Sunday, February 20, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - February 20, 2011

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@world.std.com

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MIT

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Monday, February 21, 2011
Robotics Engineering at the MIT Museum
Time: 10:00a–5:00p
Location: N51, MIT Museum
Celebrate National Engineers Week at the MIT Museum! Visit some of the MIT Museum's newest robots and explore MIT's unique contributions to innovation and invention through one or more of our scavenger hunts. Participate in a hands-on robotic engineering workshop using Lego Mindstorms NXT. Workshop space is limited and reserved for students ages 10 and above. (Four workshops daily, available on a first-come, first-served basis - no reservations accepted)

Web site: http://mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free with museum admission
Tickets: MIT Museum
This event occurs daily through February 25, 2011.
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:
Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museum@mit.edu

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Monday, February 21, 2011
Manning: Eight dances for the soldier who brought a helicopter massacre in Baghdad to the light of day
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: E15-001
By the Lubberland National Dance Company. A Bread and Puppet Theater Production directed by Peter Schumann. Presented by the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology. With funding from the Director's Grant, Council for the Arts at MIT.

In The Cube (E15-001)
Wiesner Building
20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Mass.
Free and open to the public

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology

For more information, contact:
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Urbonas Studio: The Learning Machine

Time: 9:00a–5:00p

Location: 7-338

Urbonas Studio's interdisciplinary research program advocates for the reclamation of public culture in the face of overwhelming privatization. Often beginning with archival research, they develop complex participatory works investigating architecture, the urban environment, and cultural and technological heritage. The Learning Machine explores the symbolic relationship between women and the state, taking women's voices as expressions of the psychological impact of the Cold War on multiple generations.

Web site: http://sap.mit.edu/resources/galleries/wolk_gallery/
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
This event occurs on weekdays through April 8, 2011.
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Laura Knott
617 258 9106
lknott@mit.edu

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Cultural Action: Frontier or Archipelagos (panel discussion w/ lunch)

Speaker: Prof. Toshiya Ueno (Wako U); Prof. Wayne Marshall (MIT); Prof. Ian Condry (MIT)

Time: 12:00a–1:30p

Location: 14E-304

MIT Cool Japan: Cultural Action and Social Media
The MIT Cool Japan research project is planning a series of events for 2011-12 exploring "Cultural Action and Social Media," a theme aimed at understanding new approaches to media activism, social movements, civic engagement, and art and culture. Cool Japan is an initiative based in Comparative Media Studies. More info at http://mitcooljapan.com

MIT Cool Japan research project presents a PANEL DISCUSSION called "CULTURAL ACTION: Frontiers or Archipelagos," which will explore questions of media activism and social change, featuring a scholar of urban music tribes in Japan, and two MIT scholars of music and culture. Light lunch will be served.


Web site: http://mitcooljapan.com
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, MIT Japan Program, Foreign Languages and Literatures
For more information, contact:
Ian Condry
617-253-4771
condry@mit.edu

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Sep Kamvar: "Search and the Social Web: Organizing the World's People and Making Them Accessible and Useful"
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: MIT Media Lab, E14-633
Speaker: Sep Kamvar
Host/Chair: Mitchel Resnick
In the past few years, we have seen a tremendous growth in public human communication and self-expression, through blogs, microblogs, and social networks. In addition, we are beginning to see the emergence of a social technology stack on the web, where profile and relationship information gathered by some applications can be used by other applications. This technology shift, and the cultural shift that has accompanied it, offers a great opportunity for computer scientists, artists, and sociologists to study (and organize) people at scale.

In this talk, Sep Kamvar will discuss how the changing web suggests new paradigms for search and discovery. Kamvar will discuss some recent projects that use web search to study human nature, and use human nature to improve web search. He will describe the underlying principles behind these projects and suggest how they might inform future work in search, data mining, and social computing.

Biography:
Sep Kamvar is a consulting professor of computational and mathematical engineering at Stanford University. His research focuses on social computing and information management. From 2003 to 2007, he was the head of personalization at Google. Prior to Google, he was founder and CEO of Kaltix, a personalized search company that was acquired by Google in 2003. Kamvar is the author of two books and over 40 technical publications and patents in the fields of search and social computing. His artwork is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and has been exhibited in a number of other museums, including the Victoria and Albert Musem in London and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens. He holds a PhD in scientific computing and computational mathematics from Stanford University, and an AB in chemistry from Princeton University.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Firms and Global Production

Speaker: Andres Rodriguez-Clare (Penn State)

Time: 4:15p–5:45p

Location: E52-244

Firms and Global Production

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT Macroeconomics/International Seminar

For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A Not-So-Liberal Leviathan: The End of the Cold War and Its Legacy for U.S. Foreign Policy
Speaker: Mary Sarotte, University of Southern California
Time: 12:00p–1:30p
Location: E40-496

SSP Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact:
617-253-7529
valeriet@mit.edu

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Making Sense of Greening Cities
Speaker: Julie Johnson Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture University of Washington, College of Built Environments
Time: 12:30p–2:00p
Location: 9-450
Urban Studies and Planning Departmental Speaker Series
Weekly Lecture Series of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

The Spring 2011 DUSP Speaker Series explores how each invited scholar-practitioner (or practitioner-scholar) has "made sense" out of a complex socio-spatial phenomenon. In addition to conveying the substance of their work, the speakers have been asked to reflect on how they do what they do, bringing to life the ways that planners and designers use qualitative methods in their scholarship and/or practice.

With urban agriculture receiving increased attention in how cities may become more sustainable, urban community gardens provide a valuable infrastructure for multiple dimensions of sustainability. In their book, Greening Cities, Growing Communities: Learning from Seattle?s Urban Community Gardens (University of Washington Press, 2009; recipient of the 2010 EDRA Great Places Book Award), Jeffrey Hou, Julie M. Johnson, and Laura J. Lawson provide case-based insights on the myriad roles and values that urban community gardens serve among varied populations. The book introduces contexts of American urban community gardens and examines six distinctive Seattle community gardens to identify lessons on urban sustainability, the hybrid nature of these spaces, and the expanding contexts that urban community gardens can and may better support.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning

For more information, contact:
Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn@mit.edu

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Designing Markets for Carbon Offsets: A Field Experiment in Malawi
Speaker: Kelsey Jack (MIT)
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: E51-376
Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Development & Environment Seminar

For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Finding new solar cells made of plastic: one screensaver at a time
Speaker: Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Associate Professor Harvard University
Time: 4:00p–5:30p
Location: 4-231
In this talk, I will describe our group's effort for high-throughput analysis of candidate materials for organic photovoltaic materials by means of distributed computing using volunteer donors of CPU time. We work with IBM and the World Community Grid on "The Clean Energy Project" (http://cleanenergy.harvard.edu). The project is well underway, and we have calculated more than a million molecules to date. I will give an overview of organic photovoltaic materials, and describe the electronic structure calculations of the million molecules, as well as on our cheminformatics analysis of 3 million candidate molecular structures. A promising molecule was synthesized by Zhenan Bao at Stanford, and is currently being characterized. I will describe preliminary results of our collaborative work with her group

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT-Mexico Program, CLUBMEX, MISTI

For more information, contact:
Griselda Gomez
617-252-1483
gomezg@mit.edu

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

WMBR Special Report on Homelessness in the Boston Area

Speaker: David Goodman

Time: 6:00p–7:00p

Location: 88.1 FM

WMBR will present a special one-hour report on homelessness in the Boston area, produced by WMBR News Producer David Goodman.

