conversations, which provides training and organizing support to Unitarian Universalist congregations and organizations working to make the denomination more class-inclusive.
Joanie Parker
Joanie grew up in Pittsburgh, the hometown of her parents, with a father who was raised owning class and a mother raised working class. Throughout her life, she was always trying to figure out why some people were left out and others weren’t in society. She decided to become an elementary school teacher to provide an environment where children could feel good about themselves. From there she was trained as a machine operator and worked in a factory for 10 years and was very involved with her union. Over the past 30 years, she has worked in the labor movement and has been actively involved in work to end racism. Currently, she is coordinating a Mentoring Program through the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD). She is also committed to working with individuals and groups on the effects of our class backgrounds and how we can actively work to end classism.
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Boston New Technology March 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT75
Tuesday, March 14
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/237859086/
Foley Hoag is in the Seaport West building (entrance on B Street). Please bring identification and check in at our desk in the lobby. Then, take an elevator to the 13th floor. Enter the glass doors and walk down the hall to your right.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Please click here to share/tweet our event with your network.
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A. Please follow @BostonNewTech and use the #BNT75 hashtag in social media posts. We'll retweet you!
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Faculty Speaker: Toward An Artificial Brain
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2017, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE The Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Science, Special Events
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/faculty-talk-toward-an-artificial-brain-registration-32133091943
DETAILS The brain is powerful biological computer–capable of taking in a flood of information from our senses, and transforming it into thought and action. Could computer algorithms be programmed to work the same way?
David Cox, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Computer Science, will explore this idea during the upcoming “Faculty Speaker: Toward an Artificial Brain.”
Cox will talk about the ARIADNE project—a multi-university effort to study a living animal brain like never before to figure out how it learns. This project will create some of the largest neuroscience datasets ever collected, and could give computers new abilities to learn and perceive the way our brains do.
LINK http://edportal.harvard.edu/event/faculty-speaker-toward-artificial-brain
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Housing Demand & Solutions in Cambridge with ABC & MAPC
Tuesday, March 14
6:30 PM
MIT, Building 32-141, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.abettercambridge.org/03_2017_abcmtg
A Better Cambridge (ABC) -- a citywide organization of pro-housing Cambridge residents -- invites you to our upcoming ABC general meeting with a presentation by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's (MAPC) Tim Reardon about housing demand in Cambridge and Greater Boston:
We'll post signs at the Stata Center to direct attendees to the correct room
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Wednesday, March 15
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, March 15
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EDT
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-30734220882
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals 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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Redefining Dance & Disability - Lecture/Demo with AXIS Dance Company
Wednesday, March 15
11:00 am to 12:30 pm
BU School of Medicine, 72 East Concord Street, Hiebert Lounge, 14th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/axis-dance-company-redefining-dance-disability-registration-31270105728
Part of the AXIS Dance Company Residency at BU March 13-18. AXIS Dance Company was founded in 1987 and has paved the way for a powerful contemporary dance form called physically integrated dance, which features dancers with and without disabilities. AXIS’ list of collaborators includes Bill T. Jones, Stephen Petronio, Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, Meredith Monk, and Joan Jeanrenaud. AXIS has toured major dance venues and festivals in more than 100 cities nationwide as well as internationally to Europe and Russia. Their work has been honored with seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards, and the company was featured twice on FOX TV’s So You Think You Can Dance. This event is free, but you must RSVP - space is limited.
Phone 617.358.0489
Contact Email artsinbu at bu.edu
Contact Organization BU Arts Initiative
Fees Free
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Forging Intelligent Systems in the Digital Era
Wednesday, March 15
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 34-401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Gary Patton (GlobalFoundries)
The pace of technological change is evolving faster than businesses can adapt, setting the stage for a new era of innovation in the electronics industry. This pace is accelerating as we enter an era of ubiquitous computing, with sensors on our bodies, in our homes and offices, and all over our cities. For the semiconductor industry, digitization, connectivity, and the Internet of Things now promise to be the enablers for the next phase of growth. However, the industry has reached a new level of maturity that demands new innovations in computing, connectivity, integration and ultra-low power applications. One technology doesn???t fit all. Although traditional Moore's Law scaling is still important for semiconductor technology progress, the complexity of technology development requires a new paradigm of silicon scaling and changing market needs require innovation in differentiated silicon technology as well as system-level integration.
The industry is pursuing numerous technologies that will continue conventional scaling as well as expand beyond it. This presentation will examine the economic trends reshaping the industry, explore opportunities and approaches that can extend scaling, highlight the role of collaborative innovation to meet technical challenges and provide insight into GLOBALFOUNDRIES??? vision to enable the technology for a new digital era.
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
617- 253-0086
beckford at mit.edu
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The impact of decarbonization policies on electric system operating characteristics
Wednesday, March 15
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Deutch
In this seminar, Professor John Deutch introduces a simple model of an electricity market with competing nuclear, renewable, and natural gas generation to explore the operating characteristics that result from the imposition of five alternative policies intended to reduce CO2 emissions and/or increase renewable generation. He uses a static equilibrium analysis of supply and demand to compare the operating characteristics of an electricity system from the imposition of each new policy measure; the range of CO2 emission reductions proves to be surprisingly large. Given the values of the parameters assumed, Deutch finds it is unlikely that replacing a renewable portfolio standard by a carbon-free portfolio standard would be sufficient to encourage deployment of new nuclear electricity generation.
Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/315-seminar-the-impact-of-decarbonization-policies-on-electric-system-operating-characteristics-registration-32332702985
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/315-seminar-the-impact-of-decarbonization-policies-on-electric-system-operating-characteristics-registration-32332702985
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: MITEI Events
miteievents at mit.edu
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Reducing Emissions by Pricing Carbon: How Microsoft and Yale are leading the charge
Wednesday, March 15
4:00-5:30 pm
BU, Metcalfe Trustee Center, 1 Silber Way, 9th floor, Boston
RSVP at http://www.bit.ly/BU-GRC
Please join the Boston Green Ribbon Commission and Boston University for a panel discussion on Internal Carbon Fees.
From college campuses to Davos, carbon pricing is a policy instrument regarded by climate scientists, economists, and political and business leaders as an important part of efforts to mitigate global climate change.
We have an exciting panel:
Microsoft's TJ DiCaprio will explain how in its first four-and-a-half years the company's carbon pricing program changed the company’s culture, reduced carbon emissions by 9.5 million metric tons, purchased more than 14M MWh of renewable energy, helped reduce energy consumption more than 10% across the Redmond campus, and impacted more than 7 million peoples’ lives in emerging nations. TJ is Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability at Microsoft.
Yale's Casey Pickett will present the experience and results of the Yale 2015/2016 pilot program and what comes next, following the leadership decision to use the campus as a test bed for carbon pricing. Casey is Director of the Carbon Charge at Yale.
BU's Kenneth Pucker will discuss effective carbon pricing and organizational behavior based on accurate measurement of climate impacts. Ken is the former COO of Timberland and Lecturer, Organizational Behavior, at the Questrom School of Business.
ProPublica's Andrew Revkin will moderate. Andy is Senior Reporter on Climate Change at ProPublica and former environmental reporter at The New York Times, where he wrote the Dot Earth Blog.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.
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In search of a "Trump Doctrine": Change and Continuity in American Foreign Policy
WHEN Wednesday, Mar. 15, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Institute of Politics, Littauer Faculty Dining Room (FDR), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) IOP Fellow Jon Finer
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO deisy_carrera at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS President Trump's foreign policy views have been much-debated but remain largely inchoate. His career prior to the presidency leaves few clues as to what his approach to national security issues might be. The campaign that brought him to power largely focused on domestic issues. And the opening days of any president's tenure are probably not the best time to draw firm conclusions.
The study group will examine the Trump Administration's nascent foreign policy, as it unfolds in real-time, by focusing on at six traditional areas of focus: Russia, the Middle East (Syria and Iran), Climate Change, Asia, and trade policy. In each case, students will discuss and seek to understand the Obama Administration's approach, and assess early indications of (and implications for) continuity and change by the Trump Administration. An objective would be, by the end of the study group, for students to be able to describe the new Administration's foreign policy with as much precision as possible and to distill from this examination what could someday come to be known as a "Trump Doctrine," encapsulating the new Administration's worldview.
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/jon-finer
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MBTA Focus40 Public Meeting
Wednesday, March 15
5:00-8:00 pm
MIT Media Lab, 6th floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
This public meeting is part of the MBTA’s process to develop the Focus40 Plan which will layout a capital investment strategy to improve the public transit system. The MBTA has received over 3,000 ideas so far and will discuss these and next steps at the public meeting. For more information, see the Focus40 website: https://www.mbtafocus40.com/get-involved
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2017 Boston Cleantech Open Kickoff
Wednesday, March 15
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cleantech-opens-2017-boston-kickoff-party-tickets-32185324171
Cost: $10 - $20
Join us for an awesome night of cleantech community networking leading up to the Cleantech Open 2017 Accelerator program.
Entrepreneurs, students, savvy technologists, investors, professionals, and other interested parties all welcome!
At the launch party you'll be able to:
Connect with Boston's top innovators, supporters, and thought leaders in the cleantech space.
Get exposure by giving your 1 minute elevator pitch in front of judges and potential teammates (if you're ready!).
Listen to past competitors as they share their experience with Cleantech Open.
Celebrate our amazing community!
Agenda:
5:30-6:15pm Networking
6:15pm Welcome from Host
6:30pm Welcome from Cleantech Open
6:45pm Alumni Lightning Talks
7:00-7:20pm Pitch Competition
7:30-8:30pm Open Networking
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Tiny Cells, Global Impact: A Journey of Discovery with a Microbe from the Sea
Wednesday, March 15
6:00 PM
Harvard, Museum of Natural History, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sallie W. Chisholm, Institute Professor, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phytoplankton–microscopic photosynthetic cells–form the base of ocean food webs. They are responsible for half the photosynthesis on Earth and thus play a central role in our planet’s metabolism. Discovered only three decades ago, Prochlorococcus is the smallest and most abundant member of the phytoplankton, manufacturing billions of tons of living biomass each year. Sallie Chisholm will discuss how this tiny microbe has helped scientists to understand the forces that shape ecosystems and to appreciate their genetic diversity.
The Evolution Matters Lecture Series is supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit.
More information at http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/tiny-cells-global-impact-journey-discovery-microbe-sea
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Divided: Communication and Planning Within Conftested Space and Contemporary Populism
Wednesday, March 15
6:15 PM – 9:15 PM EDT
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/divided-tickets-32122976688
Can planning communication diminish contested spaces in an era of contemporary populism?
Please join us for a special event, sponsored by the Ross Silberberg Memorial Fund. The event will include, live music and a panel discussion by guests Richard Parker, Suzanne Morse Moomaw, Karen Abrams, and Ceasar McDowell. The event is free and open to the community.
Richard Parker is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, Senior Fellow of the Shorenstein Center, cofounder of Mother Jones magazine, and Editorial Chair of The Nation. As an author, editor, publisher, professor, and senior observer, Mr. Parker will reflect on America from its founding, especially considering how today’s geographic divisions date back to the settlement of this nation.
Suzanne Morse Moomaw is Associate Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning and Director of the Community Design Research Center at UVA’s School of Architecture. She also has had a distinguished career in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds She has spent a career working to bring design and planning to places disrupted or overlooked, and she trains students to work in the nation’s often forgotten rural and former industrial communities.
Karen Abrams, is Community and Diversity Affairs manager at the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, will underscore the importance of public involvement and community development, especially in vulnerable urban communities. She collaborates with residents on urban planning and design projects and helps neighborhood groups build social capital and financial capacity. She has a BS in African and African American Studies and a Master of Science in Sustainable Systems.
Ceasar McDowell is Professor of the Practice of Community Development at MIT. He holds an Ed.D. (88) and M.Ed. (84) from Harvard.. Ceasar's current work is on the development of community knowledge systems and civic engagement. Drawing from his practice, he will address the importance of communication among and across communities that are currently at odds.
