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) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, November 13
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11:45am Sustainability Analytics with Nancy Cleveland, Co-Founder of Sustrana
12pm PAOC Colloquium: The Little Ice Age and 20th Century Deep Pacific Cooling
12pm A HISTORY OF THE INTERNET - A BROWN BAG WITH SCOTT BRADNER
12pm Charging Electric Cars—The Challenges
12:10pm Growing Grapes in the Snow: Understanding the intersections between genetics, physiology, and climate
12:30pm Building Theories – Architecture and an Ethics of Technology
12:30pm Industrial Policy & Economic Development
3:30pm The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market
4pm Writers Speak: Michael Ondaatje in conversation with Claire Messud
4pm Out of Our Minds: Empathy in International Conflict Resolution
4pm Data Science to Solve Social Problems — Facebook Research
5pm Russia@MIT: '100 Shades of Red' talk by acclaimed journalist Mikhail Zygar
5:30pm Building a Renewable Energy Business in a Developing Country
5:30pm Transporting our innovation economy - Civic Innovation Conversation Series
6pm Postcommodity: The Repellent Fence and Beyond
6pm A Plastic Ocean Screening and Panel Discussion
6:15pm City Planning and Urban Affairs
7pm Inside Private Prisons with Lauren-Brooke Eisen
7pm Theatre of the Oppressed
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Tuesday, November 14
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11am Environmental Speaker Series: A Conversation with Josh Alpert
12pm Edward Morris: Art and Activism
12pm Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes
12pm GSD Talks: Ronald Rael, “Borderwall as Architecture”
12pm Gutman Library Distinguished Author Series: Race & Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action
12:15pm "Gray Space” & “Displaceability: New Foundations of Contemporary Urban Regimes
2pm Collective Intelligence as a Characteristic of Small Groups
4pm Quantum Limits on the Information Carried by Electromagnetic Radiation
4pm BEYOND AESTHETICS: Use, Abuse and Dissonance in African Art Traditions
4pm The Charges are Criminal, The Case is Political: The Resistance Conspiracy Case
5pm Opening Discussion for Feminist Archaeology
5pm "Tidewater" Screening and Discussion
5:15pm Drafting the Cape Cod Formula
6pm The Institute of Memory (TIMe): A Digital Identity
6pm Infinite Suburbia Book Launch and Reception
6pm Boston New Technology “Health and Energy” Startup Showcase #BNT83 (21+)
7pm Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
7pm Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House
7pm Science Priorities for the North Atlantic Region – A NOAA Fisheries Perspective
7:30pm Sagan Day: Seeking Life Beyond Our Pale Blue Dot
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Wednesday, November 15
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7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
12pm Dementia and Democracy: America's Aging Judges and Politicians
12pm Gulf Scuffles and Their Regional Implications: How the Iran-Saudi Rivalry is Coloring MENA Conflicts
12:30pm The Ethics of Sensors and Networks: Is There Any Privacy in the Public Realm?
1pm TECH PLANTER DEMO DAY Boston - Startup Pitches from Japan and America
2pm Understanding Personal Networks: The Limits of Big Data and the Perils of Common Sense
2:30pm Protect and Defend the EPA
3:30pm Small Hydropower and the Low-Carbon Frontier in China
4pm Understanding and modeling aging
4pm The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois, African Americans, and the History of World War I
4pm Big-Data Astrobiology: Exploring the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere
4pm The Gender/Race Imperative - MLK Title IX Talk Series with Anita Hill
4:15pm Arctic Innovation: 14 Ideas for a Sustainable, Secure Arctic
5:30pm Solar Panels for Homeowners Workshop
6pm Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Nancy Gibbs: “The Divided States of America”
6pm Designing Life: Early Experiments in Synthetic Biology
6pm Grab Back the Environment
6:15pm Anthropology as Cosmic Diplomacy: Toward an Ecological Ethics for the Anthropocene
6:30pm Dance and Empathy
7pm Leonardo da Vinci
7pm Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series: LaToya Ruby Frazier
7pm The War Against Science
7pm The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President
7pm High-Stake Steaks: The science behind prions, Mad Cow, and other neurological diseases
7pm Climate Changed Ideas Competition: Information Session & Meet-and-Greet
7pm Precision Medicine: Precision Health
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Thursday, November 16
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8:30am Fletcher-MGIMO Conference on U.S.-Russia Relations
11am The Future of Emotion AI: Trends and Opportunities for the Emotion Economy
12pm Innovations to put solar power in the hands of every American
1:15pm Perspectives on technological change and public policy
4:15pm Hidden in Plain Sight: Family Secrets and American History
5pm Spiritual Ecologies: Sustainability and Transcendence in Contemporary Asia
5pm Film Screening: An Inconvenient Sequel
5pm A Systems Approach to Getting Good Stuff Done: Framing the Problem & Theory of Change
5:30pm Starr Forum: Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win
5:30pm Let's get climate smart
6pm Sankofa Lecture: Janine de Novais
6:30pm Envision Alewife Working Group
6:30pm Inside the Minds of Brilliant Designers
6:30pm NEXPO: Northeastern's Entrepreneurship Expo
6:45pm Tech Planter Japanese Startup Pitches
7pm The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office
7pm Aging with Wisdom: Reflections, Stories and Teachings
7pm Outbreak: Fighting Disease in a Changing World
7pm Truth in an Era of Fake News: our 40th Anniversary Celebration!
7pm How Foods Alter Your Genes & What You Can Do About It
7:15pm Religion without Religion? Innovation and Disruption in America’s Spiritual Spaces
7:30pm How to Hold a Dead Star in Your Hand
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Friday, November 17 - Sunday, November 19
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Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
The Environmental Crisis - Our Spiritual Responsibility: Bernstein Scholars-in-Residence Program
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Friday, November 17
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8am Climate Adaptation Forum
10am Is Trump Making Investigative Reporting Great Again?
12pm Biogeochemical Cycling and Environmental Lifetimes for Industrial Chemicals
12pm Hack Your Mind: How Does Mindfulness Meditation Change the Mind and Brain?
2pm Digital Minds: Science fiction or near-future reality?
2pm Machine Learning and AI for the Sciences —Towards Understanding
7pm The Boatman: Thoreau on the Water
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Saturday, November 18
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8am TEDxBeaconStreet 2017 Nov 18th @ JFK Library
10:15am Green Campaign School: Make a Difference by Running for Office!
1pm The Japan-US Science Forum in Boston
1:30pm Free Two-Hour Women's Self-Defense Training
2pm Human Enhancement: Biological Frameworks and Cyborg Theologies
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Sunday November 19
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2pm An American Housewife in Syria
4pm EcoSessions: RiverBlue, The Movie (Boston)
7:30pm ReRooted: Reconnecting with Nature —Practical Ecological Ethics in the Anthropocene
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Monday, November 20
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8am Governor's Convening for Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning
11:30am An Internet for the Masses, by the Masses
12pm PAOC Colloquium: The Effects of Seasonal Biomass Burning in Sub-Saharan Africa
12pm Regional Approaches to Carbon Emissions
12:15pm Sonic Lawfare: The Jurisprudence of Weaponized Sound
12:30pm The Relationship Between Clean Energy/Climate Policy and Expanding Corporate Markets
12:30pm The Cooperative City: Urban Infrastructure Development and South-South Cooperation
4pm LECTURE: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
4:15pm Panel on the Implications of the French and German Elections for the Future of the European Union
4:15pm Panel on the Implications of the French and German Elections for the Future of the European Union
6:30pm Fanning the Flames: New links between inflammation and heart disease
6:30pm Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All
6:30pm A conversation with Zhubin Parang, Head Writer at The Daily Show
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Tuesday, November 21
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12pm Badges of Oppression, Positions of Strength: Digital Black Feminist Discourse and the Legacy of Black Women’s Technology Use
4pm The Sharing Economy for the Smart Grid
6pm November Security of Things MeetUp with Bruce Schneier of IBM
7pm Cambridge Forum: Who Can You Trust?
7pm WGBH and NECIR Present a Conversation on Wrongful Imprisonment
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
MIT Energy Hackathon Puerto Rico (Caribbean) Challenge Results
City Agriculture - November 6, 2017
Being Peace
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Monday, November 13
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Sustainability Analytics with Nancy Cleveland, Co-Founder of Sustrana
When: Monday, Nov 13, 11:45am-12:45pm
Where: MIT, Building E62-223, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
What: Nancy Cleveland is a Principal and co-founder of Sustrana LLC, a sustainability management technology and consulting company. Nancy does consulting and leads content development for Sustrana’s online software service that enables businesses to manage and realize performance improvements through sustainability best practices. Nancy co-chairs the Governance and Sustainability sub-committee of the American Bar Association's Business Law Section. She is an FSA (SASB) and LEED® AP, and is trained under GRI and as a TSC Service Provider.
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PAOC Colloquium: The Little Ice Age and 20th Century Deep Pacific Cooling
Monday, November 13
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Jake Gebbie (WHOI)
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars generally take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged.
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A HISTORY OF THE INTERNET - A BROWN BAG WITH SCOTT BRADNER
Monday, November 13
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building E25-202, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge
In a way the Russians caused the Internet. This talk will describe how that happened (hint it was not actually the Bomb) and follow the path that has led to the current Internet of (unpatchable) Things (the IoT) and the Surveillance Economy.
About the discussant:
Scott Bradner was involved in the design, operation and use of data networks at Harvard University since the early days of the ARPANET. He was involved in the design of the original Harvard data networks, the Longwood Medical Area network (LMAnet) and New England Academic and Research Network (NEARnet). He was founding chair of the technical committees of LMAnet, NEARnet and the Corporation for Research and Enterprise Network (CoREN).
Mr. Bradner served in a number of roles in the IETF. He was the co-director of the Operational Requirements Area (1993-1997), IPng Area (1993-1996), Transport Area (1997-2003) and Sub-IP Area (2001-2003). He was a member of the IESG (1993-2003) and was an elected trustee of the
Internet Society (1993-1999), where he was the VP for Standards from 1995 to 2003 and Secretary to the Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2016. Scott was also a member of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) as well as a trustee of the IETF Trust from 2012 to 2016.
Mr. Bradner retired from Harvard University in 2016 after 50 years working there in the areas of computer programming, system management, networking, IT security, and identity management. He still does some patent related consulting.
See also: Collaborative Knowledge Creation, Brown Bag
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Charging Electric Cars—The Challenges
Monday, November 13
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Consortium for Energy Policy Research with Henry Lee, Jassim M. Jaidah Family Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, HKS. Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Growing Grapes in the Snow: Understanding the intersections between genetics, physiology, and climate
Monday, November 13
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Jason Lando, Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS Grape Genetics Unit, will discuss his research on understanding the genetic and phenotypic aspects of environmental stress tolerance and adaptation.
Contact Name: arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu
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Building Theories – Architecture and an Ethics of Technology
Monday, November 13
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 7-429, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Franca Trubiano is Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Architecture) at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Registered Architect with l'Ordre des Architectes du Quebec and an International Associate of the AIA. She conducts funded research in the areas of Advanced Energy Retrofits and Building Information Modeling. She teaches in construction technology, materials, theories of building, integrated design, architectural ecologies, and high performance buildings.
Franca is President of the Building Technology Educators Society (BTES) - http://www.btesonline.org/, where she was Treasurer/Secretary since 2011. She is also a founding member of the Editorial Board of the Journal - TAD ( Technology, Architecture and Design) and since 2014 has been a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architectural Education.
Her edited book Design and Construction of High Performance Homes: Building Envelopes, Renewable Energies and Integrated Practice (Routledge Press 2012), features 18 essays of which 6 were authored by her. In 2014, it was translated into Korean, by the Korean Research Institute of Environmental Architecture and launched as part of their 10th year anniversary. Franca has also published essays on the subject of high performance design in edited books Architecture and Energy (eds. Braham and Willis, Routledge Press, 2013) and Architecture and Uncertainty (ed. Benjamin Flowers, Ashgate Press, 2014). She is presently completing a manuscript for Routledge on building technology and architectural theory. Building Theories, Integrating Matter, Energy, Data, and Labor for a new Ethics of Architecture (Routledge), proposes an alternative definition of architectural theory; one that valorizes the as yet untapped potential of ‘thinking through building’.
Franca is a Principal Investigator and inaugural member of the Consortium for Energy Building Energy Innovation (CBEI) – formerly the Energy Efficient Building Hub, a US Department of Energy sponsored project. Her three year funded research is focused on the development of Integrated Design Roadmaps of use by all members of the AEC industry in pursuit of Advanced Energy Retrofits. Franca also conducts funded research on Building Information Modeling (BIM), developing both Facility Management processes for maximum applicability of BIM authoring models, as well as helping the National Masonry Institute develop BIM based protocols of value to the industry. Since 2014, Franca has also been an expert reviewer for the MIT-KUWAIT Signature Project on Sustainability where she will continue in this role until 2016.
MIT Department of Architecture / Fall 2017 Lecture Series
Building Technology Group, hosted by Caitlin Mueller
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Industrial Policy & Economic Development
Monday, November 13
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The SPURS/Humphrey program is delighted to invite you to our fall seminar series: North American Planning Experience: Is It Relevant for the Developing World?
Our goal is to explore to what extent, and under what conditions, planning ideas generated from practice in the U.S. can travel to cities in the developing world and be implemented effectively. We’ll also consider whether planning ideas, practices and programs are traveling from the rest of the world back to the United States.
The sixth seminar is Monday, Nov 13, in the City Arena, 12:30 - 2 PM: Industrial Policy & Economic Development, with Jason Jackson and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, respondent.
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The Longevity Economy: Unlocking the World’s Fastest-Growing, Most Misunderstood Market
Monday, November 13
3:30pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building E52, Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
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Writers Speak: Michael Ondaatje in conversation with Claire Messud
WHEN Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Memorial Hall, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cosponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs’ Canada Program.
SPEAKER(S) Michael Ondaatje is the author of five novels, a memoir, a nonfiction book on film, and several books of poetry. His novel The English Patient won the Man Booker Prize, and his fourth novel, Anil’s Ghost, won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Médicis. Born in Sri Lanka, Ondaatje now lives in Toronto.
Claire Messud, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing in the English Department at Harvard; author of numerous novels, most recently The Burning Girl (2017)
TICKET INFO free and open to the public; no tickets required
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu, 617-495-0738
DETAILS Book sale and signing to follow. Special thanks to Harvard Book Store.
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Out of Our Minds: Empathy in International Conflict Resolution
WHEN Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, room S-020 (Belfer Case Study Room) 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict
SPEAKER(S) Matt Waldman, Director of the Center for Empathy and International Affairs, Associate Fellow of Chatham House--The Royal Institute of International Affairs
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Donna Hicks, Chair dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu
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Data Science to Solve Social Problems — Facebook Research
Monday, November 13
4:00pm to 5:30pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjHSdaRu5Vml3EG-n-MJYKaHXB_1LIOEVy0w2BtkQTtXaM4w/viewform
INCREASING VOTER KNOWLEDGE WITH PRE-ELECTION INTERVENTIONS ON FACEBOOK
Learn about Facebook's Civic Engagement Research Team and get a deep dive into their latest work.
The Civic Engagement Team at Facebook's mission is to give more people a greater voice in the policy and actions of their government. Fundamental to this mission is understanding the motivations and obstacles to participation; the ways in which Facebook can facilitate the motivations and remove the obstacles; and how the team's efforts impact people's feeling of political efficacy.
The MIT GOV/LAB (www.mitgovlab.org) is a research group of political scientists focusing on innovation in citizen engagement and government responsiveness.
The Data Science to Solve Social Problems series features practitioners who are applying data science techniques to real world social problems. This series aims to promote dialogue and collaboration between social scientists and data analysts / engineers working on innovative projects.
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Russia@MIT: '100 Shades of Red' talk by acclaimed journalist Mikhail Zygar
Monday, November 13
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT Building 2- 190, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
“100 Shades of Red: Perceptions of the 1917 Revolution and Politics Today” by acclaimed journalist Mikhail Zygar.
Zygar, the author of All The Kremlin’s Men about Vladimir Putin's inner circle, will talk about his new book, The Empire Must Die. The book, released in the U.S. on Nov. 7th, portrays the years leading up to the Russian Revolution and the drama of Russia’s brief experiment with civil society before it was swept away by the Communist regime. Zygar draws parallels between current political events in Russia and will discuss how modern-day Russians perceive the Communist Revolution of 1917.
Mikhail Zygar is a Russian journalist, writer and filmmaker, and the founding editor-in-chief of the Russian independent news TV-channel, Dozhd (2010-2015). Prior to Dozhd, Zygar worked for Newsweek Russia and the business daily Kommersant, where he covered conflicts in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Serbia, and Kosovo.
His recent book, All the Kremlin’s Men, is based on an unprecedented series of interviews with President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, presenting a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. Zygar is the founder of Project1917, a free online platform that enables readers to learn about the events leading to the Russian Communist Revolution from those who lived during this defining moment of history. He is also the founder of Future History Lab - the team behind Project1917.
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Building a Renewable Energy Business in a Developing Country
Monday, November 13
5:30pm
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
Dinner will be served.
Philip Henry de Frahan, Global Business Development Manager at Enernet Global
With limited transmission and distribution infrastructure and an economy growing at 7%, the Philippines desperately needs cheaper and more reliable power. On one hand, many community islands depend on expensive, and polluting diesel generation for 12-16 hours of power a day. In addition to hampering health and education, this leaves them at the mercy of spotty fuel deliveries, and exposed to the volatility of fuel prices. On the other hand, grid-connected businesses suffer from brown-outs and poor power quality that damage expensive equipment.
Enernet Global, a renewable energy development and financing startup based in New York, recognized the opportunity to move in this market. Philip Henry de Frahan, head of global business development, will share stories and insights to those who want to build a renewable energy business in a developing market. Topics like market selection, market entry, local hiring, corruption, and deal making in renewables will be covered with specific examples from his experience on the ground creating a business from scratch.
Presenter Bio: Philip Henry de Frahan
Philip Henry de Frahan leads Global Business Development for Enernet Global in its markets: Australia, Philippines, and the Caribbean. Prior to joining Enernet, Philip managed 300MW of distributed generation (solar, storage, microgrids, V2G, back-up diesel generation, and demand response) at NRG. This followed his first job at Eos Energy Storage, a grid-scale energy storage technology developer. Philip graduated with a CEMS Master in International Management from the Louvain School of Management and the Graduate School of St. Petersburg, Russia.
