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, January 15
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2pm CES 2018 Recap: AI & Robotics Trends to Watch
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Tuesday, January 16 - Friday, January 19
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The Common Purpose Global Leader Experience
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Tuesday, January 16
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9am IACS Symposium: "The Digital Doctor: Health Care in an Age of AI and Big Data"
9am Leadership in a Time of Innovation - Free Webinar
10:30am Research Opportunities at the Intersection of Economics, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies
12pm Who Owns Your Ideas and How Does Creativity Happen?
1pm Using Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Funds for Low-Income Solar
1:30pm Panel on Careers in Science Policy
5:15pm The Fight Before the Flood: Rural Protest and the Debate Over Boston’s Quabbin Reservoir, 1919-1927
5:30pm Climate Science 101: Warmer Things
6pm Public Meeting on National Grid's Fracked Gas Pipeline
6:30pm Climate Change: The Nexus of Economic Change
7pm How Healing Works
7pm Mental Health Inc: How Corruption, Lax Oversight and Failed Reforms Endanger Our Most Vulnerable Citizens
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Wednesday, January 17
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7:30am Boston Sustainability Breakfast
11am Gonson Daytime Lecture Series: Winter 2018: Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya
1pm Error Correction Code (ECC) Sequencing – Can DNA Sequencing Be Error-free?
4:30pm SPH PUBLIC HEALTH FORUM—Crises, Calamities, and Chaos: How Public Health Can Improve Response to Emerging Threats Wherever They Arise
5:15pm Spectre and Meltdown: Recent Security Flaws
5:30pm Climate feedbacks and tipping points
5:30pm Data Science for Social Good and Public Policy (in Boston)
6pm Google Brain: Neural Networks with Tangent
6:30pm The Politics of Climate Change
6:30pm Glocal Challenge Finals: Improving Transportation in Cambridge
7pm Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself
7pm You Don't Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side
7pm Mapping for Civic Activism
7:30pm The State of Our Union Is Wrong
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Thursday, January 18
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8:30am ETS: Grid Resiliency & Reliability - The Clean Energy Solution
11am Inspired by Antiquity: The Future of Durable, Sustainable Infrastructure
2pm Get Up. Stand Up! History of Activism at MIT via a Glance at the Institute Archives
4pm Finding Gene Info & More: A Tour of the NCBI "Omics” Network
4pm New Forms to Settle Old Scores? Worker Centers and Their Recent Trajectories
5:30pm Predicting future climate
5:30pm The Inversion Factor, How to Thrive in the IOT Economy
6pm Conversations on the Edge: Immigration
6pm GeNES Konsultations: "The Future of E-Mobility”
6pm Community Choice Energy Celebration
6:30pm Climate Policy and Local Initiatives
7pm Cambridge Forum: How Storytelling Shaped the History of the World
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Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20
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Alewife Corridor Resilience Symposium
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Friday, January 19 through Sunday, January 21
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Bad Ideas Festival
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Friday, January 19
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5pm Sustainability & Energy Mixer
5:30pm Analyzing a Clean Energy Future
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Saturday, January 20
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1pm Women's Solidarity March 2018 Boston - Cambridge
2pm Meet & Greet with author and former CIA informant Prof. Williams
3pm Agrotowns: ecological pathways to development
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Monday, January 22 & Tuesday, January 23
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NorthEast Water Innovation Network & NEWEA Innovation Pavillion
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Monday, January 22
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10:30am The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China
2pm Additive manufacturing, fusion technology, wolves and places I like to hike
3pm Awareness and Action: Conversations with Joi Ito and Tenzin Priyadarshi
4pm An Integrative Approach To Predicting Plant-Insect Interactions Under Future Climates
4pm Mellon Seminar- Digitizing Human Rights, Archiving Activism
6pm Uniting for Refugees: Marking One Year Since President Trump's Travel Ban
7pm How Democracies Die
7pm Screening documentary Before the flood
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Tuesday, January 23 through January 25
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IAP Class Waste management 101: Where Does Our Trash Go?
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Tuesday, January 23
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12pm The dark side of the networked public sphere: How the right-wing is (ab)using the internet's affordances
12:30pm SolSmart Resources Brown Bag
2pm Starr Forum: The Uncondemned
4:30pm Rituals of Resilience
5:30pm The "Woman Inventor" as a Political Tool of Female Suffragists: Patents, Invention, and Civil Rights in 19th-Century United States
6pm Special Screening of "Ocean Frontiers III - Leaders in Ocean Stewardship & the New Blue Economy”
6:30pm Cities of the Future (Brought to you by Alley powered by Verizon)
7pm Libertarians on the Prairie
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
DIY Solar Systems for Puerto Rico and Other Emergencies or Disasters
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Monday, January 15
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CES 2018 Recap: AI & Robotics Trends to Watch
Monday, January 15
2:00 PM EST
Webinar
Presented By: Steve Crowe, Managing Editor, Robotics Trends
Eugene Demaitre, Senior Web Editor, Robotics Business Review
Join Robotics Business Review on January 15 for an in-depth recap of all things artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics from CES 2018, the world’s largest consumer technology show. Robotics Business Review will be at CES walking through the marketplaces for AI, drones, robotics and self-driving cars, and this webcast will provide a detailed recap of the latest products and top trends from Las Vegas.This webcast will also recap our half-day AI conference at CES called “Artificial Intelligence: Insights into Our Future” that examines recent developments, current applications, and concerns about AI. The conference brings together industry experts, including NVIDIA’s Deepu Talla, Kindred’s George Babu, iRobot’s Chris Jones, Anki’s Andrew Stein and more, who will analyze the promise and limitations of AI technologies and applications. Three main takeaways from this webcast include:
Hear from leading AI experts about AI's impact on various industries, including robotics, self-driving cars and more
Best robots and drones from CES 2018
AI and robotics trends to watch for 2018
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Tuesday, January 16 - Friday, January 19
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The Common Purpose Global Leader Experience
Tuesday, January 16 - Friday, January 19
Harvard, 59 Shepard Street, Cambridge
The Common Purpose Global Leader Experience will be hosted during Harvard Wintersession, 16-19 January 2018. The program is free and open to students enrolled at Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Babson College, Tufts University and Boston University.
The four-day program is a unique opportunity for students (undergraduate and graduate) to develop their leadership skills and Cultural Intelligence (CQ) – the ability to cross boundaries and thrive in multiple cultures. Participants are also given the opportunity to meet and network with leaders from the private, public, and non-profit sectors in Boston such as: the Boston Police Department, The Boston Foundation, Resilient Coders and Credly.
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Tuesday, January 16
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IACS Symposium: "The Digital Doctor: Health Care in an Age of AI and Big Data"
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
WHERE Harvard, Science Center, Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Conferences, Education, Ethics, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS) & The Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; The Harvard Data Science Initiative (HDSI)
COST Free and open to the public; registration required.
TICKET WEB LINK https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eet0oetvbc0f1143&oseq=&c=&ch=
CONTACT INFO computefest@seas.harvard.edu or nrbaker@seas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Medicine and health care, like other aspects of life in the 21st century, are being reshaped by computational science, big data, and information technology. As these innovations promise to improve health and prolong lives, however, they also raise sticky economic and ethical questions. This symposium will explore these questions and more.
LINK computefest.seas.harvard.edu
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Leadership in a Time of Innovation - Free Webinar
Tuesday, January 16
9:00am to 10:00am
Join us on January 16, 2018, at 9 am EST for the exclusive free webinar, Leadership in a Time of Innovation. In this webinar, you'll learn three practical strategies to help you become a more effective leader who inspires innovation and creates an innovative culture within your organization.
This one-hour session will be hosted by MIT's Dr. David Niño, Senior Lecturer in the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program and faculty instructor for the MIT Professional Education Digital Plus Programs course, The Intersection of Leadership and Innovation.
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Research Opportunities at the Intersection of Economics, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrencies
Tuesday, January 16
10:30AM-11:30AM
MIT, Building E51-372, 2 Ames Street, Cambridge
Christian Catalini, Theodore T. Miller Career Development Professor
The talk will provide an overview of how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies may affect the rate and direction of innovation, market structure and competition between digital platforms, reputation systems and auctions, the provision of public goods and software protocols, data ownership, privacy and licensing.
It will also give an overview of the recently launched MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab, and of potential research projects at the intersection of economics, innovation and computer science.
Contact: Christian Catalini, Catalini@mit.edu
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Who Owns Your Ideas and How Does Creativity Happen?
Tuesday, January 16
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East A (Room 2036, second floor), 585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018/luncheon/01/Lobel#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018/luncheon/01/Lobel
A Conversation with Professor Orly Lobel on her new book You Don’t Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie’s Dark Side (Norton)
Orly Lobel, award-winning author of Talent Wants to be Free and the Don Weckstein Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, delves into the legal disputes between toy powerhouses to expose the ways IP is used as a sledgehammer in today’s innovation battles. YOU DON’T OWN ME is not just a thrilling story of business battles and courtroom drama, but the book brings a critical eye to our ideas about the American Dream, the rise of feminism, consumer psychology and the making of icons alongside betrayal, spying, and racism in the courtroom. Deeply researched, Lobel interviewed the major players, including the executives behind questionable corporate and legal strategies and the controversial appellate court judge Alex Koziniski. With compelling Michael Lewis style storytelling, Lobel shows that our current markets too often allow anticompetitive practices by the enforcement of draconian assignment contracts, NDAs, and covenant not to competes against employees and by overly expansive definitions of copyright, trademark and trade secrecy.
About Orly
Orly Lobel is the award winning author several books and numerous articles. She is a prolific speaker, commentators and scholar who travels the world with an impact on policy and industry. Her book Talent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids and Free Riding (Yale University Press 2013), is the winner of several prestigious awards, including Gold Medal Axiom Best Business Books 2014, Gold Medal Independent Publisher’s Award 2014, the 2015 Gold Medal of Next Generation Indie Books and Winner of the International Book Awards for Best Business Book. In 2016 Lobel was invited to Washington DC to present Talent Wants to be Free at the White House, a meeting which resulted in a presidential call for action.
Lobel is the author as well as two earlier books about employment and labor law and economics and numerous articles on behavioral law and economics, innovation policy, intellectual property, human capital, the sharing economy and the rise of the digital platform, regulation and governance. Lobel is the Don Weckstein Professor of Law and founding member of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Markets at the University of San Diego. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Lobel’s interdisciplinary research is published widely in the top journals in law, economics, and psychology. Lobel is currently writing a book about innovation battles and how policy has shaped the dynamics of competition and play in the toy industry forthcoming 2017.
Lobel’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, The Sunday Times, Globe and Mail, Marketplace, Huffington Post, CNBC, and CNN Money. Her scholarship and research has received significant grants and awards, including from the ABA, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Fulbright, and the Searle-Kauffman Foundation.
She is a member of the American Law Institute and served as a fellow at Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She serves on the advisory boards of the San Diego Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, the Employee Rights Center, and the Oxford Handbook on Governance.
A world traveler, Lobel has lectured at Yale, Harvard, University of California San Diego, University of San Diego and Tel Aviv University and is a frequent speaker at top research institutions, industry, and government forums throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. A celebrated author and scholar, Lobel’s writing has won several awards including the Thorsnes Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship and the Irving Oberman Memorial Award. In 2013, Lobel was named one of the 50 Sharpest Minds in Research by The Marker Magazine. Lobel lives in La Jolla, California, with her husband and three daughters.
Lobel is regularly interviewed featured in the nation’s leading media outlets, journals and radio, such as the New York Times, BusinessWeek, and NPR’s Marketplace. She is a sought after public speaker and is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review. Recently, she was invited to speak at leading associations and companies, such as Intel, Samsung, AlphaSights, ERE. Lobel is also active on Twitter and is a regular blogger. In May 2015, Lobel gave a fascinating TEDx talk entitled Secrets & Sparks about the expansion of secrecy and intellectual property in contemporary markets.
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Using Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Funds for Low-Income Solar
Tuesday, January 16
1-2pm ET
Webinar
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) assists low-income families with their home energy bills. LIHEAP serves as an emergency bill assistance service, but state LIHEAP administrators have flexibility to use some program funds to reduce long-term dependence on energy assistance. Some argue that these LIHEAP funds should be used for low-income solar. This webinar will feature Jason Edens, the Director of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, which is exploring models for using LIHEAP funds for low-income participation in community solar projects. It will also feature the Maryland Office of Home Energy Programs Director Bill Freeman, who has extensive experience with solar and energy assistance programs.
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Panel on Careers in Science Policy
Tuesday, January 16
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 68-181, 31 Ames Street, Cambridge
Dan Pomeroy, PhD, Managing Director and Senior Policy Advisor, MIT
Hannah Lewis-Rosenblum, MS, Entomological Identifier/Plant Health Safeguarding Specialist, USDA
Larisa Rudenko, PhD, DABT, Senior Advisor for Biotechnology, FDA
Sheldon Krimsky, PhD, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts
We have a diverse set of panelists spanning a range of careers in science policy to illustrate the challenges that arise at the intersection of areas such as research, biotechnology, and ethics with policy. Join us to hear about what a career in science policy entails, and to learn about how our panelists made the transition from the bench to where they are today.
