[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - April 2, 2017
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Apr 2 10:33:55 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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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, April 3, 2017 at 12:00 PM to Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 5:30 PM (EDT)
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ZOFNASS PROGRAM WORKSHOP: BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
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Monday, April 3
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8am Finance, Geography, and Sustainability: Workshop Day One
12pm System Effects Mapping as a Tool for Environmental Policy & Planning
12pm U.S. Natural Gas Market Evolution
5pm The Future of Food: Climate, Crops, and Consequences
5:30pm Joi Ito in discussion with Robert Langer, Whiplash
5:30pm Conversations on Civic Innovation: Impact of New Media on Civic Initiatives
6pm Imagine Boston 2030 Master Plan
6pm The Age of Reason Got it Wrong: Understanding Social Conflict Through a Brain Science Lens
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Tuesday, April 4
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9am Pathways towards Sustainable Development: Transforming Global Socio-Technical Regimes
12pm Bhaskar Sunkara: The Future of the American Left
12pm Algorithmic Consumers
12:30pm CDD Forum: Conscripting Climate: Environmental Risk and Defensive Urbanism
4:15pm Robots and Jobs: Evidence from U.S. Labor Markets
5pm Can technology unlock 'unburnable carbon’?
5:30pm Energy needs and market opportunity assessment toolkit
5:30pm BU New Venture Competition
6pm Come Hell or High Water: Why California is Our Best Hope for Climate Action
6pm Consumerism Meets Minimalism: Can We Live More with Less?
6pm ProfDev: Advocacy in the Time of Trump - Moving Beyond Tactics
6:30pm Erik Swyngedouw, “Insurgent Architects and the Spectral Return of the Political in the Post-Democratic City”
6:30pm The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events - GBTP Boston
7pm Ida Auken, the former Minister for the Environment in Denmark, to lead a discussion on changing environmental policies and politics
7pm The Harvard Coop Author Series -Adam Wilkins Making Faces: The Evolutionary Origins of the Human Face
7pm Seed: The Untold Story
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Wednesday, April 5
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12pm Garden waste gasification for community level cooking
4pm vocalist/musician CASSANDRA WILSON
4:15pm Mind the Gap! Tax Incentives and Incentives for Manipulating Fuel Efficiency in the Automobile Industry (Shinsuke Tanaka)
4:15pm Reporting from China with David Barboza
4:30pm From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World: The Human Cost of America's Longest War
5pm Weaponized Lies: An American neuroscientist speaks on the post-truth era
5pm The energy/comfort nexus: Making buildings work for people and the planet
5pm Poverty, Inc. | MIT Sloan School of Management
6pm US Politics & Russia
6pm Visualizing for Justice – Creative, Critical and Contestational Mapping
6pm Unconventional Thinking: How Neurodiversity Benefits the Tech Community
6:30pm Parasites of Capital: Tales of Ecology, Disease, and Landscape in a Neoliberal Age
7pm Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis
7pm How Native Plant Cultivars Affect Pollinators
7:30pm The Man Who Was Too Free - Documentary
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Thursday, April 6 2:00PM to Friday, April 7 5:00PM
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STS Workshop: New Nuclear Imaginaries
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Thursday, April 6
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12pm An acidifying ocean: Where might it lead?
12:15pm The Sahel, the Rift, and the Horn, A Comparative Study of African Jihadists
1:30pm Handle with Care: Boosting Insight and Motivation to Reduce Clutter
3pm Karen Seto: Hidden Linkages between Urbanization and Food Systems
3:30pm Unpacking China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Energy and Environmental Implications
4:15pm The European Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe: Leaders Must Decide
4:30pm Starr Forum: Brexit, Europe, and Trump
5pm This is Your Brain on Music
5:30pm Connecting with Boston’s Innovation Ecosystem
5:30pm Transforming the Way We Live, Work & Move: Wireless Power
6pm Passage at St. Augustine: Film Screening and Discussion
6pm RPP Colloquium Event: Beyond Militarization: The Role of Religious Communities in the Struggle for Justice and Peace
6:30pm How We Can Build a People's Food System
6:30pm Talk Data To Me
6:30pm “The Journey is the Destination” Film Screening and Discussion
7pm DROP THE MIC: A Community Conversation about Militarism
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Friday, April 7
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8am Boston TechBreakfast: Kaminario, OutSystems, Palatine Analytics, Skelmet
9am Game Changers: Sports, Gender, and Society
10am Reducing the Spread of Fake News: Using AI to Nudge Human Behavior
10am Tufts Food Systems Symposium: INTERSECTIONS OF WASTE AND FOOD INSECURITY
12:45pm Utilizing Satellite Data for Air Pollution, Built Environment and Urban Heat Islands Health Effects Research
1pm IACS Seminar: Building A Machine Learning Health System
2:30pm The Glass Walls of Fair Oaks Farms
3pm The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas
4pm A Conversation with Loretta E. Lynch
4:30pm Remembering the Victims of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda: A Panel Discussion
6:30pm Playing with Narratives: Digital Storytelling and Intercultural Interventions in the L2 Classroom
7pm The Harvard Coop Author Series-Mark Esposito Understanding How the Future Unfolds
7pm The Trump Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen
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Saturday, April 8
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Global Brigades New England Conference
9am Urban Tensions Hackathon: Visualizing stories of cities and conflict
9am Our History, Our Future: a Multigenerational Human Rights Conference
10am Get Growing Day Celebration
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Sunday, April 9
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4pm South End Community Choice Energy House Party
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Monday, April 10
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9am Culture Beyond Borders: The Roma Contribution
12pm California and Guangdong: A Tale of Two Cap-and-trade Programs
12:30pm People, Power and Change
12:30pm Wars Change Everything: World War II, Food, and Agriculture in America
4pm Spiritual Activism: A Conversation with Ruby Sales
4pm MassRobotics Open House for Students
4:15pm The Populist Challenge
4:30pm Income Inequality and Health in America: A Lancet Special Issue
6pm How your smart phone will allow America to cut its carbon emissions in half
6pm Life Resurrected: Traveling Backwards in Evolutionary Time
6pm Water Innovation Prize : Final Pitch Night
6pm Boston New Technology April 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT76
6:15pm Design + Future + Drinks + Food
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Tuesday, April 11 - Wednesday, April 12
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Boston Harbor & Islands Science Symposium
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Tuesday, April 11
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11am Toward Resilient Robot Autonomy through Learning, Interaction and Semantic Reasoning
12pm Speaker Series: Sarah Lewis – Politics, Art and Visual Culture
12pm Multitasking: Why Your Brain Can't Do It and What You Should Do About It
12pm Democracy against Domination: Power, Populism, and Resistance in the Era of Trump
12pm Starr Forum: Digital Innovation and Africa
12:30pm Science Communication Lecture: Dietram Scheufele
2:15pm Future of the Left Symposium — Panel 1: Perspectives from Political Leaders
4:15pm Afternoon talk with US Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius and Chief of Staff & Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, Jon Finer
4:15pm Future of the Left Symposium — Panel 2: Perspectives from Scholars
5pm Indivisible Film Screening
5:15pm When We Walked: Pilgrimage Across Tradition
6:30pm A Conversation with Conductor Andris Nelsons
7pm Work and Leadership in An Age of AI and Robotics
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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
Energy Secretary Moniz Exit Letter and Obama Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/28/1648213/-Energy-Secretary-Moniz-Exit-Letter-and-Obama-Mid-Century-Strategy-for-Deep-Decarbonization
Chinese Sayings
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2017/03/chinese-sayings.html
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Monday, April 3, 2017 at 12:00 PM to Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 5:30 PM (EDT)
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ZOFNASS PROGRAM WORKSHOP: BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Harvard Business School (Monday) Cumnock Hall Room 102, Allston
Harvard Graduate School of Design (Tuesday), 48 Quincy street, Stubbins Room 112, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zofnass-program-workshop-business-case-for-sustainable-infrastructure-tickets-31843426546
The Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure is would like to invite you to the Zofnass Program Workshop: The Business Case for Sustainable Infrastructure on April 3-4, 2017 at the Harvard Business School, and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
This Zofnass Workshop is dedicated to the discussion of the Business Case for Sustainable Infrastructure through various stakeholder-focused panels and working sessions. The Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure considers critical to focus on the economic benefits of sustainable infrastructure. It is widely known that sustainable projects avoid impacts, costs and negative externalities, but these are rarely measured and shared with public officials and taxpayers.The workshop is designed to identify the challenges that each stakeholder face when integrating sustainable solutions, as well as identify opportunities for collaboration between the different parties involved.
This event will convene leaders in infrastructure development, financiers, investors, policy makers, regulators, engineers, designers, planners, infrastructure operators, and academics to share and discuss perspectives on the Business Case for Sustainable Infrastructure.
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Monday, April 3
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Finance, Geography, and Sustainability: Workshop Day One
Monday, April 3
8:00a–5:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Workshop Day One
David Weil 9:00am-10:00am The Fissured Workplace and the Future of Work
Deborah Freize 10:00am-11:00am A Place-Based Approach to Impact Investing
Barbara Buchner 10:30am-11:30am Towards a Sustainable Future
Elke Weber 11:30am-12:30pm Risk as Feeling and Perception Matters
Neil Fligstein 1:30pm-2:30pm Financial Markets as Production Markets
Katherina Pistor 3:00pm-4:00pm Coding Behavior
Nazli Choucri 4:00pm-5:00pm TBA
RSVP Required: http://bit.ly/2kxez19
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/1637191293242299/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Janelle Knox-Hayes
jankh at mit.edu
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System Effects Mapping as a Tool for Environmental Policy & Planning
Monday, April 3
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Aidekman Arts Center, 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford
Luke Craven
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U.S. Natural Gas Market Evolution
Monday, April 3
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Richard O’Neill, Chief Economic Adviser, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 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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Trends and Challenges in Global Agriculture: The Opportunity for Digital Ag
Monday, April 3
5pm
Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Michael K. Stern, Chief Executive Officer, President, The Climate Corporation and Vice President, Monsanto Company.
The series, organized by the Harvard University Center for the Environment, highlights the interactions between agriculture and climate and their consequences for health and stability in an ongoing series of discussions with speakers from government, academia, and industry.
Learn more about the series and full schedule of speakers.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
laura_hanrahan at harvard.edu
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Joi Ito in discussion with Robert Langer, Whiplash
Monday, April 3
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/joi-ito-in-discussion-with-robert-langer-whiplash-tickets-31642740288
Cost: $10 – $22.40
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Joi Ito, Director of MIT’s Media Lab, in conversation with Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor in MIT’s Department of Biological Engineering, discussing Ito’s new book, Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future, at 5:30 pm on Monday, April 3, at the Bookstore. Canan Dagderiven of the Media Lab will moderate the discussion and question-and-answer session.
The future will run on an entirely new operating system. It’s a major upgrade, but it comes with a steep learning curve. The logic of a faster future oversets the received wisdom of the past, and the people who succeed will be the ones who learn to think differently. In Whiplash, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe distill that logic into nine organizing principles for navigating and surviving this tumultuous period.
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.
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Conversations on Civic Innovation: Impact of New Media on Civic Initiatives
Monday, April 3
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversations-on-civic-innovation-impact-of-new-media-on-civic-initiatives-tickets-32419109429
Social Media and new approaches to journalism have had broad impact on how civic initiatives are organized and executed. Community and political movements have new tools to attract interested parties and launch campaigns. The last Federal election cycle is just one of several examples where various parties worked with and around the traditional journalism channels to get their message out using these new media options. These approaches certainly impact how governments connect with their constituencies, nonprofits engage with their communities, neighborhood movements organize, and civic / political leaders communicate.
This conversation will review the fast changing world of journalism and social media and how it impacts civic initiatives.
Moderator - Asma Khalid, Political Reporter at WBUR
Eric Gordon – Associate Professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College
Robert McClure – Co-founder and Executive Director at InvestigateWest
Additional speakers TBD
Schedule:
5:30-6:00 PM - Registration and networking
6:00-7:00 PM - Panel Discussion
7:00-7:30 PM - Q&A
7:30-8:30 PM - Post event networking
The Conversations on Civic Innovation is a regular series, co-convened by the Venture Café Foundation and the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center New England.
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Imagine Boston 2030 Master Plan
Monday, April 3
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
BU, 755 Commonwealth Avenue, Room B02b, Boston
Guest lecturer: Rebekah Emanuel, Executive Director, Imagine Boston 2030
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The Age of Reason Got it Wrong: Understanding Social Conflict Through a Brain Science Lens
Monday, April 3
6:00 PM
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
Meet us in the Back Room
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Long-Now-Boston/events/238324333/
Cost: $15.00 /per person includes free drink*
*Students free with school ID (no free drink)*
Doors open at 6pm. Program starts at 6:45pm.
Most approaches to solving the most pressing social challenges we face are wrong because they are rooted in the deeply flawed assumption that human behaviors and decisions are purely rational. Brain science and hard-won experience demonstrate just the opposite, revealing the primary role unconscious processes play in shaping our behaviors and decision-making, especially in the aftermath of violence and trauma. To thrive in the 21st century, what is needed is a profound reshaping of our approaches to human conflict and division, one that is rooted in a nuanced, empirical understanding of human behavior.
Timothy Phillips is a pioneer in the field of conflict resolution and reconciliation and co-founder of Beyond Conflict, a global initiative that is internationally recognized for contributions to the field of transitional justice in post-communist Europe. Using the unique approach of shared experience, Beyond Conflict has helped catalyze the peace and reconciliation processes in several nations, including Northern Ireland, El Salvador, and South Africa. Under Mr. Phillips’ leadership, Beyond Conflict launched a partnership with MIT to conduct cutting-edge research on the relationship between neuroscience and social conflict. Mr. Phillips has advised the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, and the Council of Europe and has been a frequent speaker in national and international forums, including the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Congress. He helped launch and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Club of Madrid, a forum for about 90 former democratic heads of state and government.
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Tuesday, April 4
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Pathways towards Sustainable Development: Transforming Global Socio-Technical Regimes
Tuesday, April 4
9:00 am to 10:00 am
Harvard, Belfer Building Weil Town Hall (B-L-1), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Sustainability Science Program at HKS hosts a talk with Christian Binz, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Lund University; former Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard Sustainability Science Program.
The Earth has entered the Anthropocene, a phase in which human action has profound—and often adverse—impacts on the ecosystem services that sustain human well-being. At the same time, economic globalization is increasingly binding people, technologies, and natural resources into a single social-ecological system at the global scale. Sustainability science scholars have accordingly argued that a global transformation of the ways we produce and consume goods is needed in order to sustain our planet’s life support systems. Yet, our theoretical understanding of such long-term cultural transformations remains limited at best and we lack a heuristic that may inform key stakeholders on how to best navigate the transition. This talk will address this gap with a novel analytical framework at the intersection of sustainability science and socio-technical transitions literature. It proposes a ‘global’ regime perspective that embraces the multi-scalar actor networks and institutions which influence contemporary transition dynamics. I will argue that transformative change is in many sectors hampered by unsustainable regime logics which are influential at a global scale. Shifting to more sustainable development trajectories thus depends not only on governance reform in local social-ecological systems, but equally on action at national and global scales that transforms various sectors’ dominant development logic. This basic idea—and ways to assess the sustainability of alternative regime logics—will be discussed based on case studies from the water sector and the sharing economy. I will conclude by outlining a new research agenda on transition dynamics in complex socio-technical-ecological systems.
Contact Name: Nora O'Neil
nora_oneil at hks.harvard.edu
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Bhaskar Sunkara: The Future of the American Left
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Bhaskar Sunkara
CONTACT INFO Tim Bailey, tim_bailey at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Bhaskar Sunkara is an American political writer, editor and publisher of Jacobin magazine.
The son of immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, Sunkara described Jacobin as a radical publication, “largely the product of a younger generation not quite as tied to the Cold War paradigms that sustained the old leftist intellectual milieus like Dissent or New Politics.”
Sunkara writes for Vice magazine, Washington Post and The Nation, among other outlets. He has appeared on the PBS Tavis Smiley program, MSNBC’s Up w/ Chris Hayes and the FX show Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.
LINK https://shorensteincenter.org/event/bhaskar-sunkara/
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Algorithmic Consumers
Tuesday, April 4
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/2017/04/AlgorithmicConsumers#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/04/AlgorithmicConsumers at 12:00 pm
Hate shopping? The next generation of e-commerce will be conducted by digital agents, based on algorithms that will not only make purchase recommendations, but will also predict what we want, make purchase decisions, negotiate and execute the transaction for the consumers, and even automatically form coalitions of buyers to enjoy better terms, thereby replacing human decision-making. Algorithmic consumers have the potential to change dramatically the way we conduct business, raising new conceptual and regulatory challenges.
This game-changing technological development has significant implications for regulation, which should be adjusted to a reality of consumers making their purchase decisions via algorithms. Despite this challenge, scholarship addressing commercial algorithms focused primarily on the use of algorithms by suppliers. In this presentation we explore the technological advances which are shaping algorithmic consumers, and analyze how these advances affect the competitive dynamic in the market. We analyze the implications of such technological advances on regulation, identifying three main challenges. We further discuss some of the challenges to human autonomous choice that arise from these developments, and examine whether the existing legal framework is adequate to address them.
Forthcoming Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 30, 2017
About Michal
Michal Gal (LL.B., LL.M., S.J.D.) is Professor and Director of the Forum on Law and Markets at the Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, Israel. She was a Visiting Professor at NYU, Columbia, Georgetown, Melbourne and Lisbon. Prof. Gal is the author of several books, including Competition Policy for Small Market Economies (Harvard University Press, 2003). She also published scholarly articles on competition law issues and has won prizes for her research and for her teaching. Inter alia, she was chosen as one of the ten most promising young legal scholars in Israel (Globes, 2007) and as one of the leading women in competition law around the world (Global Competition Review). Her paper, "Merger Policy for Small and Micro Economies", won the Antitrust Writings Award for best paper on merger policy in 2013, and her paper on "Access to Big Data" (with Daniel Rubinfeld) is short-listed for this year's prize. Prof. Gal is the President of the International Academic Society for Competition Law Scholars (ASCOLA). She served as a consultant to several international organizations (including OECD, UNCTAD) on issues of competition law and was a non-governmental advisor of the International Competition Network (ICN). She also advised several small economies and regiional organizations on the framing of their competition laws. She is a board member of several international antitrust organizations, including the American Antitrust Institute (AAI), The Antitrust Consumer Institute, the Asian Competition Law and Economics Center (ACLEC). She clerked at the Israeli Supreme Court, and her work is often cited in the decisions of the Court on competition matters.
About Niva
Niva Elkin-Koren is a Visiting Professor of Law at HLS, where she teaches Digital Copyright, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center . She is the founding director of the Haifa Center for Law & Technology (HCLT) and the former dean of the University of Haifa, Faculty of Law. Her research focuses on the legal institutions that facilitate private and public control over the production and dissemination of knowledge. She has written and spoken extensively about digital governance, legal oversight of algorithmic decision-making, liability of online intermediaries, the privatization of information policy, private ordering, the economic analysis of intellectual property, and legal strategies for enhancing the public domain. She is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council, of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin, a member of the Executive Committee of Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP), and an Advisory Board Member in the Information Program of the Open Society Foundation. She is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the Copyright Society (since 2009) the Journal of Information Policy (since 2010) and the Internet Policy Review (since 2016). Prof. Elkin-Koren received her LL.B from Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law in 1989, her LL.M from Harvard Law School in 1991, and her S.J.D from Stanford Law School in 1995.
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CDD Forum: Conscripting Climate: Environmental Risk and Defensive Urbanism
Tuesday, April 4
12:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 10-485, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conscripting-climate-environmental-risk-and-defensive-urbanism-tickets-32741087474
This half-day symposium will bring together leading scholars, policy experts and practitioners speaking to the opportunities and risks for urban planning and adaptation of an evolving climate security agenda. The security implications of climate change have become an increasingly dominant framing of the issue both inside and outside of the defense apparatus. As the history of the intersection between defense and urban planning has shown, this could have significant impacts on forms of adaptation in the built environment. In three panels on April 4th from 12:30 - 6:00, the symposium will offer a critical exploration of these issues, pointing to directions for future research and practice.
