[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - January 6, 2019
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Jan 6 10:13:12 PST 2019
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) EventsGeo
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, January 7
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6:30pm The GMO Factory: Designing Custom Organisms
7pm Citizen Illegal
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Tuesday, January 8
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8:30am Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
2pm Intro to Bullet Journaling: An analog method to improve your productivity
5:30pm A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part I)
6pm How to Become a Sustainability Magnet
7pm The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
7pm MIT Outing Club: Winter School Lecture Series
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Wednesday, January 9
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8am EBC Energy Resources Program: DOER Commissioner Judith Judson and the DOER Division Directors
1:30pm Near-Term Challenges in Superconducting
5:30pm Manufacturing the Future
6pm An Early Warning System for New Cyberattacks
6pm MIT Energy Club Presents: Muddy MWh
6:30pm A Community Conversation: The Power of Public Monuments & Why They Matter
7pm Cambridge Forum: Eric R. Kandel discusses The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
7pm Breaking and Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called “Alien"
7pm Patagonia: Chile’s Innovative Shift Towards Conservation
7pm A Far Cry Presents: Musical Legacy - An exploration of the teacher-student relationship
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Thursday, January 10
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4pm Expanding the Elements of Life by Directed Protein Evolution
5:30pm A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part II)
5:30pm Come With Us to Mars: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes
6pm Boston Climate Action Network - Action Team Meeting
6:30pm Protecting Our Coasts from Offshore Oil and Gas
6:30pm The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression
7pm Empathy: A History
7pm The State of Offshore Wind in the Commonwealth
7pm MIT Outing Club: Winter School Lecture Series
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Friday, January 11
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1:30pm AI and Physics
7:30pm When Women Ruled the World
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Saturday, January 12
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1pm Climate Crew + The Haiti Initiative (SUD): The Climate Change Preparedness Training
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Monday, January 14
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9:30am Immersive Urban Design workshop
2pm Structuring Collective Knowledge: Practice & Publication
5:30pm A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part III)
6pm AI For Drug Discovery: Hype Or Hope?
7pm Red-Green Revolution
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Tuesday, January 15
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10am Central America: Historical Roots of Two World Crises
11am Using Drones for Research: Data Processing and Legal Issues
12pm The Psychology of Ritual
3pm Public Domain Day Wikipedia edit-a-thon
4:30pm Urban resilience - what's the role of water infrastructure?
5:15pm Camp Benson and the 'GAR Camps': Recreational Landscapes of Civil War Memory in Maine, 1886-1910
6pm Spaceflight @ MIT Press Bookstore
6pm Ben Franklin Circle in Boston - January Meeting
6:15pm Faith and Justice in Society: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives
7pm When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon
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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
Comments on “More Republicans Than You Think Support Action on Climate Change"
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/31/1822685/-Comments-on-More-Republicans-Than-You-Think-Support-Action-on-Climate-Change
Geometry Links - January 3, 2019
http://geometrylinks.blogspot.com/2019/01/geometry-links-january-2-2019.html
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Monday, January 7
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The GMO Factory: Designing Custom Organisms
Monday, January 7
6:30pm - 8:30pm
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
At this edition of Science by the Pint, scientists from Ginkgo Bioworks will discuss The GMO Factory: Designing Custom Organisms. Their web site says: "Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company. We design custom microbes for customers across multiple markets. We build our foundries to scale the process of organism engineering using software and hardware automation. Organism engineers at Ginkgo learn from nature to develop new organisms that replace technology with biology."
Whatever will they think of next?
https://www.ginkgobioworks.com/
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Citizen Illegal
Monday, January 7
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Discussing Citizen Illegal by Jose Olivarez. The Transnational Literature Series focuses on books concerned with migration, displacement, and exile, with particular emphasis on works in translation. Contact our moderator at brad at brooklinebooksmith.com.
In this stunning debut, poet Jose Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in. Olivarez has a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch.
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Tuesday, January 8
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Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
Tuesday, January 8
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EST
50 Milk Street, Room Edison, Floor 16, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sustainability-101-from-foundations-to-the-future-tickets-53835165429
Cost: $15 – $40
At USGBC MA, we want to help the green building community redesign the built environment to be more sustainable. As climate change becomes a pressing issue for Boston, professionals are going to need to work together to meet this goal.
But where do you start?
Sometimes, it is good to start with the basics. At our course Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future, attendees will learn about the basics of sustainability in the built environment. From the three E’s of sustainability from USGBC, from what the laws of thermodynamics have to do with sustainability, attendees will leave this course with a broader appreciation and understanding of sustainability.
About the instructor, Meredith Elbaum
As a sustainability advocate and educator, I joined the USGBC MA, as Executive Director, in November 2017. Before becoming ED, I was developing climate action plans, master plans, design guidelines and green buildings as President of the Elbaum Group, LLC. Fueled by an interest in materials transparency I launched the Health Product Declaration as its Interim Executive Director. For almost a decade I was Director of Sustainable Design at Sasaki. During that time I helped in the USGBC MA Chapter’s creation and served as a founding board member. I also co-created the Architecture and Design Sustainable Design Leaders Network. I earned a BArch from Rice University and a MSArch from MIT and I currently teach architecture students at Wentworth Institute of Technology. I’m looking forward to advancing net positive communities in Massachusetts and beyond.
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Intro to Bullet Journaling: An analog method to improve your productivity
Tuesday, January 8
2:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 2-146, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Register here: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4845312
Take a digital detox and get organized by learning the analog productivity system that's become a global phenomenon! This session will provide an overview of the Bullet Journal method created by Ryder Carroll and demonstrate how it can be customized to your life.
Bullet journals combine creativity with structure in a flexible format that includes list making, planning, and journaling. The Bullet Journal method emphasises intentionality, mindfulness, and self expression. Come learn about these wellness aspects of bullet journaling and how it can increase your time management skills, self-reflection, and habit-tracking.
Current Bujo enthusiasts are welcome to attend and share their techniques and tips! Examples of notebooks, journals, and scrapbooks from the MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections will also be highlighted to provide a historical context.
Notebooks and pens will be available for participants.
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A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part I)
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Education, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Professor Howard Gardner
COST Free
CONTACT INFO learning at gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this special, community-wide 3-part lecture series, psychologist and educator Howard Gardner will share findings from a six year national study of higher education.
How do the chief constituencies in higher education — students, faculty, senior administrators, parents, alumni, trustees, and job recruiters — on 10 disparate campuses understand the opportunities and challenges in the U.S.? In a rapidly altering terrain, what is the future of the liberal arts and sciences — indeed, of quality, non-professional higher education in the 21st century?
Join us for Part I of this special lecture series, a unique opportunity to hear one of Harvard's premier scholars share findings from this comprehensive study for the first time.
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How to Become a Sustainability Magnet
Tuesday, January 8
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Venture Cafe Kendall, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-become-a-sustainability-magnet-tickets-50870777866
Cost: $8 – $12
The world would be a much better place if more of us had sustainability on our minds and in our hearts, yes? We would shout from the rooftops if the sustainability stuff we come together to talk about at BASG would lead to a bigger conversation and more action, right?
Fact is, as pointed out in this great article, communicating sustainability, especially educating about sustainability, is no easy task.
For the first BASG event of the year, co-sponsored by Net Impact Boston, we have invited someone who lives this challenge every day. Let’s start 2019 by learning about new ideas to better connect with friends, family, co-workers and others around our passion!
The National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation(NNOCCI) was pioneered by the New England Aquarium to create a community of science educators and scientists talking about climate change in ways that make it easy and natural for their audiences to click with them. Since 2010, NNOCCI has run trainings across the U.S. and has members in 170 institutions in 38 states to do just that, reaching millions of people a year. With evidence-based tools, they are effectively helping people talk about climate change in a way that is positive, civic-minded and solutions-focused. Check in with anyone who has attended one of their workshops and you’ll discover hope, confidence and optimism about collective action to address climate change.