This event is generously supported by the Ross Silberberg (1990) Memorial Fund, which supports student research travel grants and a bi-annual lecture in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT to explore the interaction of design and social justice. Ross Silberberg was an architect, urban designer, and educator who had the soul and intellect of a city planner. He was deeply committed to issues of economic and social justice and believed all designers and planners have a responsibility to improve lives by speaking out, paying attention, and advocating for those whose voices are overwhelmed or dismissed by our systems of power and commerce. Through his decade of teaching, writing, and research he instilled in his students and colleagues the importance of listening, whether the message is welcome or not. Never one to back away from contentious issues and difficult conversations, he made a professional commitment to inclusivity and dialogue, and he took a broad view of the practice of design that is at the core of the purpose of this Memorial Fund
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MCAN (Massachusetts Communities Action Network) Rapid Response Network Training
Wednesday, March 15
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Cathedral of St Paul, 138 Tremont Street, in the Lower Sproat Hall, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mcan-rapid-response-network-training-tickets-32266006494
Our communities are under attack and as people of faith we must bear witness and resist and protect our communities so that no one stands alone.
Please join MCAN for a Rapid Response Network Training! ICE raids and mass deportations are happening around the country, and we need to prepare for this reality in Massachusetts. We can't let any of our vulnerable neighbors stand alone.
In this Rapid Response Network Training, we will learn about how we can best bear public witness to the injustice of deportation, how we can accompany the families of people who have been deported, and how we can further advocate for immigration justice.
This is a crucial piece of our effort to be in solidarity with people most impacted increased immigration enforcement and raids. Please join us!
Editorial Comment: There was a rush of Meetup groups #Resist a few weeks ago but I haven’t seen them posting events there since. This seems to be a direct action arm of that politics. Indivisible groups are also out there working, along with many others on the radar and under it.
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Thursday, March 16
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Industry driving environmental excellence
Thursday, March 16
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Sheryl Corrigan, Director of environmental, health and safety, Koch Industries
With the industrial sector responsible for nearly 35% of U.S. energy consumption, large-scale industrial innovation made possible by neglect of the environment is unacceptable. Simultaneously addressing environmental needs, business growth priorities and consumer demand is a difficult balancing act — so how can companies find success within this framework? More importantly, how will it impact businesses moving forward? Today's most successful industry leaders invest in identifying game-changing efficiencies that, in turn, deliver in-demand products and services using fewer natural resources. Whether it's establishing programs that reduce waste in supply chains or creating a team of experts who drive energy efficiency programming, businesses are in a race to produce while minimizing their environmental footprint. Businesses that come closest to achieving success have embedded environmental stewardship and being a responsible operator as part of their core business management philosophy. Join Sheryl Corrigan for a discussion on how business, like Koch Industries are addressing that challenge.
Sheryl Corrigan is the director of environmental, health and safety for Koch Industries, Inc., driving discovery of excellence and innovation opportunities, and providing oversight of Koch companies' environmental performance. Previously, Ms. Corrigan was senior vice president of environmental, health and safety for Flint Hills Resources, LLC; a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Before joining Koch, Ms. Corrigan was commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, advising the governor and helping set the strategic direction for the state on environmental matters. She has also worked for 3M in a number of positions focusing on environmental, health and safety operational excellence. Ms. Corrigan earned a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology.
Watch it live from your computer or smart phone:
Webex: http://bit.ly/TuftsLunchLearn
Editorial Comment: Koch Industries and environmentalism? Could be interesting.
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Elders Climate Action - Mass Chapter Monthly
Thursday, March 16
12 - 2:30 pm
55 Naples Road, Brookline
Elders Climate Action Massachusetts chapter next meeting will be on Thursday, March 16 12-2:30 pm at Dawn's home in Coolidge Corner, 55 Naples
Rd, Brookline, MA 02446. Further information to follow about the agenda and speakers for this meeting. Always stimulating and action-oriented. Bring
your lunch or a potluck item to share.See our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/ecamasschapter/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf) to find out more.
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From Stereopticon to Telephone: The Selling of the President in the Gilded Age
Thursday, March 16
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Charles Musser
Contrary to our received notions on the newness of new media, the presidential campaigns of the late nineteenth century witnessed an explosion of media forms as advisers and technicians exploited a variety of forms promote their candidates and platforms, including the stereopticon (a modernized magic lantern), the phonograph, and the telephone. In the process, they set in motion not only a new way of imagining how to market national campaigns and candidates; they also helped to usher in novel forms of mass spectatorship. Analogies to presidential campaigns in the 21st century are inevitable--and will not be avoided. The presentation comes out of Charlie Musser's new book, Politicking and Emergent Media: US Presidential Elections of the 1890s (University of California Press).
Charles Musser is professor of Film & Media Studies, American Studies and Theater Studies at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including the now-classic The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907. His most recent documentary is Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch (2014).
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu
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BOSTON SEMINAR: Combatting Rising Heat & Rising Demands on Energy Usage
Thursday, March 16
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress Street, Fort Point Room, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-seminar-combatting-rising-heat-rising-demands-on-energy-usage-registration-32453949637
Join us for the next seminar in our series, “Climate Ready? Designing for Extreme Weather,” hosted by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger this spring at Atlantic Wharf in Downtown Boston.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Climate Ready? Designing for Extreme Weather
Boston, like other cities, has identified climate change as a potential threat to our city. Boston’s recently issued Climate Projection Consensus identified four potential impacts (extreme temperatures, extreme precipitation, relative sea level rise, and coastal storms), which drive three major climate hazards: coastal and riverine flooding, stormwater flooding, and extreme heat. Design and construction methods will need to change in response, both to protect our buildings and infrastructure, and also to help limit the built environment’s contribution. Join us for this four-part seminar series that explores the issues of designing for extreme weather, both at an individual and a community level.
ABOUT THIS SEMINAR
Combatting Rising Heat and Rising Demands on Energy Usage
Arfa Aijazi, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. and Master of Science Candidate, MIT and James Dolan, Principal-in-Charge of Energy Engineering Services, OLA Consulting Engineers
The Northeast is getting hotter with more extreme heat days and longer heat waves. This increases building energy demands, especially in urban settings. In response, we continue to emphasize better building performance to counteract rising cooling costs with more efficient mechanical systems and better functioning building envelopes. Designs are also evolving to limit solar heat gain, explore alternative air circulation options, and consider on-site energy and cooling options to limit impact. But what is really achievable?
This presentation looks at overall strategies for improving building energy performance, and specific options for limiting heat gain and improving cooling efficiency.
Participants will earn 1.0 AIA CES Learning Unit (LU/HSW) for their attendance.
EVENT DETAILS
SCHEDULE
5:30 - 6:00PM Registration & Refreshments
6:00 - 7:00PM Presentation & Discussion
7:00 - 7:30PM Cocktail Reception
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There will be blood: Human genetic studies of blood production and disease
WHEN Thursday, Mar. 16, 2017, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Broad Institute Auditorium, 415 Main Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Broad Institute
SPEAKER(S) Vijay Sankaran
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/there-will-be-blood-human-genetic-studies-of-blood-production-and-disease-tickets-31938493895
CONTACT INFO events at broadinstitute.org
DETAILS Every second, without thinking, our bodies produce millions of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. If this process goes awry, devastating blood disorders can occur, including anemia and leukemia. Vijay Sankaran is interested in how this process happens normally and how it can be perturbed in disease. He will discuss work from his laboratory that provides insight into the process of blood cell production, and talk about how these findings are leading to the development of improved treatments for blood diseases such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia.
LINK https://www.broadinstitute.org/science-all-seasons/science-all-seasons-2017
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Architecture Lecture with Tarik Oulalou and Linna Choi: Territories of Disobedience
Thursday, March 16
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Part of the MIT Department of Architecture Spring 2017 Lecture Series
Web site: architecture.mit.edu/lectures
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Irina Chernyakova
617-253-4416
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Germany in the New England States (GeNES) - Konsultations: Discussing the Trump phenomenon & social responsibility of scientists
Thursday, March 16
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CET
German Consulate General, 3 Copley Place, Suite 500, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/germany-in-the-new-england-states-genes-konsultations-understanding-the-trump-phenomenon-social-tickets-32498051547
Welcome to Konsultations, a new event format at the German Consulate.
Join Consul General Dr. Ralf Horlemann for a talk with Prof. Gil Noam and Prof. Uta Poiger on the role of psychology and psychiatry in discussing the Trump phenomenon and reflections on social responsibility of scientists.
Gil Noam is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and Uta Poiger is Dean of the College for Social Science and Humanities at Northeastern University.
Konsultations is a new event format presented by to German Consulate in Boston. It will be held quarterly and is open to the public. The Consul General of the New England States will discuss topics of interests with local scientists and experts in the fields of politics, society, and sciences.
Our Konsulations take place at the German Consulate General in Back Bay. We cordially invite you to our kick-off event and hope you will be able to join us!
Snacks from the traditional German cuisine as well as drinks will be served.
PLEASE bring an ID-card for check-in.
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Civic Science Roundtable: GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS: UNCERTAIN CHOICES IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAIN HARMS
Thursday, March 16
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
DeWick Conference Room, 25 Latin Way, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/civic-science-roundtable-316-tickets-31265925224
Ethical, legal and other societal values underlie public debate and decision-making about genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
In the face of the uncertain harms of GMOs, we need to further discuss the consequences and impact of this technology.
We will explore the question, how can non-scientists and consumers unravel the scientific complexities of GMOs and enter into dialogue with scientists and policy-makers in ways that build trust to better inform decisions about the future use of GMOs?
Guest Scientist- Prof. Sheldon Krimsky, Lenore Stern Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, Adjunct professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Tufts University School of Medicine
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Civic Engagement Through Technology
Thursday, March 16
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Boston Bar Association, 16 Beacon Street, Boston
RSVP ata https://www.meetup.com/Boston-and-Cambridge-Legal-Hackers/events/237246237/
Our topic: civic engagement through technology. Today more than ever, the people want to be involved in the process, to learn about the government agenda, and to make their views known. There have been many interesting developments. There are apps that allow tracking legislation and providing feedback to lawmakers in real time. Others concentrate on accessing government data. There are efforts at community organizing and crowdfunding public causes.
Come to learn more about and to discuss these issues with us!
Panel + Guests
Marc Lauritsen, Esq. | Capstone Practice Systems
Rebecca G. Pontikes, Esq. | Pontikes Law, Boston
Countable
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The Conservation of Devil Rays
Thursday, March 16
7pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, Aquarium Pier, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106945&view=Detail
Daniel Fernando; Co-founder of Blue Resources; Associate Director of The Manta Trust; Ph.D. student at Linnaeus University; New England Aquarium Marine Conservation Action Fund Fellow
Devil rays, also known as mobula rays, are closely related to the more iconic and better known manta rays. In recent decades, all these species have been facing increasing threats driven by unsustainable target and bycatch fisheries, seeking to supply the international demand for their dried gill plates in Chinese medicine. Growing awareness and concerns for the survival of these species resulted in some level of international protection. However, further work is required. Daniel Fernando tells us about his research efforts to better understand these animals and about his work to promote their conservation.
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Political Rumors in American Politics
Thursday, March 16
7:30p–8:30p
MIT, Building 4-145, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Adam Berinsky
Professor Adam Berinsky will discuss the nature of rumors in the modern political system, such as the belief that the ACA mandates Death Panels and the notion that the U.S. government was responsible for 9/11. I particular, he will explore who believes rumors and what can be done to correct them. Following the talk, there will be time for questions.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Democrats
For more information, contact: Davi da Silva
ddasilva at mit.edu
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Friday, March 17
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7th MA SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE
Friday, March 17
Endicott College, Beverly
RSVP at http://masustainablecommunities.com
Sustainability by Land & Sea: Advancing Sustainability in Communities and on Campuses. TRACKS: Communities & Campuses, Energy Trends, Coastal & Climate Resilience, Career Exploration & Advancement, Citizens Engaged, and Campus Trends. Early bird discount ’til 2/17. For more information and to register: http://masustainablecommunities.com
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Decoding Violence: Safety Through Social Media
Friday, March 17
8:30 am - 10:00 am
Fidelity Labs, 245 Summer Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/decoding-violence-safety-through-social-media-tickets-31979745279
Cost: $11.54
Design Museum Mornings with Dr. Desmond Patton, SAFElab
Firearm violence continues to be a serious public health problem in the United States, where the overall firearm death rate is 10 times higher than in other high-income countries. In particular, Chicago has seen a 58 % increase in homicides in 2016 due to fire-arm related homicides. Traditional firearm violence intervention treats the problem like an epidemic: Violent behavior transmits and spreads based on exposure through face-to face interactions. However, recent research shows that interactions on social media often time result in real life violence.
