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
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Index
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Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.
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Monday, April 11
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12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
12pm Online Violence Against Women & Emerging Legal Protections: A Conversation with Congresswoman Katherine Clark
12pm How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
12:15pm Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
5pm The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform
5:30pm The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
6pm An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
6pm Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
6pm Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
6pm Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
6:30pm Didier Faustino, "Building Intimacy”
6:30pm Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
12pm Shira Center - The Trump Factor: Covering Election 2016
12pm A Burglar’s Guide to the City: On Architecture and Crime
12:30pm The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
1pm The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
3pm The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
4pm Dudley Herschbach Teacher/Scientist Lecture - Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title
4pm Harvard Origins of Life Initiative First Annual Prize Lecture
4pm Bonaire Bonanza Film Screening
4:45pm U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
5pm Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
5pm xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
6pm Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
6:30pm Ignite Boston: Data
6:30pm Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
7pm Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
7pm Ken O’Keefe
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Wednesday, April 13
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8:15am Suffolk University Moakley Breakfast Series
12pm Societal Warfare in the 21st Century
12:30pm U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Workshops Northeast Region
4pm From Biominerals to Ancient Technologies: Exploring New Routes for Durable Building Materials
4pm Witnessing Death: Policing, Race, and the Limits of Democracy in the 21st Century
4:10pm Reinventing Social Democracy? Sanders, Corbyn and Beyond
4:15pm Global Commons
4:15pm Carbon Tariffs: Effects in Settings with Technology Choice and Foreign Production Cost Advantage
5:30pm Askwith Forum – With This Ring: Winning Marriage Equality
5:30pm New Revenue through Business Model Innovation - Navigating the Cleantech Landscape
6pm Mammals on the Move
6pm Michael Göring: The Refugee Crisis. Europe at the Crossroads?
7pm BostonTalks Happy Hour: Game On
7pm Carbon Pricing: Its Time Has Come
8pm Ah humanity!
8pm Lee Historical Lecture in Physics: One Catastrophe After Another The Big Bang, Death of the Dinosaurs, Ice Ages, Global Warming, and Beyond
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Thursday, April 14
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Annual Bioethics Conference -- Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care: Core to our Mission or None of our Business?
9am Art Technology Psyche
11:45am Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
12pm Bridging the gap between waste and want: Turning Potentially Wasted Food into a Solution for Hunger
4pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Ryan Sullivan, CMU
4pm Making Robots Behave
4:30pm Starr Forum: Human Rights & Technology
5pm A Conversation with Mary Norris, the New Yorker's Comma Queen
5:30pm Celebrate Science: 2016 Cambridge Science Festival Kick-Off Party
5:30pm Farm Share Fair 2016
6pm Debate: The Origins of Human Cooperation: Views from Evolutionary Psychology
6:30pm Fletcher IDEAS Exchange: Human Security Approaches to Peacebuilding
7pm Balancing flexibility and scale in a synthetic biology foundry
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Friday, April 15
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9am Inequalities/Equalities in Cities
9am Doctoral Program Conference: "Cambridge Talks X | Bound and Unbound: The Sites of Utopia" (II)
9am DOE Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force and Public Stakeholder Meeting
10am WSSS Symposium 2016: Aqueous Solutions: Valuing Wastewater as a Resource
12pm Developing Future Air Quality Observing Strategies: Contributions from DISCOVER-AQ
12pm 21st Century Clinical Research: Patient Activism, Social Media, Digital Apps
1pm Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
3pm Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World
6:30pm The Classroom of Tomorrow – Swarm Robots in Education
7pm Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
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Saturday, April 16
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9am Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference
6pm Cambridge Science Festival: Worthy of AtTENtion: Gender,robots and everything in between
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Monday, April 18
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12pm Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
6pm Inhospitality: Borders and Border-Work at Europe's Doorsteps
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Tuesday, April 19
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8am Boston TechBreakfast: AMA XpertEye Inc, Code to Table, Inc., VQL, YooGloo Inc
12pm Media and Politics: What’s Next? – A Conversation with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows
12pm Copyright Law Year in Review
12:30pm Building a Biomedical Information Commons
4pm How to Tell a Story With Data: Tools of the Trade
4:30pm The Future of Energy Efficiency
4:30pm Panel Discussion: Refugees and migrants: the current crisis in Greece and Europe
5pm Efficient Buildings And Sustainable Urban Development Techmeeting
6pm The New Old Age: How the body ages and how to keep it young
6pm The Art & Science of Selling
6pm MIT NanoDay
6:30pm Challenges and Opportunities in High Level Renewable Energy Integration
7pm Questlove's somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs
7pm A Legacy of Hope & Solutions for the 21st Century
7pm Editing the Genome: Now We Can. Should We?
7pm BASEA Movie Night at Kendall Square Cinema: Catching the Sun! (Area Premier)
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
City Agriculture - April 10, 2016
http://cityag.blogspot.com/2016/04/city-agriculture-april-10-2016.html
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/10/1513477/-City-Agriculture-Apil-10-2016
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Monday, April 11
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
Monday, April 11
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Meiyun Lin (GFDL)
Meiyun Lin is a research scientist at NOAA and Princeton University's Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (2010-present). Lin's research seeks to advance knowledge on the interactions of air quality with weather and climate. Specifically, she investigates how climate variability & change affect the long-range transport of Asian pollution, intrusions of stratospheric ozone deep into the troposphere, and their impacts on western US ozone air quality. Focusing on these research themes, Lin's work has led to a stream of high-profile publications. The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone from 75 to 65-70 ppbv. Process-level understanding on daily to multi-decadal time scales is thus relevant for effective implementation of the ozone standard in western states. Meiyun Lin is also an investigator of the NASA Aura Sciences Team in Atmospheric Composition and the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team. Lin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo (2007) and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2010).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Online Violence Against Women & Emerging Legal Protections: A Conversation with Congresswoman Katherine Clark
Monday, April 11
12pm-1pm
Harvard Law School, Hauser 102
RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/1537563703211610/
How do we protect women online post gamer-gate? How do we balance first amendment rights against threats and safety concerns presented by online harassment? How do we train law enforcement to recognize legitimate online threats?
The Women’s Law Association and the Berkman Center are pleased to bring Congresswoman Katherine Clark (from the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts) to campus for a conversation around the growing threat of online harassment, and emerging legal protections. Congresswoman Clark will speak about the Cybercrime Enforcement Training Assistance Act, which she proposed this legislative session, as well as her own experiences with online harassment and “swatting.” The event will begin with an introduction by Clinical Fellow Andy Sellars.
A non-pizza lunch will be served!
This event co-Sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, ACS, JOLT, and WAPPP.
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How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
Monday, April 11
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Brian Murray, Director, Environmental Economics Program, Nicholas Institute, Duke University
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-160000-2016-04-11-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.pyjvPN0W.dpuf
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Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Cara Kieran Fallon, Harvard, History of Science
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contact Name: Shana Rabinowich
Shana_Rabinowich@hks.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-161500-2016-04-11-180000/sts-circle-harvard#sthash.txfoBu9H.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Pound Hall, Room 101
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Program of Study, Research & Advocacy
SPEAKER(S) Prof. Marie Gottschalk (University of Pennsylvania Law School)
Alison Holcomb (ACLU)
Mark Holden (Koch Industries)
Jake Horowitz (Pew Charitable Trusts)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO mworth@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS “The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform” is a panel presentation that will look from several vantage points at the extraordinary convergence on criminal justice issues and explore the opportunities (and potential pitfalls) of those shifting political configurations.
The discussion will trace the origins of the broad ideological alignment around criminal justice reform and appraise the new possibilities that those alliances bring about. It will also ask whether the convergence around criminal justice issues carries costs, such as submerging certain critiques of the criminal justice system, and whether it is likely to spur fundamental change. The panel will explore how the extraordinary political moment around criminal justice reform plays out the ground, in terms of state-level policy change and from the perspective of people working in the trenches of the criminal justice system.
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The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
Monday, April 11
5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. talk
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://support.nature.org/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=9027
Cost: $25, students $10
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate affirmed the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help communities adapt to climate change impacts.
What role can nature—through such things as carbon-storing forests, wave-absorbing salt marshes and protective floodplains—play in meeting the historic challenge of climate change?
How do communities like Boston’s best use these nature-based solutions alongside engineered solutions, to adapt and thrive?
An hour-long networking reception starts at 5:30 p.m. Talk begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include a closing audience Q&A.
We’ll kick off the talk with a screening of the Conservancy’s “The Nature of People,” a short documentary focusing on climate change and nature-based adaptation.
Panelists:
Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Spaces, City of Boston
Bud Ris, Senior Advisor, Climate, Barr Foundation
Glenn Prickett, Chief External Affairs Officer, The Nature Conservancy
Moderator:
Deborah Becker, Senior Correspondent and Host, WBUR
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An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Engagement Lab, 160 Boylston Street 4th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-introduction-to-machine-learning-for-law-journalism-and-public-policy-tickets-22233958368
Join us at the Engagement Lab for an introductory talk about machine learning featuring Harvard Fellow William Li. The talk will take approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-20 minute Q&A session. Refreshments will be served.
This talk focuses on machine learning techniques to uncover patterns and insights from large open government datasets. William Li will introduce some concepts of machine learning through two projects: First, he'll discuss an authorship attribution model of unsigned U.S. Supreme Court opinions, offering insights into the authorship of important cases and the dynamics of Supreme Court decision-making. Second, he'll present a novel model, Probabilistic Text Reuse (PTR), for finding repeated passages of text in large document collections. He'll illustrate the utility of PTR by capturing the structure of a large collection of public comments on the FCC's proposed regulations on net neutrality. Finally, he'll conclude with some thoughts on the challenges for machine learning in journalism, legal aid, and civic technologies.
About Our Speaker: William Li is a 2015-2016 Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a 2016 PhD computer science graduate from MIT. He develops and applies machine learning methods to answer social science questions computationally and to promote public understanding of law, politics, and public policy. His projects include predicting the authors of unsigned Supreme Court opinions, visualizing the complexity of our laws, and discovering ideas from large collections of public comments on proposed regulations. William has also worked on recommender systems, speech recognition, and user activity prediction at Apple and Mitsubishi Electric.
He did his master’s degrees at MIT in computer science and the Technology and Policy Program, founded the MIT Assistive Technology Club, and has taught classes that involve civic collaborations with organizations such as the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Cambridge Commission for People with Disabilities.
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Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/demo-day-a-celebration-of-student-innovation-at-northeastern-tickets-24223578375
Demo Day is the presentation of over 20 student ventures that have completed a 7-week program called the Husky Startup Challenge. These ventures have participated in five four-hour bootcamps, attended office hours with coaches, and worked with other Northeastern resources to develop their business plans. The Husky Startup Challenge serves to provide an exciting atmosphere where student-run ventures can engage with real world entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and create something extremely unique.
Demo Day is comprised of 3 parts
1) 6-7PM. Tabling: students set up a table with information about their companies and talk with attendees about their product and the work they did throughout the semester.
2) 7:15-8:30. Pitching: students then complete a 2 minute pitch in front of 300+ attendees, including a panel of 6 judges. We will be giving out $5000 in cash prizes.
3) 8:30-9. Keynote speaker & prize presentation
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Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Akamai Technologies, 150 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/229515406/
Akamai staff will be escorting attendees from the lobby up the stairs to the first floor, where you'll find our check-in table. Type the first few letters of your name on the screen and tap your name to print your name tag.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A.
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Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/microsoft-speakers-series-future-of-big-data-tickets-23481669305
HackerX has partnered with Microsoft to connect diverse tech talent with people who believe diversity is an advantage, and that inclusive teams are stronger, smarter, and better. Come join us for an inside look at what's new at Microsoft, including face-to-face interaction with Microsoft New England R&D teams. Come if you're curious about what's next at Microsoft or just want to connect with other talented people in the industry. The evening will be filled with food, drinks, and raffle prizes provided by the Microsoft team. This is Microsoft (Speaker Series), presented by HackerX.
GET AN INSIDE LOOK AT MICROSOFT
Want a chance to meet face-to-face with top management at Microsoft? It's one of a kind opportunity to meet some of Microsoft's senior technology influencers and next wave of leaders.
GET TO KNOW MICROSOFT
HackerX gives unrepresented and talented tech professional with a variety of skill. We especially seek, women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and many smart people who are driven to create change. We’ll wrap up the event with a free-form social hour where you can meet other professionals in the community and get to know like-minded visionaries looking for people to help take Microsoft to the next level.
GUEST SPEAKER
T.K. "Ranga" Rengarajan
Corporate Vice President, Technology & Research
T.K. “Ranga” Rengarajan, a Corporate Vice President within Technology and Research in Microsoft is responsible for global aspects of engineering. Among his responsibilities are all Microsoft Global Development Centers located in China, India, Israel, New England, Silicon Valley and Vancouver, the Garage program to drive grass root innovation and advanced technology projects in the areas of system and performance. Ranga and his teams are responsible to ensure Microsoft attracts, trains and retains the best talent in the world.
We live in an extraordinary time for data. In our mobile-first world, we have a multitude of devices -- phones, IoT sensors, computers -- capturing every step, touch, decision and action we take. In a cloud-first world, we have incredible data storage and processing capabilities to capture this torrent of data, analyze & combine them, share insights with others, and drive automated learning. The result is new productivity experiences where we are limited only by our data dreams and ability to imagine value from the data we possess.
AGENDA
6:00pm: Open networking, Food/drinks
7:00pm: Guest Speaker: Ranga Rengarajan + Demo, Raffle
8:00pm: Meet Microsoft Teams
9:00pm: Event ends
More at http://www.hackerx.org
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Didier Faustino, "Building Intimacy”
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Supported by the Rouse Visiting Artist Program, copresented by Harvard Graduate School of Design and the French Cultural Center
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office in advance at 617.496.2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS For Didier Faustino, the process of the architect, artist, or designer must preserve an engagement with political, social, and cultural issues. Since founding his Bureau des Mésarchitectures in 2002, Faustino has developed an expressive multidisciplinary practice in art and architecture that highlights the complex relationship between the body and the spaces it inhabits. By challenging the boundaries of these spaces, his work explores the precarious equilibrium between public and private space, publicity and intimacy. His lecture will feature ten projects chosen to make explicit the issues on which he focuses in his practice; these projects include his “under construction” building in Mexico and the project Alumnos 47, with which he will explain his method of “building intimacy.” Faustino’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions and has received several prizes, including the Académie d’Architecture’s Dejean prize for lifetime achievement in 2010. He currently divides his time among architecture (in Spain, Mexico City, Portugal), art (with exhibitions in Grenoble, London, and Rome), and teaching (AA School, Diploma Unit 2); and he is also editor-in-chief of the French architecture and design magazine CREE.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/lecture-didier-faustino.html
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Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
Monday, April 11
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
The Evolution of Individual Differences: Personality, Politics, and Sex
Guest scientist Max Krasnow
Max Krasnow is an assistant professor Psychology at Harvard. He the leader of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab, and his research focuses on the mechanisms underlying human social behavior and how they evolved. One line of this research has explored how the fact that the future of any interaction is uncertain conspires with distinctive features of the hominin social niche to select for organisms that are more generous, trusting and cooperative than an otherwise rational analysis would predict. In related work, he has shown in a series of behavioral experiments how these and other fundamental components of human social behavior, like our concern for the treatment of others and our punitive sentiments towards bad actors, can help cultivate mutually beneficial cooperative relationships and improve their terms when they begin to function poorly.
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
Tuesday, April 12
All day
MIT, Building W-16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
This symposium is part of MIT's Century in Cambridge celebration and will feature a campus-focused collection of innovative presentations by MIT faculty, researchers, and students, followed by panel discussions.
Program details will be added to the event website as soon as they become available.
Web site: http://mit2016.mit.edu/events/frontiers
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Institute Events
For more information, contact: MIT Institute Events
617-253-4795
century@mit.edu
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Shira Center - The Trump Factor: Covering Election 2016
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Harvard’s Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Shira T. Center, Political Editor, The Boston Globe
CONTACT INFO tim_bailey@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Shira T. Center edits political coverage for the Boston Globe, including Capital, the New Hampshire primary and 2016 presidential race. She joined the Globe in 2015 and previously served as politics editor for Roll Call, Capitol Hill’s top news source on Congress. A graduate of Northwestern University, Shira also worked as a politics writer for POLITICO and National Journal’s The Hotline in Washington, D.C.
LINK http://shorensteincenter.org/shira-center/
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A Burglar’s Guide to the City: On Architecture and Crime
Tuesday, April 12
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Manaugh#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Manaugh at 12:00 pm.
with author Geoff Manaugh
The relationship between burglary and architecture is far from abstract. While it is easy to focus merely on questions of how burglars use or abuse the built environment — looking for opportunities of illicit entrance — burglary, in fact, requires architecture. It is an explicitly spatial crime, one that cannot exist without a threshold to cross, without “the magic of four walls,” as at least one legal theorist has written.
Join Geoff Manaugh, author of the new book A Burglar’s Guide to the City, to discuss more than two thousand years’ worth of heists and break-ins, with a discussion ranging from the surprisingly — one might say uselessly — complicated legal definition of an interior space to the everyday tools burglars use to gain entry.
Written over the course of three years of research, Manaugh’s Burglar’s Guide includes flights with the LAPD Air Support Division, a visit with a panic room designer and retired state cop in his New Jersey warehouse, an introduction to the subculture of recreational lock-picking, a still-unsolved bank tunnel heist in 1980s Los Angeles, and much more.
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The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health FXB G-12, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) John D. Spengler & Aaron Bernstein
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The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
Tuesday, April 12
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Room 125 G, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dan Tchernov, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Founder and Department Head, Department of Marine Biology, Leon Charney School of Marine Science, University of Haifa, Israel
Certain scleractinian (stony) coral species are capable of alternating between non- calcifying soft body solitary forms to the more familiar calcifying colonial forms. This ability supports the hypothesis that scleractinian corals have survived through the ions even during unfavorable conditions for calcification. This physiological and morphological trait may shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms that allows these calcifying organisms to survive the third tier of mass extinctions. We show that incubation of two coral species under acidifying conditions invokes tissue-specific apoptosis (programmed cell death) that leads to disassociation of polyps from coenosarc (connective tissue) and the breakdown of the latter, resulting in the loss of colonial form and of the calcareous skeleton. Following reintroduction of the remaining solitary polyps to a more basic pH (8.2), both coral species examined (Pocillopora damicornis and Oculina patagonica) reformed coenosarc and initiated calcification. Our data shows that apoptosis is initiated in the polyps, and once disassociation between polyp and coenosarc terminates, it subsides. We show that corals respond to severe and rapid environmental changes using a controlled pathway governed by programmed cell death mechanisms. These results may provide a mechanistic explanation for several key evolutionary phenomena: (i) repeated loss/gain of coloniality in corals over the ions (ii) reported “programmed release” of single polyps including or devoid of skeleton following environmental stress, and (iii) patterns of survival of mass extinctions events demonstrated by corals over the geological time scales, thus providing new insight into nature's discontinuities (i.e. the third tier of the paradox of the tiers) S J Gould (1985).
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The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
Tuesday, April 12
3:00pm - 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker(s): Keith B. Maddox, Ph.D., Samuel Sommers Ph.D.
This interactive presentation will explore cognitive and behavioral science research on the nature of implicit bias. While the modern era is one in which most professionals believe themselves to be fair-minded individuals-perhaps even genuinely prioritizing egalitarian values-social categories including age, gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation continue to have profound effects on how we see and interact with the world around us in legal domains, in the classroom, and more generally throughout the course of daily life. What research tells us is that contemporary bias is often unconscious, but this doesn't make its implications for organizational climate or the individuals within that environment any less real. The science also demonstrates, however, that we are not hopelessly at the mercy of the power of expectation and bias, and we will identify the circumstances under which bias is most likely to emerge and evaluate potential strategies for trying to curtail such tendencies.
More at: http://bcs.mit.edu/news-events/events/science-stereotyping-and-implicit-bias#sthash.uabI8yXG.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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Dudley Herschbach Teacher/Scientist Lecture - Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Science Center, Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Office of Undergraduate Education, Harvard College, Herschbach Lecture Series
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley, founder of BerkeleyEarth.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Lauren Raece, raece@fas.harvard.edu, 617-384-7477
DETAILS "Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title." Energy, global warming, terrorism and counterterrorism, internet, satellites, remote sensing, and Triad, ICBMs and ABMs, DVDs and HDTVs--economic and political issues increasingly have a strong high-tech content. We need to catch future leaders early, and set them on a path of deep understanding of tech issues.
LINK http://oue.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k18059&pageid=icb.page498260
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Harvard Origins of Life Initiative First Annual Prize Lecture
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Pfizer Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Reception to follow at 5:15 P.M. in Naito Lab Café, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Origins of Life Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Gerald Joyce
CONTACT INFO kelly.moreno@cfa.harvard.edu
DETAILS We are honored to announce Gerald Joyce (Scripps Research Institute & Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation) as The Origins of Life Initiative's first annual Prize Lecturer. Joyce is one of this generation's leading thinkers and experimentalists in origins of life research and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Bonaire Bonanza Film Screening
Tuesday, April 12
4–6 pm
Harvard, 4th Floor Faculty Lounge, Hoffman Building, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Please join the FAS Green Program in partnership with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences for a viewing of Bonaire Bonanza. The documentary features the dynamic biodiversity that make up a living coral reef and documents the decades of work by the people and organizations of Bonaire to manage and protect them.
There will be a discussion afterwards hosted by George Buckley, Assistant Director, Sustainability, Harvard Extension School, who narrated and advised on the film.
Food and beverages will be provided.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/bonaire-bonanza-film-screening#sthash.cMhSc4Ai.dpuf
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U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
Tuesday, April 12
4:45p–5:45p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Charles T. Driscoll, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University
Carbon dioxide emissions standards for U.S. power plants will influence the fuels and technologies used to generate electricity, altering emissions of pollutants and affecting ambient air quality and public and ecosystem health.
Three alternative scenarios for U.S. power plant carbon standards were evaluated for changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone concentrations in ambient air, and resulting public health and ecosystem co-benefits. For two of the three policy scenarios, carbon standards for existing power plants can substantially decrease emissions of co-pollutants, and improve air quality and public health beyond existing air quality policies. A stringent but flexible policy that counts demand-side energy efficiency toward compliance yields the greatest health and ecosystem benefits and a favorable benefit-cost analysis. The magnitude and the nature of the co-benefits associated with this policy are highly distributed spatially, with all of the coterminous states receiving some health benefits and many states experiencing ecosystem benefits. Professor Charles Driscoll and his research teams current work involves an evaluation of options considered for implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan.
In this talk, Driscoll will discuss his research on power plant carbon standards and the potential impacts of the Clean Power Plan.
IHS Seminar Series
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/driscoll
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/412-seminar-us-power-plant-carbon-standards-and-the-potential-for-clean-air-human-health-and-tickets-24231414814
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: askmitei@mit.edu
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Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, B1, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Health Sciences, Humanities, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Panelists:
David Cox, PhD
Julie Shah, PhD
Sendhil Mullainathan, PhD
Jonathan Zittrain, JD
Moderator: Stuart Shieber, PhD
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS Each speaker will give a brief presentation and then participate in a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Shieber. A reception will follow the event.
LINK http://mbb.harvard.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-its-future-and-ours
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xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
Tuesday, April 12
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Shailendra Mehta
The 2600 year history of universities consists of three broad periods, of 1800 years, 700 years and 100 years, during which respectively, the Indian, the European and US universities have been dominant. During these three periods which have rarely been looked at together, the university form evolved gradually to its present form.
We will look at nearly 20 innovations that have taken place in the university form during this time, and highlight the remarkably similar sets of problems that were solved thereby in different regions of the world. The continuing dynamism of US universities will also be touched upon, as stemming from their unique governance forms. We will also look at the impact of new technologies such as MOOCs on the evolution of the university form.
Prof. Shailendra Raj Mehta, is Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Chairman of the Board of Management at Auro University.
This event is co-sponsored with MIT-India Program.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/shailendra-mehta-history-university
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Digital Learning, xTalks: Digital Discourses, MIT India Program
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info@mit.edu
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Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
Tuesday, April 12
6:00p
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
FREE admission! Poverty, Inc. will be followed by a panel discussion. Co-hosted with Energy for Human Development (e4Dev).
"I see multiple colonial governors," says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. "We are held captive by the donor community."
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry ??? the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change.
Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore.
From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
Web site: http://lsc.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Tickets: Lobby 16
Sponsor(s): LSC, e4Dev
For more information, contact: LSC
617-253-3791
lsc@mit.edu
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Ignite Boston: Data
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-boston-data-tickets-22296376061
Enlighten us, but make it quick
Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's back in Boston. Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is an evening of fast and fun presentations which each last just 5 minutes.
Join us at the District Hall to connect with the data community and hear from those who have survived, thrived, or died in a data-driven world. Then stay to network with a beer and wine reception.
Call for Participation
Do you have something interesting to share about data? A big idea to share? A story waiting to be heard? Submit your presentation to the call for participation.
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Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, 17th floor, Milky Way Event Space, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/229848506/
Dr Jeff Karp, Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Dr Jeff Karp will give an inspiring talk about two of the most powerful tools used by his bio-research lab to solve problems in innovative ways, on a continuing basis: bioinspiration and radical simplicity.
Jeff explains how his team has employed these tools and how they can succeed in any field. This talk opens exciting new paths to the continual innovation that is so important in today’s fast-changing world.
Schedule:
6:30PM: Welcome
7PM: Dr Jeff Karp's presentation
8PM: Networking
BIO
Dr. Jeff Karp is an Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
He has published >100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and has given >200 national and international invited lectures and has 65 issued or pending patents. Several technologies have formed the foundation for multiple products on the market and currently under development and for the launch of two companies, Gecko Biomedical and Skintifique.
The Boston Business Journal recognized him as a Champion in Healthcare Innovation and MIT’s Technology Review Magazine (TR35) also recognized Dr. Karp as being one of the top innovators in the world (3 members from his laboratory have received this award).
His work has been selected by Popular Mechanic's "Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine.” He gave a TEDMED talk on bioinspired medical innovation and is a member of the TEDMED Editorial Advisory Board. In 2015 he received a Breakthrough Award from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and was a commencement speaker at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Karp was selected as the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Mentor among all Faculty at MIT and he received the HST McMahon Mentoring award for being the top mentor of Harvard-MIT students. To date, 17 trainees from his laboratory have secured faculty positions.
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Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
Tuesday, April 12
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium, Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106445&view=Detail
Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with:
Michael Jasny, Director, Marine Mammal Protection, Natural Resources Defense Council
Brandon Southall, Senior Scientist, Southall Environmental Associates, Inc.
Scott Kraus, Vice President of Research, New England Aquarium
Chris Clark, Johnson Senior Scientist, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell University
Patrick Ramage, Program Director, Whales, International Fund for Animal Welfare
Moderated by Leila Hatch, Ph.D., Marine Ecologist, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA
The ocean is not a silent world, but a dynamic, living symphony of sound. In water, sound travels five times faster and many times farther than it does in air. Whales, dolphins, porpoises and other marine mammals have evolved to take advantage of this perfect sonic medium. Just as we rely on sight to survive, they depend on sound to hunt for food, find mates, and detect predators.
Over the last 50 years, our increasing ocean presence has drastically transformed the acoustic environment of these majestic creatures. Undersea noise pollution is invisible but it is damaging the web of ocean life.
Sonic Sea is about understanding and protecting the vast symphony of life in our waters
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Ken O'Keefe
Tuesday, April 12
7-10pm
Harvard Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
free, donations welcome
Ken O'Keefe, San Diego native, former United States Marine, Gulf War veteran, organizer of the human shield action to Iraq, survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara, Irish-Palestinian citizen & founder of World Citizen Solutions.
"Seeking the truth and acting on the truth, this is the path to a better world, nothing can be done overnight, it is a constant, unrelenting commitment to the truth that will liberate humanity." ~ Ken O'Keefe
This gem of a guy is not afraid to tell it like it is; and he has a plan - a simple plan - for all us fellow earthlings fed-up to the gills with the psychopaths that are ruining the planet - and with those who support and /or ignore them.
"The tyrants have no power but that which we have unwittingly relinquished to them... in order to create a better world we simply need to take our power back."
Please come and hear Ken speak from the heart about his awakening and how you as an individual, can positively impact and influence all of humanity, not just for now but for all future generations.
This event is FREE. Donations are accepted to go to defray expenses of Ken's travel.
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Wednesday, April 13
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Suffolk University Moakley Breakfast Series
Wednesday, April 13,
8:15 AM to 9:30 AM
Suffolk University, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/suffolk-university-moakley-breakfast-series-tickets-24349054678
Panelists:
Chris Barry-Smith, First Assistant Attorney General/Chair, Attorney General's Opiate Task Force
Ann-Margaret Ferrante, State Representative (D-Gloucester)
Jennifer Tracey, Director, Office of Recovery Services, City of Boston
Moderator:
Linda Melconian, JD
Senior Fellow, Moakley Center for Public Management
Professor, Suffolk University
Former MA Senate Majority Leader
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Societal Warfare in the 21st Century
Wednesday, April 13
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Buidling E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Johanthan Shimshoni (MIT Visiting Fellow) & Ariel Levite (Carnegie Endowment;KSG Visitor)
SSP Wednesday Seminar Series
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: Elina Hamilton
617-253-7529
elinah@mit.edu
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U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Workshops Northeast Region
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 12:30 PM - Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 4:00 PM (EDT) -
Boston Marriott Long Wharf, 296 State Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/us-department-of-energy-grid-modernization-workshops-northeast-region-registration-22286198620
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is convening six regional workshops across the country as part of its Grid Modernization Initiative. The Northeast Region workshop will be held at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts on April 13 and 14, 2016.
The objective of the workshops is to solicit stakeholder input on DOE’s grid-related research and demonstration strategy and the grid-related technical challenges of emerging policy issues confronting the region and the nation as a whole. The workshops will have a technology session and a regional session.
The technology session will solicit feedback on the Department’s Grid Modernization Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP) and its six technical areas: 1) Devices and Integrated Systems, 2) Sensing and Measurement, 3) System Operations and Control, 4) Security and Resilience, 5) Design and Planning Tools, and 6) Institutional Support. The regional session will explore the technology implications and challenges associated with emerging policies.