Web site: http://www.homelessnessmarathon.org
Open to: All listeners at 88.1 FM or at wmbr.org.
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): WMBR Radio
For more information, contact:
David Goodman
617-253-4000
news@wmbr.org

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

IDEAS and MIT Global Challenge: Spring Generator Dinner!

Time: 7:30p–9:30p

Location: W20, La Sala de Puerto Rico in W20

IDEAS Competition + MIT Global Challenge
We're passionate about supporting innovation as public service and encouraging the worldwide MIT community to put their ideas to work tackling barriers to well-being faced by underserved communites. This series includes a handful of discussions, hands-on activities, lectures, deadlines and events to spur discussion and action around what can be done and how to enter those ideas into the IDEAS Competition and MIT Global Challenge. This year, we're giving away up to $150,000 in awards to make ideas a reality.

* Want funding for your innovative community service project?
* Want to recruit new members or mentors for your IDEAS or Global Challenge team?
* Want to get involved, but don't yet have an idea?

Then come to the IDEAS Generator Dinner, get connected and learn how to submit your ideas for up to $25k per team in awards

The evening will feature two recruitment open mic sessions with a prize for the best presentation in each category! Pitches must be professional, practiced, and to the point.

* Category One: Recruit The IDEAS Dream Team
* Category Two: Get Yourself "Hired"

Participants will each have 60 seconds to pitch their projects to the audience. The Generator will include other activities to help everyone get connected with the right teammates (you don't have to give a pitch).

Open mic spaces are limited. RSVP by February 22 to globalchallenge-rsvp@mit.edu to sign-up for a 60-second pitch opportunity.

Web site: http://globalchallenge.mit.edu/events/view/116
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Public Service Center, IDEAS Competition, MIT Global Challenge
For more information, contact:
Kate Mytty
617-255-5474
kmytty@mit.edu
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Evolutionary Biology Lecture: Becoming Human
Time: 11:00a
Location: 4-370
Dr. Ian Tattersall
Dr. Tattersall, Curator Emeritus of Anthropology, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, will trace the major events in human physical and cognitive evolution over the last 4 million years

Hosts: Profs. Robert C. Berwick & David Bartel

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Biology

For more information, contact:

resteghini@wi.mit.edu

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The One-Stop Shop for Energy Efficiency
Removing Barriers to Participation in the Retrofit Marketplace
The Center for Neighborhood Technology

The Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the MIT Energy Club are pleased to present the fourth annual installment of the Carbon Finance Speaker Series, Blueprint for Efficiency. This series of free, public webinars will feature the latest developments in energy efficiency policy, investment, technology, and community engagement.

Please join us for a conversation with Peter Ludwig, Energy Efficiency Programs Manager for CNT Energy (a division of the Center for Neighborhood Technology) and Patrick MacRoy, Director of Regional Retrofits at CNT Energy, on their award winning Energy Savers program, a one-stop energy efficiency shop that focuses on affordable, multifamily buildings in the Chicago region. Peter and Patrick will also touch on how Chicago plans to expand and build on the success of the Energy Savers program through the implementation of the Chicago Region Retrofit Ramp-up (CR3), with the support of a grant from the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings program.

The Energy Savers program helps building owners navigate the complexities of investing in energy efficiency by offering energy assessments, recommendations for cost-effective improvements, assistance finding contractors and quality control. In the three years since the program started, Energy Savers has helped local building owners upgrade more than 3,000 housing units, cutting energy costs by 30 percent on average.

Title: The One-Stop Shop for Energy Efficiency: Removing Barriers to Participation in the Retrofit Marketplace

Date and Time : Thursday February 24th, 2011 from 12pm to 1pm (EST)

GotoWebinar URL: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/282148190

Speakers: Peter Ludwig, Energy Efficiency Programs Manager at CNT Energy, and Patrick MacRoy, Director of Regional Retrofits at CNT Energy

Peter Ludwig is the Energy Efficiency Programs Manager for CNT Energy. His duties include developing and administering the Energy Savers multi-family retrofit program and other efficiency programs including CNT’s Whole Home retrofit pilot program. Mr. Ludwig is a recently accredited by the Association of Energy Engineers as a Certified Energy Manager. He also assists CNT Energy with climate mitigation initiatives. Before joining CNT, Mr. Ludwig worked at JLC Environmental Consulting, Inc., a private firm in New York City, for more than six years. He has extensive experience in hazardous material building surveys, abatement design and management, hazardous material removal in occupied buildings, indoor air quality, construction safety and industrial hygiene applications. When he left JLC, he was operations manager for the asbestos consulting and management division. Mr. Ludwig graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a B.A. in earth and environmental science.

Patrick MacRoy is the Director of Regional Retrofits at CNT Energy, overseeing the implementation of programs designed to create a vibrant retrofit marketplace in the Chicago region. Since joining CNT Energy in 2010, he has been responsible for developing strategies and systems for ensuring smooth implementation of grant funded projects with a particular emphasis on reporting systems. Prior to joining CNT Energy, Mr. MacRoy was the executive director of the national, nonprofit advocacy organization Alliance for Healthy Homes, where he wrote and implemented several federally funded grants to increase community capacity to identify and address health hazards in housing in locations around the country. In the public sector, Mr. MacRoy served as the program director for the Chicago Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention program. Mr. MacRoy holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University and a B.A in Public Policy and American Institutions from Brown University.

LINKS

CNT Energy Savers - http://www.cntenergy.org/buildings/energysavers/

The Blueprint for Efficiency series is supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Yale University and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Energy Club. The series will take place from November 2010 through May 2011. It will be free and open to the public through online webcasts that will be conducted on a weekly basis from 12pm to 1pm EST. Each presentation will be recorded and made available to the global community through Yale University on iTunes U.

Funding for the Carbon Finance Speaker Series "Blueprint for Efficiency" was made possible by a generous grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar

For new users of GoToMeeting, please allow 10-15 minutes before the webinar to set-up and download the software to participate.

System requirements for PC-based attendees include required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, or Vista. System requirements for Macintosh®-based attendees include required: MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) or newer.

