Sunday, September 25, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - September 25, 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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Independent Ukraine: Energy, Corruption and Politics - A Mini-symposium
WHEN Mon., Sep. 26, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South Building, Room S-050
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ukrainian Research Institute
SPEAKER(S)
Margarita Balmaceda, Seton Hall University
Gene Fishel, U.S. Department of State
Tammy Lynch, Boston University
COST Free of charge, open to the general public

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The 2011-12 August Zaleski Lecture: "European Dimension of the Global Financial Crisis"
WHEN Mon., Sep. 26, 2011, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall (27 Kirkland Street at Cabot Way)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR August Zaleski Lectures Series
SPEAKER(S) Marek Belka, governor of the Central Bank of Poland
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Grzegorz Ekiert; Sarah Delude: sadelude@fas.harvard.edu

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The Arab Spring, the 2011 UN Meetings and the Way Ahead: British Perspectives
WHEN Mon., Sep. 26, 2011, 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Littauer 130, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Co-Sponsored by The Future of Diplomacy Project and the Middle East Initiative, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Alistair Burt, UK Foreign Office minister for North America and the Middle East (parliamentary under secretary of state)

Introduction by Professor Tarek Masoud, Assistant Professor of Public Policy
CONTACT INFO middle_east_initiative@hks.harvard.edu, 617.495.5963

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Mideast Newsreel: UN Recognition of the State of Palestine
WHEN Mon., Sep. 26, 2011, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Herbert C. Kelman, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Liz Flanagan: elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE
The CMES Mideast Newsreel series is a public discussion program in which senior faculty present an analysis of current events as a key to the understanding of contemporary history in a Middle Eastern country or region.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2739

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A Discussion with The Boston Globe
WHEN Mon., Sep. 26, 2011, 5:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, Walter Lippmann House, One Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe; Chris Mayer, the Globe’s publisher; Michael Manning, product director; and Lisa DeSisto, the newspaper’s chief advertising officer; Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab (moderator)
COST Free; please RSVP
TICKET WEB LINK niemanlabglobe.eventbrite.com
TICKET INFO niemanlabglobe.eventbrite.com
CONTACT INFO Joshua Benton: joshua_benton@harvard.edu
NOTE Concerned about the future of newspapers? Wondering if a paywall model work for a major metro newspaper? Join executives from The Boston Globe for a discussion about the much-anticipated and newly launched BostonGlobe.com. Please RSVP if you plan to attend.
LINK http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/09/a-nieman-lab-event-come-talk-with-boston-globe-leaders-about-their-new-strategy-sept-26/

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Monday, September 26, 2011
7:00 PM
Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter
Exploring thickeners to manipulate mouthfeel
Speaker: Carles Tejedor (Via Veneto), Fina Puigdevall and Pere Planagumà (les Coles)
Harvard Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

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Monday, September 26, 2011
Tess Thackara: How Using Films And Images Can Shift Public Opinion and Change History
Speaker: Tess Thackara
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: MIT, E15-070, Bartos Theater
Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions -- Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis

Tess Thackara, Director, Survival International (USA)
Popularizing the Fight for Indigenous Rights: How Using Films and Images Can Shift Public Opinion and Change History

This lecture explores the work and methodology of human rights group Survival International, with a particular focus on the group's efforts to generate a groundswell of support for tribal people all over the world. Using Survival films and campaigns as case studies, the lecture will focus on the need to popularize the narrative surrounding indigenous land rights. Tess Thackara directs the USA office of Survival International, whose major campaign successes include the Indian government banning aluminum giant Vedanta Resources from mining the sacred lands of the Dongria Kondh tribe in 2010, and the High Court of Botswana's affirming the Bushmen's right to access water on their ancestral lands in 2011.

The Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions -- Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis Fall 2011 lecture series investigates initiatives and modes of intervention in contested spaces, zones of conflict, or areas affected by environ?mental disasters. We will explore whether artistic interventions can transform, disrupt or subvert current environmental, urban, political and social conditions in critical ways. How can these interventions propose ideas, while at the same time respecting the local history and culture?

Web site: act.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public.
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan Pallone
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu

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Monday September 26, 2011
7pm (note special start time for this month)
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Square)
$5

Featuring Nerd-appropriate tunes by Claude Money

Talk 1. “What is Evil? Understanding Human Cruelty in a Secular World” by Kate Elliott

Talk 2. “What Albums and Lattes Have in Common: Consumer Psychology and the Music Business” by Jodi Beggs

Talk 3. “The Evolution of Endurance Running” by Dave Rosen

For more information about the speakers and the talks:

http://boston.nerdnite.com/2011/09/21/nerdnite-september-26-economics-endurance-and-evil/

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Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Weapons Work
WHEN Tue., Sep. 27, 2011, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Belfer Center Library, Littauer 369, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Matthew Bunn, associate professor of public policy, co-principal investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5575/nuclear_101.html

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster: Don't Blame the Quake
Speaker: Professor Eduardo Kausel, MIT
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: MIT, Building 1-131, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge

CEE Mechanics Seminar

The catastrophic Tohoku earthquake of Friday March 11, 2011, was the largest to hit Japan in modern times, causing strong and long-lasting shaking. Tragically, the massive temblor also elicited a very large tsunami that devastated some coastal towns, led to casualties in the tens of thousands, and initiated a very serious chain of failures at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Making use of some powerful historical evidence as well as some stunning photos, a case is made in this talk that the Fukushima disaster was largely avoidable, having resulted mainly from a failure to consider in its design the size and frequency of large tsunami off Japan?s Pacific coast. The calamity which befell Fukushima will certainly cast a dark, long shadow of suspicion and mistrust upon the nuclear industry from which it will emerge only with difficulty.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering

For more information, contact:
Markus Buehler
617-252-2750
mbuehler@MIT.ED

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Tuesday, September 27

12 p.m.

"Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America."
Speaker Series with Jeff Madrick, editor of Challenge magazine; Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/news_events/calendar.html

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From Tehran to Tahrir: Social Media and Dynamics of Collective Action under Authoritarian RegimesZeynep Tufekci, University of North Carolina
Tuesday, September 27, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, Cambridge second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/7022
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast) shortly after.

From Zeynep:

What role did the new media ecology play in the ouster of long-standing dictators in Egypt and Tunisia as well as the continuing unrest across the region? In this talk, I present data from a large protester survey (n=1050) undertaken in Tahrir during February of 2011 and conceptually examine how the new media ecology, composed of satellite TVs, social media and cell phones, upsets the erstwhile stable dynamics of repression under “durable authoritarianism.” (Data collected by the Tahrir Data Project, run by the Engine Room research collective.) In short, authoritarian regimes often survive by creating a collective action problem for their citizenry through isolation, censorship and repression of dissent (“whack-a-protest”); social media introduces novel dynamics to this old game by changing the shape of connectivity networks, by facilitating information and action cascades, by undermining censorship and by facilitating the formation of new publics.

About Zeynep
Zeynep Tufekci is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at the School of Information and Library Science with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Sociology. She is also a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Her research revolves around the interaction between technology and social, cultural and political dynamics. She is particularly interested in collective action and social movements, complex systems, surveillance, privacy, and sociality.

Editorial Comment: Seen her speak before and she is one smart person who knows what she is talking about.

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Microsoft Research @ 20 Years
Date: Tuesday, September 27 2011
Time: 3:00PM to 6:30PM
Refreshments: 6:30PM
Location: Microsoft Conference Center, One Memorial Drive, F
Contact: Be Blackburn, 857-453-6307, irenem@microsoft.com
PLEASE REGISTER in ADVANCE.
Unlike our other seminars and talks, we strongly encourage you to R.S.V.P. at www.MSR20.com as your R.S.V.P. code.

Join us at the Microsoft Research New England Lab for a unique experience as we mark 20 years @ Microsoft Research.

Our symposium will feature a dozen short non-technical talks and a panel highlighting research areas in which we are actively engaged including CS theory, machine learning, cryptography, security, cloud computing, computational biology, healthcare, empirical economics, social media and privacy.

The symposium will be followed by a brief reception, during which some interesting demos will be available.

2:30 pm Arrival | 3:00 pm Symposium | 6:30 pm Reception | 7:30
pm Adjourn

3:00pm Video and Welcome - Jennifer Chayes
3:10pm Communication, Computing and Technology - Madhu Sudan
3:20pm Cryptography Resilient to Physical Attacks - Yael Kalai
3:30pm (Un)usable Security - Butler Lampson
3:40pm Algorithmic Pricing of Online Services - Ilan Lobel, NYU
3:50pm Systems Biology: Where Computer Science, Engineering and Biology Meet - Ernest Fraenkel, MIT
4:00pm BREAK
4:20pm Machine Learning and Crowdsourcing - Adam Kalai
4:30pm Data-driven Decision Making in Healthcare Systems - Mohsen Bayati, Stanford
4:40pm Health Care Decisions in the Information Age - Ben Handel, Berkeley
4:50pm The Effects of News Aggregators and Social Media on Online News Consumption - Susan Athey, Harvard; Markus Mobius
5:10pm BREAK
5:30pm Talking heads: Cell phones, gender and privacy in Indian villages - Kate Crawford, University of New South Wales
5:40pm Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality - Alessandro Acquisti, CMU
5:50pm PANEL: Privacy: Issues and Perspectives
Moderator: Ethan Zuckerman, Berkman Center, Harvard
Panelists: Chris Conley, Berkman Center, Harvard; Alessandro Acquisiti, CMU; Kate Crawford, University of New South Wales
6:25pm Closing Comments - Christian Borgs
6:30pm Reception and Demos

http://research.microsoft.com/
Irene Money
Business Manager, Microsoft Research New England
tel:857-453-6307

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Global Leadership Lecture Series
Scott Davis, CEO, UPS
“The Future of Logistics and Trade”
Time: 3:45pm-5pm
Location: E51-Wong Auditorium

UPS Chairman and CEO Scott Davis will speak with MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi in a candid and wide ranging conversation about logistics, global commerce, and other timely issues. As a member of the President’s Export Council, Mr. Davis is one of the nation’s leading advocates for free and open global trade. He will talk about the rise of emerging economies and the weak U.S. economic recovery. He’ll discuss the need for U.S. leadership in global trade and improved competitiveness, with more investment in transportation infrastructure. UPS is a sustainability leader with a rolling laboratory of alternative fuel vehicles, and Davis will discuss the company’s efforts to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and carbon footprint. He will speak with Dr. Sheffi from the perspective as a leader of one of the world’s largest logistics providers serving more than 220 countries.

Scott Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Portland State University and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of Business. He joined UPS in 1986 when the company acquired an Oregon technology company, II Morrow, where he had served as the chief financial officer and then chief executive officer. From 1991 to 1998, Scott held positions of increasing responsibility as treasury manager, financial reports and plans manager and accounting manager. From late 1998 to early 2000, he served as chief executive officer of Overseas Partners, Ltd., a Bermuda reinsurance company. Scott rejoined UPS as its vice president of finance in 2000. He joined the UPS Management Committee and assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer in 2001. In 2006, Scott was also appointed Vice Chairman. Scott became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2008. He serves as a director of Honeywell International Inc. and was chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2009. He is presently a member of the President’s Export Council. Scott is also a trustee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic foundation dedicated to helping disadvantaged children.
We hope to see you next Tuesday!

