[act-ma] Energy (and Other) Events - January 13, 2019
gmoke
gmoke at world.std.com
Sun Jan 13 10:37:58 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
----------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************
Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
******
———
Index
———
******
——————————
Monday, January 14
——————————
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?
6:30pm Boston Media, Arts & Ideas Mixer
7pm Red-Green Revolution
——————————
Tuesday, January 15
——————————
9am MIT AI Policy Congress
10am Central America: Historical Roots of Two World Crises
11am Using Drones for Research: Data Processing and Legal Issues
12pm The Psychology of Ritual
12pm What CEOs Say: webcast feat. CEO of Principal Financial Group
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
6pm Docs and Hackers: Can tech help the elderly?
6:15pm Faith and Justice in Society: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives
7pm When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon
————————————
Wednesday, January 16
————————————
7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
12pm Starr Forum: NATO, the Balkans, and Ukraine: The Geopolitical Implications of the European Periphery
3pm Alliance for Business Leadership Business Leaders' Learning Project: Climate Change & Clean Energy Action: How can businesses do their part?
3:30pm The 26 Words That Created the Internet: The History and Future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
4:30pm Breakthroughs in Genetic Medicine: Delivery Challenges of In Vivo Gene Therapy and Genome Editing
5:30pm Conversation in Civic Innovation: Libraries as Drivers of Civic Engagement
6pm CRISPR: What is it and where is it going?
7pm Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution—and Why America Might Miss It
7pm Better Building Codes
—————————————————————
Thursday, January 17 - Monday, January 21
—————————————————————
Reality Virtually Hackathon
———————————
Thursday, January 17
———————————
8:30am Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
12:15pm Reconquering the Russian Far East: Civil War, Intervention, and Centralization
5:30pm Greentown Labs BOLD IDEAS CHALLENGE: Final Showcase
6pm Red's Best Open Forum: Dive into New England's Local Seafood Supply Chain
6pm The Swiss Vocational System – A Driver for Innovation
7pm Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality
—————————
Friday, January 18
—————————
12pm Tour of High-Energy-Density Physics Laboratory
12pm Governing the Rise of AI: A Unique Global Governance Challenge
12pm Using Historical Approaches to Improve Ocean Conservation and Management
2pm The Role of Technology and Science in the India-US Bilateral Relationship
7pm Wit's End
——————————
Tuesday, January 22
——————————
9am Data Science at the Frontier of Discovery: Machine Learning in the Physical World
1pm The MIT Fusion Landscape
7pm Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships
*******************************************
My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
Mass Production of Net Zero Energy Retrofits for Single Family Homes
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/9/1824927/-Mass-Production-of-Net-Zero-Energy-Retrofits-for-Single-Family-Homes
*******************************************
——————————
Monday, January 14
——————————
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
——————————————
Structuring Collective Knowledge: Practice & Publication
Monday, January 14
2:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 4-146, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
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.
——————————————
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.
—————————————
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
—————————————
Boston Media, Arts & Ideas Mixer
Monday, January 14
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Beat Brew Hall, 13 Brattle Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-media-arts-ideas-mixer-january-2019-edition-tickets-54613395135
The Boston Media, Arts & Ideas Mixer is all about bringing together a cross-disciplinary group of people who make things (or make things happen). Get inspired while mingling with an eclectic crowd of passionate creators.
Join other active practitioners and aspirants from across the creative arts, media, technology & innovation, and higher education. Bring your business cards, make new connections, and perhaps meet your next collaborator!
Good things happen when creative people from disparate disciplines meet and exchange ideas.
Free to attend. Cash bar. Please RSVP :)
This is a safe-space event: we want to create an environment where all people regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race or religion are accepted and respected. Harassment of any kind is not tolerated.
—————————————
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.
——————————
Tuesday, January 15
——————————
MIT AI Policy Congress
Tuesday, January 15
9:00am to 5:30pm
RSVP at https://internetpolicy.mit.edu/seminars-events/ai-policy-2019/
Join the world’s leading machine learning experts, global policymakers, and industry executives for a daylong, agenda-setting conversation on aligning the benefits of artificial intelligence with the obligations of public trust.
From transportation and safety to manufacturing and labor, criminal justice and fairness to national security and war, the AI Policy Congress will explore how we should govern AI systems, and how we should AI systems to meet society’s needs domestically and internationally.
——————————————
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
——————————————
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.
——————————————
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."
——————————————
What CEOs Say: webcast feat. CEO of Principal Financial Group
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Leadership Studio (10th Floor), Kresge Building, 49 Harvard Way, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR What CEOs Say webcast series
SPEAKER(S) Dan Houston, Chairman, President and CEO of Principal Financial Group
COST free
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.hsph.me/Houston
CONTACT INFO Alison Barron - abarron at hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Thinking about implementing a Culture of Health in your business, learning how business and public health intersect, or seeking to improve upon an existing model? “What CEOs Say” is a one-of-a-kind series of inspirational interviews centered around the real how-to’s of incorporating health for performance. Join us for the inaugural webcast on Jan. 15, 2019 at 12 p.m. ET with Dan Houston, chairman, president and CEO of Principal Financial Group, produced in association with The Leadership Studio. Visit hsph.me/Houston for your chance to be in the live studio audience, watch the live stream or access the on-demand video.
LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/leadership-studio/what-ceos-say/dan-houston/
——————————————
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.
——————————————
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
——————————————
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
—————————————
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.
—————————————
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.
—————————————
Docs and Hackers: Can tech help the elderly?
Tuesday, January 15
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
WeWork, 200 Portland Street, 5th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/docs-and-hackers-can-tech-help-the-elderly-tickets-53183195369
Docs and Hackers is back in Boston hosting our winter meet-up! In collaboration with the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care and Flare Capital Partners, venture investor Dan Gebremedhin will lead a conversation to explore opportunities for technology to support the growing elderly population. Dan will be joined by Mark Zhang, Palliative care physician at Dana Farber and co-founder of Cake, and Stephen Gordon, PACE physician at Hebrew Senior Life and CEO of Edenbridge.
Join this conversation to hear directly from physicians about what challenges they see every day and how tech could lead to solutions. The presentation will be followed by facilitated networking activities so participants can get to know others in the healthcare innovation space. Register today to meet like-minded innovators and get inspired by real clinical needs!
Agenda:
6:00 - 6:15: Registration
6:15 - 6:30: Pitches
6:30 - 7:00: Panel conversation
7:00 - 8:00: Networking
Attendees are welcome to head to a bar nearby (The Harp) for more conversation following the event.
