Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, November 12 - Tuesday, November 13
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Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure Workshop: Innovations for a Sustainable Infrastructure
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Monday, November 12
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12pm Digital Resistance: How the Internet Facilitates Responses to Racial Microaggression
12pm Digital Resistance: How The Internet Facilitates Responses to Racial Microaggressions
12:10pm The Mystery of Smith’s Aspen: Uncovering the genetic identity and climate change vulnerability of a hybrid Pleistocene relic
12:15pm Cultures of Nuclear Security: How Different Countries Decide How to Protect their Nuclear Facilities
7pm Lessons from the Past: From Kristallnacht to the Modern Refugee Crisis
7pm Outbreak Culture: The Ebola Crisis and the Next Epidemic
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Tuesday, November 13
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12pm Bad Apples: A new disease and its impacts, farm to fork
12pm Re-Engineering Humanity: ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE OF AI
5pm In Real Life: Will My Idea Work?
5pm Radically Happy: Meditation and Mindfulness Based in Ancient Wisdom
5:15pm Hurricane of the New South: ‘Mud Work’ and Transformations in Black Labor on the South Carolina Sea Islands at the Dawn of Jim Crow
5:30pm Community Choice Energy Progress Party
5:30pm The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center presents Writing the Ineffable: Michael Pollan in Conversation with Elaine Scarry
5:30pm What's Next? A Conversation with MA's Up-and-Coming Political Leaders
5:30pm Beantown Throwdown 2018
6pm Richard Sennett: The Good Craftsman
6:30pm Aga Khan Program Lecture: Anna Heringer, "Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives”
7pm The End of the End of the Earth: Essays
7pm Witness: Lessons From Elie Wiesel’s Classroom
7pm Mushrooms on Martha's Vineyard
7pm A Crisis of Beliefs
7pm The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
Hints to Those That Would Be Rich: From Poor Richard's Almanac, 1737
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Monday, November 12 - Tuesday, November 13
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Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure Workshop: Innovations for a Sustainable Infrastructure
Monday, November 12 - Tuesday, November 13
Day 1: HBS, Cumnock Hall 102, 33 Harvard Way, Boston
Day 2: GSD, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Innovations for sustainable and resilient infrastructure are disrupting the business as usual approach to infrastructure. The focus of the ZPH Workshop is to discuss what are the key innovations addressing environmental challenges and driving sustainable projects on all phases of infrastructure development: planning & financing, construction, and operation & maintenance. The different panels explore the role of stakeholders in disruptive projects, and how are these innovative solutions financed and developed.
The workshop is structured into the following panels: 1) Synergies and Integration for Sustainable Infrastructure; CS) HBS Case Study on Sustainability; 2) Disruptive Technologies towards Sustainability; 3) Sustainable Development Goals and Innovation; 4) What types of Procurement lead to Sustainable Projects?; 5) A Case Study: Rebuilding Water Systems in Puerto Rico after Maria: thinking out of the box?
Contact Name: Judith Rodríguez
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Monday, November 12, 12:00 PM – Wednesday, November 14, 5:00 PM
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MOD X: Ecologies Economies Exchanges
Monday, November 12, 12:00 PM – Wednesday, November 14, 5:00 PM
Colonnade Hotel, 120 Huntington Avenue, Boston
The MOD-X workshop will bring together a group of experts from Sweden, Japan, the UK and Poland with colleagues from the US to discuss the current state of offsite construction today, with a particular focus on volumetric modular. Over three days, the workshop participants will discuss these broad questions:
How are manufacturers approaching the challenge of growing capacity and capability sustainably and economically in North America?
What can innovative business models, product platforms, advocacy initiatives and regulatory frameworks from across the globe tell us about how offsite and particularly volumetric modular construction might evolve in the US in the next decade?
How have past, current and future initiatives shaped the context within which volumetric modular is delivered in New York City?
