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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Tracking Radiation from Fukushima http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/04/1080795/-Tracking-Radiation-from-Fukushima
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Monday, April 9
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Towards understanding the atmospheric circulation response to anthropogenic forcing
Monday, April 09, 2012
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: David Thompson (Colorado State University)
MIT Atmospheric Seminar Series (MASS)
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 Seminar Series
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/mass-seminar-david-thompson-colorado-state-u
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Atmospheric Science Seminars
For more information, contact:
Daniela Domeisen
mass@mit.edu
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Public Access To Federally Funded Research: Copyright And Other Issues
April 9, 2012
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West A, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The panelists will be Mark Seeley, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Elsevier, and Peter Suber, Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The discussion will be moderated by Jonathan Hulbert, University Attorney at Harvard and Vice-Chair of the Committee on University Intellectual Property Law.
This event will be webcast live. Click the video link below at 12:00PM ET on Monday, April 9, 2012 to view.
Does mandating free online access to papers resulting from federally funded research violate the Copyright Act or treaty obligations? A distinguished pair of panelists will discuss this question, in the context of the broader policy issues raised by such open access mandates. They will consider the pending Federal Research Public Access Act, as well as the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy.
The event will be free to the public. Dial-in access will be provided, as well as online access. Further information on access will be posted at http://apps.americanbar.org/dch/comadd.cfm?com=PT040200&pg=2.
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"Current Practices and Future Opportunities: Managing Produced Water in the Marcellus"
Monday, April 9, 2012
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Featuring Meagan Mauter, Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Consortium for Energy Policy Research
Contact Name:
Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@harvard.edu
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Revolutionary Doctors: How Cuba and Venezuela are changing the world's conception of health care*
Mon. Apr. 9.
12:30 pm
Kresge 213, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
a talk by author Steve Brouwer
Lunch will be provided.
Free and open to the public. For visitor passes email jacob.bor@gmail.com
Facebook event
Organized by the Health Roots Student Group at the Harvard School of Public Health
About: Drawing on long-term participant observations as well as in-depth research, author and journalist Steve Brouwer tells the story of the innovative and inspirational health care programs pioneered in Cuba and being adapted to the needs of Venezuela today. Unlike the for-profit system of health care in the United States, the Cuban and Venezuelan models aim to provide free care for the entire population, particularly in poor rural and urban areas. For nearly a decade, thousands of Cuban medical personnel have focused on delivering primary, secondary, and preventive care while at the same time training the Venezuelan doctors who will one day replace them. These new physicians are receiving a thorough medical education while continuing to live in and serve their own communities; many of them hope to one day join the ranks of Cuba?s international medical brigades that are spreading revolutionary approaches to health care in many parts of the
world. These models are not without their challenges, however, and Brouwer gives a nuanced account of how Venezuela and Cuba are fending off capitalist and imperialist influences that are openly hostile to any alternatives to profit-driven, market-based health care.
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The Grand Energy Transition: Natural Gas - The Bridge Fuel to Our Sustainable Future
April 9, 2012
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Kennedy School of Government, L-140/Goodman (HKS), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.
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Speaker: Robert A. Hefner III, Author of The Grand Energy Transition
Description: Join us for a discussion with Robert Hefner, who will introduce clips from the new film, "The Grand Energy Transition", based on his 2009 book, followed by a moderated panel discussion with Mr. Hefner and:
Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Leonardo Maugeri, Research Fellow, Geopolitics of Energy Project
Rasmus Myklebust, Harvard Kennedy School, MPA ‘12
The GET, is an analysis of how the world is moving from unsustainable, solid and liquid energy sources of our past to clean, sustainable gaseous energy sources – sources that may shape America’s future. Hefner describes how to accelerate the transition to the sustainable energy gases of natural gas, wind, solar, and hydrogen that can eliminate the civilization threatening consequences of continued coal and oil consumption.
Hefner argues that shifting U.S. energy infrastructure to natural gas will enhance energy security, stimulate the U.S. economy, reduce CO2 emissions by over 200 million tons annually, and eliminate much of the pollution in major metropolitan areas, reduce related health costs, and restore America's global leadership in energy and climate.
The GET is written and directed by Emmy Award-winner Greg Mellott, and produced by Academy Award-winning co-producer of The Godfather Part II, Gray Frederickson.
Speaker Info: Robert A. Hefner III is Founder and Owner of GHK (a private natural gas company headquartered in Oklahoma City). He pioneered ultra-deep natural gas exploration and production. GHK led the development of innovative technology needed to successfully drill and produce many of the world's deepest and highest pressure natural gas wells - setting many industry world records along the way. In the 1970s, Hefner was a leader in the industry's successful efforts to deregulate the price of natural gas. These technological and political accomplishments led to the development of vast new domestic natural gas resources.
Contact: ENRP Program Coordinator
Environment and Natural Resources Program 79 John F. Kennedy Street Cambridge, MA 02138
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Harvard Kennedy School
Email: enrp@hks.harvard.edu
Phone: 617-495-1351
Fax: 617-495-1635
Url: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/project/43/environment_and_natural_resources.html
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Fracking and Shale Gas: Analyzing the Risks and Opportunities
Monday, Apr 9, 2012
4:00pm until 7:00pm
Boston University, School of Education, 2 Silber Way (130), Boston
Speaker(s): Susan Tierney, Energy Specialist
Shale gas and hydraulic fracturing are all over the news. What’s really happening with this resource, its development, the impacts, the risks and opportunities, the responses? Please join Susan Tierney, Managing Principal at Analysis Group, as she shares her views on shale gas. A member of the Shale Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and the policy leader of the recent National Petroleum Council’s study on natural gas, Sue will talk about the issues – in terms of energy markets, environmental and community impacts, economic development, regulatory trends, and other points of view.
Speaker Biography: Susan Tierney, a Managing Principal at Analysis Group, is an expert on energy economics, regulation and policy, with a focus on the electric and gas industries. She previously served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. DOE, and in Massachusetts was Secretary for Environmental Affairs and Commissioner at the Department of Public Utilities. She is a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (and its Shale Gas Subcommittee), and chairs the Advisory Council of the National Renewable Energy Lab. She is a director of the World Resources Institute; Clean Air Task Force; the Alliance to Save Energy; Clean Air – Cool Planet; and EnerNOC. She previously chaired the Board of Directors of the Energy Foundation, the Policy Subgroup of the National Petroleum Council’s study of the North American natural gas resources, co-chaired the National Commission on Energy Policy, and taught at the University of California at Irvine and at MIT. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in regional planning at Cornell University.
Open to General Public
Admission is free
More Info http://www.sra-ne.org/
Contact School of Public Health Department of Environmental Health
John Douglas
johnd@bu.edu
617-638-4620
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Nationwide Water Use by Thermoelectric Cooling Systems
Monday, April 09, 2012
4:15p–5:15p
MIT, Building 3-333, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Timothy Diehl, United States Geological Survey
SPEAKER BIO
Tim Diehl has been a hydrologist in the Tennessee Water Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey since 1989. His current main research areas are water use by thermoelectric power plants and its potential response to climate change, and erosion and sediment transport due to land disturbance. He has also studied woody debris in streams, the evolution of wetlands in aggrading alluvial systems, and the complex relations among floodplain vegetation, floods, channel configuration, and floodplain deposition. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, M.S. in Environmental Studies, and B.S. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
ABSTRACT
Thermoelectric power generation withdraws more water than any other economic sector in the US. While the thermoelectric share of national water consumption is an order of magnitude smaller, it competes directly with irrigation and other uses in arid basins. Existing data on thermoelectric water use is incomplete and of inconsistent quality despite federal reporting requirements. Proposed changes in federal regulation of once-through cooling systems have awakened interest in estimation of thermoelectric water consumption even where water is abundant. In its compilation of US water use for 2010, the USGS will resume publishing estimates of water consumption at thermoelectric plants after dropping them in 2000. At the same time, we will put estimates of water withdrawal at these plants on a firmer analytical footing. We are using a hierarchy of methods to make efficient use of the available data, which varies widely from plant to plant.