About the Panelists:
Mark Zhang DO, MMSc,
is the Medical Director of the Digital Innovation Hub at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Associate Program Director of the Clinical Informatics and Innovation Fellowship at Partners Healthcare and a Palliative Care consultant at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
He is the founder of Palliative Care Fast Facts for iOS and Android mobile applications, the co-founder of Cake, a venture backed company focused on advance care planning, and also founded and was the first president of American Medical Informatics Association Clinical Informatics Fellows (ACIF), the national organization for clinical informatics fellows.
STEPHEN E. GORDON, MD, MBA | FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
is a board-certified geriatrician with a lifelong passion for improving the care of the elderly. He founded Edenbridge Health in 2016 after spending two years working as a primary care geriatrician at the Program for All- Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) at Upham’s Corner Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, as well as director of the Iora Health Fellowship in Primary Care Innovation, where he specialized in clinical systems design, care planning, and provider development. He continues to practice on a limited basis at Upham’s Corner PACE. He is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and holds clinical appointments at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, and Hebrew SeniorLife, where he teaches in the Harvard Multi-Campus Fellowship in Geriatrics. He is a supervising physician for United Community Health Plan, where he oversees more than 30 nurse practitioners caring for nursing home patients across the Boston area.
Stephen’s career has spanned the worlds of medicine and business. After graduating from Harvard College, he spent four years as a consultant for the Advisory Board Company, where he worked on issues relating to hospital strategy and operations, including service line growth, facility design, primary care strategy, and physician-hospital relations. After a year at the Harvard Interfaculty Program for Health Systems Improvement, focusing on issues of healthcare leadership, he earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he double-majored in health care systems and operations. Subsequently, he attended the Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, followed by a two-year fellowship in geriatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Stephen has consulted for the Leapfrog Group, the Clinton Foundation, the Governments of Ukraine and Nigeria, the City of Cape Town Clinics in South Africa, Renaissance Health, as well as hospitals and health systems across the U.S.
About Docs & Hackers: Docs & Hackers is a community of innovators that equips members with connections and guidance as they work on existing projects or start something new.
Technology was supposed to improve healthcare. Unfortunately, it has increased physician work load, decreased doctor-patient time at a significant cost to the taxpayer. Docs and Hackers is a group of medical practitioners and technology builders who aim to reverse this trend and accelerate innovation in digital health.
Come to this meetup to share new digital health ideas, ask questions to experts in healthcare, get feedback from the group and potentially form teams. Whether it is for a side project, a new startup or a research paper.
Increasing connections between physicians and programmers will help both groups understand each other better. And create solutions that helps doctors work better, stay happier, improves patient experience and decreases overall cost. See you at the event!
More info: http://www.docsandhackers.com
—————————————
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.
—————————————
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.
————————————
Wednesday, January 16
————————————
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.
——————————————
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.
——————————————
Alliance for Business Leadership Business Leaders' Learning Project: Climate Change & Clean Energy Action: How can businesses do their part?
Wednesday, January 16
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
ML Strategies, 1 Financial Center, 38th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-2019-abl-business-leaders-learning-project-climate-change-clean-energy-in-massachusetts-tickets-53356509757
The Alliance for Business Leadership has joined with industry experts to intentionally design a four part informational and interactive series to educate business leaders on the realities of climate change in Massachusetts and the opportunities in transitioning to a clean energy economy. Consider this a 101 boot camp that provides the resources to business executives to understand the issue and the tools to use their platform to highlight it.
Climate change does not discriminate. It is a phenomena that is impacting all sectors across the business community, and promises to impact Massachusetts’ economic future if we do not take measures to mitigate and adapt to a changing environment. ABL’s Board of Directors and members see the importance of the business community understanding and speaking on the issues, and are committed to a successful series.
The 2018-2019 Business Leaders’ Learning Project: Climate Change and Clean Energy Action is chaired by:
Phil Edmundson, Founder, Corvus Insurance Holdings, Inc.
Elyse Cherry, Chief Executive Officer, Boston Community Capital
Bev Armstrong, CEO & Founder, Brewer, Brazo Fuerte Artisanal Beer
Sara Ross, Co-Founder, CEO, and VP of Sales, Sungage Financial
When are the sessions?
Session I: The risks of climate change in Massachusetts (September 25, 2018 | 3-5 pm)
Location: ML Strategies (One Financial Center, 38th Floor, Conference Room 38 A, Boston, MA 02111)
Session II: Resiliency isn’t enough, the case for mitigation (October 24, 2018 | 3:30-5:30 pm)
Location: ML Strategies (One Financial Center, 38th Floor, Conference Room 38 A, Boston, MA 02111)
Session III: How can businesses do their part? (January 16, 2019 |3-5 pm)
Location: ML Strategies (One Financial Center, 38th Floor, Conference Room 38 A, Boston, MA 02111)
Session IV: Taking Action to Create Change (February 13, 2019 |3-5 pm)
Location: ML Strategies (One Financial Center, 38th Floor, Conference Room 38 A, Boston, MA 02111)
Do I have to attend every session? ABL knows all too well how busy business leaders are and that their time is already limited. This series allows us to spread out the two-hour sessions over six months to limit the time commitment. We ask that you do your best to attend all of the sessions.
How do I register for the series? Please register through this Eventbrite page, and select the dates you plan to attend at the bottom of the form.
What is the Business Leaders’ Learning Project? Learn more here.
Questions? Please contact ABL’s Senior Director of Policy and Operations, Meagan Greene, at mgreene at alliancebl.org.
——————————————
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
——————————————
Breakthroughs in Genetic Medicine: Delivery Challenges of In Vivo Gene Therapy and Genome Editing
Wednesday, January 16
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM EST
Folkman Auditorium, Enders Building, Boston Children’s Hospital, 320 Longwood Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/breakthroughs-in-genetic-medicine-tickets-48733743940
James Wilson, M.D. Ph.D., Rose H. Weiss Orphan Disease Center, University of Pennsylvania
James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, is a Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he has led an effort to develop the field of gene therapy. Dr. Wilson began his work in gene therapy during his graduate studies at the University of Michigan over 30 years ago. He created the first and largest academic-based program in gene therapy after being recruited to Penn in 1993. He initially focused on the clinical translation of existing gene transfer technologies but soon redirected his efforts to the development of second and third generation gene transfer platforms; the first of which was licensed to a biotechnology company he founded that resulted in the first, and only, commercially approved gene therapy in the western hemisphere. He is currently leading a national dialogue on the challenges of commercializing these potentially lifesaving treatments due to the disruptive nature they will have on traditional business models. Dr. Wilson was noted by the journal Nature Biotechnology
——————————————
Conversation in Civic Innovation: Libraries as Drivers of Civic Engagement
Wednesday, January 16
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conversation-in-civic-innovation-libraries-as-drivers-of-civic-engagement-tickets-53075154215
Alongside the fire house, schools and town hall, libraries have always been anchor civic buildings in our communities. And once as the center for books and research, libraries now play a critical role are reinventing themselves as civic institutions appropriate to the dynamic needs of the 21st century. And at a time when information is broadly available through our phones and computers, identifying trusted sources for information is in high demand.