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
MOD-X’s organizers and curators, Professors Ryan E. Smith and Ivan Rupnik, recently completed an assessment of the global volumetric modular industry, comparing the current state of the worlds largest volumetric modular industry, in the US, with a number of industries abroad, including Sweden, Japan, the UK, Poland and Australia. Supported by the Modular Building Institute, this assessment has shown the importance of understanding volumetric modular as part of a larger ecology of material flows, regulatory frameworks, and socio-economic and cultural trends, among other factors, on a local and global scale as well as the need for more intensive exchanges between the global hotspots of this industry. The research has also shown the importance of balancing a sensitivity for the specific challenges and innovations of a given context with a search for paradigms and best practices that transcend regulatory and market boundaries. By bringing together the community of experts that has formed during this initial research through an intensive workshop, Smith and Rupnik will construct a framework for helping the volumetric modular industry internationally move forward.
Always moving from the specific towards the general, the MOD-X workshop will address these broad issues through three lenses over three days. On day one, the workshop will examine a recent example of a company upgrading capacity and capability sustainably, the new Bensonwood / Unity Homes facility in Keene, New Hampshire, before discussing the current opportunities and challenges to the offsite industry in North America, and abroad. On day two, the workshop will examine four national contexts for offsite and volumetric modular construction, all of whom have been able to manage growth in capacity and capability sustainably. With each session, the workshop will move from the factors that encouraged this sustainable growth at the national scale before turning to a a specific manufacturers and institutions that have benefited from and contributed to this growth back to the current situation in the United States and globally. On day three, the workshop will move from Boston to New York City Deputy Mayor’s Office, where that institutions “mod squad” has been considering how to foster the growth of capacity and capability in that municipality, in order to make access to housing more affordable. This initiative suggests that the kind of long-term nurturing of the offsite industry found at the national scale in some international precedents is already occurring in America, but at the municipal scale.
Workshop participation will be limited to a total of fifty participants, including organizers, 6-10 international guests and up to thirty US attendees. All of the content generated during the course of the workshop will be made accessible to the participants as well as the general public. Instead of a single static report or publication, the goal of the workshops will be to generate a community of experts and a platform for discussion and knowledge exchange into the future.
WORKSHOP AGENDA
Day 1, Monday, November 12
Tour of Bensonwood Facility, Keene, New Hampshire
(Transportation from Boston to Keene will be provided by the organizers)
Over the past few years, the challenge in the offsite and volumetric modular industry has shifted from fostering growth to managing growth. In order to ground this discussion, the Mod-X participants will visit Bensonwood’s new facility in New Hampshire. The new 100,000 sq. ft. facility, planned in 2015 and opened this year, was funded in part through the New Market Credit program. It also utilizes Weinman equipment, acquired through auction and adapted to the new factory. As part of this expansion and with an eye toward economic sustainability, Bensonwood is also entering the building products business through its new Tektoniks line. Through the tour with Ted Benson and his colleagues, the MOD-X workshop team will have an opportunity to understand the business model and product platform of Bensonwood as well as to understand the current regulatory, economic and social context within which offsite construction currently operates in North America. While significant venture capital investment has been made into newcomers, for offsite construction to truly mature in North America, the myriad of established players currently operating will also need to increase their capacity and capability.
Session: Managing Growth - Increasing Capacity and Capability in North America
Location: Keene, New Hampshire Country Club
While offsite construction, including volumetric modular construction, has existed for the better part of twentieth century, the dream of the factory-built home has remained elusive in most of the world, with a few exceptions. Since 2010, interest in offsite construction has resurfaced across the globe. A convincing explanation of this trend was provided by The Economist in 2017. In that article, the construction was unique in being the only industry to have declined in productivity over the last half-century, dropping as much as fifty percent in North America. This drop in productivity, has in turn driven the cost of conventional construction up to a point where the market seems open to other alternatives, including offsite construction. At the same time, The Economist attributed this drop in productivity to the construction industries aversion to capital intensive investments, a mindset generated through the vicious boom and bust cycle to which the offsite industry is also not immune. If this assessment is accurate, than offsite construction, and particularly volumetric modular construction in the United States, has a historic opportunity to finally deliver on its promise of increased productivity, economy and quality, but only if it can answer a key question: how can the offsite and volumetric modular industry increase capacity and capability sustainably so as to take advantage of current demand while at the same time developing product platforms and business models that can weather the boom and bust cycle of the construction industry. Using the tour of the Bensonwood facility as a departure point, this session will engage this issue with the help of Tom Hardiman from the Modular Building Institute will share the state of the volumetric industry in North America and Tedd Benson from Bensonwood will reflect his experience with up-scaling and up-skilling to meet demand.