More information at https://e4dev.mit.edu/ and https://www.facebook.com/mite4dev
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Transporting our innovation economy - Civic Innovation Conversation Series
Monday, November 13
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
Transportation systems are the arteries that carry the people to fuel our regional innovation ecosystem. As we have seen more concentration of people and companies (of all sizes) in the Greater Boston area, having a diverse and robust transportation network that adequately serves all is an important infrastructure element to plan and build. The quality of this infrastructure will drive how and where people will live, work and play now and far into the future.
Our Civic Innovation Conversation Series is returning to the topic of transportation innovation on Monday, November 13th, 2017 at District Hall. We will discuss the progress being made in ride sharing, parking, autonomous cars, pod transportation and more.
The speakers for the session are listed below:
Adrian Albus - Growth Strategy Leader, Zagster
Syed Gilani – CEO, Safr
Braden Golub – CEO, Parkeasier
Karl Iagnemma – CEO, nuTonomy
More to be announced
Moderator – Kevin Wiant
Agenda:
5:30 - Registration and networking
6 - 7:30 PM - Conversation and Q&A
7:30 PM - Reception
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Postcommodity: The Repellent Fence and Beyond
Monday, November 13
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, ACT Cube (E15-001) 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Postcommodity will discuss their 2015 land art installation and socially engaged artwork Repellent Fence, and the implications of this work on their art practice, their future work, and the field of contemporary art as we approach the year 2043 (when the US transitions to a non-white majority).
Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Kade L. Twist. Postcommodity’s art functions as a shared Indigenous lens and voice to engage the assaultive manifestations of the global market and its supporting institutions, public perceptions, beliefs, and individual actions that comprise the ever-expanding, multinational, multiracial and multiethnic colonizing force that is defining the 21st Century through ever increasing velocities and complex forms of violence.
This lecture is part of the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT)'s Fall 2017 Lecture Series.
For more information on the series, see http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/about-pages/fall-2017-about-series/s
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A Plastic Ocean Screening and Panel Discussion
WHEN Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Chan Office of the Dean
Harvard Global Health Institute
DETAILS Join Dean Michelle Williams, Ashish Jha, the film's director and producer, and others for a film screening and panel discussion. A reception will follow.
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City Planning and Urban Affairs
Monday, November 13
6:15 pm to 7:00 pm
BU, Room 315, 685-725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative, and Principal, EJM Advisors, will be guest lecturing in City Planning and Urban Affairs' UA 510: Sustainable Energy Planning course. She will be covering the topic Electricity and National Security: Relevance to Urban Planning and Sustainable Energy Policy. Ms. Kenderdine's prior roles include Director of Energy Policy and Systems Planning of the U.S. Department of Energy and Counselor to the Secretary of Energy.
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Inside Private Prisons with Lauren-Brooke Eisen
Monday, November 13
7:00pm
Trident Bookstore, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
Join Lauren-Brooke Eisen as she discusses her new book and the subject of for-profit prisons and mass incarceration.
About the Book: From divestment campaigns to boardrooms to private immigration-detention centers across the Southwest, Eisen examines private prisons through the eyes of inmates, their families, correctional staff, policymakers, activists, Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, undocumented immigrants, and the executives of America’s largest private prison corporations. Private prisons have become ground zero in the anti-mass-incarceration movement. Universities have divested from these companies, political candidates hesitate to accept their campaign donations, and the Department of Justice tried to phase out its contracts with them. On the other side, impoverished rural towns often try to lure the for-profit prison industry to build facilities and create new jobs. Neither an endorsement or a demonization, Inside Private Prisons details the complicated and perverse incentives rooted in the industry, from mandatory bed occupancy to vested interests in mass incarceration. If private prisons are here to stay, how can we fix them?
About the Author: Lauren-Brooke Eisen is senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program, where she focuses on changing financial incentives in the criminal-justice system. Previously she was a senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice in the Center on Sentencing and Corrections, served as an assistant district attorney in New York City, and taught criminal justice at Yale College and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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Theatre of the Oppressed
WHEN Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow 319/320, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Arts in Education program, HGSE
SPEAKER(S) Sheliza Jamal
CONTACT INFO sheliza_jamal@gse.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us for an evening experiencing Theatre of the Oppressed conventions to be used inside and outside the classroom. Theatre of the Oppressed is aimed at revealing power, privilege and oppression in society.
All are welcome. No theatre experience is necessary.
Light refreshments will be served.
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Tuesday, November 14
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Environmental Speaker Series: A Conversation with Josh Alpert
Tuesday, November 14
11:00AM TO 12:00PM
Harvard, Darman Room (T-135), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
On behalf of CPL Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership Rand Wentworth and the Energy and Environment Professional Interest Council (PIC) at HKS, you’re invited to an informal lunch with Josh Alpert, Director of Special Projects for C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Mr. Alpert, who previously served as Chief of Staff to Charlie Hale, Mayor of Portland, OR, will join students for a conversation about climate change and the role states, cities, and individuals can play in meeting the Paris Climate Agreement. This lunch will be a great opportunity for students interested in climate action, local government, or international non-profits to meet with one of today's most up-and-coming environmental leaders. RSVP here.
This event is part of CPL's Environmental Speaker Series and is co-sponsored by the Energy and Environment PIC at HKS.
Moderator: Liz Hanson (MPP ’18), Chair, Energy and Environment PIC at HKS
Introduction by: Rand Wentworth
Louis Bacon Senior Fellow in Environmental Leadership, Center for Public Leadership
ABOUT JOSH ALPERT Joshua Alpert serves as C40's Director of Special Projects. In this role, he currently works on the creation of an inclusive climate action plan for megacities, templates for city investment and divestment, and a host of other projects. Prior to starting with C40, Joshua was Chief of Staff to Mayor Charlie Hales in Portland, OR. As Chief of Staff, Josh worked with and advised the Mayor on long-range strategy and policy, led City efforts on addressing homelessness and was the lead for C40, where he helped launch a seven-city pilot to quantify and measure the green economy. Before joining Mayor Hales' administration, Joshua worked for 7 years as the Northwest Director of Conservation Strategies for The Trust for Public Land. While there, he oversaw 18 successful ballot measure campaigns in western cities, counties and states, raising $2.7 billion in public funding for parks, natural areas and waterways. Joshua holds a J.D. from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
Contact Name: cpl_events@hks.harvard.edu
More information at https://cpl.hks.harvard.edu/event/environmental-speaker-series-conversation-josh-alpert-director-special-projects-c40-cities
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Edward Morris: Art and Activism
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Edward Morris, Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts
COST Free
DETAILS Edward Morris works with photography, video, writing, and installation. He is Professor of Practice in the Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, and co-director of the Canary Lab. He works in collaboration with his wife Susannah Sayler as Sayler/Morris. In 2006 Sayler/Morris co-founded the Canary Project, a collaborative that produces visual media and artworks that deepen public understanding of climate change and other ecological issues. In 2015 Sayler/Morris were awarded the 8th annual David Brower Center: Art/Act Award, and in 2014 they were awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship. In 2008-09 they were Loeb Fellows at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Their work has been exhibited broadly in the United States and abroad at both science and art museums, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and the Walker Center for the Arts.
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Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes
Tuesday, November 14
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Griswold Hall, Room 110, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/11/Katsh#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/11/Katsh
featuring author Ethan Katsh
Ebay resolves 60 million disputes a year and Alibaba 100 million. How do they do that? At the other less impressive extreme, in 2015 the IRS hung up on telephone callers 8.8 million times without making contact. Are there online solutions for that? Disputes are a “growth industry” on the internet, an inevitable by-product of innovation but often harmful to individuals. Drawing on his recent book, Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes, (co-authored with Orna Rabinovich), Professor Katsh will consider opportunities for online dispute resolution and prevention in ecommerce, health care, social media. employment and the courts.
About Ethan
Professor Katsh is widely recognized as one of the founders of the field of online dispute resolution (ODR). Along with Janet Rifkin, he conducted the eBay Pilot Project in 1999 that led to eBay’s current system that handles over sixty million disputes each year. With Professor Rifkin, he wrote Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace (2001), the first book about ODR. Since then, he has published numerous articles about ODR and co-edited Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice, which received the International Institute for Conflict Resolution book award for 2012. The frequently mentioned metaphor of technology as a “Fourth Party” was first proposed in Katsh and Rifkin’s Online Dispute Resolution (2001).
Professor Katsh is a graduate of the Yale Law School and was one of the first legal scholars to recognize the impact new information technologies would have on law. In The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Law in a Digital World (Oxford University Press, 1995), he predicted many of the changes that were to come to law and the legal profession. His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and other law reviews and legal periodicals. His scholarly contribution in the field of law and technology has been the subject of a Review Essay in Law and Social Inquiry.
Professor Katsh has served as principal online dispute resolution consultant for the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), a federal agency mandated to provide mediation in Freedom of Information Act disputes. During 2010-2011, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Haifa (Israel). He has been Visiting Professor of Law and Cyberspace at Brandeis University and is on the Board of Editors of Conflict Resolution Quarterly. He was principal dispute resolution advisor to SquareTrade.com and is Chairman of the Board of Advisors of Modria.com. His principal current research concern involves issues related to health care and, more particularly, to disputes over electronic health records (see How Patients Can Improve the Accuracy of their Medical Records).
Since 1996, Professor Katsh has been involved in a series of activities related to online dispute resolution. He participated in the Virtual Magistrate project and was founder and co-director of the Online Ombuds Office. In 1997, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, he and Professor Rifkin founded the National Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. During the Summer of 1999, he co-founded Disputes.org, which later worked with eResolution to become one of the first four providers accredited by ICANN to resolve domain name disputes. From 2004 – 2010, Professor Katsh was co-Principal Investigator, with Professors Lee Osterweil and Lori Clarke and Dr. Norman Sondheimer of the UMass Department of Computer Science, of two National Science Foundation funded projects to model processes of online dispute resolution. This work was coordinated with the United States National Mediation Board.
Professor Katsh has chaired the International Forums on Online Dispute Resolution, held in Geneva in 2002 and 2003, Melbourne in 2004, Cairo in 2006, Liverpool in 2007, Hong Kong in 2007, Victoria (Canada) in 2008, Haifa (Israel) in 2009, Buenos Aires in 2010, Chennai (India) in 2011, Prague in 2012, Montreal in 2013, Silicon Valley in 2014, New York in 2015 and The Hague and Beijing in 2016 and in Paris in June 2017. Professor Katsh received the Chancellor’s Medal and gave the University of Massachusetts Distinguished Faculty Lecture in October 2006. In 2014-2015, he was an Affiliate of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He is the 2017 recipient of the D’Alemberte-Raven Award from the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution.
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GSD Talks: Ronald Rael, “Borderwall as Architecture”
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gund Hall, 112 Stubbins, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Ronald Rael
CONTACT INFO events@gsd.harvard.edu
DETAILS "Despite recent attention to wall building as a security measure, the building of barriers along the U.S. – Mexico border is not a new phenomenon. The U.S. Secure Fence Act of 2006 funded the single-largest domestic building project in the twenty-first century and financed approximately 700 miles of fortification, dividing the U.S. from Mexico at a cost of up to $16 million per mile. Today, approximately one third of the 1,954-mile-long border between the U.S. and Mexico has been walled off. Ronald Rael will discuss his book, Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S. – Mexico Boundary, a timely re-examination of what the physical barrier that divides the United States of America and both a protest against the wall and a projection about its future.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu."
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Gutman Library Distinguished Author Series: Race & Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Gutman Conference Center - Area 3, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Gutman Library
SPEAKER(S) Max Klau
DETAILS For his doctoral research at HGSE, Max Klau studied a provocative educational exercise that extends a long line of classic social psychology research, such as the Milgram obedience experiments and the Stanford Prison Experiment. This exercise essentially immersed a diverse group of students in a simulated Jim Crowe-style social system and challenged them to confront and transform it.
Race & Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action, answers the question: What might we learn by observing three Civil Rights movements in a petri dish? The book integrates the author's own personal quest to understand matters of race and social change as a privileged white male. It ends with both a personal and national call to action.
Lunch will be served.
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"Gray Space” & “Displaceability: New Foundations of Contemporary Urban Regimes
Tuesday, November 14
12:15pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please join the Displacement Research Action Network (DRAN) for a lecture with Prof. Oren Yiftachel, Ben-Gurion University, Bersheeba, “Gray Space” & “Displaceability”: New Foundations of Contemporary Urban Regimes.
The lecture will offer a discussion about the changing nature of urban regimes, using a 'southeastern' perspective. It will focus on the growing prevalence of 'gray spacing' and the impact of 'displaceability' to the making of urban citizenship. The lecture will draw on research from Israel/Palestine used comparatively with other global locations.
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Collective Intelligence as a Characteristic of Small Groups
Tuesday, November 14
2:00 pm
177 Huntington Avenue, 11th floor, Boston
Christopher F Chabris, Professor, Geisinger Health System, Visiting Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
Much important work is performed by small groups of people who collaborate. This is increasingly true in scientific and academic disciplines. Borrowing from the long tradition of research on individual cognitive ability, which has found that people who perform well on one cognitive task tend to perform well on other tasks, we looked for the same phenomenon in small teams. We found that task performance is indeed correlated across teams, with a general factor explaining about as much of the variance in team performance as it does in individual performance of cognitive tasks. We label this factor “collective intelligence.” We also found that teams with more evenly distributed member contributions, with members who score higher in social intelligence, and with more women, tend to exhibit greater collective intelligence. The collective intelligence of a team predicts how well it will perform over extended periods in complex tasks. In this talk I will review our work on the collective intelligence of small groups and discuss some current and future research projects in this area.
More information at https://www.networkscienceinstitute.org/events/christopher-f-chabris
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Quantum Limits on the Information Carried by Electromagnetic Radiation
Tuesday, November 14
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Massimo Franceschetti, University of California, San Diego
In many practical applications information is conveyed by means of electromagnetic radiation and a natural question concerns the fundamental limits of this process. Identifying information with entropy, one can ask about the maximum amount of entropy associated to the propagating wave.
The standard statistical physics approach to compute entropy is to take the logarithm of the number of possible energy states of a system. Since any continuum field can assume an uncountably infinite number of energy configurations, the approach underlying any finite entropy calculation must also necessarily include some grouping of states together in a procedure known as coarse graining or, in information-theoretic parlance, signal quantization. The problem then reduces to counting the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian of the quantum wave field.
In this talk, we examine the relationship between entropy computations in a statistical physics and an information-theory context. In the latter context, rather than attempting to directly count the number of energy eigenstates of the quantum wave field, we constrain the geometry of the signal space and decompose the waveform into a minimum number of orthogonal basis modes. We then ask how many bits are required to represent any waveform in the space spanned by this optimal representation with a minimum quantized energy error. We show that for scalar quantization this entropy computation is completely analogous to the one for the number state channel of statistical physics, and it has the attractive feature that the complexity of state counting is now replaced by the geometric problem of optimally covering the signal space by high-dimensional boxes, whose size is lower bounded by quantum constraints. For bandlimited radiation in a three-dimensional space, using this approach we can recover the Bekenstein entropy bound on the largest amount of information that can be radiated from a sphere of given radius. We also compare results with black body radiation occurring over an infinite spectrum of frequencies and along the way we provide some new results on the asymptotic dimensionality and $\epsilon$-entropy of bandlimited, square-integrable signals.
Biography
Massimo Franceschetti received the Laurea degree (with highest honors) in computer engineering from the University of Naples, Naples, Italy, in 1997, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, in 1999, and 2003, respectively. He is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Before joining UCSD, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Berkeley for two years. His research interests are in physical and information-based foundations of communication and control systems. He was awarded the C. H. Wilts Prize in 2003 for best doctoral thesis in electrical engineering at Caltech, the S.A. Schelkunoff Award in 2005 for best paper in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2006, an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award in 2007, the IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2010, and the IEEE Control theory society Ruberti young researcher award in 2012.
LIDS Seminar Series
Editorial Comment: "Quantum Limits on the Information Carried by Electromagnetic Radiation” has a good rhythm and is an interesting topic.
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BEYOND AESTHETICS: Use, Abuse and Dissonance in African Art Traditions
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Humanities, Lecture
SPEAKER(S) Wole Soyinka, Playwright, Nobel Laureate
COST Free & open to the public
DETAILS The Richard D. Cohen Lectures in three parts:
Tuesday: The Acquisitive Eye: "Oga, I swear it's Original Fake"
Wednesday: Heirs to the Procreative Deities - the Yoruba at Large.
Thursday: From Aso Ebi to N****YWOOD
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The Charges are Criminal, The Case is Political: The Resistance Conspiracy Case
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Robinson Hall, Lower Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Education, Humanities
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Charles Warren Center's Workshop on Crime and Punishment in American History
SPEAKER(S) Susan M. Reverby (Wellesley College)
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Opening Discussion for Feminist Archaeology
Tuesday, November 14
5:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Please join artist Jennifer Bornstein RI '15 for an opening discussion and reception for her exhibition.
The opening talk will take place at 5 p.m. in the Knafel Center, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. The reception will immediately follow in the Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery.
Bornstein will be joined in conversation by Yukio Lippit, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Director of the Arts, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University and Jennifer L. Roberts, Arts Advisor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Professor of the Humanities and Harvard College Professor.
This gathering with Radcliffe fellows, Harvard faculty and staff, members of the arts community at Harvard, and beyond is open to the public and provides a chance to see the new exhibition and meet the artist.
Free and open to the public.
Feminist Archaeology is an interdisciplinary art project consisting of an original video projection with accompanying prints and sculptures. The exhibition explores different strains of feminism, which the artist has experienced both personally and through her research, and that have been somewhat at odds with one another over time.
The video component of the exhibition purposely conflates different historical periods of feminism. It includes moving-image media from several sources: 16mm film; HD; and Sony Portapak—an anachronistic 1970s video camera that shoots only black-and-white, standard-definition video. Portapak was frequently used by artists to make experimental, performance-based videos during the time period of the 1970s that coincides with the focus of this project’s artistic research. The print component of the exhibition consists of large-scale, 1:1 relief-type prints made using oil-based printing ink on canvas. The prints were created from pieces cut from a temporary drywall structure that was formerly in Harvard’s Carpenter Center. Segments of the drywall structure, which was built as a collaborative project by students in Visual and Environmental Studies (VES), and served as Bornstein’s classroom and as a video projection room while she was a visiting lecturer in VES, are also displayed in the exhibition as sculptural elements.
