Sunday, March 27, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - March 27, 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, March 28, 2011
Webinar: Status of Grid-scale Energy Storage and Strategies for Accelerating Cost-effective Deployment
Speaker: John Kluza, Business Development Manager for Emerging Applications at Satcon Technology and alumnus, MIT System Design and Management Program
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: Virtual -- see link below
MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series
The MIT System Design and Management Program Webinar Series on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address the engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.

The development of emerging grid-scale energy storage technologies offers great potential to improve the architecture and operation of the electrical grid. This is especially important in the face of increased reliance on clean, dependable electricity and with the influx of renewable generation and smart grid technology. However, at the present, grid-scale energy storage is still in an early, developing stage.

This presentation brings together a broad overview of the sector, including rough revenue estimates for each individually possible application for energy storage, a high-level overview that includes rough cost estimates of each technology and supplier, and a more focused look at the actual or possible implementations in the market with rough estimates of the systems' economics in each implementation. It includes a discussion of notable dynamics and potentially effective strategies, based on current industry conditions and existing academic management frameworks. The investigation was accomplished by leveraging prior research in existing literature, and extending it with first-hand discussions with industry leaders and market analysis.

Web site: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_032811/webinar-grid-scale-energy-storage.html

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free

Tickets: http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_032811/webinar-grid-scale-energy-storage.html

Sponsor(s): Engineering Systems Division, MIT System Design and Management Program

For more information, contact:
Lois Slavin
617-253-0812
lslavin@mit.edu

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Slum Free India? Engaging Residents in a New Era a New Plan

March 28, 2011 12:00p–1:00p

The central Government of India (GOI) recently launched the Rajiv Awas Yojana scheme with the objective of making India "slum free". The GOI scheme asks state and local governments to adopt city-wide approaches and to take decisive action in upgrading all slums. The national-level political leadership, budgetary support, and nation-wide scale of this scheme represent a significant step forward for the GoI and an opportunity for creating tangible improvements for the urban poor.

CHF International has been supporting GOI and civil society stakeholders to advance the vision of RAY and implement meaningful, community-driven solutions for urban poverty reduction. Join Brian English, Country Director of CHF International-India, in a discussion on how they have been advancing meaningful "participation" in state-driven solutions and supporting thousands of urban poor to gain more meaningful positions in the market-place and on the policy agendas.

Category: lectures/conferences

Speaker: Brian English, Country Director for CHF International-India, an international development organization founded in 1952.

Location: 32-155

Sponsored by: MIT Energy Club, MIT Energy Initiative

Admission: Open to the public

For more information: Contact MIT Energy Club

energyclub@mit.edu

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Monday, March 28, 2011

Useful Excess Capacity? An Empirical Study of US Oil & Gas Drilling (Host Workshop - Industrial Organization Workshop)

Speaker: Jun Ishii (Amherst)

Time: 2:30p–4:00p

Location: E62-650

Useful Excess Capacity? An Empirical Study of US Oil & Gas Drilling (Host Workshop - Industrial Organization Workshop)

Web site: http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/6510

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Energy & Environmental Economics at MIT

For more information, contact: theresa

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Monday, March 28, 2011
ADVANTAGE: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge
Speaker: Adam Segal
Time: 3:30p–5:00p
Location: E40-496
Book Talk with Adam Segal.
Adam Segal, will speak on his recently published book "Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge"

Adam Segal, Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow,
Counterterrorism and National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Introduction by Taylor Fravel, the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Associate Professor of Political Science and member of the Security Studies Program at MIT

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MIT China Program, MIT India Program, Security Studies Program

For more information, contact:
starrforum@mit.edu

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Monday, March 28, 2011
Joint With Harvard - Toxic Pollutants and Infant Health: Evidence from Plant Openings and Closings
Speaker: Janet Currie (Columbia)
Time: 4:00p–5:30p
Location: E51-376

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Public Economics Seminar
For more information, contact: Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Monday, March 28, 2011
Collision 2 Lecture Series: Ricardo Dominguez
Speaker: Ricardo Dominguez
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: E15-070, Bartos Theater
Collision 2: When Artistic and Scientific Research Meet
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The ACT Monday night lecture series Collision 2: When Artistic and Scientific Research Meet draws together artists and scientists from different disciplines to discuss artistic methodologies and forms of inquiry at the intersection of art, architecture, science and technology.

This series is part of AR - Artistic Research, a yearlong collaboration between the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology and Siemens Stiftung, Munich, co‑curated by ACT Director Ute Meta Bauer and Siemens Stiftung Curator of Visual Arts Thomas D. Trummer. The lecture series is also part of the related ACT course 4.365/4.366 From Bauhaus to Our House.

The lecture series is free and open to the public.

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MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology presents its Monday night lecture series, Collision 2: When Artistic and Scientific Research Meet

Transborder Disturbances: Aesthetics, Interventions and Technology

Ricardo Dominguez, artist, activist and Associate Professor of Visual Arts, UCSD
Respondent: Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, Director, MIT Center for Future Civic Media

Ricardo Dominguez is co-founder of The Electronic Disturbance Theater(EDT), a group who developed virtual-sit-in technologies in 1998. His collaborative project, the Transborder Immigrant Tool,/i. - a GPS cell phone safety tool for crossing the Mexico/U.S border - is being exhibited at the 2010?11 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (La Jolla), and ?Un marco modular? at Centro Cultural De Espa?a, El Salvador (2010). Dominguez teaches in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD, where he runs the b.a.n.g. lab.

Web site: http://visualarts.mit.edu/about/lecture.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
For more information, contact:
Laura Chichisan Pallone
617-253-4415
clauraa@mit.edu

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011MIT
150 Symposium: Leaders in Science and Engineering: The Women of MIT
Time: 8:30a–5:00p
Location: W16, Kresge Auditorium
We will celebrate the leadership roles played by MIT women in these fields at a symposium to feature plenary sessions of research talks by outstanding MIT graduate and faculty women. In addition, there will be sessions to give historical and current assessments of women in science and engineering.

Web site: http://mit150.mit.edu/symposia/women-of-MIT
Open to: the general public
Tickets: http://www.regonline.com/mit150_women_reg
Sponsor(s): MIT150 Office
For more information, contact: symposium_march28-29@mit.edu

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MAPC Clean Energy Forum: Municipal Energy Challenges and Solutions

March 29, 2011 9:30a–12:00p

The forum will provide an opportunity for municipal staff, volunteers, community non-profit members and other stakeholders to meet and discuss their experiences working in the municipal energy realm. Come share your success stories and lessons learned, discover how other communities have addressed similar challenges, and explore new opportunities for collaboration.

Category: lectures/conferences

Location: Federal Reserve Building, Connolly Room (4th Floor), 600 Atlantic Ave, Boston, MA

Sponsored by: MIT Energy Campus Events, MAPC

Admission: Open to the public

For more information: http://mapc.org/register-mapc-clean-energy-forum

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Endogenous Communication in Complex Organizations
Speaker: Andrea Prat (LSE)
Time: 2:30p–4:00p
Location: E62-550
Endogenous Communication in Complex Organizations

Web site: https://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/oe-seminar/?toolset=hidden
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Sloan Seminar in Organizational Economics
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Transportation@MIT Seminar Series
Speaker: Noelle Eckley Selin, MIT Engineering Systems Division; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: 3-270
Transportation@MIT Seminar Series

Transportation@MIT and the MIT Transportation Club are pleased to announce the continuation of the Transportation Seminar Series. All seminars this spring will be held in 3-270 on Tuesdays at 4pm.
This series will feature presentations by faculty researchers at MIT, as well as invited guest speakers from beyond the Institute. Please save the date for the following confirmed speakers:

Noelle Eckley Selin, MIT Engineering Systems Division; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences


Web site: http://transportation.mit.edu/

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free Admission to MIT and General Public

Sponsor(s): Transportation@MIT

For more information, contact:
Rebecca Fearing
6172533366
transportation@mit.edu

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Techno-economic, Location, and Carbon Emission Analysis of Biofuel Technologies
Speaker: Mark Mba Wright, Dept. Chemical Engineering, MIT
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: 5-234
Center for Energy and Propulsion Research Seminar Series

The U.S. has established aggressive targets for the production of renewable fuels as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. EISA calls for the generation of 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels by 2022. Our challenge is to find cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally responsible biofuels. This presentation will argue the case for integrating techno-economic, location, and carbon emission analysis to meet this challenge.


Techno-economic analysis estimates the costs of producing biofuels based on technical and economic assumptions. Location analysis evaluates feedstock availability and market constraints. Carbon emission accounts for carbon sources and sinks. The combination of these methodologies provides a more complete view of the challenges faced by biofuel technologies. Various thermochemical pathways for biomass conversion to drop-in transportation fuels are discussed during this talk.


Pelletization, torrefaction, fast pyrolysis, and gasification are some of the thermochemical processes that will be compared in terms of techno-economic performance, location impacts, and environmental factors. Results from this study highlight some of the challenges and opportunities for thermochemical production of biofuels.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): RGD Lab

For more information, contact:
Patrick Kirchen

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
State of Power Semiconductor Devices and the Future of Power Electronics
Speaker: Dr. Michael Briere
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: 34-101
MTL Seminar Series
Refreshments at 3:30 p.m.

Focusing on the application range between 1 and 1200 V, a survey is presented on the current status of performance for commercial power devices and the prospects for further improvements. The relation between power device performance and system level capabilities are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the revolutionary potential of relatively new material systems based devices such as the AlGaN-GaN high electron mobility transistor to dramatically alter the future of power electronics. Recent results obtained using the commercial GaN based HEMT development platform at International Rectifier, known as GaNpowIR, will be presented to demonstrate the current and potential future capabilities of this technology.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories

For more information, contact:
Mara Elena Karapetian
452-2545
webmaster@mtl.mit.edu

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Giving new life to materials for energy, electronics, and the environment
Speaker: Prof. Angela M. Belcher
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: 10-250
Wulff Lecture
The Wulff Lecture is an introductory, general-audience, entertaining lecture which serves to educate, inspire, and encourage MIT undergraduates to take up study in the field of materials science and engineering and related fields. The entire MIT community, particularly freshmen, is invited to attend. The Wulff Lecture honors the late Professor John Wulff, a skilled, provocative, and entertaining teacher who inaugurated a new approach to teaching the popular freshman subject: 3.091 Introduction to Solid State Chemistry.

Organisms have been making exquisite inorganic materials for over 500 million years. Although these materials have many desired physical properties such as strength, regularity, and environmental benign processing, the types of materials that organisms have evolved to work with are limited. However, there are many properties of living systems that could be potentially harnessed by researchers to make advanced technologies that are smarter, more adaptable, and that are synthesized to be compatible with the environment. One approach to designing future technologies which have some of the properties that living organisms use so well, is to evolve organisms to work with a more diverse set of building blocks. These materials could be designed to address many scientific and technological problems in electronics, military, medicine, and energy applications. Examples include a virus enabled lithium ion rechargeable battery we recently built that has many improved properties over conventional batteries, as well as materials for solar and display technologies. This talk will address conditions under which organisms first evolved to make materials and scientific approaches to move beyond naturally evolved materials to genetically imprint advanced technologies.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

For more information, contact:
617-253-3300

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Development Effects of Electricity: Evidence from the Geologic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil (Host Workshop - MIT/Sloan Seminar in Microeconomic Applications)

Speaker: Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale School of Mgmnt.)