Featured speakers:
Simin Davoudi, Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning, Newcastle University
Damian F. White, Professor of History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences, RISD
Sarah E. Light, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School
Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow, Environmental Change and Security Program, Wilson Center
More info TBA
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/1197813206940120/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): City Design and Development, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Sonny Oram
6172535115
sonnyo at mit.edu
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Robots and Jobs: Evidence from U.S. Labor Markets
Tuesday, April 4
4:15p–5:45p
MIT, Building E52-432, 2 Amherst Street or 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Daron Acemoglu (MIT)
Web site: http://economics.mit.edu/files/12810
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Macroeconomics Seminar
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal at mit.edu
Editorial Comment: I for one welcome our new robot overseers.
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Can technology unlock 'unburnable carbon'?
Tuesday, April 4
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sara Budinis
To stay within the 2 degree C carbon budget, a very significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption is required. If we are to meet our carbon budget, the majority of global fossil fuel reserves cannot be combusted. The role of technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) may be critical in enabling a greater quantity of fossil fuel to be combusted within a low-carbon framework; however, a number of studies are currently reaching different conclusions. During this talk, Dr. Budinis will assess the current state of knowledge regarding the 'unburnable carbon' issue and attempt to provide clarity by quantitatively defining the potential role of CCS in unlocking the unburnable carbon over the next 85 years.
Sponsored by the MITEI Low-Carbon Energy Center for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.
Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/44-seminar-can-technology-unlock-unburnable-carbon-with-imperial-college-londons-sara-budinis-registration-32694070846
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/44-seminar-can-technology-unlock-unburnable-carbon-with-imperial-college-londons-sara-budinis-registration-32694070846
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: MITEI Events
miteievents at mit.edu
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Energy needs and market opportunity assessment toolkit
Tuesday, April 4
5:30 PM
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Eric Verploegen
Description
Local organizations in off-grid communities can be powerful agents of change for driving increased energy access, regardless of their existing expertise in the energy sector. However, most approaches for increasing energy access focus on growing existing enterprises or expanding specific initiatives to new markets. Over the past several years, D-Lab has worked with organizations that work in off-grid communities in West Africa, India, and Latin America to identify the most pressing energy needs and to develop market-based energy access programs to meet these needs. Eric will discuss the publicly available tools and strategies that D-Lab is developing to support local organizations in identifying solutions to meet off-grid communities where they are based.
About Eric Verploegen
Eric joined D-Lab in 2014 to expand D-Lab's research efforts in the area of off-grid energy and leads the D-Lab Off-Grid Energy Group. He has a background in materials science and received his PhD in Polymer Science and Technology from MIT in 2008. Prior to D-Lab, Eric worked on developing materials for solar cells and waste remediation systems for the oil and gas industry. He is passionate about helping organizations based in off-grid regions identify technologies, products, and distribution strategies to increase energy access in their communities. He also enjoys playing pick-up basketball and frisbee.
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BU New Venture Competition
Tuesday, April 4
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/17th-new-venture-competition-finals-spring-2017-tickets-32818894196
Join us as our 5 finalists present their business ventures to a panel of investors. Plus, be part of choosing the People's Choice Award winner! 5:30pm- Appetizers and Networking 6pm- Competition Begins Congratulations to our 5 Finals: Chef Box, EarlierCare, Unite, Sonder Partners, EmployNet
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Come Hell or High Water: Why California is Our Best Hope for Climate Action
Tuesday, April 4
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Harvard, Nye B, 5th Floor, Taubman Building, HKS, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JohnLairdRSVP
In spite of Trump’s attempts to roll back environmental policy, California is setting the pace with carbon credits, energy efficiency and vehicle emissions standards. The Center for Public Leadership at HKS invite you to join John Laird, Secretary of California’s Natural Resources Agency, as he discusses California’s role as a global leader in environmental protection. Moderated by Rand Wentworth, Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership.
Speaker Bio:
John Laird was appointed California Secretary for Natural Resources by Governor Jerry Brown on Jan. 5, 2011. He has spent nearly 40 years in public service, including 23 years as an elected official. The son of teachers and raised in Vallejo, Laird graduated with honors in politics from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1972. He then served on the district staff of U.S. Representative Jerome Waldie, and as a budget analyst for the Santa Cruz County Administrator.
In 1981, Laird was elected to the Santa Cruz City Council, and served nine years until term limits ended his council service in 1990. He was a two-term mayor from 1983 to 1984 and from 1987 to 1988. During his local government service, he served as a board member for local transit, transportation, water planning, and regional government agencies. Laird was the executive director of the Santa Cruz AIDS Project from 1991 to 1994 and an elected member of the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2002.
In 2002, Laird was elected to represent the 27th Assembly District in the California Assembly, which includes portions of Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Clara Counties. He was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2006, when he received more than 70 percent of the vote. At the beginning of his second term, Laird joined the Assembly leadership team when Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez named him chair of the Budget Committee, a position to which he was reappointed by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass in 2008.
While serving the maximum three terms in the Assembly, Laird authored 82 bills that were signed into law. These bills established the landmark Sierra Nevada Conservancy, restored community college health services, expanded and clarified state civil rights protections, reformed the state mandates system, and significantly expanded water conservation.
Laird was a member of the State Integrated Waste Management Board from 2008 to 2009 and taught state environmental policy at University of California Santa Cruz. Continuing his public service as California’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Laird has made climate change adaptation, water conservation and supply reliability, enhanced relationships with tribal governments, State Parks access, farmland conservation, and oceans sustainability among other issues top priorities. As Secretary, he provides administrative oversight to thirty departments, commissions, councils, museum, boards and conservancies – and is a sitting member of sixteen conservancies, councils, boards and commissions within the purview of the Agency.
Laird has been a long-time resident of Santa Cruz with his spouse John Flores. He has traveled extensively, is fluent in Spanish, enjoys conducting family history research, and is a life-long Chicago Cubs fan.
Contact Name: Anastasia Hard
anastasia_hard at hks.harvard.edu
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Consumerism Meets Minimalism: Can We Live More with Less?
Tuesday, April 4
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center - Venture Cafe, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/consumerism-meets-minimalism-can-we-live-more-with-less-tickets-32687801093
Cost: $8 – $12
The arrival of the sharing economy, the tiny house boom, the joy of liberating worldly possessions, and celebrating not buying the latest gadget tell us the tide of consumerism is shifting again. In the last several months alone, we have seen example after example of how modern information platforms and increased transparency can be used to give people the power to vote with their wallets. In addition to exercising economic and political influence through our purchasing behavior, though, there is also a broad trend toward divesting of the consumption cycle altogether. Modern minamilism proposes to reunite us with meaningful living and greater connectedness with ourselves and others rather than with objects. Juliet Schor, renowned researcher, author and expert on our connected consumption and economy, joins us to unpack the promise of living with less and its impact on the planet.
Guest Speaker
When we announced upcoming speaker Juliet Schor at the March BASG event, people literally danced with joy. Juliet Schoris Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Schor is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Connected Learning Research Network and scientific advisor to the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI). Schor’sresearch focuses on consumption, time use, and environmental sustainability. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies. In 2014 Schor received the American Sociological Association’s award for Public Understanding of Sociology.
Schor has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Japan to a variety of civic, business, labor and academic groups. She appears frequently on national and international media, and profiles on her and her work have appeared in scores of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and People magazine. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, Good Morning America, and the The Early Show on CBS. She is the author of the bestseller The Overworked American and several other books that explore consumer culture. She is a contributor to the recent film Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. We cannot wait! Join us. - Carol, Holly, and Tilly
More about Juliet Schor and the film Minimalism
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ProfDev: Advocacy in the Time of Trump - Moving Beyond Tactics
Tuesday, April 4
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
The NonProfit Center, 89 South Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/sojust-tm/events/238391490/
Fee: $15 advance/$30 door - split with trainer
Limited space - register ahead of time
Credit cards accepted online and at the door.
Newcomers always welcomed!
There are many, many reasons to be resisting right now. This training will help you become more strategic and effective.
Join Socializing for Justice for a ProfDev (professional development) training Advocacy in the Time of Trump: Moving Beyond Tactics on Tuesday, April 4, 6:00 - 8:30 PM.
Advocacy in the Time of Trump: Moving Beyond Tactics
Political activism is trending in the U.S. and there’s no shortage of tips and tactics out there. The problem with diving straight into tactics - without understanding the rules of the political engagement - is that new activists can sabotage their own efforts. It’s like building a house starting with the roof or the sidewalls instead of the foundation.
The solution is training activists to understand the unstated foundational rules. By learning The Advocacy Framework, activists will be able to identify goals, pick a winning strategy, and employ the appropriate techniques naturally. Activists can then dramatically improve their effectiveness.
Participants learn:
Why credibility is critical
How to build political relationships & political capital
The keys to a successful ask
ABOUT OUR PRESENTER
Stefanie Coxe has over 15 years experience in politics and in the non-profit world. During that time she met a lot of people who couldn’t afford a lobbyist but still had a need and passion for advocacy. She formed her training and e-learning company, Nexus Werx LLC to teach non-profit leaders and small businesses how to lobby; individuals how to be effective activists; and first time candidates how to run for office. Stefanie is a 14th generation Cape Codder currently residing in Cambridge, MA. Learn more about her and her work at www.nexuswerx.com.
SCHEDULE
6:00-6:30 Socializing - bring your own dinner
6:30-8:30 Training and Q&A
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Erik Swyngedouw, “Insurgent Architects and the Spectral Return of the Political in the Post-Democratic City”
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2017, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design
DETAILS “Since 2011, a seemingly endless proliferation of urban rebellions, sparked by a variety of conditions and unfolding against the backdrop of very different historical and geographical contexts, has profoundly disturbed the apparently cozy neoliberal status quo and disquieted various economic and political elites. The aftermath of such urban insurrections has provided the starting point for the arguments developed in this presentation. I proceed in four steps. First, I discuss the contested configurations of the processes of post-democratization. Next, I propose a series of theoretical and political arguments that help frame the evacuation of the properly political from the spaces of post-democratic policy negotiation on the one hand and the spectral re-emergence of the political on the other. In the concluding part, perspectives for re-vitalizing the political possibilities of a spatialized emancipatory project are presented.” Erik Swyngedouw is professor of geography at Manchester University. His research interests include political-ecology, hydro-social conflict, urban governance, democracy and political power, and the politics of globalization. He previously taught at Oxford University and held the Vincent Wright Visiting Professorship at Science Po, Paris, in 2014. He recently co-edited (with Japhy Willson) The Post-Political and Its Discontents: Spectres of Radical Politics Today (Edinburgh University Press, 2014). His new book with MIT Press, Liquid Power: Contested Hydro-Modernities in Twentieth-Century Spain, focuses on the issue of water and how it has been affected by emerging forms of social power in Spain.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events at gsd.harvard.edu.
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/erik-swyngedouw-insurgent-architects-and-the-spectral-return-of-the-political-in-the-post-democratic-city/
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The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events - GBTP Boston
Tuesday, April 4
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Lir Irish Pub & Restaurant, 903 Boylston Street, Boston, MA (map)
Tom Wysmuller will be discussing The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events.
Thomas Wysmuller trained as a meteorologist at New York University and at the Royal Dutch Weather Bureau in Amsterdam. He then worked for five years at NASA before, during, and after the moon landings. A fuller biography can be found here at Heartland's International Conferences on Climate Change website (ICCC 12 being held March 23-24 in Washington DC).
Climate changes. Yes. But is it driven by human activity - is it "man made global warming?" This debate has been going on for decades, and it manifests itself in our governments (in)sincere attempt to "never let a [fabricated] crisis go to waste."
Mayor Marty Walsh and former Secretary of State John Kerry announced last June that Boston would host a climate summit between the US and China. (Mayor Walsh, Secretary Kerry Announce Boston Will Host 2017 US-China Climate Leaders Summit, City of Boston).
Boston has its own "Climate-Ready Boston" initiative to deal with the effects of Climate Change. In particular, they have Climate Projections (link) prepared by their own working group.
Tom Wysmuller will attempt to bring some sanity to the hyperbole which is commonplace in the political discussion and media today. With a change in administrations, President Trump has already removed references to Climate Change from the White House web site. That is a good start, but the debate (and most likely protest) will continue unabated.
This is a first in a series of discussions we will be hosting. Stay Tuned!!
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Ida Auken, the former Minister for the Environment in Denmark, to lead a discussion on changing environmental policies and politics
Tuesday, April 4
7 p.m.
Somerville Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville
Ms Auken, currently at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, is a young, dynamic leader who was the President of the European Union’s Minister Council on the Environment during the 2012 Rio + 20 negotiations that led to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. She is now leading the effort for Denmark to achieve 100% renewable energy for heat and power by 2030.
Come and participate in a lively discussion directly related to political decisions now being made concerning the future of our Commonwealth, our nation and our world.
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The Harvard Coop Author Series -Adam Wilkins Making Faces: The Evolutionary Origins of the Human Face
Tuesday, April 4
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-harvard-coop-author-series-adam-wilkins-making-facesthe-evolutionary-origins-of-the-human-face-tickets-32691200260
Humans possess the most expressive faces in the animal kingdom. Adam Wilkins presents evidence ranging from the fossil record to recent findings of genetics, molecular biology, and developmental biology to reconstruct the fascinating story of how the human face evolved. Beginning with the first vertebrate faces half a billion years ago and continuing to dramatic changes among our recent human ancestors, Making Faces illuminates how the unusual characteristics of the human face came about—both the physical shape of facial features and the critical role facial expression plays in human society.
About the Author: Adam S. Wilkins is the author of The Evolution of Developmental Pathways and editor of the “Perspectives” section of Genetics.
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Seed: The Untold Story
Tuesday, April 4
7:00PM TO 9:00PM
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1609&DayPlannerDate=4/4/2017
Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds. SEED features Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke and Raj Patel. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Barry Logan, Visiting Scientist, Arnold Arboretum, and Professor of Biology, Bowdoin College.
Free, registration requested
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Wednesday, April 5
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Garden waste gasification for community level cooking
Wednesday, April 5
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building 32-124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sonal Thengane
The increased environmental regulations, price rise and scarcity of fossil fuels has shifted global attention towards exploring alternative energy conversion technologies such as biomass gasification. Sonal Thengane talks about pelletization of municipal solid waste, in particular, garden waste followed by its gasification as a solution not only to manage waste, but also to generate energy that could be used for community level cooking or steam generation. Gasification provides better control over thermochemical conversion of biomass feedstock and generates producer gas (syngas) with calorific value of 4-6 MJ/kg. Proper segregation and collection of garden waste followed by appropriate treatment would contribute for various applications such as cooking, power generation and composting. The salient feature of this project is that it would not only manage waste, but also reduce LPG consumption and reduce overall carbon footprint.
Sonal Thengane is B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, Nagpur, M.E. in Chemical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and Ph. D from IITB-Monash Research Academy.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Waste Alliance, GSC Funding Board
For more information, contact: Neerja Bharti
nbharti at mit.edu
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vocalist/musician CASSANDRA WILSON
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 5, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Leverett Old Library, McKinlock Hall, 11 Mill Street (between Plympton Street and DeWolfe Street), Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Music
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Learning From Performers
SPEAKER(S) Moderated by Professor Ingrid Monson
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617-495-8676
DETAILS “A singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field” (Gary Giddins), Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi who incorporates blues, country and folk music into her work. Designated a Jazz Master in Residence at Harvard, she will discuss her career and creative process during a conversation moderated by Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African and African American Music. Wilson will also appear in concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands on Saturday, April 8 at 8 pm, Sanders Theatre (ticket information TBA).
LINK http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/event/vocalist-musician-cassandra-wilson
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Mind the Gap! Tax Incentives and Incentives for Manipulating Fuel Efficiency in the Automobile Industry (Shinsuke Tanaka)
WHEN Wednesday, Wed, April 5, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S) Shinsuke Tanaka
LINK https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/16492
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Reporting from China with David Barboza
Wednesday, April 5
4:15pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Suite 200N, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge
Join David Barboza, correspondent for The New York Times, for a discussion about reporting from China.
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From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World: The Human Cost of America's Longest War
Wednesday, April 5
4:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
BU, The Castle, 225 Bay State Road, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-afghanistan-to-a-more-dangerous-world-the-human-cost-of-americas-longest-war-tickets-32940591195
Please join the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies in launching our Inaugural Annual Lecture Series on Afghanistan this April at Boston University.
AIAS will is honored to welcome Christina Lamb as our inaugural keynote speaker this year. Drawing from her most recent book Farewell Kabul, she will discuss Afghanistan in the context of a more dangerous world, with her experience speaking to a deep understanding of the human costs associated with America's longest war.
A best-selling author and one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents, Christina has reported and written on Afghanistan and Pakistan for many years. Since starting out in Peshawar where her despatches with the Afghan mujaheddin fighting the Russians saw her named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards in 1988, she has won Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times as well as the Prix Bayeux, Europe’s most prestigious award for war correspondents and was awarded an OBE by the Queen in 2013.
Currently Chief Foreign Correspondent for the Sunday Times as well as a Global Fellow for the Wilson Centre for International Affairs in Washington DC, Christina has been based in Islamabad and Rio de Janeiro for the Financial Times and Johannesburg and Washington for the Sunday Times.
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Weaponized Lies: An American neuroscientist speaks on the post-truth era
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 5, 2017, 5 p.m. (Reception at 4:30)
WHERE Harvard, Austin 200 Ames Court Room, 1515 Massacusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mind Brain Behavior
SPEAKER(S) Daniel Levitin, Ph.D.
DETAILS MBB 2017 Distinguished Lecture Series
LINK http://mbb.harvard.edu/news/mbb-2017-distinguished-lecture-series
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The energy/comfort nexus: Making buildings work for people and the planet
Wednesday, April 5
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street Cambridge
Speaker: Gail Brager
Today, too many buildings harm the planet without properly serving their occupants. Buildings contribute roughly 40% of the total US greenhouse gas emissions, and 80% of their energy use is for heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting. Yet research shows there are still high levels of occupant dissatisfaction with indoor environmental quality, and this can have profound impacts on people's health, comfort, performance, and overall well-being. Using a range of research examples, Professor Gail Brager's presentation will describe new ways of studying, designing, and operating buildings to improve both energy and comfort performance, which must be simultaneous goals of a high-performance building.
IHS Seminar Series
Web site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/45-seminar-the-energycomfort-nexus-with-uc-berkeleys-gail-brager-registration-32665307815
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/45-seminar-the-energycomfort-nexus-with-uc-berkeleys-gail-brager-registration-32665307815
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: MITEI Events
miteievents at mit.edu
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Poverty, Inc. | MIT Sloan School of Management
Wednesday, April 5
5:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
MIT, Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-inc-mit-sloan-school-of-management-tickets-32830757680
As a prelude to the Africa Innovate Conference, the MIT Sloan Africa Business Club in partnership with Student Life and Net Impact presents a screening of Poverty, Inc. Join us on April 5th at 5:00PM in Wong Auditorium to screen the award-winning film.
Conference link: www.mitafrica.com
Watch the film trailer: https://vimeo.com/109863354
Share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #PovertyINC
Website: http://www.povertyinc.org/
POVERTY, INC. has earned 40 international film festival honors including a "Best of Fests" selection at IDFA Amsterdam - the biggest documentary festival in the world.
FILM SYNOPSIS
“I see multiple colonial governors,” says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. “We are held captive by the donor community.”
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry — the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change. Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore.
From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
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US Politics & Russia
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 5, 2017, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR JFK Jr. Forum; Institute of Politics; Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Molly McKew, Foreign Policy and Strategy Consultant, Information Warfare Expert and Writer
R. Nicholas Burns (Moderator), Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO JFK Jr. Forum
617-495-1380
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/forum/us-politics-russia
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Visualizing for Justice – Creative, Critical and Contestational Mapping
Wednesday, April 5
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Emerson, Bordy Theater, 216 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://aclum.org/events/visualizing-justice-creative-critical-contestational-mapping/
A public event on data visualization and mapping for social justice in association with the American Association of Geographers sub conference
The rise of Big Data, freedom of information and user-friendly software has contributed to the popularity of infographics, data visualizations and mapping for civic engagement and advocacy. This surge in data visualization brings with it opportunities for information re-use, increased transparency, and new forms of civic participation. Yet visualizing data for social justice also comes with its own set of challenges . From issues of security and tracking down hard to find information, to the ethics of making infographics out of death and suffering, participatory practices of data visualization often take place on ambiguous ethical terrain.