Dinner Location: Boston (exact location TBD)
Day 2, Tuesday, November 13
Northeastern University, Boston
Session: Global Exchanges, National Ecologies and Economies: Sweden, United Kingdom, Poland, & Japan
In this session, representatives of leading companies and institutions from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Poland and Japan have been invited to participate in the Mod-X workshop. The Swedish context will be examined through the lens of Lindbäcks, presented by Helena Lidelöw, the companies Product Platform manager and Associate Professor of Timber Engineering at Luleå University. The UK context will be presented by Mila Ducheva of the Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures, Edinburgh Napier University and Calum Murray, Managing Director of CCG Homes, Scotland. The Polish context will be presented by Ewelina Wozniak-Szpakiewicz, CEO of DMD Modular and Adjunct Professor at Cracow University of Technology. The Japanese context will be presented by a group representatives from Sekisui Heim.
The Global Context and Local Specificities Broadly speaking, the “global”volumetric modular industry is still primarily local in its market scope, with some important exceptions, which will be discussed. For many of the national contexts examined, postwar housing programs had a lasting impact on the industry, defining the regulatory framework for offsite construction, providing initial support for the foundation of many of the companies examined in the research but also generating some of the stigmas still associated with offsite construction. In Europe and Japan, offsite construction, long associated with the promise of efficiency and economy, is now also being viewed within through the lens of ecology and sustainability. While each of the national case studies share a number of common characteristics, they also all provide unique perspectives into various factors.
In the case of Sweden, that countries highly sophisticated approach to timber products offers one of the tightest footprints to companies like Lindbäcks, whose materials are sourced within a few miles of their facilities and markets. Lindbäcks’s long-term focus on multi-family volumetric modular has led to the development of significantly taller structures than are currently admissible in the United States.
In the United Kingdom, the offsite construction industry has benefited from a series of government reports on the benefits of this form of construction. Sweden and the UK have also been the sites of two of the largest volumetric facilities in the world, outside of Japan.
In Poland, a number of volumetric modular companies, including DMD Modular and Polcom Modular, are subsidiaries of larger furniture companies. In both of their cases, they have developed business models, product platforms and supply chains that focus on international delivery, both to Western Europe and more recently, to New York City
Japan is home to one of the largest volumetric companies in the world, Sekisui Heim, with eight factories along the length of Japan delivering 15,000 housing units a year. Over the last decade, Sekisui Heim has expanded its focus from a highly automated product platform and well defined sales strategy towards a cyclical business model that recycles or refurbishes the fund of more than steel volumetric modular housing units already standing in Japan.