On January 8th, we are lucky to have Hannah Pickard, NNOCCI’s Program Manager responsible for network management and operations, give BASG a taste of how NNOCCI is making this much-needed change possible. Hannah has led curriculum development, facilitator training, and alumni support since 2010. She has a background in education program development, implementation and evaluation for families, schools, and community groups.
Hannah and her team will draw on the many workshops they have created and run all over the country to give us tools to have more fun and success when we passionately talk about sustainability. She will also remind us of the words of an attendee a few months back who referred to BASG as a “safe haven” for sustainability professionals, expressing appreciation for the value of having a supportive community and enabling it as being just as important as fostering dialogue that pushes the envelope whenever we gather to tackle big issues.
January 8th is an evening with BASG you definitely won’t want to miss.
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The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
Tuesday, January 8
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the life story of Li Bai (701-762), whose poems–shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life–rang throughout the Tang Dynasty. Jin follows Li Bai from his birth on China’s western frontier through his travels as a young man seeking a place among the empire’s civil servants, his wanderings allowing him to hone his poetic craft, share his verses, and win him friends and admirers along the way. In his later years he is swept up in a military rebellion that alters the course of China, and his death is shrouded in speculation and legend to this day. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it, and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses in the world.
Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of eight novels, four story collections, three volumes of poetry, and a book of essays. He has received the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. In 2014 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in the Boston area and is a professor at the creative writing program at Boston University.
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MIT Outing Club: Winter School Lecture Series
Tuesday, January 8
7:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Do you enjoy being outdoors but don't know what to do when the temperature drops? Do you live for summer but suffer in winter? Are you cooped up from November to March? Don't hide from the cold — celebrate winter! During IAP, participate in MIT Outing Club's Winter School, where you can have fun learning skills like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice climbing and more. Winter School is MITOC's crash course in cold weather activities.
Winter School is an annual IAP course presented by the members of MITOC. Its goal is to teach the skills one needs to enjoy outdoor sports in the winter. During the month of January, participants attend lectures every Tuesday and Thursday evening and spend time outdoors during the weekends. Trips are offered at various levels of intensity and include hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, back-country skiing, ice climbing, winter camping, orienteering, and mountaineering.
The first two lectures in the series are mandatory in order to participate in the outdoor trips during Winter School. See the website for more details
https://mitoc.mit.edu/#winter-school
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Wednesday, January 9
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EBC Energy Resources Program: DOER Commissioner Judith Judson and the DOER Division Directors
Wednesday, January 9
8:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Registration: 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
Prince Lobel Tye LLP, 100 Oliver Street, Boston
RSVP at http://ebcne.org/event/ebc-energy-resources-program-doer-commissioner-judith-judson-and-the-doer-division-directors/
Cost: $25 - $100
Keynote Speaker: Judith Judson, Commissioner, Department of Energy Resources, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
This popular EBC Energy Resources Program is back for 2019, featuring a debriefing by Judith Judson, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the leadership team of DOER. . The Commissioner will provide an update on the innovative programs and ongoing challenges facing the DOER. Joining the Commissioner will be the DOER Division Directors, who will dive into the details of the various programs within their respective divisions.
Join EBC for an informative and lively discussion with these key DOER policy makers as they discuss ongoing and future programs, including pilot programs on storage and metering, technical assistance, and financial support.
About DOER: The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) is the Commonwealth’s energy office, responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs aimed at ensuring the adequacy, security, diversity, and cost-effectiveness of the Commonwealth’s energy supply to create a clean, affordable and resilient energy future. DOER is an agency of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
General Continuing Education Certificates are awarded by the EBC for this program (2.0 training contact hours). Please select this option during registration if you wish to receive a certificate.
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Near-Term Challenges in Superconducting
Wednesday, January 9
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Kevin O'Brien - Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Superconducting circuits are one of the most promising platforms for quantum computation. We discuss potential applications and challenges which must be overcome.
IAP 2019 Physics Lecture Series
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Manufacturing the Future
Wednesday, January 9
5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
MIT Tang Center, E51-315, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/manufacturing-the-future/
Cost: $25 Members; $25 Livestream Members; $45 Non-Members: $45 Livestream Non-Members; $10 Students; $10 Livestream Students; $5 Student Members; $5 Livestream Student Members
This event will be live streamed - select the live stream ticket option @ checkout if you would like to watch the event online.
If you registered for the live stream, you'll be emailed a link & password between 5:30PM & 6:00PM on the day of the event
The manufacturing industry is rapidly changing due to emerging technologies including the industrial internet of things, big data, blockchain, augmented reality, 3D printing and process automation. It is predicted that these technologies will impact manufacturing in ways the modern steam engine and oil previously did for industries based on manual labor.
One burgeoning technology that has eluded developers of 3D technologies for more than 3 decades is 3D metal printing, but companies are rapidly innovating in this area of technology. Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) technologies have emerged for quickly creating 3D products directly from computer-aided design systems. AI is speeding up an array of traditionally slow aspects of manufacturing and decentralized manufacturing is helping manufacturers handle demand for parts orders. Manufacturing the future means functioning at the intersection of these technologies.
Our panel of seasoned industry leaders and entrepreneurs will discuss:
How new technologies are shifting manufacturing into a new age
How they have adapted to the rate of innovation industry to remain competitive
What challenges lie ahead
Considerations for entrepreneurs looking to enter this space
Moderator
Steve Chomyszak, M.Sci. , Roberts Endowed Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Panel
Andrew Edman, Applications Engineering and User Testing, Formlabs
Larry Lyons, VP, Product, Desktop Metal
Jason Ray, Co-Founder & CEO, paperlessPARTS
Event Schedule
Registration & Networking: 5:30 - 6:00 PM
Welcome and Panel Discussion: 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Beer, Wine & Networking: 8:00 - 9:00 PM
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An Early Warning System for New Cyberattacks
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
470 Atlantic Ave Floor 3, Boston
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Boston-Data-Science-Meetup/events/257533946/
Cyberattacks can expose sensitive data and immobilize critical processes, making it important for responders to react as quickly as possible. Identifying new attacks in real time, however, is difficult. The challenge is to pick up on small signals while avoiding a flood of false positives. In this talk, we'll describe a machine learning based approach to identifying new attacks. We use a combination of time series and clustering methods to establish a baseline of behavior, and then flag anomalies appearing against these expected baseline. The result is a filtering tool that reduces the enormous volume of internet traffic to a manageable set of anomalous events for an expert to review.
Speaker Bio:
Vasudha is a Senior Data Scientist at Rapid7, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Boston. She develops predictive models to better understand the nature of security threats and vulnerabilities, and works on automated ways to identify cyber attacks. Prior to this, Vasudha worked in retail analytics and quantum computing research. She has a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley and SB in physics from MIT.
Agenda:
6:00pm: Meet and greet. Talk about anomaly detection!
6:30pm: Talk by Vasudha Shivamoggi + Q&A
7:30pm: Announcements
8:00pm: End of the event
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MIT Energy Club Presents: Muddy MWh
Wednesday, January 9
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 50: Walker Memorial, The Muddy Charles Pub, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Muddy MWh meetups have returned! Join your fellow energy nerds at the Muddy to talk about all things energy over drinks and free pizza. Kick back, relax, and socialize Energy Club style. 21+
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A Community Conversation: The Power of Public Monuments & Why They Matter
Wednesday, January 9
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Tremont Temple Baptist Church, 88 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-community-conversation-the-power-of-public-monuments-why-they-matter-registration-53353384409
The Committee to Renew the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial Cordially Invites you to a Community Conversation:
The Power of Public Monuments and Why They Matter
This event is free and open to the public. Light Refreshments will be served after the program. Questions or for more information, call 617-427-0046 or email shaw54thmemorial at gmail.com.
