Sunday, October 16, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - October 16, 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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I'll be away next Sunday so this week's edition is expanded. Next edition will be published on Monday, October 25 and the regular schedule will resume in two weeks.

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GREEN SOLUTIONS EXPO and WORKSHOPS
12pm – 5pm
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Newton Harvest Fair
Newton Centre Green

A Newton/Needham Chamber of Commerce Expo with solutions you need to reduce your carbon footprint & over 50 exhibitors held under a big tent held from 12-5pm in Newton Centre during the Newton Harvest Fair. Continuous entertainment, food and games for the kids. Tips on how be more environmentally friendly and live a "green" life style.

See exhibitors with green products, services and ideas.
Come to our expert workshops every hour.
Find out how you can convert to solar electricity without paying thousands and reduce your electric bills.
Find out how to save money on energy and reduce your carbon footprint.
These workshops and more will help you save money and the environment at the same time!

Green Life Style Workshops: Under the big tent
http://greendecade.org/green-solutions-expo.html

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Monday, October 17, 2011
What would have happened to the ozone layer if chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had not been regulated?
Speaker: Paul Newman (NASA)
Time: 12:00p–1:00p
Location: MIT, Building 54-915
MASS Seminar
The MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) is a student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Monday from 12-1pm followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and post docs certainly participate.

MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar Series

Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/mass

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)

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

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Towards Robotic Laundry
Speaker: Pieter Abbeel, UC Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Date: Monday, October 17 2011
Time: 2:00PM to 3:00PM
Location: MIT, Building 32-D463, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Host: Leslie Kaelbling, MIT CSAIL
Contact: Teresa Cataldo, cataldo@csail.mit.edu
Since Rosie the Robot first debuted on television’s “The Jetsons” in 1962, the futuristic image of a personal robot autonomously operating in a human home has captivated the public imagination. Yet, while robots have become an integral part of modern industrial production, their adoption in these less well defined and less structured environments has been slow. Indeed, the high variability in, for example, household environments, poses a number of challenges to robotic perception and manipulation.

The problem of robotic laundry manipulation exemplifies this difficulty, as the objects with which the robot must interact have a very large number of internal degrees of freedom. In this talk, I will present our research towards enabling a general purpose robot, such as a Willow Garage PR2, to perform laundry. Our current results include the ability to fold towels, starting from a bunched towel on a table, the ability to organize socks, and a still limited-reliability ability to fold a mix of t-shirts, sweaters, towels and pants, starting from them bunched on a table.

BIO: Pieter Abbeel received a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven (Belgium) and received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2008. He joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in Fall 2008, with an appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He has won various awards, including best paper awards at ICML and ICRA, the Sloan Fellowship, the Okawa Foundation award, and the TR35. He has developed apprenticeship learning algorithms which have enabled advanced helicopter aerobatics, including maneuvers such as tic-tocs, chaos and auto-rotation, which only exceptional human pilots can perform. His group has also enabled the first end-to-end completion of reliably picking up a crumpled laundry article and folding it. His work has been featured in many popular press outlets, including BBC, MIT Technology Review, Discovery Channel, SmartPlanet and Wired. His current research focuses on robotics and machine learning with a particular focus on challenges in personal robotics, surgical robotics and connectomics.
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Monday, October 17, 2011
Joichi Ito: Enabling Emergent Voices and Expression Through Technology
Speaker: Joichi Ito
Time: 7:00p–9:00p
Location: MIT, Buidling E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions -- Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis

Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab (USA)
Enabling Emergent Voices and Expression Through Technology
Respondent: TBA

Moore's law and the Internet have dramatically reduced the cost of producing and distributing information. This has greatly lowered the cost of collaboration and has empowered a qualitatively different "public" to think, express, and act without, or in spite of, central authority. These changes and advances in technology enabled interventions such as low-cost video cameras in the case of WITNESS; blogs (Global Voices); or open hardware and software used to build, distribute, collect and visualize data from geiger counters (Safecast). Ito will discuss how these trends relate to media, citizenship, academics, and conflicts. Joichi Ito was named Director of the MIT Media Lab in April 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 environmental 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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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Materials Day Symposium and Poster Session 2011
Time: 8:00a–6:00p
Location: MIT, Building W-16
Computational Materials will be the focus of this year's Materials Day. Computational methods have reached the point at which predictions of materials structures and properties can be made before they are demonstrated in the laboratory. This has led to new breakthroughs in materials design that have greatly accelerated the development of new materials and processes that are optimized for a wide range of applications. Materials Day activities will include a one-day conference featuring speakers from both inside and outside MIT. A student poster session will follow featuring 50 to 100 posters with up-to-the minute research results from the broad materials research communities in MIT's Schools of Engineering and Science.

Web site: http://mpc-web.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Materials Processing Center
For more information, contact:
Fran Page
617-253-5159
fmpage@mit.edu

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Webinar Kick-Off
Energy Efficiency: America's First Fuel

The Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) is pleased to launch our fifth annual online webinar series. This year’s series will continue Blueprint for Efficiency, with an emphasis on the latest developments and opportunities for energy efficiency in the private sector. Through weekly presentations from leaders in the corporate, non-profit, and public-private arenas, we will explore a range of topics around energy efficiency.

This year’s series is a unique collaboration between the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE). Founded in 1977, the Alliance is a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit organization that works solely to promote energy efficiency worldwide through research, education, and advocacy. ASE encourage business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders to use energy efficiency as a means to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy security.

Join Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save Energy, as she kicks-off this year's series by highlighting why energy efficiency is America's first fuel. Providing context, Kateri will discuss the changing landscape of the energy efficiency sector by highlighting the potential for energy efficiency legislation as well as the new opportunities emerging across the energy efficiency landscape. Kateri will explore the necessary tenants to deliver energy efficiency at scale, and showcase trends being deployed by private sector companies who are leading by example as they build their own energy efficiency portfolios.


Title: Energy Efficiency: America's First Fuel

Date and Time: Tuesday, October 18, from 12pm to 1pm (EST)

GotoWebinar URL: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/557211598

Speaker: Kateri Callahan, President, Alliance to Save Energy

Register at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/557211598


Kateri Callahan brings more than 20 years of experience in policy advocacy, fundraising, coalition building, and organizational management to her position as the president of the Alliance to Save Energy. Serving as president of the Alliance since January 2004, Kateri leads a staff of nearly 100, oversees a budget of approximately $15 million annually, and works with the Alliance Board of Directors, which includes Members of Congress, state and local officials and top corporate and NGO executives, to establish and oversee the core objectives and strategic plans for the organization. Prior to joining the Alliance, Kateri served for 11 years as the president/executive director of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, a nonprofit organization promoting battery, hybrid, and fuel cell transportation technologies. She also has served as a director of government relations for a nonprofit organization, as a non-lawyer professional at a Washington, D.C-based law firm, and as a legislative assistant to a U.S. senator.


Save the date for our upcoming webinars!

NRG Energy
Tuesday, October 25, 12-1pm EST
David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy (one of the nation's largest independent power producers), will discuss a variety of topics ranging from overcoming regulatory & policy uncertainty to how large utilities invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy. This will be a special live-broadcast event as part of CBEY's GE Sustainability Leaders Speaker Series.

Wal-Mart
Wednesday, November 2, 12-1pm EST
Jim Stanway (Senior Director, Global Supplier Initiatives) and Jim McClendon (Director of Engineering) will discuss what the world’s largest retailer is doing to improve energy management and supply chain efficiency.


Blueprint for Efficiency is supported by the Yale Center for Business & the Environment and theAlliance to Save Energy. The series will take place from October 2011 through May 2012. It will be free and open to the public through online webcasts that will be conducted on a weekly basis. Each presentation will be recorded and made available to the global community through Yale University's iTunesU channel.

Do you have an idea for a webinar, or know of someone that you’d like to hear present? Send us an email at cbey@yale.edu and let us know. We also welcome any additional feedback!
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The BSA Sustainability Education and COTE will be co-hosting a USGBC-produced webinar titled The Costs & Benefits of Green Buildings: Putting the Research into Practice. It offers 1.5 AIA, GBCI and CSI CE credits, but it requires persons to be present at the event. There is no charge for the event.

The event will be held on Tuesday, October 18, @ noon @ the BSA.

RSVP to Lauren Burn (LBurn@architects.org) by Monday, October 17, if you don't want to starve (the BSA generously feeds lunchtime attendees).