Agenda
Detailed agenda available soon.
Contact Eric Lightner
eric.lightner@hq.doe.gov, 202-586-8130
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From Biominerals to Ancient Technologies: Exploring New Routes for Durable Building Materials
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 1-131, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Admir Masic
Inspired by the remarkable structural complexity of biological materials and their benign conditions for synthesis, Nature can offer tremendous insights into design and processing strategies for the synthesis of complex, damage tolerant, and hierarchically ordered composites. Similarly to Nature, ancient processing technologies delivered extremely durable and environmentally resistant construction materials, many examples of which have persisted in excellent condition for more than 2000 years. In order to unlock the design secrets of both biological and ancient materials, we have to understand the intrinsic material properties at all levels of their structural hierarchy, their intricate structure-chemistry-function relationships, and the consequences associated with their interactions with the external environment. In this talk, I will present an overview of my research on advanced multiscale material characterization approaches to study in situ hierarchical structures and transformations of relevant biological and ancient materials. By integrating the state-of-the-art characterization and modeling tools, a novel roadmap for durable and sustainable building materials of our future will be outlined.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Marilyn Siderwicz
617-324-7652
ceed@mit.edu
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Witnessing Death: Policing, Race, and the Limits of Democracy in the 21st Century
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Lawrence Ralph, 2015-2016 Joy Foundation Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Departments of Anthropology and African and African American Studies, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Anthropologist Lawrence Ralph will share insights from his current research project, which involves US citizens who feel that the American legal system is not equipped to address police use of extralegal force. Ralph’s work addresses the domestic problem of police force in relation to the pressing international concern of global governance. His research suggests that given the current climate of police violence, racial angst, and heightened awareness around policing in the US and abroad, a comprehensive study is needed to think critically about the state and practices of policing.
LINK http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2016-laurence-ralph-fellow-presentation
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Reinventing Social Democracy? Sanders, Corbyn and Beyond
Wednesday, April 13
4:10 - 5:30pm
Harvard, Ash Center, Suite 200-North, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
What are the particular challenges facing social democrats — or the millennial inheritors of the social democratic tradition—in the U.S., U.K. and beyond? Join this discussion on the evolving prospects for social democratic parties across Europe and farther afield. Panelists will explore emerging opportunities for experimentation within social democratic politics and the wider ecosystem which surrounds it, including the interplay between NGOs/advocacy organizations, campaigns and candidates.
Panelists:
esse Littlewood, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Director of Digital, Common Cause
Quinton Mayne, Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Kathryn Perera, Fulbright Scholar, Visiting Fellow and Chief Executive, Movement for Change
Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy (moderator)
Presented by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center.
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Global Commons
Wednesday, April 13
4:15PM
Harvard, CGIS-S020, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
The Energy History Project hosts Surabhi Ranganathan, Kings College, University of Cambridge, who will discuss "Global Commons.”
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/energyhistory/index.html
Contact Name: Emily Gauthier
gauth@fas.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-201500/global-commons#sthash.mqqDRF4q.dpuf
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Carbon Tariffs: Effects in Settings with Technology Choice and Foreign Production Cost Advantage
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S) David Drake, Harvard University
LINK https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/5340
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Askwith Forum – With This Ring: Winning Marriage Equality
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education.
SPEAKER(S) Julie Goodridge, Ed.M.’83, Founder and CEO, NorthStar Asset Management; lead plaintiff in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, winning marriage rights for same sex couples in Massachusetts
Timothy McCarthy, Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard College; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Marc Solomon, Principal and National Director, Civitas Public Affairs; former National Campaign Director, Freedom to Marry; author, Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits—and Won
Moderator: Matthew Miller, Ed.M.’01, Ed.D.’06, Lecturer on Education and Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, HGSE
COST This event is free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS Public opinion on marriage equality shifted more dramatically than nearly any other civil rights debate in history. What made the movement successful? What lessons can we learn from the marriage equality movement? What's next for LGBTQ equality, now that marriage is the law of the land? What role should educators play in advancing equality? How can teachers and school leaders create safe and welcoming spaces for LGBTQ families?
This forum is being held in conjunction with the Out Front! LGBTQ Leaders to Learn From speakers series, and is part of HGSE's Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity community conversation.
LINK http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117934957
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New Revenue through Business Model Innovation - Navigating the Cleantech Landscape
Wednesday, April 13
5:30p–8:00p
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor Havana Room, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Cost: $0 - $30
Speaker: Eric Graham, CEO, Crowdcomfort; Daniel Hullah, Director, Ventures, National Grid; Amit Rosner, CEO, Yeloha
This panel will discuss how successful entrepreneurs have navigated the clean energy landscape in spite of the unique challenges they face. These entrepreneurs will discuss their business models in consumerization of energy, public-private partnerships, raising capital through non-traditional funding sources and building steady streams of revenue generation models.
Web site: http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for students and members; $30 for nonmembers
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge@mit.edu
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Mammals on the Move
Wednesday, April 13
6:00PM
Harvard, Hall B103, Northwest Building, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mammals move in their environments to use resources, find shelter, escape from predators, compete, interact, and reproduce. Thanks to new technologies, scientists can now study the movement strategies of animals, which are rarely random. Based on her studies tracking large terrestrial mammals across latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in Europe, Francesca Cagnacci, 2015–2016 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology, Harvard University and Researcher, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Italy, will discuss why animal movement patterns are important both for understanding the impact of climate change on ecosystems and for developing sound conservation strategies.
http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/mammals-move
Contact Name: hmnh@hmsc.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-220000/mammals-move#sthash.N5BAIOWV.dpuf
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Michael Göring: The Refugee Crisis. Europe at the Crossroads?
Wednesday, April 13
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Goethe-Institute Boston,170 Beacon Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michael-goring-the-refugee-crisis-europe-at-the-crossroads-tickets-24320845303
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BostonTalks Happy Hour: Game On
Wednesday, April 13
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
WGBH , 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bostontalks-happy-hour-game-on-tickets-23052885802
Cost: $11.54
Did you know games can entertain, motivate, and even map the human brain? Designer Amy Robinson discusses the Eyewire game she helped create that combines science, social good, and a good time. And video game music composer Jason Margaca shares how music enhances your in-game experience. Join Amy, Jason, and others to talk games.
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Carbon Pricing: Its Time Has Come
Wednesday, April 13
7 pm to 9 pm
The Eliot Church of Newton, UCC, 474 Centre Street, Newton
Presented by 350 Mass./Newton
Are you curious about carbon pricing? This is your chance to learn what carbon pricing is, why it is urgently needed now and why it is good for the Massachusetts economy.
Featuring:
Sen. Mike Barrett, 3rd Middlesex District, Massachusetts
Minister Mariama White-Hammond, Bethel AME Church, Boston, MAICCA Leadership Team
Bonni Widdoes, Board of Directors, Climate XChange
Rev. Fred Small, Director of Faith Outreach, Climate XChange, MAICCA Leadership Team
Quinton Zondervan, Climate Action Business Association, Moderator
Vince Maraventano, Executive Director, MA Interfaith Power & Light, Master of Ceremonies
The program will include a Q&A session and an opportunity to participate in breakout groups.
For further information, contact Mark Leicester, mleicester1@gmail.com
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Ah humanity!
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 10:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions, Film, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Committee on the Arts
DIRECTED BY Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
COST Free
CONTACT INFO kristina_latino@harvard.edu
DETAILS Ah humanity! is a large-scale audio-video installation by the artists Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Four channels of sound will be projected into the Plaza and a single channel of video onto the façade of the Science Center, every evening.
Ah humanity! reflects on the fragility and folly of humanity in the age of the Anthropocene. Taking the 3/11/11 disaster of Fukushima as its point of departure, it evokes an apocalyptic vision of modernity, and our predilection for historical amnesia and futuristic flights of fancy.
The images were shot on a telephone through a handheld telescope, at once close to and far from its subject, while the audio composition combines empty excerpts from Japanese genbaku and related film soundtracks, recordings from seismic laboratories, and location sound. Artist Ernst Karel will be mixing the film’s soundtrack live on the Plaza on select evenings throughout the week.
Karel is Lecturer on Anthropology, Manager of the Sensory Ethnography Lab, and Assistant Director of the Film Study Center at Harvard. Paravel is an anthropologist and filmmaker in the Sensory Ethnography Lab. Castaing-Taylor is Professor of Visual Arts and Anthropology. Their previous collaborations include the 2012 film Leviathan.
Ah humanity! was made with support from F93 in Paris, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), and the Harvard University Asia Center. It was produced in the Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University.
The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard is sponsoring an accompanying roundtable and reception on Wednesday, April 13th, at 6:00 pm in CGIS South. Afterward, attendees are invited to experience the work on the Science Center Plaza.
LINK http://arts.harvard.edu/huca
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Lee Historical Lecture in Physics: One Catastrophe After Another The Big Bang, Death of the Dinosaurs, Ice Ages, Global Warming, and Beyond
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall 100, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Physics
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley, founder of BerkeleyEarth.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Jolanta M. Davis
jmdavis@fas.harvard.edu
617-495-2866
DETAILS
Muller's research has followed an interesting track of catastrophes, from the Big Bang, to supernovas, the destruction of the dinosaurs, the ice ages, global warming, and now air pollution–currently killing 4400 people every day in China. Remarkably, air pollution and global warming can be solved together.
LINK https://www.physics.harvard.edu/node/631
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Thursday, April 14
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Annual Bioethics Conference -- Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care: Core to our Mission or None of our Business?
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016
WHERE Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Health Sciences, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Keynote: James Corbett, senior vice president, Community Health Improvement & Values Integration, Centura Health
COST Free and open to the public; registration required
TICKET WEB LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/news/2016-bioethics-conference
CONTACT INFO bioethics@hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS This multidisciplinary program is co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and the Petrie Flom Center at Harvard Law School to inform and deliberate with health care professionals, bioethicists, attorneys, and the public about how to address social justice issues in health care—such pressing problems as worsening drug shortages, continuing racial inequities, providing health care for refugees, uninsured and undocumented persons, and the like.
Using selected examples we will discuss the efforts of health care administrators and others to identify and address such large scale health system problems. Is there a role for ethics committees in handling social justice issues—should the attention of hospital ethicists and ethics committees expand to address broader institutional policies and programs? Faculty experts and participants will describe successful efforts to address specific problems and engage in thoughtful discussion with participants about strategies and struggles of ethic committees that move beyond individual case consultation to organizational ethics.
Support for this conference has been provided by Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.
LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/news/2016-bioethics-conference
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Art Technology Psyche
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Arts @ 29 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Information Technology
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), Digital Futures Consortium at Harvard University, and Harvard Library
SPEAKER(S) Susan Buck, Carla Ciuffo, Canan Dagdeviren, Janet Echelman, Antony Flackett, Steve Hollinger, Luke Hollis, Pagan Kennedy, Nicole Noll, Nina Sinatra, Alex Walthall, Lauren Whitley and more to come.
COST Free, but registration required
TICKET WEB LINK arttechnologypsyche.com
DETAILS Art Technology Psyche celebrates human expression at the intersection of technology and the arts. Harvard Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), in collaboration with the Harvard Library and the Digital Futures Consortium, invites you to participate in a day of immersive digital experiences, art exhibitions, technology demos, and visionary speakers.
LINK arttechnologypsyche.com
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Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room (3rd FL Littauer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Karthik Ramanna, associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School
COST Free - limited space
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS “Thin political markets” are the processes through which some of the most complex and critical institutions of our capitalist system are determined—e.g., our accounting-standards infrastructure; rules for bank-capital adequacy; actuarial standards; and auditing practice. In thin political markets, corporate special interests are largely unopposed because of both their tacit knowledge and the general public’s low awareness of the issues. This enables the special interests to structure the “rules of the game” in self-serving ways.
On one level, this behavior embodies the capitalist spirit articulated by Milton Friedman: “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” But the ethics of profit-seeking behavior are premised on the logic of competition and, as this session will demonstrate, this logic breaks down in thin political markets. The result is a structural flaw in the determination of critical institutions of the capitalist system, which, if ignored, can undermine the legitimacy of the system. Professor Ramanna will close with some ideas on how to fix the problem.
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Bridging the gap between waste and want: Turning Potentially Wasted Food into a Solution for Hunger
Thursday, April 14
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Sasha Purpura, Executive Director, Food For Free
Patti Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services, Tufts Dining
Food For Free has been rescuing surplus food and distributing it to those in need since 1981. This talk will focus on why surplus food is inevitable and why that doesn't have to be a bad thing. We'll discuss how food rescue works and some of the newer and more unique solutions we're implementing with our food donor and recipient partners. In the last part of the talk, Patti Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services at Tufts University will talk about the current initiatives to minimize food waste at Tufts.
Sasha Purpura is the Executive Director of Food For Free in Cambridge, MA. After receiving an undergraduate degree in computer science, Sasha spent over 15 years in high tech. In 2005, she helped her husband start an organic farm. She worked on the farm for over 2 years while completing an MBA in Sustainability, and joined Food For Free in July 2012. Sasha is an active member of the local food community, sits on the leadership team of Slow Money Boston, and is member of Sprout Lenders—a local investment club working to build the local food system.
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Ryan Sullivan, CMU
Thursday, April 14
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Dr. Ryan Sullivan is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a faculty member in the Centre for Atmospheric Particle Studies.
Ryan Sullivan has a background in atmospheric and analytical chemistry, single-particle analysis, heterogeneous kinetics, and cloud nucleation research. His research interests include the development of improved aircraft-deployable analytical instrumentation to characterize individual particles in the atmosphere in real-time. These instruments are used to investigate the physicochemical properties of atmospheric particles emitted and produced from a variety of sources, the chemical processes they experience during atmospheric transport, and how these processes modify the ability of particles to nucleate both cloud droplets and ice crystals, thus altering cloud properties and the Earth’s climate. These research endeavors involve equal parts instrument development, laboratory experiments, and field measurements.
Particles in the atmosphere exist in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and chemical compositions. These properties are highly dynamic, constantly evolving as the particles respond to changes in their gas-phase environment. This makes the study of atmospheric aerosol particles both challenging and fascinating. The important but still poorly understood roles that particles play in influencing air quality, the atmosphere’s chemical balance, cloud nucleation, energy balance, biogeochemical cycles, and other important climate feedbacks motivate our interest in improving our understanding of the chemical behavior of particles in our atmosphere. Our comprehension of these processes is currently limited by the instrumentation available to measure key properties of individual atmospheric particles.
We investigate these important physicochemical particle properties using custom single-particle instruments that allow us to rapidly characterize atmospheric aerosols in real-time, one particle after another. We are developing improved analytical methods to measure individual particles using laser ablation mass spectrometry, and laser spectroscopy. These new instruments are utilized in both laboratory studies and field experiments (from ground, ship, and aircraft sampling platforms) to determine the kinetics and products of a variety of atmospheric chemical aging processes (e.g. heterogeneous reaction, aqueous-phase chemistry, gas-to-particle conversion, photochemistry, new particle formation). Small cloud simulation chambers are also used to determine the ability of the chemically processed particles to nucleate both warm cloud droplets, and ice crystals via heterogeneous ice nucleation.
Single-particle analysis is an important analytical tool that allows us to determine how the myriad chemical constituents are distributed between individual particles (mixing state). As all particle properties (interaction with radiation, heterogeneous kinetics, hygroscopicity, heterogeneous ice nucleation, toxicity, etc.) are dictated by each particle’s unique size and chemical composition, single-particle analysis is required to determine the exact relationships between the sources of atmospheric particles, their size and chemical composition, how they behave chemically in the atmosphere, and what their resulting important environmental effects are.
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Making Robots Behave
Thursday, April 14
4:00pm to 5:15pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determinizing stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replanning process. I will describe our initial approach to this problem, as well as recent work on improving effectiveness and efficiency through learning.
Speaker Bio:
Leslie is a Professor at MIT. She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford, and was previously on the faculty at Brown University. She was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She is not a robot.
Computer Science Colloquium Series
Host: David Parkes
Contact: Mike Donohoe
Phone: 617-495-0871
Email: donohoe@seas.harvard.edu
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Starr Forum: Human Rights & Technology
Thursday, April 14
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Jay Aronson, Chris McNaboe, Bradley Samuels, Sucharita Varanasi
About the Speakers:
Jay Aronson is founding director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He also is associate professor of science, technology, and society in the Department of History. He focuses on the interactions of science, technology, law, and human rights.
Christopher McNaboe, from The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program, developed what is now the Syria Conflict Mapping project. He primarily works on Syria-related initiatives, but occasionally assists with other peace program activities.
Bradley Samuels is a founding partner at SITU Research, a practice focused on developing and implementing new strategies for visualizing, mapping, modeling, and analyzing human rights violations for legal and advocacy contexts.
Sucharita Varanasi is an attorney at Hinckely Allen & Snyder LLP. Prior to this post, she worked with Physicians for Human Rights as the senior program officer and MediCapt project manager for the program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Please contact us at starrforum@mit.edu if you need accessibility accommodations
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_041416_hrtech.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
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A Conversation with Mary Norris, the New Yorker's Comma Queen
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE The Lippmann House, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, 1 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Nieman Foundation for Journalism
DETAILS In conversation with Marry Norris, longtime proofreader/keeper of grammatical standards and style/Comma Queen at the New Yorker.
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Celebrate Science: 2016 Cambridge Science Festival Kick-Off Party
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research & Development, 1 Memorial Drive, 10th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-science-2016-cambridge-science-festival-kick-off-party-tickets-22505756323
The Cambridge Science Festival is an annual 10-day celebration of science, technology, engineering, art and math in Cambridge and New England. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary science festival, April 15-24. See the full agenda at http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2016Festival/2016ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
To kick-off this year's festival, Microsoft, MassBio and MassBioEd are hosting a Kendall Square Association "Almost" Third Thursday celebration event. Join us to meet some of innovators behind the Festival’s 170+ events, try out some experiments, network with the STEAM community, and celebrate the science of Kendall Square!
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Farm Share Fair 2016
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Do you love local, fresh food? Maybe you’ve been thinking about joining a CSA – a Farm Share? A Farm Share program allows you to receive a fabulous box of great stuff every week direct from a Massachusetts farm. Join us at Cambridge College on April 14, 2016, and meet the fantastic farmers from across this state, which bring local produce to the Boston area. Compare and learn about all the various options: veggies, fruit, flowers, meat, fish eggs, dairy, and specialty products. Over 30 vendors will be at the fair, including some wonderful sustainable food product companies and service providers. Spend your food dollars on locally grown, and sign up at the Farm Share Fair!
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
http://www.farmsharefair.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FarmShareFair
Twitter: @FarmShareFair
Instagram: @FarmShareFair
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Debate: The Origins of Human Cooperation: Views from Evolutionary Psychology
Thursday, April 14
6-8 p.m.
Harvard, location TBA
featuring Joe Henrich (FAS) and Max Krasnow (FAS)
More information at http://mbb.harvard.edu
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Fletcher IDEAS Exchange: Human Security Approaches to Peacebuilding
Thursday, April 14
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Tufts, ASEAN, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fletcher-ideas-exchange-human-security-approaches-to-peacebuilding-tickets-23486766551
The Fletcher IDEAS Exchange (FIE) is an annual forum for public speaking at The Fletcher School. Modeled as a TED-type event, the second annual FIE will feature engaging speeches by faculty, students, alumni, and guests around the theme of a human security approach to peacebuilding – why it matters and what are the challenges. Some of the talks will center on perceptions of legitimacy in the governance of conflict–affected and fragile states, as well as related aspects of human security, development and peace building.
Please visit our webpage at http://www.fletcher-ideas-exchange.com/
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Balancing flexibility and scale in a synthetic biology foundry
Thursday, April 14
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building NE30, Broad Institute Auditorium (corner of Vassar & Main Streets, Cambridge)
Speaker: Barry Canton
There is a growing demand to source a wide range of chemical products (for example, plant-derived extracts) from engineered microbes. While recent advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering make this work technically feasible, commercial success is hindered by the cost to develop the microbes. Development has been costly because the complexity and diversity of biology favored a labor-intensive, small-batch approach to engineering. Ginkgo has built a foundry that allows many microbial engineering projects to use shared processes in a high-throughput, largely-automated fashion, that unlocks substantial economies of scale. In this talk, I will outline the approach, custom software, and hardware that we use to allow flexibility and scale to co-exist where previously one came at the expense of the other.
Barry Canton co-founded synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks in 2008 and has helped build the company to 55 people and raised more than $50M in investment over the last year. At Ginkgo, Barry is responsible for the development of the foundry, a centralized facility for organism engineering. In this role he oversees the development of hardware, software, and wetware technologies. He holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, where his thesis focused on refinement of standard biological parts and the interactions between a host cell and an engineered genetic circuit.
IEEE/ACM Joint Seminar Series
Exploring the edge of computing technology.
Web site: http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): ACM & IEEE/CS
For more information, contact: Dorothy Curtis
dcurtis@mit.edu
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Friday, April 15
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Inequalities/Equalities in Cities
Friday, April 15
9:00am-5:30pm
Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Workshop with Clarissa Hayward, Associate Professor of Political Science, Washington University in Saint Louis, Archon Fung, Academic Dean and Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Harvard Kennedy School, and Laurence Ralph, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University
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Doctoral Program Conference: "Cambridge Talks X | Bound and Unbound: The Sites of Utopia" (II)
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO cambridgetalks2016@gmail.com
DETAILS In the five hundred years since the publication of Thomas More’s Of A Republic’s Best State and of the New Island of Utopia (1516), the project of imagining an ideal society has emerged as simultaneously regenerative and devastating on multiple fronts: for the concept of the polity, for the composition of social fabrics, and, most relevant from the vantage of the design disciplines, for the formation of buildings, cities, and territories. This year’s Cambridge Talks, now in its tenth edition, aims to provide a spectrum of exemplary instances of utopia’s modern guise.
In the main conference panels, we bring together speakers to address the rivalry between those utopian endeavors that organize space mainly through social relations and production, and those whose expansive impulse searches out some form of technical mastery over spatial configuration. In other words, utopia can be understood as either embodied or totalizing, bound or unbound. By taking examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, the case studies presented here—from communes and plantations to infrastructural projects and global ecologies—exhibit various attempts to imagine social conditions alongside spatial ones. A concluding discussion will touch upon the philosophical and theoretical ramifications of utopia today.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/doctoral-program-conference-cambridge-talks-x-bound-and-unbound.html
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DOE Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force and Public Stakeholder Meeting
Friday, April 15
9am - 3pm
Boston Marriott Long Wharf, Salons DEFL, 296 State Street, Boston
Join Secretary Moniz in Boston April 15 for a public meeting on the Quadrennial Energy Review – Updated agenda and livestream info
The Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force will hold a public stakeholder meeting April 15 at 9:30 a.m. at the Marriott Long Wharf, Salons DEFL. The Marriott Long Wharf is located at 296 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Doors open at 9:00 a.m. The meeting will also be livestreamed at http://energy.gov/live
The purpose of the meeting is to solicit stakeholder input for the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), which will be an integrated study of the electricity system from generation to end-use. The meeting will feature remarks by government officials, moderated panel discussions from a diverse group of energy policy experts from the private and public sector, and an opportunity for you to provide comments during an open microphone session.
Boston is one of six regional QER public input meetings, all of which are based on wholesale market footprints as a convenient approach to capture the nation’s regional electricity diversity, which is also characterized by resource mix, state policies, and a host of other factors. The Boston meeting covers the footprint of the 21 states and the District of Columbia that together, are all or partially in the three eastern centrally-organized wholesale electricity markets of PJM, ISO-NE, NYISO.
Agenda
9:30 – 10:30 AM Opening Remarks
Secretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz
Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John Holdren
Commonwealth or city officials TBD
10:30 – 11:45 AM Panel 1: Bulk Power Generation and Transmission: How Can We Plan, Build, and Operate the Appropriate Amount for Future Needs?
The first panel will address the challenges of maintaining and operating the region’s bulk power electric system, including how to maintain reliability with an evolving resource mix, how to affordably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and planning and finance issues.
Stephen J. Rourke, Vice President-System Planning, ISO New England
Richard Dewey, Executive Vice President, New York Independent System Operator
Gil Quiniones, President and Chief Executive Officer, New York Power Authority
Carolyn Anderson, Senior Corporate Counsel and Director, Transmission Policy and Insurance, Green Mountain Power
Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association
11:45 – 12:30 PM Lunch (on your own)
12:30 – 1:45 PM Panel 2: Electricity Distribution and End-Use: How Do We Manage Challenges and Opportunities?
The second panel will address the implications of emerging technologies that create technical and policy challenges and opportunities, including energy efficiency and demand response, distributed generation, improved communications technology, and retail choice programs.
Ed White, Vice President, New Energy Solutions, National Grid
Karen Lefkowitz, Vice President, Smart Grid and Technology, Pepco Holdings
Dena Lee DeLucca, Vice President of Corporate & Member Services and Chief Financial Officer, New Hampshire Electric Co-op
Roxanne D. Brown, Assistant Legislative Director, United Steelworkers
Panelist pending, EnerNOC, Inc.
Ned Bartlett, Undersecretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1:45 – 3:00 PM Panel 3: Ensuring Resource Adequacy
The third panel will examine issues surrounding the design and operation of the three eastern wholesale electricity markets, including their effectiveness in providing economic and reliable electricity capacity. Strengths and weaknesses of these current markets will be discussed, including a look ahead to their roles in the coming decades.
David A. Cavanaugh, Director, Regulatory & Market Affairs-ISONE, NRG Energy
Edward Tatum, Jr., Vice President Transmission, American Municipal Power
Craig Glazer, Vice President – Federal Government Policy, PJM
William Berg, Vice President Wholesale Market Development, Exelon Corporation
Lawrence Brenner, Commissioner Emeritus, Maryland Public Service Commission
3:00 PM Public Comment Period
Interested parties may make 5-minute statements during this “open microphone” session.
More information, including additional panelists and a background memo, is posted atenergy.gov/qer. You may also submit a public comment at energy.gov/qer.
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WSSS Symposium 2016: Aqueous Solutions: Valuing Wastewater as a Resource
Friday, April 15
10am
Tufts University, Asean Auditorium, Cabot Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tufts-water-symposium-2016-aqueous-solutions-valuing-wastewater-as-a-resource-tickets-20821165667
Cost: $0 - $10
This year's "Water: Systems, Science & Society" Symposium will use the Water-Energy-Food framework to explore the role of wastewater as a solution to many current challenges. Join us for a day of learning, conversing, networking, and problem solving. This one-day symposium will feature: interdisciplinary breakout sessions, keynote lecture from an expert in the wastewater field, power talks from diverse stakeholders & experts, and a lunchtime poster session and networking reception. The event is organized by Tufts University Water: Systems, Science & Society.
We are pleased to announce the following speakers who have confirmed their attendance:
Dr. Kartik Chandran - Director of the Columbia University Biomolecular Environmental Sciences Program and the Wastewater Treatment and Climate Change Program at Columbia University
Ed Clerico - CEO Emeritus at Natural Systems Utilities
Bethany Card - Deputy Commission, Policy and Planning, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Roy Desrochers - Sensory Practice Leader at GEI Consultants, Inc.
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Developing Future Air Quality Observing Strategies: Contributions from DISCOVER-AQ
Friday, April 15
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jim Crawford, NASA Langley
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
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21st Century Clinical Research: Patient Activism, Social Media, Digital Apps
Friday, April 15
12pm
Tufts Medical School, Stearns Auditorium, Farnsworth Building, first floor, 800 Washington Street, Boston
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
More at https://www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/Research-Clinical-Trials/Institutes-Centers-Labs/Mother-Infant-Research-Institute/Medical-Education.aspx
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Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Weil Town Hall (1st Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Seth M. Siegel, author of Let There Be Water
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World
Friday, April 15
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and CEDAR welcome Professor of Religion at Boston University and CEDAR director ADAM B. SELIGMAN and Director of Training and Evaluation for CEDAR RAHEL R. WASSERFALL for a discussion of their book Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World, co-authored with David Montgomery.
About Living with Difference
Whether looking at divided cities or working with populations on the margins of society, a growing number of engaged academics have reached out to communities around the world to address the practical problems of living with difference. This book explores the challenges and necessities of accommodating difference, however difficult and uncomfortable such accommodation may be. Drawing on fourteen years of theoretical insights and unique pedagogy, CEDAR—Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion—has worked internationally with community leaders, activists, and other partners to take the insights of anthropology out of the classroom and into the world. Rather than addressing conflict by emphasizing what is shared, Living with Difference argues for the centrality of difference in creating community, seeking ways not to overcome or deny differences but to live with and within them in a self-reflective space and practice.
This volume also includes a manual for organizers to implement CEDAR’s strategies in their own communities.
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The Classroom of Tomorrow – Swarm Robots in Education
Friday, April 15
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
swissnex Boston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.swissnexboston.org/event/the-classroom-of-tomorrow-swarm-robots-in-education/#sthash.qsih6nj2.nAwJuyVa.dpbs
Join swissnex Boston for an exciting event about robots in education. Learn how EPFL in Lausanne is making robots that are the pencils of tomorrow’s classroom – and try them yourself.
Dr. Wafa Johal, postdoctoral researcher, and Ayberk Özgür from the CHILI (Computer-Human Interaction for Learning and Instruction) Lab will present their lab and work on the Cellulo swarm robots — autonomously moving robots that can be ubiquitously used for learning activities in the classroom. The presentations will be followed by a hands-on demonstration of the robots.
Program
6:00 pm: Doors open
6:30 pm: Presentations
Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction Lab – Dr. Wafa Johal, CHILI Lab, EPFL
Cellulo, learning by interacting with swarm robots – Ayberk Özgür, CHILI Lab, EPFL
7:00 pm: Demo Session
7:30 pm: Networking & Reception
9:00 pm: Doors Close
Presenters
Dr. Wafa Johal is a researcher at EPFL in the CHILI/LSRO (Computer-Human Interaction for Learning and Instruction/Robotic Systems Laboratory) Labs. She is currently working on the Cellulo Project, which aims to design and build the pencils of the future classroom, in the form of robots. She is interested to improve acceptability of assistive robots by using social signals of communication. Wafa Johal worked on proxemics and recognition of social attitudes in human-robot interaction and is interested in social signal processing and expression. She therefore has also worked on expressivity of robots using facial and body expressions. Wafa Johal obtained her Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Grenoble. She received a B.S./B.A. in Computer Sciences and Mathematics applied to Cognitive Sciences and subsequently did a Research Master in Computer Sciences, specializing in Robotics, Computer Vision and Computer Graphics.