For March’s Design Museum Mornings, Dr. Desmond Patton, director of the SAFElab and Assistant Professor at the Columbia School of Social Work will discuss a prototype natural language processing system, using a small Twitter dataset from a deceased gang member from Chicago. Taking place at Fidelity Labs on the morning of March 17th, this presentation will help convey to attendees the power of social media as a tool for firearm violence prevention and will identify critical conditions that will help them think differently about root causes of violence. Complete with breakfast and coffee, March’s Design Museum Mornings is not to be missed!
Doors open at 8:30am; Presentation begins at 9:00am.
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MacVicar Day 25th Anniversary Symposium
Friday, March 17
2:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Join us for the 25th Anniversary of the MacVicar Faculty Fellows program as we celebrate excellence in undergraduate teaching at this year's symposium.
Reception to follow.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/macvicar/macvicarday.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: $0.00
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): Office of Faculty Support
For more information, contact: Piero Chacon
617-253-9763
pieroc at mit.edu
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PSFC Seminar: Introduction to hadrontherapy and how it can benefit from superconductivity today and in the future
Friday, March 17
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Eric Forton
Plasma Science and Fusion Center Seminar Series
Born in the middle of the 20th century, proton/hadron therapy has slowly developed. But today, the market recently picked up momentum and new clinical facilities are opened every year.
The initial idea of hadron therapy is the same as for conventional radiation therapy: a particle beam delivers a high dose to the patient tumor with as little as possible stray dose to the surrounding tissues. But hadrons do not interact with matter through the same mechanisms as photons do. Hadron therapy therefore leverages on the way hadrons interact with matter in order to increase treatment efficiency and reduce side effects.
In this seminar, an introduction to hadrontherapy and the way dose is delivered to the patient will be presented. This introduction will be followed by a view on the market players and insights on their current systems and solutions. The way superconductivity is used in these systems will be discussed, highlighting how and why it could be useful or not, as well as the challenges to be addressed.
Web site: IBA
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Plasma Science and Fusion Center
For more information, contact: Paul Rivenberg
617-253-8101
rivenberg at psfc.mit.edu
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Food Fights and Culture Wars
Friday, March 17
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
In this eclectic book of food history, Tom Nealon takes on such overlooked themes as carp and the Crusades, brown sauce and Byron, and chillies and cannibalism, and suggests that hunger and taste are the twin forces that secretly defined the course of civilization. Through war and plague, revolution and migration, people have always had to eat. What and how they ate provoked culinary upheaval around the world as ingredients were traded and fought over, and populations desperately walked the line between satiety and starvation.
Parallel to the history books, a second, more obscure history was also being recorded in the cookbooks of the time, which charted the evolution of meals and the transmission of ingredients around the world. Food Fights and Culture Wars: A Secret History of Taste explores the mysteries at the intersection of food and society, and attempts to make sense of the curious area between fact and fiction.
Beautifully illustrated with material from the collection of the British Library, this wide-ranging book addresses some of the fascinating, forgotten stories behind everyday dishes and processes. Among many conspiracies and controversies, the author meditates on the connections between the French Revolution and table settings, food thickness and colonialism, and lemonade and the Black Plague.
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Saturday, March 18
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Maple SyrupBoil Down
Saturday, March 18
10-2pm
Growing Center, 24 Park Street, Somerville
The sub-freezing temperatures are not letting up! Due to the weather, we must reschedule the Maple Boil Down Festival yet again. Our new date is Saturday, March 18th. We look forward to enjoying the music, pancakes, a steaming boiler, and lots more fun with you on our new Boil Down date! Please check our Facebook page for more info and updates.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/GroundworkSomerville
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TEDxBU Spring 2017
Saturday, March 18
10:00 AM – 5:30 PM EDT
BU, Questrom Auditorium, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxbu-spring-2017-tickets-32361007645
Cost: $15.50
Join us for a day of community growth, discussion, and showcase on the TEDx platform! The theme for this year is 'LANDSCAPE, Giving Context to Our Potential'.
Listen to influencers in our community discuss a broad range of topics with the express purpose of growing together. We're also going to be showcasing our talent via some performances! During breaks, enjoy networking opportunities and breakout activities to get deeper into the discussion. Interact with our sponsors who will be supplementing the event with more activities and giveaways. Lunch and light snacks included!
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Our Creation Care Leadership Through Organizing
Saturday March 18 (March 25, April 1, April 8)
1 pm to 5 pm
Bethel AME, 40 Walk Hill Street, Embassy Room, Youth Center, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at http://conta.cc/2kIahUg
MA Interfaith Power & Light is introducing a new experiential and relational program designed to enable people of faith to become active and effective leaders in the fight against climate change. Our Creation Care Leadership Through Organizing training recognizes that values and emotions are key elements that facilitate action.
The four afternoon workshops will enable you to:
Identify the actions that your faith, values and passions call you to take;
Work with the psychology of facing of climate change in order to move from awareness to acceptance to action;
Use the power of public narrative to invite others to join you in collective action;
Build strong teams with shared norms and clear roles;
Organize strategically with specific goals and a realistic timeline; and
Develop relationships that will continue after the program.
Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Minister of Ecological Justice, Bethel A.M.E. Church
Vince Maraventano, M.Div., Executive Director, MA Interfaith Power & Light
Emily Kirkland, Director of Organizing, 350 Mass. for a Better Future
Andy Gordon, Legislative Coordinator, 350 Mass. for a Better Future
Experienced organizers from 350 Mass for a Better Future will teach the skills needed to carry out the values-based organizing model developed by Marshall Ganz of Harvard University. Facilitators trained in ministry will draw on the values articulated by Laudato Si', and the wisdom of Joanna Macy needed to support sustained engagement. There will be an optional time for meal fellowship.
The program will mainly benefit those wanting to lead activities within communities of faith. It will also be extremely valuable to those beginning or already engaged in advocacy and activism in the larger community
Saturday 3/18, 3/25, 4/1 & 4/8 from 1 pm to 5 pm
Where: Bethel AME, 40 Walk Hill St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; Embassy Room, Youth Center.
Register today at: http://conta.cc/2kIahUg
Registration limited and available on first come first served basis.
No Fee. 2 Participants per congregation recommended – no more than 3. A light meal will be served. Convenient to MBTA Orange Line, Forest Hills station and buses.
All faiths welcome!
For more information contact: Vince Maraventano: vince at MIPandL.org or 617-244-0755
Co-sponsors: Environmental Ministries, MACUCC; Creation Care Ministries, TABCOM
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Data Democracy: Finance, Information and Power
Saturday, March 18
3 pm - 7 pm
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 838 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Suggested donation:$5 - $20
We don’t think of money as information, but at its essence that’s what it is: after all, the claim is that one rupee or one dollar is the same whether we are buying apples or airplanes. Or, to put it another way, every major innovation in finance moves us one step closer to the ideal of money as pure information. Cash is inherently more "information like" than barter and electronic bits are inherently more information like than cash. Money seems to want to become more and more like information, at least in the elite understanding of the financial system.
What’s even less known is the relationship between information and power. Of course, we are all aware of the extent of surveillance by the state and by private parties. Every time we search for something on google there’s a little bit more information about you in private hands. The recent push for demonetization and a cashless economy is a master stroke in the evolution of information and power. Why bother spying on people when you can control their financial transactions? It’s a classic neoliberal move - to increase control by advancing a progressive claim such as "we will end corruption, we will reduce inefficiency.”
Even more worrying is the possibility that there’s no conspiracy in all of this, that those who want a cashless economy truly believe in its merits. That brings us to the final piece of the puzzle: that the way the "information ideology" works is by colonizing our minds, so that we end up serving its interests of our own accord. So how do we understand the contours of democracy in this new era? What forms can effective resistance take? Those are the questions we will consider in this seminar.
Seminar followed by dinner and cultural program to celebrate struggles of all people on the occasion of 86th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev
Organized by: Coalition for a Democratic India*
For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/393715117660436/
*Coalition for a Democratic India is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting environmental, social and economic movements in India
For further information, contact Jaspal at paljas at yahoo.com or Arif at arif.hussainhs at gmail.com
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Sunday, March 19
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Portrait of an Artist: The Life and Work of Edward Sorel
Sunday, March 19
3:00 pm
BU, 771 Commonwealth Avenue, Howard Gotlieb Memorial Gallery, 1st Floor, Boston
Speaker: Jules Feiffer
The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University is proud to open "Portrait of an Artist: the Life and Work of Edward Sorel", a retrospective exhibition devoted to the career of the celebrated cartoonist, satirist, author and illustrator. In addition to his more than 40 covers for the "The New Yorker", Sorel's art has appeared on the covers of "The Atlantic", "Harper's", "Fortune", "Forbes", "The Nation", "Esquire", "American Heritage", "The New York Times Magazine" and "Vanity Fair". He has illustrated numerous children's books, three of which he also wrote. "Unauthorized Portraits" (Knopf 1997) is the most recent of several collections of his work. His latest book, "Mary Astor's Purple Diary: the Great American Sex Scandal of 1936", was published in 2016 to critical acclaim. In 2001, the Art Directors Club of New York elected Sorel to their Hall of Fame; he is first cartoonist since John Held, Jr., to be so honored. Sorel's papers are part of the holdings of the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.
The opening will feature remarks by Sorel's colleague, the satirist, cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer, best known for his 42-year career as an editorial cartoonist for The Village Voice. Sorel will sign copies of his books at the event; selected titles, including "Mary Astor's Purple Diary", will be available for purchase.
Contact Name Kate Stringer
Phone (617) 353-3696
Contact Email k8string at bu.edu
Contact Organization Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
Fees Free
Editorial Comment: Jules Feiffer is doing some amazing work in graphic novels these days. His Cousin Joseph is visually groundbreaking.
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Monday, March 20
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PAOC Colloquium - Brian Rose (U Albany)
Monday, March 20
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
About the Speaker
I am broadly interested in the behavior of the climate system at the global scale. My research is oriented toward fundamental questions such as: What factors control the global mean temperature and its equator-to-pole gradient? Why has Earth's climate been more variable during some periods of the deep geological past than others? Is the climate unique, or does the Earth system possess multiple equilibria? By studying the fundamental underlying rules governing the climate system, we build a deeper understanding of the past and future evolution of climate on Earth, and other planets as well.
Attempting to answer these questions inevitably involves studying the often-surprising interactions among different components of the climate system: atmosphere, ocean, ice, etc. I have broad training in both atmospheric science and oceanography, and I am particularly interested in coupled atmosphere-ocean climate dynamics over long time scales. I also have a special interest in polar climate and ocean-sea ice interaction.
My work typically takes a building blocks approach, trying to build understanding of the complex climate system through judicious simplication. I explore ideas using hierarchies of idealized atmosphere-ocean models, ranging from simple mathematical descriptions to complex coupled numerical calculations.
Some specific ongoing research interests and projects include:
Modeling the effects of ocean heat transport and heat uptake on surface temperature and climate sensitivity
The dynamics of past warm climates
Multiple equilibria in the climate system
Ocean - sea ice interaction in cold climates
Oceanography of Snowball Earth
The observed vertical structure of heat fluxes into the Arctic
About the Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. 2016/2017 co-ordinators: Tom Beucler (tbeucler at mit.edu), Deepa Rao (drao at mit.edu), Madeleine Youngs (myoungs at mit.edu) and Catherine Wilka (cwilka at mit.edu)
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Coupling between the land and atmosphere: new insights from models and observations
Monday, March 20
12:00pm
Harvard, Geological Museum Haller Hall (102), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Kaighin McColl, Ziff Environmental Fellow, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard
Strong coupling exists between the land surface and atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Therefore, modeling and prediction of state variables at or near the land surface, such as temperature, humidity, or vegetation biomass, requires a full understanding of the state of the ABL. However, modeling the ABL is difficult because it is turbulent, and because surface fluxes are heterogeneous. Due to these difficulties, models often exhibit substantial biases at the land surface, precisely where predictions are most relevant to humanity. In this talk, I will present results from high-resolution simulations of an idealized ABL, which demonstrate that large-scale turbulent motions contribute significantly to turbulent fluxes at the land surface, contrary to existing theory used in climate model parameterizations. This demonstrates that the land surface and the ABL are more tightly coupled than previously thought. I will also present results using new soil moisture observations from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. I use these observations to globally map regions in which soil moisture-precipitation feedbacks can occur; and to estimate a key land-atmosphere coupling parameter used in climate models, related to water-limited evapotranspiration. I will discuss these results in the context of future challenges and opportunities for understanding land-atmosphere interactions.