The course description:
Green buildings can cost less than conventional ones, but de pending on a number of factors it's not a guarantee. However, research on the costs and benefits of green buildings provides evidence suggesting that they yield a convincing return on investment in addition to other forms of value. In this session USGBC and three leading experts will give you the understanding you need to pres ent the business case for green buildings, including addressing questions about return on investment, project financing, cost planning, and value beyond cost savings. Real estate owners, investors, and other building professionals will leave this training with the knowledge they need to shape initial project planning and financing.

Learning Objectives
Summarize the current state of cost, benefit and finance research for new commercial and institutional green buildings.
Describe the various research methods that have been employed to measure the costs and benefits of green building
Gain practical insights and guidance that you can apply to your own building projects
Become conversant in the business case for green buildings and value beyond cost savings, and address questions about project underwriting and cost planning

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Tweeting the Revolution: agency, collective action, and the negotiation of risk in a networked ageBeth Coleman, MIT
Tuesday, October 18, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/7000
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation. For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence, witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny.

About Beth
Dr. Beth Coleman’s work focuses on the role of human agency in the context of media and data engagement. She is currently a Harvard University Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a visiting professor at the Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From 2005-2011, Coleman has been an assistant professor of comparative media studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is the primary investigator of the Pervasive Media/City as Platform research and design lab. Her book Hello Avatar: Rise of the Networked Generation is published by the MIT Press. She received her B.A. in literature from Yale University and her Ph.D in comparative literature from New York University.
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From Neighborhood Watch to Neighborhood Development: Transforming Revolutionary Energy to Rebuild Egypt from the Ground Up

WHEN Tue., Oct. 18, 2011, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 38 Kirkland St, Room 102, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S) Mona Mowafi, research fellow, HSPH; chair, NEGMA Conference
CONTACT INFO Liz Flanagan: elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2833

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Debt Structure, Entrepreneurship and Risk: Evidence from Microfinance
Speaker: Rohini Pande (Harvard)
Time: 2:45p–4:00p
Location: at Harvard - Harvard Hall 104
Debt Structure, Entrepreneurship and Risk: Evidence from Microfinance

Web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82766&pageid=icb.page450594
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Development Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento

theresa@mit.edu

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Convergence of Information Technology (IT) & Smart Energy Technology (ET)
Speaker: Ahmad Bahai, Texas Instruments
Time: 4:00p–5:00p
Location: MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
MTL Seminar Series
MTL hosts a series of talks each semester known as the MTL Seminar Series. Speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research, manufacturing, or policy. The series is held on the MIT Campus during the academic year on Tuesdays at 4:00 pm. The seminar series is open to the public. Refreshments are served at 3:45 p.m.

Convergence of Energy and Communication technologies has prompted many interesting research projects ranging from new power devices to signal processing and software. In this talk, we focus on opportunities for innovation in future energy management systems for mobile systems as well as high voltage smart grid applications.

Web site: http://www-mtl.mit.edu/seminars/fall2011.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact:
Valerie Dinardo
253-9328
valeried@mit.edu

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Crystalline Microporous Metal-Organic Frameworks: Opportunities in Energy Research

Speaker: Mircea Dinca, MIT Department of Chemistry

Time: 4:15p–5:30p

Location: MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

MITEI Seminar Series
A year-long series of seminars given by leaders in the energy field sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline solids wherein inorganic nodes are connected by organic ligands to give rise to highly ordered and monodisperse micropores with diameters ranging from 0.5 to ~ 2 nanometers. The micropores are responsible for unprecedented surface areas occasionally exceeding 5000 m2/g, making MOFs popular choices for energy applications in gas storage or separation as well as potentially energy storage. The crystalline nature of these materials also makes them attractive candidates for studying photophysical phenomena in ordered and/or confined organic chromophore aggregates. The various applications of MOFs in energy research will be discussed.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free

Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative

For more information, contact:
Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey@mit.edu

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The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest
Yochai Benkler, Berkman Center Faculty Co-Director
Tuesday, October 18, 6:00 pm
Austin West Classroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
Free and Open to the Public; RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/10/benkler#RSVP
Co-hosted by the Harvard Law School Library
Reception to follow

Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler (The Wealth of Networks) is one of the world’s top thinkers on cooperative structures. In his new book, The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest, he uses evidence from neuroscience, economics, sociology, biology, and real-world examples to break down the myth of self-interest and replace it with a model of cooperation in our businesses, our government, and our lives.

About Yochai
Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Since the 1990s he has played a part in characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in the networked economy and society. His work can be freely accessed athttp://benkler.org.

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GreenPort Forum: The State of the Birds
With distinguished ornithologist Christopher Leahy. Chris holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He has been a professional conservationist for more than thirty-five years, most recently as the Director of Massachusetts Audubon’s Center for Biological Conservation.

We all know that climate change is real and that weather patterns have been more unpredictable than ever. How has climate change and other environmental changes impacted the types and behaviors of local and migrating birds? What can we expect as temperatures continue to warm? The birdlife of Massachusetts is exceptionally rich, containing both a great diversity of species and several populations of global significance. However, it is also clear that in recent decades, many Massachusetts bird populations have decreased significantly and continue to decline. These declines are occurring not just among our rarest species, but affect a broad spectrum of bird families in many habitats and include some of the most familiar and beloved birds of our backyards and countryside –birds that we tend to think of as common. Please join us for a presentation and discussion by one of the key authors of the just issued Mass Audubon report “The State of the Birds” - http://www.massaudubon.org/StateoftheBirds/.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:00pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church
459 Putnam Av, Cambrige
(corner of Magazine St. and Putnam Av)

GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable Cambridgeport neighborhood
For more information, contact Steve Morr-Wineman at swineman@gis.net

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Join us next Wednesday, October 19 at 11am EDT / 4pm PDT for an interactive webinar about organizing a Resilience Circle!

Register at https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/128380358

We’ll talk about how to start a group for your community or congregation, including:

• finding an organizing partner
• finding participants through "base communities" and the "linking method"
• how to show the idea of a club or circle with others
• some notes on the curriculum
You will receive a confirmation email after registering with information about how to join the webinar. View system requirements below.

Before the webinar, please take 10 - 15 minutes to familiarize yourself with the Resilience Circle seven-session curriculum. Contact us (info@localcircles.org) for an electronic copy.

Register for the free webinar here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/128380358

Onward,
Sarah Byrnes

System Requirements:

PC-based attendees

Required: Windows(R) 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh(R)-based attendees
Required: Mac OS(R) X 10.4.11 (Tiger(R)) or newer

Resilience Circles (also called Common Security Clubs) strengthen communities, allowing neighbors to come together to get to know each another, find inspiration, and have fun while preparing for economic change. Our website is http://localcircles.org/.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Disobedience Archive, a Talk by Marco Scotini

Speaker: Marco Scotini

Time: 4:00p–6:00p

Location: MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street

At a time when many still consider the reterritorialisation of the classic Left as a possible response to the advancing neo-capitalistic cultural barbarism, Disobedience, an ongoing video archive aims to provide an alternative model of thought and action, which is wide-reaching, though the archive is limited in its space-time dimensions. It is an investigation into practices of artistic activism that emerged after the fall of the Soviet bloc, which paved the way for new ways of being, saying, and doing.

Marco Scotini is a curator and art critic based in Milan. He is the director of the BA and MA of Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA in Milan, curator of Gianni Colombo Archive and editor of the magazine No Order - Art in a Post-fordist Society.

Supported in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT, the Program in Art, Culture and Technology, and NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milano.


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

For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan Pallone
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Meet 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner, Carl Dietrich

Speaker: Carl Dietrich Co-Founder of Terrafugia

Time: 4:00p–5:30p

Location: MIT, Building W20, Student Center Plaza

What: 2006 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner, Carl Dietrich Co-Founder of Terrafugia: http://www.terrafugia.com/

When: Wednesday, October 19th, 2011, 4-5:30 pm
Where: Student Center Plaza
Contact: Shannon O'Brien (617.258.5798)

Come see Terrafugia's "roadable aircraft," the Transition??
Learn about the L-MIT Student Prize: http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-student.html
Enjoy donuts and apple cider!