Research for Feminist Archaeology began in 2014–2015 during Bornstein’s fellowship year at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The research materials for the exhibition, which function partly as the project’s blueprint, come from the collections of Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
The artist would like to thank Harvard undergraduates Eriko Kay and Lily Scherlis, who contributed significantly to the development of the work, as well as VES students Ariana Chiavaron, Helen Miller, Billy Orman, Noel de Sa e Silva, Gleb Sidorkin, Kensho Tambara, and Sam Wolk for their help with the project.
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"Tidewater" Screening and Discussion
Tuesday, November 14
5 pm
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Center for the Environment invites you to a screening of Tidewater. The film focuses on the national security threats and economic opportunities associated with sea level rise. A panel discussion will follow featuring director and producer Roger Sorkin; and Peter Huybers, Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences and of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Co-Director, HUCE.
The Hampton Roads area of Virginia is relatively unknown nationwide, but it is the region whose vulnerability to sea level rise most affects military readiness and our overall national security. With 14 military installations spread across 17 local jurisdictions, it is our highest concentration of military assets in the country, where 1 in 6 residents are associated with our nation's defense. Their homes, schools, hospitals, and families are increasingly struggling to keep up with the effects of rising waters, and the military and all the surrounding municipalities are working towards solutions in the name of strengthening national security and enhancing economic prosperity.
Hampton Roads requires $1 billion in urgent infrastructure repairs with 900 miles of its roads and electric grid threatened by permanent flooding. Faced with these unprecedented challenges that can only be tackled by a wide range of stakeholders, from ordinary citizens to the U.S. Navy to local businesses, Tidewater demonstrates that an innovative whole-of-government problem-solving model being attempted by local and military leaders is the only way to ensure the continued strength of our national security, along with the continued prosperity of the region and the nation.
If Hampton Roads succeeds, it will mean success on several levels. They'll save their homes, schools, businesses, the bases, and that's no mean feat. But they'll also create a powerful template for success, a model other regions can use to prepare for and deal with disaster – and more: a model that can demonstrate how people, businesses and government can pull together to solve any complex problem. The story strikes a positive tone, highlighting the outsized capabilities of Hampton Roads to show the nation and the world how it can be done. Lots of hard choices and sacrifices will have to be made in order for the plan to succeed, but if they get it right, human communities everywhere will have a roadmap.
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Drafting the Cape Cod Formula
Tuesday, November 14
5:15PM
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
The Massachusetts Historical Society hosts Jacqueline Gonzalez, Historical Research Associates with comment by Steven Moga, Smith College. Free and open to the public. A light sandwich supper will follow.
Boston Environmental History Seminar
Contact Name: seminars@masshist.org
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The Institute of Memory (TIMe): A Digital Identity
Tuesday, November 14
6:00pm — 7:30pm
MIT Media Lab, E14, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
All talks at the Media Lab, unless otherwise noted, are open to the public.
This talk will be webcast. Join the conversation on Twitter: #MLTalks
MLTalk: Lars Jan, Pattie Maes, David Henry
In today’s society, the understanding of one's own identity becomes blurred as technology progresses. How do we as humans create borders around our identities as we engage in contemporary technologies? Please join artist Lars Jan and Professor of Media Technology Pattie Maes as they consider the future of memory. Co-hosted by David Henry (Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston), this intimate and provocative conversation will touch on the interplay between technology and human identities while exploring the porosity and created borders of our own identities.
This program is co-presented by the MIT List Visual Arts Center, MIT Media Lab, and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).
Lars Jan and the Early Morning Opera will be performing The Institute of Memory (TIMe) at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18.
About the Speakers
Lars Jan is a director, writer, visual artist, and founder of Early Morning Opera, a genre-bending performance + art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience. Jan’s original works—including Holoscenes, The Institute of Memory (TIMe), and Abacus—have been presented by institutions as diverse as the Whitney Museum, Sundance Film Festival (New Frontier), BAM Next Wave Festival, the World Science Festival, Toronto Nuit Blanche, London’s Burning, and the Istanbul Modern. As the winner of the 2017 Audemars Piguet Art Commission, Jan will present Slow-Moving Luminaries, an immersive, kinetic pavilion, at Art Basel Miami Beach this December. He is on faculty at CalArts and a TED Senior Fellow.
Pattie Maes is a professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences as well as academic head of the MAS Program. She runs the Lab's Fluid Interfaces research group, which aims to radically reinvent the human machine experience. Coming from a background in artificial intelligence and human computer interaction, she is particularly interested in the topic of cognitive augmentation, or how immersive and wearable systems can actively assist people with memory, learning, decision making, communication, and wellbeing.
David Henry is the Bill T. Jones Director of Performing and Media Arts at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. In his current position he is responsible for all performances and screenings at the ICA—a total of over 100 programs per year. Henry began working at the ICA in 2004, and oversaw the development of all programming for the ICA’s new facility. Previously he was Head of Education at The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and worked in the education department of the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN).
Webcasts of events in the MLTalks series are live captioned for the hearing impaired. Audio Assist Devices are available for those attending in person; please email for more information.
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Infinite Suburbia Book Launch and Reception
Tuesday, November 14
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please join us for Infinite Suburbia Book Launch and discussion with Alan Berger, Joel Kotkin, and David Luberoff.
Infinite Suburbia is the culmination of the MIT Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism's yearlong study of the future of suburban development. Extensive research, an exhibition, and a conference at MIT's Media Lab, this groundbreaking collection presents fifty-two essays by seventy-four authors from twenty different fields, including, but not limited to, design, architecture, landscape, planning, history, demographics, social justice, familial trends, policy, energy, mobility, health, environment, economics, and applied and future technologies. This exhaustive compilation is richly illustrated with a wealth of photography, aerial drone shots, drawings, plans, diagrams, charts, maps, and archival materials, making it the definitive statement on suburbia at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Please RSVP to lcau@mit.edu
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Boston New Technology “Health and Energy” Startup Showcase #BNT83 (21+)
Tuesday, November 14
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Draper’s Sembler Office, 1 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
Enter the lobby from the entrance under the pedestrian bridge on the north side of Broadway. Please check in at our table on the left side of the lobby, presenting your identification to pick up your name tag.
Price: $12.00 /per person
Refund policy
Come learn about 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with 150+ attendees from the Boston/Cambridge startup community! Dinner, beer, wine and more are included.
This event is 21+, due to alcohol being served. Valid photo identification is required.
Each presenter gets 5 minutes for a product overview & demonstration and 5 minutes for Q&A
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Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
Tuesday, November 14
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes author, historian, and journalist RUSSELL SHORTO—best-selling author of The Island at the Center of the World—for a discussion of his latest book, Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom. This event is co-sponsored by Mass Humanities.
About Revolution Song
In his epic new book, Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who freed himself and his family from slavery, a rebellious young woman who abandoned her abusive husband to chart her own course and a certain Mr. Washington, who was admired for his social graces but harshly criticized for his often-disastrous military strategy.
Through these lives we understand that the revolution was fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change. A powerful narrative and a brilliant defense of American values, Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.
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Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House
Tuesday, November 14
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
From Donna Brazile, former DNC chair and legendary political operative, an explosive and revealing new look at the 2016 election: the first insider account of the Russian hacking of the DNC and the missteps by the Clinton campaign and Obama administration that enabled a Trump victory.
Packed with never-before-reported revelations about what went down in 2016, Hacks is equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future. With Democrats now in the wilderness after this historic defeat, Hacks argues that staying silent about what went wrong helps no one. Only by laying bare the missteps, miscalculations, and crimes of 2016, Brazile contends, will Americans be able to salvage their democracy.
About the Author
Donna Brazile is the former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and a contributor to ABC News. A graduate of Louisiana State University, Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she served as Al Gore's campaign manager. In 2014, Brazile was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on to the board of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. She is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, DC.
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Science Priorities for the North Atlantic Region – A NOAA Fisheries Perspective
Tuesday, November 14
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Simons IMAX Theatre New England Aquarium
Jon Hare, Science and Research Director, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
REGISTER
The mission of NOAA Fisheries is compelling and important. The agency is responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s living marine resources, including fisheries, aquaculture, protected species, habitats, and ecosystems. As Science and Research Director of the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), Jon Hare is responsible for the Northeast U.S. Shelf Ecosystem, which extends from North Carolina to Maine and includes watersheds, estuaries, the continental shelf, and the open ocean. The ecosystem supports a wide array of living marine resources, from Atlantic sea scallops, one of the most valuable, to the North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered, to Atlantic cod, one of the most iconic. A set of science priorities will be described for the region. These priorities aim to better understand this complex ecosystem and ultimately improve the stewardship mission of NOAA Fisheries.
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Sagan Day: Seeking Life Beyond Our Pale Blue Dot
Tuesday, November 14
7:30pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 35-225, 127 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The Secular Society of MIT will celebrate Carl Sagan Day this year, to honor and remember the popular astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan, with a talk by Julien de Wit, an exoplanet researcher in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Dr de Wit, who has developed and applied innovative analysis techniques to map exoplanet atmospheres, will present and discuss his work on investigating solar systems -- including the famed TRAPPIST-1 system -- beyond our own, placing our own pale blue dot within a cosmic perspective.
Social time follows. We will serve apple pie and mocktail cosmos (both references to Sagan's work).
Turtlenecks and/or casual blazers suggested.
One lucky attendee will go home with a Sagan reference art poster we will raffle out at the end of the event.
Free entry and refreshments.
More about Sagan Day: http://carlsaganday.com/
We are also organizing a trip to Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on Thursday, NOV/16, 7:30pm for a nontechnical public astrophysics talk, followed by a telescopic night sky viewing and socializing out. More on that event at https://goo.gl/hTbmvh. Email ssomit@mit.edu if you'd like to join us then.
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Wednesday, November 15
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, November 15
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EST
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals 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 8:30 am.
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Dementia and Democracy: America's Aging Judges and Politicians
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Pound Hall, Room 102, 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
DETAILS Our judiciary and our elected officials are getting old. Five of the nine Supreme Court Justices are 67 or older, with two over age 80. The President is 71, the Senate Majority Leader is 75, and the House Minority Leader is 77. Does the public have a right to know whether these officials have been screened for dementia? If the individuals don’t self-report their dementia status, should experts continue to adhere to the “Goldwater Rule” and refrain from offering an armchair diagnosis? As the nation reflects on its midterm elections, and prepares for the 2020 election cycle, these questions are timely and challenging.
Learn more about the event here: http://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/dementia-and-democracy
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Gulf Scuffles and Their Regional Implications: How the Iran-Saudi Rivalry is Coloring MENA Conflicts
Wednesday, November 15
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Joost Hiltermann, International Crisis Group
Joost Hiltermann is Program Director, Middle East & North Africa, at the International Crisis Group, an independent NGO dedicated to preventing deadly conflict, for which he has worked in various capacities since 2002. Before that, he was Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch (1994-2002) and database coordinator and research coordinator at the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in Ramallah (1985-1990). He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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The Ethics of Sensors and Networks: Is There Any Privacy in the Public Realm?
Wednesday, November 15
12:30pm to 2:30am
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Part of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning's Planning Ideas that Matter: Urban Science: Regression to Technocracy or Pathway to Progressive Planning?
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TECH PLANTER DEMO DAY Boston - Startup Pitches from Japan and America
Wednesday, November 15
1:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
The Global TECH PLANTER accelerator program DEMO DAY is coming to Boston on Nov 15. TECH PLANTER is a unique international seed acceleration program for deep-tech startups. TECH PLANTER brings the best companies from their Asian accelerator to DEMO DAYS in cities around the world. These DEMO DAYS are an opportunity for local companies and investors to see the company pitches for potential partnership and investment. Venture Café is partnering with Leave a Nest, Glocalink and CIC to bring the TECH PLANTER DEMO DAY to Boston.
The Boston TECH PLANTER DEMO DAY is also an opportunity for 10 -12 American startups to participate in a pitch competition. The American companies can compete to win three prizes:
1st Place - $2,000 & Trip to Japan
2nd Place - $1,000 & Trip to Japan
3rd Place - $500
The visits to Japan also includes introductions to business and technology partners to grow your business in Japan and other parts of Asia Leave a Nest will help the winner build a business network in Japan. Leave a Nest has extensive experience connecting real tech startups from around the world Japan with both the R&D and marketing departments of the top Japanese corporations.
We encourage startup companies to apply to pitch via the Global TECH PLANTER website page for the BOSTON DEMO DAY. The application deadline to pitch is October 20th. We are particularly interested in startups in the Biotech, robotics, agri-tech, healthcare, IoT, clean energy, food and nanotech spaces. Others are welcome to attend the event to hear the pitches from both the Asian and American startups and can register at this site.
The format for the pitch is seven minutes of presentation & seven minutes for Q&A (judge and audience).
Schedule of the Event
Wednesday, Nov 15th, 2017
Venue opens at 12:15
13:00-13:30 Opening remarks & Keynote presentation
13:30-14:30 4 companies’ pitch (Team 1~4; 7min presentation & 7min Q&A)
14:30-14:40 BREAK
14:40-15:40 4 companies’ pitch (Team 5~8; 7min presentation & 7min Q&A)
15:40-16:00 BREAK
16:00-16:45 Pitches from 6 companies from Asia (5 min pitch)
16:45-16:50 BREAK
16:55-17:55 4 companies’ pitch (Team 9~12; 7min presentation & 7min Q&A)
18:00-18:30 Networking time/ Time for the judges to discuss the winner!
18:30-19:00 Award Ceremony
19:00-20:30 Post awards reception
The Japanese Startups that will be presenting are:
Challenergy (https://challenergy.com/en/)
Magnus VAWT windmill generates electricity in any wind conditions even in Hurricane
Meltin MMI (http://meltin.jp/home/en/meltin-mmi/) - Cyborg technology for unleashing physical limitation
RESVO (http://resvo-inc.com/E_index.html) - Optimization of the treatment for schizophrenia/autism using blood biomarker
Inupathy (http://inupathy.com/ ) - Better communication with dogs enabled by visualizing dogs’ mood through HRV sensing and analysis
Cognitee (http://cognitee.com/indexE.html) - Context analysis for quantifying a difference between high/low performers of sales talks, presentations, ads-leaflets and interviews.
DO NOT MISS IT! These Japanese startups will be pitching at the Venture Cafe Kendall on the 16th of November (link <- a="" href="http://vencaf.org/event/tech-planter-japanese-startup-pitches/" nbsp="">http://vencaf.org/event/tech-planter-japanese-startup-pitches/
)
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Understanding Personal Networks: The Limits of Big Data and the Perils of Common Sense
Wednesday, November 15
2:00 pm
Northeastern, 177 Huntington Avenue, 11th floor, Boston
Mario Small, Ph.D., Grafstein Family Professor at Harvard University
When people seek emotional support, how do they decide whom to talk to? Network analysis and common sense would both suggest that people will go to those they are closest to. Based on in-depth interviews with graduate students in one university and nationally representative survey data on adults 18 and older, I find reason to question that belief. Shifting from what people say to what they actually do, I find that people are far more willing to turn to others they are not close to, even near-strangers, than either conventional wisdom or network theories would suggest. Examining why, I show that widely-agreed upon assumptions about the nature of strong ties do not accord with how people interact with those they are close to in their ordinary lives. The findings suggest that, in big data era, qualitative research has become more, not less important to network analysis.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mario L. Small, Ph.D., Grafstein Family Professor at Harvard University, is the author of numerous award-winning books and articles on urban poverty, support networks, qualitative and mixed methods, and other topics. His latest book, to be published fall 2017, is Someone To Talk To (Oxford). A study of how people decide whom to approach when seeking support, the book is an inquiry into human nature, a critique of network analysis, and a discourse on the role of qualitative research in the big-data era. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mariosmall/files/cv_aug_2017.pdf
More information at https://www.networkscienceinstitute.org/events/mario-small
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Protect and Defend the EPA
Wednesday, November 15
2:30 - 3:30pm
Teleconference
RSVP to Chris Weikel at cweikel@edf.org, 212-616-1326
Over the past year, the Trump administration has waged an aggressive assault on America’s bipartisan legacy of environmental protection. Still Scott Pruitt’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has so far failed to complete a single regulatory action to roll back key safeguards. Join us for a conversation about the greatest upwelling of citizen action in a generation - and how EDF and our allies are moving nimbly to seize opportunities, while playing a long-term ground game for lasting change.
Featuring
Elizabeth Thompson, VP, US Climat and POlitical Affairs & President, EDF Action
Sarah Vogel, VP, Health Program EDF
Felice Stadler, Senior Director, Campaigns, EDF
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Small Hydropower and the Low-Carbon Frontier in China
Wednesday, November 15
3:30PM TO 4:45PM
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard-China Project hosts Tyler Harlan, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract: Since the 1950s, the Chinese government has used small hydropower (SHP) to drive rural electrification and local economic development in the remote, resource-rich west of the country. More recently, however, this same technology has been re-framed as a renewable energy that generates electricity for the national green economy. In this presentation I argue that SHP represents a broader transformation of rural western China into a ‘low-carbon frontier’, characterized by the rapid growth of renewable energy infrastructure far from urban centers. I show how the frontier is simultaneously constructed as a site of ecological degradation and of untapped low-carbon value, both discursively and materially through preferential state policies for renewable energy expansion. This, in turn, enables energy firms and local governments to extract new profits from natural resources that may have competing uses. Drawing on policy analysis and twelve months of interviews with government officials, hydropower investors, and farmers, I argue that SHP on the ‘low-carbon frontier’ privileges renewable energy generation over other local resource needs. At the same time, I show how local governments employ new SHP infrastructure for their own uses, such as powering nearby mining and mineral processing facilities. This presentation thus highlights the importance of examining subnational geographies of low-carbon transformation, and the ways that resources and technologies can be re-purposed for local and national development goals.
Co-sponsored by China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Environment in Asia Series, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
China Project Seminar
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
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Understanding and modeling aging
Wednesday, November 15
4:00pm
Whitehead Institute, McGovern Auditorium, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Anne Brunet, Stanford University
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The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois, African Americans, and the History of World War I
Wednesday, November 15
4:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
Part of the 2017–2018 Fellows' Presentation Series
Lecture by Chad L. Williams RI '18
Free and open to the public.
At Radcliffe, Chad L. Williams is completing a book about W. E. B. Du Bois’s attempts to write what he believed would be the definitive history of African Americans in World War I. Based on Du Bois’s unpublished manuscript and research materials, the project explores how the personal, political, and historical legacies of World War I haunted both Du Bois and black people more broadly throughout the interwar period. Williams hopes to shed new light on Du Bois’s intellectual life, the experiences of African American soldiers, and the meaning of World War I for peoples of African descent.