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The Fight Before the Flood: Rural Protest and the Debate Over Boston’s Quabbin Reservoir, 1919-1927
Tuesday, January 16
5:15PM
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston
The Massachusetts Historical Society hosts Jeffrey Egan, University of Connecticut, with comment by Karl Haglund, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Light supper dinner will follow. Free and open to the public.
Boston Environmental History Seminar
Contact Name: seminars@masshist.org
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Climate Science 101: Warmer Things
Tuesday, January 16
5:30PM-06:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
An overview of climate science: what comprises climate, relevant factors in climate system, how climate has changed in the past versus how it is changing now.
Ellen Lalk, Meghana Ranganathan - Physicist
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Public Meeting on National Grid's Fracked Gas Pipeline
Tuesday, January 16
6 PM - 7:30 PM
Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library
We want a big turnout. Come learn more about this pipeline project.
National Grid plans to build a one-mile intermediate-pressure pipeline in the Back Bay/South End to provide gas to new buildings that are currently under construction. The pipeline will start at Berkeley Street in the South End and end on Belvidere Street in the Back Bay. To date there has been limited public input regarding this pipeline, in spite of multiple requests by BCEC for a more robust public process before the City approved this new fossil-fuel infrastructure. In response to growing opposition to this pipeline, this public meeting is being held by the City's Office of Neighborhood Services and co-sponsored by the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) in order to have National Grid answer questions from NABB, BCEC, and interested residents. Sought are further details about the project, facts about the pipeline's necessity and worthiness, and information as to how the City reconciles the effect more gas infrastructure will have on climate change and our carbon footprint with the City's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/869817903191344/
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Climate Change: The Nexus of Economic Change
Tuesday, January 16
6:30PM-07:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street
In order to address climate change, policy makers must be able to address the economics of implementation, risk uncertainty, and information assessment. This session will give a brief overview of these tools and their relationship to the foundation of climate policy.
Sika Gazanku - SM Candidate in Technology and Policy, Anthony Fratto Olyler
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How Healing Works
Tuesday, January 16
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
In How Healing Works, Dr. Wayne Jonas lays out a revolutionary new way to approach injury, illness, and wellness. Dr. Jonas explains the biology of healing and the science behind the discovery that 80 percent of healing can be attributed to the mind-body connection and other naturally occurring processes. Jonas details how the healing process works and what we can do to facilitate our own innate ability to heal. Dr. Jonas's advice will change how we consume health care, enabling us to be more in control of our recovery and lasting wellness. Simple line illustrations communicate statistics and take-aways in a memorable way. Stories from Dr. Jonas's practice and studies further illustrate his method for helping people get well and stay well after minor and major medical events.
About the Author
WAYNE JONAS, MD, is a widely published investigator, practicing family physician, and professor of medicine at Georgetown University and at Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He is also a retired lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps of the United States Army. Dr. Jonas was the director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 1999 and led the World Health Organization's Collaborative Center for Traditional Medicine. Prior to that, he served as the director of medical research fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He now advises national and international organizations on ways to implement evidence-based healing practices in their medical systems.
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Mental Health Inc: How Corruption, Lax Oversight and Failed Reforms Endanger Our Most Vulnerable Citizens
Tuesday, January 16
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
A no-holds-barred call to action for America’s broken mental health system, by a prize-winning investigative journalist. This is a comprehensive look at mental health abuses and dangerous, ineffective practices, pointing toward a system for effective and compassionate care.
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Wednesday, January 17
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, January 17
7:30 AM – 9:00 AM EST
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston
Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion, and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 9:00 am.
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Gonson Daytime Lecture Series: Winter 2018: Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya
Wednesday, January 17
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $5
Enliven your Wednesday mornings with stimulating presentations at the Cambridge Center in Harvard Square! Presenters will focus on a wide range of topics, from the environment, to personal finance, to wellness.
Mary Rowe | Expedition Advisor, Earthwatch Institute
In sub-Saharan Africa, elephants frequently raid and damage crops. By partnering with local farmers in southeast Kenya, researchers will help to mitigate human-wildlife conflict while conserving the land and its resources using the latest methods in sustainable agriculture and forestry. Join us to discover how volunteers work to survey elephants’ behaviors, animal biodiversity, and the socio-economic status of local households in order to better create climate-smart agriculture.
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Error Correction Code (ECC) Sequencing – Can DNA Sequencing Be Error-free?
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, 1 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wyss Institute, 5th Floor, Rm. 521, Center for Life Sciences Building, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Host: Peng Yin, Ph.D., Core Faculty, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Professor, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
SPEAKER(S) Yanyi Huang, Sc.D., Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering; Principal Investigator, Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC); Principal Investigator, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics (ICG); Principal Investigator, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences; Adjunct Professor of Analytical Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University
DETAILS Eliminating errors in next-generation DNA sequencing has proved challenging. Please join Professor Yanyi Huang as he discusses his team’s newly developed error-correction code (ECC) sequencing, a method to greatly improve sequencing accuracy. Combining fluorogenic sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) with an information theory–based error-correction algorithm, ECC embeds redundancy in sequencing reads by creating three orthogonal degenerate sequences, generated by alternate dual-base reactions. This is similar to encoding and decoding strategies that have proved effective in detecting and correcting errors in information communication and storage. Professor Huang’s work has shown that, when combined with a fluorogenic SBS chemistry with raw accuracy of 98.1 percent, ECC sequencing provides single-end, error-free sequences up to 200 bp. ECC approaches should enable accurate identification of extremely rare genomic variations in various applications in biology and medicine.
Editorial Comment: I read an article once about mapping the 64 codons of DNA to the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching and am wondering whether error correction methods for DNA coding has some relevance for error correction in computer coding. But then, what do I know?
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SPH PUBLIC HEALTH FORUM—Crises, Calamities, and Chaos: How Public Health Can Improve Response to Emerging Threats Wherever They Arise
Wednesday, January 17
4:30 pm to 6:00 pm
BU, 72 East Concord Street, Hiebert Lounge, Boston
Live streaming available
Speakers Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Rear Admiral, US Public Health Service
From Ebola to Zika, from hurricanes to opioids, threats to health make headlines and challenge our public health response. Lessons learned from CDC’s engagements around the world, and in our backyard, suggest a role for everyone in mitigating risk and building resilience.
Contact Email eventsph@bu.edu
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Spectre and Meltdown: Recent Security Flaws
Wednesday, January 17
5:15 PM to 6:15 PM
Refreshments: 5:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Moderator: Sam Madden Panelists: Adam Belay, Srini Devadas, Joel Emer , CSAIL
This panel will discuss the recently disclosed Spectre and Meltdown security flaws. These flaws potentially affect billions of devices, including processors built as far back as 1995. The panelists will describe what the flaws are, how they were exploited by the researchers, and what the effects of an exploit could be. Panelists will also discuss how these flaws could potentially be patched, and what this means for computer architects and system software developers going forward.
Contact: Victoria Palay, palay@csail.mit.edu
Editorial Comment: These security flaws are in most of our computers. Might be good to know about them.
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Climate feedbacks and tipping points
Wednesday, January 17
5:30PM-06:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Embedded within the climate system are many nonlinear feedback systems and possible tipping points in the climate system, making prediction of future climate difficult. We will discuss such mechanism of the climate system, Earth system models; role of clouds, oceans, land cover, and biology in the climate system, and how extreme weather relates to climate change.
Ali Ramadhan, Warittha Panasawatwong
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Data Science for Social Good and Public Policy (in Boston)
Wednesday, January 17
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Smith & Wollensky @ Boston's Castle, 101 Arlington Street, Chef's Room, Boston
Join us in Boston for a special lecture by Rayid Ghani, Director of the Center for Data Science & Public Policy and a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policyand the Computation Institute.
Can data science help reduce police violence and misconduct? Can it help prevent children from getting lead poisoning? Can it help cities better target limited resources to improve lives of citizens? We're all aware of the hype around data science and related buzzwords right now but turning this hype into social impact takes cross-disciplinary training, teams, and methods. In this talk, I'll discuss lessons learned from our work at University of Chicago while working on dozens of data science projects over the past few years with non-profits and governments on high-impact public policy and social challenges in criminal justice, public health, education, economic development, public safety, workforce training, and urban infrastructure.
The evening will conclude with a reception where attendees can continue the conversation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rayid Ghani is the Director of the Center for Data Science & Public Policy and a Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy and the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago. Rayid is a reformed computer scientist and wanna-be social scientist, but mostly just wants to increase the use of data-driven approaches in solving large public policy and social challenges. Among other areas, Rayid works with governments and non-profits in policy areas such as health, criminal justice, education, public safety, economic development, and urban infrastructure. Rayid is also passionate about teaching practical data science and started the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship at UChicago that trains computer scientists, statisticians, and social scientists from around the world to work on data science problems with social impact. Rayid also teaches data science and machine learning class at Harris and is actively involved in the joint Computer Science and Public Policy Masters program at the University of Chicago.
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Doors Open: 5:30 pm
Program: 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Reception: 7:00 – 8:00 pm
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Google Brain: Neural Networks with Tangent
Wednesday, January 17
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
CIC Cambridge, 5th floor, Havana, One Broadway, 5th floor, Cambridge
Join Boston Data Science & Data Women on Wednesday, January 17 in Kendall, to hear Alex Wiltschko talk about Tangent, a new open-source Python library developed by the Google Brain team.
This talk is being hosted by Edlitera in Kendall Square.
About the talk
Tangent is a new, free, and open-source Python library for automatic differentiation. In contrast to existing machine learning libraries, Tangent is a source-to-source system, consuming a Python function f and emitting a new Python function that computes the gradient of f. This allows the user to write plain Python code, with native loops and conditionals (like in PyTorch), but benefit from ahead-of-time optimizations (like in TensorFlow). Because Tangent returns pure Python code, this allows much better user visibility into gradient computations, as well as easy user-level editing and debugging of gradients.
About the speaker
Alex Wiltschko is a research scientist at Google Brain, focusing on building more flexible machine learning software systems, and also applications of machine learning to biology. He has helped build the machine learning libraries torch-autograd and Tangent, which are used in both research and production in industry and academia. He completed his PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard, focusing on quantifying behavior and body language using depth cameras and nonparametric time-series modeling.
About the sponsor
Edlitera is a technology company on a mission to help people future-proof themselves by learning the most in-demand and up-to-date skills in programming and data science. We bring Ivy League standards and quality to professional education, and we are the only bootcamp whose courses are being taught in Harvard's lecture halls.
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The Politics of Climate Change
Wednesday, January 17
6:30PM-07:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
A global perspective
Political values and priorities drive climate policy. In this session, we will use examples from the European Union and African countries to highlight the very real challenges of designing effective climate policy.
Sika Gazanku - SM Candidate in Technology and Policy, Anthony Fratto Olyler
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Glocal Challenge Finals: Improving Transportation in Cambridge
Wednesday, January 17
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
EF Education First, 2 Education Circle, Cambridge
On behalf of EF Education First, the City of Cambridge and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, you are invited to the sixth annual Glocal Challenge Finals on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.
This year’s Glocal Challenge asks students to improve transportation in Cambridge by 2020.
The Glocal Challenge (global + local = glocal) is a contest-based program facilitated by EF Education First and the City of Cambridge to help high school students learn 21st century skills, gain global competence and receive real-world experience in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math).
After eight weeks of expert-led workshops, students will pitch their ideas to judges and compete to win seed money from the City of Cambridge, paid summer internships to implement their projects, and free scholarships to Amsterdam and Berlin for the EF Global Student Leaders Summit.
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Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself
Wednesday, January 17
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event is free; no tickets are required.
Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned psychiatrist and author MARK EPSTEIN for a discussion of his latest book, Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself.
About Advice Not Given
Our ego, and its accompanying sense of nagging self-doubt as we work to be bigger, better, smarter, and more in control, is one affliction we all share. And, while our ego claims to have our best interests at heart, in its never-ending pursuit of attention and power, it sabotages the very goals it sets to achieve. In Advice Not Given, Dr. Mark Epstein reveals how Buddhism and Western psychotherapy, two traditions that developed in entirely different times and places and, until recently, had nothing to do with each other, both identify the ego as the limiting factor in our well-being, and both come to the same conclusion: When we give the ego-free reign, we suffer; but when it learns to let go, we are free.
With great insight, and in a deeply personal style, Epstein offers readers a how-to guide that refuses a quick fix, grounded in two traditions devoted to maximizing the human potential for living a better life. Using the Eightfold Path, eight areas of self-reflection that Buddhists believe necessary for enlightenment, as his scaffolding, Epstein looks back productively on his own experience and that of his patients. While the ideas of the Eightfold Path are as old as Buddhism itself, when informed by the sensibility of Western psychotherapy, they become something more: a roadmap for spiritual and psychological growth, a way of dealing with the intractable problem of the ego. Breaking down the wall between East and West, Epstein brings a Buddhist sensibility to therapy and a therapist's practicality to Buddhism. Speaking clearly and directly, he offers a rethinking of mindfulness that encourages people to be more watchful of their ego, an idea with a strong foothold in Buddhism but now for the first time applied in the context of psychotherapy.
Our ego is at once our biggest obstacle and our greatest hope. We can be at its mercy or we can learn to mold it. Completely unique and practical, Epstein's advice can be used by all—each in his or her own way—and will provide wise counsel in a confusing world. After all, as he says, "Our egos can use all the help they can get."