Time: 5:00p–6:30p

Location: E62-650

Development Effects of Electricity: Evidence from the Geologic Placement of Hydropower Plants in Brazil (Host Workshop - MIT/Sloan Seminar in Microeconomic Applications)

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Energy & Environmental Economics at MIT

For more information, contact:
theresa

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Special Presentation: Waterfronts: Design and Development Projects by Sasaki Associates

Speaker: Jason Hellendrung, Principal; Gina Ford, Principal

Time: 12:10p–2:00p

Location: 10-485

Part of the Harlem River Bronx Practicum; Lecture open to all.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning

For more information, contact:
Eran Ben-Joseph
ebj@mit.edu

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Energy 101: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Speaker: Cristina Botero

Time: 12:45p–1:45p

Location: 3-133

Energy 101 Series

This Energy 101 talk will present the basic technical concepts behind Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), a process by which CO2 emissions from fossil fuel utilization can be avoided by separating -or "capturing"- this gas from the emitting source and permanently storing it underground. Emphasis will be placed on the fuel utilization and capture processes prior to CO2 storage.

Cristina Botero is a second year PhD Student at MIT's Mechanical Engineering Department and has been working on Carbon Capture and Storage for almost five years. She conducts her research in the Reacting Gas Dynamics Lab, where she is looking at cheaper and more efficient ways to utilize coal for power generation and fuel production through gasification with carbon capture and storage. Cristina holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and worked with GE Global Research for over two years prior to coming to MIT.

Lunch will be served. No RSVP required.

Web site: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/energy-101/energy-101-carbon-capture-and-storage-ccs
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
cbotero@mit.edu
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Implications of Subsurface CO2 Mobility on CCS

Speaker: Dr. Kurt Zenz House, President of C12 Energy

Time: 5:30p–6:30p

Location: 4-231

MIT Energy Club Lecture Series

Supercritical CO2 injected in the subsurface is highly mobile and buoyant. We discuss the implications that this mobility has for commercial-scale CO2 capture and storage (CCS) projects. We will address the current legal landscape for CO2 storage, and argue that the "American Model" of pore space ownership will enable the nascent CCS industry. We then consider some of the physical implications of CO2?s mobility, in the context of this legal landscape. In particular, we combine existing analytical models and numerical simulations of CO2 plume development to demonstrate the value of laterally confined CO2 storage sites. Furthermore, we discuss the potential for miscible CO2 flooding for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) to enable CCS projects as well as the potential for CCS projects to enable EOR. In particular, we have identified several opportunities in which combined EOR-CCS projects are financially attractive.

Bio: Kurt Zenz House studies the physics, chemistry, and economics of capturing and storing anthropogenic carbon dioxide in ways that will ensure it does not enter the atmosphere. That work includes both storing CO2 in the sub-surface as well as converting CO2 to stable carbonate minerals. He is currently the President of C12 Energy, a Sequoia backed company which is commercializing projects that combine geologic CO2 storage with Enhanced Oil Recovery. Kurt is also a fellow at MIT, where his work is partially supported by KAUST.

Web site: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/lecture-series/impli
cations-of-subsurface-co-sub-2-sub-mobility-on-ccs

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energyclub@mit.edu

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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Building Technology Lecture Series: Lisa Heschong - Creating Consensus on Annual Daylighting Performance Metrics

Speaker: Lisa Heschong, Managing Principle, Heschong Mahone Group, Inc.

Time: 12:30p–2:00p

Location: 4-231

Building Technology Spring Lecture Series

Designing well daylit buildings is understood to provide numerous benefits, from improved human well-being to reduced environmental impacts. However, a quantitative definition of a well-daylit building has illusory. With the advent of greater computing power, it is now possible to simulate the daylighting performance of interior spaces in great detail, point by point and hour by hour, and yet, consensus on how to best interpret the data and its meaning has been slower to develop. Lisa Heschong describes the process of forming an international committee to guide the development of new annual-simulation based metrics, the field studies behind the discussions, current proposals to translate the metrics into daylighting requirements in codes and standards, and the need for additional research to explain the dynamics of human comfort in daylit spaces.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): Building Technology Program, Department of Architecture

For more information, contact:
Kathleen Ross
617 253 1876
kross@mit.edu

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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Materials Science and Engineering Seminar: Engineering the Nanoparticle-Biology Interface

Speaker: Prof. Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli

Time: 4:00p–5:15p

Location: 66-110

Materials Science and Engineering Seminar Series
Sponsored by CMSE, DMSE, and MPC. To receive announcements about this series and other events of interest to the MIT materials community, subscribe to the matseminars mailing list at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/matseminars

Nanotechnology has held great promise for enhancing biological systems and engineering new capabilities in biology. We use laser excitation of gold nanorods to control the release of multiple species independently. Laser excitation at the nanorod surface plasmon resonance can release biomolecules conjugated to the nanorod. Because the SPR is tunable by changing nanorod aspect ratio, nanorods can be excited independently at different wavelengths. We exploit this property for selective and mutually exclusive release of two different DNA strands. Also, we are utilizing nanoparticles to enhance biological reactions. One of the biggest barriers for nanobiotechnology is non-specific adsorption, where biomolecules non-covalently stick to nanoparticles. Typically, non-specific adsorption is viewed as a major hindrance to nanobiotechnology, but we demonstrate that it can actually be used to enhance protein production in in vitro translation. By tuning the balance between non-specific adsorption and specific binding, we can optimize enhancement and also enhance specific genes.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science & Engineering, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Materials Processing Center, Materials@MIT

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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Between Page and Screen: Digital, Visual, and Material Poetics

Speaker: Amaranth Borsuk

Time: 4:00p–6:00p

Location: 2-105

CMS Colloquium Series

Amaranth Borsuk discusses her poetic practice as a multi-media writer and artist, reading selections from recent work and showing images and performance footage from current projects. What is a poetics of materiality and how does it play out across print and digital media? What does a focus on the material of language do to our constructions of authorship? Borsuk will read from Between Page and Screen, a digital pop-up book of poems, Tonal Saw, a chapbook constructed from a religious tract, and Excess Exhibit, a flip-book of conjoined poems that mutate from constraint into rapturous abundance. She will also show digital work in progress and read selections from her recently completed manuscript Handiwork, whose poems explore the relationship between torture and writing, trauma and creativity through a combination of Oulipo constraint and surreal lyricism.

Web site: http://cms.mit.edu/events/talks.php#033111
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cms@mit.edu
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Thursday, March 31, 2011

BUDRUS - Film Screening

Time: 7:00p–8:30p

Location: 6-120

***WOMEN TAKE THE REEL*** 2011 Film Festival Celebrating Women's History Month***

It takes a village to unite the most divided people on earth.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women's contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today.

In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat. While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East.

Discussion with film director/producer to follow.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/wgs/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Women's and Gender Studies, Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies, Palestine@MIT, The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
The Friendly WGS Staff
253-8844
wgs@mit.edu
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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Making Synthetic Biologists - iGEM the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition

Speaker: Randy Rettberg

Time: 7:00p–9:00p

Location: NE-30, Broad Institute Auditorium

IEEE/ACM Joint Seminar Series
Exploring the edge of computing technology.

Can simple biological systems be built from standard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? OR, is biology so complicated that every case is unique? The minicomputer revolution thrived on interchangeable parts from the TTL catalogue. There was a rich explosion in computer companies, semiconductor companies, and the industries that supported and used those computers. Today, the biotechnology industries are like the mainframe companies of the 1960's. Can the engineering principles of standardization and interchangeable parts create an industrial revolution of synthetic biology based on standard parts? iGEM, the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition is implementing this vision. Each year teams of undergraduate students are given a kit of 1000 biological parts as DNA. The parts include sensors for small molecules, coding regions for various proteins, and other control parts. Over the summer, the teams build systems from these parts and make new parts of their own. They come together at MIT in the fall, present their work, win prizes, and have fun meeting other new synthetic biologists.

Randy Rettberg is the Founder and Director of iGEM at MIT. Previously, he worked as a computer and network designer at BBN, Apple, and Sun.

Joint meeting of the Boston Chapters of the IEEE Computer and Engineering in Medicine
and Biology Societies, the MIT biological engineering and biomedical engineering student group (BE-BMES) and GBC/ACM.

Web site:http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/Rettbergtalk.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): ACM & IEEE/CS
For more information, contact:
Peter Mager
p.mager at computer.org
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Friday, April 01, 2011

Approaches to Professionalism in the Face of Mismanagement or Corruption in Developing Countries

Speaker: Jonathan Richmond, MIT

Time: 12:00p–2:00p

Location: W20-307

CTL DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS SERIES
This speaker series brings at least three speakers each semester to the MIT campus to talk about their expertise in fields that are studied by members of the Transportation Students Group, including transit, airlines, high speed rail, and intelligent transportation systems.

Efforts to help developing countries move forward frequently fail because they inadequately respond to the prevalence of mismanagement or corruption. International agencies tend to emphasize staffing with technically proficient personnel who deal with their developing country clients primarily in a language of economic rationality.

Despite the existence of anti-corruption units, far more needs to be done to both require and assist with governance reforms that are preconditions to development in countries troubled by corruption.

This talk will review attempts by the author to plan for major transportation improvements together with governance reforms in Mauritius and Bangladesh while working for those countries' national governments as a World Bank funded transport adviser. It will discuss the problems encountered and propose new approaches to professionalism in development that promise greater effectiveness in assisting countries with governance problems and promoting their successful development.

Light lunch provided.

Web site: http://ctl.mit.edu/distinguished-speakers
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for Transportation & Logistics
For more information, contact:
Veronica Hannan
vhannan@mit.edu
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Friday, April 01, 2011

Saltpeter, the Mother of Gunpowder, and the Quest for Infinite Security in the Age of Bacon and Boyle

Speaker: David Cressy

Time: 12:00p–2:00p

Location: 16-128

David Cressy, Humanities Distinguished Professor of History, Ohio State University, will speak on "Saltpeter, the Mother of Gunpowder, and the Quest for Infinite Security in the Age of Bacon and Boyle"

Friday, April 1, 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m., Rm. 16-128

Website: http://history.osu.edu/people/view/AllFac/678

All members of the MIT community are welcome (space permitting), but please reserve a place with Cheryl Butters (cbutters@mit.edu) at least one week in advance so that she can order enough food for everyone who will attend.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/concourse/www/series.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free of charge, but RSVP to Cheryl
Tickets: RSVP to Cheryl
Sponsor(s): Concourse
For more information, contact:
Cheryl Butters
(617) 253-3200
cbutters@mit.edu
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Friday, April 01, 2011

It is Necessary to Revolutionize Climate Prediction: Is it Possible?