Wafa Johal will speak about:
The Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction (CHILI) Lab
This talk will present current research projects of the CHILI lab on novel interfaces for learning. The interfaces used in the projects go from tangible, tabletop environment, paper-based interfaces to robots. The CHILI Lab studies how these interfaces can be used in training and learning contexts. The systems are usually evaluated via empirical studies and experiments in the lab and in the real-world such as classrooms.
Ayberk Özgür is a Ph.D. candidate at the CHILI Lab at EPFL in Lausanne. He is working on the Cellulo project and is designing the paper-assisted tangible swarm robot platform for learning and teaching. His research interests include mobile robots, tangible interfaces, human-robot interaction and machine learning. Ayberk Özgür received his B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering at Bogazici University in 2013 before starting his Ph.D. at EPFL.
Ayberk Özgür will speak in more detail about his project:
Cellulo, learning by interacting with swarm robots
The collaborative learning activity of the CHILI Lab for children uses the palm-sized tangible Cellulo robots that are currently in development. The robots work on the surface of a paper (multiple at the same time) being able to move autonomously (and can also be moved manually). One of the major goals is to study a novel tangible interaction scheme with such autonomous objects and use it in different activities to induce and observe learning effects. In this talk Ayberk Özgür will introduce some of the technical aspects that induce the high potential of Cellulo robots in classrooms.
More at: http://www.swissnexboston.org/event/the-classroom-of-tomorrow-swarm-robots-in-education/#sthash.qsih6nj2.nAwJuyVa.dpuf
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Friday, April 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project MATTHEW DESMOND for a discussion of his latest book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
About Evicted
In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
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Saturday, April 16
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Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference
Saturday, April 16
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
St Paul AME Church Life Center, 85 Bishop Richard Allen Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/greater-boston-women-of-color-environmental-health-conference-tickets-22471890028
Suggested Donation $20 (at the door)
Please join us at the first Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference in Boston. Hear environmental, scientific and public health experts at the forefront of environmental health and environmental justice discuss a variety of issues of interest to you. What chemicals are you and your family being exposed to? Do you know someone with asthma, reproductive health issues, heart disease or high blood pressure? How are racial and ethnic minority groups adversely affected by multiple environmental toxic exposures? How do recent events in Flint, Michigan help us understand environmental racism?
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Cambridge Science Festival: Worthy of AtTENtion: Gender,robots and everything in between
Saturday, April 16
6:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building N-51, MIT Museum: 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
10 short talks from top scientists looking over developments of the past 10 years.
The world has changed dramatically in the last ten years since the Cambridge Science Festival began. Find out what scientists now know about memory, gravitational waves, CRSPR, exoplanets, robotics, and more. As you???d expect, each presenter will convey their exciting overview in just ten minutes! Cash bar available.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free admission/Cash Bar
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-museum-hosts-worthy-of-attention-ten-years-in-ten-minutes-tickets-22538247505
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: 617-253-5927
museuminfo@mit.edu
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Monday, April 18
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Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
Monday, April 18
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Matthew Bunn, Professor of Practice, Harvard Kennedy School, and Joseph Lassiter, Senior Fellow, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management (Retired), Harvard Business School
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
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Inhospitality: Borders and Border-Work at Europe's Doorsteps
WHEN Mon., Apr. 18, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Seminar on Cultural Politics
SPEAKER(S) Achille Mbembe, Senior Research Fellow, Center for African Studies, Harvard University; Research Professor in History and Politics, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
CONTACT INFO Panagiotis Roilos (roilos@fas.harvard.edu)
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Tuesday, April 19
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Boston TechBreakfast: AMA XpertEye Inc, Code to Table, Inc., VQL, YooGloo Inc
Tuesday, April 19
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD, Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/226655691/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
AMA XpertEye Inc: XpertEye - Anne-Fleur ANDRLE
Code to Table, Inc.: Sumu - Daniel Tewfik
VQL: - Jason
YooGloo Inc: YooGloo - Joe Pulcinella
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston
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Media and Politics: What’s Next? – A Conversation with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows
Tuesday, April 19
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Tubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
A conversation on media and politics with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows:
Johanna Dunaway is a newly appointed associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University. She was on the faculty of Louisiana State University from 2008 to 2015. Over the course of her career she has written extensively on the relationship between the structural and contextual features of media outlets and news content. Her current research examines the impact of the changing contemporary media environment across individuals, groups, and local communities. While at the Shorenstein Center, Dunaway will write about Latino voters through the lens of the changing media environment.
Joanna Jolly is the BBC’s South Asia editor, based in London, who was also recently assigned to the BBC’s Washington bureau as a feature reporter. Over the past decade she has worked as a radio producer in London, Brussels and Jerusalem. Jolly has also spent several years based in South Asia, first as the regional producer in Delhi and later as the BBC Nepal correspondent in Kathmandu. Jolly specializes in radio documentaries and long-form journalism. She won the 2015 Amnesty International Award (radio) for the BBC documentary “Red River Woman.” While at the Shorenstein Center, Jolly will explore how media campaigns around sexual violence shape public policy.
Dan Kennedy is an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University who writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab, WGBHNews.org and various other publications. His book The Wired City: Reimagining Journalism and Civic Life in the Post-Newspaper Age examines online local and regional journalism. Kennedy is also a former online columnist for The Guardian and was the media columnist for The Boston Phoenix. His blog, Media Nation, covers issues related to journalism, politics and culture. While at the Shorenstein Center, Kennedy will write about strategies that could change the fortunes of the declining newspaper business.
Marilyn Thompson is a deputy editor at Politico, working to expand investigative reporting capacities. Prior to her role at Politico she served as Washington bureau chief for Reuters and a national editor for The Washington Post. She left the Post in 2003 to serve as editor and vice president of the Lexington Herald-Leader, later returning to Washington as deputy bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. In addition to her career as an editor, Thompson has also worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. While at the Shorenstein Center, Thompson will examine money, politics and the press in 2016.
More at http://shorensteincenter.org/spring-2016-fellows-conversation/
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Copyright Law Year in Review
Tuesday, April 19
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room B010 (ground level), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Menell#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Menell at 12:00 pm.
with Peter S. Menell, the Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
What ties together cheerleader outfits, monkey selfies, the Batmobile, a chicken sandwich, Yoga, and Yoda? Professor Peter Menell will provide an exhilarating copyright year in review.
About Peter
Peter S. Menell is the Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Soon after joining the Berkeley faculty in 1990, where he focuses on intellectual property law, Professor Menell laid the groundwork for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT), which he co-founded in 1995. He served as BCLT’s Executive Director from 1999 to 2005. Professor Menell has authored more than 70 articles and eight books, including leading casebooks and intellectual property treatises. Professor Menell has organized more than 50 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center, including an annual four-day program on “Intellectual Property in the Digital Age” since 1998. Professor Menell earned his S.B. from the MIT, his Ph.D. (economics) from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review.
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Building a Biomedical Information Commons
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Gordon Hall, Waterhouse Room,
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Bob Cook-Deegan, research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Robert C. Green, director, G2P Research Program in Translational Genomics and Health Outcomes, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute, and Harvard Medical School
Heidi L. Williams, assistant professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DIRECTED BY Aaron S. Kesselheim
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
TICKET INFO http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
CONTACT INFO bioethics@hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS Access to large public genetic databases is essential to advancing the diagnosis and management of genetic diseases. The largest databases of genetic variants are currently held by proprietary companies, such as Myriad Genetics, who control access to the data and thereby increase the cost of developing new lifesaving technologies.
Public databases, such as ClinGen, are racing to catch up, but have been criticized as being unreliable, expensive and vulnerable to funding cuts that compromise their upkeep. In this seminar we will explore the pros and cons of these two approaches to managing genetic information.
Register at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg;jsessionid=1BB33B4F3992A0CF03C005F7E31634E8?oeidk=a07ecchve63de6b9773&oseq=&c=&ch=
LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
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How to Tell a Story With Data: Tools of the Trade
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Education, Humanities, Information Technology, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Dhrumil Mehta, Database Journalist, FiveThirtyEight
COST Free - limited space; RSVP required
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
CONTACT INFO https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
DETAILS Part of the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
Dhrumil Mehta will introduce participants to the tools of his trade as a database journalist, from GitHub to XML to locating relevant documents and databases and turning them into usable data for data-driven stories.
Participants will gain hands-on training using GitHub and familiarity with other tools for data gathering and manipulation, and they will then utilize these tools to find and parse a dataset. Knowledge of data gathering and manipulation from the web allows you to apply your skills in the real world. It can also be freeing, both reducing reliance on programmers and reducing friction when working with programmers. This workshop is for students who want to roll up their sleeves and crunch some numbers--bring your laptop!
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/how-tell-story-data-tools-trade?delta=0
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The Future of Energy Efficiency
Tuesday, April 19
4:30 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT) -
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, ROOM 212, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-energy-efficiency-tickets-23319266554?aff=ebrowse
Join Harvey Michaels for an afternoon of exploring the future of efficient energy including the intelligent buildings at the edge of a decarbonized energy grid. Stay for a discussion led by Professor Robert Kaufmann. This seminar is moderated by Kira Fabrizio.
Harvey Michaels is Energy Efficiency Lecturer and Research Scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, he was the founder of leading energy efficiency companies providing analytics and services. His research focuses on strategy innovation, business/policy studies of utility, community, and smart grid-enabled efficiency deployment models.
Robert Kaufmann is Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Center for Energy & Environmental Studies at Boston University, a position he has held since September 2003. His research focuses on world oil markets, global climate change, the global carbon cycle and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Kira Fabrizio is Associate Professor and Dean's Research Fellow of Strategy and Innovation in the Questrom School of Business.
Event is free and open to public.
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Panel Discussion: Refugees and migrants: the current crisis in Greece and Europe
Tuesday, April 19
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Buidling E40-464, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Panel Discussion: Katerina Sokou, Washington DC correspondent of Kathimerini Greek Daily Newspaper & Luise Druke, headed UNHCR missions from 1977-2006 and most recently UNHCR Representative in Bulgaria
Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration
A session of the Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Inter-University Committee on International Migration
For more information, contact: Phiona Lovett
617-253-3848
phiona@mit.edu
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Efficient Buildings And Sustainable Urban Development Techmeeting
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
5:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/228901075/
Today, there is a clear revival of cities and re-urbanization of downtown areas. More people want to live in cities and live, work, play within a reasonable distance. The younger generation is also more aware of the impacts of their activities on human health and the environment. Modern urban development has focused on creating mixed-use neighborhoods and transit-oriented development, as well as using more sustainable materials.
At the building level, this means creating a healthy and efficient space for occupants that has a positive impact on the environment. Residential and commercial buildings represent 41% of total energy consumption in the U.S. With growing commitments at the Federal, Regional and City level, there is still a huge opportunity for cleantech startups to develop solutions that will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and create more sustainable livelihoods.
During this Open Innovation Club Techmeeting, startups and large corporations will get together to discover the latest innovations and develop business relationships around:
Sustainable building solutions for resilience, health and safety
Smart and connected building technology for energy efficiency
AGENDA
05:00 pm Doors Open & Registration
05:30 pm Introduction - Open Innovation Club & Greentown Labs
05:45 pm Corporate Presentations: Phoebe Kwan, External Venturing Strategy Director, Saint Gobain; Roderick Fraser, Senior Director Energy Business Development, Veolia Energy North America
06:15 pm Startup Pitches: Crowd Comfort, Metacomb Materials,Senseware, Foobot, Sense
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The New Old Age: How the body ages and how to keep it young
Tuesday, April 19
6pm - 7:30pm
Harvard Medical School, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, The New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
No one wants to become forgetful or less energetic as they age, but growing old is unavoidable—or is it? At this seminar, learn about the biology of aging and about scientific research at Harvard Medical School that may help keep you healthier and feeling younger at the same time.
Speakers:
Amy Wagers (Moderator)
Sharon Inouye
Bruce Yankner
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The Art & Science of Selling
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Innovation Labs, 125 Western Avenue, Classroom, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-and-science-of-selling-tickets-24463701590
TICKET INFO Eventbrite
DETAILS Sales makes the world go around, even the digital world. Whether you’re trying to convince an investor to give you money or a customer to buy your value proposition, you’re selling. The question is what skills and sensibilities do you need to excel as a seller in today’s complex environment. How much is about story telling, analytics expertise, relationship management, product knowledge? The answer lies in this first ever workshop hosted by Brian Cusack, the Industry Director in the Large Customer Sales Group at Google.
LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/the-art-science-of-selling/
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MIT NanoDay
Tuesday, April 19
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Scanning Electron-Beam Lithography Facility, Building 24 - 041 (Access via 60 Vassar Street), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-nanoday-tickets-23824121589
Join us in exploring the Nanoworld!
Here, tiny things reveal their super-powers. Inside this world, things are strong, vibrant, and electrified. You and a group of excited scientists will use real tools and experiments to discover the super-power of nano. We look forward to welcoming you in our labs!
The events welcomes all family members (recommended age above 7)
http://nano-day.mit.edu/
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Challenges and Opportunities in High Level Renewable Energy Integration
Tuesday, April 19
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
National Grid (Rooms: Valley A&B), 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham
RSVP at http://www.ieeeboston.org/Register/
Eduard Muljadi, Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In this talk the challenges and opportunities in integrating high level renewable energy will be presented. The background of renewable energy will be discussed first, the nature of the resources, different types of renewable energy generators, the concept of generator and the plant, the similarities and differences between conventional and renewable power plants. Then the presentation will continue with the discussion on the grid integration aspect of renewables, the opportunities and the limitations to participate in the ancillary services, and the flexibilities and direct response of the power converters. Hardware/software commonly used in analyzing grid integration of renewables will be presented. Different types of testing necessary to ensure seamless integration to the grid, and facilities at NREL to support the renewable industries. And, finally we will have a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.
Biography: Eduard Muljadi (M’82-SM’94-F’10) received his Ph. D. (in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 1988 to 1992, he taught at California State University, Fresno, CA. In June 1992, he joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, where he is currently a principal engineer in the Power System Engineering Center. His current research interests are in the fields of electric machines, power electronics, and power systems in general with emphasis on renewable energy applications. He is member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is involved in the activities of the IEEE Industry Application Society (IAS), Power Electronics Society (PELS), and Power and Energy Society (PES). He is currently a member of various committees of the IAS, PES, and an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. He holds two patents in power conversion for renewable energy.
Refreshments start at 6:00PM, talk commences at 6:30PM.
Free and Open to the Public.
Visit the IEEE PES Boston Chapter website for further details – http://wwww.ieeeboston.org/
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Questlove's somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Hall B, One Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Ben Greenman (Co-Author): Writer at The New Yorker and a New York Times bestselling author
Ludo Lefebvre: Chef at Trois Mec, Petit Trois, and judge/mentor on the television program "The Taste"
Daniel Patterson: LocoL, DPGroup
COST Free - tickets required. Limit 2 tickets per person.
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=questlove
TICKET INFO https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
CONTACT INFO science_cooking@seas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Tickets available (in person) at noon on Friday, April 1 at Sanders Theatre.
Note: Tickets are valid until 6:45 p.m. on April 19, then admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Questlove and Harvard faculty from the course Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter will lead a conversation that begins with food but ends wherever food takes them. Food is fuel. Food is culture. Food is history. And food is food for thought.
Questlove's new book, "somethingtofoodabout," will be available on-site for purchase. Book signing will follow the event.
LINK https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
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A Legacy of Hope & Solutions for the 21st Century
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
2016 Lowell Lecture
The Extension School hosts Philippe Cousteau, Emmy-nominated TV host, author, speaker, and social entrepreneur
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Editing the Genome: Now We Can. Should We?
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, D'Arbeloff Suite, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/editing-the-genome-now-we-can-should-we-registration-20707983135
Speakers
Kevin Esvelt, assistant professor of the Sculpting Evolution Group at MIT Media Lab; Sam Lipson, director of Environmental Health, Cambridge Public Health Department
A newly developed technique is sweeping the biological engineering world. From yogurt to HIV to mosquitos, scientists are coming up with new ways to use a gene-editing technique that is more precise, efficient, and flexible, while also being cheaper, faster, and easier to use. Learn about the technique and its benefits and risks, and share your opinion about potential real-world applications. Refreshments available starting at 6:30 pm.
Presented in collaboration with the City of Cambridge.
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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BASEA Movie Night at Kendall Square Cinema: Catching the Sun! (Area Premier)
Tuesday, April 19
7 p.m.
Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney Street, Cambridge
From award-winning director and eco-activist Shalini Kantayya comes a feature length documentary that explores the global race to a clean energy future.
"Solar power is a growing American success story. Yet just as solar is about to reach a tipping point, some utilities and other special interests are throwing obstacles in the way. Rather than moving into the 21st century, many utilities are fighting to protect outdated business models. Across the country, mayors, governors and others should set ambitious clean energy goals and commitments, offer new incentives, and promote new community solar programs. To make that happen, citizens need to voice their support for clean energy and demand clean energy access. Together, we can leave a cleaner, healthier world for future generations. The time for action is now."
View the trailer for Catching the Sun at: http://www.catchingthesun.tv/)
In place of BASEA Forum, usually held on the second Thursday of the month, join us on Tuesday the 19th at the Kendall Square Cinemas in Cambridge. After the movie, join us at Flattop Johnny's for an informal discussion of the film.
We are working with the Catching the Sun team on tickets, so please save the date and we will provide more information as it approaches. For any questions in the meantime, please contact Mike Higgins by e-mail: higginsm@mit.edu
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, April 20
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April Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, April 20
7:30 AM to 8:30 AM
Pret A Manger, 185 Franklin Street Post Office Square, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/april-boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-23164672158
Spring is here! Join us for the fourth Sustainability Breakfast of 2016 - Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals together for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 830 am.
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Harvard Chan School Sustainability Fair
Wednesday, April 20
11:30 am–1:30 pm
Rosenau Atrium, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Please join us at the Chan School of Public Health Sustainability Fair, which will feature student organizations, Harvard community groups, local nonprofits and businesses who are actively engaged in sustainability and public health efforts.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/harvard-chan-school-sustainability-fair#sthash.UAfnMrTN.dpuf
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Speaker Series: Bob Schieffer – Media Coverage of the Campaign
Wednesday, April 20
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 2nd Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Bob Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and was a part of CBS News for 46 years. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, became the network’s chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” in 1991. Within these roles he has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon and moderated three presidential debates. Throughout his career Schieffer has written four books, won numerous awards and covered every presidential race and nominating convention since 1972. He will be in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis for three semesters, throughout the 2016 election season. During his time on campus Schieffer will meet with students and faculty, speak at various events for the Harvard community and participate in Shorenstein Center activities.
More at http://shorensteincenter.org/bob-schieffer-4/
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The Anthropocene, African Aesthetics and the Politics of Form
WHEN Wed., Apr. 20, 2016, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Sarah Nutall, director, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Witwatersrand
COST Free & open to the public
CONTACT INFO hutchevents@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS A Q+A will follow the lecture.
LINK http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events-lectures/events/april-20-2016-1200pm/spring-colloquium-sarah-nutall
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Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS): The Ocean, Arctic Sea Ice, and Climate
Wednesday, April 20
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Mary-Louise Timmermans, Yale
About the Speaker
I am a physical oceanographer with a main research focus in the Arctic Ocean. We use a combination of theory, numerical modeling and geophysical observations (from icebreaker surveys and an ice-based network of drifting ocean-profiling instruments) to investigate how the ocean relates to Arctic sea ice and climate. This includes such topics as ocean mixing, eddies and waves, and ocean heat and freshwater transport.
Event website: http://bit.ly/1RQpuuO
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Darius Collazo
617-253-2127
dcollazo@mit.edu
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New nanomaterials at the interface of structural biology and polymer science
Wednesday, April 20
3:30p–4:45p
MIT, Building 56-114 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Ronald Zuckermann (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM) Seminar Series
PPSM sponsors a series of seminars covering a broad range of topics of general interest to the polymer community, featuring speakers from both on and off campus.
SEMINAR 3:30 PM REFRESHMENTS 3:00 PM
Web site: http://polymerscience.mit.edu/?page_id=2905
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM)
For more information, contact: Gregory Sands
(617) 253-0949
ppsm-www@mit.edu
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Cambridge Innovation Center Technology Showcase
Wednesday, April 20
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
Venture Cafe, CIC Cambridge, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cic-technology-showcase-tickets-23245943242
In conjuction with The Cambridge Science Festival, CIC will be holding an expo style event for our clients to show off all of their new and innovative technologies. Join us in the Venture Cafe to check out some of the coolest devices and applications being conjured up right here in the Cambridge/Boston area.
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Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons: Firms and the Political Economy of China’s Technological Development
WHEN Wed., Apr. 20, 2016, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Doug Fuller, professor, Zhejiang University School of Management
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO maisie_obrien@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Doug Fuller will discuss how China, a developing country with a spectacularly inefficient financial system, coupled with asset-destroying state-owned firms, has managed to create a number of vibrant high-tech firms.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/paper-tigers-hidden-dragons-firms-and-political-economy-china’s-technological-development?delta=0
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Urban Mobility in Clean, Green Cities
Wednesday, April 20
4:30 pm
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 208, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urban-mobility-in-clean-green-cities-tickets-23448173117
Between 2010 and 2050, the number of people living in world's urban areas is expected to increase by 80 percent. This growth will intensify the great challenges for urban mobility. Cities increasingly face problems caused by transport and traffic, and how to keep cities clean and green become critical.
Join Henry Kelly, University of Michigan, and Christos Cassandras, Boston University, for a seminar on urban mobility issues in clean and green cities, moderated by Katharine Lusk, Boston University. The seminar will be followed by a discussion led by Martin Chavez, former Mayor of Albuquerque.
Henry Kelly is Senior Scientist at University of Michigan’s Institute for Data Science and Senior Advisor to the Director of EPSA. He previously served as Principal Associate Director for Environment and Energy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Christos Cassandras is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Head of the Division of Systems Engineering at Boston University.
Martin Chavez is a former three-term mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico and New Mexico State Senator. He served as the Executive Director of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Center for Green Schools at U.S. Green Building Council.
Katharine Lusk is the founding Executive Director of the Initiative on Cities at Boston University where she spearheads new university-wide programs and research, including the Menino Survey of Mayors, student government fellowships, original urban scholarship and multi-stakeholder conferences.
Event is free and open to public.
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Science and Democracy Lecture:The Elusive Demos: Democracy in the Digital Age
Wednesday, April 20
5:00pm to 7:00pm
TBA
Yaron Ezrahi (Hebrew University), Andy Stirling (University of Sussex), & Shiv Visvanathan (Jindal Global University)
Science, Technology and Society seminars
Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
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Science by the Pint @ Cambridge Science Festival: Studying Marijuana
Wednesday, April 20
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
"In a Haze: Studying Marijuana"
Guest scientists Staci Gruber, Seth Blumenthal, Jodi Gilman & Anne Short
It’s 4/20, so Harvard’s Science by the Pint is teaming up with the Aeronaut Brewery and the Cambridge Science Festival to learn about the science of marijuana! Our researchers are here to discuss with you the challenges of studying a (mostly) illegal substance, and get into their research on the effects of marijuana on the brain, the environmental issues around growing weed, and how America’s relationship with the drug has evolved. So grab a beer and get talking!
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitnboston/science-by-the-pint/
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Learning from the Central Park 5: Visions of American Criminal Justice Reform
Wednesday, April 20
6:30p–9:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Yusef Salaam; Natalie Byfield; Andrea James; Ronald Sullivan; Malik Ghachem
In a case that polarized the nation across racial and class lines, five Black and Hispanic NYC teens were falsely convicted of the brutal rape and assault of a young white NYC banker. Learn why this happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.
Web site: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&pgid=30303&
gid=13&cid=48717&ecid=48717&post_id=0
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&pgid=30303&gid=13&cid=48717&ecid=48717&post_id=0
Sponsor(s): Black Graduate Student Association, DUSP Students of Color Committee; ODGE; OME; Political Science; History; SAO Multicultural Programs; GSC
For more information, contact: Mareena Robinson Snowden
mrobin@mit.edu
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Thursday, April 21
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Foodbetter Harvard
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 11 a.m. – Fri., Apr. 22, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Education, Lecture, Special Events, Sustainability, Wellness/Work Life
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR EVP Katie Lapp, Foodbetter Harvard Committee
SPEAKER(S) Joyce Chaplin, Ted Bestor, Bill Clark, Dan Barber, Walter Willet, Joanne Chang, David Edwards, Sean Palfrey
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK foodbetter.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO crista_martin@harvard.edu
DETAILS FoodBetter Harvard showcases the University's commitment to a healthy, sustainable and just food system as a valuable area of work, study, and institutional action on our campus and in our affiliated communities.
FoodBetter Harvard will highlight the power of interdisciplinary knowledge and discovery taking place here, and explore the complex questions about food that challenge our region and the world.
Events will include presentations, cooking and science demonstrations, panels and an innovation and sustainability fair, all of which allow you to explore the many ways in which our community endeavors to Food Better: grow better, eat better, conserve better, transport better, choose better.
Keynote Address on Thursday, April 21, 4pm:
Chefs Dan Barber and Joanne Chang and Harvard nutrition expert Walter Willett will discuss the impact of food on our environment, our health, and our sense of pleasure and comfort. The conversation will be moderated by Aaron Bernstein.
Thursday, April 21
1:15pm – The History of Food and the Mass Bay Colony (Joyce Chaplin)
2:00pm – The Current Culture of Food (Ted Bestor)
2:30-3:45pm – Speed Lectures on Sustainability in Food/Food Systems (curated by Bill Clark)
4-5:15pm – Keynote Conversation with Dan Barber, Walter Willet and Joanne Chang
5:30-7:00pm – Sustainable Dinner for students in Houses and Reception on Plaza for staff
Friday, April 22
11:00am-3:00pm – Innovation & Sustainability Fair
- Harvard- and Cambridge-area innovators (students, alumni, affiliates, etc) with ideas for improving the food system
- Harvard- and Cambridge-area sustainability programs or groups showcasing current practices and opportunities
- Mini Farmers' Market
11:30am-12:30pm – Mini Science & Cooking student demonstrations (curated by Pia Sorenson)
12:30-1:30pm – Harvard-Affiliated Chef Talks (Chefs Barton Seaver & Martin Breslin)
1:30-3:00pm – Speed Lectures on Innovations in Food/Food Systems (curated by David Edwards)
3:00pm – Student Panel on Harvard and Food as an area of Study and Enjoyment (moderated by Sean Palfrey)
3:45pm – Closing
LINK http://foodbetter.harvard.edu
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Sustainability@BU’s Earth Day Festival
Thursday, April 21
11 am - 2:30 pm
BU, GSU, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
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The Future of the Conservative Political Agenda with Michael R. Strain
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Michael R. Strain, Resident Scholar and Deputy Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute
COST Free - limited space; RSVP required
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
Lunch will be served.
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The Social Lives of Computer Models in Forestry Research
Thursday, April 21
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Tom Ozden-Schilling, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University
What can a long-simmering technical dispute between two groups of tree growth modelers tell us about the relationship between expertise and environmental governance in the twenty-first century? Drawing on over a year of ethnographic work conducted at government ministries and independent research offices, this talk will explore how the professional goals and social attachments of different forestry scientists have shaped the kinds of stories that computer simulations tell about the future of forests – and of forestry science – in British Columbia. As more and more government institutions transition away from field-based forestry research to remote sensing and automated image analysis, we will examine how some scientists have confronted their personal fates by exploring the precariousness of these new research infrastructures within the algorithms of growth models and the space of soon-to-be-abandoned experimental forests.
Tom Özden-Schilling is a doctoral candidate in the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society program at MIT, and is a lecturer in environmental anthropology at Tufts for the 2015-16 academic year. He was trained in materials science and engineering before beginning doctoral work in social anthropology, has been a visiting scholar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo. His current book project, Salvage Cartographies: Mapping, Futures, and Landscapes in Northwest British Columbia, explores how digital media and institutional restructuring have affected relationships between forest ecologists and indigenous Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists currently studying the effects of climate change and forestry practices on the traditional territories of the Gitxsan and Gitanyow First Nations.
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Sustainable Electricity: A Generational Change in the Making
Thursday, April 21
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (Pappalardo Community Room)
ALEXANDRA VON MEIER, California Institute for Energy and Environment
The electric grid has been called a system that works in practice, not in theory. While large power networks based on 19th century technology have served us remarkably well, new challenges await: a transition to carbon-neutral energy sources is now imperative. This introduces the problem of coordinating heterogeneous, temporally intermittent and spatially distributed resources at an unprecedented scale, and with greater precision than ever imagined by early grid architects. Solutions must reconcile the constraints of legacy infrastructure with a spectrum of new opportunities created by advanced sensors, controls and information technology.
This talk will outline the integration challenges from a physical perspective, starting with an elementary characterization of a.c. electric power systems and what is (surprisingly) not obvious about them. It will also introduce research on new tools such as micro-synchrophasors that support a qualitative leap in how we may observe, understand and manage the grid, as a critical infrastructure and enabler of timely change across the energy sector.
Physics in the Interest of Society Colloquium
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Novel Climate, Novel Ecosystems: Effects of directional changes in precipitation amount and variability
Thursday, April 21
4 pm
Harvard, BioLabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Lecture series with Osvaldo Sala, Julie A. Wrigley Chair and Foundation Professor, School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Sala will discuss "Novel climate-Novel Ecosystems: Effects of directional changes in precipitation amount and variability."
Osvaldo Sala is the Julie A. Wrigley and Foundation Professor at ASU. Before arriving at ASU, Sala was the Lindemann Professor of Biology and founding Director of the Environmental Change Initiative at Brown University. Sala’s research topics include: responses of arid ecosystems to global changes and consequences on their ability to provide ecosystem services. His work is reflected in more than 180 publications, and he sits on a number of national and international leadership committees.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/novel-climate-novel-ecosystems#sthash.xIpKCTRE.dpuf
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Climate Change Policy After Paris
Thursday, April 21
4:00 pm
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Questrom Auditorium, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-policy-after-paris-tickets-23461735683
n 2015 world leaders negotiated a major agreement, known as the Paris Agreement, to reduce climate change and committed to take action to keep global temperature rise below 2C by the end of the century.