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You Don't Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side
Wednesday, January 17
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
When Carter Bryant began designing what would become the billion-dollar line of Bratz dolls, he was taking time off from his job at Mattel, where he designed outfits for Barbie. Later, back at Mattel, he sold his concept for Bratz to rival company MGA. Law professor Orly Lobel reveals the colorful story behind the ensuing decade-long court battle.This entertaining and provocative work pits audacious MGA against behemoth Mattel, shows how an idea turns into a product, and explores the two different versions of womanhood, represented by traditional all-American Barbie and her defiant, anti-establishment rival―the only doll to come close to outselling her. In an era when workers may be asked to sign contracts granting their employers the rights to and income resulting from their ideas―whether conceived during work hours or on their own time―Lobel’s deeply researched story is a riveting and thought-provoking contribution to the contentious debate over creativity and intellectual property.
About the Author
Orly Lobel is an award-winning author and a renowned legal scholar. A graduate of Harvard University, she was recently named one of the top minds in research by The Market Magazine. Her books and research are critically acclaimed and have been featured in top media including the New York Times. the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, Bloomberg, NPR and TED. A dynamic speaker and thought leader, Lobel is a world traveler. She lives and teaches in La Jolla, California.
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Mapping for Civic Activism
Wednesday, January 17
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
CIC, 101 Main Street 14th Floor, Cloud City Room, Cambridge
Check in at security and take the elevators up to the 14th floor.
For our first Maptime of the new year, Kent Johnson will teach us about mapping for civic activism.
Cambridge, Somerville and Boston all maintain open data portals with a wealth of information about each municipality. Since the launch of the Cambridge Open Data Portal (http://www.cambridgema.gov/departments/opendata) in 2015, Kent has been exploring the Cambridge portal, using open-source tools to create maps that inform civic engagement. In this talk he will show maps and associated analyses based on available Cambridge data and talk about the challenges of using City data.
Kent Johnson is a lifetime software developer who loves maps and data. In collaboration with other residents, he uses open data to answer topical questions about civic life. He feels lucky that he has found a way to use his hobby interest and programming skills to influence public policy.
Thanks to CIC (https://cic.com/) for donating space to this meetup
Maptime is, rather literally, time for mapmaking. Our mission is to open the doors of cartographic possibility to anyone interested by creating a time and space for collaborative learning, exploration, and map creation using mapping tools and technologies.
This open learning environment for all levels and degrees of knowledge offers intentional support for the beginner. Maptime is simultaneously flexible and structured, creating space for workshops, ongoing projects with a shared goal, and independent/collaborative work time.
Inspiration for Maptime comes from both hack nights and knitting circles. Both are models of spaces for people to create and learn together. Our goal is to provide this space with an open heart and without pretension. You can bring your own projects to work on, or just hang out and socialize or ask questions. Some people are experts, and some people are just getting started, but all of us are learning, so why not do it together?
Maptime is hands-on, so don't forget to bring your laptop!
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The State of Our Union Is Wrong
Wednesday, January 17
7:30 PM - 9 PM
First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain
In the weeks leading up to the State of the Union, join us for "The State of the Union Is Wrong: A Climate Prebuttal with Bill McKibben." Author and professor Juliet Schor will moderate a conversation with author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben about the climate movement and what we can do in the face of backward climate and energy policy at the federal level. Ticket sales support Better Future Project and 350 Mass!
We will be holding a space-limited reception with Bill prior to this event. If you are interested in learning more or attending this event, please visit http://www.betterfutureproject.org/evening_with_mckibben or email Beth@betterfutureproject.org
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Thursday, January 18
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ETS: Grid Resiliency & Reliability - The Clean Energy Solution
Thursday, January 18
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EST
Brown Rudnick, 1 Financial Center, Boston
Cash: $0 – $50
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) is expected to rule on the US Department of Energy’s proposed rulemaking on grid resiliency (focused on whether steps need to be taken to support the continued operation of coal and nuclear plants to ensure grid reliability and resiliency) in early January 2018. This ruling will determine the next steps in the debate about whether and what kind of additional resources are needed to keep the lights on across the US.
NECEC’s Emerging Trends Series event will highlight how clean energy has been providing customers with resilient and reliable electricity service and how it can do more, and do it better and more cost-effectively than traditional solutions.
Please join the NECEC team, and speakers from the industry, regulatory community and more to discuss how microgrids, energy storage, distributed generation, demand response and energy efficiency are proven solutions to the challenge of improving grid resiliency and reliability.
Confirmed speakers include:
Janet Gail Besser, Executive Vice President, NECEC (Moderator)
Greg Geller, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, EnerNOC
Maria Duaime Robinson, Director, Wholesale Markets, Advanced Energy Economy, The business voice of advanced energy
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Inspired by Antiquity: The Future of Durable, Sustainable Infrastructure
Thursday, January 18
11:00am to 12:00pm
Webinar at http://cshub.mit.edu/news/public-webinars
The Masic Lab at MIT is working to unlock the secrets of ancient materials including Roman concrete and pigments such as Mayan and Egyptian blues. In this webinar, Admir Masic, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), will discuss what engineers could learn from his lab’s “antiqua-inspired methodology”-- where ancient technologies, practices, and techniques guide the development of future materials -- about constructing longer-lasting modern infrastructure with lowered environmental impacts.
The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) webinar series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving, and construction communities, as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policy-makers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure. Videos of past webinars are archived to the CSHub YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/CSHubMIT
Webinars are free and open to the public. Presentations are geared toward a lay audience.
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Get Up. Stand Up! History of Activism at MIT via a Glance at the Institute Archives
Thursday, January 18
2:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 2-139, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
MIT students have been involved with activism for decades. While the most well-recorded protests are those of the 1960s and 1970s against the Vietnam War, MIT students have stood up for what they believe in throughout the Institute's history. In addition, students of color, LGBTQ students, Black students, and international students have all had to establish their claims to equal space in the Institute. The Institute Archives and Special Collections preserves documentation of the history of the Institute, including many activist efforts by students, faculty and staff. Join us to learn about the struggle for equity and inclusion inside and outside of MIT.
Contact: Alena McNamara, amcnamar@mit.edu
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Finding Gene Info & More: A Tour of the NCBI "Omics" Network
Thursday, January 18
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 14N-132 (DIRC), 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) family of databases are filled with information for molecular level bioscience research. Class attendees will learn about the organization and interconnectedness of NCBI databases while focusing on several NCBI specific databases. The session is a hands-on practicum and an excellent starting point for people who are new to or curious about bioinformatics research tools.
Contact: Courtney Crummett, CRUMMETT@MIT.EDU
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New Forms to Settle Old Scores? Worker Centers and Their Recent Trajectories
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Austin Hall, Room 111 West, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Janice Fine, Research and Strategy Director at the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, Rutgers University;
Natalicia Tracy, Executive Director, Brazilian Worker Center
TICKET INFO Free and Open to the Public
DETAILS Part of the James Green Memorial Forum in honor of the distinguished labor historian, this program will explore the fate of worker centers in the Trump era.
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Predicting future climate
Thursday, January 18
5:30PM-06:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
When weather forecasting is difficult enough
The weather in a few days can be difficult to predict, especially with certain processes such as thunderstorms. So how can we trust climate projections over several decades? We'll discuss the similarities and differences between predicting next week's weather and the climate in 2100 and how they allow us to make confident climate projections.
Ali Ramadhan, Warittha Panasawatwong
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The Inversion Factor, How to Thrive in the IOT Economy
Thursday, January 18
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
MIT Stata Center, Room 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Pre-registration is required at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/the-inversion-factor-iot-economy-sanjay-sarma-linda-bernardi/
Cost: $25 Members; $45 Non-Members: $10 Students; $5 Student Members
(In-Auditorium or Live Stream)
The First 50 Registrants will Receive a Copy of the Book!The Inversion Factor Book Cover
This event will be live streamed - select the live stream ticket option @ checkout if you would like to watch the event online.
If you registered for the live stream, you'll be emailed a link & password between 5:30PM & 6:00PM on 1/18.
A Fireside Chat with Authors Linda Bernardi and Sanjay Sarma
The Inversion Factor, How to Thrive in the IOT EconomyIn the past, companies found success with a product-first orientation; they made a thing that did a thing. The Inversion Factor explains why the companies of today and tomorrow will have to abandon the product-first orientation. Rather than asking “How do the products we make meet customer needs?” companies should ask “How can technology help us reimagine and fill a need?” Zipcar, for example, instead of developing another vehicle for moving people from point A to point B, reimagined how people interacted with vehicles. Zipcar inverted the traditional car company mission.
The authors, Linda Bernardi, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Element AI, and Prof. Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning and Fred Fort Flowers (1941) and Daniel Fort Flowers (1941) Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and Managing Partner IoTask LLC, will talk about how the introduction of “smart” objects connected by the Internet of Things signals fundamental changes for business.
The IoT, where real and digital coexist, is powering new ways to meet human needs. Companies that know this include giants like Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Google, Tesla, and Apple, as well as less famous companies like Tile, Visenti, and Augury. The Inversion Factor offers a roadmap for businesses that want to follow in their footsteps.
Event Schedule
5:30 - 6:00pm - Registration and Networking
6:00 - 8:00pm - Welcome & Fireside Chat
8:00 - 9:00pm - Networking
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Conversations on the Edge: Immigration
Thursday, January 18
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EST)
Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Spiegel Auditorium, 56 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $5 - $20
Join us for a welcome reception with refreshments and light snacks at 5:30pm.
What do we mean when we say, “America is a nation of immigrants”? According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants make up over 13% of the United States population, with over one million immigrants migrating to the US each year. In this conversation, grassroots organizers and legal experts will explore the issues that affect immigrants in the United States today, the policy that affects immigration reform, border regulation, and paths to citizenship, and how local organizations can empower immigrants to participate in their local communities and civic life.
PANELISTS
Eva Millona | Executive Director, MIRA
Eva A. Millona is Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), the state’s largest organization representing the foreign born, and co-chair of the National Partnership for New Americans, the lead national organization focusing on immigrant integration. She is also the co-chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council for Refugees and Immigrants and serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Sabrineh Ardalan | Assistant Director, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program
Sabrineh Ardalan is assistant director at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. At the clinic, Ardalan supervises and trains law students working on applications for asylum and other humanitarian protections, as well as appellate litigation and policy advocacy. She has authored amicus briefs submitted to the Board of Immigration Appeals, as well as to the federal district courts and circuit courts of appeal on cutting-edge issues in U.S. asylum law.
Elena Noureddine | Esq., Attorney at PAIR Project
Elena specializes in removal defense, criminal immigration, asylum, and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. She received her B.A. in Political Science and Criminology from the University of Florida and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law. In law school, Elena participated in Boston University’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, representing clients in USCIS interviews and before the Executive Office for Immigration Review. She focused on the representation of juveniles facing deportation who, because of their age, are often neglected for services and go unrepresented.
MODERATOR: Madeline Choi Cronin | Immigration Lawyer
Attorney Madeline Cronin has practiced U.S. immigration law since 1994, concentrating in business, family and deportation. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and serves as a Volunteer Attorney with the Irish International Immigration Center (IIIC), and has served as an Asylum Pro Bono Volunteer with the Political Asylum Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project
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GeNES Konsultations: "The Future of E-Mobility"
Thursday, January 18
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
German Consulate General Boston, 3 Copley Place, Suite 500, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/genes-konsultations-the-future-of-e-mobility-tickets-40903658945
The first installment of our Konsultations series in the New Year will take place on Thursday, January 18, 2018. Consul General Ralf Horlemann will host a panel discussion with Philipp Robbel (Head of Safety and Validation at nuTonomy) and one other panelist TBA on the future of autonomous driving and electromobility. To join the lively conversation, reserve your spot now! Guests are invited to stay for German beer and wine after the panel discussion.
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Community Choice Energy Celebration
Thursday, January 18
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Nate Smith House, 155 Lamartine Street, Boston
In 2017, Boston City Council passed Community Choice Energy and Mayor Walsh signed it!
We're throwing an event to celebrate this victory with our fellow green justice and climate activist coalition groups. All are welcome!
There will be food and good company, and we'll talk about what's next for us to get the City to follow through on its implementation of CCE.
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Climate Policy and Local Initiatives
Thursday, January 18
6:30PM-07:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
The role of energy efficiency
Local governments are uniquely positioned to curb greenhouse gas emissions. This discussion will review policies and programs in energy efficiency and their important role in mitigating climate change.
Philip Eash-Gates - Director of Projects for CVAL Innovations
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Cambridge Forum: How Storytelling Shaped the History of the World
Thursday, January 18, 2018
7:00 PM
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cambridge Forum is pleased to present "How Storytelling Shaped the History of the World" featuring Martin Puchner, Harvard University professor, discussing his latest book, The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization.
About The Written World
In this groundbreaking book, Martin Puchner leads us on a remarkable journey through time and around the globe to reveal the powerful role stories and literature have played in creating the world we have today. Puchner introduces us to numerous visionaries as he explores sixteen foundational texts selected from more than four thousand years of world literature and reveals how writing has inspired the rise and fall of empires and nations, the spark of philosophical and political ideas, and the birth of religious beliefs. Indeed, literature has touched the lives of generations and changed the course of history.