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Campus Events

For more information, contact:

MIT Energy Club energy-events@mit.edu

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ice on a Slippery Slope: The Role of Meltwater Beneath Glaciers

Speaker: Dr. Ian Hewitt, Mathematics Department, University of British Columbia

Time: 4:00p–5:00p

Location: MIT, Building 54-915

EAPS Department Lecture Series

Web site: http://eapsweb.mit.edu/news/dls.html

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Jacqui Taylor
617-253-2127
jtaylor@mit.edu
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Boston Quantitative Self Meet-Up #7: Measuring the Infinite (on meditation and the brain)
Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 7:30 PM
SELECTED BY: MICHAEL NAGLE
Sprout, 339R Summer St, Somerville, MA
Hi Boston QS! Our next meetup is scheduled for October 19th, at 7:30 p.m. It's entitled "Measuring the Infinite" -- and is looking at different ways people measure their meditation practices and broadly looking at neurofeedback. Speakers will include Rohan Dixit of http://www.brainbot.me, Cathy Kerr, a researcher at Harvard Medical who studies the neuroscience of meditation and touch (http://www.osher.hms.harvard.edu/kerrlab/index.htm), and others with personal meditation projects. If you have a data set of project you'd like to present, please let me know! There's still room, and I think some of the best talks are the ones that are simple & personal anecdotes. For people who are excited by the broader QS movement, QS co-founder & WIRED editor Gary Wolf'll be at the event. Note that we're starting a little later than usual. Feel free to drop in earlier, and people will also be welcome to hang out afterwards. See you there!

RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/bostonQS/events/36541612/?a=ea1.2_grp&rv=ea1.2
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October 20, 2011
2:30 pm
Haller Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

"Arctic Armageddon? Can microbial methane oxidation prevent runaway methane release?" with William S. Reeburgh, Professor of Marine and Terrestrial Biogeochemistry, University of California Irvine.

Bill Reeburgh received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma in 1961, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in oceanography from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 and 1967. Before joining the UCI faculty he was Professor of Marine Science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He is the editor of the American Geophysical Union journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles. His work is sponsored by NSF, EPA, NASA and DOE. Visit: http://www.ess.uci.edu/~reeburgh/

Contact Name: Lisa Matthews
lisa_matthews@harvard.edu
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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Starr Forum: Border Security in the 21st Century

Speaker: Alan Bersin, Chappell Lawson

Time: 4:30p–6:00p

Location: MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Alan Bersin and Chappell Lawson will speak on border security in the 21st century. Q&A will follow the discussion.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Alan Bersin, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the Obama Administration.

Chappell Lawson, Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and Director of MISTI
(Professor Lawson served as Executive Director and Senior Advisor to the Commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection from Sept 2009 - Feb 2011)
This event is Free and Open to the Public.
More details to come.

Web site:http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_100611_bordersecurity.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, MISTI, MIT-Mexico Program
For more information, contact:
starrforum@mit.edu
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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Earth's Surprising Climate History

Speaker: Paul Hoffman, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology Emeritus at Harvard University

Time: 6:30p–8:00p

Location: MIT, Building 32-123

The Lorenz Center presents: The John Carlson Lecture Series
The John Carlson Lecture communicates exciting new results in climate science to the general public. Free of charge, the lecture is made possible by a generous gift from MIT alumnus John H. Carlson to the Lorenz Center at MIT.

6:30p.m. Community Reception
7:00p.m. Lecture

Lecture summary - The geological record shows that Earth's climate has changed in dramatic and surprising ways. Harvard geologist Paul Hoffman will share his fascination with the give and take between those who discovered the ancient changes and those struggling to develop theories of climate change. His story ranges from the beginnings of climate change as a science to his own involvement in the controversy over the ultimate climatic disturbance: snowball Earth.

Web site:http://web.mit.edu/science/events/john_carlson_lecture.pdf
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT School of Science
For more information, contact:
Shira Wieder
617-253-8055
swieder@mit.edu

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Writing for the Environment

WHEN Thu., Oct. 20, 2011, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE First Parish in Cambridge, Mass Ave at Church Street, Cambridge MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Poetry/Prose, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cambridge Forum, PEN-New England
SPEAKER(S) Renee Loth and a panel of environmental writers, including Bill McKibben
Wendell Barry, award recipient
COST Free
CONTACT INFO director@cambridgeforum.org
617.495.2727
NOTE PEN-New England presents its Howard Zinn Award and its Vasyl Stus Freedom to Write Award
LINK http://www.cambridgeforum.org

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Oct 21-23, 2011: Social Movements/Digital Revolutions - Conference for Organizers & Activists

SM/DR 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 discuss and debate some of the key issues facing creators and progressive organizers today.

The conference will kick off on Friday Oct. 21st at MIT Room 10-250 with a Town Hall Meeting on Media and Democracy. The event will feature an expert panel - including New York Times' Brian Stelter and Free Press' Craig Aaron - that will reflect on the future of journalism, media and democracy through the lens of the new documentary Page One.

With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, Page One chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. A number of clips from the film will be shown, each will be discussed by the panel in turn, then the floor will be turned over to the audience to help determine what this development means for our democracy - and for grassroots social movements working to revive it.

The conference proper will begin on Saturday Oct. 22nd at Lesley University's Doble Campus, and will feature panels focusing on our Social Movements/Digital Revolutions theme. The rest of the weekend will be filled out with a number of workshops on related topics and practical tutorials on social media and digital media.

From activists looking for an introduction to our crucial technologies to experience electronic campaigners, the conference will have many opportunities to learn and grow. It will also feature plenaries involving activists from Madison, WI, from England's student movement and Egypt's democracy movement; among our workshops will be sessions on Wikileaks and its local implementations, the use of Facebook to challenge deportations, hands-on privacy exercises, and the like.

Join in on October 21, 22 and 23!

Conference website: http://digitalmediaconference.org
Download conference flyers here: http://bit.ly/oLQdOu

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Reimagining the City-University Connection: Integrating Research, Policy, and Practice

WHEN Fri., Oct. 21, 2011, 8:45 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education, Ethics, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Sponsored by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in collaboration with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, and the city of Boston
COST Free; registration is required: http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?424639
CONTACT INFO 617.495.8600
NOTE “Reimagining the City-University Connection” seeks to promote a new kind of partnership by stimulating mutually beneficial research and policy relationships involving Harvard and other universities with Boston and other cities and towns in greater Boston. Scholars and practitioners from a variety of fields and communities will explore accomplishments of—and lessons from—several notable university/city initiatives. The symposium will create novel opportunities to strengthen existing collaborations and to begin to develop new ones—particularly those that cross academic disciplines and bureaucratic boundaries.
Registration is required: http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?424639
LINK http://www.reimagining-the-city-university-connection.com

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon

Speaker: Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning and Danya Rumore, PHD Candidate, DUSP

Time: 12:00p–2:00p

Location: MIT, Building 7-338, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Science Impact Collaborative Luncheon

Sensitive Coastal Environments

There are seventeen National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) in the United States. These are coastal areas where salt water and fresh water meet. The four New England Reserves are trying to figure out how to engage the public in figuring out the best way to respond to climate change risks. The Science Impact Collaborative is designing a supportive public educational program to accomplish this.

Web site: http://waterdiplomacy.org/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): EPP, DUSP
For more information, contact:
Nina Tamburello
617.253.1509
ninat@mit.edu

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

Friday, October 21, 2011

MIT Energy Night

Time: 5:00p–8:30p

Location: MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

The MIT Energy Night is one of the flagship events of the MIT Energy Club. The MIT Energy Night is hosted every year at the MIT Museum and 1000+ visitors come together to share their interest in energy. The purpose of the MIT Energy Night is to showcase the latest energy related research, technology innovation and entrepreneurship at MIT.

Web site: energynight.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Night, MIT Energy Club, MIT Energy Club- Energy Night Subgroup
For more information, contact:
Christina Karapataki
857-445-8553
ck333@mit.edu

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

Free Event - "A Robot Sent to Destroy Me": The New Media Invasion and the Future of News, 10/21, 7 p.m.
http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/2047

by Jason Pramas
*

So, ok, the official title of the event is the *Town Hall Meeting on Media and Democracy* . But we thought that sounded too low-key; so we decided to zip up our promotions a bit this week.??Anyhow, Open Media Boston and the other
event co-sponsors - *Free Press* , *Lesley University* , *Mass. Global Action* , *MIT Center for Civic Media* , and *MIT Comparative Media Studies* - are pleased to invite everyone who wonders about what the rise of social media means for the future of journalism to come to the famed lecture hall *MIT Room 10-250* (Building 10, 2nd floor, Room 250) at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 21st and join us for a fun, informative discussion. The evening will be hosted by the *Boston Media Reform Network* with support from
*Participant Media* .