Join Ken Berlin, President & CEO of The Climate Reality Project, for an afternoon exploring climate change policy after the Paris Agreement. Introduction by Kenneth Freeman, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean.
Ken Berlin is the President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project. He has been recognized as one of the top climate change attorneys in the world and has extensive expertise on international environmental issues ranging from clean energy to biodiversity.
Kenneth W. Freeman joined Boston University as the Allen Questrom Professor and Dean of the Questrom School of Business in 2010. He has more than forty years of professional experience, most recently at KKR where he was a partner and also served as a senior advisor.
Event is free and open to public.
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ISIS and the Age of Jihad
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Patrick Cockburn, award-winning journalist; Middle East correspondent, "The Independent"
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/isis-and-age-jihad
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Panel on the Front National and the Rise of Populism in Europe
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Hoffmann Room, Busch Hall, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar on Social Exclusion and Inclusion
SPEAKER(S) David Art, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University; Mabel Berezin, Professor of Sociology, Cornell University; Visiting Scholar, CES; Bart Bonikowski, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Jonathan Mijs, mijs@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Mabel Berezin’s research asks how shared cultural meanings and practices shape 1) political institutions such as the state; 2) social processes around political movements and ideologies; and 3) agents through the construction of political identities. Her methodology is primarily comparative and historical.
David Art's field is comparative politics, with a regional focus on Europe. Professor Art's research interests include extremist political parties and movements, the politics of history and memory, and comparative historical analysis in the social sciences.
Bart Bonikowski's research relies on surveys, textual data, and experimental methods to apply insights from cultural sociology to the study of politics in Europe and the United States. His work has a particular focus on populist claims-making in political discourse and popular identification with the nation in settled times.
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USGBC Building Tech Forum 2016
Thursday, April 21
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/usgbc-building-tech-forum-2016-tickets-21464837908
Cost: $27.37 – $69.57 GET TICKETS
Buildings are fundamentally about technology. Innovation in the building sector is driving improvements in performance and enhancements to the user experience.
Join the U.S. Green Building Council, MA Chapter (USGBC MA) for the 2016 Building Tech Forum to connect on the local level to these important trends for sustainability in real estate.
Come hear from speakers Ben Myers, the Sustainability Manager at Boston Properties, and Kurt Roth, Director of Building Energy at Fraunhofer, as they share their perspectives as a real estate developer and a building performance researcher, respectively, on trends and innovations that they view as important to success.
Boston Properties is our Gold Sponsor
A second-stage panel will include speakers from St Gobain, The Green Engineer, and Ogletree Deakins
This event will bring together two important tribes: practitioners in the high-performance & green building sector: owners, builders, designers and operators, mixing with innovators on the cutting edge of technological innovation.
Are you involved in a technology that will improve buildings? Vendors and sponsors will have opportunities to directly present their product and service to the attending building professionals. Go to usgbcma.org/building-tech-forum for more information.
Let's connect the users and the providers who are are delivering the next solutions to the challenges of building design and facility management.
Displaying sponsors include:
Pillar Technologies
Budderfly
Moen
BuildingIQ
View Glass
B2Q
Solablock
EAS
Carbon Cure
NECEC
Mass CEC
At the Building Tech Forum, you will:
meet people who will help you on your next high performance building project
encounter inspiring new technologies and solution strategies
hear from industry leaders about where things are going
connect your business to the innovations going on in the building sector
Image of occupied Greentown Labs event space at large event.
Agenda:
5:30 - Orienting Remarks
6:00 - First Program begins; Keynote w Ben Myers and Kurt Roth
6:20 - First Program ends; games ensue
7:20 - Second Program begins: Panel w St Gobain, The Green Engineer, and Ogletree Deakins
7:40 - Second Program ends
8:15 - Final Remarks and Appreciations
8:30 - End
Food and drinks will be provided throughout the evening! Special demonstrations and interactive challenges for all!
Individual tickets start at $25; vendor display opportunities and sponsorship opportunities are available at usgbcma.org/building-tech-forum
U.S. Green Building Council, Massachusetts Chapter, is a membership-based advocacy organization driving change for sustainability in the built environment for the benefit of our communities and our world. Learn more about our education, networking and advocacy work at usgbcma.org - and thank you for your interest in the Building Tech Forum!
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Alma Guillermoprieto: Making Art Out of Fright
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Seminar on Violence and Non-Violence
SPEAKER(S) Alma Guillermoprieto
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-0738
DETAILS This event will be live streamed.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/making-art-out-fright
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Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
7:00p–8:15p
MIT, Building W-79, MIT Simmons Hall MPR, 229 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. James Doty, M.D. and Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi
James R. Doty, M.D., is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), where he researches the neuroscience of compassion and altruism. He is also a philanthropist funding health clinics throughout the world and has endowed scholarships and chairs at multiple universities. He serves on the board of a number of nonprofits, including the Charter for Compassion International and the Dalai Lama Foundation.
Web site: http://thecenter.mit.edu/cent_events/james-doty-md-into-the-magic-shop/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, MIT Residential Scholars @ Simmons Hall
For more information, contact: Heather Goldman
617-254-6030
DalaiLamaCenter@mit.edu
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Thursday Socials with Green Cambridge!
Thursday, April 21
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Plug Cambridge, 618 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Green-Cambridge-Meetup/events/229893456/
Look for our banner!
Come and join Green Cambridge for our monthly Thursday meet-up!
Our President, Quinton Zondervan, will be discussing his experience attending COP21 in Paris. He will then be leading a lively discussion on how to bring the international agreement here to Cambridge.
We will also be serving free wine and beer!!
We are a group of Cantabrigians dedicated to improving the environment and striving for sustainability. We'll be talking about all things green, giving run-downs on our community, advocacy and organizing work, and just getting to know one another.
Can't make it? We'll be repeating the event the third Thursday of every month! Plus, our organizing and planning meetings happen the first Thursday of every month. Also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.greencambridge.org.
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Space Station
Thursday, April 21
7:30 – 9:00 pm
Museum Of Science, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Museum Of Science Drive,Boston
RSVP at https://store.mos.org/index.php?action=showevent;event_id=275;c=1
Cost: $10
You wake up inside the cramped confines of a cryosleep chamber. You feel weak and dizzy from a prolonged period in cryonic suspension. What will you do next? Join game designer Jared Sorensen and the Charles Hayden Planetarium team as we break new ground in the Planetarium dome. Inspired by the text-parsing games of the ’80s, Space Station allows the entire audience to play a single character trying to survive a dangerous situation…in space!
Give commands, explore rooms, examine objects, and try to escape the Space Station, if you can!
For more information about the Parsely series of text-based adventure games: memento-mori.com/parsely
Due to live audience participation, it is possible that this event may contain adult language or situations.
Tickets on sale beginning Thursday, January 28 (Tuesday, January 26 for Museum members).
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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Friday, April 22
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Cambridge S.T.E.A.M. Forum
Stoking a 21st Century S.T.E.A.M. Engine: Rocket Fuel for the Innovation Economy
Friday, April 22
8:00 AM to 12:30 PM (EDT)
Boston Marriott Kendall Square, 50 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cambridge-steam-forum-registration-23063015099?aff=ebrowse
A public forum to explore strategies to increase and sustain the flow of high-quality talent to feed the growing innovation economy-while ensuring shared prosperity for Cambridge Residents. The forum is focused on the intersection of Workforce, Education and Opportunity.
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2016 Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks
Friday, April 22
8:30 AM to 6:30 PM (EDT)
MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-forum-on-future-cities-bits-bricks-tickets-18575175851
Cost: $0 - $80
The MIT Senseable City Lab cordially invites you to join us for the “Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks”. On Friday, April 22, 2016, thought leaders, industry heads, researchers, city officials and citizens at large will be invited to MIT’s campus to explore challenges, trends, and current issues impacting the fields of big data, digital technology, and the urban landscape.
Last year’s program, “The Road Ahead”, addressed questions on the future of transportation and mobility and drew over 250 people. In the past, we have worked with media partners such as the Economist and Wired to shine light on the topics we discuss on an international scale.
This year, we are excited to announce our partnership with the World Economic Forum as well as the sponsorship provided by Mahindra. Our conference will take place in the Samberg Conference Center at MIT, in the newly restored Chang Building, E52. This space provides unparalleled views of the Boston skyline and is designed to foster the spirit of innovation and discourse so deeply embedded in the culture of MIT and within its relationships to the community.
“Bits & Bricks”, will be comprised of four sessions: Utilities, Transportation, Building and the Responsive Environment- each a lens into the future of urban development. The event will culminate in the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities “Green Canopy Initiative” and will be followed by a reception.
We hope that you will join us this year and we look forward to your participation in the events to come!
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Celebrate Earth Day at Fenway!
Friday, April 22
10:00AM
4 Yawkey Way, Gate A, Boston
RSVP at https://greenovateearthday2016.splashthat.com
You're invited!
Please join Mayor Walsh, Greenovate Boston, the Office of Neighborhood Services, and the Boston Red Sox at the State Street Pavilion in Fenway Park for a morning of celebrations and giving back!
The event will start with the 10th Annual Greenovate Boston Awards to recognize environmental sustainability excellence.
Then, in partnership with the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, we'll kick off a weekend of Boston Shines!
All guests must RSVP.
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Connectomics – Mapping the brain
Friday, April 22
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Lunch 12:30pm; Talk 1pm
Verena Kaynig, IACS Lecturer, Harvard SEAS
Connectomics is the study of the dense structure of neurons in the brain and their connections. Neurobiologists can gain new insights into the relation between the brain’s structure and its function by studying the brain connectivity at the single cell level. Recent advances in Electron Microscopy enable high-throughput imaging of neural tissue at a resolution high enough to identify single synapses. At this resolution, a cubic millimeter of brain tissue leads to an image volume of about 1 Petabyte of data. These large amounts of data require novel computer vision based algorithms and scalable software frameworks to process this data. In this talk I will describe the development of RhoANA, our dense Automatic Neural Annotation framework, which we have developed in order to automatically align, segment and reconstruct a cubic millimeter of brain tissue.
Speaker Bio: Verena Kaynig-Fittkau is a lecturer at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Her main interests are machine learning and computer vision applied to bio-medical images. Previously she was a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS in the Graphics, Vision and Interaction Group of Hanspeter Pfister, working on connectomics in close collaboration with Jeff Lichtman. She received her PhD in computer science in 2011 from ETH Zurich, working in the Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning Group headed by Joachin Buhmann. She also developed image processing approaches for electron microscopy images for Electron Microscopy ETH Zurich (EMEZ). She received her BSc in computer science in 2006 from the University of Hamburg.
IACS Seminar Series
Contact: Natasha Baker
Phone: 617-496-2623
Email: iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu
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Earth Day Talk - Professor Max Liboiron: Data Activism in Science and Technology
Friday, April 22
4-5 PM
MIT, Building E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Professor Liboiron's research focuses on how harmful yet invisible threats become visible in science and activism, and how these methods of representation relate to action. Through the lens of her work on marine plastics and toxicants, she will discuss how research can foster change not only after data has been collected and analyzed or after prototypes are complete, but during the entire research and development process. Refreshments will be provided.
More at http://civiclaboratory.nl
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2-16 Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks
Friday, April 22
8:30 AM to 6:30 PM (EDT)
MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-forum-on-future-cities-bits-bricks-tickets-18575175851
Cost: $15 - $75
The MIT Senseable City Lab cordially invites you to join us for the “Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks”. On Friday, April 22, 2016, thought leaders, industry heads, researchers, city officials and citizens at large will be invited to MIT’s campus to explore challenges, trends, and current issues impacting the fields of big data, digital technology, and the urban landscape.
Last year’s program, “The Road Ahead”, addressed questions on the future of transportation and mobility and drew over 250 people. In the past, we have worked with media partners such as the Economist and Wired to shine light on the topics we discuss on an international scale.
This year, we are excited to announce our partnership with the World Economic Forum as well as the sponsorship provided by Mahindra. Our conference will take place in the Samberg Conference Center at MIT, in the newly restored Chang Building, E52. This space provides unparalleled views of the Boston skyline and is designed to foster the spirit of innovation and discourse so deeply embedded in the culture of MIT and within its relationships to the community.
“Bits & Bricks”, will be comprised of four sessions: Utilities, Transportation, Building and the Responsive Environment- each a lens into the future of urban development. The event will culminate in the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities “Green Canopy Initiative” and will be followed by a reception.
We hope that you will join us this year and we look forward to your participation in the events to come!
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Robots in Our World: Uncertain, Incomplete and Unfamiliar
Friday, April 22
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 (Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Refreshments: 2:45 PM
Speaker: Jeremy L Wyatt
To make transfer to applications in everyday domains robots require the ability to cope with novelty, incomplete information, and uncertainty. In this talk I will describe a line of work carried out over ten years that provides methods to tackle this. I will examine two problems: object search and grasping. This requires the ability to reason and learn in open worlds and novel circumstances. The results are demonstrated in two robot systems, Dora and Boris. Dora is a robot for object search that plans in open worlds. The technical contribution is to achieve this by using assumptive planning and common-sense knowledge. Dora uses the same scheme to verify explanations in the face of failure. Boris is a robot that learns to grasp novel objects from a very small number of example grasps. The novel technical contribution in that instance is the use of products of experts to enable grasp transfer. If there is time I will briefly mention other work.
Contact: Teresa Cataldo, cataldo@csail.mit.edu
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Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties
Friday, April 22
4:00pm-05:30am
Harvard Coop Bookstore, Level 3
Thomas Kent
On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others, including the author of this book. The shootings shocked the American public and triggered a nationwide wave of campus strikes and protests. To many at the time, Kent State seemed an unlikely site for the bloodiest confrontation in a decade of campus unresta sprawling public university in the American heartland, far from the coastal epicenters of political and social change.
http://harvardcoopbooks.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BNCBcalendarEventListView?eventYear=2016&showStoreId=52084&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=52084&eventMonth=3
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2016 Emerson Green Gala
Friday, April 22
Reception: 6:15pm & Show: 7:30pm
Emerson College, Paramount Theatre, 555 Washington Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-emerson-green-gala-tickets-23200195409
General Admission: $10 & Students: $5
Using art to promote a healthier planet, the Emerson Green Gala is an event and competition at the Paramount theatre (Boston, MA), with a mission to drive conscious awareness of “Earth Day” and our environment into the minds and hearts of Emerson College students, faculty and the Boston community. Our purpose is to celebrate our Mother Earth through diverse forms of young artistic expression, while promoting the importance of Earth Day. This event will include Emerson's SGA (student government) recognized performance-based organizations, involving over 120 student performers, each crafting a specialized performance piece. Additionally, there will be a reception including booths with inspiring guidance on how to create a better world and healthier planet. We use recycled playbills, provide gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian food (Because what college student can resist free food!), sell merchandise from the NYC-based organization "Broadway Green Alliance", distribute organic cotton t-shirts and show videos to exemplify the significance of this international holiday. Additionally, there is a film component of the competition where the winning film will be revealed at the gala. We also collaborate with other schools in the Boston community to bring everyone together for this special day!
More at http://www.gogreengala.com
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Saturday April 23
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The Spring 2016 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday April 23
(early this year—NOT in May)
NOON to 2 pm
at Fayette Park(near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Streets), Cambridge
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday April 24, 12-2
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden. Elegant packaging not required, but please do write down the names of plants. We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds, indoor plants, catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever." Feel free to just come, chat with neighbors, talk gardening. NOTE: it’s a week or so early this year.
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Harvard, EAC Earth Day Festival
Saturday, April 23
12–4 pm
Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Feed Change! Come celebrate Earth Day at the Environmental Action Committee’s annual EARTH DAY FESTIVAL on the Science Center Plaza!
Discover green efforts all over Boston with a focus on sustainable food:
Free Food
Seed Planting and Pot Painting
Games
Great Bands
Huge Raffle
Reusable Bag Design
Henna and Face painting
Flower Crown Headband Making
Everyone's favorite... free water bottles.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/eac-earth-day-festival#sthash.y00i79vn.dpuf
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Sunday, April 24
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Science by the Pint @ Cambridge Science Festival: Gravitational Waves Unplugged
Tell a friend Share
Sunday, April 24
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
"Science By the Pint: Gravitational Waves Unplugged"
Guest scientist Scott Hughes
You may have heard a little announcement in the science world this February about gravitational waves. We’ve asked back MIT Professor Scott Hughes and members of his group from the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the MIT LIGO Laboratory to talk to us about the incredible discovery of gravitational waves and what that means for us and the future of physics. Come grab a seat, enjoy Aeronaut beer and great science festival company.
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitnboston/science-by-the-pint/
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Monday, April 25
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Jessica Neu, JPL
Monday, April 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Jessica Neu (JPL)
About the Speaker
Dr. Jessica Neu's research focuses on understanding what controls the chemical composition of the atmosphere at the regional and global scale and, ultimately, how atmospheric composition will change with and feed-back onto changes in other components of the climate system. She employs a hierarchy of models of varying complexity in combination with measurements from both satellite remote sensing and in situ instruments, and her work encompasses a wide variety of techniques, including theoretical studies, numerical modeling, and analysis of observational data to address these issues. Her work has recently evolved to include data assimilation and adjoint modeling techniques to facilitate model-measurement intercomparison as well as Observing System Simulation Experiments to define science objective-based requirements for future satellite missions.
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
Monday, April 25
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Pu Wang, Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Sustainability Science in the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-25-160000-2016-04-25-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.Z6wfC27b.dpuf
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A Conversation on Conversation
Monday, April 25
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, E51-095, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sherry Turkle, MIT, and Wade Roush, MIT
STS Speaker Series Colloquium
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sts/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Gus Zahariadis
617-253-3452
gusz@mit.edu
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Spatial and Social Frictions in the City: Evidence from Yelp
Monday, April 25
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E52-532, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Jonathan Dingel (Booth School of Business)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): International Seminar
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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Book Talk: Unfinished Revolutions Yemen, Libya, and Tunisia after the Arab Spring
WHEN Mon., Apr. 25, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Nye A, Taubman Building, Fifth Floor, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Initiative
SPEAKER(S) A discussion with Ibrahim Fraihat, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution Doha Center and Affiliate Scholar, Georgetown University in Qatar, on his most recent book Unfinished Revolutions from Yale University Press.
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/7013/book_talk.html
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The future of nuclear energy or the lament of a life long nuclear guy
Monday, April 25
4:45p–6:30p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Rowe; Chairman Emeritus, Exelon Corporation
The prerequisites for a new generation of nuclear plants are simple, but have not yet been met:
1) A shortage of base load electricity;
2) A shortage of natural gas;
3) A new and simplified plant design; and
4) An accepted solution to the nuclear waste disposal problem.
In the absence of these factors, new nuclear power plants will not be economic in the United States or most of Europe for several decades.
This simple conclusion begs a number of other questions. These include: How long will the existing plants be economic? How many good jobs will be created as we seek as much value as we can in the existing fleet? What factors are impacting the value of the existing fleet? What do we need to do to keep the existing plants as safe as they have been? How are we ever going to build a waste disposal facility?
As that great nuclear engineer, Robert Frost, put it: Miles to go before we sleep. In this talk, John Rowe will discuss his many years of experience in the nuclear industry and thoughts on the future of nuclear energy.
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/rowe
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/425-seminar-the-future-of-nuclear-energy-or-the-lament-of-a-life-long-nuclear-guy-with-john-rowe-tickets-24231562255
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:
askmitei@mit.edu
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Film Screening of "Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story"
Monday, April 25
5:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Melissa Nobles, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences will introduce the film. The filmmakers along with Professor David Autor of the Economics Department will discuss the film following the screening.
Film screening of "Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story". Filmmakers, Chris Walley (Anthropology Professor) and Chris Boebel (Office of Digital Learning) will screen their film which documents the effects that the closing of the steel mills in Southeast Chicago had on Professor Walley's family. This is an intimate, moving documentary of a Rust Belt family struggling to come to terms with a changing America.
Web site: https://anthropology.mit.edu/sites/default/files/images/MITAnthro_ExitZero_poster.pdf
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Anthropology Program, MIT First Generation Program
For more information, contact: Irene Hartford
617-452-2837
ihart@mit.edu
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President's Challenge Demo Day
WHEN Mon., Apr. 25, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard i-Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard I-Labs
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/presidents-challenge-demo-day/
DETAILS We are pleased to invite you to the President’s Challenge Demo Day here at the i-lab. The President’s Challenge encourages students from across Harvard to come up with creative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Ten finalist teams have been announced and awarded a seed grant of $5,000 along with support from the i-lab, including mentoring, workshops and workspace. At Demo Day these ten finalist teams will showcase their efforts and progress in making impact on the world around them. The Grand Prize Pool of $100,000 will be awarded to the winning team and three runners up.
We hope you are able to join us for this celebratory evening!
LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/presidents-challenge-demo-day/
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Tuesday, April 26
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Berkman Tuesday Luncheon Series featuring Susan Crawford, The John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center
Tuesday, April 26
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1015 (first floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Crawford#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Crawford at 12:00 pm.
Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center. She is the author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, co-author of The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance, and a contributor to Medium.com’s Backchannel. She served as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and co-led the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama administrations. She also served as a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation and is now a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Broadband Task Force. Ms. Crawford was formerly a (Visiting) Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Michigan Law School (2008-2010). As an academic, she teaches courses about city uses of technology, Internet law, and communications law. She was a member of the board of directors of ICANN from 2005-2008 and is the founder of OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the internet that takes place each Sept. 22. One of Politico’s 50 Thinkers, Doers and Visionaries Transforming Politics in 2015; one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology (2009); IP3 Awardee (2010); one of Prospect Magazine’s Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future (2011); and one of TIME Magazine’s Tech 40: The Most Influential Minds in Tech (2013). Ms. Crawford received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. She served as a clerk for Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) (Washington, D.C.) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy.
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Designing with Water - by Jason Hellendrung, Sasaki Associates
Tuesday, April 26
4:30-5:30pm
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Jason will present some of Sasaki's recent work on addressing challenges faced by waterfront cities due to sea level rise. His presentation will focus on Sasaki’s work with Memphis and Shelby County’s winning application to HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition, which created a holistic approach to water and city resilience.
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“The Boy and the Beast” from award-winning director Mamoru Hosoda
Tuesday, April 26
7:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, , 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Latest feature anime film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children)
When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely family will be put to ultimate test—a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.
Screening followed by discussion with Ian Condry (MIT) and Jennifer Fu (Funimation)
Free
Open to public
Before the film, please join us: Pizza Dinner Discussion “From MIT to the Anime Industry: A Conversation with Jennifer Fu”
5-6:30pm in 14E-304
(RSVP for dinner discussion: gsl-events@mit.edu)
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Opportunity
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CLIMATE SMART BOSTON
Climate Smart Boston is about getting public input on vulnerabilities and resources related to climate readiness and resilience in the City of Boston and surrounding region in order to more fully inform to the Climate Ready Boston and Imagine Boston 2030 planning processes.
SIGN UP at https://communityplanit.org/bostonclimate/
Boston is striving to advance climate preparedness planning to produce resiliency initiatives that work together to address physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities in our communities. You can participate in this process and help shape the preparedness of the city in adapting to climate change. Boston is recognized as a world-class leader in climate resilience planning by the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative and was recognized at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference with an award for "Smart Cities and Smart Community Engagement" by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group in Paris. Boston officials want to make sure the distinct needs of all neighborhoods are well understood as they plan to meet the climate challenges that will face our city in 2030 and beyond. Participate in Climate Smart Boston to play your part!
Three missions
Climate Smart Boston challenges you over three time-sensitive missions:
Mission 1: March 25 - April 1
Mission 2: April 1 - April 8
Mission 3: April 8 - April 15
Miss a mission? Don't worry, there's still plenty more to play!
This game has launched!
Sign up now, and get ready to plan your community! If you share this page with your friends, we'll get even more bright ideas on the table.
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The Summer of 2016 there will be a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy (http://sdonline.org/) on Energy Transition, with an emphasis on renewable energy, including wind, solar, and biomass.
We are looking for reviewers of one or more articles. We are also seeking people who could send us reviews of relevant books, for this issue.
Weimin Tchen
weimintchen@gmail.com
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Solarize Somerville is a go!
Hello neighbors--
On this cold winter day, I'm delighted to share the sunny news that Somerville MA has been chosen by the MassCEC (Clean Energy Center) to be a Solarize Mass community! You can see the announcement here:
http://www.masscec.com/about-masscec/news/state-energy-officials-announce-five-new-communities-participate-solar-program
State energy officials today announced the selection of the first five communities to participate in Solarize Mass for 2016. The new municipalities participating in the community-based solar energy group-buying program that lowers overall costs of installing solar electric systems include Somerville and Natick, as well as Shelburne, Colrain and Conway, which have joined as a trio of partner communities....
You can learn more about the MassCEC and the SolarizeMass program at: www.solarizemass.com .
As the announcement has just been made, we don't have a lot of additional information at this time. But this selection means that we can now work with the city and the state to help residents of Somerville to decide if solar is a suitable option for them and their homes or businesses. We'll be developing and sharing educational materials, we'll have events to help people learn more and get questions answered, and we will help people to understand the processes associated with generating local, artisanal electrons.
Officially I'm the "Solar Coach" for Somerville. I am a point of contact to help people with basic solar PV issues and incentives. I'm working with folks from the city who will manage the overall project. This is a joint effort by the Office of Sustainability and Environment, with director Oliver Sellers-Garcia, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development with Russell Koty.
As a Coach, I am a volunteer organizer and am not authorized to speak as a spokesperson on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or MassCEC. My job is to help people to understand the program once it's in place, and to answer questions that my neighbors may have as they consider the options. Things outside of my wheelhouse will be directed to the folks who can answer them.
You can contact me here with questions, or soon we'll have some information resources with more details. If you might want to volunteer to be on the outreach team. let me know.
Mary Mangan
Solar Coach Volunteer
somervillesolarcoach@gmail.com
[vendors should not contact me, I'm not supposed to have contact with them prior to the proposal process]
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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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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
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
http://www.mapdwell.com/en/cambridge
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment
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
Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Questions? Contact jnahigian@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Energy Alliance
http://www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit
@cambenergy
http://facebook.com/cambridgeenergyalliance
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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.
The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org
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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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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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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 27 and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
BASEN / Boston Solidarity Network Economy: http://ba-sen.tumblr.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 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
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
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
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
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Index
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Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.
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Monday, April 11
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12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
12pm Online Violence Against Women & Emerging Legal Protections: A Conversation with Congresswoman Katherine Clark
12pm How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
12:15pm Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
5pm The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform
5:30pm The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
6pm An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
6pm Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
6pm Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
6pm Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
6:30pm Didier Faustino, "Building Intimacy”
6:30pm Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
12pm Shira Center - The Trump Factor: Covering Election 2016
12pm A Burglar’s Guide to the City: On Architecture and Crime
12:30pm The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
1pm The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
3pm The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
4pm Dudley Herschbach Teacher/Scientist Lecture - Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title
4pm Harvard Origins of Life Initiative First Annual Prize Lecture
4pm Bonaire Bonanza Film Screening
4:45pm U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
5pm Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
5pm xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
6pm Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
6:30pm Ignite Boston: Data
6:30pm Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
7pm Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
7pm Ken O’Keefe
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Wednesday, April 13
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8:15am Suffolk University Moakley Breakfast Series
12pm Societal Warfare in the 21st Century
12:30pm U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Workshops Northeast Region
4pm From Biominerals to Ancient Technologies: Exploring New Routes for Durable Building Materials
4pm Witnessing Death: Policing, Race, and the Limits of Democracy in the 21st Century
4:10pm Reinventing Social Democracy? Sanders, Corbyn and Beyond
4:15pm Global Commons
4:15pm Carbon Tariffs: Effects in Settings with Technology Choice and Foreign Production Cost Advantage
5:30pm Askwith Forum – With This Ring: Winning Marriage Equality
5:30pm New Revenue through Business Model Innovation - Navigating the Cleantech Landscape
6pm Mammals on the Move
6pm Michael Göring: The Refugee Crisis. Europe at the Crossroads?
7pm BostonTalks Happy Hour: Game On
7pm Carbon Pricing: Its Time Has Come
8pm Ah humanity!
8pm Lee Historical Lecture in Physics: One Catastrophe After Another The Big Bang, Death of the Dinosaurs, Ice Ages, Global Warming, and Beyond
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Thursday, April 14
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Annual Bioethics Conference -- Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care: Core to our Mission or None of our Business?
9am Art Technology Psyche
11:45am Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
12pm Bridging the gap between waste and want: Turning Potentially Wasted Food into a Solution for Hunger
4pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Ryan Sullivan, CMU
4pm Making Robots Behave
4:30pm Starr Forum: Human Rights & Technology
5pm A Conversation with Mary Norris, the New Yorker's Comma Queen
5:30pm Celebrate Science: 2016 Cambridge Science Festival Kick-Off Party
5:30pm Farm Share Fair 2016
6pm Debate: The Origins of Human Cooperation: Views from Evolutionary Psychology
6:30pm Fletcher IDEAS Exchange: Human Security Approaches to Peacebuilding
7pm Balancing flexibility and scale in a synthetic biology foundry
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Friday, April 15
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9am Inequalities/Equalities in Cities
9am Doctoral Program Conference: "Cambridge Talks X | Bound and Unbound: The Sites of Utopia" (II)
9am DOE Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force and Public Stakeholder Meeting
10am WSSS Symposium 2016: Aqueous Solutions: Valuing Wastewater as a Resource
12pm Developing Future Air Quality Observing Strategies: Contributions from DISCOVER-AQ
12pm 21st Century Clinical Research: Patient Activism, Social Media, Digital Apps
1pm Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
3pm Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World
6:30pm The Classroom of Tomorrow – Swarm Robots in Education
7pm Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
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Saturday, April 16
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9am Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference
6pm Cambridge Science Festival: Worthy of AtTENtion: Gender,robots and everything in between
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Monday, April 18
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12pm Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
6pm Inhospitality: Borders and Border-Work at Europe's Doorsteps
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Tuesday, April 19
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8am Boston TechBreakfast: AMA XpertEye Inc, Code to Table, Inc., VQL, YooGloo Inc
12pm Media and Politics: What’s Next? – A Conversation with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows
12pm Copyright Law Year in Review
12:30pm Building a Biomedical Information Commons
4pm How to Tell a Story With Data: Tools of the Trade
4:30pm The Future of Energy Efficiency
4:30pm Panel Discussion: Refugees and migrants: the current crisis in Greece and Europe
5pm Efficient Buildings And Sustainable Urban Development Techmeeting
6pm The New Old Age: How the body ages and how to keep it young
6pm The Art & Science of Selling
6pm MIT NanoDay
6:30pm Challenges and Opportunities in High Level Renewable Energy Integration
7pm Questlove's somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs
7pm A Legacy of Hope & Solutions for the 21st Century
7pm Editing the Genome: Now We Can. Should We?