Tara Faulkner
ph: 617-253-4592
cell: 978-828-8913
http://ctl.mit.edu

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
4:00-6:00PM
The Brain on Stress: How the Social Environment “Gets Under the Skin”
Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D.
Alfred E. Mirsky Professor, Head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology
The Rockefeller University

Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Mass.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
"Towards New Histories of Production: Where Have We Been, and Where Might We Go?
Speaker: David Edgerton, Centre for the History of Science,Technology and Medicine, Imperial College London
Time: 4:30p–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building E51-275
Sahin Seminar

The cultural turn and the emphasis on consumption has marginalised questions of production from many branches of history. We need both to renew the pioneering work of the 1970s and early 1980s on the topic, and to look to the renewed emphasis of production in several branches of history.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): History Office

For more information, contact:
Margo Collett
253-4965
mcollett@mit.edu

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South Asia Initiative Harish C. Mahindra Lecture: "Empowering 3 Billion"
WHEN Tue., Sep. 27, 2011, 5 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR South Asia Initiative
SPEAKER(S) APJ Abdul Kalam, 11th president of India
COST Free
TICKET INFO Seating is limited
CONTACT INFO sainit@fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://southasiainitiative.harvard.edu

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12th Annual John T. Dunlop Lecture: Three Myths About Affordable Housing
WHEN Tue., Sep. 27, 2011, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cmabridge
Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Business, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Joint Center for Housing Studies, supported by the National Housing Endowment
SPEAKER(S) Jonathan Reckford, chief executive officer, Habitat for Humanity International
CONTACT INFO 617.495.7908
LINK http://www.jchs.harvard.edu

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Intercollegiate Energy Social
September 27, 2011 - 7:00pm
John Harvard's (Harvard Sq.) 33 Dunster Street Cambridge, MA
Are you a student and passionate about energy? Come to an intercollegiate energy social this Tuesday (9/27/11) for some energy community building, debate, and discussion! All are welcome, and energy clubs from schools around Boston are invited to this intercollegiate mixer. This will be a unique opportunity to meet graduate and undergraduate students who are passionate about energy. Hope to see you there!

Details: Meet in the bar area - over and under 21 welcome.

Invited clubs:
Babson Energy and Environment Club
Boston University Energy Club
Dartmouth Energy Collaborative
Dartmouth Energy Journal Club
Fletcher Energy Consortium
Harvard Business School Energy and Environment Club Harvard Energy Journal Club Harvard Global Energy Initiative Harvard Kennedy School Energy and Environment Professional Interest Council MIT Energy Club Tufts Energy Forum UNH Energy Club

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
MIT Generator - Sustainability in Action
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: MIT, Stata-R&D Commons
Want to learn about how students, faculty, and staff can collaborate around energy, environment, and sustainability? Have an idea for something new? Come to the Generator!

The MIT Generator hosts a forum for groups currently working on energy, the environment, and sustainability to share their work and for anyone to pitch new ideas and projects. Find funding for your green idea. Hear about existing efforts from many of the major campus and city groups. Meet new collaborators. Share your ideas for changing our campus and city!

Join a project. Lead a team. Help the world.

DINNER WILL BE PROVIDED. (Compostable tableware will also be provided, but the greenest thing to do is bring your own reusable tableware.)

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Sustainability@MIT

For more information, contact:
Sam Crawford
sustainability-president@mit.edu

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"Creating More Sustainable Suburbs: Lessons from Around the World"
A Conversation with Paul Lukez
Tuesday, September 27, 7:30pm
Arlington High Learning Commons, 869 Massachusetts Avenue
Organized by Sustainable Arlington in collaboration with Arlington Community Education

Across the globe, suburbia and its by-products have evolved into a complex array of urban conditions that consume an ever-increasing portion of our landscape and resources. What can be done to make the modern metropolis more sustainable? Based on his research in the US, China and Europe, architect Paul Lukez will discuss new models for building more sustainable environments and consider how they apply to Arlington and other local communities.

Paul Lukez is the author of Suburban Transformations and the forthcoming Transforming the Mid-Polis.

This event is the first in Arlington Community Ed’s Tuesday Night Conversation series moderated by Fortune magazine editor-at-large David Whitford.
Admission is $5. Advance registration is recommended. For registration information use this link
and use CODE: TC001, or call 781 316-3568.
For additional Arlington Community Education class offerings, visit http://arlingtoncommunityed.org/index.php.

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Cambridge Community Center Winter Market
Cambridge's first Winter Market is coming to the Cambridge Community Center. The market is expected to run every Saturday from January 7th to April 28th 2012. The market will take place inside the gym of the community center. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with setup and breakdown of the market.

We are also holding advisory committee meetings where we will be discussing the details of the market.

The first meeting will take place on September 27th 2011.

If you would like to attend please request an invitation by emailing Jose Mendez the Director of Marketing and Outreach at josem@cambridgecommunitycenter.org.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon
Speaker: Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, DUSP; Director, Science Impact Collaborative
Time: 12:00p–2:00p
Location: MIT, Building 9-554
Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon

Water is Not a Scarce Resources (if Transboundary Negotiations Are Structured Properly)

The conventional wisdom about water negotiations is that they inevitably take a zero-sum form. The Water Diplomacy Framework (www.waterdiplomacy. org) seeks to challenge that notion, along with other assumptions about the best ways of managing water supplies and resolving water conflicts.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/dusp/epp/music/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): DUSP, EPP

For more information, contact:
Nina Tamburello
617.253.1509
ninat@mit.edu

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Energy 101 : The Science behind Global Warming

Speaker: Daniel Chavas

Time: 12:30p–1:30p

Location: MIT, Building 3-133

Energy 101 Series
Presenting the basics of various energy-related topics.

Energy 101 lecture on the science behind global warming. FREE FOOD.

Web site: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/energy-101

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

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September 28, 2011 - 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Contact Name: Michael Rutter
mrutter@seas.harvard.edu
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Science, Technology, and India's Policy: Energy, Nuclear Power, Space and IT
Featuring Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India and current Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Join Dr. Kalam in a discussion about how the Diaspora can be better engaged in the process of enhancing research and higher education in India. Sponsored by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard South Asia Initiative.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Layer-by-Layer Assemblies: From Fundamental Thermal Analysis to Electrochemical Energy Storage Applications

Speaker: Prof. Jodie L. Lutkenhaus (Texas A&M University)

Time: 3:30p–4:45p

Location: MIT, Building 4-237

Program in Polymer Science and Technology (PPST) Polymer Seminars
PPST sponsors a series of seminars covering a broad range of topics of general interest to the polymer community,featuring speakers from both on and off campus.

MIT Program in Polymer Science and Technology Polymer Seminar

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/ppst/schedule.html

Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Polymer Science and Technology (PPST)
For more information, contact:
Gregory Sands
(617) 253-0949
ppst-www@mit.edu

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September 29, 2011
3:30pm
MIT, Building E19-623
Using Biology to Build Nanomaterials for Energy & The Environment
Angela Belcher, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy, Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, MIT

http://web.mit.edu/knight-science/seminars/current.html

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Anonymizing Personal Data: Three Case Studies and a Funeral
Vitaly Shmatikov , Associate Professor of Computer Science, the University of Texas at Austin
When: Sep 29, 2011
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Where: Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
"We do not collect personally identifiable information"... "This dataset has been de-identified prior to release"... From advertisers tracking Web clicks to biomedical researchers sharing clinical records, anonymization is the main privacy protection mechanism used for sensitive data today.

I will demonstrate that the distinction between "personally identifiable" and "non-personally identifiable" information is fallacious by showing how to infer private information from fully anonymized data in three settings: (1) records of individual transactions and preferences, illustrated by theNetflix Prize dataset, (2) social networks, and (3) recommender systems, where temporal changes in aggregate statistics allow accurate inference of hidden individual transactions.

I will also describe new approaches to privacy-preserving computation based on a combination of mandatory access control and differential privacy.

Speaker Biography: Vitaly Shmatikov is an associate professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin. He works on security and privacy.
Host: Stephen Chong
Contact: Gioia Sweetland
gioia@seas.harvard.edu 617-495-2919

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Global Economic Turbulence and the Competitiveness of Small Countries: A Perspective from Montenegro
WHEN Thu., Sep. 29, 2011, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE WAPPP Cason Conference Room (T-102), Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Milorad Katnic, minister of finance, Republic of Montenegro
LINK http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kokkalis/

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Impact of Current Developments in the Middle East on the Economic Outlook
WHEN Thu., Sep. 29, 2011, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Bell Hall, 5th Floor Belfer Building, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Middle East Initiative, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) Raed H. Charafeddine, first vice-governor of the Banque du Liban, Lebanon’s Central Bank
CONTACT INFO middle_east_initiative@hks.harvard.edu, 617.495.5963
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5552/impact_of_current_developments_in_the_middle_east_on_the_economic_outlook.html

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The 3rd annual Massachusetts Green Career Conference will be held September 30th, 2011.
Holiday Inn, Marlborough, MA
Join us to learn what's new! Register @ http://greencareer.eventbrite.com.

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September 30
8:30 am
TROMP Tutorial with Green Streets Walk/Ride Day,
Kennedy/Longfellow School, 158 Spring Street, Cambridge
http://www.trompcambridge.com

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HONK!
SIXTH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF ACTIVIST STREET BANDS

September 30 – October 3
events based in Davis Square, Somerville, Harvard Square, Cambridge, & Boston Harbor

ALMOST ALL EVENTS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE [THE FRIDAY NIGHT KICKOFF & SUNDAY NIGHT BOAT CRUISE ARE VERY AFFORDABLE!]

HONK!: the worthy craze sweeping the nation – from Boston to Providence to Brooklyn to Austin to Seattle -- and every Fall back to Boston, with HONK! bands migrating from far and near, descending upon the HONK! epicenter, where festival participants (including the audience) can gaggle, gander, and generate the gregarious racket that signifies the HONK! experience.

The HONK! phenomenon was born 6 years ago in Davis Square spurred on by a need of a certain species of street band to congregate and celebrate their social activist side. HONK! lets the good times roll while being ever mindful that some bad times need fixing. HONK! believes that street-wise music can be the agent of change for the better. HONK! is the universal tongue for hey-wake-up-and-pay-attention!

This year there will be honk-like opportunities galore with outdoor band concerts in Davis, spilling over into Harvard Square and surrounding neighborhoods, and for the first time ever, splashing out into the Boston Harbor. Rain or shine from September 30 through October 3, HONK! will release its clarion call throughout the Boston-area – a call to wage peace, harmony, and just plain fun.

The confirmed HONK! band count is currently almost 30, with one to two new ones being added weekly. But when the final count is in, there’ll still be plenty of chances for folks to jump in at the last minute and join the merry fray. For example, individual musicians not connected to any particular HONK! band are invited to participate on Sunday, October 2nd, in the impromptu “community band” which will be part of the gigantic HONK! Parade to Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet.