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Limits of Bioenergy for Carbon Mitigation
Monday, March 20
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Alexandre Strapasson, Giorgio Ruffolo Research Fellow in Sustainability Science/Environment and Natural Resources Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS. Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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xTalks/DUET "Evaluating Learning with Evidence - Not Just Course Evaluation Forms"
Monday, March 20
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 10-105, Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof David Pritchard
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.
"Evaluating Learning with Evidence - Not Just Course Evaluation Forms"
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/evaluating-learning-evidence-not-just-course-evaluation-formsOpen to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Digital Learning, xTalks: Digital Discourses, Teaching and Learning Laboratory
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info at mit.edu
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Kelman Seminar: “Connecting with the Enemy: A Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence”
WHEN Monday, Mar. 20, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room, S-020, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Religion
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution series is sponsored by the Program on Negotiation, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Boston area members of the Alliance for Peacebuilding.
SPEAKER(S) Sheila Katz
Professor of Middle East History and Contemplative Studies
Berklee College of Music, Boston
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks, dhicks at wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS Sheila Katz is author of "Connecting with the Enemy: A Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence" (University of Texas Press, 2016), the first comprehensive history of grassroots efforts to forge nonviolent alternatives to the lethal collision of these two national movements. Her first book, "Women and Gender in Early Palestinian and Jewish Nationalism" (University Press of Florida, 2003), investigates the origins of this conflict through the transformation of gender and national identities during the first half of the 20th century. Before coming to Berklee, she taught at Harvard for eight years where she organized programs on Middle Eastern women. She has published numerous articles and reviews in places such as Kandiyoti’s, Gendering the Middle East, the Arab Studies Journal, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Lilith Magazine, among others. Katz holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University in fine arts (studio and history) and both a master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard University in Middle East studies.
LINK http://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/kelman-seminar-connecting-enemy-century-palestinian-israeli-joint-nonviolence/
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John T. Dunlop Lecture in Housing and Urbanization: Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh
WHEN Monday, Mar. 20, 2017, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, 48 Quincy Street, Piper Auditorium, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
SPEAKER(S) Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh
DETAILS Since taking office in 2014, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has made his mark in Boston and, increasingly, on the national stage as well. A former leader of Boston's construction trade unions who also served as a state representative, Walsh has made housing and community development central to his efforts to ensure that Boston is a "thriving, healthy, and innovative" city with "equality and opportunity for all."
In 2014, the new administration released "Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030," which stated that Boston needed to create 53,000 housing units to accommodate the city's growing population. The city is expected to soon top 700,000 people for the first time since the 1950s and, in keeping with this plan, had permitted almost 20,000 new units by 2016 and was reviewing plans for about 20,000 more.
The city, which built a state-of- the-art shelter for homeless people, is also developing strategies to effectively end chronic homelessness and has launched Imagine Boston 2030, which will produce Boston's first comprehensive plan in over 50 years.
In addition, the Walsh administration has undertaken notable efforts to keep Boston at the forefront of the global innovation economy, to strengthen its schools, expand opportunities for historically disadvantaged communities, improve police-community relations, and address Boston's troubled history of race relations.
In recent months, Mayor Walsh has also emerged as an important voice in national debates about immigration and other key federal policies and programs that could greatly affect residents, neighborhoods and communities in Boston and other cities.
LINK http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/event/17th-annual-john-t-dunlop-lecture-boston-mayor-martin-j-walsh
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Thirty Seconds to Midnight movie
Monday, March 20
7pm
The Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston Street, Boston near Copley Square.
Thirty Seconds to Midnight by Regis Tremblay, covers three threats to all life on this planet: nuclear weapons, nuclear war, and the
ongoing climate catastrophe. It features interviews with such impressive activists and authors as Dr. Helen Caldicott; Ray McGovern; Chris Hedges; Ann Wright; Peter Kuznick (co-author and producer of Oliver Stone’s “Untold History of the United States); and David Vine.
Regis Tremblay will be at the showing and it should be an interesting discussion.
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Tuesday, March 21
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Get Smaaht: Grid Modernization in Mass
Tuesday, March 21
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, 18th Floor "Hemingway Room,” Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/get-smaaht-grid-modernization-in-mass-tickets-31681241446
Cost: $45 – $65
Join us for a trip into the future. Learn about the electric grid that we see today and opportunities for investment on both the wires’ side and buildings’ side. Where is development is needed, planned, and in process? How do grid modernization technologies stack up against each other? How do smart buildings (green buildings) fit into the grid of the future and what opportunities might there be with time of use metering, energy storage financing, and data management?
Let's talk about electric vehicles and the demand / support that they can provide with a smart grid. How is this energy industry transforming? Is analytics as a service going to be a communication with office managers and facility staff or will a cloud-based service possibly control our building? Will batteries be used to level loads on stressed electricity feeders?
How does what we do in Massachusetts compare to progress in other states? California, Texas and Illinois have the lead but what might happen in MA to make our grid the pacesetter?
This is part of our Market Leadership Series where we encourage the professional in the room to drive the conversation and share their questions and perspective for a robust session.
Advisement: This conversation will be led by Chapter member Ben Pignatelli from the Department of Public Utilities (DPU). Ben's presentation will not reflect the views of the DPU nor will he be able to speak on behalf of the Department. His presentation will outline publically available information and the science supporting it.
About the Speaker - Ben Pignatelli:
As a technical staff member in the Electric Power Division at the DPU Ben works on regulatory and market issues associated with energy efficiency, grid modernization, and competitive electricity supply. He has evaluated the MassSave program, is reviewing public utility grid modernization plans, and reviews municipal electricity aggregation plans. Ben also manages regulatory relations with electricity supply companies through investigations, licensing, and market animation initiatives. He has held previous roles with the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the City of Boston. Ben is a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP) and holds an MBA from Boston University and a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire in Political Science.
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The Things of the Internet
Tuesday, March 21
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/2017/03/Mina#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/03/Mina at 12:00 pm
As the internet connects makers, manufacturers and shippers across supply chains, a new form of producing and distributing global objects is arising, one that relies more on bottom up networks than top down oversight. When you look carefully, you see the signs of them: in the US, they might be t-shirts with hashtags on them, pussyhats at marches, and creative protest signs, and in Shenzhen, China, we see a plethora of hardware objects, such as selfie sticks, hoverboards and e-cigarettes, that rapidly reach global markets. What sorts of objects do new forms of hardware culture enable, and what role does the internet now play in all steps along the way, from ideation to sales to manufacturing to shipping? How might we now incorporate physical objects into our notions of internet memes? And what does this suggest about the future of object culture more generally?
About An
An Xiao” Mina is a technologist and writer who looks at issues of the global internet and networked creativity. As a Berkman Klein Fellow, she will study the impact of language barriers in our technology stack as the internet extends into diverse communities around the world, and she will continue her ongoing research on global internet meme culture.
Mina leads the product team at Meedan, where they are building digital tools for journalists and translators, and she is co-founder of The Civic Beat, a research collective focused on the creative side of civic technology. She serves as a contributing editor to Civicist, an advisory editor to Hyperallergic, and a governing board member at China Residencies.
She has spoken at venues like the Personal Democracy Forum, ACM SIGCHI, Creative Mornings, the Aspen Institute, RightsCon and the Institute for the Future, and she has contributed writing to publications like the Los Angeles Review of Books, Fusion, the New Inquiry, Nieman Journalism Lab, Places Journal and others.
Recently a 2016 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow, where she studied online language barriers and their impact on journalism, Mina is currently working on a book about internet memes and global social movements (working title: "Memes to Movements"), to be published by Beacon Press.
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Japan, South Korea, and the Nuclear Umbrella
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2017, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Terence Roehrig, Professor of National Security Affairs and Director, Asia-Pacific Studies Group, U.S. Naval War College
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://programs.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/calendar/upcoming
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5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum: Waste Not, Want Not: Water & Wastewater in Our Commonwealth
Tuesday, March 21
1:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-massachusetts-water-forum-tickets-28938721495
The 5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum, hosted by the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. in honor of World Water Day, will carry through on this year's theme of water and wastewater as the Commonwealth prepares for numerous challenges ahead.
The forum will encourage all participants to pose questions, add their insights, and think about new designs, systems and resource uses.
Participants may join us for one or more segment of this program.
5th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum Program
1:00 pm Opening Remarks
Fred Laskey, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
1:15 pm Keynote Speaker, Kate Kennen, ASLA. Founder/Owner of Offshoots, Inc.
Kate Kennen, ASLA, is a dynamic speaker, thinker and doer. She will bring a host of innovative ideas about solving wastewater issues along with beautiful images to inspire. Founder of award-winning design practice focused on productive planting techniques and phytotechnology consulting, Offshoots, Inc. and coauthor of acclaimed book, PHYTO: Principles of Site Remediation & Landscape Design, Ms. Kennen brings a fresh perspective to the world of water and wastewater.
1:50 pm Panel Discussion Begins
Austin Blackmon, City of Boston, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space
Dr. Wafa Koelbel, Geo-Technical Engineer
Kate England, Boston Water & Sewer Commission
Prof. Joseph Hunt, Harvard University Extension School
3:00 pm Networking Break
3:15 pm Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 1: Wastewater Innovation
Ben Myers, Sustainabilty Manager, Boston Properties
Jeremy Lacey, CEO, Phoenix Revolution,Inc.
Maureen Albright, Director of Engineering, TAJ Hotel
Chitra Dwarka, Biomimicry Roraima of Guyana
Breakout Session 2: Design and Legislation
Scott Bishop, Northeastern University/Bishop Land Design
Breakout Session 3: Resilient Water Systems: Keep Wastewater out of Our Groundwater
Kate Kennen, ASLA, CEO and Founder, Offshoots,Inc.
Dr. Wafa Koelbel, Geo-Technical Engineer
Breakout Session 4: Wastewater for Food & Energy
Bruce Fulford, Principal, City Soil
Franziska Amacher,FAIA, Amacher & Associates, Architect
5:00 pm Networking Reception
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User Heuristics: Clinical Decision Support Systems for Advocacy
4:00pm to 7:00pm
Harvard, Ash Center, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Room 226, Cambridge
Join Ash Center Technology and Democracy Fellows to develop your digital toolkit.
Led by Trevor Davis, Chief Technical Officer, People's Action and CEO/Founder, ToSomeone
@trevorhughdavis
Ash Center Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
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Moving EPA Forward in an “Unhealthy” Climate
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2017, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer 166, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Gina McCarthy, Former EPA Administrator
COST Free and Open to the Public
CONTACT INFO deisy_carrera at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Can you get good things done in government these days?
We will discuss what it takes to make progress as a public servant working at the local, state and federal levels in today’s “unhealthy” climate. What skills, temperament and background are necessary to survive as a political appointee in the hot seat in an era of charged political rhetoric, fake news and alternative facts.
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/fellows/gina-mccarthy
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Driving Change: Autonomous & Electric Vehicles
Tuesday, March 21
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT, Building 32, Room 123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/driving-change-autonomous-electric-vehiclesa/
Cost: $0 - $30
Warning: The Future of Transportation is Closer Than it Appears
A CleanTech event
‘A transportation revolution is underway and the main question about autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is “how fast are they coming?” The forecast is that AVs are expected to constitute around 50% of vehicle sales, 30% of vehicles, and 40% of all vehicle travel by 2040’ - Journal of Modern Transportation, Dec 2016
There has been much discussion of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology and the potential benefits to our everyday transportation lives, but what about the impact of AVs on our infrastructure? What are the implications on the built environment, and energy? How will we prepare and what are the opportunities for innovation?
