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 20
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8am Governor's Convening for Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning
11am Panoptic Studio: Capturing Social Interaction from 500 Cameras
11:30am An Internet for the Masses, by the Masses
11:45am Zipline – Lifesaving Deliveries by Drone
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
5pm SUSTAINABILITY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
5pm The Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Mass Violence in a Changing Myanmar
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
5:30pm Urban Forest Canopy Update
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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Friday, November 24
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1pm 20th Annual Friday After Thanksgiving (F.A.T.) Chain Reaction
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Sunday, November 26
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1:30pm Alfie Kohn: Thanks for Nothing! A Secularist's Reflections on Gratitude
1:30pm Celebrating our Millie: The Legacy and Impact of Mildred Dresselhaus
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Monday, November 27
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12pm PAOC Colloquium: Applications of linear response functions in moist and jet dynamics
12:10pm Let the niche be functional: a process-based approach of the niche to forecast the fate of species in future climate
12:15pm Grapes from Zion: Biblical Prophesy and Quality Wine in the West Bank
4pm Is this an Epistemological Revolution? Big Data and the Philosophy of Science
6:45pm Fifty Years Later: What American Politics Today Can Learn from the Legacy of Robert Kennedy
7pm Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age
7pm Amanda Palmer: This Is Your Life - Christopher Lydon
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Tuesday, November 28
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12pm Waste Alliance Lecture: Magnomer - Attractive Recycling
12:15pm Displaced by Disaster: Climate, History, and Planning
12:30pm The UV Environment for Prebiotic Chemistry: Connecting Origin-of-Life Scenarios to Planetary Environments
1pm New Perspectives on Urban Heat
4pm The Time of Mute Swans: Remembering as a Cure for Global Political Plague
5:30pm Energy Storage: Navigating the Market and White Spaces
5:30pm U.S. PIRG Panel Discussion- Antibiotic Resistance: What Can We Do?
6pm authors@MIT: Brian Dear, The Friendly Orange Glow
6pm The Juno Mission to Jupiter: Unraveling the Secrets of a Giant Planet
6pm Criminalizing Poverty in America
6pm Boston Green Drinks - November Happy Hour
6:30pm Odd Couple: UV Radiation and the Origin of Life
6:30pm "Plastic China" screening with Director Q&A
7pm Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe
7pm A Carbon-Free and Climate-Ready Boston
7pm The Environment as a Bridge to Peace in the Middle East: The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies as a Case Study
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
“How free enterprise can solve climate change"
4 Symmetrical Tetrahedra of 5 Platonic Solids
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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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Panoptic Studio: Capturing Social Interaction from 500 Cameras
Monday, November 20
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hanbyul Joo , Ph.D candidate, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract
In this talk, I will present the Panoptic Studio--a sensing facility designed to capture social behavior--and will discuss a large-scale publicly available dataset we have created to advance research towards a computational understanding of social behavior.
Progress in computer vision and machine learning has been driven in recent years by the availability of datasets. We have seen great advances in image classification and object detection with the advent of publicly available datasets such as the ImageNet and PASCAL VOC corpora. Yet, progress in developing a computational understanding of human social interactions and non-verbal behavior has remained slow. One of the major obstacles has been the challenge in building large-scale datasets of social capture that capture the diversity and detail of real interactions.
The Panoptic Studio is a system composed of more than 500 diverse sensors, specifically designed to measure subtle non-verbal signals of interacting multiple people. The system takes, as input, 480 synchronized video streams of multiple people engaged in social activities, and produces, as output, the time-varying 3D structure of anatomical body landmarks. Using this system, we have collected and processed various interesting scenes where multiple people are naturally interacting, and recently we have released the CMU Panoptic Studio Dataset. In this dataset, we publicly share 500+ video inputs, fully automatically reconstructed 3D body pose, and calibration data for all the sequences, with a toolbox for a quick start. In this talk, I will introduce our system, reconstruction algorithms, and the dataset with various potential applications.
Bio
Hanbyul Joo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, where he is supervised by Prof. Yaser Sheikh. Hanbyul's main research interests are in computer vision, computer graphics, and machine perception of social behavior. His work focuses on analyzing and understanding human behavior and interactions using more than 500 synchronized cameras at CMU Panoptic Studio. Hanbyul's research has been covered in various media outlets including Discovery, Reuters, IEEE Spectrum, NBC News, and Voice of America. Before joining CMU, he spent three years as a researcher at ETRI, and he completed M.S. and B.S. from KAIST, Korea. He is a recipient of Samsung Scholarship.
Contact: Bolei Zhou, bzhou@csail.mit.edu
Speaker URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~hanbyulj/
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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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Zipline – Lifesaving Deliveries by Drone
Monday, November 20
11:45 PM
MIT, Building E51-145, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Guest Speaker: Brittany Hume Charm, Head of International Growth, Zipline
Zipline is a Silicon Valley-based startup that designs, manufactures, and operates small robotic airplanes for medical product delivery. Join us over pizza to learn about Zipline's first year of lifesaving deliveries in Rwanda, its expansion to Tanzania next year, and its vision for instant delivery for the planet. Pizza at 11:45. Talk starts at 12:00.
MIT Humanitarian Disaster Relief Working Group
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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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SUSTAINABILITY IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Monday, November 20
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
BU Photonics Center, West End Lounge, 8 St Mary’s Street, Boston
Are you interested in startups and sustainable energy? Join Energy Club, Net Impact, and the undergrad Entrepreneurship Club on Monday 11/20 for an opportunity to hear Greentown Labs CEO Emily Reichert speak and to network with clean energy startups in the Boston area.