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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Language Barriers

Speaker: Andreas Blume (Pittsburgh)

Time: 4:00p–5:30p

Location: at MIT E51-151

Web site: http://www.pitt.edu/~ablume/images/MS-03-07-10.pdf
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Theory Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Path to FULL EMPLOYMENT
Speaker: Robert Pollin (Economist), Ron Blackwell (Chief Economist AFL-CIO), Dvid AUtor (MIT) and Thomas Kochan (MIT) - Moderated by Richard Locke (Political Science Chair MIT)
Time: 4:30p–6:00p
Location: E14-633, MIT Media Lab Complex

Web site:http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.1/ndf_employment.php
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Economics Other Events
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Online News: Public Sphere or Echo Chamber? A presentation by Joshua Benton and Pablo Boczkowski
Speaker: Joshua Benton, Pablo Boczkowski, Jason Spingarn-Koff (Moderator)
Time: 5:00p–7:00p
Location: 3-270
The digital age has been heralded but also pilloried for its impact on journalism. As newspapers continue their mutation into digital formats and as news and information are available from a seeming infinity of websites, what do we actually know about the dynamics of news-consumption online? What does the public do with online news? How influential are traditional news outlets in framing the news we get online?

Joshua Benton is director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. Before spending a year at Harvard as a 2008 Nieman Fellow, he spent 10 years in newspapers, most recently at the Dallas Morning News. He has reported from 10 foreign countries, been a Pew Fellow in International Journalism, and three times been a finalist for the Livingston Award for International Reporting.

Pablo Boczkowski is a Professor of Communications Studies at Northwestern University where he leads a research program that studies the transition from print to digital media. He is the author of Digitizing the News: Innovation in Online Newspapers (2004) and News at Work: Imitation in an Age of Information Abundance (2010).

Moderator: Jason Spingarn-Koff is a New York-based documentary filmmaker and journalist, whose work has appeared on PBS (NOVA, Frontline/World, History Detectives, LIFE360), the BBC, MSNBC,Time and Wired.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/online_news.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Anthropology
For more information, contact:
Amberly Steward
617-253-3065
asteward@mit.edu
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
From Brazil to Japan, film screening and Q&A
Speaker: Aaron Litvin, Ana Paula Hirano Litvin
Time: 5:00p–7:00p
Location: 4-163
A film screening of the 2009 documentary From Brazil to Japan. Since 1990 more than 300,000 Brazilians have gone to Japan to work, forming a wave of migration that has had a profound social and economic impact on both countries. This documentary accompanies five different families of Brazilian migrants over the course of three years, from their preparation for departure in Brazil to their adaptation to life and work in Japan. The migrants, in expressing their hopes and experiences, provide their own narrative. The documentary was filmed from May 2006 to May 2009.

The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the directors.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/misti

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MISTI, Center for International Studies, MIT Japan Program, MIT Brazil Program

For more information, contact:
Michelle Kern
258-8208
mkern@mit.edu

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Thursday, February 24, 2011
MIT Transportation Showcase
Time: 6:00p–8:30p
Location: N51, MIT Museum, 265 Mass Ave
Hosted by the student-run MIT Transportation Club, the MIT Transportation Showcase will connect students, faculty, alumni, and employers in a social environment that facilitates conversations concerning leading-edge research and career opportunities.

The event is free and open to the public. Companies will be recruiting students and students will be presenting research posters. Alumni are invited to reconnect and faculty to make new connections.

Appetizers will be served. Please bring proof of age.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/transportclub/showcase/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): TPSS

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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Working Grounds: Recent Projects in Lebanon, by Prof. Hashim Sarkis of Harvard
Speaker: Professor Hashim Sarkis, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Time: 6:30p–8:00p
Location: 7-431
Hashim Sarkis is the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies. He teaches courses in the history and theory of architecture, such as Practices in Democracy, Constructing Vision: A History and Theory of Perspective's Applications in Architecture, Developing Worlds: Planning and Design in the Middle East and Latin America After WWII, and Green Modern: A History of Environmental Consciousness in Architecture from Patrick Geddes to the Present, and design studios: The Architecture of Geography: Istanbul, Mixed-Use Development, and the Panoramic Condition; Makina/Madina: Reconfiguring the Relationship Between Geography and Event in the City of Fez; Intermodal Istanbul; Square One: Martyrs' Square, Downtown Beirut, Lebanon; and A Field of Schools: Rethinking the Relationship between School and City in San Diego.

Sarkis is a practicing architect between Cambridge and Lebanon. His projects include a housing complex for the fishermen of Tyre, a park in downtown Beirut, two schools in the North Lebanon region, and several urban and landscape projects.

(http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/sarkis/)

Open to: the general public

Cost: FREE

Sponsor(s): Lebanese Club at MIT , The

For more information, contact:
The Lebanese Club at MIT
617 452 5380
lebanon-exec@mit.edu

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Friday, February 25, 2011

NECSI and ESD Seminar: Military Innovation and Complex Systems

Speaker: William G. Glenney, IV, Deputy Director, CNO SSG

Time: 12:30p–2:30p

Location: E51-376

The Strategic Studies Group (SSG) plays a central role in US military innovation. I will discuss aspects the relationship of complexity thinking to military innovation, including SSG concepts that either reflect complexity thinking or demand complexity thinking to achieve.

Web site: http://necsi.edu/events/upcomingevents.html?event=10
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division
For more information, contact:
Stefanie Koperniak
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Computation Lecture: City and Maps on the Digital Age
Speaker: Antoine Picon, Professor GSD
Time: 12:30p–2:00p
Location: 7-431
Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Computation Group Events

For more information, contact:
Daniela Stoudenkova
danielas@mit.edu

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Friday, February 25, 2011
Drumming with Griots: Sabar drumming workshop (beginner level).
Time: 1:30p–3:00p
Location: n52-199, Endicott World Music Room
Drumming with Griots: Sabar drumming workshop (beginner level).
1:30-3:00pm, Rm N52-199 (Endicott World Music Room, 265 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge). Led by members of the Mbaye Family Drum Troupe. No previous experience required. Space limited; first-come first-serve basis. Free and open to the public.

2nd Biennial MIT Griot Festival:
Celebrating the music, drumming and dance of Africa's culture bearers

In conjunction with Black History Month, Rambax, MIT's Senegalese drumming ensemble, hosts a weekend of performances, lectures and workshops celebrating the musical traditions of Griots from Africa and the Diaspora. Masters of words and music, griots are the hereditary musicians and keepers of oral history who have played an important role in many African cultures for centuries. The weekend will feature the Mbaye Family Drum Troupe from Senegal, including Aziz Seck, a pioneer and veteran percussionist in Senegalese popular music.

Open to: the general public

Cost: FREE

Sponsor(s): Concerts Office

For more information, contact:
Clarise Snyder
617-253-2826
mta-request@mit.edu

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Friday, February 25, 2011
Starr Forum: Inside Tahrir Square
Speaker: Iason Athanasiadis, Kristin Fabbe, Fotini Christia
Time: 2:00p–3:30p
Location: E40-496 , Lucian Pye Conference Room
Featured speaker: Iason Athanasiadis
Moderating: Kristin Fabbe, Fotini Christia

Fresh from Cairo, Iason Athanasiadis will share about the 24 crucial hours spent inside Tahrir Square on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning when the Mubarak loyalists attacked and how it turned the entire momentum from one of violent repression to one of negotiations and concessions. Athanasiadis is a Farsi-speaking journalist who currently resides in Afghanistan. He studied Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford and was a 2008 Nieman fellow at Harvard. He studied for a Masters at the Iranian Foreign Ministry's think-tank in Tehran and was imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison on espionage charges during the 2009 post-election unrest. Joining the discussion will be Kristin Fabbe, PhD student, MIT Department of Political Science and Fotini Christia, Assistant Professor, MIT Department of Political Science.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies

For more information, contact:
starrforum@mit.edu

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Friday, February 25, 2011

Drumming with Griots: Sabar drumming workshop (beginner level).