At the heart of this book are works, some long-lost and rediscovered, that have shaped civilization: the first written masterpiece, the Epic of Gilgamesh; Ezra’s Hebrew Bible, created as scripture; the teachings of Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, and Jesus; and the first great novel in world literature, The Tale of Genji, written by a Japanese woman known as Murasaki. Visiting Baghdad, Puchner tells of Scheherazade and the stories of One Thousand and One Nights, and in the Americas we watch the astonishing survival of the Maya epic Popol Vuh. Cervantes, who invented the modern novel, battles pirates both real (when he is taken prisoner) and literary (when a fake sequel to Don Quixote is published). We learn of Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering work as a media entrepreneur, watch Goethe discover world literature in Sicily, and follow the rise in influence of The Communist Manifesto. We visit Troy, Pergamum, and China, and we speak with Nobel laureates Derek Walcott in the Caribbean and Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul, as well as the wordsmiths of the oral epic Sunjata in West Africa.
Throughout The Written World, Puchner’s delightful narrative also chronicles the inventions—writing technologies, the printing press, the book itself—that have shaped religion, politics, commerce, people, and history. In a book that Elaine Scarry has praised as “unique and spellbinding,” Puchner shows how literature turned our planet into a written world.
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Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20
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Alewife Corridor Resilience Symposium
Friday, January 19
6PM-9PM
Arlington Town Hall Auditorium
Keynote by Dr. Robert France* with reception
&
Saturday, January 20
8:00AM-4:30PM
Tufts University
Symposium w/ Panels, Roundtables, and Discussion
Cost: $0 - $15
*Dr. France's work focuses on integrating watershed planning & management, with environmental restoration and the renewal of urban and cultural sites. Edited and authored books include: Water Sensitive Planning and Design, Handbook of Regenerative Design, Integrated Urban Agriculture
Earthos Institute and Tufts University cordially invite you to the Alewife Corridor Collaborative Resilience Symposium. We hope you'll join us January 19th and 20th to help build resilience in the Boston area. We're interested in creating a more resilient Boston region, starting with the one of its most vulnerable corridors, the Alewife. LEARN MORE on the conference website.
When it comes to natural disasters, 2017 was one for the record books," as one weather station put it. From the recent national arctic freeze, to record breaking hurricane season, to the droughts and devastating wildfires in California? What about the Boston area? What are the vulnerabilities of this city (and region) and what we can do about them? Do you live in the Boston area and want to improve resilience here? Join us!
This extreme weather affects us all and touches on every aspect of our lives. It affects our health and safety, our ability to move around the city, our capacity to meet basic needs such as housing and food, our collective ability to respond to emergencies such as blizzards and hurricanes, our ability to build healthy and inclusive communities and optimize open space, as well as our relationships with ecosystems and other animals and plants.
In other words, it takes a large village to build adaptive resilience. It takes all of us! And while we build resilience, we need to engage and integrate economic development, housing, social justice and inclusion, open space, arts and culture, health biodiversity, community development, and infrastructure development, and water dynamics, all with unknown changing weather patterns.
This symposium will bring together the Alewife corridor communities of Belmont, Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, and Winchester to look at the Alewife flood plain in its entirety, to explore collaborative scenarios for tackling issues of resiliency and climate adaptation. Together, we will engage systems-based analysis with inclusive, multi-community and cross-disciplinaryapproaches.
We have limited space, and we are filling up fast, so please register now!
Organized by Earthos Institute and Tufts University in partnership with Sustainable Arlington
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Friday, January 19 through Sunday, January 21
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Bad Ideas Festival
Friday, January 19 through Sunday, January 21, 2018
MIT, East Campus Courtyard and Talbot Lounge, 3 Ames Street, Cambridge
Have you always wanted to design and build, but have been frustrated by silly requirements and "good engineering practice?" Well, fret no more and come to the 2018 Bad Ideas competition, where your ideas can really take wing and crash straight to the ground. The weekend will also be packed with numerous smaller events, so come by any time, grab some free food, and join us in a celebration of bad ideas. No skills required, tools and materials provided. Alumni and all members of the MIT community are expressly invited.
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Friday, January 19
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Sustainability & Energy Mixer
Friday, January 19
5:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
Uno Pizzeria & Grill, 280 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Northeastern University Sustainable Building Organization)
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Analyzing a Clean Energy Future
Friday, January 19
5:30PM-06:30PM
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
This section will explore the costs and competitiveness of various energy generation technologies (including fossil-fuels, renewables, nuclear, and newer technologies) in a low-carbon future and give participants tools to be able to analyze other technologies. Included in this discussion will be topics on intermittency, energy storage, and distributed generation.
Jessica Farrell
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Saturday, January 20
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Women's Solidarity March 2018 Boston - Cambridge
Saturday, January 20
1 PM - 4 PM
Cambridge Common Historic District, Cambridge
On January 20th 2018, We the People of New England will take to the streets again to show that Women's Rights are Human Rights and Human Rights are Women's Rights.
ALL ARE WELCOME. We encourage anybody and everybody who accepts the fact that women are people to join us.
Statement of Values:
As a still unnamed coalition of Massachusetts organizations, we would like to hold a rally on January 20th as equal partners, which means that every group has an equal voice at the table. Together, we will agree on a set of common values and vision for this event; these values include equality, inclusivity, and diversity. We will plan, advertise, and execute this event with a shared and consistent message reflecting those values. We welcome into this coalition all groups who share our values, and we aim to proactively invite groups and individuals from marginalized communities.
List of groups in the event:
New England Independence Campaign
Massachusetts Peace Action
Boston Persists
Indivisible Somerville
List of speakers:
Aleksandra Burger-Roy, NEIC
Michelle Cunha, Massachusetts Peace Action
If you would like to volunteer, please contact us.
PLEASE NOTE: As there has been some confusion on this point, we want to clarify that we are not the same group who organized the 2017 Boston Women's March. That event was organized by March Forward Massachusetts. We are not affiliated with them. We have contacted them but have not received a reply as of this time.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/862995990536253/
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Meet & Greet with author and former CIA informant Prof. Williams
Saturday, January 20
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
242 E Berkeley Street, 2nd Floor, Boston
Meet Professor Brian Glyn Williams on January 20th from 2pm-4pm at More Than Words in Boston for an author event with former CIA field analyst in Afghanistan and UMass Professor of Islamic History, Brian Glyn Williams, as he talks readers into the souring Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan to join a small team of Green Berets who mount horses and fight alongside an anti-Taliban warlord featured in his recent biography The Last Warlord. The Life and Legend of Dostum, the Afghan Warrior who Led U.S. Special Forces to Topple the Taliban Regime.
Williams, who lived for two summers in the plains and mountains of northern Afghanistan with the larger than life Mongol warlord, General Dostum, sheds a rare light on a covert CIA-Special Forces operation to leverage local anti-Taliban tribesman as a proxy "hooves on the ground" force to overthrow the entrenched Taliban regime in the "Afghan Graveyard of Empire" in the fall of 2001. Dr. Williams has interviewed the CIA Special Activities Division Operatives, Uzbek Mongol tribesmen, Green Beret Special Forces, and even Taliban Prisoners of War to recreate this classified story that few Americans are aware of.
The Last Warlord, is a story of fighting men from worlds as far apart as Alma Kansas and Khoja Doku Afghanistan who unite to fight the common Taliban and Al Qaeda enemy. There was no mass Operation Iraqi Freedom-style invasion of Afghanistan in , and just 300 American ground troops provided local anti-Taliban militias with the 'air artillery' precision guided bombings needed to overthrow the Taliban regime.
Most recently, Professor Williams has advised on the New Mexico set for the forthcoming Hollywood movie by Producer Jerry Bruckheimer 12 Strong, The Declassified Story of the Horse Soldiers which features the characters from his book. These include Chris Hemsworth playing the Green Beret Captain Mark Nutsch who led the American special forces.
Buy on Amazon or reserve your copy of the Last Warlord by calling More Than Words in Boston at 781-788-0035
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Agrotowns: ecological pathways to development
Saturday, January 20
3 PM - 5 PM
Center for Marxist Education, 550 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Presented by Donald Donato, CPUSA-Boston
Imagine living in a town surrounded by ecologically friendly farms; walkable, green, with world-class cultural and health institutions, and flexible working schedules. Envision a comfortable, rural town, devoted to growing the highest quality produce with the least amount of chemicals, packaging and transportation costs. These are the basic concepts an “agrotown”, which are rooted in the Communist Manifesto.
Thanks to the work of the late Richard Levins at the Harvard School of Public Health, and W.A. Halabi at the Center for Marxist Education, there is revived interest in agrotowns as a part of ongoing work on agroecology and sustainable development. Agrotowns were first developed in the USSR in the 1930s, but they were almost completely forgotten in recent decades. In a forthcoming article published by Routledge in International Critical Thought, the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Donald Donato has reviewed a selection of research and historical resources on agrotowns which explores early examples and provides evidence that they can play a vital role in the successful implementation of agroecology.
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Monday, January 22 & Tuesday, January 23
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NorthEast Water Innovation Network & NEWEA Innovation Pavillion
Monday, January 22 & Tuesday, January 23 – 8:00AM – 4:00PM
NEWEA Annual Conference - Boston
The Water Innovation Pavilion highlights a selection of the most promising technology businesses in the industry while championing an important dialogue about innovation. NEWEA & NEWIN and its Innovation Partners, create a unique program for entrepreneurs, investors, customers, and regulators.
The Pavilion features a selection of early and growth stage companies. Some of these companies are investor-backed and working with high profile customers in the industrial and municipal markets. We will also highlight new technologies from our more established companies.
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Monday, January 22
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The Impact of Media Censorship: Evidence from a Field Experiment in China
Monday, January 22
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
MIT, Building E51-149, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
David Yang (Stanford University)
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Additive manufacturing, fusion technology, wolves and places I like to hike
Monday, January 22
2:00pm to 3:00pm
MIT, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
A talk by Richard Nygren, Sandia National Laboratory
Richard Nygren has spent four decades developing advanced materials and components for fusion in R&D at four national labs, the Dept. of Energy and UCLA. Currently at Sandia’s Advanced Materials Laboratory on the University of New Mexico’s south campus, he is exploring the use of Advanced Manufacturing (AM+) processes as a transformative technology for manufacturing robust plasma facing components (PFCs) for future fusion reactors. The PFCs must survive in a fierce environment that includes very high heat loads, bombardment with energetic ions and damage from fusion neutrons. Additive Manufacturing, already widely used, is transforming the world’s products and introducing new materials, such as rigid lightweight parts for aerospace, bio-active interfaces for applications in medicine, and novel complex multi-material structures. The transformative capability of AM+ seems like the best approach to make some novel materials architectures for the high performance heat sinks in fusion systems. In this seminar, Richard offers ideas about future fusion reactors, explains the various technologies needed, and the potential for AM+ to enable innovations.*
In this talk, Richard mixes his own humor and slides of his treks in the wilderness. Students and faculty who visit the institutions where he has worked may appreciate his recommendations for side trips. As an avid outdoor adventurer, he sought wilderness accessible from his work sites and travels. He has hiked in the Sierra, Cascades, southwest canyons and once took a month-long solo arctic journey 400 miles down the Noatak River.
RE Nygren et al. 2016, A new vision of plasma facing components, Fus. Eng. & Des. 109–111 A 1, 192-202, invited oral presentation, Int. Symp, Fusion Nuclear Tech., Korea, October 2015
RE Nygren et al, 2017, Advanced Manufacturing – A Transformative Enabling Capability for Fusion, invited oral presentation, Int. Symp, Fusion Nuclear Tech., Kyoto Sept 2017 (in review)
RE Nygren et al. 2017, Development of Fusion Sub-components with Additive Manufacturing, https://www.burningplasma.org/activities/?article=FESAC TEC White Papers
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Awareness and Action: Conversations with Joi Ito and Tenzin Priyadarshi
Monday, January 22
3:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, E14 6th Floor Lecture Hall, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
What is awareness? Is self-awareness a “default” state or is it cultivated? Can it improve performance and wellbeing? What role does technology play in promoting or hindering awareness? Is there an ethical framework for our capacity to be aware? Can self-awareness be linked to happiness?
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An Integrative Approach To Predicting Plant-Insect Interactions Under Future Climates
Monday, January 22
4:00pm
Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall, Room 1080, 16 Divinity Avenue
Nathan Lemoine, Colorado State University
Abstract: Rapid climate warming will induce numerous changes in community structure and ecosystem function. Most, if not all, of these changes emerge from temperature-driven changes in individual physiology and demographics. Therefore, quantitatively integrating physiological, population, and community ecology provides an excellent framework for predicting how climate change will impact species interactions, biodiversity, and ecosystem function. In this talk, I apply this approach to predicting plant-insect interactions under rapid climate warming. Rising temperatures stimulate insect metabolic demands and reduce insect nitrogen assimilation efficiencies, leading to temperature-induced nitrogen limitation of insect herbivores. This pattern is robust across multiple taxonomic groups, and causes host plant-dependent impacts of climate change on insect performance. Incorporating such temperature-by-nutrient interactions into population models significantly alters our expectations of population stability and species coexistence under increased temperatures. Finally, I demonstrate how warming alters the role of predators in a community and stress the importance of integrating behavioral ecology into predictions of species interactions. This integrative framework provides a strong baseline from which to assess the impacts of other aspects of climate change, e.g. drought, on evolution, species interactions, population dynamics, and terrestrial ecosystem function.