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The Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Mass Violence in a Changing Myanmar
WHEN Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, S010, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Religion
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Asia Centre and Lakshmi Mittal South Asis Institute
SPEAKER(S) PANELISTS:
FRANCIS WADE, Journalist and author of “Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence And the Making Of A Muslim ‘Other’”
KYAW HSAN HLAING, Founder and Executive Director of the Peace and Development Initiative (Kintha) in Rakhine State, Burma.
MOHAMMAD MUSTAK ARIF, Founder of the Rohingya Society of Greater Nashua (RSGN).
MODERATOR: KATE CRONIN-FURMAN, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center.
DETAILS Since late August more than half a million Rohingya Muslims have left their homes in western Myanmar, in what the UN describes as “a textbook case of ethnic cleansing”.
The panel members have all undertaken extensive research on the ground in western Myanmar, and will explore what factors have motivated the violence, and why there appears to be mass support among the Myanmar public for the military’s campaign against the Rohingya
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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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Urban Forest Canopy Update
Tuesday, November 21
5:30 pm
Public Works Dept, 147 Hampshire Street, Cambridge
and webinar
The Urban Forest Canopy Assessment Update will be presented to the Committee on Public Planting at their meeting. The meeting is public, but space is limited. Interested people can hear the presentation by webinar. Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, director of the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab, who oversaw the update, will present the findings. Cambridge’s first Urban Forest Canopy Assessment was conducted in 2012, based on 2009 data. The update used 2014 data which was the latest available data set. To view the webinar, go to https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/429939877 . For audio, you can call into +1 (646) 749-3122, use Access Code: 429-939-877
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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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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: Applications of linear response functions in moist and jet dynamics
Monday, November 27
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Zhiming Kuang (Harvard)
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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Grapes from Zion: Biblical Prophesy and Quality Wine in the West Bank
Monday, November 27
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, Room 100F, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with Ian McGonigle (Harvard, Anthropology).
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 issues in 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.
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.
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Is this an Epistemological Revolution? Big Data and the Philosophy of Science
Monday, November 27
4:00 pm to 6:30 pm
BU, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Cambridge
Co-sponsored with BU Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science and the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing, BU. Sabina Leonelli (Exeter), John Symons (University of Kansas) and others.
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Fifty Years Later: What American Politics Today Can Learn from the Legacy of Robert Kennedy
WHEN Monday, Nov. 27, 2017, 6:45 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics,
Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Human Rights Activist and Writer
Chris Matthews. Host, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Author, Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit
CONTACT INFO JFK Jr. Forum Office
617-495-1380
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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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New Perspectives on Urban Heat
Tuesday, November 28
1 pm
Harvard Global Health Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge
Join the Harvard Global Health Institute for their Climate Change and Global Health series featuring Professor John Spengler.
We all recognize that our cities are getting hotter, but is our science informing important stakeholders and decision makers, such as designers, landscape architects, urban planners and public health officials? This presentation will share recent findings on extreme heat, sleep, cognitive function and health in different populations and settings. Also described is a newly developed planning tool that predicts the thermal experience of people can account for natural and building elements to better design public places now and in the future.
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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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A Carbon-Free and Climate-Ready Boston
Tuesday, November 28
7pm
NE Aquarium, IMAX Theatre, One Aquarium Wharf, Boston
Austin Blackmon, Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space for the City of Boston
Since 1991, Boston has experienced 21 events that triggered federal or state disaster declarations. For example, in 2011, Hurricane Irene caused downed trees and power outages across the city. In 2012, while Boston was spared the most devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy due to the storm missing Boston’s high tide by five hours, the city still experienced high winds and coastal flooding. As the climate changes, the likelihood of coastal and riverine flooding—as well as other hazards, like stormwater flooding and extreme heat—will increase.
The challenges from climate change are substantial and complex but can be addressed through bold and creative actions that support the city’s vitality and livability.
Boston can thrive in the coming decades if it takes action to adapt its people, its neighborhoods, and its economic and cultural assets, starting now. This work will be difficult, contentious, and complex. But if done well, it will not only create a resilient, climate-ready Boston, it will also dramatically improve the city and quality of life for all its residents.
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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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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, November 29
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Boston Harbor Now: Harbor Use Public Forum
Wednesday, November 29
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Leventhal Room at the Boston Harbor Hotel, Rowes Wharf, 50 Rowes Wharf, Boston
The November Harbor Use Forum will feature a presentation from the City of Boston's Mia Goldwasser and Kara Runsten focused on the new Climate Ready South Boston neighborhood-level resilience project and will include the key goals, ways to get involved, and questions for the group that will help inform the consultant team working on the project. The duo will also provide a brief overview of the latest East Boston and Charlestown CRB Boston report, released in late October.
The co-chair of BHN's Climate Task Force, Stephanie Kruel, will follow the City's team with a presentation of CTF's white paper on regulatory Instruments related to flooding in Boston.
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MTL Seminar Series: “Extending the Era of Moore’s Law”
Wednesday, November 29
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-401, Grier Room, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Tsu-Jae King, University of California Berkeley
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CRISPR Unleashed: New tools and applications in live-cell imaging
Wednesday, November 29
12pm
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Energy Systems Integration: An International and Institutional Challenge & Opportunity
Wednesday, November 29
3:30PM TO 4:45PM
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Mark O'Malley, Professor of Electrical Engineering, School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin (UCD); Founding Director, Electricity Research Center. (Speaker Bio)
Co-sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Consortium for Energy Policy Research, Harvard Kennedy School.
