Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
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Vieques Dawn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjlkBqDXh4
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"Estimating and Predicting Climate Signals"
Monday, December 12, 2011
12:01p–1:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus)
Speaker: Greg Hakim (U-Washington)
Speaker website: http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~hakim/
Host: Dan Chavas (drchavas@mit.edu)
Web site: http://eaps-www.mit.edu/paoc/events/calendars/mass
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:
Dan Chavas
drchavas@mit.edu
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BUILDING TECHNOLOGY LECTURE SERIES: Vernacular Construction Technology: Knowledge and Preservation
Monday, December 12, 2011
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, The Long Lounge (AVT), 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Camilla Mileto and Fernando Vegas; Polytechnic University of Valencia
Building Technology Fall 2011 Lecture Series
Vernacular construction technology represents the most immediate, sustainable and functional answer to the needs of a dwelling using the available resources and materials. Its knowledge allows us to design the architecture of the future, being more rational and sensible to the environment. The preservation of traditional buildings requires innovative technology as well as respect for history. This lecture will present a series of recent design projects which investigate historical construction methods and their long-term preservation.
Camilla Mileto and Fernando Vegas are architects and professors at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain). They have extensively published on traditional architectural technology and its preservation, and have won a number of international awards for their work.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Building Technology Program, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:
Kathleen Ross
253-1876
kross@mit.edu
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Throwing the Baby Out With the Drinking Water: Unintended Consequences of Arsenic Mitigation Efforts in Bangladesh
WHEN Mon., Dec. 12, 2011, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Pop Center, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) Erika Field, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Social Science, Department of Economics, Harvard University
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MTA Composer Forum features Terry Riley
Monday, December 12, 2011
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 14e-109, MIT Lewis Music Library, 14E-109, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Terry Riley in a talk about his new work for gamelan (his first for that medium), commissioned by Galak Tika & MIT, to be premiered at Kresge on Dec 15. 5pm, MIT Lewis Music Library, 14E-109. A Reception will follow. Free. Funded in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Tickets: NO TIX REQ.
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact:
Clarise Snyder
mta-request@mit.edu
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Reinventing the City @ MIT: U.S. Housing & Urban Development in the Aftermath of the 'Great Crash'
Monday, December 12, 2011
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 7-431, AVT, 77 Massachusetts Avenues, Cambridge
Reinventing the City @ MIT
During 2011-2012, the Department of Urban Studies & Planning will host a series of high-profile speakers and panels on a wide-range of topics related to the future of cities, planning, participation, economies, technology, design, and development. This series is part of a multi-year initiative in the department to raise cutting-edge questions about the field in an era of rapid change.
See http://dusp.mit.edu/p.lasso?t=7:6:0 for more in this series.
The Future of U.S. Housing & Urban Development in the Aftermath of the 'Great Crash': How Can Adversity Be Turned to Advantage?
Paul Willen, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Raphael Bostic, US Department of Housing and Urban Development; Todd Sinai, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Tom Davidoff, University of British Columbia (not confirmed)
In the 20th-century, housing dominated "The American Dream" and was a driver of urban development and the consumer-led economy. In the past decade, housing led the great financial collapse. Now "Generation Y" may be looking for a new housing paradigm. The ramifications are fundamental and far-reaching???for the economy, the financial system, and the shape of our cities. How can we extricate ourselves from the current predicament? What reforms are needed? What is the future role of owning versus renting, of suburbs versus central cities, of single-family versus multi-family, and what is housing's role in the income disparities that are tearing at society? This panel invites discussion of several cutting-edge scholars and policy leaders dealing with housing markets in the U.S. today.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:
Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn@mit.edu
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2.009 Product Design Presentations
Monday, December 12, 2011
7:30p–10:00p
MIT, W-16, Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MC: Professor David Wallace, MIT Mechanical Engineering
Presenters: 8 teams from 2.009, Product Engineering Processes
QA moderator: Professor Maria Yang, MIT Mechanical Engineering
At the beginning of the fall semester, the students of 2.009 (Product Engineering Processes) were tasked with proposing and developing innovative products focused around the theme "on-the-go."
You, the public, are invited to the alpha prototype launch event to hear about the teams' products, learn about the class, and weigh in on whether you think the products are a good idea.
Parking for the event is available in the West Garage after 5 p.m.
Presentations start at 7:30 p.m. sharp (please arrive early to pick up your name tag) in Kresge Auditorium, followed by a reception and chance to meet the students and try out their new products in the Kresge Auditorium lobby (around 10 p.m.).