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Mellon Seminar- Digitizing Human Rights, Archiving Activism
Monday, January 22
4:00 pm to 6:30 pm
BU, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
A discussion of several projects promoting ethics and activism with technology. Speakers include Alexa Koenig (UC Berkeley Human Rights Center), Anat Biletzki (B’Tselem), Peter Manning (Northeastern) and members of the Charlie Hebdo Archives at Harvard University.
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Uniting for Refugees: Marking One Year Since President Trump's Travel Ban
Monday, January 22
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
Boston groups unite for conversation and solidarity
Join Oxfam, Amnesty International, International Institute of New England, for an exhibit, panel discussion, and light reception
Featuring an acoustic performance by local musician Chadwick Stokes, of Dispatch and State Radio.
President Trump signed his first executive order travel ban in January 2017, slamming the door on refugees and triggering an outcry in support of refugees that continues today. Join Oxfam and fellow organizations for a panel discussion on the current state of the global refugee crisis and the US refugee resettlement program. You'll also learn how you can continue to stand up for refugees.
The panel will be followed by a light reception, featuring an acoustic performance by local musician Chadwick Stokes, of Dispatch and State Radio.
Guests are also encouraged to explore Oxfam and Amnesty International's "Museum Without a Home" exhibition–on display in the District Hall lounge from Monday, 1/22 through Friday, 1/26. Museum Without a Home highlights real items given to refugees by the communities that welcomed them. This free exhibit celebrates the solidarity communities around the world have shown towards people forced to flee their homes.
Program Includes:
Isra Chaker, Oxfam America
Jeff Thielman, International Institute of New England
Susan Finegan, Mintz Levin
Chadwick Stokes, musician (Dispatch, State Radio)
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How Democracies Die
Monday, January 22
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
A bracing, revelatory look at the demise of liberal democracies around the world–and a road map for rescuing our own. Harvard professors Levitsky and Ziblatt draw on decades of historical and global research to show how democracies perish and how ours can be saved.
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Screening documentary Before the flood
Monday, January 22
7:00pm to 8:00pm
MIT, Sid-Pac Seminar Room NW86, 70 Pacific Street, Cambridge
Features Leonardo DiCaprio traveling to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change
Directed by Fisher Stevens and produced by Leonardo di Caprio
Dinner will be served, bring your plate and utensils
RSVP here https://goo.gl/forms/8SYj9Jo5WozeukPx2
Event limited to 30 attendees
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Tuesday, January 23 through January 25
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IAP Class Waste management 101: Where Does Our Trash Go?
Tuesday, January 23 through January 25
1:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 4-265, 77 Massachusetts Avenuw, Cambridge
This 3-day session will run through the end-of-life treatment of all types of waste--trash, recycling, and compost--following their path from the trash receptacle to their ultimate end. By the end, you will walk away with a greater awareness and understanding of materials as they run through the disposal and recycling parts of their lifecycle.
Day 1 & 2 will focus on the ins and outs of waste streams in our MIT community and beyond. Speakers will address the situation regarding MIT waste, household waste and current waste research. Day 3 of this course will be an interactive brainstorming session on what it takes to bring innovative ideas to fruition in the waste space.
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Tuesday, January 23
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The dark side of the networked public sphere: How the right-wing is (ab)using the internet's affordances
Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Harvard, Location TBD
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018/luncheon/01/Kaiser#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018/luncheon/01/Kaiser
featuring Jonas Kaiser, Berkman Klein Affiliate
The right-wing is rising. Not only in the United States but also in Germany and other European countries. And the internet helped. Right-wing actors are active all over the internet, adapt to platforms, game the system, blur the lines between off- and online, and create their own virtual spaces. In addition, social media platforms like YouTube contribute involuntarily to the right-wing's reach and, perhaps, influence with their algorithms. But how bad is it? How should we deal with right-wing actors? And what would be a way forward?
About Jonas
Jonas Kaiser is a DFG postdoctoral fellow and affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and Associate Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. His research interest are the transformation of the networked public sphere, digital methods, and political communication. At the Berkman Klein Center he is working on his research project on the "right-wing web," in which he aims to understand how and where right-wing actors make use of the internet to connect online and form international networks. He wrote his doctoral thesis at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen about online climate change scepticism in Germany. His academic writing has been published in journals like International Journal of Communication, Communication and the Public, Media and Communication, or Environmental Communication as well as handbooks and edited volumes.
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SolSmart Resources Brown Bag
Tuesday, January 23
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 60 Temple Place, Boston
This brown bag is an opportunity for municipalities to learn about resources available through the national SolSmart program. Seven MAPC communities recently recieved technical assistance from a SolSmart advisor to help them streamline their solar permitting and zoning and to reduce solar soft costs in their communities.
This event will be hosted at MAPC. Please note that in case of a snow cancellation, we will host the brown bag on Thursday, January 25th instead.
You can find out more about SolSmart by visiting: https://www.solsmart.org/
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Starr Forum: The Uncondemned
Tuesday, January 23
2:00pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 182 Memorial Drive (REAR), Cambridge
About the film: "The Uncondemned" tells the gripping and world-changing story of a group of young international lawyers and activists who fought to make rape a crime of war, and the Rwandan women who came forward to testify and win justice where there had been none. Up until this point, rape had not been prosecuted as a war crime and was committed with impunity. A courtroom thriller and personal human drama, "The Uncondemned" beautifully interweaves the stories of the characters in this odyssey, leading to the trial at an international criminal court--and the results that changed the world of criminal justice forever.
Free & open to the public | Refreshments served
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu
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Rituals of Resilience
Tuesday, January 23
4:30pm to 6:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance Park 909, 1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Please join us for a presentation by Carie Hersh, Assistant Teaching Professor in Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University, for the first Spring semester event in the Contemporary Issues in Security and Resilience Studies speaker series
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The "Woman Inventor" as a Political Tool of Female Suffragists: Patents, Invention, and Civil Rights in 19th-Century United States
Tuesday, January 23
5:30 pm
Massachusetts Historical Society, Seminar Room, 1154 Boylston Street,Boston
Kara W. Swanson, Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law
After the Patent Act of 1790, patents played an important social and political role in the formation of American nationhood and citizenship. Part of a larger book project, this paper demonstrates how 19th-century American women mobilized patents granted to women as justification for civil rights claims. It identifies the creation of the “woman inventor” as a cultural trope and political weapon of resistance.
The Boston Seminar Series on the History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality—cosponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—offers scholars and students an opportunity to discuss new research on any aspect of the history of women and gender in the United States, without chronological limitation.
Boston Seminar on the History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
The seminar series includes four meetings that will take place during the 2016–2017 academic year, each revolving around the discussion of a precirculated paper.
Registration for the series is required.
Registered participants may access the papers online at the Massachusetts Historical Society website.
For more information, please call 617-495-8647 or e-mail seminars@masshist.org
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Special Screening of "Ocean Frontiers III - Leaders in Ocean Stewardship & the New Blue Economy"
Tuesday, January 23
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
New England Aquarium, IMAX Theatre, 1 Central Wharf, Boston
Our ocean use is growing rapidly, with massive new ships, soaring demand for offshore sand mining, and proposed wind energy development offshore. Our busy waters are also home to endangered whales and sea turtles, and support thriving fishing and recreation industries. It’s more important than ever that we plan ahead for responsible ocean growth.
Join us for a special screening of Ocean Frontiers III. This hopeful film explores the challenges at the heart of ocean conservation and development, presenting solutions from a range of people who are leading the way to a healthy and sustainable ocean future. Participate in the post-film conversation and learn how you can get involved.
FREE and open to the public!
This special film screening is in partnership with Boston Harbor Now, Green Fire Productions and the New England Aquarium and is part of Boston Harbor Now's "Working Port": A 21st-century Harbor: A two-day idea exchange on Boston’s working port.
TIMELINE
6:00pm – Light reception
6:30pm – Introduction & Ocean Frontiers III film
7:30pm – Panel discussion and audience Q&A on the new Northeast Ocean Plan
PANELISTS
The interactive panel discussion with regional experts includes:
Mark Cutter – Asst. Branch Chief, Waterways Management, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Boston
Bruce Carlisle – Director, Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management
Emily Shumchenia, PhD – Marine Scientist, Northeast Ocean Data Portal Working Group
Randall Lyons, CMM – Executive Director, Massachusetts Marine Trades Association
Moderated by:
Bud Ris - Senior Advisor, Green Ribbon Commission, former CEO New England Aquarium
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Cities of the Future (Brought to you by Alley powered by Verizon)
Tuesday, January 23
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Alley Cambridge, 10 Ware Street, Cambridge
We’re excited to announce that we are hosting an exclusive event in our Cambridge location, powered by Verizon. This is a special opportunity to hear from both top industry leaders and prominent Verizon directors on how they're building the smart cities and smart vehicles of tomorrow.
Meet The Speakers:
Ian Goh, Strategy and Operations Manager at nuTonomy
About nuTonomy: Our mission is to radically improve the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of transportation in cities worldwide. To fulfill this mission we’ve assembled a team of engineers and scientists who are committed to developing the world’s premier driverless vehicle technology. We envision a future where fleets of nuTonomy-powered driverless vehicles are available where you need them, when you need them, in cities from Singapore to San Francisco.
Sid Misra, CEO of Perceptive Automotive
About Perceptive Automata: Perceptive Automata is a fast-growing machine learning and computer vision company started by Harvard and MIT scientists. They are developing critical technology for the safe large-scale rollout of highly automated and autonomous vehicles into densely populated cities.
Nancy Li, Product Manager of Traffic Safety at Verizon
About Verizon's Traffic Safety Department: We help keep customers connected across America with the largest and most reliable 4G LTE network. We help cities, communities, businesses and other organizations get smart with intelligent traffic systems that promote safe, easy access to communities and enterprises where people live, work, learn and play.
George Clernon, Director of Product Management at CIMCON Lighting
About CIMCON Lighting: CIMCON Lighting is the leading provider of intelligent and fault-tolerant wireless outdoor lighting controllers for traditional, LED and solar-based street lights.
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Libertarians on the Prairie
Tuesday, January 23
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Christine Woodside,
Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog, Jack. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this cherished bestselling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.
In this groundbreaking narrative of literary detection, Christine Woodside reveals the full extent of the collaboration between Laura and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who shared the political values of Ayn Rand and became a mentor to Roger Lea MacBride, the second Libertarian presidential candidate. Drawing on original manuscripts and letters, Woodside shows how Rose reshaped her mother's story into a series of heroic tales that rebutted the policies of the New Deal. Their secret collaboration would lead in time to their estrangement. A fascinating look at the relationship between two strong-willed, trail-blazing women, Libertarians on the Prairie is also the deconstruction of an American myth.
Christine Woodside is a writer and the editor of the journal Appalachia. She writes about the history of ordinary Americans and their clashes with nature. She has nourished a fascination with the Little House books since she was a girl. As a teenager, she applied for a summer job at the Laura Ingalls Wilder farmhouse in Mansfield, Missouri--but, residing in New Jersey, failed to impress the curator. She now lives in Deep River, Connecticut, with her husband.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, January 24
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You've Invented Something Cool! Now What?
Wednesday, January 24
10:00am to 11:30am
MIT, Building 3-370, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Chris Noble (MIT ESI Director of Corporate Engagement) and Tod Woolf (MIT Technology Licensing Officer) will give you the inside scoop on getting a patent (and if you need to) and how to negotiate with the TLO and with your investors to spin out your startup.
This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the Technology Licensing Office.
To register for this event please contact Katrina Khalil via email: kmkhalil@mit.edu
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Gonson Daytime Lecture Series: Winter 2018: PRACTICAL ECOLOGICAL ETHICS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
Wednesday, January 24
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $5
Enliven your Wednesday mornings with stimulating presentations at the Cambridge Center in Harvard Square! Presenters will focus on a wide range of topics, from the environment, to personal finance, to wellness.
Claire O’Neill | President, Earthwise Aware
We have an ecological impact on the environment. In the case of our species, the sheer number of us and how we relate to our environment –our worldviews – define that impact. Come explore with us main environmental worldviews and ethics. And help develop a human ecological narrative that is aware and inclusive so that we become better and thriving actors of changes.
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A Conversation on the Opioid Epidemic with Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard School of Public Health, Leadership Studio - 10th Floor, Kresge Building, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston , or online at http://hsph.me/Adams
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Voices in Leadership webcast program, HSPH
SPEAKER(S) Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, Surgeon General for the United States
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/jerome-adams-20th-surgeon-general-of-the-united-states/
CONTACT INFO Alison Barron - abarron@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us for the first “Voices in Leadership” event of the Spring semester, featuring Jerome Adams, 20th Surgeon General for the United States. Dr. Adams’ motto as Surgeon General is “better health through better partnerships.” As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams is committed to maintaining strong relationships with the public health community and forging new partnerships with non-traditional partners, including business and law enforcement.