This panel will explore how rapidly evolving technological advances in the transportation sector will impact mobility and energy consumption in urban centers. Specifically, the benefits of vehicle autonomy, vehicle electrification, sharing and scenarios where unintended consequences may bring new challenges.
Moreover, autonomous vehicles may increase safety and provide mobility to those who cannot drive, but that may increase the number of vehicles on the streets, worsening traffic in urban centers and increasing energy consumption.
Join our discussion to learn about the following issues and pose your own questions:
How will the grid adapt to enable electric vehicles?
Will electric vehicles (EV’s) become an extension of the grid, providing power and battery support? Will this enable new revenue streams and financing models?
Are advanced transportation solutions likely to increase or decrease CO2?
What can cities do to set a firm foundation for autonomous vehicles, how long might that take in a city like Boston, what steps are involved?
Will AV’s involve new ownership models: shared, public, private?
Panelists
Jane Lappin, Director, Public Policy and Government, Toyota Research
Ryan Chin, CEO, Optimus Ride
Josh Westerhold, Renault-Nissan Alliance Future Lab
Nikolaus Lang, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group
Jascha Franklin-Hodge, CIO, City of Boston
A companion MITEF event to be held on April 6, 2017 will delve deeper into Wireless Charging which could be a key enabling infrastructure technology for electric vehicles. More info coming soon!
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Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing
Tuesday, March 21
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
BU Hillel Foundation, 213 Bay State Road, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/becoming-evil-how-ordinary-people-commit-genocide-and-mass-killing-with-jim-waller-tickets-31764265774
While the macro-level mechanics and structures of genocide are most often our focus of study, at its heart, genocide happens because individual humans choose to kill other individual humans in large numbers and over an extended period of time. Who are the killers on the frontlines of genocide and how are do they come to do such extraordinary evil? Based on interviews with over 200 rank-and-file perpetrators, this presentation will focus on the ordinary origins of these killers and the processes by which they become capable of such atrocities. Understanding these processes can be vital to resolving current conflicts as well as preventing the future occurrence of genocide.
Dr. James Waller is Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College, home to the nation’s only undergraduate major in Holocaust and genocide studies. He also serves as Director of Academic Programs for the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. His most recent books include Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (2007) andConfronting Evil: Engaging Our Responsibility to Prevent Genocide (2016), both published by Oxford University Press.
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The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
Tuesdday, March 21
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Vanderbilt Law School's GANESH SITARAMAN, author of The Counterinsurgent's Constitution, for a discussion of his latest book, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic.
About The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution
In this original, provocative contribution to the debate over economic inequality, Ganesh Sitaraman argues that a strong and sizable middle class is a prerequisite for America’s constitutional system.
For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable—and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America’s republic. Over the next two centuries, generations of Americans fought to sustain the economic preconditions for our constitutional system. But today, with economic and political inequality on the rise, Sitaraman says Americans face a choice: Will we accept rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy or will we rebuild the middle class and reclaim our republic?
The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution is a tour de force of history, philosophy, law, and politics. It makes a compelling case that inequality is more than just a moral or economic problem; it threatens the very core of our constitutional system.
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Connecting with Inner Peace in an Agitated World
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Andover Chapel, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Buddhist Ministry Initiative
CONTACT Julie Barker Gillette: 617.496.5586
RELIGIOUS TRADITION Buddhist
DETAILS H.E. Dza Kilung Jigme Rinpoche is a Tibetan meditation master known for his depth, sincerity, and delightful warmth. His 2015 book The Relaxed Mind: A Seven-Step Method for Deepening Meditation Practice is the fruit of 17 years' teaching in the West.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, March 22
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Drones for Delivery: Distributing Critical Medical Supplies in Rwanda
Wednesday, March 22
11:30 - 12:45 PM
MIT, Building 66 - 154, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Kevin Etter, Director of the UPS Foundation Humanitarian Relief & Resilience Program
Please join the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Working Group at MIT for a lunch seminar with Kevin Etter, Director of the UPS Foundation Humanitarian Relief & Resilience Program. Mr. Etter will be speaking about UPS' partnership with Californian start-up, Zipline, and non-profit, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — using drones to deliver critical medical supplies in Rwanda. Lunch will be provided.
Through a partnership between UPS, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Zipline, drones are being used to deliver critical medical supplies, such as blood for transfusions, from cities to rural or remote locations in Rwanda where the lack of transportation infrastructure causes millions of preventable deaths each year. Mr. Etter will highlight the innovative and operational aspects of the initiative as well as provide background on a unique public private partnership funding strategy.
Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Working Group
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MTA Composer Forum presents Al Kooper
Wednesday, March 22
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 14e-109, MIT Lewis Music Library, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Al Kooper is often referred to as the "Zelig" or "Forrest Gump" of Rock. Somehow, in a career that spans 50 years, he has managed to turn up at key points in the last five decades.
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
617-253-3210
mta-request at mit.edu
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MIT Water Night
Wednesday, March 22
5pm
MIT, Walker Memorial, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Register and Submit an Abstract for posters by March 12th! We have six poster presentation categories. All graduates, undergraduates and professionals are welcome to present their water work or just attend the event. Cash prizes will be awarded to the best posters in each category!
The Water Night brings together faculty, industrialists and students, both within and outside MIT and provides them with a chance to present their latest achievements and research in water-related fields though a research showcase and poster session.
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20 Questions on Shock Events with Heather Cox Richardson
WHEN Wednesday, Mar. 22, 2017, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Emerson Hall 210, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Featuring: Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History, Boston College
Questioners:
Steven Biel, Executive Director, Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
Bart Bonikowski, Associate Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Claudine Gay, Dean of Social Science, Harvard University
James Kloppenberg, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Harvard University
Richard Tuck, Frank G. Thomas Professor of Government, Harvard University
Moderator
Homi Bhabha, Director, Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
CONTACT INFO humcentr at fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-0738
DETAILS http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/shock-events
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/shock-events
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A Colony in a Nation
Wednesday, March 22
6:00 PM
Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chris-hayes-at-old-south-church-tickets-31600627327
Cost: $5 - $28.00
Chris Hayes in conversation with JABARI ASIM and FRANK RUDY COOPER moderated by ANTHONY BROOKS
Harvard Book Store welcomes Emmy Award–winning MSNBC news anchor CHRIS HAYES, author of the New York Times bestselling book Twilight of the Elites, for a panel discussion on inequality in America and his latest book, A Colony in a Nation. Hayes will be joined in conversation by Emerson College's JABARI ASIM and Suffolk University Law School's FRANK RUDY COOPER. WBUR's ANTHONY BROOKS will moderate the evening's conversation.
Please Note
This event does not include a book signing. Books available for purchase and pickup at the event are pre-signed editions of A Colony in a Nation, specially bound by the publisher.
Learn more at http://www.harvard.com/event/chris_hayes.
All pre-sales tickets include a copy of A Colony in a Nation, admission into the event, and a $5 coupon for use in the bookstore. Pre-sales tickets (online only) are available for two weeks, after which a $5 ticket option will also go on sale. Books bundled with pre-sale tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand.
$5 tickets will also be available at Harvard Book Store and over the phone at 617-661-1515. Unless the event is sold out, any remaining tickets will be on sale at the door of the venue when doors open.
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
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Thursday, March 23
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Emerging Trends Series: Cybersecurity & the 21st Century Electricity System
Thursday, March 23
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Mintz Levin, 1 Financial Center, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/emerging-trends-series-cybersecurity-the-21st-century-electricity-system-tickets-31326475331
Cost: $0 – $50
While not new, cybersecurity is an evolving threat to energy security, reliability and the shift to a 21st century electricity system. As the electricity sector has evolved in recent decades, both the influx of distributed energy resources on the grid and recent attacks on electric grids around the world (e.g., Ukraine in 2015) make this expanding threat more relevant than ever.
How can energy innovation help address this threat, how can clean energy businesses manage the risk of a cyber attack to the grid, and how does public policy play a role in the effort to enhance the cybersecurity of a 21st century grid?
Our panel will include...
John Doernberg, Boston Cyber Practice Leader, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Scott DePasquale, CEO, Utilidata. Chairman of the Rhode Island Cybersecurity Commission and Board Member of the Washington DC-based Internet Security Alliance (ISA)
Tom Getz, Counsel Administrative Law Department, McLane Middleton, former New Hampshire PUC Chair
Cynthia Larose, Chair, Privacy & Security Practice, Mintz Levin. Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) (moderator)
A. Stewart Rose, President, ThreatReady Resources
NECEC’s Emerging Trends Series are networking and educational events that discuss hot topics, growing markets and emerging trends in the clean energy industry. Forums are hosted at NECEC Sponsor offices and free to NECEC Members and Sponsors.
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Building Energy Efficiency in China: Policies and Trends
WHEN Thursday, Mar. 23, 2017, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Morgan Courtroom, Austin 308, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR East Asian Legal Studies (HLS), the Environmental Law Program and the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment
SPEAKER(S) Barbara Finamore ’80, Senior Attorney and Asia Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
CONTACT INFO Mike Zaisser
DETAILS EALS lunchtime talk
LINK http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/eals/events.html
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The Future of EU Security Policy and Transatlantic Relations
WHEN Thursday, Mar. 23, 2017, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CES, 27 Kirkland Street, Harvard University, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Goldman Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR European Union Study Group
SPEAKER(S) Ludwig Blaurock, Counselor for Political and Military Affairs, Security & Development Section in the Delegation of the European Union to the United States of America
CONTACT INFO Jessica Barnard, jbarnard at wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS Ludwig Blaurock joined the EU Delegation to the USA in September 2015 as counsellor for political and military affairs after having served in various positions in the German Foreign Service. Most recently (2012-2015), Ludwig was Consul at the German Embassy in Tel Aviv, where he led the Consulate and additionally was responsible for Human Rights and other occupation-related issues in the Israeli-Palestinian context.
A light lunch will be available at 11:30 a.m.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/03/the-future-of-eu-security-policy-and-transatlantic-relations
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Building Energy Efficiency Regulations in China: Policies and Trends
Thursday, March 23
3:30PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Barbara Finamore, Senior Attorney and Asia Director, China Program, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
China Project Research Seminar
http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/2finamore170323
Co-sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
tiffanychan at seas.harvard.edu
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@POTUS/@Candidate – Social Media from the Campaign Trail to the White House
WHEN Thursday, Mar. 23, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Institute of Politics, 79 JFK Street, Littauer 166, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Sarah Hurwitz
COST Free and Open to the Public
CONTACT INFO deisy_carrera at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS
Social media was a driving force behind Barack Obama's successful campaign in 2008, and since then it has been an increasingly important part of both campaign and White House communications. How can presidents and presidential candidates best use social media to reach the American people and people around the world?
Guest Speaker
Katie Dowd – Senior Digital Advisor, Hillary Campaign
Tanya Somanader (via Skype) – Director of Rapid Response & International Engagement, White House Digital Strategy Office
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/get-involved/study-groups/breaking-through-how-political-leaders-communicate-american-people-today’s
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Understanding Red State Rage & What To Do About It
Thursday, March 23
4:15pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building 4th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Join us for a discussion with Arlie R. Hochschild, Professor Emerita of Sociology at University of California, Berkeley. Professor Hochschild's most recent research focuses on the rise of the American right–the topic of her latest book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (The New Press, September 2016), a finalist for the National Book Award.
Based on intensive interviews of Tea Party enthusiasts in Louisiana, conducted over the last five years and focusing on emotions, Professor Hochschild tries to scale an “empathy wall” to learn how to see, think and feel as they do. What do members of the Tea Party–or anyone else–want to feel about the nation and its leaders? Professor Hochschild trace this desire to what she call their “deep story”–a feels-as-if story of their difficult struggle for the American Dream. Hidden beneath the right-wing hostility to almost all government intervention, she argue, lies an anguishing loss of honor, alienation and engagement in a hidden social class war.
Archon Fung, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship; Academic Dean, HKS, will moderate.
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Clean Energy – A View from “The Swamp”,
Thursday, March 23
4:30pm
Harvard, Littauer 275, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
It should be an interesting session with Kevin Knobloch, former President of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the U.S. DOE
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Starr Forum: Racing to the Precipice: Global Climate, Political Climate
Thursday, March 23
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Noam Chomsky
Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
More information at https://cis.mit.edu/events/starr-forum-racing-precipice-global-climate-political-climate
Free & open to the public | Refreshments served
Can't attend in person? Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube.