The documentary *Page One: Inside the New York Times* , which chronicles the transformation of the media industry in the face of changing economic and technological realities, will frame the conversation. We will explore how the shifting media landscape impacts our democracy, and what that means for the news and information needs of local communities, especially in Boston. Clips from the film will be shown, several media experts will be asked to share their thoughts and experience on this changing landscape, and audience participation will be strongly encouraged.

And how about those media experts? We'll have *Brian Stelter* of the New York Times (who is featured in Page One), *Cindy Rodriguez* from Emerson College, *Sasha Constanza-Chock* from the MIT Center for Civic Media and MIT Comparative Media Studies, and *Craig Aaron* from Free Press. *I will be* moderating. Plus we might have some extra special guests on hand.

Incidentally, the quote in the title of this editorial refers to something that *David Carr* of the New York
Times media desk says about his colleague Brian Stelter in Page One. It's a funny scene that reflects the passing of the torch from older reporters like Carr to younger social media savvy ones like Stelter, and one of the big reasons we thought it would be a blast to build this event around the film.

This panel is also the opening event of the *Social Movements/Digital Revolutions conference* - which we'd love you all to attend. We've *already written about that* in detail in these pages, but we'll be putting out a special editorial on it next week - with a list of speakers and workshops.

Given the role that social media is playing in the rise of the #Occupy movement nationally, and in the global wave of uprisings from which it sprung, we think this conversation could hardly be more timely. So we strongly encourage *#OccupyBoston* folks to come on over to the both the opening panel on Friday, October 21st and the main conference on Saturday, October 22nd.

That's it for now. If anyone has any questions about either event, just email us at OMB ... info [at] openmediaboston [dot] org. And if you're coming on the 21st, we'd appreciate it if *you would RSVP* so we'll have an idea of how many folks are definitely planning to attend. Thanks!

/Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston/

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

2011 Energy Symposium
WHEN Sat., Oct. 22, 2011, 8 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Spangler & Aldrich, Harvard Business School campus
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Conferences, Environmental Sciences, Exhibitions
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HBS Energy & Environment Club
SPEAKER(S) More than 30 panelists from a range of areas involved in the energy sector including: conventional, cleantech, investing, start-ups, consultancy & policy
COST Club members: $15; any students & Harvard affiliates: $25; industry professionals: $50
TICKET WEB LINK http://www.harvardenergyclub.org/symposium_tickets/
TICKET INFO Online purchase only
CONTACT INFO Lee Hodder: lhodder@mba2012.hbs.edu, Evan Hindman: ehindman@mba2012.hbs.edu
LINK http://www.harvardenergyclub.org/symposium_tickets/

Editorial Comment: Most of the events here are free. There are sometimes exceptions. A reasonably priced symposium on energy organized by students at Harvard Business School seems like a useful exception.
----------------------------

Saturday, October 22, 2011

MIT Press Bookstore Loading Dock Sale

Speaker: Huge Savings!

Time: 10:00a–6:00p

Location: MIT, Building E38, 292 Main Street, Kendall Sq., Cambridge

Literally *tons* of books will be on sale at drastically reduced prices--up to 90% off their original retail price. Come enjoy huge savings on slightly worn and overstock books from the MIT Press and other fine publishers. It's a feeding frenzy for the brain!

Saturday will again be the "no-book-dealers" day. MIT or other University id will be required for admittance. Please see the website for more information, or email us with questions.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/docksale.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact:
The MIT Press Bookstore
617-253-5249
books@mit.edu

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

Monday, October 24, 2011
12 pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Energy Technology Innovation Policy/ Consortium for Energy Policy Research
Energy Policy Seminar Series:

Trevor Houser, Peterson Institute for International Economics, "China’s energy future"

Lunch with be provided.

http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-10-24/energy-policy-seminar


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

A World Without Superpowers

WHEN Mon., Oct. 24, 2011, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Littauer 166, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Barry Buzan, Montague Burton Professor Emeritus, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5602/world_without_superpowers.html

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

October 24, 2011
12 pm
Cabot 102, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA

The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy’s Road to Durban Speaker Series presents:
Climate Governance at the Crossroads: Experimenting with a Global Response after Kyoto
A book talk with Matthew J. Hoffman, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto

RSVP required. Sign up at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2286262272

Description: The global response to climate change has reached a critical juncture. Since the 1992 signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the nations of the world have attempted to address climate change through large-scale multilateral treaty-making. These efforts have been heroic, but disappointing. As evidence for the quickening pace of climate change mounts, the treaty-making process has sputtered, and many are now skeptical about the prospect of an effective global response. Yet global treaty-making is not the only way that climate change can be addressed or, indeed, is being addressed. This book provides an exciting new perspective on the politics of climate change and the means to understand and influence how the global response to climate change will unfold in the coming years.

This is the first in a series of speakers discussing the climate negotiations that will take place November 28 to December 9 this year in Durban, South Africa.
Contact Name:
Miranda Fasulo
617.627.2778

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

Monday, October 24, 3–4:30 p.m.
"Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda."
Seminar with Eric Schmitt, terrorism correspondent for The New York Times, and Thom Shanker, Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times. Co-sponsored with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Moderators: Alex S. Jones, director, Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Belfer Center.
Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

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

What Can Cloud Do for You?
Monday, October 24, 2011, 7:00 PM
Microsoft NERD Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA (map)

The Topic: You’ve probably seen the “to the cloud” commercial and are aware of the hype that makes cloud computing sound like the next best thing since sliced bread, but do you really know what cloud computing is? And what it’s not? When does it make sense? And when doesn’t it? What does it mean to us as software developers, startup entrepreneurs, and end-users? And how do you sort through all of the vendors and offerings to determine whose cloud portfolio offers the most value to you? We’ll look at all of these questions and more as we spend the evening navigating through the cloudscape.

Meet the Presenter: Jim O’Neil is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft covering New England and Upstate New York. For the past two years or so, he’s been focused on educating developers on the technologies, architectures, and value propositions of cloud computing. Most recently he’s presented on cloud computing and Windows Azure at Sybase TechWave, The Best of TechEd (Rochester), and MongoBoston.

Boston Tech Event Schedule:
6:30 - 7:15: Free pizza and networking
7:16- 8:00: Jim O'Neil's Presentation on What can Cloud Do for You?
8:01 - ?: Talking the Boston tech job market with experts fromWorkbridge Associates and Jobspring Partners

RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/BostonTech/events/33357482/

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

Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the International Atomic Energy Agency
WHEN Tue., Oct. 25, 2011, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Trevor Findlay, research fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5618/unleashing_the_nuclear_watchdog.html

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

Tuesday, October 25, 12 p.m.
"From Uprisings in the Arab World to Social Unrest in London: The New Media Ecology and Citizen/State Dynamics in the 21st Century."
Speaker Series with Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She blogs at technosociology.org.
Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

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

Doing Science in the Open
Michael Nielsen, author and an advocate of open science
Tuesday, October 25, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/10/nielsen#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

From Michael: I'll start this talk by describing the Polymath Project, an ongoing experiment in "massively collaborative" mathematical problem solving. The idea is to use online tools -- things like blogs and wikis -- to collaboratively attack difficult mathematical problems. By combining the best ideas of many minds from all over the world, the Polymath Project has made breakthroughs on important mathematical problems.

What makes this an exciting story is that it's about much more than just solving some mathematical problems. Rather, the story suggests that online tools can be used to transform the way we humans work together to make scientific discoveries. We can use online tools to amplify our collective intelligence, in much the same way as for millenia we've used physical tools to amplify our strength. This has the potential to accelerate scientific discovery across all disciplines.

This is an optimistic story, but there's a major catch. Scientists have for the most part been extremely extremely conservative in how they use the net, often using it for little more than email and passive web browsing. Projects like Polymath are the exception not the rule. I'll discuss why this conservatism is so common, why it's so damaging, and how we can move to a more open scientific culture.