This event is free, but you must register to attend.
Showcase
Short presentations of recent data visualization and mapping work from critical cartographers, journalists, designers and social justice campaigners will be followed by audience discussion. Together we will explore what it means to visualize for justice today.
Anna Feigenbaum / Bournemouth University Civic Media Hub / Mapping Tear Gas
Kade Crockford, ACLU of Massachusetts and Paola Villarreal, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University / War on Drugs
Tim Stallman / Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Making & Saving History / The Northside Neighborhood Initiative
Mara Ferreri / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona / Heygate Displacement
Alessandra Renzi / Northeastern University / Why Jakarta Floods
Lize Mogel / Counter-cartographer / Walking the Watershed
Catherine D’Ignazio / Emerson Engagment Lab / Boston Coastline Future Past
More coming soon!
Your work here!
Want to feature your maps & visualizations? We will have a running slideshow of social justice maps & visualizations at the event. To include your work in our slideshow:
Send one image of your work to catherine_dignazio at emerson.edu and akshaya_sawant at emerson.edu.
Your image should be a high quality (at least 1200px width, 72 dpi) JPG or PNG file, formatted for 16:9 aspect ratio.
Your image should include a caption IN THE IMAGE ITSELF that explains the project and links to your website or contact info.
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Unconventional Thinking: How Neurodiversity Benefits the Tech Community
Wednesday, April 5
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor - Venture Cafe, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unconventional-thinking-how-neurodiversity-benefits-the-tech-community-tickets-32821518044
Join us as we explore the intersection of Asperger and other neurodiverse profiles in our tech communities. Dan Bricklin, CTO of Alpha Software and "Father of the Spreadsheet," along with a line-up of other creative minds will look at the past, present, and future of unconventional thinking in our workplace.
Program:
6:00 - 6:30pm Networking (refreshments will be served)
6:30 - 7:30pm Speaker Presentations
7:30 - 8:00pm Q&A
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Parasites of Capital: Tales of Ecology, Disease, and Landscape in a Neoliberal Age
Wednesday, April 5
6:30p–8:00p
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Gregg Mitman
SARS. Avian influenza. Ebola. Transgressions across animal/human borders? Industrial diseases of our own making? Causal explanations abound. Ecological perspectives on emerging diseases proliferate, from the dynamics of host-microbe interactions to the cycles of global capital. But new forms of life and their ecological understandings have been emerging in industrial landscapes in the making for generations of humans and microbes. This talk explores how industrial hygiene, engineering, and film became integral to the infrastructure, logic, and imaginaries of development advanced by Firestone Plantations Company in Liberia and the ecological regimes of capital accumulation that created conditions of life conducive to a virus' emergence and spread.
Part of the MIT Department of Architecture Spring 2017 Lecture Series
MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Hosted by the History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art Program
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Kathaleen Brearley
617-258-8439
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Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis
Wednesday, April 5
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes New York Times–bestselling author ANNIE JACOBSEN—author of Area 51, Operation Paperclip, and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Pentagon’s Brain—for a discussion of her latest book, Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.
About Phenomena
This is a book about a team of scientists and psychics with top secret clearances.
For more than forty years, the U.S. government has researched extrasensory perception, using it in attempts to locate hostages, fugitives, secret bases, and downed fighter jets, to divine other nations' secrets, and even to predict future threats to national security. The intelligence agencies and military services involved include CIA, DIA, NSA, DEA, the Navy, Air Force, and Army-and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Now, for the first time, New York Times–bestselling author Annie Jacobsen tells the story of these radical, controversial programs, using never before seen declassified documents as well as exclusive interviews with, and unprecedented access to, more than fifty of the individuals involved. Speaking on the record, many for the first time, are former CIA and Defense Department scientists, analysts, and program managers, as well as the government psychics themselves.
Who did the U.S. government hire for these top secret programs, and how do they explain their military and intelligence work? How do scientists approach such enigmatic subject matter? What interested the government in these supposed powers and does the research continue? Phenomena is a riveting investigation into how far governments will go in the name of national security.
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How Native Plant Cultivars Affect Pollinators
Wednesday, April 5
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Annie White, Ecological Landscape Designer & Adjunct Professor, University of Vermont
Initiatives to address pollinator decline are widespread and native plants are the preferred choice for pollinator habitat restoration. The growing demand for natives, coupled with a longstanding desire of horticulturalists for enhanced bloom, color, or other characteristics, has led to the increased selection and breeding of native cultivars. Although these cultivars are typically marketed for their ecological benefits, until now there have been no scientific studies to support or refute these claims. So are native cultivars as valuable in pollinator habitat gardens as the true native species? Annie White will help answer this question by sharing the results of four years of field data. Her research is groundbreaking and remarkable.
Annie White is the founder of Nectar Landscape Design Studio and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Vermont. She earned her MS in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her recent PhD in Plant & Soil Science from the University of Vermont was focused on this exceptional new research on native plant cultivars.
More information at http://grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts
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The Man Who Was Too Free - Documentary
Wednesday, April 5
7:30p–10:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The story starts in the 1990s, when Boris Nemtsov was widely viewed as the future president of Russia. It ends in February of 2015,when he was assassinated on Moskvoretsky Bridge across from the Kremlin. Nemtsov is the only Russian politician to have left a significant mark on both eras: the 1990s, with their free press, political struggles, and low oil prices, and the 2000s, the time of stability and economic growth, but also the decline of political competition, growing censorship, street protests, and the invasion of Ukraine.
Web site: ruscon2016.scripts.mit.edu/nemtsov-movie
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Russian Connection
For more information, contact: Oles Shtanko
oles at mit.edu
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Thursday, April 6 2:00PM to Friday, April 7 5:00PM
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STS Workshop: New Nuclear Imaginaries
HUCE Seminar Room 440, 26 Oxford Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP by March 30 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-nuclear-imaginaries-tickets-32701615412
Nuclear worlds today are at a crossroads. As infrastructures age, stockpiles and wastes accumulate, and technologies, materials and interpretations proliferate, we face questions about how to build a just and responsible future out of the ambiguous legacies we have inherited. The future presents challenges of imagination as much as of technology and policy.
HKS' Program on Science, Technology & Society hosts a special two-day workshop to address these challenges and consider possible solutions. Registration required by March 30th at nuclearimaginaries.eventbrite.com.
THURSDAY, APRIL 6th:
Opening Remarks
Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)
Andy Stirling (University of Sussex, SPRU)
Session 1: Nuclear Pasts and Futures
Ulrike Felt (University of Vienna)
Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)
Andrew Stirling (University of Sussex)
Matthew Bunn (Harvard Kennedy School)
Richard Lester (MIT)
FRIDAY, APRIL 7th:
Session 2: Concealments
Lynn Eden (Stanford University)
Scott Kemp (MIT)
Christopher Lawrence (Harvard, STS Program)
Rebecca Slayton (Cornell University)
Alex Wellerstein (Stevens Institute of Technology)
Session 3: Memory and Forgetfulness
Michael Dennis (Naval War College)
Egle Rindzeviciute (Kingston University, London)
Kyoko Sato (Stanford University, STS)
Sonja Schmid (Virginia Tech)
Session 4: Waste and Burial
Rod Ewing (Stanford University)
Peter Galison (Harvard University)
Allison Macfarlane (George Washington University)
Miranda Schreurs (TUM, Munich)
Session 5: Security and Sustainability Discourses in the 21st Century
Matthew Bunn (Harvard Kennedy School)
Sam Weiss Evans (Harvard University)
Peter Haas (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Steven Miller (Harvard Kennedy School)
More details at nuclearimaginaries.eventbrite.com.
Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Institute for Global Law and Policy, and the Weatherhead Center for Science and International Affairs.
Contact Name: Shana Ashar
shana_ashar at hks.harvard.edu
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/workshops/new-nuclear-imaginaries/
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Thursday, April 6
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An acidifying ocean: Where might it lead?
Thursday, April 6
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Jan Pechekik, Department of Biology, Tufts University
The world's oceans are now 25-30% more acidic than they were a few hundred years ago, at the start of the Industrial Revolution. We're not talking about Boston Harbor here, we're talking about all the oceans in the world! More than 3200 research articles have been published on this topic over the past 10 years, concerning everything from the impact on coral reefs to effects on shell formation, reproduction, development, and behavior. Dr. Pechenik will talk about some of this work, and about the difficulties in understanding what the long-term consequences of ocean acidification might be. He will also make a tight connection between ocean acidification and global warming, something that more people need to know about.
Jan A. Pechenik is a member of the Tufts Biology Department, where he studies various aspects of the reproduction, development, metamorphosis, and behavior of marine invertebrates. One of his lifetime goals is to publish at least one research paper on every major animal group. Pechenik is the author of Biology of the Invertebrates, along with more than 125 research papers. He is also the author of A Short Guide to Writing About Biology, now in its 9th edition, and has more recently written an edited version of Charles Darwin's infamous Origin of Species, following the advice given in his Short Guide to make it more readable (The Readable Darwin, Sinauer Associates, Inc). He is currently funded by the National Science Foundation to study the impact of ocean acidification on a marine snail that is native to New England but which has now become a wildly successful invader in many other parts of the world.
Watch it live from your computer or smart phone:
Webex: http://bit.ly/TuftsLunchLearn
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The Sahel, the Rift, and the Horn, A Comparative Study of African Jihadists
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Stig Jarle Hansen, Research Fellow, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
LINK http://www.belfercenter.org/event/sahel-rift-and-horn-comparative-study-african-jihadists
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Handle with Care: Boosting Insight and Motivation to Reduce Clutter
Thursday, April 6
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Contact:
Liz Seelman, 617-349-6048
Hoarding is a problem that impacts a large population in the U.S., including people who identify with the behavior and those friends and family who seek to help them.
During this two-hour session, Presented by Suzanne Otte, MSW, LCSW, we’ll explore facts (and fiction) about Hoarding Disorder.
Supportive approaches to build insight into hoarding will be shared and tips for enhancing motivation to reduce clutter will be discussed.
Stuffed, an engaging documentary about the lives of three people who experience Hoarding Disorder will also be shown.
Please join us if you would like to learn more about hoarding and approaches to help a family member, friend, or yourself gain motivation to work on decluttering.
This event is free. Registration is not required but appreciated. For more information, call Liz Seelman at 617-349-6048 or email Liz Seelman.
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Karen Seto: Hidden Linkages between Urbanization and Food Systems
Thursday, April 6
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 9-354, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Karen Seto
From croplands to landfills, urban systems co-evolve with food systems. Rapidly urbanizing regions must systematically contend with agricultural land loss, increased meat consumption, diet diversification, and shifting patterns of food access and storage. Guest speaker Karen Seto will join for a joint Environmental Policy and Planning/Sam Tak Lee discussion on how urbanization science and urban planning can inform debates over food security and sustainability.
Karen Seto is the Associate Dean of Research, Director of Doctoral Studies, and a Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is an established leader in the area of urbanization and global change, with experience founding, chairing, and researching for groups such as Urbanization and Global Environmental Change, International Human Dimensions Programme, Future Earth, the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, the US National Research Council Committee to Advise U.S. Global Change Research Program, the NRC Committee on Pathways to Urban Sustainability, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Karen was the executive producer of 10,000 Shovels: Rapid Urban Growth in China, a documentary integrating multiple mediums and tools to highlight urban changes in China.
Web site: http://dusp.mit.edu/epp/event/hidden-linkages-between-urbanization-and-food-systems-chinese-and-global-transitions
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu
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Unpacking China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Energy and Environmental Implications
Thursday, April 6
3:30 pm to 4:45 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment with Prof. Weidong Liu, Professor in Economic Geography; Assistant Director and Chair, Center for the Belt and Road Initiative, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science.
Abstract: China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is a call for an open and inclusive model of cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange (i.e. inclusive globalization) that draws on the deep-seated meanings of the ancient Silk Roads. This Initiative reflects China’s rise as a global power, and its industrial redeployment, increased outward investment and need to diversify energy sources and routes. The BRI involves infrastructure building and economic cooperation as well as the development of new multilateral financial instruments, which will help to extend the march of modernization and poverty reduction to emerging countries. This alternative globalization path is likely to change existing international division of labor, and thus has profound implications for managing energy and related environmental issues in China.
Co-sponsored by China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
tiffanychan at seas.harvard.edu
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The European Commission's White Paper on the Future of Europe: Leaders Must Decide
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR European Union Law and Government Study Group
SPEAKER(S) Joaquín Almunia
President CEPS. Former Vice-President European Commission; José Manuel Martinez Sierra
Jean Monnet ad Personam Professor in EU Law and Government, Real Colegio Complutense, Harvard
CONTACT INFO Anna Popiel apopiel at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS
In his state of the Union speech in 2016, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, announced launching a White Paper on the Future of Europe, the Commission's contribution to the Summit of Rome of March 25, 2017. It presents five scenarios, planned as open and not exclusive: Carry-on, Nothing but the single market, Those who want more do more, Doing less more effectively, Doing much more together. The leaders of the four most relevant European countries: France, Germany, Italy and Spain, met in Versailles on March 6 and decided to deepen integration, including exclusively those members who have the political will to do so.
The White Paper establishes a road map for sectoral developments that will run until the elections to the European Parliament in 2019, creating historic momentum. Joaquín Almunia will give a cross-sectional view of the issues that the White Paper and the Road Map pose for the future of European Union.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/the-european-union-commission-white-paper-on-the-future-of-europe.-leaders-must-decide
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Starr Forum: Brexit, Europe, and Trump
Thursday, April 6
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jack Straw, Former British Foreign Secretary
John Whitaker "Jack" Straw is an English politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackburn from 1979 to 2015. Straw served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001 and Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 under Blair. From 2007 to 2010 he served as Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice throughout Brown's Premiership. Straw is one of only three individuals to have served in Cabinet continuously under the Labour government from 1997 to 2010.
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
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Web site: https://cis.mit.edu/events/starr-forum-brexit-europe-and-trump
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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This is Your Brain on Music
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017, 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Langdell 272, 1545 Massachusetts Avenue.i Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Education, Humanities, Lecture, Music, Opera, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mind Brain Behavior
SPEAKER(S) Daniel Levitin, Ph.D.
DETAILS MBB 2017 Distinguished Lecture Series
LINK http://mbb.harvard.edu/news/mbb-2017-distinguished-lecture-series
I'll review some of what we know about the music and the brain. Why do some people become experts and others -- with the same amount of practice -- do not? Why do we like the music we like? What regions of the brain are affected by music? By the age of 5 we have all learned, implicitly, the rules of what notes go together and which don't; how is the brain able to do this? I’ll play musical examples to demonstrate some of the key points, and touch on recent research on music and health outcomes.
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Connecting with Boston’s Innovation Ecosystem
Thursday, April 6
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Kevin Wiant, Executive Director of the Venture Cafe Foundation, has extensive experience in the innovation community, and will be speaking about Boston‰۪s innovation ecosystem, it‰۪s history, and resources that are available for entrepreneurs and startups.
Website: http://www.vencaf.org/calendar
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Transforming the Way We Live, Work & Move: Wireless Power
Thursday, April 6
5:30p–8:30p
Wolf Greenfield 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
"We believe that "wireless charging" will just be viewed as "charging" over the next few years. Together, we're creating the new normal.Alex Gruzen, CEO, WiTricity
Ubiquitous computing and automotive electrification are creating a world where our smart devices and our cars become equally dependent on being charged and ready at all times. WiTricity's aim is to make charging just a natural act in the course of typical usage. WiTricity delivers the seamless convenience of wireless power at the same power level as plugging in. Freedom from wires has no boundaries - and the future of wireless power is here and now.
Attendees will:
Gain exposure to a compelling new area of energy innovation
Realize how wireless power offers new experiences
Explore fertile areas for complementary new entrepreneurship
Better understand how a cleantech venture transitions from academic research to start-up to industry catalyst
Moderator
Ben Freas, Principal Research Analyst, Navigant
Panelists
Marin Solja, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, MIT; Founder, WiTricity
Alex Gruzen, Chief Executive Officer, WiTricity
John Carney, Director of Licensing and Commercialization, Delphi
Francesco Italia, Group Vice President - Division General Manager, STMicroelectronics
Raza Haider, Vice President, Mob
Web site: http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/transforming-way-live-work-move-wireless-power/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for Students; $10 MITEF Members: $20 non-members
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge at mit.edu
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Passage at St. Augustine: Film Screening and Discussion with filmmaker Clennon L. King, Civil Rights Veteran Mimi Jones who is featured in the
film
Thursday, April 6
6 - 7:30 P.M.
Dudley Branch of the Boston Public Library, 65 Warren Street, Boston
Long before there was a Black Lives Matter Movement in places like Cleveland, Ferguson and Baltimore, there were black activists in the
tourist town of St. Augustine, Florida.
The award-winning documentary Passage at St. Augustine tells their story, and establishes St. Augustine as the most violent Civil Rights
campaign of the entire Movement. Viewers enter a time machine and are transported to the 'Nation's Oldest City' to hear first-hand from those who fought the 18-month battle that led directly to the passage of the
landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
With brief introductory remarks, documentary filmmaker Clennon L. King segues into facilitating a larger conversation on race and history in
America, rounding out the program with a spirited question and answer session with Civil Rights veteran Mimi Jones, featured in the film.
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RPP Colloquium Event: Beyond Militarization: The Role of Religious Communities in the Struggle for Justice and Peace
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Religions and the Practice of Peace Initiative; Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
CONTACT Ash Temin
DETAILS Religions and the Practice of Peace Colloquium Dinner Series
Space is limited. RSVP is required at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bEjlM396uGy9XqB
At a time when the White House proposes to increase military spending by $54 billion while slashing funds for social programs at home and humanitarian aid abroad, we recall the warning of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that a nation spending more money on the military than on social uplift "is approaching spiritual death." What role can religious communities play today in resisting war and militarism and working for social and economic justice?
Speaker
David Cortright, Director of Policy Studies and the Peace Accords Matrix, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame; Special Adviser for Policy Studies, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame
Moderator and Respondent
J. Bryan Hehir, Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Secretary of Health Care and Social Services, Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Speaker
David Cortright is the Director of Policy Studies and the Peace Accords Matrix at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Special Adviser for Policy Studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs. He is the author, coauthor or coeditor of 20 books, including Civil Society, Peace and Power (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), Gandhi and Beyond (Paradigm, 2009) and Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Cortright has written widely about nonviolent social change, peace history, nuclear disarmament, and the use of multilateral sanctions and incentives as tools of international peacemaking. Cortright has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war. As an active duty soldier during the Vietnam War, he spoke against that conflict. He examined the history and impact of antiwar resistance in the military in his 1975 book, Soldiers in Revolt, republished in 2005. In 1978, Cortright was named executive director of SANE, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, which under his leadership grew from 4,000 to 150,000 members and became the largest disarmament organization in the United States. He helped to create and serves as cochair of Win Without War, a coalition of national organizations that opposed the invasion of Iraq and continues to work for demilitarized national security policies.
Moderator and Respondent
J. Bryan Hehir is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life. He is also the Secretary for Health Care and Social Services in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. His research and writing focus on ethics and foreign policy and the role of religion in world politics and in American society. He served on the faculty of Georgetown University (1984 to 1992) and Harvard Divinity School (1993 to 2001). His writings include: "The Moral Measurement of War: A Tradition of Continuity and Change; Military Intervention and National Sovereignty; Catholicism and Democracy;" and "Social Values and Public Policy: A Contribution from a Religious Tradition."
Cosponsored by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. With generous support from the Rev. Karen Vickers Budney, MDiv ’91, and Mr. Albert J. Budney, Jr., MBA ’74.