In this talk I will cover the details of current USGS methods for water-use estimation, including tracking uncertainty, and comment on potential changes to EIA forms. I will also examine the location and magnitude of disparities between reported water-use data and estimates derived from generic water-use coefficients.
Refreshments will be served prior to the seminar in room 3-339a at 4pm.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): RGD Lab
For more information, contact:
Jeff Hanna
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Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance
Monday, April 09, 2012
4:30p–5:30p
MIT, Building E62-276, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Arvind Subramanian
MIT China Forum
The China Forum is part of a broader MIT effort to look at new ways of fostering ties with China. The Forum was created by the MIT-Greater China Strategy Group, which is charged with identifying new initiatives and collaborations with China over the next 20 years.
In his new book, Arvind Subramanian presents the following possibilities: What if, contrary to common belief, China's economic dominance is a present-day reality rather than a faraway possibility? What if the renminbi's takeover of the dollar as the world's reserve currency is not decades, but mere years, away? And what if the United States' economic pre-eminence is not, as many economists and policymakers would like to believe, in its own hands, but China's to determine? Subramanian's attempt to quantify and project economic and currency dominance leads him to the conclusion that China's dominance is not only more imminent, but also broader in scope, and much larger in magnitude, than is currently imagined. He explores the profound effect this might have on the United States, as well as on the global financial and trade system.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT-China Program, MIT China Forum
For more information, contact:
Sean Gilbert
253-5068
china@mit.edu
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Wikicity: How Web-Enabled, Citizen-Driven Initiatives are Redesigning the Urban Interface
WHEN Mon., Apr. 9, 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Piper Auditorium, GSD Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Loeb Fellowship at the GSD
SPEAKER(S) Moderated by Aaron Naparstek and Jean Brownhill Lauer
Guests: Mike Lydon, Street Plans Collaborative
Aurash Khawarzad of Do:Tank
Ben Berkowitz, CEO, SeeClickFix.com
Erin Barnes, CEO, loby.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO syoung@gsd.harvard.edu
NOTE This session explores how web-enabled, citizen-driven "tactical urbanism" concepts are changing the way we plan, design and program urban public space.
LINK http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/loeb-fellows-wikicity.html
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ACT Lecture | Muntadas - Projects and Protocols: Conventions on Art and Technology
Monday, April 09, 2012
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Muntadas, Professor of the Practice, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Cambridge
Muntadas'work addresses social, political and communications issues such as the relationship between public and private space within social frameworks, and investigates channels of information and the ways these may be used to censor or promulgate ideas. His projects are presented in different media such as photography, video, publications, the Internet, installations, and urban interventions. Muntadas has received numerous awards and grants, and his work has been exhibited extensively at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musee d'Art Contemporaine, Montreal; Berkeley Art Museum; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires; the Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo, Brazil; the VI and X editions of documenta, Kassel; the Whitney Biennial of American Art, New York; and the 51st Venice Biennial. Most recently, he exhibited at NCCA in Moscow, Russia, The Bronx Museum, and his show Muntadas: Entre/Between, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, runs through March 2012.
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures/2012-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): Department of Architecture, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu, clauraa@mit.edu
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Tuesday, April 10
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Urban Computing: Using City Dynamics to Tackle the Biggest Challenges in Urban Spaces
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
10:00am - 12:00pm
MIT Media Lab, E14-240, 75 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Yu Zheng (Microsoft Research Asia)
The rapid progress of urbanization on earth leads to modern cities, which provide people with a comfortable life; but urbanization is followed by big challenges, such as traffic jams, increasing population, energy consumption, and pollution. Urban computing is emerging as a concept where every sensor, device, person, vehicle, building, and street in the urban areas can be used as a component to probe city dynamics to further enable city-wide computing for coping with these challenges. Urban computing aims to enhance both human life and urban environment smartly through a recurrent process of sensing, mining, understanding, and improving. Urban computing also aims to deeply understand the nature and sciences behind the phenomenon occurring in urban spaces, using a variety of heterogeneous data sources representing city dynamics, such as traffic flows, human mobility, geographic data, environment, energy consumption, populations, and economics. This presentation will substantiate the concept of urban computing with some concrete systems and technology tackling the most challenging traffic problems in a city. Details of these research projects can be found onhttp://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/urbancomputing/default.aspx.
Biography: Dr. Yu Zheng is a researcher from Microsoft Research Asia. He is a enior member of IEEE and ACM. His research interests include trajectory data mining, location-based social networks, and urban computing. He has published or presented over 50 papers in international conferences and journals, such as SIGMOD, SIGKDD, AAAI, ICDE, WWW, Ubicomp, IEEE TKDE, and ACM TWEB. These papers have been featured by top-tier press such as Technology Review and New Scientist. He has received three best paper awards from UIC'10, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS'11, and ADMA'11 as well as a best paper nomination from Ubicomp'11. He has published two book chapters and edited one book as an editor-in-chief. He has been invited to over 30 prestigious international conferences as a chair or program committee member, including KDD, Ubicomp, IJCAI, ACM SIGSIAPTAL, PAKDD, and SSTD. He is also an editorial board member of four international journals and a frequent invited speaker. He has received three technical transfer awards from Microsoft and 20 granted/filed patents. In 2008, he was recognized as the Microsoft Golden Star. He joined MSRA in July 2006 after receiving his PhD in communication and information systems from Southwest Jiaotong University. Homepage: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/yuzheng/.
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White House Burning
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building E51-115, Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Simon Johnson and James Kwak
Please join us on April 10, from 12 to 1 p.m. in Wong Auditorium, E51-115 for a lively discussion with Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship, and co-author James Kwak, Associate Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law, at the launch of the book tour for White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, The National Debt, And Why it Matters to You (Pantheon, April 2012). The discussion will investigate topics such as:
* Does the U.S. face a fiscal crisis? What are the real dimensions of this crisis, and which issues are exaggerated by the current debate?
* What measures are needed to stabilize or reduce the US debt-to-GDP ratio? Is there any chance that such steps will soon find political support?
* How and when exactly did the US lose its long tradition of fiscal responsibility? Will we find our way back to policies consistent with that tradition--or is some form of US default inevitable?
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT COOP BOOKS, Office of the External Relations and the Politics & Policy Club
For more information, contact:
Michelle Fiorenza
fiorenza@mit.edu
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Long-range Planning for Transportation: The Future Freight Flows Project
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
12-1pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Dr. Chris Caplice, Executive Director of MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, leads this seminar on Future Freight Flows as part of the Transportation@MIT and the MIT Transportation Club Spring 2012 Transportation Seminar Series.
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From Super PACs to Miku: Politics of Media in the 21st Century
WHEN Tue., Apr. 10, 2012, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Bowie-Vernon Conference Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Ian Condry, associate professor of comparative media studies, MIT
Moderator: Theodore C. Bestor. Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology, and chair, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO xtian@wcfia.harvard.edu
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/schedule/schedule.htm
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All You Need is Love (and a manager, an accountant, & a web designer) Making it as a Musician in an Increasingly Networked World
Tuesday, April 10, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/04/thomson_mckeown#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/webcast and archived on our site shortly after.
Future of Music Coalition's Kristin Thomson and Berkman Fellow Erin McKeown
This should be a glorious time for independent musicians. Technologies like digital music stores, streaming services and webcasting stations have greatly reduced the cost barriers to the distribution and sale of music, and a vast array of new platforms and services — from blogs to Bandcamp to Twitter feeds — now help musicians route around middlemen and connect directly with fans.
While they’re more in control than ever, newly empowered musicians now find themselves juggling dozens of career-related responsibilities, from booking their own shows to composing witty tweets. How are today’s musicians balancing it all and, even more critical, how have these changes impacted their earning capacity?
On April 10, join Future of Music Coalition's Kristin Thomson and Berkman Fellow Erin McKeown as they discuss the changing landscape for musicians and music fans. Drawing on data collected through FMC’s groundbreaking Artist Revenue Streams project, a multi-method, cross-genre examination of musicians' and composers' revenue streams in the US, the talk will focus on how musicians are managing their assets, building teams and allocating their time in this increasingly networked world.
