Sunday, July 01, 2012

Energy (and Other) Events - July 1, 2012

Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.

Hubevents  http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.

If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com

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Beggar by the Bank  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/27/1103476/-Beggar-by-the-Bank

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Monday, July 2
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The Wonders of Electricity and Magnetism
Monday, July 02, 2012
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Walter Lewin, LIVE! Special Lecture Series, MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin, educator and author of "For the Love of Physics"

These lectures are free and open to the public. They will be videotaped to air on Japanese Public Television (NHK). By attending you are giving NHK your consent to possibly appear on this television program without any compensation or credit.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Physics Colloquia and Seminars
For more information, contact:  Nina Wu
ninawu@mit.edu

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Tuesday, July 3
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Energy Efficient Electronic Devices
Tuesday, July 3, 2013
11:00am–12:00 noon
Refreshments at 10:30am
MIT, Building 36-428, RLE Haus Room

Adrian M. Ionescu, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Abstract
In this talk, I will discuss some of the emerging device categories that offer improved energy efficiency compared to existing solutions for digital and analog/RF information processing. I will present recent results in the field of tunnel FETs that stand as potential candidates for future electronic switching below 200mV. Particularly, the Electro-Hole Bilayer TFET fro milli-volt abrupt switching, proposed by our group, will be detailed. Demonstration of Negative Capacitance effect in MOS-like structures with gate stacks including organic ferroelectric will be shortly reported. In the field of low power NEMS, I will present recent results on resonant-body double-gate transistors for FM demodulation and mass sensing applications. Thales, Alcatel-Lucent and CEA/LETI will be also presented.

About Adrian M. Ionescu
Sylvain Delage*Adrian M. Ionescu* is a Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. He received the B.S./M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania and the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France, in 1989 and 1997, respectively. He has held staff and/or visiting positions at LETI-CEA, Grenoble, France, LPCS-ENSERG, Grenoble, France and Stanford University, USA, in 1998 and 1999. Dr. Ionescu has published more than 250 articles in international journals and conferences. He is director of the Laboratory of Micro/Nanoelectronic Devices (NANOLAB) and head of the Doctoral School in Microsystems and Microelectronics of EPFL. He is appointed as national representative of Switzerland for the European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) and member of the Scientific Committee of CATRENE. Dr. Ionescu is the European Chapter Chair of the ITRS Emerging Research Devices Working Group.

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Our Divided Political Heart:  The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

E.J. Dionne Jr.
Harvard Book Store and The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy are delighted to welcome renowned journalist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution E.J. DIONNE JR. for a discussion of his new book, Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent.
Our Divided Political Heart will be the must-read book of the 2012 election campaign. Offering an incisive analysis of how hyper-individualism is poisoning the nation’s political atmosphere, E. J. Dionne Jr. argues that Americans can’t agree on who we are because we can’t agree on who we’ve been, or what it is, philosophically and spiritually, that makes us Americans. Dionne takes on the Tea Party’s distortions of American history and shows that the true American tradition points not to radical individualism, but to a balance between our love of individualism and our devotion to community.

co-sponsored by The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy

information at (617) 661-1515, info@harvard.com 

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Wednesday, July 4
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Happy Fourth of July!
Exercise your freedoms!

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Friday, July 6
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Understanding Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment
Friday, July 06, 2012
10:00a–11:00a
Webinar register at: https://mitweb.webex.com/mitweb/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=644994381

Speaker: Christopher Weber, IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute
LEAP Sustainability Speaker Series

The Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method estimates the materials and energy resources required for, and the environmental emissions resulting from, activities in our economy. Learn more about EIO-LCA from one of the field's prominent experts.