Join us at District Hall for a discussion on libraries as drivers of civic engagement, covering the following topics:
The role of space and place;
The role of data and technology;
The shift of offerings;
The role of libraries in maintaining equitable access to key resources.
CONFIRMED PANELISTS
Kim Lucas, City of Boston Department of Information Technology (moderator)
David Leonard, Boston Public Library
Dan Cohen, Northeastern Library
Chris Colbert, Harvard Innovation Labs
Elizabeth Soeiro, Cambridgeport School librarian
SCHEDULE
5:30-6 PM Registration and networking
6:00-7:00PM Panel Discussion
7:00-7:30PM Audience Q&A
7:30-8:30PM Reception
*Light fare complimentary throughout the night.
——————————————
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.
——————————————
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.
—————————————————
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.
—————————————————————
Thursday, January 17 - Monday, January 21
—————————————————————
Reality Virtually Hackathon
Thursday, January 17 - Monday, 21
MIT Media Lab
RSVP at https://realityvirtuallyhack.com
Apply by 12/29/18
Editorial Comment: But you can always ask.
———————————
Thursday, January 17
———————————
Sustainability 101: From Foundations to the Future
Thursday, January 17
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 P’s of sustainability, to 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.
————————————————
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
——————————————
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.
—————————————
Red's Best Open Forum: Dive into New England's Local Seafood Supply Chain
Thursday, January 17
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Red's Best Headquarters, 37 Fish Pier Street West, Boston
Red’s Best is the last door on the right at the end of the Pier. Come up to the reception area on the 2nd floor.
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reds-best-open-forum-dive-into-new-englands-local-seafood-supply-chain-tickets-50880375573
Have questions about our local, seafood supply chain? Do you know which species are harvested in New England and American waters? Are you maybe a little uncertain but hungry for more information?
Join Red's Best’s Founder & CEO, Jared Auerbach, for casual, transparent, quarterly conversations where you ask the questions and we dig into the inner workings of New England’s lively, historic fishing industry. All are welcome no matter how much seafood knowledge you currently have. Come learn. Come chat. Come participate.
—————————————
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.
——————————————
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.
—————————
Friday, January 18
—————————
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.
————————————
Governing the Rise of AI: A Unique Global Governance Challenge
WHEN Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, 42 Church Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Research study, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Global Health Institute
SPEAKER(S) Nicolas Miailhe, Co-founder of The Future Society
CONTACT INFO megan_diamond at harvard.edu
DETAILS The rise of artificial intelligence as a general purpose technology exhibits characteristics of velocity and magnitude probably not seen in earlier major techno-industrial revolutions. The great upsides and severe downsides it generates are inextricably connected, requiring a complex governance effort to capture opportunities while minimizing risks and spreading the gains widely. The case of healthcare lies at the center of this conundrum with an abundance of use-cases ranging from diagnostic and prevention, to therapy. Because the AI revolution is a global phenomenon nested in the wider digital socio-economic paradigm, the governance effort will have to mobilize public and private actors as well as citizens internationally and transnationally in new and innovative ways. We will discuss possible pathways, solutions, strategies, and challenges.
LINK https://globalhealth.harvard.edu/january-2019
————————————
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.
————————————
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.
————————————
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.
——————————
Tuesday, January 22
——————————
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
——————————————
The MIT Fusion Landscape
Tuesday, January 22
1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Mitigating global climate change demands new sources of zero-carbon energy on the grid as soon as possible. Fusion energy is the solution. Historically, fusion has been seen as too big, too expensive, and too slow. We are now at a tipping point: recent advances in materials, funding models, and a new generation of scientist and engineers, have come together to ensure fusion energy on the shortest credible timeline ever proposed. MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center is partnering with a private fusion startup, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which will allow us to demonstrate net fusion energy through a device called SPARC, and then take it through to commercialization. Our aspiration is to take energy from scarcity to abundance in time to arrest climate change, improving the lives of every living thing on the planet, achieving “unlimited energy, for everyone forever”.
In a series of lightning talks seven experts will discuss the current MIT Fusion Landscape. Topics will range from engineering and scientific underpinnings to finance, entrepreneurship and social impact. Join us to learn about MIT’s smarter, sooner path to fusion energy.
Speakers
Rein Beeuwkes Harvard University, MIT alumnus
Dan Brunner CTO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Kerry Emanuel Cecil and Ida Green Professor, Earth Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
Andrew Lo Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, MIT Sloan
Robert Mumgaard CEO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Katie Rae CEO and Managing Partner, The Engine
Anne White Associate Professor, Nuclear Science and Engineering
Chair
Dennis Whyte Director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center
——————————————
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.
*****************
----------------------
Upcoming Events
----------------------
*****************
—————————————————————
Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
—————————————————————
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
————————————
Wednesday, January 23
————————————
Put A Price On It Massachusetts Youth Lobby Day
Wednesday, January 23
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston
Join Our Climate for our Massachusetts Youth Lobby Day. Students from all over the state of MA will throng the statehouse to meet with their representatives and ask them to pass equitable, science-based climate policy.
The Lobby Day occurs at a critical moment early in the session, when representatives still have the chance to demonstrate their support for important bills. Help us get representatives to cosign Rep. Benson’s upcoming carbon pricing bill, which will steer the economy clear of polluting fossil fuels while financially protecting vulnerable communities.
