Sunday, February 24, 2013

Energy (and Other) Events - February 24, 2013


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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Climate Change Message Failure
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/20/1188561/-Climate-Change-Message-Failure

Boston Solar House Tour, 1990
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/21/1188945/-Boston-Solar-House-Tour-1990

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Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index

Event Index - full Event Details available below the Index

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Monday, February 25
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12pm  “Global Markets and Government Regulation in Telecommunications”
12pm  MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar Series (MASS)
12pm  Leadership for Learning Organizations: Lessons from healthcare, sports, and more to help you obtain better results
12pm  "Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves"
12:15pm  "Shoddy Heap: Textile Waste Processing and Alien Flora"
12:15pm  The Diffusion of Networking Technologies
12:30pm  "Industrial End-Use Energy Efficient Technology Transfer & Innovation in China: Evidence from the Iron and Steel Sector"
3:30pm  Tufts STEM Lecture Series
4pm  Notes on Year Three of the Egyptian Revolution
5pm  Libya: A Year of Revolution and State-Building
5pm  India's Urban Transformation: The Full Story
6pm  Civic Hacking as Civic Engagement
7pm  Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form:  CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II
8pm  Nerd Nite

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Tuesday, February 26
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12pm  "Is Obama the Democrats' Reagan?"
12pm  “Tracking toxic pollution from policies to impacts”
12:30pm  The Geopolitics of the Shale Gas Revolution
12:30pm  Internet Censorship and the Remembrance of Infowars Past
2pm  Intelligence Community Virtual Career Fair
3pm  "A World Made of Computers: Why Getting It Wrong Matters"
3:30pm  Superconductivity: the Gift that Keeps on Giving
4:30pm  Dying to Forget: The Foundation of US Policy in the Middle East
4:30pm  "Climate Change and What it Means for Extreme Weather."
6pm  Boston/New England Internet of Things Meetup
6pm  Boston Composts!  One of a Series of Community Forums  on the Need for Quality Compost in Boston Community Garden and Residential Compost Resources in Boston
6pm  'High Tech, Low Life' documentary film screening + conversation w/ director
6:30pm  "The Making of a Debt Resisters' Movement from Shay's Rebellion to the Rolling Jubilee"
7pm  Cory Doctorow - author talk

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Wednesday, February 27
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12pm  CAST Music and Techbnology: Eric Singer
12pm  Technology Change and the Future of Nuclear Proliferation
12pm  The Real Environmental Law in China
1pm   Rolling for the Future: How Making Films on Cell Phones is Democratizing Media and Empowering Marginalized Youth
4:30pm  Mastering Disruptive Innovation in Journalism
6pm  Climate Change. Challenges. Solutions:  Fission & Fracking
7pm  Resilience: From PTSD to Hurricane Sandy
7pm  Connectomics: Mapping the Brain

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Thursday, February 28
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11:45am  The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India: Implications for Pollution Regulation
3pm  Energy Lecture Series: A Scientist/Investor's Perspective on Biofuel Startups
4:10pm  The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy
5pm  A Conversation with Nate Silver
6:30pm  Bioengineering: Earth-focused Design
6:45pm  Food Systems in the U.S.
7pm  Urban Films: Night on Earth

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Friday, March 1
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Community Organizing Training
12:45pm  "Utility of the Future"
5pm  Askwith Forum: Race, Poverty, Power, and Politics in our Education System
6pm  MIT Energy Conference Friday Night Showcase
7pm  A Lecture of Love on Rumi and his Masnawi

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Saturday, March 2
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Community Organizing Training
9am  Transit Equity Summit
10am  Humanitarian Response: Innovation to Meet Needs
12:30pm  Tufts Energy Conference 2013: Powering Global Energy Security

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Monday, March 4
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12pm  A New Social Safety Net?
12pm  "Frugal Innovation"
12:15pm  Challenges for Machine Learning in Computational Sustainability
5pm  Future of Energy
6:30pm  Microfinance 101 with Accion International
7pm  Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form:  CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II

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Tuesday, March 5
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NESEA Building Energy Conference
12pm  Science Policy Lunch with Robert K. Coughlin
12:30pm  Cleantech Innovations New England Technology Showcase NECEC Institute
12:30pm  Beyond Participation: Transforming Local Civic Engagement Through an Online Game
4pm  Quantum Dots: From MIT to Market
4pm  41st Annual James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award Lecture
4pm  2013 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Announcement & Invention Showcase
4pm  "Energy Politics: After Carbon Democracy"
4:30pm  Syria, Two Years into the Revolution
5pm  Bessora: "Literature in the Digital Age"
5:30pm  Happy Hour at Greentown Labs with NEWIEE and YPE
6pm  Preparing Massachusetts for Climate Change:  Do State and Local Government Have a Role, and What Are They Doing?









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Event Details

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Monday, February 25
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“Global Markets and Government Regulation in Telecommunications”
Monday, February 25, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston

Kirsten Rodine Hardy
Assistant Professor, Political Science, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities@neu.edu
617-373-4140

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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar Series (MASS)
Monday, February 25, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)

Speaker: Paul DeMott (CSU)
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.

Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/mass
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Atmospheric Science Seminars, Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC), Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
MASS organizing committee
mass@mit.edu 

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Leadership for Learning Organizations: Lessons from healthcare, sports, and more to help you obtain better results
Monday, February 25, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
Location: Virtual at http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_022513/webinar-levy-leadership.html

Speaker: Paul F. Levy
MIT System Design and Management Systems Thinking Webinar Series
The MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.

The world is rife with process improvement methods designed to deal with systemic issues facing manufacturing and services firms. Although proven tools, such as Six Sigma, Re-engineering, and Lean, exist to build learning organizations with enhanced efficiency and deliver higher quality products to customers, most organizations never achieve these goals. Why do so many work redesign efforts fail?

Paul Levy offers answers in a story-laden presentation based on his experience in several important leadership roles. These include serving as CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. Levy's presentation will also draw from his work in coaching girls' soccer over two decades. His recently published book, "Goal Play! Leadership Lessons from the Soccer Field", draws on experiences gleaned from both parts of his life. Whether you are a CEO, department head, division manager, a professional who wants to work with others to improve the systems in your organization, or a volunteer in your community, this presentation offers insights to help you provide value wherever you are.

Web site:http://sdm.mit.edu/news/news_articles/webinar_022513/webinar-levy-leadership.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to all

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"Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves"
Monday, February 25, 2013 
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Rema Hanna, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name:  Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu

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"Shoddy Heap: Textile Waste Processing and Alien Flora"
Monday, February 25, 2013 
12:15pm - 2:00pm
Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Hanna Rose Shell (MIT/STS).

Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Thursday noon the week before

Abstract: “Shoddy” came into existence as a noun to refer to a repurposed textile material produced from old rags and tailors’ clippings. It is said that a West Yorkshire mill-owner, inspired by a chance encounter with a horse saddle stuffed with shredded tunics, “invented” shoddy in 1813. Industrial-style recycling was born alongside the development of machinery for the sorting, grinding, scouring and baling of old, used, usable wool. Over the next hundred and fifty years, wool shoddy –and permutations thereof – was widely used in the production of new suits, slaves’ clothing, sofa stuffing, and agricultural fertilizer. People, machines, and landscapes were reconfigured so as best to recycle waste and other leftovers into plentiful “new” raw materials. From old clothes came new technologies of survival, coverings for the human skin, and ingredients to transform barren soil into lush fields of rhubarb, beer hops, and invasive weeds. This paper examines technological and natural repurposing through analysis of the historical production, consumption, and disposal of a quasi-object defined by its reuse.

Biography:Hanna Rose Shell, a historian of science and technology, is the Leo Marx Career Development Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, and an affiliate in Comparative Media Studies.  Shell studies the production, use, and transformation of often-marginalized artifacts, located at the interstices of the found and the fabricated.  Her current book project is a historical and theoretical investigation into the epistemology of reuse, in which objects of analysis include old clothes, decomposing vegetable matter, and other artifacts of strategic repurposing. Shell holds an MA in American Studies (Yale), and earned a PhD in the History of Science (Harvard), after which she was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Recent works include the article “Cinehistory and Experiments on Film,” published in Journal of Visual Culture (2012) and the book Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography and the Media of Reconnaissance, published by Zone Books in 2012.

http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
sts@hks.harvard.edu

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The Diffusion of Networking Technologies
Feb 25, 2013 
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Sharon Goldberg , Boston University
Two decades of research, engineering, and standardization have  resulted in a number of new networking protocols (e.g. IPv6, secure  BGP, DNSSEC, etc) that still have not seen widespread adoption on the  Internet.  Adoption is complicated by the fact that the Internet  consists of thousands of interconnected, independent networks that  make their own local decisions about whether (or not) to upgrade to a  new protocol. In this talk, I consider how the local incentives of  these independent networks can be harnessed to drive a cascade that  leads to global adoption of a new networking protocol.  I will (a)  discuss some of the practical issues related to creating incentives  for adopting networking protocols like IPv6 and secure BGP, and (b)  present a new approximation algorithm, for choosing the smallest set of early adopter networks that can trigger a cascade of adoption.