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Big-Data Astrobiology: Exploring the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere
Wednesday, November 15
4:00pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Haller Hall, Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Dr. Robert Hazen (Carnegie)
Large and growing deep-time data resources in mineralogy, geochemistry, paleobiology, petrology, tectonics, and proteomics facilitate statistical exploration and visual representation of large-scale patterns in planetary evolution. Of special note are recent applications of network analysis: visually striking interactive paleobiology networks of coexisting animals reveal mass extinction events; dynamic 3D-mineral networks display dramatic clustering and embed compositional vectors and timelines; intricate networks that compare thousands of protein structures reflect Earth's redox evolution and suggest the coevolution of geochemistry and biochemistry. "Big-data" astrobiology is thus lead to a deeper understanding of the origins and evolution of our home and ourselves.”
More information at https://origins.harvard.edu/event/dr-robert-hazen-carnegie-big-data-astrobiology-exploring-co-evolution-geosphere-and
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The Gender/Race Imperative - MLK Title IX Talk Series with Anita Hill
Wednesday, November 15
4:00pm to 5:30pm
MIT, E51-115, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Fulfilling the Promise of Title IX in STEM: Exploring the Roles University Leaders Play
Facilitated by Anita Hill
Guest Speakers:
Dr. Zorica Pantic, President of Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dr. Paula Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in Engineering
Department Head, Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Andrew G. Campbell, Dean of the Graduate School, Professor of Medical Science, Brown University
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Arctic Innovation: 14 Ideas for a Sustainable, Secure Arctic
Wednesday, November 15
4:15PM TO 6:00PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Arctic Innovators Program is the student component of the Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center, which strives to increase understanding and improve policies to respond to what is happening in the changing Arctic through research, convening, and education.
The goal of the Arctic Innovators Program is to bring more young people into the expanding international discussion of Arctic issues, both to educate them about this fast changing region and its impacts on the rest of the globe and to equip them to contribute to developing and implementing sustainable solutions. The first cohort of Arctic Innovators have developed their ideas over the semester through lecture-discussion sessions at HKS, and participation in the Arctic Innovation Lab at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland where they developed their ideas with key experts and leaders in the field.
Arctic Innovators Ideas:
"Drill, Baby, Drill: The Competitive Advantage of Oil and Gas Companies towards Geothermal Energy"
Mariana Matranga, MC-MPA Candidate
"From the Prairie to the Tundra: International Indigenous Youth Leadership Development"
Sanjay Seth, MPP Candidate
"Indigenous Led Arctic Tourism"
Gabrielle Scrimshaw, MPA Candidate
"Digital Watch Dog: Monitoring Equity in Resource for Infrastructure Agreements"
Kelly Clark, MPP Candidate
"Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Reinventing Personal Safety in Cold Waters"
Peter Sopher, MPA Candidate
"Alaska, the First Frontier: Managing a New Generation of Climate Migrants"
Wen Hoe, MPP Candidate
"Hungry for Hope? Building Sustainable City Food Systems for the Arctic"
Carolina Zambrano, MPA Candidate
"Trade Policy and Environmental Cooperation: An Arctic Free Trade Area"
Mehek Sethi, MPP Candidate
"Frozen Superhighway: Transnational Indigenous Organizations and the Internet"
Vincent Lowney, MPP Candidate
"Identity and Adaptation: Food Production and Climate Change"
Morgan Brown, MPA Candidate
"Using Drones to Support Remote Arctic Communities"
Charlotte McEwen, MPP Candidate
"Protecting Marine Biodiversity through Subnational Action"
Martina Muller, MPP Candidate
"Knowing Your Value: Successfully Negotiating for the Interests of Arctic Communities"
Meredith Davis Tavera, MPP Candidate
"Digital Jobs, Not Handouts!"
Ziad Reslan, MPP Candidate
Remarks: Chris Colbert, Director, Harvard Innovation Labs
Halla Hrund Logadottir, Fellow, ENRP; Co-founder, Arctic Initiative
Contact Name: Amanda Sardonis
More information at https://www.belfercenter.org/event/arctic-innovation-14-ideas-sustainable-secure-arctic
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Solar Panels for Homeowners Workshop
Wednesday, November 15
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM EST
HUECU, 104 Mount Auburn Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge
Owning a solar energy system can provide many benefits for years to come. Not only can you save money on your monthly bills, but you'll also be adding to the value of your home. This one-hour workshop is ideal for any homeowner interested in adding a solar energy system to your home. You'll learn about the benefits from purchasing a solar panel system, the ordering and installation process and about your finances options.
This workshop will be presented in partnership with NRGTree.
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Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics with Nancy Gibbs: “The Divided States of America”
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Editorial Director, Time Inc. News Group; Former Editor, Time Magazine
COST Free
DETAILS The 2017 Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics will be delivered by Nancy Gibbs, Editorial Director, Time Inc. News Group.
Also at the event, the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism will be presented to Kevin Cullen, Boston Globe columnist.
Nancy Gibbs is the Editorial Director of Time Inc., and former Editor of Time Magazine, which has 50 million readers worldwide. Gibbs joined Time as a fact checker in 1985 and worked as a writer and editor before holding senior management positions. She was named Time’s 17th managing editor in 2013. She was the first woman to hold the position. Gibbs is one of the most published writers in the history of Time, having been an essayist and lead writer on virtually every major news event of the past two decades, including four presidential campaigns and the September 11 attacks. She has written more cover stories for Time than any other writer in its history and won the National Magazine Award for her cover story of Time’s black-bordered Sept. 11, 2001 special issue. She is the co-author, along with Time’s Michael Duffy, of two best-selling presidential histories: The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity (2012), which spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, and The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House (2007).
Kevin Cullen is a columnist for The Boston Globe. He worked as a local, national and foreign correspondent before becoming a columnist. He served as bureau chief in Dublin and London. He has worked at the Globe‘s Spotlight Team, and was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service in 2003 for exposing the cover-up of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In 2014, he won the Mike Royko Award as best columnist chosen by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer for breaking news for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, and was a Pulitzer finalist in commentary. He is the only two-time winner of ASNE’s Batten Medal for writing about the marginalized. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller, Whitey Bulger, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He was a 2003 Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
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Designing Life: Early Experiments in Synthetic Biology
Wednesday, November 15
6:00pm to 7:30pm
Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Sophia Roosth, Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor in the History of Science Harvard University
Synthetic biologists combine biology and engineering to design (or re-design) biological entities or living systems. The work of these scientists could have many potential applications in the medical, energy, and environmental sectors, but the field remains controversial because of ethical and biosecurity concerns. Based on her research with MIT scientists working to model and engineer viruses in the early 2000s, Sophia Roosth will discuss how synthetic biologists think about themselves and their power to “evolve” life, putting their perspectives in the context of the American political discourse over creation and intelligent design.
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Grab Back the Environment
Wednesday, November 15
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Zone 3, 267 Western Avenue, Boston
Zone 3 is proud to present Nomadic Gallery, a moveable gallery created to give local artists and curators a flexible exhibition space to house short term exhibitions or ongoing programs. Constructed out of three large movable walls, Nomadic Gallery is designed to move inside and outside the space, with the potential to be plugged into other locations along Western Avenue.
The project will launch in November 2017 with curator Scott Murry of The Grab Back with Grab Back the Environment on November 15th from 6 – 9pm. Proceeds from sales will be donated to the Sierra Club, the nation’s most influential grassroots environmental organization.
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Anthropology as Cosmic Diplomacy: Toward an Ecological Ethics for the Anthropocene
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, 6:15 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR: 617.495.4495
DETAILS Forests think. This is neither a metaphor nor a cultural belief. There exists a kind of thinking, which I call “sylvan,” that is made exquisitely manifest by tropical forests and those that live with them. This kind of thought extends well beyond us humans and, in fact, holds our human forms of thinking. Thinking with the sylvan logics that thinking forests amplify can provide an ethical orientation—a mode of thought—that is adequate for these times of planetary human-driven ecological devastation that some call the “Anthropocene.” I here discuss three projects in and around the tropical forests of Ecuador whose goal is to capacitate sylvan thought. This research, which has brought me into collaboration with indigenous leaders and shamans, lawyers and conceptual artists, and even forest spirits and archaic pre-hispanic ceramic figures, has encouraged me to see my anthropological vocation as a kind of “cosmic diplomacy.” This form of diplomacy is “psychedelic” in so far as its goal is to make manifest the mind manifesting nature of the sylvan thinking on whose behalf it advocates. Another word for this kind of emergent mind is “spirit.” I here explore alternative “sylvan” means to give voice to the spirits among us, and I trace the challenge this poses for how we should think about what it means to be human.
Eduardo Kohn is the author of the book How Forests Think, which has been translated into several languages. It won the 2014 Gregory Bateson Prize and is short-listed for the upcoming 2018 Prix littéraire François Sommer. His research continues to be concerned with capacitating sylvan thinking in its many forms. He teaches Anthropology at McGill University.
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Dance and Empathy
Wednesday, November 15
doors 6pm / talk 6:30pm
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge
Ilya Vidrin and moderated by Lisa Wong
This fascinating talk is part of the Artsenses series
curated by the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School
Emerging from professional dance practices, Ilya's work investigates physical principles of human interaction. From concepts like empathy, care, trust, vulnerability and respect, his central research question probes the language and biomechanics surrounding what it means to be "connected" within dance partnering, aiming to identify which aspects are determinable, generalizable, and further, measurable. To address this question, he works with wearable biofeedback technology designed to capture haptic and proxemic data. Currently used in studio and performance environments, implications for this research extend beyond artistic practice to promote healthy physical interactions.
As usual, the talk is free.
Space is limited.
BIOGRAPHY
With backgrounds in cognitive neuroscience, rhetorical theory, and classical, contemporary, and improvisational movement and sound, Ilya has spent much of his time synthesizing his academic and artistic interests to investigate interdisciplinary collaboration. A graduate of Northeastern University's College of Science, Ilya went on to receive a Master’s Degree in Human Development form Harvard University, where he worked on clinical and experimental research projects investigating alternative therapies for cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, including neuro-navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and mindful/somatic enrichment. He has been a guest teacher at the Interlochen Arts Academy (Michigan), Hakodate Performing Arts High School (Japan), and the Laban Conservatoire (London), and has worked with professional musicians and dancers at the International Beethoven Festival, Greenhouse Festival (Israel), Royal Swedish Ballet (Stockholm), Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Kurofune Ensemble (Japan), The Cambrians (Chicago), and the Doppelgänger Dance Collective (Providence). Ilya continues to develop his research through a practice-based PhD in Performing Arts, with postgraduate fellowships at Harvard University and the Centre for Dance Research in the United Kingdom.
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Leonardo da Vinci
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $5 - $34.75 (online only, book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes celebrated writer and journalist WALTER ISAACSON—author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin—for a discussion of his latest biography, Leonardo da Vinci. This event is co-sponsored by Mass Humanities.
About Leonardo da Vinci
He was history’s most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us?
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.
His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.
Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.
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Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series: LaToya Ruby Frazier
Wednesday, November 15
7:00pm
Lesley University, University Hall Amphitheater, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
LaToya Ruby Frazier is a photographer and video artist who uses visual autobiographies to capture social inequality and historical change in the postindustrial age. The College of Art and Design is pleased to have Ms. Frazier join us this Fall as part of the Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series.
In 2014, Frazier was named a Guggenheim Fellow in Creative Arts. The following year, she became a TED2015 Fellow and her monograph, The Notion of Family, published by Aperture in 2014, was awarded the 2015 Infinity Award for Best Publication by the International Center of Photography (ICP).
In 2015 Frazier was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, to which she responded that the award was "validation to my work being a testimony and a fight for social justice and cultural change.”
In 2017 Ms. Frazier was included on the exclusive list of the 100+ Most Powerful Women of All Time by Ebony magazine.
LaToya Ruby Frazier received her MFA in 2007 from Syracuse University. She's held artist residencies at the Lower Manhattan Culture Council (2009–2010) and the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program (2010–2011).
Frazier was the Guna S. Mundheim Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin (2013–2014) before assuming her current position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Frazier’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions, including solo shows at the Brooklyn Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.
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The War Against Science
Wednesday, November 15
7pm
3 Church Street, Cambridge
Join us for an important conversation with environmental scientists Joel Clement, H. Curtis Spalding, Brown University and Andrew Rosenberg, Director for Science and Democracy at Union of Concerned Scientists on the War Against Science.
Joel Clement recently resigned his post as a senior Department of Interior official over the suppression of facts about implications of climate change on human populations. He cited the department’s “poor leadership, waste, and failures on climate change.”
“I am a scientist, a policy expert, a civil servant and a worried citizen. Reluctantly, as of today, I am also a whistleblower on an administration that chooses silence over science.”
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The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
A sweeping reexamination of the Founding Father who transformed the United States in each of his political “lives”—as a revolutionary thinker, as a partisan political strategist, and as a president
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician he co-founded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning.
About the Author
Noah Feldman is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the author of six previous books, most recently Cool War: The Future of Global Competition. He is a Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University and a columnist for Bloomberg View.
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High-Stake Steaks: The science behind prions, Mad Cow, and other neurological diseases
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Auditorium, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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Climate Changed Ideas Competition: Information Session & Meet-and-Greet
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 9-451, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Climate Changed Ideas Competition http://www.climatechangedmit.com
INFORMATION SESSION AND MEET-AND-GREET:
We will be reviewing the competition brief and answering questions. The information session will be followed by a mixer for interested individuals to meet one another and find potential teammates. Pizza will be served!
COMPETITION PROMPT:
Imagine the Greater Boston region in 2050. The local sea levels will have risen by as much as 1.5 meters. King tides, caused by the gravitational interactions of the earth, sun, and moon will flood low-lying areas with every new and full moon. Coastal storm events, like hurricanes, will occur more often and with greater force. Due to rising temperatures, the New England summer will look more like that of Washington D.C. Heat waves will be hotter and longer, tripling the heat-induce mortality rate. The Northeast will see a continual increase in extreme storm events. This will disrupt transportation and cause flash flooding over built-up urban areas.
These projections are alarming. Yet, we believe there are ways to mitigate and prepare our communities for the climate changed. In this competition we explore the power of models: to illustrate large and small scale shifts, to calculate uncertainty, to communicate the science, and to show the community how the events will unfold. With this in mind, we ask you to “model” an idea on one of three Greater Boston sites that addresses at least one climate hazard, and show how modeling can help transform the site in a climate changed. Teams are asked to select one of the three sites: the MIT campus and its surroundings, East Boston Greenway, or the Fresh Pond & Alewife areas and address the following objectives:
1. Explore the agency of models to develop new ways of seeing the site and to design an idea intervention.
2. Develop a climate-responsive intervention to address issues identified, founded on understood climate change predictions and your model. Show how your proposal will be better the site and community in question.
Climate Changed Co-Chairs: Irmak Turan and Jessica Varner
Faculty Advisor: John E. Fernandez
The Climate Changed event series is generously co-sponsored by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.
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Precision Medicine: Precision Health
Wednesday, November 15
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, I Museum Park, Boston
What if, starting from birth, we could keep everyone at their healthiest state throughout their life? In the future, might we prevent diseases from happening altogether? This is the vision that researchers and technology companies, both big and small, are aiming to make a reality.
Join us to find out what is possible now and what may be possible in the very near future.
Welcome by Gloria S. Waters, PhD, vice president and associate provost for research and professor of speech, language, and hearing services at Boston University. Introduction by Katya Ravid, DSc, founding director, Boston University Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office and Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research.
Lee and Nile Albright Annual Symposium
Funding provided by the Lee and Nile Albright Annual Symposium Fund. This program is free thanks to the generosity of the Lowell Institute.
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Thursday, November 16
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Fletcher-MGIMO Conference on U.S.-Russia Relations
Thursday, November 16
8:30 AM – 6:30 PM EST
Tufts, Breed Memorial Hall, 51 Winthrop Street, Medford
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fletcher-mgimo-conference-on-us-russia-relations-tickets-39363990756
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts Universityand the Moscow State Institute of International Relations(MGIMO University) cordially invite you to attend a conference on competing visions of global order in the United States and the Russian Federation. Bilateral relations remained unsettled after the Cold War. The relationship has deteriorated even further over the past decade and was recently described by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as "at an all-time low point since the end of the Cold War, with a very low level of trust.” The public and political discourses in both countries are hostile and uncompromising.
The first step in managing relations, however, is to make account of the actual scope of disagreement through examining specific issues on which preferences of the parties diverge or clash. The aim of the conference, therefore, is to identify differences between the Russian Federation and United States in major areas, in which both sides have identifiable interests and substantial potential for action. These areas include contrasting narratives about the post-Cold War era, the accepted boundaries of national sovereignty, differing interpretations of international law, the situation in the Euro-Atlantic, Middle Eastern, and Asia-Pacific regions, as well as mutual suspicion regarding interference by the other side in its domestic politics. The conference is part of a larger, multiyear, overarching project on the bilateral relationship, sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Fletcher Eurasia Club, Center for Strategic Studies, and Science Diplomacy Center are also helping organize the event. We are thankful for the support of our partners and sponsors.
For more details and to view the webcast during the event see http://sites.tufts.edu/mgimo/. Attendees and viewers will be able to ask questions of speakers using Pigeonhole Live (event passcode FLETCHERMGIMO). When tweeting about the conference, please use #FletcherMGIMO. The event is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/491168484590749/
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The Future of Emotion AI: Trends and Opportunities for the Emotion Economy
Thursday, November 16
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Webcast
Emotion has been central to the human condition since our earliest days, preceding even technology and language. So core is it to who we are that even in this era of advanced technologies, we’d prefer that many of our computers and other devices were aware of our emotional states.
In this webcast hosted by Affectiva, Richard Yonck, professional futurist and author of Heart of the Machine: Our Future in a World of Artificial Emotional Intelligence will talk about these trends, the developing emotion economy and some of the opportunities and challenges emotionally aware technologies may present us.
We hope to see you there!
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Innovations to put solar power in the hands of every American
Thursday, November 16
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Steph Speirs, CEO and co-founder, Solstice
More solar is installed every year compared to the last, yet it still only accounts for less than 1 percent of our electricity. Why isn't solar blanketing our towns and cities yet? Why have so many big solar companies gone bankrupt in the last few years? What innovations need to occur for the benefits of solar energy to be enjoyed by everyone in America? Join Solstice co-founder and CEO Steph Speirs in discussing the impediments--and innovations required--to realizing a truly democratized clean energy economy that works for all of us, not just some of us.