China Project Seminar
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
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Hope and Despair: Communicating an Uncertain Future
Wednesday, November 29
4:00PM
Harvard, Geo Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Center for the Environment presents the next and final installment of the Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Series, "Hope and Despair: Communicating an Uncertain Future."
Featuring panelists:
Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science, Smithsonian Institution
Cam Webb, Research Affiliate, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Nikhil Advani, Lead Specialist, Climate, Communities and Biodiversity, World Wildlife Fund
David Wallace-Wells, Author of "The Unhabitable Earth," New York Magazine
Moderated by Elizabeth Wolkovich, Assistant Professor, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
In an era of rising greenhouse gases, rising seas, and increasing numbers of species facing extinction, how do we inspire action? Two different answers to this question are prominent today. One is that we should better communicate the potential losses: depauperate faunas, massive human migration due to sea level rise, and heat waves and droughts that will reshape habitable regions of the Earth. The other is Earth optimism: communicating success stories and focusing on the potential for further improvements.
This panel brings together views from across this spectrum to ask how best to understand and communicate our environment’s uncertain future. If humans are unlikely to take action without hope, should scientists be providing more hope in their research and communication? If we are not sure how likely the best or worst-case scenario is, which do we focus on, and how do we communicate uncertainty?
Our panelists bring together a range of opinions and viewpoints. Nikhil Advani of the World Wildlife Fund has worked on projects across the globe that have led to both rural community and biodiversity success. Nancy Knowlton has worked closely on the ocean and earth optimism movements and herself has moved from lectures of `doom and gloom’ to stories of hope. In contrast, David Wallace-Wells penned a bleaker outlook in his article this summer, "The Uninhabitable Earth" in New York Magazine. Cam Webb penned "Engineering Hope" in Conservation Biology over 10 years ago. The article’s questions of how we do acknowledge and respect what we have lost while providing hope for the future remain, and are the focus of this panel.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
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The Evolution of Gene Expression
Wednesday, November 29
4:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
As a Radcliffe fellow, Thomas Lenormand is working on the evolution of gene expression. For theoretical and historical reasons, modern evolutionary theory has little incorporated the detailed mechanisms of gene regulation. Gene expression regulation, however, is now central to most fields of biology. He plans to bridge this interdisciplinary gap and set the foundation of a comprehensive evolutionary theory of gene regulation evolution.
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And the Band Played On? The looming crises of the 21st century and what the...
Thursday, November 30
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
NE Conservatory Student Life and Performance Center, Burnes Hall, 255 St. Botolph Street, Boston
Prior the presentation and Q&A session, Richard Heinberg will be joined by Carl Straussner for a violin-guitar duo.
And the Band Played On?
The looming crises of the 21st century and what they mean for today’s young artists
What does the rest of the 21st Century hold in store for us? If what we see all around us is any indication — growing climate-related disasters, economic inequality and stagnation, political divisiveness, and environmental stresses of all kinds — we are in for a bumpy ride.
Please join award-winning author, educator, and avid musician Richard Heinberg for an exploration of the sustainability crises of the 21st century and what unique challenges and opportunities these present for young artists.
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Old North Speaker Series: Robert Forrant - Still They Persisted
Wednesday, November 29
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Old North Church, 193 Salem Street, Boston
Old North Foundation Speaker Series
Still They Persisted: What a 105 Year Old Strike in Lawrence, MA Can Teach Us About Organization and Social Change
Speaker: Robert Forrant
The 1912 Bread & Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA teaches us much about how positive social change is made. The persistence exhibited 105 years ago built strength out of diversity and won a hard fought strike against powerful woolen mill owners. Professor Forrant will discuss this impressive strike, proved effective largely due to its level of organization and collaboration across ethnic and gender lines. Thousands of workers—the majority women—engaged in a well-organized walkout, standing firm against entrenched mill owners and their militia and police. Workers maintained soup kitchens and nurseries for children. Meetings were simultaneously translated into nearly 30 languages. Representatives from every nationality formed a 50-person strike leadership group. Immigrant workers, male and female, stood together and won!
Join Robert Forrant and Bernard Trubowitz, museum educator, immediately following the lecture for a reception and Community Conversation focused on the state of labor in the United States today. How does our past inform the anti-worker, anti-immigrant climate we find ourselves in today? Registration is required for the second part of the evening.
Robert Forrant, on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell since 1994, is Distinguished University Professor of History and director of the department’s graduate program. A board member of the Lawrence History Center, he is on the editorial board of Mass Benchmarks, a joint publication of the UMass President’s Office and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In 2012 he worked extensively on programs dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the Bread and Roses Strike. He has been principal historian on numerous projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Lowell National Historical Park, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, which honored him with their public history commendation in 2015.
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Screening of "The Final Year" and Q&A with Amb. Samantha Power
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Harvard Art Museums
SPEAKER(S) Ambassador Samantha Power, "The Final Year" director Greg Barker
COST Free
TICKET INFO Free tickets for HUID holders available on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at noon on Tuesday, November 21 at the Harvard Box Office
CONTACT INFO adam_siegel@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS During 2016, filmmaker Greg Barker gained behind-the-scenes access to President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team — Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, confidant and speech writer Ben Rhodes, and others — for an unprecedented look at the shaping of US foreign policy. "The Final Year," to be released in 2018, shows us the humanity of these policymakers in times of breakthrough, setback, and tragedy.