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"Industrial End-Use Energy Efficient Technology Transfer & Innovation in China: Evidence from the Iron and Steel Sector" 
Monday, February 25, 2013 
12:30pm - 1:45pm
Tufts University, Crowe Room (Goddard 310), The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Fang Zhang, Doctoral Fellow, CIERP
End-use energy-efficient technology transfer and innovation is essential for developing countries to be able to leapfrog the typical development curves of energy intensity and to achieve sustainable development while building technological capacity. It also boosts competitiveness, since the economy no longer needs to spend so much on inputs. As the largest energy consumer and GHG emitter in the world, China has eagerly begun to reduce demand-side energy consumption with its 11th Five Year Plan and to strengthen its effort in the 12th Five Year Plan. In her presentation, Fang Zhang will discuss the energy use, energy intensity, and energy efficiency policy trends in China’s industrial sector, mainly based on the iron and steel industry. She will also analyze the “efficiency paradox” for Chinese firms in adopting energy efficient technologies and analyze the main economic, organizational, and political factors behind it. Finally, she will review policy implications.

Fang Zhang is currently a doctoral candidate at the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University in China and a doctoral researcher in CIERP's Energy, Climate, and Innovation program through July 2013. She was previously with the Center for Environmental Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley as a visiting scholar from September 2011 to August 2012. Her research topic is the effectiveness of international renewable energy technology transfer and its role in renewable energy deployment in developing countries.

CIERP’s Energy, Climate, and Innovation Program Lecture
Contact Name:  Miranda Fasulo
Miranda.Fasulo@tufts.edu

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Tufts STEM Lecture Series - Shelley Goldman
Tufts CEEO and Dept. of Education
Monday, February 25, 2013
3:30 PM to 4:30 PM 
Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford

Tufts STEM Education Lecture Series
Co-sponsored by the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and Dept. of Education
Open to the public.  All are welcome.

Shelley Goldman, Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

Designing and Making Together: University and Middle School Students in Search of STEM Participation

Abstract:
The d.loft STEM Learning project engages design thinking as a vehicle for exploring STEM topics and pathways. Our work benefits K-12 students and educators, as well as university students who act as mentors. The inspiration is the "Design for the Other 90% Movement,” which is based on designing low-cost innovative solutions for those who do not have access to basic services and products. We take up interdisciplinary STEM topics such as access to and conservation of water, energy and shelter. The talk will take up discussion around the power of the mentoring and design activities among the university and middle school students.

Bio:
Shelley Goldman is an educational anthropologist who studies learning in and out of school, and applies findings to the development of teaching and learning environments. Goldman’s work focuses on creating opportunities for rich STEM learning, and for understanding how design thinking and technologies can create access to, and transform, learning. Current work includes bringing integrated STEM topics in K-12 education via design thinking and the development and research around technologies for family math and science exploration. A professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Goldman is on the faculty of the Learning, Design & Technology master’s program and the Learning Sciences & Technology Design doctoral program. She is also, by Courtesy, a professor in Mechanical Engineering’s Design Program.

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Notes on Year Three of the Egyptian Revolution
WHEN  Mon., Feb. 25, 2013, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Middle Eastern Studies
SPEAKER(S)  Ellis Goldberg, Washington University; Sspring 2013 Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE  This talk is part of a semester-long series of "Updates on the Arab Spring" organized by CMES.
This event is open to the public; no registration required. This event is off the record. The use of recording devices is strictly prohibited.
LINK http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/3348

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Libya: A Year of Revolution and State-Building
WHEN  Mon., Feb. 25, 2013, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE  Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor, Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Middle East Initiative
SPEAKER(S)  Dirk Vandewalle, Dartmouth College
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/5963/libya.html

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India's Urban Transformation: The Full Story
Monday, February 25, 2013
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing will be speaking on India's Urban Transformation.

Sponsored by: Displacement Research and Action Network, PHRJ, International development Group-DUSP, and MIT-India Program
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Displacement Research and Action Network, PHRJ, International development Group-DUSP, and MIT-India Program
For more information, contact:  Sarah Jane Vaughan
svaughan@mit.edu

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Civic Hacking as Civic Engagement
Monday, February 25, 2013
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 10-485, CDD Seminar Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Nigel Jacob
With an extensive background in collaborative, citizen-facing technology projects, Nigel Jacob co-founded the Office of New Urban Mechanics - a civic innovation incubator within Boston's City Hall. Nigel also serves as Mayor Menino's advisor on emerging technologies. In both of these roles, Nigel works to develop new models of innovation for cities in the 21st century. Prior to joining the City of Boston in 2006, Nigel worked for and launched a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area. Nigel is also a fellow at the Center for the Advancement Public Action at Bennington College. Nigel has received a number of awards for his groundbreaking work in Boston, including being named a Public Official of the Year in 2011 by Governing Magazine and the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award for 2012.

Hosted by Sarah Williams, Director, Civic Data Design Project, Assistant Professor, Urban Planning, DUSP

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:  Sarah Williams
sew@mit.edu

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Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form:  CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II 
Monday, February 25, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Arthur Jafa, Artist, filmmaker, and cinematographer, APEX_TNEG
The realization of a black cinema is as central to American culture in the 21st century as was black music to the 20th century. What does this statement imply and what might it entail? What is black? What is cinema? What constitutes American culture in the 21st century? What was American culture in the 20th century and how did black music function in relation to it? Jafa explores the socio-economic context, emergence, and evolution of black cinema and music in the 20th and 21st centuries as culture, commerce, and ideological artifact.

Arthur Jafa is the director of Slowly This (1995), Tree (1999), and Deshotten 1.0 (2009). His cinematographic work includes Daughters of the Dust (1991), for which he won the cinematography award at Sundance Film Festival in 1992; John Akomfrah???s Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993); and Crooklyn (1994), directed by Spike Lee. His writing on black cultural politics has appeared in various publications such as Black Popular Culture and Everything But the Burden.

Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/2013-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu

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Nerd Nite
Monday, February 25, 2013
8pm
Middlesex Lounge, 315 Massachusetts Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge
$5
http://boston.nerdnite.com

"Human Space Settlement." with Andrew Rader.  And "Creative Robots & Law." with Rocky Acosta

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Tuesday, February 26
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"Is Obama the Democrats' Reagan?" 
Tuesday, February 26
12 p.m. 
Harvard, Taubman 275, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge

Speaker Series with Michael Tomasky, Newsweek/Daily Beast special correspondent and editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

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“Tracking toxic pollution from policies to impacts”
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
12-1pm
MIT, Building E40-298, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Noelle Selin
ESD Faculty Lunch

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The Geopolitics of the Shale Gas Revolution
WHEN  Tue., Feb. 26, 2013, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge St., Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S)  Charles K. Ebinger, senior fellow and director, Energy Security Initiative, Brookings Institution
COST  Free and open to the public
LINK http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/us-japan/schedule/schedule.htm

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Internet Censorship and the Remembrance of Infowars Past
February 26th
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2013/01/penney#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET.

Jon Penney, Berkman Center Fellow
With Internet censorship on the rise around the world, organizations and researchers have developed and distributed a variety of tools to assist Internet users to both monitor and circumvent such censorship. This talk will examine more closely some of the international law and politics of such censorship resistance activities through three case studies involving past global communications censorship and information conflicts— telegraph cable cutting and suppression, high frequency radio jamming, and direct broadcast satellite blocking— and the world community’s response to these conflicts.  In addition to illustrating some of the legal, political, and security concerns that have animated historical instances of global communications censorship, the talk will aim to extrapolate lessons and insights for Internet censorship (and its resistance) today, such as the legality of censorship and its circumvention, the effectiveness of monitoring efforts, and the role of international institutions in disrupting (or facilitating) communications.

About Jon
Jon is a lawyer, Research Fellow at the Citizen Lab / Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and a doctoral student in information communication sciences at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, where his interdisciplinary research explores regulatory chilling effects online.

In 2011, he was a Google Policy Fellow at the Citizen Lab-- where he helped lead the ONI Transparency Project while contributing to projects like the Information Warfare Monitor-- and, at Oxford, was Project Coordinator for the Privacy Value Networks Project, a large scale EPSRC funded research project on data privacy. A native Nova Scotian and graduate of Dalhousie University, he studied at Columbia Law School as a Fulbright Scholar and Oxford as a Mackenzie King Scholar, where he was Associate Editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal. He has also worked as a federal attorney, policy advisor, and taught law at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.

His research interests include constitutional/human rights law, intellectual property, and digital media policy & culture, particularly where these areas intersect with censorship, privacy, and security.