Speaker: Professor Jagadish Shukla, Climate Dynamics, George Mason University

Time: 4:00p–5:00p

Location: 54-915

EAPS Department Lecture Series

Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/news/dls.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0.00
Tickets: N/A
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
For more information, contact:
Jacqui Taylor
253-2127
jtaylor@mit.edu
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Friday, April 01, 2011

MITFAC Celebr-ATE: A celebration of innovations that are building a healthy food system

Speaker: Michel Nishan

Time: 5:00p–8:00p

Location: 32-4th floor, R&D Pub

Join the MIT Food and Agriculture Collaborative (MITFAC) and Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts for a celebration of food! This inaugural MITFAC event will explore the problems with our current food system and showcase the solutions that are being developed within the MIT community. Hear sustainable food pioneer, chef, and author Michel Nishan discuss the role each of us can play in rebuilding our nation's food system, learn what the MIT community is doing to address some of the most pressing challenges to our food system, and watch chefs from Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts demonstrate the art of cooking with sustainable ingredients, and then taste their creations.

This event is open to everyone interested in improving our food system! We welcome attendees from both within the MIT community and beyond.

April 1 | 5pm-8pm | MIT R&D Pub (4th Floor of Stata Center, 32 Vassar St., Cambridge)

Space is limited, so reserve your ticket today! Tickets are free and can be reserved at http://mitfac.eventbrite.com.

Web site: http://mitfac.eventbrite.com
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: http://mitfac.eventbrite.com
Sponsor(s): MIT Food & Agriculture Collaborative
For more information, contact:
Kristine Cass
food-exec@mit.edu
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Friday, April 01, 2011

MIT China Forum: Sci-Tech Innovation and Scientific Development in China

Speaker: Dr. ZHOU Ji, President, Chinese Academy of Engineering

Time: 5:30p–6:45p

Location: 6-120

MIT China Forum lecture series

Web site: http://global.mit.edu/index.php/initiatives/china/china-forum/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT China Program, Office of the Associate Provost
For more information, contact:
Sean Gilbert
253-5068
china@mit.edu
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Friday, April 01, 2011

Architecture Lecture Series: The 22nd Schein Memorial Lecture

Speaker: Ryue Nishizawa, Architect, Sanaa, Tokyo

Time: 6:30p–8:00p

Location: 10-250

Architecture and Landscape

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture

For more information, contact:
617-253-7791

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Saturday, April 02, 2011

International Development Night @ the MIT Museum

Time: 7:00p–9:00p

Location: N51, MIT Museum

Showcasing activities, programs, and ventures pursuing international development innovations in clean energy, future cities, safe water, healthcare, microfinance, village utilities, mobiles, humanitarian innovations, and much more!

Free and Open to the public

Hosted in collaboration with the 17th Annual
International Development Conference at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government
http://harvardidc.com/

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, International Development Initiative, Graduate Student Life Grants

For more information, contact:
Laura Sampath
617-253-7052
lsampath@mit.edu

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Harvard

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Targeted Killings: The U.S., the U.N. and Accountability
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2011, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Allison Dining Room
Taubman Building, 5th Floor
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
SPEAKER(S)
Philip Alston, Sidley Austin Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School; John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; chair and co-director of NYU Law School Center for Human Rights and Global Justice; former United Nations special rapporteur for extrajudicial executions
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO carr_center@hks.harvard.edu, 617.495.5819
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/events/2011/month03/PhilAlston_28.php

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Digital Culture, Technology Platform Colloquium
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2011, 12 – 3 p.m.
WHERE Room 112, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Brooke King: events@gsd.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/calendar/index.cgi

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Monday, March 28
12:00pm - 1:30pm Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research Energy Policy Seminar Series
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS Cambridge, MA
"Do Americans Consume Too Little Natural Gas?" Erich Muehlegger, HKS.
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu 617-4955-8693

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Fragmentation of the True North: Canada's Identity Crisis in the Face of Environmental Politics
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE K262 - Bowie Vernon Room, WCFIA, CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR WCFIA Canada Program
SPEAKER(S) Severn Cullis-Suzuki, cultural and environmental activist and writer
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/programs/canada

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Tuesday, March 29, 12 p.m.
"Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama." Eric Alterman, Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; columnist for The Nation; regular contributor to The Daily Beast.
Kalb Seminar Room, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge

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How Will Japan Recover from the Great Earthquake?
WHEN Tue., Mar. 29, 2011, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Bowie-Vernon Conference Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; co-sponsored by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S)
Kotaro Tamura, research associate, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University; member, House of Councillors (2002-10); chairman, Committee on Land and Transport, House of Councillors (2008-09); and parliamentary secretary for economic and fiscal policy and for financial affairs, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (2006-07)

Discussant: Koichi Hamada, Tuntex Professor of Economics, Yale University.
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Xiao Tian: xtian@wcfia.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/schedule/schedule.htm

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Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity and Self-Branding in Web 2.0Alice Marwick, Microsoft Research
Tuesday, March 29, 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.

In the mid-2000s, journalists and businesspeople heralded “Web 2.0” technologies such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook as signs of a new participatory era that would democratize journalism, entertainment, and politics. By the decade’s end, this idealism had been replaced by a gold-rush mentality focusing on status and promotion. While the rhetoric of Web 2.0 as democratic and revolutionary persists, I will contend that a primary use of social media is to boost user status and popularity, maintaining hierarchy rather than diminishing it. This talk focuses on three status-seeking techniques that emerged with social media: micro-celebrity, self-branding, and life-streaming. I examine interactions between social media and social life in the San Francisco “tech scene” to show that Web 2.0 has become a key aspect of social hierarchy in technologically mediated communities.

About Alice
Alice Marwick is a postdoctoral researcher in social media at Microsoft Research New England and a research affiliate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. Her work looks at online identity and consumer culture through lenses of privacy, surveillance, consumption, and celebrity. Alice has a PhD from the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, a MA from the University of Washington and a BA from Wellesley College. She has published in New Media and Society, Convergence, First Monday, Critical Studies in Media Communication and Information, Communication & Society. Marwick is a frequent presenter at academic and industry conferences and has appeared in The New York Times, The American Prospect, The Guardian, BusinessWeek and Wired Magazine. Her dissertation, "Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity and Self-Branding in Web 2.0" is available at her blog, http://www.tiara.org/blog.

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Tusday, March 29
3:00pm - 4:15pm Belfer Center Directors' Seminar
Belfer Center Library (L369) Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St Cambridge, MA
"How and Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen." Professor Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School.
POSITIVE RSVP ONLINE ONLY:http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/stavins.html

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The Military and the Media: Two Perspectives — Iraq and Pakistan
WHEN Tue., Mar. 29, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Room N-262.
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
SPEAKER(S) Wajahat Khan, Joan Shorenstein Fellow on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, and Emma Sky, fellow at the Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks: dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu

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

Tuesday, March 29
4:00pm - 6:00pm Speaking Out and Speaking Up: The Critical Role of Scientists in Shaping Sound Public Policy
http://goo.gl/XuXNJ
Dudley House, Harvard University Cambridge, MA
Workshop and Discussion - Sean Meyer and Jean Sideris, Union of Concerned Scientists
with featured Guest - Professor James McCarthy. Food and drink will be served.
RSVP requested at http://goo.gl/XuXNJ

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The Harvard GSD Symposia on Architecture / The Eclipse of Beauty: Taste
WHEN Tue., Mar. 29, 2011, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Evan Douglis, Evan Douglis Studio, dean, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; George Teyssot, professor, Laval University, School of Architecture, Quebec City
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Brooke King: events@gsd.harvard.edu
NOTE
What has happened to architectural beauty? It used to be the fundamental value of architectural theory and practice, the touchstone of every conceivable achievement for a discipline that considered itself primarily as an art. Today, the word is seldom pronounced by theorists and professionals, at least in public. Even critics and historians tend to avoid the loaded term.
What has happened to architectural beauty? Its eclipse is all the more surprising given that architectural aesthetics is everywhere. The architectural star-system is to a large extent based on signature forms that herald the originality of their authors. The so-called "Guggenheim effect" has fundamentally to do with the visual seduction exerted by Frank Gehry's project on a large public, from connoisseurs to simple passers-by. It has paved the way for all sorts of prestigious architectural commissions, often linked to the cultural sector, museums, libraries, opera houses requiring visually striking answers that can be appreciated by a broad audience. Usually entrusted to a relatively small cohort of elite architects, these commissions nevertheless contribute to define the tone of contemporary architectural debate. Even if the term beauty is rarely invoked to characterize their power of seduction, the aesthetic dimension plays a determining role.
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/calendar/index.cgi

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Egypt: The Revolution and Its Repercussions
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2011, 2 – 4 p.m.
WHERE Center for Middle Eastern Studies
38 Kirkland Street, Room 102
Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Forum
SPEAKER(S) Kirk J. Beattie, professor of political science and international relations, Simmons College, Boston
CONTACT INFO Sara Roy: sroy@fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2419

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Wednesday, March 30
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Speaking Out and Speaking Up: The Critical Role of Scientists in Shaping Sound Public Policy
Dudley House, Harvard University Cambridge, MA
Workshop and Discussion - Sean Meyer and Jean Sideris, Union of Concerned Scientists
with featured Guest - Professor James McCarthy. Food and drink will be served.
RSVP requested at http://goo.gl/XuXNJ

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

Wednesday, March 30
"Weather and Death in India: Mechanisms and Implications of Climate Change."

Michael Greenstone, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

4:10 p.m. L-382 Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/events-calendar/seminar-in-enviro......
Contact Name: Jason Chapman jason_chapman@harvard.edu

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

Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO

WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2011, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE 13 Appian Way
Cambridge, MA 02138
TYPE OF EVENT Discussion, Forum, Lecture, Question & Answer Session
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Amber Haskins
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE 617-384-9968
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
NOTE
Speaker: Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.

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Restoring an Urban Watershed: Ecology, Equity, and Design New Directions in EcoPlanning Annual Lecture
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2011, 6 p.m.
WHERE Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Museum of Natural History
SPEAKER(S) Anne Whiston Spirn, award-winning author, photographer, and professor of landscape architecture and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NOTE
The Mill Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia once epitomized the failures of 20th-century urban policies and development, resulting in an economically depressed, racially-segregated community plagued with vacant land, subsiding ground, and flooded basements on the buried floodplain of the creek. Anne Whiston Spirn, lauded by the Boston Globe as an "urban visionary" will focus on the story of Mill Creek's restoration as a model for uniting science, design, and community engagement to address social and environmental problems. Spirn will stress how "landscape literacy" is just as critical to those solutions as verbal literacy was to the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
LINK http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures_and_special_events/index.php

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The Harvard Food Law Society and the Harvard Health Law and Policy Clinic Present
Gary Taubes

Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity

Wednesday March 30
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Pound 101, Harvard Law School

Sign up at http://garytaubes.eventbrite.com
Space is Limited

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

In his lecture “Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity,” Taubes explains why he believes the nutritional science of the last century has been misguided and damaging, particularly the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and reveals the good science that has been ignored.