About
Kristin Thomson is a community organizer, social policy researcher, entrepreneur and musician. She is co-owner of Simple Machines, an independent record label, which released over seventy records and CDs from 1991-1998. She also played guitar in the band Tsunami, which released four albums from 1991-1997 and toured extensively. In 2001, Kristin graduated with a Masters in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware. She has been with the Future of Music Coalition since 2001 and has overseen project management, research and event programming, including Future of Music Policy Summits from 2002-2007. She currently lives near Philadelphia with her husband Bryan Dilworth, a concert promoter, and their son, where she also plays guitar in the lady-powered band, Ken.
Erin McKeown is an internationally known musician, writer, and producer. With 7 full length albums, 2 EPs, and numerous soundtracks to her credit, she has spent the last 10 years crafting a reputation as an original musical voice and compelling live performer. Lately, she has added mentor and activist to her list of accomplishments. At Berkman, she will work to connect the worlds of policy, art,and technology while considering questions about how to make a creative life a viable vocation.
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SUSTAINABILITY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Tuesday, April 10
2:00 – 5:00 pm (followed by reception)
Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy St. room 112, Cambridge
Please join Harvard faculty, students, and alumni for a hands-on exploration of Harvard’s work with respect to sustainability and the built environment, hosted by the Graduate School of Design. This is an opportunity to foster new connections among faculty, to identify curriculum and research opportunities for students and to explore ways academic research can help the University and community adapt to climate change.
The primary goals are to 1) share what faculty are doing in sustainability, particularly with respect to buildings, campuses, cities, and landscapes; and 2) learn how Harvard might be a test bed for research and teaching related to energy and climate impacts on infrastructure.
This pointed and interactive program involves a short plenary, three breakouts led faculty, and closing synthesis of the workshop.
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Iran: Domestic Politics, Sanctions, and the Drumbeats of War
April 10, 2012
4:30-6:30pm
MIT, Building E51-395, Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Professor Ali Banuazizim, Director, Program in Islamic Civilization and Societies, Boston College
The escalating threats of an Israeli and/or U.S. military strike against Iran if it crosses the "red line" of weaponizing its nuclear program--or even if it develops the "capability" for doing so--has hindered more measured analyses of the efficacy, legality, costs, and potentially catastrophic consequences of such a "war of choice" by the U.S. and its allies. Also lost in much of the ongoing saber-rattling on both sides of this conflict are assessments of the debilitating impact of the current, or soon-to-be-imposed, sanctions on the Iranian economy. The Islamic Republic's highly fractious domestic politics--still reeling form the massive post-presidential-election uprisings of 2009, the widely publicized charges of large-scale official corruption that have further undermined the legitimacy of the theocratic regime, and Iran's increasing regional and international isolation comprise yet a third set of factors that help determine the country's response to international pressures to curb or abandon its nuclear ambitions. It will be argued that, while the above considerations, combined with concerns about the Islamic Republic's flagrant violations of human rights and suppression of all forms of political dissent, may well justify the continued imposition of economic sanctions, they militate strongly against the use or the threat of use of force by outside powers.
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Radcliffe Institute Water Series: "A Right to Safe Water?"
WHEN Tue., Apr. 10, 2012, 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Michael Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies, Department of Economics, Harvard University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO 617.495.8600
NOTE Each year, 1.6 million children worldwide die from diarrheal disease. Many of these deaths, says Michael Kremer, could be prevented by effective water treatment, as occurred in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 2010, the General Assembly of the United Nations and the UN Human Rights Council recognized a human right to water and sanitation. Yet standard procedure among many organizations in the field is to rely on user fees to cover maintenance and recurrent costs of such service. Kremer will analyze the case for such fees—from a rights-based perspective, from a health cost-effectiveness perspective, and from a public finance perspective—in light of empirical findings on the health impact of water treatment and on the psychology and economics of preventative measures against communicable disease. He will discuss the financial and institutional steps that would be needed to create near-universal access to safe drinking water.
LINK http://www.radcliffe.edu/events/calendar_2012kremer.aspx
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Knox Lecture Series in Engineering Ethics: Ethical Issues in Energy Supply: The Troublesome Case of the LNG Facility in Everett, MA
Thursday, April 12, 2012
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (ET)
51 Winthrop Street, Medford
RSVP http://knoxlecture.eventbrite.com/
Speaker: David O’Connor, Sr. VP for Energy & Clean Technology at ML Strategies (Previously Commissioner at MA Division of Energy Resources)
Several million people in Massachusetts depend on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Everett, MA for their electricity and space heating needs. Situated in Boston Harbor, the Everett tanks hold natural gas that has been cooled to hundreds of degrees below zero. An invaluable energy source, the facility also presents a significant danger. LNG, when turned to gas, is highly flammable and burns with a ferocious intensity, much hotter than a normal fire.An accident or a terrorist strike that breaches one of the tankers or a tank would initiate a fire that could cause widespread loss of property and human life. Public officials and activists have tried for years to eliminate the need for the Everett facility.
Why was this facility constructed where it is in the first place? Did the original designers and builders and regulators foresee the risks that are now so obvious? What are the ethical responsibilities of the owners of the facility, the government that regulates it, and the consumers who use its energy? What energy policies and public processes should be pursued to avoid creating such a dilemma in the future?
Reception to follow lecture.
About David O’Connor
Senior Vice President for Energy & Clean Technology
David helps energy and technology companies expand their markets and accelerate their growth. With deep knowledge of the energy industry and environmental issues, David helps these companies shape emerging public policies to their advantage. His clients include companies that deliver energy efficiency services, develop wind, biomass and other renewable power plants, install transmission and smart grid technologies, and bring new low-carbon fuels and offsets to the marketplace.
David has been a leader and problem-solver in the public and private sectors for more than 30 years. Most recently, he served as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Energy Resources during the tenures of five Governors, from 1995 through 2007. Under his leadership, Massachusetts began a historic movement to expand the use of clean energy. He implemented the first-ever standards for renewable energy use and renewable certificate trading in New England. He was a member of the Massachusetts team that negotiated the first-ever multi-state agreement known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to limit emissions of climate-changing carbon from power plants.
About The Knox Lecture Series in Engineering Ethics
The Knox lecture Series in Engineering Ethics, established by an engineering alumnus, is named in honor of Associate Engineering Dean Kim Knox. The new series, administered by the Tufts Gordon Institute, will focus on engineering ethics, technology policy and social justice. High profile engineering leaders will address topics ranging from intellectual property and privacy to the ethical implications of evolving fields such as genetics, nanotechnology, climate change and sustainable development.
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The Rise of China and American Power
Tuesday, April 10
7 pm
First Parish (Unitarian Universalist), 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School examines the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength? How have strategic alliances among its neighbors changed in response to China’s growing economic and military might? What does the Obama administration’s new emphasis on the Pacific mean for the future of American relations with China?
Cambridge Forum http://www.cambridgeforum.org/
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How to Keep Your News Site Sticky
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
7:00 PM
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester
RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/55343912/?a=me1p_grp&eventId=55343912&action=detail&rv=me1p&rv=me1p
It’s a lot of work to capture audience share. And once you have those hard-won readers, you want them to stay – not click away. Our panel will discuss tools that can help make a news site more “sticky.” From embedding third-party content on the fly to adding community and real-time social media activity to the news page, we’ll learn some potential digital answers to enhanced reader engagement.
Our panel:
Ziad Sultan is the founder/CEO of Marginize, entrepreneur in residence at Longworth Venture Partners, and mentor at Oasis 500. Prior to this, he was a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group and consultant at Ernst & Young. He earned Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his graduate studies focused on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Signal Processing.
About Marginize: Marginize is a browser plugin that augments every page on the Web with a sidebar enabling users to see what the world is saying about the page on Twitter, Facebook and Buzz, and interact with each other through comments and check-ins. In the words of client Wade Roush at xconomy: “It's exciting to me as a Web journalist, because it has the potential to reunify social media conversations with the objects of those conversations, such as news articles.”
Sean Creeley is the co-founder Embed.ly Inc. Previously a senior developer with Optaros and Web application developer at Intel, he also did consulting work for various clients, including The Washington Times. Creeley says he’s “just a developer that decided to start a company.”