Follow Jon on Twitter @jon_penney

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Intelligence Community Virtual Career Fair
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
2:00p–8:00p
Location: online

The United States Intelligence Community will host a Virtual Career Fair on Tuesday, February 26th at 2pm-8pm EST for interested parties to explore career opportunities, chat with recruiters and subject matter experts, and learn how to apply for job openings. Visit ICVirtualFair.com to register. Space is limited! US Citizenship required.

Web site: ICVirtualFair.com
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Global Education & Career Development
For more information, contact:  GECD
617-253-4733
gecd@mit.edu

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"A World Made of Computers: Why Getting It Wrong Matters"
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
3:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Cory Doctorow
We live in a world made of networked computers, but we regulate them like they were toys, phones, entertainment devices. We get it wrong--really, really wrong--and it's only going to get worse. Without substantive reform to technology regulation, we face the possibility of remaking the most hopeful force for liberation into the most brutal form of control.

Web site: http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2013/02/26/cory-doctorow-talk
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Media Lab

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Superconductivity: the Gift that Keeps on Giving
February 26, 2013
03:30PM to 04:30PM
BU, SCI 109, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Speaker: Peter Johnson, BNL
This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 in the 1st Floor Lounge.

Abstract: Superconductivity, first discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, has presented new challenges for the physics community ever since. Most recently the discovery of high superconducting transition temperatures in the ceramic copper oxides has lead to the opening of new fields of research into the properties of so-called strongly correlated electron materials. Unlike metallic systems where the coulombic effects are highly screened, the strong forces between electrons in these new materials lead to a whole range of poorly understood phenomena. High resolution photoemission is one probe of these properties that has added considerably to our knowledge base. Indeed the technique is recognized as one of the most powerful probes of the electronic structure in condensed matter systems. In the present talk we focus on studies of the high Tc superconductors. In the under-doped or pseudo-gap phase of the cuprate superconductors, a significant portion of the Fermi surface is still gapped at temperatures above the transition temperature Tc. Further instead of a closed Fermi surface, photoemission studies indicate that the low-energy electronic excitations appear to form Fermi arcs separated by gapped regions. Here we show that the Fermi arcs may in fact be one side of Fermi pockets, consistent with the underlying nature of the spin liquids in these materials and indeed consistent with the fact that these materials are doped Mott insulators. By examining a range of reduced doping levels down into the non-superconducting regime it appears that the areas of the hole pockets scale with the doping level. A particle-hole asymmetry observed in the nodal region is clear evidence that electron pairing does not originate from the Fermi arcs in the normal state. However in contrast the particle-hole symmetry observed in the anti-nodal region is interpreted as evidence for singlet pairs forming along the copper-oxygen bond directions at temperatures above the superconducting transition temperature Tc. We also discuss studies of the recently discovered Fe based superconductors. We examine possible sources of the quasi one dimensionality or nematicity in these materials and also discuss pressure dependent effects on the Fermi surface.

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Dying to Forget: The Foundation of US Policy in the Middle East
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
4:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E51-395, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Irene Gendzier, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston University
Irene Gendzier is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston University and the author of a number of books and articles dealing with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the formation of public opinion.

Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar
The Bustani Middle East Seminar is organized under the auspices of the MIT Center for International Studies, which conducts research on contemporary international issues and provides and opportunity for faculty and students to share perspectives and exchange views. Each year the Bustani Seminar invites scholars, journalists, consultants, and other experts from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States to MIT to present recent research findings on contemporary politics, society and culture, and economic and technological development in the Middle East.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/bustani/
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Technology and Culture Forum
For more information, contact:  Heidi Erickson
252-1888
hae@mit.edu

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"Climate Change and What it Means for Extreme Weather."
Tuesday, February 266
4:30 - 6p.    
MIT, Building E19-623, 400 Main Street, Cambridge

Kerry Emmanuel

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Boston/New England Internet of Things Meetup
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
6:00 PM
garage space in N52 on the MIT campus, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-New-England-Internet-of-Things-Meetup/events/101349062/

network, hear some IoT presentations, & brainstorm creating an IoT community

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Boston Composts!  One of a Series of Community Forums  on the Need for Quality Compost in Boston Community Garden and Residential Compost Resources in Boston
Tuesday, February 26
6:00p.m. - 8:00p.m.
Boston Natural Areas Network, 62 Summer St., Boston (Entrance on Otis Street)

Boston Natural Areas Network and the Boston Gardeners Council are calling all gardeners to focus on the need for access to high quality compost for all gardeners in and around Boston. Hear from key experts including specialists in soil science and public health, farmers growing nutrient dense crops, representatives from new start up compost initiatives and those offering successful models for home gardeners.

Speakers include: Igor Kharitonenkov of Bootstrap Compost, Bruce Fulford of City Soil and Greenhouse LLC. and Operator of the City of Boston Yard Waste Compost Site, Ann McGovern, Compost Specialist, Mass DEP Bureau of Waste Prevention and BNAN staff on City Natives compost.

EVENT IS FREE AND ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND
RSVP REQUIRED by calling 617-542-7696 or by emailing info@bostonnatural.org
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'High Tech, Low Life' documentary film screening + conversation w/ director
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (PST)
Cabot Intercultural Center 206, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, 160 Packard Ave, Medford

High Tech, Low Life is a new documentary film about two of China's first citizen reporters.
Watch trailer at http://hightechlowlifefilm.com/trailer/
Official Selection: Tribeca Film Festival 2012, Sydney Film Festival 2012
Winner, Best Documentary: Independent Film Festival Boston 2012, Little Rock Film Festival 2012

Followed by a conversation with the director, Steve Maing + a discussion led by Crocker Snow, director of the Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy at The Fletcher School.
Dinner and refreshments will be served prior to the start of the event.
About the film:

HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE follows the journey of two of China’s first citizen reporters as they travel the country – chronicling underreported news and social issues stories. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras they develop skills as independent one-man news stations while learning to navigate China’s evolving censorship regulations and avoiding the risk of political persecution. 

The film follows 57-year-old “Tiger Temple,” who earns the title of China’s first citizen reporter after he impulsively documents an unfolding murder and 27-year-old “Zola” who recognizes the opportunity to increase his fame and future prospects by reporting on sensitive news throughout China. 



From the perspective of vastly different generations, Zola and Tiger Temple must both reconcile an evolving sense of individualism, social responsibility and personal sacrifice. The juxtaposition of Zola’s coming-of-age journey from produce vendor to internet celebrity, and Tiger Temple’s commitment to understanding China’s tumultuous past provides an alternate portrait of China and of news-gathering in the 21st century.

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

"The Making of a Debt Resisters' Movement from Shay's Rebellion to the Rolling Jubilee"
Tuesday Feb. 26
Food and social time: 6:30 p.m.
Talk starts at about 7 p.m.
Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St (2nd floor), Boston (in Copley Square)

Here is a great chance to understand and strategize about current debt resistance struggles in a historical context:
OB Strike Debt is hosting George Caffentzis, a New York Strike Debt speaker, on the Boston leg of his New England speaking tour.
George Caffentzis is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine (Portland). He is a member of Strike Debt. He has written books on the philosophy of money as well as many essays on social, political and economic issues. His most recent book, "In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism," will be published by CommonNotions and PM Press.

We welcome everyone to what should be a very interesting and relevant evening.

FYI, George Caffentzis will also be on "Radio with a View" WMBR (88.1FM) Sunday 2/24 at 11:25 a.m.

Occupy Boston's Strike Debt working group was inspired by the #StrikeDebt group in NYC; we seek to draw attention to issues surrounding debt and indebtedness.

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

Cory Doctorow
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Book reading and signing for his new SF novel Homeland, sequel to Little Brother

Live webcast of TED Long Beach
Wednesday February 27
11:30 AM - 9:45 PM

TEDxBeaconStreet has been approved to host a live webcast of TED Long Beach 2013,  (speakers listed below) hosted by two of our Superhero Partners - Whitehead Institute and Camera Culture Lab!

To attend you need to apply https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dHc4TFJRTzl3WVJJakNTd01YeTFsTHc6MQ
Event is free of charge to attendees, we will be in touch ...

------------------------------
Wednesday, February 27
------------------------------

CAST Music and Techbnology: Eric Singer
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
12:00p
MIT, Building 14W-111, Killian Hall, Hayden Library Building, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

CAST Music and Technology Seminar Series presents Eric Singer. Eric Singer is the Founding Director of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR), a group of artists and technologists who create robotic musical instruments. These mechanized acoustic instruments are controlled by computers to perform music with and by humans. Responsive and naturalistic, Singer???s instruments together form a mechanical ensemble of acoustic sounds. Noon, Killian Hall. Free.

Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact:  Clarise Snyder
mta-request@mit.edu

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

Technology Change and the Future of Nuclear Proliferation
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: R. Scott Kemp, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT

SSP Wednesday Seminar
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program
For more information, contact:  617-253-7529
valeriet@mit.edu

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

The Real Environmental Law in China
WHEN  Wed., Feb. 27, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Wasserstein Hall 1015, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Law, Lecture, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Environmental Law Review
SPEAKER(S)  Alex Wang, former China director, National Resources Defense Council
CONTACT INFO sdesai@jd13.law.harvard.edu
NOTE  Meet and hear from a former director of NRDC China who is writing for the Harvard Environmental Law Review about how environmental goals are managed through the internal Chinese Communist Party's self-governance structure. In an country where environmental laws are difficult to enforce, understand how China’s internal party discipline regime balances development and environmental safety. Free food!

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

Rolling for the Future: How Making Films on Cell Phones is Democratizing Media and Empowering Marginalized Youth
WHEN  Wed., Feb. 27, 2013, 1 – 2:30 p.m.
WHERE  Eliot Lyman Room, Longfellow Hall, Appian Way, HGSE
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Film, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Civic and Moral Education Initiative
SPEAKER(S)  Alice Bragg
LINK http://cmei-harvard.ning.com/events/cmei-colloquium-alice-bragg-rolling-for-the-future-how-making-fil

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

Mastering Disruptive Innovation in Journalism
WHEN  Wed., Feb. 27, 2013, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE  Nieman Webcast event available online at http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/assets/Image/microsites/disruptor/splash/index.html
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Classes/Workshops, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard
SPEAKER(S)  Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen and David Skok, director of digital for Globalnews.ca. Moderated by Ann Marie Lipinski, Nieman Foundation curator
CONTACT INFO ellen_tuttle@harvard.edu
NOTE  Nieman Webcast: Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen and David Skok, a 2012 Nieman Fellow and director of digital for Globalnews.ca, discuss how Christensen's groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation can be applied to journalism to generate bold new solutions for the struggling news industry. The pair collaborated on the Fall 2012 Nieman Reports article "Be the Disruptor."
LINK http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/assets/Image/microsites/disruptor/splash/index.html

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

Climate Change. Challenges. Solutions:  Fission & Fracking
Wednesday, February 27
6:00 to 8:00pm
Northeastern, West Village F, Room 20, 40A Leon Street, Boston

Richard Lester, Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Co-Chair, Industrial Performance Center at MIT

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

Resilience: From PTSD to Hurricane Sandy
Wednesday, February 27
7pm
3 Church Street (Harvard Square), Cambridge

Psychiatrists Steven Southwick of Yale and Dennis Charney of Mount Sinai tell the stories of POWs, 9/11 survivors, and ordinary people with debilitating diseases or grievous personal losses.

Weaving together the results of modern neurobiological research and the insights of two decades of clinical work with trauma survivors, Southwick and Charney identify ways to help individuals become more resilient.

How can resilience be taught?  How can their insights about individual mental health help us create resilient communities?

http://www.cambridgeforum.org

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

Connectomics: Mapping the Brain
WHEN  Wed., Feb. 27, 2013, 7 – 8 p.m.
WHERE  Science Center, Hall C, Harvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University, Department of Physics
SPEAKER(S)  Jeff Lichtman, professor of molecular and cellular biology, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO bankowski@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE  Abstract: How scientists are taking the first steps in imaging and understanding the wiring diagram of the brain.

----------------------------
Thursday, February 28
----------------------------

The Health Effects of Coal Electricity Generation in India: Implications for Pollution Regulation
WHEN  Thu., Feb. 28, 2013, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Bell Hall, 5th Floor Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Regulatory Policy Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government.
SPEAKER(S)  Maureen Cropper, University of Maryland

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

Energy Lecture Series: A Scientist/Investor's Perspective on Biofuel Startups
Thursday, February 28, 2013
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 54-100 (the tallest building on campus)

Speaker: Doug Cameron
Doug Cameron's career has spanned business, finance, and academia, including positions at Khosla Ventures, Piper Jaffray, Cargill, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2009, Doug was the recipient of the prestigious Raphael Katzen Award for his contributions in furthering the deployment and commercialization of biotechnology to produce fuels and chemicals from renewable resources.

Doug launched Alberti Advisors in 2010 as a venture advisory firm with expertise in the business, science, and engineering of clean technology and sustainable agriculture. Prior to founding Alberti Advisors, Doug was managing director and chief science advisor at Piper Jaffray, a global investment firm with a leading practice in the area of cleantech.

From 2006 to 2008, Doug was the chief scientific officer at Khosla Ventures, where he was involved in sourcing deals and leading technical due diligence for many of the firm's clean technology investments. While at Khosla, he served on the board of directors for Gevo, LS9, Mascoma, Segetis, Lanzatech, and Kior and also held senior management roles in several of these companies, serving as acting CEO of Gevo, LS9, and Segetis. Doug continues to serve on the scientific advisory boards of Mascoma and Segetis.

For more, see http://www.firstgreenpartners.com/doug-cameron.html

This lecture is part of both the general MIT Energy Club Lecture Series and the new BioEnergy Community at MIT.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:  MIT Energy Club
energyclub@mit.edu

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

The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy
WHEN  Thu., Feb. 28, 2013, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S)  Kay Schlozman, J. Joseph Moakley Professor, Boston College; Sidney Verba, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University; Henry E. Brady, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy
LINK http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/News-Events/Events/The-Unheavenly-Chorus

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

A Conversation with Nate Silver
Thursday, February 28, 2013
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building E15-070, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Nate Silver, NYT; Seth Mnookin, MIT
The statistician and political polling analyst Nate Silver will discuss his career -- from student journalist to baseball prognosticator to the creator of FiveThirtyEight.com, perhaps the most influential political blog in the world -- and the ways in which statistics are changing the face of journalism in a conversation with Seth Mnookin, a former baseball and political writer who co-directs MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Communications Forum
For more information, contact:  Brad Seawell
617-253-3521
seawell@mit.edu

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

Bioengineering: Earth-focused Design
Thursday, February 28, 6:00pm Refreshments; 6:30pm Lecture
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Boston
RSVP at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/SelectTime.aspx

Duke Bitsko, Senior Landscape Architect and Director of Interdisciplinary Design, the Bioengineering Group
Duke Bitsko will speak about bioengineering, an interdisciplinary approach to site and resource protection in the built environment. With a strong land stewardship ethic, Duke applies degrees in landscape architecture, engineering, and earth science to development planning and design. With each project, the indigenous water cycle and watershed protection are the first considerations. Learn about his approach as applied to local projects including Walden Pond, Pope John Paul II Park, Magazine Beach, and the Watertown Arsenal.
Free Arnold Arboretum and BSLA members; $25 nonmember
Offered with the Boston Society of Landscape Architects

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

Food Systems in the U.S.
Thursday, February 28, 2013 
6:45pm
Quincy House, 58 Plympton Street, Cambridge

Quincy High Table and the Food Literacy Project are bringing you a unique opportunity to discuss the state of agriculture and the food system today with Professor Chin Jou from the History of Science Department.

Ever wondered...
Why Americans eat so much meat?
How refrigerated trucks changed the way and timing that we consume produce today?
How did processed foods find their way to store shelves and dining halls?

Contact Name:  Dilia Zwart
zwart@college.harvard.edu
Please RSVP to zwart@college.harvard.edu if you are a non-Quincy resident so you can get swipe access during this community dinner!

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

Urban Films: Night on Earth
Thursday, February 28, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Urban Planning Film Series
A mostly-weekly series showing documentary and feature films on topics related to cities, urbanism, design, community development, ecology, and other planning issues. Free.

Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Beatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this hilarious quintet of tales of urban displacement and existential angst, spanning time zones, continents, and languages. Jarmusch's lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one of his most charming and beloved films. 128 minutes.

Web site: http://www.urbanfilm.org
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:  Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn@mit.edu

-------------------
Friday, March 1
-------------------

Community Organizing Training
March 1st & 2nd

Building a Climate Change Movement Based on Values

Do you want to mobilize your community to meet the challenge of climate change by taking action?Marla Marcum, climate activist and Director of Programs for the Better Future Project will lead a training on the values-based method of community organizing developed by Marshall Ganz at Harvard University.

YOU WILL LEARN:
The Basics of Leadership and Organizing
How to Develop your Public Narrative
How to Build Relationships that Create Commitment
How to Build a Leadership Team, and
How to Create a Plan that Meets Goals
WHEN:
Friday, March 1 from 6 PM to 8:45 PM & Saturday, March 2 from 9 AM to 4 PM

WHERE:
Sproat Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

WHO:
Anyone affiliated with a faith community. You are welcome if you are: Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Unitarian Universalist or something else!