Interested in participating? Click that you’re going and then RSVP using the form linked below so that we can help you make the most of your advocacy. Any questions? Email the New England Coordinator at eben at ourclimate.us
RSVP: https://goo.gl/forms/K1N1ZQQyAqsXYWuC2
———————————————
EBC Sixth Annual Offshore Wind Conference – Featuring Scope of Deepwater Wind, Vineyard Wind and Orsted Bay State Projects
Wednesday, January 23
7:30 am – 12:30 pm
Brown Rudnick LLP - One Financial Center Boston
RSVP at http://ebcne.org/event/ebc-sixth-annual-offshore-wind-conference/?instance_id=
Cost: $50 - $185
Massachusetts has awarded Vineyard Wind a 20 year power contract for 800 MW of offshore wind (OSW) south of Nantucket. Rhode Island and New York have awarded Deepwater Wind/Ørsted another 290 MW between Martha’s Vineyard and the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded three more leases south of Nantucket on December 13, 2018. Come hear OSW Developers and Stakeholders discuss how OSW can expand while addressing concerns of stakeholders who share the sea, including commercial fishermen, Native Americans, and endangered whales, birds and sea turtles.
Program Chair: Michael Ernst, Executive Advisor, Power Advisory LLC
Speaker Agenda:
Speakers
James Bennett, Chief, Renewable Energy, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Rachel Pachter, Vice President of Permitting Affairs, Vineyard Wind
Additional speakers to be announced.
Stakeholders Panel – Perspectives on Fishing, Environmental, Workforce and Supply Chain Issues
Moderator: Michael Ernst, Executive Advisor, Power Advisory, LLC
———————————————
Mindful UX: Another Look at What Makes Us Swipe Right & The Implications of Mindful UX Design
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Lamont Library (B30), 11 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR User Research Center
SPEAKER(S) Christelle Ngnoumen, M.A.
Maya Tateyama
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/4857434
DETAILS In this one-day workshop, sponsored by the User Research Center, we will discuss examples of how principles of behavioral economics have been applied to design across a variety of products and industries. We will review examples of good and bad (i.e., addictive) UX design. As a group, we will explore and discuss ways mindfulness theory can be integrated in the design of products to allow users greater control of their experiences. Students will be given a rare opportunity to engage in collaborative UX design thinking and research! Open to all members of the Harvard community.
Free lunch will be provided. Please RSVP.
Editorial Comment: May be Harvard only, but you can always ask.
———————————————
The Minerva Model
Wednesday, January 23
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-minerva-model-training-leaders-and-innovators-for-a-global-future-tickets-54143688229
Dr. Kara Gardner, Associate Dean of Faculty Development at Minerva on "The Minerva Model", an active seminar discussion on Minerva’s innovative educational model and how they are training leaders and innovators for a global future.
This active seminar discussion will introduce participants to Minerva’s educational model, including the technology we use to facilitate our classes, the Forum platform. Our goal at Minerva is to take students with the highest potential and train them to become leaders, innovators, broad thinkers, and global citizens. To that end, we have designed a curriculum focused on “great cognitive tools,” rather than “great books.” In the 21 st century, students need more than just an introduction to content at the university level – they need tools to help them process and make use of information. The Minerva curriculum provides students with habits of mind and foundational concepts organized into four core competencies: critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. All students learn these habits and concepts during our first-year cornerstone courses, and they continue to be measured on their use and mastery of the HCs throughout their four years of study. They apply these skills and concepts inside and outside of the classroom as they travel in cohorts, living in up to six cities around the globe. Our goal is for students to graduate with a skills they can apply in a variety of professional contexts, and tools that will help them solve an array of difficult problems.
———————————————
Active Shooter / Armed Intruder Training
Wednesday, January 23
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street Cambridge
This interactive session, conducted by Emergency Management and MIT Police, will provide attendees with information on recognizing and surviving an active shooter/violent intruder incident. Attendees will learn about: how to report incidents; MIT Alert; phases of an attacker; preventative measures; police tactics; and personal response (the "Run, Hide, Fight" model).
———————————————
Everyone’s favorite mistakes: Why do rational minds, so rigorous in their work, seem to abandon all logic in the rest of their lives?
Wednesday, January 23
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Harvard, Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jean-luc Doumont is known worldwide for his lectures and workshops focused on scientific and technical communication. He is acclaimed for his no-nonsense approach, his highly applicable, often life-changing recommendations, and "Trees, maps, and theorems", his book about “effective communication for rational minds”. [Visit his website]
Speaker Bio: Jean-luc Doumont runs conceptual discussions in plenary class meetings. An articulate, entertaining, and thought-provoking speaker, he successfully reaches a wide range of audiences worldwide, as a trainer or an invited speaker at companies, top-ranked universities, research laboratories, and major conferences. He is an engineer from the Louvain School of Engineering and holds a PhD in applied physics from Stanford University.
Dr Doumont is a popular speaker on US campuses. Those where he has been invited, indicated here, comprise 24 of the top 25 graduate engineering schools in the US (according to the 2017 ranking by US News & World Report) and at the same time 17 of the top 25 world universities (according to the 2017 study by Shanghai Jiao Tong University).
Host: SEAS Graduate Council and SEAS Academic Office
Contact: Tobias Egle
Email: egle at g.harvard.edu
————————————————
The Glamorous Life: Socialite-Activists and the Black Freedom Struggle from World War II to the Age of Obama
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Knafel Center, 18 Mason Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Tanisha C. Ford, 2018–2019 Lisa Goldberg Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, University of Delaware
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events at radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS As a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Tanisha Ford is working on the first economic history of the civil rights movement to explore how black women activists raised millions of dollars for movement organizations by hosting lavish galas, fashion shows, and beauty pageants for an interracial audience. Using glamour as a framework, she will reveal how their fundraising strategies have shaped much of the modern taste and etiquette culture and, ultimately, helped to elect the first black U.S. president.
LINK https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2019-tanisha-c-ford-fellow-presentation
———————————————
Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy
Wednesday, January 23
6-7:30pm
Sargent Hall, Fifth Floor Commons, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
Shoshana Zuboff, PhD with Christopher Lydon
More information at https://sites.suffolk.edu/fordhallforum/2018/12/05/shoshana-zuboff-harvard-business-school-professor-emerita/
———————————————
Why the Earth Needs Its Oceans
Wednesday, January 23
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Amala Mahadevan, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Dr. Mahadevan discusses the crucial relationship between oceans and atmosphere, and how that partnership makes the Earth a life-sustaining planet. She describes how excess CO2, ocean warming and acidification all threaten that balance. The Mahadevan Lab at WHOI does biogeochemical research that helps to reveal one this most important system works.
————————————————
Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives
Wednesday, January 23
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Through her evocative intertwined histories of the penitentiary and the monastery, Jane Brox illuminates the many ways silence is far more complex than any absolute; how it has influenced ideas of the self, soul, and society. Brox traces its place as a transformative power in the monastic world from Medieval Europe to the very public life of twentieth century monk Thomas Merton, whose love for silence deepened even as he faced his obligation to speak out against war. This fascinating history of ideas also explores the influence the monastic cell had on one of society’s darkest experiments in silence: Eastern State Penitentiary. Conceived of by one of the Founding Fathers and built on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the penitentiary’s early promulgators imagined redemption in imposed isolation, but they badly misapprehended silence’s dangers.