He will be interviewed by HSPH Senior Associate Dean, Dr. Robert Blendon. Please join us online or in-person for this dynamic event! For lottery and live webcast details, please visit www.hsph.me/Adams.
LINK https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/voices/events/jerome-adams-20th-surgeon-general-of-the-united-states/
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[A] tone of voice peculiar to New-England”: Fugitive Slave Advertisements and the Heterogeneity of Enslaved Blacks in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Quebec
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Charmaine Nelson, Professor of Art History, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University; William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Harvard University
COST Free & open to the public
CONTACT INFO hutchinscenter@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS A Q+A session will follow the talk.
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The State of the Union: Social Policy, Financial Regulation, and Populism in the Trump Era
Wednesday, January 24
12:50 pm - 6:30 pm
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
A Symposium Presented by the MIT Department of Economics
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From Living Cells to Artificial Cells and Back Again
Wednesday, January 24
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Wyss Institute, 3 Blackfan Circle, CLS 5th Floor, Room 52, Boston, MA
Speaker: Cheemeng Tan, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis
The advent of synthetic biology has led to elegantly designed cells that perform logical calculation, pattern formation, oscillations, and bistable decision making. Please join Dr. Cheemeng Tan as he discusses the process of leveraging the foundational technology in synthetic biology, to engineer artificial cells from the bottom-up to mimic key features of living cells, including membranes, molecular transport, gene expression, and cell-cell communication. These artificial cells are dynamic, bio-mimetic materials that operate autonomously by sensing and adapting to their surrounding environment. Due to the minimality of the artificial cells, they behave more predictably in varying environmental conditions and have less risk for biocontamination in the biosphere than engineered living cells.
Dr. Tan will discuss his team’s efforts to understand, create, and assemble parts that compose the artificial cells. In addition, he will illustrate recent applications of artificial cells as biosensors and therapeutic devices. Dr. Tan’s work establishes the foundation towards broad applications of artificial cells in molecular engineering and therapeutic treatment, and expands the capacity of artificial systems to mimic living ones in basic biological studies.
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Reading and Writing DNA, organs and ecosystems”
MIT, Building 32-123, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Wednesday, January 24
1:30pm - 2:30pm
George M. Church, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Biology at Transformative Frontiers
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Commercializing Research, Creating Change: MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
Wednesday, January 24
2:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 3-370, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Since 2002, the Deshpande Center has helped spur the creation of 32 spinout companies. These firms, which have raised over $600 million in capital, are developing and delivering ground-breaking products and services that not only change people’s lives today but have the long-term potential to transform key markets including energy and lighting, health care, medical research, and information technology.
Karen Golmer (Innovator in Residence) will be here to tell you what the Deshpande Center can offer you, and to help you learn more about other resources that exist on the MIT campus. Karen will also tell us how one goes about commercializing university research.
If you're an MIT researcher, you need to be here to know what options are available to you.
This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn series co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the Technology Licensing Office.
To register for this event please contact Katrina Khalil via email: kmkhalil@mit.edu
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Creating the Next Wave of Precision Biotherapeutics
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Nicola L. B. Pohl, 2017-2018 Edward, Frances, and Shirley B. Daniels Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Joan and Marvin Carmack Chair, Bioorganic Chemistry, Indiana University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this lecture, Pohl will talk about her current project of designing methods to integrate her chemistry for automated sugar synthesis into state-of-the-art methods for automated peptide synthesis to facilitate the study of relevant glycoproteins and glycosylated peptides. Her work includes collaborators from the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s department of chemistry.
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Unleashing Alternative Futures: Constructing New Worlds through Imagination, Narrative, and Radical Hope
Wednesday, January 24
6:00pm to 9:00pm
More dates through January 31, 2018
MIT, Building 9-217, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Lawrence Barriner II, Program Director, Community Media, Grant Tank Williams
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
“I learned in school how to deconstruct—but how do we move beyond our beautiful deconstruction? Who teaches us to reconstruct? How do we cultivate the muscle of radical imagination needed to dream together beyond fear?” – Adrienne Maree Brown
It’s 2018 and something isn’t right. Or maybe more accurately, almost everything is wrong. The joint powers of imagination and fear have established a seemingly untouchable demagogue as the elected leader of the world’s most powerful empire. He carries out the wishes of the elite while destroying the dreams, realities, and futures of everyone and everything else, including the planet herself.
Standard tactics are proving ineffective. Fact-checking has been rendered useless. Reason, unreasonable. Imagination, myth-making, and stories reign (see alternative facts). The future of America, and perhaps the world, is in the hands of the best storytellers.
The Resistance is evolving to meet the challenge. How do we build past, even through fear, to something more powerful? To… radical hope? We are one faction of many fighting for the futurewe are writers, thinkers, and artists using our powers to fight imagination with imagination. In this 3-day workshop in January, 2018 we will: learn from the rich ancestry of speculative fiction, exercise collaborative ideation and world-building, and create stories and art that may unleash new futures to topple the hegemonic order. Come, join our schemes.
More Info/sign-up at http://colabradio.mit.edu/unleashing-alternative-futures-constructing-new-worlds-through-imagination-narrative-and-radical-hope/
Sponsor(s): Urban Studies and Planning, Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Contact: Lawrence Barriner II, lqb@mit.edu
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"You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!": And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers' Unions, and Public Education
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes educator and author WILLIAM AYERS for a discussion of his book, "You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!": And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers' Unions, and Public Education.
About "You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!"
"You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!" overturns common misconceptions about charter schools, school "choice," standardized tests, common core curriculum, and teacher evaluations.
Three distinguished educators, scholars, and activists flip the script on many enduring and popular myths about teachers, teachers' unions, and education that permeate our culture. By unpacking these myths, and underscoring the necessity of strong and vital public schools as a common good, the authors challenge readers—whether parents, community members, policymakers, union activists, or educators themselves—to rethink their assumptions.
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Thursday, January 25
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The Need to Rethink the Corporate Approach to Public Policy in an Age of Upheaval
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Fainsod Room (3rd Floor Littauer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Ben Heineman, Lecturer, Harvard Law School
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Follow-Up Discussion: Using Federal Low-Income Energy Assistance Programs for Solar
Thursday, January 25
1-2pm ET
Webinar
This interactive webinar discussion is a follow-up to two webinars: CESA's 1/11 webinar, "Using Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) Funds for Low-Income Solar” and CESA’s 1/16 webinar, “Using Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Funds for Low-Income Solar.” Guest speakers from both webinars will participate in this follow-up discussion. Participants will be invited to respond to the earlier webinars, share their ideas and experiences, and ask questions. This webinar is open to state and municipal officials only. Participants are strongly encouraged to either have attended the earlier webinars or watched the webinar recording before attending this follow-up discussion.
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Species Divergence Shaped by the Intersects of Ecology and Climate Change
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall (1080), 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Lacey Knowles, University of Michigan
TICKET INFO Free and Open to the Public
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US Foreign Policy from the Inside Out: A Lecture with Samantha Power
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, 4 – 5:15 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Samantha Power, 2017-2018 Perrin Moorhead Grayson and Bruns Grayson Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; professor of practice, Harvard Law School; Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this public lecture, Power will provide a comprehensive picture of US foreign policy.
Register online.
Prior to serving as US permanent representative to the United Nations, Power served as special assistant to President Obama and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights on the National Security Council at the White House. In this role, she focused on issues including UN reform; LGBT and women’s rights; the promotion of religious freedom and the protection of religious minorities; human trafficking; and democracy and human rights.
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Our Current State of Anxiety
Thursday, January 25
4:30pm to 6:00pm
Northeastern, Renaissance Park 909,1135 Tremont Street, Boston
Dr. John A. Hall, McGill University, Montreal, Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology
The title of Dr. Hall’s lecture is ‘Our Current State of Anxiety’. He will share his analysis of the social bases of the liberal postwar order, followed by claims that the secure world known to the OECD is imperiled by the erosion of those bases—more specifically by rising inequality, a change in the base of nationalism and the manipulation of news sources.
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Boston Batteries & Brews #3
Thursday, January 25
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Greentown Labs Global Center for Cleantech Innovation, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville
Welcome to Boston Batteries & Brews networking event for New England based energy storage professionals. We think the Energy Storage industry has great potential and are looking for people who feel the same.
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Massachusetts State of Solar
Thursday, January 25
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Prince Lobel Tye LLP, 1 International Place, #3700, Boston
Cost: $0 - $20
Join the Climate Action Business Association for our Third Annual Massachusetts State of Solar, which explores current trends and future outlooks for our solar industry. Since 2010, we have seen our state’s clean energy economy expand exponentially. As we continue transitioning to a distributive electric grid, where energy is generated and utilized by interconnected customers, it is critical for policy experts, industry professionals, and community advocates to collaborate on our collective vision for its future in our state. What does the future electric grid look like? Where do utilities and solar companies fit into that vision? Ultimately, a successful approach to the future of our solar industry requires coordination among all stakeholders.
The evening will feature a networking reception followed by a panel discussion on the political climate, accomplishments, and challenges for solar energy in Massachusetts.
AGENDA
6:00PM Networking
6:30PM Program Introduction
6:35PM Opening statements from panelists
6:50PM Moderator-led questions
7:15PM Audience questions
7:45PM Conclude panel, open the room to networking
8:00PM End of event
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RPP Colloquium with Canon Sarah Snyder: The Church as a Reconciling Presence in a World of Conflict: The Role of Religion in International Conflict Transformation
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, 6 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Religions and the Practice of Peace
CONTACT Andreea Florescu D'Abramo
DETAILS Space is limited. RSVP is required at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bBhoxzCx2pK31ch
Is religion a cause of violent conflict or a catalyst for its transformation? Do faith leaders have a role at the international peacebuilding tables? Current international affairs highlight the power of religious ideologies—and their misappropriation—as a catalyst for social action. They have also prompted unprecedented interest in the role of religious leaders and ideologies to transform conflict and violence.
The keynote session of the fourth annual RPP Colloquium dinner series will feature Canon Sarah Snyder, PhD, Archbishop of Canterbury's Director of Reconciliation. She will be joined by colleagues in the field, who will share their experience of working in conflict zones and reflect on vital lessons for the contemporary world.
Canon Sarah Snyder, PhD is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advisor for Reconciliation. This role has a particular emphasis on supporting the Anglican Church in contexts of violent conflict or post-conflict and helping the Church to be an agent of reconciliation and conflict-transformation.
A theologian who specializes in Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, Canon Snyder brings wide-ranging international experience of peacebuilding and dialogue. She has worked for many years to promote faith-based reconciliation, most recently as Director of Partnerships with Religions for Peace International, an organization affiliated to the United Nations. Canon Snyder has also directed the Cambridge International Summer Schools for faith leaders from conflict zones. A trained mediator, she has experience both of working with communities and with senior religious leaders.
Canon Snyder is Founding Director of the Rose Castle Foundation, an international center of reconciliation, based in the north of England, offering safe space in which to address misunderstanding of the "other", particularly those of different religious traditions. Located in Cumbria, it is a peaceful haven in which to transform conflict within and between faith communities, and to train up a generation of leaders equipped as faith-based mediators.
The event will be moderated by David N. Hempton, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Professor of Evangelical Theological Studies, John Lord O’Brian Professor of Divinity.
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Republican Like Me: How I Left the Liberal Bubble and Learned to Love the Right
Thursday, January 25
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Former NPR CEO Ken Stern watched the increasing polarization of our country with growing concern. As a longtime partisan Democrat himself, he felt forced to acknowledge that his own views were too parochial, too absent of any exposure to the "other side." In fact, his urban neighborhood is so liberal, he couldn't find a single Republican--even by asking around.
So for one year, he crossed the aisle to spend time listening, talking, and praying with Republicans of all stripes. With his mind open and his dial tuned to the right, he went to evangelical churches, shot a hog in Texas, stood in pit row at a NASCAR race, hung out at Tea Party meetings and sat in on Steve Bannon's radio show. He also read up on conservative wonkery and consulted with the smartest people the right has to offer.
What happens when a liberal sets out to look at issues from a conservative perspective? Some of his dearly cherished assumptions about the right slipped away. Republican Like Me reveals what lead him to change his mind, and his view of an increasingly polarized America.
Ken Stern is the president of Palisades Media Ventures and the author of With Charity for All: Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give. He was formerly the CEO of NPR. He lives in Washington, DC.
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Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence
Thursday, January 25
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome NYU professor and scientific director of Crime Lab New York PATRICK SHARKEY for a discussion of his latest book, Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence. He will be joined in conversation by sociologist and Harvard University professor WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON.
About Uneasy Peace
Over the past two decades, American cities have experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime, dramatically changing urban life. In many cases, places once characterized by decay and abandonment are now thriving, the fear of death by gunshot wound replaced by concern about skyrocketing rents.
In 2014, most U.S. cities were safer than they had ever been in the history of recorded statistics on crime. Patrick Sharkey reveals the striking consequences: improved school test scores, since children are better able to learn when not traumatized by nearby violence; better chances that poor children will rise into the middle class; and a striking increase in the life expectancy of African American men.
Sharkey also delineates the combination of forces, some positive and some negative, that brought about safer streets, from aggressive policing and mass incarceration to the intensive efforts made by local organizations to confront violence in their own communities.