COST:
No Cost — Lunch Provided on Saturday. Donations Accepted

St. Paul's Cathedral is across the street from the Park St. station (MBTA Red & Green Lines ) and a short walk from the Downtown Crossing station (Orange & Red lines). Parking is available at the Boston Common Garage. For Directions go to: http://www.stpaulboston.org/maps.asp

For more information contact Vince Maraventano at vince@MIPandL.org or 617-244-0755

To REGISTER http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6z1851k17e76c53&llr=evkqo7bab

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

"Utility of the Future"
Friday March 1
12:45 pm
MIT, Building 26-100, access via 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge

The panel seeks to explore what the "utility of the future" will look like from multiple perspectives, asking the question, "Given the changing electricity grid landscape and new customer expectations, can the conventional utility model persist and evolve to meet new challenges, or is a new paradigm needed?" Confirmed speakers include Terry Boston (CEO of PJM Interconnection, Bruce Braine (of American Electric Power), Brendan Endicott (EnerNOC) and Lena Hansen (Rocky Mountain Institute). For more information, including on speakers and topics, visit www.mitenergyconference.com

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

Askwith Forum: Race, Poverty, Power, and Politics in our Education System
WHEN  Fri., Mar. 1, 2013, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138
TYPE OF EVENT Forum, Lecture, Question & Answer Session
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME  Amber DiNatale
CONTACT EMAIL  askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE  617-384-9968
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED  No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture, Special Events
NOTE  Speaker: Denise Juneau, Ed.M.’94, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of Montana
In many respects, we still operate in a racially and economically segregated system where those in power lack the political will to really dig in and address our greatest challenges. Political “reforms” for education are failing because they focus on the wrong issues. We need to get back to the basics of working with communities and focusing on educating everyone for success. Superintendent Juneau will discuss school improvement efforts in Montana that focus on community and family engagement, provide culturally-relevant learning, and address the social and emotional needs of children in poverty. The current political debates about education require us to raise our voices or we could lose one of the last truly public systems in our country and our best hope for the future.
In conjunction with 11th Annual Alumni of Color Conference, The Revolution will be LIVE.

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

MIT Energy Conference Friday Night Showcase
Friday March 1st
6 to 9pm
Boston Park Plaza Castle, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street, Boston

The Friday Night Energy Showcase is a free event open to the public designed to exhibit the latest research and technologies in the energy space. With more than 100 presenters and 1500 attendees, the Friday Night Energy Showcase is the most widely attended event of the MIT Energy Conference. Energy professionals, students, researchers and the general public will be able to explore the innovations that will shape the industry in the near future.

http://mitenergyconference.com

Along with posters from academic institutions and start-ups, the Showcase will also feature interactive demos and prototypes, giving attendees a unique opportunity to mingle with prominent energy researchers and innovators within a hands-on atmosphere. The casual setting is designed to foster dialogue amongst energy-conscious community members and experienced professionals.

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

A Lecture of Love on Rumi and his Masnawi
WHEN  Fri., Mar. 1, 2013, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE  Barker Center, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Religion, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program, the Harvard Islamic Society, the Harvard Divinity School Muslim Student Organization
SPEAKER(S)  Ömer Tuğrul İnançer
CONTACT INFO aisp@fas.harvard.edu
NOTE  Ömer Tuğrul İnançer is a Sufi scholar, musician, and leader of the Halveti-Jerrahi Sufi order. Founded in the 17th century by Muhammad Nuraddin al-Jerrahi, who traced his lineage to the Prophet Muhammad, the Halveti-Jerrahi order was widespread throughout Turkey, Macedonia, and the Balkans during the Ottoman period. Today it is a cultural, educational, and social relief organization with members from diverse professional, ethnic and national backgrounds, including communities in the United States. Ömer Tuğrul İnançer has been the leader of the Halveti-Jerrahi order since 2000, and frequently delivers lectures on Sufism, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, and Islam in Turkey and internationally.
LINK http://www.islamicstudies.harvard.edu/event/a-lecture-of-love-on-rumi-and-his-masnawi/

----------------------
Saturday, March 2
----------------------

Community Organizing Training
March 2nd

Building a Climate Change Movement Based on Values

Do you want to mobilize your community to meet the challenge of climate change by taking action?Marla Marcum, climate activist and Director of Programs for the Better Future Project will lead a training on the values-based method of community organizing developed by Marshall Ganz at Harvard University.

YOU WILL LEARN:
The Basics of Leadership and Organizing
How to Develop your Public Narrative
How to Build Relationships that Create Commitment
How to Build a Leadership Team, and
How to Create a Plan that Meets Goals
WHEN:
Friday, March 1 from 6 PM to 8:45 PM & Saturday, March 2 from 9 AM to 4 PM

WHERE:
Sproat Hall, St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

WHO:
Anyone affiliated with a faith community. You are welcome if you are: Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Unitarian Universalist or something else!

COST:
No Cost — Lunch Provided on Saturday. Donations Accepted

St. Paul's Cathedral is across the street from the Park St. station (MBTA Red & Green Lines ) and a short walk from the Downtown Crossing station (Orange & Red lines). Parking is available at the Boston Common Garage. For Directions go to: http://www.stpaulboston.org/maps.asp

For more information contact Vince Maraventano at vince@MIPandL.org or 617-244-0755

To REGISTER http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e6z1851k17e76c53&llr=evkqo7bab

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

Transit Equity Summit
Saturday, March 2nd
9:00am-4:00pm
City Year, 287 Columbus Ave, Boston (one block from Back Bay T station)
Free and open to the public.
Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5408504984/

Please join the Greater Boston Transit Justice Coalition, On The Move, for a full day summit on transit equity campaign and visioning for the future. Together we can improve public transportation policies this year. We can determine what public transit could be.

Debt deteriorates our public transit system. Without action, we face another round of fare hikes and service cuts. We must move beyond the second class status of riders. Our lives depend on it.

Complimentary lunch and breakfast. Childcare provided.
See our website for conference updates.

Coalition members include: LivableStreets Alliance, Action for Regional Equity, Bikes not Bombs, MASSPIRG, Sierra Club, The Arborway Committee, The Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, The T Riders Union (TRU), Washington Street Corridor Co

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

Humanitarian Response: Innovation to Meet Needs
Saturday, March 2
10am-4pm (reception following)
Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts
Free registration at www.gordon.edu/humanitarian

This conference brings together practitioners of humanitarian response and international health, students considering a career in this area, and academic researchers.  Supply systems are critical to humanitarian response; yet the context presents unique challenges for logistics management.  Recent experiences and innovative approaches will be presented.

Speakers from Partners In Health, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Heart To Heart International, and the California Department of Public Health will talk about the logistics of humanitarian response in situations ranging from the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the recent Hurricane Sandy. Afternoon sessions will feature student projects in disaster response, food security and global health.

Please visit www.gordon.edu/humanitarian for program information, registration and directions to Gordon College, just 30 minutes north of Boston. The event is free. When registering, you can purchase a discount food voucher for lunch.

Organized by
Mike Veatch, Gordon College Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Jarrod Goentzel, MIT Humanitarian Response Lab

For more information, contact Margie.Roaf@gordon.edu

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

Tufts Energy Conference 2013: Powering Global Energy Security
Saturday, March 2, 2013
12:30 PM - Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 5:30 PM (EST)
Cabot Intercultural Center, The Fletcher School at Tufts University, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Register at http://tuftsenergyconference2013.eventbrite.com

Agenda and information at http://www.tuftsenergyconference2013.com
Cost:  $10-65

--------------------
Monday, March 4
--------------------

A New Social Safety Net?
WHEN  Mon., Mar. 4, 2013, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Taubman, NYE A, 5th floor, Harvard Kennedy School, 5 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S)  Peggy Levitt, professor of sociology, Wellesley College; Sarah Van Walsum, professor in migration law and family ties, Vrije University in Amsterdam
NOTE  Frontline with Faculty Series:  http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1876/spring-2013-frontline-with-faculty-series-2/
LINK http://hausercenter.harvard.edu/1876/spring-2013-frontline-with-faculty-series-2/

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

"Frugal Innovation"
Monday, March 4, 2013 
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
 
with Daniel Nocera, Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard
ETIP/Consortium Energy Policy Seminar

Contact Name:  Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu

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

Challenges for Machine Learning in Computational Sustainability
Mar 04, 2013 
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G125, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Tom Dietterich, Oregon State University
Research in computational sustainability seeks to develop and apply methods from computer science to the many challenges of managing the earth’s ecosystems sustainably. Viewed as a control problem, ecosystem management is challenging for two reasons. First, we lack good models of the function and structure of the earth’s ecosystems. Second, it is difficult to compute optimal management policies because ecosystems exhibit complex spatio-temporal interactions at multiple scales.

This talk will discuss some of the many challenges and opportunities for machine learning research in computational sustainability. These include sensor placement, data interpretation, model fitting, computing robust optimal policies, and finally executing those policies successfully. Examples will be discussed on current work and open problems in each of these problems.