The Shaw 54th Memorial on the Boston Common has been called “one of the monuments that changed America.” More than 120 years old, the Memorial is positioned strategically on Boston Common opposite the Massachusetts State House. We hope this conversation will deepen the community’s dialogue about race, freedom, and justice and raise awareness of the significance of the memorial and the story it tells.
About the Renewal of the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial
The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial is at the heart of a powerful narrative that unfolds along Boston’s Black History Trail. The sculpture and its foundation requires significant upgrades to assure its longevity. A new partnership has been established to undertake a complete $2.8 million restoration of the Memorial to stabilize the monument. The work is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2019.
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Cambridge Forum: Eric R. Kandel discusses The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves
Wednesday, January 9
7:00 PM
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cambridge Forum welcomes Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist ERIC R. KANDEL for a discussion of his book, The Disordered Mind, a probing investigation of what brain disorders can tell us about human nature.
Update
This event has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 9 at 7pm. Details for the rescheduled event can be found here.
About The Disordered Mind
In his seminal new book, The Disordered Mind, Kandel draws on a lifetime of pathbreaking research and the work of many other leading neuroscientists to take us on an unusual tour of the brain. He confronts one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from the physical matter of the brain? The brain’s 86 billion neurons communicate with one another through very precise connections. But sometimes those connections are disrupted. The brain processes that give rise to our mind can become disordered, resulting in diseases such as autism, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While these disruptions bring great suffering, they can also reveal the mysteries of how the brain produces our most fundamental experiences and capabilities―the very nature of what it means to be human. Studies of autism illuminate the neurological foundations of our social instincts, research into depression offers important insights on emotions and the integrity of the self, and paradigm-shifting work on addiction has led to a new understanding of the relationship between pleasure and willpower.
By studying disruptions to typical brain functioning and exploring their potential treatments, we will deepen our understanding of thought, feeling, behavior, memory, and creativity. Only then can we grapple with the big question of how billions of neurons generate consciousness itself.
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Breaking and Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called "Alien"
Wednesday, January 9
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes writer and public speaker JEREMY N. SMITH—author of Epic Measures and Growing a Garden City—for a discussion of his latest book, Breaking and Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called "Alien".
About Breaking and Entering
This taut, true thriller dives into a dark world that touches us all, as seen through the brilliant, breakneck career of an extraordinary hacker—a woman known only as Alien.
When she arrived at MIT in the 1990s, Alien was quickly drawn to the school’s tradition of high‑risk physical trespassing: the original “hacking.” Within a year, one of her hallmates was dead and two others were arraigned. Alien’s adventures were only just beginning.
After a stint at the storied, secretive Los Alamos National Laboratory, Alien was recruited by a top cybersecurity firm where she deployed her cache of virtual weapons—and the trespassing and social engineering talents she had developed while “hacking” at MIT. The company tested its clients’ security by every means possible—not just coding, but donning disguises and sneaking past guards and secretaries into the C‑suite.
Alien now runs a boutique hacking outfit that caters to some of the world’s biggest and most vulnerable institutions—banks, retailers, government agencies. Her work combines devilish charm, old‑school deception, and next generation spycraft. In Breaking and Entering, cybersecurity finally gets the rich, character‑driven, fast-paced treatment it deserves.
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Patagonia: Chile’s Innovative Shift Towards Conservation
Wednesday, January 9
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
CIC Offices, 101 Main Street, 14th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/patagonia-chiles-innovative-shift-towards-conservation-tickets-53982806026
A conversation with Pablo Allard (Dean U. del Desarrollo, Visiting Professor Harvard GSD) and Warren Adams (Clean Energy Venture Group, Founder of Patagonia Sur) about the challenges in balancing conservation and development in the Chilean Patagonia.
Moderated by Juan S. Montes (Associate Professor Boston College, former Governor Los Lagos Region, Chile.)
We will have Empanadas!
Pablo Allard is a Chilean Architect, Doctor of Design Studies at Harvard University, Master of Architecture in Urban Design at Harvard GSD, and an Architect from Universidad Católica de Chile. Since 2011, Pablo is the Dean at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. He is also Principal at Allard & Partners architecture, landscape and urban design www.allard-partners.com , Founding Partner at Nueva Via, focused on the development of transportation infrastructure projects, and Board Member at Patagonia Sur, dedicated to conservation and sustainable development in Chilean Patagonia. During his studies at the GSD, and in partnership with Pritzker awardee Alejandro Aravena, in 1999 Allard co-founded the "Do-Tank" ELEMENTAL focused on applied innovation for social housing and urban design. Pablo is now the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies at Harvard.
Warren Adams is a Boston-based entrepreneur and angel investor with a long history of connections to Chile. A pioneer in the field of social networking, Warren founded PlanetAll, which Amazon acquired in 1998. Upon leaving Amazon, Warren turned his professional attention to advising and investing in start-ups, including Tiaxa, a prominent fintech start-up based in Santiago. In 2007, Warren founded Patagonia Sur, a for-profit conservation company that invested in, protected, and monetized ecologically valuable ecosystems in Chilean Patagonia. Patagonia Sur also launched several non-profit entities including Tierra Austral, Chile’s first land trust; MERI, a blue whale research institute; and Reforestemos Patagonia, a public-private campaign to plant a million native-species trees in Torres del Paine and other national parks. As a Fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative in 2015 and 2016, Warren developed the concept of the Two Degrees Innovation Lab, which supports family offices, foundations, funds, and entrepreneurs who are working on innovative solutions to climate change and related issues. Warren is also a member of the Clean Energy Venture Group, the Launchpad Venture Group, and a board member of Vineyard Power, which collaborates with Vineyard Wind, the developer of the first utility-scale offshore wind project in the United State. Warren received a B.A. from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Juan Sebastián Montes is a lawyer and Ph.D. in Business Administration and currently works as Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College. He is a former Governor of Los Lagos Region (2010-2012), at the northern tip of the Chilean Patagonia, where he helped in the creation of National Parks. Juan is a mountaineer: he has climbed intensively in Patagonia, the Andes, the Alps, and the U.S. In 1992, he climbed Mount Everest by the Kangshung Face.
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A Far Cry Presents: Musical Legacy - An exploration of the teacher-student relationship
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Music, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ed Portal
COST Free
DETAILS The Grammy-nominated string orchestra A Far Cry returns to the Harvard Ed Portal for an open rehearsal and discussion featuring violinist and former instructor Pamela Frank. Sections of A Far Cry’s upcoming concert "Legacy" will be previewed followed by a discussion of the piece’s mission to explore the bond between teacher and student, creating a common legacy. Ms. Frank and physical therapist Howard Nelson will then share their stories and perspectives about a holistic approach to teaching, ensuring a strong lineage of healthy musicians and their students.
LINK https://edportal.harvard.edu/event/far-cry-presents-musical-legacy-exploration-teacher-student-relationship
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Thursday, January 10
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Expanding the Elements of Life by Directed Protein Evolution
Thursday, January 10
4:00pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT Chemistry Special Seminar: Dr. Jennifer Kan, California Institute of Technology
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A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part II)
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Education, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Professor Howard Gardner
COST Free
CONTACT INFO learning at hse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this special, community-wide 3-part lecture series, psychologist and educator Howard Gardner will share findings from a six year national study of higher education.
How do the chief constituencies in higher education — students, faculty, senior administrators, parents, alumni, trustees, and job recruiters — on 10 disparate campuses understand the opportunities and challenges in the U.S.? In a rapidly altering terrain, what is the future of the liberal arts and sciences — indeed, of quality, non-professional higher education in the 21st century?
Join us for Part II of this special lecture series, a unique opportunity to hear one of Harvard's premier scholars share findings from this comprehensive study for the first time.