Steph Speirs is a social entrepreneur and community builder with management experience in the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States. She is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Solstice, an enterprise dedicated to radically expanding the number of American households that can take advantage of solar power. She was selected as an Echoing Green Climate Fellow, a Global Good Fund Fellow, a Kia Revisionary, a Grist 50 Fixer, and an Acumen Global Fellow, all of which recognize emerging leaders in social enterprise. She previously led sales and marketing innovation in India at d.light, a solar products company powering areas without reliable electricity; spearheaded Acumen's renewable energy impact investment strategy in Pakistan; developed Middle East policy as the youngest Director at the White House National Security Council; and managed field operations in seven states for the first Obama presidential campaign. She holds a B.A. from Yale and a Master in Public Affairs (MPA) with distinction from Princeton, and is a recipient of the Paul and Daily Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
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Perspectives on technological change and public policy
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, 1:15 – 2:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor Taubman Building, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Information Technology, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
SPEAKER(S) Caroline Atkinson, head of Global Public Policy at Google and former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama.
DETAILS Refreshments will be served.
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Family Secrets and American History
Thursday, November 16
4:15 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
The theme of this discussion is the not-quite-secret histories of American families, stories hidden in plain sight that, once revealed, require us to rethink the broader outlines of American history.
The program will tackle important connections between the secret/private and the official/public.
The Schlesinger Library’s specific mission to document the history of American women also means that recording secrets—thinking about privacy and discoverability—is a particular interest of ours.
How do we know what we know? What can’t we know, ever? What should and shouldn’t be preserved?
A panel discussion with:
Gail Lumet Buckley '59, author of The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016)
Alice Echols, Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of History and Gender Studies at University of Southern California
Susan Faludi ’81, RI ’09, author of In the Darkroom (Metropolitan Books, 2016)
Alex Wagner, author of Stories We Tell Ourselves (One World, forthcoming)
Moderator: Annette Gordon-Reed JD ’84, RI ’16, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Harvard Law School, and Professor of History, Harvard University
Free and open to the public.
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Spiritual Ecologies: Sustainability and Transcendence in Contemporary Asia
Thursday, November 16
5:00pm
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor of East Asian Studies, Duke University
The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center
The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center is convened by Robin Kelsey (Dean of Arts and Humanities, Harvard University) and Ian Jared Miller (Professor of History, Harvard University).
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Film Screening: An Inconvenient Sequel
Thursday, November 16
5:00PM
Harvard, PBHA Shepard Room, 1 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Join the Environmental Action Committee and Harvard College Conservation Society in viewing Al Gore's new film. 10 Years after An Inconvenient Truth, follow former Vice President and climate activist Al Gore as he continues on his quest to tackle the world's most important - and most challenging - problem. Live-streamed Q&A Session with Al Gore following screening. Register requested.
The Harvard College Environmental Action Committee seeks to help achieve a sustainable world and protect the environment for its human and non-human inhabitants. To this end, the EAC aims to raise the consciousness of Harvard’s students to the effect of their own actions on the environment and to their status as stewards of this planet’s resources. We advocate specific changes at the campus, local, national, and international levels. Furthermore, we serve as a forum for discussion and a source of information on environmental issues. Finally, we seek to enrich our members through fun and fulfilling experiences.
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A Systems Approach to Getting Good Stuff Done: Framing the Problem & Theory of Change
Thursday, November 16
5:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 10-105, Vannevar Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Every innovation has a "theory of change" associated with it - an explicity or implicit logic about how the new hardware, software, process, model, etc. will interrupt the status quo and produce different results. This workshop walks through a theory of change model to help us understand the complex web of steps to achieve change, to identify and articulate assumptions about why we think it will have an impact, and to identify gaps that should be addressed. We'll also utilize a systems and context mapping exercise to help identify multiple opportunities for social innovations in an issue area, leading us to understand where our own skills and expertise might best contribute to positive social impact.
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Starr Forum: Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win
Thursday, November 16
5:30pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 4-270, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Book talk with Peter Krause PhD '11, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College and a Research Affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program
His new book Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win was just published with Cornell University Press. Krause's research and teaching focus on Middle East politics, terrorism and political violence, national movements, and international relations.
Roger Petersen (Discussant), Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science
Books will be signed & sold at event
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Let's get climate smart
Thursday, November 16
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Hyatt Regency, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Join us for a Climate-Smart Cities™ event featuring a panel discussion:
Cool, Connect, Absorb, Protect: How parks and open space can help make your city climate smart
We will explore the many ways that climate change is impacting the Boston region and discover how parks, open space, and new multi-city and public-private partnerships, such as the Metro Mayors Coalition*, are helping us overcome unprecedented environmental challenges.
The evening will include an interactive mapping demonstration, keynote presentation, and Q&A session with leading climate experts.
Hors d’oeuvres will be provided. Cash bar available.
Please register by November 7th.
Speakers include:
Bill Lindsay, City Manager, Richmond, CA (keynote)
Holly Bostrom, Climate-Smart Cities Program Director, The Trust for Public Land
Marc Draisen, Executive Director, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (moderator)
Axum Teferra, Clean Energy Planner and Climate Specialist, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Alicia Hunt, Director of Energy and Environment, City of Medford, MA
*The Metro Mayors Coalition is a partnership of 14 municipalities in metro Boston which is home to over 1.3 million people. With the help of The Trust for Public Land through its Climate-Smart Cities ™ program, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the coalition is working to develop and implement new green infrastructure strategies that will make the entire region resilient to a changing climate.
The Metro Mayors Coalition is comprised of Boston, Brookline, Braintree, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Melrose, Malden, Newton, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop.
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Sankofa Lecture: Janine de Novais
Thursday, November 16
6:00pm
Lesley University, Marran Theater, 34 Mellen Street, Cambridge
The Sankofa Lecture Series was established to create a forum for thought-provoking diversity and inclusion themed presentations on current hot topics led by guest scholars, authors and researchers within academia and in the greater society. The meaning of the word Sankofa asks that we embrace our past in order to achieve a rewarding future. The series creates a platform for diverse perspectives and ideas to be shared and discussed in open and vibrant community dialogue on critical issues related to race, gender, sexuality and intersectionality.
Dr. Janine de Novais is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and beginning fall 2018, she will be an assistant professor at the University of Delaware School of Education. Her work sits at the intersection of race, culture, democracy and education. In a recent study, de Novais introduces "Brave Community," a theory about the relationship between classroom culture and meaningful learning about race. In 2016, de Novais was one of nine scholars honored by the American Educational Research Association as “Promising Minority Scholars” and an NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Semi-Finalist. She has served on the Editorial Board of the "Harvard Educational Review" (2012-2014), and on the Dean's Advisory Committee for Equity and Diversity at HGSE (2014-2015). Before coming to Harvard, de Novais was associate director of Columbia University's Center for the Core Curriculum. She received her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2017 and her B.A. in sociology from Columbia University.
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The New Frontier Awards
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Jack Schlossberg, Grandson of President John F. Kennedy
May Boeve, Executive director, 350.org
Carlos Curbelo, U.S. Congressman (FL-26, R)
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office
617-495-1380
DETAILS
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School invite you to join
Jack Schlossberg, Grandson of President John F. Kennedy
in honoring the 2017 recipients of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Awards:
May Boeve, Executive director, 350.org
Carlos Curbelo, U.S. Congressman (FL-26, R)
6:00PM Award Ceremony
6:30PM Discussion with honorees on environmental policy and action, moderated by Steve Curwood, host of PRI's Living on Earth
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Envision Alewife Working Group
Thursday November 16
6:30 pm
Tobin School cafeteria, 197 Vassal Lane, Cambridge
More information at http://envision.cambridgema.gov/event/alewife-working-group-meeting-12-2/
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Inside the Minds of Brilliant Designers
Thursday, 16 November
6:30 – 8:30 pm EST
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
About This Event
This inspiring panel event series invites key players in Boston's design community to offer a rare insider’s look at how they work and create. From branding to user experience to city planning, panelists will discuss how they approach projects from a design point of view, how design thinking methods help with problem-solving, and much more.
Where are they now? An evening with General Assembly Design Alums
For November, we are inviting General Assembly design alums back to campus to share 'Where they are now'. Learn about their path to General Assembly, the work they are doing now, and what their transitions into professional design roles have been like.
Why It Matters: Design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. It affects our morning commute, how we experience websites and apps, and how we communicate with each other. Gaining a better understanding of this universal force will help you see the world and your projects through a fascinating new lens.
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
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NEXPO: Northeastern's Entrepreneurship Expo
Thursday, November 16
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex, 799 Columbus Avenue, Boston
Celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week with IDEA by taking part in NEXPO, our annual venture showcase event. Whether you are a student hoping to start your own company, an industry professional looking to share your experience, or an entrepreneurship enthusiast interested in learning about the cutting edge of technology in startups, NEXPO provides the perfect platform to connect at Northeastern and beyond. Join us on November 16th from 6:30pm – 9:00pm in the new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, ISEC.
Speak with our participating ventures and guests to learn about how they are disrupting the market. Benefit from the networking opportunities NEXPO provides by speaking with students, mentors, and investors.
For more information about IDEA | Northeastern University’s Venture Accelerator, visit www.northeastern.edu/idea
Learn more about NEXPO and Global Entrepreneurship Week at: www.northeastern.edu/eweek/
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Tech Planter Japanese Startup Pitches
Thursday November 16
6:45 pm - 8:00 pm
Venture Café (Havana) @ CIC, 5th Floor, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
The Global Tech Planter accelerator program DEMO DAY is coming to Boston on Nov 15. TECH PLANTER is a unique international seed acceleration program for deep-tech startups. TECH PLANTER brings the best companies from their Japan accelerator to DEMO DAYS in cities around the world. These DEMO DAYS are an opportunity for local companies and investors to see the company pitches for potential partnership and investment. The Japanese startups from the Nov. 15th DEMO DAYNov. 15th DEMO DAY will be pitching at the Venture Cafe Kendall
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The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office
Thursday, November 16
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes University of Texas professor JEREMI SURI for a discussion of his latest book, The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office.
About The Impossible Presidency
In this bold new history of the American presidency, celebrated historian Jeremi Suri argues that the successful presidents of the past created unrealistic expectations for every president since JFK, with enormously problematic implications for American politics. Suri charts the rise and fall of the American presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argues that the presidency is a victim of its own success—the vastness of the job makes it almost impossible to fulfill the expectations placed upon it. As managers of the world's largest economy and military, contemporary presidents must react to a truly globalized world in a twenty-four-hour news cycle. There is little room left for bold vision.
Suri traces America's disenchantment with our recent presidents to the inevitable mismatch between presidential promises and the structural limitations of the office. A masterful reassessment of presidential history, this book is essential reading for anyone trying to understand America's fraught political climate.
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Aging with Wisdom: Reflections, Stories and Teachings
Thursday, November 16
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
"Opens the door to aging's wisdom and love in a beautiful and heartfelt way."--Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart
How do we enter our elder years with openness, curiosity, and engagement? A central assumption of this book is that deepening one's inner life is central to wellbeing in later life. Combining elements of memoir and inspiring examples of lives well lived, Aging with Wisdomis that invaluable guide to the inevitable (if we're lucky) process of aging with dignity and grace.
Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle is a writer and dharma teacher. Her bestselling first book, Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows: A Couple's Journey Through Alzheimer's won many awards.
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Outbreak: Fighting Disease in a Changing World
Thursday, November 16
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston
Human health is connected to the health of the environment and the animals inhabiting it. Viruses that originate in wildlife, such as HIV, Zika, Ebola, and influenza, can infect humans and our livestock and spread rapidly around the globe. Influenza and HIV have killed tens of millions of people every year. What is our role in preventing the next pandemic? How can society work toward reducing our risk? As we approach the 100th anniversary of the Spanish influenza pandemic, what have we learned?
Join us behind the scenes as we develop a forum that will be used in museums and libraries across the country and beyond. Learn about infectious diseases that affect millions of people all over the world and consider how we can apply lessons from diseases we've managed to eradicate. Discuss your ideas with other participants and help the Museum of Science improve this forum.
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Truth in an Era of Fake News: our 40th Anniversary Celebration!
Thursday, November 16
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Humanist Hub, 30 JFK Street, 4th Floor, Harvard Square, Cambridge
In an era of “fake news,” those of us who believe in science, evidence, truth and justice must come together defend our values. But in order to do so effectively, we must become closer as a community-- and that means celebrating our vulnerability and compassion.
On Thursday evening November 16, The Humanist Hub, a vibrant and inclusive community of atheists, agnostics and allies, will host a special event celebrating the 40th anniversary of our organization’s founding as the first humanist chaplaincy in North America.
This very special event will be “a Night of Truth, Justice and Vulnerability,” in honor of the three special themes of our current 40th anniversary program series. Our keynote speaker, on “Truth in an Era of Fake News,” will be Jill Abramson, the former Executive Editor of the New York Times. Ms. Abramson is the first and only woman ever to lead the New York Times, and is a current Harvard professor.
The event will also feature Skip the Small Talk, an organization creating one-of-a-kind events, grounded in psychology research, that help strangers really get to know each other. Finally, we will be honoring outstanding local social justice leaders for their unique contributions to humanism (details TBA).
Tickets for this event are $25, but Humanist Hub Sustaining and Growth members can reserve tickets for $5 each. Sustaining members can reserve up to two $5 tickets, and growth members can reserve up to 4 $5 tickets.
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How Foods Alter Your Genes & What You Can Do About It
Thursday, November 16
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-foods-alter-your-genes-what-you-can-do-about-it-tickets-3520910137
Join Kristine Jelstrup of Central Square Health and Wellness from 7 to 9 p.m., November 16, at Citywide Senior Center, in Cambridge, for a free workshop to learn which foods are the most toxic, how to do Muscle Response Testing and how to read and grow one’s energy field to figure out which foods are best for us and our families.
Commercially grown crops are an epic health failure. Environmental factors such as GMO crops and the toxins that are sprayed on them are adversely affecting our health and negatively altering our genes and the genes of future generations. Every human has an energy field that can be used to access health information about the body. The Morphogenic Field grows when the body is fed nutritious food and it shrinks when the body is fed toxic food. It is possible to figure out how food is affecting our health through Muscle Response Testing.
Kristine Jelstrup, CMFT, CBK, LMT has been a natural healthcare practitioner in Cambridge for more than 18 years, using various forms of Applied Kinesiology to find the root cause of health problems whether physical, chemical or emotional. Once identified, the blockages are released and organ systems are supported with nutrition to restore the body to good health. The three techniques she uses the most are Morphogenic Field Technique, Koren Specific Technique and Bio-Kinetics Health Systems.
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Religion without Religion? Innovation and Disruption in America’s Spiritual Spaces
Thursday, November 16
7:15pm
MIT, Building W11, Main Dining Room, 40 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join Angie Thurston, Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and co-author of howwegather.org, as she charts the rapidly changing culture of religious identity and practice among rising generations in America. She’ll illustrate how a new landscape of meaningful communities – from CrossFit to coworking spaces – is replicating traditionally religious functions.
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How to Hold a Dead Star in Your Hand
Thursday, November 16
7:30 pm
Harvard, Center for Astrophysics, Phillips Auditorium, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge
Kimberly Arcand, CfA, Visualization Lead for NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory; Tom Sgouros, Manager of the Brown University Virtual Reality Lab; Elaine Jiang, Undergraduate, Brown University Center for Computation and Visualization
Objects in space are rather far away. The Moon is our closest celestial neighbor at nearly a quarter million miles from Earth, and the nearest star, our Sun, is 93 million miles away. These extreme distances mean that it’s usually impossible to touch real objects in space (meteorites that fall to the ground notwithstanding). But now, thanks to data from some of our favorite observatories, anyone can hold a dead star in their hand. Here’s how. Arcand, of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, will talk about the process of creating the first data-based 3D model and print of an exploded star. At the end of Arcand's talk, she will be joined by Tom Sgouros, a researcher with and on virtual reality at the Brown University Center for Computation and Visualization and Elaine Jiang, an undergraduate student in computer science at Brown University. Arcand, Sgouros and Jiang have worked together to develop software, using Occulus Rift technology, allowing observers virtual first-hand experience of a supernova remnant like never before. After the talk, copies of Arcand's new book "Magnitude: The Scale of the Universe" will be available for purchase and signing.
More information at https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/publicevents
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Friday, November 17 - Sunday, November 19
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Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored
Fridday, November 17 - 5:00PM to Sunday, November 19 - 5:00PM
Harvard, Geo Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Cost: $20 - $200
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate and the Harvard Extension Student Environmental Club host this three-day conference addressing the Earth System and the universe of solutions that systems thinking makes possible.
With recent unprecedented wildfires, heat waves, super storms, droughts and floods, the climate is sending us messages that are impossible to ignore. It is increasingly clear: disasters like hurricanes Harvey and Irma are but dire warnings of what’s to come.
The scientific community now recognizes that even if we go to zero emissions tomorrow, the tragedies will continue to mount. If we think that our only option is emissions reductions, as essential as they are, we hit a wall with nowhere to go but resignation and despair. But when we add eco-restoration into the equation, a remarkable story emerges, one of renewal and hope.
Biodiversity for a Livable Climate is telling that story. When we began hosting conferences in 2014, the phrase “reverse global warming” was hardly spoken – it was presumed impossible in conventional climate science and activism. A fundamental cure, repair of Earth’s life-support systems, was off the table. Today, in collaboration with many wonderful people and organizations around the world, that story is rapidly changing. Eco-restoration is growing into a powerful global movement, a movement that needs us all.
In our previous nine conferences we helped usher in a new climate conversation, transforming gloom and doom into inspiration and action. Speakers from five continents have shown us how to bring dead landscapes back to life by restoring soil, native plant and animal species, and local water, carbon and nutrient cycles. Resulting living landscapes pull down excess carbon from the atmosphere, rehydrate the land, cool the biosphere, and produce nutritious food for humans and animals.
In this conference, Climate Reckoning: Paths to an Earth Restored, we’ll connect many dots linking biological systems, human endeavor and climate to expand this new and compelling story.