From New York’s Harlem neighborhood to South Los Angeles, Sharkey draws on original data and textured accounts of neighborhoods across the country to document the most successful proven strategies for combatting violent crime and to lay out innovative and necessary approaches to the problem of violence. At a time when crime is rising again and powerful political forces seek to disinvest in cities, the insights in this book are indispensable.
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Backpacks Full of Cash Free Screening & Discussion
Thursday, January 25
7:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Northeastern, Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Avenue, 3rd Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/backpacks-full-of-cash-free-screening-discussion-tickets-41925202409
Roosevelt Institute | Boston and Roosevelt @ Northeastern University are pleased to present a screening of Backpack Full of Cash. This event is free and open to the public. Following a screening of the film, a community discussion will be held. Panelists for the community discussion will be announced in upcoming days.
About the Film
Before the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the appointment of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, filmmakers Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow couldn’t have known that the national education debate would dramatically shift to the very issues at the heart of their film: charter schools, vouchers and privatization. Now, this timely new documentary takes viewers into the world of market-based education “reform”.
BACKPACK FULL OF CASH is a cautionary tale about how, in cities like Philadelphia, privatization and funding cuts have had a devastating impact on public schools, and the most vulnerable children who rely on them. The film also showcases a model for improving schools – a well-resourced public school system in Union City, New Jersey, where poor kids are getting a high quality education without charters or vouchers.
BACKPACK features genuine heroes like the principals, teachers, activists, parents and most hearteningly, students who are fighting for their education. Education writer David Kirp, former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, and policy expert Linda Darling Hammond are among the national thought leaders who provide analysis in the film. BACKPACK builds a case for public education as a basic civil right.
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Friday, January 26
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ILAR/Harvard Animal Law Meeting: Future Directions for Laboratory Animal Law in the United States
Friday, January 26
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST
Harvard, Cambridge
Please join the ILAR Roundtable, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, and the Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard University for a one-day meeting on January 26 to discuss the future of animal law.
This meeting will be held at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. We invite all interested parties who can arrange their own travel to Boston to register to attend. If you cannot attend in person, the workshop will also be webcast and will be accessible to all who are interested.
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The cosmic origin of the chemical elements
Friday, January 26
11:00am
MIT, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, NW17-218, 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
A talk by Anna Frebel, MIT
We are made from star stuff -- but how exactly? I will describe how elements up to and including iron are made in fusion processes within the hot cores of stars, and how all the heavier elements are synthesized in neutron-capture processes. There are a several astrophysical sites where neutron-capture can take place, including neutron star mergers. The LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories recently detected the signal of a neutron star merger. The subsequent "kilonova" afterglow was detected across the electromagnetic spectrum. It was the result of an enormous production of heavy elements during the merger.
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True Enough
Friday, January 26
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics welcome CATHERINE Z. ELGIN—Professor of the Philosophy of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education—for a discussion of her latest book, True Enough.
About True Enough
Philosophy valorizes truth, holding that there can never be epistemically good reasons to accept a known falsehood, or to accept modes of justification that are not truth-conducive. How can this stance account for the epistemic standing of science, which unabashedly relies on models, idealizations, and thought experiments that are known not to be true? In True Enough, Catherine Elgin argues that we should not assume that the inaccuracy of models and idealizations constitutes an inadequacy. To the contrary, their divergence from truth or representational accuracy fosters their epistemic functioning. When effective, models and idealizations are, Elgin contends, felicitous falsehoods that exemplify features of the phenomena they bear on. Because works of art deploy the same sorts of felicitous falsehoods, she argues, they also advance understanding.
Elgin develops a holistic epistemology that focuses on the understanding of broad ranges of phenomena rather than knowledge of individual facts. Epistemic acceptability, she maintains, is a matter not of truth-conduciveness, but of what would be reflectively endorsed by the members of an idealized epistemic community—a quasi-Kantian realm of epistemic ends.
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Real American: A Memoir
Friday, January 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store, 826 Boston, the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, and Mass Humanities welcome bestselling author, TED speaker, and former Stanford dean JULIE LYTHCOTT-HAIMS for a discussion of her latest book, Real American: A Memoir. The evening will begin with a reading from 8th grader Tiffany from the Boston Teachers Union School.
About Real American
A fearless debut memoir by beloved and bestselling How to Raise an Adult author Julie Lythcott-Haims, Real American pulls no punches in her recollections of growing up a biracial black woman in America.
Bringing a poetic sensibility to her prose to stunning effect, Lythcott-Haims briskly and stirringly evokes her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. The only child of a marriage between an African-American father and a white British mother, she shows indelibly how so-called "micro"-aggressions in addition to blunt force insults can puncture a person's inner life with a thousand sharp cuts. Real American expresses also, through Lythcott-Haims’s path to self-acceptance, the healing power of community in overcoming the hurtful isolation of being incessantly considered "the other."
The author of the New York Times bestselling anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult, Lythcott-Haims has written a different sort of book this time out, but one that will nevertheless resonate with the legions of students, educators and parents to whom she is now well known, by whom she is beloved, and to whom she has always provided wise and necessary counsel about how to embrace and nurture their best selves. Real American is an affecting memoir, an unforgettable cri de coeur, and a clarion call to all of us to live more wisely, generously and fully.
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Saturday, January 27
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Mothers Out Front Massachusetts Assembly 2018: Celebrating Connection
Saturday, January 27
8:45 am - 5 pm
First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist, 404 Concord Avenue, Belmont
Free Program, Lunch, and Child Care
Our Massachusetts Mothers Out Front Assembly 2018 is about Celebrating Connection.
Come to celebrate. It's been an amazing year for Massachusetts Mothers Out Front! We have spoken out as mothers again and again. We have rallied and protested and testified. We have reached out to form new alliances. We have made real change in our local communities. We have shown up. And don't forget that we did this over and above our primary commitments as mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers. For all this, we will celebrate together.
Come to connect. The heart of our movement is our relationships with each other. The day will include many chances for meaningful connection, including small group workshops, a display area for teams, lunch topic tables, and time to meet and mingle.
Come to learn organizing skills. During morning and afternoon breakout sessions, our own talented local leaders will offer core Mothers Out Front skill building for people at all levels of engagement from seasoned leaders to new volunteers. This is a great opportunity to learn from the amazing collective wisdom we hold together.
Come to build connection by ending the effects of oppression. We are excited to welcome guest leaders from Sustaining All Life/United to End Racism, a grassroots organization working to end climate change within the context of building a unified climate justice movement by ending all divisions among people. They will lead us in an interactive keynote on how we can work together to end the effects of oppression on our lives, relationships and our community teams. They will focus on how to strengthen our efforts to end the effects of racism and classism within the environmental movement and Mothers Out Front.
Come to learn about Mothers Out Front. If you are newer to Mothers out Front, you may join an introductory session. Throughout the day, we will provide background on who we are, what we do, and how we are organized.
Come. Don't miss this once-a-year chance to celebrate connection with incredible mothers from all over Massachusetts.
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Human Rights: Adapting to the Challenges of Our Times
WHEN Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Symposium is organized with the support of the Carr Center for Human Rights, the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, the Department for African and African American Studies, the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, HKS Office for Student Diversity and Inclusion, the Human Rights Professional Interest Council and the Muslim Caucus (student organizations at Harvard Kennedy School), the Kennedy School Student Government, and the South Asia Institute.
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.hrsymposium.info/events/human-rights-adapting-to-the-challenges-of-our-times
DETAILS Human Rights: Adapting to the Challenges of Our Times is a student-led Symposium aiming to rethink the effective implementation of human rights in an age of increasing populism and nationalism.
This event is free and open to the public. RSVP is required. Seating is limited.
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Creativity + 7 Intelligences = Your Superpower
Saturday, January 27
10:00AM-12:30PM
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Presented by Creativity Integrators: Cherylle Garnes, and Janet Johnson,
with Guest speaker: Ruth Levitsky
A workshop that correlates creativity to the 7 Intelligences (first presented in Dr. Howard Gardner’s book Frames of Mind.) You will discover which intelligence your superpower fits. We will provide creative exercises and examples that involve all 7 intelligences.
Come prepared to speak, think, interact with others, move, learn and have fun as you discover you own personal creativity mindset. Revised information will be provided. Come a little early for a bonus.
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Public Interested Conference
WHEN Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, 12 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Award Ceremonies, Conferences, Volunteer Opportunities, Wellness/Work Life
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Phillips Brooks House Center for Public Service & Engaged Scholarship
SPEAKER(S) Kristen Clarke, President & CEO, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
DETAILS The 7th annual Public Interested Conference is happening on Saturday, January 27th in the Science Center at Harvard College will provide students with a unique opportunity to explore public interest opportunities with the help of alumni serving in the public interest sector.
It is designed for students to explore varied public interest careers and network with alumni in those fields. Students have the opportunity to hear from inspiring speakers, interact with incredible alumni, participate in engaging activities & meet peers who share a passion for public service.
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CivilServant Community Research Summit
Saturday, January 27
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT Media Lab, Building E14-674, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
How can the public work together and discover ideas for a fairer, safer, more understanding internet?
Join the CivilServant Community Research Summit for a half-day to celebrate the best of the web and imagine the role of everyday internet users to support and protect each other online. In this public summit, we'll share ideas and inspiration with community moderators and other leaders online. You will also hear from researchers and advocates who lead a growing movement to develop public-interest internet research, independently of the powerful companies that shape today's social worlds.
The live event will be followed by a reception with light snacks.
Featured speakers will include:
J. Nathan Matias, founder of CivilServant and post-doc at Princeton University
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media
Latanya Sweeney, director of Harvard's Data Privacy Lab
Tarleton Gillespie, Principal Research Scientist at Microsoft Research and author of the upcoming book Custodians of the Internet
Karrie Karahalios, a pioneer of data-driven conversation moderation and algorithm auditing
We will also feature project highlights from:
Nathan Allen and Piper Below, from r/science on reddit, who tested the effects of posting the rules on newcomer behavior, with CivilServant
Jonathan Ian Deans, from r/worldnews on reddit, who tested the effects of fact-checking nudges with CivilServant
Mason English, from r/politics on reddit, who tested the effects of hiding the downvote button on commenting behavior, with CivilServant
Merry Mou, civic tech designer, software engineer, and co-creator of the CivilServant software
Ellery Biddle, director of Advocacy at Global Voices and co-editor of an independent, international analysis of Facebook's Free Basics across six countries
Jon Penney, a legal scholar and behavioral scientist who does large-scale research on surveillance, censorship, privacy, and AI law enforcement
T.L. Taylor, a professor at MIT and director of research at AnyKey, which works for fair and inclusive spaces in gaming
Christo Wilson, who leads the Auditing Algorithms group at Northeastern University
Jonathan Zong, who's designing ethics procedures for citizen behavioral science
Amy Zhang, PhD student at MIT and creator of Squadbox, which organizes trusted friends, volunteers, or paid moderators to filter messages for harassment.
Jeffrey Warren, co-founder and research director of Public Lab, a community and non-profit democratizing science to address environmental issues that affect people
Lindsay Blackwell, a PhD student at the University of Michigan and researcher with HeartMob, who organize community support to end online harassment
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Sunday, January 28
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Be the Change: Daring Democracy
Sunday, January 28
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Americans are distraught as tightly held economic and political power drowns out their voices and values. Intergenerational duo Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen offer a fresh, surprising response to this core crisis: That even in this divisive time, Americans are uniting across causes and ideologies to create a “canopy of hope” the authors call the Democracy Movement. In this invigorating “movement of movements” millions of Americans are leaving despair behind as they push for and achieve historic change. The Movement and democracy itself are vital to us as citizens and fulfill human needs—for power, meaning, and connection—essential to our thriving. In this timely and necessary book, Lappé and Eichen offer proof that courage is contagious in the daring fight for democracy.
Frances Moore Lappé is the author or coauthor of eighteen books about the environment, world hunger, and democracy, including Diet for a Small Planet, which has sold three million copies. Articles featuring or written by Lappé have also appeared in O: The Oprah Magazine, Harper’s, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Nation, People, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (often called the “Alternative Nobel”) and eighteen honorary doctorates, Lappé is the cofounder of the organizations Food First and the Small Planet Institute.
Adam Eichen is a writer, researcher, and political organizer working to build a democracy that represents and empowers all voices in society. In 2015, Adam was elected to the board of directors of Democracy Matters and has since helped guide the organization’s communication program. In 2016, he was appointed deputy communications director for Democracy Spring, a historic national mobilization comprising more than a hundred organizations working for campaign-finance and voting rights reform.
From 3PM-5PM 20% of all sales will be donated to The Democracy Initiative.
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Monday, January 29
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Arts and Culture Discussion Series #2: Art and Green Infrastructure
Monday, January 29
9:30 AM – 11:30AM
Breakfast and Registration start at 9 AM.
NEFA, 145 Tremont Street, 7th Floor, Boston
A collaboration between the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Spiral Wetlands | Stacy Levy
You are invited to a discussion about Art and Green Infrastructure, featuring a presentation by EcoArtist Stacy Levy. This is the second in a three-part series of discussions that explore how public art can address a range of planning goals and objectives related to green infrastructure, community building, economic development, and public health. Designed to build more cohesion among artists, arts administrators, and municipal planners, this series is co-hosted by the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).