Web site: http://leap.mit.edu/speaker-series/
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): LEAP: Global Leaders in Environmental Assessment and Performance

For more information, contact:  Suzanne Greene
6177155473
segreene@mit.edu

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Super High-Voltage - Why is the Sky Blue, Why are the Clouds White and Why are Sunsets Red?
Friday, July 06, 2012
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Walter Lewin, MIT Physics Professor, educator and author of "For the Love of Physics"

These lectures are free and open to the public. They will be videotaped to air on Japanese Public Television (NHK). By attending you are giving NHK your consent to possibly appear on this television program without any compensation or credit.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Physics Colloquia and Seminars
For more information, contact:  Nina Wu
ninawu@mit.edu

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MADMEC Design Challenge 1
Friday, July 06, 2012
1:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 4-131, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Teams will design and build a gear system using 3D printing. The system that can pull the most weight wins this challenge's $500 prize.
Viewing available from the hallway and the atrium.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
For more information, contact:  DMSE
617-253-3300
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Sunday, July 8
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Aaron Birk "Pollinator's Corridor" author: Reception & Book Signing
Sunday, July 8, 2012
3:00 PM To 6:00 PM
Follow the Honey, 1132 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge

What is "The Pollinator's Corridor?"
Set in the aftermath of the 1970's landlord fires, "The Pollinator's Corridor" follows the lives of three friends who attempt to convince wild bees and butterflies to cross the Bronx by planting 'corridors' of native flora throughout the industrial wasteland. Connecting fragmented forests, watersheds and city parks, our heros restore biodiversity to the blighted ghetto by uniting marginalized communities and laying the foundations of ecological health in an age of crisis and decline.

Who is Aaron Birk?
Philadelphia-based artist Aaron Birk began work on The Pollinator's Corridor in 2003, while employed as a forester in Central Park, NY. Along with his efforts in restoration ecology, Aaron continues to hone his craft in illustration, puppetry and acrobatics. He is sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts, and is the recipient of two major grants from The Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts.

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Monday, July 9
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The Hidden Beauty of Rainbows
Monday, July 09, 2012
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Walter Lewin, MIT Physics Professor Emeritus, educator and author of "For the Love of Physics"

These lectures are free and open to the public. They will be videotaped to air on Japanese Public Television (NHK). By attending you are giving NHK your consent to possibly appear on this television program without any compensation or credit.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Physics Colloquia and Seminars
For more information, contact:  Nina Wu
ninawu@mit.edu

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Upcoming
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Narcotweets: Reporting on the Mexican Drug War using Social Media
Tuesday, July 10
12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2012/07/narcotweets#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.

Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Microsoft Research & Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Panagiotis "Takis" Metaxas, Wellesley College
In the last few years, the war among drug cartels and the Mexican authorities has intensified. It is a brutal war that has claimed the lives of many innocent people. Citizens, using Social Media have organized a communication network reporting daily on the dangerous zones of their cities. How did it start and how effective are they? In this presentation we analyze the information sharing practices of people living in cities central to the Mexican Drug War. We will describe the content, volume, and network structures of a microblogging corpus from several cities afflicted by this war. First, we will describe how citizens use social media to alert each other and comment on the violence that plagues their communities. Then we will examine how a handful of citizens aggregate and disseminate information from social media, many of whom are anonymous. We present our published and ongoing research (jointly with Eni Mustafaraj) on this phenomenon that we hope will expand our understanding of self-organized civic media efforts along with some of the challenges that these might face.
Bios
Andrés Monroy-Hernández is a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research and a Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. His main areas of research are social computing and social media. He is particularly interested in the design and study of online collaboration, communities for creative expression and civic engagement. His work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, Wired, and has received awards from Ars Electronica, and the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition. He was formerly a student at the MIT Media Lab and at the Tec de Monterrey in Mexico.

Panagiotis "Takis" Metaxas is a Professor of Computer Science and Founder of the Media Arts and Sciences Program at Wellesley College. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar and Affiliate at the Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dartmouth and has been a visiting scientist at MIT and at the Sydney University, Australia. His research interests are currently in Social Computing, Propagation of information and misinformation in cyberspace (including Web Spam) and Cognitive Hacking. His current project, aims to create semi-automatic tools that will help users evaluate the trustworthiness of the information they receive from Social Media.
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Midsummer Nights' Science is an annual lecture series that explores key advances in genomic research. This lecture series is held each summer, and is free and open to the general public. Midsummer Nights' Science at the Broad Institute takes place at 7 Cambridge Center, in Kendall Square in Cambridge. Come experience science!