Finally, Brox’s rich exploration of silence’s complex and competing meanings leads us to imagine how we might navigate our own relationship with silence today, for the transformation it has always promised, in our own lives.
Jane Brox is the author of Brilliant, Clearing Land, Five Thousand Days Like This One, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Here and Nowhere Else, which received the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She lives in Maine.
———————————————
Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes veteran reporter PETER SHINKLE for a discussion of his new book, Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler.
About Ike's Mystery Man
President Eisenhower's National Security Advisor Robert "Bobby" Cutler shaped US Cold War strategy in far more consequential ways than previously understood. A lifelong Republican, Cutler also served three Democratic presidents. The life of any party, he was a tight-lipped loyalist who worked behind the scenes to get things done. While Cutler's contributions to the public sphere may not have received, until now, the consideration they deserve, the story of his private life has never before been told.
Cutler struggled throughout his years in the White House to discover and embrace his own sexual identity and orientation, and he was in love with a man half his age, NSC staffer Skip Koons. Cutler poured his emotions into a six-volume diary and dozens of letters that have been hidden from history. Steve Benedict—who was White House security officer, Cutlers' friend, and Koons' friend and former lover—preserved Cutler's papers. All three men served Eisenhower at a time when anyone suspected of "sexual perversion", i.e. homosexuality, was banned from federal employment and vulnerable to security sweeps by the FBI.
——————————————
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Inheritance is a book about secrets–secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years–years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in–a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
DANI SHAPIRO is the author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Also an essayist and a journalist, Shapiro’s short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University; she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
—————————————
Aging and Activism: Madeleine Kunin and John Leland in Conversation
Wednesday, January 23
7:00pm
Trident Bookscafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
join Vermont's first and only female governor, Madeleine Kunin, and celebrated New York Times reporter, John Leland, for a discussion on growing older, happier and more engaged in prevalent social issues. Both authors will read from their books on aging and discuss what it means to come into old age in America today, and how that personal transformation can make the world a better place.
About the Books:
Many readers are already familiar with Madeleine Kunin, the former three-term governor of Vermont, who served as the deputy secretary of education and ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. In her newest book, a memoir entitled Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties, the topis is aging, but she looks well beyond the physical tolls and explores the emotional ones as well. And she has had an extraordinary life: governor, ambassador, feminist, wife, mother, professor, poet, and much, much more. As recently reported in The New York Times, a girl born today can expect to live to the age of ninety, on average. Life expectancy, for many, is increasing, yet people rarely contemplate the emotional changes that come alongside the physical changes of aging. Madeleine wants to change that. Coming of Age takes a close and incisive look at what it is like to grow old. The book is a memoir, yet most important of all, it is an honest and positive look at aging and how it has affected her life.
In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notion of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. Happiness is a Choice You Make is an enduring collection of lessons that emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. With humility, heart and wit, Leland has crafted a sophisticated and necessary reflection on how to "live better" -- informed by those who have mastered the art.
About the Authors:
Governor Madeleine Kunin has written three previous books: Living a Political Life, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family, and Pearls Politics and Power. She has more energy than two 40-year-olds. She is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at teh University of Vermont where she gives guest lectures on feminism and women and politics. She also serves on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991, and she recently launched Emerge Vermont to encourage and support women in politics. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont.
John Leland is a reporter at The New York Times, where he wrote a yearlong series that became the basis for Happiness Is a Choice You Make, and the author of two previous books, Hip: The History and Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of "On the Road". Before joining the Times he was a senior editor at Newsweek, editor-in-chief of Details, a reporter at Newsday and a writer and editor at Spin magazine.
—————————————
Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age: From smartphones to AI
Wednesday, January 23
7:00-9:00pm
Hariri Inistitute for Computing Seminar Room, 3 Cummington Mall, Boston
Panelists:
Nicole Aschoff - Editor of Jacobin Magazine, author of "The New Prophets of Capital" (Verso 2015) and author of the forthcoming book "The Smartphone Society" (Beacon 2019) based on this article.
Yarden Katz- Systems Biology Fellow, Harvard Medical School, member of Berkman Center, and author of "Manufacturing the AI revolution"
Ben Tarnoff- Columnist for Guardian Newspaper, organizer with Tech Workers Coalition, founder and editor of Logic Magazine.
Sponsored by: Science for the People - Boston, Logic Magazine, Hariri Institute of Computing
—————————————
INEQUALITY AND OUR WELL-BEING: Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
First Church In Jamaica Plain, 6 Eliot Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inequality-and-our-well-being-richard-wilkinson-kate-pickett-tickets-53743254521
Globally recognized UK health leaders Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket will be speaking at the JP Forum about their new book, THE INNER LEVEL: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-Being.
In 2009, Wilkinson and Picket revolutionized our understanding of economic inequality with their globally-recognized book, THE SPIRIT LEVEL: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. They are coming to Jamaica Plain on their U.S. book tour for The Inner Level.
Brookline Booksmith will be present with copies of the new book to purchase during the book signing.
—————————————————————
Thursday, January 24 -Saturday, January 26
—————————————————————
Inequality, Religion, and Society: John Rawls and After
Thursday, January 24 -Saturday, January 26
Pre-Registration is required.
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://hwpi.harvard.edu/rawls-conference
Sponsored by: The Sekyra Foundation (Prague), the Center for Political Philosophy, Ethics and Religion (Charles University), and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, the Department of Government and the Department of Philosophy (Harvard University).
———————————
Thursday, January 24
———————————
Mapping and Treating Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Using the Human Brain Connectome
WHEN Thursday, January 24, 7:45 – 9:15 a.m.
WHERE Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Technology Assessment in Health Care Seminar Series
SPEAKER(S) Michael Fox, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director, Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
CONTACT INFO Debra Milamed
debra_milamed at hms.harvard.edu
617-327-5612
DETAILS Harvard University Technology Assessment in Health Care Seminar Series.