7pm BASEA Movie Night at Kendall Square Cinema: Catching the Sun! (Area Premier)
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com
City Agriculture - April 10, 2016
http://cityag.blogspot.com/2016/04/city-agriculture-april-10-2016.html
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/10/1513477/-City-Agriculture-Apil-10-2016
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Monday, April 11
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Meiyun Lin, GFDL
Monday, April 11
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Meiyun Lin (GFDL)
Meiyun Lin is a research scientist at NOAA and Princeton University's Cooperative Institute for Climate Science (2010-present). Lin's research seeks to advance knowledge on the interactions of air quality with weather and climate. Specifically, she investigates how climate variability & change affect the long-range transport of Asian pollution, intrusions of stratospheric ozone deep into the troposphere, and their impacts on western US ozone air quality. Focusing on these research themes, Lin's work has led to a stream of high-profile publications. The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone from 75 to 65-70 ppbv. Process-level understanding on daily to multi-decadal time scales is thus relevant for effective implementation of the ozone standard in western states. Meiyun Lin is also an investigator of the NASA Aura Sciences Team in Atmospheric Composition and the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team. Lin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo (2007) and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2010).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Online Violence Against Women & Emerging Legal Protections: A Conversation with Congresswoman Katherine Clark
Monday, April 11
12pm-1pm
Harvard Law School, Hauser 102
RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/1537563703211610/
How do we protect women online post gamer-gate? How do we balance first amendment rights against threats and safety concerns presented by online harassment? How do we train law enforcement to recognize legitimate online threats?
The Women’s Law Association and the Berkman Center are pleased to bring Congresswoman Katherine Clark (from the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts) to campus for a conversation around the growing threat of online harassment, and emerging legal protections. Congresswoman Clark will speak about the Cybercrime Enforcement Training Assistance Act, which she proposed this legislative session, as well as her own experiences with online harassment and “swatting.” The event will begin with an introduction by Clinical Fellow Andy Sellars.
A non-pizza lunch will be served!
This event co-Sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, ACS, JOLT, and WAPPP.
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How has British Columbia’s revenue-neutral carbon tax worked? A synthesis of the evidence
Monday, April 11
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Brian Murray, Director, Environmental Economics Program, Nicholas Institute, Duke University
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-160000-2016-04-11-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.pyjvPN0W.dpuf
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Healthy Forever? Aging, Mobility, and the Transformation of Later Life
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Cara Kieran Fallon, Harvard, History of Science
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
STS Circle at Harvard
http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/events/sts_circle/
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Contact Name: Shana Rabinowich
Shana_Rabinowich@hks.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-11-161500-2016-04-11-180000/sts-circle-harvard#sthash.txfoBu9H.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 5 of 6: "Narrating the Other”
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Pound Hall, Room 101
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Program of Study, Research & Advocacy
SPEAKER(S) Prof. Marie Gottschalk (University of Pennsylvania Law School)
Alison Holcomb (ACLU)
Mark Holden (Koch Industries)
Jake Horowitz (Pew Charitable Trusts)
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO mworth@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS “The New Politics of Criminal Justice Reform” is a panel presentation that will look from several vantage points at the extraordinary convergence on criminal justice issues and explore the opportunities (and potential pitfalls) of those shifting political configurations.
The discussion will trace the origins of the broad ideological alignment around criminal justice reform and appraise the new possibilities that those alliances bring about. It will also ask whether the convergence around criminal justice issues carries costs, such as submerging certain critiques of the criminal justice system, and whether it is likely to spur fundamental change. The panel will explore how the extraordinary political moment around criminal justice reform plays out the ground, in terms of state-level policy change and from the perspective of people working in the trenches of the criminal justice system.
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The Future of Nature: Climate After The Paris Agreement
Monday, April 11
5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. talk
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://support.nature.org/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=9027
Cost: $25, students $10
The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate affirmed the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help communities adapt to climate change impacts.
What role can nature—through such things as carbon-storing forests, wave-absorbing salt marshes and protective floodplains—play in meeting the historic challenge of climate change?
How do communities like Boston’s best use these nature-based solutions alongside engineered solutions, to adapt and thrive?
An hour-long networking reception starts at 5:30 p.m. Talk begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include a closing audience Q&A.
We’ll kick off the talk with a screening of the Conservancy’s “The Nature of People,” a short documentary focusing on climate change and nature-based adaptation.
Panelists:
Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Spaces, City of Boston
Bud Ris, Senior Advisor, Climate, Barr Foundation
Glenn Prickett, Chief External Affairs Officer, The Nature Conservancy
Moderator:
Deborah Becker, Senior Correspondent and Host, WBUR
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An Introduction to Machine Learning for Law, Journalism, and Public Policy
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Engagement Lab, 160 Boylston Street 4th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-introduction-to-machine-learning-for-law-journalism-and-public-policy-tickets-22233958368
Join us at the Engagement Lab for an introductory talk about machine learning featuring Harvard Fellow William Li. The talk will take approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-20 minute Q&A session. Refreshments will be served.
This talk focuses on machine learning techniques to uncover patterns and insights from large open government datasets. William Li will introduce some concepts of machine learning through two projects: First, he'll discuss an authorship attribution model of unsigned U.S. Supreme Court opinions, offering insights into the authorship of important cases and the dynamics of Supreme Court decision-making. Second, he'll present a novel model, Probabilistic Text Reuse (PTR), for finding repeated passages of text in large document collections. He'll illustrate the utility of PTR by capturing the structure of a large collection of public comments on the FCC's proposed regulations on net neutrality. Finally, he'll conclude with some thoughts on the challenges for machine learning in journalism, legal aid, and civic technologies.
About Our Speaker: William Li is a 2015-2016 Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a 2016 PhD computer science graduate from MIT. He develops and applies machine learning methods to answer social science questions computationally and to promote public understanding of law, politics, and public policy. His projects include predicting the authors of unsigned Supreme Court opinions, visualizing the complexity of our laws, and discovering ideas from large collections of public comments on proposed regulations. William has also worked on recommender systems, speech recognition, and user activity prediction at Apple and Mitsubishi Electric.
He did his master’s degrees at MIT in computer science and the Technology and Policy Program, founded the MIT Assistive Technology Club, and has taught classes that involve civic collaborations with organizations such as the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, Greater Boston Legal Services, and the Cambridge Commission for People with Disabilities.
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Demo Day: A Celebration of Student Innovation at Northeastern
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/demo-day-a-celebration-of-student-innovation-at-northeastern-tickets-24223578375
Demo Day is the presentation of over 20 student ventures that have completed a 7-week program called the Husky Startup Challenge. These ventures have participated in five four-hour bootcamps, attended office hours with coaches, and worked with other Northeastern resources to develop their business plans. The Husky Startup Challenge serves to provide an exciting atmosphere where student-run ventures can engage with real world entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and create something extremely unique.
Demo Day is comprised of 3 parts
1) 6-7PM. Tabling: students set up a table with information about their companies and talk with attendees about their product and the work they did throughout the semester.
2) 7:15-8:30. Pitching: students then complete a 2 minute pitch in front of 300+ attendees, including a panel of 6 judges. We will be giving out $5000 in cash prizes.
3) 8:30-9. Keynote speaker & prize presentation
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Boston New Technology April 2016 Product Showcase #BNT64
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Akamai Technologies, 150 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston_New_Technology/events/229515406/
Akamai staff will be escorting attendees from the lobby up the stairs to the first floor, where you'll find our check-in table. Type the first few letters of your name on the screen and tap your name to print your name tag.
Free event! Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community!
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A.
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Microsoft Speakers Series: Future of Big Data
Monday, April 11
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/microsoft-speakers-series-future-of-big-data-tickets-23481669305
HackerX has partnered with Microsoft to connect diverse tech talent with people who believe diversity is an advantage, and that inclusive teams are stronger, smarter, and better. Come join us for an inside look at what's new at Microsoft, including face-to-face interaction with Microsoft New England R&D teams. Come if you're curious about what's next at Microsoft or just want to connect with other talented people in the industry. The evening will be filled with food, drinks, and raffle prizes provided by the Microsoft team. This is Microsoft (Speaker Series), presented by HackerX.
GET AN INSIDE LOOK AT MICROSOFT
Want a chance to meet face-to-face with top management at Microsoft? It's one of a kind opportunity to meet some of Microsoft's senior technology influencers and next wave of leaders.
GET TO KNOW MICROSOFT
HackerX gives unrepresented and talented tech professional with a variety of skill. We especially seek, women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, and many smart people who are driven to create change. We’ll wrap up the event with a free-form social hour where you can meet other professionals in the community and get to know like-minded visionaries looking for people to help take Microsoft to the next level.
GUEST SPEAKER
T.K. "Ranga" Rengarajan
Corporate Vice President, Technology & Research
T.K. “Ranga” Rengarajan, a Corporate Vice President within Technology and Research in Microsoft is responsible for global aspects of engineering. Among his responsibilities are all Microsoft Global Development Centers located in China, India, Israel, New England, Silicon Valley and Vancouver, the Garage program to drive grass root innovation and advanced technology projects in the areas of system and performance. Ranga and his teams are responsible to ensure Microsoft attracts, trains and retains the best talent in the world.
We live in an extraordinary time for data. In our mobile-first world, we have a multitude of devices -- phones, IoT sensors, computers -- capturing every step, touch, decision and action we take. In a cloud-first world, we have incredible data storage and processing capabilities to capture this torrent of data, analyze & combine them, share insights with others, and drive automated learning. The result is new productivity experiences where we are limited only by our data dreams and ability to imagine value from the data we possess.
AGENDA
6:00pm: Open networking, Food/drinks
7:00pm: Guest Speaker: Ranga Rengarajan + Demo, Raffle
8:00pm: Meet Microsoft Teams
9:00pm: Event ends
More at http://www.hackerx.org
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Didier Faustino, "Building Intimacy”
WHEN Mon., Apr. 11, 2016, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Supported by the Rouse Visiting Artist Program, copresented by Harvard Graduate School of Design and the French Cultural Center
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office in advance at 617.496.2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS For Didier Faustino, the process of the architect, artist, or designer must preserve an engagement with political, social, and cultural issues. Since founding his Bureau des Mésarchitectures in 2002, Faustino has developed an expressive multidisciplinary practice in art and architecture that highlights the complex relationship between the body and the spaces it inhabits. By challenging the boundaries of these spaces, his work explores the precarious equilibrium between public and private space, publicity and intimacy. His lecture will feature ten projects chosen to make explicit the issues on which he focuses in his practice; these projects include his “under construction” building in Mexico and the project Alumnos 47, with which he will explain his method of “building intimacy.” Faustino’s work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions and has received several prizes, including the Académie d’Architecture’s Dejean prize for lifetime achievement in 2010. He currently divides his time among architecture (in Spain, Mexico City, Portugal), art (with exhibitions in Grenoble, London, and Rome), and teaching (AA School, Diploma Unit 2); and he is also editor-in-chief of the French architecture and design magazine CREE.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/lecture-didier-faustino.html
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Science by the Pint: The Evolution of Individual Differences
Monday, April 11
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
The Evolution of Individual Differences: Personality, Politics, and Sex
Guest scientist Max Krasnow
Max Krasnow is an assistant professor Psychology at Harvard. He the leader of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab, and his research focuses on the mechanisms underlying human social behavior and how they evolved. One line of this research has explored how the fact that the future of any interaction is uncertain conspires with distinctive features of the hominin social niche to select for organisms that are more generous, trusting and cooperative than an otherwise rational analysis would predict. In related work, he has shown in a series of behavioral experiments how these and other fundamental components of human social behavior, like our concern for the treatment of others and our punitive sentiments towards bad actors, can help cultivate mutually beneficial cooperative relationships and improve their terms when they begin to function poorly.
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Tuesday, April 12
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Symposium: Beyond 2016 - MIT's frontiers of the future
Tuesday, April 12
All day
MIT, Building W-16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
This symposium is part of MIT's Century in Cambridge celebration and will feature a campus-focused collection of innovative presentations by MIT faculty, researchers, and students, followed by panel discussions.
Program details will be added to the event website as soon as they become available.
Web site: http://mit2016.mit.edu/events/frontiers
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Institute Events
For more information, contact: MIT Institute Events
617-253-4795
century@mit.edu
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Shira Center - The Trump Factor: Covering Election 2016
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School; Harvard’s Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Shira T. Center, Political Editor, The Boston Globe
CONTACT INFO tim_bailey@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Shira T. Center edits political coverage for the Boston Globe, including Capital, the New Hampshire primary and 2016 presidential race. She joined the Globe in 2015 and previously served as politics editor for Roll Call, Capitol Hill’s top news source on Congress. A graduate of Northwestern University, Shira also worked as a politics writer for POLITICO and National Journal’s The Hotline in Washington, D.C.
LINK http://shorensteincenter.org/shira-center/
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A Burglar’s Guide to the City: On Architecture and Crime
Tuesday, April 12
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Manaugh#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Manaugh at 12:00 pm.
with author Geoff Manaugh
The relationship between burglary and architecture is far from abstract. While it is easy to focus merely on questions of how burglars use or abuse the built environment — looking for opportunities of illicit entrance — burglary, in fact, requires architecture. It is an explicitly spatial crime, one that cannot exist without a threshold to cross, without “the magic of four walls,” as at least one legal theorist has written.
Join Geoff Manaugh, author of the new book A Burglar’s Guide to the City, to discuss more than two thousand years’ worth of heists and break-ins, with a discussion ranging from the surprisingly — one might say uselessly — complicated legal definition of an interior space to the everyday tools burglars use to gain entry.
Written over the course of three years of research, Manaugh’s Burglar’s Guide includes flights with the LAPD Air Support Division, a visit with a panic room designer and retired state cop in his New Jersey warehouse, an introduction to the subculture of recreational lock-picking, a still-unsolved bank tunnel heist in 1980s Los Angeles, and much more.
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The Center for Health and the Global Environment: Re-Envisioning Health and Sustainability
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health FXB G-12, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
SPEAKER(S) John D. Spengler & Aaron Bernstein
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The paradox of the third tier: how do corals react to extreme environmental conditions?
Tuesday, April 12
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Room 125 G, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dan Tchernov, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer, Founder and Department Head, Department of Marine Biology, Leon Charney School of Marine Science, University of Haifa, Israel
Certain scleractinian (stony) coral species are capable of alternating between non- calcifying soft body solitary forms to the more familiar calcifying colonial forms. This ability supports the hypothesis that scleractinian corals have survived through the ions even during unfavorable conditions for calcification. This physiological and morphological trait may shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms that allows these calcifying organisms to survive the third tier of mass extinctions. We show that incubation of two coral species under acidifying conditions invokes tissue-specific apoptosis (programmed cell death) that leads to disassociation of polyps from coenosarc (connective tissue) and the breakdown of the latter, resulting in the loss of colonial form and of the calcareous skeleton. Following reintroduction of the remaining solitary polyps to a more basic pH (8.2), both coral species examined (Pocillopora damicornis and Oculina patagonica) reformed coenosarc and initiated calcification. Our data shows that apoptosis is initiated in the polyps, and once disassociation between polyp and coenosarc terminates, it subsides. We show that corals respond to severe and rapid environmental changes using a controlled pathway governed by programmed cell death mechanisms. These results may provide a mechanistic explanation for several key evolutionary phenomena: (i) repeated loss/gain of coloniality in corals over the ions (ii) reported “programmed release” of single polyps including or devoid of skeleton following environmental stress, and (iii) patterns of survival of mass extinctions events demonstrated by corals over the geological time scales, thus providing new insight into nature's discontinuities (i.e. the third tier of the paradox of the tiers) S J Gould (1985).
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The Science of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias
Tuesday, April 12
3:00pm - 5:00pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 Singleton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker(s): Keith B. Maddox, Ph.D., Samuel Sommers Ph.D.
This interactive presentation will explore cognitive and behavioral science research on the nature of implicit bias. While the modern era is one in which most professionals believe themselves to be fair-minded individuals-perhaps even genuinely prioritizing egalitarian values-social categories including age, gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation continue to have profound effects on how we see and interact with the world around us in legal domains, in the classroom, and more generally throughout the course of daily life. What research tells us is that contemporary bias is often unconscious, but this doesn't make its implications for organizational climate or the individuals within that environment any less real. The science also demonstrates, however, that we are not hopelessly at the mercy of the power of expectation and bias, and we will identify the circumstances under which bias is most likely to emerge and evaluate potential strategies for trying to curtail such tendencies.
More at: http://bcs.mit.edu/news-events/events/science-stereotyping-and-implicit-bias#sthash.uabI8yXG.dpuf
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2016 Norton Lecture 6 of 6: "The Foreigner's Home”
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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Dudley Herschbach Teacher/Scientist Lecture - Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Science Center, Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Office of Undergraduate Education, Harvard College, Herschbach Lecture Series
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley, founder of BerkeleyEarth.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Lauren Raece, raece@fas.harvard.edu, 617-384-7477
DETAILS "Physics for Future Presidents: A Serious Course Title." Energy, global warming, terrorism and counterterrorism, internet, satellites, remote sensing, and Triad, ICBMs and ABMs, DVDs and HDTVs--economic and political issues increasingly have a strong high-tech content. We need to catch future leaders early, and set them on a path of deep understanding of tech issues.
LINK http://oue.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k18059&pageid=icb.page498260
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Harvard Origins of Life Initiative First Annual Prize Lecture
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Pfizer Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Reception to follow at 5:15 P.M. in Naito Lab Café, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Origins of Life Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Gerald Joyce
CONTACT INFO kelly.moreno@cfa.harvard.edu
DETAILS We are honored to announce Gerald Joyce (Scripps Research Institute & Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation) as The Origins of Life Initiative's first annual Prize Lecturer. Joyce is one of this generation's leading thinkers and experimentalists in origins of life research and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Bonaire Bonanza Film Screening
Tuesday, April 12
4–6 pm
Harvard, 4th Floor Faculty Lounge, Hoffman Building, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Please join the FAS Green Program in partnership with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences for a viewing of Bonaire Bonanza. The documentary features the dynamic biodiversity that make up a living coral reef and documents the decades of work by the people and organizations of Bonaire to manage and protect them.
There will be a discussion afterwards hosted by George Buckley, Assistant Director, Sustainability, Harvard Extension School, who narrated and advised on the film.
Food and beverages will be provided.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/bonaire-bonanza-film-screening#sthash.cMhSc4Ai.dpuf
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U.S. power plant carbon standards and the potential for clean air, human health and ecosystem co-benefits
Tuesday, April 12
4:45p–5:45p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Charles T. Driscoll, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse University
Carbon dioxide emissions standards for U.S. power plants will influence the fuels and technologies used to generate electricity, altering emissions of pollutants and affecting ambient air quality and public and ecosystem health.
Three alternative scenarios for U.S. power plant carbon standards were evaluated for changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone concentrations in ambient air, and resulting public health and ecosystem co-benefits. For two of the three policy scenarios, carbon standards for existing power plants can substantially decrease emissions of co-pollutants, and improve air quality and public health beyond existing air quality policies. A stringent but flexible policy that counts demand-side energy efficiency toward compliance yields the greatest health and ecosystem benefits and a favorable benefit-cost analysis. The magnitude and the nature of the co-benefits associated with this policy are highly distributed spatially, with all of the coterminous states receiving some health benefits and many states experiencing ecosystem benefits. Professor Charles Driscoll and his research teams current work involves an evaluation of options considered for implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan.
In this talk, Driscoll will discuss his research on power plant carbon standards and the potential impacts of the Clean Power Plan.
IHS Seminar Series
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/driscoll
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/412-seminar-us-power-plant-carbon-standards-and-the-potential-for-clean-air-human-health-and-tickets-24231414814
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact: askmitei@mit.edu
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Artificial Intelligence: Its Future and Ours
WHEN Tue., Apr. 12, 2016, 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, B1, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Health Sciences, Humanities, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Panelists:
David Cox, PhD
Julie Shah, PhD
Sendhil Mullainathan, PhD
Jonathan Zittrain, JD
Moderator: Stuart Shieber, PhD
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS Each speaker will give a brief presentation and then participate in a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Shieber. A reception will follow the event.
LINK http://mbb.harvard.edu/news/artificial-intelligence-its-future-and-ours
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xTalks - The University of the Future: Lessons from a 2600 Year History
Tuesday, April 12
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-163, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Shailendra Mehta
The 2600 year history of universities consists of three broad periods, of 1800 years, 700 years and 100 years, during which respectively, the Indian, the European and US universities have been dominant. During these three periods which have rarely been looked at together, the university form evolved gradually to its present form.
We will look at nearly 20 innovations that have taken place in the university form during this time, and highlight the remarkably similar sets of problems that were solved thereby in different regions of the world. The continuing dynamism of US universities will also be touched upon, as stemming from their unique governance forms. We will also look at the impact of new technologies such as MOOCs on the evolution of the university form.
Prof. Shailendra Raj Mehta, is Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Chairman of the Board of Management at Auro University.
This event is co-sponsored with MIT-India Program.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Web site: http://odl.mit.edu/news-and-events/events/shailendra-mehta-history-university
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Digital Learning, xTalks: Digital Discourses, MIT India Program
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
xtalks-info@mit.edu
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Poverty, Inc. (FREE admission!)
Tuesday, April 12
6:00p
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
FREE admission! Poverty, Inc. will be followed by a panel discussion. Co-hosted with Energy for Human Development (e4Dev).
"I see multiple colonial governors," says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. "We are held captive by the donor community."
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry ??? the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change.
Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore.
From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
Web site: http://lsc.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Tickets: Lobby 16
Sponsor(s): LSC, e4Dev
For more information, contact: LSC
617-253-3791
lsc@mit.edu
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Ignite Boston: Data
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ignite-boston-data-tickets-22296376061
Enlighten us, but make it quick
Ignite is a series of events held in cities across the world and it's back in Boston. Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is an evening of fast and fun presentations which each last just 5 minutes.
Join us at the District Hall to connect with the data community and hear from those who have survived, thrived, or died in a data-driven world. Then stay to network with a beer and wine reception.
Call for Participation
Do you have something interesting to share about data? A big idea to share? A story waiting to be heard? Submit your presentation to the call for participation.
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Café Des Sciences Dr Jeff Karp: Simple Innovation Tools for Science and anywhere
Tuesday, April 12
6:30 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, 17th floor, Milky Way Event Space, Boston
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/229848506/
Dr Jeff Karp, Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Dr Jeff Karp will give an inspiring talk about two of the most powerful tools used by his bio-research lab to solve problems in innovative ways, on a continuing basis: bioinspiration and radical simplicity.
Jeff explains how his team has employed these tools and how they can succeed in any field. This talk opens exciting new paths to the continual innovation that is so important in today’s fast-changing world.
Schedule:
6:30PM: Welcome
7PM: Dr Jeff Karp's presentation
8PM: Networking
BIO
Dr. Jeff Karp is an Associate Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and affiliate faculty at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
He has published >100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and has given >200 national and international invited lectures and has 65 issued or pending patents. Several technologies have formed the foundation for multiple products on the market and currently under development and for the launch of two companies, Gecko Biomedical and Skintifique.
The Boston Business Journal recognized him as a Champion in Healthcare Innovation and MIT’s Technology Review Magazine (TR35) also recognized Dr. Karp as being one of the top innovators in the world (3 members from his laboratory have received this award).
His work has been selected by Popular Mechanic's "Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine.” He gave a TEDMED talk on bioinspired medical innovation and is a member of the TEDMED Editorial Advisory Board. In 2015 he received a Breakthrough Award from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation and was a commencement speaker at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Karp was selected as the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Mentor among all Faculty at MIT and he received the HST McMahon Mentoring award for being the top mentor of Harvard-MIT students. To date, 17 trainees from his laboratory have secured faculty positions.
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Movie Premiere: Sonic Sea
Tuesday, April 12
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium, Aquarium Wharf, Boston
RSVP at http://support.neaq.org/site/Calendar?id=106445&view=Detail
Followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with:
Michael Jasny, Director, Marine Mammal Protection, Natural Resources Defense Council
Brandon Southall, Senior Scientist, Southall Environmental Associates, Inc.
Scott Kraus, Vice President of Research, New England Aquarium
Chris Clark, Johnson Senior Scientist, Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell University
Patrick Ramage, Program Director, Whales, International Fund for Animal Welfare
Moderated by Leila Hatch, Ph.D., Marine Ecologist, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA
The ocean is not a silent world, but a dynamic, living symphony of sound. In water, sound travels five times faster and many times farther than it does in air. Whales, dolphins, porpoises and other marine mammals have evolved to take advantage of this perfect sonic medium. Just as we rely on sight to survive, they depend on sound to hunt for food, find mates, and detect predators.
Over the last 50 years, our increasing ocean presence has drastically transformed the acoustic environment of these majestic creatures. Undersea noise pollution is invisible but it is damaging the web of ocean life.
Sonic Sea is about understanding and protecting the vast symphony of life in our waters
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Ken O'Keefe
Tuesday, April 12
7-10pm
Harvard Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
free, donations welcome
Ken O'Keefe, San Diego native, former United States Marine, Gulf War veteran, organizer of the human shield action to Iraq, survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara, Irish-Palestinian citizen & founder of World Citizen Solutions.
"Seeking the truth and acting on the truth, this is the path to a better world, nothing can be done overnight, it is a constant, unrelenting commitment to the truth that will liberate humanity." ~ Ken O'Keefe
This gem of a guy is not afraid to tell it like it is; and he has a plan - a simple plan - for all us fellow earthlings fed-up to the gills with the psychopaths that are ruining the planet - and with those who support and /or ignore them.
"The tyrants have no power but that which we have unwittingly relinquished to them... in order to create a better world we simply need to take our power back."
Please come and hear Ken speak from the heart about his awakening and how you as an individual, can positively impact and influence all of humanity, not just for now but for all future generations.
This event is FREE. Donations are accepted to go to defray expenses of Ken's travel.
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Wednesday, April 13
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Suffolk University Moakley Breakfast Series
Wednesday, April 13,
8:15 AM to 9:30 AM
Suffolk University, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/suffolk-university-moakley-breakfast-series-tickets-24349054678
Panelists:
Chris Barry-Smith, First Assistant Attorney General/Chair, Attorney General's Opiate Task Force
Ann-Margaret Ferrante, State Representative (D-Gloucester)
Jennifer Tracey, Director, Office of Recovery Services, City of Boston
Moderator:
Linda Melconian, JD
Senior Fellow, Moakley Center for Public Management
Professor, Suffolk University
Former MA Senate Majority Leader
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Societal Warfare in the 21st Century
Wednesday, April 13
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Buidling E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Johanthan Shimshoni (MIT Visiting Fellow) & Ariel Levite (Carnegie Endowment;KSG Visitor)
SSP Wednesday Seminar Series
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact: Elina Hamilton
617-253-7529
elinah@mit.edu
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U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Workshops Northeast Region
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 at 12:30 PM - Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 4:00 PM (EDT) -
Boston Marriott Long Wharf, 296 State Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/us-department-of-energy-grid-modernization-workshops-northeast-region-registration-22286198620
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is convening six regional workshops across the country as part of its Grid Modernization Initiative. The Northeast Region workshop will be held at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts on April 13 and 14, 2016.
The objective of the workshops is to solicit stakeholder input on DOE’s grid-related research and demonstration strategy and the grid-related technical challenges of emerging policy issues confronting the region and the nation as a whole. The workshops will have a technology session and a regional session.
The technology session will solicit feedback on the Department’s Grid Modernization Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP) and its six technical areas: 1) Devices and Integrated Systems, 2) Sensing and Measurement, 3) System Operations and Control, 4) Security and Resilience, 5) Design and Planning Tools, and 6) Institutional Support. The regional session will explore the technology implications and challenges associated with emerging policies.
Agenda
Detailed agenda available soon.
Contact Eric Lightner
eric.lightner@hq.doe.gov, 202-586-8130
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From Biominerals to Ancient Technologies: Exploring New Routes for Durable Building Materials
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 1-131, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Admir Masic
Inspired by the remarkable structural complexity of biological materials and their benign conditions for synthesis, Nature can offer tremendous insights into design and processing strategies for the synthesis of complex, damage tolerant, and hierarchically ordered composites. Similarly to Nature, ancient processing technologies delivered extremely durable and environmentally resistant construction materials, many examples of which have persisted in excellent condition for more than 2000 years. In order to unlock the design secrets of both biological and ancient materials, we have to understand the intrinsic material properties at all levels of their structural hierarchy, their intricate structure-chemistry-function relationships, and the consequences associated with their interactions with the external environment. In this talk, I will present an overview of my research on advanced multiscale material characterization approaches to study in situ hierarchical structures and transformations of relevant biological and ancient materials. By integrating the state-of-the-art characterization and modeling tools, a novel roadmap for durable and sustainable building materials of our future will be outlined.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Marilyn Siderwicz
617-324-7652
ceed@mit.edu
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Witnessing Death: Policing, Race, and the Limits of Democracy in the 21st Century
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Lawrence Ralph, 2015-2016 Joy Foundation Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Departments of Anthropology and African and African American Studies, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Anthropologist Lawrence Ralph will share insights from his current research project, which involves US citizens who feel that the American legal system is not equipped to address police use of extralegal force. Ralph’s work addresses the domestic problem of police force in relation to the pressing international concern of global governance. His research suggests that given the current climate of police violence, racial angst, and heightened awareness around policing in the US and abroad, a comprehensive study is needed to think critically about the state and practices of policing.