There will be an exclusive advance screening of the film for the Harvard community on Nov. 29, followed by a Q&A with Amb. Samantha Power and Director Greg Barker.
Space is limited, and tickets are required. Free tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning at noon on Tuesday, November 21, at the Harvard Box Office. Tickets must be picked up in person and are not available online or by phone. Limit of two tickets per person.
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Civic Science Roundtable
Thursday, November 30
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Dewick-MacPhie Conference Room, 25 Latin Way, Medford
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Thursday, November 30
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The quasi-legal challenge: Drug policy, Cannabis cultivation, and the environment
Thursday, November 30
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Anne Short Gianotti, Earth and Environment, Boston University
The cultivation and trafficking of cannabis and other drugs can have dramatic effects on land use and the environment. The evolving (and often conflicting) legal status of cannabis shapes what we know and do about these environmental effects. In this talk, I will discuss the relationships between cannabis cultivation, drug policy, and the environment in California. I will review what is known about the environmental effects of cannabis cultivation, discuss how the unique challenges of studying and governing a quasi-legal practice, and reflect on ways that ongoing regulatory changes may re-shape the industry.
Anne Short Gianotti is Assistant Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University. Her research investigates the social and political dimensions of conservation and natural resource management, and has spanned diverse topics including wildlife management, cannabis cultivation, and nonpoint source pollution. She holds a PhD and MS from UC Berkeley and a BS from Harvey Mudd College.
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xTalk: Interactivity & Connectedness in the Classroom: Digital Tools for Collaborative Learning
Thursday, November 30
2:00pm to 3:00pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Dr Keane, with colleagues Andrew Ringler and Mark Vrablic, will introduce some digital tools and classroom management strategies to have students learn-by-doing through content creation rather than consumption. Keane's team has built a simple system that allows students to design, create, and publish gesture-based, videogame-like simulations using the Microsoft Kinect. These simulations can allow users to 'play and experience' scientific concepts in a more tangible and kinesthetic manner. For example, we have built a 'molecular dynamics' simulation that shows a cluster of interacting molecules; to 'play' with the molecules, the user closes their hand in front of the screen to select a molecule and then drags the molecule to see how it affects the other molecules. This type of simulation can be used to introduce scientific concepts to the general public and incoming freshmen, or it can be used to further clarify the fundamentals for students who have already learned about the concept in a more traditional way.
Keane and his team used this framework to run a nine-day IAP project-based workshop where students formed small teams with diverse backgrounds to collaboratively create their own simulation for the system. They documented and published the workshop on OCW for others to draw from.
During this presentation, Keane, Ringler, and Vrablic will discuss their method of engaging students (some with no previous programming experience) in every stage of the ideation, design, creation, and testing of their team¹s project. They will discuss the importance of storytelling and collaboration while demonstrating how they use technology to facilitate this in a classroom. Part of the presentation will be an opprtunity to hear about the lead developer's own experience building this project as a UROP and running the IAP workshop.
The entire simulation system will be set up for use after the presentation and there will be ample time for attendees to 'play' with the current set of simulations.
Dr Kyle Keane is a lecturer in the department of Materials Science and Engineering. Andrew Ringler is an affiliate with DSME. Mark Vrablic is an MIT undergraduate majoring in EECS.
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What's Fair?
Thursday, November 30
2:50pm - 4:00pm
Tufts, Halligan 102, 161 College Avenue, Medford
Speaker: Cynthia Dwork, Harvard University
Data, algorithms, and systems have biases embedded within them reflecting designers’ explicit and implicit choices, historical biases, and societal priorities. They form, literally and inexorably, a codification of values. “Unfairness” of algorithms – for tasks ranging from advertising to recidivism prediction – has attracted considerable attention in the popular press. The talk will discuss the nascent mathematically rigorous study of fairness in classification and scoring.
Bio
Cynthia Dwork is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School. She has done seminal work in disributed computing, cryptography, and privacy-preserving data analysis. Her most recent foci include stability in adaptive data analysis (especially via differential privacy) and fairness in classification.
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Focus on Russia: "The Rise and Fall of 'Russkii Mir' (Russian World), 2014-2017"
Thursday, November 30
4:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Andrey Piontkovsky will discuss Russian efforts and Vladimir Putin's failure to propagate the myth of the "Russian World."
Piontkovsky is a Russian scientist, political writer, and analyst, Hudson Institute Visiting Fellow, and Free Russia Foundation Senior Adviser. He is the author of several books on the Putin presidency, including “Another Look Into Putin’s Soul” and “Russian Identity” published by Hudson Institute.
Beginning in 2014, Putin tried to persuade Ukrainians and the world that the Russian nation was divided and that Russia had to protect this "Russian world."
In 2016, he was charged with extremism and left Russia.
Co-Sponsors: MIT Security Studies Program, MIT Center for International Studies and MISTI Russia
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Larry Diamond: Is There an Emerging Crisis of Liberal Democracy?
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200 North, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO Info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University for a discussion on whether there is an emerging crisis of liberal democracy. Scott Mainwaring, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Brazil Studies, Harvard Kennedy School, will moderate.
By some counts, we are now in the twelfth years of a global recession of freedom and democracy. For most of this period, this political recession has been mild and even debatable as to its net effect on democracy. However, with the failure of democracy in a number of important swing states, such as Thailand and Turkey; the questionable status of democracy in numerous others, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Kenya; the palpable decline of many third wave democracies, such as the Philippines and South Africa; the shattering corruption scandals that brought down the first elected women presidents of South Korea and Brazil; the erosion of liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe; and the rise of illiberal populism even in long-established Western democracies, it is time to ask whether we are entering a global crisis of liberal democracy, and if so, why?