Continental breakfast served
———————————————
Borrowed Power: Financial Origins of Grand Strategy
WHEN Thursday, January 24, 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) Daniel Z. Jacobs, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch at harvard.edu
DETAILS 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/borrowed-power-financial-origins-grand-strategy
————————————————
You Spoke, We Listened: A Detailed Dive into the Themes Derived from the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan's Listening Sessions, Surveys, and Consumer Interviews
Thursday, January 24
1:00-230PM EST
Webinar
RSVP at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4031517009408690179?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d5071c9d-611c-43a8-b949-86d2b1749635
Join us for an engaging review and online discussion of all the information we gathered during summer 2018 for the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan. The webinar will provide a comprehensive description of the Food is Medicine landscape in Massachusetts. If you want to learn about the data behind our upcoming policy recommendations and action plan, then this discussion is for you.
While many of you attended our Food is Medicine Symposium in October, this webinar will include new and more detailed information. If you weren't able to attend the Symposium, then this will provide an excellent opportunity to learn about our findings and next steps.
————————————————
The Future of Cannabis: Panel Discussion & Networking Event
Thursday, January 24
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk, Lighthouse, 20th floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-cannabis-tickets-54066395043
If you weren't convinced that we are in the early stages of a cannabis boom unlike any other in history, then consider these stats:
In 2017, sales of medical and recreational cannabis in the U.S. were nearly nine times higher than Oreo cookies.
The Cannabis industry is on track to add as many as 340,000 full-time jobs by 2022.
In 2018, the marijuana industry created an estimated $28B-$34B in economic impact.
Total demand for marijuana in the U.S., including the black market, is around $52.5 billion.
At Branchfood we've seen plenty of new products making their way into the home. Cannabis is quickly advancing in both medicinal and leisure markets and some experts predict cannabis will develop into a craft industry similar to microbreweries and craft distilleries. Many options for infused food, drink, and personal care products made with cannabis derivatives like CBD and hemp are just the beginning. With so much innovation underway, 2019 will surely be the biggest year yet for industry development and maturation.
In continuation of our ongoing Future of Food panel series, we'll bring together leading industry experts for a discussion and networking event on the future of cannabis to understand the past, present, and future of the industry. Join us for this event and brush up on the latest on this fast-moving sector.
About the panelists
Charles Finnie, Chief Strategy Officer at Marimed Advisors
Charles Finnie leads corporate strategy, M&A, and investments at MariMed Advisors. MariMed designs, develops, finances, and optimizes the success of licensed medical cannabis cultivation, production, and dispensary facilities through its validated management. MariMed's team has developed or is in the process of developing state-of-the art regulatory-compliant facilities in Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. MariMed's facilities are models of excellence in horticultural principals, marijuana production, product development, and dispensary operations. In addition, MariMed is on the forefront of precision dosed branded products for the treatment of specific medical symptoms. Prior to his work at MariMed, Mr. Finnie was Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners, covering consumer health and wellness, specifically focusing on cannabis. He was Wall Street’s only research analyst focused solely on cannabis where he researched every major cannabis company in North America and was involved in launching some of the industry’s biggest players. He has over 25 years’ experience as an analyst and investor in emerging technology and energy companies.
Katrina Yolen, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Curaleaf
Katrina leads all marketing initiatives for Curaleaf. Curaleaf, Inc. is the largest multi-state operator in the fast-growing U.S. cannabis industry. Vertically integrated in 10 states, Curaleaf is rapidly expanding across the U.S. in states wherecannabis is legal. With over 25 dispensaries, Curaleaf operates the largest branded retail network and dispenses its own brand of Curaleaf premium medical cannabis products. Curaleaf medical cannabis is known for quality, safety and innovation, and is available in multiple productformats to meet a variety of consumer needs. Curaleaf is an industry leader in cultivation,processing, product development, and advocacy. Katrina is a seasoned marketing executive with over 20 years of experience working in mid-sized and large consumer packaged goods companies, as well as in startups. Prior to Curaleaf, Ms. Yolen served as Vice President of Marketing at Dancing Deer Baking Co., Director of Marketing at Weetabix North America, and held senior marketing roles at GlaxoSmithKline and Kraft Foods.
Patrick Connolly, Partner at Foley Hoag
Patrick is a partner in Foley Hoag's Business Department. Attorneys in Foley Hoag’s cannabis practice have unique insight and experience to assist cannabis and cannabis-related operators and investors with all aspects of their business from corporate formation and transactions, employment matters, intellectual property matters including trademarks, banking and finance issues, FDA and FTC compliance, legislative issues, business and regulatory disputes, and real estate transactions. They have experience obtaining state licenses and local approvals. In addition, they have represented both buyers and sellers of cannabis businesses as well as investors. They also advise clients regarding industrial hemp and CBD products. Patrick maintains a diverse business practice, focused on advising entrepreneurs and emerging growth clients on early-stage business matters, angel and venture financing, commercial transactions and mergers and acquisitions. In addition to emerging growth company clients, Patrick has represented a variety of investors in venture capital transactions.
Schedule
Networking and Arrival at 6:00 pm
Panel Discussion bagins at 6:30 pm
Q&A Session begins at 7:30 pm
Event ends at 8:30 pm
————————————————
Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont
Thursday, January 24
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Yvonne Daley
Going Up the Country is part oral history, part nostalgia-tinged narrative, and part clear-eyed analysis of the multifaceted phenomena collectively referred to as the counterculture movement in Vermont. This is the story of how young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment of the 1950s and moved to the backwoods of rural Vermont, spawning a revolution in lifestyle, politics, sexuality, and business practices that would have a profound impact on both the state and the nation. The movement brought hippies, back-to-the-landers, political radicals, sexual libertines, and utopians to a previously conservative state and led us to today's farm to table way of life, environmental consciousness, and progressive politics as championed by Bernie Sanders.
Yvonne Daley is the author of five previous books and director of the Green Mountain Writers Conference.
————————————
Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married
Thursday, January 24
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Abby Ellin was shocked to learn that her fiancé was leading a secret life. But as she soon discovered, double lives are everywhere.
In Duped, Ellin plunges headlong into the world of double lives. Studying the art and science of lying, talking to women who’ve had their worlds upended by men who weren’t who they professed to be, and writing with great openness about her own mistakes, she lays the phenomenon bare. These remarkable–yet surprisingly common–stories reveal just how strange and improbable our everyday lives really are.
Abby Ellin is an award-winning journalist and the author of Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In On Living Large, Losing Weight and How Parents Can (and Can’t) Help. For five years she wrote the “Preludes” column about young people and money for the Sunday Money and Business section of the New York Times. She is also a regular contributor to the Health, Style, Business and Education sections of the New York Times. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, New York, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and many others.