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

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PON Film Series Presents: Budrus

WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2011, 7:15 – 10 p.m.
WHERE Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Film, Religion, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Ronit Avni, Producer of Budrus
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO jmayer@law.harvard.edu
NOTE
Join us for the Program on Negotiation Film Series presentation of "Budrus," followed by a discussion with the film's producer, Ronit Avni. Admission is free. Pizza and drinks will be served.
Ayed Morrar, an unlikely community organizer, unites Palestinians from all political factions and Israelis to save his village from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Victory seems improbable until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines.
LINK http://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/budrus/

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The Arctic: An Area of Conflict and Cooperation
WHEN Thu., Mar. 31, 2011, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge St., Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on Transatlantic Relations of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; co-sponsored by the Boston Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany
SPEAKER(S) Helga Haftendorn, professor emeritus, Free University of Berlin
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Ann Townes: atownes@wcfia.harvard.edu
NOTE
Helga Haftendorn is one of the most distinguished German scholars in international relations. She has been a frequent visiting scholar in the United States, received numerous awards and served, inter alia, as president of the International Studies Association. Haftendorn has published widely on transatlantic relations, European affairs, and problems of strategy and arms control.

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Thursday, March 31
4:00pm - 6:00pm The Greening of America's Schools
Land Lecture Hall, Belfer Building (HKS) 79 JFK St Cambridge, MA
“Intersections of Environmental and Education Policy.” The HKS EdPIC proudly presents Peter Bahouth (President of US Climate Action Network, and former Executive Director of Greenpeace), Rachel Gutter (Director of Center for Green Schools), and Jean Wallace (CEO of Green Woods Charter School of Philadelphia, PA)
http://green.harvard.edu/node/1381

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JFK Jr. Forum: 2011 Corliss Lamont Lecture by the Hon. Bill Richardson

WHEN Thu., Mar. 31, 2011, 6 p.m.
WHERE JFK Jr. Forum, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Institute of Politics
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) BILL RICHARDSON: Institute of Politics Visiting Fellow, governor of New Mexico (2003-2011), United States secretary of energy (1998-2001), United States ambassador to the United Nations (1997-1998)

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Tufts

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Monday, March 28
12:30pm Tufts Energy and Climate Policy Research Seminar
Crowe Room (Goddard 310), The Fletcher School Tufts University Medford, MA
"Decarbonization in US Energy: Trends, Drivers and Challenges." Kathleen Araújo, Doctoral Research Fellow, The Fletcher School and Doctoral Candidate, MIT.
Contact Name: Jacqueline Deelstra Jacqueline.Deelstra@tufts.edu

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

Northeastern

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

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
114 Dana Research Center
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

“Graphene-based Materials, Energy, and Sustainability”
RODNEY S. RUOFF, PhD
Professor, Cockrell Family Regents Chair, The University of Texas at Austin

ABSTRACT

Graphene-based materials hold promise due to their exceptional electronic and thermal transport, mechanical properties, high specific surface area, and that they can act as an atom thick layer, barrier, or membrane. Our micromechanical exfoliation approaches [1,2] conceived of in 1998 yielded multilayer graphene and one paper particularly clearly delineated how monolayer graphene could be obtained [1]. Two main research areas of our group are: (i) Growth of large area graphene on metal substrates, material characterization and properties, and use in various devices, and (ii)the generation, study, and use of colloids consisting of graphene-based platelets dispersed in liquids, and powders derived from such colloids. These two areas will be described in this lecture. A history of experimental work on graphene (from discovery in 1969 to now) is provided at: http://bucky-central.me.utexas.edu/RuoffsPDFs/Ruoff%20Graphene%20December%202010.
Other topics will include the potential for graphene-based (and other carbon-based) materials in ‘energy systems’ (for energy generation, transmission, and storage), and sustainability.

Professor Rod Ruoff joined The University of Texas at Austin as a Cockrell Family Regents endowed chair in September, 2007. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1988, and was a Fulbright Fellow in 1988-89 at the Max Planck Institute fuer Stroemungsforschung in Goettingen, Germany. Prior to joining UT-Austin, he was the John Evans Professor of Nanoengineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University and director of NU’s Biologically Inspired Materials Institute from 2002-2007. He has co-authored 250 peer-reviewed publications devoted to chemistry, physics, materials science, mechanics, engineering, and biomedical science, is co-founder of Graphene Energy, Inc. and the founder of Graphene Materials, LLC. and Nanode, Inc. Dr. Ruoff is on the editorial board of IEEE-Nano; Composites, Science, and Technology; Carbon; Journal of Nanoengineering and Nanosystems; and is a Managing Editor and Editorial Board Member of NANO. He was a Distinguished Chair Visiting Professor at Sungkyukwan University’s Advanced Institute of NanoTechnology (SAINT) for several years.

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

The Sociology Department at Northeastern University is hosting our 2nd annual globalization symposium on March 31, with a focus on global commodity chains, neoliberalism, and human rights. The evening session, in particular, will explore issues related to politics and activism surrounding global commodities such as coffee, coca cola, drugs, arms, as well as clothing and apparel.

What: Global Commodities, Chained and Unchained- 2nd Annual Conference on Globalization at Northeastern University
When: March 31, 2011

Panel 1- 2:45 to 4:30pm (Global Commodity Chains- a Critical Approach)
Panel 2- 6:00 to 8:00pm (Global Commodity Chains and Human Rights)

Where: Northeastern University, 20 West Village F

For more Information, see: http://globalcommodities2011.blogspot.com/

Conference Description:
The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University is pleased to host its 2nd annual conference on globalization. We are excited to bring together a group of prominent scholars to discuss their recent research on global commodity chains and to critically assess the political and cultural implications of neoliberal globalization.

Presenters at the evening session, including Carolyn Nordstrom (Notre Dame University), Robert Ross (Clark University), Edward Fischer (Vanderbilt University) and Robert Foster, will discuss the interconnections between commodity chains and human rights and the potential paths of resistance available to populations marginalized within the current neoliberal order.

Presenters at the afternoon session, including Catherine Dolan (Oxford University), Andrew Schrank (University of New Mexico), Robert Foster (University of Rochester) and Damla Isik (Western Connecticut State College), will draw on their ethnographic field work to discuss critical approaches to global commodity chain research and theory.

This event is free and open to the public. The Department of Sociology-Anthropology at Northeastern hopes you can join us for what promises to be an exciting, politically inspirational, and intellectually rich encounter. For more information on the conference, including times and location, please visit our blog at http://globalcommodities2011.blogspot.com.

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Babson

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Babson Energy and Environmental Conference

Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future

Register Now at http://beec2011conference.eventbrite.com/

Register now to attend the 5th Annual Babson Energy and Environmental Conference on March 31st, 2011 at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

This year’s theme is “Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future”, and we will explore how innovation and entrepreneurship will play a pivotal role in shaping the new green economy in the years to come. We will hear severalexciting keynotes from high profile entrepreneurs:

• Dr. Bart Riley, Co-Founder, A123 Systems (NASDAQ: AONE)
• Sheeraz Haji, CEO, Cleantech Group
• Nancy Floyd, Founder & Managing Director, Nth Power
• Kathy Brown, Senior Vice President – Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility, Verizon
Other featured speakers

• Leonard Schlesinger, President, Babson College
• Mark Donohue, Clean Technology Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Babson College
• Peter Rothstein, President, New England Clean Energy Council
• Cynthia Curtis, Chief Sustainability Officer, CA Technologies
• Rob Pratt, Chairman & CEO, GreenerU
• Clint Wilder, Senior Editor, Clean Edge & Author, The Clean Tech Revolution
• Chuck McDermott, General Partner, Rockport Capital
• Jeramy Lemieux, Head of Climate Savers, Diversey, Inc.
• Greg Dixon, SVP of Marketing, EnerNOC
• Kathy Loftus, Global Leader for Sustainability Engineering, Maintenance & Energy Management, Whole Foods
• Michael Bakas, Senior Vice President – Renewable Energy, Ameresco
• Robert Gough, Founder, Port Meadow Tech
• Bob Reese, President/ Co-Founder, Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery
• Jonathan Nash, Director of Business Development, NewStream
• Patrick Cloney, Executive Director, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
• David O’Connor, Senior Vice President for Energy and Clean Technology, ML Strategies, LLC
• Kim Stevenson, Manager of New Technologies, CT Clean Energy Fund
And Many More!

Our engaging panel sessions will focus on several main topics:

• Innovations in Cleantech and Renewable Energy
• Sustainable Business Practices
• Financing Strategies
• New Energy Policy & Implications
• Responsible Consumption and Disposal of Food, Water & Waste
Our Entrepreneurs Showcase will give a glimpse of some of the newest innovators in the industry. Further, you will have the opportunity to listen to panelists from Enernoc, WholeFoods, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, CA Technologies, Diversy and many more. Our goal is to show that sustainable business practices are not at odds with creating profit and growing a company.

The world needs more entrepreneurs and leaders focused on preserving the earth’s resources while building a more sustainable future. We hope that you will join us for this exciting event, and be inspired to become part of the next wave of change!

For additional information, please contact Jatin Ahuja (jahuja1@babson.edu), Adam Ostaszewski (aostaszewski1@babson.edu) and Joel Robbins (jrobbins1@babson.edu)

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Lesley

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Digital Media and Popular Uprisings

March 31, 2011
6-8 p.m.
Lesley University
University Hall Amphitheater, 1815 Mass. Ave., 2nd Flr.
Cambridge, MA 02140

Google Map: http://bit.ly/edM4fz

The importance of digital media in building the recent wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East has been widely heralded in the global press. But how are social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and digital communication devices like texters, cell phones and PDAs really being used on the ground to help organize millions of people towards a common goal - democracy. And is it true that these movements for democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and beyond are completely spontaneous and being organized on the fly with the help of modern technology? Or is there more to the story?

Lesley University and Open Media Boston have invited three experts on digital media and grassroots organizing to speak to these and related issues. Each brings a unique perspective to the discussion.

Ethan Zuckerman is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices and senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Jillian York is a writer and freedom of expression activist who studies Internet controls and online activism, with a focus on the Arab world. She is a project coordinator at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Suren Moodliar is a coordinator of Massachusetts Global Action and an organizer of the Majority Agenda Project. He is deeply interested in networks and social change.

The panel will be chaired by Jason Pramas, Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston, www.openmediaboston.org, and introduced by a representative of Lesley University.

Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. There will be light refreshments served in the Atrium just outside the Amphitheater. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, or press inquiries, please email info@openmediaboston.org.

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Other

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E+ Green Building Announcement & Discussion
Monday, March 28, 2011
from 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (ET)
Waterfront Square at Atlantic Wharf
290 Congress Street
Boston MA

Register at http://bostongreenbuilding.eventbrite.com/

Please join Mayor Thomas M. Menino for the announcement of the Mayor’s E+ Green Building Demonstration Program

A 1 to 4 Family Green RFP for Designer / Builder Teams
and a talk on Future Friendly Green Homes for Boston; meeting tomorrow’s needs today

by Paul Eldrenkamp, Byggmeister, Inc.