Time: 3:00p–4:30p

Location: n52-199, Endicott World Music Room

Drumming with Griots: Sabar drumming workshop (intermediate level).
3-4:300pm, Rm N52-199 (Endicott World Music Room, 265 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge). Led by members of the Mbaye Family Drum Troupe. No previous experience required. Space limited; first-come first-serve basis. Free and open to the public.

2nd Biennial MIT Griot Festival: Celebrating the music, drumming and dance of Africa's culture bearers

In conjunction with Black History Month, Rambax, MIT's Senegalese drumming ensemble, hosts a weekend of performances, lectures and workshops celebrating the musical traditions of Griots from Africa and the Diaspora. Masters of words and music, griots are the hereditary musicians and keepers of oral history who have played an important role in many African cultures for centuries. The weekend will feature the Mbaye Family Drum Troupe from Senegal, including Aziz Seck, a pioneer and veteran percussionist in Senegalese popular music.

Open to: the general public

Cost: FREE

Sponsor(s): Concerts Office

For more information, contact:
Clarise Snyder
617-253-2826
mta-request@mit.edu

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Friday, February 25, 2011
Hot Electron Transfer from Semiconductor Nanocrystals: Implications for Quantum-Dot Photovoltaics
Speaker: William A. Tisdale, Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Lab, MIT
Time: 3:00p–4:00p
Location: 66-110
Chemical Engineering Department Seminar Series
See speakers, talk titles, and dates at http://web.mit.edu/cheme/news/seminar.html

Solar cells have had limited impact in meeting our global energy needs because of their high cost and low power conversion efficiencies. Semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, offer some encouraging new possibilities because they can be processed with potentially inexpensive solution-based techniques and because they are predicted to have novel optoelectronic properties that could enable ultra-efficient solar power conversion. In this talk, I will demonstrate the transfer of hot electrons from PbSe nanocrystals to conduction band sates of bulk TiO2 and the concomitant excitation of coherent surface vibrational modes associated with this ultrafast process.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cheme/news/seminar.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Chemical Engineering Department
For more information, contact:
Melanie Miller
617-253-6500
melmils@mit.edu

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Harvard

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Tuesday, February 22, 12 p.m.
"From the Frontlines to Online: A Year in Press Freedom." Joel Simon, executive director, Committee to Protect Journalists.
Kalb Seminar Room, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge

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The Internet, Young Adults and Political Participation around the 2008 Presidential ElectionsEszter Hargittai and Aaron Shaw, Berkman Fellows
Tuesday, February 22, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person to Amar Ashar (ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast) and archived on our site shortly after.

How are online and offline political activities linked? Using data collected soon after the 2008 presidential elections on a diverse group of young adults from Obama's home city of Chicago, this presentation will look at the relationship of online and offline political engagement. Thanks to detailed information about political participation, political capital and Internet uses in addition to people's demographic and socioeconomic background, we are able to consider the relative importance of numerous factors in who was more or less likely to vote and engage in other types of political action.

About Eszter
Eszter Hargittai is Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web Use Project. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University where she was a Wilson Scholar. In 2006/07 she was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and in 2008/09 was in residence at Berkman. Her work looks at the implications of differentiated Internet uses for social inequality. She is editor of Research Confidential: Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have.

About Aaron
Aaron is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at UC Berkeley. His current research examines the effects of institutional variation in large-scale collaborative production communities online. In particular, he focuses on relations of power within online communities that create and share informational resources. Aaron has also conducted ethnographic research on political movements to promote access to knowledge in Brazil, a project which he plans to continue as part of a broader analysis of the global governance of informational capitalism.

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Understanding Public Protests in Egypt and Iran: What Is Similar, What Is Different
WHEN Tue., Feb. 22, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Room N-262 (the Bowie Vernon Room), Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict
SPEAKER(S) Hoochang Chehabi, professor of international relations and history at Boston University, and Nazila Fathi, reporter for The New York Times and Nieman Fellow
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks: dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu

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Future of Energy: "In Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling in the U.S."

WHEN Tue., Feb. 22, 2011, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Science Center D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Cherry A. Murray, dean, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences; professor of physics
Featuring Rich Sears, visiting scientist at MIT
CONTACT INFO Brenda Hugot: bhugot@fas.harvard.edu, 617.496.1788
NOTE
On April 20, 2010 the U.S. faced the worst accidental oil spill—and by some assessments—environmental disaster in the history of the country. The Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig, 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, blew up, killing 11 and leaking millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
As the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizion Oil Spill and Offshoring Drilling wraps up its investigative report, commission member Cherry A. Murray will offer a rare insider’s look on carrying out President Obama’s charge to “follow the facts wherever they led.”
Rich Sears, who served as the senior science and engineering adviser on the commission and is a former VP of Deepwater Services at Royal Dutch Shell, will then give a primer on such wells are drilled and explore the what and why of the blowout that doomed the Deepwater Horizon.
Murray will conclude with a summary of the recommendations given by the commission to the U.S. Congress and the oil/gas industries. Both will answer questions about the lessons learned from the accident and suggest ways to move forward.
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/indeepwater

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The Long Road to Electric Cars: Green Hope or Media Hype
WHEN Wed., Feb. 23, 2011, 1 – 2:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Bell Hall, Belfer Bldg. 5th Floor
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs ENRP Program & Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Alan Boyle, MSNBC.com science editor & Bryan Walsh, Time Magazine environment columnist
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Cristine_Russell@khs.harvard.edu
NOTE Second in HKS Clean Energy & the Media Seminars

------------------------------

February 23 | Wednesday | Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Can Financial Innovation Reduce the Costs of Weather Shocks? Agricultural Investment and Consumption Smoothing in India
4:10 – 5:30| Littauer 382, Kennedy School of Government
Shawn Cole, Harvard Business School
Xavier Gine, World Bank
James Vickery, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

For a complete schedule of Spring 2011 Business & Government seminars, please see www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/events.htm

----------------------------

What's Next for Health Care Reform?
WHEN Wed., Feb. 23, 2011, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South-010 | Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy
SPEAKER(S) Analysis by Theda Skocpol and Paul Starr, with discussion from Amitabh Chandra
COST Free
CONTACT INFO inequality@harvard.edu
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/inequality/Seminar/EventHealthCare2011.html