LINK http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2016-laurence-ralph-fellow-presentation
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Reinventing Social Democracy? Sanders, Corbyn and Beyond
Wednesday, April 13
4:10 - 5:30pm
Harvard, Ash Center, Suite 200-North, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
What are the particular challenges facing social democrats — or the millennial inheritors of the social democratic tradition—in the U.S., U.K. and beyond? Join this discussion on the evolving prospects for social democratic parties across Europe and farther afield. Panelists will explore emerging opportunities for experimentation within social democratic politics and the wider ecosystem which surrounds it, including the interplay between NGOs/advocacy organizations, campaigns and candidates.
Panelists:
esse Littlewood, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Director of Digital, Common Cause
Quinton Mayne, Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Kathryn Perera, Fulbright Scholar, Visiting Fellow and Chief Executive, Movement for Change
Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy (moderator)
Presented by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center.
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Global Commons
Wednesday, April 13
4:15PM
Harvard, CGIS-S020, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
The Energy History Project hosts Surabhi Ranganathan, Kings College, University of Cambridge, who will discuss "Global Commons.”
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~histecon/energyhistory/index.html
Contact Name: Emily Gauthier
gauth@fas.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-201500/global-commons#sthash.mqqDRF4q.dpuf
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Carbon Tariffs: Effects in Settings with Technology Choice and Foreign Production Cost Advantage
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Room Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S) David Drake, Harvard University
LINK https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/5340
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Askwith Forum – With This Ring: Winning Marriage Equality
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Graduate School of Education.
SPEAKER(S) Julie Goodridge, Ed.M.’83, Founder and CEO, NorthStar Asset Management; lead plaintiff in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, winning marriage rights for same sex couples in Massachusetts
Timothy McCarthy, Lecturer on History and Literature, Harvard College; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Marc Solomon, Principal and National Director, Civitas Public Affairs; former National Campaign Director, Freedom to Marry; author, Winning Marriage: The Inside Story of How Same-Sex Couples Took on the Politicians and Pundits—and Won
Moderator: Matthew Miller, Ed.M.’01, Ed.D.’06, Lecturer on Education and Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, HGSE
COST This event is free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS Public opinion on marriage equality shifted more dramatically than nearly any other civil rights debate in history. What made the movement successful? What lessons can we learn from the marriage equality movement? What's next for LGBTQ equality, now that marriage is the law of the land? What role should educators play in advancing equality? How can teachers and school leaders create safe and welcoming spaces for LGBTQ families?
This forum is being held in conjunction with the Out Front! LGBTQ Leaders to Learn From speakers series, and is part of HGSE's Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity community conversation.
LINK http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith/calendar?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117934957
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New Revenue through Business Model Innovation - Navigating the Cleantech Landscape
Wednesday, April 13
5:30p–8:00p
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor Havana Room, One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Cost: $0 - $30
Speaker: Eric Graham, CEO, Crowdcomfort; Daniel Hullah, Director, Ventures, National Grid; Amit Rosner, CEO, Yeloha
This panel will discuss how successful entrepreneurs have navigated the clean energy landscape in spite of the unique challenges they face. These entrepreneurs will discuss their business models in consumerization of energy, public-private partnerships, raising capital through non-traditional funding sources and building steady streams of revenue generation models.
Web site: http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/events/innovative-business-models-in-cleantech/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for students and members; $30 for nonmembers
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
entforumcambridge@mit.edu
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Mammals on the Move
Wednesday, April 13
6:00PM
Harvard, Hall B103, Northwest Building, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mammals move in their environments to use resources, find shelter, escape from predators, compete, interact, and reproduce. Thanks to new technologies, scientists can now study the movement strategies of animals, which are rarely random. Based on her studies tracking large terrestrial mammals across latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in Europe, Francesca Cagnacci, 2015–2016 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellow in Conservation Biology, Harvard University and Researcher, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Italy, will discuss why animal movement patterns are important both for understanding the impact of climate change on ecosystems and for developing sound conservation strategies.
http://hmnh.harvard.edu/event/mammals-move
Contact Name: hmnh@hmsc.harvard.edu
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-13-220000/mammals-move#sthash.N5BAIOWV.dpuf
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Michael Göring: The Refugee Crisis. Europe at the Crossroads?
Wednesday, April 13
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
Goethe-Institute Boston,170 Beacon Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michael-goring-the-refugee-crisis-europe-at-the-crossroads-tickets-24320845303
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BostonTalks Happy Hour: Game On
Wednesday, April 13
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EDT)
WGBH , 1 Guest Street, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/bostontalks-happy-hour-game-on-tickets-23052885802
Cost: $11.54
Did you know games can entertain, motivate, and even map the human brain? Designer Amy Robinson discusses the Eyewire game she helped create that combines science, social good, and a good time. And video game music composer Jason Margaca shares how music enhances your in-game experience. Join Amy, Jason, and others to talk games.
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Carbon Pricing: Its Time Has Come
Wednesday, April 13
7 pm to 9 pm
The Eliot Church of Newton, UCC, 474 Centre Street, Newton
Presented by 350 Mass./Newton
Are you curious about carbon pricing? This is your chance to learn what carbon pricing is, why it is urgently needed now and why it is good for the Massachusetts economy.
Featuring:
Sen. Mike Barrett, 3rd Middlesex District, Massachusetts
Minister Mariama White-Hammond, Bethel AME Church, Boston, MAICCA Leadership Team
Bonni Widdoes, Board of Directors, Climate XChange
Rev. Fred Small, Director of Faith Outreach, Climate XChange, MAICCA Leadership Team
Quinton Zondervan, Climate Action Business Association, Moderator
Vince Maraventano, Executive Director, MA Interfaith Power & Light, Master of Ceremonies
The program will include a Q&A session and an opportunity to participate in breakout groups.
For further information, contact Mark Leicester, mleicester1@gmail.com
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Ah humanity!
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 10:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions, Film, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Committee on the Arts
DIRECTED BY Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
COST Free
CONTACT INFO kristina_latino@harvard.edu
DETAILS Ah humanity! is a large-scale audio-video installation by the artists Ernst Karel, Véréna Paravel, and Lucien Castaing-Taylor. Four channels of sound will be projected into the Plaza and a single channel of video onto the façade of the Science Center, every evening.
Ah humanity! reflects on the fragility and folly of humanity in the age of the Anthropocene. Taking the 3/11/11 disaster of Fukushima as its point of departure, it evokes an apocalyptic vision of modernity, and our predilection for historical amnesia and futuristic flights of fancy.
The images were shot on a telephone through a handheld telescope, at once close to and far from its subject, while the audio composition combines empty excerpts from Japanese genbaku and related film soundtracks, recordings from seismic laboratories, and location sound. Artist Ernst Karel will be mixing the film’s soundtrack live on the Plaza on select evenings throughout the week.
Karel is Lecturer on Anthropology, Manager of the Sensory Ethnography Lab, and Assistant Director of the Film Study Center at Harvard. Paravel is an anthropologist and filmmaker in the Sensory Ethnography Lab. Castaing-Taylor is Professor of Visual Arts and Anthropology. Their previous collaborations include the 2012 film Leviathan.
Ah humanity! was made with support from F93 in Paris, and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), and the Harvard University Asia Center. It was produced in the Sensory Ethnography Lab, Harvard University.
The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard is sponsoring an accompanying roundtable and reception on Wednesday, April 13th, at 6:00 pm in CGIS South. Afterward, attendees are invited to experience the work on the Science Center Plaza.
LINK http://arts.harvard.edu/huca
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Lee Historical Lecture in Physics: One Catastrophe After Another The Big Bang, Death of the Dinosaurs, Ice Ages, Global Warming, and Beyond
WHEN Wed., Apr. 13, 2016, 8 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall 100, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Physics
SPEAKER(S) Richard A. Muller, professor of physics, University of California, Berkeley, founder of BerkeleyEarth.org
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Jolanta M. Davis
jmdavis@fas.harvard.edu
617-495-2866
DETAILS
Muller's research has followed an interesting track of catastrophes, from the Big Bang, to supernovas, the destruction of the dinosaurs, the ice ages, global warming, and now air pollution–currently killing 4400 people every day in China. Remarkably, air pollution and global warming can be solved together.
LINK https://www.physics.harvard.edu/node/631
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Thursday, April 14
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Annual Bioethics Conference -- Social Justice and Ethics Committees in Health Care: Core to our Mission or None of our Business?
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016
WHERE Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Ethics, Health Sciences, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Keynote: James Corbett, senior vice president, Community Health Improvement & Values Integration, Centura Health
COST Free and open to the public; registration required
TICKET WEB LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/news/2016-bioethics-conference
CONTACT INFO bioethics@hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS This multidisciplinary program is co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and the Petrie Flom Center at Harvard Law School to inform and deliberate with health care professionals, bioethicists, attorneys, and the public about how to address social justice issues in health care—such pressing problems as worsening drug shortages, continuing racial inequities, providing health care for refugees, uninsured and undocumented persons, and the like.
Using selected examples we will discuss the efforts of health care administrators and others to identify and address such large scale health system problems. Is there a role for ethics committees in handling social justice issues—should the attention of hospital ethicists and ethics committees expand to address broader institutional policies and programs? Faculty experts and participants will describe successful efforts to address specific problems and engage in thoughtful discussion with participants about strategies and struggles of ethic committees that move beyond individual case consultation to organizational ethics.
Support for this conference has been provided by Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.
LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/news/2016-bioethics-conference
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Art Technology Psyche
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Arts @ 29 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Information Technology
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), Digital Futures Consortium at Harvard University, and Harvard Library
SPEAKER(S) Susan Buck, Carla Ciuffo, Canan Dagdeviren, Janet Echelman, Antony Flackett, Steve Hollinger, Luke Hollis, Pagan Kennedy, Nicole Noll, Nina Sinatra, Alex Walthall, Lauren Whitley and more to come.
COST Free, but registration required
TICKET WEB LINK arttechnologypsyche.com
DETAILS Art Technology Psyche celebrates human expression at the intersection of technology and the arts. Harvard Digital Arts and Humanities (DARTH), in collaboration with the Harvard Library and the Digital Futures Consortium, invites you to participate in a day of immersive digital experiences, art exhibitions, technology demos, and visionary speakers.
LINK arttechnologypsyche.com
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Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room (3rd FL Littauer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Karthik Ramanna, associate professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School
COST Free - limited space
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS “Thin political markets” are the processes through which some of the most complex and critical institutions of our capitalist system are determined—e.g., our accounting-standards infrastructure; rules for bank-capital adequacy; actuarial standards; and auditing practice. In thin political markets, corporate special interests are largely unopposed because of both their tacit knowledge and the general public’s low awareness of the issues. This enables the special interests to structure the “rules of the game” in self-serving ways.
On one level, this behavior embodies the capitalist spirit articulated by Milton Friedman: “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” But the ethics of profit-seeking behavior are premised on the logic of competition and, as this session will demonstrate, this logic breaks down in thin political markets. The result is a structural flaw in the determination of critical institutions of the capitalist system, which, if ignored, can undermine the legitimacy of the system. Professor Ramanna will close with some ideas on how to fix the problem.
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Bridging the gap between waste and want: Turning Potentially Wasted Food into a Solution for Hunger
Thursday, April 14
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Sasha Purpura, Executive Director, Food For Free
Patti Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services, Tufts Dining
Food For Free has been rescuing surplus food and distributing it to those in need since 1981. This talk will focus on why surplus food is inevitable and why that doesn't have to be a bad thing. We'll discuss how food rescue works and some of the newer and more unique solutions we're implementing with our food donor and recipient partners. In the last part of the talk, Patti Klos, Director of Dining and Business Services at Tufts University will talk about the current initiatives to minimize food waste at Tufts.
Sasha Purpura is the Executive Director of Food For Free in Cambridge, MA. After receiving an undergraduate degree in computer science, Sasha spent over 15 years in high tech. In 2005, she helped her husband start an organic farm. She worked on the farm for over 2 years while completing an MBA in Sustainability, and joined Food For Free in July 2012. Sasha is an active member of the local food community, sits on the leadership team of Slow Money Boston, and is member of Sprout Lenders—a local investment club working to build the local food system.
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Ryan Sullivan, CMU
Thursday, April 14
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Dr. Ryan Sullivan is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a faculty member in the Centre for Atmospheric Particle Studies.
Ryan Sullivan has a background in atmospheric and analytical chemistry, single-particle analysis, heterogeneous kinetics, and cloud nucleation research. His research interests include the development of improved aircraft-deployable analytical instrumentation to characterize individual particles in the atmosphere in real-time. These instruments are used to investigate the physicochemical properties of atmospheric particles emitted and produced from a variety of sources, the chemical processes they experience during atmospheric transport, and how these processes modify the ability of particles to nucleate both cloud droplets and ice crystals, thus altering cloud properties and the Earth’s climate. These research endeavors involve equal parts instrument development, laboratory experiments, and field measurements.
Particles in the atmosphere exist in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and chemical compositions. These properties are highly dynamic, constantly evolving as the particles respond to changes in their gas-phase environment. This makes the study of atmospheric aerosol particles both challenging and fascinating. The important but still poorly understood roles that particles play in influencing air quality, the atmosphere’s chemical balance, cloud nucleation, energy balance, biogeochemical cycles, and other important climate feedbacks motivate our interest in improving our understanding of the chemical behavior of particles in our atmosphere. Our comprehension of these processes is currently limited by the instrumentation available to measure key properties of individual atmospheric particles.
We investigate these important physicochemical particle properties using custom single-particle instruments that allow us to rapidly characterize atmospheric aerosols in real-time, one particle after another. We are developing improved analytical methods to measure individual particles using laser ablation mass spectrometry, and laser spectroscopy. These new instruments are utilized in both laboratory studies and field experiments (from ground, ship, and aircraft sampling platforms) to determine the kinetics and products of a variety of atmospheric chemical aging processes (e.g. heterogeneous reaction, aqueous-phase chemistry, gas-to-particle conversion, photochemistry, new particle formation). Small cloud simulation chambers are also used to determine the ability of the chemically processed particles to nucleate both warm cloud droplets, and ice crystals via heterogeneous ice nucleation.
Single-particle analysis is an important analytical tool that allows us to determine how the myriad chemical constituents are distributed between individual particles (mixing state). As all particle properties (interaction with radiation, heterogeneous kinetics, hygroscopicity, heterogeneous ice nucleation, toxicity, etc.) are dictated by each particle’s unique size and chemical composition, single-particle analysis is required to determine the exact relationships between the sources of atmospheric particles, their size and chemical composition, how they behave chemically in the atmosphere, and what their resulting important environmental effects are.
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Making Robots Behave
Thursday, April 14
4:00pm to 5:15pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determinizing stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replanning process. I will describe our initial approach to this problem, as well as recent work on improving effectiveness and efficiency through learning.
Speaker Bio:
Leslie is a Professor at MIT. She has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford, and was previously on the faculty at Brown University. She was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She is not a robot.
Computer Science Colloquium Series
Host: David Parkes
Contact: Mike Donohoe
Phone: 617-495-0871
Email: donohoe@seas.harvard.edu
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Starr Forum: Human Rights & Technology
Thursday, April 14
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Jay Aronson, Chris McNaboe, Bradley Samuels, Sucharita Varanasi
About the Speakers:
Jay Aronson is founding director of the Center for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He also is associate professor of science, technology, and society in the Department of History. He focuses on the interactions of science, technology, law, and human rights.
Christopher McNaboe, from The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program, developed what is now the Syria Conflict Mapping project. He primarily works on Syria-related initiatives, but occasionally assists with other peace program activities.
Bradley Samuels is a founding partner at SITU Research, a practice focused on developing and implementing new strategies for visualizing, mapping, modeling, and analyzing human rights violations for legal and advocacy contexts.
Sucharita Varanasi is an attorney at Hinckely Allen & Snyder LLP. Prior to this post, she worked with Physicians for Human Rights as the senior program officer and MediCapt project manager for the program on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Please contact us at starrforum@mit.edu if you need accessibility accommodations
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/cis/eventposter_041416_hrtech.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
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A Conversation with Mary Norris, the New Yorker's Comma Queen
WHEN Thu., Apr. 14, 2016, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE The Lippmann House, Nieman Foundation for Journalism, 1 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Nieman Foundation for Journalism
DETAILS In conversation with Marry Norris, longtime proofreader/keeper of grammatical standards and style/Comma Queen at the New Yorker.
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Celebrate Science: 2016 Cambridge Science Festival Kick-Off Party
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Microsoft New England Research & Development, 1 Memorial Drive, 10th Floor, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrate-science-2016-cambridge-science-festival-kick-off-party-tickets-22505756323
The Cambridge Science Festival is an annual 10-day celebration of science, technology, engineering, art and math in Cambridge and New England. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary science festival, April 15-24. See the full agenda at http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2016Festival/2016ScheduleOfEvents.aspx
To kick-off this year's festival, Microsoft, MassBio and MassBioEd are hosting a Kendall Square Association "Almost" Third Thursday celebration event. Join us to meet some of innovators behind the Festival’s 170+ events, try out some experiments, network with the STEAM community, and celebrate the science of Kendall Square!
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Farm Share Fair 2016
Thursday, April 14
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Do you love local, fresh food? Maybe you’ve been thinking about joining a CSA – a Farm Share? A Farm Share program allows you to receive a fabulous box of great stuff every week direct from a Massachusetts farm. Join us at Cambridge College on April 14, 2016, and meet the fantastic farmers from across this state, which bring local produce to the Boston area. Compare and learn about all the various options: veggies, fruit, flowers, meat, fish eggs, dairy, and specialty products. Over 30 vendors will be at the fair, including some wonderful sustainable food product companies and service providers. Spend your food dollars on locally grown, and sign up at the Farm Share Fair!
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
http://www.farmsharefair.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FarmShareFair
Twitter: @FarmShareFair
Instagram: @FarmShareFair
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Debate: The Origins of Human Cooperation: Views from Evolutionary Psychology
Thursday, April 14
6-8 p.m.
Harvard, location TBA
featuring Joe Henrich (FAS) and Max Krasnow (FAS)
More information at http://mbb.harvard.edu
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Fletcher IDEAS Exchange: Human Security Approaches to Peacebuilding
Thursday, April 14
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Tufts, ASEAN, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fletcher-ideas-exchange-human-security-approaches-to-peacebuilding-tickets-23486766551
The Fletcher IDEAS Exchange (FIE) is an annual forum for public speaking at The Fletcher School. Modeled as a TED-type event, the second annual FIE will feature engaging speeches by faculty, students, alumni, and guests around the theme of a human security approach to peacebuilding – why it matters and what are the challenges. Some of the talks will center on perceptions of legitimacy in the governance of conflict–affected and fragile states, as well as related aspects of human security, development and peace building.
Please visit our webpage at http://www.fletcher-ideas-exchange.com/
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Balancing flexibility and scale in a synthetic biology foundry
Thursday, April 14
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building NE30, Broad Institute Auditorium (corner of Vassar & Main Streets, Cambridge)
Speaker: Barry Canton
There is a growing demand to source a wide range of chemical products (for example, plant-derived extracts) from engineered microbes. While recent advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering make this work technically feasible, commercial success is hindered by the cost to develop the microbes. Development has been costly because the complexity and diversity of biology favored a labor-intensive, small-batch approach to engineering. Ginkgo has built a foundry that allows many microbial engineering projects to use shared processes in a high-throughput, largely-automated fashion, that unlocks substantial economies of scale. In this talk, I will outline the approach, custom software, and hardware that we use to allow flexibility and scale to co-exist where previously one came at the expense of the other.
Barry Canton co-founded synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks in 2008 and has helped build the company to 55 people and raised more than $50M in investment over the last year. At Ginkgo, Barry is responsible for the development of the foundry, a centralized facility for organism engineering. In this role he oversees the development of hardware, software, and wetware technologies. He holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT, where his thesis focused on refinement of standard biological parts and the interactions between a host cell and an engineered genetic circuit.
IEEE/ACM Joint Seminar Series
Exploring the edge of computing technology.
Web site: http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/boston/computer/
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): ACM & IEEE/CS
For more information, contact: Dorothy Curtis
dcurtis@mit.edu
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Friday, April 15
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Inequalities/Equalities in Cities
Friday, April 15
9:00am-5:30pm
Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Workshop with Clarissa Hayward, Associate Professor of Political Science, Washington University in Saint Louis, Archon Fung, Academic Dean and Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, Harvard Kennedy School, and Laurence Ralph, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University
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Doctoral Program Conference: "Cambridge Talks X | Bound and Unbound: The Sites of Utopia" (II)
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO cambridgetalks2016@gmail.com
DETAILS In the five hundred years since the publication of Thomas More’s Of A Republic’s Best State and of the New Island of Utopia (1516), the project of imagining an ideal society has emerged as simultaneously regenerative and devastating on multiple fronts: for the concept of the polity, for the composition of social fabrics, and, most relevant from the vantage of the design disciplines, for the formation of buildings, cities, and territories. This year’s Cambridge Talks, now in its tenth edition, aims to provide a spectrum of exemplary instances of utopia’s modern guise.
In the main conference panels, we bring together speakers to address the rivalry between those utopian endeavors that organize space mainly through social relations and production, and those whose expansive impulse searches out some form of technical mastery over spatial configuration. In other words, utopia can be understood as either embodied or totalizing, bound or unbound. By taking examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, the case studies presented here—from communes and plantations to infrastructural projects and global ecologies—exhibit various attempts to imagine social conditions alongside spatial ones. A concluding discussion will touch upon the philosophical and theoretical ramifications of utopia today.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/events/doctoral-program-conference-cambridge-talks-x-bound-and-unbound.html
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DOE Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force and Public Stakeholder Meeting
Friday, April 15
9am - 3pm
Boston Marriott Long Wharf, Salons DEFL, 296 State Street, Boston
Join Secretary Moniz in Boston April 15 for a public meeting on the Quadrennial Energy Review – Updated agenda and livestream info
The Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force will hold a public stakeholder meeting April 15 at 9:30 a.m. at the Marriott Long Wharf, Salons DEFL. The Marriott Long Wharf is located at 296 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Doors open at 9:00 a.m. The meeting will also be livestreamed at http://energy.gov/live
The purpose of the meeting is to solicit stakeholder input for the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), which will be an integrated study of the electricity system from generation to end-use. The meeting will feature remarks by government officials, moderated panel discussions from a diverse group of energy policy experts from the private and public sector, and an opportunity for you to provide comments during an open microphone session.
Boston is one of six regional QER public input meetings, all of which are based on wholesale market footprints as a convenient approach to capture the nation’s regional electricity diversity, which is also characterized by resource mix, state policies, and a host of other factors. The Boston meeting covers the footprint of the 21 states and the District of Columbia that together, are all or partially in the three eastern centrally-organized wholesale electricity markets of PJM, ISO-NE, NYISO.
Agenda
9:30 – 10:30 AM Opening Remarks
Secretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz
Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John Holdren
Commonwealth or city officials TBD
10:30 – 11:45 AM Panel 1: Bulk Power Generation and Transmission: How Can We Plan, Build, and Operate the Appropriate Amount for Future Needs?
The first panel will address the challenges of maintaining and operating the region’s bulk power electric system, including how to maintain reliability with an evolving resource mix, how to affordably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and planning and finance issues.
Stephen J. Rourke, Vice President-System Planning, ISO New England
Richard Dewey, Executive Vice President, New York Independent System Operator
Gil Quiniones, President and Chief Executive Officer, New York Power Authority
Carolyn Anderson, Senior Corporate Counsel and Director, Transmission Policy and Insurance, Green Mountain Power
Dan Dolan, President, New England Power Generators Association
11:45 – 12:30 PM Lunch (on your own)
12:30 – 1:45 PM Panel 2: Electricity Distribution and End-Use: How Do We Manage Challenges and Opportunities?
The second panel will address the implications of emerging technologies that create technical and policy challenges and opportunities, including energy efficiency and demand response, distributed generation, improved communications technology, and retail choice programs.
Ed White, Vice President, New Energy Solutions, National Grid
Karen Lefkowitz, Vice President, Smart Grid and Technology, Pepco Holdings
Dena Lee DeLucca, Vice President of Corporate & Member Services and Chief Financial Officer, New Hampshire Electric Co-op
Roxanne D. Brown, Assistant Legislative Director, United Steelworkers
Panelist pending, EnerNOC, Inc.
Ned Bartlett, Undersecretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1:45 – 3:00 PM Panel 3: Ensuring Resource Adequacy
The third panel will examine issues surrounding the design and operation of the three eastern wholesale electricity markets, including their effectiveness in providing economic and reliable electricity capacity. Strengths and weaknesses of these current markets will be discussed, including a look ahead to their roles in the coming decades.
David A. Cavanaugh, Director, Regulatory & Market Affairs-ISONE, NRG Energy
Edward Tatum, Jr., Vice President Transmission, American Municipal Power
Craig Glazer, Vice President – Federal Government Policy, PJM
William Berg, Vice President Wholesale Market Development, Exelon Corporation
Lawrence Brenner, Commissioner Emeritus, Maryland Public Service Commission
3:00 PM Public Comment Period
Interested parties may make 5-minute statements during this “open microphone” session.
More information, including additional panelists and a background memo, is posted atenergy.gov/qer. You may also submit a public comment at energy.gov/qer.
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WSSS Symposium 2016: Aqueous Solutions: Valuing Wastewater as a Resource
Friday, April 15
10am
Tufts University, Asean Auditorium, Cabot Center, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tufts-water-symposium-2016-aqueous-solutions-valuing-wastewater-as-a-resource-tickets-20821165667
Cost: $0 - $10
This year's "Water: Systems, Science & Society" Symposium will use the Water-Energy-Food framework to explore the role of wastewater as a solution to many current challenges. Join us for a day of learning, conversing, networking, and problem solving. This one-day symposium will feature: interdisciplinary breakout sessions, keynote lecture from an expert in the wastewater field, power talks from diverse stakeholders & experts, and a lunchtime poster session and networking reception. The event is organized by Tufts University Water: Systems, Science & Society.
We are pleased to announce the following speakers who have confirmed their attendance:
Dr. Kartik Chandran - Director of the Columbia University Biomolecular Environmental Sciences Program and the Wastewater Treatment and Climate Change Program at Columbia University
Ed Clerico - CEO Emeritus at Natural Systems Utilities
Bethany Card - Deputy Commission, Policy and Planning, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Roy Desrochers - Sensory Practice Leader at GEI Consultants, Inc.
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Developing Future Air Quality Observing Strategies: Contributions from DISCOVER-AQ
Friday, April 15
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jim Crawford, NASA Langley
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
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21st Century Clinical Research: Patient Activism, Social Media, Digital Apps
Friday, April 15
12pm
Tufts Medical School, Stearns Auditorium, Farnsworth Building, first floor, 800 Washington Street, Boston
Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, ScM, Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
More at https://www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/Research-Clinical-Trials/Institutes-Centers-Labs/Mother-Infant-Research-Institute/Medical-Education.aspx
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Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
WHEN Fri., Apr. 15, 2016, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Weil Town Hall (1st Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Seth M. Siegel, author of Let There Be Water
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World
Friday, April 15
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and CEDAR welcome Professor of Religion at Boston University and CEDAR director ADAM B. SELIGMAN and Director of Training and Evaluation for CEDAR RAHEL R. WASSERFALL for a discussion of their book Living with Difference: How to Build Community in a Divided World, co-authored with David Montgomery.
About Living with Difference
Whether looking at divided cities or working with populations on the margins of society, a growing number of engaged academics have reached out to communities around the world to address the practical problems of living with difference. This book explores the challenges and necessities of accommodating difference, however difficult and uncomfortable such accommodation may be. Drawing on fourteen years of theoretical insights and unique pedagogy, CEDAR—Communities Engaging with Difference and Religion—has worked internationally with community leaders, activists, and other partners to take the insights of anthropology out of the classroom and into the world. Rather than addressing conflict by emphasizing what is shared, Living with Difference argues for the centrality of difference in creating community, seeking ways not to overcome or deny differences but to live with and within them in a self-reflective space and practice.
This volume also includes a manual for organizers to implement CEDAR’s strategies in their own communities.
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The Classroom of Tomorrow – Swarm Robots in Education
Friday, April 15
6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
swissnex Boston, 420 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.swissnexboston.org/event/the-classroom-of-tomorrow-swarm-robots-in-education/#sthash.qsih6nj2.nAwJuyVa.dpbs
Join swissnex Boston for an exciting event about robots in education. Learn how EPFL in Lausanne is making robots that are the pencils of tomorrow’s classroom – and try them yourself.
Dr. Wafa Johal, postdoctoral researcher, and Ayberk Özgür from the CHILI (Computer-Human Interaction for Learning and Instruction) Lab will present their lab and work on the Cellulo swarm robots — autonomously moving robots that can be ubiquitously used for learning activities in the classroom. The presentations will be followed by a hands-on demonstration of the robots.
Program
6:00 pm: Doors open
6:30 pm: Presentations
Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction Lab – Dr. Wafa Johal, CHILI Lab, EPFL
Cellulo, learning by interacting with swarm robots – Ayberk Özgür, CHILI Lab, EPFL
7:00 pm: Demo Session
7:30 pm: Networking & Reception
9:00 pm: Doors Close
Presenters
Dr. Wafa Johal is a researcher at EPFL in the CHILI/LSRO (Computer-Human Interaction for Learning and Instruction/Robotic Systems Laboratory) Labs. She is currently working on the Cellulo Project, which aims to design and build the pencils of the future classroom, in the form of robots. She is interested to improve acceptability of assistive robots by using social signals of communication. Wafa Johal worked on proxemics and recognition of social attitudes in human-robot interaction and is interested in social signal processing and expression. She therefore has also worked on expressivity of robots using facial and body expressions. Wafa Johal obtained her Ph.D. in 2015 from the University of Grenoble. She received a B.S./B.A. in Computer Sciences and Mathematics applied to Cognitive Sciences and subsequently did a Research Master in Computer Sciences, specializing in Robotics, Computer Vision and Computer Graphics.
Wafa Johal will speak about:
The Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction (CHILI) Lab
This talk will present current research projects of the CHILI lab on novel interfaces for learning. The interfaces used in the projects go from tangible, tabletop environment, paper-based interfaces to robots. The CHILI Lab studies how these interfaces can be used in training and learning contexts. The systems are usually evaluated via empirical studies and experiments in the lab and in the real-world such as classrooms.