Contact Name: Paula Phipps
Editorial Comment: The conferences of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate have been the most positive contributions to practical actions on ameliorating or even reversing climate change that I've attended. They always include expert practitioners from around the world who go far beyond what I've heard at Harvard, MIT, and the other universities on these topics. Mostly, the universities don't even know that these topics exist. If you are interested in climate change, this conference is more than worth your interest and attendance. The video proceedings of all their previous conferences are available at http://bio4climate.org
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The Environmental Crisis - Our Spiritual Responsibility: Bernstein Scholars-in-Residence Program
Friday, November 17- Sunday, November19
Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Avenue, Boston
Every time Jews pray in community, we say Aleinu – it’s incumbent upon us to continue the work of creation. For centuries, human industry has disregarded the environment we are spiritually tasked to “till and tend.” Now, we find ourselves in a critical moment, when our practical activities need to align with our deepest values in order to protect and preserve the world we have inherited.
Join us November 17-19, 2017 as we learn about the crisis, consider important solutions, and wrestle with our responsibility. Qabbalat Shabbatfeaturing Peter Fox-Penner, the Director of Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy.
Beginning with an environmental Torah Study, we will spend Saturday together learning and connecting. Our program features two plenary sessions, first with author Mitchell Thomashow, and then, after lunch, with Reverend Mariama White Hammond of Bethel AME Church. We will carry our inspiration into two blocks of excellent workshops, and the day will conclude with Havdalah.
Sunday will explore these themes through art and have the opportunity for community and conversation.
More information at http://www.tisrael.org/burstein2017
Peter Fox Penner, Professor of Practice in the Questrom School of Management and the Director of Boston University's Institute for Sustainable Energy.
Author Mitchell Thomashow devotes his life and work to promoting ecological awareness, sustainable living, creative learning, and organizational excellence.
Reverend Mariama White Hammond serves on the ministerial staff at Bethel AME Church where she is the Minister for Ecological Justice and the Interim Youth Pastor.
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Friday, November 17
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Climate Adaptation Forum
Friday, November 17
8:00 am to 12:00 pm
University of Massachusetts Club, 32nd Floor, 1 Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $15 - $45
The Environmental Business Council of New England and the Sustainable Solutions Lab at the University of Massachusetts Boston are pleased to announce that The Honorable Sally Jewell, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and current Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics, will be will be opening the forum with a moderated discussion on "Adaptation through Collaboration" at the inaugural Climate Adaptation Forum on November 17, 2017.
Given that there is a growing understanding of the local impacts of climate change, as well as the impacts of climate change on extreme weather events like the current hurricane season in the United States and Caribbean, the need for innovative and strategic resiliency and adaptation planning and investments is greater than ever.
For this Inaugural Climate Adaptation Forum, the Honorable Sally Jewell, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, will participate in a conversation focused on adaptation and resilience. The Forum then continues with three speakers presenting their active adaptation programs and actions, ranging in region from Florida to New York City to Coastal Virginia.
These three speakers have specifically been selected to provide an opportunity for Boston-based climate practitioners to learn from experts in locations that have already been forced to face climate disruptions.
Finally, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Austin Blackmon, the City of Boston’s Chief of Energy, Environment, and Open Space.
More about The Honorable Sally Jewell:
As a business executive and public servant serving as U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Obama, Sally Jewell focused her career on supporting a robust economy coupled with long-term sustainability of our natural world and its diverse people.
During her tenure as Interior Secretary, Jewell was recognized for taking the long-view, using a science-based, landscape-level, collaborative approach to natural resources management. She and her capable team were deeply engaged in rebuilding a trusting, nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous communities in the U.S. They championed the importance of science and sharing data to better understand our Earth's systems; supported development of commercial-scale renewable energy on public lands and waters; encouraged investments for more sustainable use of water in the West; and worked with Congress, President Obama and his team on long-term conservation of our nation's most vulnerable and irreplaceable natural, cultural and historic treasures.
Throughout her career, Jewell has been committed to connecting people to nature, particularly youth. At Interior, she and her team championed efforts to create a continuum of engagement that encouraged tens of millions of young people to play, learn, serve and work on public lands.
Prior to serving on President Obama's cabinet, Jewell was President and CEO of REI, a $2.6 billion retailer dedicated to facilitating outdoor adventures. Prior to REI, she served 19 years in commercial banking across a wide-range of industries, and began her career as an engineer in the energy industry. She has been active in many non-profit organizations throughout her life, including serving as a Regent of the University of Washington where she is a Distinguished Fellow in the College of the Environment. She is also serving as a Resident Fellow in Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics for the fall semester of 2017.
Registration and fee details:
EBC Member: $35
EBC Membership is corporate – all staff from our member companies can register as an EBC Member. Not sure if you’re a member? Visit our online Member Directory.
Non-members: $45
Government/Nonprofit: $15
This rate is available for those employed by Government, Municipal, or Nonprofit organizations.
Students – please get in touch with Rebecca Herst, Director of the Sustainable Solutions Lab at UMass Boston, for registration information.
Fine Print: Cancellations must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 10 for a refund. No-shows will be charged. Please keep in mind that online registration for this program will close at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 16.
Contact Name: Environmental Business Council
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Is Trump Making Investigative Reporting Great Again?
Friday, November 17
10:00 AM – 2:30 PM EST
Northeastern University, Cabral Center, 40 Leon Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/is-trump-making-investigative-reporting-great-again-tickets-39259059905
Join Northeastern University's School of Journalism and ProPublica for a half-day of panels and discussion around investigative reporting in the Age of Trump. The conference will feature keynote presentations from Eric Umansky, Deputy Managing Editor of ProPublica, and Louise Kiernan, Editor in Chief of ProPublica Illinois.
Panels will feature tips, techniques and tales from reporters and editors from The Boston Globe, WGBH, WBUR, WCVB, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, STAT News, VTDigger, New Hampshire Public Radio and MuckRock.
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Biogeochemical Cycling and Environmental Lifetimes for Industrial Chemicals
Friday, November 17
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Elsie Sunderland, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Harvard, will discuss her research. Her ongoing research is elucidating the biogeochemical cycling of compounds with contrasting physical and chemical properties that can be used to obtain insights into the varying exposure pathways and environmental lifetimes for industrial chemicals.
Research in the Sunderland Lab focuses on how biogeochemical processes affect the fate, transport and food web bioaccumulation of trace metals and organic chemicals. Her group develops and applies models at a variety of scales ranging from ecosystems and ocean basins (e.g., the Gulf of Maine, the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans) to global applications to characterize how changes in climate and emissions affect human and ecological health, and the potential impacts of regulatory activities. Her group also makes key measurements of chemical concentrations and reaction rates in environmental samples (natural waters, sediments, and aquatic biota) and humans (hair, blood) to parameterize and evaluate environmental models.
Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
Contact Name: Brenda Mathieu
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Hack Your Mind: How Does Mindfulness Meditation Change the Mind and Brain?
Friday, November 17
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
Join us for the first program of the semester of our Hack Your Mind series with Dr. Susan Gabrieli. Gabrieli is a neuroscientist and Senior Research Scientist for the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. From Dr. Gabrieli:
"Mindfulness meditation describes a set of mental techniques to train attention and awareness. Enhancing mindfulness through meditation training is of great interest because it may promote both emotional and cognitive well-being. I will review evidence about how mindfulness meditation changes the structure and function of the adult human brain, how a school-based program changes the brains of children, and how understanding the brain basis of mindfulness can suggest treatments of brain disorders, such as schizophrenia."
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Digital Minds: Science fiction or near-future reality?
Friday, November 17
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Refreshments: 1:45 PM
MIT, Building 32-G882, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Arlindo Oliveira , Técnico Lisboa
Reminder Subject: TALK: Digital Minds: Science fiction or near-future reality?
Exponential growth is a pattern built deep into the scheme of life, but technological change now promises to outstrip even evolutionary change, a process that created life and intelligence on Earth. In particular, exponential growth has characterized computing technologies in the last century, and has fueled the rapid developments of ICT that have changed society so deeply. In this talk, I will discuss the possibility that advances in computing technology will enable us to create digital minds, either artificial or natural, and discuss briefly the social, legal, and ethical implications of such a possibility.
Short bio: Arlindo Oliveira obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in EECS from IST - Técnico Lisboa and his PhD, also in EECS, from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are centered in the areas of Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Computer Architecture, Algorithms and Complexity. He is the author of the book "The Digital Mind", published by MIT Press and of more than 100 articles. He became president of IST - Técnico Lisboa in 2012, after a career that included a number of positions in academy and industry.
Contact: Sally O. Lee, 3-6837, sally@csail.mit.edu
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Machine Learning and AI for the Sciences —Towards Understanding
Friday, November 17
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
MIT, Building 46-3002, Singleton Auditorium,
Speaker: Klaus-Robert Müller, Technische Universität Berlin
Abstract: In recent years, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods have begun to play a more and more enabling role in the sciences and in industry. In particular, the advent of large and/or complex data corpora has given rise to new technological challenges and possibilities. In his talk, Müller will touch upon the topic of ML applications in the sciences, in particular in neuroscience, medicine and physics. He will also discuss possibilities for extracting information from machine learning models to further our understanding by explaining nonlinear ML models. E.g. Machine Learning Models for Quantum Chemistry can, by applying interpretable ML, contribute to furthering chemical understanding. Finally, Müller will briefly outline perspectives and limitations.
Contact: Kathleen Sullivan, kdsulliv@csail.mit.edu
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The Boatman: Thoreau on the Water
Friday, November 17
7:00PM TO 8:30PM
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
The Arnold Arboretum welcomes Robert Thorson, PhD, Professor of Geology, University of Connecticut, and Columnist, Hartford Courant, who will give a talk on "The Boatman: Thoreau on the Water."
Henry David Thoreau was a boatman, more than he was a woodsman: a lifelong river rat whose sense of place emerged from boating, walking, and skating the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord Rivers. As a backyard naturalist and river enthusiast, Henry David Thoreau was keenly aware of the way humans had altered the waterways and meadows of his beloved Concord River Valley. And he recognized that he himself—a land surveyor by trade—was as complicit in these transformations as the bankers, lawyers, builders, landowners, and elected officials who were his clients. Robert Thorson shares a compelling story of Thoreau’s intellectual growth and scientific understanding of the changes made to the river he cherished more than Walden Pond.
Robert Thorson’s book, The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years, will be available for purchase and signing.
Fee Free, but registration required.
Offered in collaboration with JP Reads.
Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Contact Name: Pam Thompson
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Saturday, November 18
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TEDxBeaconStreet 2017 Nov 18th @ JFK Library
Saturday, November 18
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Columbia Point, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxbeaconstreet-2017-nov-18th-jfk-library-registration-37775779373
TEDxBeaconStreet is bigger than ever! Now in its sixth year, Ideas in Action will spread across two weekends and two spaces: its cherished founding venue at Lincoln School in Brookline and at the landmark JFK Presidential Library & Museum in Dorchester two weeks later.
In celebration of the centennial of John F. Kennedy’s birth, join us for a series of talks organized around the values that President Kennedy championed: courage, service, innovation, and inclusion. This is the first time a TEDx event has been held at the Library, and we have lots of special surprises in store.
SCHEDULE
Check out our full schedule with speakers at http://www.tedxbeaconstreet.com/2017-speakers-and-location-jfk/
SPEAKERS
Meet the speakers at http://www.tedxbeaconstreet.com/2017-speakers-and-location-jfk/
We have a GREAT line-up of speakers to help celebrate our sixth year! We’ll hear from a former white house communications director, 3 astronauts (1st Iranian woman in space, 1st African American in space), deputy prime minister of Irelnad, glass artist, a governor, kanun player, sex therapist, human rights leader, US Ambassador, Harvard and MIT researchers, entrepreneurs, musicians, surgeons, athletes, hackers, and many more!
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Green Campaign School: Make a Difference by Running for Office!
Saturday, November 18
10:15am - 2:30pm
Make Shift, 549 Columbus Avenue, Boston
Cost: $20 suggested donation ($5 if low income ) which includes a light vegetarian/vegan lunch. No one will be turned away who cannot afford this
donation.
What: Across America Green candidates are changing the political climate by running for elected office with a call for real democracy, an end to social injustice, peace instead of militarism, and real solutions to the threat of climate change. This one-day campaign school focuses upon the skills and strategies that allow successful campaigns to be run in Massachusetts by candidates of the Green-Rainbow Party.
Who should attend: Anyone who is thinking about running for office as a Green (Green-Rainbow) candidate or who wants to acquire the skills to help their favorite candidate succeed.
Topics: Topics we expect to address include picking your race, raising the money you will need, recruiting volunteers, refining your message, using social media such as Twitter and Facebook, campaign websites, campaign literature, and Get-Out-the-Vote initiatives. We will have a panel of recent Green-Rainbow candidates who will share the lessons they learned in their races.
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The Japan-US Science Forum in Boston
Saturday, November 18
1:00 PM – 6:30 PM EST
Harvard Northwest Science Building, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Consulate General of Japan co-host the annual forum series with topics which are challenges to the mankind and have a global implication or value to consider.
This year’s topic is “Food Science for the future: Health, Supply, and Culture”.
The theme has many aspects in the food area and we would like to take a holistic approach to the issue, considering issues like food science, the social science of food, food safety, food security, the stable food supply, etc. For this purpose, we would like to invite speakers from scientific and sociological background, as well as possibly from the food industry and others.
MC: Kenneth Oye, Professor, MIT Political Science
Opening: 1:00 - 1:20pm
Remarks from JSPS Director and Consul General of Japan in Boston
Mark Elliott, Vice Provost of Internatioal Affairs, Harvard University
Takao Hensch, Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
Sustainable Food Supply: 1:20 - 2:05pm
Policy Recommendations for Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture
Kazuhito Yamashita, Research Director, Canon Institute for Global Studies
2:05 - 2:35pm
Plant Diversity and Physiology for Efficient and Sustainable Agricultural Production: USA, Japan, and Global Perspectives
Anowar Islam, Associate Professor of Forage Agroecology, University of Wyoming
2:35 - 3:05pm
Break and Poster Session 1
Food Safety, Healthy Life and Food Culture:
3:05 - 3:35pm
Chemical Safety in Today’s Global Market
Motoko Mukai, Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science, Cornell University
3:35 - 4:20pm
Food Science for Healthcare and Public Health
Laurent Adamowicz, Founder and President, EChO (Eradicate Childhood Obesity Foundation)
4:20 - 5:05pm
Washoku: Traditional Japanese Cuisine and Culinary Heritage from the perspective of a healthy diet
Theodore C. Bestor, Director, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Panel discussion: Policy Challenge in Food:
5:05 - 5:50pm
Lauren Abda, Founder, Branchfood
Hauke Kite-Powell, Research Specialist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Preston Estep III, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Veritas Genetics
Hiroshi Ishii, Associate Director, MIT Media Lab
Paul Berkman, Professor of Science Diplomacy, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Kenneth Oye, Professor, MIT Political Science
Rokuichiro Michii, Consul General, Consulate-General of Japan in Boston
5:50 - 6:20pm
Break and Poster Session 2
6:20 - 6:30pm
Award Ceremony
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Free Two-Hour Women's Self-Defense Training
Saturday, November 18
1:30-3:30pm
The NonProfit Center, 89 South Street, Boston
REGISTER HERE: www.fodada.com/2017-international-womens-self-defense-day
(select Boston, MA from drop-down)
This training is part of fodada's 6th Annual International Women's Self Defense Day and will be conducted by Impact Boston, which provides self-defense programs to give people the skills to stay calm and focused in unsafe situations. We are asking all dads, all men, to help us spread the word to the women in
their lives.
The training is free and open to women and girls over the age of 14. Transgender women and queer women are encouraged to attend.
Help spread the word by inviting your friends to the Facebook event:
Editorial Comment: I have seen this kind of training as I made sure my god-daughter and her mother went through it some years ago. These two hours may save the lives of women and girls. If you are thinking of attending, I urge you to go.
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Human Enhancement: Biological Frameworks and Cyborg Theologies
Saturday, November 18
2pm
Fairmont Copley Place-State Suite A (Lower Lobby Level)
Harris Wiseman and Scott Midson
More information at https://papers.aarweb.org/program_book?keys=m18-306&field_session_slot_nid=All
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Sunday November 19
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An American Housewife in Syria
Sunday November 19
2:00-4:00pm
Boston College, Fulton Hall-Room 511, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill
Janice Kortamp became an independent and completely self funded journalist after noticing the western media bias regarding Syria, and how that bias was promoting war and destabilization in Syria and the levant region.
She visited Syria four times over the past year and half, spending three months traveling around highly populated areas, on the outskirts of Damascus, Homs, Latakia, Kassb, Tartous, Arwad, Aleppo and recently Deir al Zour. Kortump also traveled to meet Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Kuwait, and Germany. Additionally she tracks the situation in Syria on a daily basis.
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EcoSessions: RiverBlue, The Movie (Boston)
Sunday, November 19,
4:00 - 7:00 pm (EST)
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Design and Media Center, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Cost: $0 – $12
MassArt Fashion Department + EcoSessions in partnership with Harvard Extension Student Environmental Club, present
the Global Theatrical Release of RIVERBLUE.
It takes over 2500 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans, and 2250 to make a pair of shoes*. RiverBlue follows river advocate Mark Angelo on a journey through some of the world's most beautiful (polluted) rivers. Narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley, this groundbreaking documentary examines the destruction of our rivers, its effect on humanity, and the solutions that inspire hope for a sustainable future. Visit http://riverbluethemovie.eco to watch the film trailer. A panel discussion will follow the film.
TIMELINE:
Doors Open: 4:00 p.m.
Film: 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
Panel: 5:45 – 6:15 p.m. A post movie conversation with Jennifer Varekamp (Professor, Sustainable Fashion, MassArt), Kate Black (author, Magnifeco: Your Head to Toe Guide to Ethical Fashion) and more.
Networking: 6:15 – 7:00 p.m.
Runtime: 95 Minutes
FAQs
All seating is first come first serve.
You must have a valid ID to be offered and admitted under student pricing
All ages event
No Refunds
* water stats via The Atlantic
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ReRooted: Reconnecting with Nature —Practical Ecological Ethics in the Anthropocene
Sunday, November 19
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Cafe, Somerville
How we view ourselves in Nature and how we relate to our environment defines our overall ecological impact. Come explore with us main environmental worldviews and ethics, and help develop a human ecological narrative that is aware and inclusive, so that we become thriving actors of changes.
About the Facilitator
Claire O’Neill is the president and co-founder of Earthwise Aware Inc., a nature conservation nonprofit that reaches out internationally. She’s traveled to more than 30 countries –often in most remote wilderness areas– and witnessed directly the human relationship to nature and its impact. Her work is dedicated to Practical Ecological Literacy & Ethics and how to bring those ethics to the public and organizations that have nature or wildlife as part of their curriculum.