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Collective Bargains: Rebuilding and Repairing Public Sector Labor Relations in Difficult Times
WHEN Wed., Feb. 23, 2011, 5:35 – 7:05 p.m.
WHERE Allison Dining Room, 5th floor Taubman Building, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government
SPEAKER(S) Thomas A. Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management; professor of engineering systems; and co-director, Institute for Work and Employment Research at MIT Sloan School of Management
Commentary by
Jeffrey Mullen, secretary and CEO, Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Representative Martin J. Walsh, Massachusetts House of Representatives
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Polly O'Brien: 617-495-5091
NOTE
Do heated disputes on such issues as drug testing for Boston’s firefighters, reducing the cost of providing health insurance for public employees, and changing the ways that teachers are paid suggest that we need to rethink, revisit, and revise the basic structure of public-sector labor relations? If so, how might public-sector unions, key officials, and civic leaders work together to find equitable and politically acceptable ways to make those changes? Drawing on his research and activities (which included helping resolve the disputes about the Boston firefighters contract and mediating the integration various workforces and unions at MassDOT), Kochan will offer his thoughts on how to update policies and organizational practices in the public sector to bring them into closer alignment with changes in the nature of work, the workforce, and the economy that already have reshaped private-sector employment and unions.
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rappaport

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The Harvard Food Law Society Presents
The Food Bubble
How Wall Street Starved Millions, Got Away With It And Is Doing It Again

Thursday, February 24th
12 p.m. - 1 p.m in Pound 204
Harvard Law School

Open to the Public

Frederick Kaufman’s February 24th talk will focus on the ongoing global food crisis. His groundbreaking Harper’s article, “The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions and Got Away With It,” examined the role investment banks played in the upsurge of food prices in 2008 and has been cited by everyone from Marion Nestle to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Read more about his work in this Vice interview or visit his website American Stomach.com.

For more information visit foodsoc.org or email Nate Rosenberg at nrosenberg at jd11.law.harvard.edu.

----------------------------

Can Sanctions Prevent the Spread of Nuclear Weapons?
WHEN Thu., Feb. 24, 2011, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Kalb Seminar Room, Taubman-275, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program and Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Neerada Jacob, research fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5413/

-----------------------------

February 24
3:30pm Harvard China Project Seminar
Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA
"The Energy-Water Nexus in China: Trading One Problem for Another?" Liu Hengwei, Research Associate, Energy, Climate, and Innovation (ECI) Program, The Fletcher School, Tufts University; Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) Program, Harvard Kennedy School.
http://chinaproject.harvard.edu/seminar%20folder/seminars-2011-spring-term-schedule

-----------------------------

The Politics of Privacy in the U.S., Past and Present: Episodes in the History of the “Surveillance Society”
WHEN Thu., Feb. 24, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School, Perkins room (Rubenstein 415)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HKS Seminar on History and Policy
SPEAKER(S) Sarah Igo
COST Free
CONTACT INFO kathleen_schnaidt@harvard.edu
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/groups/harvard-seminar-on-history-and-policy

----------------------------

The American Democratic Tradition
WHEN Thu., Feb. 24, 2011, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Thompson Room, Barker Center 110
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Committee on Degrees in History and Literature
SPEAKER(S) James Kloppenberg, Charles Warren Professor of American History

-------------------------------

Nuclear Negotiations with Russia with Assistant Secretary of State & Chief Negotiator of the New START Treaty Rose Gottemoeller
WHEN Fri., Feb. 25, 2011, 12 p.m.
WHERE Hauser Hall, Room 105, Harvard Law School Campus
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on Negotiation
SPEAKER(S) Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state & chief negotiator of the New START Treaty, and Robert Bordone, professor, Harvard Law School, director, Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program
CONTACT INFO Sarah Whitman: swhitman@law.harvard.edu
NOTE Gottemoeller will discuss her experiences as the chief negotiator of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), a landmark agreement between the United States and Russia to reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and long-range missiles.
Bring your lunch. Drinks and dessert will be served.
LINK http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/nuclear-negotiations-with-russia/

-----------------------------

The Googlization of Everything
Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Googlization of Everything & Professor at the University of Virginia
Friday, February 25, 12:00 pm
Griswold Hall, Room 110, Harvard Law School
RSVP required for those attending in person to Amar Ashar (ashar@cyber.law.harvard.edu)

Google dominates the World Wide Web. There was never an election to determine the Web's rulers. No state appointed Google its proxy, its proconsul, or viceroy. Google just stepped into the void when no other authority was willing or able to make the Web stable, usable, and trustworthy. This was a quite necessary step at the time. The question is whether Google's dominance is the best situation for the future of our information ecosystem. In the early days it was easy to assume that the Web, and the Internet of which the Web is a part, was ungoverned and ungovernable. It was supposed to be a perfect libertarian space, free and open to all voices, unconstrained by the conventions and norms of the real world, and certainly beyond the scope of traditional powers of the state. But we now know that the Internet is not as wild and ungoverned as we might have naively assumed back at its conception. Not only does law matter online, but the specifics of the Internet's design or "architecture" influence how the Web works and how people behave with it. Like Jessica Rabbit in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit,the Internet is not bad-it's just drawn that way. Still, architecture and state-generated law govern imperfectly. In the People's Republic of China, the state clearly runs the Web. In Russia, no one does. States such as Germany, France, Italy, and Brazil have found some ways to govern over and above Google's influence. But overall, no single state, firm, or institution in the world has as much power over Web-based activity as Google does. So Google, which rules by the power of convenience, comfort, and trust, has assumed control, much as Julius Caesar did in Rome in 48 B.C. Before Caesar, there was chaos and civil war, presided over by weak, ineffective leaders who failed to capture the support of the people or to make Rome livable. Like Caesar, Google has found its mandate to rule through vast popular support, even in the absence of a referendum. And like Caesar's, Google's appeal is almost divine. Because we focus so much on the miracles of Google, we are too often blind to the ways in which Google exerts control over its domain.

About Siva
Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian and media scholar, and is currently a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. From 1999 through the summer of 2007 he worked in the Department of Culture and Communication at New York University. Vaidhyanathan is a frequent contributor on media and cultural issues in various periodicals including The Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Times Magazine, The Nation, and Salon.com, and he maintains a blog,www.googlizationofeverything.com. He is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio and to MSNBC.COM and has appeared in a segment of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. Vaidhyanathan is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Institute for the Future of the Book.
In March 2002, Library Journal cited Vaidhyanathan among its “Movers & Shakers” in the library field. In the feature story, Vaidhyanathan lauded librarians for being “on the front lines of copyright battles” and for being “the custodians of our information and cultural commons.” In November 2004 the Chronicle of Higher Education called Vaidhyanathan “one of academe’s best-known scholars of intellectual property and its role in contemporary culture.” He has testified as an expert before the U.S. Copyright Office on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.


He is noted for opposing the Google Books scanning project on copyright grounds. He has published the opinion, that the project poses a danger for the doctrine of fair use, because the fair use claims are arguably so excessive that it may cause judicial limitation of that right.

Vaidhyanathan was born in Buffalo, New York, and attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning both a B.A. in History and a Ph.D. in American Studies.