All of these sustainability problems involve spatial modeling and optimization, and all of them can be usefully conceived in terms of facilitating or preventing flows along edges in spatial networks. For example, encouraging the recovery of endangered species involves creating a network of suitable habitat and encouraging spread along the edges of the network. Conversely, preventing the spread of diseases, invasive species, and pollutants involves preventing flow along edges of networks. Addressing these problems will require advances in several areas of machine learning and optimization.

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

Future of Energy
Monday, March 4, 2013 
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Harvard, Science Center C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Allison Macfarlane, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Honorable Allison M. Macfarlane was sworn in as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission July 9, 2012. She was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to a term expiring June 30, 2013.

Dr. Macfarlane, an expert on nuclear waste issues, holds a doctorate in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s of science degree in geology from the University of Rochester. Prior to beginning her term as the NRC’s 15th chairman, Dr. Macfarlane was an associate professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

From 2010 to 2012 she served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, created by the Obama Administration to make recommendations about a national strategy for dealing with the nation’s high-level nuclear waste. Her research has focused on environmental policy and international security issues associated with nuclear energy, especially the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. In 2006, MIT Press published a book she co-edited, Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High-Level Nuclear Waste, which explored technical issues at the proposed waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

During her academic career, she held fellowships at Radcliffe College, MIT, and Stanford and Harvard Universities. From 1998 to 2000 she was a Social Science Research Fellow-MacArthur Foundation Fellow in International Peace and Security. She has served on National Academy of Sciences panels on nuclear energy and nuclear weapons issues. From 2003 to 2004, she was on the faculty at Georgia Tech in Earth science and international affairs.

Dr. Macfarlane is the third woman to serve as chairman, the 33rd member and the only individual with a background in geology to serve on the Commission.

Contact Name:  Lisa Matthews
lisa_matthews@harvard.edu

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

Microfinance 101 with Accion International
Monday, March 4, 2013
6:30 PM
Hostelling International Boston, 19 Stuart Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-International-Volunteers/events/104645042/

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is well and survived the blizzard. Just wanted to let you all know that Accion International, a Boston-based NGO, is hosting a very special presentation delving into the world of microfinance. Senior Director of Resource Development, Erika Eurkus, and Kate McGrath, Manager of the Accion Ambassadors Program, will be discussing the basics of microfinance development here in the US and abroad. In addition, they'll highlight the pressing issues within the microfinance industry today and how each of you can get involved, namely through the Accion Ambassadors Program. The program sends interested volunteers to Accion's partner microfinance institutions where they can document the impact of microfinance on the poor. Event starts at 6:30 p.m. and light refreshments will be served.

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Experiments in Thinking, Action & Form:  CINEMATIC MIGRATIONS II 
Monday, March 04, 2013
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, ACT Cube, Wiesner Building, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

John Akomfrah, OBE
Director, filmmaker, and writer, Smoking Dogs Films, UK
Lina Gopaul
Producer and writer, Smoking Dogs Films, UK
Considering the Stuart Hall Project
The Stuart Hall Project (2012) is a film on the cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall. Directed by John Akomfrah and produced by Lina Gopaul, the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2013. Through archival footage, television excerpts, family photographs, and music, Akomfrah's portrayal of Hall's life, work, and cultural impact explores issues of identity, cultural acceptance, immigration, and assimilation. In their lecture, the filmmakers will reflect on the film's cultural and technological context.

John Akomfrah, OBE, and Lina Gopaul co-founded the seminal film and video group Black Audio Film Collective and the more recent production company Smoking Dogs Films. Their collaborative and long-standing partnership has won them over thirty-five international awards and over one hundred official film festival selections. Exploring the fertile grounds of film, television, and new technologies, their work challenges and redefines traditional modes of documentary filmmaking.

This lecture is presented in collaboration with the MIT Visiting Artists Program.

Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/2013-spring/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture, Arts at MIT
For more information, contact:  Laura Anca Chichisan
617-253-5229
act@mit.edu

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Tuesday, March 5
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NESEA Building Energy Conference
March 5-7
Seaport World Trade Center, Boston
Register at http://www.nesea.org/buildingenergy/

Editorial Comment:  Building Energy is the premier green building and energy conference in the Northeast.  It's audience is primarily professional architects, buildings, planners, and designers but it showcases the latest technology available for the energy conscious consumer as well.

It costs money but is definitely worth it, even if you are just going to the trade show.  However, here's a promo code for $50 off conference passes : 50GMOKEBE13 .

This year should be especially good as Paul Eldrenkamp of Biggmeister, a fine energy craftsman, led the conference committee.

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Science Policy Lunch with Robert K. Coughlin
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
12:00p–1:00p
Location: RSVP to spi-lunch@mit.edu for location

As President and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Bob's mission is to foster a positive environment that enables each biotechnology company to achieve its full potential in Massachusetts, making the state a world center for biotechnology. He is very familiar with all areas of the Massachusetts life sciences super cluster and is a passionate advocate for research and the biotechnology community.

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

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Cleantech Innovations New England Technology Showcase NECEC Institute
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 
12:30 PM to 7:30 PM (EST)
EPA New England Headquarters, 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100, Boston

Calling all InnovateMass applicants, Cleantech Innovations New England awardees and Cleantech Open Northeast 2012 alumni! New England's Cleantech leaders have been asking about you...

Join the NECEC Institute, the U.S. EPA and New England's cleantech leaders on March 5th for a FREE poster pitch training followed by a poster session and coordinated networking with leaders in New England's cleantech ecosystem.

Cleantech Innovations New England EPA Water Challenge Applicants Only - will have an opportunity to pitch before a panel who will provide them with direct, friendly, and actionable feedback. There are no 'awards' in this pitch session, it's simply an opportunity for entrepreneurs to receive feedback from friendly and informed community leaders, away from the pressure of business plan competitions.

AGENDA
Whenever you plan on arriving, allow yourself 30 minutes to get through EPA security.  The security is comparable to that at an airport so be sure not to bring any weapons or sharp objects (e.g. swiss army knives) and be prepared to de-shoe.

12:30pm - 3:00pm - 30-minute, 1:1 Coaching Sessions for InnovateMass Cleantech Innovations New England-EPA Water Challenge applicants
2:00pm - 3:00pm Set-up for Poster Session
Open to entrepreneurs from the Cleantech Innovations New England, Cleantech Open Northeast 2012 and InnovateMass competitions.
(Please plan to bring your poster and stand.  Extra points for entrepreneurs that bring products to touch!)
3:00pm - 4:30pm Poster Pitching 101 - How to Sell Your Concept
Classroom-style interactive workshop - Refine your message and prepare your pitch.
Open to all entrepreneurs who participated in Cleantech Innovations New England, Cleantech Open Northeast 2012, and InnovateMass competitions.
4:45pm - 6:00pm Pitch / Panel Session for Cleantech Innovations New England EPA Water Challenge applicants
Pitch in a friendly environment and receive constructive feedback from our panel of business experts. 
6:00pm - 7:30pm Networking Mixer (Details TBA)

Questions? Please contact Kim Herb, kherb@nececinstitute.org or 617-600-7205.

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Beyond Participation: Transforming Local Civic Engagement Through an Online Game
March 5
12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required for those attending in person at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2013/03/gordon#RSVP
This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm ET.

Eric Gordon, Berkman Center Fellow
The problem of civic engagement is often un­derstood as a lack of participation. People do not show up to meetings, they do not engage in their civic institutions or communicate with decision-makers. Engagement strategies of­ten involve a lot of bean counting, where the quantity of people participating is more impor­tant than the quality of participation created. The Engagement Game Lab has developed an online game called Community PlanIt to explore how game mechanics and social interaction can move local civic processes beyond transactive participation towards civic learning – or a sustained, reflective mode of civic interaction. Over the past year, Community PlanIt has been played in six distinct planning processes ranging from urban planning in Detroit and Philadelphia to education planning in Boston.  This talk explores the unique affordances of Community PlanIt for building social trust, engaging youth in civic life, and developing shared local narratives. It will address the complexities of implementing an online game within official public feedback processes, including dealing with positive and negative perceptions of games, assuring a commitment from organizations and decision-makers to being responsive to an online social network, and cultivating trust and civility amongst players and between players and decision-makers. Ultimately, Community PlanIt serves as a multi-site case study in the design of playful, place-specific and networked local engagement that should inform how government thinks about community participation.

About Eric
Eric Gordon is a researcher and game designer who investigates how games and social media can enhance civic learning and local engagement. He is the director of the Engagement Game Lab and an associate professor in the department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. He is the co-author (with Adriana de Souza e Silva) of the book Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (2011) and the author of the Urban Spectator: American Concept-cities from Kodak to Google (2010).  While at the Berkman Center, Eric will study the impact of game-based learning on local civic engagement and explore how new technologies can enhance citizenship and collective efficacy.

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Quantum Dots: From MIT to Market
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Refreshments at 3:45 p.m.

Speaker: Seth Coe-Sullivan, QD Vision, Inc.