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How We Can Build a People's Food System
Thursday, April 6
6:30-8pm
Kickstand Cafe, 594 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington
RSVP at eeactionforum at equalexchange.coop
Equal Exchange needs you. We are taking a powerful, new step in building a system that connects our worker-owners, producer partners, and you to create a holistic democratic system. Equal Exchange is one of the most successful and largest cooperatives in the country and one of the largest Alternative Trade Organizations (ATO) in the world. As we celebrate our 30 year anniversary we are both proud of what we have accomplished and concerned for the future of our food system, and our world.
In the wider food system, corporations control everything from seeds to supply and prices, while relentlessly chipping away at the regulations that inform and protect consumers. They fight feverishly to prevent us from knowing if GMOs are present in our food. They continue to promote production methods that hasten the warming of the planet?a present-day threat to millions of small farmers and others around the world. And, corporations count on consumers remaining unorganized to maintain the
status quo.
Equal Exchange has launched a new initiative called the Equal Exchange Action Forum. This is Equal Exchange's new path that aims to build a democratic food system owned by people not corporations. We wish to create a system that values people over profit. To build an alternative to the conventional economic system we need citizen involvement to succeed. Now more than ever is the time to build solidarity in our current political context.
We have had physical and virtual events across the Northeast and Midwest and will continue to have more. Our Action Forum community spans four different time zones and reaches as far as New Zealand, U.K., and India. We have launched our online platform in which we have interactive discussions, provide exclusive content for members, and members have the opportunity to connect with each other to continue some of this work together. We are enthusiastic about this new initiative and believe this Action Forum will serve as a vehicle to work towards a just food system. You are truly joining us in the beginning of pioneering this movement. Please join us in realizing this dream. This work is not simple, it's not easy, but it is necessary, and it cannot succeed without us all working together.
This summer Equal Exchange is hosting our first-ever People's Food System Summit (PFSS). This will be the first gathering of the entire Equal Exchange community that connects all parts of our supply chain. Our goals are to organize Action Forum members, farmer partners, and worker-owners together in this physical space. We will be hosting workshops, a roastery tour and cookout at our headquarters. We will make plans for how we can organize to take back control of the food system, together.
This year we have begun to sow the seeds for a grassroots movement to build a truly democratic food system, and we need your participation. If you would like to the join Action Forum you can fill out your application at this link : http://equalexchange.coop/action-forum-application
Danielle Robidoux
Action Forum Organizer(774)-776-7407
drobidoux at equalexchange.coop <drobidoux at equalexchange.coop>
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Talk Data To Me
Thursday, April 6
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
General Assembly Boston Downtown, 125 Summer Street, Boston
RSVP at https://generalassemb.ly/education/talk-data-to-me/boston/35923
Talk Data to Me is a monthly event series where we host thought-leaders from the Boston data community to discuss the possibilities that data brings to life.
Introducing Analyze Boston
In April we are partnering with the City of Boston as they launch Analyze Boston, a new open data hub where you can find facts, figures, and maps related to our lives within the city.
Featured Expert:
Andrew Therriault, Boston’s Chief Data Officer and Howard Lim, Product Manager for Analyze Boston will be joining us to present the new open data hub, it’s functions, and the motivating vision behind this work.
Why It Matters:
In an era of growing secrecy and misinformation coming from Washington, Analyze Boston is the city’s latest step to set a better example by improving government transparency, increasing accountability, and fostering civic participation throughout Boston.
Analyze Boston offers a next-generation open data experience for the city. Sparked by a grant from the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge competition, the city’s Department of Innovation and Technology partnered with the Boston Public Library to create a user-friendly digital catalog of facts, figures, and maps that reflect on life in Boston.
Analyze Boston curates more than a hundred of these datasets, enriches them with descriptive information to broaden their accessibility. Most importantly, they are presented alongside plain language and vivid imagery to spark the imaginations of all city residents, regardless of technical background.
Takeaways
Learn about the genesis and the motivating vision behind this work
Hear about what motivated some of the internal functionality
Learn about what the next generation of open data could look like for the City of Boston
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“The Journey is the Destination” Film Screening and Discussion
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 6, 2017, 6:30 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, 1515 Massacusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Law School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Kathy Eldon, Dan Eldon’s mother and the founder of Creative Visions Foundation
Trevor Hall, President of Rebelhouse Group creative agency
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Julie Barrett, jbarrett at law.harvard.edu
DETAILS
"The Journey is the Destination" tells the true story of Dan Eldon, a young and brave war photojournalist whose work helped awaken the world to suffering in Somalia. Also a gifted artist, activist, and adventurer, Dan Eldon pushed his own activism to the point of mortal danger.
His mother, founder of Creative Visions Foundation, Kathy Eldon, and Trevor Hall, President of Rebelhouse Group creative agency, will lead the discussion of Dan’s life and legacy in inspiring a movement for positive change across the globe.
Free and open to the public; refreshments will be provided.
LINK http://www.pon.harvard.edu/events/journey-destination-film-screening-discussion/
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DROP THE MIC: A Community Conversation about Militarism
Thursday, April 6
7-9 PM
First Baptist Church , 633 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
DROP THE MIC (Military Industrial Complex) is a community conversation about the impact of militarism on our community, our country and the rest of the world. Maggie Martin and Matt Howard of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Karlene Griffiths Sekou of Black Lives Matter Boston and Mike Prokosh of Dorchester People for Peace will be speaking and leading the conversation. The evening is an opportunity to connect people and organizations who are working on issues at the intersection of militarism, policing, the environment and resource extraction (e.g. Standing Rock).
For more information contact Maggie Martin at: marrgiiemartyin at uivaw.org or 912-5986-8484
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Friday, April 7
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Boston TechBreakfast: Kaminario, OutSystems, Palatine Analytics, Skelmet
Friday, April 7
8:00 AM
G2 Technology Group Inc., 320 Congress Street, 2nd Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/236589367/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Food & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
Kaminario: Kaminario K2 - Josh Epstein
OutSystems - Rodrigo Couthino
Palatine Analytics: Palatine - Archil Cheishvili
Skelmet: - Rain Wang
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston TechBreakfast Sponsors:
ConferenceEdge - EVENTS to the power of Edge
DLA Piper (Boston) - DLA Piper is a global business law firm that provides corporate, IP, capital raising and other legal advice to technology startups and high growth businesses.
G2 Tech Group - Managed DevOps for startups and small businesses
Talener - Talener is the country’s premier, highly specialized, technology staffing agency that matches top developers and engineers to leading start-ups, Fortune 500s, and multi-nationals.
hedgehog lab - hedgehog lab is a technology consultancy that designs and builds great apps for mobile
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Game Changers: Sports, Gender, and Society
WHEN Friday, Apr. 7, 2017, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Athletic, Business, Conferences, Ethics, Health Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
COST free
CONTACT INFO events at radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS
The degree to which sports permeates societies and cultures has never been greater, making it a revealing lens through which to understand many contemporary issues. This two-day conference will explore the relationship between sports and gender in the United States and around the world.
The conference begins on Thursday evening with an arts performance and conversation by playwright Lydia R. Diamond RI’13. The performance is based on a book by historian Martha Ackmann RI’09 about Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional baseball on Negro League men’s teams in the 1950s.
March 7 brings a full day of panel discussions with athletes, business leaders, coaches, physicians, policy makers, and scholars on the topics of access and inclusion, health and medical research, and media and popular culture. Laila Ali—four-time undefeated super-middleweight boxing world champion, fitness and wellness expert, and author—will deliver the keynote address. Register online.
LINK https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2017-game-changers-conference
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Reducing the Spread of Fake News: Using AI to Nudge Human Behavior
Friday, April 7
10am
Harvard, CGIS Knafel K354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
How can we we pro-socially influence machine behavior without access to code or training data? In a recent study, a community with 15m+ subscribers tested the effect of encouraging fact checking on the algorithmic spread of unreliable news, discovering that adjustments in the wording of this "AI nudge" could reduce the scores that shape the algorithmic spread of unreliable news by 2x. We found that we can persuade algorithms to behave differently by nudging people to behave differently.
How can we think about the politics and ethics of systematically influencing black box systems from the outside? This AI nudge was conducted using CivilServant, novel software that supports communities to conduct their own policy experiments on human and machine behavior–independently of online platforms. In this talk, hear the results of our experiment on reducing the spread of unreliable news, alongside reflections on the history and future of democratic policy experimentation.
Speaker: J. Nathan Matias is a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media, an affiliate at the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard, and founder of CivilServant. He conducts independent, public interest research on flourishing, fair, and safe participation online. His recent work includes research on online harassment prevention, harassment reporting, volunteer moderation online (PDF), behavior change toward equality (PDF), and online social movements (PDF).
Nathan has extensive experience in tech startups, nonprofits, and corporate research, including SwiftKey, Microsoft Research, and the Ministry of Stories. His creative work and research have been covered extensively by international press, and he has published data journalism and intellectual history in the Atlantic, Guardian, PBS, and Boston Magazine.
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Tufts Food Systems Symposium: INTERSECTIONS OF WASTE AND FOOD INSECURITY
Friday, April 7
10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Tufts, Breed Memorial Hall, 51 Winthrop Street, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tufts-food-systems-symposium-the-intersections-of-waste-and-food-insecurity-tickets-31102738127
This symposium brings together practitioners, advocates, and researchers in the areas of food policy and anti-hunger work to discuss the paradoxes and challenges of a food system that produces both over-abundance and scarcity.
The keynote speaker will be Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s and founder of The Daily Table in Dorchester. Sasha Purpura, executive director of Food for Free, will join Doug in conversation after the keynote address.
There will be a panel discussion with community leaders, faculty, and students; facilitated table conversations over lunch; and a concluding poster session and mini-expo, providing an opportunity to talk with community and campus groups working on food waste and insecurity issues. If your group would like to participate, contact us at cathy.stanton at tufts.edu.
Event website: https://sites.tufts.edu/foodattufts/tufts-food-system-symposium/
Sign up for email updates: http://tufts.us15.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=45e1e4aa071e12c2a9c78342f&id=0757365a84
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Utilizing Satellite Data for Air Pollution, Built Environment and Urban Heat Islands Health Effects Research
Friday, April 7
12:45pm
BU School of Medicine, L210, 715 Albany Street, Cambridge
Summary: Projections on population indicate that by 2050 approximately 7.4 billion people will reside in urban areas. Rapid urbanization is occurring in many countries with corresponding increases in prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cardiac-related mortality. As urban areas increasingly become home to larger populations it is important to understand the intra-urban variability of chemical and non-chemical stressors in the environment and progression towards cardiovascular mortality. The high spatial and temporal resolution of satellite data can be used to improve fine-scale exposure modeling to environmental stressors, especially in developing areas of the world. This presentation provides an introduction on where to download, how to process and apply satellite data for epidemiological studies using examples from research on associations between air pollution, built environment and extreme heat and cardiovascular disease.
Speaker Bio: Kevin J. Lane Jr. MA, PhD is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) where he works as a health disparities career development fellow in the Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing. His research interests are in examining health disparities in exposure to air pollution, nature and the built environment while integrating new GIS methods and remotely sensed satellite data to improve exposure assessment and enhance population health studies. Dr. Lane’s dissertation research was conducted at BUSPH where he was awarded an Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) pre-doctoral fellowship to analyze the relationship between chronic exposure to ultrafine particulate matter and cardiovascular health as a member of the community assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health Study. He also was awarded a Yale Climate and Energy Institute postdoctoral fellowship to work at the intersection of science and policy examining the role of land-based mitigation strategies on urban heat island effects and health impacts. Dr. Lane also has an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and over a decade experience in GIS working in city government, consulting and nonprofit sectors.
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IACS Seminar: Building A Machine Learning Health System
WHEN Friday, Apr. 7, 2017, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Northwest B103, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Information Technology, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute for Applied Computational Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Nigam Shah, Stanford University
COST Free and open to the public; No registration required.
CONTACT INFO Email: iacs-info at seas.harvard.edu
Phone: 617-496-2623
DETAILS In the era of Electronic Health Records (EHR), it is possible to examine the outcomes of decisions made by doctors during clinical practice to identify patterns of care—generating evidence from the collective experience of patients. We will discuss methods that transform unstructured EHR data into a de-identified, temporally ordered, patient-feature matrix. We will also review use-cases, which use the resulting de-identified data, for pharmacovigilance, to reposition drugs, build predictive models, and drive comparative effectiveness studies in a learning health system.
LINK http://iacs.seas.harvard.edu/event/building-machine-learning-health-system-dr-nigam-shah-stanford
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The Glass Walls of Fair Oaks Farms
Friday, April 7
2:30p–4:30p
MIT, Building E51-095, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History
Speaker: Timothy Pachirat, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
My prior work (Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight) examines the kill floor of an industrialized slaughterhouse in order to explore how distancing and concealment work as mechanisms of power in modern society. In this talk, I consider a counter-case: a concentrated pig and dairy cow feeding operation (CAFO) that converted its concrete walls to glass in order to draw 130,000 visitors per year, generate many millions of dollars in tourist revenue, and convince the broader public that factory farms are good. What, I ask, might we learn from the glass walls of this factory farm about the capacity of transparency to reinforce, rather than disrupt, relationships of domination and oppression? And what, in turn, are the potential implications for those who rely, explicitly or implicitly, on making the unseen visible to catalyze social and political change?
Timothy Pachirat is the author of Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight (Yale University Press, 2011).
Web site: http://history.mit.edu/sites/default/files/images/Tim%20Pachirat.jpg
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): History Office, Program in Science Technology and Society
For more information, contact: Margo Collett
617-253-4965
history-info at mit.edu
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The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas
Friday, April 7
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Tufts University's Professor of International Politics DANIEL DREZNER, contributor at the Washington Post and author of Theories of International Relations and Zombies and The System Worked, for a discussion of his latest book, The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas.
About The Ideas Industry
The public intellectual, as a person and ideal, has a long and storied history. Writing in venues like The New Republic and Commentary, such intellectuals were always expected to opine on a broad array of topics, from foreign policy to literature to economics. Yet in recent years a new kind of thinker has supplanted that archetype: the thought leader. Equipped with one big idea, thought leaders focus their energies on TED talks rather than highbrow periodicals.
How did this shift happen? In The Ideas Industry, Daniel Drezner points to the roles of political polarization, heightened inequality, and eroding trust in authority as ushering in the change. In contrast to public intellectuals, thought leaders gain fame as single-idea merchants. Their ideas are often laudable and highly ambitious: ending global poverty by 2025, for example. But instead of a class composed of university professors and freelance intellectuals debating in highbrow magazines, thought leaders often work through institutions that are closed to the public. They are more immune to criticism—and in this century, the criticism of public intellectuals also counts for less.
Three equally important factors that have reshaped the world of ideas have been waning trust in expertise, increasing political polarization and plutocracy. The erosion of trust has lowered the barriers to entry in the marketplace of ideas. Thought leaders don't need doctorates or fellowships to advance their arguments. Polarization is hardly a new phenomenon in the world of ideas, but in contrast to their predecessors, today's intellectuals are more likely to enjoy the support of ideologically friendly private funders and be housed in ideologically-driven think tanks. Increasing inequality as a key driver of this shift: more than ever before, contemporary plutocrats fund intellectuals and idea factories that generate arguments that align with their own. But, while there are certainly some downsides to the contemporary ideas industry, Drezner argues that it is very good at broadcasting ideas widely and reaching large audiences of people hungry for new thinking. Both fair-minded and trenchant, The Ideas Industry will reshape our understanding of contemporary public intellectual life in America and the West.
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A Conversation with Loretta E. Lynch
WHEN Friday, Apr. 7, 2017, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR JFK Jr. Forum; Institute of Politics; HKS Black Policy Conference
SPEAKER(S) Loretta E. Lynch
83rd Attorney General of the United States
Harvard College '81 and Harvard Law School '84
TICKET WEB LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/lottery/conversation-loretta-e-lynch
TICKET INFO ***THIS EVENT WILL BE TICKETED***
CONTACT INFO JFK Jr. Forum
617-495-1380
DETAILS
***THIS EVENT WILL BE TICKETED***
To enter the lottery, go to iop.harvard.edu/forum before Tuesday, April 4th at noon. Winners will be notified by email the evening of Tuesday, April 4th. Winners must pick up their tickets at the Institute of Politics on Wednesday, April 5 between 9:00 and 5:00 PM or Thursday, April 6, between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM; a valid ID must be presented to pick up a ticket. No Exceptions.
LINK http://iop.harvard.edu/lottery/conversation-loretta-e-lynch
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Remembering the Victims of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda: A Panel Discussion
WHEN Friday, Apr. 7, 2017, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer-400 Land Hall, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences, Special Events, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S)
PANELISTS:
Mr. El Ghassim Wane - UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Michael Fairbanks - Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (worked extensively on Rwandan issues & sits on President Kagame’s advisory board)
Prof. Timothy McCarthy - Carr Center for Human Rights
Ms. Belise Rutagengwa - Survivor Rwandan Genocide & student at Tufts University
DETAILS Please join the Carr Center and a group of Rwandan students from Harvard University for a commemorative seminar in honor of the victims of the 1994 genocide of Rwandans. This seminar will include a panel discussion about crimes of genocide and how the global community can work together to prevent such atrocities from happening again in Rwanda and other countries. The distinguished speakers will engage in an open discussion on how the Rwandan people have transcended the tragedy and how their experience can help shape peacebuilding interventions in other countries in conflict.
LINK http://carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu/event/remembering-victims-1994-genocide-rwanda-panel-discussion?admin_panel=1
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Playing with Narratives: Digital Storytelling and Intercultural Interventions in the L2 Classroom
WHEN Friday, Apr. 7, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room 133, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ludics Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Elsa Amanatidou, Brown University
CONTACT INFO Vassiliki Rapti, vasiliki_rapti at emerson.edu
DETAILS
Within the framework of humanistic learning, a digital story is the story a student would like to tell: a short, personal narrative which seeks to encapsulate through sound and vision a learner’s creative and critical engagement with the narratives (literary texts, films, commercials, TV series) they study in class. In the process of creating a digital story, students use language not only as a means of expression but in order to reflect on the practices and perspectives of their cultural group and construct a sense of their histories and personal identities.
Using examples from Greek language and culture classes at Brown University, this presentation will offer an overview of the rationale and practice of using digital storytelling as an instructional tool for critical inquiries into “the stories another culture tells about itself” (Berman 1996) and the ways language constructs and is constructed by perspectives of identity, gender and power.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/ludics
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The Harvard Coop Author Series-Mark Esposito Understanding How the Future Unfolds
Friday, April 7
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-harvard-coop-author-series-mark-esposito-understanding-how-the-future-unfolds-using-drive-to-tickets-32692016702
Your business’s success depends on how you prepare for the future. While business leaders of the past looked in the sideview mirror to predict the road ahead, we must now look at the greater forces affecting the social, business and economic world today—megatrends.
Fortunately, world-renowned scholars and professors Terence Tse and Mark Esposito are here with a fresh, holistic way to think about tomorrow by preparing for it today: DRIVE. The DRIVE framework examines five interrelated megatrends:
Demographic and social changes
Resource scarcity
Inequalities
Volatility, complexity, and scale
Enterprising dynamics
By observing today through the lens of DRIVE and understanding how megatrends influence one another, business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, policy makers and individuals can prepare for tomorrow.
About the Author: Mark Esposito teaches Business, Government & Society & Economic Strategy and Competitiveness for Harvard University's Division of Continuing Education and serves as Institutes Council Co-Leader, at the Microeconomics of Competitiveness program (MOC) at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, at Harvard Business School.
Mark is a tenured Senior Professor of Business & Economics, at Grenoble School of Management in France and a Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School. Mark holds Fellowships with the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils in Washington DC and with the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in the UAE.
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The Trump Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen
Friday, April 7
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
Harvard Book Store welcomes GENE STONE for a discussion of his nationally bestselling new book, The Trump Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen.
About The Trump Survival Guide
The stunning election of Donald J. Trump rocked an already divided America and left scores of citizens, including the nearly sixty-five million voters who supported Hillary Clinton, feeling bereft and powerless. Now, Gene Stone, author of The Bush Survival Bible, offers invaluable guidance and concrete solutions they can use to make a difference in this serious call-to-arms—showing them how to move from anger and despair to activism as the Trump presidency is in full swing and he signs one executive order after another.