--------------------------------

South Asia Initiative Water Seminar
February 25, 2011 - 12:30pm - 2:00pm
http://southasiainitiative.harvard.edu/
Contact Name: Megan Rajbanshi
mrajbans@fas.harvard.edu
CGIS South, Room S020 (Belfer Case Study) 1730 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA
"Indus River basin Research: Emerging Challenges and Directions." Jim Wescoat, Aga Khan Professor of Architecture, MIT.

Chaired by John Briscoe, Professor of the Practice of Environmental Health, HSPH, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Environmental Engineering, SEAS

Co-sponsored by the Harvard Water Program and the Harvard University Center for the Environment


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Other

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Greenpeace Boston Chapter - Arctic Sunrise Tour

Description: Boston, MA - Coal Free Future Tour
Description: We are very excited to announce that Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, is sailing into Boston in February. This is the last stop of the Coal Free Future Tour.

Greenpeace is continuing its fight against the coal industry with a ship tour to highlight places like Massachusetts, where people across the commonwealth are standing up to the coal industry. We are joining this fight by raising awareness about the true cost of coal and the impacts of burning coal on our planet and the devastating effect on people’s health.

Open Boat tours - Come down to Rowes Wharf at the Boston Harbor and take a tour of the Arctic Sunrise! - the schedule is as follows:
Mon 2/21 - Open Boat 10 - 4

Let us know if you are interested in attending one of our events, and we'll contact you with details.
We are also still looking for volunteers throughout the ship’s stay to help with tours and other activities. If you can volunteer some of your time please contact David Lands at dlands@greenpeace.org

Please include your full name, phone number, and email address so that we can let you know the details of this exciting opportunity!

Location: Rowes Wharf, Boston Harbor

http://members.greenpeace.org/event/view/4022/

---------------------------------------------

PechaKucha Boston 21
Tue Feb 22
Mantra, 52 Temple Pl, Boston (near Park St T)
Drinks and chit chat at 6pm. 20×20 talks at 7pm.
Free and open to the public. Cash bar.

http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/

--------------------------

Start the Presses: News sites of the future, told by the people building them
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
7:00 PM

Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd. Dorchester, MA

Wondering what news websites will look like in the future? Find out at this panel featuring the people building them from the ground up at both the local and international levels. The panel will dive into how the mobile web, HTML 5, Flash, app stores and more impact and change what news organizations need from their content management systems, and will feature the creator of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, as well as the founder of Universal Hub, Adam Gaffin, who has helped build numerous community news sites using the platform. Also on panel: Andrew Phelps (@andrewphelps) is the first full-time reporter for wbur.org and the host of WBUR’s news blog, Hubbub. In 2009, Andrew spearheaded the design and construction of wbur.org. He has devoted dozens of hours to training journalists in multimedia production, social media engagement and online editorial standards.

Andrew is also a regular on-air contributor to NPR and to the Marketplace programs. He is a former reporter and news anchor for KPBS in San Diego. His reporting on the October 2007 wildfires was honored by a national PRNDI award for outstanding coverage of breaking news. Come with questions and curiosity as the architects of tomorrow's news systems explain what they see as important to the future of news. And: Austin Gardner-Smith is an internet nerd who pushes pixels, code, and copy for BostInnovation. "I'm pretty into the internet, design, and the future of media, marketing, and advertising. Those all kinda go together in my head."
Moderator: Michael Morisy, Muckrock.com
Time: Panel is from 7-8 pm; schmoozing from 6-7 p.m.
http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/16117997/?eventId=16117997&action=detail

-----------------------------------------

The Cambridge Climate Emergency Action Group (CCEAG) invites you to another meeting of the
Climate Emergency Open Forum
February 22, 2011 , from 7 to 9 pm
at the Windsor Street Community Health Center, 119 Windsor St. 2nd floor Conference Room.

Focus will be on planning for a week of activities in the month of May resembling Brookline's recent week, as discussed at the January 25 meeting. See notes at
http://www.climatechangeactionbrookline.org/calendar.php?showmonth=1&showyear=2011

------------------------------

February 23 at the Broad Institute Auditorium
(Main Street - Seven Cambridge Center) from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
AGENDA
Timeless Planning Principles for Kendall Square & Environs

Dennis Carlone
Dennis is a well-known architect and urban designer whose work includes the East Cambridge Riverfront Project as well as the original North Point Urban Design and Broad Canal & Environs Plan. After an overview of planning principles, Dennis will moderate the discussion.
Putting Good Design and Planning Together

Richard Heapes
Richard is co-founder and partner of Street Works. His slide presentation will illustrate what makes great places work from a design perspective and programming standpoint. This slide presentation has been shown to city groups all over the country.

New Quincy Ken Narva
Ken is the other founder of Street Works and his slide-show will demonstrate how the timeless planning principles have been incorporated into the new Quincy Center transformation.

Kendall Square - a 2020 Vision Alex Twining
Alex’ slide show will demonstrate how these principles and the approach to Quincy Square can be applied to Kendall Square.

Questions & Answers

--------------------------

Refresh Boston in February: Design for Change
Wednesday February 23, 2011 from 6:30pm - 9:00pm
Microsoft NERD Center
1 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
Refresh Boston is back in 2011, and we have 2 events planned with more in the making. If you're interested in speaking at an upcoming event, or know someone who is, let us know.

This month we're proud to announce that Patrick Haney, the person behind Refresh Boston, will be presenting Design for Change, It Makes Cents.

We'll meet in our usual location, on the 11th floor of theMicrosoft NERD Center in Cambridge, right next to the Kendall Square T stop, from 6:30-9PM. For more information, visit theRefresh Boston website.

Patrick's talk, entitled Design for Change, has been presented at Web Design World, NXNE Interactive andThe Rich Web Experience, as well as a handful of other Refresh events around the country.

Design for Change, It Makes Cents
Changing the world sounds like an impossible task for any one person, but we can all use our skills for good rather than evil and make progress towards a better planet. We'll talk about the responsibility that designers have to make a positive change in the world, how we can "go green" as web folk, what to do to gain people's trust and get them involved in your cause, and look at actual techniques we can use right now in order to "do good" on the web.

About Patrick Haney
Patrick is a designer/developer at Hanerino, a two-person design studio that specializes in attractive, accessible interfaces for web & mobile. He's also an adjunct instructor at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts, a certificate program at Boston University, where he teaches classes in both Graphic and Web Design & Web Development.

Our Sponsor
Once again, we need to thank Microsoft for providing us a wonderful space, bringing us pizza for attendees, and allowing us access to numerous beverages in the coolers on the 10th floor.

Support Refresh Boston
We always keep an eye out for companies and individuals who are interested in helping us out by donating things to raffle off or providing drinks/appetizers for attendees. If you'd like to sponsor an upcoming event, check out our Support page.
Website: http://refreshboston.org
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/7759244/MA/Cambridge/Refresh-Boston-in-February-Design-for-Change/Microsoft-NERD-Center/

-------------------------------

These spaghetti dinners are monthly meals with presentations on a theme given at Sprout, an alternative learning center near Davis Square. A $10 donation is requested for food and drink.