Dinner Location: Boston (exact location TBD)
Day 3, Wednesday, November 14
Deputy Mayors Office, New York City
Session: New York City’s Modular Initiatives
Some of the most innovative initiatives supporting the growth of the volumetric modular industry in North America are currently occurring at the municipal scale. Faced with a persistent housing crisis, cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York City have actively encouraged the use of offsite construction through various means. In the case of New York, policies intended to retain and expand manufacturing in New York City contributed to the establishment of two volumetric modular facilities in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the mid nineties: Capsys Corp. and Full Stack Modular. These companies fabricated two of the most published volumetric modular project of this decade, My Micro (now Carmel Place) and the B2 Tower at Atlantic Yards (now 461 Dean St.) only a few miles from their locations, delivering hundreds of ‘mods’ through one of the densest urban environments in the world. In contrast to these hyperlocal projects, two Polish volumetric modular companies, Polcom Modular and DMD modular have delivered units to NYC from across the Atlantic for hospitality projects. Most recently, the office of the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development released a request for proposals (RFP) for innovative modular construction. Working closely with the Deputy Mayor’s“mod squad”, the MOD-X organizers will close the workshop with a session focused on the past, present and future of volumetric modular construction in New York City.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE (Tenative)
* Make your own travel arrangements. Contact the Colonnade Hotel for your room reservations
Monday, November 12 MOD X Workshop Day 1 (New Hampshire, Boston)
11 AM MOD X Participants leave from Colonnade Hotel for Keene Country Club by bus
The Colonnade Boston Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116
1 PM MOD X Participants Arrive at Keene Country Club
Keene Country Club, 755 W Hill Rd, Keene, NH 03431
1 PM - 2:30 PM Bensonwood Presentation
Keene Country Club, 755 W Hill Rd, Keene, NH 03431
2:45 - 4:00 PM Tour of Bensonwood
Unity Homes, 25 Production Ave, Keene, NH 03431
4:15 PM MOD X Participants leave from Bensonwood Factory for Northeastern University
Unity Homes, 25 Production Ave, Keene, NH 03431
6:30 PM Arrive at Northeastern University
Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115
7:00 PM MOD X: Capacity and Capability in Volutmetric Modular (TomHardiman, MBI)
7:30 PM Dinner
334 Ryder (Theatre Lab)
Northeastern University, Ryder hall, 11 Leon St, Boston, MA 02115
Tuesday November 13 MOD X Workshop Day 2 (Boston)
All day events held at:
John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute, Northeastern University 40 Leon St, Boston, MA 02115
9 AM MOD X: Introduction
Ivan Rupnik and Ryan Smith
COUNTRY CASE STUDIES:
10 AM MOD X: Japan
Shuichi Matsumura (University of Tokyo) (via video recording)
11 AM MOD X: UK
Mila Duncheva (Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures)
12:30 PM LUNCH
1:30 PM MOD X: Sweden
Susanne Rudenstam (Swedish Timber Building Council)
Helena Lidelow (Lindbacks)
3:30 PM MOD X: Poland
Ewelina Wozniak-Szpakiewicz (DMD Modular)
7 PM Dinner
334 Ryder (Theatre Lab)
Northeastern University, Ryder hall, 11 Leon St, Boston, MA 02115
Wednesday November 14 MOD X Day 3 (NYC)
8:00 AM MOD X Participants leave from Collonade Hotel for New York City by bus
The Colonnade Boston Hotel, 120 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116
12:00 PM Arrive at Center For Architecture Foundation / Lunch
Center For Architecture Foundation
536 LaGuardia Pl, New York, NY 10012, USA
1 PM MOD X: NYC - Modular Initiatives
Presenters: Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development
Respondents: Marcy Ostberg (Boston Housing Innovation Lab), Susanne Rudenstam , Mila Ducheva, Tom Hardiman
2:30 PM MOD X: NYC - Modular Experiences
Presenters: Full Stack Modular, DMD Modular
Respondents: Danny Forster (Danny Forster & Architecture), ShOP Architects, Helena Lidelow, Dave Walsh (Marriott International)
4:00 PM Closing Discussion
*Bus back to Boston, for those interested will be leaving at 7 PM, exact location TBD
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Monday, November 12
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Digital Resistance: How the Internet Facilitates Responses to Racial Microaggression
Monday, November 12
12pm
BU, 96 Cummington Hall, Room SOC241, 96 -100 Cummington Street, Boston
Robert Eschmann
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Digital Resistance: How The Internet Facilitates Responses to Racial Microaggressions
Monday, November 12
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
BU, 96 Cummington Mall, Room 241, Boston
Rob Eschmann, assistant professor in the Human Behavior department at the BU School of Social Work will present his research on "Digital Resistance: How The Internet Facilitates Responses to Racial Microaggressions."