Web site: http://mtlweb.mit.edu/seminars/spring2013.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact:  Valerie Dinardo
253-9328
valeried@mit.edu

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41st Annual James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award Lecture
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Professor Maria Zuber, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
Maria Zuber, a pioneer in space exploration who has made seminal breakthroughs in understanding solar system planets and their evolution, is the recipient of MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award for 2012-13.

The award, established in 1971 to honor the Institute's 10th president, recognizes extraordinary professional achievements by an MIT faculty member. Each year, candidates for the award are nominated by their peers, and a winner is chosen by a faculty committee.

Zuber, the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), has spent much of her career charting new territory in planetary science, spearheading missions to map planetary bodies within the solar system in unprecedented detail. Such maps have revealed new information about the composition and atmosphere of Mercury, Mars, and the moon.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/killian-award-0529.html?tmpl=component&print=1
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free

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2013 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Announcement & Invention Showcase
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Lobby 13, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Come meet MIT's most inventive students!
Join
Eric Grimson, MIT Chancellor,
Dorothy Lemelson,Chair of The Lemelson Foundation,
Carol Dahl, Executive Director of the The Lemelson Foundation, and
The Lemelson-MIT Program for
A special Reception to announce the
Winner of the 2013 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize and an Invention Showcase featuring all of the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Applicants.

Web site: http://2013inventionshowcase.eventbrite.com/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: http://2013inventionshowcase.eventbrite.com/
Sponsor(s): Lemelson-MIT
For more information, contact:  Shannon O'Brien
617.258.5798
shannon1@mit.edu

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"Energy Politics: After Carbon Democracy"
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 
4:00pm - 6:00pm
Hauser 102, Harvard Law School, 1575 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University

Abstract: Professor Mitchell will lead a discussion on the themes raised in his recent book Carbon Democracy. He will share his thoughts as they have developed after completing that book and will reflect on the forms of politics that may arise in tandem with future energy transitions.

Biography: Timothy Mitchell is Professor and Chair of the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. His books include Colonising Egypt (1991), exploring the emergence of the modern state in the colonial period and  the forms of reason, power and knowledge that define the experience of modernity; Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity (2002), drawing on his work in Egypt to examine the making of “the economy” and “the market” as objects of twentieth-century politics and the wider role of expert knowledge in the formation of the contemporary state; and Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil (2011), arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil and that the politics of the West have become dependent on an undemocratic Middle East.

Co-sponsored by the Program on Science, Technology and Society and the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School.
Special Event: STS/IGLP Expertise Seminar

Contact Name:  Shana Rabinowich
Shana_Rabinowich@hks.harvard.edu

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Syria, Two Years into the Revolution
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
4:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building E51-395, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Christina Markus Lassen, Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and former Ambassador to Syria and Jordan from Denmark
Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar
The Syrian uprising broke out more than two months into the Arab Spring and took everyone by surprise. For a number of reasons, the prospect of an uprising taking place in Syria at this point was deemed to be low, but the resilience and bravery of the Syrian people facing the regime's brutality defied all expectations. Starting out as peaceful protests for reform and democratic change, the situation in Syria has after two years developed into a full scale conflict between opposition forces and regime loyalists. Based on her experience as a diplomat in Syria during the first year and a half of the uprising, Ambassador Lassen will analyze the development and major turning points of the crisis, the power bases of the regime and the role of minorities, the changing nature of the opposition, the role of the international community and the potential regional consequences of the current crisis.

The Bustani Middle East Seminar is organized under the auspices of the MIT Center for International Studies, which conducts research on contemporary international issues and provides and opportunity for faculty and students to share perspectives and exchange views. Each year the Bustani Seminar invites scholars, journalists, consultants, and other experts from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States to MIT to present recent research findings on contemporary politics, society and culture, and economic and technological development in the Middle East.

Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/bustani/
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Technology and Culture Forum
For more information, contact:  Heidi Erickson
252-1888
hae@mit.edu

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Bessora: "Literature in the Digital Age"
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E51-057, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Besmear
Bessora is a French writer, born in Brussels from a Gabonese father and a Swiss mother. She has lived in many countries including the US. After studying finance and anthropology, she now dedicates herself to writing. She is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories.

Bessora's writings focus on the Representations of identity, taboos and the need to categorize people. She questions the path to finding one's own identity and the difficulty of relationships in a globalized and technology-oriented world.

Bessora will present Cyr@no, her latest novel published in 2011 by Belfond. Cyr@no is a free reinterpretation of the play by Edmond Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac. Roxane is a XXIst century actress, Cyrano her imaginary friend, Christian her former lover, and Cyr@no the avatar Roxane created on the net in an attempt to regain the love of Christian. Her witty and funny story mixing slang, numeric language and language from the XVIIth century is a satire of the constant readjustment of identity, promoted by the web.

Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Foreign Languages & Literatures
For more information, contact:  Lisa Hickler
617-253-4771
lhickler@mit.edu

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Happy Hour at Greentown Labs with NEWIEE and YPE
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
Greentown Labs, 337 Summer Street, Boston

Join us for a joint NEWIEE and YPE happy hour at Greentown Labs. With three different groups, this is a great opportunity to meet new people and see old friends from within the environment and clean energy fields. We'll provide the space, food, and drink, and you'll bring the clean energy excitement. Everyone is welcome!

New England Women in Energy and Environment (NEWIEE) was founded to harness the passion, intelligence and leadership experience of New England women to promote and encourage public interest in the energy and the environment sectors.  NEWIEE is comprised of members across the public and private sectors, as well as various age groups, NEWIEE is also a stimulating forum for networking, sharing of expertise and information and mentoring.

Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) is a non-profit energy industry networking organization with over 20,000 members worldwide. YPE is dedicated to providing a forum for networking and career development for professionals in the global energy industry.  YPE's Boston Chapter includes more than 1,270 members and it’s goal is to organize and sponsor events to facilitate discussions about energy and to build and strengthen relationships in the energy community.

Greentown Labs provides entrepreneurs the research and development space they need to launch their clean technology ventures. Currently housing 24 early stage companies in 19,000 square feet of lab and office space, and located in downtown Boston's Innovation District, Greentown Labs is a not-for-profit organization that sprung from a grassroots cluster of award-winning clean technology companies looking for low-cost working space near MIT. 

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Preparing Massachusetts for Climate Change:  Do State and Local Government Have a Role, and What Are They Doing?
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
6:00 - 8:00 PM
Suffolk University Law School, First Floor Function Room, 120 Tremont Street, Boston

Severe weather events like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and their catastrophic results, underscore the need to prepare for climate change.   In Massachusetts, flooding is of particular concern.  Join in a discussion with leaders and experts in government, public policy, and environmental science about how climate change is expected to affect Massachusetts, what the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston are doing to prepare, and what public policy changes need to be made to optimize the response.
Panel:
Hon. Will Brownsberger, Massachusetts State Senator, Second Suffolk and Middlesex District
Philip Griffiths, Massachusetts Undersecretary for Environment
Kathleen Baskin, Massachusetts Director of Water Policy and Planning
Brian Swett, City of Boston Chief of Environment and Energy
Paul Kirshen, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire
Sue Reid, Vice President and Director, Massachusetts Conservation Law Foundation
Moderator:
David Barron, Honorable S. William Green Professor of Public Law, Harvard University Law School

A complimentary light meal will be provided.  Please bring a travel mug to reduce waste!

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so RSVP to reserve your seat today at
http://rappaportcenterclimatechange030513.eventbrite.com

Co-sponsored by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University Law School, and the Suffolk University Sustainability Committee, the Institute for Public Service, theGovernment Department, and the Environmental Science Department

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Upcoming
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Lightning talks: H/H & Nieman-Berkman are looking for the top new apps, cos.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
7:00 PM
Lippmann House, 1 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at http://meetupbos.hackshackers.com/events/103990562/

Interested in giving a 5-10 minute presentation about your great app, company, site, or research to a broad range of journalists and technologists?
Here's your chance.
There's only one requirement -- it must be related to media or journalism in some fashion. (And yes, we take a broad view on this.) .
If interested, e-mail Matt Carroll at matthewscarroll (at) msn.com. Include a short (2-3 sentence) description of what you would like to talk about and put"Lightning talk" in the subject line.
If there is a large number of interested parties, we may have H/H members vote on what they would like to see.

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16th Annual International Women's Day Breakfast
Women and Hunger: Putting Food on the Table
Friday, March 8, 2013 
7:30 AM (EST)
Simmons College, Linda K. Paresky Conference Center, 300 The Fenway, Boston
Suggested Donation $6.00 to be paid at the door
RSVP at http://iwd2013.eventbrite.com
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The New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable Presents:  RGGI Amendments:  Implications for New England & the Nation
March 8, 2013
9 am to 12:15 pm
Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston
 
On March 8th we will hold a special Roundtable on the just-amended Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).  Among the changes is an agreement by our six New England states, along with New York, Delaware, and Maryland, to reduce the cap by approximately 45%!