You're invited to
Food in the City
a sprout spaghetti dinner

This month's spaghetti dinner will be on Wednesday February 23 at sprout's studios just outside Davis Square at 339R Summer St. Food Not Bombs will be serving the spaghetti at 730PM with performances and presentations starting at 8PM. The theme for this month's sprout spaghetti dinner is Food in the City.

When we think about the origins of food, we might imagine hunter gatherers or yeoman farmers or industrial agriculture. As city dwellers in the 2010s, what are the politics of the food we eat? Where does it come from? How does it get here? How much choice do we have in the matter? Who decides where to put grocery stores in urban neighborhoods? What happens to the food leftover in cafes and groceries after the lights go out? What happens to the wild foods growing around the city? Who even knew there were wild foods growing around the city?

This month's presenters and performers include ::

+ Tai Dinnan from Groundwork Somerville on maple tree tapping
+ The Millstone Coop on backyard chickens
+ Nick Patch on urban foraging
+ Food Not Bombs
+ The Davis Square Yogurt Making Co-op
+ Keith Simmons on subirrigated gardening

-----------------------------
Boston Public Market Vendor Information Workshop

Date: Thursday, February 24th, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm - Click for details
Location: State House, Room 437

What:
An open meeting for interested agricultural producers, local businesses, fishermen and women, seafood producers, specialty food producers and existing or start-up vendors to learn more about the proposed year-round, indoor public market in downtown Boston and provide feedback regarding the market structure, product mix, selling opportunities and activities.

This meeting is a venue to learn and exchange information. All great public markets are a reflection of their local people, products and personality. Presenters from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) and Project for Public Spaces (PPS) will provide an overview and update of the project and describe ways you may be able to participate as a vendor. Most important, we want to hear about your expectations and recommendations to make it an attractive and viable place to do business.

At the conclusion of the meeting, there will be an opportunity to view the proposed site at 136 Blackstone Street, also known as Parcel 7.

More Information:
The mission of the Public Market is to provide a self-sustaining, year-round market for the purchase of fresh, local, healthy and high quality foods, and to strengthen the region’s farm and fisheries economy through the direct sale of fresh and value added products.

The Market location is 136 Blackstone Street, also known as Parcel 7, in the Haymarket section of Boston. The ground floor of this building, excluding sections already used as the Haymarket T Station and parking lot, have been designated for use as a public market. The building is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT).

RSVP:
If you are interested in the meeting, please contact David Webber at David.Webber@state.ma.us or call 617-626-1754 by Tuesday, February 22.

For more information go to http://www.mass.gov/agr/boston-public-mkt.htm

----------------------

Thursday, February 24, 4p
Dudley Branch Library
65 Warren Street
Roxbury, MA
We Shall Not Be Moved: A Photo Documentary of the Local Housing Rights Movement, presented by Kelly Creedon and City Life/Vida Urbana

Come hear from people fighting back against eviction in their communities

City Life/Vida Urbana organizes tenants and former homeowners to prevent eviction after foreclosure and protect their families and communities. Based in the working-class neighborhoods in and around Boston, the group has been effectively using a combination of legal defense, collective action, and political protest to stop evictions since 2008.

We Shall Not Be Moved is an on-going multimedia documentary project by photographer Kelly Creedon, in partnership with City Life/Vida Urbana. The project tells the story of this growing movement.

For more information about City Life/Vida Urbana: 617-524-3541 x315, x310, 304 (en espa?ol x303)
For more information about the library event: 617-442-6186 or aeneh@bpl.org

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Crossing the Crises - with Documentarians Michael Fox & Sílvia Leindecker
http://www.encuentro5.org/home/node/179

Friday, February 25, 2011, 7:00 p.m. Join documentarians Michael Fox and Sílvia Leindecker for the Boston premiere of their latest work, Crossing the Crises: From Collapse to Action - a new feature-length documentary into the heart of the economic crisis. Here's their summary: On September 15, 2008, the United States fell into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The same day, we set out on a trip around the country to ask the “American” people what they had to say about it. In 2010, we went back to see how things had changed. The financial forecasters say the recession is over, but the reality is otherwise.

Their stories reveal desperation, indignation, hope, dreams and a disastrous economic breakdown; chaos generated by a system of inequality. But the financial meltdown is just one of several human
rights crises now shaking the United States—in housing, education, health care, etc. The solutions to “Crossing the American Crises” are in the hands of the people.

Featuring the Vermont Worker’s Center; LA's Bus Rider's Union; Santa Fe's local business Alliance; Oakland's Green Jobs Now; Baltimore’s United Workers; New York's Green Worker Cooperatives and “American” workers, truck drivers, farmers, homeless, ex-felons, minorities, natural disaster survivors, indigenous, immigrants, and residents from coast to coast—covering nearly 40 states across the nation.

-------------------------

Gasland
Film showing
Friday, February 25th, 7:30 p.m., Harvard Square, 3 Church St.

The documentary film “Gasland” by filmmaker Josh Fox. Learn about the domestic natural gas drilling boom sweeping across the US and the drilling technology developed by Halliburton called “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing. This under-regulated practice has contaminated water supplies and destroyed wildlife and property.

“When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. “ www.gaslandthemovie.com/

The filmmaker delivers his alarming message about the consequences of “Fracking” in a very entertaining film. Join us for a night at the movies, popcorn and discussion.

Sponsored by The First Parish UU Climate Justice Task Force, ClimateJustice@firstparishcambridge.org


-------------

Upcoming

------------

Bzzz! Bee Movie + Local Honey Sampling
Sunday, February 27th, 2:30 pm
George Sherman Union, Small Metcalf Hall, 2nd floor, Boston University
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Where did all the bees go?? If you've been aware of the news in the past few years, we're sure you're familiar with CCD: Colony Collapse Disorder. Discovered first in late 2006, hordes of bees literally....disappeared. The worker bees leave for the day and never return, abandoning the queen, the young, the eggs. Everything.

So maybe the darn queen was crackin' the whip too hard. But maybe not -- the theories abound. Was it a virus? Environmental changes? Malnutrition? An affect of pesticides?
Want to explore these questions? If so, join us Sunday, February 27th at 2:30PM for the filmVanishing of the Bees, which explores the issues in greater detail, outlining what led up to the problem and what can be done differently going forward in order to prevent it from happening again.

We're following the film with a panel of local beekeepers and honey makers (Golden Rule Honey,Allandale Honey Co., http://www.eatlocalhoney.com & more!) discussing their work... And then we'll get to taste their bounty! It's your chance to learn the nuances of honey and talk to the folks that make it. And understand exactly why we need to be informed and make changes to prevent honeybees from disappearing again...

This screening is generously co-sponsored by Slow Food Tufts and Slow Food BU.

Cost for the afternoon's program is only $5. Reserve your spot today!