Editorial Comment: My notes on The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It... Every Time by Maria Konnikova
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-confidence-game-guide-to-2016.html
———————————————————
Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27
———————————————————
Bad Ideas Weekend
Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27
The epicenter of Bad Ideas is the East Campus courtyard, but Bad Ideas and Bad Ideas events can take place anywhere around campus.
Have you always wanted to design and build, but have been frustrated by silly requirements and "good engineering practice?" Well, fret no more and come to the 2019 Bad Ideas festival, where your ideas can really take wing and crash straight to the ground. The weekend will also be packed with numerous smaller events, so come by any time, grab some free food, and join us in a celebration of bad ideas. No skills required, tools and materials provided. Alumni and all members of the MIT community are expressly invited.
Sponsored by East Campus, LEF, and DormCon.
—————————
Friday, January 25
—————————
EBC Climate Change Program: Briefing on COP24 in Poland
Friday, January 25
Registration: 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Program: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Brown Rudnick LLP, One Financial Center, Boston
RSVP at http://ebcne.org/event/ebc-climate-change-program-briefing-on-cop24-in-poland/
Cost: $25
This EBC Climate Change program will provide a briefing on the December 2019 COP24 held in Katowice, Poland. Rachel Cleetus, Policy Director for Climate and Energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists will provide her first hand reflections on the discussions at the meeting and the eventual outcomes.
Time will provided for discussion with the audience.
About COP24:
The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference is the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), also known as the Katowice Climate Change Conference. It was held between December 2 and 15, 2018 in Katowice, Poland. The conference agreed on rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Speaker:
Rachel Cleetus, Ph.D., Policy Director, Climate and Energy program, Union of Concerned Scientists
——————————————
Light for Health
Friday, January 25
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
MIT, Building 46-3310, 43 Vassar Street, 3rd Floor, Picower Seminar Room, Cambridge
Light aids us in seeing, but the latest research development has shown that light is required not only for vision but is also very important for biological function. This field of science is known as non-visual pathway. Our research has been investigating two different wavelengths of light: one is blue and the other is violet. Blue light determines the circadian rhythm, mood, and memory through the melanopsin (OPN4) photoreceptor. Violet light controls the circadian rhythm of the eye and partially, the body. A significant recent study has demonstrated that violet light controls the size of the eyeball. We have termed this “violet light hypothesis for myopia control.” In this talk I will cover the general concepts of light for health and discuss the specific effects of blue and violet lights on human health.
——————————————
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Friday, January 25
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed author and Harvard Business School professor emerita SHOSHANA ZUBOFF—author of In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power—for a discussion of her latest book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.
About The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff's interdisciplinary breadth and depth enable her to come to grips with the social, political, business, and technological meaning of the changes taking place in our time. We are at a critical juncture in the confrontation between the vast power of giant high-tech companies and government, the hidden economic logic of surveillance capitalism, and the propaganda of machine supremacy that threaten to shape and control human life. Will the brazen new methods of social engineering and behavior modification threaten individual autonomy and democratic rights and introduce extreme new forms of social inequality? Or will the promise of the digital age be one of individual empowerment and democratization?
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is neither a hand-wringing narrative of danger and decline nor a digital fairy tale. Rather, it offers a deeply reasoned and evocative examination of the contests over the next chapter of capitalism that will decide the meaning of information civilization in the twenty-first century. The stark issue at hand is whether we will be the masters of information and machines or its slaves.
—————————————————————
Saturday, January 26 - Sunday, January 27
—————————————————————
Hack for Fusion: A Machine Learning Hackathon at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Saturday, January 26 - Sunday, January 27
10:00am to 10:00pm
MIT, Building NW17-218 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Teams of up to four will seek machine learning solutions to a set of control, optimization, and data mining problems relevant to modern fusion research. Submissions will be judged and prizes awarded.
Sessions will begin at 10am.
Registration required: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvJcp-VcLs1mjKK0k3rf9EPVp0v6RKb0XxVxGTQBq3zqkjKw/viewform
For further information: info at psfc.mit.edu
———————————
Saturday, January 26
———————————
Fixit Clinic
WHEN Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Ed Portal
COST Free
DETAILS Bring your broken, non-functioning items including jewelry, electronics, clothing, and more to the Harvard Ed Portal for a Fixit Clinic! We provide the space, tools, and coaches to help you tinker, troubleshoot, and even fix your items. This is an all-ages, do-it-yourself event that’s fun and educational.
Learn more online at http://www.fixitclinic.org
LINK https://edportal.harvard.edu/event/fixit-clinic-0
——————————
Sunday, January 27
——————————
Agroecology with Florence Reed: Low-Hanging Fruit for Climate and Biodiversity
Sunday, January 27
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
One Fayette Park, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.meetup.com/Biodiversity-for-a-Livable-Climate/events/257361764/
Climate change and loss of biodiversity threaten the very existence of the human race. While professors and policymakers in ivory towers study, debate and try to forge agreements, campesinos with little money or education are stabilizing the climate, bringing biodiversity back to degraded lands and feeding the world. Meet some of these unsung heroes working with Sustainable Harvest International, a member of Regeneration International, and learn how millions more could join their ranks to become the cornerstone of a healthy planet and food system.
Florence Reed is a prize-winning thought leader, innovative practitioner, and deeply engaging speaker who believes that when people work together, things can change for the better. This belief led her to serve
as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras in the early nineties. In 1997, Reed founded Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with rural Central American communities to
implement sustainable farming practices and preserve tropical forests. As the organization’s chief visionary and networker, Florence spends her time in rich conversations with internal and external stakeholders, bringing together farmers, donors, volunteers and others to catalyze changes for a better future.
Her entrepreneurial spirit and interest in expanding horizons makes identifying new opportunities for collaboration a favorite part of Florence’s work. In recent years she has enjoyed being a delegate to the
Opportunity Collaboration, Regeneration International General Assembly and Environmental Laureates Convention, as well as a member of advisory committees for the National Peace Corps Association and Regeneration International. Florence is currently especially interested in helping expand global coalitions such as Regeneration International for a truly sustainable future.
What to bring
An item of food or drink to share, tending to the healthy and organic.
Important to know
Biodiversity for a LIvable Climate is a small non-profit so a $10 donation is requested.
——————————
Monday, January 28
——————————
An Energy Plan the Earth Can Live With? A Lecture with Daniel Kammen
WHEN Monday, January 28, 5 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Research study, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Daniel M. Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy and Chair of the Energy and Resources Group, and Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy and in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Served as chief technical specialist for the World Bank in 2010-2011 and served as the science envoy for the US Department of State in 2016-2017.