Open to the general public, but please RSVP athttp://web.mit.edu/2.009/rsvp so that we can prepare a name tag for you. If the event is oversubscribed, people who have prepared name tags will be permitted to enter before everyone else.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/2.009/rsvp
Open to: the general public
Tickets: Please RSVP
Sponsor(s): Mechanical Engineering Dept.
For more information, contact:
Chevalley Duhart
617-253-3979
2009admin@mit.edu
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California Energy Commission Web Conference
December 13, 2011
11:00am
Online Conference
This web conference will examine findings from a recent research project funded by the California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program on the advancement of rooftop unit (RTU) performance.
http://www.esource.com/ES-PR-PIER-12-11/Press_Release/PIER
Contact Name: Jenny Field jenny_field@esource.com
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The Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board Subcommittee on Shale Gas Production
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
11:30a–12:30p
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: John Deutch, Institute Professor
This talk will describe the tremendous potential benefits of shale gas and the environmental challenges posed by shale gas production. John Deutch will review the work of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board Shale Gas Subcommittee, which he chaired, including the recommendations, the reasons for these recommendations, and the lessons to be learned from the experiences of this unusual advisory committee.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:
Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey@mit.edu
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Sustainable Civil Infrastructure in Hong Kong
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 1-131, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Scott T. Smith
CEE Mechanics Seminar
This presentation discusses activity in Hong Kong related to sustainable development of the built environment. The two parts of the lecture address the key related components of infrastructure, environment and energy from a practice as well as an education perspective. Part 1 is an overview of various Hong Kong Government initiatives for promoting sustainable development practices of the built environment. Also included are practices concerning tall buildings and construction materials. Part 2 is a summary of an entry level undergraduate engineering course developed at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) entitled Engineering for Sustainable Development. The education of future generations of engineers in sustainability is most topical and such teaching and learning activities are being implemented around the world and indeed in Hong Kong. An overview of selected teaching activities of relevance around the world will also be presented.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact:
Oral Buyukozturk
3-7186
obuyuk@MIT.EDU
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Please join American Farmland Trust for the second webinar in the series on Planning for Food and Agriculture: Taking a Systems Approach
On Tuesday, December 13 at 2 pm, AFT is offering an opportunity for people interested in local and regional food systems to learn about successful examples of county- and community-based food system planning. Presenters include Kathy Creahan of King County, Washington, Department of Natural Resources & Parks; Jason Grimm from Iowa Corridor Food and Agriculture Coalition; Katie Lynd of Multnomah County, Oregon, Office of Sustainability; and David Shabazian of Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
Register for the webinar, Planning for Food and Agriculture: Taking a Systems Approach on the County or Community Level, at 2 pm on December 13 athttps://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/679320458
In case you missed our first webinar on state and regional food systems planning, visit farmland.org/systems-planning to access a video recording, copies of presentations, and links to download model plans from our presenters: Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.
We hope you will join us to learn more about how to form strategic partnerships, conduct food system assessments, gather stakeholder input, and establish forward-thinking goals and steps for implementing them.
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Tailoring electrocatalyst materials at the nano-scale: Enhancing activity, selectivity, and stability for energy conversion reactions
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
4:15p–5:30p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Thomas F. Jaramillo, Stanford University
MITEI Seminar Series
A year-long series of seminars given by leaders in the energy field sponsored by the MIT Energy Initiative.
Chemical transformations are ubiquitous in today's global-scale energy economy. The ability to catalyze chemical reactions efficiently will continue to be critically important as we aim to enable a future energy economy based on renewable, sustainable resources. This talk will focus on our efforts to develop catalytic materials for the low-temperature, electron-driven production and consumption of chemical fuels, reactions that could play key roles for future energy technologies. The reactions we seek to catalyze include: (1) H2 generation from water and (2) the synthesis of alcohols and hydrocarbons from CO2, and (3) the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), reducing O2 to H2O. Reactions (1) and (2) are relevant to the synthesis of chemical fuels from renewable resources (e.g. wind and solar), while reaction (3) is a major technical obstacle at the cathode in low-temperature fuel cells. Common catalyst materials for these reactions face challenges in terms of activity, selectivity, stability, and/or cost and earth-abundance. This talk will describe approaches used in our research group to understand the governing principles guiding the reaction chemistry, as well as strategies to tailor the surface chemistry of materials through control of morphology, stoichiometry, and surface structure at the nano- and atomic-scale in order to overcome performance barriers in catalyzing these reactions, particularly for low-cost, earth-abundant materials.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars/jaramillo.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:
Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey@mit.edu
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10 in 1 StreetTalk: Ten Transportation Talks
Tuesday, December 13
6:00pm-9:00pm (note earlier start time)
70 Pacific St, Cambridge, MA (around the corner from our 100 Sidney St office)
$5-$15 suggested donation. Beverages provided.