Discussion and light refreshments to follow

The Mayor's E+ Green Building Program is an initative of the Department of Neighborhood Development, the Office of Environment and Energy Services and the BRA

contact: John.dalzell.bra@cityofboston.gov

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Somerville Climate Action and Representative Denise Provost Film Series Present

The Economics of Happiness (www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org)

Monday, March 28, 2011 - 6:30pm - 9:00pm
followed by a discussion with Julie Matthaei, Economics Professor at Wellesley College
and Joe Grafton of Somerville Local First

Tufts University Barnum Hall, Rm. 008
163 Packard Ave, Medford (side entrance on Packard Ave)

Come see this powerful new film by by Helena Norberg-Hodge, Steven Gorelick & John Page

Co-sponsored by:
Boston Area Solidarity Economy Network, Mass. Coalition for Healthy Communities (masschc.org), The Somerville Community Growing Center (theGrowingCenter.org), Somerville Local First (SomervilleLocalFirst.org), Greater Boston Slow Money

Featuring voices from six continents, including:
Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Zac Goldsmith, Michael Shuman, Samdhong Rinpoche, Andrew Simms, Richard Heinberg, Chris Johnstone, Juliet Schor, Clive Hamilton, Keibo Oiwa, Rob Hopkins

See http://campusmaps.tufts.edu/medford/ for directions. Please bike or usepublic transportation (http://publicsafety.tufts.edu/adminsvc/?pid=6).

Download the flyer here:
next.masschc.net/sites/default/files/EconOfHappinessFlyer.pdf
RSVP to the Facebook event here: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193114760721533

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Monday March 28, 7 pm
Lucy Parsons Center, 549 Columbus Ave, Boston.
Directions: http://lucyparsons.org/directions.php

Brian Tokar and Maggie Zhou of the activist network Climate SOS will discuss the global climate crisis, its implications for worldwide struggles for justice, and the emergence of the climate justice movement.

Brian Tokar is a long-time activist and author, and current director of the Institute for Social Ecology based in Plainfield, Vermont. He is the author of the recently published books,
Toward Climate Justice: Perspectives on the Climate Crisis and Social Change (http://www.akpress.org/2010/items/towardclimatejustice), and Agriculture and Food in Crisis: Conflict, Resistance, and Renewal (http://www.monthlyreview.org/books/agriculturefood.php). His other books include The Green Alternative, and Earth for Sale.
Maggie Zhou is a molecular and computational biologist now turned full-time, volunteer climate and environmental campaigner and amateur climate scientist. She is with Climate SOS (a member of the international network Climate Justice Now!), Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, and the US Green party. She has been working on building the climate justice movement, exposing false climate solutions and market fundamentalism, as well as exposing militarism and the current imperial world order at the root of failure in climate policy and climate negotiations.

Please pass around. All are welcome to attend. Refreshments served.

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Nerd Nite
Monday March 28, 2011 — 8pm
at the Middlesex, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge In Central Square
$5

The lineup:

Talk 1: “The Sexy Social Science of NBA Basketball: Insights into Economics, Sociology, and Psychology from Professional Hoops”
by Adam Waytz

Talk 2: Title TBA
By Matt Boch

http://boston.nerdnite.com/

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Forum on new state climate action plan
Cambridge residents can hear about the new, far-reaching Massachusetts clean energy and climate plan at a community meeting on
Tuesday, March 29, 7:00-8:30 PM
Cambridge Senior Center

David Cash, Undersecretary for Policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, will present the plan. State Rep. Will Brownsberger and Eugenia Gibbons of the Environmental League of Massachusetts will comment, and everyone will be able to ask questions and share ideas about how to help implement the plan and ensure that the state reaches its goal of 25% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels statewide by 2020. The event is cosponsored by the City and local and state environmental groups.

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Ford Hall Forum

“Haiti and Aid Effectiveness”
with Ronald Bernard (Heller School of Social and Policy Management at Brandeis) and Gregory Adams (Oxfam America); moderator William Dorcena (Ford Hall Forum Board member)
Thursday, March 31, 6:30-8 pm
Main Function Room, Suffolk University Law School

Ronald Bernard, Haitian aid recipient and graduate student at The Heller School for Social and Policy Management at Brandeis University, and Gregory Adams, Aid Effectiveness Director at Oxfam America, join moderator William Dorcena, Ford Hall Forum board member and co-founder of The Boston Haitian Reporter, to give voice to the troubled recovery after Haiti’s devastating earthquake. Bernard reviews demonstrated drawbacks in U.S. aid delivery to Haiti while Adams presents how the experience in Haitihas revolutionized international relief organizations. From the spread of cholera to difficulties in texting donations, the glacial pace of observable healing in Haiti prompts the question of whether our nation sincerely intends to help.

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

April 1st: Common Security Clubs showing Inside Job

You know what they say. Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me. The big banks and lax regulators sure did fool us once, to the tune of billions of dollars and a worldwide economic meltdown. And unless things change, they?re on track to fool us again.

Don't let them get away with it. Organize a "We Won?t Be Fooled Again" party! Rent or buy the movie "Inside Job" and watch it with a few friends or neighbors on Friday, April 1. List your party here on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190850457618079) and we'll send one randomly selected party a free copy of the DVD.

Use this discussion guide (http://commonsecurityclub.org/2010/03/22/don%E2%80%99t-get-fooled-again-inside-job-discussion-questions/) to talk about it the film ? and to talk about what steps you can take to increase your own economic security. For the full Teacher's Guide to the film, visit http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/

If you're part of a Common Security Club, you're learning about the causes of the meltdown and exploring a new type of economic security that?s not based on Wall Street's "phantom wealth," but on the real wealth generated by you and your community. Sign Up at commonsecurityclub.org to hear news from the Common Security Club movement.

If you're in Washington DC on April 1, attend an "Inside Job" public screening and discussion moderated by Chuck Collins at the Festival Center. For details, visit http://www.ipsdc.org/events/economic_meltdown_lets_not_get_fooled_again
Wall Street fooled us once ? don?t let them do it again. Get informed and get moving to increase your independence from their phantom wealth traps.

Onward,
Sarah Byrnes
Common Security Clubs Organizer
http://commonsecurityclub.org

About the movie: Inside Job won this year's Academy Award for best documentary. It is a comprehensive analysis exposing the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and
journalists, the documentary traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and
academia.

Places to rent the movie: Try your local library. Other places: Amazon, Netflix, Barnes & Noble

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

Weatherization Barnraising reset for April 3rd! 1230 to 5 pm

The Seventh Day Adventist group had to reschedule the event. They, and we, apologize. But this gives you all more time to sign up for the event. This is a building that had a heating bill in February of over $1,500. This is a great site where we can make a huge difference. The site is a home where over 20 members of the congregation want to learn how to steward the planet. Help out one of
the only all-vegetarian churches. We'll teach how to install programmable thermostats, use less water, reduce drafts and fix old replacement windows inexpensively. There will be music and food afterward.

Sign up here.

The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) is a Cambridge-based co-op bringing neighbors together to weatherize our homes and take the energy future into our own hands.
http://www.heetma.com/

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

Upcoming

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

Smart Building Workshop – High performance homes, Stretch Energy Code, MA Base Code

Tuesday, April 5, 8:30 am to 1:30 pm, Cambridge City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Second Floor Meeting Room

In this workshop you will learn how to build homes that are durable, healthy, comfortable, energy efficient, less costly to operate, are compliant with base and stretch energy codes, and discuss how to cost effectively go beyond the codes. The workshop is free for building code officials and $25 for other attendees, but please register with the Center for EcoTechnology at https://www.123signup.com/servlet/SignUp?PG=1533104182300&P=153310400. Co-sponsored by the MA Department of Energy Resources, Center for EcoTechnology, Conservation Services Group, and the City of Cambridge.

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

Urban Agriculture, the City, and Perceptions of Public Space
Rachel Eden Black, assistant professor and coordinator, Gastronomy Program, Boston University
Free Admission
Wednesday, April 6, 6 p.m.
Register at http://www.bu.edu/foodandwine/register/index.html

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

BASEA Forum:

Thursday, April 14th
Solar Decathlon -- Europe 2010 Overview and DC 2011 Massachusetts Preview

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

Tufts Energy Conference
April 15

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

"Best Practices for Local Sustainability"
April 15, 2011 | Holiday Inn | Marlborough, MA
Full Conference Details at www.MaSustainableCommunities.com

Early registration till March 15 at $60, $75 after March 15
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/408475762/efbnen

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

"Secret of the Dawn" - film screening, followed by a panel discussion about female genital mutilation (FGM) and efforts to stop it in Mali,
Saturday, April 16, 2011, 4:00-6:30 p.m. at Emerson Hall, Harvard U., 25 Quincy Street, Cambridge.

This documentary shows current attitudes of people in Mali toward FGM, and Malians struggling to end it, including Healthy Tomorrow's sister group, Sini Sanuman. Dancer and health educator Wyoma
will perform a dance of hope for a future without FGM. We will end with a music video that is shown on Malian TV, featuring 17 actual ex-excisers. This event is co-sponsored by Healthy Tomorrow and the Harvard Extension International Relations Club. For more info, call (617) 776-6524.

Feel free to call with any questions.

Susan McLucas, director, Healthy Tomorrow, (617) 776-6524, SusanBMcL@gmail.com

Editorial Comment: Susan McLucas is another old friend who has been working in the US and Mali for many years on the issue of female genital mutilation.

-----------

Resource

-----------

Free Monthly Energy Analysis

CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.

https://www.carbonsalon.com/

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

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

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

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, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu

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

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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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - March 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

----

MIT

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Science Policy Lunch: Lars Friberg
Speaker: Lars Friberg
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: RSVP to Megan Brewster (mmb6@mit.edu)

Lars Friberg, Office of Science and Innovation, Swedish Embassy, works as climate and energy attaché with the office of science and innovation at the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. a position he has held since February 2010. He has been engaged in climate and sustainable development issues on the international level for more than a decade.

Web site: web.mit.edu/spi
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Science Policy Initiative, GSC Funding Board
For more information, contact:
Scott Carlson
sciencepolicy@mit.edu
-------------------------------------------

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Foods, Drugs and Neurotransmitters: Mapping Mechanisms in Brain Chemistry
Speaker: various
Time: 1:00p–5:30p
Location: 46-3002
After forty years of academic endeavor, Richard "Dick" Wurtman will be retiring from MIT this year. Please join the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences for an afternoon of special lectures honoring Dick's contributions to science and his many accomplishments throughout his career. For further details, please visit the event's web page. ***Please note that RSVP's to Kathleen Dickey (kvdickey@mit.edu) are required for this event as space is limited.***

Web site:http://bcs.mit.edu/docs/wurtman/symposium/WurtmanSymposium32211InviteProgramwRSVP.doc

Open to: RSVP's are required for this event, please RSVP to Kathleen Dickey.
Sponsor(s): McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
For more information, contact:
Kathleen V. Dickey
617-324-5399
kvdickey@mit.edu
------------------------------------------

Online News: Public Sphere or Echo Chamber?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
5-7 p.m.
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?

Speakers

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 ofDigitizing 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. Spingarn-Koff is a 2010-2011 Knight Journalism Fellow at MIT.

Co-sponsor: MIT Anthropology Program

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


Thursday, March 24, 2011
Cape Ann Fresh Catch Seafood Demonstration
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: 50-140
Guests from Cape Ann Fresh Catch, the Gloucester-based community supported fishery sponsored in part by MIT Sea Grant, will be demonstrating filleting and cooking techniques for the range of seafood caught locally and delivered to subsribers up and down the Massachusetts coast. Local fishermen will be on hand to discuss their work!