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Come With Us to Mars: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes
Thursday, January 10
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Accelerate, Wentworth Innovation + Entrepreneurship Center | CEIS Building, 1st Floor, 550 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/come-with-us-to-mars-the-search-for-extra-terrestrial-genomes-tickets-53752125053
Have you ever wondered what is life? Why would we look for it in space? How should we search for it? If there is life in space, does it look like anything we have ever seen before on Earth? From studying craters on the Moon and on other planetary bodies, we now know that Earth, Mars, and other planets were pummeled with asteroids and comets, mostly during the first billion years of our solar system. These impacts were so large they could impact one planet, knock part of it into space, and have fragments of it end up on another world. In this way, around 1 billion tons of rock went between Earth and Mars, mostly from Mars to Earth.
Life could have hitched a ride, and if so, any life on Mars could be related to life on Earth. Dr. Christopher Carr from MIT, and Delson Faria Da Silva (Mechanical Engineering, '19) from WIT share with us what they have been developing to detect life on Mars: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes (SETG) instrument.
http://www.wit.edu/accelerate * http://facebook.com/innovateatwit * https://twitter.com/WITXLR8 * http://instagram.com/witaccelerate
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Boston Climate Action Network - Action Team Meeting
Thursday, January 10
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
First Baptist Church, 633 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-climate-action-network-action-team-meeting-tickets-54297373907
We're working towards fighting climate change through improved energy policy and education at the local level in Boston. The BCAN Action Team meeting is a great way to get directly involved in the effort to combat climate change in the era of Trump. We gather twice per month on the 2nd and 4th Thursday from 6-8pm at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain.
Come meet the Communications Team, the Arts Team, and other dedicated climate campaigners to learn how you can help us plan outreach for the Community Choice Energy campaign.
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Protecting Our Coasts from Offshore Oil and Gas
Thursday, January 10
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium, One Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=107845&view=Detail
Join Us to Learn How You Can Get Involved
The Trump Administration has proposed opening the Atlantic Ocean to new offshore oil and gas exploration. This represents a danger to New England’s pristine and treasured coastline. Join us for an evening on January 10th at the Simons IMAX Theater at the New England Aquarium to learn about the proposed plan and what’s at stake for Massachusetts from community leaders and experts. Find out how you can help protect our coastline.
The evening begins with a screening of Shore Stories, a series of film shorts on offshore drilling and gas exploration, its development and production and its impacts on local communities. Our expert panel will end the evening with a robust audience-led Q&A session moderated by Vikki Spruill, President and CEO of the New England Aquarium. Panelists include:
Dr. Scott Kraus, Chief Scientist and Vice President, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium
Chris Adams, Chief of Staff, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
Beth Casoni, Executive Director, Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association
Join us. Help protect our coasts. The New England Aquarium is partnering with the Surfrider Foundation, Surfrider Foundation Massachusetts Chapter, Environment America, Women Working for Oceans, Environment Massachusetts, and 350 Cape Cod.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. In case of inclement weather, this event will be held on January 14. Please check our website for information about cancellations, we will make an announcement by 3 p.m.
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The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression
Thursday, January 10
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed neuroscientist and psychiatrist EDWARD BULLMORE for a discussion of his new book, The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression.
About The Inflamed Mind
Worldwide, depression will be the single biggest cause of disability in the next twenty years. But treatment for it has not changed much in the last three decades. In this game-changing book, University of Cambridge professor of psychiatry Edward Bullmore reveals the breakthrough new science on the link between depression and inflammation of the body and brain. He explains how and why we now know that mental disorders can have their root cause in the immune system, and outlines a future revolution in which treatments could be specifically targeted to break the vicious cycles of stress, inflammation, and depression.
The Inflamed Mind goes far beyond the clinic and the lab, representing a whole new way of looking at how mind, brain, and body all work together in a sometimes misguided effort to help us survive in a hostile world. It offers insights into how we could start getting to grips with depression and other mental disorders much more effectively in the future.
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Empathy: A History
Thursday, January 10
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Susan Lanzoni
Empathy: A History tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of the first appearance of “empathy” in 1908 and tracks its shifting meanings over the following century. Despite empathy’s ubiquity today, few realize that it began as a translation of Einfühlung or “in-feeling” in German psychological aesthetics that described how spectators projected their own feelings and movements into objects of art and nature.
Remarkably, this early conception of empathy transformed into its opposite over the ensuing decades. Social scientists and clinical psychologists refashioned empathy to require the deliberate putting aside of one’s feelings to more accurately understand another’s. By the end of World War II, interpersonal empathy entered the mainstream, appearing in advice columns, popular radio and TV, and later in public forums on civil rights. Even as neuroscientists continue to map the brain correlates of empathy, its many dimensions still elude strict scientific description.
This meticulously researched book uncovers empathy’s historical layers, offering a rich portrait of the tension between the reach of one’s own imagination and the realities of others’ experiences.
Susan Lanzoni is a historian of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience and teaches at Harvard’s School of Continuing Education. Her work has been featured in the Atlantic and American Scientist and on Cognoscenti on WBUR, Boston’s NPR station. She lives in Cambridge, MA.
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The State of Offshore Wind in the Commonwealth
Thursday, January 10
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
The Massachusetts state legislature came together on an energy bill signed by governor Charlie Baker (who had opposed Cape Wind), mandating 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy. That mandate ignited an explosive competition. New York has pledged 2,400 megawatts, New Jersey has a target of 3,500 megawatts and Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut all have significant plans and commitments for offshore wind.
The wind industry in Massachusetts and New England states will be producing megawatts of clean electricity and thousands of jobs throughout many sectors of the economy.
Orsted is a world leader in large scale wind power from Denmark, with proven technology supplying millions of homes with green energy. https://orsted.com/
Sebastian Hald Buhl, Senior Regulatory Advisor at Orsted, will talk about the technology, its enormous potential and its vibrant development in the US.
For further reading:
Block Island Wind Farm (America's first offshore wind farm) http://dwwind.com/project/block-island-wind-farm/
Union of Concerned Scientists Blog (Wait-Offshore Wind Offers HOW Much Power? Use This Calculator...) https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/offshore-wind-calculator
Union of Concerned Scientists Blog (Record-Smashing Auction Sets America on Course for Offshore Wind) https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/auction-sets-america-on-course-for-offshore-wind
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MIT Outing Club: Winter School Lecture Series
Tuesday, January 8
7:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Do you enjoy being outdoors but don't know what to do when the temperature drops? Do you live for summer but suffer in winter? Are you cooped up from November to March? Don't hide from the cold — celebrate winter! During IAP, participate in MIT Outing Club's Winter School, where you can have fun learning skills like cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice climbing and more. Winter School is MITOC's crash course in cold weather activities.
Winter School is an annual IAP course presented by the members of MITOC. Its goal is to teach the skills one needs to enjoy outdoor sports in the winter. During the month of January, participants attend lectures every Tuesday and Thursday evening and spend time outdoors during the weekends. Trips are offered at various levels of intensity and include hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, back-country skiing, ice climbing, winter camping, orienteering, and mountaineering.
The first two lectures in the series are mandatory in order to participate in the outdoor trips during Winter School. See the website for more details
https://mitoc.mit.edu/#winter-school
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Friday, January 11
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AI and Physics
Friday, January 1
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Marin Soljacic - Professor of Physics
The recent AI revolution presents a number of exciting opportunities for physicistsboth to help us with physics research, but also for physicists to help further advances in AI.
IAP 2019 Physics Lecture Series
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When Women Ruled the World
Friday, January 11
7:30pm
Museum of Science, Cahners Theater, 1 Science Park, Boston
RSVP at info at worldmusic.org or call (617) 876-4275
Cost: $48, $37, $32, $28
Dr. Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptology, explores the reigns of powerful ancient queens to illuminate a time when women ruled the world. Often neglected in the history books, these strong female leaders may be considered exceptions to the rule, but their power and influence are undeniable. Presented in association with Museum of Science.