Take note that in previous years HONK! has been held on Columbus Day weekend, but due to the 2011 dates conflicting with Yom Kippur, the festival has been scheduled a week earlier. Festival updates can be found at www.honkfest.org, http://twitter.com/honkfest, and www.facebook.com/honkfestival, or by calling 617-383-HONK (4665).

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Friday, September 30
10:30am
"Relating Perception to Action in the Musical Brain."
Dr. Psyche Loui, Department of Neuorology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
BU: Room 203, 44 Cummington Street, Boston

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Friday, September 30, 2011
Energy Discussions: The Climate Science We Need
Speaker: Dan Chavas, Marty Singh, Tim Cronin
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: TBA
What areas of policy-relevant climate research are strongest? Where are areas for potential advances in climate research in the medium-term? What are areas where the science is strong, but the policy ideas have not yet incorporated? And what are the kind of questions that climate science just can't answer in the near future? We need to understand these kinds of questions to craft effective climate and energy policy.


Join members of the MIT Energy Club and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science for a round-table on these questions and their implications.

You can prepare for this discussion by attending the MIT Energy Club Climate Science 101 lecture on Wednesday, 28 Sept.

A light lunch will be served.

Web site: http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/discussion-series
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
Rebecca Dell
rwdell(at)mit(dot)edu

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Friday, September 30, 2011

10th Annual International Development Fair

Time: 1:00p–3:00p

Location: MIT, Building 32, Student Street, Stata Center

Interested in International Development? Want to get involved? Have an idea but not sure how to get support for it? Come to the 10th annual International Development Fair to meet the many departments, labs, centers and student groups supporting on and around MIT's campus.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/idi/get_involved.htm
Sponsor(s): International Development Initiative, Technology and Culture Forum

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

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Friday, September 30, 2011

"Contested Fields: Agriculture and Environmental Conflicts through the Lens of 'Place'"

Speaker: Chris Henke, Associate Professor of Sociology, Colgate University

Time: 4:00p–6:00p

Location: MIT, Building E51-095

This event is part of the Workshop for the History of the Environment, Agriculture, Technology and Science (WHEATS) Conference

In a world of increasingly global connections, agriculture is both part of these widespread networks but also still rooted to the specific "places"where crops are produced. This literal grounding of agriculture makes it a potential site for conflict over the environmental impacts of farming, serving as a place for diverse interests to contest the practices and technologies used in specific locations. The example of agricultural biotechnology makes a useful case to explore the place-based conflicts over agriculture in the early twenty-first century.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): History Office, STS, SHASS Dean's Office, Anthropology

For more information, contact:
Rebecca Woods, Margo Collett
802-881-7653
rjwoods@mit.edu, mcollett@mit.edu

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HEET is organizing a workshop on reducing energy bills in larger buildings on Oct. 1st. It's being run by Marc Rosenbaum, an award-winning building systems analyst, and sponsored by Mass. Interfaith Power and Light. People-in-the-know murmur Rosenbaum's name with awe. Paul Eldrenkamp of Byggmeister fame will moderate.

The workshop will take place in the First Church in Cambridge, a large historical building being used in a wide variety of ways such as a homeless shelter, childcare center and office space.

During the workshop we will be guided through the church to examine its problems, then in small groups design a longterm plan going forward to reduce the church's energy use. Rosenbaum will comment on each of the plans to help us learn.

We're assembling a star-studded cast of guides to teach folks about how the building systems work and what can help.

We will also have a NSTAR representative explain available rebates, and the president of New Generation Energy talk about a great new financing mechanism for raising money through a community for energy efficiency.

We want to leave people with the practical knowledge about buildings and financing to reduce their building's energy use.

The workshop itself is on Sat. Oct 1st from 9 am to 5 pm. Lunch will be provided and the cost is only $75. Normally Rosenbaum's classes cost 3 times that.

Here's more info https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OVgK56hrB7m2roHQ2KW9cUysRnbMzJNi5e1HCf_rueI/edit?hl=en_US, and the sign up formhttps://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dDljTHE3V0VGcnFEWWZlU3pTTGtVUXc6MQ#gid=0

Please post the info wherever you can or mention it to all who might be interested. I think it will be a very helpful workshop.

We only have room for 100 attendees, so people might want to sign up soon.

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ENDING THE ENDLESS WARS AND OCCUPATIONS
Saturday, October 1, 2011 9am to 5pm Suffolk University, Boston
Register Online Now!

Keynote speaker
NOAM CHOMSKY

2011 from Egypt to Libya: Triumph and Turmoil in the Arab world
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The Conference
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Fall 2011 marks ten years since 9/11, the War on Terror, the Afghanistan War, and the founding of UJP. The US/NATO bombing of Libya is the latest in the
series of wars. Domestically, greed is rampant and serious problems are getting worse. Few peace and justice activists can remember a more troubling time.

How did we get here and how can we change things?

What can we learn from the historic events in Egypt, where the people triumphed against huge odds, and the workers of Wisconsin?

How can the peace movement continue its work to end the wars and cut the military budget while also building cooperation with the economic and racial
justice movements?

We want a peaceful foreign policy based on democracy to focus on the pressing economic and human problems that must be solved.
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Featuring Presentations by:
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Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Report from Afghanistan and Iraq

Ann Wright, former U.S. Army Colonel
Report on the Gaza Flotilla and Palestine

Michael McPhearson, National Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
Connecting to the War at Home

Will Hopkins
Iraq Veterans Against the War and New Hampshire Peace Action
The crisis and youth today

Max Elbaum, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras
Fighting for Peace Against an Empire in Decline

Patricia Montes, Centro Presente
How the wars affect immigrant rights at home

Registration Fee: $15, includes morning coffee and pastry. Free for Suffolk University students and faculty with ID. ?No one turned away.
Register online at http://justicewithpeace.org/ten-years-after-registration

Lunch: $10 - pizza, salad and drink, served in Donahua Building cafeteria.
Directions: Take the T to Park Street or Government Center.
Suffolk University, Donahue Building, 41 Temple St.
Do not confuse Temple Street with Temple Place.

Registration opens at 9am at the Donahue Building, 41 Temple St.
Sessions will be held in Donahue and in the C. Walsh Theatre next door.

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Green Homes Open House
October 1, 10am - 4pm

Get ready to be inspired as you view clean, renewable energy at work first-hand on Saturday, October 1! The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) invites you to visit sustainable, green homes and buildings throughout New England, including right here in Boston. Last year more than 10,000 people participated in close to 500 tours. See how your neighbors are reducing their carbon footprint and cutting their energy bills through the power of the sun, wind, smart building design, and energy efficient appliances and technologies.
Boston sites include:
12 St John, JP (10 am-2 pm)
16 Stearns St. Cambridge (11 am-4 pm)
133 Bourne, JP (12 pm-5 pm)
61 Hampstead #2, JP
18 Beethoven, Roxbury (10 am-2 pm)
100 Terrace, Roxbury (10 am-2 pm)
To learn more about these and other Green Buildings Open House sites near you, visit http://www.nesea.org/greenbuildings.

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Saturday, October 01, 2011

2011 Ig Informal Lectures at MIT

Speaker: The 2011 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Time: 1:00p–3:00p

Location: MIT, Building 26-100

A half-afternoon of improbably funny, informative, brief (5 minutes each, plus a few questions & answers with the audience), high-spirited public lectures, in which the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/index.html#ig

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact:
The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
books@mit.edu

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Upcoming

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Climate Change 2011: When Policymakers Fail
Bartos Theater
MIT campus, 20 Ames Street Building E15, Atrium level, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Some of America’s top scientists discuss their frustration with the lack of progress on the pressing problem of climate change, and talk about their ideas for what scientists and citizens can do while policymakers fail to act.
What does the latest research show on both the climate and the attitude of Americans?
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Please e-mail knight-info@mit.edu for details and registration information.
http://web.mit.edu/knight-science
http://web.mit.edu/knight-science/img/seminars/climateweb.pdf

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Collaboration Paradox with John Abele, Founder of Boston Scientific
We often claim to work collaboratively—but do our collaborative initiatives realize their potential and drive innovation?
OCTOBER 5, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE, MCGOVERN AUDITORIUM, 9 CAMBRIDGE CENTER
Boston Scientific Founder John Abele—drawing from his 30+ years experience at the intersection of science and industry—will discuss what it takes to facilitate successful collaborations and why the most productive collaborations often arise unexpectedly. Citing Whitehead Institute’s Founder Jack Whitehead as an example, Abele will discuss the key ingredients for accelerating the development of new technologies and ideas through collaborative behavior, including leadership, community building and harnessing the “wisdom of crowds.”

http://tedxboston.org/adventure/collaboration-paradox-with-john-abele-founder-of-boston-scientific

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The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future public hearing

October 12, 2011
Harvard Medical School Conference Center, 77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood, Boston, MA

BRC Draft Report to the Secretary of Energy http://www.brc.gov

The Blue Ribbon Commission On America’s Nuclear Future is a Presidentially-mandated group composed of 16 people to make recommendations for national radioactive waste policy. The record of the work the Commission has done over the last year--available on-line in video form, transcript, written testimony, and public comments all posted at http://www.brc.gov

These additional meetings in September and October are to collect public comments on the Commission's draft recommendations. The full draft report is available here: http://www.brc.gov/index.php?q=announcement/brc-releases-their-draft-full-commission-report

The Commission website states: All public are welcome to attend. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged but not required. Information about registration will be available in the near future. The meetings will not be video webcast. Transcripts of the meetings will be available on the website, along with all written comments anyone chooses to offer. Comments can either be made directly to the website at www.brc.gov or by email to:CommissionDFO@nuclear.energy.govand via US postal mail:

Mr. Timothy A. Frazier
Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Comment deadline is October 31, 2011. NIRS will share a more complete set of comments for sign-on in October.

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Zero Net Energy Housing Workshop
Thursday, October 13
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
MassDevelopment
33 Andrews Parkway
Devens, MA

A review of building techniques for high energy-efficient homes that produce as much energy as they consume. Enjoy a tour of Zero Net Energy homes already under construction in Devens and engage in a question and answer period with Carter Scott, one of the state's pre-eminent sustainable developers.

There is no cost to attend but space is limited. To register, contact scorbeil@massdevelopment.com

Editorial Comment: Carter Scott does great work and is well worth hearing.

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Hands-on work to weatherize a great organization!
Save the date: Oct 15th
BostonCAN is partnering with HEET again to organize a "barnraising." We won't be raising any barns at this neighborhood weatherization work day, but we will be helping a Jamaica Plain community anchor, Spontaneous Celebrations, to lighten its ecological footprint and save much needed funds for its wonderful programming, such as the Lantern Festival and Wake Up the Earth.

Barnraisings are great opportunities to get hands-on experience making old windows more weather-tight, air sealing in a basement, and weather-stripping doors. Both skilled and untrained volunteers are needed.