Web site: http://www.capeannfreshcatch.org/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Sea Grant
For more information, contact:
Nancy Adams
253-3461
nadamsx@mit.edu

----------

Harvard

----------

Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research Energy Policy Seminar Series
March 21, 2011 - 12:00pm - 1:30pm
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/events.html
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS 79 JFK St Cambridge, MA
"Transforming U.S. Energy Technology Innovation." Laura Diaz Anadon, Matthew Bunn, and Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Harvard.

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

Tuesday, March 22, 12 p.m.
"Growing an Online Community." Donna Byrd, publisher of The Root, a daily online magazine that provides commentary on today's news from a variety of black perspectives.
Kalb Seminar Room, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street

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

decolonizing copyright: Jamaican street dances and globally networked technology
Larisa Mann of Berkeley Law School / Boalt Hall
Tuesday, March 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 and archived on our site shortly after at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast

From Larisa:

My research is on culture, copyright law, technology and power, grounded in an ethnographic case study of Jamaican music-making practices. I situate a specific local culture of music-making within modern global colonial capitalism through examining music-making’s relationship to copyright law, in the context of increasingly pervasive globally networked technology. In this presentation I will show how the street dance, the explosively creative heart of Jamaican musical practice, suggests several ways that technology can serve as help or hindrance to people currently excluded from formal systems of power. I'm interested not only in "innovation" or "creativity" but innovation and creativity in the service of equality.

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

Japan in Crisis: Exploring the Consequences of a Cascading Disaster
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2011, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Goodman Classroom, L-140, Littauer Building, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Program on Crisis Leadership, HKS Crisis Management Student Group, HKS Japan Caucus
COST Free
CONTACT INFO David Giles: david_giles@harvard.edu, 617.496.4165
NOTE
A Disaster Management in Asia Seminar Series Event
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan, triggering massive tsunami waves that swept away whole towns and taking the lives of as many as 10,000 people. The earthquake also caused damage to several of Japan’s nuclear reactors, and authorities continue to struggle to bring that crisis under control.
In this panel discussion, faculty members, researchers, and guest panelists will explore the implications of this catastrophic chain of events and discuss the multifold challenges facing Japan as it struggles to respond and recover.
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/programs/crisisleadership/events

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

5:15pm - 6:45pm
Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge Through Ecological Waterscapes, Rainwater Harvesting and Participation
Carr Center Conference Room (Rubenstein Building, Floor 2, Room 219) Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK St Cambridge, MA
This World Water Day lecture will focus on how "Ecological Waterscapes" can be used in urban environments to capture rainwater and re-charge riversheds, thereby improving access to water.
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/initiatives/right_to_water/events/wwd_20110322.php
-----------------------------------------------

Clean Energy & the Media Seminar
March 23, 2011 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm
Contact Name: Cristine Russell
Cristine_Russell@hks.harvard.edu
Harvard Kennedy School, Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th floor 79 JFK St. Cambridge, MA
"The Seesaw Coverage of Nuclear Power: Promise or Peril?"

Join a conversation with distinguished journalists Matthew Wald, national energy and environment reporter, The New York Times, and Ned Potter, science correspondent, ABC News. Discussant is Matthew Bunn, co-principal investigator of the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom. Last in a spring seminar series. Sponsors: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Open to the community.

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

Webcast: "Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security"
March 23, 2011 - 1:15pm - 2:30pm
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1404929181
Contact Name: Portia Gama unuony@unu.edu
Hosted by the United Nations University Office at the United Nations as part of the UNU Worldwide in New York Series.

Speakers will present the recently published Global Environmental and Human Security Handbook for the Anthropocene (GEHSHA), which comprises 95 peer-reviewed chapters which were written by 164 authors, and analyzes concepts of military and political hard security and economic, social and environmental soft security. Regional focuses include the Near East, Asia, and North and Sub-Sahara Africa, as well as addressing hazards in urban centers.

The major focus of this conference will be on coping with global environmental change - climate change, desertification, water, food and health - and with hazards and strategies pertaining to social vulnerability and resilience-building. The speakers will also examine scientific and political strategies, policies and measures - such as early warning of conflicts and hazards - and discuss a political geo-ecology and a "Fourth Green Revolution."

Speakers:

• Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director of the United Nations University, Office at the United Nations in New York (UNU-ONY).
• H.E. Ambassador Professor Dr. Joy Ogwu, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, author of a foreword.
• H.E. Ambassador Dr. Peter Wittig, Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations.
• Mr. Jorge Laguna-Celis, Delegate to the Second Committee, representing thePermanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations.
• Hans Günter Brauch, Adj. Professor, Free University of Berlin; senior CASA fellow, UNU-EHS (Bonn); chairman of AFES-PRESS, Germany; co-editor, author.
• Úrsula Oswald Spring, Professor, Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CRIM-UNAM, Cuernavaca, Mexico); first MR Chair on Social Vulnerability, UNU-EHS; co-editor, author.

Free, registration requried.

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

Relational Urbanism: Models, Cities and Systemic Utopias
WHEN Wed., Mar. 23, 2011, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
SPEAKER(S) Eduardo Rico
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Brooke King: events@gsd.harvard.edu
NOTE
Eduardo Rico studied civil engineering in Spain and graduated from the AA's Landscape Urbanism program. He is currently an AA Landscape urbanism studio master and has acted as consultant and performed research in the fields of infrastructure and landscape in Spain and the UK. Currently he is involved in the development of infrastructural strategies for large-scale urban projects within the Arup engineering team as well as being part of the collective GroundLab.
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/calendar/index.cgi

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

IOP Study Group
March 24, 2011 - 4:00pm - 5:30pm
http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Programs/Fellows-Study-Groups/Spring-2011-Study-Group...
Faculty Dining Room Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA

Study with IOP fellow and Former U.S. Representative for South Carolina’s 4th District Bob Inglis. discussing ENERGY and ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY.
Discuss the future of American energy and climate policy! Learn and exchange views on future energy legislation, conservation, and the economic possibilities of environmentalism.

Open to everyone! *No Homework**No Reading**No Requirements*

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

Biodiversity, Ecology, & Global Change: Jon Chase
March 24, 2011 - 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Contact Name: Lisa Matthews lisa_matthews@harvard.edu 617-495-8883
Biolabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge
Jon Chase
Professor of Biology; Director, Tyson Research Center
Washington University in St. Louis

Professor Chase works to address some of the most fundamental principles of community ecology. His specific research interests currently center around understanding patterns of biodiversity, relative species abundances, and variation in community composition from site-to-site (beta-diversity), and how spatial processes, biotic interactions, abiotic factors, habitat degradation and restoration, and biogeographic factors, influence those patterns. Although his research incorporates syntheses from a variety of theoretical and empirical resources, his primary focus is on both aquatic (e.g., pond) and terrestrial (e.g., forests and glades) ecosystems on and near the Tyson Research Center.

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

Staying on Track: Running — and Hopefully Improving — Public Transit in Tough Fiscal Times
WHEN Thu., Mar. 24, 2011, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Allison Dining Room, 5th floor Taubman Building, 15 Eliot Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, Taubman Center for State and Local Government
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Davey, general manager, MBTA and rail and transit administrator, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)
CONTACT INFO Polly O'Brien: 617.495.5091
NOTE
Since his appointment as general manager of the MBTA in March 2010, Richard Davey has had to address a variety of problems, including (but not limited to) a structural budget deficit, underfunding for important safety-related projects, challenging weather, contentious labor relations, and pressures to expand and improve service. How has the T addressed these issues and what will it take to sustain those efforts?
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rappaport

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

Obama's New Deal, Tea Party Reaction, and America's Political Future

WHEN Fri., Mar. 25, 2011, 3 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Tsai Auditorium (S-010), Concourse Level, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Alexis de Tocqueville Lecture on American Politics, sponsored by the Center for American Political Studies
SPEAKER(S)
3-5 p.m. lecture by Theda Skocpol (Harvard) with Q&A
5-6:30 p.m. buffet dinner (rsvp to caps@gov.harvard.edu)
6:30-7:30 p.m. commentary from Larry Bartels (Princeton), Mickey Edwards (Aspen Institute), Suzanne Mettler (Cornell)
7:30-8 p.m. rejoinder by Skocpol
8:00-8:30 p.m. audience Q&A
COST Free
CONTACT INFO caps@gov.harvard.edu
LINK https://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k40327

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

AFRICAN DANCE DIASPORA: A Symposium on Embodied Knowledge

WHEN Fri., Mar. 25, 3 p.m. – Sun., Mar. 27, 2011, 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Lowell Lecture Hall
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Classes/Workshops, Conferences, Dance, Film, Humanities, Lecture, Music, Social Sciences, Special Events, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Committee on African Studies
SPEAKER(S)
Ronald. K. Brown (Evidence, A Dance Company), Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Urban Bush Women), Zab Maboungou (Zab Maboungou/Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata), Cynthia Oliver (COCo Dance Theatre), Elizabeth McAlister, Lovely Nicolas, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Alla Kovgan, Robb Moss, Joan Frosch, Brenda Dixon-Gottschild, Yvonne Daniel, Nadine George Graves, John C. McCall, Carrie Noland, Corinna Campbell, Katherine Hagedorn, Carla Martin, Ingrid Monson, Patty Tang, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Esailama Diouf, Habib Iddrisu, Mecca Zabriskie, Sharon Kivenko, Susan Manning, Lacina Coulibaly, Sidi Mohammed “Joh” Camara, Deborah Foster, De Ama Battle, Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Emily Coates, and Grete Viddal
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://www.africainmotion.com

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

The Criminalization of Conflict Resolution: The Impact of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project on ADR and Human Rights Work

WHEN Fri., Mar. 25, 2011, 3:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Austin North, Harvard Law School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, with others
SPEAKER(S) Eileen Babbitt (Tufts), Ralph Fertig (Humanitarian Law Project), Martha Field (HLS), Philip Heymann (HLS), Robert Mnookin (HLS), Stephan Sonnenberg (HLS), Ervin Staub (UMass, Amherst), and Nathan Stock (The Carter Center)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO hnlrsymposium2011@gmail.com
NOTE
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold broad restrictions against giving aid or training to groups identified as terrorist organizations by the State Department has significant ramifications for international conflict resolution and human rights work.
Come hear preeminent scholars and representatives from impacted organizations such as The Carter Center discuss the case and how such groups should move forward in the wake of the decision.
A reception in the Austin foyer will follow.
Sponsored by the Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Fund.
LINK http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/adr2011/

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

BENEFIT CONCERT FOR JAPAN: Bach Society Orchestra Concert III
WHEN Fri., Mar. 25, 2011, 8 p.m.
WHERE Sanders Theatre
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Bach Society Orchestra
TICKET WEB LINK www.boxoffice.harvard.edu
TICKET INFO 617.496.2222
NOTE
The Bach Society Orchestra performs works by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms, with violin concerto by Ryu Goto '11. This concert will be a benefit for the victims of the disaster in Japan, with 50 percent of profits going to that cause, plus additional donations collected before, during, and after the concert.
LINK http://www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu/cal/details.php?ID=41678

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

Run or Walk for Solar Empowerment
March 26, 2011 - 9:30am
http://www.solarempowerment5k.info/register.php
JFK Park - JFK and Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA
Leveraging the power of emerging markets in Mali, Harvard Global Energy Initiative has teamed up with D.Light Design and the Rural Energy Foundation to enable villagers outside of Bamako to purchase affordable solar lanterns, mobile phone chargers, and energy efficient home improvements that will lead to economic savings, health benefits, and environmental responsibility. Help us make safe, affordable, clean energy an option for the rural poor of Mali.