Before we can successfully engage, we need to be clear about the battles ahead. Stone outlines political and social concepts—including such issues as Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, the Environment, Obamacare, International relations, and LGBTQ Rights—providing a brief history of each, a refresher on Obama's policies, and an analysis of what Trump’s administration might do. Stone then provides an invaluable guide for fighting back—referring to organizations, people, sites, and countless other resources that support positive and possible goals.
While marches and social media are important forms of protest, concrete actions achieve real change. Positive and reinforcing, The Trump Survival Guide presents the essential information we need to effectively make our voices heard and our power felt.
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Saturday, April 8
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Global Brigades New England Conference
Saturday, April 8
BU, 8 Saint Mary's Street, Room PHO 201, PHO 202, PHO 203, PHO 205, PHO 206, PHO 210, and PHO 211, Boston
The Global Brigades New England Conference is an event that brings together students from campuses across the NE region. The goal of the conference is to have an open forum about sustainable global development and how that can be achieved in today's world. There will be multiple speakers at the conference, ranging from Global Brigades staff to local researchers who focus on problems facing the developing world. Students, faculty, and Boston residents are invited to attend this exciting event that will prove to be informative, thought provoking, and empowering. The conference will take place in multiple classrooms within the Photonics building including, PHO 201, PHO 202, PHO 203, PHO 205, PHO 206, PHO 210, and PHO 211.
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Urban Tensions Hackathon: Visualizing stories of cities and conflict
Saturday, April 8
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urban-tensions-hackathon-visualizing-stories-of-cities-and-conflict-registration-32880867560
From gentrification and increased evictions to trucks in the bike lane, Boston, like many cities, is filled with stories of urban tensions. But are there data to illustrate these conflicts? Can you find, merge and visualize data and other layers of information that can help reveal new, original insights about the city’s urban tensions?
On Saturday, April 8, from 9am to 3pm, Northeastern University will be hosting "Urban Tensions," a hackathon where participants will explore urban data – from crime to housing to transportation to energy – to tell compelling stories of cities and conflict.
Who can sign up and who will be there?
The event is open to both students and professionals from any field. It will be kicked off with lightning talks on urban data, evictions and gentrification by:
Howard Lim, manager of Boston’s Open Data Project
Christine Dixon, deputy director of Project Hope
Wenfei Xu, research associate at MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab.
What kind of stories are we looking for?
From the innovation district to East Boston, what does the push-and-pull between affordable housing and commercial real estate development look like?
Is Boston violent? Highlight the waxing and waning of crime across the city.
Quantify Boston’s aging infrastructure to pinpoint where it might fail first as well as where it's being updated.
How many bike lanes are overrun by 18-wheelers? Is there another way?
How will projects be judged?
A panel of Northeastern professors from across the College of Arts, Media and Design will judge the submissions. Projects will be judged on their originality, the rigor of their data sourcing and analysis, and the accuracy and appeal of their visual storytelling.
What are the prizes?
Annual Hubway bike-sharing memberships.
What kind of datasets are we talking about?
Boston approved building permits
Boston Hubway bicycle trip data
Boston homicides data
Boston crime incident reports (2015-now)
Cambridge daily traffic counts 1972-2017
Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council housing data
2015 Greater Boston Housing Report Card
Housing a Changing City Boston 2030
Housing data 1950-2010
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Our History, Our Future: a Multigenerational Human Rights Conference
Saturday, April 8
9:00 AM – 7:00 PM EDT
BU, George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, 2nd floor Ballroom, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/our-history-our-future-a-multigenerational-human-rights-conference-tickets-32706501025
Join us on April 8 for a public conference titled entitled, "Our History, Our Future: a Multigenerational Conference on Human Rights." The schedule includes two plenary sessions, two panel sessions and a workshop offering participants nonviolent direct action training. This is a continuing education event; CEUs will be provided upon request. Registration is free but you MUST register to attend. Meeting schedule follows after flyer. (Just scroll down) Co-sponsored by the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and the Boston Theological Institute.
Speakers include persons known for human rights activism during the 60s civl rights movement, the crisis in Ferguson and Baltimore, the movement for Black Lives, LGBTQ activism, scholars of the movement and serving as consultants to the White House under the Obama administration. They are gifted in ministry, music and the arts, shaping public policy, writing, peace negotiation and nonviolent direct action.
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Get Growing Day Celebration
Saturday, April 8
10-2pm
Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender Street, Cambridge (near Central Square)
Join us for the 6th annual Get Growing Day Celebration at the upstairs from the winter farmer’s market.
Get Growing brings together gardeners, would-be gardeners, and anyone who wants to learn more.
We’ll have activities for everybody: start a seed, make a wildflower seed ball (to toss!), build a raised bed, watch bees, look through a microscope. Forage edibles in the neighborhood (at noon). Meet a chicken (about 11-1).
Learn about making compost, keeping bees, protecting trees, IDing weeds. Bring your gardening questions.
Connect with fun projects: glean veg for hunger relief, pull invasive weeds, learn to build healthy soil.
And swap! Bring plants, seeds, and garden/cooking books you don’t want and take away something new.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/763695853789010/
http://www.cambridgewinterfarmersmarket.com/get-growing-day.html
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Sunday, April 9
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South End Community Choice Energy House Party
Sunday, April 9
4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Alma Dell Smith's Home, 539 Massachusetts Avenue, Apartment #1, Boston
RSVP at http://www.evite.com/event/0394PXDJYQUOO4GVAEPHA53XJPSVCE/map
Please join us on Sunday, April 9th to learn more about the work of the Boston Climate Action Network and our new community choice energy campaign.
A community choice energy plan will allow Boston's residential and small business electricity to come from clean energy sources for little to no extra cost. On April 9th, learn how you can support a City Council authorization to adopt a new energy plan that is better for the planet, cost effective, and protects residents.
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Monday, April 10
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Culture Beyond Borders: The Roma Contribution
WHEN Monday, Apr. 10, 2017, 9 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Barker Center (Room 133), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences, Humanities, Law, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The conference is co-sponsored by the Berklee College of Music and the following departments and centers at Harvard University: The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, The Center for European Studies, The Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, The Mahindra Humanities Center, The Department of Music, The Provost’s Fund for Interfaculty Collaboration, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
COST Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO For inquires, contact Margareta Matache, instructor, Harvard FXB Center, and director of the Roma Program at Harvard. Email: mmatache at hsph.harvard.edu.
DETAILS
The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights will host the Fifth Annual Roma Conference, Culture Beyond Borders: The Roma Contribution, at Harvard University to mark International Roma Day. The event will bring together academic, literary, artistic, and student communities to explore the contributions of the Roma community to global culture, arts, and material production.
The Harvard FXB Center has organized an event on International Roma Day for the past four years. Previous events have centered on social science, political and legal issues, with particular focus on questions of discrimination, disproportionate exposure to violence, stigma, and marginalization. This year, we intend to add a new emphasis to the discussion by documenting and contextualizing Roma creative and artistic achievement across a range of domains.
Culture Beyond Borders debuts with “I Declare at My Own Risk,” Alina Șerban’s illuminating and highly acclaimed examination of conflicting identities, social discrimination, and the redemptive force of self-expression. The performance, inspired by the autobiographical story of the actress, a Romanian from the Roma minority, follows the dilemmas, challenges and revelations that accompany a girl from a poverty-stricken Roma community in Bucharest on her sinuous way to social emancipation as a performer trained in some of the best artistic schools in the world. www.facebook.com…
At the conference, please also join us for a conversation and celebration of the new volume, Realizing Roma Rights. The launch will take place between the morning and afternoon conference sessions in the same location. Copies of the book will be available for purchase (and author signature).
https://www.facebook.com/events/287406671679891/
More information about the conference (including the conference agenda) is available here: fxb.harvard.edu….
RSVP informally here: https://www.facebook.com/events/258535897933011/
LINK https://fxb.harvard.edu/event/conference-culture-beyond-borders-the-roma-contribution/
NB: What happens to the Roma people in countries all over the world is a measure of what can happen to any of us. Hungary’s Fidesz Party has hollowed out their post-Communist democracy partially, in my opinion, by scapegoating the Roma. This is only one example of what I consider to be a global wave of authoritarian nationalism that includes Putin, Órban of Hungary, Abe in Japan, and Trmp in the USA.
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California and Guangdong: A Tale of Two Cap-and-trade Programs
Monday, April 10
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Pu Wang, Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Sustainability Science in the Environment and Natural Resources Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, HKS.
Contact Name:
Louisa Lund
louisa_lund at hks.harvard.edu
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People, Power and Change
Monday, April 10
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-415, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Marshall Ganz, Harvard University, trainer and organizer
Marshall Ganz has successful combined organizing, training and teaching for many years. He worked for 16 years with Cesar Chavez on the successful effort to organize and win legal recognition for the United Farm Workers, the first major union of agricultural workers in the US. He has also designed innovative voter mobilization strategies for local, state and national electoral campaigns. Ganz advocates for building leadership on multiple levels in social & political movements. He teaches strategies and approaches for leadership. One recent book is Why David Sometimes Wins: leadership, organization and strategy in the California farm workers movement.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
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Wars Change Everything: World War II, Food, and Agriculture in America
Monday, April 10
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Buildling 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Deborah Fitzgerald
The military demands of World War II had a profound effect on both farming and eating in America. The demands on the domestic supply of food for soldiers was unprecedented, with troops in 23 different climatic zones internationally dependent on American supplies. The U.S. was also supplying food to the Allies, another huge demand on domestic supplies.
The war created several surprising challenges to American food production and diet. First, in order to ensure that the military received the food it needed, the government created new ways of managing the country’s food supply, with lasting consequences for the farm sector. Second, war-time demands for farm products pushed farmers further away from diversified agricultural and toward mono-cropping. And third, the post-war glut of raw materials, particularly grains and dairy, set the stage for one of the most important 20th century innovations - the processing industry's creation and dominance of time-insensitive foods.
Environmental Policy and Planning Lunch Speaker Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn at mit.edu
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Spiritual Activism: A Conversation with Ruby Sales
WHEN Monday, Apr. 10, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Susan Shallcross Swartz Fund; the HDS Academic Dean’s Fund for Faculty Support; and The Memorial Church at Harvard
CONTACT INFO HDS Dean's Office: 617.495.4513
DETAILS Join us for a conversation with Ruby Sales, public theologian,
founder and director of the Spirit House Project, and icon of the civil
rights movement.
A conversation addressing the questions:
What are the spiritual dimensions of our current crisis?
What are the spiritual implications of police violence against people of color, voter suppression, the scapegoating of immigrants and refugees, the opioid crisis, and the rise of white nationalism?
What spiritual work will help us re-imagine our democracy, link multiple struggles, protect human dignity, and cultivate solidarity?
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MassRobotics Open House for Students
Monday, April 10
4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
12 Channel Street, Suite 502, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/massrobotics-open-house-for-students-tickets-32387501890
Students (middle school and higher) are invited to come and be inspired! During National Robotics week, we are opening our doors for students to learn about robotics STEM related platforms. Demonstrations will be provided by robotics companies from our local robotics ecosystem. (must be registered to attend - space limited)
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The Populist Challenge
WHEN Monday, Apr. 10, 2017, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
SPEAKER(S) Chantal Mouffe,
Professor of Political Theory, University of Westminster
DETAILS In this talk, Chantal Mouffe will examine the reasons for the rise of populist parties in Europe both in their right-wing and left-wing versions. She will argue that this 'populist moment' is the expression of resistances to the post-democratic condition which is the consequence of the hegemony of neo-liberalism.
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Income Inequality and Health in America: A Lancet Special Issue
Monday, April 10
4:30–6 p.m.
BU, Instructional Building, Hiebert Lounge, 72 East Concord Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.bu.edu/sph/news-events/signature-events/deans-seminar-series-on-contemporary-issues-in-public-health/deans-seminar-series-on-contemporary-issues-in-public-health-2016-2017/income-inequality-and-health-in-america-a-lancet-special-issue/
Income inequality in the United States has steadily increased over the last four decades. Although this inequality has been a part of the recent national public conversation, including during this last federal election cycle, the science regarding the relationship between income inequality and population health remains unresolved. This spring, The Lancet will publish a special issue featuring five papers that advance our understanding of this issue. Boston University School of Public Health welcomes several of the issue’s authors for a discussion.
Live-Streaming Available During Event
#SPHDSS17
Speakers
Zinzi Bailey, Director of Research and Evaluation, Center for Health Equity, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Jacob Bor, Assistant Professor, Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Samuel Dickman, Resident in Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Adam Gaffney, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Cambridge Health Alliance
Steffie Woolhandler, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York at Hunter College
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How your smart phone will allow America to cut its carbon emissions in half
Monday, April 10
6:00 pm
BU, HAR-212, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, HAR-212, Boston
Guest Speaker: Tommy Vitolo, Ph.D., will present the lecture "How your smart phone will allow America to cut its carbon emissions in half." Dr. Vitolo Vitolo is a senior associate at Synapse. He earned his Ph.D. in systems engineering from Boston University, and has more than eight years of professional experience as a consultant, researcher, and analyst. This lecture is open to the public.
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Life Resurrected: Traveling Backwards in Evolutionary Time
Monday, April 10
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Avenue, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Somerville-Public-Library-Programs-Events/events/238389030/
Come hear Harvard researcher and astrobiologist, Betul Kacar, talk about the origins of life on earth and the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
Only one history of life has been recorded on our planet, but can we reconstruct the contributing metabolic factors of this biological past? Is life the result of a fluke or an accident? What is the likelihood of life occurring elsewhere in the Universe?
To answer these questions, she combines computational and experimental tools and travels backwards in evolutionary time in the laboratory. She follows the evolutionary history of our DNA to unravel how the harsh conditions of our ancient planet shaped life to be the way it is today, and explores the varying roles of chance and necessity in life's evolution.
Betul Kacar is an astrobiologist who is interested in understanding life’s origins, evolution and possible existence elsewhere in the Universe. She earned her PhD in Biomolecular Chemistry from Emory University. She conducted her postdoctoral research as a NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral Fellow.
She is currently a Research Associate at Harvard University Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and a co-Principal Investigator with the ELSI Origins of Life Institute of Tokyo and the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
Her work on reconstructing ancient genes has been widely featured in BBC News, NOVA PBS, Popular Science and New Scientist. In 2015, she received the John Templeton Foundation Big Questions in Life Sciences Research Grant. In 2016, she was named 'Way Cool Scientist' by the Science Club for Girls in Cambridge, MA.
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Water Innovation Prize : Final Pitch Night
Monday, April 10
6:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building E14-SS648, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
The MIT Water Innovation Prize takes place throughout the academic year launching with the Kick-off dinner in the Fall. The second stage of the prize involves team formation, idea development, targeted workshops and business plan development. The prize culminates in the Final Pitch Night where teams pitch their ideas to a diverse group of students, faculty, industry professionals and a panel of judges and are awarded innovation grants totaling $30,000.
Web site: http://www.mitwaterinnovation.org/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Water Club
For more information, contact: Krithika Ramchander
waterclub-officers at mit.edu
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Boston New Technology April 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT76
Monday, April 10
6:00 PM to 8:45 PM
Akamai Technologies, 150 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/238298048/
Akamai staff will be escorting attendees from the lobby up the stairs to the first floor, where you'll find our check-in table. Type the first few letters of your name on the screen and tap your name to print your name tag.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A.
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Design + Future + Drinks + Food
Monday, April 10
6:15 PM
Za, 350 Third Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/boston-openide/events/238788236/
Cost: $7.00 /per person
We are now a community of almost 1000 Design Thinkers !!!! As a chapter, we participated in the Food Waste Challenge, Higher Education Challenge, MIT Solve Challenges and mostly recently, the water resilience challenge and Fall Prevention challenge. We also did a bunch of fun workshops on Future Thinking and Lego Serious Play. We are a unique meetup because we are focused on creating workshops style events to create actionable ideas. As a community we have come so far but we still have a long way to go . And we need your help to do that.
What's the future of OpenIDEO Boston Chapter? How can we turn the ideas we have into actions even if we don't win the OpenIDEO Challenges. Can we come up with a Boston specific challenge to focus on instead of upcoming OpenIDEO Challenges ? How do we make the events better so that we brainstorm and prototype better ? Do we keep on doing design thinking workshops ? Do we build a community space and turn into a design studio space for our community ? Do we buy a van and host Design thinking pop ups ? Or we do we have a magical tent that turns into a innovation lab ? Come and share your ideas and help us build the community of OpenIDEO Boston Chapter (Over food and drinks of course ) . If you are interested in community design or curious about design thinking and have ideas to make social impact, come and share your thoughts with us . If not, just come , hang out and meet fellow design thinkers from Boston.
Note : We pay for all the events out of our personal pockets since OpenIDEO doesn't help us financially yet. So if you CAN, bring $5-$10 in cash to the event. We would really appreciate it and maybe trade you an origami animal for it.
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Tuesday, April 11 - Wednesday, April 12
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Boston Harbor & Islands Science Symposium
Tuesday, April 11 - Wednesday, April 12
RSVP at https://commerce.cashnet.com/cashneti/selfserve/EditItem.aspx?PC=SFMSC-BHISS&ItemCount=1
Join us on April 11 and 12 to learn about the latest in research and monitoring on coastal and marine ecosystems found in the Boston Harbor and islands region. The featured keynote speakers are:
Dr. Anne Giblin, Senior Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center
Rich Batiuk, Associate Director for Science, Analysis, and Implementation, Chesapeake Bay Program
The event will also include field trips and a science cafe (April 11), as well as panels, concurrent sessions, lightning talks, posters, and a public lecture in the evening (April 12).
What does the event focus on? As related to the estuarine and island ecosystems of the Boston Harbor region, the event focuses on what we study (water quality, species and habitat diversity, coastal processes, ecological resilience) and how we study (innovations in research methodlogy, connecting research to management, and public engagement).
Who should attend? Scientists, resource managers, planners, educators, environmental program administrators, citizen scientists, students, and the interested public.
What’s the cost to attend? The fee is $20 regular/$10 students & presenters for daytime sessions on April 12, this includes continental breakfast and lunch. Additionally, there is a fee for boat-based field trips on April 11. All other parts of the event are free, including the Science Café on April 11 as well as the afternoon reception and evening session on April 12.
Is registration required? Registration is required for field trips on April 11 and the daytime session on April 12. For catering purposes, it is requested but not required for the other event activities. Click here to register.
Where does the event take place? On April 11, the field trips have various locations, and the Science Cafe takes place at Meadhall in Cambridge. On April 12, all of the activities take place at Northeastern University in Boston with the daytime sessions in the Curry Student Center Ballroom and the late-afternoon/evening reception, keynote and panel in Raytheon Amphitheater in the Egan Research Center.
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Tuesday, April 11
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Toward Resilient Robot Autonomy through Learning, Interaction and Semantic Reasoning
Tuesday, April 11
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 Patil/Kiva, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sonia Chernova , Georgia Tech
Abstract: Robotics is undergoing an exciting transition from factory automation to the deployment of autonomous systems in less structured environments, such as warehouses, hospitals and homes. One of the critical barriers to the wider adoption of autonomous robotic systems in the wild is the challenge of achieving reliable autonomy in complex and changing human environments. In this talk, I will discuss ways in which innovations in learning from demonstration and remote access technologies can be used to develop and deploy autonomous robotic systems alongside and in collaboration with human partners. I will present applications of this research paradigm to robot learning, object manipulation and semantic reasoning, as well as explore some exciting avenues for future research in this area.
Bio: Sonia Chernova is the Catherine M. and James E. Allchin Early-Career Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, where she directs the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning research lab. She received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University, and held positions as a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab and as Assistant Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute prior to joining Georgia Tech in August 2015. Prof. Chernova’s research focuses on developing robots that are able to effectively operate in human environments. Her work spans robotics and artificial intelligence, including semantic reasoning, adjustable autonomy, human computation and cloud robotics. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER, ONR Young Investigator and NASA Early Career Faculty awards.