Contact Information
Boston Climate Action Network
857-544-6846
bostonclimateaction[at]gmail.com
http://bostoncan.org

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TEDxCambridge Presents: Thrive
November 19, 2011, Harvard University
You have to apply to attend at http://www.tedxcambridge.com/thrive/

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Opportunity

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AC Swap – The Cambridge Energy Alliance’s window air conditioner swap program is in progress. Residents can obtain a voucher for $125 if they swap an inefficient window AC unit for an Energy Star rated model This is a limited time offer. Go to the CEA website for participation details:http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/a-c-swap

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Free Solar Panels for Houses of Worship

From a recent Mass Interfaith Power & Light (http://mipandl.org/) email
"We've recently been talking with DCS Energy (http://www.dcsenergy.com/) who has an unbeatable offer: if your site qualifies, they design and install the panels at no cost, don't charge you for any electricity, and donate the system to your house of worship after five years. Your only costs will be for a building permit, possibly a structural engineer to verify that your roof can support their weight, and any preparatory work such as roof work or tree removal. If solar panels are so expensive how can anyone give them away for free? First, there is a federal grant program that is only available until November that pays for 30% of the cost of the system. Then there is an accelerated depreciation option that gives certain kinds of investors another tax advantage. Finally, the state awards a special allowance called a "Solar Renewal Energy Credit" (SRECs) to owners of solar electricity systems which are sold at auctions to utilities who buy them to meet their requirements under the Massachusetts' renewable portfolio standard. DCS is betting that the price of these SRECs will remain high. Jim Nail, president of MA IP&L, has talked to DCS Energy and is currently having them prepare a proposal for his church, St. Dunstan's Episcopal in Dover. Jim says, "The references I've talked to have been quite positive about the program and the company has been very responsive. "If you think your site might qualify, contact Peter Carli, pete@dcsenergy.com, with the address of your house of worship and your contact information. He'll take a preliminary look at your site and advise you if it meets their criteria."

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Young World Inventors Success!

Young World Inventors (http://yinventors.wordpress.com/) finished their Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1036325713/youngworldinventorscom) to fund insider web stories of African and American innovators in collaboration successfully.

New contributions, however, will be accepted.

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What you need to know: The Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur (YSE) Competition is a global competition created by Staples Foundation and Ashoka to recognize exceptional young people using innovation and technology to advance social change and improve their community and the world.

Who’s eligible?: Young people (age 12-24), living anywhere in the world, are eligible to apply.

Dates and details: Apply online between June 22 and September 19, 2011.

For more information: http://ashokayouthcompetition.org/
--
Laura Sampath
MIT International Development Initiative
77 Mass Ave, 10-110
Cambridge MA 02139
617.253.7052

Sign up for the 2011 Yunus Challenge Facebook page: yunus2011@groups.facebook.com

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Resource

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Massachusetts Attitudes About Climate Change – An opinion survey of Massachusetts residents conducted by MassINC and sponsored by the Barr Foundation found that 77% of respondents believe that global warming has “probably been happening” and 59% of all respondents see see it as being at least partially caused by human pollution. Only 42% of the state’s residents say global warming will have very serious consequences for Massachusetts if left unaddressed. The 18 to 29 age group is more likely to believe global warming is appearing and caused by humans compared to the 60+ age group. African-American (56%) and Latino residents (69%) are more likely than white residents (40%) to believe global warming will be a very serious problem if left unaddressed. The MassINC report, titled The 80 Percent Challenge: What Massachusetts must do to meet targets and make headway on climate change (http://www.massinc.org/Research/The-80-percent-challenge.aspx), contains many other findings.

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The presentations from the recent Affordable Comfort National Home Performance Conference are available online at
http://2011.acinational.org/downloadable_resources

Lots of good information from what some call the best energy conference in the USA on Deep Energy Retrofits to Community Energy Challenges with details on insulation, heat flow, energy metering, ducting, hot water, and many, many other topics. If you are a practical energy wonk, this should make your eyes light up.

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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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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

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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/

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - September 18, 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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Trash Technology and Recycled Solar: Plastic Bottles http://solarray.blogspot.com/2011/09/trash-technology-and-recycled-solar.html

Climate CoLab Contest Final Entry Date: September 30 - crowdsourcing climate solutions - http://bit.ly/pCrr0Y

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Monday, September 19
8 am to 5 pm

Sixth Annual AltWheels Fleet Day - Alternative fuel vehicles for fleet applications

at the Four Points by Sheraton, Norwood MA

http://www.altwheels.org/

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State House Rally Against Subsidizing Dirty Biomass Incinerators
Nurse's Hall, 2d Floor
State House, Boston
Monday Sept. 19, 10:30-11:30am

We need your help. You can make a real difference! Join us for the rally and press conference (press conference starts at 11 a.m.). A coalition of health, environmental, and social justice groups is urging Governor Patrick and Lt. Governor Murray to strengthen the state's laws so we aren?t forced to subsidize biomass incinerators that pollute our air, destroy our forests, and worsen climate change. We will be delivering thousands of petitions and post cards to the Patrick Administration from residents around the state.

For more information, visit www.stopspewingcarbon.org. Co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Sierra Club, Biomass Accountability Project, Toxics Action
Center, and others.

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September 19, 2011
151 Forsyth, Northeastern University, 70 Forsyth Street, Boston
11:45 AM

Special Seminar
“Mechanically-Tunable Materials Inspired from Nature”
Prof. LaShanda Korley, Nord Distinguished Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University

ABSTRACT
An understanding of the architecture and deformation behavior of natural materials, such as titin, collagen, nacre, and spider silk, gives clues to the unique interplay between structure, hierarchy, and function and influences the rational design of mechanically-enhanced materials. These bio-inspired design principles have motivated our exploration of several approaches to enhancing mechanical behavior. I will highlight recent developments in my group related to nature-inspired nanocomposites with self-assembling small molecule fillers, confinement-induced block copolymer in multilayered films, and hierarchical elastomers for energy absorption. Tunability in extensibility, toughness, and modulus as well as opportunities to impart additional functionality have been achieved through these strategic approaches.

BIOGRAPHY
LaShanda Korley is the Nord Distinguished Assistant Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT in 2005 and entered the Case Western faculty in 2007 following postdoctoral training at Cornell University. She is the recipient of CAREER (2010 ) and BRIGE (2008) awards from the National Science Foundation. In 2011, she was selected as one of eighteen DuPont Young Professors.

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Monday, September 19
12-1:30
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar Series
Developing Renewable Energy Projects in the U.S.: Perspectives from Enel Green Power
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Francesco Venturini
President and CEO, Enel Green Power North America

http:// www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/events.htm

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Monday, September 19, 2011
Building Technology Lecture Series: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR EMERGING ARCHITECTURE
Speaker: Jan Knippers, Prof. Dr. Ing.: Knippers Helbig-Advanced Engineering Stuttgart, New York
Time: 12:30p–2:00p
Location: MIT, Building 7-431, AVT, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Builiding Technology Fall 2011 Secture Series

Digital design and production open new ways for architecture. Computer controlled fabrication methods allow for structures, which would not have been possible a few years ago. But how does one transfer 3D geometries into a load bearing structure without loosing the architectural vision of smoothly shaped building envelopes? An intense discussion is necessary to navigate architectural visions of elegant 3D shapes through the technical and economic constraints of realization. From the very early stages of form finding to the assembly on site, a consistent design process is absolutely necessary to achieve high quality free formed structures. In this lecture different examples are shown to demonstrate this. The projects vary from a timber shell in Cologne with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the large entrance axis for the Expo 2010 in Shanghai to the new international airport in Shenzhen with Massimilano Fuksas.

Jan Knippers received his Ph.D. at the Technical University of Berlin in 1992. From 1993 until 2000 Dr. Knippers worked at the office of Schlaich, Bergermann and Partners in Stuttgart. In 2001 he founded, together with Thorsten Helbig, the office Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering in Stuttgart with a branch in New York City since 2009. The office has developed an expertise in the designs of bridges, roofs and facades, and is always after creative and highly innovative solutions in materials and construction.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Building Technology Program

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

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Monday, September 19, 2011

Unionization and the Distribution of Employee Earnings: Evidence from Certification Elections

Speaker: B. Frandsen

Time: 4:00p–5:30p

Location: MIT, Building E51-151

Unionization and the Distribution of Employee Earnings: Evidence from Certification Elections

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Public Finance/Labor Workshop

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

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Will Knowledge Workers of the World Unite?
WHEN Mon., Sep. 19, 2011, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Labor & Worklife Program, Harvard Law School, 125 Mt. Auburn St., 3rd floor conference room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Labor & Worklife Program, HLS
SPEAKER(S) Vincent Mosco, professor emeritus, Queen's University, Canada, and editor of Getting the Message: Communication Workers and Global Value Chains
CONTACT INFO john_trumpbour@harvard.edu, 617.495.9265

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Monday, September 19, 2011

Gas Turbines for Electric Power Generation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Speaker: Dr. S. Can (John) Gulen, GE Energy, Schenectady N.Y.

Time: 4:15p–5:15p

Location: MIT, Building 3-370, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge

Center for Energy and Propulsion Research Seminar Series

The origins of the gas turbine as a concept go back to the early 19th century. Its first practical application took place about a hundred years ago. Gas turbine?s meteoric rise in the last few years of the Second World War and its development in the second half of the 20th century were driven by its role as the primary engine system for military and civilian aircraft propulsion. While gas turbines have always been a part of land-based electric power generation, their emergence as the key fossil fuel technology for large-scale electric power generation is quite recent.
As of today, in the second decade of the 21st century, natural gas fired gas turbine in combined cycle configuration is the most efficient and cleanest technology for fossil fuel based electricity generation.
Interestingly, the basic machine has not changed appreciably from its 40s vintage forebears. The development was mainly driven by increasing turbine inlet temperatures facilitated almost exclusively by advanced materials (superalloys), coating and cooling technologies.
This brief presentation covers the gas turbine history and its current status as the most advanced electric power generation technology as well as its future role, which seems to be even more pronounced than the present one due to its unique capabilities to supplement the increasingly important share of renewable technologies in our generation portfolio.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): RGD Lab

For more information, contact:
Patrick Kirchen

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Monday, September 19, 2011

Everything Akimbo: Welcoming the Electronic Literature Organization to MIT

Time: 5:30p–8:00p

Location: MIT, Building E14-674, Media Lab Extension, 6th Floor

Purple Blurb

Open House / Open Mic / Open Mouse

Please join us in welcoming the Electronic Literature Organization to MIT with an open house / open mic / open mouse featuring 5-7 minute presentations and readings by a host of electronic literature authors (perhaps including you)!

5:30 pm > Kickoff: Signup begins
6:30 pm > Readings & presentations

Presenters will include:
> Nick Montfort, president, Electronic Literature Organization
> Other directors and members of the ELO
> John Cayley, Brown University, Organizer of the 2010 ELO Conference

Snacks provided > Free and open to the public > Free, open, and AKIMBO.