Come hear 10 innovative transportation research and advocacy stories from students, advocates, consultants, planners and engineers from around the Boston area. Learn about transit equity and the Silver Line, youth empowerment through cycling, and a Broadway Bikeway and Urban Renewal proposal all in the same night.
Stories are from around the world, from Brookline to China, Massachusetts Avenue to Scotland, Virginia to Toronto. LivableStreets sent out a request for your transportation stories last month, and on December 13 you will hear 10 of them, each seven minutes long.
Seventy minutes of presentations with a social break in the middle, and time afterwards to chat, ask questions, network, and discuss. Don't miss out, it's the last event of the year!
Contact kara@livablestreets.info
617.621.1746
http://www.LivableStreets.info
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Designing Spaces for Civic Learning
December Meeting: Tuesday, December 13
IBM Center for Social Software, 1 Rogers Street, Cambridge
Evening Schedule:
6:30-7 Networking & Socializing over Tea, Coffee, Drinks, Food; Joining BostonCHI
7-8:30 Meeting
8:30-9 Dessert! ... And more Networking & Socializing
Eric Gordon, Associate Professor of Media Arts, Emerson College
Please register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2450100316 if you plan to attend. While not required, it helps us and our hosts estimate how much seating and refreshments to provide. All BostonCHI meetings are free and open to the public, although we'd appreciate it if you joined. Annual membership is only $15 / year and helps support our great speaker series.
Abstract: Digital networks are changing how people expect to interact with one another and the world around them. From desktop browsing to location-aware social networks, for a growing amount of people, access to other people and information is fast, convenient, archivable and sharable. As people become accustomed to this, increasingly, they expect that those affordances be translated to their (offline) lives. Face-to-face engagement is influenced by expectations born of digital practices. For many, being local means having access to a global database of information and people. This presents a fascinating design challenge. Being local is not only defined by its limits. As such, when designers, scholars and community leaders seek to bring technologies to bear on local life, they need to consider how global networks and their corresponding practices are transforming what people want out of local connections.
This talk will explore several projects by the Engagement Game Lab, where traditional spaces of local engagement are augmented to incorporate more engaging and sustainable platforms for civic learning. I will talk specifically about how game dynamics and collaborative spaces can reframe the broader goals of civic life. I will discuss lessons from two recent projects: Participatory Chinatown (2010) and Community PlanIt (2011).
Bio: Eric Gordon's work focuses on location-based media, media and urbanism, and games for civic engagement. He is an associate professor in the department of visual and media arts at Emerson College and he is the director of the Engagement Game Lab http://engagementgamelab.org. His book, The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities From Kodak to Google (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth, 2010) is about the intersections of media and American urbanism. He is also the co-author of a book about location aware media called Net Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World (Blackwell Publishing, 2011). In 2007, he co-founded the Hub2 http://hub2.org project, which explores how virtual environments can engage people in community planning by enabling meaningful and sustainable deliberation. He was awarded a MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Grant to continue with this work. The result is the game Participatory Chinatown http://participatorychinatown.org that launched in May 2010. His latest game project is called Community PlanIt http://communityplanit.org.
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Peace Walk
WHEN Wed., Dec. 14, 2011, 11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
WHERE Starts at John Harvard Statue
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard/Cambridge Walk for Peace
CONTACT INFO janecollins1@gmail.com
NOTE Protest the waste of lives and dollars by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Urge that money be used instead to care for our troops' serious injuries, and to provide education, health care, and human services to the American public.
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Technovation Challenge Information Session
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Google Cambridge, 5 Cambridge Center in Cambridge, 3rd floor, Cambridge
Technovation Challenge is a program that brings together professional women in technology and high school girls to build innovative mobile phone applications and then pitch the business plans to a panel of venture capitalists. The program is run by Iridescent, a science education nonprofit.