Time: 9:30am registration 11:00 race start 11:15 walk start

Cost: $15 in Advance/$20 on site registration $100 team of 10 discount. All proceeds go to benefit Harvard Global Energy Initiative’s Village Project in Mali

Make $15.00 check payable to "Harvard Global Energy Initiative" with "Mali Village Project" in the memo line. Mail registration form, checks, and pledge sheet to Harvard Global Energy Initiative, c/o Emily Cunningham, 161 Leverett Mail Center, 28 DeWolfe Street, Cambridge MA, 02138. Contact Emily Cunningham with questions at 781-626-1016 orecunningham@college.harvard.edu

For pledge sheets, registration forms, and more information, visit www.solarempowerment5k.info/register.php

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

Northeastern

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


COMMUNICATIONS AND DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND GRADUATE STUDIES
In collaboration with The Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS)
22nd ANNUAL CDSP RESEARCH WORKSHOP
Friday, March 25, 2011
Curry Student Center Ballroom

ARRIVAL & REGISTRATION
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
8:30 am -- 9:00 am
WELCOMING REMARKS

9:00 AM-- 9:10 AM
Miriam Leeser and Milica Stojanovic, Co CDSP Directors
Mel Bernstein, Vice Provost for Research

9:10 AM – 9:55 AM
Dave Cavalcanti
Sr. Research Scientist, Philips Research North America
“Intelligent Lighting Technologies and Networks for Smart Cities”

9:55 AM – 10:40 AM
Mark Rodgers
Communications Director, Cape Wind
“Cape Wind gives Massachusetts the 'First Mover' Advantage in Offshore Wind in U.S.”

10:40 AM – 11:25 AM
John Goodhue
Director of Holyoke High-performance Computing Center
“Design of an Energy-Efficient High Performance Computing Center”
11:25 AM- 12:10 PM
Skip Ashton
Sr.Vice President of Engineering, Ember and Chair for the ZigBee Architecture Review Committee (ZARC) in the ZigBee Alliance
“Smart Energy and Other Uses of Intelligent Devices in the Home”

POSTER SESSION/LUNCH
12:10 PM -- 1:40 PM
KEYNOTE
1:40 PM –2:40 PM
Joshua Smith
University of Washington-Seattle
"Connecting Physical and Digital with Sensor Systems."
Short Bio
Joshua R. Smith is Associate Professor in the departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he leads the Sensor Systems research group. From 2004 to 2010, he was with Intel Labs Seattle, where he led Intel Labs' Physicality research theme, as well as research projects in wireless power and robotics. His research interests include all aspects of sensor systems, including: development of novel sensor systems; power and communication for sensor systems; and algorithms for interpreting signals from novel sensor systems. His research has application in the fields of ubiquitous computing, security, human-computer interaction, and robotics. Previously he co-invented an electric field-based passenger sensing system that is used to suppress unsafe airbag deployment in all Honda cars. He holds Ph.D. and S.M. degrees from the MIT Media Lab, an M.A. in Physics from the University of Cambridge, and B.A. degrees in Computer Science and in Philosophy from Williams College.

CLOSING REMARKS, AWARDS, COFFEE, OPEN DISCUSSION
2:40 PM – 3:00 PM


CDSP Home Page: http://www.cdsp.neu.edu/
Contact information: Joan Pratt, Administrative Coordinator
CDSP Research Center; Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering; j.pratt@neu.edu; (617-373-2368
Location: Curry Student Center Ballroom, NU Main Campus, Boston
Admission: Open to the public

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Other

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The single biggest untapped source of energy on the planet: You

The MIT Energy Club and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment 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.

Across the country, states are setting aggressive energy efficiency mandates -- from 10% to 25% reduction in the coming decade. Smart meters, retrofits, and more efficient appliances will help us achieve our goal, but only if we can get a large portion of households to buy in. Historically, efficiency program participation rates have been low (less than 5%), but emerging broad-scale, behavior based efficiency provides the potential to meet those goals through a combination of small changes in day to day consumption among more than 80% of households, and improving participation of traditional efficiency programs.

Progressive utilities, including United Illuminating on behalf of the CT Energy Efficiency Fund, are now incorporating behavior-based efficiency into their overall energy saving approach. OPOWER is a leading provider of behavioral efficiency, generating more than 400 GWh of savings in 2011 to 50+ clients across the US. Using a multi-channel approach, behavioral science, and leading UX, OPOWER helps households save energy by removing the black box of consumption, and motivating consumers to act.

Please join us for a live conversation with United Illuminating's Kirsten Brooks and OPOWER's Barry Fischer and Chris Corcoran to discuss the application and opportunity of behavioral efficiency in the US.

Title: The single biggest untapped source of energy on the planet: You

Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

GotoWebinar URL: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/516104566

Speakers: Kirsten Brooks, Program Administrator, eesmarts & The SmartLiving Center at United Illuminating, Barry Fischer, Engagement Management at OPOWER and Chris Corcoran, Marketing and Strategy at OPOWER.

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Urban Gardening Book Club

We'll be discussing the book Farm City, by Novella Carpenter, and how it relates to community and urban food production at Roxbury Community College on 3/22 at 6:00 pm (Academic Bldg 3). All are welcome! We'll be selecting the next book at the meeting, but if you're interested and unable to make it, feel free to send me your suggestions in advance. Free to contact me with any additional questions.

The event is supported by the Boston Gardener's Council and The Roxbury Community College Service Learning Garden Project. In addition, event information is available on the page below:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143456282386051

Thank you very much!
Stephanie

--
Stephanie Bostic
MS in Agriculture, Food & the Environment 2010
Tufts University

Blogging about food and fiber: http://groundcherry.wordpress.com

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Hands-on Census class: Finding stories & doing research with Census data
will happen on Tuesday, March 22, 2011
When: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:00 PM
Where: Boston Globe - 135 Morrissey Blvd. Dorchester MA

Arthur Bakis from the Boston office of the US Census Dept will conduct a hands-on class for reporters and others. He will show people how they can unearth important facts and trends being released by the Census for the nation and Massachusetts. The Census is in the middle of releasing decennial data, as well as information from the American Community Survey (and learn what the difference is). Arthur has been with the Census Bureau for 11 years. He serves as Information Services Specialist and is responsible for disseminating census data to the public and spreading awareness about available demographic and economic data and data products throughout New England.
Bring your own laptop

http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/16599545/?a=me1p_yes&eventId=16599545&action=detail&rv=me1p&rv=me1p

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Eco-Municipalities Talk - Wednesday, March 23, 7:00 pm, Cambridge Main Library Auditorium

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.

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.

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

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

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Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk Univesity
“WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, and Our Right to Know”
with Daniel Domscheit-Berg (former WikiLeaks staffer) and Herbert Snorasson (former WikiLeaks staffer); moderator Wendy Ballinger (Ford Hall Forum Board member)
Thursday, March 24, 8-9:00 am [special breakfast forum]
Moot Court Room, Suffolk University Law School

Although Herbert Snorasson and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, both former staffers at WikiLeaks, cannot enter the United States for fear of arraignment, they join us live by video fromIceland and Germany to answer questions about the necessity of and danger in leaking state secrets. With Wendy Ballinger, Treasurer and former Executive Director of Ford Hall Forum, Snorasson and Domscheit-Berg discuss why their newest venture, OpenLeaks, is superior to Assange’s WikiLeaks model and other various “Leaks” sites launching around the world. The two will tell us how and why they became involved with WikiLeaks, particularly their idea on the public’s right to know versus global security. Signed copies of the book will be sold following the presentation.

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*Compelling Conversation with Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
Civil Rights Activist and Former Champion Boxer
Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.*

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a formidable boxer who had won the European Light Welterweight Championship for two years in a row and knocked out Emile Griffith in the first round when his promising career was cut short. In 1966, he was falsely arrested for the murder of three white people in a bar. Sentenced to a triple life-sentence, Carter always maintained his innocence. Subjected to a nineteen-year travesty of justice, he was finally set free in 1985 by a federal court. His story was immortalized in a Bob Dylan song and made into a Hollywood movie starring Denzel Washington.

Carter has chronicled his own life in two books, _The Sixteenth Round_, and 2011?s _Eye of_ _the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom_. He now devotes much of his time to speaking out on behalf of the wrongly convicted.

*Bunker Hill Community College**in A300 Auditorium*

250 New Rutherford Ave.
Boston, Massachusetts 02129-2995
Free but you need to register for tickets at the website below*
*
Compelling Conversations Speaker Series


Directions

http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/inside/64

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Think Global, Act Local:
A Community Climate Action Roundtable

Thursday, March 24, 6pm-7:30pm, Suffolk University, 73 Tremont St.

All politics are local but many problems are global. How do neighborhood-based groups form effective partnerships with larger organizations to bring global issues home and amplify grassroots voices? Join BostonCAN and representatives from other neighborhood-based and national sustainability organizations as we discuss stories of successful collaboration between community-based organizations and national groups that highlight best practices. Speakers will include Cindy Luppi from Clean Water Action discussing stopping coal power in eastern Mass and Mela Bush from Greater Four Corners Action Coalition onimproving mass transit in Dorchester.
Free and open to the public. Snacks provided. RSVP at on-line https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115453565198269 or by calling 857-544-6846.

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The Wild and Scenic Film Festival
"e" inc. is proud to be the official Boston host of The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival -- the largest environmental film festival in the United States. Created eight years ago by a small group of riverkeepers in California, The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festivalis designed to inspire by showing actions and ideas from around the globe on a wide array of environmental issues.

Opening Night Reception:
Robin Young leads expert panel on energy's future
Friday Mar 25, 2011
6:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Come to the Wild and Scenic Film Festival's Opening Event as WBUR's Robin Young (host of "Here and Now") serves as moderator for a panel of experts on the future of energy. Panelists include: Howard Herzog (MIT), Namrita Kapur (Environmental Defense Fund), David Cash (Under Secretary - EOEEA) and Alexander Taft (National Grid Climate Officer). Wine and Hors D'oeuvres reception at 6PM. Panel at 7PM.

Afternoon FilmFest:
View shorts MC'd by PRI's Bruce Gellerman
Saturday Mar 26, 2011
1:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Come see shorts, documentaries, and animations from around the world. Learn about inspiring young leaders and about the lives of beings chronicled by the planet's greatest filmmakers. Walk away with a new sense of commitment to our Earth.