We are thrilled to host Stacy Levy, a Pennsylvania-based environmental sculptor who uses art as a vehicle for translating the patterns and processes of the natural world. In this discussion, Levy will explore her projects in which she harnesses natural forces including rainwater, plants, and microbes to help create sculptural solutions for storm-water and water pollution issues. Levy’s collaborative and multi-disciplined approach to solving environmental problems leads her to engage with architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, the Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, city and state municipalities, scientists, hydrologists, fluid dynamic engineers, geologists, zoologists, and ecologists. Levy will discuss this intersectionality of civic engagement, science, art, and design, and how she finds ways to express and improve the workings of natural systems along waterways, in streets, parking lots, airports and nature centers. More info at www.stacylevy.com.
COST: Free admission; registration required.
CONTACT: Carolyn Lewenberg, clewenberg@mapc.org
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FESTIVAL OF LEARNING
Monday, January 29
9:30am to 5:00pm
MIT, LOBBIES 10 & 13, AND CONFERENCE ROOMS TBD
...a day of learning: national thought-leaders, MIT innovators, cutting-edge entrepreneurs, food, fun, and more. Experience the catalyzing power behind initiatives which transform the way we look at education and revolutionize how we teach and learn.
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Innovation Day 2018: Megatrends & the Future of #TechinMA
Monday January 29
10:30am-12:00pm
Hall of Flags, Massachusetts State House, Boston
The TechHUB Caucus, co-chaired by Senator Spilka and Representative Ferrante, will host the 4th marquee "Innovation Day" event on January 29th, 2018 at the Massachusetts State House to showcase the tech sector in the Commonwealth. This event aims to educate and excite policymakers and the public about what the local tech sector is building.
Meet leaders from the local tech and startup community and learn about Massachusetts-based companies and organizations leading the digital revolution and future of technology.
The agenda will feature live technology demonstrations running throughout from local tech firms and home-grown startups and a "NextGEN" awards ceremony recognizing key tech companies and organizations contributing to the Massachusetts innovation community and economy.
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Leadership – Lessons academics could learn from business schools
Monday, January 29
12:00pm to 1:30pm
MIT, Building 68-181, 31 Ames Street, Cambridge
Teresa M. Amabile – Professor of Business Administration – Harvard Business School
Carl M. Cohen – President – Science Management Associates
Ann Herrmann-Nehdi – CEO – Herrmann Solutions
Charles E. Leiserson – Professor of Computer Science and Engineering – MIT
John Olson – Director, Genetic Validation – Pfizer
Do you aim to lead a creative, scientific or engineering team in the near future but do not quite know where to start? Come to hear the advice from leadership and mentoring experts on DO and DON’Ts for successful team leadership.
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Who Pays to Save the Planet? A Sectoral Political Economy of Climate Change Mitigation
Monday, January 29
12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Tufts, Cabot 702, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
Alexander Gard-Murray is a doctoral candidate in Politics at the University of Oxford, and a research affiliate with the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Tufts University's Fletcher School. He works on the comparative political economy, of climate change mitigation.
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Conserving Ecosystems and Their Services in a Changing and Uncertain World
Monday, January 29
4:00pm
Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall, Room 1080, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Laura Dee, University of Minnesota
Abstract: Halting the decline of both biodiversity and the benefits ecosystems provide to society (i.e., ecosystem services) is a major challenge for scientists and managers. Meeting both objectives requires an understanding of 1) how global change drivers (e.g., climate, biodiversity, and socioeconomic change) influence each goal, and 2) how pursuing one objective will impact the other. This talk will address these two questions in turn. First, I will present my past and ongoing work on how climate change is impacting ecosystem services, including global fisheries yields, regional timber production in Minnesota, and a broader range of services across systems and scales. Second, I will share my research examining alignment between the objectives of providing ecosystem services and conserving biodiversity. I quantify how alignment depends on uncertainty over links between biodiversity and services, non-random changes in biodiversity, and complex patterns of species interactions. I analyze the two questions from both a theoretical and empirical perspective, leveraging dynamic programming, network theory, and statistics for observational data. This work provides new insights into how global change impacts ecosystem services and when managing for these services can provide the strongest incentives for conservation.
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EAPS IAP 2018: Origin of Life Seminar Series
Monday, January 29
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 54- 915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Our Origin of Life Seminars are a series of hosted lectures from leaders in the Origin of Life community, focusing on various dimensions of one of the most challenging problems in the biological and planetary sciences. Topics include the origin of cells, metabolism, replication and proteins, as well as the geochemical conditions on the Early Earth that led to prebiotic and early biotic systems. Enrolled students will attend 4 seminars during IAP, actively engage in Q & A sessions with invited speakers in a panel format, and collaborate on creating an Origins of Life online blog resource highlighting the work of invited speakers.
Instructor: Greg Fournier
More info: http://bit.ly/EAPS_IAP2018
JANUARY 29 | ROOM 54-915 | 4PM
"What is “I”: The Role of Compartmentalisation in the Origins of Life"
Anna Wang | Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University
More info: https://eapsweb.mit.edu/iap-2018-anna-wang
FEBRUARY 2 | ROOM E25-605 | 4PM
"The Planetary Battery for the Origins of Life: The Example of Mars"
Vlada Stamenkovic | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech
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Norton Lecture I, 'The Search for Story, Structure, and Meaning in Documentary Film: Part I' by Frederick Wiseman
WHEN Monday, Jan. 29, 2018, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Film, Humanities, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Frederick Wiseman
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu/Online/default.asp
TICKET INFO Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45pm.
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu, 617-496-4955
DETAILS Wide Angle: The Norton Lectures on Cinema
The Norton Professors in 2018 are Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, and Frederick Wiseman
Monday, Jan. 29 and Monday, Feb. 5: Frederick Wiseman
The Search for Story, Structure, and Meaning in Documentary Film: Part I and Part II
Monday, Feb. 26 and Tuesday, Feb. 27: Agnès Varda
The 7th Art and Me and Crossing the Borders
Monday, April 2 and Monday, April 9: Wim Wenders
Poetry in Motion and The Visible and the Invisible
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Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Monday, January 29
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The Harvard Square Book Circle, our in-store book club, discusses PETER GODFREY-SMITH's Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, which will be featured in the bookstore's Select Seventy display for the month of January.
About Other Minds
Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?
In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being―how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind’s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys.
But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually “think for themselves”? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia?
By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind―and on our own.
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Tuesday, January 30
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Natural Gas Infrastructure and Public Health: From Local to Global
Tuesday, January 30
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST
BU, Photonics Center, 8 St Mary's Street, Boston
Please join us for a discussion regarding the health impacts of natural gas infrastructure (NGI) and the role of public health officials in this topic.
The event is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, Boston University School of Public Health, Massachusetts Medical Society, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, Health Care Without Harm, Mass Health Professionals for Clean Energy, and Physicians for Policy Action.
Speakers will include Drs. Ari Bernstein, Jonathan Buonocore, Elissa Wilker, and Drew Michanowicz of the Harvard School of Public Health; Drs. Jonathan Levy and Madeleine Scammel of the Boston University School of Public Health; Dr. Nathan Phillips of Boston University; and Dr. Mary Rice of Harvard Medical School.
Donations will be accepted at the door (suggested donation of $20). Thank you!
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MIT Green Labs Info Session
Tuesday, January 30
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Building 76-659, 500 Main Street, Cambridge
Informational session about MIT's Green Labs Program. Will include details on the assessment process for certification, participating in the LEAC energy assessment program and review information on lab recycling. Please register as food will be provided.
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Threatening Whiteness: Islam’s Challenge to American White Supremacy
Tuesday, January 30
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Northeastern, Holmes Hall, 270, 39-41 Leon Street, Boston
WGSS Visiting Scholar Megan Prince Goodwin
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Legal Considerations for Blockchain Innovations and ICOs
Tuesday, January 30
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Cambridge Innovation Center, 5th Floor Havana Room One Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.mitforumcambridge.org/event/legal-considerations-for-blockchain-innovations-and-icos/
Cost: $5 - $20
Attendees at this event will learned about:
What are the IP strategies for protecting blockchain innovations?
What are the potential open source licensing issues for decentralized apps using the major blockchain platforms?
What alternative paths are possible for monetization of new blockchain developments?
How can a company benefit from an ICO or blockchain technology?
Is an ICO worthwhile to your company?
When does an ICO fall within SEC regulation?
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Askwith Debates – Beyond “Free College”: Improving Opportunity and Success at Community Colleges
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Forum, Question & Answer Session
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT Alumni, Askwith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Roger Falcon
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE 617-384-9968
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
RSVP REQUIRED No
FEATURED EVENT Askwith Forums
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
DETAILS Moderator: Bridget Terry Long, Saris Professor of Education and Economics
Speakers:
David Deming, professor of education and economics, HGSE
Andrew Kelly, senior vice president, strategy and policy, University of North Carolina System
Deborah Santiago, chief operating officer and vice president for policy, Excelencia in Education
Josh Wyner, founder and executive director, College Excellence Program and vice president, The Aspen Institute
It is a changing time for higher education – between tax legislation that may impact institutions’ financial futures, a potential reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, and a tumultuous labor market that calls for workers with greater skills. Amid these uncertainties is the ongoing debate: Should college be free? Some states, like New York and Tennessee, have implemented free tuition programs for community colleges. But some believe that simply making college free will not address issues of completion and success after college. Saris Professor Bridget Terry Long will moderate a debate with leading experts about the future of community colleges in our country – from the free college movement and how to improve community college opportunities and outcomes, to how to better support and help students with the challenges they face.
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The Revolution in American Trade Policy
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, 6 – 7:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
SPEAKER(S) Michael B. Froman, United States Trade Representative (2013-2017), Klein Fellowship in Economic Diplomacy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Distinguished Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, HKS, Faculty Director, Future of Diplomacy Project; Faculty Chair, Middle East Initiative, HKS
Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University, Co-Director, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO 617-495-1380
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Climate Resiliency Lecture
Tuesday, January 30
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
American Meteorological Society, 45 Beacon Street, Boston
Cost: $10
Curious how climate change will impact Boston and Cambridge?
Join Charles River Watershed Association for a lecture on Climate Resiliency. CRWA Director of Blue Cities, Pallavi Kalia Mande, a leading authority on water centric urban design and planning, will showcase the Blue Cities approach and strategies for building resilience to extreme storms, increasing flooding and the resulting water quality impacts to the River. Focusing on parts of Boston and Cambridge that drain into the Charles, Pallavi will discuss her Blue Cities work that includes demonstration projects, planning, design, advocacy, public outreach, and collaboration around building resilient communities.
Drinks and light refreshments will be served.
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The MIT Forum: Andre Borschberg SM '83
Tuesday, January 30
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
MIT, Samberg Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $10 per person (alumni and guests), includes appetizers and beer/wine.
Join fellow MIT alumni for a special MIT Forum event featuring André Borschberg SM '83, CEO, co-founder and pilot of Solar Impulse and co-founder of H55. Borschberg will discuss the new Nova series chronicling his circumnavigation of the globe in a solar plane and his dreams and ambitions for a new project focused on the future of energy and aviation.
Borschberg's talk will be followed by a fireside chat with MIT Technology Review editor David Rotman,, audience Q&A, and reception with drinks and heavy hors d'oeuvres.
MIT alumni and guests are welcome. Space is limited—register today.
Event details:
6:00 p.m. Registration and networking
6:30 p.m. Program
7:30 p.m. Reception and networking
u8:30 p.m. Event ends
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To Fight Against This Age: On Fascism and Humanism
Tuesday, January 30
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store, WBUR, and Mass Humanities welcome writer and cultural philosopher ROB RIEMEN―founder of the Nexus Institute―for a discussion of his latest book, To Fight Against This Age: On Fascism and Humanism. He will be joined in conversation by CHRISTOPHER LYDON, host of WBUR's radio program Open Source.
About To Fight Against This Age
An international bestseller, To Fight Against This Age consists of two beautifully written, cogent, and urgent essays about the rise of fascism and the ways in which we can combat it.
In “The Eternal Return of Fascism,” Rob Riemen explores the theoretical weakness of fascism, which depends on a politics of resentment, the incitement of anger and fear, xenophobia, the need for scapegoats, and its hatred of the life of the mind. He draws on history and philosophy as well as the essays and novels of Thomas Mann and Albert Camus to explain the global resurgence of fascism, often disguised by its false promises of ushering in freedom and greatness.
Riemen’s own response to what he sees as the spiritual crisis of our age is articulated in “The Return of Europa,” a moving story about the meaning of European humanism with its universal values of truth, beauty, justice, and love for life―values that are the origin and basis of a democratic civilization.
To Fight Against This Age is as timely as it is timeless, to be read by those who want to understand and change the world in which they live.
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The Wizard and the Prophet
Tuesday, January 30
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Charles Mann
From the best-selling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493--an incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow's world.
In forty years, Earth's population will reach ten billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups--Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose. The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win. Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces--food, water, energy, climate change--grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.
Charles C. Mann, a correspondent for The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, has also written for Fortune, the New York Times, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, as well as the TV network HBO and the series Law & Order. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation.
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Opportunity
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. 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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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Boston Maker Spaces - 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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