The two-fold goals of the program are to:
• inspire high-school girls to see themselves not just as users of technology, but as inventors, designers, builders and entrepreneurs
• provide product development experience to the women mentors so that they can go back and become leaders in the field. Women mentors get a powerful opportunity and access to senior tech leaders to take a project all the way from ideation to completion over 10 weeks. Here is a video from our "Stories of Leadership" event hosted by Andreessen Horowitz featuring Marissa Mayer (VP of Local, Google and Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco) talking about hard work vs luck to a group of Technovation women mentors.
Tara Chklovski, Founder and CEO of Iridescent will give a brief overview of the Technovation Challenge, entrepreneurship and the benefits of getting involved.
Lunch will be provided!
Register http://technovationchallengeinfo-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=13
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Google Info Session: Research at Google
Date: Wednesday, December 14 2011
Time: 3:00PM to 4:00PM
Refreshments: 3:00PM
Location: MIT, Building 32-G882 (Hewlett room), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jon Orwant, Google Research
Abstract: Google is not a traditional company, and research at Google differs from both academia and typical corporate research labs. In this talk I'll explain our approach: how we choose what to do, and how we do it. I'll survey some of the major areas we're exploring, such as machine learning, natural language processing, machine translation, speech recognition, operations research, and machine vision.
Speaker bio: Jon Orwant is an Engineering Manager in Google Research and was at MIT for an embarrassingly long time, from undergrad (VI-3 and IX) through his PhD and returned briefly as a Lecturer in 2003. He recently worked on the Google Books Ngram Viewer and Google+ Ripples, and is the author or co-author of several books on programming, including the bestselling Programming Perl, and published an independent computer magazine. Before joining Google he was the CTO of O'Reilly Media and Director of Research for France Telecom.
Cookies, coffee and tea will be served.
Contact: Rachel Traughber, 617.324.8360, rptraughber@csail.mit.edu
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Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
4:15p–5:30p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Daniel Yergin, Charmain, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates
Daniel Yergin is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics. Dr. Yergin is a Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of the United States Energy Award for "lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding." He is both a world-recognized author and a business leader, as Chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).
His new book -- The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World -- has been hailed by The Economist as "a masterly piece of work and "a comprehensive guide to the world's great energy needs and dilemmas" and, by the New York Times, as "searching, impartial and alarmingly up to date." The Financial Times called The Quest "a triumph".
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/mitei/news/seminars/yergin.html
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative, The Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
Jameson Twomey
617-324-2408
jtwomey@mit.edu
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MIT Environmental Research Forum
Thursday, December 15, 2011
9:00a–5:00p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
In association with the Provost's Office, the MIT Environmental Research Council (ERC) is pleased to present this Forum for the greater MIT community as a showcase to complement the release of its report "Implementing the MIT Global Environment Initiative."
Speakers will include the Provost, members of the ERC and other faculty engaged in research with environmental applications. Ample opportunity for audience questions and comments will be provided, culminating with an hour of open discussion to end the day.
This event is free and open to the entire MIT community with no reservation required.
Coffee breaks and lunch will be provided.
Reception to follow.
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/kurtster/www/forumagenda.pdf
Open to: The greater MIT Community
Cost: Free
Tickets: none required
Sponsor(s): Earth System Initiative, Environmental Research Council
For more information, contact:
Kurt Sternlof
3-6895
kurtster@mit.edu
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BU Pardee Distinguished Lecture: Who Controls the Future of Disease? Agroecology, Hydropower, and Malaria
Thursday, December 15, 2011
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Florence and Chafetz Hillel House, 213 Bay State Road, Boston University, Boston
Featuring Dr. William R. Jobin, Founder of Blue Nile Associates and an expert in the prevention and control of malaria and other tropical diseases. RSVP to pardee@bu.edu by Friday, December 9 to reserve a seat.
http://www.bu.edu/pardee/2011/11/21/william-r-jobin-distinguished-lecture/
Contact Name: Elaine Teng eyteng@bu.edu
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I "Heart" Neutrinos: A Film Screening by Jennifer West
Thursday, December 15, 2011
6:00p–7:30p
MIT, Building E15, Bartos Theatre, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Artist/filmmaker Jennifer West recently completed an artist residency project at MIT hosted by the List Visual Arts Center. West's collaborative engagement with faculty and researchers in MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science and the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, X-Ray Shared Experimental Facility resulted in the creation of three new cameraless film works. These works serve as a portrait of MIT through the unique materials and laboratory processes used to create the films. West will screen the new works and discuss her residency experiences at MIT.