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Speaker Series: Sarah Lewis – Politics, Art and Visual Culture
Tuesday, April 11
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Sarah Lewis is an Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard, an M.Phil from Oxford University, and her Ph.D. from Yale University in the History of Art. Before joining the faculty at Harvard, she held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern, London and taught at Yale University School of Art.
Lewis is the guest editor of the landmark “Vision & Justice” issue of Aperture which has been made required reading for all incoming freshman at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Lewis’s research interests focus on representations of race in contemporary art and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America culture and across the Black Atlantic world. Her scholarship been published in many academic journals as well as The New Yorker, the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America and in publications for the Smithsonian, The Museum of Modern Art, and Rizzoli. She is currently finishing her current book project on race and photography under contract with Harvard University Press. She is also the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, which has been reviewed widely, translated into 7 languages, and was the Provost’s reading selection at the University of Houston, making it required reading for all incoming freshman.
Her current book project, which lies at the intersection of African American Studies, Art History, and Slavic Studies, is under contract with Harvard University Press. Her scholarship has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Hutchins Center at Harvard University, and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition.
Lewis has served on President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee and currently serves on the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts, Creative Time, and The CUNY Graduate Center.
Lewis is a frequent speaker and has lectured at many universities and conferences from TEDGlobal to the Aspen Ideas Festival. She has been profiled in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal.
She lives in Cambridge, MA.
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Multitasking: Why Your Brain Can't Do It and What You Should Do About It
Tuesday, April 11
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 66-144, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Earl Miller
Here is practical advice from a neuroscientist: Don't try to multitask. It ruins productivity, causes mistakes, and impedes creative thought. Many of you are probably thinking, "But, I'm good at it". Sadly, that is an illusion. As humans, we have a very limited capacity for simultaneous thought -- we can only hold a little bit of information in the mind at any single moment. You don't actually multitask, you task-switch. This wastes time, makes you error-prone and decreases your ability to be creative. I am going to tell you why and what you can do about that.
Earl Keith Miller is a systems/cognitive neuroscientist, whose research focuses on neural mechanisms of learning, memory, and cognition.
Web site: radius.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Radius/T&C
For more information, contact: Patricia-Maria Weinmann
617-253-0108
weinmann at mit.edu
Editorial Comment: In my readings, I’ve found references to “attentional shifts” causing momentary blindness or confusion. Task switching probably has the same effect.
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Democracy against Domination: Power, Populism, and Resistance in the Era of Trump
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Suite 200N, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Speaker
K. Sabeel Rahman, Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School and Author of, "Democracy Against Domination"
Moderator
Jane Mansbridge, Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, Harvard Kenedy School
COST Free
DETAILS The election of Donald Trump has provoked high-stakes clashes over the future of our democracy. But many of the battles under way now were already driving American politics during and before the election: tensions about race, identity, and inclusion; about inequality and economic power; and about the very viability and efficacy of our democratic institutions themselves. How should we understand today's reemergence of an exclusionary, right-populism -- and the prospects for a more inclusive and egalitarian alternative? Why have conventional approaches to liberalism and governance failed to address these deeper structural challenges of inequality, exclusion, and accountability? How can American democracy address these deeper challenges going forward? What does a genuine bottom-up, participatory, inclusive, and equitable democracy look like in the aftermath of the inequality crisis and the rise of rightwing populism? Drawing on the arguments of his recent book, Democracy Against Domination, K. Sabeel Rahman addresses these topics and more.
Lunch will be provided.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/democracy-against-domination-power-populism-and-resistance-era-trump
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Starr Forum: Digital Innovation and Africa
Tuesday, April 11
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E14-648, Silverman Skyline Room, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speakers: Claude Grunitzky, Stephan-Eloise Gras, Dk Osseo-Asare
Is it helping solve development challenges?
A new kind of African citizenry is consolidating itself right now, and it has a lot to do with the Internet. With each new mobile phone, with each new wireless connection, with each new social media interaction, the continent continues to embrace the most disruptive digital technologies. The growing accessibility of digital solutions, many of them homegrown, provides new models and opportunities for self-organized communities, political activism, and economic growth. It also raises new questions: who is providing the access: governments, local telcos, or American conglomerates?
This roundtable at MIT will explore and interrogate the socio-economic, cultural and geopolitical consequences of Africa's leapfrog into new technologies.
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
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Web site: https://cis.mit.edu/events/starr-forum-digital-innovation-and-africa
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, True Africa, and Africa 4 Tech
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
starrforum at mit.edu
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Science Communication Lecture: Dietram Scheufele
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Kresge G2, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Chan Office of the Dean
SPEAKER(S) Dietram Scheufele, Ph.D., John E. Ross Professor and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
DETAILS
The Harvard community is invited to the inaugural lecture in the Health Communication Series at Harvard Chan.
Lecture title: Is the U.S. Becoming More Anti-Science? Emerging Technologies in Polarized Media and Policy Environments Chan.
A light lunch will be served.
LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/deans-office/science-communication-lecture-series/
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Future of the Left Symposium — Panel 1: Perspectives from Political Leaders
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 2:15 – 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Center-Periphery Europe? Perspectives from Southern Europe Study Group
EU Law and Government Study Group
Jean Monnet ad Personam Chair in European Union Law and Government
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Joaquín Almunia, Chairman of the Center for European Studies (CEPS), Visiting Professor at the European Institute-London School of Economics; Georgios Kaminis
Mayor of Athens (2010 - Present); Sławomir Sierakowski
Founder and Leader, Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique); Director, Institute for Advanced Study, Warsaw
CONTACT INFO Sebastian Royo sroyo at suffolk.edu
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/panel-1-perspectives-from-political-leaders
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Afternoon talk with US Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius and Chief of Staff & Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, Jon Finer
Tuesday, April 11
4:15pm to 5:30pm
See also: Democratic Governance, 2017
Harvard, Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Building, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Join US Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius and Chief of Staff & Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, Jon Finer for a discussion.
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Future of the Left Symposium — Panel 2: Perspectives from Scholars
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Center-Periphery Europe? Perspectives from Southern Europe Study Group
EU Law and Government Study Group
Jean Monnet ad Personam Chair in European Union Law and Government
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Arthur Goldhammer
Translator; Local Affiliate & Study Group Chair, CES, Harvard University; Peter A. Hall
Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies & CES Residents Faculty, Harvard University; Félix Krawatzek
British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Politics & International Relations, Oxford; Antonio Costa Pinto
Visiting Professor, New York University; Research Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Lisbon
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Indivisible Film Screening
Tuesday, April 11
5:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building E51-115, Tang Center - Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Have you ever wondered what it is like to live, work, and go to school in the U.S. as an undocumented student? Want to learn how you can be an ally to immigrants and undocumented people living in the U.S.?
Come hear the stories of the people at the heart of our nation’s immigration debate. The event will kick off with a special screening of Indivisible, an award-winning documentary film about three undocumented students in the U.S.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the Director and one of the protagonist of the film, Renata Teodoro. Renata is a Boston-based DREAMer who was brought to the U.S. from Brazil by her mother when she was six years old. She is now 29 and an immigration rights activist.
This event is free and open to the public, but we ask that you RSVP using the link above.
Schedule:
Film Screening: 5:00PM - 6:15PM
Discussion with Director and Renata: 6:15PM - 7:00PM
Refreshments: 7:00PM - 7:30PM
Event hosted by MIT Sloan HBC and Student Life Office.
Web site: RSVP: https://sloangroups.mit.edu/sol/rsvp?id=326502
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Tickets: RSVP: https://sloangroups.mit.edu/sol/rsvp?id=326502
Sponsor(s): MIT Sloan MBA Student Affairs, MIT Sloan Hispanic Business Club
For more information, contact: Katherine Curiel
Katherine Anabel Curiel
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When We Walked: Pilgrimage Across Tradition
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 5:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR: 617.495.4476
DETAILS
When We Walked: Pilgrimage Across Tradition
Pilgrimage in Hinduism
Come: explore pilgrimage through the lens of Hinduism.
Come: Diana L. Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Frederic Wertham Professor of Law & Psychiatry in Society, Harvard College Professor, Faculty Dean of Lowell House, Director, The Pluralism Project, will speak on—“Pilgrimage in Hindu India: Shiva in the Landscape of Pilgrimage”.
Come: Swami Tyagananda, Hindu Chaplain, Harvard University, will speak on—"Going Places to Find the Self”.
Come: Meghan Finn, Master of Divinity 2018, Harvard Divinity School, will respond.
Journey with us.
"Pilgrimage in Hindu India: Shiva in the Landscape of Pilgrimage"
"Going Places to Find the Self"
Going places and seeing them involves travel. But travel becomes a pilgrimage when we go some place, explore it, and discover our own hidden self. A Hindu pilgrimage site is typically a temple, but traveling to see sacred rivers such as Ganga and Yamuna—or hills (like Arunachala) or snow speaks (Mount Kailash) or lakes (Manas Sarovar)—is also popular and considered spiritually beneficial. These pilgrimages sometimes involve tremendous physical hardship and test the limits of one’s patience and forbearance. Done properly, they have the power to rejuvenate one's spiritual life. I shall briefly describe my visit to Mt. Kailash in 2002 and the lessons I learned from that pilgrimage. I'll conclude with insights that connect the external pilgrimage to the internal discovery of the true Self.
This event is part of the Junior Fellowship Series "When We Walked: Pilgrimage Across Tradition," organized by CSWR resident Melissa Coles.
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A Conversation with Conductor Andris Nelsons
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, Music Building, 3 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Music
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Department of Music and Learning From Performers (Office for the Arts)
SPEAKER(S) Andris Nelsons, Mark Volpe, Anthony Fogg, Federico Cortese, Anne Shreffler (moderator)
COST Admission free and open to the public (tickets/RSVPs not required); seating first-come, first-served, subject to venue capacity.
CONTACT INFO 617-495-8676
DETAILS
Conductor Andris Nelsons, appointed in 2014 as the fifteenth Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), will participate in a panel discussion also featuring BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe and Artistic Administrator and Director of Tanglewood Anthony Fogg, as well as Federico Cortese, Music Director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and moderator Anne Shreffler, Professor of Music at Harvard. The panelists will engage in a far-ranging discussion of the BSO’s history and legacy, while considering the future of the institution and its influence on the world’s musical stage.
LINK http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/event/conversation-conductor-andris-nelsons
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Work and Leadership in An Age of AI and Robotics
Tuesday, April 11
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/work-and-leadership-in-an-age-of-ai-and-robotics-tickets-32955745522
In recent years, managers have been hearing more about Robotics, “Big Data” and AI, and their capabilities to transform business decision-making. At minimum, these technologies put enormous pressure on firms to keep innovating. But what are the wider implications for management?
This session will look at how these technologies are already being applied in fields like Retailing, Finance, Consulting, Law, Journalism and Medicine. It will then seek to answer questions like, “What have we learned about good management in this ‘Brave New World’? How do these technologies change optimal team structure and behavior? In other words, what do we already know about making best use of teams as the impact of Robotics, Big Data and AI spread?”
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Milo Jones is a Visiting Professor at IE Business School in Madrid. At IE, he teaches "Intelligence Tools for the Finance Professional", an advanced non-market strategy course, and a variety of Geopolitics-related courses in the MBA and Masters in Advanced Finance programs. Milo is also a staff member of Wal-Mart's Leadership Academy, where he works with the retailer’s senior leadership on questions surrounding strategy, geopolitics and technology. In addition to teaching, Milo is the Managing Director of Inveniam Strategy. He also serves on the board of a private American food company with over $200 million in annual sales. He is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.
You can follow him on twitter @inveniam
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday April 12
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Inaugural Planetary Health/Geohealth Annual Meeting
April 28-30
Registration closes April 12
Cost: $50 -$200
RSVP at https://planetaryhealthannualmeeting.org/registration/
Planetary Health is the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends. Planetary Health and GeoHealth research focuses on quantifying both direct and indirect human health impacts of accelerating environmental change.
To catalyze this interdisciplinary field and raise awareness among funding agencies, publishers, and the broader research community, the Planetary Health Alliance along with the American Geophysical Union, the Ecological Society of America, and The Lancet are organizing this Inaugural Annual Meeting on Planetary Health and GeoHealth on April 29-30, 2017 in Boston, MA. The meeting is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to the Planetary Health Alliance.
Space limited; Open to the public.
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Approach & Impact Lunch
Wednesday, April 12
12:00 pm
Social Innovation Forum, One Congress Street, Suite 113, Boston
OUR APPROACH & IMPACT
The Social Innovation Forum (SIF) plays a critical role in the social impact community by educating, engaging, and connecting resource providers (funders, investors, and volunteers) and on-the-ground leaders of nonprofit organizations and social impact businesses. Our programs and services provide a unique combination of capacity building and network building as we actively connect supporters and practitioners to build productive relationships focused on growing social impact.
Since 2003, SIF has directed over $24 million in cash and in-kind support to 106 portfolio organizations. Our rigorous and intensive programs bring together more than 2,600 philanthropists, foundation staff, and business professionals who support innovative, effective approaches to address important social issues.
JOIN US FOR LUNCH ON APRIL 12 TO LEARN MORE
Join us at our offices on Wednesday, April 12 for lunch to learn more about the Social Innovation Forum (SIF), our approach to social change, and the impact that we've had over the last 14 years. You will have a chance to meet our team, hear from a past Social Innovator about their experience with SIF, and learn more about ways to get involved.
To RSVP or for questions, please email Carolyn Shaughnessy at cshaughnessy at socialinnovationforum.org.
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Is Slavery Being Rebranded?
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Al-Yasha Ilhaam
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Spelman College
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS A Q+A will follow the lecture
LINK http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events-lectures/events/april-12-2017-1200pm/spring-colloquium-al-yasha-ilhaam
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Layer Upon Layer: Experience, Ecology, Engineering, Heritage, and (Most of All) History in the Making of China's Agricultural Terraces
Wednesday, April 12
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Harvardm CGIS South Room S250, 1730 Cambridge Street Cambridge
The Environmental Humanities Initiative of the Fairbanks Center for Chinese Studies welcomes Sigrid Schmalzer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Schmalzer’s research focuses on social, cultural, and political aspects of the history of science in modern China. Her first book, The People’s Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008 and won the Sharlin Memorial Award from the Social Science History Association. Her second book, Red Revolution, Green Revolution: Scientific Farming in Socialist China, was released by University of Chicago Press in 2016 (a podcast interview with Schmalzer about the book is available from the New Books Network). She is also the co-editor of a volume intended for the undergraduate classroom titled Visualizing Modern China: Image, History, and Memory, 1750-Present. Her shorter writings have been published in numerous edited volumes and scholarly journals, including Isis, Journal of American-East Asian Relations, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, East Asian History, and Geographical Review. She was also the lead organizer for a conference held at UMass 11-13 April 2014, “Science for the People: The 1970s and Today,” which brought together students, scholars in Science and Technology Studies, and former members of the 1970s-1980s group Science for the People and is archived here: http://science-for-the-people.org. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Fulbright, the Social Science Research Council, the American Philosophical Society, and the D. Kim Foundation.
Contact Name: Amy Zhang
amyzhang at fas.harvard.edu
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Nature's Present: Environmental Crossroads in 21st Century India
Wednesday, April 12
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Harvard, CGIS-S030, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Mahesh Rangarajan, Ashoka University
Contact: histecon at fas.harvard.edu
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Finance, Geography, & Sustainability Speaker Series: From Internal Colony to Subprime Haven to Circular Economy
Wednesday, April 12
12:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Finance, Geography, & Sustainability Speaker Series
A prolonged 1960s-1970s debate about how to spur economic development in the US segregated areas of large cities in which racial ethnic minorities have historically been concentrated. This debate turned on two axes, the first concerned whether the labor force and capital assets located in the areas should be understood as integral to the structure of capital accumulation in the economy as a whole, or instead as structurally separate from mainstream capitalist processes and exploited primarily for their labor reserves. The second involved the extent to which cash flows in these communities were being drained and could, in turn, be recirculated by developing autonomous economic-development organizations inside their borders. This debate will be reprised and updated, as it contains profound insights for two current policy debates: first, how to renew the economies of communities disproportionately affected by the subprime and foreclosure crises of the past decade; second, how to localize city and regional economies so as to make them more sustainable, resilient, and independent of the broader, often coercive, dynamics of global capitalism.
Web site: https://www.facebook.com/events/615998721939240/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact: Janelle Knox-Hayes
jankh at mit.edu
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xTalk: Learning from Videos in Open Online Education
Wednesday, April 12
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 66-144, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Tim Van Der Zee
In MOOCs, videos are generally the most used method of teaching and are central to the student learning experience. In this talk Van Der Zee will present his research and discuss new research opportunities. One of the questions in the field of instructional design is: How can we increase the educational value of videos? Do students learn more if you ask them to summarize the videos they watch, or should we just give them summaries? What are other effective strategies?
Given that many students of open online courses do not have English as their first language, how can we ensure educational videos are not only available, but also accessible to students around the world? In contrast with guidelines on accessibility, Van Der Zee found that providing subtitles does not help non-native English speakers learn more from videos. Another key question is how we should design videos to ensure that they are informative, but not overly complex. Van Der Zee??will discuss previous findings and guidelines on effective video design for online education.
Tim Van Der Zee is a PhD candidate at Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching in the Netherlands. He studies how people learn from educational videos in MOOCs and focuses on increasing their instructional design quality and educational value. Follow Tim on Twitter at @Research_Tim and read his blog timvanderzee.com.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/learning-videos-open-online-education
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): xTalks: Digital Discourses, Office of Digital Learning
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info at mit.edu
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The Who and How of Microbial Control over Soil Carbon Dynamics
Wednesday, April 12
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kristen DeAngelis, UMass Amherst
Microbial Systems Seminar
Web site: https://microbialsystems.wordpress.com/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Kathryn Kauffman
k6logc at mit.edu
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The Impact of Pollution on Planetary Health: Emergence of an Underappreciated Risk Factor
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2017, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Haller Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Planetary Health Alliance, Harvard University Center for the Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health NIEHS Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Philip J. Landrigan
CONTACT INFO erikaveidis at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Pollution has quietly become the world’s largest health problem. Pollution-related disease causes nearly 10 million premature deaths annually, three times as many deaths as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Yet despite their great magnitude, pollution and pollution-related disease are largely overlooked in the global health and international development agendas.
Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc., FAAP, DIH is Professor of Environmental Medicine/Public Health and Pediatrics and Dean for Global Health in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He served as the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai from 1990 to 2015.
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Digital Transformation Summit 2017
Wednesday, April 12
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Harvard Business School, Allston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-transformation-summit-2017-tickets-32334060044
The Digital Transformation Summit brings together unexpected groupings of experts from academia and industry for frank conversations on emerging technologies, trends, and challenges. The event will include:
Eight provocative panels helmed by pioneers from both academia and practice. Panels will include the future of product management, strategic challenges for digital marketplaces, and more.
A keynote from Julie Larson-Green, Chief Experience Officer for Microsoft Office, on "Reimagining the Platform for Intelligent Work."
A diverse crowd of over 400 engineers, scholars, entrepreneurs, and students from Harvard and beyond.
A lively reception to recap your learning over good food and drink.
The Digital Transformation Summit is organized by the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative and Professors Karim Lakhani and Feng Zhu. More info on programming can be found on the event website. For questions, contact Caroline Fay at cafay at hbs.edu.
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Asymmetric Information, Drilling Distortions, and Oil and Gas Leases (Evan Herrnstadt)
WHEN Wednesday, Wed, April 12, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S) Evan Herrnstadt
LINK https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/16492
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Book Talk with Jorrit de Jong, Author of "Dealing with Dysfunction: Innovative Problem Solving in the Public Sector"
Wednesday, April 12
4:15pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Suite 200N, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge
Join us for a discussion with Jorrit de Jong, Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at HKS, Faculty Director of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and author, "Dealing with Dysfunction: Innovative Problem Solving in the Public Sector." Tony Saich, director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and Daewoo Professor of International Affairs, will moderate.