About Michael
Michael Nielsen is an author and an advocate of open science. His book about open science, Reinventing Discovery, will be published by Princeton University Press in October, 2011. Prior to his book, Michael was an internationally known scientist who helped pioneer the field of quantum computation. He co-authored the standard text in the field, and wrote more than 50 scientific papers, including invited contributions to Nature and Scientific American. His work on quantum teleportation was recognized in Science Magazine's list of the Top Ten Breakthroughs of 1998. Michael was educated at the University of Queensland, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New Mexico. He worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, as the Richard Chace Tolman Prize Fellow at Caltech, was Foundation Professor of Quantum Information Science and a Federation Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a Senior Faculty Member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 2008, he gave up his tenured position to work fulltime on open science.

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

Civilian Deaths in War: Why They Matter
WHEN Tue., Oct. 25, 2011, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge, 502, Boston, MA 02115
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Injury Control Research Center
SPEAKER(S) John Tirman, executive director and principal research scientist of the MIT Center for International Studies; author of "The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars"
COST Free
CONTACT INFO hicrc@hsph.harvard.edu
NOTE Open to the public.
Refreshments will be provided.
LINK http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/seminar-series/

------------------------------
Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Spillover Effects of Organized Crime:Evidence from the Mexican Drug War

Speaker: Melissa Dell (MIT Ph.D.)

Time: 2:30p–4:00p

Location: MIT, Building E62-650, 100 Main Street, Cambridge

The Spillover Effects of Organized Crime:Evidence from the Mexican Drug War

Web site: http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82766&pageid=icb.page450594
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT/Harvard Development Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu

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

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30–6 p.m.
"Political Polarization and Ideas for Restoring Civility to Government in 2012."
Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on Negotiation, Conflict and the News Media with Jill Lepore, David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History; and Mark McKinnon, Reidy Fellow at the Shorenstein Center and comunications strategist to President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and Governor Ann Richards. Co-sponsored with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Nieman Foundation and the Shorenstein Center.
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 1737 Cambridge Street, Room N-354

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***********

Upcoming

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***********

Boston World Partnerships Hosts:
The Innovation Express, a rolling networking event along the Red Line on Thursday, October 27th.
Join us in the last car of the Red Line as we travel from JFK/UMass to Davis and back to Kendall Square’s Cambridge Innovation Center, with stops along the way to hear from and meet Boston and Cambridge’s most innovative people.
Learn about the newest trends in our entrepreneurial community and plug in with the people behind them!
All you have to do is:
1. Head to your nearest Red Line T stop and look for Innovation Express signs
2. Hop on with us in the last car
AND
3. Come prepared to meet and connect with Boston and Cambridge’s finest!

The Innovation Express starts rolling at 1pm from JFK/UMass. Please keep an eye on your inbox for schedule of station visits.
When: Thursday, October 27th
Where: Event kicks off at the JFK/UMass platform and ends with a networking event at the Cambridge Innovation Center
Time: 1:00pm - Event begins at JFK/UMass platform
2:30pm - Networking finale at the Cambridge Innovation Center
Cost: Free

Follow this event on Twitter via our handle @ThinkingBoston or the event hashtag #InnoExpress

Pitch Your Company
We've partnered with Pixability to offer start-ups a chance to have their elevator pitches professionally video-taped at the event finale at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Each start-up will be given 3 takes on a 60-90 second pitch of their company. Space is limited, so reserve your spot by selecting "Yes" under the video option when you register for this event at http://innovationexpress.eventbrite.com/

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

October 28, 2011

New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents: The Promise and Reality of "Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"
Raab Associates presents:
The 125th NE Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Time: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm

Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston, MA 02210

***Free and open to the public with no advanced registration***

October 28, 2011 Roundtable:
The Promise and Reality of
"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"

"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing" are emerging nationally and locally here
in New England as "hot" topics. Smart grid at the distribution-to-customer interface promises a range of benefits, from better outage management, to energy savings from improved voltage modulation, to a variety of opportunities created by advanced metering. Dynamic pricing, which entails
a closer matching of rates to actual time-differentiated costs, runs the gamut from time-of-use rates to real-time pricing.

Our first panel is focused primarily on the broader smart grid issues. David O'Brien, former Commissioner of Vermont's Department of Public Service and current Director of Regulatory Strategy at BRIDGE Energy Group, will set the stage by defining smart grid and its various value propositions, and describing the mass deployment of advanced metering by utilities in Vermont. Arepresentative of Oklahoma Gas and Electric, recipient of one of the largest U.S. DOE Smart Grid Grants, will then describe its recent full-court press on installing a wide range of smart grid-related technologies and its pilot on dynamic pricing. Next, Doug Horton, Smart Grid Project Manager at NSTAR, and Cheri Warren,VP of Asset Management at National Grid, will describe theirrespective smart grid pilots. NSTAR's includes a program to integrate distributed resources into downtown networks, and another to test dynamic pricing using its existing AMR meters coupled with wireless communication. National Grid will share what it learned at its smart grid summit in Worcester in September, and provide a preview of its upcoming smart grid pilot.

Our second panel focuses in greater depth on national trends on dynamic pricing. Our lead off speaker, Ahmad Faruqui, a Principal at the Brattle Group and a national expert on dynamic pricing, will share his conclusions from analyzing all the dynamic pricing pilots nationwide. Commissioner Rick Morgan, of the Washington D.C. PUC and the author of a recent article, "Rethinking Dumb Rates," will discuss what he learned from D.C's PowerCentsDC™ pilot on dynamic pricing, and where D.C. plans to go next on advanced metering and dynamic pricing.Nancy Brockway, former NH PUC Commissioner, MA DPU General Counsel, and long-time low-income consumer advocate, will close the panel by sharing some of her concerns about various aspects of dynamic pricing.

September 16 Roundtable Presentations Online

Speakers' presentations from our September 16th Roundtable, FERC Order 1000 (Transmission Planning & Cost Allocation Requirements);and Future of Solar in New England, are available on our website: http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp?sel=108

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

Visit GlobeLab: The Boston Globe's take on the (near) future of news
Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 7:00 PM
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA

Chris Marstall, the Boston Globe’s creative technologist, is throwing open the doors to GlobeLab, the news organization’s space for exploring how news is changing. In his words: “We're a space at the Boston Globe dedicated to understanding, imagining and demonstrating the (near) future of news & advertising.
“Current projects include wall-screen-sized instagram and twitter visualizations, a next-gen TV app, a device synchronizer and a newsroom information radiator. For more information, check out our recent Nieman Journalism Lab profile or follow us @GlobeLab.”

RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/35976432/?a=ea1.2_lnm&eventId=35976432&action=detail&rv=ea1.2&rv=ea1.2

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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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*************

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.

*********
-----------

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.

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

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.

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

Free Monthly Energy Analysis

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

https://www.carbonsalon.com/

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

Boston Food System

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

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

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

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

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

Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/

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

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

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

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

********************************************
-----------------------------------------------------

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, October 09, 2011

Energy (and Other) Events - October 9, 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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Fukushima Nuclear Accident Reports: Civil Engineering and Nuclear Engineering
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/08/1024327/-Fukushima-Nuclear-Accident-Reports:-Civil-Engineering-and-Nuclear-Engineering

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The Boston Wikipedia Meetup Group Monthly Meetup
Monday, October 10, 2011, 7:00 PM
Clover Food Lab, 7 Holyoke St., Cambridge, MA (map)

Eating, drinking, science, art, and Wikipedia.
Discussion of future speakers, Wikiversity, regional Wikipedia Ambassador efforts, and collabs with Boston-area libraries and museums.
Register at http://www.meetup.com/wikipedia-5/events/32346212/

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

Gelation
José Andrés (ThinkFoodGroup, minibar, Jaleo)
When: Oct 10, 2011
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Where: Harvard Science Center B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Speaker Biography:
José Andrés is a native of Spain and chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup, the team responsible for Washington’s popular and award-winning dining concepts Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel, Café Atlantico and the critically-acclaimed minibar by josé andrés, as well as Los Angeles’ exciting destination, The Bazaar by José Andrés, part of the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. ThinkFoodGroup oversees all of José’s creative endeavors such as cookbooks, television programming, concept consulting and project development.
Host: Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Contact: Christina Andujar
candujar@seas.harvard.edu

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

International Organizations and Information: Intervening Between the Causes and Effects of Nuclear Proliferation
WHEN Tue., Oct. 11, 2011, 10 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Robert L. Brown, Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5601/international_organizations_and_information.html

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Tuesday, October 11, 12 p.m.
"Haunting Legacy: How a Lost War Still Influences White House War Policy."
Speaker Series with Marvin Kalb, founding director of the Joan Shorenstein Center and author of Haunting Legacy with Deborah Kalb. Co-sponsored with the Belfer Center on Science and International Affairs.
Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

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Almost Wikipedia: What Eight Collaborative Encyclopedia Projects Reveal About Mechanisms of Collective Action
Tuesday, October 11
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, Cambridge, MA. This event will be webcast live and archived:
From Benjamin Mako Hill: I'm going to present some preliminary findings from a qualitative, inductive, case-study based analysis of 8 early projects to create online collaborative encyclopedias. It's quite likely that the only project in my dataset that you've heard of is Wikipedia. I'm am still finishing interviews but I'm hoping I can use feedback from the group to help frame the work going forward. My initial results are based on data from 8 projects -- the full population -- in the form of interviews of the projects' founders and extensive archival data. My findings are a set of propositions focused on suggesting why Wikipedia succeeded in attracting contributors while the other projects did so less effectively. In a follow-up project, I'm hoping to test these in a quantitative dataset I've been building. The project is part of a larger research project that attempts to use failure cases to understand why some attempts at online collective action are successful while most never take off. Benjamin Mako Hill is an scholar, activist, and consultant working on issues of technology and society. He is currently a researcher and PhD Candidate in a joint program between the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Media Lab, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and a Research Fellow at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media.