Part of the purple blurb reading series
Fall 2011
sponsored by the Angus N. MacDonald Fund
and the Council for the Arts at MIT

http://nickm.com/if/purple_blurb/
http://eliterature.org/

Web site: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=271215609563006
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, The Angus N. MacDonald Fund, The Council for the Arts at MIT
For more information, contact:
Amaranth Borsuk
617-253-4532
amaranth@mit.edu

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Monday, 19 September

5:45 pm to 7:15 pm

MIT Building 9, Room 9-450A, Cambridge

Strategies for Sustainable Mobility: Mitigating Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Rapidly Developing Cities

Professor Chris Zegras, Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Urbanization and economic growth lead to more people making more trips, across longer distances, in more and larger cities across the globe. In the face of this growth, urban transportation systems must balance two basic needs. On the one hand, we need transportation to continue to contribute to economic development and human welfare. On the other, we need to mitigate transportation’s negative effects, both current – exemplified by pollution and accidents – as well as future, including climate change risks and exhaustion of non-renewable resources.

Prof. Zegras will base his discussion of sustainable mobility on the concept of accessibility. Accessibility represents the welfare that people derive from the interaction among transportation, land use, and the social system. This concept is particularly important in cities of the developing world, where many citizens sorely lack accessibility to the means of satisfying their daily needs. Prof. Zegras will propose a sustainable mobility framework that will provide steady or increasing accessibility over time. Sustainability requires that we bequeath to future generations the means to achieve at least the level of accessibility we enjoy today.

Chris Zegras is the Ford Career Development Associate Professor at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Chris teaches graduate-level courses in urban transportation planning, statistics, and land use-transportation planning, and has co-taught urban design and planning studios and practica in Beijing, Santiago de Chile, and Mexico City. His research interests include the relationship between transportation and the built environment, transportation system finance, and transportation energy use and greenhouse gas mitigation.

For more information, please contact Jim Ernstmeyer, ernstmeyer@ieee.org, or visit the IEEE website at http://www.ieeeboston.org/
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Monday, September 19, 2011

Sustainability@MIT Fall Kickoff Information Session

Speaker: Sam Crawford and Nancy Kim, Co-Presidents

Time: 6:00p–7:30p

MIT, Building 5-233

Want to help spread sustainability across campus and beyond? Come to our fall kickoff meeting and information session to learn about Sustainability@MIT and how you can get involved. There are many opportunities available, so come and check us out!
Dinner provided.

Web site: http://sustainability.mit.edu/events/sustainabilitymit-fall-kickoff-meeting-information-session
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Sustainability@MIT
For more information, contact:
Sam Crawford
sustainability-president@mit.edu

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Monday, September 19, 2011

AKPIA@MIT LECTURE: The Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor, Egypt; Historical and Cultural Challenges in Urban Design

Speaker: Hala Nassar, Assistant Professor in Planning & Landscape Architecture Clemson University

Time: 6:00p–7:30p

Location: MIY, Building 7-431, 77 Mass Avenue, Cambridge

An Evening With... AKPIA@MIT LECTURE

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/akpia/www/lecturescurrent.htm
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture
For more information, contact:
Jose Luis Arguello
253-1400
akpiarch@mit.edu

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Science and Cooking: The Many Faces of Chocolate

WHEN Mon., Sep. 19, 2011, 7 – 9 p.m.

WHERE Harvard Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Ramon Morató (Aula Chocovic)
COST Free. All are welcome to attend.
LINK https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking

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September 19, 2011 - 7:00pm - 8:30pm
EcoMind Talk and Book Signing with Frances Moore Lappé
Porter Square Books
25 White Street, Cambridge, MA

Join Frances at Porter Square Books for a discussion and signing of her new book EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want.

About EcoMind
Drawing on the latest research from disciplines ranging from anthropology to neuroscience and her own field experience, Lappé argues that the biggest challenge to human survival isn't our fossil fuel dependency, melting glaciers, or other calamities. Rather, she says, it's our faulty way of thinking about these environmental crises that robs us of power. Lappé dismantles seven common "thought traps" that belie what we now know about nature, including our own, and offers contrasting "thought leaps" that suggest our hidden power.

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

HUCE Special Seminar: "Coupled Atmosphere-biosphere Models as a Tool for Conservation and Environmental Planning and Policy”

WHEN Tue., Sep. 20, 2011, 12 p.m.
WHERE HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd floor Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Marcos Heil Costa, professor of climatology and environmental modeling at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil
CONTACT INFO Lisa Matthews: matthew@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE In this perspective talk, Marcus Heil Costa (1) provides a brief overview of the development, characteristics and sensitivity of coupled atmosphere-biosphere models, (2) discusses the potential application of these models to conservation and environmental policy, planning and practice and, finally, (3) outlines the various challenges faced by the modeling and conservation and environmental research communities to fully utilize and exploit the results of coupled models.
*Lunch provided!*
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-09-20/huce-special-seminar

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Tuesday, September 20, 12 p.m.
"A Media Lesson from the Financial Meltdown."
Speaker Series with Diana Henriques, senior financial writer at The New York Times, author of The Wizard of Lies.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

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

A self-standing financing model to help sustain the non-market digital commons
Philippe Aigrain, Sopinspace
Tuesday, September 20, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person via http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/09/aigrain#RSVP
This event will be webcast live (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast) at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

What if we consider that sharing a digitally published work in one's possession with other individuals is a fundamental right? What if we break away from the idea of compensating the entertainment right holders for supposed harms resulting from this sharing and ask ourselves what is a reasonable reward and financing model for sustaining a many-to-all cultural society? How many people do we need to reward, how much money for support to production of new works? What will be the diversity of attention to works and creators? Which reward for a given level of usage? The talk will open a discussion on these topics, based on work conducted for "Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age", forthcoming at Amsterdam Univ. Press in November 2011.

About Philippe
Philippe Aigrain is presently CEO of Sopinspace, Society for Public Information Spaces, a company that he founded in 2004. Sopinspace develops free software and provides commercial services for democratic processes and collaborative work over the Internet. In parallel, he is active as an analyst of the stakes of the information revolution and engaged in actions for the reform of intellectual rights regimes. This is part of a long commitment to the development of technical tools, processes and social environments that help everyone to be more creative, more capable of critical thinking and constructive exchanges with others.

Philippe has a number of NGO responsibilities. He is one of the founders of La Quadrature du Net, a citizen group defending fundamental rights and freedoms in the digital sphere and promoting policy proposals for the the digital era. He serves of the board of directors of the Software Freedom Law Center and on the Board of Trustees of the NEXA Center for Internet and Society (Torino, Italy).

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

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
"Thoughts on Some Factors That Led Up to the Signing of the Montreal Protocol to Protect the Ozone Layer"
Speaker: Dr. Susan Solomon, CIRES/University of Colorado at Boulder
Time: 3:00p–4:30p
Location: MIT Bartos Theater, E15- Atrium Level

Houghton Lecture Series Lecture 1 (of 2)
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/houghton-lectures
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
For more information, contact:
Roberta Allard
617-253-3382
allard@mit.edu

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

September 20, 2011 (Tuesday)
3:30pm (Refreshments at 3:15pm)
SCI 113, Metcalf Science Center, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Silicon Micromachines for Science and Technology
David Bishop, Boston University

In my talk I will discuss silicon micro machines and their use in both science and technology. Applications include optical switching, acoustics and RF systems. Scientific experiments include mesoscopic vortex physics, high sensitivity magnetometers and the Casimir effect.

Contact : Winna Somers (wsomers@bu.edu) (617) 353-9320

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

Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change: "How Could Nature Thrive in Urban Regions? Could the Future of Roads Have No Driving, No Emissions, and Nature Reconnected?”
WHEN Tue., Sep. 20, 2011, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Biolabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Richard T. T. Forman, PAES Professor of Landscape Ecology, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Lisa Matthews: matthew@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE The lecture will be followed by a reception.
The ring around today’s cities holds the destiny for tomorrow’s mainly urban world, and for natural systems far beyond. Focusing ecologically on nature, food, water, built systems, and built areas in the ring-around-the-city offers promise.
The Biodiversity, Ecology, and Global Change lecture series is sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment with generous support from Bank of America.
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-09-20/biodiversity-ecology-and-global-change-how-could-nature-thrive-urban-regions-could

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Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Nanogenerators and self-powered system and portable electronics

Speaker: Zhong Lin Wang, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Time: 4:00p–5:30p

Location: 10-250

Ever since the wide range applications of laptop computers and cell phones, seeking of power sources for driving portable electronics is becoming increasingly important. The current technology mainly relies on rechargeable batteries. But for the near future, micro/nano-systems will be widely used in health monitoring, infrastructure and environmental monitoring, internet of things and defense technologies; the traditional batteries may not meet or may not be the choice as power sources for the following reasons. First, with the increasingly shrinkage in size, the size of the total micro/nano-systems could be largely dominated by the size of the battery rather than the devices. Second, the number and density of micro/nano-systems to be used for sensor network could be large, thus, replacing batteries for these mobile devices becoming challenging and even impractical. Lastly, the power needed to drive a micro/nano-system is rather small, in the range o f micro- to milli-Watt range. To meet these technological challenges, the author proposed the self-powering nanotechnology in 2005, aiming at harvesting energy from the environment to power the micro/nano-systems based sensor network. This talk will introduce the nanogenerator as a sustainable self-sufficient power source for micro/nano-systems by harvesting energy from our body and living environment. Co-sponsored by MITEI and the China Energy and Environment Research Group.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative

For more information, contact:
Minjie Chen
minjie@MIT.EDU

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

Join the conversation! We organizing 3 informational conference calls for folks who want to learn more about this year's Digital Media Conference/Grassroots Use of Technology Conferences. So if you want to organize a workshop, to meet informally with progressive activists using digital tools, to learn more about the range of issues being addressed, and help plan and organize, join one of the conference calls:
After-work Call: Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Lunchtime Call: Monday, September 26, 2011, 12 noon - 1:00 p.m.
After-work Call: Monday, September 26, 2011, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Conference Call Dial-in Number: 424-203-8400 Access Code: 184850# [note: this is NOT a toll-free call; long-distance charges may be incurred]

Call Agenda:
1. Welcome - Suren Moodliar (Coordinator, Mass. Global Action) 2 minutes
2. Conference Objectives & Highlights - Jason Pramas (Editor &
Publisher, Open Media Boston) 10 minutes
3. Venue, Workshops, Tracks, Website - Suren Moodliar 5 minutes
4. Q & A + Open Dialogue 25 minutes
5. Next Steps/Summation: Suren Moodliar & Jason Pramas 10 minutes

ABOUT: The Digital Media Conference 2011, incorporating the Grassroots Use of Technology Conference 2011, is being organized by Open Media Boston, Massachusetts Global Action, the Organizers' Collaborative and TecsChange in cooperation with a growing list of sponsors including the Boston Media Reform Network. The conference is organized around a frame that connects technology and social change, "Social Movements/Digital Revolutions."

Here's the short account of the conference frame: The conference is being called to look at new developments in technology, social media, journalism and the creative world from the perspective of grassroots movements for social justice. We’re also interested to debate some of the key issues facing progressive organizers today.