About Dealing with Dysfunction
How can we intervene in the systemic bureaucratic dysfunction that beleaguers the public sector? De Jong examines the roots of this dysfunction and presents a novel approach to solving it. Drawing from academic literature on bureaucracy and problem solving in the public sector, and the clinical work of the Kafka Brigade — a social enterprise based in the Netherlands dedicated to diagnosing and remedying bureaucratic dysfunction in practice, this study reveals the shortcomings of conventional approaches to bureaucratic reform. The usual methods have failed to diagnose problems, distinguish symptoms, or identify root causes in a comprehensive or satisfactory way. They have also failed to engage clients, professionals, and midlevel managers in understanding and addressing the dysfunction that plagues them. This book offers conceptual frameworks, theoretical insights, and practical lessons for dealing with the problem. It sets a course for rigorous public problem solving to create governments that can be more effective, efficient, equitable, and responsive to social concerns.
De Jong argues that successfully remedying bureaucratic dysfunction depends on employing diagnostics capable of distinguishing and dissecting various kinds of dysfunction. The “Anna Karenina principle” applies here: all well-functioning bureaucracies are alike; every dysfunctional bureaucracy is dysfunctional in its own way. The author also asserts that the worst dysfunction occurs when multiple organizations share responsibility for a problem, but no single organization is primarily responsible for solving it. This points to a need for creating and reinforcing distributed problem-solving capacity focused on deep (cross-)organizational learning and revised accountability structures. Our best approach to dealing with dysfunction may therefore not be top-down regulatory reform, but rather relentless bottom-up and cross-boundary leadership and innovation. Using fourteen clinical cases of bureaucratic dysfunction investigated by the Kafka Brigade, the author demonstrates how a proper process for identifying, defining, diagnosing, and remedying the problem can produce better outcomes.
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Numbered: Mapping Cancer onto Artistic Algorithms of Art, Dance and Music
Wednesday, April 12
6:00 PM
Lesley, University Hall Room 2-150 (Amphitheater), Porter Campus, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/numbered-mapping-cancer-onto-artistic-algorithms-of-art-dance-and-music-tickets-32274867999
Presenters: Professor Xueli Tan, PhD, MT-BC, Bradford Else, and an Expressive Therapies Graduate Student Panel
**Event is free and open to the public; optional two (2) CE Hours* for LMHC’s and NCC’s are available for $10 (to be paid that day)
Medically, patterns of cancer markers can help determine whether an individual is susceptible to developing a specific form of cancer and may also predict the progression of the disease. Tumor markers such as CA125 and CEA capture a cellular portrait of the most miniscule denominators in the human body. Yet, our being is more than the summation of these deconstructed denominators. While science offers data, often in the form of numbers, to classify our bodies’ health status, how can we capture the humanity and dignity of ill bodies? Aesthetically, can artistic representations offer a portal to reclaim the humanistic self? This presentation documents the collaborative work between a leukemia patient and a group of art therapy, dance/movement therapy, and music therapy students. With 372 numbers gathered from the results of the patient’s blood tests over the last 4 years, the students mapped out the biopsychosocial phases of his diagnosis, transplant, blood transfusions, and admissions and discharges from the hospital. A panel of students will discuss their reflections and experiences in creating the algorithms to map out those numbers. We will present the final art, music, and dance representations emanating from these algorithms. Together with the owner of the 372 numbers, we will witness how reclaiming humanity via empowerment comes from being heard, embodied, validated, and represented in the most beautiful art forms.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Tan is Assistant Professor (music therapy) in the Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences, Division of Expressive Therapies. Prior to Lesley, she was the Presidential Research Fellow at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Dr. Tan’s clinical experiences and research interests focus on the medical population, especially in pain perception and management in ICU settings. She has published and presented in both medical and music therapy journals and conferences respectively.
Learning Goals:
1) Participants will be able to articulate the differences between the benefits of art versus the therapeutic application of art forms.
2) Participants will be able to evaluate the importance of addressing psychosocial needs of individuals’ living with life-threatening diseases.
3) Participants will be able to appreciate the synergistic collaborations between patients and expressive therapies students to create artistic representations of autonomy and human dignity.
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Climate Change Preparedness & Resilience Planning for the Alewife/Fresh Pond Area
Wednesday, April 12
6:00-8:00 pm
West Cambridge Youth Center, 680 Huron Avenue, Cambridge
The City will present findings from the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for the Alewife/Fresh Pond area and discuss strategies to increase preparedness and resilience. Alewife/Fresh Pond is an initial focus for the Climate Change Preparedness & Resilience (CCPR) Plan that is in development. The Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment - Part 2 summary report, which focuses on the risks from sea level rise and storm surges, has been posted on the CCPR project webpage:
http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/Projects/Climate/climatechangeresilianceandadaptation.aspx
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Mass Innovation Nights 97
Wednesday, April 12
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
25 Drydock, 25 Drydock Avenue, Boston
RSVP at http://mass.innovationnights.com/events/mass-innovation-nights-97
So many things to look forward to in April -- no snow AND an all ROBOTICS Mass Innovation Nights to name a few -- this is Boston afterall! Amazon Robotics and Mass TLC's Mass Robotics are the sponsors of this month's #MIN97. We will have 10 super cool products. Do not miss this event on Wednesday
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#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media
Wednesday, April 12
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome Harvard Law School's CASS R. SUNSTEIN, the New York Times–bestselling author of Republic.com and The World According to Star Wars, for a discussion of his latest book, #Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media.
About #Republic
As the Internet grows more sophisticated, it is creating new threats to democracy. Social media companies such as Facebook can sort us ever more efficiently into groups of the like-minded, creating echo chambers that amplify our views. It's no accident that on some occasions, people of different political views cannot even understand each other. It's also no surprise that terrorist groups have been able to exploit social media to deadly effect.
Welcome to the age of #Republic.
In this revealing book, Cass Sunstein shows how today's Internet is driving political fragmentation, polarization, and even extremism—and what can be done about it.
Thoroughly rethinking the critical relationship between democracy and the Internet, Sunstein describes how the online world creates "cybercascades," exploits "confirmation bias," and assists "polarization entrepreneurs." And he explains why online fragmentation endangers the shared conversations, experiences, and understandings that are the lifeblood of democracy.
In response, Sunstein proposes practical and legal changes to make the Internet friendlier to democratic deliberation. These changes would get us out of our information cocoons by increasing the frequency of unchosen, unplanned encounters and exposing us to people, places, things, and ideas that we would never have picked for our Twitter feed.
#Republic need not be an ironic term. As Sunstein shows, it can be a rallying cry for the kind of democracy that citizens of diverse societies most need.
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Thursday, April 13
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Cybersecurity - Avoiding and Reacting to Data Breaches
Thursday, April 13
8:30 AM-10:30 AM
CIC Cambridge, Havana Room, 5th Floor, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://info.withum.com/LP-Boston-Cyber-3-30-17.html
PANEL DISCUSSION:
Anurag Sharma, Principal with WithumSmith+Brown (Withum), will cover the impact of breaches on SMBs, statistics and hidden costs, the NIST Cybersecurity framework.
April F. Doss, Partner with Saul Ewing, will discuss the key elements of an incident response plan for businesses of all sizes.
Andrew Ostashen, Co-Founder & Principal Security Engineer of Vulsec, will provide you with real examples from his user trainings and simple ways to help ensure you remain safe and protect your information.
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RISE:2017
Thursday, April 13
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Northeastern, Cabot Physical Education Center, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.northeastern.edu/rise/
RISE, Northeastern University’s premier Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo. Where industry leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and technology enthusiasts from diverse sectors engage Northeastern’s solution-focused innovations. Where industry, capital, and academia converge -- creating a dynamic feedback loop translating into game-changing technological advancement, lucrative commercial pathways, and pioneering joint research projects. This is RISE.
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Cost-Benefit Analysis and Environmental Regulation in the New Era
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Regulatory Policy Program (RPP) at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Richard Revesz, Lawrence King Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, NYU Law School, and Director, Institute for Policy Integrity, NYU
TICKET INFO Please RSVP to MRCBG at hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO mrcbg at hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS
Lunch will be served.
LINK https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/news-events/event-calendar#nextevent
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Sustainability at the municipal level in Somerville
Thursday, April 13
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment, City of Somerville
As the densest City in New England, Somerville faces unusual challenges in climate change mitigation and adaptation. But as the first city in Massachusetts with a community-wide carbon neutrality goal, the City and its residents are working to develop a model for medium-sized cities to successfully address climate change. The Director of Somerville's Office of Sustainability and Environment will discuss some of the City's sustainability initiatives.
As Director of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability and Environment, Oliver Sellers-Garcia leads initiatives on climate change mitigation and adaption, resource conservation, and environmental innovation in Somerville. Recent and ongoing initiatives include municipal and residential energy efficiency, greenhouse gas accounting, solid waste reduction and diversion, green procurement, green technology piloting, and regional resilience planning. Prior to joining the City of Somerville, he worked for eight years at the environmental consulting firm CDM Smith, helping clients around the country and the world integrate sustainability and climate change into physical and organizational planning. Sellers-Garcia holds a Bachelor's degree in Urban Studies from Columbia University and a Master's in City Planning from MIT.
Watch it live from your computer or smart phone:
Webex: http://bit.ly/TuftsLunchLearn
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STEX Workshop - Killer Apps in the Internet of Things
Thursday, April 13
1:30p–4:30p
MIT, Building E14-6th floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://startupexchange.mit.edu/startupexchange/html/index.html#viewOpportunity/150
STEX Workshop
Web site: https://startupexchange.mit.edu/startupexchange/html/index.html#events
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Corporate Relations/ILP
For more information, contact: Trond Undheim
617-253-8983
Undheim at ilp.mit.edu
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Books at Baker presents "Democracy: A Case Study" with David Moss
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Business School Baker Library, the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room (off the North Lobby on the ground floor), 25 Harvard Way, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Books at Baker
SPEAKER(S) David Moss, Paul Whiton Cherington Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School
COST Free
DETAILS
"Democracy: A Case Study" adapts the case method of teaching to revitalize conversations about governance and democracy and show how the United States has often thrived on political conflict. "Democracy" is both a guide to America’s democratic history and an immediate, practical exercise for anyone looking for a way to strengthen our common civic commitments. (Q&A with author, books available for sale and signing)
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Refugees And Migrants: A Comparative Study Of Response--The UN, Government And Civil Society
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Karen AbuZayd, Commissioner, UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on Syria; and former Special Adviser to the Secretary General for the Global Summit on Refugees and Migrants, 2016
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS
Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/karen-abuzayd-title-be-announced
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A Woman’s Place at the Harvard Observatory: A Lecture by Dava Sobel
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Dava Sobel, Science Writer
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events at radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this lecture, acclaimed author Dava Sobel will speak about her forthcoming book, “The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars,” which tells the story of the women who worked at the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. To learn more and to register, visit the event webpage.
LINK https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2017-dava-sobel-lecture
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The Annual Zaleski Lecture in Modern Polish History — Dismantling Democracy on the EU's Watch: Poland and Its Constitutional Tribunal
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR August Zaleski Memorial Lecture in Modern Polish History
SPEAKER(S) Andrzej Rzeplinski
Professor of Jurisprudence, Warsaw University; President of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal (2010-2016); Noah Feldman
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law; Kim L. Scheppele
Visiting Professor of Law, John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization Spring 2017;
CONTACT INFO Anna Popiel apopiel at fas.harvard.edu
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/the-annual-zaleski-lecture-in-modern-polish-history
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Rebecca Henderson - "Reimagining Capitalism: Business, Purpose and the Big Problems”
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Emerson Hall, Room 210, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
SPEAKER(S) Rebecca Henderson
CONTACT INFO Susan Cox
e: susan at ethics.harvard.edu
p: 617-495-1336
f: 617-496-6104
DETAILS
As a world we face a number of “big problems” including accelerating environmental degradation and rising inequality. The private sector has traditionally treated these problems as externalities and relied on the public sector to address them. But governments around the world are finding it increasingly difficult to address them with any success. Could the private sector play a major role in addressing them? Would it make a difference if firms were “purpose driven”? What would purpose driven firms look like, in a world in which many managers believe that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits? Would they be legal? Could they survive? Could they change the world?
Rebecca M. Henderson is the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, where she has a joint appointment at the Harvard Business School in the General Management and Strategy units and is the Co-Director of the Business and Environment Initiative. Professor Henderson is also a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her work explores how organizations respond to large-scale technological shifts, most recently in regard to energy and the environment. She teaches Reimagining Capitalism in the MBA Program.
LINK http://ethics.harvard.edu/event/public-lecture-2
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authors at mit - Adam Gazzaley - The Distracted Mind
Thursday, April 13
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Adam Gazzaley
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Adam Gazzaley, Director of the Gazzaley Lab at the University of California, San Francisco, discussing his new book, "The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World," at 6:00 pm, Thursday April 13, at the Bookstore.
We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask--read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with glowing smartphones next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In "The Distracted Mind," Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen--a neuroscientist and a psychologist--explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.
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/adam-gazzaley-the-distracted-mind-tickets-32131200285
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
authors at mit.edu
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The U.S. and the International Climate Change Agreement
April 13
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Workbar Cambridge, 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-us-and-the-international-climate-change-agreement-tickets-31285630162
Join us for an update and discussion about the United States and its role in addressing climate change.
In 2016, 125 countries ratified the Paris Agreement, an international commitment to take action on climate change. President Barack Obama was a huge proponent of the plan, but it’s unclear what will happen under President Donald Trump: he has stated that he may pull out of the Agreement, and more recently told the New York Times that he’s “looking at it very closely” and has “an open mind to it,” adding that he is planning to consider “how much it will cost [U.S.] companies” and affect U.S. competitiveness worldwide.
What is the Paris Agreement, and what do advocates and critics say about it?
What are the United States’ obligations? And if the U.S. doesn’t fulfull them, what will happen?
What’s the relationship between the Paris Agreement and U.S. competitiveness in the global market?
Our speaker will give a 20-30 minute overview, followed by extensive Q & A and discussion. Get all your questions answered, and have real conversations with people curious about the same things you are.
Hang out after the event for drinks, snacks, and good convo.
Please note that this event will not cover the science of climate change.
Prof. Henrik Selin is an Associate Professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where he conducts research and teaches classes on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. He is the author of Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management(MIT Press), co-author of European Union and Environmental Governance (Routledge), and co-editor of Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking and Multilevel Governance (MIT Press) and Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives (Ashgate). He is also the author and co-author of more than four dozen peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as numerous reports, reviews, and commentaries.
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Toward an Artificial Brain
Thursday, April 13
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/faculty-talk-toward-an-artificial-brain-registration-32133091943
The brain is a 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.
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PREVENTING TERRORISM AT HOME & ABROAD: ASSESSING U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM POLICY
Thursday, April 13
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
WeWork, 745 Atlantic Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://splashthat.com/sites/view/preventingterrorismathomeabroadassessinguscountert.splashthat.com
The United States has been in conflict with international terrorist organizations and those inspired by them for over fifteen years. These organizations have continued to execute devastating attacks abroad and have inspired acts of terrorism inside the United States, including the bombing of the Boston Marathon exactly four years ago. Join David Schanzer, associate professor at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, for a discussion about the state of the conflict against al Qaeda, ISIS and like-minded groups and the status of U.S. counterterrorism policy. Do we have the right strategy? What are the prospects for success? How will the Trump Administration change our approach and are these changes likely to succeed? Professor Schanzer will speak for about 25 minutes and then take questions from the audience.
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An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
Thursday, April 13
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes editor in chief of Kaiser Health News and former New York Times senior writer ELISABETH ROSENTHAL for a discussion of her book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back.
About An American Sickness
Award-winning New York Times reporter Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, and tells us exactly what we can do to solve its myriad of problems.
It is well documented that our healthcare system has grave problems, but how, in only a matter of decades, did things get this bad? Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms; she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. Rosenthal spells out in clear and practical terms exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship, explaining step by step the workings of a profession sorely lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate a byzantine system and also to demand far-reaching reform.
Breaking down the monolithic business into its individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal tells the story of the history of American medicine as never before. The situation is far worse than we think, and it has become like that much more recently than we realize. Hospitals, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Americans are dying from routine medical conditions when affordable and straightforward solutions exist.
Dr. Rosenthal explains for the first time how various social and financial incentives have encouraged a disastrous and immoral system to spring up organically in a shockingly short span of time. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
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Lake Erie's Death, Resurrection, Re-Death, and the Role of Models in Guiding a Re-Resurrection
Thursday, April 13
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building E51-115, 6:00 p.m. Reception (Ting Foyer), 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Don Scavia, Ph.D., Professor and Director, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, University of Michigan
Reducing phosphorus (P) loading is a key management tool for controlling
Lake Erie eutrophication. During the 1960s and 1970s, increased phosphorus inputs degraded water quality, stimulated algal blooms, and
reduced central basin hypolimnetic oxygen to levels that eliminated
thermal habitat vital to cold-water organisms and contributed to the extirpation of important benthic macro invertebrate prey species. In
response to load reductions initiated in 1972 under the US/Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), Lake Erie responded quickly
with reduced phytoplankton biomass and bottom-water hypoxia.
However, since the mid-1990s, cyanobacteria blooms and hypoxia returned to conditions of the 1970s. In response, a renegotiated GLWQA
required the governments to revise P load targets once again. Using multiple models, we recommended new loading targets to avoid
severe cyanobacteria blooms and reduce hypoxia, and those recommendations guided the new binational agreement of an additional
40% P load reduction. Subsequently, we assembled five additional modeling groups to assess load reduction strategies for the agriculturally dominated Maumee River watershed, the single largest P contributor to
Lake Erie toxic algal blooms. While several potential pathways are available to achieve the new target loads, results show that any successful pathway will require significant large-scale implementation of multiple practices.
Web site: Host: E. Eric Adams, Senior Research Engineer
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Freeman2017
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Parsons Lab, Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section
For more information, contact: Brenda Pepe
6172536077
pepebe at mit.edu
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U.S. Never-Ending War in the Time of Trump and How to Stop It
Thursday, April 13
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park,Cambridge
(Suggested donation $5.00)
Presentation by David Swanson followed by discussion and book signing.
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of <http://worldbeyondwar.org/> WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for <http://rootsaction.org/> RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include <http://warisalie.org/> War Is A Lie. He blogs at <http://davidswanson.org/> DavidSwanson.org and <http://warisacrime.org/> WarIsACrime.org. He hosts <http://davidswanson.org/taxonomy/term/41> Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015, 2016, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Sponsor: United for Justice with Peace
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Friday, April 14 - Sunday, April 23
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Cambridge Science Festival – April 14-23, across the city. This the annual celebration of science and technology. Many climate change events and activities are part of the program. For more information http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org
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Friday, April 14
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Clinical Research Across the Color Line: A Dialogue on Racial Disparities
Friday, April 14
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM EDT
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Auditorium, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clinical-research-across-the-color-line-a-dialogue-on-racial-disparities-tickets-33257377712
A symposium on racial disparities in clinical research participation and the implications for public health.
In almost every major area of disease research — including cancer, psychiatric disease, and metabolic disease — deep racial disparities persist in patient participation rates. Join us for a Broad-wide dialogue with scientists, researchers, cancer patients, and patient advocates to examine the historical context of medical and scientific mistrust in African-American communities and the ongoing public health implications of these disparities. The symposium will conclude with a panel of patients and experts discussing strategies to overcome barriers and increase community participation in clinical research.
Keynote Speaker
Evelyn Hammonds, Harvard University, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, Professor of African and African American Studies
Limited seating available. Free and open to the public.
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IACS Seminar: Exascale and Extreme Data Science at NERSC
WHEN Friday, Apr. 14, 2017, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Northwest B103, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute for Applied Computational Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Sudip Dosanjh, Director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
COST Free and open to the public; No registration required.
CONTACT INFO Email: iacs-info at seas.harvard.edu
Phone: 617-496-2623
DETAILS
Dr. Dosanjh's talk will explore the extreme data science occuring at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center. NERSC’s primary mission is to accelerate scientific discovery at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science through high performance computing and data analysis. NERSC supports the largest and most diverse research community of any computing facility within the DOE complex, providing large-scale, state-of-the-art computing for DOE’S unclassified research programs in alternative energy sources, environmental science, materials research, astrophysics and other science areas related to DOE’s science mission.