RSVP Required> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/10/makohill#RSVP

More information on our website> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/10/makohill

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In operationalizing sustainability, a primary challenge is in removing barriers to energy efficiency. A range of companies and institutions have done this successfully and realized dramatic savings.

October Growing GIBN Conversation
Removing Barriers to Energy Efficiency

Date: October 11, 2011
Time: 2pm ET
Call-in information: (760) 569-9000, Code: 160031#
Please join us by sending your RSVP to info@digin.org

Sitar Mody from Environmental Defense Fund will kick off a conversation about how companies can reap immediate rewards through energy efficiency. She will share the latest results, and highlight useful case studies, from EDF's Climate Corps program. This past summer, Climate Corps worked with 78 companies, cities and universities around the country and uncovered efficiencies in lighting, computer equipment, and heating and cooling systems that could:
Cut 600 million kilowatt hours of electricity use and 27 million therms of natural gasannually, equivalent to the annual energy use of 38,000 homes;
Avoid 440,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to the annual emissions of 87,000 passenger vehicles; and
Save $650 million in net operational costs over the project lifetimes.
We look forward to your participation in our conversation!

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For the Common Defense — A Study Group for American Military Affairs: Closing the Gap Between Military and Civilian Understanding
WHEN Tue., Oct. 11, 2011, 4:10 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Belfer Library, Littauer 369, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HKS Armed Forces Committee
SPEAKER(S) Charlie Lewis, captain, U.S. Army
COST Free
NOTE A weekly study group led by active duty members and veterans, to bridge the gap in understanding between civilian and military spheres. No military experience required; the less you know, the more we encourage you to attend!

This week, U.S. Army Capt. Charlie Lewis will discuss the Army's operational approach to land warfare and some of the principles that influence this approach.

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Biodiversity, Ecology, & Global Change: “Catchers in the Rye: Ecology, Society, and Climate Change”
WHEN Tue., Oct. 11, 2011, 5 p.m.
WHERE Biolabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Josh Tewksbury, Walker Professor of Natural History, Department of Biology, University of Washington.
CONTACT INFO Lisa Matthews: matthew@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE The talk will discuss links between ecosystem conditions and human health, security, and well-being, primarily focusing on the impacts of climate change, at scales ranging from thermal physiology of insects to global food security. The research described will provide an example of the importance of broad collaborative frameworks that are often needed for ecology to influence policy.
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-10-11/biodiversity-ecology-global-change-“catchers-rye-ecology-society-and-climate-chang

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The Birth of the Risk Economy. Futures Trading in the 19th and 20th Centuries

WHEN Wed., Oct. 12, 2011, 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.
WHERE Cabot Room, Busch Hall, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Visiting Scholars Seminar: New Research on Europe, Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) Alexander Engel, Kennedy Fellow, Center for European Studies
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Arthur Goldhammer: art.goldhammer@gmail.com
LINK http://www.ces.fas.harvard.edu/studygroups/sg26.html

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October 12, 2011
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future public hearing
BRC Draft Report to the Secretary of Energy http://www.brc.gov
Registration will open at 7:30 am and the meeting will begin at 8:00 am and end at 5:00 pm.
Harvard Medical School Conference Center, 77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood, Boston, MA

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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A World of 7 Billion: Matters Arising
WHEN Wed., Oct. 12, 2011, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Pop Center, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director, United Nations Population Fund

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Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy: On Welfare Frameworks and Catastrophic Climate Risks
WHEN Wed., Oct. 12, 2011, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Kennedy School Room Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Environmental Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Antony Millner
LINK http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k82245&pageid=icb.page443881

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011
4 p.m.
BU, 8 Saint Mary’s St., Room 211, Boston
Refreshments will be served outside Room 339 at 3:45 p.m.

Context Aware Wireless Networks: A Physical Layer Perspective
Professor Behnaam Aazhang
The recent surge in wireless data usage has demonstrated one important fact – our networks are not ready for application-rich mobile Internet. All of our current wireless architectures, including Wi-Fi and cellular, are based on interference avoidance that advocates eliminating simultaneous transmissions to avoid collisions at the receivers. In contrast, if neighboring nodes pool their resources and cooperate in their signal transmissions, the network could turn interference to its advantage for a potentially large increase in network capacity. In this presentation, Professor Aazhang will propose a paradigm in which nodes cooperate by pooling power and bandwidth resources and where flows interact opportunistically to avoid interference and increase network utilization. In particular, he will explore location information and network awareness to develop access strategies to significantly increase spectral and power efficiencies of the network. This
presentation is targeted to an audience with a broad range of expertise and background.

For more information:
www.bu.edu/ece/distinguished-lectures

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Legatum Lecture: Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles of Practical Leadership
Speaker: Ruma Bose
Time: 5:00p–6:30p
Location: MIT, Building 32-155, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Spiritual leader and CEO?
Join us October 12th to learn how you can apply the leadership style of this great humanitarian- no sainthood required.

Web site: http://legatum.mit.edu/content/1103
Open to: the general public
Cost: none
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact:
Agnes Hunsicker
617-324-2768
agnesh@mit.edu

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Nuclear Power Plant Exporters' Principles of Conduct: Evolution, Status, and Prospects
WHEN Thu., Oct. 13, 2011, 10 – 11:45 a.m.
WHERE Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Project on Managing the Atom
SPEAKER(S) Ariel Levite, senior associate, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5605/nuclear_power_plant_exporters_principles_of_conduct.html

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Brazil Studies Program Seminar: Membrane Technology for Coping with Water Problems in Brazil’s Megacities

WHEN Thu., Oct. 13, 2011, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE CGIS South, S-050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
SPEAKER(S) José Carlos Mierzwa, associate professor of environmental engineering and water treatment, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo; visiting scholar, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
CONTACT INFO brazil@fas.harvard.edu

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Thursday, October 13, 2011
3:30 PM Refreshments in CAS 500, 4:00 PM Talk
BU, 725 Commonwealth Ave. CAS 502, Boston

The Number of Terrestrial-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets as Projected from Kepler Mission Transits
Wesley Traub, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Data from Kepler’s first 136 days of operation are analyzed to determine the distribution of exoplanets with respect to radius, period, and host-star spectral type. The analysis is extrapolated to estimate the percentage of terrestrial, habitable-zone exoplanets. The Kepler census is assumed to be complete for bright stars (magnitude brighter than 14.0) having transiting planets of size greater than 0.5 Earth radius and periods less than 42 days. It is also assumed that the size distribution of planets is independent of orbital period, and that there are no hidden biases in the data. Six significant statistical results are found: there is a paucity of small planet detections around faint target stars, probably an instrumental effect; the frequency of mid-size planet detections is independent of whether the host star is bright or faint; there are significantly fewer planets detected with periods less than 3 days, compared to longer periods, almost certainly an astrophysical effect; the frequency of all planets in the population with periods less than 42 days is 29%, broken down as terrestrials 9%, ice giants 18%, and gas giants 3%; the population has a planet frequency with respect to period which follows a power-law relation dN/dln(P) = A*P^\beta , with \beta = 0.71 +/- 0.08; and an extrapolation to longer periods gives the frequency of terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of FGK stars as eta-sub-Earth = 34 +/- 14%. Thus about one-third of FGK stars are predicted to have at least one terrestrial, habitable-zone planet.