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Getting Good Stuff Done Collaboratively: Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement
Thursday, November 30
5:00pm to 7:00pm
MIT, Building 10-105, Vannevar Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
All social innovation work takes place in the context of a particular culture, market, existing legal and policy framework, and intervention landscape where individuals, community groups, government and NGOs are working to achieve change. These stakeholders will influence whether an innovation takes hold. In this session we explore questions such as: Who are the various stakeholders for our work, and how might they influence or be affected by our initiatives? Who might be willing and effective partners? What factors do we need to consider in project design and rollout strategy? We will use stakeholder mapping tools to analyze the work of several ongoing projects to suggest strategies for stakeholder engagement.
Please be sure to RSVP here (so we can get an accurate count for dinner).
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Mathematics, Common Sense, and Good Luck
Thursday, November 30, 2017
5:30 pm Presentation
6:30 pm Networking Reception
Whitehead Institute, 455 Main Street, Cambridge
Dr. James H. Simons is the chairman of the Simons Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.
About Whitehead Connects
Whitehead Connects is an initiative that brings renowned biology and biotech leaders to Whitehead Institute for an engaging presentation and dynamic networking opportunity for participants. Following the free public lecture, participants will have the opportunity to meet Whitehead postdoctoral fellows and learn about their latest discoveries.
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Initial Coin Offerings: The Rise of Crypto Capitalism
Thursday, November 30
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/initial-coin-offerings-the-rise-of-crypto-capitalism/
Cost: $25 Member; $45 Non-member; $5 Student member; $10 Student Non-member
Q: How does a blockchain startup raise more than $257 million in about a month of activity?
A: Initial coin offerings (ICOs) or token sales.
According to Autonomous Research, “Over $1.2 billion in Cryptocurrency was raised through Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”) in the first half of 2017, far outstripping venture capital investment into Blockchain and Bitcoin firms.”
ICO’s are no longer another over-hyped acronym. The market is being compared to the internet bubble of the late 90’s – a heady time for sure. ICOs have largely gone unregulated, but just this July, the SEC issued a report of investigation that determined that ICO tokens may be securities and therefore should comply with existing laws, “regardless of whether those securities are purchased with virtual currencies or distributed with blockchain technology.”
Things are moving quickly in this space so to make sense of what’s happening now and the possibilities for the future, we’re teaming up with the Government Blockchain Association of Boston to break it all down.
Whether you’re curious about, or embedded in, the world of ICO’s – we hope you will join us to learn more and network with some of the key constituents in this hot market.
Speakers
Christian Catalini, Assistant Professor, MIT Sloan & Principal investigator, MIT Digital Currencies Research Study
David Cotney, Board Member, Cross River Bank & Former MA Commissioner of Banks
Kavita Gupta, Founding Managing Partner, ConsenSys
Chetan Manikantan, Founder & CEO, Tengu
David Vorick, Co-Founder, Sia
Event Schedule
5:30 - 6:00pm - Registration & networking (light refreshments served)
6:00 - 8:00pm - Welcome & panel discussion
8:00 - 9:00pm - Beer, wine & networking
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Draft CCPR Alewife Plan & Public Meeting
Thursday, November 30
6:00-8:00 pm
Russell Youth Center, 680 Huron Avenue, Cambridge
The draft Climate Change Preparedness and Resilience Plan for the Alewife area will be presented and discussed. The meeting will involve a brief overview and interactive stations to describe and discuss key aspects of the plan. The draft will be released in advance of the meeting and public comment period will run beyond the meeting. More details will be posted soon.
The City is developing a citywide Climate Change Preparedness & Resilience Plan starting with two neighborhood scale plans in the Alewife area and The Port before developing the full citywide plan.
More information at http://www.cambridgema.gov/cdd
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Are We The Enemy? The Neuroscience of Conflict and Empathy
Thursday, November 30
6:30pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Building N51, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join Dr. Emile Bruneau, Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, to explore how human cognitive habits encourage bias, separation, and conflict. Can thinking about our own and others' experiences of conflict help us create new neural pathways to support empathy and reconciliation? Learn what happens in our brains in a virtual experience like "The Enemy."
Free. No pre-registration necessary.
This program is offered in conjunction with The Enemy, on view October 5, 2017.
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Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color
Thursday, November 30
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes author, organizer, and police-misconduct attorney ANDREA J. RITCHIE for a discussion of her latest book, Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color. She will be joined in conversation by Georgetown law professor PAUL BUTLER, author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men.
About Invisible No More
Invisible No More is a timely examination of how Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color experience racial profiling, police brutality, and immigration enforcement. Placing stories of individual women—such as Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Dajerria Becton, Monica Jones, and Mya Hall—in the broader context of the twin epidemics of police violence and mass incarceration, it documents the evolution of movements centering women’s experiences of policing and demands a radical rethinking of our visions of safety—and the means we devote to achieving it.
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Aging with Wisdom: Reflections, Stories & Teachings
Thursday, November 30
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Olivia Hoblitzelle
Combining elements of memoir and inspiring examples of lives well lived, Aging with Wisdom is that invaluable guide to the inevitable (if we’re lucky) process of aging with dignity and grace.