NERSC’s new supercomputer, Cori, is deployed in Berkeley Laboratory’s new Computational Research and Theory (CRT) Facility. Cori has over 9300 manycore Intel Knight’s Landing processors, which introduce several technological advances, including higher intra-node parallelism; high-bandwidth, on-package memory; and longer hardware vector lengths. These enhanced features are expected to yield significant performance improvements for applications running on Cori. In order to take advantage of the new features, however, application developers will need to make code modifications because many of today’s applications are not optimized to take advantage of the manycore architecture and on-package memory.
LINK http://www.seas.harvard.edu/calendar/event/94231
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Architecture Symposium: Politics of the Image: Lamia Joreige, Keith Krumweide, Michael Webb
Friday, April 14
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 7-429
Part of the Spring 2017 MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Maria Moran
617.253.4412
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American Socialist: Eugene Victor Debs - Film
Friday, April 14
6pm
Broadway Picture, Entertainment Theatre, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
Biopic about labor organizer and co-founder of the Socialist Party of America, Eugene Victor Debs. The film is narrated by Amy Madigan.
My film, American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs will screen at the Boston International Film Festival
This film was a true labor of love, morals and conscience. I have a very limited budget for PR, so if you can post this on Facebook and other social media, I would greatly appreciate the effort.
American Socialist: Eugene Victor Debs Film Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2r9BUIVlk
Yale Strom director/writer and Elizabeth Schwartz ex. producer/writer will be attending the April 14 screening.
More information at http://www.bostoniff.org
Editorial Comment: EV Debs spent more time in prison for speaking against WWI than the USA spent fighting WWI. He ran for President from the Atlanta Federal Prison in the 1920 election and received nearly 1 million votes, over 3% of those cast. A remarkable man and important American historical figure who should be studied.
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Film Screening + Discussion | 'Rumba Clave Blen Blen Blen’
WHEN Friday, Apr. 14, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE The Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Film, Special Events
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://rumbaclave.eventbrite.com
DETAILS
Join the Harvard Ed Portal for a free screening of Rumba Clave Blen Blen Blen, a compelling, fast-moving film about an exciting genre of music and dance! Highlighting the musical styling of rumba in New York City, the film follows ordinary people and famous musicians through the dances, drums, and clave rhythm of the genre. Learn more about the vibrant Afro-Cuban culture of the city and rumba's African and Andalusian origins. The screening will be followed by a conversation with its director Aristides Falcon-Paradi.
LINK http://edportal.harvard.edu/event/rumba-clave-blen-blen-blen-film-screening-discussion
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Cinematheque: An Evening with Thorsten Trimpop
Friday, April 14
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
BU, COM 101, 640 Commonwealth Avenue, Cambridge
A filmmaker from Germany who teaches at both Boston University and at the Open Documentary Lab at MIT, Trimpop will screen his acclaimed documentary, Furusato, winner of the Golden Dove Prize at the Leipzig Film Festival. Trimpop as a one-person crew shot this frightening, also contemplative, look at a Japanese town half-abandoned after a nuclear disaster, something that could happen to all of us living near nuclear plants.
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Energy Mixer Series: Smart Homes
Friday, April 14
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Northeastern, 360 Huntington Avenue, Curry Student Center West Addition (Mezzanine), Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/energy-mixer-series-smart-homes-tickets-33018405941
Is your home smarter than a 5th grader?
Join us at Northeastern University for an informative presentation of a variety of newly available gadgets and Smart Home technologies. We will discuss how these devices innovate our ever-changing lifestyle and offer a wide range of convenience. Light snacks and beverages will be served at the beginning of the event. Participants are encouraged to share their thoughts and enjoy a group activity after the presentation as we finish up the night.
Smart Homes: Gadgets and Technologies, in collaboration with the Northeastern University Energy Systems Society, is part of an ongoing Energy Mixer networking event series that brings together emerging professionals and students across multidisciplinary sectors including architecture, engineering, and sustainability. Each event will highlight emerging topics of focus, with a goal to explore, examine, and rethink new technologies that enhance our daily lives.
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Saturday, April 15
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Carbon Pricing Awareness Launch Party (and Tesla Raffle)
Saturday, April 15
12 - 4 PM
Aeronaut Brewing Company in Somerville, Massachusetts
RSVP at http://climate-xchange.org/rsvp-carbon-pricing-awareness-tesla-raffle-launch-party/
Yes, you really can win a Tesla while helping Climate XChange and CABA go for the win on bills that will reward Massachusetts residents and businesses for reducing their carbon footprint.
Come to the Tesla raffle kickoff party in Somerville to find out more.
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Sunday, April 16
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SWAPFEST
Sunday, April 16
9:00a–2:00p
MIT, Albany Street Garage and Lots, Cambridge
MIT's monthly Hi Tech, Computer, Electronics and Ham Radio Fleamarket.
Buy Sell or Swap all things nerdly.
Held the third Sunday of each month April thru October.
Rain or Shine covered space is available for all sellers.
In the Albany St Garage and adjacent lot.
On Albany St between Mass Ave and Main St, Cambridge.
$6 Buyers admission from 9AM to 2PM.
Free for MIT and Harvard Undergraduates with current ID
Web site: www.swapfest.us
Open to: the general public
Cost: $6
This event occurs on the 3rd Sunday of every month through October 15, 2017.
Sponsor(s): Electronic Research Society, MIT, UHF Repeater Assn. W1XM, MIT, MIT Radio Society
For more information, contact: Mitchell Berger
617-253-3776
w1mx-officers at mit.edu
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MITxMake Maker Festival
Sunday, April 16
9:00a–6:00p
MIT, Building W-35, Zesiger Center, 120 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Join us for a day of makers and movers!
Check out more than 40 maker projects from all over MIT and Boston
Keynote speech by Jeff Lieberman, host of the Time Warp on the Discovery Channel
Listen to our amazing panelists to learn about the maker community
Join any of our four product-building workshops or do an MIT Solvathon!
Tour MIT's coolest makerspaces
Make a battle bot with MITERS and battle it out at a combat robotics tournament
Web site: mitxmake.com
Open to: the general public
Cost: $5-$15
Tickets: https://www.mitxmake.com/copy-of-buy-tickets
Sponsor(s): MITxMake
For more information, contact: Dhivya Ravikumar
6177559620
mitxmake at mit.edu
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Reality Show: Stalking the Musical Brain
Sunday, April 16
7:30p–9:00p
MIT, Building N-51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cambridge Science Festival
Every April the MIT Museum presents the Cambridge Science Festival in collaboration with the City of Cambridge, community organizations, schools, universities, and businesses. Come to the Museum and enjoy a week filled with workshops, hands-on activities, demonstrations, tours and more.
MIT neuroscientists, musicians, and composers explore what happens to our brains in the presence of music. Free event.
Web site: http://mitmuseum.mit.edu/csf
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free Event
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: MIT Museum
617-253-5927
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Monday, April 17
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American Socialist: Eugene Victor Debs - Film
Monday, April 17
11:30am
Broadway Picture, Entertainment Theatre, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
Biopic about labor organizer and co-founder of the Socialist Party of America, Eugene Victor Debs. The film is narrated by Amy Madigan.
My film, American Socialist: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs will screen at the Boston International Film Festival
This film was a true labor of love, morals and conscience. I have a very limited budget for PR, so if you can post this on Facebook and other social media, I would greatly appreciate the effort.
American Socialist: Eugene Victor Debs Film Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2r9BUIVlk
Yale Strom director/writer and Elizabeth Schwartz ex. producer/writer will be attending the April 14 screening.
More information at http://www.bostoniff.org
Editorial Comment: EV Debs spent more time in prison for speaking against WWI than the USA spent fighting WWI. He ran for President from the Atlanta Federal Prison in the 1920 election and received nearly 1 million votes, over 3% of those cast. A remarkable man and important American historical figure who should be studied.
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Transitioning China's Energy System Towards Decarbonization
Monday, April 17
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
ADD TO CALENDAR
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Wei Peng and Zhimin Mao, Giorgio Ruffolo Postdoctoral Research Fellows 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 harvard.edu
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Assessing and Mitigating Synthetic Biology Risks: Exemplary Cases and Cautionary Tales
Monday, April 17
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
Harvard, K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
with Kenneth Oye, MIT, Political Science
STS Circle at Harvard
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Book Launch & Discussion — Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy
WHEN Monday, Apr. 17, 2017, 2:15 – 4:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Poetry/Prose
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CES Special Events
SPEAKER(S) Daniel Ziblatt, Professor of Government, Harvard University; Resident Faculty, CES, Harvard University; Discussants:
Amel Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Yascha Mounk, Lecturer in the Government Department, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Roumiana Theunissen: rtheunissen at fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS
How do democracies form and what makes them die? In his new book, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, Daniel Ziblatt revisits this timely and classic question in a wide-ranging historical narrative that traces the evolution of modern political democracy in Europe from its modest beginnings in 1830s Britain to Adolf Hitler’s 1933 seizure of power in Weimar Germany. Based on rich historical and quantitative evidence, the book offers a major reinterpretation of European history and the question of how stable political democracy is achieved. The barriers to inclusive political rule, Ziblatt finds, were not inevitably overcome by unstoppable tides of socioeconomic change, a simple triumph of a growing middle class, or even by working class collective action. Instead, political democracy’s fate surprisingly hinged on how conservative political parties—the historical defenders of power, wealth, and privilege—recast themselves and coped with the rise of their own radical right. With striking modern parallels, the book has vital implications for today’s new and old democracies under siege.
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/daniel-ziblatt-book-launch-birth-of-democracy
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Tuesday, April 18
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Dreams and Nightmares of Urban Restoration Ecology
Tuesday, April 18
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Steven N. Handel, Distinguished Professor, Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, Rutgers University
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Speaker Series: Sarah Smarsh – Examining the Class Divide
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Sarah Smarsh has reported on socioeconomic class, politics and public policy for The New Yorker and Harper’s online, The Guardian, Guernica, Longreads and many others.
Her book In the Red, on the American working poor and her own upbringing in rural Kansas, is forthcoming from Scribner. New essays will appear in Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living (Simon & Schuster, January 2017) and Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation (OR Books, February 2017). In 2017, she will write at length about intersections among socioeconomic class, feminism and the music and career of Dolly Parton for No Depression, the eminent publication on American country music.
Sarah has filed more than a thousand news stories, and her essays and criticism on cultural boundaries have been published by The Texas Observer, Creative Nonfiction, McSweeney’s, The Morning News and more; her essays “Poor Teeth” (Aeon) and “The First Person on Mars” (Vela) were both listed as notables in Best American Essays. She was a columnist for On Being, a public-media enterprise examining meaning in the 21st century, in 2016.
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GSD Talks: Mia Lehrer, “Advocacy by Design”
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2017, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gund Hall, 112 Stubbins, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design
DETAILS As founder and president of Mia Lehrer + Associates (MLA), Mia Lehrer (MLA ’79) leads the studio on a wide range of projects that include urban revitalization developments, urban parks and greenways, streetscapes and mobility planning, and watershed masterplanning. Internationally recognized for her design excellence and environmental leadership, Mia is passionate about bringing nature to the city and seeks opportunities to improve the relationship between the built environment, urban ecology, and the community. She is especially known for her work with complex natural systems in collaboration with diverse consultant teams and public stakeholders. Mia serves as a board member for a wide range of agencies and non-profits. In 2014, President Obama appointed Mia to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which is tasked with advising the President, the Congress, and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics, as they affect the federal interest. She was also awarded the 2016 LaGasse Medal for her notable contributions to public landscapes.
Focusing on Los Angeles and the greater southern California region as a case study, this lecture will explore the challenges and strategies for design advocacy in the urban landscape. The lecture will first provide an overview of the environmental, climactic, infrastructural and political context of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. The lecture will then share several built and conceptual projects that exemplify the MLA studio’s focus on using advocacy as a design tool in recalibrating the city.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events at gsd.harvard.edu.
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/mia-lehrer-advocacy-by-design/
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Climate Change and Global Health Seminar featuring Joel Schwartz, PhD
Tuesday, April 18
1 pm
Harvard Global Health Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge
RSVP at
More information at http://globalhealth.harvard.edu
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Healing in the Wake of Community Violence: Lessons from Newtown and Beyond: Panel discussion and screening of the documentary Newtown (2016)
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2017, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East ABC, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Cosponsored by William James College and the Science, Religion, and Culture Program at Harvard Divinity School.
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET INFO Registration is required
DETAILS Join us for a film screening and panel discussion on challenges that arise from tragic acts of community violence. The event will begin with a screening of Newtown, a documentary examining the impact of the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. The screening will be followed by a panel of experts in health law policy, the neurobiology of trauma, and community approaches to violence in a discussion of public health, gun violence, and responses to community trauma. Discussion will highlight the issue of “healing the helpers”—the first responders, medical staff, clergy, mental health providers, and others who respond to the needs of victims, families, and communities in the wake of community violence.
This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and registration is required. Register online.
LINK http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/healing-in-the-wake-of-community-violence-lessons-from-newtown-and-beyond
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The Economic Status of African Americans
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2017, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Julianne Malveaux, President, Bennett College
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS
A lecture in three parts.
April 18
The Economic Status of African Americans – How Will It Change Under the 45th President?
This lecture will look at the basic data defining the economic status of African Americans (unemployment, income, wealth, educational status) and ways it may change given this administrations priorities (deregulation, altered health care, shrinking government).
April 19
The Wealth Gap and the Case for Reparations
This lecture will do a “deep dive” into wealth disparities, and also look at them over time. It will also look at key periods in our nation’s history when African American exclusion contributed to the contemporary wealth gap, and why, then, we must make a case for reparations. Finally, this lecture will consider the forms reparations might take.
April 20
Race, Class, and Predatory Capitalism
Predatory capitalism is the primary contributor to economic inequality. This lecture will explore the intersection of race, class, gender and predatory capitalism and look at the ways that some groups experience economic challenges because of predatory capitalism.
A Q&A and reception will follow each talk.
LINK http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events-lectures/events/april-18-2017-400pm/julianne-malveaux-w-e-b-du-bois-lectures-1-3
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16th Annual Kendall Lecture with Thomas R. Karl on Climate Data: Mysteries, Wonders, and Reality
Tuesday, April 18
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&gid=13&pgid=37014&content_id=40194
Speaker: Thomas R. Karl
Climate data comes in a rich variety of quality with varying time and space resolutions. Although increasing volumes of climate data are now generated by computer models, scientists are totally dependent on active and passive methods to reconstruct the state and changing state of the climate. Such measurements are directly linked to our ability to simulate and predict climate. Active measurements come from modern-day observing systems of varying quality, while passive measurements from proxy data, such as paleoclimate tree-rings, ice-cores, ocean and lake sediments and many others are used to extend our understanding of long-past climates.
The mystery behind climate observations stem from the fact they require careful understanding of their limitations and usefulness. This stems from a variety of reasons including: international sharing of data, calibration history, power outages and constraints, changes in observing protocols by the system operators, varying amounts of metadata describing the operation of the observing system, time and space sampling size and averaging times, the environment affecting the measurements, among other factors.
The wonder of all this data is being able to deduce changes and variations in the Earth’s climate from a surprisingly robust set of independent methods to reconstruct past and present climate from an exponentially growing set of data (approaching exabyte size --- 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes). This includes thousands of climate variables and diverse methods of processing these data. Scientists working in these areas have sometimes been the harbinger of improved international relationships, sent as ambassadors of data exchanges between countries to warm-up relationships, in addition to building the collective knowledge of climate variability and change. Such collaboration is an essential part of intergovernmental organizations which have responsibilities to help coordinate global climate observations, e.g., the World Meteorological Organization.
The mystery and wonder often come together as a not so glamorous nity-gritty reality of trying to make sense of all the observations. Considerable scientific discourse is often necessary to develop and interpret data sets and models that help us understand the state and changing state of the climate system. A few examples of how this has evolved will be presented. This will include the data and methods used to deduce changes and variations in the Earth’s temperature and precipitation during the Anthropocene.
If you plan to attend this lecture registration is encouraged.
About the Speaker
Karl received his B.S. from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and his M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from North Carolina State University. After a brief TV/Radio weather forecasting position at the beginning of his career Tom joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1975. He has had a variety of assignments in NOAA including Senior Scientist (1992-1998), Director of the National Climatic Data Center (1998-2015) and Director of the National Centers for Environmental Information (2015-2016). In 2010 he was asked by the President’s Science Advisor to Chair the $2.5b US Global Change Research Program’s Subcommittee on Global Change Research. He has continued in that position 2010-2016. There he was responsible for ensuring the delivery to Congress of an interagency Global Change Research Plan, Assessments, and annual Progress Reports for all agencies engaged in global change research. In August of 2016 he retired from federal service after a 41-year career. He is now an Independent Scholar.
Karl has been fortunate to receive many awards including the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) Suomi Award, a Presidential Rank Award, six Department of Commerce Gold Medals and two Bronze Medals. Tom has also received three NOAA Administrator's Award, the Helmut Landsberg Award from the American Association of State Climatologists, and the Climate Institute’s Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award.
Karl was part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007. Tom served as Lead author, Convening Lead Author, and Editor of each of the major IPCC assessments 1990-2009. For the 2014 Fifth Assessment Report on the Physical Basis for Climate Change he led the US delegation which approved the Fifth Assessment Report. He was also Chair or Lead Author of the first three US National Climate Assessments coordinated across government, academia, and the private sectors.
Karl has served as Associate Editor (1989-95) and Editor (1998-2000) of the Journal of Climate and received an AMS Editors Award in 1988. He was chairman of both the AMS Applied Climatology Committee (1989-91) and the AMS Global Change Symposia (1997-2000). Karl served as AMS Councilor from 2003 to 2006, and as President and a member of the Executive Committee of the AMS from 2009 to 2012.
Karl is also a National Associate of the National Research Council (NRC). He has served on numerous NRC Committees as both a member and a Chair. He has testified several times before Congress and has provided numerous briefings on various climate-related issues. Tom is a fellow of both the AMS and the American Geophysical Union. He has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific articles and scientific books.
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Book Event: The Market as God
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2017, 5:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room TBA, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR: 617.495.4495
DETAILS Please join us as Harvey Cox, HDS Hollis Professor of Divinity Emeritus, discusses his recent publication, The Market as God.
Stephanie Paulsell (HDS), Rebecca Henderson (HBS), and Bryan Hehir (HKS) will serve as respondents.
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Numbers in the news
Tuesday, April 18
6:30 – 7:30 EDT
The Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/numbers-in-the-news-registration-32851735425
Does being overweight increase the risk of dementia?
Are kids doing more drugs?
Do video games cause violence?
Statistics play a big role in helping us understand the world and are present in contexts as diverse as criminal justice, education, politics and health. Understanding them is vital.
With more than a decade of experience helping journalists to make sense of statistics, Dr Rebecca Goldin, Director of STATS and Professor of Mathematics at George Mason University, will cite statistical bloopers in the media, and share insights about how we can ask the right questions and demand numerical accuracy in the news.
A Sense About Science USA and Sense about Science free event, in collaboration with Cell Press.
We're also running Getting the stats across, from bench to broadcast, two interactive session for early career researchers in the afternoon at the same venue.
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/
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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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Cambridge Coalition Solar Access Campaign is part of the DOE SunShot Solar in Your Community Challenge with a goal of 40 new solar electric systems installed in Cambridge, with a focus on serving low-to-moderate income communities.
Coalition partners include Green Cambridge, which works to create a more sustainable city and to protect the environment for the health and safety of all, Resonant Energy, a community-based solar developer, Solstice, helping every single household in America go solar, and Sunwealth, a solar investment firm.
More information at http://www.resonant.energy/sap-overview/
hat tip Cambridge Civic Journal
http://www.rwinters.com
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Cambridge Climate Change Game
Extending our work on face-to-face games, the MIT Science Impact Collaborative has developed a digital game on the health impacts of climate change that you can play alone on your computer or on your mobile phone. The game should take about 10-20 minutes. We would appreciate it if you could play the game at your convenience.
Play the game at http://www.doublecoconut.com/climate/
Any and all feedback on the game should be directed to Ella Kim at ella at mit.edu.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
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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://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