The 2012 series will run on Wednesday evenings on July 11th, 18th, 25th and August 1st from 6pm to 7pm. Space will be limited, so we ask attendees to register ahead of time. Registration instructions for the 2012 series can be found here.

2012 Lecture Schedule:

Miniature science: How microfluidics is powering biology

Wednesday, July 11th
6-7pm
7 Cambridge Center, in Kendall Square in Cambridge

RSVP at http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1114751

Paul Blainey, Ph.D.

Miniaturized lab-on-a-chip methods are being deployed as labor-saving devices in biological research, through the advent of a suite of microfluidics technologies. Microfluidics enables large-scale studies that provide the means to better understand, prevent, and treat human disease. Paul Blainey will discuss the promise of using microfluidics to transform our industrial infrastructure to operate more efficiently, while protecting the natural environment.

http://www.broadinstitute.org/education/midsummer-nights-science/midsummer-nights-science-2012

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The Egyptian Oracle
Thursday, July 13
7 pm
Northeastern's Raytheon Amphitheater, Egan Engineering/Science Building, 120 Forsyth Street, Boston

Circle the City: Boston's Open Streets Initiative:  Car-Free Corridor
Public VR will recreate an important religious event, the Oracle, from ancient Egypt's late period.  Projecting our Virtual Egyptian Temple onto a wall opens the real space into the virtual, creating a shared continuum for audience and actors.  The star is a virtual High Priest, controlled by a human puppeteer interacting with a live actor and the audience, who role-play the Egyptian populace.  The high priest queries the spirit of the temple god, which is embodied in a ceremonial boat, carried by eight assistants.  Fortunes will be told, judgments made, and blessings given.  We will film the evnt, ask audience members what they learned, and have a general discussion afterward, all totaling 80 minutes.  The information we gather will help us improve the show and inform our educational research.  This was made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, PublicVR, and Northeastern University.  Our actors are from the Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline.  No charge.

Further information at 617-435-0517, jeff@publicvr.org
http://publicvr.org/html/pro_oracle.html

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July 15 and August 5
 
Come out to walk, bike, dance, and roll on open, car-free streets in and between our parks! Circle The City is free and open to people of all ages.
 
July 15, 11 am-4 pm, car-free corridor between Franklin Park and Jamaica Pond. LivableStreets will be there with our "Red Line photo booth." Come take a picture on the "T"  to win best "T snap shot" of the summer!
August 5, 10 am-1 pm, Rose Kennedy Greenway
Featuring a car-free corridor along the downtown waterfront.   
  
Organized by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the Boston Collaborative 
for Food and Fitness, LivableStreets Alliance, Franklin Park Coalition, and the City of Boston.


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Opportunity

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Boiler Rebate
If your boiler is from 1983 or earlier, Mass Save will give a $1,750 to $4,000 rebate to switch it out for a new efficient boiler that uses the same fuel (i.e. if you have oil, you have to continue to use oil) so long as it is installed by July 31, 2012.

Call Mass Save (866 527-7283) to sign up for a home energy assessment or sign-up online at  www.nextsteplivinginc.com/HEET  and HEET will receive a $10 contribution from Next Step Living for every completed assessment.

This is a great way to reduce climate change emissions for the next 20 or so years the boiler lasts, while saving money.

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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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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.massclimateaction.net/calendar/events/index.php

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

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

http://green.harvard.edu/events

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

http://boston.nerdnite.com/

http://www.meetup.com/

http://www.eventbrite.com/

http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/calendar

http://harddatafactory.com/mobileapp.shtml

http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/




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