Ayberk Özgür is a Ph.D. candidate at the CHILI Lab at EPFL in Lausanne. He is working on the Cellulo project and is designing the paper-assisted tangible swarm robot platform for learning and teaching. His research interests include mobile robots, tangible interfaces, human-robot interaction and machine learning. Ayberk Özgür received his B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering at Bogazici University in 2013 before starting his Ph.D. at EPFL.
Ayberk Özgür will speak in more detail about his project:
Cellulo, learning by interacting with swarm robots
The collaborative learning activity of the CHILI Lab for children uses the palm-sized tangible Cellulo robots that are currently in development. The robots work on the surface of a paper (multiple at the same time) being able to move autonomously (and can also be moved manually). One of the major goals is to study a novel tangible interaction scheme with such autonomous objects and use it in different activities to induce and observe learning effects. In this talk Ayberk Özgür will introduce some of the technical aspects that induce the high potential of Cellulo robots in classrooms.
More at: http://www.swissnexboston.org/event/the-classroom-of-tomorrow-swarm-robots-in-education/#sthash.qsih6nj2.nAwJuyVa.dpuf
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Friday, April 15
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project MATTHEW DESMOND for a discussion of his latest book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
About Evicted
In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge. Arleen is a single mother trying to raise her two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying for their rundown apartment. Scott is a gentle nurse consumed by a heroin addiction. Lamar, a man with no legs and a neighborhood full of boys to look after, tries to work his way out of debt. Vanetta participates in a botched stickup after her hours are cut. All are spending almost everything they have on rent, and all have fallen behind.
The fates of these families are in the hands of two landlords: Sherrena Tarver, a former schoolteacher turned inner-city entrepreneur, and Tobin Charney, who runs one of the worst trailer parks in Milwaukee. They loathe some of their tenants and are fond of others, but as Sherrena puts it, “Love don’t pay the bills.” She moves to evict Arleen and her boys a few days before Christmas.
Even in the most desolate areas of American cities, evictions used to be rare. But today, most poor renting families are spending more than half of their income on housing, and eviction has become ordinary, especially for single mothers. In vivid, intimate prose, Desmond provides a ground-level view of one of the most urgent issues facing America today. As we see families forced into shelters, squalid apartments, or more dangerous neighborhoods, we bear witness to the human cost of America’s vast inequality—and to people’s determination and intelligence in the face of hardship.
Based on years of embedded fieldwork and painstakingly gathered data, this masterful book transforms our understanding of extreme poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving a devastating, uniquely American problem. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
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Saturday, April 16
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Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference
Saturday, April 16
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
St Paul AME Church Life Center, 85 Bishop Richard Allen Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/greater-boston-women-of-color-environmental-health-conference-tickets-22471890028
Suggested Donation $20 (at the door)
Please join us at the first Greater Boston Women of Color Environmental Health Conference in Boston. Hear environmental, scientific and public health experts at the forefront of environmental health and environmental justice discuss a variety of issues of interest to you. What chemicals are you and your family being exposed to? Do you know someone with asthma, reproductive health issues, heart disease or high blood pressure? How are racial and ethnic minority groups adversely affected by multiple environmental toxic exposures? How do recent events in Flint, Michigan help us understand environmental racism?
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Cambridge Science Festival: Worthy of AtTENtion: Gender,robots and everything in between
Saturday, April 16
6:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building N-51, MIT Museum: 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
10 short talks from top scientists looking over developments of the past 10 years.
The world has changed dramatically in the last ten years since the Cambridge Science Festival began. Find out what scientists now know about memory, gravitational waves, CRSPR, exoplanets, robotics, and more. As you???d expect, each presenter will convey their exciting overview in just ten minutes! Cash bar available.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free admission/Cash Bar
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-museum-hosts-worthy-of-attention-ten-years-in-ten-minutes-tickets-22538247505
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: 617-253-5927
museuminfo@mit.edu
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Monday, April 18
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Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
Monday, April 18
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Matthew Bunn, Professor of Practice, Harvard Kennedy School, and Joseph Lassiter, Senior Fellow, Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management (Retired), Harvard Business School
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
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Inhospitality: Borders and Border-Work at Europe's Doorsteps
WHEN Mon., Apr. 18, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262)
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Law, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Seminar on Cultural Politics
SPEAKER(S) Achille Mbembe, Senior Research Fellow, Center for African Studies, Harvard University; Research Professor in History and Politics, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
CONTACT INFO Panagiotis Roilos (roilos@fas.harvard.edu)
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Tuesday, April 19
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Boston TechBreakfast: AMA XpertEye Inc, Code to Table, Inc., VQL, YooGloo Inc
Tuesday, April 19
8:00 AM
Microsoft NERD, Horace Mann Room, 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/events/226655691/
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Bagels & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
AMA XpertEye Inc: XpertEye - Anne-Fleur ANDRLE
Code to Table, Inc.: Sumu - Daniel Tewfik
VQL: - Jason
YooGloo Inc: YooGloo - Joe Pulcinella
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston
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Media and Politics: What’s Next? – A Conversation with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows
Tuesday, April 19
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Tubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
A conversation on media and politics with the Spring 2016 Joan Shorenstein Fellows:
Johanna Dunaway is a newly appointed associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University. She was on the faculty of Louisiana State University from 2008 to 2015. Over the course of her career she has written extensively on the relationship between the structural and contextual features of media outlets and news content. Her current research examines the impact of the changing contemporary media environment across individuals, groups, and local communities. While at the Shorenstein Center, Dunaway will write about Latino voters through the lens of the changing media environment.
Joanna Jolly is the BBC’s South Asia editor, based in London, who was also recently assigned to the BBC’s Washington bureau as a feature reporter. Over the past decade she has worked as a radio producer in London, Brussels and Jerusalem. Jolly has also spent several years based in South Asia, first as the regional producer in Delhi and later as the BBC Nepal correspondent in Kathmandu. Jolly specializes in radio documentaries and long-form journalism. She won the 2015 Amnesty International Award (radio) for the BBC documentary “Red River Woman.” While at the Shorenstein Center, Jolly will explore how media campaigns around sexual violence shape public policy.
Dan Kennedy is an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University who writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab, WGBHNews.org and various other publications. His book The Wired City: Reimagining Journalism and Civic Life in the Post-Newspaper Age examines online local and regional journalism. Kennedy is also a former online columnist for The Guardian and was the media columnist for The Boston Phoenix. His blog, Media Nation, covers issues related to journalism, politics and culture. While at the Shorenstein Center, Kennedy will write about strategies that could change the fortunes of the declining newspaper business.
Marilyn Thompson is a deputy editor at Politico, working to expand investigative reporting capacities. Prior to her role at Politico she served as Washington bureau chief for Reuters and a national editor for The Washington Post. She left the Post in 2003 to serve as editor and vice president of the Lexington Herald-Leader, later returning to Washington as deputy bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. In addition to her career as an editor, Thompson has also worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. While at the Shorenstein Center, Thompson will examine money, politics and the press in 2016.
More at http://shorensteincenter.org/spring-2016-fellows-conversation/
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Copyright Law Year in Review
Tuesday, April 19
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room B010 (ground level), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Menell#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Menell at 12:00 pm.
with Peter S. Menell, the Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
What ties together cheerleader outfits, monkey selfies, the Batmobile, a chicken sandwich, Yoga, and Yoda? Professor Peter Menell will provide an exhilarating copyright year in review.
About Peter
Peter S. Menell is the Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Soon after joining the Berkeley faculty in 1990, where he focuses on intellectual property law, Professor Menell laid the groundwork for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT), which he co-founded in 1995. He served as BCLT’s Executive Director from 1999 to 2005. Professor Menell has authored more than 70 articles and eight books, including leading casebooks and intellectual property treatises. Professor Menell has organized more than 50 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center, including an annual four-day program on “Intellectual Property in the Digital Age” since 1998. Professor Menell earned his S.B. from the MIT, his Ph.D. (economics) from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review.
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Building a Biomedical Information Commons
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Gordon Hall, Waterhouse Room,
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Law, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Bob Cook-Deegan, research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
Robert C. Green, director, G2P Research Program in Translational Genomics and Health Outcomes, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute, and Harvard Medical School
Heidi L. Williams, assistant professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DIRECTED BY Aaron S. Kesselheim
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
TICKET INFO http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
CONTACT INFO bioethics@hms.harvard.edu
DETAILS Access to large public genetic databases is essential to advancing the diagnosis and management of genetic diseases. The largest databases of genetic variants are currently held by proprietary companies, such as Myriad Genetics, who control access to the data and thereby increase the cost of developing new lifesaving technologies.
Public databases, such as ClinGen, are racing to catch up, but have been criticized as being unreliable, expensive and vulnerable to funding cuts that compromise their upkeep. In this seminar we will explore the pros and cons of these two approaches to managing genetic information.
Register at https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg;jsessionid=1BB33B4F3992A0CF03C005F7E31634E8?oeidk=a07ecchve63de6b9773&oseq=&c=&ch=
LINK http://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/upcoming-events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D117075719
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How to Tell a Story With Data: Tools of the Trade
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Education, Humanities, Information Technology, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Dhrumil Mehta, Database Journalist, FiveThirtyEight
COST Free - limited space; RSVP required
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
CONTACT INFO https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-tell-a-story-with-data-tools-of-the-trade-tickets-22664110966
DETAILS Part of the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
Dhrumil Mehta will introduce participants to the tools of his trade as a database journalist, from GitHub to XML to locating relevant documents and databases and turning them into usable data for data-driven stories.
Participants will gain hands-on training using GitHub and familiarity with other tools for data gathering and manipulation, and they will then utilize these tools to find and parse a dataset. Knowledge of data gathering and manipulation from the web allows you to apply your skills in the real world. It can also be freeing, both reducing reliance on programmers and reducing friction when working with programmers. This workshop is for students who want to roll up their sleeves and crunch some numbers--bring your laptop!
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/how-tell-story-data-tools-trade?delta=0
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The Future of Energy Efficiency
Tuesday, April 19
4:30 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT) -
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, ROOM 212, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-future-of-energy-efficiency-tickets-23319266554?aff=ebrowse
Join Harvey Michaels for an afternoon of exploring the future of efficient energy including the intelligent buildings at the edge of a decarbonized energy grid. Stay for a discussion led by Professor Robert Kaufmann. This seminar is moderated by Kira Fabrizio.
Harvey Michaels is Energy Efficiency Lecturer and Research Scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, he was the founder of leading energy efficiency companies providing analytics and services. His research focuses on strategy innovation, business/policy studies of utility, community, and smart grid-enabled efficiency deployment models.
Robert Kaufmann is Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment and the Center for Energy & Environmental Studies at Boston University, a position he has held since September 2003. His research focuses on world oil markets, global climate change, the global carbon cycle and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Kira Fabrizio is Associate Professor and Dean's Research Fellow of Strategy and Innovation in the Questrom School of Business.
Event is free and open to public.
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Panel Discussion: Refugees and migrants: the current crisis in Greece and Europe
Tuesday, April 19
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Buidling E40-464, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Panel Discussion: Katerina Sokou, Washington DC correspondent of Kathimerini Greek Daily Newspaper & Luise Druke, headed UNHCR missions from 1977-2006 and most recently UNHCR Representative in Bulgaria
Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration
A session of the Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Inter-University Committee on International Migration
For more information, contact: Phiona Lovett
617-253-3848
phiona@mit.edu
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Efficient Buildings And Sustainable Urban Development Techmeeting
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
5:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/French-US-Meetup/events/228901075/
Today, there is a clear revival of cities and re-urbanization of downtown areas. More people want to live in cities and live, work, play within a reasonable distance. The younger generation is also more aware of the impacts of their activities on human health and the environment. Modern urban development has focused on creating mixed-use neighborhoods and transit-oriented development, as well as using more sustainable materials.
At the building level, this means creating a healthy and efficient space for occupants that has a positive impact on the environment. Residential and commercial buildings represent 41% of total energy consumption in the U.S. With growing commitments at the Federal, Regional and City level, there is still a huge opportunity for cleantech startups to develop solutions that will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions and create more sustainable livelihoods.
During this Open Innovation Club Techmeeting, startups and large corporations will get together to discover the latest innovations and develop business relationships around:
Sustainable building solutions for resilience, health and safety
Smart and connected building technology for energy efficiency
AGENDA
05:00 pm Doors Open & Registration
05:30 pm Introduction - Open Innovation Club & Greentown Labs
05:45 pm Corporate Presentations: Phoebe Kwan, External Venturing Strategy Director, Saint Gobain; Roderick Fraser, Senior Director Energy Business Development, Veolia Energy North America
06:15 pm Startup Pitches: Crowd Comfort, Metacomb Materials,Senseware, Foobot, Sense
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The New Old Age: How the body ages and how to keep it young
Tuesday, April 19
6pm - 7:30pm
Harvard Medical School, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, The New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
No one wants to become forgetful or less energetic as they age, but growing old is unavoidable—or is it? At this seminar, learn about the biology of aging and about scientific research at Harvard Medical School that may help keep you healthier and feeling younger at the same time.
Speakers:
Amy Wagers (Moderator)
Sharon Inouye
Bruce Yankner
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The Art & Science of Selling
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Innovation Labs, 125 Western Avenue, Classroom, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-and-science-of-selling-tickets-24463701590
TICKET INFO Eventbrite
DETAILS Sales makes the world go around, even the digital world. Whether you’re trying to convince an investor to give you money or a customer to buy your value proposition, you’re selling. The question is what skills and sensibilities do you need to excel as a seller in today’s complex environment. How much is about story telling, analytics expertise, relationship management, product knowledge? The answer lies in this first ever workshop hosted by Brian Cusack, the Industry Director in the Large Customer Sales Group at Google.
LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/the-art-science-of-selling/
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MIT NanoDay
Tuesday, April 19
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Scanning Electron-Beam Lithography Facility, Building 24 - 041 (Access via 60 Vassar Street), Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-nanoday-tickets-23824121589
Join us in exploring the Nanoworld!
Here, tiny things reveal their super-powers. Inside this world, things are strong, vibrant, and electrified. You and a group of excited scientists will use real tools and experiments to discover the super-power of nano. We look forward to welcoming you in our labs!
The events welcomes all family members (recommended age above 7)
http://nano-day.mit.edu/
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Challenges and Opportunities in High Level Renewable Energy Integration
Tuesday, April 19
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
National Grid (Rooms: Valley A&B), 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham
RSVP at http://www.ieeeboston.org/Register/
Eduard Muljadi, Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In this talk the challenges and opportunities in integrating high level renewable energy will be presented. The background of renewable energy will be discussed first, the nature of the resources, different types of renewable energy generators, the concept of generator and the plant, the similarities and differences between conventional and renewable power plants. Then the presentation will continue with the discussion on the grid integration aspect of renewables, the opportunities and the limitations to participate in the ancillary services, and the flexibilities and direct response of the power converters. Hardware/software commonly used in analyzing grid integration of renewables will be presented. Different types of testing necessary to ensure seamless integration to the grid, and facilities at NREL to support the renewable industries. And, finally we will have a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.
Biography: Eduard Muljadi (M’82-SM’94-F’10) received his Ph. D. (in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. From 1988 to 1992, he taught at California State University, Fresno, CA. In June 1992, he joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, where he is currently a principal engineer in the Power System Engineering Center. His current research interests are in the fields of electric machines, power electronics, and power systems in general with emphasis on renewable energy applications. He is member of Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi and a Fellow of the IEEE. He is involved in the activities of the IEEE Industry Application Society (IAS), Power Electronics Society (PELS), and Power and Energy Society (PES). He is currently a member of various committees of the IAS, PES, and an Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. He holds two patents in power conversion for renewable energy.
Refreshments start at 6:00PM, talk commences at 6:30PM.
Free and Open to the Public.
Visit the IEEE PES Boston Chapter website for further details – http://wwww.ieeeboston.org/
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Questlove's somethingtofoodabout: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs
WHEN Tue., Apr. 19, 2016, 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Hall B, One Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
SPEAKER(S) Ben Greenman (Co-Author): Writer at The New Yorker and a New York Times bestselling author
Ludo Lefebvre: Chef at Trois Mec, Petit Trois, and judge/mentor on the television program "The Taste"
Daniel Patterson: LocoL, DPGroup
COST Free - tickets required. Limit 2 tickets per person.
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=questlove
TICKET INFO https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
CONTACT INFO science_cooking@seas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Tickets available (in person) at noon on Friday, April 1 at Sanders Theatre.
Note: Tickets are valid until 6:45 p.m. on April 19, then admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
Questlove and Harvard faculty from the course Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter will lead a conversation that begins with food but ends wherever food takes them. Food is fuel. Food is culture. Food is history. And food is food for thought.
Questlove's new book, "somethingtofoodabout," will be available on-site for purchase. Book signing will follow the event.
LINK https://www.seas.harvard.edu/cooking
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A Legacy of Hope & Solutions for the 21st Century
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
2016 Lowell Lecture
The Extension School hosts Philippe Cousteau, Emmy-nominated TV host, author, speaker, and social entrepreneur
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Editing the Genome: Now We Can. Should We?
Tuesday, April 19
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, D'Arbeloff Suite, Boston
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/editing-the-genome-now-we-can-should-we-registration-20707983135
Speakers
Kevin Esvelt, assistant professor of the Sculpting Evolution Group at MIT Media Lab; Sam Lipson, director of Environmental Health, Cambridge Public Health Department
A newly developed technique is sweeping the biological engineering world. From yogurt to HIV to mosquitos, scientists are coming up with new ways to use a gene-editing technique that is more precise, efficient, and flexible, while also being cheaper, faster, and easier to use. Learn about the technique and its benefits and risks, and share your opinion about potential real-world applications. Refreshments available starting at 6:30 pm.
Presented in collaboration with the City of Cambridge.
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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BASEA Movie Night at Kendall Square Cinema: Catching the Sun! (Area Premier)
Tuesday, April 19
7 p.m.
Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney Street, Cambridge
From award-winning director and eco-activist Shalini Kantayya comes a feature length documentary that explores the global race to a clean energy future.
"Solar power is a growing American success story. Yet just as solar is about to reach a tipping point, some utilities and other special interests are throwing obstacles in the way. Rather than moving into the 21st century, many utilities are fighting to protect outdated business models. Across the country, mayors, governors and others should set ambitious clean energy goals and commitments, offer new incentives, and promote new community solar programs. To make that happen, citizens need to voice their support for clean energy and demand clean energy access. Together, we can leave a cleaner, healthier world for future generations. The time for action is now."
View the trailer for Catching the Sun at: http://www.catchingthesun.tv/)
In place of BASEA Forum, usually held on the second Thursday of the month, join us on Tuesday the 19th at the Kendall Square Cinemas in Cambridge. After the movie, join us at Flattop Johnny's for an informal discussion of the film.
We are working with the Catching the Sun team on tickets, so please save the date and we will provide more information as it approaches. For any questions in the meantime, please contact Mike Higgins by e-mail: higginsm@mit.edu
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, April 20
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April Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, April 20
7:30 AM to 8:30 AM
Pret A Manger, 185 Franklin Street Post Office Square, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/april-boston-sustainability-breakfast-tickets-23164672158
Spring is here! Join us for the fourth Sustainability Breakfast of 2016 - Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals together for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 830 am.
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Harvard Chan School Sustainability Fair
Wednesday, April 20
11:30 am–1:30 pm
Rosenau Atrium, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Please join us at the Chan School of Public Health Sustainability Fair, which will feature student organizations, Harvard community groups, local nonprofits and businesses who are actively engaged in sustainability and public health efforts.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/harvard-chan-school-sustainability-fair#sthash.UAfnMrTN.dpuf
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Speaker Series: Bob Schieffer – Media Coverage of the Campaign
Wednesday, April 20
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 2nd Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Bob Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and was a part of CBS News for 46 years. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, became the network’s chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” in 1991. Within these roles he has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon and moderated three presidential debates. Throughout his career Schieffer has written four books, won numerous awards and covered every presidential race and nominating convention since 1972. He will be in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis for three semesters, throughout the 2016 election season. During his time on campus Schieffer will meet with students and faculty, speak at various events for the Harvard community and participate in Shorenstein Center activities.
More at http://shorensteincenter.org/bob-schieffer-4/
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The Anthropocene, African Aesthetics and the Politics of Form
WHEN Wed., Apr. 20, 2016, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Sarah Nutall, director, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Witwatersrand
COST Free & open to the public
CONTACT INFO hutchevents@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS A Q+A will follow the lecture.
LINK http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/events-lectures/events/april-20-2016-1200pm/spring-colloquium-sarah-nutall
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Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS): The Ocean, Arctic Sea Ice, and Climate
Wednesday, April 20
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Mary-Louise Timmermans, Yale
About the Speaker
I am a physical oceanographer with a main research focus in the Arctic Ocean. We use a combination of theory, numerical modeling and geophysical observations (from icebreaker surveys and an ice-based network of drifting ocean-profiling instruments) to investigate how the ocean relates to Arctic sea ice and climate. This includes such topics as ocean mixing, eddies and waves, and ocean heat and freshwater transport.
Event website: http://bit.ly/1RQpuuO
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Darius Collazo
617-253-2127
dcollazo@mit.edu
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New nanomaterials at the interface of structural biology and polymer science
Wednesday, April 20
3:30p–4:45p
MIT, Building 56-114 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Prof. Ronald Zuckermann (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM) Seminar Series
PPSM sponsors a series of seminars covering a broad range of topics of general interest to the polymer community, featuring speakers from both on and off campus.
SEMINAR 3:30 PM REFRESHMENTS 3:00 PM
Web site: http://polymerscience.mit.edu/?page_id=2905
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM)
For more information, contact: Gregory Sands
(617) 253-0949
ppsm-www@mit.edu
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Cambridge Innovation Center Technology Showcase
Wednesday, April 20
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
Venture Cafe, CIC Cambridge, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cic-technology-showcase-tickets-23245943242
In conjuction with The Cambridge Science Festival, CIC will be holding an expo style event for our clients to show off all of their new and innovative technologies. Join us in the Venture Cafe to check out some of the coolest devices and applications being conjured up right here in the Cambridge/Boston area.
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Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons: Firms and the Political Economy of China’s Technological Development
WHEN Wed., Apr. 20, 2016, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200-North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Doug Fuller, professor, Zhejiang University School of Management
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO maisie_obrien@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Doug Fuller will discuss how China, a developing country with a spectacularly inefficient financial system, coupled with asset-destroying state-owned firms, has managed to create a number of vibrant high-tech firms.
LINK http://ash.harvard.edu/event/paper-tigers-hidden-dragons-firms-and-political-economy-china’s-technological-development?delta=0
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Urban Mobility in Clean, Green Cities
Wednesday, April 20
4:30 pm
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 208, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/urban-mobility-in-clean-green-cities-tickets-23448173117
Between 2010 and 2050, the number of people living in world's urban areas is expected to increase by 80 percent. This growth will intensify the great challenges for urban mobility. Cities increasingly face problems caused by transport and traffic, and how to keep cities clean and green become critical.
Join Henry Kelly, University of Michigan, and Christos Cassandras, Boston University, for a seminar on urban mobility issues in clean and green cities, moderated by Katharine Lusk, Boston University. The seminar will be followed by a discussion led by Martin Chavez, former Mayor of Albuquerque.
Henry Kelly is Senior Scientist at University of Michigan’s Institute for Data Science and Senior Advisor to the Director of EPSA. He previously served as Principal Associate Director for Environment and Energy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
Christos Cassandras is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Head of the Division of Systems Engineering at Boston University.
Martin Chavez is a former three-term mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico and New Mexico State Senator. He served as the Executive Director of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Center for Green Schools at U.S. Green Building Council.
Katharine Lusk is the founding Executive Director of the Initiative on Cities at Boston University where she spearheads new university-wide programs and research, including the Menino Survey of Mayors, student government fellowships, original urban scholarship and multi-stakeholder conferences.
Event is free and open to public.
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Science and Democracy Lecture:The Elusive Demos: Democracy in the Digital Age
Wednesday, April 20
5:00pm to 7:00pm
TBA
Yaron Ezrahi (Hebrew University), Andy Stirling (University of Sussex), & Shiv Visvanathan (Jindal Global University)
Science, Technology and Society seminars
Please RSVP to sts@hks.harvard.edu by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
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Science by the Pint @ Cambridge Science Festival: Studying Marijuana
Wednesday, April 20
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
"In a Haze: Studying Marijuana"
Guest scientists Staci Gruber, Seth Blumenthal, Jodi Gilman & Anne Short
It’s 4/20, so Harvard’s Science by the Pint is teaming up with the Aeronaut Brewery and the Cambridge Science Festival to learn about the science of marijuana! Our researchers are here to discuss with you the challenges of studying a (mostly) illegal substance, and get into their research on the effects of marijuana on the brain, the environmental issues around growing weed, and how America’s relationship with the drug has evolved. So grab a beer and get talking!
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitnboston/science-by-the-pint/
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Learning from the Central Park 5: Visions of American Criminal Justice Reform
Wednesday, April 20
6:30p–9:00p
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Yusef Salaam; Natalie Byfield; Andrea James; Ronald Sullivan; Malik Ghachem
In a case that polarized the nation across racial and class lines, five Black and Hispanic NYC teens were falsely convicted of the brutal rape and assault of a young white NYC banker. Learn why this happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.
Web site: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&pgid=30303&
gid=13&cid=48717&ecid=48717&post_id=0
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: http://alumic.mit.edu/s/1314/03-alumni/wide.aspx?sid=1314&pgid=30303&gid=13&cid=48717&ecid=48717&post_id=0
Sponsor(s): Black Graduate Student Association, DUSP Students of Color Committee; ODGE; OME; Political Science; History; SAO Multicultural Programs; GSC
For more information, contact: Mareena Robinson Snowden
mrobin@mit.edu
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Thursday, April 21
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Foodbetter Harvard
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 11 a.m. – Fri., Apr. 22, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Education, Lecture, Special Events, Sustainability, Wellness/Work Life
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR EVP Katie Lapp, Foodbetter Harvard Committee
SPEAKER(S) Joyce Chaplin, Ted Bestor, Bill Clark, Dan Barber, Walter Willet, Joanne Chang, David Edwards, Sean Palfrey
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK foodbetter.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO crista_martin@harvard.edu
DETAILS FoodBetter Harvard showcases the University's commitment to a healthy, sustainable and just food system as a valuable area of work, study, and institutional action on our campus and in our affiliated communities.
FoodBetter Harvard will highlight the power of interdisciplinary knowledge and discovery taking place here, and explore the complex questions about food that challenge our region and the world.
Events will include presentations, cooking and science demonstrations, panels and an innovation and sustainability fair, all of which allow you to explore the many ways in which our community endeavors to Food Better: grow better, eat better, conserve better, transport better, choose better.
Keynote Address on Thursday, April 21, 4pm:
Chefs Dan Barber and Joanne Chang and Harvard nutrition expert Walter Willett will discuss the impact of food on our environment, our health, and our sense of pleasure and comfort. The conversation will be moderated by Aaron Bernstein.
Thursday, April 21
1:15pm – The History of Food and the Mass Bay Colony (Joyce Chaplin)
2:00pm – The Current Culture of Food (Ted Bestor)
2:30-3:45pm – Speed Lectures on Sustainability in Food/Food Systems (curated by Bill Clark)
4-5:15pm – Keynote Conversation with Dan Barber, Walter Willet and Joanne Chang
5:30-7:00pm – Sustainable Dinner for students in Houses and Reception on Plaza for staff
Friday, April 22
11:00am-3:00pm – Innovation & Sustainability Fair
- Harvard- and Cambridge-area innovators (students, alumni, affiliates, etc) with ideas for improving the food system
- Harvard- and Cambridge-area sustainability programs or groups showcasing current practices and opportunities
- Mini Farmers' Market
11:30am-12:30pm – Mini Science & Cooking student demonstrations (curated by Pia Sorenson)
12:30-1:30pm – Harvard-Affiliated Chef Talks (Chefs Barton Seaver & Martin Breslin)
1:30-3:00pm – Speed Lectures on Innovations in Food/Food Systems (curated by David Edwards)
3:00pm – Student Panel on Harvard and Food as an area of Study and Enjoyment (moderated by Sean Palfrey)
3:45pm – Closing
LINK http://foodbetter.harvard.edu
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Sustainability@BU’s Earth Day Festival
Thursday, April 21
11 am - 2:30 pm
BU, GSU, 775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
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The Future of the Conservative Political Agenda with Michael R. Strain
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Michael R. Strain, Resident Scholar and Deputy Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute
COST Free - limited space; RSVP required
TICKET WEB LINK Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
CONTACT INFO Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
Lunch will be served.
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The Social Lives of Computer Models in Forestry Research
Thursday, April 21
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Tom Ozden-Schilling, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University
What can a long-simmering technical dispute between two groups of tree growth modelers tell us about the relationship between expertise and environmental governance in the twenty-first century? Drawing on over a year of ethnographic work conducted at government ministries and independent research offices, this talk will explore how the professional goals and social attachments of different forestry scientists have shaped the kinds of stories that computer simulations tell about the future of forests – and of forestry science – in British Columbia. As more and more government institutions transition away from field-based forestry research to remote sensing and automated image analysis, we will examine how some scientists have confronted their personal fates by exploring the precariousness of these new research infrastructures within the algorithms of growth models and the space of soon-to-be-abandoned experimental forests.
Tom Özden-Schilling is a doctoral candidate in the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society program at MIT, and is a lecturer in environmental anthropology at Tufts for the 2015-16 academic year. He was trained in materials science and engineering before beginning doctoral work in social anthropology, has been a visiting scholar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of São Paulo. His current book project, Salvage Cartographies: Mapping, Futures, and Landscapes in Northwest British Columbia, explores how digital media and institutional restructuring have affected relationships between forest ecologists and indigenous Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialists currently studying the effects of climate change and forestry practices on the traditional territories of the Gitxsan and Gitanyow First Nations.