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Protecting Stellwagen Bank: A History of the Sanctuary – 25 Years and Moving Forward
Thursday, November 30
7pm
NE Aquarium, One Aquarium Wharf, IMAX Theatre, Boston
Richard Delaney, President and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies, and Ben Haskell, Acting Superintendent of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
More than 25 years ago, threats to an underwater bank at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay abounded. Construction teams considered the sand and gravel fair game for the Big Dig, and a developer posited a plan for a casino complex on an oil-rig-like platform. Luckily, whales, fish, and the backing of thousands of whale watchers, students, fishermen, and environmentalists sank those ideas. The productive region around Stellwagen Bank was designated a national marine sanctuary in 1992. Rich Delaney, President and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies (which nominated Stellwagen Bank for sanctuary status), had served as director of the Mass. Coastal Zone Management Office during the process to create a sanctuary. Ben Haskell, the sanctuary’s acting superintendent, leads a team of researchers and educators who work to understand and protect this special place. They will provide a retrospective of the first 25 years of New England’s only national marine sanctuary and a vision for the next 25 years.
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Friday, December 1
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Sustainable Communities and Zero Hunger
Friday, December 1
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, 1 Broadway, 12th Floor, Cambridge
Join the Legatum Center for an action-oriented conversation on how entrepreneurs are solving the challenges of UN Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger and SOLVE's Sustainable Urban Communities Challenge.
Dr. Kevin Kung, Postdoctoral Associate, School of Engineering, MIT
Alexander Dale, Senior Officer, Sustainability Community, SOLVE
Anjuli Jain Figueroa, PhD Candidate, Environmental & Civil Engineering
Please bring a photo ID to check in at the guest desk in the One Broadway lobby.
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Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook
Friday, December 1
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
In the wake of tragic events in Charlottesville, VA, and Donald Trump’s initial refusal to denounce the white nationalists behind it all, the “antifa” opposition movement is suddenly appearing everywhere. But what is it, precisely? And where did it come from?
In a smart and gripping investigation, historian and former Occupy Wall Street organizer Mark Bray provides a detailed survey of the full history of anti-fascism from its origins to the present day — the first transnational history of postwar anti-fascism in English. Based on interviews with anti-fascists from around the world, Antifa details the tactics of the movement and the philosophy behind it, offering insight into the growing but little-understood resistance fighting back against fascism in all its guises.
About the Author: MARK BRAY is a historian of human rights, terrorism, and political radicalism in Modern Europe who was one of the organizers of Occupy Wall Street. He is the author of Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street, and the co-editor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Critical Quarterly, ROAR Magazine, and numerous edited volumes. He is currently a lecturer at Dartmouth College.
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Monday, December 4
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PAOC Colloquium: Caroline Ummenhofer (WHOI)
Monday, December 4
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About the Speaker
Caroline Ummenhofer’s lab works all over the world, including Australia, East Africa, India, Indian Ocean, the Indo-Pacific and North Atlantic region, Southeast Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere extratropics. We are looking primarily at climate variability and change in the hydrological cycle, with an eye towards rainfall variability and drought, Indian Ocean and monsoon dynamics, impacts of climate on agriculture and health, and biological-physical interactions.
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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Mitigation Versus Solar Geoengineering: Role of Risk Aversion and Time Preference
Monday, December 4
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Mariia Belaia, Post-doctoral Fellow, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard. Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Trade-offs in Evolutionary Ecology
Monday, December 4
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Anurag Agrawal, Professor, Cornell University
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
Contact Name: arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu
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Contested Environments: India’s Environmental Movement and the Politics of Change
Monday, December 4
5:00PM TO 7:00PM
Harvard, Emerson Hall, Room 105, 25 Quincy Street, Cambridge
The STS Program at HKS presents a lecture by Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, and a panel discussion featuring Sunil Amrith, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies, Harvard University; Jody Freeman, Archibald Cox Professor of Law and Director, Environmental Law Program, Harvard Law School; David S. Jones, A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine, Harvard University, as part of the Science & Democracy Lecture Series.
Abstract: The Indian environmental stories that are making international headlines are the ghastly air pollution and the nation's inability to control filth, garbage and sewage that are overwhelming its cities, rivers and fields. The other narrative linking India to the rest of the world is that India is the major villain in climate change. I ask, can India can beat the pollution game by following the trajectory of the western world? Won't capital and resource-intensive methods of environmental management simply add to the burden of inequality, and so to unsustainability? Also, is India the villain or the victim in international climate politics? Are there lessons in India for the global community in its fight against climate change? I will discuss how democracy and dissent must work together so that the environmentalism of the poor dictates the politics of change. Not just change in India, but change in the world.
Sunita Narain is a writer and environmentalist. In 2016 she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. In 2005 she was awarded the Padma Shri (a top civilian state prize) by the Indian government. She also chaired the Tiger Task Force at the direction of the Prime Minister, to evolve an action plan for conservation in the country after the loss of tigers in Sariska. She has received the World Water Prize for work on rainwater harvesting and for its influence in building paradigms for community-based water management. She was a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Climate Change and the National Ganga River Basin Authority. She has been with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi since 1982. She is currently director general of the Centre, treasurer of the Society for Environmental Communications, and editor of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth.
Contact Name: Shana Ashar
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Fake News: Looking Critically at Modern Journalism
Monday, December 4
6:00pm
Cambridge Community Television, 438 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP to Keaton Fox at 617-661-6900 or email keaton@cctvcambridge.org
Cost: $30 - $60
In this course, we will critically analyze media coverage of current happenings in our world.