About Embed.ly: Embed.ly allows developers to embed any URL through one powerful API. Sites can automatically convert posted links into embedded videos, images, rich media, RSS entries and article previews from over 200 sites on the fly. Examples include rich-media Foursquare check-ins, PDFs, Instagram photos, YouTube and Vimeo clips and more. Embed.ly serves millions of requests a day to over 2,000 unique sites including Storify, New York magazine, AOL, Reddit, Yammer, Bit.ly, Hunch and Tweetdeck.
And don't forget: the usual free cookies and coffee. ;-)
LOCATION: In the Globe's Link room. Plenty of parking in the Globe lots. Also easy 5 min walk from the Red Line's JFK/YUMass stop.
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Pulitzer-Prize Winning Poet Gary Snyder
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
7:00p–10:00p
MIT, Building10-250
Speaker: Gary Snyder
MIT'S Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies and PEN New England Present Pulitzer-Prize Winning Poet Gary Snyder: To Read and Accept PEN'S Thoreau Award.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies
For more information, contact:
Rieb, Magdalena
617-253-4741
www-humanistic@mit.edu
------------------------
Wednesday, April 11
------------------------
“INNOVATIONS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE: SURFACES, MICROFLUIDICS, AND SOFT ROBOTICS“
WHEN Wed., Apr. 11, 2012, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
WHERE RCC conference room, 26 Trowbridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Real Colegio Complutense & Education Office of Spain-USA
SPEAKER(S) David Weitz, Applied Physics Department. Harvard University; Laura Arriaga, postdoc at Weitz’lab (Harvard) & Complutense University; Ramses V. Martinez, postdoc at Whitesides' lab (Harvard) & IMDEA-Nanoscience; Professor Rodolfo Miranda, director of IMDEA-Nanoscience. Madrid (Spain)
COST Free, open to the public
CONTACT INFO lina.arias@mecd.es
NOTE Session 2 of the U.S. & Spanish university partnership dialogue series
--------------------------------
Revolutionary Leaders in Iran: Will Leadership Change Create Opportunities for Peace ?
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jeff Colgan, American University
SSP Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact:
617-253-7529
--------------------------------
Naomi Levine (Harvard) Seeing the forest AND the trees: Modeling ecosystem-climate interactions
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
12:10p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The MIT Oceanography and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is a student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning climate, geophysical fluid dynamics, biogeochemistry, paleo-oceanography/climatology and physical oceanography.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Climate Sack Lunch Seminar
For more information, contact:
Dan Goldberg
3-2977
dgoldber@mit.edu
------------------------------------
Risk Sharing and Transaction Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
2:30p–4:00p
MIT, Building E51-376, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Tavneet Suri (MIT)
Web site: http://www.mit.edu/~tavneet/Jack_Suri.pdf
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Development and Environmental Economics Workshop
For more information, contact:
Theresa Benevento
theresa@mit.edu
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China Urban Development Discussion Series: Urban Public Finance in China
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 9-354, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Roy W Bahl, Jr., Regents Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of the Andrew Young School at the Georgia State University; Discussant: Visiting Professor Yu-Hung Hong, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
China Urban Development Discussion Series
China spends a greater percent of its public budget through subnational governments than any other country in the world. It gives little taxing powers to its subnational governments, leaving a large vertical balance that is filled with a variety of intergovernmental transfers. The present system was overhauled about 15 years ago to address the problem of erosion of central government revenues. But this reform left a number of important questions unresolved, including the problematic assignment of expenditure responsibility, the absence of a good mechanism for revenue mobilization at the subnational government level, the incentives for provincial and local governments to adopt a hard budget constraint, and the absence of a policy about the financing of large urban governments. With respect to the latter, there is no comprehensive policy about how to differentiate between the public financing needs of large urban agglomerations and other subnational governments. This presentation will track the development of these problems since the last reform, discuss some of the research that has evaluated the reform options, and discuss the "Chinese model" in terms of the decentralization theorem and the practice that has emerged in other countries. Please join us for more perspectives and insights on this topic.
Please RSVP at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5Y5F8YQ. Complimentary dinner will be served at 5:00 pm in 9-554; talk starts at 5:30 pm and ends by 7 pm in 9-354.
Web site: http://dusp.mit.edu/cud/cud_series.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Graduate Student Life Grants, China Urban Development
For more information, contact: Shan Jiang
shanjang@mit.edu
--------------------------------
Legatum Lecture: Education Entrepreneurship in India
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
5:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E62-276, Sloan School, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Ashish Rajpal, Founder and CEO, iDiscoveri
During the presentation Ashish Rajpal will talk about the success of his entrepreneurial model, the transformative changes occurring in education, and career opportunities available at iDiscoveri. Please join us on April 11th!
Web site: http://legatum.mit.edu/content/1170
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact:
Agnes Hunsicker
617-324-2768
legatum@mit.edu
---------------------------------
First They Came for the Immigrants?.. A Forum on Human Rights, Constitutional Rights, Your Rights
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
6:30-8:30 pm
Cambridge Public Library Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
With Nancy Murray, Director of Education, ACLU of Massachusetts
Melissa Gonzalez-Brenes, Chair, Cambridge Human Rights Commission
and featuring testimonies from people whose rights have been violated by the Homeland Security Surveillance State.
Moderated by Cathy Hoffman, Cambridge United for Justice with Peace
In the aftermath of September 11, there have been dramatic and chilling changes in government practices towards immigrant communities, particularly the Latino and Muslim communities. These changes have extended to those expressing dissent or protesting US policies, and beyond.
The forum will feature speakers sharing personal testimony as well as an overview of policy changes that are eroding basic constitutional rights and
how the erosion of these rights for some has implications for us all.
--------------------------------
Revisiting Port Huron
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building E51-Wong, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Tom Hayden; Noam Chomsky
Tom Hayden is a political activist, politician, and author. His most recent book is The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics at MIT (emeritus).
co-sponsored by CIS Starr Forum and Boston Review's Ideas Matter
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
starrforum@mit.edu
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Thursday, April 12
----------------------
A Policy Perspective on China's Energy Efficiency
WHEN Thu., Apr. 12, 2012, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Tsai Auditorium, S010, CGIS South, Concourse Level, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Asia Center, Energy Foundation, the China Project at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Xie Ji, deputy director general, Department of Resources Conservation and Environmental Protection, China
-------------------------------
Supply chain design and the cost of greenhouse gas emissions
Thursday, April 12, 2012
4:15p–5:15p
MIT, Building E51-335, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Gérard Cachon
ORC Spring Seminar Series
The OR Center organizes a seminar series each year in which prominent OR professionals from around the world are invited to present topics in operations research. We have been privileged to have speakers from business and industry as well as from academia throughout the years. For a list of past distinguished speakers and their seminar topics, please visit our Seminar Archives.
ORC Spring Seminar Series
Seminar reception immediately following the talk in room E40-106.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/orc/www/seminars/seminars.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Operations Research Center
For more information, contact:
Joline Ann Villaranda Uichanco, Yehua Wei, or Yuan Zhong
253-6185
uichanco@mit.edu, y4wei@mit.edu, zhyu4118@mit.edu
----------------------------------
A Stretchy, Curvy Future for Electronics
Thursday, April 12, 2012
4:30p–5:30p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. John A. Rogers, UIUC
Wulff Lecture
The Wulff Lecture is an introductory, general-audience, entertaining lecture which serves to educate, inspire, and encourage MIT undergraduates to take up study in the field of materials science and engineering and related fields. The entire MIT community, particularly freshmen, is invited to attend. The Wulff Lecture honors the late Professor John Wulff, a skilled, provocative, and entertaining teacher who inaugurated a new approach to teaching the popular freshman subject: 3.091 Introduction to Solid State Chemistry.