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Sustainable Electricity: A Generational Change in the Making
Thursday, April 21
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Refreshments @ 3:30 pm in 4-349 (Pappalardo Community Room)
ALEXANDRA VON MEIER, California Institute for Energy and Environment
The electric grid has been called a system that works in practice, not in theory. While large power networks based on 19th century technology have served us remarkably well, new challenges await: a transition to carbon-neutral energy sources is now imperative. This introduces the problem of coordinating heterogeneous, temporally intermittent and spatially distributed resources at an unprecedented scale, and with greater precision than ever imagined by early grid architects. Solutions must reconcile the constraints of legacy infrastructure with a spectrum of new opportunities created by advanced sensors, controls and information technology.
This talk will outline the integration challenges from a physical perspective, starting with an elementary characterization of a.c. electric power systems and what is (surprisingly) not obvious about them. It will also introduce research on new tools such as micro-synchrophasors that support a qualitative leap in how we may observe, understand and manage the grid, as a critical infrastructure and enabler of timely change across the energy sector.
Physics in the Interest of Society Colloquium
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Novel Climate, Novel Ecosystems: Effects of directional changes in precipitation amount and variability
Thursday, April 21
4 pm
Harvard, BioLabs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Lecture series with Osvaldo Sala, Julie A. Wrigley Chair and Foundation Professor, School of Life Sciences and School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Sala will discuss "Novel climate-Novel Ecosystems: Effects of directional changes in precipitation amount and variability."
Osvaldo Sala is the Julie A. Wrigley and Foundation Professor at ASU. Before arriving at ASU, Sala was the Lindemann Professor of Biology and founding Director of the Environmental Change Initiative at Brown University. Sala’s research topics include: responses of arid ecosystems to global changes and consequences on their ability to provide ecosystem services. His work is reflected in more than 180 publications, and he sits on a number of national and international leadership committees.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/novel-climate-novel-ecosystems#sthash.xIpKCTRE.dpuf
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Climate Change Policy After Paris
Thursday, April 21
4:00 pm
BU, Questrom School of Business, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Questrom Auditorium, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-policy-after-paris-tickets-23461735683
n 2015 world leaders negotiated a major agreement, known as the Paris Agreement, to reduce climate change and committed to take action to keep global temperature rise below 2C by the end of the century.
Join Ken Berlin, President & CEO of The Climate Reality Project, for an afternoon exploring climate change policy after the Paris Agreement. Introduction by Kenneth Freeman, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean.
Ken Berlin is the President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project. He has been recognized as one of the top climate change attorneys in the world and has extensive expertise on international environmental issues ranging from clean energy to biodiversity.
Kenneth W. Freeman joined Boston University as the Allen Questrom Professor and Dean of the Questrom School of Business in 2010. He has more than forty years of professional experience, most recently at KKR where he was a partner and also served as a senior advisor.
Event is free and open to public.
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ISIS and the Age of Jihad
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Patrick Cockburn, award-winning journalist; Middle East correspondent, "The Independent"
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
LINK http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/isis-and-age-jihad
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Panel on the Front National and the Rise of Populism in Europe
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Hoffmann Room, Busch Hall, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Seminar on Social Exclusion and Inclusion
SPEAKER(S) David Art, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University; Mabel Berezin, Professor of Sociology, Cornell University; Visiting Scholar, CES; Bart Bonikowski, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Jonathan Mijs, mijs@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Mabel Berezin’s research asks how shared cultural meanings and practices shape 1) political institutions such as the state; 2) social processes around political movements and ideologies; and 3) agents through the construction of political identities. Her methodology is primarily comparative and historical.
David Art's field is comparative politics, with a regional focus on Europe. Professor Art's research interests include extremist political parties and movements, the politics of history and memory, and comparative historical analysis in the social sciences.
Bart Bonikowski's research relies on surveys, textual data, and experimental methods to apply insights from cultural sociology to the study of politics in Europe and the United States. His work has a particular focus on populist claims-making in political discourse and popular identification with the nation in settled times.
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USGBC Building Tech Forum 2016
Thursday, April 21
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/usgbc-building-tech-forum-2016-tickets-21464837908
Cost: $27.37 – $69.57 GET TICKETS
Buildings are fundamentally about technology. Innovation in the building sector is driving improvements in performance and enhancements to the user experience.
Join the U.S. Green Building Council, MA Chapter (USGBC MA) for the 2016 Building Tech Forum to connect on the local level to these important trends for sustainability in real estate.
Come hear from speakers Ben Myers, the Sustainability Manager at Boston Properties, and Kurt Roth, Director of Building Energy at Fraunhofer, as they share their perspectives as a real estate developer and a building performance researcher, respectively, on trends and innovations that they view as important to success.
Boston Properties is our Gold Sponsor
A second-stage panel will include speakers from St Gobain, The Green Engineer, and Ogletree Deakins
This event will bring together two important tribes: practitioners in the high-performance & green building sector: owners, builders, designers and operators, mixing with innovators on the cutting edge of technological innovation.
Are you involved in a technology that will improve buildings? Vendors and sponsors will have opportunities to directly present their product and service to the attending building professionals. Go to usgbcma.org/building-tech-forum for more information.
Let's connect the users and the providers who are are delivering the next solutions to the challenges of building design and facility management.
Displaying sponsors include:
Pillar Technologies
Budderfly
Moen
BuildingIQ
View Glass
B2Q
Solablock
EAS
Carbon Cure
NECEC
Mass CEC
At the Building Tech Forum, you will:
meet people who will help you on your next high performance building project
encounter inspiring new technologies and solution strategies
hear from industry leaders about where things are going
connect your business to the innovations going on in the building sector
Image of occupied Greentown Labs event space at large event.
Agenda:
5:30 - Orienting Remarks
6:00 - First Program begins; Keynote w Ben Myers and Kurt Roth
6:20 - First Program ends; games ensue
7:20 - Second Program begins: Panel w St Gobain, The Green Engineer, and Ogletree Deakins
7:40 - Second Program ends
8:15 - Final Remarks and Appreciations
8:30 - End
Food and drinks will be provided throughout the evening! Special demonstrations and interactive challenges for all!
Individual tickets start at $25; vendor display opportunities and sponsorship opportunities are available at usgbcma.org/building-tech-forum
U.S. Green Building Council, Massachusetts Chapter, is a membership-based advocacy organization driving change for sustainability in the built environment for the benefit of our communities and our world. Learn more about our education, networking and advocacy work at usgbcma.org - and thank you for your interest in the Building Tech Forum!
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Alma Guillermoprieto: Making Art Out of Fright
WHEN Thu., Apr. 21, 2016, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Seminar on Violence and Non-Violence
SPEAKER(S) Alma Guillermoprieto
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-0738
DETAILS This event will be live streamed.
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/making-art-out-fright
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Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
7:00p–8:15p
MIT, Building W-79, MIT Simmons Hall MPR, 229 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. James Doty, M.D. and Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi
James R. Doty, M.D., is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), where he researches the neuroscience of compassion and altruism. He is also a philanthropist funding health clinics throughout the world and has endowed scholarships and chairs at multiple universities. He serves on the board of a number of nonprofits, including the Charter for Compassion International and the Dalai Lama Foundation.
Web site: http://thecenter.mit.edu/cent_events/james-doty-md-into-the-magic-shop/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values, MIT Residential Scholars @ Simmons Hall
For more information, contact: Heather Goldman
617-254-6030
DalaiLamaCenter@mit.edu
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Thursday Socials with Green Cambridge!
Thursday, April 21
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Plug Cambridge, 618 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Green-Cambridge-Meetup/events/229893456/
Look for our banner!
Come and join Green Cambridge for our monthly Thursday meet-up!
Our President, Quinton Zondervan, will be discussing his experience attending COP21 in Paris. He will then be leading a lively discussion on how to bring the international agreement here to Cambridge.
We will also be serving free wine and beer!!
We are a group of Cantabrigians dedicated to improving the environment and striving for sustainability. We'll be talking about all things green, giving run-downs on our community, advocacy and organizing work, and just getting to know one another.
Can't make it? We'll be repeating the event the third Thursday of every month! Plus, our organizing and planning meetings happen the first Thursday of every month. Also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.greencambridge.org.
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Space Station
Thursday, April 21
7:30 – 9:00 pm
Museum Of Science, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Museum Of Science Drive,Boston
RSVP at https://store.mos.org/index.php?action=showevent;event_id=275;c=1
Cost: $10
You wake up inside the cramped confines of a cryosleep chamber. You feel weak and dizzy from a prolonged period in cryonic suspension. What will you do next? Join game designer Jared Sorensen and the Charles Hayden Planetarium team as we break new ground in the Planetarium dome. Inspired by the text-parsing games of the ’80s, Space Station allows the entire audience to play a single character trying to survive a dangerous situation…in space!
Give commands, explore rooms, examine objects, and try to escape the Space Station, if you can!
For more information about the Parsely series of text-based adventure games: memento-mori.com/parsely
Due to live audience participation, it is possible that this event may contain adult language or situations.
Tickets on sale beginning Thursday, January 28 (Tuesday, January 26 for Museum members).
Part of the Cambridge Science Festival.
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Friday, April 22
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Cambridge S.T.E.A.M. Forum
Stoking a 21st Century S.T.E.A.M. Engine: Rocket Fuel for the Innovation Economy
Friday, April 22
8:00 AM to 12:30 PM (EDT)
Boston Marriott Kendall Square, 50 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cambridge-steam-forum-registration-23063015099?aff=ebrowse
A public forum to explore strategies to increase and sustain the flow of high-quality talent to feed the growing innovation economy-while ensuring shared prosperity for Cambridge Residents. The forum is focused on the intersection of Workforce, Education and Opportunity.
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2016 Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks
Friday, April 22
8:30 AM to 6:30 PM (EDT)
MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-forum-on-future-cities-bits-bricks-tickets-18575175851
Cost: $0 - $80
The MIT Senseable City Lab cordially invites you to join us for the “Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks”. On Friday, April 22, 2016, thought leaders, industry heads, researchers, city officials and citizens at large will be invited to MIT’s campus to explore challenges, trends, and current issues impacting the fields of big data, digital technology, and the urban landscape.
Last year’s program, “The Road Ahead”, addressed questions on the future of transportation and mobility and drew over 250 people. In the past, we have worked with media partners such as the Economist and Wired to shine light on the topics we discuss on an international scale.
This year, we are excited to announce our partnership with the World Economic Forum as well as the sponsorship provided by Mahindra. Our conference will take place in the Samberg Conference Center at MIT, in the newly restored Chang Building, E52. This space provides unparalleled views of the Boston skyline and is designed to foster the spirit of innovation and discourse so deeply embedded in the culture of MIT and within its relationships to the community.
“Bits & Bricks”, will be comprised of four sessions: Utilities, Transportation, Building and the Responsive Environment- each a lens into the future of urban development. The event will culminate in the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities “Green Canopy Initiative” and will be followed by a reception.
We hope that you will join us this year and we look forward to your participation in the events to come!
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Celebrate Earth Day at Fenway!
Friday, April 22
10:00AM
4 Yawkey Way, Gate A, Boston
RSVP at https://greenovateearthday2016.splashthat.com
You're invited!
Please join Mayor Walsh, Greenovate Boston, the Office of Neighborhood Services, and the Boston Red Sox at the State Street Pavilion in Fenway Park for a morning of celebrations and giving back!
The event will start with the 10th Annual Greenovate Boston Awards to recognize environmental sustainability excellence.
Then, in partnership with the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, we'll kick off a weekend of Boston Shines!
All guests must RSVP.
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Connectomics – Mapping the brain
Friday, April 22
12:30pm to 2:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Lunch 12:30pm; Talk 1pm
Verena Kaynig, IACS Lecturer, Harvard SEAS
Connectomics is the study of the dense structure of neurons in the brain and their connections. Neurobiologists can gain new insights into the relation between the brain’s structure and its function by studying the brain connectivity at the single cell level. Recent advances in Electron Microscopy enable high-throughput imaging of neural tissue at a resolution high enough to identify single synapses. At this resolution, a cubic millimeter of brain tissue leads to an image volume of about 1 Petabyte of data. These large amounts of data require novel computer vision based algorithms and scalable software frameworks to process this data. In this talk I will describe the development of RhoANA, our dense Automatic Neural Annotation framework, which we have developed in order to automatically align, segment and reconstruct a cubic millimeter of brain tissue.
Speaker Bio: Verena Kaynig-Fittkau is a lecturer at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Her main interests are machine learning and computer vision applied to bio-medical images. Previously she was a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS in the Graphics, Vision and Interaction Group of Hanspeter Pfister, working on connectomics in close collaboration with Jeff Lichtman. She received her PhD in computer science in 2011 from ETH Zurich, working in the Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning Group headed by Joachin Buhmann. She also developed image processing approaches for electron microscopy images for Electron Microscopy ETH Zurich (EMEZ). She received her BSc in computer science in 2006 from the University of Hamburg.
IACS Seminar Series
Contact: Natasha Baker
Phone: 617-496-2623
Email: iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu
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Earth Day Talk - Professor Max Liboiron: Data Activism in Science and Technology
Friday, April 22
4-5 PM
MIT, Building E51-345, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Professor Liboiron's research focuses on how harmful yet invisible threats become visible in science and activism, and how these methods of representation relate to action. Through the lens of her work on marine plastics and toxicants, she will discuss how research can foster change not only after data has been collected and analyzed or after prototypes are complete, but during the entire research and development process. Refreshments will be provided.
More at http://civiclaboratory.nl
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2-16 Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks
Friday, April 22
8:30 AM to 6:30 PM (EDT)
MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, Samberg Conference Center, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-forum-on-future-cities-bits-bricks-tickets-18575175851
Cost: $15 - $75
The MIT Senseable City Lab cordially invites you to join us for the “Forum on Future Cities: Bits & Bricks”. On Friday, April 22, 2016, thought leaders, industry heads, researchers, city officials and citizens at large will be invited to MIT’s campus to explore challenges, trends, and current issues impacting the fields of big data, digital technology, and the urban landscape.
Last year’s program, “The Road Ahead”, addressed questions on the future of transportation and mobility and drew over 250 people. In the past, we have worked with media partners such as the Economist and Wired to shine light on the topics we discuss on an international scale.
This year, we are excited to announce our partnership with the World Economic Forum as well as the sponsorship provided by Mahindra. Our conference will take place in the Samberg Conference Center at MIT, in the newly restored Chang Building, E52. This space provides unparalleled views of the Boston skyline and is designed to foster the spirit of innovation and discourse so deeply embedded in the culture of MIT and within its relationships to the community.
“Bits & Bricks”, will be comprised of four sessions: Utilities, Transportation, Building and the Responsive Environment- each a lens into the future of urban development. The event will culminate in the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities “Green Canopy Initiative” and will be followed by a reception.
We hope that you will join us this year and we look forward to your participation in the events to come!
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Robots in Our World: Uncertain, Incomplete and Unfamiliar
Friday, April 22
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449 (Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Refreshments: 2:45 PM
Speaker: Jeremy L Wyatt
To make transfer to applications in everyday domains robots require the ability to cope with novelty, incomplete information, and uncertainty. In this talk I will describe a line of work carried out over ten years that provides methods to tackle this. I will examine two problems: object search and grasping. This requires the ability to reason and learn in open worlds and novel circumstances. The results are demonstrated in two robot systems, Dora and Boris. Dora is a robot for object search that plans in open worlds. The technical contribution is to achieve this by using assumptive planning and common-sense knowledge. Dora uses the same scheme to verify explanations in the face of failure. Boris is a robot that learns to grasp novel objects from a very small number of example grasps. The novel technical contribution in that instance is the use of products of experts to enable grasp transfer. If there is time I will briefly mention other work.
Contact: Teresa Cataldo, cataldo@csail.mit.edu
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Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties
Friday, April 22
4:00pm-05:30am
Harvard Coop Bookstore, Level 3
Thomas Kent
On May 4, 1970, National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others, including the author of this book. The shootings shocked the American public and triggered a nationwide wave of campus strikes and protests. To many at the time, Kent State seemed an unlikely site for the bloodiest confrontation in a decade of campus unresta sprawling public university in the American heartland, far from the coastal epicenters of political and social change.
http://harvardcoopbooks.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BNCBcalendarEventListView?eventYear=2016&showStoreId=52084&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=52084&eventMonth=3
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2016 Emerson Green Gala
Friday, April 22
Reception: 6:15pm & Show: 7:30pm
Emerson College, Paramount Theatre, 555 Washington Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-emerson-green-gala-tickets-23200195409
General Admission: $10 & Students: $5
Using art to promote a healthier planet, the Emerson Green Gala is an event and competition at the Paramount theatre (Boston, MA), with a mission to drive conscious awareness of “Earth Day” and our environment into the minds and hearts of Emerson College students, faculty and the Boston community. Our purpose is to celebrate our Mother Earth through diverse forms of young artistic expression, while promoting the importance of Earth Day. This event will include Emerson's SGA (student government) recognized performance-based organizations, involving over 120 student performers, each crafting a specialized performance piece. Additionally, there will be a reception including booths with inspiring guidance on how to create a better world and healthier planet. We use recycled playbills, provide gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian food (Because what college student can resist free food!), sell merchandise from the NYC-based organization "Broadway Green Alliance", distribute organic cotton t-shirts and show videos to exemplify the significance of this international holiday. Additionally, there is a film component of the competition where the winning film will be revealed at the gala. We also collaborate with other schools in the Boston community to bring everyone together for this special day!
More at http://www.gogreengala.com
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Saturday April 23
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The Spring 2016 Mid-Cambridge PLANT SWAP
Saturday April 23
(early this year—NOT in May)
NOON to 2 pm
at Fayette Park(near the corner of Broadway and Fayette Streets), Cambridge
Rain date—in case of DOWNPOUR—is Sunday April 24, 12-2
Bring anything that's growing in too much abundance in your garden. Elegant packaging not required, but please do write down the names of plants. We expect to have perennials, biennial seedlings, seeds, indoor plants, catalogs, pots, and lots of "whatever." Feel free to just come, chat with neighbors, talk gardening. NOTE: it’s a week or so early this year.
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Harvard, EAC Earth Day Festival
Saturday, April 23
12–4 pm
Harvard, Science Center Plaza, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Feed Change! Come celebrate Earth Day at the Environmental Action Committee’s annual EARTH DAY FESTIVAL on the Science Center Plaza!
Discover green efforts all over Boston with a focus on sustainable food:
Free Food
Seed Planting and Pot Painting
Games
Great Bands
Huge Raffle
Reusable Bag Design
Henna and Face painting
Flower Crown Headband Making
Everyone's favorite... free water bottles.
More at: http://green.harvard.edu/events/eac-earth-day-festival#sthash.y00i79vn.dpuf
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Sunday, April 24
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Science by the Pint @ Cambridge Science Festival: Gravitational Waves Unplugged
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Sunday, April 24
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler Street, Somerville
"Science By the Pint: Gravitational Waves Unplugged"
Guest scientist Scott Hughes
You may have heard a little announcement in the science world this February about gravitational waves. We’ve asked back MIT Professor Scott Hughes and members of his group from the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the MIT LIGO Laboratory to talk to us about the incredible discovery of gravitational waves and what that means for us and the future of physics. Come grab a seat, enjoy Aeronaut beer and great science festival company.
Science by the Pint is a monthly science cafe free and open to the public, run by the Harvard non-profit outreach group Science In The News (SITN). Read more here: http://sitnboston/science-by-the-pint/
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Monday, April 25
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Jessica Neu, JPL
Monday, April 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Jessica Neu (JPL)
About the Speaker
Dr. Jessica Neu's research focuses on understanding what controls the chemical composition of the atmosphere at the regional and global scale and, ultimately, how atmospheric composition will change with and feed-back onto changes in other components of the climate system. She employs a hierarchy of models of varying complexity in combination with measurements from both satellite remote sensing and in situ instruments, and her work encompasses a wide variety of techniques, including theoretical studies, numerical modeling, and analysis of observational data to address these issues. Her work has recently evolved to include data assimilation and adjoint modeling techniques to facilitate model-measurement intercomparison as well as Observing System Simulation Experiments to define science objective-based requirements for future satellite missions.
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Nuclear Energy: Obstacles and Possibilities
Monday, April 25
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Pu Wang, Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Sustainability Science in the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
This series is presented by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy/Consortium for Energy Policy Research at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Lunch will be provided.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/cepr/seminar.html
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
louisa_lund@hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-8693
More at: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2016-04-25-160000-2016-04-25-173000/hks-energy-policy-seminar-series#sthash.Z6wfC27b.dpuf
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A Conversation on Conversation
Monday, April 25
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, E51-095, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Sherry Turkle, MIT, and Wade Roush, MIT
STS Speaker Series Colloquium
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sts/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Gus Zahariadis
617-253-3452
gusz@mit.edu
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Spatial and Social Frictions in the City: Evidence from Yelp
Monday, April 25
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E52-532, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Jonathan Dingel (Booth School of Business)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): International Seminar
For more information, contact: economics calendar
econ-cal@mit.edu
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Book Talk: Unfinished Revolutions Yemen, Libya, and Tunisia after the Arab Spring
WHEN Mon., Apr. 25, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Nye A, Taubman Building, Fifth Floor, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Middle East Initiative
SPEAKER(S) A discussion with Ibrahim Fraihat, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution Doha Center and Affiliate Scholar, Georgetown University in Qatar, on his most recent book Unfinished Revolutions from Yale University Press.
COST Free and open to the public
LINK http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/events/7013/book_talk.html
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The future of nuclear energy or the lament of a life long nuclear guy
Monday, April 25
4:45p–6:30p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Rowe; Chairman Emeritus, Exelon Corporation
The prerequisites for a new generation of nuclear plants are simple, but have not yet been met:
1) A shortage of base load electricity;
2) A shortage of natural gas;
3) A new and simplified plant design; and
4) An accepted solution to the nuclear waste disposal problem.
In the absence of these factors, new nuclear power plants will not be economic in the United States or most of Europe for several decades.
This simple conclusion begs a number of other questions. These include: How long will the existing plants be economic? How many good jobs will be created as we seek as much value as we can in the existing fleet? What factors are impacting the value of the existing fleet? What do we need to do to keep the existing plants as safe as they have been? How are we ever going to build a waste disposal facility?
As that great nuclear engineer, Robert Frost, put it: Miles to go before we sleep. In this talk, John Rowe will discuss his many years of experience in the nuclear industry and thoughts on the future of nuclear energy.
Web site: http://mitei.mit.edu/rowe
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/425-seminar-the-future-of-nuclear-energy-or-the-lament-of-a-life-long-nuclear-guy-with-john-rowe-tickets-24231562255
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:
askmitei@mit.edu
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Film Screening of "Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story"
Monday, April 25
5:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Melissa Nobles, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences will introduce the film. The filmmakers along with Professor David Autor of the Economics Department will discuss the film following the screening.
Film screening of "Exit Zero: An Industrial Family Story". Filmmakers, Chris Walley (Anthropology Professor) and Chris Boebel (Office of Digital Learning) will screen their film which documents the effects that the closing of the steel mills in Southeast Chicago had on Professor Walley's family. This is an intimate, moving documentary of a Rust Belt family struggling to come to terms with a changing America.
Web site: https://anthropology.mit.edu/sites/default/files/images/MITAnthro_ExitZero_poster.pdf
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Anthropology Program, MIT First Generation Program
For more information, contact: Irene Hartford
617-452-2837
ihart@mit.edu
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President's Challenge Demo Day
WHEN Mon., Apr. 25, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard i-Lab, 125 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard I-Labs
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/presidents-challenge-demo-day/
DETAILS We are pleased to invite you to the President’s Challenge Demo Day here at the i-lab. The President’s Challenge encourages students from across Harvard to come up with creative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Ten finalist teams have been announced and awarded a seed grant of $5,000 along with support from the i-lab, including mentoring, workshops and workspace. At Demo Day these ten finalist teams will showcase their efforts and progress in making impact on the world around them. The Grand Prize Pool of $100,000 will be awarded to the winning team and three runners up.
We hope you are able to join us for this celebratory evening!
LINK https://i-lab.harvard.edu/event/presidents-challenge-demo-day/
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Tuesday, April 26
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Berkman Tuesday Luncheon Series featuring Susan Crawford, The John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center
Tuesday, April 26
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1015 (first floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Crawford#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2016/04/Crawford at 12:00 pm.
Susan Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a co-director of the Berkman Center. She is the author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, co-author of The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance, and a contributor to Medium.com’s Backchannel. She served as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and co-led the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama administrations. She also served as a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation and is now a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Broadband Task Force. Ms. Crawford was formerly a (Visiting) Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Michigan Law School (2008-2010). As an academic, she teaches courses about city uses of technology, Internet law, and communications law. She was a member of the board of directors of ICANN from 2005-2008 and is the founder of OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the internet that takes place each Sept. 22. One of Politico’s 50 Thinkers, Doers and Visionaries Transforming Politics in 2015; one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology (2009); IP3 Awardee (2010); one of Prospect Magazine’s Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future (2011); and one of TIME Magazine’s Tech 40: The Most Influential Minds in Tech (2013). Ms. Crawford received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. She served as a clerk for Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) (Washington, D.C.) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy.
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Designing with Water - by Jason Hellendrung, Sasaki Associates
Tuesday, April 26
4:30-5:30pm
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Jason will present some of Sasaki's recent work on addressing challenges faced by waterfront cities due to sea level rise. His presentation will focus on Sasaki’s work with Memphis and Shelby County’s winning application to HUD’s National Disaster Resilience Competition, which created a holistic approach to water and city resilience.
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“The Boy and the Beast” from award-winning director Mamoru Hosoda
Tuesday, April 26
7:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, , 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Latest feature anime film from award-winning Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children)
When Kyuta, a young orphan living on the streets of Shibuya, stumbles into a fantastic world of beasts, he’s taken in by Kumatetsu, a gruff, rough-around-the-edges warrior beast who’s been searching for the perfect apprentice. Despite their constant bickering, Kyuta and Kumatetsu begin training together and slowly form a bond as surrogate father and son. But when a deep darkness threatens to throw the human and beast worlds into chaos, the strong bond between this unlikely family will be put to ultimate test—a final showdown that will only be won if the two can finally work together using all of their combined strength and courage.
Screening followed by discussion with Ian Condry (MIT) and Jennifer Fu (Funimation)
Free
Open to public
Before the film, please join us: Pizza Dinner Discussion “From MIT to the Anime Industry: A Conversation with Jennifer Fu”
5-6:30pm in 14E-304
(RSVP for dinner discussion: gsl-events@mit.edu)
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Opportunity
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CLIMATE SMART BOSTON
Climate Smart Boston is about getting public input on vulnerabilities and resources related to climate readiness and resilience in the City of Boston and surrounding region in order to more fully inform to the Climate Ready Boston and Imagine Boston 2030 planning processes.
SIGN UP at https://communityplanit.org/bostonclimate/
Boston is striving to advance climate preparedness planning to produce resiliency initiatives that work together to address physical, social and environmental vulnerabilities in our communities. You can participate in this process and help shape the preparedness of the city in adapting to climate change. Boston is recognized as a world-class leader in climate resilience planning by the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities initiative and was recognized at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference with an award for "Smart Cities and Smart Community Engagement" by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group in Paris. Boston officials want to make sure the distinct needs of all neighborhoods are well understood as they plan to meet the climate challenges that will face our city in 2030 and beyond. Participate in Climate Smart Boston to play your part!
Three missions
Climate Smart Boston challenges you over three time-sensitive missions:
Mission 1: March 25 - April 1
Mission 2: April 1 - April 8
Mission 3: April 8 - April 15
Miss a mission? Don't worry, there's still plenty more to play!
This game has launched!
Sign up now, and get ready to plan your community! If you share this page with your friends, we'll get even more bright ideas on the table.
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The Summer of 2016 there will be a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy (http://sdonline.org/) on Energy Transition, with an emphasis on renewable energy, including wind, solar, and biomass.
We are looking for reviewers of one or more articles. We are also seeking people who could send us reviews of relevant books, for this issue.
Weimin Tchen
weimintchen@gmail.com
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Solarize Somerville is a go!
Hello neighbors--
On this cold winter day, I'm delighted to share the sunny news that Somerville MA has been chosen by the MassCEC (Clean Energy Center) to be a Solarize Mass community! You can see the announcement here:
http://www.masscec.com/about-masscec/news/state-energy-officials-announce-five-new-communities-participate-solar-program
State energy officials today announced the selection of the first five communities to participate in Solarize Mass for 2016. The new municipalities participating in the community-based solar energy group-buying program that lowers overall costs of installing solar electric systems include Somerville and Natick, as well as Shelburne, Colrain and Conway, which have joined as a trio of partner communities....
You can learn more about the MassCEC and the SolarizeMass program at: www.solarizemass.com .
As the announcement has just been made, we don't have a lot of additional information at this time. But this selection means that we can now work with the city and the state to help residents of Somerville to decide if solar is a suitable option for them and their homes or businesses. We'll be developing and sharing educational materials, we'll have events to help people learn more and get questions answered, and we will help people to understand the processes associated with generating local, artisanal electrons.
Officially I'm the "Solar Coach" for Somerville. I am a point of contact to help people with basic solar PV issues and incentives. I'm working with folks from the city who will manage the overall project. This is a joint effort by the Office of Sustainability and Environment, with director Oliver Sellers-Garcia, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development with Russell Koty.
As a Coach, I am a volunteer organizer and am not authorized to speak as a spokesperson on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or MassCEC. My job is to help people to understand the program once it's in place, and to answer questions that my neighbors may have as they consider the options. Things outside of my wheelhouse will be directed to the folks who can answer them.
You can contact me here with questions, or soon we'll have some information resources with more details. If you might want to volunteer to be on the outreach team. let me know.
Mary Mangan
Solar Coach Volunteer
somervillesolarcoach@gmail.com
[vendors should not contact me, I'm not supposed to have contact with them prior to the proposal process]
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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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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
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
http://www.mapdwell.com/en/cambridge
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Hey Cambridge residents!
Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment
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
Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!
Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome
Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!
Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!
Questions? Contact jnahigian@cambridgema.gov
Cambridge Energy Alliance
http://www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit
@cambenergy
http://facebook.com/cambridgeenergyalliance
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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.
The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org
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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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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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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 27 and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
BASEN / Boston Solidarity Network Economy: http://ba-sen.tumblr.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at over 50 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
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
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