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum at mit.edu.
Web site: https://cis.mit.edu/
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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The Networked Sensory Landscape Meets the Future of Documentary
Thursday, March 23
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
At its heart, documentary cinema has always been an experimental medium. Its evolution has been driven on the one hand by the creativity and interests of the media maker and on the other by technological invention and the evolution of particular sensing, imaging and display technologies.
Today, the arrival of expanded sensing technologies is reshaping the documentary opportunity. In a new work-in-progress, DoppelMarsh, developed in the Responsive Environment Group at the Media Lab, data from a dense network of diverse environmental sensors are mapped to deliver "a sense of being there" in a re-synthesized, ever-changing landscape.
Speaker Glorianna Davenport is a co-founder of the Media Lab where she directed the Interactive Cinema Group (1987-2004) and the Media Fabrics Group (2004-2008). In 2008, she turned her attention to transitioning a 600 acre cranberry farm in Plymouth Massachusetts into restored wetlands and conservation property. In 2011 she founded Living Observatory, a collaborative of research partners including the Responsive Environments Group at the Media Lab to develop a long-term study of this property and create experiences that invite the public to witness ecological change across this landscape in transition. Davenport is a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab.
Web site: http://cmsw.mit.edu/event/glorianna-davenport-networked-sensory-lands
cape-future-documentary/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cmsw at mit.edu
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Using Social Media for Activism
Thursday, March 23
6:00PM
Cambridge Community Television, 438 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at (617) 661-6900
Cost: $20 - $30
Learn how to use the power of social media to raise awareness and funding for social causes.
Activists are increasingly using the power of social media to raise awareness about particular issues and to raise funding for their cause. In this workshop, you will explore several case studies of effective social media campaigns employed by activists and will discuss the future trends in social media activism. Instructor: Patricia Egessa
Pre-requisite: Basic knowledge of or involvement with social media platforms is strongly recommended.
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Networking the Ocean: Using Technology to Study Real-Time, In Situ Marine Processes
WHEN Thursday, Mar. 23, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Series supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit
SPEAKER(S) John Delaney, Professor of Oceanography and Jerome M. Paros Endowed Chair in Sensor Networks; Principal Investigator and Director, Regional Scale Nodes Program, University of Washington
COST Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO 617-496-1027, hmnh at hmsc.harvard.edu
DETAILS Studying complex deep-sea processes is a challenging task, but a new network of robotic sensors installed in some of the most remote ocean areas promises to revolutionize ocean science and education. John Delaney will discuss the development of this network and how it enables real-time interdisciplinary research on once-inaccessible natural phenomena in the world's oceans, such as migration patterns, erupting volcanoes, undersea earthquakes, and storms. Understanding these environmental phenomena makes it possible to analyze their impact on the evolution of marine organisms.
LINK http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/networking-ocean-using-technology-study-real-time-situ-marine-processes
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Let's Get Local: Attracting Capital to Local Energy Projects
Thursday, March 23
6:00
131 Cambridge Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lets-get-local-attracting-capital-to-local-energy-projects-tickets-31639324070
Encouraging and empowering people to act locally binds together the local fabric of a community. People build thriving communities when they invest locally. The entire community benefits when small businesses and investors recirculate their dollars in the local economy.
This is something we all hear too often – “shop local”, “think global, act local”. But how often do we apply this framework to our energy use? How often do we turn on our light switch without thinking about where it comes from? Local energy empowers communities to work together to make effective investments, leveraging the support and incentives offered by utilities and the state and federal governments. Come learn about moving capital to local energy projects and building up value in the local economy.
Join Climate Action Business Association for a panel discussion featuring:
Charlie Lord of Renew Energy Partners, Principle
Isaac Baker, Founder of Resonant Energy
Richard Andre, President of Vineyard Power Cooperative
Kevin Dutt, Managing Director of Boston Impact Initiative
Moderator: Eric Grunebaum, clean energy consulting via Cambridge Energy Advisors and co-founder of toggle
Schedule:
6:00-6:30 Networking
6:30-7:00 Panel Introductions
7:00-7:30 Panel Q&A
7:30-8:00 Networking
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Exploring the Future of Artificial Intelligence: Demos & Drinks
Thursday, March 23
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
WeWork South Station, 745 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/exploring-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-demos-drinks-tickets-32305444454
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, though still in their infancy, are poised for rapid growth this year. From virtual assistants to fraud protection, this cutting edge technology has tremendous potential to transform our day-to-day lives in 2017.
Tech in Motion Boston is excited to showcase those companies on the verge of bringing this growing technology to the next level!
Join us on Thursday, March 23rd at WeWork South Station for our classic Demos & Drinks event - AI edition! There is no formal agenda for this event - attendees arrive, grab a bite to eat, a drink, and interact with the various companies showcasing their products and technology.
Demo Companies
Confirm makes authenticating a drivers license or ID fast, easy and secure. Our software integrates in minutes to confirm a person’s identity for any transaction that benefits from proof of identity.
DataRobot offers an enterprise machine learning platform that empowers users of all skill levels to make better predictions faster. Incorporating a library of hundreds of the most powerful open source machine learning algorithms, the DataRobot platform automates, trains and evaluates predictive models in parallel, delivering more accurate predictions at scale. DataRobot provides the fastest path to data science success for organizations of all sizes.
Evolv Technology is the creator of the world’s most advanced threat detection system, Evolv Mosaiq™. This system is an adaptable, open architecture, security platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and human IQ to provide unprecedented protection against today’s threats and tomorrow’s uncertainties.
NAO is an educational tool unlike any other- daring young minds to dream about the future of robotics. NAO is portable and approachable, inviting people to interact with it in a way that allows STEM and research topics to come to life. Standing at 58 cm, NAO uses a number of sensors, sonars and interactive applications to spark the minds of students of all ages.
Neurala puts deep learning neural networks into the hands of developers with The Neurala Brain and an easy-to-use Software Developers Kit. Originally developed for NASA, our artificial intelligence software makes robots, drones, toys, consumer electronics, self-driving cars and smart devices (IoT) more autonomous, engaging and useful. Products developed with Neurala and an ordinary camera can learn people and objects, recognize them in a video stream, find them in the video, and track them as they move.
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The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World
Thursday, March 23
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes The Intercept's national security editor and Radcliffe Institute fellow SHARON WEINBERGER for a discussion of her latest book, The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency That Changed the World—an authoritative account of the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly sixty years.
About The Imagineers of War
Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that have evolved from the agency's mission: forward-thinking solutions to the Pentagon's challenges. Sharon Weinberger gives us a riveting account of DARPA's successes and failures, useful innovations and wild-eyed schemes: we see how the nuclear threat sparked investment in computer networking, which led to the Internet, as well as plans to power a missile-seeking particle beam by draining the Great Lakes . . . how, in Vietnam, DARPA developed technology for the world's first armed drones and was also responsible for Agent Orange . . . how DARPA's recent success with self-driving cars is counterbalanced with its disappointing contributions to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Weinberger has spoken to dozens of former DARPA and Pentagon officials—many of whom had never been interviewed before about their work with the agency—and synthesized countless documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The result is a riveting history of a meeting point of science, technology, and politics.
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Friday, March 24 – Sunday, March 26
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iV: The Ivy League Vegan Conference
Friday, March 24 – Sunday, March 26
ALL DAY
Tickets: Free for Harvard students, faculty, and staff; $20 for other students with valid ID; $50 for Boston community.
iV: The Ivy League Vegan Conference is an annual professional conference on plant-based diets and bioethics featuring renowned leaders from across the disciplines. Our presenters and invited guests represent a variety of fields including medicine, climatology, policy, industry, finance, and consulting. The iV sessions emphasize innovation, self-critique, and re-examination of veganism as an elegant solution to a host of pressing issues in an increasingly global community.
Attendees can expect an atmosphere of productivity and dialogue as we examine scholarship and industry through a critical lens and endeavor to forge new, ambitious techniques to improve the world around us. With a focus on common goals and a commitment to powerful solutions, we seek to strengthen a professional network to directly and indirectly wield influence in academia, industry, and beyond to shift the paradigm for addressing global issues.
For more information and to register, please visit http://www.iv-conference.com
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Friday, March 24
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The Future of Renewable Energy In New England
Friday, March 24
9am - 12:30pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-renewable-energy-in-new-england-tickets-31617718447
Cost: $40 - $80
Renewable Energy Policies, Programs, & Initiatives
Our first panel includes leaders from three New England states:
Secretary Matthew Beaton, MA Energy and Environmental Affairs
Commissioner Carol Grant, RI State Energy Office
Deputy Commissioner for Energy (soon-to-be-named), CT DEEP
They will be discussing major renewable energy related policies, programs, and initiatives in the region and their respective states:
Results of the recent three-state RFP; and design of the forthcoming RFPs for hydro/wind and for off-shore wind
Renewable portfolio standards developments across the states
Massachusetts' emerging new solar framework and Clean Energy Standards
Connecticut's emerging Clean Energy Strategy and unique Green Bank
Rhode Island's innovative Renewable Growth Program
New Renewable Energy-Related Studies
Our second panel covers major new energy-related studies that look at the potential role of renewables in New England's energy future and consider how they might impact our environment, our electricity markets, and our economy.
Leading off the panel, Michael Henderson, Director of Regional Planning & Coordination at ISO New England, will discuss ISO's economic study for NEPOOL on renewables. Next up, Bob Grace, President of Sustainable Energy Advantage, will discuss the findings of SEA's ongoing studies on the projected supply and demand of renewables in New England. Finally, Jamie Howland, Director of Climate and Energy Analysis at the Acadia Center, will present the Center's Energy Vision 2030 study.
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Algorithmic Accountability
Friday, March 24
10:30am
Harvard, CGIS Knafel K354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Julia Angwin
Machines are making a lot of decisions that used to be made by humans. Machines now help us make individual decisions, such as which news we read and the ads we see. They also make societal decisions, such as which neighborhoods get a heavier police presence and which receive more attention from political candidates. Journalist Julia Angwin talks about the challenges of holding machines accountable for their decisions. Read https://www.propublica.org/series/machine-bias
Speaker: Julia Angwin is a senior reporter at ProPublica. From 2000 to 2013, she was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, where she led a privacy investigative team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2011 and won a Gerald Loeb Award in 2010. Her book "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance," was published by Times Books in 2014, and was shortlisted for Best Business Book of the Year by the Financial Times. Also in 2014, Julia was named reporter of the year by the Newswomen’s Club of New York. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Wall Street Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. She is also the author of “Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America” (Random House, March 2009). She earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University.
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Teaching Climate, Inspiring Action
Friday, March 24
11:00 AM – 2:00 PM EDT
Northeastern, Alumni Center at Columbus Place, n716 Columbus Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/teaching-climate-inspiring-action-tickets-32002125218
Organized with Sara Wylie and Sharon Harlan of Northeastern University's Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI)*
Learn from experts and share your ideas and experiences on approaches for teaching students to communicate and take action on climate change. We will discuss methods ranging from community-based education to artistic interventions to policy advocacy. Through a series of lightning talks and brainstorming collaboration, we will explore climate change in a global and local Boston context, including how we can partner locally across academic, non-profit, technology, arts, and policy stakeholders.This event welcomes academics, students, non-profit leaders, community organizations, and government.
Complimentary lunch will be served!
Agenda
11am - 11:15am: Welcoming Remarks and Game
11:15am - 12:15pm: Lightning Talks and Panel Q & A, moderated by: Sharon Harlan (Northeastern University). Speakers Include:
Dr. Atiya Martin (Chief Resilience Officer, City of Boston)
Jane Marsching (Artist, Professor and Sustainability Fellow at Massachusetts College of Art and Design)
David Abel (Journalist, The Boston Globe)
Roseann Bongiovanni (Associate Executive Director, Chelsea Collaborative)
James DeCunzo (Organizer, All Campus Divestment Collaborative)
Paula Garcia (Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists)
More speakers are forthcoming, stay tuned!