We will examine its strengths and weaknesses and the implications these have on our society.
2 sessions - Mondays - December 4th and 11th - 6-9pm with Patricia Egessa
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Judith Barry | A Discussion of Several Research-Based Projects
Monday, December 4
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, ACT Cube (E15-001) 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Judith Barry utilizes a research-based methodology to explore a wide range of topics. Both the form and the content of her work evolve as the research proceeds. She often makes use of installation, in various forms and including exhibition design, as a way to combine many of her disparate interests. These immersive environments are based on experiments incorporating architecture, sculpture, performance, theatre, film/video/new media, graphics, and interactivity.
Since her first performances in the late 1970’s, Judith Barry has produced unique, habitable, visual environments that are activated by the viewer. Each of her projects aims to provide new ways for engaging conceptually and visually within a space.
This lecture is part of the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT)'s Fall 2017 Lecture Series.
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Of Monarchs and Milkweed: A Story of Coevolution, Cultural History, and Conservation
Monday, December 4
7:00PM TO 8:30PM
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Cost: $0 - $10
The Arnold Arboretum welcomes Anurag Agrawal, PhD, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, who will give a talk on "Of Monarchs and Milkweed: A Story of Coevolution, Cultural History, and Conservation."
What if your host truly didn’t want you to visit? Found you intolerable, in fact, and didn’t want you to stay? You’d think that you’d be kicked out, but that isn’t the case with monarch butterflies and the common milkweed that supports their life cycle. Using striking visual imagery, evolutionary biologist Anurag Agrawal will speak about some of the natural history of monarchs and milkweed, the cultural importance of milkweed’s toxins, and the current predicament of monarch declines. Dr. Agrawal is an award-winning scientist and educator, who has delved deeply into the coevolution of plants and animals. His book, Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution, will be available for purchase and signing.
Fee Free Arnold Arboretum member and student, $10 nonmember
Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
Contact Name: Pam Thompson
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Judith Barry: A Discussion of Several Research-Based Projects
Monday, December 4
6:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, ACT Cube (E15-001) 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Judith Barry utilizes a research-based methodology to explore a wide range of topics. Both the form and the content of her work evolve as the research proceeds. She often makes use of installation, in various forms and including exhibition design, as a way to combine many of her disparate interests. These immersive environments are based on experiments incorporating architecture, sculpture, performance, theatre, film/video/new media, graphics, and interactivity.
Since her first performances in the late 1970’s, Judith Barry has produced unique, habitable, visual environments that are activated by the viewer. Each of her projects aims to provide new ways for engaging conceptually and visually within a space.
This lecture is part of the Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT)'s Fall 2017 Lecture Series.
More information at http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/about-pages/fall-2017-about-series/
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Tuesday, December 5 – Thursday, December 7
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2017 Community Food Systems Conference
Tuesday, December 5, 8:00 AM – Thursday, December 7, 4:00 PM EST
Boston Park Plaza, 50 Park Plaza, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2017-community-food-systems-conference-registration-36585468120
Cost: $50 – $310
Exploring the intersection of food security, social justice, and sustainable agriculture
Conference Highlights
Keynote and plenary sessions on food security, social justice and sustainable agriculture.
Keynote speaker: Winona LaDuke, award-winning environmentalist and political activist working and residing on the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota; founder of White Earth Land Recovery Project and the Indigenous Women’s Network; and active author and speaker
Plenary panelists:
Diana Robinson, Campaign and Education Coordinator at Food Chain Workers Alliance, a lead organization of the HEAL Food Alliance
Malik Yakini, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
Aleya Fraser, Farmer & Educator, founder of Black Dirt Farm Collective
Moderated by Andy Fisher, Co-Founder of the Community Food Security Coalition and author of Big Hunger
50+ workshops, lightning talks, and networking sessions focused on food justice, policy, best practices, experiential education, sustainability, economic development, building community, and promoting access to healthy food in underserved communities.
Exhibit hall for leading non-profit, academic, business and government organizations in the community food field.
Field trips to see community food systems work in action at various Boston-area organizations.
Pre-conference trainings and forums geared toward targeted audiences for delving deeper into specific food systems work.
Meals featuring locally-grown foods and a reception at Boston Public Market.
Workshop presentations will span the following topics:
Community Partnerships / Farm-to-All / Food Justice / Movement Building / Social Enterprise / Policy / Measuring Impacts / Labor / Youth
More information at https://nesfp.org/community-food-systems-conference-2017
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Tuesday, December 5
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Boston TechBreakfast: Advance2000, VQL, SMACAR Solutions, Perfectosoft, Exact Finance, Inc.
Tuesday, December 5
7:00 AM
O’Reilly’s, 2 Avenue de Lafayette, 6th floor, Boston
Interact with your peers in a monthly morning breakfast meetup. At this monthly breakfast get-together techies, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs share learn from their peers through show and tell / show-case style presentations.
And yes, this is free! Thank our sponsors when you see them :)
Agenda for Boston TechBreakfast:
8:00 - 8:15 - Get yer Food & Coffee and chit-chat
8:15 - 8:20 - Introductions, Sponsors, Announcements
8:20 - ~9:30 - Showcases and Shout-Outs!
[EVENT_AGENDA]
~9:30 - end - Final "Shout Outs" & Last Words Boston TechBreakfast Sponsors:
ConferenceEdge - EVENTS to the power of Edge
DLA Piper (Boston) - DLA Piper is a global business law firm that provides corporate, IP, capital raising and other legal advice to technology startups and high growth businesses.