Expanded and more fully introduced, we have drafted a "framing document" to serve as a "conference call" and help workshop organizers choose a track or category for their proposal. This longer version can be downloaded from here:

http://www.digitalmediaconference.org/2011/sites/default/files/SM_DR-conference_framing_document_rev.pdf

Conference Dates: October 21-23, 2011; MIT & Lesley University.
Register here: http://www.digitalmediaconference.org
Conference Registration Fee: $30 (sliding scale, $20 for students,
low-income and unemployed individuals); Co-sponsoring Organization
Rates available (contact: info@digitalmediaconference.org)

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

Tuesday, September 20
5:30-7:00PM
Location TBA

The American Islamic Congress and World Boston present "Bearers of Change: Muslim Women on the Frontlines"
Featuring: Mona Eltahawy (left), award-winning Egyptain-American Journalist

Yasmin Ratansi (right), the first Muslim woman elected to the Canadian Parliament

Souad Akib, local Moroccan-American community Organizer

Light refreshments served

Free - but please RSVP

AIC and World Boston proudly co-present a new series on "Women's Leadership in the Muslim World." Sponsored by The Boston Foundation, the program features seasoned reformers and dynamic emerging voices exploring the road ahead for women's rights in Muslim communities around the world, including right here in Boston.

The event is free and open to the public, but kindly RSVP to reserve your place.

RSVP via 617-266-0080 or email events@aicongress.org.

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


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

There is Nothing so Practical as a Good Theory: The Economics Behind Honest Tea

Speaker: Barry Nalebuff

Time: 6:00p–7:15p

Location: MIT, Building NW86, MP room

The Sidney-Pacific Committee on Scholarly Interaction (CoSI) will be hosting Professor Barry Nalebuff, an MIT alumnus ('80), world-leading expert in game theory, bestselling author, Forbes columnist, and founder of Honest Tea, one of Inc. Magazine's fastest-growing companies. He will speak on the topic "There's Nothing so Practical as a Good Theory: The Economics Behind Honest Tea", with a Q+A session following the lecture. Sidney-Pacific residents may RSVP for the dinner afterward.

Web site: http://s-p.mit.edu/#ThereisNothingsoPracticalasaGoodTheory:TheEconomicsBehindHonestTea

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community, ODGE Presidential Fellows Program

For more information, contact:
SP CoSI Chairs
sp-cosi-chair@mit.edu

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

NOW YOU SEE IT: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
WHEN Tue., Sep. 20, 2011, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Austin East Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Humanities, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Berkman Center for Internet & Society
SPEAKER(S) Cathy Davidson, Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke University and co-founder of HASTAC
COST Free
NOTE Approximately fifteen years into industrial-era management science, the medieval university began its rapid metamorphosis into the modern twentieth-century research university. Now, fifteen years after the commercialization of the Internet and the World Wide Web, we are at an optimal moment for reconsidering these fundamental institutions for our own era. Davidson is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the role of technology in our lives but, rather, asks how we can use technology as an engine of transformation. This talk helps us to think in historical, theoretical, and practical ways about how, as individuals and institutions, we can learn new ways to thrive in the interactive, digital, global world we already inhabit.
LINK http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/09/davidson
RSVP at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/09/davidson#RSVP

--------------------------------
Tuesday, September 20, 2011

From Sociological Art to The Aesthetics of Communication, A lecture by Fred Forest

Time: 6:30p–8:00p

Location: MIT, Building E-15, Bartos Theatre

French media artist and theorist Fred Forest (born in 1933) is one of the earliest pioneers of video and media art. His work with interactive environments using computer and video elements, began as early as 1968. At the forefront of interactive art and new media, sociology, and institutional critique, his work frequently immaterial and relational, raises questions about the nature and function of art in a market-driven age of information.

The List Visual Arts Center wishes to thank The Cultural Service of the French Consulate in Boston, Residency Unlimited, and the MIT-France Program for their generous assistance in making this talk possible.

Web site: http://listart.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact:
Mark Linga
617-253-4680

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

Tuesday, September 20

7 pm

Greenport Forum – Topic: The Next Big Thing

Cambridgeport Baptist Church, 459 Putnam Avenue, Cambridge

Greenport has had great success generating and incubating innovative, community building responses to global warming and climate change. These include HEET and the Climate Emergency Congress. What project(s) should Greenport take on this year – district heating? A neighborhood food center? Cooperative neighborhood solar hot water installations?

What are your ideas? Come join us at the first fall forum to discuss your ideas and think about action plans!

For more information, contact Steve Morr-Wineman at swineman@gis.net
--------------------------

Wednesday, September 21, 12 p.m.
"Social Media, Journalism and the Arab Spring."
Speaker Series with Andy Carvin, Senior Strategist, Social Media Desk, NPR.
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

-----------------------
Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Realizing Hager's 1991 Idea: Weighing the Greenland Ice Sheet Using GPS

Speaker: Professor Michael Bevis, School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State 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
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
For more information, contact:
Jacqui Taylor
253-2127
jtaylor@mit.edu

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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Building Bridges Between Genes, Brains and Language

Speaker: Dr. Simon Fisher, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Time: 4:00p–5:00p

Location: MIT, Building 46-3002

MIT Colloquium Series on the Brain & Cognition

Genes that are implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders can provide novel insights into neural mechanisms contributing to human spoken language. My colleagues and I previously discovered that people with mutations of the FOXP2 gene have problems mastering sequences of mouth movements needed for fluent speech, accompanied by expressive and receptive language impairments. FOXP2 is an evolutionarily ancient gene which switches on and off other genes in brain circuits of diverse vertebrates. Researchers are now studying it in a wide range of systems, from neuronal models, mutant mice and songbirds, to humans themselves. Intriguingly, dysfunction of this gene impairs neural plasticity and motor-skill learning in mice, and impedes vocal imitation during song learning in zebra finches. Analyses of molecular evolution in primates indicate that FOXP2 protein sequence underwent accelerated change on the human lineage after splitting from the chimpanzee. Nevertheless, FOXP2 should not be viewed as the mythical "gene for language" but as one piece of a complex puzzle. Overall, my talk will demonstrate how our multidisciplinary investigations of genes like FOXP2 are helping build the first bridges between genes, brains and spoken language.

Web site: http://bcs.mit.edu/newsevents/colloquia.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Brain and Cognitive Sciences
For more information, contact:
617-253-5748
bcs-info@mit.edu

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

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Civic Media Session: "Social Movement Media Across Platforms"

Speaker: Jason Pramas, editor/publisher of Open Media Boston; Steve Meacham, organizing coordinator of City Life/Vida Urbana

Time: 5:00p–7:00p

Location: MIT Building E14-648

Civic Media Sessions

Social movements have always been productive spaces for the creation and circulation of media texts, tools, and frames for understanding the world. In the past, movement narratives were often told by specialists: filmmakers, writers, radio producers.

These roles still exist, but more recently, the rapid spread of digital literacies allows increased participation in movement media making by everyday participants.

This session brings together social movement media makers and scholars in a conversation about what the transformation of the media ecology means for movements. Under what conditions does media making by a movement's base help strengthen the movement and advance its goals, and when does it produce confusion and a lack of narrative power? How can filmmakers rooted in movements open up their processes to increased participation? What movements today are engaged in innovative cross platform practices?

Web site: http://civic.mit.edu/event/civic-media-session-amplified-streets-from-print-to-tweets-social-movement-media-across
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for Future Civic Media
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre

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

Wednesday, Sept. 21

6-9pm

*"We Destroy the Environment, We Destroy Ourselves" - Jonas Salk*
A Roundtable Discussion

Join us to discuss the climate crisis, global warfare, and transitions to sustainability from community organizing perspectives. With presentations on community models adapting to climate change, a look at root causes and the effects of corporate imperialism and global warfare, we will engage in a multi-issue open discussion on 'where we are' and 'where we're going' with the increasing vulnerability of our ecosystems and social cohesion.

Institute for Human Centered Design
200 Portland Street, Boston, MA
Close to Gov't St, Charles/MGH T
Click Here for Directions
Light snacks offered
FREE event

*Among the Presenters:*
Valerie Fletcher, Institute for Human Centered Design, Executive Director discussing Social Equity and the Global Accessibility Movement
Garry Sotnik, Systems Science student, PSU, presenting on Portland's Five Ecodistricts and methods for communities transitioning to sustainability
Maggie Zhou, Molecular and Computational Biologist, Climate SOS, UNAC, Antiwar Activist discussing global warfare , crop failures, pandemics, and ecosystem collapses

Follow on Facebook: Climate Crisis, Global Wars, and Sustainability



More info at: www.encuentro5.org
Organized by: MESA sin fronteras

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

Date: 9/22/2011
Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
Audience: Members of Online News Assoc/Hacks Hackers
Description: Journalists, developers and designers: Come join Hacks/Hackers Hacking @ ONA, the first annual Hacks/Hackers hack event at ONA's annual conference, sponsored this year by Knight-Mozilla News Tech Partnership. Meet new people, make new friends and prototype projects at the Microsoft NERD Center on Sept. 22. What we produce together at the all-day hackathon will help shape the future of news and civic information. Hacks/Hackers will provide delicious food, snacks and beverages from great local establishments to keep you going as you demo, not memo, your ideas.

$20 for non-members of the Online News Association
Register at https://ona.site-ym.com/events/register.asp?id=165276

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

September 22, 2011
11:00am - 12:00pm
Geological Museum Room 204, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

“Ice Sheet/Shelf Collapse the Sedimentologic and Biotic Consequences”
An EPS Special Seminar featuring Eugene Domack, Hamilton College.

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

Thursday, September 22, 2011

"Surprises in Radiative Forcing: What Chemicals Are Changing Our Climate?"

Speaker: Dr. Susan Solomon, CIRES/University of Colorado at Boulder

Time: 12:00p–1:00p

Location: MIT Bartos Theater, E15- Atrium Level

Houghton Lecture Series
Lecture 2 (of 2)

Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/houghton-lectures
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

For more information, contact:
Roberta Allard
253-3382
allard@mit.edu

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Thursday, September 22
12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Pound 204, Harvard Law School

Barry Eastabrook
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit

A two-times James-Beard-Award-winning journalist, Estabrook will discuss his recently published book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. The bland Florida winter tomato is the poster child for many of the problems of large-scale farming. As revealed in his writing, workers in the industry are routinely sprayed with pesticides, paid below minimum wages, and are often victims of slavery and indentured servitude.

Eastabrook was a contributing editor at Gourmet magazine. His work has also appeared in the New York Times “Dining” section and the New York Times Magazine, Men’s Health, Saveur, Gastronomica, TheAtlantic.com and many other national magazines. He has been anthologized in The Best American Food Writing 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. His James-Beard-Award Winning website is www.politicsoftheplate.com.

The talk will be open to the public.

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

Thursday, September 22
4:00–6:00 pm
MIT, Building E19-623
Gauging Ecosystem Response to Climate Change
Charles Marshall, Director, Museum of Paleontology, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

---------------------------
Did Things Have to Turn Out This Way? Energy, Technology, Markets and the Environment in the North American West
WHEN Thu., Sep. 22, 2011, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard CGIS-South 050, 1730 Cambridge Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for History and Economics
SPEAKER(S) Richard White, Stanford University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO gauth@fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/index.html

-------------------------
Thursday, September 22, 2011

From Online Matching to Online Advertising

Speaker: Amin Saberi

Time: 4:15p–5:15p

Location: MIT, Building E62-550

ORC Fall Seminar Series
The OR Center organizes a seminar series each year in which prominent OR professionals from around the world are invited to present topics in operations research. We have been privileged to have speakers from business and industry as well as from academia throughout the years. For a list of past distinguished speakers and their seminar topics, please visit our Seminar Archives.