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The Global Economy, Leadership Gap and the G20
WHEN Thu., Oct. 13, 2011, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Belfer Case Study Room (S020), CGIS South Bld., 1730 Cambridge St.
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The SBS Endowment at the Korea Institute, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) SaKong Il, chairman of Korea International Trade Association (KITA), former chairman, Korea’s Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, former finance minister of Korea
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO dmironen@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE Public reception to follow
LINK http://korea.fas.harvard.edu/events

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Thursday, October 13
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
MassDevelopment, 33 Andrews Parkway, Devens, MA

Zero Net Energy Housing Workshop
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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Future of Energy: "The Development of Liquid Fuels from Lignocellulose"
WHEN Thu., Oct. 13, 2011, 5 p.m.
WHERE Science Center D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Chris Somerville, director of the Energy Biosciences Institute; professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley; and visiting scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
NOTE The efficient production of cellulosic fuels by biochemical routes will require innovation in three main areas: sustainable production of feedstocks that do not compete with food production, depolymerization of feedstocks, and conversion of feedstocks to liquid fuels.
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2011-10-13/future-energy-development-liquid-fuels-lignocellulose

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Thursday, October 13, 2011
Energy Discussions: The Politics of Renewable Energy
Speaker: Leah Stokes
Time: 6:00p–7:00p
Location: MIT, Building 4-153, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Because of climate change, we need to create a carbon free energy system over the coming century. Although we usually think of this transformation as a technical challenge, it is also a political issue. The politics play out at every scale, from government decisions to local acceptance. In this discussion, we will look at some theories of innovation and socio-technical transformation and some specific cases in Europe and the United States. One relevant case that has recently been in the news is the government funding received by the solar energy company Solyndra and the related issues of political acceptance of climate change.

Join members of the MIT Energy Club for a roundtable discussion on the politics of renewable energy.

Please prepare for the discussion by reading the articles on te event webpage:
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/events-and-programs/discussion-series

A light dinner 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

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

October 13th
BASEA Forum: Ken Ward, Apeiron Institute/350.org
A reception begins at 7:00 p.m., with the program beginning at 7:30 p.m.
1st Parish Unitarian Church, #3 Church St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
http://www.basea.org

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Molecules, Movement, and Motors

Fri, 2011-10-14
http://www.radcliffe.edu
Radcliffe Gymnasium 10 Garden Street, Radcliffe Yard Cambridge, Massachusetts
Registration is required and opens on September 7.

This all-day event is free and open to the public.

The symposium will bring together experts in genetics, chemistry, biology, physics, medicine, and engineering to discuss the mechanics of motors—from naturally occurring motors, such as those inside cells, to new synthetic motors made from DNA. The exploration about how motors work and what we can learn from studying them will address an array of questions: Are motors specific for a single task, or can they adapt to multiple functions? What makes motors start and stop moving? What are common features that make an effective motor? How can we build on new understandings of motors to cure disease and make other improvements to human life?

Speakers

Anna Christina Balazs
Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Robert Von der Luft Professor
University of Pittsburgh

Steven M. Block
Stanford W. Ascherman, M.D., Professor and Professor of Applied Physics and Biology and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at Freeman Spogli Institute
Stanford University

Susan K. Dutcher
Professor and Interim Head, Genetics, Cell Biology and Physiology
Washington University in St. Louis

Larry Goldstein
Distinguished Professor, Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine; Director, UC San Diego Stem Cell Program; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of California at San Diego

Ayusman Sen
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
Pennsylvania State University

James A. Spudich
Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Cardiovascular Disease
Stanford University

Viola Vogel
Professor in the Department of Materials and Head of the Laboratory for Biologically Oriented Materials
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)

For more information, please visit www.radcliffe.edu or call 617-495-8600.

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Friday, October 14

25th Anniversary Celebration of the Shorenstein Center

Nye Conference Center, Taubman Building, 5th Floor, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
All meals are by invitation only.

9 a.m. Welcome: Alex S. Jones
Conversations
9:15–10:15 a.m. Ken Auletta (Annals of Communications columns, The New Yorker) and Vivek Kundra (Former U.S. Chief Information Officer)
10:15–11:15 a.m. Xeni Jardin (founding partner and co-editor of the blog Boing Boing) and Miles O'Brien (science correspondent, PBS NewsHour)
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Steve Grove (Head of News and Politics, YouTube) and Anne Marie Slaughter (Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University)
12:30–1:45 p.m. Richard Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Presswith lunchtime speaker Clay Shirky (Professor of New Media, New York University)
2–3 p.m. Rebecca MacKinnon (senior fellow, New America Foundation) and Abderrahim Foukara (Washington bureau chief, Al Jazeera)
3–4 p.m. David Carr (columnist and reporter, The New York Times) and Danah Boyd (senior researcher, Microsoft Research)
4–5 p.m. Dan Okrent (writer and editor) and Adam Moss (editor-in-chief, New York magazine)
5–10 p.m. HKS and Harvard Anniversary Celebration

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Oct 14, 2011
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Where: Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Black Carbon, Snow and Climate: A Perspective from the Field
Sarah Doherty , Research Scientist, University of Washington

Speaker Biography: http://jisao.washington.edu/research/bios/doherty_sarah.html
Contact: Brenda Mathieu
bmathieu@seas.harvard.edu 495-5745

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Undergraduate Poster Session: Energy Projects

October 14, 2011 1:00p–3:00p

Join the MIT Energy Club and the MIT Energy Initiative for a poster session focused on undergraduate energy projects. The event will give you a window into the world of undergraduate energy research and the opportunity to discuss projects with students from a variety of departments and disciplines.

Category: lectures/conferences

Location: 32 TMSC Lobby, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Sponsored by: MIT Energy Club, MIT Energy Initiative

Admission: Open to the public

Contact Christie Ko

617-253-3478

cko@mit.edu

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Friday, October 14, 2011

FRONTIERS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY LECTURE: Development of liquid fuels from lignocellulose

Speaker: Chris Somerville, Energy Biosciences Institute, UC-Berkeley

Time: 3:00p–4:00p

Location: MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Frontiers of Biotechnology Lectureship
The Frontiers in Biotechnology Lectureship was established in 1999 through a generous donation from Dr. Noubar Afeyan to acknowledge the enabling technologies and developments that have sustained the growth of biotechnology and life sciences. Some of these include bioprocess engineering (upstream and downstream processes), bioanalytical developments, advanced and new instruments, novel delivery concepts, biomedical devices, rational drug design, computational methods, bioinformatics, and information technology. It is the intent of this Lectureship to recognize and honor achievements on the "frontiers of biotechnology" and the distinguished scientists and engineers responsible for them.

The efficient production of cellulosic fuels by biochemical routes will require innovation in three main areas: sustainable production of feedstocks that do not compete with food production, depolymerization of feedstocks, and conversion of feedstocks to liquid fuels. In this respect there is renewed interest in identifying plants that have optimal biomass accumulation and understanding the production issues associated with large-scale cultivation and sustainable harvesting of such species. Additionally, the importance of enhancing soil carbon and nutrient retention while minimizing inputs will require an integrated approach to the development of cellulosic energy crops.

The challenges on the processing side include the development of improved chemical or biological catalysts for polysaccharide and lignin depolymerization and conversion to fuels, the development of microbial strains that can convert a wide range of sugars to next generation fuels under harsh conditions, and numerous innovations in chemical engineering. There appear to be many different routes to improved processes for cellulosic fuels production. However, because of the interdependencies of elements of the overall path from biomass to liquid fuels, research on the design of optimized processes is at a preliminary stage of technical maturity.

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

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Hands-on work to weatherize Spontaneous Celebrations in JP, 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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Saturday, October 15

25th Anniversary of Shorenstein Center

Nye Conference Center, Taubman Building, 5th Floor, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

All meals are by invitation only.

10–11 a.m. Emily Bell (director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School) and Joichi Ito (director, MIT Media Lab)
11 a.m.–12 p.m. Mark McKinnon (communications strategist) and Jim VandeHei (executive editor and co-founder, Politico)
12 p.m. Luncheon
---------------------------------

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Inside 150: Project Whirlwind, Sage, and Pioneering MIT Computer Projects

Speaker: Jay Forrester, Robert Everett, Deborah Douglas, John Durant

Time: 2:00p–4:00p

Location: MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

MIT 150 Exhibition
In celebration of the MIT 150 Exhibition and MIT's 150th anniversary celebration the MIT Museum presents an ongoing series of public programs throughout 2011.