Biology is curved, soft, and elastic; silicon wafers are not. Semiconductor technologies that bridge this gap in form and mechanics will create new opportunities in devices that adopt biologically inspired designs or require intimate integration with the human body. This talk describes the development of electronics that offer the performance of state-of-the-art, wafer-based systems with the mechanical properties of a rubber band, explains the underlying principles in materials science and mechanics that enable these outcomes, and illustrates their use in bio-integrated, 'tissue-like' electronics with unique capabilities in mapping neural activity on the brain and monitoring physiological status through the skin. Demonstrations in humans and live animal models illustrate the functionality offered by these technologies, and suggest several clinically relevant applications.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
--------------------------------
The safeguarding of Venice and its lagoon:the MOSE System
Thursday, April 12, 2012
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 54-915, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Maria Teresa Brotto, Engineering Department Head, Consorzio Venezia Nuova and Giovanni Cecconi, Head of Modeling and Forecasting, Thetis Spa Venice
The MOSE--a series of mobile barriers that will protect Venice from high waters--is Italy's largest public work and one that has huge implications for other sites threatened by rising waters. The engineers and scientists who conceived the project and are carrying it out will describe its working and impact. The first barrier will become operational in 2013.
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): MIT-Italy Program, MISTI, Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
ssferza
253-6982
italy@mit.edu
-----------------------------------
The Digital Edge: Exploring the Digital Practices of Black and Latino Youth
Thursday, April 12, 2012
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Craig Watkins
CMS Colloquium Series
S. Craig Watkins studies young people's social and digital media behaviors. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin, in the departments of Radio-Television-Film, Sociology, and the Center for African and African American Studies. Craig is also a Faculty Fellow for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan.
He is the author of three books, including The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. He is a member of the MacArthur Foundation's research network on Connected Learning.
Among other things his work in the network will include leading a team of researchers in an ethnographic study of teens and their participation in diverse digital media cultures and communities.
Working with an Austin-based game studio Craig is also developing a game design workshop for young teens. The workshop will explore the connections between digital media, game authorship, literacy, and civic engagement.
Craig blogs for dmlcentral, the online presence for the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub hosted at the UC Irvine campus, and the HuffingtonPost. For updates on Craig's research visit his website, theyoungandthedigital.com.
Web site: http://cms.mit.edu/events/talks.php#041212
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies
For more information, contact:
Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
cms@mit.edu
---------------------------
Energy Necklace Workshop
Thursday, April 12, 2012
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Harvard Innovation Lab, 125 Western Ave, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3033612617/esearch?srnk=199
Taught by studio2sustain
Where do ideas come from? How does innovation feel? How do you lead a team through an innovation or design process? How do you mix mission with business? Get out of your comfort zone and experience an intense burst of innovation, design, leadership and collaboration. In this hands-on interdisciplinary workshop, you will be part of a team creating a sculpture laden with a message about sustainability - which will then be featured in an exhibit at the i-lab! Studio2sustain brings you their highly successful exercise which 900 Harvard Business School students experienced as a Rapid Leadership Development Exercise in the new FIELD curriculum. This exercise is not normally available to the public.
This semester we will be checking registrations at the door. Please have your registration available. If you have registered as a student, please bring your student ID. If you do not have your student ID, but have registered as a student, you will not be able to participate in the event.
The Harvard innovation lab is a new and innovative initiative that will foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions among students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community. The i-lab will encourage entrepreneurship and innovation across the University, bringing together many cross-curricular interests, including Harvard College, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, the School for Engineering and Applied Science, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
-----------------------------------
The State of Human Rights: A Frederic G. Corneel Memorial Forum
Thursday, April 12, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington Street (corner of Milk St.), Boston
with Rev. Dr. William Schulz and Dr. John Cerone, discussion moderated by Dr. Jasmine Waddell
With myriad political, social, and economic changes across the globe in the last decade, the public is eagerly questioning the effects on our worldwide fight for human rights. Rev. Dr. William Schulz, CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, discusses the United States' recent progress in upholding human rights and which geopolitical areas will soon need the most attention. Dr. John Cerone, professor of human rights law and the U.S. member of the International Law Association's (ILA) International Human Rights Law Committee, delves into the UN's original intentions with the Millennium Development Goals and the likelihood of fulfilling them by 2015.
Dr. Jasmine Waddell, visiting lecturer at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, moderates their exchange on critical steps to ensure these fundamental rights to all.
Further background information on the participants:
William F. Schulz is the President and CEO of UUSC, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a nonsectarian organization that advances human rights and social justice in the United States and around the world. Previously, he served for 12 years as executive director of Amnesty International USA. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Schulz is a former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. He has appeared frequently on radio and television news and analysis shows and is the author or contributing editor of seven books, including In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All; Tainted Legacy: 9/11 and the
Ruin of Human Rights; The Phenomenon of Torture; and The Future of Human Rights: US Policy for a New Era.
John P. Cerone is a professor of law and Director of the Center for International Law and Policy at New England Law School. Before joining the New England faculty ion 2004, Cerone was executive director of the War Crimes Research Office at American University Washington College of Law, where he served as a legal adviser to various international criminal courts and tribunals. As a practicing international lawyer, Cerone has worked for a number of different intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, including the United Nations, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, and the International Crisis Group. He has extensive field experience in conflict and post-conflict environments, such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and East Timor. Cerone is the US Member of the
International Law Association's (ILA) International Human Rights Law Committee and is accredited by the United Nations to represent the American Society of International Law (ASIL) before various UN Bodies. He is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law.
Dr. Jasmine Waddell is an American- and British-trained comparative institutionalist scholar who studies social vulnerability, social exclusion and poverty in the US and the Global South. In addition to her traditional academic work, Waddell served as the Senior Officer for Research and Learning at Oxfam America. At Oxfam, she managed major research reports on social vulnerability to climate change, Black-Brown alliance building, measuring human development, and post-Katrina recovery. A Rhodes Scholar, Waddell assessed the implementation of social welfare policy in South Africa during apartheid.
For more information,
contact Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University:
617-557-2007,www.fordhallforum.org
----------------------------
Geothermal and Renewable Energy in the Middle East - Oil and Falafel: Why the MENA Region Needs an Energy Diet
Thursday, April 12, 2012
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Khaled Sabawi
Palestine Awareness Week 2012
Khaled Al Sabawi received his Bachelors of Applied Science, Honors in Computer Engineer degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada. In 2006, Khaled travelled to the Palestine to install the first geothermal system in the entire Middle East and North Africa. Shortly after Khaled became the Founder and Presidential of MENA Geothermal, a Palestinian company that has become a leading green energy business in the region. MENA Geothermal is a two-time winner of the National Energy Globe Award and has installed the largest geothermal system in the Middle East at the American University in Madaba, Jordan. Khaled was named "One of the World's Top Energy Entrepreneurs" by Global Post. In late 2010, Khaled became the General Manager of UCI, MENA's parent company, and the co-founder of UCI's TABO Development. Khaled was a speaker at last year's TEDxRamallah and has spoken at McGill University in Canada and Harvard University in the United States.
Web site: http://palestine.mit.edu/events/9/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Palestine@MIT, MIT Energy Initiative, MIT Energy Club, ARCADE (Assisting Recurring Cultural Diversity Events), ASO
For more information, contact:
Wissam Jarjoui
palestine-contact@mit.edu
--------------------------------
Success by Starting Where You Are - the Story of HEET - Home Energy Efficiency Team
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m
First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist; 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Audrey Schulman, activist, author and President of HEET
For the April Forum, we shift our focus from renewable energy to energy efficiency and energy conservation. The story we will hear started in a drafty old New England home...... and led to the formation of HEET - Home Energy Efficiency Team, a non-profit organization that is having a successful impact on saving energy.
HEET began its work in Cambridge in 2008, calling for volunteers to help and learn through energy-upgrade work-parties, modeled on "barn raisings". Their success has been recognized by awards from the EPA, Massachusetts Climate Action Network, and the City of Cambridge.
Let this record of action....
160 buildings weatherized
4,970 CFL's installed/incandescent bulbs replaced
2,844 volunteers trained
...speak through its results:
1,785 metric tons of CO2 avoided
4 million gallons of water conserved
more than $500,000 saved in energy and water bills
HEET started off humbly, but seems to have tapped into a vast renewable energy source - people power! Volunteers show up, pick a task after hearing pitches from Team Leaders, get busy with hands-on learning as they work, and wrap up with refreshments and socializing. In a few short hours, they have made a positive impact to save energy, learned skills that they can take home and teach others, and connected to a motivated community.