12:15pm - 12:45pm: Lunch
12:45-1:30pm: Thematic Breakout Groups
1:30-2pm: Share-backs and Reflections
Contact the Boston Civic Media* Community Manager with any questions (becky at elab.emerson.edu) and spread the word using #bostoncivicmedia.
*What is Boston Civic Media?
Boston Civic Media is a faculty-led network that aims to advance the transdisciplinary domain of civic media research and pedagogy in the Greater Boston Area. This initiative shares knowledge, promotes engaged research, and builds relationships among academics, non-profits, community-based organizations, government leaders, practitioners, and students. Our faculty steering members come from more than ten different institutions across Boston. Higher education institutions and numerous community partner organizations are linked through our syllabi directory and quarterly convenings. We offer support to this budding network through project as well as event coordination. This initiative is housed at the Emerson Engagement Lab and led by professors Catherine D’Ignazio, Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis with coordination from Becky Michelson. It is made possible by the Teagle Foundation and Microsoft Civic Engagement.
*What is SSEHRI?
The mission of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI) is to conduct social science-oriented research, teaching, community engagement, and policy work in the area of environmental health. With 4 core faculty, affiliated faculty at Northeastern and other area universities, 3postdocs, 13 graduate students, and 5 undergraduates, SSEHRI is a hub for collaborative environmental health learning and interest at NU. The Institute trains graduate students and postdocs for community based participatory research aimed at transforming and improving environmental health. At the same time, it provides faculty with a resource to further their existing efforts in those approaches. Integrating environmental health science, sociology, science and technology studies, and community organizations, SSEHRI aims to develop novel approaches to studying environmental health questions, communication of environmental health data and conceptualization of environmental health socially, politically, and scientifically. SSEHRI has multiple grants from NIEHS, EPA, NIH, NSF, and the JPB Foundation.
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Natural history and the nature of ecological communities
Friday, March 24
12:10 pm
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Robert Ricklefs, Curators’ Professor, University of Missouri at St. Louis
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Saturday, March 25
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Violence In Boston Community Town Hall
Saturday, March 25
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library, 1350 Blue Hill Avenue, Mattapan
Finally after seeking a location we will be having our Community Town Hall for the Mattapan/ Hyde Park Community.
There have been at least 24 Shootings in Mattapan and 3 in Hyde Park between 2016-2017.
7 have been Homicides.
The Crime plaguing the City of Boston is everyone’s issue. Crime affects: Immigrants, Elderly, Youth and our Communities collectively. When a Hatian Immigrant mother who came to this country for a better life is walking down the street and is murdered, that is a Community problem!
So please show up to support our most vulnerable communities and receive solution based information while we hold those that represent us and ourselves accountable.
MAMLEO (Mass Assoc. Minority Law Enforcement Officers L.O.C Local Organizing Committee
617-652-0151
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Music Summit 2017: The Future of Music - Sounds of Disruption
Saturday, March 25
11:00 AM – 8:00 PM EDT
Harvard Business School, Allston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/music-summit-2017-the-future-of-music-sounds-of-disruption-tickets-32108297783
Cost: $25 – $65
TICKETS
Event Information
DESCRIPTION
On March 25th thought and business leaders who are shaping the future of music will come together for a day of keynote speeches, panel discussions, performances, product demonstrations, and networking at the first ever HBS Music Summit: “The Future of Music: Sounds of Disruption!”
The aim of our Summit is to bring together the Boston community for a conference festival celebrating the intersection of business, creativity, and technology. Panel topics include: A&R Management 2.0, Building Brands Through Music, and Data & Technology.
We have an amazing line up of speakers already including Neil Jacobson - President of Geffen Records, Ty Stiklorius - Founder & CEO of Friends at Work / Manager to John Legend, Dave Allen - Former Artist Relations at Apple Music, Jeremy Erlich - CFO of Interscope Geffen A&M, and Julia Heiser - EVP Digital Media Live Nation. Companies represented include:
Live Nation
Warner Music Group
Universal Music Group
Interscope Geffen A&M
Paradise Studio
Geffen Records
mTheory
Spotify / The Echo Nest
Mac Presents
Th3rd Brain
SONGS Publishing
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Columbia Records
Music Audience Exchange
....
More details to come!
http://www.hbsmusicsummit.com/
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Sunday March 26
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6th annual Boston Jewish Food Conference
Sunday March 26
12-7pm
Gann Academy, Waltham
This annual springtime event fosters new dynamics and connections within the Jewish community by utilizing food and agriculture to discuss the intersections of justice, sustainability, and culture against a background of Jewish traditions and contemporary life. Our conference location changes every year, as we’re building a wide constituent base in the community.
The day includes multiple workshops (in the kitchen and classroom), and culminates in a community Shuk (marketplace), featuring do-it-yourself activities, advocacy opportunities, tabling by community organizations, our silent auction, and features a kosher, vegetarian meal prepared by conference participants.
We are looking for workshop presenters to provide insight into topics and trends in our local and regional food and Jewish communities, through practical tips, best practices and strategies at our annual conference.
This year our focus is Community Networks: From our prayer to our gardens, community is essential to our faith and our practice. We’ll explore the web of food sourcing, distribution, and consumption, as well as the role of culture, institutions and our homes.
Where does our food come from? Who are the people in our networks? How can we align our Jewish values with our food values? We encourage you to approach any or all of these questions from a global to local perspective. If you would like to be part of this effort to educate and inform please submit your workshop proposal for consideration by December 21, 2017 at: http://bit.ly/BJFC17workshopproposals
Please share with your networks, and let me know if you have any questions,
Leora
Leora Mallach, Director
Ganei Beantown
www.beantownjewishgardens.org
Office phone: 617-877-2036
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Monday, March 27
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Which Social Cost of Carbon?
Monday, March 27
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Matthew Kotchen, Professor of Economics, Yale University
Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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Leaf-out in northern hemisphere woody plants — insights from experiments and herbaria
Monday, March 27
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Boston
Susanne Renner, Professor and Chair, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, will give a talk on "."
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
Contact Name: arbweb at arnarb.harvard.edu
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Eco Swaraj: Can India’s Model of the Micro Transform Development for the 21st Century?
Monday, March 27
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge
with Meera Subramanian (MIT, Knight Science Journalism Fellow).
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.
Sandwich lunch is provided. RSVP required.
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: Shana Ashar
sts at hks.harvard.edu
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Race and Policing: State and Local Perspectives
WHEN Monday, Mar. 27, 2017, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Leadership Studio, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) EXPERT PARTICIPANTS
Brian Corr, President, National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement
Tracey Meares, Professor of Law, Yale Law School, and Senior Research Advisor, National Network for Safe Communities, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
John Shanks, Director, Police Training Institute
David Williams, Professor of Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
MODERATOR
Phillip Martin, Senior Investigative Reporter, WGBH News
TICKET INFO RSVP to ATTEND: theforum at hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Building on two previous Forums about race, criminal justice and health [link to theforum.sph.harvard.edu…], this event will examine specific approaches and models to address the complexities of race and policing. Experts in law enforcement, public health, community relations and the law will speak. Subjects will include safeguarding law enforcement and communities, promoting more effective communication and de-escalation techniques, and narrowing the social, economic and health gaps that persist between underserved and middle-class America. The emphasis will be on local and state approaches.
LINK https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/race-and-policing/
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Resisting Tyranny: Lessons from the European 20th Century
WHEN Monday, Mar. 27, 2017, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building 4th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale.
DETAILS Join Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale, as he discusses the historical lessons learned from anti-authoritarian movements in 20th century Europe. Moshik Temkin, Associate Professor of History and Public Policy, HKS, will moderate the event.
About the Speaker
Timothy Snyder is the Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in the history of central and eastern Europe. Born in 1969 in southwestern Ohio and a graduate of Centerville High School, he received his B.A. from Brown University and his doctorate from the University of Oxford, where he was a British Marshall Scholar at Balliol College. He has also held fellowships in Paris, Warsaw, and at Harvard, where he was an Academy Scholar. A frequent guest at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, he has spent about ten years in Europe. He speaks five and reads ten European languages.
Among his publications are five award-winning books, all of which have been translated: Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles- Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); and Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010). Bloodlands has won ten awards including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Leipzig Award for European Understanding. It has been translated into twenty-five languages, was named to twelve book-of-the-year lists, and was a bestseller in four countries. Most recently Snyder helped the late Tony Judt compose a thematic intellectual history, entitled Thinking the Twentieth Century (2012), which is appearing in fourteen translations. Snyder is also the coeditor of two volumes: Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America (2000) and Stalinism and Europe: Terror, War, Domination, (2014). He is at work on four books: a study of the Holocaust, a biography of Marx, a global history of eastern Europe, and a family history of nationalism. His scholarly articles have appeared in Past and Present, the Journal of Cold War Studies, and a number of other journals; he has also written for The New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, and The New Republic as well as for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers. He takes regular part in conferences on Holocaust education and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Modern European History and East European Politics and Societies. He is a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and sits on the advisory councils of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, and other organizations.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/resisting-tyranny-lessons-european-20th-century
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Artist Talk @ Le Lab: Daniel Faust
Monday, March 27
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-le-lab-daniel-faust-tickets-32693480079
Silicon
Artist Talk > Life in Picoseconds
Doors/Talk > 6:00pm/6:30pm
Cost > FREE
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Connecting with the Enemy
Monday, March 27
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Thousands of ordinary people in Israel and Palestine have engaged in a dazzling array of daring and visionary joint nonviolent initiatives for more than a century. They have endured despite condemnation by their own societies, repetitive failures of diplomacy, harsh inequalities, and endemic cycles of violence.
Connecting with the Enemy presents the first comprehensive history of unprecedented grassroots efforts to forge nonviolent alternatives to the lethal collision of the two national movements. Bringing to light the work of over five hundred groups, Sheila H. Katz describes how Arabs and Jews, children and elders, artists and activists, educators and students, garage mechanics and physicists, and lawyers and prisoners have spoken truth to power, protected the environment, demonstrated peacefully, mourned together, stood in resistance and solidarity, and advocated for justice and security. She also critiques and assesses the significance of their work and explores why these good-will efforts have not yet managed to end the conflict or occupation. This previously untold story of Palestinian-Israeli joint nonviolence will challenge the mainstream narratives of terror and despair, monsters and heroes, that help to perpetuate the conflict. It will also inspire and encourage anyone grappling with social change, peace and war, oppression and inequality, and grassroots activism anywhere in the world.
Sheila H. Katz, Ph.D, is the author of Connecting with the Enemy: a Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence. She received a doctorate in Middle East History from Harvard University where she specialized in Palestinian-Israeli relations, organized programs on Middle Eastern women, and taught for eight years.
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Tuesday, March 28
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Arts Matter Advocacy Day
Tuesday, March 28
9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Paramount Center Boston and the State House, 559 Washington Street, Boston
ARTS MARCH/RALLY
On March 28, MASSCreative will bring together the creative community for Arts Matter Advocacy Day to show our state political leaders that arts matter in Massachusetts.
Join us for a morning at the Paramount Center in downtown Boston and an early afternoon at the State House. After a morning of mingling, celebrating arts & culture, and sharpening our advocacy skills at the Paramount, we will travel together in an ‘Arts Matter March’ to the State House. When we arrive, we will meet with our legislators about arts and cultural issues, including the state budget. Together, let’s send the message: arts matter in Massachusetts.
Check back soon for the full agenda, including speakers and performers.
Help make sure Arts Matter Advocacy Day is representative of the broad arts and cultural community. Become a Arts Matter Advocacy Partner and check out our Arts Matter Advocacy Day Toolkit for outreach materials.
Mass Creatives
617-350-7610
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Building Resilience: Economic Displacement & Climate Justice Symposium
Tuesday, March 28
11:30 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
UMass Boston. 100 Morrissey Boulevard. Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-resilience-economic-displacement-climate-justice-symposium-tickets-30536893671
Join UMass Boston's Sustainable Solutions Lab, CANALA Institutes and Office of Community Partnerships for a symposium on economic and climate displacement.
Climate change will increase the pressures on Boston residents, especially those struggling to make ends meet. The current housing crisis in Boston is one glaring example of this challenge. Already Boston residents are being forced out of their homes.