MIT's computer pioneers including Whirlwind leaders Jay Forrester and Robert Everett gather for an afternoon program about the design, development and impact of Project Whirlwind, the first real-time computer ever built. Deborah Douglas, MIT's Curator of Science and Technology, and Museum Director John Durant will convene an informal panel discussion with our honored guests at 2 pm followed by a special tour of the MIT 150 exhibition highlighting some of the museum's most treasured computing artifacts at 3 pm. Visitors will have the opportunity to poise their own questions to some of the people most responsible for the computer revolution that has transformed our world.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free with museum admission
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:
Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museum@mit.edu

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Green Solutions Expo

Mon, 2011-10-17
11 am to 4 pm
http://greendecade.org/green-solutions-expo.html
Newton Centre Green & Wainwright Bank, Newton, MA

A Newton/Needham Chamber of Commerce Expo with solutions you need to reduce your carbon footprint & over 60 exhibitors held under a big tent held from 11-5pm in Newton Centre during the Newton Harvest Fair. Continuous entertainment, food and games for the kids. Tips on how be more environmentally friendly and live a "green" life style.
See exhibitors with green products, services and ideas.
Come to our expert workshops every hour.
Find out how you can convert to solar electricity without paying thousands and reduce your electric bills.
Have a green lawn all summer without watering and only cut once a month.
These workshops and more will help you save money and the environment at the same time!

Green Life Style Workshops
Wainwright Bank Community Room, 1255 Centre Street, Newton centre

Green Life Style Workshops, conducted by subject matter experts, will be held every hour.

11:00
Solar Electric for Your Home
Find out how you can convert to solar electricity without paying thousands and reduce your electric bills.
12:00
Environmentally "Green" Lawns
Have a green lawn all summer without watering and only cut once a month.
1:00
"Green" Products for Your Home
Hear about all the new products to enhance your house interior that are durable, good for the environment and safely non-toxic.
2:00
To be announced
3:00
To be announced
4:00
To be announced
Registration: http://greendecade.org/green-solutions-registration.php
Space is limited so register on-line now to reserve your space. Registration is free and only takes a minute.


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Upcoming

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GreenPort Forum: The State of the Birds
With distinguished ornithologist Christopher Leahy. Chris holds the Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He has been a professional conservationist for more than thirty-five years, most recently as the Director of Massachusetts Audubon’s Center for Biological Conservation.

We all know that climate change is real and that weather patterns have been more unpredictable than ever. How has climate change and other environmental changes impacted the types and behaviors of local and migrating birds? What can we expect as temperatures continue to warm? The birdlife of Massachusetts is exceptionally rich, containing both a great diversity of species and several populations of global significance. However, it is also clear that in recent decades, many Massachusetts bird populations have decreased significantly and continue to decline. These declines are occurring not just among our rarest species, but affect a broad spectrum of bird families in many habitats and include some of the most familiar and beloved birds of our backyards and countryside –birds that we tend to think of as common. Please join us for a presentation and discussion by one of the key authors of the just issued Mass Audubon report “The State of the Birds” - http://www.massaudubon.org/StateoftheBirds/.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:00pm
Cambridgeport Baptist Church
459 Putnam Av, Cambrige
(corner of Magazine St. and Putnam Av)

GreenPort envisions and encourages a just and sustainable Cambridgeport neighborhood
For more information, contact Steve Morr-Wineman at swineman@gis.net

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Oct 21-23, 2011: Social Movements/Digital Revolutions - Conference for Organizers & Activists

SM/DR 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 discuss and debate some of the key issues facing creators and progressive organizers today.

The conference will kick off on Friday Oct. 21st at MIT Room 10-250 with a Town Hall Meeting on Media and Democracy. The event will feature an expert panel - including New York Times' Brian Stelter and Free Press' Craig Aaron - that will reflect on the future of journalism, media and democracy through the lens of the new documentary Page One.

With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, Page One chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. A number of clips from the film will be shown, each will be discussed by the panel in turn, then the floor will be turned over to the audience to help determine what this development means for our democracy - and for grassroots social movements working to revive it.

The conference proper will begin on Saturday Oct. 22nd at Lesley University's Doble Campus, and will feature panels focusing on our Social Movements/Digital Revolutions theme. The rest of the weekend will be filled out with a number of workshops on related topics and practical tutorials on social media and digital media.

From activists looking for an introduction to our crucial technologies to experience electronic campaigners, the conference will have many opportunities to learn and grow. It will also feature plenaries involving activists from Madison, WI, from England's student movement and Egypt's democracy movement; among our workshops will be sessions on Wikileaks and its local implementations, the use of Facebook to challenge deportations, hands-on privacy exercises, and the like.

Join in on October 21, 22 and 23!

Conference website: http://digitalmediaconference.org
Download conference flyers here: http://bit.ly/oLQdOu

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October 28, 2011

New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents: The Promise and Reality of "Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"
Raab Associates presents:
The 125th NE Electricity Restructuring Roundtable
Date: Friday, October 28, 2011
Time: 9:00 am to 12:30 pm

Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston, MA 02210

***Free and open to the public with no advanced registration***

October 28, 2011 Roundtable:
The Promise and Reality of
"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing"

"Smart Grid" and "Dynamic Pricing" are emerging nationally and locally here
in New England as "hot" topics. Smart grid at the distribution-to-customer interface promises a range of benefits, from better outage management, to energy savings from improved voltage modulation, to a variety of opportunities created by advanced metering. Dynamic pricing, which entails
a closer matching of rates to actual time-differentiated costs, runs the gamut from time-of-use rates to real-time pricing.

Our first panel is focused primarily on the broader smart grid issues. David O'Brien, former Commissioner of Vermont's Department of Public Service and current Director of Regulatory Strategy at BRIDGE Energy Group, will set the stage by defining smart grid and its various value propositions, and describing the mass deployment of advanced metering by utilities in Vermont. Arepresentative of Oklahoma Gas and Electric, recipient of one of the largest U.S. DOE Smart Grid Grants, will then describe its recent full-court press on installing a wide range of smart grid-related technologies and its pilot on dynamic pricing. Next, Doug Horton, Smart Grid Project Manager at NSTAR, and Cheri Warren,VP of Asset Management at National Grid, will describe theirrespective smart grid pilots. NSTAR's includes a program to integrate distributed resources into downtown networks, and another to test dynamic pricing using its existing AMR meters coupled with wireless communication. National Grid will share what it learned at its smart grid summit in Worcester in September, and provide a preview of its upcoming smart grid pilot.

Our second panel focuses in greater depth on national trends on dynamic pricing. Our lead off speaker, Ahmad Faruqui, a Principal at the Brattle Group and a national expert on dynamic pricing, will share his conclusions from analyzing all the dynamic pricing pilots nationwide. Commissioner Rick Morgan, of the Washington D.C. PUC and the author of a recent article, "Rethinking Dumb Rates," will discuss what he learned from D.C's PowerCentsDC™ pilot on dynamic pricing, and where D.C. plans to go next on advanced metering and dynamic pricing.Nancy Brockway, former NH PUC Commissioner, MA DPU General Counsel, and long-time low-income consumer advocate, will close the panel by sharing some of her concerns about various aspects of dynamic pricing.

September 16 Roundtable Presentations Online

Speakers' presentations from our September 16th Roundtable, FERC Order 1000 (Transmission Planning & Cost Allocation Requirements);and Future of Solar in New England, are available on our website: http://www.raabassociates.org/main/roundtable.asp?sel=108

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Visit GlobeLab: The Boston Globe's take on the (near) future of news
Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 7:00 PM
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA

Chris Marstall, the Boston Globe’s creative technologist, is throwing open the doors to GlobeLab, the news organization’s space for exploring how news is changing. In his words: “We're a space at the Boston Globe dedicated to understanding, imagining and demonstrating the (near) future of news & advertising.
“Current projects include wall-screen-sized instagram and twitter visualizations, a next-gen TV app, a device synchronizer and a newsroom information radiator. For more information, check out our recent Nieman Journalism Lab profile or follow us @GlobeLab.”

RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/35976432/?a=ea1.2_lnm&eventId=35976432&action=detail&rv=ea1.2&rv=ea1.2

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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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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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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/