Come and hear the story of HEET, an inspiring tale of grass-roots action! Hear about HEET's energy audit process. Learn about some simple actions you can take to make your own home more energy efficient. Share your energy-upgrade stories or questions. Join HEET as a volunteer, or suggest a non-profit organization or house of worship that could benefit from HEET's services.
The Boston Area Solar Energy Association http://www.BASEA.org
------------------------------
Waste Land
Thursday, April 12, 2012
7:30pm - 9:00pm
Dudley House (Lehman Hall) 3rd floor, 8 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
WASTE LAND follows artist Vik Muniz, as he goes from Brooklyn to Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro
http://www.wastelandmovie.com/
Contact Name: Hannah Lee
hannah@seas.harvard.edu
-------------------
Friday, April 13
-------------------
The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents:
Energy Efficiency in New England: Strengthening Core Programs While Tackling New Frontiers
Friday, April 13, 2012
9 am to 12:30 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
ACEEE's recently-released 2011 national energy efficiency rankings places Massachusetts, for the first time, ahead of California as the most energy efficient state in the U.S. Rhode Island and Vermont are tied for 5th place, and Connecticut is in 8th place. But despite these impressive achievements in energy efficiency, New England states simply refuse to rest on their laurels. Instead, New England is forging ahead in an effort to enhance core efficiency programs while simultaneously exploring new ways to expand and deepen energy efficiency's potential impact.
Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council and the state's utility companies are preparing to file their next three-year energy efficiency plans with the MA DPU. Connecticut's draft statewide Integrated Resource Plan calls for a doubling in annual energy efficiency spending, and considers allowing energy efficiency to compete with renewables for part of its renewable portfolio standard. Connecticut is also looking at innovative ways to finance energy efficiency. Meanwhile in Vermont, Efficiency Vermont (the non-profit that delivers Vermont's energy efficiency programs) is developing a ten year plan to deepen energy efficiency in the Green Mountain state. To discuss these exciting and timely developments in energy efficiency, we are delighted to present:
Commissioner Daniel Esty, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Tina Halfpenny, Director of Energy Efficiency, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
Jim Merriam, Director of Efficiency Vermont, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation
Our second panel, "New Frontiers," explores several evolving energy efficiency developments which, together, could potentially take efficiency in new and important directions. Dr. Eric Winkler, Project Manager for Demand Resources, ISO-New England, will discuss the latest developments in the integration of energy efficiency into wholesale markets, and ISO-New England's efforts to capture and represent the region's energy efficiency promise accurately in its soon-to-be-released load forecasting and regional planning report.
Greg Kats, Partner at Capital-E, and lead author of "Financing Energy Efficiency Models and Strategies: Pathways to Scaling Energy Efficiency Financing from $20 Billion to $150 Billion Annually," will discuss this ground-breaking national study on alternative financing for energy efficiency, which was funded by the Energy Foundation.
Steve Cowell, Chairman and CEO of Conservation Services Group, will discuss efforts in New England (including pending legislation in Massachusetts) to fund energy efficiency in oil and propane heated buildings at levels comparable to buildings heated with natural gas or electricity. Steve will also discuss other ways to push the efficiency frontier in New England, while reflecting on the 25th Anniversary of "Power to Spare: A Plan for Increasing New England's Competitiveness Through Energy Efficiency,"a report that many credit with spearheading energy efficiency efforts in New England.
Free and open to the public with no advanced registration
--------------------------------
HOW TO END A REVOLUTION? Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference at Harvard University
Friday, April 13, 2012 at 9:00 AM - Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 5:30 PM (ET)
Mahindra Humanites Center at Harvard University, Thompson Room, Barker Center 110, 12 Quincy St, Cambridge
RSVP at http://how-to-end-a-revolution-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=243
Friday, April 13, 9.15 - 10.15am Keynote Address: Chibli Mallat, The Middle East Revolutionary Earthquake: From the Right to Nonviolence to the Right Not to Bother
10.30 - 12noon Session 1: Thinking and Writing the End of Revolutions
12.15 - 1.30pm Session 2: New Beginnings and Persistence of the Old
2.30 - 3.45pm Session 3: Winning the Public
4.00 - 5.15pm Session 4: Building and Constructing the End of a Revolution
5.30 - 6.45pm Session 5: The Uncompleted Revolution: Europe 1848
Saturday, April 14, 9.00-9.45am Breakfast with Revolutionaries: Interview with Syrian Activists
9.45 - 11.15am Session 6: Enacting the End: Constitutionalizing the Revolution
11.30 - 1.00pm Session 7: The Conditions of Happy Endings
2.00 - 3.30pm Playback Theatre performance on "freedom" and discussion
3.45 - 5.15pm Concluding event, roundtable discussion on “new beginnings”
WHY REGISTER?
All events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited, however, and will be reserved for registered attendees for up to 15 minutes before the start of an event. Please bring your printed ticket to claim your seat.
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
How to begin a revolution is a question that has received much attention from many great thinkers. The goal of the 2012 Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at the Mahindra Humanities Center is to reverse that perspective and ask:
How to end a revolution?
The end of a revolution is not something inherently given, but a process in the making that serves different perspectives and interests. At the same time, the phase of transition characterized by chaos and instability very often opposes and challenges the attempts of making an end – from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Is an end of a revolution even possible if history is understood as a constant process based on a linear definition of time and temporality? What challenges does the idea of a leaderless movement pose towards traditional views of political authority and authorship? What happens when unity and cohesion break apart and many different individual interests and powers evolve? What comes after the revolution?
The ongoing revolutions and uprisings in the Arab world highlight both the challenges of making a (constructive and collective) end, as well as the significance and timeliness of these questions to be addressed at the conference. Drawing upon contemporary and historical examples like the Arab Spring and the French Revolution, we invite you to examine the complex, multifaceted and mutable discourse that is shaped by historians who define, politicians who declare, writers who narrate and lawyers who legitimate the end of a revolution. In what violent and non-violent ways have people tried to stop, use or influence a revolution? Which strategies, tools and techniques are employed to end a revolution and how are they determined by underlying concepts of time, history and change? Through our collective inquiry – by analysing how people deal and dealt with moments of transition and by comparing their strategies, interests and narratives – our goal is to better understand the phenomenon of social and political change. With this approach we hope not only to expand the knowledge of revolutions but also to develop new ideas and strategies that will potentially prove to be practically important and relevant.
For more information, go to: http://isites.harvard.edu/revolution2012
----------------------------
From Concept to Legislation to Implementation: Congressional Action on the Renewable Fuel Standard
Friday, April 13, 2012
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building 4-237, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Brent Yacobucci, Research Manager of the Energy and Minerals Section of the Congressional Research Service
Energy & Environment Community Lecture/Discussion Series
In 2005 Congress established the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires the use of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, up from about 4 billion in 2005. While most of the RFS targets are currently being met, meeting future targets--especially for the use of advanced biofuels from cellulose--will be a challenge. Despite the federal mandate, many technology, cost, and regulatory barriers are hindering its implementation. A key question is whether the RFS will drive the development of new fuels, or whether the policy has gotten too far ahead of technology?
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energy-environment@mit.edu
--------------------------------
Design and Computation Discipline Group Lecture Series - "What Art can tell us about the Brain"
Friday, April 13, 2012
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Margaret Livingston - Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Design and Computation Lecture series, Department of Architecture
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Architecture, Computation Group Events
For more information, contact:
Daniela Stoudenkova
danielas@mit.edu
------------------------------------
Sunlight-driven hydrogen formation by membrane-supported photoelectrochemical water splitting
Friday, April 13, 2012
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Nate Lewis, Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Cal Tech
Hoyt C. Hottel Lectureship
The Hoyt C. Hottel Lectureship was established in early 1985 to recognize Professor Hottel's contributions to the intellectual climate of the Chemical Engineering Department, to the encouragement of students over six decades, and to the foundation and direction of the Fuels Research Laboratory. The lectureship is intended to draw eminent scholars to MIT - preferably in the fields of combustion and energy technology - for short periods of residency in order to stimulate future generations of students. The inaugural Hottel Lecture was presented in April 1985 by Professor Hottel himself.