Note: This event is a donation-based event, and the suggested donation is $10 per person. Please provide us with an email and phone number.
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Monday, November 20
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Governor's Convening for Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning
Monday, November 20
8:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST
MIT, SAMBERG CONFERENCE CENTER, CHANG BUILDING (E52), 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE, Cambridge
The Baker-Polito administration is committed to strengthening our workforce, growing our nation-leading economy, and equipping our residents with the skills they need to connect with career pathways and make the unemployed and underemployed more competitive. The Governor will deliver a keynote to celebrate innovation, foster conversation and energy around key initiatives, and accelerate the pace of progress in delivering access to high quality post secondary education.
In addition to keynotes from Governor Baker and Ted Mitchell, President of the American Council on Education, The Governor’s Convening on Digital Innovation for Lifelong Learning will focus on a number of key announcements being made that will:
accelerate the availability and use of innovative learning models
provide inspiration, and serve as a catalyst to scale
bring together industry leaders, educators, foundations and community-based organizations who can in turn forge new partnerships and create future initiatives
allow more adults to raise their skills, earn their credentials and accelerate their and their employers’ success
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An Internet for the Masses, by the Masses
Monday, November 20
11:30am to 1:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Arjuna Sathiaseelan, University of Cambridge
The Internet has crossed new frontiers with new services being offered every day. As a result, today’s Internet represents a critical infrastructure enabling remote health care, education, employment, e-governance, digital economy, social networks, and more. As such, Internet access should be universal in terms of availability and ability to contribute to the wider society, thereby enabling true digital inclusion to all. Although this vision is shared among both major stakeholders, the reality of today’s Internet and its level of digital inclusion is confronted by a growing digital divide - increasing geographic and socioeconomic challenges separate between those with sufficient access to the Internet and those who cannot afford access to its services. In this talk I will take the catchphrase, "United we stand, divided we fall" and apply it in the context of addressing one of the greatest access challenge of the 21st century. Through the talk, I will also use the opportunity to discuss some current state of the art Internet technologies that can be utilised to achieve my vision of connecting the next three billion.
Speaker Bio: Dr Arjuna Sathiaseelan is a Senior Research Associate at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He leads the Networking for Development (N4D Lab). The research group conducts research on novel Internet architectures for improving and reducing the cost of Internet access. He is the Chair of IRTF Global Access to the Internet for All (GAIA) research group and a member of the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). He is part of the Ammbr Foundation which aims to build the world's largest decentralised telecommunications network using blockchain. He was in the Access Advisory Panel of the United Nations Foundation's $75 million Digital Impact Alliance (funded by the Melinda and Gates Foundation, USAID and SIDA). He is also in the advisory board of Ubuntu Power - an social enterprise focussed on providing affordable off grid energy and Internet to underserved communities and Ensemble- an social business incubator in Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also in the advisory board of the EU NETCOMMOMS project. He is a member of the Center for Science and Policy (CSaP). Arjuna Sathiaseelan has a PhD in Networking from Kings College London (2005), MSc in Computing and Internet Systems from Kings College London (2001) and Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering from NIT, Trichy, India (2000).
Center for Research on Computation and Society
Contact: Gabriella Fee
Email: gfee@g.harvard.edu
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PAOC Colloquium: The Effects of Seasonal Biomass Burning in Sub-Saharan Africa
Monday, November 20
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Charles Ichoku (NASA Goddard)
About the Speaker
Research interests: Given that seasonal biomass burning is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, can the effects of this burning on the environment be measured regionally and globally? This is one of the questions NASA scientist Dr. Charles Ichoku seeks to answer in his research examining the effects of wildfires, agricultural burning, and the emissions associated with these activities. Through a variety of measurement and modeling approaches coordinated under an interdisciplinary framework, Dr. Ichoku is helping scientists, researchers, and natural resource managers gain a better understanding of environmental change and climate variability in Northern Sub-Saharan Africa (NSSA) caused by seasonal fires and how these changes may impact the water cycle and other processes not just in this diverse region, but around the world.
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars generally take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged.
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Regional Approaches to Carbon Emissions
Monday, November 20
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Consortium for Energy Policy Research presents Stu Bresler, Executive Vice President, Operations and Markets, PJM Interconnection. Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Sonic Lawfare: The Jurisprudence of Weaponized Sound
Monday, November 20
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with James Parker (Melbourne Law School).
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issuesin science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
Sandwich lunch is provided. RSVP required.
STS Circle at Harvard
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: sts@hks.harvard.edu
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The Relationship Between Clean Energy/Climate Policy and Expanding Corporate Markets
Monday, November 20
12:30PM TO 1:45PM
Tufts, Cabot 702, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
CIERP Research Seminar with Kevin Knobloch
Kevin Knobloch, who has more than 37 years of experience in public policy, government, advocacy and media, and who serves as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Energy
Knobloch’s research seeks to provide a timely and nuanced understanding of the perspectives of key leaders in the corporate and private equity sectors about the relationship between public policies, programs and finance vehicles and economic growth and expanding markets -- at this moment in time when costs for low-carbon technology are declining and deployment is increasing, but the current federal administration is pushing a dramatic reversal in energy and climate policy.
As Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Energy and senior aide to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Kevin Knobloch worked domestically to implement DOE's portion of President Obama's Climate Action Plan, and internationally on the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation. As President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, he was a dynamic leader who bolstered UCS’s scale and influence. Kevin Knobloch joined the CIERP team as Senior Research Associate in 2017 and currently directs the Corporate Approaches to Climate and Clean Energy research project.
Hosted by the Tufts Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP).
Contact Name: Jillian DeMair
More information at http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Calendar/2017/11/20/CIERP-Research-Seminar-The-Relationship-Between-Clean-EnergyClimate-Policy-and-Expanding-Corporate-Markets.aspx
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The Cooperative City: Urban Infrastructure Development and South-South Cooperation
Monday, November 20
12:30pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The SPURS/Humphrey program is delighted to invite you to our fall seminar series: North American Planning Experience: Is It Relevant for the Developing World?
Our goal is to explore to what extent, and under what conditions, planning ideas generated from practice in the U.S. can travel to cities in the developing world and be implemented effectively. We’ll also consider whether planning ideas, practices and programs are traveling from the rest of the world back to the United States.
The seventh seminar is Monday, Nov 20, in the City Arena, 12:30 - 2 PM: The Cooperative City: Urban Infrastructure Development and South-South Cooperation, with Gabriella Carolini and Paul Smoke, respondent.
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LECTURE: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Monday, November 20
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, 6th Floor Multipurpose Room, Cambridge
The Environmental Solutions Initiative People & the Planet Lecture Series presents individuals and organizations working to advance understanding and action toward a humane and sustainable future.
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Panel on the Implications of the French and German Elections for the Future of the European Union
WHEN Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, 4:15 – 6:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Lower Level Conference Room, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Center for European Studies
SPEAKER(S) Adrien Abecassis, Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; Hans-Helmut Kotz
Visiting Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Niels Planel, International Consultant, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Chair: Arthur Goldhammer, Chair, Visiting Scholars Seminar: New Research on Europe, CES, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Arthur Goldhammer
DETAILS
The panel will consider the consequences of recent changes in the French and German governments for the future of the European Union. What institutional reforms are likely, and what resistance to reform efforts is likely to arise?
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Fanning the Flames: New links between inflammation and heart disease
Monday, November 20
6:30p.
The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville
Peter Libby
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/science-by-the-pint/
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Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All
Monday, November 20
6:30 PM
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes writer, performer, and activist JACLYN FRIEDMAN for a discussion of her latest book, Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All.
About Unscrewed
What bestselling authors like Sheryl Sandberg and Brigid Schulte have done for women's work lives, Jaclyn Friedman does here for women's sexuality: spark a culture-wide rethink about what's accepted as normal, urging us all to try for something better. Not only that: she does it with warmth, irreverence, and candor reminiscent of Roxane Gay in Bad Feminist, and the fiery conviction of her own co-edited anthology Yes Means Yes!.
In Unscrewed, Friedman reveals that the anxiety and fear women in our country feel around issues of their sexuality are not, in fact, their fault, but instead are side effects of our toxic culture. Dubbed the "era of fauxpowerment," that culture gives women the illusion of sexual power, with no actual power to support it. Exploring where media, religion, politics, and education overlap with feminist issues, Unscrewed breaks down the causes and signs of fauxpowerment, then gives readers tools to take it on themselves.
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A conversation with Zhubin Parang, Head Writer at The Daily Show
Monday, November 20
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, 210 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
On Monday, November 20th, the Institute will welcome Zhubin Parang, Head Writer at Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, to discuss how the show is adapting and responding to the unprecedented political and media climate that the 2016 presidential election ignited. Parang will discuss the editorial decisions The Daily Show team faces daily in creating content for their show, and explore the role that journalists and comedians play in sustaining a healthy political dialogue. Join us for a lively program on the unique role late-night shows and satire play in balancing comedy and reporting the news to generate a conversation on issues of national significance.
Zhubin Parang, Head Writer, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
@zhubinparang
Zhubin has been with The Daily Show for six years now and has a very interesting professional background. Parang was born in Knoxville, Tennessee to Iranian parents. He attended Vanderbilt University where he was member of the Tongue 'N' Cheek improv group. After graduating in 2003 with a degree in political science and sociology, Parang went on to earn his law degree from Georgetown Law in 2006. After law school he moved to NYC to work in the litigation department at a “Big Law” New York firm. He continued to do improv at UCB while practicing corporate law for four years, before quitting to pursue his career in comedy, leading him to his current role at TDS.
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Tuesday, November 21
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Badges of Oppression, Positions of Strength: Digital Black Feminist Discourse and the Legacy of Black Women’s Technology Use
Tuesday, November 21
12:00 pm
Harvard Law School, Griswold Hall, Classroom 110, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/11/KnightSteele#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/luncheon/11/KnightSteele
featuring Catherine Knight Steele, University of Maryland
Black women have historically occupied a unique position, existing in multiple worlds, manipulating multiple technologies, and maximizing their resources for survival in a system created to keep them from thriving. I present a case for the unique development of black women’s relationship with technology by analyzing historical texts that explore the creation of black womanhood in contrast to white womanhood and black manhood in early colonial and antebellum periods in the U.S. This study of Black feminist discourse online situates current practices in the context of historical use and mastery of communicative technology by the black community broadly and black women more specifically. By tracing the history of black feminist thinkers in relationship to technology we move from a deficiency model of black women’s use of technology to recognizing their digital skills and internet use as part of a long developed expertise.
About Catherine
Catherine Knight Steele is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland - College Park and the Director of the Andrew W. Mellon funded African American Digital Humanities Initiative (AADHum). As the director of the AADHum, Dr. Steele works to foster a new generation of scholars and scholarship at the intersection of African American Studies and Digital Humanities and Digital Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on race, gender, and media with a specific focus on African American culture and discourse in traditional and new media. She examines representations of marginalized communities in the media and how traditionally marginalized populations resist oppression and utilize online technology to create spaces of community. Dr. Steele has published in new media journals such as Social Media & Society and Television & New Media; and the edited volumes Intersectional Internet (Ed. S. Noble & B. Tynes) and the upcoming edited collection A Networked Self: Birth, Life, Death (Ed. Z. Papacharissi). She is currently working on a book manuscript about Digital Black Feminism.
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The Sharing Economy for the Smart Grid
Tuesday, November 21
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kameshwar Poolla, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
The sharing economy. It is all the rage. Going on vacation? Rent out your home for extra income! Have space in your car? Pick up passengers for extra income! Companies such as AirBnB, VRBO, Lyft, and Uber have disrupted housing and transportation sectors. Their innovative business models are based on resource sharing that leverage underutilized infrastructure. They are enabled by peer-to-peer platforms that match eager sellers with willing buyers. Are there compelling sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector? What products can be shared in tomorrow's Smart Grid?
In this talk, we begin by exploring sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector. We discuss regulatory and technical challenges to these opportunities. We then study the specific problem of a collection of firms sharing their electricity storage. We show that the investment decisions of the firms form a Nash equilibrium which supports the social welfare. We offer explicit expression for optimal storage investments and equilibrium prices for shared storage in a spot market. We discuss control technology platforms necessary for the physical exchange of power, and market platforms necessary
to trade electricity storage.
We then explore the promise of trading excess PV generation in a sharing economy. We argue that this approach encourages investment in renewables, without imposing unsustainable tariff structures such as net-metering. We suggest that a location-based solar subsidy policy can maximize the social welfare of PV producers.
Biography
Kameshwar Poolla is the Cadence Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley in EECS and ME. His current research interests include many aspects of future energy systems including economics, security, and commercialization.He was the Founding Director of the IMPACT Center for Integrated Circuit manufacturing. Dr. Poolla co-founded OnWafer Technologies which was acquired by KLA-Tencor in 2007. Dr. Poolla has been awarded a 1988 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the 1993 Hugo Schuck Best Paper Prize, the 1994 Donald P. Eckman Award, the 1998 Distinguished Teaching Award of the University of California, the 2005 and 2007 IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Best Paper Prizes, and the 2009 IEEE CSS Transition to Practice Award.
LIDS Seminar Series
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November Security of Things MeetUp with Bruce Schneier of IBM
Tuesday, November 21
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Akamai, 150 Broadway, Cambridge
Noted security expert Bruce Schneier of IBM and Harvard University will join us for part of the November MeetUp.
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Cambridge Forum: Who Can You Trust?
Tuesday, November 21
7:00pm.
Fridst Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
If you can’t trust those in charge, who can you trust?
From government to business, banks to media, trust in institutions is at an all-time low. But this isn’t the age of distrust – far from it.
Join our conversation with author Rachel Botsman.
Rachel Botsman writes about and researches how technology is transforming trust and what this means for life, work and business.
Free & open to the all.
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WGBH and NECIR Present a Conversation on Wrongful Imprisonment
Tuesday, November 21
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
WGBH, 1 Guest Street, Boston
Cost: $11.54
Join WGBH and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) for a discussion on wrongful imprisonment. What does society owe the wrongfully imprisoned? How many other innocent people are serving time?
Hear from Victor Rosario of Lowell who was convicted for an arson that killed eight people in 1982. Rosario’s advocates questioned the evidence and, after investigative reporters shed light on his case, prosecutors abandoned efforts last month to keep him in prison— but not until he spent three decades there.
Join WGBH and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting for a discussion with Rosario, the attorney who championed his case, and journalists who covered his and similar cases. This in-depth panel discussion features experts representing diverse viewpoints. Light reception to follow.
Victor Rosario, Innocent man who served 32 years in prison
Lisa Kavanaugh, Director of the Innocence Program at the Committee for Public Counsel Services
Dick Lehr, Journalism professor at Boston University
Jenifer McKim, moderator, Senior reporter at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting
Welcome by Kate Zachry, News director at WGBH News
WGBH and the nonprofit New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) at Boston University partner to investigate stories that expose injustice and hold the powerful accountable. Working from WGBH's newsroom, NECIR reporters produce stories for radio, television, print and online that garner awards and spur changes in the law, policy and behavior.
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Upcoming Events
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Friday, November 24
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20th Annual Friday After Thanksgiving (F.A.T.) Chain Reaction
Friday, November 24
1-5 p.m.
MIT's Rockwell Cage Gymnasium, 120 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Celebrating its 20th year!
Attend as a spectator or build your own Rube Goldberg-esque link and be part of a giant chain reaction at our annual F.A.T. Chain Reaction Event! Popular hosts Arthur Ganson and Jeff Lieberman will be on hand as teams put together their own contraptions, they’re linked together, and a ball is set in motion moving from start to finish in a giant loop.
Bring your families, bring your friends. This a one-of-a-kind, must-be-seen-to-be-believed engineering feat you won’t want to miss. And this year's event promises to be 2X the fun.
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Sunday, November 26
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Alfie Kohn: Thanks for Nothing! A Secularist's Reflections on Gratitude
Sunday, November 26
1:30 PM
Humanist Hub. 30 JFK Street, 4th Floor, Harvard Square, Cambridge
The tradition of giving thanks at this time of year is inextricably rooted in a religious worldview, which is why 200 New York City atheists once gathered in late November for "the First Annual Blamesgiving Service." Of course there will be times when we're grateful for things specific people have done for us. But Alfie Kohn invites us to ask whether we should also adopt a modified count-your-blessings posture in general -- even though there's no supernatural power to thank -- or question the whole idea of gratitude.
Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. His 14 books include The Brighter Side of Human Nature, Punished by Rewards, and Unconditional Parenting. He lives (actually) in Belmont and (virtually) at http://www.alfiekohn.org.
We are a small venue with very limited seating: seats are first-come, first-served. We recommend arriving early. An RSVP on Meetup does not guarantee a seat.
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Celebrating our Millie: The Legacy and Impact of Mildred Dresselhaus
Sunday, November 26
1:30pm to 7:30pm
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Symposium 1:30-5:00pm, Huntington Hall (Room 10-250)
Posters and Reception 5:00-7:30pm, Building 13 Lobby
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Monday, November 27
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PAOC Colloquium: Zhiming Kuang (Harvard)
Monday, November 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
The main goal of my current research is to better understand and simulate how tropical convection interacts with the large-scale flow. This interaction is key to the tropical circulation, particularly the rainfall distribution and its variability. These issues are important to society. Variations in the Asian monsoon rain, for example, can bring droughts or floods and affect the lives of billions of people. Despite its well appreciated importance, our understanding of how tropical convection interacts with the large-scale flow remains poor, so does our ability to simulate this interaction. In our research, we use novel high resolution numerical model experiments, together with observational data analysis, to guide development of theoretical models. Besides the meteorological implications of tropical convection, we are also interested in its role in global chemistry.
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars generally take place on Monday from 12-1pm. Lunch is provided to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged.
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Let the niche be functional: a process-based approach of the niche to forecast the fate of species in future climate
Monday, November 27
12:10pm
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, Jamaica Plain
Isabelle Chuine, CNRS Research Director at the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle & Evolutive, France, Harvard Forest Bullard Fellow
More information at https://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/research/research-talks/
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Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age
Monday, November 27
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes mathematician, engineer, cybersecurity policy expert, and Tufts professor SUSAN LANDAU for a discussion of her latest book, Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age.
About Listening In
New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election.
And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age.
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Amanda Palmer: This Is Your Life - Christopher Lydon
Monday, November 27
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
First Parish of Cambridge, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Square, Boston
Cost: $35
An evening of conversation and music with journalist and Open Source radio host Christopher Lydon and musician and artist Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls. This event will also be recorded for future release as a podcast.