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Saturday, January 12
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Climate Crew + The Haiti Initiative (SUD): The Climate Change Preparedness Training
Saturday, January 12
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST
YWCA Cambridge, 7 Temple Street, Library (2nd Floor), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-crew-the-haiti-initiative-sud-the-climate-change-preparedness-training-tickets-49625325685
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) has partnered with The Climate Crew to organize a training to prepare for severe weather.
As the acceleration rate of climate change has increased in the past decade, there have been a number of natural disasters including floods, droughts, and wild fires. Here in New England, we are coastal, our chances of floods have risen. So it is time to prepare. What do you need to know before the next storm hits? Join us on January 12 at the YWCA Cambridge. This training is coordinated largely by Black / African-descended folks. If you are a POC homeowner, there will be materials and resources for you. Come review the floodmaps, to see if your home is in a floor prone area. Come learn how to prepare a survival kit. Join us and get prepared!
This is space is T and wheelchair accessible. Snacks and non-alcoholic drinks will be served. This is also a kid friendly space. If you have any questions, please reach out to Michaelle at haiti.initiative.cayes at gmail.com.
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is a project under the umbrella of the YWCA Cambridge. The purpose of the Haiti initiative (SUD) is to support Haitians in the Southern who are participating in grassroots organizing around hurricane preparedness and climate change. Our goals are to create spaces to educate the public about climate change, to support with hurricane preparedness, and to work with Haiti-born and Haiti-based activist.
The Climate Crew
Crew is a network of local leaders building grassroots climate resilience through inclusive & hands-on education, service, and planning. Together, we are working to equip families & communities with the resources and capacity to prepare for and respond to local climate changes equitably, sustainably, & collaboratively.
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Monday, January 14
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Immersive Urban Design workshop
Monday, January 14
9:30am to 12:30pm
MIT, Building 7-238, Rotch Library, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
How can designers, architects and urban planner can use immersive technologies as a tool to better convey the broad concepts, as well as the intricacies, of a future design?
Registration links:
Jan 14 9:30am - 12:30pm Introduction -- Introduction to a theoretical framework on urban space representation: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4905318
Jan 15 9:30am - 12:30pm Deconstruction -- Deconstructing and analysing VR experiences: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4905334
Jan 15 2 - 5pm Creation -- Hands-on on how to build a simple scene in VR from scratch: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4905336
Jan 16 9:30am - 12:30pm Experimentation -- Bring your own scene to life: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4905337
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Structuring Collective Knowledge: Practice & Publication
Monday, January 14
2:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 4-146, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridg
We will review tools + methods for organizing knowledge creation + publishing, designed for discovery, reuse, and parallel research. Participants will share examples + challenges from their field, workshop potential improvements with one another, and discuss the potential for widespread collaborations.
Bring a laptop or notebook. A few readings will be shared on Monday for discussion Wednesday.
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A National Study of Higher Education: Challenges and Rays of Hope (Part III)
WHEN Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Education, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Professor Howard Gardner
COST Free
CONTACT INFO learning at gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS In Part III of this community-wide lecture series, psychologist and educator Howard Gardner will share findings from a six year national study of higher education. How do the chief constituencies in higher education (students, faculty, senior administrators, parents, alumni, trustees, and job recruiters) on ten disparate campuses understand the opportunities and challenges in the U.S.? In a rapidly altering terrain, what is the future of the liberal arts and sciences — indeed, of quality, non-professional higher education in the 21st century?
Join us for Part III of this special lecture series, a unique opportunity to hear one of Harvard's premier scholars share findings from this comprehensive study for the first time.
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AI For Drug Discovery: Hype Or Hope?
Monday, January 14
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Cambridge Brewing Company, 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ai-for-drug-discovery-hype-or-hope-tickets-52846367909
AI brings hope for disrupting drug discovery. Also, it brings a lot of hype, as if no lessons were learnt from previous winters in both AI and computer-assisted drug discovery.
In this meeting, we will discuss these hopes and hypes.
Cambridge Brewing Co. at Kendall Square is a particularly suitable place for this discussion: nearby institutions produce a lot of AI research, which sometimes contribute to the hype.
I blogged about specific examples, coming from:
Harvard: “AI in drug discovery is overhyped: examples from AstraZeneca, Harvard, Stanford and Insilico Medicine ” https://medium.com/the-ai-lab/artificial-intelligence-in-drug-discovery-is-overhyped-examples-from-astrazeneca-harvard-315d69a7f863
(this post was covered by Boston blogger Derek Lowe: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/01/10/objections-to-some-drug-discovery-ai)
MIT: 'MIT paper in machine learning for drug discovery at ICML 2018: very incomplete'
https://medium.com/@mostafab/mit-paper-in-ai-for-drug-discovery-at-icml-2018-very-incomplete-a0ba9fd39853
We will also discuss concrete solutions to this hype problem.
The meeting is free and open to everyone.
Organizer: Mostapha Benhenda, PhD, founder of the online AI lab Startcrowd https://www.startcrowd.club
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Red-Green Revolution
Monday, January 14
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Victor Wallis
Red-Green Revolution is an impassioned and informed confrontation with the planetary emergency brought about by accelerated ecological devastation in the last half-century.
Its author, distinguished political scientist Victor Wallis, argues that sound ecological policy requires a socialist framework, based on democratic participation and drawing on the historical lessons of earlier efforts.
Wallis presents a relentless critique of the capitalist system that has put the human species into a race against time to salvage and restore what it can of the environmental conditions necessary for a healthy existence. He then looks to how we might turn things around, reconsidering the institutions, technologies, and social relationships that will determine our shared future, and discussing how a better framework can evolve through the convergence of popular struggles, as these have emerged under conditions of crisis.
This is an important book, both for its incisive account of how we got into the mess in which we find ourselves, and for its bold vision of how we might still go forward.
Victor Wallis is a professor of liberal arts at the Berklee College of Music. He was for twenty years the managing editor of Socialism and Democracy and has been writing on ecological issues since the early 1990s. His writings have appeared in journals such as Monthly Review and New Political Science, and have been translated into thirteen languages.
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Tuesday, January 15
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Central America: Historical Roots of Two World Crises
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, 10 p.m. – 12 a.m.
WHERE Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, 34 Concord Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement
SPEAKER(S) Stephen Kinzer
COST $100 for both sessions
TICKET WEB LINK https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOByTnmi4CerIe-Moy1qNKBRr-Ndo4vOt80lU6wfwn8/edit
CONTACT INFO 617-495-4072
DETAILS
World crises are sometimes covered as if they simply erupted out of nowhere. In fact the opposite is true: most of these crises have been festering for generations. Stephen Kinzer introduces the century of history that produced today’s Central American refugee crisis, and then does the same to explain the intensifying conflict between the United States and Iran.
Meets Tuesday and Thursday, Jan. 15 and 17. Registration required, form is in the link.
LINK https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOByTnmi4CerIe-Moy1qNKBRr-Ndo4vOt80lU6wfwn8/edit
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Using Drones for Research: Data Processing and Legal Issues
Tuesday, January 15
11:00am to 12:30pm
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
RSVP at https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4878622
This presentation has two components: (1) An introduction the resources and tools available at MIT to fly drones and process photographs into geospatial formats useful in a GIS, along with some examples of how drone imagery has been used at MIT. (2) A primer on the rules and regulations of small UAS flight. We will cover requirements and protocols for flight planning and piloting, and introduce software tools for flight planning.