We are developing an artificial photosynthetic system that will only utilize sunlight and water as the inputs and will produce hydrogen and oxygen as the outputs. We are taking a modular, parallel development approach in which the three distinct primary components-the photoanode, the photocathode, and the product-separating but ion-conducting membrane-are fabricated and optimized separately before assembly into a complete water-splitting system. The design principles incorporate two separate, photosensitive semiconductor/liquid junctions that will collectively generate the 1.7-1.9 V at open circuit necessary to support both the oxidation of H2O (or OH-) and the reduction of H+ (or H2O). This work will demonstrate a feasible and functional prototype and blueprint for an artificial photosynthetic system, composed of only inexpensive, earth-abundant materials, that is simultaneously efficient, durable, manufacturably scalable, and readily upgradeable.
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
---------------------------------
Arab Spring and its Impact on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Friday, April 13, 2012
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Leila Farsakh, Anat Biletski
Leila Farsakh, assistant professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Boston and affiliate of CIS. Her area of expertise is Middle East Politics, Comparative Politics, and the Politics of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.
Anat Biletski, a professor in philosophy at Tel Aviv University and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, and an affiliate of CIS. She has been a member of the board of B'tselem, an Israeli human rights NGO, since 1995 and acted as chairperson from 2001 to 2006.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
starrforum@mit.edu
------------------------------
Second Fridays: Rivers of Ice
Friday, April 13, 2012
5:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Patrick Heimbach, Susan Murcott, Alister Doyle, Judy Layzer, Kurt Sternlof, Laura Knott
Second Fridays
Jump-start your weekend at the MIT Museum during our monthly free evening.
Featured Program: Rivers of Ice
The MIT Museum welcomes to you to the public unveiling of Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya. The MIT Museum welcomes to you to the public unveiling of Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya. Take a special opening day tour of the exhibition with MIT faculty and staff knowledgeable about such topics as glaciology, water rights, geology, and then join a fast-paced discussion about how your exhibit experience was influenced by your guide's scientific perspective.
Note: Doors open at 5:00, tours begin at 5:30, with discussion to follow at 6:00 p.m.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:
Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museuminfo@mit.edu
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"Food Movements Unite!”
Friday, April 13th
6-8pm
Austin East Room, Austin Hall, Harvard University. 1515 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
Eric Holt-Gimenez, Will Masters, Saulo Araujo and local youth organizers
Please join us for a vibrant discussion of food justice, sovereignty, movements, and politics on April 13. Eric Holt Gimenez, Executive Director of Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy, will introduce his new book "Food Movements Unite!” A panel discussion will follow with Eric, Will Masters (Tufts University), Saulo Araujo (Grassroots International) and a youth organizer from Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE). The discussion will span the uprising of food movements and politics, from the global to local perspectives.
We hope to see you there! Please share this invite with your community via your social media, listserves and calendars.
Contact Caiti at caitihach@gmail.com if you have any questions.
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Saturday, April 14
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East End House Community Cleanup & Environmental Fair
Saturday, April 14, 2012
10:00 AM
East End House, 105 Spring Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/cambridgerotaract/events/59397882/
We have an exciting upcoming event on the agenda! We are going to be working with East End House to support them with their annual community cleanup and environmental fair. This is a great opportunity for us to meet and connect with community members who are served by the East End House. We will be getting out into the community to help clean up trash as well as working with kids on some sort of craft activity with an environmental theme.
The activity with the kids is something that we can pretty much design on our own. If you have an ideas as to what we can do, please share! East End House will have a limited budget for the activity but if we want to fund-raise a bit, the sky is the limit! The theme for the event is environmental so any sort of craft or fun learning activity that incorporates an environmental-spin is perfect!
Please RSVP here on Meetup or message me directly so I can provide EEH an accurate headcount!
This should be a really fun event so please don't miss it!
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International Development Night @ the MIT Museum
Saturday, April 14, 2012
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 275 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Please join us for a fascinating expo and reception hosted by T&C and MIT's International Development Initiative (IDI).This event is being held in conjunction with the 2012 Harvard International Development Conference and the MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Vision Talks Conference . Refreshments will be served.
Web site: web.mit.edu/tac
Open to: the general public
Cost: n/a
Sponsor(s): The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, International Development Initiative, MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Conference
For more information, contact:
Christina English
617-253-7707
cenglish@mit.edu
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Monday, April 16
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Challenges of Globalization: Economic Globalization: A Mini-Conference
Monday April 16
@ 2pm Keynote @ 7pm
irst Parish (Unitarian Universalist), 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge
During consecutive afternoon sessions, speakers explore the impact of globalization of labor, capital, and markets on American workers, investors, and consumers. Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect and Demos moderates the public discussion after each talk and the evening keynote address.
2:00 pm Globalization of Labor: Is A race to the Bottom Inevitable?
Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
3:00 pm Globalization of Capital: The Rise of the Multinational
Robert Scott, Economic Policy Institute
4:00 pm Globalization of Markets: Do Corporations Need American Consumers?
Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect
7:00 pm The Globalization Paradox
Harvard's Dani Rodrik discusses effective responses to today's globalized economy. How have nations used the forces of globalization to their advantage in the past?
What options are available to the United States today?
This Program is funded in part by Mass Humanities.
Co-sponsored by Mullane, MIchael & McInnes, Counselors-at-Law
More information at http://www.cambridgeforum.org/
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Tuesday, April 17
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Visualizing Science: The Changing Arctic Ice
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
6:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 275 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Visualizing Science
A three-part evening series, featuring panel discussions with MIT researchers about the power of images in science.
PART II - The Changing Arctic Ice
Explore the Arctic ice cap with photographer Chris Linder and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist John Toole. See stunning images from the pole, explore the latest data from deep beneath the cap???s surface, and find out how such information can be used to forecast global environmental change.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/museum/programs/calendar.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact:
Josie Patterson
617-253-5927
museuminfo@mit.edu
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My 5 Dinners with Ahmadinejad: Iran, Nuclear Weapons, the Middle East
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Buildling 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Jim Walsh, MIT Security Studies Program
A nuclear armed Iran? An Israeli military strike?
Facts and myths about Iran and its nuclear program will be discussed.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT, Global Zero
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Nerd Nite
Tuesday April 17, 2012
8pm
Oberon in Harvard Square, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
(Note special night and venue!)
Featuring Nerd-appropriate tunes by Claude Money
Advance tickets on sale: http://www.cluboberon.com/events/nerd-nite
Special Feature: Premier of the short film “Pie Heaven” by Aviv Rubinstein
Talk 1. “Who needs friends when you’ve got Google? How Google is reshaping our minds, relationships, and ideas about the self.”
by Adrian Ward
Talk 2. “Subatomic Screenwriting and The Psychology of the Moving Picture”
by Aviv Rubinstein
More information at http://boston.nerdnite.com/
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Brand-Name Genes
Thursday, April 19
6:30-8:00 pm
McLaughlin Moot Court Room, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
with Attorney Lee Carl Bromberg and Dr. Robert Klitzman; moderated by Dominick Ianno
Biotechnology in genetics is reaching heights that the average person can barely imagine. But what are the effects of this unstoppable science on individuals, the economy, and our society as a whole? If we cannot abate the speed of innovation, how can we better control it or at least mitigate the negative consequences? Attorney Lee Carl Bromberg reveals the tactic of companies patenting genetic code, while Dr. Robert Klitzman, author ofAm I My Genes?: Confronting Fate and Family Secrets in the Age of Genetic Testing, shares the stories of real people whose lives were forever changed by genetic testing. Dominick Ianno, Ford Hall Forum President and Pfizer's Director of Public Affairs, US Northeast, leads us through a discussion of the revolutionary and sometimes frightening future of genetics.
A book signing by Dr. Klitzman will follow the presentation.