What will happen when parts of the city begin to flood regularly and are no longer inhabitable? How will new requirements to purchase flood insurance impact family budgets? Can initiatives like community land trusts and just cause eviction protections stabilize neighborhoods in the face of these pressures?
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Speaker Series: Masha Gessen
Tuesday, March 28
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Masha Gessen is the author of six books, including, most recently, “Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot.”
Born in Moscow, Ms. Gessen emigrated to the United States as a teenager. She took her first journalism job at the age of 17, at a biweekly Boston newspaper devoted to gay issues. From 1984 until 1992 she covered the AIDS crisis for gay news publications.
In 1991, a magazine assignment brought Ms. Gessen back to the Soviet Union for the first time since her emigration. Throughout the 1990s she covered the transition in the former Soviet Union and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. She was a special correspondent for The New Republic and wrote for many other magazines.
From 1994 Ms. Gessen was based out of Moscow, and later began writing in both Russian and English. She helped to found Itogi, the first weekly magazine in post-Soviet Russia. She served as its chief correspondent until 2001, when she became head of U.S. News & World Report’s Moscow bureau. Three years later she returned to the Russian-language press. She has edited several Russian magazines, including the popular-science monthly Vokrug Sveta, from which she was fired for refusing to send a reporter to cover President Vladimir V. Putin’s piloting, with a hang glider, of Siberian cranes.
Ms. Gessen has reported on a range of topics, including the Russian intelligentsia, medical genetics and mathematics. Her 2011 biography of Mr. Putin, “The Man Without Without a Face,” was an international bestseller.
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Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy
Tuesday, March 28
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/2017/03/Stucke#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/03/Stucke at 12:00 pm
Please join Maurice Stucke for a discussion of their book, Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy.
Shoppers with Internet access and a bargain-hunting impulse can find a universe of products at their fingertips. In this thought-provoking exposé, Maurice Stucke and Ariel Ezrachi invite us to take a harder look at today’s app-assisted paradise of digital shopping. While consumers reap many benefits from online purchasing, the sophisticated algorithms and data-crunching that make browsing so convenient are also changing the nature of market competition, and not always for the better.
Computers colluding is one danger. Although long-standing laws prevent companies from fixing prices, data-driven algorithms can now quickly monitor competitors’ prices and adjust their own prices accordingly. So what is seemingly beneficial—increased price transparency—ironically can end up harming consumers. A second danger is behavioral discrimination. Here, companies track and profile consumers to get them to buy goods at the highest price they are willing to pay. The rise of super-platforms and their “frenemy” relationship with independent app developers raises a third danger. By controlling key platforms (such as the operating system of smartphones), data-driven monopolies dictate the flow of personal data and determine who gets to exploit potential buyers.
Virtual Competition raises timely questions. To what extent does the “invisible hand” still hold sway? In markets continually manipulated by bots and algorithms, is competitive pricing an illusion? Can our current laws protect consumers? The changing market reality is already shifting power into the hands of the few. Ezrachi and Stucke explore the resulting risks to competition, our democratic ideals, and our economic and overall well-being.
About Maurice
Professor Stucke brought 13 years of litigation experience when he joined the UT College of Law faculty in 2007. As a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, he successfully challenged anticompetitive mergers and restraints in numerous industries, and focused on policy issues involving antitrust and the media. As a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, he prosecuted a variety of felony and misdemeanor offenses, including running a weekly docket before the Honorable Thomas Rawles Jones, Jr. As an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, Professor Stucke assisted in defending Goldman Sachs, CS First Boston, and Microsoft in civil antitrust litigation. The Legal Aid Society presented him two awards for his criminal appellate and defense work.
Since coming to UT, Professor Stucke has been a prolific legal scholar. His scholarship re-examines much of the conventional wisdom in competition policy in light of the empirical findings from behavioral economics and psychology. In re-evaluating the goals and assumptions of competition law, he seeks to provide policymakers with a more empirical approach to competition policy. Professor Stucke’s scholarship, which has been cited by the U.S. federal courts, the OECD, the United Nations, competition agencies and policymakers, is already impacting competition policy. He was invited by the OECD and competition authorities from the European Union, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, United States, and United Kingdom to discuss his research, and has been invited to present his research at over 60 conferences in Australia, Belgium, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
Professor Stucke serves as a Senior Fellow at the American Antitrust Institute, an independent Washington, D.C.-based non-profit education, research, and advocacy organization devoted to competition policy. Professor Stucke chaired a committee on the media industry that drafted a transition report for the incoming Obama administration. In 2009, Professor Stucke was elected as a member to the Academic Society for Competition Law, appointed to the advisory board of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, and was asked to serve as one of the United States’ non-governmental advisors to the International Competition Network, the only international body devoted exclusively to competition law enforcement and whose members represent national and multinational governmental competition authorities in over 100 jurisdictions.
He has co-authored two books, Big Data and Competition Policy (Oxford University Press 2016) and Virtual Competition (Harvard University Press 2016), which has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, New York Review of Books, Harvard Business Review, and Wired.
Professor Stucke received a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture in 2010-2011 in the People’s Republic of China. He also received several awards for his scholarship, including the Carden Award for Outstanding Scholarship, the 2016 Antitrust Writing Award by Concurrences Review and George Washington University, the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Award, presented annually for the best antitrust scholarship, the College’s W. Allen Separk Faculty Scholarship Award, the Marilyn V. Yarbrough Award for Writing Excellence, and the Chancellor’s Honors Award for Research and Creative Achievement—Professional Promise.
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GERMANYforYou: Social Media Translates "Germany" for Refugees
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2017, 2:15 – 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Lower Level Conference Room, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Contemporary Europe Study Group co-sponsored by Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Isabel Schayani, Project Leader, WDRforyou, Moderated by: Georg Diez, Reporter and Columnist, Politics and Culture, Der Speigel
CONTACT INFO Colin Brown, brown4 at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Isabel Schayani will describe her experiences founding, organizing and editing WDRforyou, a social media- and web-based platform to bring news about Germany to new refugees and other recent arrivals. The network, which provides news in German, English, Arabic and Farsi/Dari, also helps create context about Germany so that refugees and asylum seekers have a better chance of understanding the country and people around them. Schayani will explore what WDRforyou and other social media channels tell us about the future of refugee and immigrant integration, as well as what the refugee crisis has taught us about the potential of new media platforms.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/03/hold-for-isabel-schayani-talk
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Health and Urban Resilience: Understanding Health Equity in the City
WHEN Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2017, 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Jason Corburn, a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and School of Public Health at UC Berkeley
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS You are invited to a discussion with Jason Corburn, a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He directs the Institute of Urban and Regional Development and the Center for Global Healthy Cities.
Cities can be the ‘start-up’s for a new urban politics in America that transforms entrenched divisions based on race, immigration status and economic inequalities. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the City of Richmond, CA, passed the first Health in All Policies (HiAP) Ordinance in the US. By making health equity a priority, community activists and government innovators transformed the city from one of the most violent and unequal in the Bay Area, to one of the region’s healthiest cities. This talk will explore the factors, social movements and government innovations that enabled this transformation and the important role of health equity, racial justice and place-based experiments.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/health-and-urban-resilience-understanding-health-equity-city
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How To End Floods and Drought: Soaking Up the Rain, Cooling the Earth – a general introduction to The New Water Paradigm
Tuesday, March 28
5:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate welcomes Michal Kravčík, a hydrologist and climate expert from Slovakia and recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Kravčík has an urgent message for America as well as the rest of the globe: All of us, not just the “experts,” must take action by soaking up the rain in soil and plants, which releases cooling cloud-forming vapor to fall again as rain and restores critical land-based water cycles. Otherwise, we will experience worsening drought, heat waves and other climate woes, including floods and severe storms. Dr. Kravčík is a seasoned world lecturer who will be touring North America in March and April 2017, presenting natural, inexpensive solutions for restoring more livable landscapes and weather patterns. For anyone, lay or professional, concerned about water supplies, land use, or climate, this will be time well spent.
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate was founded in 2013 by Jim Laurie, Karl Thidemann, Helen D. Silver, Jane Hammer and Adam Sacks. We saw an urgent need to expand the climate conversation to include the seriously underestimated positive impacts of the biosphere on the climate and physical world. We see how appropriate human approaches to nature may be able to reverse the effects of global warming despite our inability to date to reduce emissions in a timely manner. Our goal is to contribute to planetary regeneration through research, education, collaboration and action to restore essential global biodiversity.
https://bio4climate.org/vow/events-with-michal-kravcik/
Contact Name: Paula Phipps
paula.c.phipps at gmail.com
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Biology and Climate Change
Tuesday, March 28
5:00 – 6:30 pm (reception to follow)
BU, Metcalf Trustee Center,1 Silber Way, 9th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001DTeZUiB7y8BewznhcJ2DLnFYU1JGKEvNWBvs5Bm-bElJPVIKId94nM3I0z_j2b3MCaqFACXNkhApGmwrwzC_nMTfk3n1m8XtdHoEG90WhfgALk02tnbUCQwVuMVf2uE6Q0RC2mel614mgkKnHIf8dYufBn1AIzix9kjYzWI7mQZIsVMH5Cb0LDWz_UcQvO603k7MScQ3BDpjT_ylPK3FPUoRgCiwdqVNdizaP7MrWkk2z8eU1tA7UFNvTU90SJ5fFn44lKuewdQOfSPcRtWCBw%3D%3D
Prof. Thomas E. Lovejoy is an innovative and accomplished conservation biologist who coined the term “biological diversity”. He serves as Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. In 2010 he was elected University Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. He served as President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment from 2002-2008 and was the Biodiversity Chair of the Center from 2008-2013. Before assuming this position, Lovejoy was the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation.
Spanning the political spectrum, Lovejoy has served on science and environmental councils under the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. At the core of these many influential positions are Lovejoy’s seminal ideas, which have formed and strengthened the field of conservation biology. He was the first to use the term “biological diversity” in 1980. In the 1980s, he brought international attention to the world’s tropical rainforests, and in particular, the Brazilian Amazon, where he has worked since 1965. In 1980, he produced the first projection of global extinctions for the Global 2000 Report to the President. Lovejoy also developed the now ubiquitous “debt-for-nature” swap programs and led the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project.
With two co-edited books (1992 and 2005), he is credited with founding the field of climate change biology. He and Lee Hannah are working on the Second Edition of Climate Change and Biodiversity. He also founded the series Nature, the popular long-term series on public television. In 2001, Lovejoy was awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2009 he was the winner of BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Category. In 2009 he was appointed Conservation Fellow by the National Geographic. In 2012 he was recognized by the Blue Planet Prize. Lovejoy holds B.S. and Ph.D (biology) degrees from Yale University.
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The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy
Tuesday, March 28
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building N50, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Peter Temin
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Peter Temin, Professor of Economics Emeritus at MIT and author of The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy (MIT Press) at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, February 28, at the Bookstore.
In "The Vanishing Middle Class," Peter Temin argues that American history and politics, particularly slavery and its aftermath, play an important part in the widening gap between rich and poor and outlines ways to work toward greater equality so that America will no longer have one economy for the rich and one for the poor.
This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peter-temin-author-talk-tickets-31640275917
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
617-253-5249
books at mit.edu
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The Grapes of Wrath
Tuesday, March 28
7pm
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline
RSVP at http://www.coolidge.org/films/grapes-wrath
Presented as part of the National Evening of Science on Screen.
John Ford's (Stagecoach, The Searchers) Oscar-winning adaptation of John Steinbeck's groundbreaking novel is the tale of American determination in the face panic, poverty, and desolation. With nuanced performances from Henry Fonda (The Lady Eve, 12 Angry Men) and Jane Darwell (Gone with the Wind, Mary Poppins), The Grapes of Wrath is a stunning portrait of one family's hopeful journey across the ruined landscapes of depression-era America.
During an introduction and post-screening Q&A, Bill McKibben, award-winning author and environmentalist, will use the 1940 film as a springboard to discuss the science of climate change and the global implications of our warming world.
About the Speaker
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and The Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”
A former staff writer for The New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists honored him by naming a new species of woodland gnat — Megophthalmidia mckibbeni — in his honor.
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Opportunity
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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. 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://somervilleyogurtmakingcoop.wordpress.com
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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 - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.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/
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
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
Take Action MA: http://takeactionma.com
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.
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list