Monday, November 27, 2017 at First Parish Church in Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Doors open 6.30pm. Interview starts 7.00pm.
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Tuesday, November 28
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Waste Alliance Lecture: Magnomer - Attractive Recycling
Tuesday, November 28
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Poorly designed packaging is the root-cause of low plastics recycling and environmental pollution. Magnomer uses cradle-to-cradle principles to redesign plastic packaging for better recyclability. Magnomer redesigns plastic packaging by adding visual functional magnetizable elements which complement brand designs and enable capture and recovery from waste streams. Come hear more about Magnomer from founder Ravish Majithia. Lunch will be provided!
Contact wastealliance@mit.edu with questions.
This event is brought to you by the MIT Waste Alliance, with sponsorship from the GSC Funding Board.
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Displaced by Disaster: Climate, History, and Planning
Tuesday, November 28
12:15pm to 2:00pm
MIT, Building 9-255, City Arena, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Please join DRAN for a two-part panel with insights from climate scientists, urban planners, and international development practitioners, exploring their views and experiences in the current and coming crisis of climate-induced displacement.
Part I will go through understanding the political, economic and historical contexts informing the impact by disasters on marginalized communities.
Part II will address how recovery and rebuilding approaches to affirm human rights and/or decrease the likelihood of future displacement.
Lunch will be served at 12:15.
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The UV Environment for Prebiotic Chemistry: Connecting Origin-of-Life Scenarios to Planetary Environments
Tuesday, November 28
12:30pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building 54-517, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
PICS Seminar: Sukrit Ranjan (MIT)
Recent laboratory studies of prebiotic chemistry (chemistry relevant to the origin of life) are revolutionizing our understanding of the origin of life (abiogenesis) on Earth just as telescopes capable of searching for life elsewhere are coming online. My work sits at the intersection of these revolutions. I examine prebiotic chemical pathways postulated to be relevant to the origin of life and identify the environmental conditions they require to function. I compare these environmental requirements to what was available on Earth and other planets, and use the comparison to improve studies of the origin of life on Earth, and explore the implications for the inhabitability of other worlds. My work 1) provides initial conditions for laboratory studies of prebiotic chemistry, 2) constrains the inhabitability of Mars and planets orbiting M-dwarfs, and 3) demonstrates the need for laboratory studies to characterize the sensitivity of putative prebiotic chemistry to environmental conditions, e.g the spectral shape and amplitude of UV irradiation.
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The Time of Mute Swans: Remembering as a Cure for Global Political Plague
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar
SPEAKER(S) Ece Temelkuran, Turkish political commentator, journalist, and author
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Ece Temelkuran is a Turkish journalist and author. She was a columnist for 'Milliyet' (2000–2009) and 'Habertürk' (2009 – January 2012), and a presenter on Habertürk TV (2010–2011). She was twice named Turkey's "most read political columnist". Her columns have also been published in international media such as 'The Guardian' and 'Le Monde Diplomatique'. A graduate of Ankara University's Faculty of Law, she has published 12 books, including two published in English ('Deep Mountain, Across the Turkish-Armenian Divide', Verso 2010, and 'Book of the Edge', BOA Editions 2010). 'Deep Mountain' was written in 2008 when she was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Her first novel, 'Muz Sesleri' (Banana Sounds), was published in 2010 and has been translated into Arabic and Polish; and her bibliography includes 'Ne Anlatayım Ben Sana!' (What am I Going to Tell You!, Everest, 2006), on hunger strikes by Turkish political prisoners. She was awarded the Human Rights Association of "Turkey's Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought Award" in 2008. Her more recent publications include: 'Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy' (2016), and 'Women Who Blow On Knots' (May, 2017).
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.
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Energy Storage: Navigating the Market and White Spaces
Tuesday, November 28
5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Wolf Greenfield, 600 Atlantic Avenue, 23rd Floor, Boston
Cost: $10 for Members; $30 Non-members: $10 for students
So you want to be in energy storage…..
A recent McKinsey article posits that energy storage is the next disruptive technology in the power sector. Energy storage—utility scale, behind the meter, co-located with offshore wind, embedded in equipment—has great potential to accelerate the transition to clean sources of energy. BUT, there are hurdles—chemistry and technology limitations, longer time-to-profitability than other tech investments and few market mechanisms to compensate companies trying to get to an acceptable ROI.
With the market clearly dominated by lithium ion batteries, Venture Capitalists have largely moved away from backing battery companies. However, the good news is that foundations, private equity, state funding and utility venture funds are filling the gap.
The other good news is that there is white space to be filled in this market. Technologies such as long duration storage, software and controls to coordinate renewables plus storage. Some startups are seeing success in these white spaces as evidenced by recent acquisitions.
During this program, two startups will describe their path from concept to commercialization and then they'll join the panel to explore how startups can navigate the current conditions in this very specialized market.
Specifically, we'll discuss:
What do storage customers want?
Where is there white space for entrepreneurs?
Who is providing financial backing?
What can we do to make non-Lithium ion technologies more practical and economically feasible?
How can new business models and market mechanisms, along with regulators make this a better environment?
What are possible exit strategies for start-ups?
Moderator
Ravi Manghani, Director, Director, Energy Storage, GTM
Speakers
Greg Cipriano, VP of Business Development and Co-founder, WattJoule
Daniel Hullah, Managing Director, GE Ventures
Kelly Warner, President, AMS
Dr. Kavita Ravi, Director of Emerging Markets, MassCEC
Agenda
5:30-6:00: Networking and Registration
6:00-7:30: Panel and Q&A
7:30-8:30: Networking with refreshments
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U.S. PIRG Panel Discussion- Antibiotic Resistance: What Can We Do?
Tuesday, November 28
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This panel is bringing together a top restaurant chain company (Panera), doctors, journalists, researchers, and non-profits to talk about the health impacts of antibiotic resistance. It will be covering how we misuse antibiotics in our food system and medical system and will discuss best practices for phasing routine antibiotic use out of major meat supply chains.
Food provided by Panera Bread and beer and wine will be available for purchase.
Co-Sponsors: Harvard Food Law Society, Branchfood, Let's Talk About Food
Panelists:
Mindy Gomes-Casseres: Panera Bread’s Senior Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Michael Gilmore (Ph.D.): Director of the Harvard Infectious Disease Institute and Founder of Boston Boston Area Antibiotic Resistance Network
Nicole Negowetti- Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic; Previously Policy Director at Good Food Institute
Afrah Sait Mohammed: MD, FRCPC, ABIM Board Certified in Internal Medicine; Infectious Disease Fellow at Tufts Medical Center
Maryn Mckenna: Journalist and author who specializes in public health, global health, and food policy; Author of Big Chicken, Superbugs, and Beating Back the Devil
Matt Wellington: Antibiotics Program Director at U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Schedule:
5:30 pm: Doors open
6-7:15 pm: Panel discussion with time for audience questions
7:15-8:30 pm: Networking
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authors@MIT: Brian Dear, The Friendly Orange Glow
Tuesday, November 28
6:00pm
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore. 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Brian Dear discussing his book, The Friendly Orange Glow, on Tuesday, November 28 at 6:00 pm at the Bookstore. This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.
At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers—some of them only high school students—in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Together, the PLATO community pioneered what we now collectively engage in as cyberculture. They were among the first to identify and also realize the potential and scope of the social interconnectivity of computers, well before the creation of the internet. PLATO was the foundational model for every online community that was to follow in its footsteps.
In The Friendly Orange Glow, Brian Dear at last reveals new perspectives on the origins of social computing and our internet-infatuated world.
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The Juno Mission to Jupiter: Unraveling the Secrets of a Giant Planet
Tuesday, November 28
6:00pm to 7:30pm
Jeremy Bloxham, Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences; Dean of Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Jupiter, the largest planet orbiting the sun, remains a profound mystery. In 2011, NASA launched the Juno mission spacecraft to explore the composition, inner structure, origin, and evolution of this giant planet. In July 2016, Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit. Jeremy Bloxham, co-investigator on the Juno mission, will draw on his role in studying Jupiter’s magnetic field and discuss why learning about Jupiter is so relevant to understanding the early history of our solar system and the conditions in which Earth was born.
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Criminalizing Poverty in America
Tuesday, November 28
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston
Peter Edelman, Georgetown law professor and former advisor to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, discusses key challenges raised in his new book, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America, with Lisa Mullins, host of WBUR’s All Things Considered.
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Boston Green Drinks - November Happy Hour
Tuesday, November 28
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EST)
The Ginger Man, 148 State Street, Boston
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community!
New Location! Take note that this is being held at a different location (The Ginger Man) than we normally hold Green Drinks! We will be in the back room - walk past the bar and you'll be there.
No October Green Drinks! Due to the timing of Halloween, we will NOT be holding a Green Drinks in October. But we'll be back to quench your thirst for sustainble conversation in November!
Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
Please note that our website is still experiencing difficulties. We are working on it, and apologize for the inconvenience!
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Odd Couple: UV Radiation and the Origin of Life
Tuesday, November 28
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Sukrit Ranjan, Ph.D., SCOL Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For life, ultraviolet radiation is a paradox. On the one hand, it is a component of the light that makes photosynthesis possible, and it stimulates health-related processes such as vitamin D and melanin. On the other hand, UV radiation is associated with health threats, such as skin cancer and some forms of blindness.
Is UV radiation involved in the emergence of life? Dr. Ranjan investigates the possible connection between UV and the emergence of life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. He and other astrobiologists expect that the emergence of life on any planet depends on a number of factors, including an optimal distance from its star, the relative heat of the star, and the necessary chemical ingredients for the formation of RNA, the basis of life. Dr. Ranjan focuses on UV radiation and whether red dwarf stars (M-stars) generate sufficient UV to trigger life. He is investigating several groups of interesting rocky planets associated with M-dwarfs. In this discussion, Dr. Ranjan explains why red dwarfs are of particular interest and what level of UV might be necessary to trigger the formation of life on a planet.
Background article about Dr. Ranjan: Ultraviolet Light Could Point the Way To Life Throughout the Universe: https://www.universetoday.com/137023/ultraviolet-light-point-way-life-throughout-universe/
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"Plastic China" screening with Director Q&A
Tuesday, November 28
6:30–8:45 pm
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
After the screening, Director WANG Jiuliang will attend via Skype for a Q&A with the audience moderated by Professor ZHANG Ling of Boston College and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. The discussion will be interpreted by Canaan Morse, a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Literature at Harvard.
Boston-area premiere co-sponsored by the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Environment in Asia Series, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; and Emergent Visions Film Screening Series, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Free admission to the film screening is made possible through the generous support of the Harvard Global Institute.
About the Film: As the world’s biggest plastic waste importer, China receives ten million tons per year from most of the developed countries around the world. With high external costs impacting the local environment and health, these imports are reborn here in these plastic workshops into “recycled” raw materials for the appetite of China - the world factory. This waste is then exported back to where they came from with a new face such as manufactured clothing or toys. Following the daily lives of two families living in a typical plastic waste household-recycling workshop, PLASTIC CHINA explores how this work of recycling plastic waste with their bare hands takes a toll not only on their health, but also their own dilemma of poverty, disease, pollution and death.
About the Director: Director of the award-winning documentary film BEIJING BESIEGED BY WASTE, WANG Jiuliang graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts of the Communication University of China in 2007. From 2007 to 2008, he finished a set of photographic works about Chinese traditional superstitions. He started investigating landfill pollution around Beijing in 2008, and in 2011, finished BEIJING BESIEGED BY WASTE, a set of photographic works and a documentary with the same name. Since 2012, he has been working on and promoting the documentary PLASTIC CHINA.
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Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe
Tuesday, November 28
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes author, Vanity Fair editor, and former The Atlantic editor CULLEN MURPHY for a discussion of his latest book, Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe. This event is co-sponsored by Mass Humanities.
About Cartoon County
For a period of about fifty years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic-strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut―a bit of Bohemia in the middle of those men in their gray flannel suits.
Cullen Murphy’s father, John Cullen Murphy, drew the wildly popular comic strips Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt and was at the heart of this artistic milieu. Comic strips and gag cartoons read by hundreds of millions were created in this tight-knit group―Superman, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith, Rip Kirby, Hagar the Horrible, Hi and Lois, Nancy, Sam & Silo, Amy, The Wizard of Id, The Heart of Juliet Jones, Family Circus, Joe Palooka, and The Lockhorns, among others. Cartoonists and their art were a pop-cultural force in a way that few today remember. Anarchic and deeply creative, the cartoonists were independent spirits whose artistic talents had mainly been forged during service in World War II.
Illustrated with never-before-seen photographs, cartoons, and drawings, Cartoon County brings the postwar American era alive, told through the relationship of a son to his father, an extraordinarily talented and generous man who had been trained by Norman Rockwell. Cartoon County gives us a glimpse into a very special community―and of an America that used to be.
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The Environment as a Bridge to Peace in the Middle East: The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies as a Case Study
Tuesday, November 28
7-9 pm
Temple Israel, 477 Longwood Avenue, Boston
Rabbi Michael Cohen to speak
Arava founding faculty member Rabbi Michael Cohen will share his experiences and insights into how the Arava Institute has advanced cross-border environmental cooperation and discourse. This Institute is an environmental and academic institution in the Middle East, dedicated to preparing future leaders from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and around the world to cooperatively solve the regional and global challenges. Rabbi Cohen was the first full-time rabbi of the Israel Congregation in Manchester Center, Vermont and since 2000, he has divided his time between Vermont and Kibbutz Ketura, Israel. Click here for a flyer
For more information jewishclimateaction@gmail.com
(508) 358-5996
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Opportunity
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Discounted Solar for Somerville
As part of the State’s Solarize Mass program, local volunteers and the City of Somerville recently launched the Solarize Somerville campaign to make it easier and cheaper for residents and small businesses to install solar panels.
The program, which is offering information and guidance, free site consultations, and solar panel discounts through November, has set an ambitious goal to inspire at least 200 property owners to sign up for solar —and each of those private solar installations will also benefit the community directly. For every 400 kW in signed private contracts through the program, the program’s solar vendor SolarFlair will donate a system of up to 5 kW for a public or community purpose. All are invited to the program kickoff at a Meet the Installer event on Tuesday, July 26 at 6-7:30 p.m., 167 Holland St. Additional events on topics such as solar basics, financing, and solar for multifamily homes will be announced.
Unique to the program is its neighbor-to-neighbor approach: trained resident volunteers and a designated volunteer Solar Coach are available essentially as mentors. They can, for example, walk anyone through the process, provide general loan program and tax incentive information, and share their own solar experiences. The campaign’s webpage and blog offers useful information, tips, and a link to websites where you can estimate the solar potential of your home and roughly calculate how much solar could save you on your energy bills at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize.
Somerville is one of the most urban communities ever to participate in Solarize Mass, which makes the neighbor-to-neighbor approach especially helpful due to some of the unique challenges here such as multi-family houses with more than one owner. Winter Hill resident Mary Mangan, the program’s volunteer Solar Coach, went through that process and is ready to share helpful tips.
"I'm excited to work with our eager volunteers to help our neighbors understand the benefits of solar power. As a co-owner of a two-family home with solar, I can also offer some insights about how that process went for us," said Mangan.
Also key to the program is the selection of a designated vendor, which allows the program to offer reduced cost installation through bulk purchasing. Through a competitive process, SolarFlair, based in Ashland, MA, was selected. They were also the selected installer for the communities of Arlington, Hopkinton, Mendon, Brookline, Carlisle-Chelmsford, Newton, and Quincy.
"We're excited to be the selected installer for Solarize Somerville, and look forward to speaking with any home or business owners that are interested in reducing their electric bills while also making a great investment," said Matt Arner, the owner and President of SolarFlair.
Quick facts:
Solar systems can be purchased outright (with a payback of about 4-5 years). The Mass Solar Loan program offers rates of 3.25% or less.
Or, for no money down owners can choose a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the system is owned and maintained by a third party, and residents buy back the electricity at a discounted price.
More on-site renewable energy is critical to reducing carbon emissions. It also saves money for residents.
Tax incentives for solar installations include:
Federal Tax Credit: A 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is available for qualified residential and commercial projects
Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Credit: The lesser of 15% of the total cost of the solar electric system or $1,000, for qualified clean energy projects
Five-year Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS): Business owners can depreciate solar electric systems over a five-year schedule
For more information or to sign up for a free site consultation:
Visit the Solarize Somerville webpage at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize for
Helpful information and FAQs
To contact a volunteer or Solar Coach Mary Mangan to discuss solar options and incentives
To set up an appointment for a free site consultation directly with SolarFlair
To find out about events
To volunteer for Solarize Somerville
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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. 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.
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
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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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"Greening Our Grid" Report Released April 24, 2017
MAPC is excited to announce the release of “Greening Our Grid,” a fact sheet and a case study detailing MAPC’s strategy to use municipal aggregation to help build new renewable energy in New England.
“Greening Our Grid” highlights MAPC's work with the City of Melrose as a case study for MAPC's innovative green municipal aggregation strategy. Melrose recently completed its first year of implementation. The city’s results demonstrate that economic and environmental goals can be met simultaneously, and provide a compelling example for others to follow.
The case study and fact sheet further describe the renewable energy strategy overall, why it can have a real impact on our electricity grid, and MAPC’s program to help other municipalities follow Melrose's lead. Arlington, Brookline, Gloucester, Hamilton, Millis, Somerville, Sudbury, and Winchester are poised to roll out their green aggregations within the year.
MAPC believes that municipal aggregation offers an opportunity for communities to leverage the collective buying power of their residents and businesses to transform our electric grid to cleaner sources of energy, while also providing cost savings and price stability for electricity. The fact sheet and case study will be useful tools for cities and towns that are exploring green municipal aggregation, as well as for those that already have active aggregation programs.
Check out “Greening Our Grid” today at http://www.mapc.org/greening-our-grid, and contact Patrick Roche, MAPC Clean Energy Coordinator, at proche@mapc.org for more information about MAPC's program.
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Cambridge Climate Change Game
Extending our work on face-to-face games, the MIT Science Impact Collaborative has developed a digital game on the health impacts of climate change that you can play alone on your computer or on your mobile phone. The game should take about 10-20 minutes. We would appreciate it if you could play the game at your convenience.
Play the game at http://www.doublecoconut.com/climate/
Any and all feedback on the game should be directed to Ella Kim at ella@mit.edu.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
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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 - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.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://calendar.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
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
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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