Web site: http://listart.mit.edu/node/913
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact:
Mark Linga
617-253-4680
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The Reporter’s Privilege: An Eternal Clash Between the First and Sixth Amendments
WHEN Thu., Dec. 15, 2011, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
WHERE RCC conference room, 26 Trowbridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Real Colegio Complutense
SPEAKER(S) Josep M. Altarriba
COST Free and open to public
CONTACT INFO rcc_info@harvard.edu
NOTE in English
LINK http://www.realcolegiocomplutense.harvard.edu
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Cultural Survival Bazaar
WHEN Fri., Dec. 16, 10 a.m. – Sun., Dec. 18, 2011, 7 p.m.
WHERE Shops at Prudential Center-Newbury Arcade
800 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02199
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Cultural Survival Bazaar
COST Free
NOTE The Cultural Survival Bazaar is a festival of Native arts and culture from around the world, featuring Native artisans, performers, and handmade products benefiting the livelihoods of artisans, fair trade, and Cultural Survival's nonprofit work throughout the world.
The bazaars will be every weekend from Friday, Nov. 25, to Sunday Dec. 18, at four different locations (many offering free parking).
LINK http://bazaar.culturalsurvival.org
Editorial Comment: A regular reader asked that the Harvard Square Holiday Fair at the First Parish Church on Church Street in Harvard Square be included. It's a great showcase for local craftspeople with many great gift ideas for sale. More information at http://www.harvardsquareholidayfair.com/
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Reinventing the City @ MIT: Urban Ecology
Friday, December 16, 2011
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Reinventing the City @ MIT
During 2011-2012, the Department of Urban Studies & Planning will host a series of high-profile speakers and panels on a wide-range of topics related to the future of cities, planning, participation, economies, technology, design, and development. This series is part of a multi-year initiative in the department to raise cutting-edge questions about the field in an era of rapid change.
See http://dusp.mit.edu/p.lasso?t=7:6:0 for more in this series.
Followed by reception in room 7-338 at 2:00pm.
Adrienne Greve, California Polytechnic State University; Marina Alberti, University of Washington; Alexander Felson, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies/Yale School of Architecture; Stephanie Hurley, University of Vermont
To be sustainable and resilient in the 21st century, cities will need to reduce their ecological footprint dramatically. Doing so entails transformative change in both urban form and residents' behavior. But major change has proven elusive; rather, incremental or marginal adjustments are the norm. How might we bring about genuine urban transformation? In this crosscutting panel, four prominent urban ecologists lead a conversation about how urban ecology can help make cities environmentally sustainable and resilient.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact:
Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
eglenn@mit.edu
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The Muddy Megawatt Hour
Friday, December 16, 2011
4:00p–6:00p
Location: 50-Muddy Charles Pub, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Starting this week we're bumping the start of the Muddy Megawatt Hour back to 4 pm and will have a new official Energy Club Muddy Megawatt Hour Flag marking our space. Don't miss this great weekly opportunity to chat with people from the other side of campus about what they are working on here at MIT. In the first month, we've had great discussions around the Solyndra scandal and DOE loan guarantees, startup company financing, this year's Energy Conference topics and opportunities for storage technologies to make an impact. Come see who you will meet and what part of the energy world you will learn more about while informing others about your work and interests. Come early, come late, stay as long as you can on the hallowed ground where the Energy Club started.
Open to: the general public
This event occurs on Fridays through October 7, 2012.
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Club
For more information, contact:
MIT Energy Club
energyclub@mit.edu
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Cambridge Public Library Main Branch, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
This forum we hope to bring together former Freedom Riders and other key orchestrators in the civil rights movement and those impacted by it, for a discussion with the public. 50 years since these courageous Americans took these Rides, are we doing enough to make a difference in our community, country or world?
Come join us.
http://freedomriderscambridgepanel.eventbrite.com/
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Upcoming
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Throughout January, MIT hosts the Independent Activities Period where anyone from a janitor to a professor emeritus can teach a course. It is designed for the MIT community but, if they ask politely, members of the public can attend. The full schedule is available at
http://web.mit.edu/iap/
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Sprouts/Microgreens class at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE):
Monday, January 9, 6-9 pm
It will cover jar method of sprouting, tray methods of microgreens and flax/chia, and show some simple raw food recipes.
To register: contact CCAE at 617-547-6789 or via the web.