ORC Fall Seminar Series
Seminar reception immediately following the talk.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/orc/www/seminars/seminars.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Operations Research Center
For more information, contact:
Shi Cong, Shubham Gupta or Wei Sun
617-253-6185
shicong@mit.edu, shubhamg@mit.edu, sunwei@mit.edu

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

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sloan Automotive Laboratory FALL 2011 SEMINAR SERIES

Speaker: Morgan Andreae, Cummins, Inc., MIT Alum 2006

Time: 4:15p–5:30p

Location: MIT Building 37-212

Sloan Automotive Laboratory FALL 2011 SEMINAR SERIES
Seminars on topics related to engines, fuels, vehicle behavior, broader transportation energy questions presented by graduate students, faculty, researchers, and special guest speakers of Sloan Automotive Laboratory.

Topic: Technology Development at Cummins to Reduce Fuel Consumption: High Efficiency Clean Combustion, Waste Heat Recovery, and SuperTruck


Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sloan-auto-lab/seminars/thisweekseminar.pdf
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Mechanical Engineering Dept.
For more information, contact:
Janet Maslow
617-253-4529
jsabio@mit.edu

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

Thursday, September 22, 2011

MIT Communications Forum: Local News in the Digital Age

Speaker: Callie Crossley, WGBH; David Dahl, Boston Globe; Adam Gaffin, Universal Hub; Dan Kennedy moderates

Time: 5:00p–7:00p

Location: MIT Building E15-070, Bartos Thetear (E15-070)

Is local news a casualty of the digital age? A recent report from the Federal Communications Commission suggests that although the broad media landscape is more vibrant than ever, many state and local communities face a shortage of professional reporting, undermining journalism's watchdog role at the local level. This Forum will assess the state of local journalism, paying special attention to the changing environment for news in New England. Our speakers, drawn from traditional as well as online media, include Callie Crossley, host of her own talk show on WGBH; David Dahl, who oversees local news initiatives for the Boston Globe; and Adam Gaffin of the online news site Universal Hub. Dan Kennedy, a media analyst who teaches at Northeastern University, will moderate the discussion.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): Communications Forum

For more information, contact:
Brad Seawell
617-253-3521
seawell@mit.edu

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

Rags, Bones, and Plastic Bags: Trash in Industrial America

WHEN Thu., Sep. 22, 2011, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Susan Strasser, Richards Professor of American History, University of Delaware
COST Free
CONTACT INFO 617.496.1027
LINK http://www.peabody.harvard.edu

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

Join us for the Greater Boston Slow Money Entrepreneur Showcase!
Thursday, September 22
6pm – 9pm
Non-Profit Center
89 South Street, Boston
South Street Conference Center

We will be bringing together investors, sustainable food entrepreneurs and leaders working together to rebuild our local food system. Learn about investment opportunities and how you can participate in rebuilding local economies based on the principles of soil fertility, sense of place, care of the commons and economic, cultural and biological diversity.

For investors: The Entrepreneur Showcase will provide access to sustainable food and farming businesses at different stages of development from start-up to expansion of existing businesses. The businesses and initiatives are also seeking different levels of financing — from small loans to major capital, as well as donations. Greater Boston Slow Money encourages investors of all resource levels to attend including institutional, individual, accredited, and unaccredited investors. This showcase event is not an offer to sell securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.

For Entrepreneurs: The Showcase is a tightly produced event. Each entrepreneur will have five minutes and 6 slides to tell their stories, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A from the audience. Presenters will also benefit from the networking opportunity specifically designed to encourage and elevate investor dialog. Throughout the event, your collateral will be available for attendees, and you will be mentioned in all promotional materials for the event.

The Entrepreneur Showcase offers all the advantages of a traditional venture fair and many more. Because of the shared vision that brings us all together, it is an unparalleled opportunity for you to build relationships with investors and entrepreneurs from all over the region. We are confident that, if chosen to participate, you will have opportunities to make important connections that add value to your enterprise.

Given the relatively short time horizon, please submit your application no later than Wednesday, August 31, 2011. Demand for participation in the Showcase is high; spots will fill up.

To apply: send an email to gbslowmoney@gmail.com and we will send you the application. It is free to apply, but costs $25 to present and take advantage of this exciting opportunity.

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

Energy Discussions: Implications of Biofuel Sources
September 22, 2011 6:00p–7:00p

Biofuels--liquid fuels synthesized from new organic materials--have the possibility of replacing some or all of the overwhelming majority of today's transportation fuel that currently comes from oil. However, the economics, technical challenges, and environmental implications vary widely for different plant sources and refining technologies. For example, corn refined through a biochemical process might have a very different role in our society and economy than stover treated through a thermochemical process.

Join members of the MIT Energy Club coming from chemical engineering, climate, and policy backgrounds for a round-table discussion of the costs and benefits of different biofuel options.

If you were not able to attend last week's Biofuels 101 presentation, please follow the links on the Energy Club website for background information about biofuels and biorefining.

Category: MIT events/clubs: interest clubs/groups

Speaker: Mark Wright

Location: MIT Building 56-191

Sponsored by: MIT Energy Club

Admission:

Open to the public

Contact Rebecca Dell
rwdell (at) mit.edu
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/discussion-series

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

Friday, September 23, 2011

Comic Book Fair "Release Your Inner SuperHero"

Time: 9:00a–4:00p

Location: MIT, Building 10-105

A day-long celebration of pop culture art and helping others! Featuring Archie Comics, Geppi's Entertainment Museum and orginal art work by local web-artist Michael "Mookie" Terracciano (Dominic-Deegan.com) and MIT students and staff. A portion of sales will benefit the MIT Community Service Fund.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/COMMUNITY-GIVING/events.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Tickets: N/A
Sponsor(s): Community Giving at MIT, MIT Community Services
For more information, contact:
Traci Swartz
(617) 253-5507
tswartz@mit.edu

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

Friday, September 23, 2011

The American Supermarket and the Cold War "Farms Race"

Speaker: Shane Hamilton, History Department, University of Georgia

Time: 2:30p–4:30p

Location: MIT, Building E51-095

Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History

The supermarket was a key point of contestation in the Cold War era "farms race." From the late 1940s onward, the United States and the Soviet Union vied to demonstrate to the world that their contrasting approaches to industrial agriculture were better suited to providing consumers with food abundance. This "farms race" framed the efforts of key American policymakers and non-governmental organizations, such as Nelson A. Rockefeller's International Basic Economy Corporation, to export the American supermarket and its attendant system of capitalist industrial agriculture as a means of waging an economic and propaganda war against socialism.

Web site:http://web.mit.edu/history/www/nande/modTimes%202011-2012.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): History Office
For more information, contact:
Margo Collett
253-4965
history-info@mit.edu

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Waltham Farm Day
Saturday, September 24th 2pm-5pm
Waltham Fields Community Farm

240 Beaver St., Waltham

RAIN OR SHINE!

Waltham Fields Community Farm will be hosting Waltham Farm Day on Saturday, September 24 from 2pm-5pm in celebration of the 5th Annual Massachusetts Harvest for Students Week and the Let’s Move Waltham initiative. Waltham Farm Day is a free eventand all are welcome to come out for an afternoon of family-friendly volunteering, educational activities, and harvest-time fun! Ongoing activities will include cider-pressing, live music by Royer’s One Man Band, a demonstration of techniques for cooking healthy meals with farm-fresh produce presented by Healthy Waltham, chicken and bee activities hosted by the Waltham 4-H Clubs, and a variety of games, art projects and gardening activities for children and adults.

The City of Waltham Mayor’s Office is sponsoring a free shuttle service which will be available to transport event attendees from Waltham Common (right across from the train station) to the farm starting at 2pm.

We hope you can join us for some harvest-time fun!!

Sincerely,
Ms.Jericho Bicknell
Education and Volunteer Coordinator
Waltham Fields Community Farm
240 Beaver Street
Waltham, MA 02452
(781) 899-2403 ext.2
www.communityfarms.org

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Meet Up in Cambridge for Moving New England Parade and Rally
On Saturday, Sept. 24, come to the – Moving Planet – march and rally in Boston calling on our elected leaders, businesses and communities to get serious about moving beyond fossil fuels. Join one of the contingents leaving Cambridge to march together in Boston.
Moving Planet is part of a worldwide day of events spearheaded by 350.org.

•Walkers meet in front of Cambridge City Hall at 1:45.
•Bicyclists meet at the First Parish Church, 3 Church St., Harvard Square at 2:30.
•T-riders, the Cambridge T-parties, meet at Alewife (east entrance), Porter (plaza), Harvard (Church St. & Mass. Ave.), and Central (Mass. Ave. & Western) at 2:15.
•Canoers and kayakers will leave earlier from Kendall Square. Email ethork@ix.netcom.com for more info.

Bring your ideas and vision for solutions. (Banners and art are encouraged). Above all, bring yourself.

More info about
Cambridge at www.cceag.org or email to info@cceag.org, the Boston rally at www.moving-newengland.org, global efforts at www.350.org.

Editorial Comment: I'll be part of the biking contingent. If I get it finished in time, I'll be riding my three generator bike with a generating hub, a wheel-rub generator, and a magnet generator on the spokes.

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Sunday, September 25, 2011

OrigaMIT Meeting

Time: 3:00p–5:00p

Location: MIT, Building W20-491

Weekly meeting of the MIT Origami Club, OrigaMIT

Web site: http://origamit.scripts.mit.edu/
Open to: the general public
This event occurs on Sundays through December 11, 2011, except October 16, 2011, November 6, 2011, September 11, 2011, September 18, 2011, November 20, 2011 and November 13, 2011.

Sponsor(s): Origamit

For more information, contact:
Jason Ku
origami-info@mit.edu

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Upcoming

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Cambridge Community Center Winter Market
Cambridge's first Winter Market is coming to the Cambridge Community Center. The market is expected to run every Saturday from January 7th to April 28th 2012. The market will take place inside the gym of the community center. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with setup and breakdown of the market.

We are also holding advisory committee meetings where we will be discussing the details of the market.

The first meeting will take place on September 27th 2011.

If you would like to attend please request an invitation by emailing Jose Mendez the Director of Marketing and Outreachatjosem@cambridgecommunitycenter.org.

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"Creating More Sustainable Suburbs: Lessons from Around the World"
A Conversation with Paul Lukez
Tuesday, September 27, 7:30pm
Arlington High Learning Commons, 869 Massachusetts Avenue
Organized by Sustainable Arlington in collaboration with Arlington Community Education

Across the globe, suburbia and its by-products have evolved into a complex array of urban conditions that consume an ever-increasing portion of our landscape and resources. What can be done to make the modern metropolis more sustainable? Based on his research in the US, China and Europe, architect Paul Lukez will discuss new models for building more sustainable environments and consider how they apply to Arlington and other local communities.