Further background information on the participants:
Lee Carl Bromberg is a trial attorney who concentrates in the area of Intellectual Property/Information Technology. He has successfully handled a wide range of patent infringement actions, as well as trademark, copyright, trade secret and unfair competition cases in high technology areas. Bromberg has been named a World’s Leading Patent Litigator by IAM Patent Litigation 250, and has been recognized as a Chambers USA “Leaders in their Field” lawyer for 2007–2012. He has been named among the top 100 lawyers in Massachusetts, listed in The Best Lawyers in America for intellectual property, and named as a “Super Lawyer” in the field of intellectual property. He has received one of the highest peer review ratings from Martindale Hubbell, based on a survey of other lawyers and judges. Bromberg's patent infringement practice on behalf of numerous national companies has involved a wide array of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and recombinant DNA. He has served as a court-appointed discovery master in patent litigation, has testified as an expert witness on patent litigation, and led the Task Force that obtained implementation of local patent rules in the Massachusetts federal court. Bromberg has previously served as Clinical Associate Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law and as the President of the Boston Patent Law Association. He is currently a Fellow of the Boston Bar Foundation and a board member of the Ford Hall Forum.
Dr. Robert Klitzman, Author & Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Mailman School of Public Health, is the Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program; the Director of the Ethics, Policy and Human Rights Core of the HIV Center; a member of the Division of Psychiatry, Law and Ethics; and co-founded and for five years co-directed the Center for Bioethics. Klitzman has written seven books, and numerous articles drawing on multi-disciplinary methods to examine ethical, psychological and social issues in a variety of contexts in medicine and psychiatry. Specifically, he has examined decision-making concerning HIV disclosure, genetic testing, reproductive choices among individuals at risk for genetic disorders, Institutional Review Boards, and other topics.
Dominick Ianno, Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University President, the current Director of Public Affairs, US Northeast, in Pfizer’s Global Sites Public Affairs group. Ianno began his Pfizer career in January 2008, joining the company in a newly-created position as Director of Public Affairs in Worldwide Public Affairs and Policy, where he managed media outreach strategy for the company’s interests on state policy and legislative issues throughout the Northeast. Prior to joining Pfizer, Ianno served four years as a Vice President at Gray Media in Boston, providing political and business counsel to a wide range of business, education, and political clients. He is a past Executive Director of the Massachusetts Republican Party and worked as a research and media operative for several statewide Republican campaigns in Massachusetts. Ianno was named one of Politics and Campaigns “Top 100 Massachusetts Influencers” in June 2010.
For more information on Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, visit www.fordhallforum.org. Information about Suffolk University’s partnership with Ford Hall Forum can be obtained by contacting Mariellen Norris, (617) 573-8450, mnorris@suffolk.edu.
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Spring Planting 2012 is coming up soon! Come out and learn how you can grow food in your yard, on your porch and inside your home!
The Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc. and the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. will be hosting a FREE event on
Saturday, April 21, 2012
2:00 PM until 5:00 PM
Harambee Park (AKA Franklin Field) in Dorchester near the Perkins Community Center at 155 Talbot Avenue.
There will be information tables, workshops and demonstrations on ways that you can grow plants including food plants.
Workshops include:
Landless Garden: Build a garden in 2 square feet of space! Laurel Valchuis.
The Landless Garden is an urban gardening method that uses a burlap bag, gravel, sticks and soil. It only takes up 2 square feet of space and can be placed almost anywhere there is sunshine including a porch, roof, or even a parking spot. The materials are cheap, and at the end of the season everything (sans gravel) can be composted. Come learn how to build one of these gardens for your own space and enjoy fresh veggies all summer!
Home composting with worms! Gerald Robbins.
Learn the basics of creating your own compost by feeding food scraps to worms that you raise! The compost they provide is a great organic fertilizer.
Container gardening tips and techniques! Massachusetts Certified Master Gardener, Laurinda LeCain, and The Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association
How to turn a 5 gallon plastic container into a self-watering container garden". Easy, creative and inexpensive. We will take an ordinary 5-gallon bucket that is usually available for free from many sources and convert it into a self-watering container garden.
This event is free to the public. The presenters are all volunteers who have great information to share with you and your families.
Live plants are beautiful, soothing, clean the air, provide oxygen and can produce food for you as well.
Come and learn how to get green and leafy at home!
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The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Clean Energy Program, the MIT Energy Club, the MIT CSSA, and the MIT ETF presents:
Accelerating Clean Energy Innovation Reception
Please join us for a discussion of ongoing clean energy and electric vehicle innovation and research at MIT and other local companies.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5:00-7:00 p.m.
MIT-SUTD International Design Center, 265 Massachusetts Ave, MIT Building, N52 3rd floor, Cambridge
This is a free event and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP to: laurie@1620associates.com or 508-479-8034
You can also register through eventbrite: http://mitevevent.eventbrite.com/
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NEW ENGLAND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FORUM (NEEJF) ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SUMMIT
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Worcester, Mass (Location to be determined)
9:30—6:30 PM Registration Free / Food Provided
For the first time in New England, residents of low income communities and communities of color, together with community organizers, attorneys, public health and environmental professionals and government officials will assemble for a one- day summit on environmental justice. At the Summit attendees will share ideas, learn from one another and plan future work to address environmental and public health issues that especially affect low income communities and communities of color. NEEJF is a collaboration of Alternatives for Community and Environment, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice and Rhode Island Legal Services.
To register and for more information, please contact Steve Fischbach: neejforum@gmail.com or 401-274-2652 ext.182
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Upcoming
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Indigenous Grandmothers: Planting Seeds for Seven Generations
Thursday, April 19
7 pm
Wellesley, Houghton Chapel, 106 Central Street, Wellesley
It is with a sense of gratitude and deep joy that we announce the Art and Soul program at Wellesley College will be hosting three of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers this spring. The Grandmothers will give a talk at Houghton Chapel on Thursday, April nineteenth at seven p.m. The theme of their talk will be Planting Seeds for Seven Generations: Making Change. The Grandmothers will share their cultural treasures and life experience, in support of our community’s exploration of an ethics of wholeness, which can bring about a sustainable future for the generations to come.
Originating from all four corners of the world, these 13 wise women elders and medicine women first came together in 2004 at a peace gathering. They represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Earth, all her inhabitants and the next seven generations. We are honored to host, as representatives of this Grandmothers’ Council, Grandmothers Rita and Beatrice Long- Visitor Holy Dance of the Lakota tribe and Grandmother Mona Polacca of the Hopi/ Havasupai/Tewa tribe. This event is open to all, as an offering to our circles of community. For more information about this event, contact Ji Hyang at 781.283.2793
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Saturday, April 21st
9-12noon
for our first 2012 cleanup of Magazine Beach, Cambridge. This will be part of the much larger 13th Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup, organized by the Charles River Watershed Association, Charles River Conservancy, etc., etc.
If you would like an official Earth Day Cleanup t-shirt to wear that day, please e-mail me your name, phone number and t-shirt size by this Sunday, March 11th. Large youth shirts are available and adult shirts in small, medium, large and extra large.
Looking forward to hearing from you. Shirts will be available, with drinks and refreshments, at our table in front of the Riverside Boat Club 4/21.
Cathie (Zusy)
Questions? Call 617-868-0489
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Weatherization barnraising at
The Friends Meeting House
Sunday, April 22nd from 1 to 5 pm
5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge
What a great way to celebrate Earth Day. You will be taught how to do the work by experienced team leaders, while you learn how to lower your own bills at home.
Sign up at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDRNLV9xOC00SVllOGdLd1dYdzMxU0E6MQ#gid=0
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Opportunity
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CEA Solar Hot Water Grants
Cambridge, through the Cambridge Energy Alliance initiative, is offering a limited number of grants to residents and businesses for solar hot water systems. The grants will cover 50% of the remaining out of pocket costs of the system after other incentives, up to $2,000.
Applications will be accepted up to November 19, 2012 and are available on a first come, first serve basis until funding runs out. The Cambridge grant will complement other incentives including the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center solar thermal grants. For more information, seehttp://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/additional-resources/solar-hot-water-grant-program
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhwM202dDYxdUZJVGFscnY1VGZ3aXc6MQ
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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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
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://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
Boston Area Computer User Groups http://www.bugc.org/
Arts and Cultural Events List http://aacel.blogspot.com/
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template
http://sustainability.mit.edu/
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
http://green.harvard.edu/events
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/
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