G2 Tech Group - Managed DevOps for startups and small businesses
hedgehog lab - hedgehog lab is a technology consultancy that designs and builds great apps for mobile
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Global Health & Ethical Challenges Panel: Get Good Stuff Done
Tuesday, December 5
12:00pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
What are common ethical challenges in global health experiences? How should a student prepare in advance, act while in-country, and work with program advisors? Join a workshop in which we address some of the ethical issues that arise when students participate in global health experiences in resource-limited settings. Students, hosts, MIT program staff, and faculty all need to examine potential ethical dilemmas, power dynamics, safety issues, and cultural context. While the focus is on global health, the lessons apply to health experiences in the US.
We will explore:
guiding principles established in the medical field and within education abroad, and how these are viewed in the context of medical school applications.
how the “do no harm” principle applies in global health
facilitating productive and sustainable partnerships in global health
examples of ethical challenges that the panelists have faced
Panel Speakers
Dr. Howard Heller - MIT Medical and Harvard Medical School
Dr. Anjali Sastry - MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Rich Fletcher – MIT Tata Center, D-Lab, Media Lab
Bryan Ranger – The Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST), Media Lab, D-Lab
RSVP Here: https://goo.gl/Pjrp2u
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XCONOMY PRESENTS: WHAT’S HOT IN CYBERSECURITY
Tuesday, December 5
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
WGBH, 1 Guest Street, Boston
Cybersecurity continues to be top of mind for business leaders, technologists, and consumers. From the latest catastrophic data breach to crippling Internet attacks and cyber warfare, no data or network seems safe. Now, Boston-area cybersecurity companies are working to advance the state of the art in security automation, behavioral analytics, anti-phishing systems, and other arenas. At the same time, venture investment is flowing into hot sectors like cryptocurrencies, blockchain and identity management, and deception tech.
How are cybersecurity companies and their customers adjusting to an era of widespread hacking and threats? What new technologies and cyber risks are coming down the pike for organizations of all sizes? And, as investment in security tech seems to be peaking again, what are the greatest opportunities and pitfalls for startups and venture capitalists? Xconomy’s second annual cybersecurity conference in Boston will convene business and technology leaders to discuss these topics, and much more.
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Jorge Cham from PhD Comics: Communicating Your Research
Tuesday, December 5
5:00pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Jorge Cham will relay his experiences creating successful science communication projects (videos that have been viewed by millions of people and a book release from Penguin Random House). He will convey how he communicates his passion for engaging with the public and exploring the unknown.
Jorge holds a Ph.D. in Robotics from Stanford University and is the creator of Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD Comics), the popular comic strip about life (or the lack thereof) in Academia.
Often called the "Dilbert of academia,” PHD Comics appears online where it is read by over 6 million visitors a year from over 1000 universities worldwide.
Sponsored by the MIT Graduate Student Council (GSC), Global Education & Career Development Career Services (GECD), and the MIT Office of the Vice President for Research
Pre-registration is requested (but not required) via CareerBridge.
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Marijuana Technology
Tuesday, December 5
5:30pm to 8:00pm
MIT Stata Center, E32-123 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Cost: $10 - $45
Few can deny the expansive growth and attention the legal cannabis industry is experiencing right now. Despite the still nebulous policy and politics surrounding the industry, companies are innovating and cashing in on the opportunities in cannabis.
According to CannabisNewsWire, “Estimates by Forbes put the legal cannabis market at a value of $7.2 billion (per a February 2017 report), and the market is expected to generate more jobs than government, manufacturing, or utilities in the coming years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
The market reach extends well beyond the medical and recreational sale of the finished product itself. There are opportunities for entrepreneurs in manufacturing, cultivation, extraction, testing, and distribution. Some examples include:
Greenhouse automation
Extraction hardware
Smart grow monitors
Seed to sale software
App development
Machine learning for optimal medical dosing
…and the list goes on
On December 5th we’re bringing together leading investors, entrepreneurs and scientists to learn more about the opportunities to get involved in the cannabis industry and discuss how entrepreneurs can have an impact.
Moderator:
Vinit Nijhawan, Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Academic
Speakers:
John de la Parra, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University
Richard Gibble, Investment Analyst, FlowPoint Capital Partners, LP
Jonathan Wani, Director of Client & Community Relations, MCR Labs
Russel Wilenkin, Regional Sales Manager, Flow Kana
Event Schedule
5:30 - 6:00pm - Registration and Networking
6:00 - 8:00pm - Welcome & Panel Discussion
8:00 - 9:00pm - Networking
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7TH ANNUAL STREETTALK 10-IN-1
Tuesday, December 5
6pm – 8:30pm
Old South Meetinghouse, 310 Washington Street, Boston
Cost: $0 - $15
Save the date! Join us as we invite 10 innovative transportation tinkers and community thinkers to take the stage and share their big ideas. Don't miss it!
More information at http://www.livablestreets.info/7th_annual_streettalk_10_in-1
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Cambridge Forum: Race Still Matters
Tuesday, December 5
7pm
Political activist, author and university professor Cornel West will speak at Cambridge Forum on Tuesday, December 5 about his national best-seller Race Matters. First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, the book has since become a groundbreaking classic on race in America.
Race Matters speaks to despair, black conservatism, myths about black sexuality, the crisis in leadership in the black community, and the legacy of Malcolm X. Now more than ever, Cornel West argues, Race Matters is a book for all Americans, as it helps us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium.
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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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