Thinking of spring, which brings flowers... And bees!

Social Justice Librarianship: Experiences from the Field

An event sponsored by the Simmons College Chapters of:
The Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG) and Special Libraries Association (SLA)

---------------------------------

Tuesday, March 1, 2011
6:30 - 8:30pm
Kotzen Meeting Room
Lefavour Hall
Simmons College
300 The Fenway, Boston

Please join us for a panel discussion on social justice librarianship. This discussion seeks to define progressive librarianship, explore how social justice values fit in the library, and highlight potential career paths. The panel will be moderated by Susie Husted (Boston Radical Reference & CUNY Queens College MLS '02) and will work within a format that incorporates story telling as well as audience participation.
We are fortunate to welcome the following panelists:
Clayton Cheever, Metro Boston Library Network Administrator; Boston Public Library Project Manager; Massachusetts Library Association Youth Services Section Chair; Boston Workmen's Circle
Heather McCann, Urban Studies & Planning and GIS Librarian, MIT Libraries; Boston Radical Reference Collective; Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Tom Blake, Digital Projects Manager, Boston Public Library

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

For questions regarding the event, contact the PLG at Simmons College via email
at PLG@simmons.edu or through our website: http://plgatsimmons.wordpress.com/

A map of the Simmons College campus can be found here:
http://www.simmons.edu/undergraduate/visit/maps/

---------------------------

*Boston Commons Rising: Reclaim Our Commons and Communities*
*Friday, March 4 at 7PM*
First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist
This month's JP Forum features Jay Walljasper, author and editor with On the Commons of the new book, *All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons*along with community speakers profiling commons based solutions. Despite the dire ecological and economic conditions in today's world, a remarkable phenomenon is emerging. We can see a multitude of kindred efforts that explore new or renewed modes of human connection and collaboration as a basis for survival and sustainability. Many of these efforts involve reclaiming our commons "those things that belong to all of us" as a means to shape a just and hopeful future for our communities and planet.
*Details:* http://www.sojust.org/events/16533083/

***1st Monday of every month - mark your calendar!***
*Skillshare: Fundraising - Getting Past the Fear of Asking*
*Monday, March 7 from 6PM-8:30PM*
The NonProfit Center by South Station
*Do you want to raise money to support the causes and organizations you care about?* **This engaging coaching session, presented by Robbie Samuels (SoJust Co-Founder), focuses on getting past the fear of asking and how to avoid some common mistakes. Learn an easy way to sort through contact lists and build a strong prospect list based on the 3 Cs of fundraising: capacity, connection and commitment. Learn specific language for how to make a strong ask, based on the relationship-building tips shared in *Art of the Schmooze*, and ten tips that will make your next fundraising plan a success. "If you are afraid to ask for money, kick yourself out of the way and let the cause talk."
RSVP: http://www.sojust.org/events/16373242/

*Take Our Survey*
Help guide the planning of SoJust in 2011 as we move toward our 5th anniversary in September - take our survey.

**If you are receiving this you are qualified to respond - prior event attendance not a requirement**

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The Very First Annual
Jamaica Plain Home Energy fair

A BETTER PLANET BEGINS with a GREENER COMMUNITY

SATURDAY, MARCH 5th,
10:30am-1pm (Registration starts at 10)
at Bella Luna Restaurant in the Brewery Complex
284 Amory Street, Jamaica Plain

KNOW which home improvements will save the most energy
Talk with experts on weatherization, insulation and air sealing, and
introducing the DEEP ENERGY RETROFIT, for homeowners who are ready to get serious about reducing their energy footprint.

LEARN where to find energy efficiency rebates
Representatives from Utility rebate programs will explain how to leverage rebates for energy efficiency work, including up to $42,000 for Deep Energy Retrofit work!

HEAR about actions you can take to work for climate justice and a sustainable future
Local community initiatives will explain how you can work together with your neighbors on a healthy planet for everyone.

WIN prizes for the lowest home energy consumption!
Be sure to bring your 2010 home energy bills to compete in our very first
Home Energy Throwdown.

BRING THE KIDS
Energy Savings scavenger hunt just for kids!

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

Prudential Unlimited Realty
Living Structures Home Remodeling for Sustainability
Bella Luna/Milky Way
Cool JP, a project of Boston Climate Action Network
Boston Building Materials Co-op

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Gragger/Noisemaker! The Workmen's Circle's 4th Annual Radical Purim Party Celebrating Economic Justice!

Saturday, March 19th, 8pm - midnight
At Spontaneous Celebrations, 45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain
Sliding scale $10-20

*Bloco AfroBrazil*
*DJ Annie R U Ok*
*And a unique, never-before-seen Purim shpiel (play)*

We will honor work that is being done locally to protect workers' rights and fight back against bad employers. The Gragger, the Jewish noisemaker, is traditionally used to drown out the name of our foes - join us to make some serious noise in a rowdy call for justice and joy!

Live music! Costume contest! Cash bar! Performance!

Contact Leah for more info: leah@circleboston.org
www.circleboston.org

Leah Madsen
Program and Membership Organizer
Boston Workmen's Circle
leah@circleboston.org
617-566-6281

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In November, 2007, Portsmouth, New Hampshire formally decided to become an Eco-Municipality, when its City Council passed a resolution declaring that the following four sustainability objectives would guide its municipal operations:

1. Reduce dependence on fossil fuels, underground metals, and minerals

2. Reduce dependence upon synthetic chemicals and other unnatural substances.

3. Reduce encroachment upon nature.

4. Meet human needs fairly and efficiently

An Eco-Municipality uses a comprehensive, integrated approach to creating a sustainable city.

Join us to find out how Portsmouth became an Eco-Municipality and how the city takes the systems approach to sustainability now.

Wednesday, March 23
Main Library Auditorium
7pm

Speakers:
Peter Britt, Sustainability Coordinator, Portsmouth, NH
John Bohenko, City Manager, Portsmouth, NH

Sarah James from the Institute for Eco-Municipality Education & Assistance will give a brief introduction about eco-municipalities.

Sponsored by the office of Vice Mayor Henrietta Davis, the Cambridge Renewable Energy Team (CREATe), and the Cambridge Energy Alliance.

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NESEA's Building Energy Conference

March 8-10, 2011, in Boston, MA.

BuildingEnergy is the only conference where architects, designers, planners, builders, policymakers, manufacturers, and installers work together to determine what's possible. Conference sessions range from emerging trends in renewable energy to deep energy retrofits of commercial and residential buildings. The Trade Show features 160 exhibitors with the latest sustainable technologies and products.

http://www.nesea.org/be11/

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Resource

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Boston Food System

"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."

The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.

Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.

It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs

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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/

Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/studios

Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation

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Links to events at 60 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://fhapgood.fastmail.fm/site02.html

Boston Area Computer User Groups http://www.bugc.org/

http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template

http://sustainability.mit.edu/

http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/

http://green.harvard.edu/events

http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx

http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/

http://boston.nerdnite.com/

http://www.meetup.com/

http://www.eventbrite.com/

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