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The Psychology of Ritual
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
12-1 PM (EST)
Webinar
RSVP at https://hks.webex.com/mw3300/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=hks&service=6&rnd=0.1180362397700454&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhks.webex.com%2Fec3300%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26%26%26EMK%3D4832534b00000004e3b6f2c42f2ffa5d6b5a608ffb8fae5591ff6c272e08727bf922cb3a95d172fe%26siteurl%3Dhks%26confViewID%3D116067998650870377%26encryptTicket%3DSDJTSwAAAAR3DC0W--hgDzn_Rq8stEVm-ksiimNUctSU6dzM1kC0mQ2%26
Professor Michael Norton
Rituals are ubiquitous in our personal lives – enacted before performances or during family holidays – and in our interactions with firms – from sports fans doing the “wave” to customers being served wine after an elaborate uncorking. Our research has documented the benefits of rituals in domains ranging from grief recovery to chocolate consumption to team performance to singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” And, we have identified the psychological underpinnings of rituals, demonstrating how they can lead to increased immersion in experiences, greater feelings of control, reduced anxiety, and increased liking for teammates.
Michael I. Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has studied human behavior in domains such as love and inequality, time and money, and happiness and grief. He is the co-author – with Elizabeth Dunn – of the book, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. In 2012, he was selected for Wired Magazine’s Smart List as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World” and his TEDx talk, How to Buy Happiness, has been viewed more than 3 million times.
Editorial Comment: Michael Norton is a behavioral economist which means he does experiments to determine how real people react in real economic situations rather than the imaginary musings of so-called “economic man” who has perfect knowledge and is always rational. One of Norton’s experiments, which has been reproduced, shows that money buys happiness when you give it away. If you give money away, you enjoy it more and longer than if you buy something for yourself, especially if you buy that something only to make yourself happy, so-called “retail therapy."
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Public Domain Day Wikipedia edit-a-thon
Tuesday, January 15
3:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 14N-132 (DIRC), 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Register here: https://libcal.mit.edu/event/4841683
Join the MIT Libraries during IAP for a Public Domain-themed Wikipedia edit-a-thon! January 1st is Public Domain Day – the day when works published in 1923 go out of copyright in the United States and enter the public domain, making them available for anyone to reuse and remix. This is the first time in twenty years that new published works have entered the public domain! To celebrate, the MIT Libraries are digitizing 100 works from 1923 selected from our collections. Because they are now out of copyright, we can freely use images and text from these works on Wikipedia and other open licensed projects.
Join us to explore these digitized works and learn how to contribute to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. What did engineering education look like in the 1920s at MIT? We’ll introduce the works and give you an introduction to editing Wikipedia and ideas for topics to work on, or bring our own topics. We will also celebrate Wikipedia's 18th Birthday! Wikipedia was founded on January 15, 2001. We'll have pizza and cake into the evening to celebrate. We will have support from experienced Wikipedia editors and librarians, as well as snacks and pizza. Join us for an afternoon devoted to exploring engineering in the Jazz Age and contributing to the world’s largest reference work.
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Urban resilience - what's the role of water infrastructure?
Tuesday, January 15
4:30pm to 6:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance_Park, 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Twenty-five percent of the $1 billion in annual flood damages in the US can be linked to stormwater. Most municipalities however, are crippled with aging infrastructure and shrinking budgets. Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI), offers a low-cost alternative to expensive capital projects. These nature-based engineering interventions, not only address flooding concerns, but also protect against drought, coastal damage and erosion. Moreover, they offer the added advantages of lowering the urban heat island effect, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, and improving health outcomes. GSI practices thus truly exemplify the “resilience dividend” – one solution, many benefits. Worldwide, cities are investing in integrating GSI practices, and the relevant framework into their higher-level strategic plans for the city. This presentation highlights some of the key findings of a research effort, looking at the twelve of the 23 US cities in the Rockefeller Foundations’ 100 Resilient Cities network. Using the stormwater lens, I will discuss how fund raising, program development and implementation, operation and maintenance, as well as green training, engaging the public in education and outreach, and using mechanisms like public-private partnerships, to track resilience in various sectors, including stormwater management, can become a collaborative effort, and a concrete way to build community resilience
This lecture is part of the Spring 2019 Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Series
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Camp Benson and the 'GAR Camps': Recreational Landscapes of Civil War Memory in Maine, 1886-1910
Tuesday, January 15
5:15PM
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
The Massachusetts Historical Society hosts "Native American Environmental History hosts "Camp Benson and the 'GAR Camps': Recreational Landscapes of Civil War Memory in Maine, 1886-1910" with C. Ian Stevenson, Boston University. Comment by Ian Delahanty, Springfield College.
Attendance is free, but you can subscribe online ($25) for the convenience of advance online access to the papers in FOUR series: this, our new Boston African American History Seminar, the Boston Area Early American History Seminar, and the Boston Seminar on Modern American Society and Culture.
Boston Seminar on Environmental History
https://www.masshist.org/2012/calendar/seminars/environmental-history
Contact Name: Alex Buckley
abuckley at masshist.org
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Spaceflight @ MIT Press Bookstore
Tuesday, January 15
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join us at the bookstore for an informal conversation about Spaceflight by Michael J. Neufeld, Senior Curator in the Space History Department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. His book offers a concise history of spaceflight, mapping the full spectrum of activities that humans have developed in space.
The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers accessible, concise, beautifully produced books on topics of current interest.
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Ben Franklin Circle in Boston - January Meeting
Tuesday, January 15
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 15th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ben-franklin-circle-in-boston-january-meeting-tickets-53691224899
Impact Hub Boston is joining a 21st-century community-building initiative inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s “club for mutual improvement,” launched more than 200 years ago. Ben Franklin Circles gather people in conversation about shared values and common goals. Participants discuss 13 civic virtues championed by Ben Franklin—qualities like justice, humility, moderation and order—as a lens into self-improvement and civic engagement.
Impact Hub Boston will hold its fourth Ben Franklin Circle meeting on Tuesday, January 15 at 6:00pm, and we continue to welcome any who are interested in exploring this format for conversation and self-improvement as we get our local circle's rhythm going in our second meeting. We're a small, intentional groups of 8-12 people looking to improve themselves and the world around them. Feel free to bring your along own dinner and ideas to our casual gathering to contribute to this circle's conversation.
Watch your registration email for reading resources on this topic ahead of our meeting.
The Circles are moderated by Mette Kreutzmann, of the MA Office of Public Collaboration at UMass Boston. Mette heads-up their public dialogue initiative focused on introducing "deliberative dialogue” as a tool to help people address difficult issues affecting their community and move toward collective action.
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Faith and Justice in Society: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives
Tuesday, January 15
6:15 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Courtyard by Marriott Boston Downtown, 275 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/faith-and-justice-in-society-jewish-christian-and-muslim-perspectives-tickets-53118902066
The major religious traditions find it imperative to work for social justice. Learn each religion’s perspective on social justice from prominent Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders and deepen your awareness of our shared religious and social heritage.
Panelists include Barry Schrage, Brandeis University Professor of the Practice in the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, June R. Davis Cooper, Old South Church Theologian and Executive Director of City Mission, and, Imam Taha Hassane, Director of the Islamic Center of San Diego. Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Secretary for Health and Social Services for the Archdiocese of Boston, will moderate the discussion.
Spanish interpretation will be available.
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When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon
Tuesday, January 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store,1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes JOSHUA D. MEZRICH—associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health—for a discussion of his new book, When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon.
About When Death Becomes Life
A gifted surgeon illuminates one of the most profound, awe-inspiring, and deeply affecting achievements of modern day medicine—the movement of organs between bodies—in this exceptional work of death and life that takes its place beside Atul Gawande’s Complications, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies, and Jerome Groopman’s How Doctors Think.
When Death Becomes Life is a thrilling look at how science advances on a grand scale to improve human lives. Mezrich examines more than one hundred years of remarkable medical breakthroughs, connecting this fascinating history with the inspiring and heartbreaking stories of his transplant patients. Combining gentle sensitivity with scientific clarity, Mezrich reflects on his calling as a doctor and introduces the modern pioneers who made transplantation a reality—maverick surgeons whose feats of imagination, bold vision, and daring risk-taking generated techniques and practices that save millions of lives around the world.