Please join us as we review the various RGGI amendments and their rationales, and explore the implications for energy markets in New England and the nation as a whole in the wake of President Obama's re-commitment to addressing climate change in his recent state-of-the-union address.

Our panel members were all actively and directly involved in the RGGI negotiations, and are well-poised to help us understand the changes and their implications for our region and the nation:
 Commissioner Ken Kimmell, Massachusetts DEP (RGGI Secretary)
Commissioner David Littell, Maine PUC (RGGI Vice-Chair)
Peter Shattuck, Director of Market Initiatives, Environment Northeast 
Brian Jones, Senior Vice President, MJ Bradley & Associates
A Generator (TBD)

We will use the same format debuted at last Friday's standing-room only Roundtable on Energy Efficiency, where the panelists make their presentations before our customary "networking" break, and then return for detailed discussion and questions from the audience after the break.
 
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Urban Farming Conference - “Cultivating Lands, Nourishing Communities, Building Businesses”
Saturday, March 9, 2013
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Roxbury Community College Reggie Lewis Center, Boston, MA

Presented by:  City Growers And Urban Farming Institute (UFI)
In partnership with:  MA Department of Agricultural Resources

The annual Massachusetts Urban Farming Conference (UFC) is designed to advance the opportunities and address the barriers involved in cultivating a thriving urban farming sector. The UFC is a forum to share information regarding what is currently happening in Boston and other local urban communities and to map out a vision for urban farming in Massachusetts.

The UFC brings together participants representing all aspects of urban farming including, but not limited to, farmers (including roof top, chicken, bees, etc.), commercial buyers, policy makers, and investors. The UFC conference is being convened to foster best urban farming practices, sustainable networks and business relationships. This will be achieved with following interactive panels and roundtable discussions:

Open Field Farming and Season Extension Techniques
Organic Farming and Its Importance
Lessons from Successful CSA Strategies
Composting: Policy, Practice and Viable Business Enterprise
Roof Top Techniques
Food System Investors Meeting
Urban Farming Thought Leaders: A Panel Discussion
Land: Strategy, Community Control, Zoning and Policy
Viable Enterprises Other Than Fruits and Vegetables
Investing in Workforce Training
Marketing Options

Registration $25. Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4701198411
Limited Seating. Register Early.
Limited Scholarships are available.
For Inquiries and Sponsorship Details, Please Contact: Crystal Johnson at Crystal@isesplanning.com, 617-416-4915

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The Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc. and the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. present:
Spring Planting 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
1:30 PM until 5:30 PM
First Parish Church, 10 Parish Street in the Meeting House Hill section of Dorchester.

Learn to grow food at your own home, in your yard, on your porch, inside your house.

This is a free event to help people learn how they can fight the world food crisis by learning to grow your own fresh, healthy nutritious foods.

Our co-sponsors include:
First Parish Church in Dorchester
Boston Natural Areas Network
The Food Project
The Family Nurturing Center of Dorchester
College Bound Dorchester
Bowdoin Street Health Center
Richard Mather School
Mather Parent Council

Information tables, displays and demonstrations including .
The Food Project
Boston Natural Areas Network
Home Depot
Victory Programs – Revision Urban Farm
Boston Vegetarian Society
Bowdoin Street Health Center
Next Step Living
Laurel Valchuis of Landless Gardens – grow food in only two square feet of
space!
Massachusetts Master Gardener’s Association
And more!

Are you interested in volunteering? Please contact me:
Owen Toney
Green Neighbors Education Committee, Inc.
281 Humboldt Avenue
Dorchester, MA 02121
(617) 427-6293 (voice, no text)
otoney@comcast.net

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MCAN / TAC Local Environmental Action Conference
Sunday, 10 March, 2013
09:30 AM - 05:00 PM
Northeastern University, Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

We are so very happy to announce that this year MCAN is partnering with the great organization the Toxics Action Center and putting together our two conferences.  For the past several years we've been working with TAC on their annual "Environmental Action" conference and they've been coming to our Climate Change conference, and it has become apparent that both our organizations share the mission of supporting and inciting local environmental action so a joint conference made a lot of sense.
The conference will feature the usual variety of workshops and panels on climate issues, the nuts and bolts of local organizing, and now other local environmental issues as well.  It has become very clear to us at MCAN that climate change affects and is affected by a host of issues not traditionally thought of as "global warming" subjects.  By putting our two conferences together we're hoping to give local activists the opportunity to learn more about the topics near and dear to their hearts, but also the chance to branch out and learn about other topics affecting their and their children's quality of life.

We will be rolling out details over the coming weeks, and will open registration after the first of the year.  If you have ideas for things you'd like to have as a part of the conference, we have a web form here.  For updated info, check out our conference webpage at http://massclimateaction.net/conference.html
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Event Contact Info  Rob Garrity
Email:  rob.garrity@massclimateaction.net
Phone: 6175150600

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“Open Source Science and Social Science: Forming a Public Laboratory”
Monday, March 11, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston

Sara Wylie
Senior Research Scientist, Social Science and Environmental Health Research Institute, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities@neu.edu
617-373-4140

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Music and Theater Arts Composer Forum presents Don Byron, MIT Visiting Artist
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
5:00 PM talk
MIT,  Lewis Music Library 14E-109, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Free and Open to the public. Reception follows.

Byron will speak about his new Clarinet Concerto to be premiered by the MIT Wind Ensemble; Evan Ziporyn, soloist, on March 16 in Kresge Auditorium.

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“Building Social-Ecological Cities: Community Development and the Institutional Challenge of Urban Environmentalism”
Monday, March 18, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston
James Connolly
Assistant Professor, Political Science and Public Policy and Urban Affairs, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities@neu.edu
617-373-4140

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“Ecological Forecasting: How Science Can Help Society to Proactively Prepare for a Warmer World”
Monday, March 25, 2013
12pm
Northeastern University, 450 Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont Street, Room 426, Boston
Brian Helmuth
Professor, Marine and Environmental Science and Public Policy, College of Science and College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Contact Northeastern Humanities nuhumanities@neu.edu
617-373-4140

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2nd Annual Boston Baseball Hack Day
Saturday, March 30, 2013
9:30 AM To 7:00 PM
Thoughtbot, 41 Winter Street, 7th floor, Boston
Register at http://bbhd2013.eventbrite.com/

Are you a web developer, designer, or a programmer who is interested in baseball? Or a passionate baseball fan with ideas?

Boston Baseball Hack Day on March 30, 2013, is the second annual hacking event where area baseball minds come together, form a team, and collaborate to create baseball-related project and bring an idea to life. The goal of the day is to bring creative minds into one room and see what they can produce within a limited time. The project could be (but is not limited to) a tool, simple web app, website, or data visualization. See what we did in 2012 to get an idea.

It is also a great opportunity to network and socialize among like-minded people. Projects will be judged by area experts, and a brief awards ceremony (with prizes courtesy of our sponsors) will conclude the program.

At the end of the day, projects will be judged by area experts, and a brief awards ceremony will conclude the event.

Baseball Hack Day is a free event thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.  Registration is required and seating is limited. So Register NOW!

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Landscaping with Climate in Mind
April 3
7:00 pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge

Sue Reed, Author of Energy-Wise Landscape Design.
Learn how to manage your landscape to save energy and reduce your carbon footprint—essential actions in this era of climate change.

Sponsored by Grow Native Massachusetts
http://www.grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts

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Save the Date: Friday 19 April, 2013
20th Anniversary Celebration of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP)
Convened in Honor of CIERP’s Director, Professor William Moomaw

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

On the afternoon of Friday, April 19, the Fletcher community will host a symposium on campus celebrating CIERP’s 20th Anniversary and honoring the distinguished career of William "Bill" Moomaw,Professor of International Environmental Policy and CIERP’s Founder and Director. The event will be themed around scaling renewable energy.

Please mark your calendars! More details to follow. All are welcome.

The Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP), established in 1992 at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, develops innovative approaches to shifting global development onto an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable path. We analyze how economic and social activities impact the environment, and design strategies for meeting human needs without straining the planet’s resources. CIERP advances theory, turns it into practice, educates the international community, and prepares students for careers as global leaders and citizens.

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SUSTAINABILITY:  PRACTICES AND POSSIBILITIES
3rd Massachusetts Sustainable Communities Conference
2nd Massachusetts Sustainable Campuses Conference
April 24, 2013
8am - 4pm
DCU Center, Worcester, MA

Conference details at http://masustainablecommunities.com
Register early and save at http://masccc.eventbrite.com
Cost:  $45 to $75


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Opportunity

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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!

Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch.  No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.

For more information checkout.
https://sites.google.com/site/somervilleyogurtcoop/home

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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, see
http://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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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/

Cambridge Civic Journal  http://www.rwinters.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/Johnny_Monsarrat/index.html

http://bostoneventsinsider.com/boston_events/