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events at radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a critical report in October 2018 on the vital need to hold anthropogenic global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Humans have already warmed the planet 1 degree.
In this talk, Kammen will examine the pace of scientific change, the problem of sustained innovation and deployment, and the tremendous array of benefits that could be realized by making climate protection the priority it must become. Most remarkable, perhaps, is the range of benefits — in social equity, ethnic and gender inclusivity, cultural diversity, and poverty alleviation — that can be realized through an energy plan Earth can live with. Register online.
LINK https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2019-daniel-m-kammen-lecture
——————————
Tuesday, January 29
——————————
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Planning and Paying for Tomorrow’s Transportation
Tuesday, January 29
12:00 - 2:00 PM (Lunch will be served)
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at ndubin at e2.org
Whether you've been stuck in traffic on I-93 or watched helplessly as MBTA shut down operations during the winter of 2015, if you're a commuter, you know that our transportation system is broken. At the same time, transportation has become the biggest source of GHG emissions in the Northeast and one of the leading drivers of climate change worldwide. An important step toward solving these seemingly intractable problems is on the horizon: the Transportation and Climate Initiative, through which states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are developing a regional approach to modernize, and reduce emissions from, the transportation sector. As commuters, members of the business community know all too well how badly these changes are needed, but what role should and can private industry play as states such as Massachusetts bring their transportation systems into the 21st Century?
Please join E2 New England at “Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Planning and Paying for Tomorrow’s Transportation” as we explore the business perspective on our broken transportation system, how tools such as regional rail can help, and where Massachusetts and its neighbors are headed with the Transportation and Climate Initiative.
———————————————
Symposium: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, 3 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences, Exhibitions, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Fung Scholar Event sponsored and organized by:
The Harvard Asia Center
With the generous support of:
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University
The Harvard Law School Project on Disability
The Harvard-Yenching Institute
The Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Panel 1: Art Production at the Margins: Atelier Yamanami and Nanjing Outsider Art Studio
Prof. Karen Thornber, Director, Harvard Asia Center, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Comparative Literature
Masato Yamashita, Director, Atelier Yamanami
Haiping Guo, Director, Nanjing Outsider Art Studio
Prof. Shaun McNiff, University Professor, Lesley University
Exhibition curators:
Raphael Koenig, Ph.D., Harvard University, Comparative Literature
Benny Shaffer, Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University, Anthropology
Panel 2: Disability and Mental Illness in China and Japan: Social and Legal Issues
Prof. William Alford, Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability & Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Prof. Andrew Campana, Post-Doctoral Associate, Cornell University
Prof. Cui Fengming, Director, China Program, Harvard Law School Project on Disability; Professor, Renmin University of China Law School and Senior Fellow, Renmin University of China Disability Law Clinic
Prof. Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine, & Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University
COST Free entry
DETAILS On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition "Eye Eye Nose Mouth: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan"
The opening reception on Jan. 29, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. will be preceded by an interdisciplinary academic symposium (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.) that will provide further context on the broader aesthetic, legal, and sociopolitical conditions under which each of these workshops featured in the exhibition operates.
LINK https://asiacenter.harvard.edu/events/exhibition-opening-eye-eye-nose-mouth-art-disability-and-mental-illness-in-nanjing-china-and-shiga-ken-japan-306
———————————————
Screening of "Jizo and Libido" (Japanese with English subtitles, 62min)
WHEN Tuesday, January 29, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions, Film, Health Sciences, Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Fung Scholar Event sponsored and organized by:
The Harvard University Asia Center
with the generous support of:
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University
The Harvard Law School Project on Disability
The Harvard-Yenching Institute
The Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Director Yoshiaki Kasatani.
With the participation of:
Julia Alekseyeva, Postdoctoral Fellow, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Yukiko Koide, Gallery owner and leading expert of Japanese self-taught art
Masato Yamashita, Director of Atelier Yamanami
COST Free entry
DETAILS Screening of a recent documentary film about Atelier Yamanami, followed by a Q&A with the director and panel discussion.
On the occasion of the exhibition "Eye Eye Nose Mouth: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan."
LINK https://asiacenter.harvard.edu/events/exhibition-opening-eye-eye-nose-mouth-art-disability-and-mental-illness-in-nanjing-china-and-shiga-ken-japan-306
———————————————
Mark Leibovich on the Political Culture and the NFL
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Mark Leibovich, Chief National Correspondent, The New York Times Magazine, Author of “Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times”
CONTACT INFO 617-495-1380
LINK https://iop.harvard.edu/forum/mark-leibovich-political-culture-and-nfl
———————————————
The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind
Tuesday, January 29
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Aveue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the American Constitution Society welcome award-winning scholar and University of Chicago Law School professor JUSTIN DRIVER for a discussion of his new book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind. He will be joined in conversation by Harvard Law School professor RANDALL KENNEDY.
About The Schoolhouse Gate
Judicial decisions assessing the constitutional rights of students in the nation’s public schools have consistently generated bitter controversy. From racial segregation to unauthorized immigration, from antiwar protests to compulsory flag salutes, from economic inequality to teacher-led prayer—these are but a few of the cultural anxieties dividing American society that the Supreme Court has addressed in elementary and secondary schools. The Schoolhouse Gate gives a fresh, lucid, and provocative account of the historic legal battles waged over education and illuminates contemporary disputes that continue to fracture the nation.
Justin Driver maintains that since the 1970s the Supreme Court has regularly abdicated its responsibility for protecting students’ constitutional rights and risked transforming public schools into Constitution-free zones. Students deriving lessons about citizenship from the Court’s decisions in recent decades would conclude that the following actions taken by educators pass constitutional muster: inflicting severe corporal punishment on students without any procedural protections, searching students and their possessions without probable cause in bids to uncover violations of school rules, random drug testing of students who are not suspected of wrongdoing, and suppressing student speech for the viewpoint it espouses. Taking their cue from such decisions, lower courts have upheld a wide array of dubious school actions, including degrading strip searches, repressive dress codes, draconian “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies, and severe restrictions on off-campus speech.
Driver surveys this legal landscape with eloquence, highlights the gripping personal narratives behind landmark clashes, and warns that the repeated failure to honor students’ rights threatens our basic constitutional order. This magisterial book will make it impossible to view American schools—or America itself—in the same way again.
************
——————
Opportunity
----------------
************
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.
*********
------------
Resource
------------
*********
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
——————————
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
———————————
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
————————————
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
———————————
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!
——————————
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/
****************************************
------------------------------------------------------
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