Mezrich takes us inside the operating room and unlocks the wondrous process of transplant surgery, a delicate, intense ballet requiring precise timing, breathtaking skill, and at times, creative improvisation. In illuminating this work, Mezrich touches the essence of existence and what it means to be alive. Most physicians fight death, but in transplantation, doctors take from death. Mezrich shares his gratitude and awe for the privilege of being part of this transformative exchange as the dead give their last breath of life to the living. After all, the donors are his patients, too.
When Death Becomes Life also engages in fascinating ethical and philosophical debates: How much risk should a healthy person be allowed to take to save someone she loves? Should a patient suffering from alcoholism receive a healthy liver? What defines death, and what role did organ transplantation play in that definition? The human story behind the most exceptional medicine of our time, Mezrich’s riveting book is a beautiful, poignant reminder that a life lost can also offer the hope of a new beginning.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, January 16
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, January 16
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Pret a Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-50422432854
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion, and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by Pret a Manger any time between 7:30 and 8:30 AM.
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Starr Forum: NATO, the Balkans, and Ukraine: The Geopolitical Implications of the European Periphery
Wednesday, January 16
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building E51-345, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
As EU countries struggle to define their security strategy following the Trump administration's "transatlantic chill", the future of NATO and EU membership in its key areas of expansion in Ukraine and the Balkans has become increasingly uncertain. The increasing influence of authoritarian neighbors such as Turkey and Russia coupled with rising anti-establishment and far-right sentiments do not bode well for stability in this part of the world.
Speaker:
Una Hajdari, a freelance print and broadcast journalist from Prishtina, Kosovo, who is currently in residence at the MIT Center for International Studies as the International Women’s Media Foundation's Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow.
Discussant:
Elizabeth Wood, professor of history at MIT, is the author of three books, Roots of Russia’s War in Ukraine; Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia; and The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia.
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The 26 Words That Created the Internet: The History and Future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
Wednesday, January 16
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm
BU, Seminar Room, Hariri Institute for Computing, 111 Cummington Mall, Boston
"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." In 1996, Congress enacted those 26 words in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law received virtually no public attention or scrutiny, as it was attached to a massive overhaul of U.S. telecommunications laws. Yet more than two decades later, those 26 words have had more impact on the creation of the modern Internet than any other part of the United States Code. By providing unprecedented legal immunity to online platforms for all claims arising from user content, the law is responsible for social media, search engines, Wikipedia, Yelp, and any other online operation that relies on third-party content. The law also has prevented plaintiffs from recovering damages from websites and other platforms that have hosted – and, in some cases, encouraged – harmful content such as defamatory comments.
In this Cyber Alliance talk, Jeff Kosseff, an assistant professor in the United States Naval Academy's Cyber Science Department, will discuss his forthcoming book about Section 230, The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet (Cornell University Press). Through dozens of interviews and reviews of thousands of pages of court documents, he traces Section 230’s history, impacts on society, equities, and future.
There will be time for casual conversation and light refreshments before and after the presentation. Please RSVP to tgabs at bu.edu
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CRISPR: What is it and where is it going?
Wednesday, January 16
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
BosLab, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/BosLab/events/257285853/
Genome editing techniques such as CRISPR make it possible to change the DNA of organisms, including humans. With the recent claims of the birth of the first genome-edited babies, scientific and ethical questions abound. How might new advances in our ability to change genomes impact individuals and society? Join us for an interactive discussion on this important topic.
Presented by Robin Bowman, M.Ed., Professional Development Associate, and Johnny Kung, Ph.D., Director of New Initiatives for the Personal Genetics Education Project at Harvard Medical School.
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Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It
Wednesday, January 16
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes author and Harvard Law School professor SUSAN CRAWFORD for a discussion of her latest book, Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It.
About Fiber
The world of fiber optic connections reaching neighborhoods, homes, and businesses will represent as great a change from what came before as the advent of electricity. The virtually unlimited amounts of data we’ll be able to send and receive through fiber‑optic connections will enable a degree of virtual presence that will radically transform health care, education, urban administration and services, agriculture, retail sales, and offices. Yet all of those transformations will pale in comparison to the innovations and new industries that we can’t even imagine today. In a fascinating account combining policy expertise with compelling on‑the‑ground reporting, Susan Crawford reveals how the giant corporations that control cable and internet access in the United States use their tremendous lobbying power to tilt the playing field against competition, holding back the infrastructure improvements necessary for the country to move forward. And she shows how a few cities and towns are fighting monopoly power to bring the next technological revolution to their communities.
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Better Building Codes
Wednesday, January 16
7:00-8:00 p.m.
Webinar
RSVP at https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7010Z000001PXLGQA4
Join Sierra Club, Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) for a webinar to learn what YOU can do to make buildings more efficienct, comfortable and safer for everyone.
Buildings are responsible for over half of all energy consumption in Massachusetts and 46% of carbon pollution. To mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, it is vital that we significantly lower carbon emissions from our buildings sector over the next decade.
The good news? In 2019, we have a huge opportunity! Eligible code officials across the U.S. will vote on the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the code for new buildings built in the U.S. and beyond. This code is the standard that can mandate that new buildings be built with significantly higher energy efficiency than those we live and work in today.
With your help, the next code would maximize building efficiency and safety, ensuring that every new building we build is better for the planet and our wallets. More comfortable buildings are more equitable for residents everywhere, regardless of income. Join us on January 16 and learn what you can do to help change building codes for the better.
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Thursday, January 17 - Monday, January 21
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Reality Virtually Hackathon
January 17-21st, 2019
MIT Media Lab
RSVP at https://realityvirtuallyhack.com
Apply by 12/29/18
Editorial Comment: But you can always ask.
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Thursday, January 17
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Reconquering the Russian Far East: Civil War, Intervention, and Centralization
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, One Brattle Square (Room 350), Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Paul Behringer
Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
DETAILS An International Security Brown Bag Seminar.
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come, first served basis.
LINK https://www.belfercenter.org/event/reconquering-russian-far-east-civil-war-intervention-and-centralization
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Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE: Final Showcase
Thursday, January 17
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/greentown-labs-bold-ideas-challenge-final-showcase-tickets-52501774220
This event will celebrate the successful conclusion of the Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE.
Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE is a 6-month accelerator program housed at Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech incubator in the United States and focused on connecting entrepreneurs with the mentors, team members, business and technical resources they need to launch successful ventures all with support and collaboration from Schneider Electric.
Join Greentown Labs and Schneider Electric to celebrate the Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE Final Showcase. At this event, attendees will:
Hear from innovation leaders at Schneider Electric
Meet other entrepreneurs and mentors interested in working on venture creation within the energy space
Listen to pitches from the startups that participated in the Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE
This years participants:
Gridspan Energy: Pioneering a novel approach to electricity transmission with the goal of advancing clean energy access and security for island electricity markets. Grid-weak regions and island communities typically have worse access to affordable, resilient, and clean energy solutions than their mainland counterparts – Gridspan Energy's mobile energy storage transmission (MEST) technology will change that.
SunForge: Advanced Maximum Power Point Tracking Solar Charge controllers that provide the power you need when you need it most. Using advanced circuit design and construction methods honed at MIT, then refined by deployment in the harshest earthly conditions, Blue Sky Energy and Genasun charge controllers provide the most reliable and efficient power management systems available.
Singularity: Building AI for the future of energy infrastructure, integrating distributed energy resources with the grid to jointly optimize economics, carbon emissions, and reliability.
Titan Advanced Energy Solutions: Developing and producing advanced battery management systems for lithium ion battery (LiB) consumer electronics, automotive and storage markets.
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Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality
Thursday, January 17
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer and sociologist Katherine S. Newman—author of No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City—for a discussion of her latest book, Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality.