The Finale:
See Carbon Nation plus locavore tasting and silent auction
Saturday Mar 26, 2011
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
An evening of wonderful foods and wine from some of our area's great eateries, followed by a feature documentary just released “CarbonNation.” Our final Wild and Scenic Film Festival evening is rounded off with dessert and a silent auction.

contact http://www.e-action.us/wsfilmfestival/

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Spring into Gardening
Sunday, March 27th, 10 am - 4 pm
Pierce Middle School, 50 School Street, Brookline, MA

Morning intensive workshops (container gardening, seed starting, home orcharding, and vermiculture) will run from 10am to noon.
Greg Watson will give the keynote address on Sustainable Food Systems at noon.
Afternoon workshops and panels will be at 1pm (Black Gold - It's all about the Dirt, Poultry Raising, Foraging, Local Food, Public Space/Community Gardening), 2pm (Gardening 101, Season Extension, Plant and Seed Varieties: Heirlooms, Food Preservation, Food Justice and Food Politics, Composting throughout Brookline), and 3pm (Garden Volunteering with Bountiful Brookline, Beekeeping, Permaculture, Garden Sharing, Schoolyard Gardening).
Demonstration Area open noon - 4 pm with Demonstration Leaders on hand at certain times to answer questions about Container Gardening, Vermiculture, Beekeeping, Composting
Children's Activities Scheduled activities 1 - 4 pm: Seed Starting, Storytelling, Garden Art
Resource Area open 11:15 am - 4 pm Community organizations and local businesses
General admission is $10/person, $20/family. An additional fee of $25 + materials costs applies to the 2-hour morning intensive workshops.

We need volunteers for the event. General Admission is Free if you volunteer for 2 hours. Interested volunteers please contact us at bountifulbrooklineevent@gmail.com.
______

Created in the spring of 2009, Bountiful Brookline promotes growing food and providing access to healthy fresh food throughout our community.
______

Bountiful Brookline
http://www.bountifulbrookline.org

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Upcoming

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Forum on new state climate action plan
Cambridge residents can hear about the new, far-reaching Massachusetts clean energy and climate plan at a community meeting on Tuesday, March 29, 7:00-8:30 PM
Cambridge Senior Center

David Cash, Undersecretary for Policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, will present the plan. State Rep. Will Brownsberger and Eugenia Gibbons of the Environmental League of Massachusetts will comment, and everyone will be able to ask questions and share ideas about how to help implement the plan and ensure that the state reaches its goal of 25% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels statewide by 2020. The event is cosponsored by the City and local and state environmental groups.

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The Harvard Food Law Society and the Harvard Health Law and Policy Clinic Present
Gary Taubes

Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity

Wednesday March 30
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Pound 101, Harvard Law School

Sign up at http://garytaubes.eventbrite.com
Space is Limited

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

In his lecture “Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity,” Taubes explains why he believes the nutritional science of the last century has been misguided and damaging, particularly the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and reveals the good science that has been ignored.

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

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Babson Energy and Environmental Conference

Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future

Register Now at http://beec2011conference.eventbrite.com/

Register now to attend the 5th Annual Babson Energy and Environmental Conference on March 31st, 2011 at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.

This year’s theme is “Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future”, and we will explore how innovation and entrepreneurship will play a pivotal role in shaping the new green economy in the years to come. We will hear severalexciting keynotes from high profile entrepreneurs:

• Dr. Bart Riley, Co-Founder, A123 Systems (NASDAQ: AONE)
• Sheeraz Haji, CEO, Cleantech Group
• Nancy Floyd, Founder & Managing Director, Nth Power
• Kathy Brown, Senior Vice President – Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility, Verizon
Other featured speakers

• Leonard Schlesinger, President, Babson College
• Mark Donohue, Clean Technology Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Babson College
• Peter Rothstein, President, New England Clean Energy Council
• Cynthia Curtis, Chief Sustainability Officer, CA Technologies
• Rob Pratt, Chairman & CEO, GreenerU
• Clint Wilder, Senior Editor, Clean Edge & Author, The Clean Tech Revolution
• Chuck McDermott, General Partner, Rockport Capital
• Jeramy Lemieux, Head of Climate Savers, Diversey, Inc.
• Greg Dixon, SVP of Marketing, EnerNOC
• Kathy Loftus, Global Leader for Sustainability Engineering, Maintenance & Energy Management, Whole Foods
• Michael Bakas, Senior Vice President – Renewable Energy, Ameresco
• Robert Gough, Founder, Port Meadow Tech
• Bob Reese, President/ Co-Founder, Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery
• Jonathan Nash, Director of Business Development, NewStream
• Patrick Cloney, Executive Director, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
• David O’Connor, Senior Vice President for Energy and Clean Technology, ML Strategies, LLC
• Kim Stevenson, Manager of New Technologies, CT Clean Energy Fund
And Many More!

Our engaging panel sessions will focus on several main topics:

• Innovations in Cleantech and Renewable Energy
• Sustainable Business Practices
• Financing Strategies
• New Energy Policy & Implications
• Responsible Consumption and Disposal of Food, Water & Waste
Our Entrepreneurs Showcase will give a glimpse of some of the newest innovators in the industry. Further, you will have the opportunity to listen to panelists from Enernoc, WholeFoods, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, CA Technologies, Diversy and many more. Our goal is to show that sustainable business practices are not at odds with creating profit and growing a company.

The world needs more entrepreneurs and leaders focused on preserving the earth’s resources while building a more sustainable future. We hope that you will join us for this exciting event, and be inspired to become part of the next wave of change!

For additional information, please contact Jatin Ahuja (jahuja1@babson.edu), Adam Ostaszewski (aostaszewski1@babson.edu) and Joel Robbins (jrobbins1@babson.edu)

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Digital Media and Popular Uprisings

March 31, 2011
6-8 p.m.
Lesley University
University Hall Amphitheater
1815 Mass. Ave.
2nd Flr.
Cambridge, MA 02140

Google Map: http://bit.ly/edM4fz

The importance of digital media in building the recent wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East has been widely heralded in the global press. But how are social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and digital communication devices like texters, cell phones and PDAs really being used on the ground to help organize millions of people towards a common goal - democracy. And is it true that these movements for democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and beyond are completely spontaneous and being organized on the fly with the help of modern technology? Or is there more to the story?

Lesley University and Open Media Boston have invited three experts on digital media and grassroots organizing to speak to these and related issues. Each brings a unique perspective to the discussion.

Ethan Zuckerman is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices and senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Jillian York is a writer and freedom of expression activist who studies Internet controls and online activism, with a focus on the Arab world. She is a project coordinator at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Suren Moodliar is a coordinator of Massachusetts Global Action and an organizer of the Majority Agenda Project. He is deeply interested in networks and social change.

The panel will be chaired by Jason Pramas, Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston, www.openmediaboston.org, and introduced by a representative of Lesley University.

Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. There will be light refreshments served in the Atrium just outside the Amphitheater. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, or press inquiries, please email info@openmediaboston.org.

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The Sociology Department at Northeastern University is hosting our 2nd annual globalization symposium on March 31, with a focus on global commodity chains, neoliberalism, and human rights. The evening session, in particular, will explore issues related to politics and activism surrounding global commodities such as coffee, coca cola, drugs, arms, as well as clothing and apparel.

What: Global Commodities, Chained and Unchained- 2nd Annual Conference on Globalization at Northeastern University

When: March 31, 2011

Panel 1- 2:45 to 4:30pm (Global Commodity Chains- a Critical Approach)

Panel 2- 6:00 to 8:00pm (Global Commodity Chains and Human Rights)

Where: Northeastern University, 20 West Village F

For more Information, see: http://globalcommodities2011.blogspot.com/


Conference Description:

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University is pleased to host its 2nd annual conference on globalization. We are excited to bring together a group of prominent scholars to discuss their recent research on global commodity chains and to critically assess the political and cultural implications of neoliberal globalization.

Presenters at the evening session, including Carolyn Nordstrom (Notre Dame University), Robert Ross (Clark University), Edward Fischer (Vanderbilt University) and Robert Foster, will discuss the interconnections between commodity chains and human rights and the potential paths of resistance available to populations marginalized within the current neoliberal order.

Presenters at the afternoon session, including Catherine Dolan (Oxford University), Andrew Schrank (University of New Mexico), Robert Foster (University of Rochester) and Damla Isik (Western Connecticut State College), will draw on their ethnographic field work to discuss critical approaches to global commodity chain research and theory.

This event is free and open to the public. The Department of Sociology-Anthropology at Northeastern hopes you can join us for what promises to be an exciting, politically inspirational, and intellectually rich encounter. For more information on the conference, including times and location, please visit our blog at http://globalcommodities2011.blogspot.com.

Hope to see you there!

Jeffrey S. Juris
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Northeastern University
www.networkingfutures.com

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The MIT Food & Agriculture Collaborative is pleased to announce MITFAC Celebr-ATE: A celebration of innovations that are building a healthy food system!

April 1 | 5pm-8pm | MIT R&D Pub (4th Floor of Stata Center, 32 Vassar St., Cambridge)

Join MITFAC and Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts for a celebration of food! This inaugural MITFAC event will explore the problems with our current food system and showcase the solutions that are being developed within the MIT community. Hear sustainable food pioneer, chef, and author Michel Nishan discuss the role each of us can play in rebuilding our nation's food system, learn what the MIT community is doing to address some of the most pressing challenges to our food system, and watch chefs from Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts demonstrate the art of cooking with sustainable ingredients, and then taste their creations.

This event is open to everyone interested in improving our food system! We welcome attendees from both within the MIT community and beyond.

Space is limited, so reserve your ticket today! Tickets are free and can be reserved at http://mitfac.eventbrite.com

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Weatherization Barnraising reset for April 3rd! 1230 to 5 pm

The Seventh Day Adventist group had to reschedule the event. They, and we, apologize. But this gives you all more time to sign up for the event. This is a building that had a heating bill in February of over $1,500. This is a great site where we can make a huge difference. The site is a home where over 20 members of the congregation want to learn how to steward the planet. Help out one of
the only all-vegetarian churches. We'll teach how to install programmable thermostats, use less water, reduce drafts and fix old replacement windows inexpensively. There will be music and food afterward.

Sign up here.

The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) is a Cambridge-based co-op bringing neighbors together to weatherize our homes and take the energy future into our own hands.
http://www.heetma.com/

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Tufts Energy Conference
April 15

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"Best Practices for Local Sustainability"
April 15, 2011 | Holiday Inn | Marlborough, MA
Full Conference Details at www.MaSustainableCommunities.com

Early registration till March 15 at $60, $75 after March 15
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/408475762/efbnen

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"Secret of the Dawn" - film screening, followed by a panel discussion about female genital mutilation (FGM) and efforts to stop it in Mali,
Saturday, April 16, 2011, 4:00-6:30 p.m. at Emerson Hall, Harvard U., 25 Quincy Street, Cambridge.

This documentary shows current attitudes of people in Mali toward FGM, and Malians struggling to end it, including Healthy Tomorrow's sister group, Sini Sanuman. Dancer and health educator Wyoma
will perform a dance of hope for a future without FGM. We will end with a music video that is shown on Malian TV, featuring 17 actual ex-excisers. This event is co-sponsored by Healthy Tomorrow and the Harvard Extension International Relations Club. For more info, call (617) 776-6524.

Feel free to call with any questions.

Susan McLucas, director, Healthy Tomorrow, (617) 776-6524, SusanBMcL@gmail.com

Editorial Comment: Susan McLucas is another old friend who has been working in the US and Mali for many years on the issue of female genital mutilation.

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Resource

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Free Monthly Energy Analysis

CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.

https://www.carbonsalon.com/

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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, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu

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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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