Paul Lukez is the author of Suburban Transformations and the forthcoming Transforming the Mid-Polis.

This event is the first in Arlington Community Ed’s Tuesday Night Conversation series moderated by Fortune magazine editor-at-large David Whitford.
Admission is $5. Advance registration is recommended. For registration information use this link
and use CODE: TC001, or call 781 316-3568.
For additional Arlington Community Education class offerings, visit http://arlingtoncommunityed.org/index.php.

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The 3rd annual Massachusetts Green Career Conference will be held September 30th, 2011.
Holiday Inn, Marlborough, MA
Join us to learn what's new! Register @ http://greencareer.eventbrite.com.

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September 30
8:30 am
TROMP Tutorial with Green Streets Walk/Ride Day,
Kennedy/Longfellow School, 158 Spring Street, Cambridge
http://www.trompcambridge.com

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HONK!
SIXTH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF ACTIVIST STREET BANDS

September 30 – October 3
events based in Davis Square, Somerville, Harvard Square, Cambridge, & Boston Harbor

ALMOST ALL EVENTS FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE [THE FRIDAY NIGHT KICKOFF & SUNDAY NIGHT BOAT CRUISE ARE VERY AFFORDABLE!]

HONK!: the worthy craze sweeping the nation – from Boston to Providence to Brooklyn to Austin to Seattle -- and every Fall back to Boston, with HONK! bands migrating from far and near, descending upon the HONK! epicenter, where festival participants (including the audience) can gaggle, gander, and generate the gregarious racket that signifies the HONK! experience.

The HONK! phenomenon was born 6 years ago in Davis Square spurred on by a need of a certain species of street band to congregate and celebrate their social activist side. HONK! lets the good times roll while being ever mindful that some bad times need fixing. HONK! believes that street-wise music can be the agent of change for the better. HONK! is the universal tongue for hey-wake-up-and-pay-attention!

This year there will be honk-like opportunities galore with outdoor band concerts in Davis, spilling over into Harvard Square and surrounding neighborhoods, and for the first time ever, splashing out into the Boston Harbor. Rain or shine from September 30 through October 3, HONK! will release its clarion call throughout the Boston-area – a call to wage peace, harmony, and just plain fun.

The confirmed HONK! band count is currently almost 30, with one to two new ones being added weekly. But when the final count is in, there’ll still be plenty of chances for folks to jump in at the last minute and join the merry fray. For example, individual musicians not connected to any particular HONK! band are invited to participate on Sunday, October 2nd, in the impromptu “community band” which will be part of the gigantic HONK! Parade to Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes and Feet.

Take note that in previous years HONK! has been held on Columbus Day weekend, but due to the 2011 dates conflicting with Yom Kippur, the festival has been scheduled a week earlier. Festival updates can be found at www.honkfest.org, http://twitter.com/honkfest, and www.facebook.com/honkfestival, or by calling 617-383-HONK (4665).

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HEET is organizing a workshop on reducing energy bills in larger buildings on Oct. 1st. It's being run by Marc Rosenbaum, an award-winning building systems analyst, and sponsored by Mass. Interfaith Power and Light. People-in-the-know murmur Rosenbaum's name with awe. Paul Eldrenkamp of Byggmeister fame will moderate.

The workshop will take place in the First Church in Cambridge, a large historical building being used in a wide variety of ways such as a homeless shelter, childcare center and office space.

During the workshop we will be guided through the church to examine its problems, then in small groups design a longterm plan going forward to reduce the church's energy use. Rosenbaum will comment on each of the plans to help us learn.

We're assembling a star-studded cast of guides to teach folks about how the building systems work and what can help.

We will also have a NSTAR representative explain available rebates, and the president of New Generation Energy talk about a great new financing mechanism for raising money through a community for energy efficiency.

We want to leave people with the practical knowledge about buildings and financing to reduce their building's energy use.

The workshop itself is on Sat. Oct 1st from 9 am to 5 pm. Lunch will be provided and the cost is only $75. Normally Rosenbaum's classes cost 3 times that.

Here's more info https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OVgK56hrB7m2roHQ2KW9cUysRnbMzJNi5e1HCf_rueI/edit?hl=en_US, and the sign up formhttps://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dDljTHE3V0VGcnFEWWZlU3pTTGtVUXc6MQ#gid=0

Please post the info wherever you can or mention it to all who might be interested. I think it will be a very helpful workshop.

We only have room for 100 attendees, so people might want to sign up soon.

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ENDING THE ENDLESS WARS AND OCCUPATIONS
Saturday, October 1, 2011 9am to 5pm Suffolk University, Boston
Register Online Now!

Keynote speaker
NOAM CHOMSKY

2011 from Egypt to Libya: Triumph and Turmoil in the Arab world
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The Conference
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Fall 2011 marks ten years since 9/11, the War on Terror, the Afghanistan War, and the founding of UJP. The US/NATO bombing of Libya is the latest in the
series of wars. Domestically, greed is rampant and serious problems are getting worse. Few peace and justice activists can remember a more troubling time.

How did we get here and how can we change things?

What can we learn from the historic events in Egypt, where the people triumphed against huge odds, and the workers of Wisconsin?

How can the peace movement continue its work to end the wars and cut the military budget while also building cooperation with the economic and racial
justice movements?

We want a peaceful foreign policy based on democracy to focus on the pressing economic and human problems that must be solved.

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Featuring Presentations by:
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Kathy Kelly
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Report from Afghanistan and Iraq

Ann Wright
former U.S. Army Colonel
Report on the Gaza Flotilla and Palestine

Michael McPhearson
National Coordinator, United for Peace and Justice
Connecting to the War at Home

Will Hopkins
Iraq Veterans Against the War and New Hampshire Peace Action
The crisis and youth today

Max Elbaum
War Times/Tiempo de Guerras
Fighting for Peace Against an Empire in Decline

Patricia Montes
Centro Presente
How the wars affect immigrant rights at home

Registration Fee: $15, includes morning coffee and pastry. Free for Suffolk University students and faculty with ID. ?No one turned away.

Register online at http://justicewithpeace.org/ten-years-after-registration

Lunch: $10 - pizza, salad and drink, served in Donahua Building cafeteria.
Directions: Take the T to Park Street or Government Center.
Suffolk University, Donahue Building, 41 Temple St.
Do not confuse Temple Street with Temple Place.

Registration opens at 9am at the Donahue Building, 41 Temple St.
Sessions will be held in Donahue and in the C. Walsh Theatre next door.

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The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future public hearing

October 12, 2011
Harvard Medical School Conference Center, 77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood, Boston, MA

BRC Draft Report to the Secretary of Energy http://www.brc.gov

The Blue Ribbon Commission On America’s Nuclear Future is a Presidentially-mandated group composed of 16 people to make recommendations for national radioactive waste policy. The record of the work the Commission has done over the last year--available on-line in video form, transcript, written testimony, and public comments all posted at http://www.brc.gov

These additional meetings in September and October are to collect public comments on the Commission's draft recommendations. The full draft report is available here: http://www.brc.gov/index.php?q=announcement/brc-releases-their-draft-full-commission-report

The Commission website states: All public are welcome to attend. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged but not required. Information about registration will be available in the near future. The meetings will not be video webcast. Transcripts of the meetings will be available on the website, along with all written comments anyone chooses to offer. Comments can either be made directly to the website at www.brc.gov or by email to:CommissionDFO@nuclear.energy.govand via US postal mail:

Mr. Timothy A. Frazier
Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Comment deadline is October 31, 2011. NIRS will share a more complete set of comments for sign-on in October.

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Opportunity

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AC Swap – The Cambridge Energy Alliance’s window air conditioner swap program is in progress. Residents can obtain a voucher for $125 if they swap an inefficient window AC unit for an Energy Star rated model This is a limited time offer. Go to the CEA website for participation details:http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/a-c-swap

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Free Solar Panels for Houses of Worship

From a recent Mass Interfaith Power & Light (http://mipandl.org/) email
"We've recently been talking with DCS Energy (http://www.dcsenergy.com/) who has an unbeatable offer: if your site qualifies, they design and install the panels at no cost, don't charge you for any electricity, and donate the system to your house of worship after five years. Your only costs will be for a building permit, possibly a structural engineer to verify that your roof can support their weight, and any preparatory work such as roof work or tree removal. If solar panels are so expensive how can anyone give them away for free? First, there is a federal grant program that is only available until November that pays for 30% of the cost of the system. Then there is an accelerated depreciation option that gives certain kinds of investors another tax advantage. Finally, the state awards a special allowance called a "Solar Renewal Energy Credit" (SRECs) to owners of solar electricity systems which are sold at auctions to utilities who buy them to meet their requirements under the Massachusetts' renewable portfolio standard. DCS is betting that the price of these SRECs will remain high. Jim Nail, president of MA IP&L, has talked to DCS Energy and is currently having them prepare a proposal for his church, St. Dunstan's Episcopal in Dover. Jim says, "The references I've talked to have been quite positive about the program and the company has been very responsive. "If you think your site might qualify, contact Peter Carli, pete@dcsenergy.com, with the address of your house of worship and your contact information. He'll take a preliminary look at your site and advise you if it meets their criteria."

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Young World Inventors Success!

Young World Inventors (http://yinventors.wordpress.com/) finished their Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1036325713/youngworldinventorscom) to fund insider web stories of African and American innovators in collaboration successfully.

New contributions, however, will be accepted.

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What you need to know: The Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur (YSE) Competition is a global competition created by Staples Foundation and Ashoka to recognize exceptional young people using innovation and technology to advance social change and improve their community and the world.

Who’s eligible?: Young people (age 12-24), living anywhere in the world, are eligible to apply.

Dates and details: Apply online between June 22 and September 19, 2011.

For more information: http://ashokayouthcompetition.org/
--
Laura Sampath
MIT International Development Initiative
77 Mass Ave, 10-110
Cambridge MA 02139
617.253.7052

Sign up for the 2011 Yunus Challenge Facebook page: yunus2011@groups.facebook.com

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Resource

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Massachusetts Attitudes About Climate Change – An opinion survey of Massachusetts residents conducted by MassINC and sponsored by the Barr Foundation found that 77% of respondents believe that global warming has “probably been happening” and 59% of all respondents see see it as being at least partially caused by human pollution. Only 42% of the state’s residents say global warming will have very serious consequences for Massachusetts if left unaddressed. The 18 to 29 age group is more likely to believe global warming is appearing and caused by humans compared to the 60+ age group. African-American (56%) and Latino residents (69%) are more likely than white residents (40%) to believe global warming will be a very serious problem if left unaddressed. The MassINC report, titled The 80 Percent Challenge: What Massachusetts must do to meet targets and make headway on climate change (http://www.massinc.org/Research/The-80-percent-challenge.aspx), contains many other findings.

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The presentations from the recent Affordable Comfort National Home Performance Conference are available online at
http://2011.acinational.org/downloadable_resources

Lots of good information from what some call the best energy conference in the USA on Deep Energy Retrofits to Community Energy Challenges with details on insulation, heat flow, energy metering, ducting, hot water, and many, many other topics. If you are a practical energy wonk, this should make your eyes light up.

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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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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

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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/