About Downhill from Here
As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged fifty-five and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages―a number projected to drop to under 28% within two decades. Old-age poverty, a problem we thought was solved by the New Deal, is poised for a resurgence.
With dramatic statistics and vivid portraits, acclaimed sociologist Katherine S. Newman shows that the American retirement crisis touches us all, cutting across class lines and generational divides. White-collar managers have seen retirement benefits vanish; Teamsters have had their pensions cut in half; bankrupt cities like Detroit have walked away from their commitments to municipal workers. And for Generation X, the prospects are even worse: a fifth of them expect to never be able to retire. Only the vaunted “one percent” can face retirement without fear.
Other countries are confronting similar demographic challenges, yet they have not abandoned their social contract with seniors. Downhill From Here makes it clear that America, too, can―and must―do better.
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The Swiss Vocational System – A Driver for Innovation
Thursday, January 17
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
swissnex Boston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.swissnexboston.org/event/the-swiss-vocational-system-a-driver-for-innovation/
UZH Alumni Boston and swissnex Boston invite you to join Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner for an exploration of the success story that is the Swiss vocational system.
For the fourth consecutive year, Switzerland has been named the world’s most innovative country by the Global Innovation Index, but what’s the secret sauce driving this small country to its place on top of the global innovation charts?
A huge driver of Switzerland’s success is the country’s dual vocational education and training system. The Swiss model gives young people a wide range of options early in their career and accompanies them all the way through their professional training. The result? Low unemployment rates, a great skill-mix in the workforce and close collaboration between industries and educational institutions. In short: A fertile breeding ground for diversity and innovation.
UZH Alumni Boston and swissnex Boston invite you to join Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner, Professor of Business and Personnel Economics at the Institute for Business Administration and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Zurich, for an exploration of the success story that is the Swiss vocational system.
EVENT PROGRAM
6:00 pm Doors open
6:30 pm Welcome Remarks by UZH Alumni
6:35 pm Keynote by Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner and Q&A
7:15 pm Networking Reception
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Uschi Backes-Gellner
Vice-Dean, Faculty of Economics, UZH
Prof. Uschi Backes-Gellner is a Professor of Business and Personnel Economics at the Institute for Business Administration and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Zurich. She is a member of the German Expert Committee EFI, the Swiss Federal Committee on Vocational Education and Training and co-founder of the Colloquium on Personnel Economics. Her research focuses on personnel, education and innovation economics.
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Friday, January 18
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Tour of High-Energy-Density Physics Laboratory
Friday, January 18
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building NW17-218 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
This tour showcases Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research at MIT. The PSFC High-Energy-Density Physics group has developed and/or calibrated a number of nuclear diagnostics installed on the OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester, NY, and on the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, CA, to study nuclear products generated in fusion reactions.
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Using Historical Approaches to Improve Ocean Conservation and Management
Friday, January 18
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
BU, The Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road, Boston
The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future invites you to attend its upcoming lunch seminar, “Using Historical Approaches to Improve Ocean Conservation and Management,” featuring Ruth Thurstan, a Lecturer in Biosciences at the University of Exeter and the co-chair of the International Council for Exploration of the Seas’ Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries.Human-induced ecological changes to oceans and coasts span much longer periods of time than formal scientific monitoring data. To understand the scale of past changes to marine ecosystems, we need to seek data from alternative sources. Marine historical ecology is an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to understand how marine ecosystems looked and functioned in the past, how humans have interacted with these ecosystems over time, and the extent to which those interactions have altered these ecosystems. In her talk, Thurstan will highlight some of the historical sources — including government statistical records, popular media, and oral history interviews — that have aided her research on the scale and drivers of ecological change in UK and Australian fisheries over the past couple of centuries. She will also explore the challenges that arise when conducting historical ecology research, and the opportunities for these valuable data sets to inform contemporary ocean management and policy.Join us at the Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road, on Friday, January 18 from 12:00 – 1:30 pm. Lunch will be provided beginning at 11:30 am.
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The Role of Technology and Science in the India-US Bilateral Relationship
Friday, January 18
2:00pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building E52, Samberg Conference Center, Dining Room 3, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Please join the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program and the Ananta Aspen Centre at the MIT Samberg Center for a conversation on Friday, January 18, from 2:00-3:30 PM on the role of technology and science in the India-US bilateral relationship.
The conversation will be moderated by John Podesta, Founder of the Center for American Progress, and will feature experts from the 8th India-US Track II Dialogue on Climate Change and Energy.
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Wit's End
Friday, January 18
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
James Geary
In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns demonstrate the essence of creativity. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual: there's the serendipitous wit of scientists, the crafty wit of inventors, the optical wit of artists, and the metaphysical wit of philosophers.
In Wit's End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Demonstrating that brevity really is the soul of wit, Geary crafts each chapter from concise sections of 200, 400, or 800 words. Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit's End shows how wit is much more than a sense of humor.
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Tuesday, January 22
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Data Science at the Frontier of Discovery: Machine Learning in the Physical World
Tuesday, January 22
9AM-5PM
Harvard, Science Center Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://computefest.seas.harvard.edu/symposium
From hydrology to earthquake prediction to cosmology, machine learning is transforming our understanding of the physical world. This year's symposium will bring together global leaders in machine learning and computational science to discuss new approaches and advances in scientific understanding enabled by significant developments in computational power, design, and analysis.
Confirmed Speakers:
Michael Brenner, Harvard University
Cora Dvorkin, Harvard University
Weinan E., Princeton University
Eun-ah Kim, Cornell University
Petros Koumoutsakos, ETH Zurich
Sella Nevo, Google Flood Forecasting Initiative
Patrick Riley, Google Accelerated Science
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Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships
Tuesday, January 22
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes psychologist, professor, and UMass Medical School chief diversity officer DEBORAH L. PLUMMER for a discussion of her latest book, Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships.
About Some of My Friends Are . . .
Surveys have shown that the majority of people believe cross-racial friendships are essential for improving race relations. However, further polling reveals that most Americans tend to gravitate toward friendships within their own race. Psychologist Deborah L. Plummer examines how factors such as leisure, politics, humor, faith, social media, and education influence the nature and intensity of cross-racial friendships.
Inspiring and engaging, Plummer draws from focus groups, statistics, and surveys to provide insight into the fears and discomforts associated with cross-racial friendships. Through personal narratives and social analyses of friendship patterns, this book gives an insightful look at how cross-racial friendships work and fail within American society. Plummer encourages all of us to examine our friendship patterns and to deepen and strengthen our current cross-racial friendships.
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Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
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ComputeFest 2019 | Deep Learning Workshops
WHEN Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
WHERE Harvard SEAS Campus Northwest B-103, 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
COST Open to the public. Registration required.
CONTACT INFO iacs-info at seas.harvard.edu
617-496-2623
DETAILS Learn computational skills in a hands-on format with IACS student-led workshops and industry presenters. Topics will include: Computer Vision with NVIDIA, Using Google's What-If Tool, AI Fairness 360 with IBM Research AI, and NLP with Microsoft Azure.
LINK https://computefest.seas.harvard.edu/workshops
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Opportunity
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Announcing Destination 2040: The next long-range transportation plan for the Boston region
How would you improve the Boston region’s transportation system? That’s the question at the heart of the MPO’s preparations for Destination 2040, which the MPO expects to adopt in the spring of 2019.
Every four years, the MPO identifies the system’s strengths and weaknesses; forecasts changes in population, employment, and land use; and creates a plan to address existing and future mobility needs. The resulting long-range transportation plan (LRTP) allocates funding for major projects in the Boston region and guides the MPO’s funding of capital investment programs and studies.
Use the new Destination 2040 website at http://ctps.org/lrtp-dev to explore the state of the system; learn how the MPO will identify needs, revisit its vision and goals, and prioritize its investments; and share your own interests, concerns, and ideas.
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Resource
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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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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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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://calendar.mit.edu
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/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
More information about the Act-MA
mailing list