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Coping with climate change today: Insights from the past
Thursday, January 19, 2012, 7-8:45 pm
Cambridge Main Public Library, Community Room
By any measure, climate change is unprecedented. “The earth that we knew – the only earth that we ever knew – is gone.” (Bill McKibben, Eaarth, p. 27)
But the crisis of climate change, the human crisis, is an old one with many precedents that we can learn from as we confront climate change in our own lives.
If you are aware that climate change is real and is a looming threat to our way of life, the conditions that made human civilization possible, and possibly to human survival then you are confronted with the choice that defines the crisis:
Should I accept climate change as inevitable, and pursue my own happiness and profit as things fall apart, or should I join with others and fight it, even though we must live with the certainty that we can’t stop it? World War II confronted the French people with more immediate threats and similar choices. Shortly after the war, in 1947, Albert Camus, a Frenchman who had fought in the resistance, wrote a novel about life during the war and reached back to an earlier century for a precedent to the shock of the Nazi occupation of France. He found it in an outbreak of The Plague, which he set in a modern city in North Africa.
We have little living memory of the war that Camus had just experienced, yet his precise account of the timeless human condition in crises of the past can help us understand how to respond to today’s crisis.
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Opportunity
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Free Solar Panels for Houses of Worship
From a recent Mass Interfaith Power & Light (http://mipandl.org/) email
"We've recently been talking with DCS Energy (http://www.dcsenergy.com/) who has an unbeatable offer: if your site qualifies, they design and install the panels at no cost, don't charge you for any electricity, and donate the system to your house of worship after five years. Your only costs will be for a building permit, possibly a structural engineer to verify that your roof can support their weight, and any preparatory work such as roof work or tree removal. If solar panels are so expensive how can anyone give them away for free? First, there is a federal grant program that is only available until November that pays for 30% of the cost of the system. Then there is an accelerated depreciation option that gives certain kinds of investors another tax advantage. Finally, the state awards a special allowance called a "Solar Renewal Energy Credit" (SRECs) to owners of solar electricity systems which are sold at auctions to utilities who buy them to meet their requirements under the Massachusetts' renewable portfolio standard. DCS is betting that the price of these SRECs will remain high. Jim Nail, president of MA IP&L, has talked to DCS Energy and is currently having them prepare a proposal for his church, St. Dunstan's Episcopal in Dover. Jim says, "The references I've talked to have been quite positive about the program and the company has been very responsive. "If you think your site might qualify, contact Peter Carli, pete@dcsenergy.com, with the address of your house of worship and your contact information. He'll take a preliminary look at your site and advise you if it meets their criteria."
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Young World Inventors Success!
Young World Inventors (http://yinventors.wordpress.com/) finished their Kickstarter campaign (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1036325713/youngworldinventorscom) to fund insider web stories of African and American innovators in collaboration successfully.
New contributions, however, will be accepted.
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Massachusetts Attitudes About Climate Change – An opinion survey of Massachusetts residents conducted by MassINC and sponsored by the Barr Foundation found that 77% of respondents believe that global warming has “probably been happening” and 59% of all respondents see see it as being at least partially caused by human pollution. Only 42% of the state’s residents say global warming will have very serious consequences for Massachusetts if left unaddressed. The 18 to 29 age group is more likely to believe global warming is appearing and caused by humans compared to the 60+ age group. African-American (56%) and Latino residents (69%) are more likely than white residents (40%) to believe global warming will be a very serious problem if left unaddressed. The MassINC report, titled The 80 Percent Challenge: What Massachusetts must do to meet targets and make headway on climate change (http://www.massinc.org/Research/The-80-percent-challenge.aspx), contains many other findings.
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The presentations from the recent Affordable Comfort National Home Performance Conference are available online at
http://2011.acinational.org/downloadable_resources
Lots of good information from what some call the best energy conference in the USA on Deep Energy Retrofits to Community Energy Challenges with details on insulation, heat flow, energy metering, ducting, hot water, and many, many other topics. If you are a practical energy wonk, this should make your eyes light up.
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
https://www.carbonsalon.com/
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/studios
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
Boston Area Computer User Groups http://www.bugc.org/
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/calendar/mit_events_template
http://sustainability.mit.edu/
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
http://green.harvard.edu/events
http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/tabid/57/Default.aspx
http://pechakuchaboston.org/blog/
http://boston.nerdnite.com/
http://www.meetup.com/
http://www.eventbrite.com/
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