Contact Name Deborah Carr
(732) 309-1807
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The Mystery of Smith’s Aspen: Uncovering the genetic identity and climate change vulnerability of a hybrid Pleistocene relic
Monday, November 12
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 300 Centre Street, Boston
Jake Grossman, Arboretum Putnam Fellow
Watch live on the Arboretum’s YouTube channel if you are unable to attend in person.
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
Contact Name: arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu
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Cultures of Nuclear Security: How Different Countries Decide How to Protect their Nuclear Facilities
Monday, November 12
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, CGIS South S050, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Matthew Bunn (Harvard Kennedy School).
The STS Circle at Harvard is a group of doctoral students and recent PhDs who are interested in creating a space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary issues in science and technology that are relevant to people in fields such as anthropology, history of science, sociology, STS, law, government, public policy, and the natural sciences. We want to engage not only those who are working on intersections of science, politics, and public policy, but also those in the natural sciences, engineering, and architecture who have serious interest in exploring these areas together with social scientists and humanists.
There has been growing interest among graduate students and postdocs at Harvard in more systematic discussions related to STS. More and more dissertation writers and recent graduates find themselves working on exciting topics that intersect with STS at the edges of their respective home disciplines, and they are asking questions that often require new analytic tools that the conventional disciplines don’t necessarily offer. They would also like wider exposure to emerging STS scholarship that is not well-represented or organized at most universities, including Harvard. Our aim is to try to serve those interests through a series of activities throughout the academic year.
Sandwich lunches are provided. Please RSVP to via the online form by Wednesday at 5PM the week before.
The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
STS Circle at Harvard
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Boston Media, Arts & Ideas Mixer | November 2018 Edition
Monday, November 12
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Beat Brew Hall, 13 Brattle Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-media-arts-ideas-mixer-november-2018-edition-tickets-51670723525
The Boston Media, Arts & Ideas Mixer is all about bringing together a cross-disciplinary group of people who make things (or make things happen). Get inspired while mingling with an eclectic crowd of passionate creators.
Join other active practitioners and aspirants from across the creative arts, media, technology & innovation, and higher education. Bring your business cards, make new connections, and perhaps meet your next collaborator!
Good things happen when creative people from disparate disciplines meet and exchange ideas.
Free to attend. Cash bar. Please RSVP :)
This is a safe-space event: we want to create an environment where all people regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race or religion are accepted and respected. Harassment of any kind is not tolerated.
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Lessons from the Past: From Kristallnacht to the Modern Refugee Crisis
Monday, November 12
7:00 pm
BU, LAW Auditorium, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Part of the Fall 2018 Elie Wiesel Memorial Lectures: "Kristallnacht 1938: What happened? What have we learned?" Presented by Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, the oldest refugee organization in the US, who will address the resonances between the events of 1938 and the refugee crisis of our time.
Editorial Comment: HIAS’ name has been dragged into the conspiracy theories about the immigrant caravan and the recent mass murder of 11 people in Pittsburgh.
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Outbreak Culture: The Ebola Crisis and the Next Epidemic
Monday, November 12
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The award-winning genetic researcher who helped tame the Ebola epidemic pairs up with a prize-winning journalist to tell the story of what happened and what would have to change to prevent the next outbreak from spiraling out of control.
About the Authors
Pardis Sabeti is Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University. A member of the Broad Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Sabeti was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer, and one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2015. She is also the recipient of an NIH New Innovator Award and a Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences.
Lara Salahi is an award-winning multimedia journalist and author, and assistant professor of Broadcast and Digital Journalism at Endicott College.
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Tuesday, November 13
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Insect-scale mechanisms: from flying robots to piezoelectric fans
Tuesday November 13
11:00-12:00 (Food will arrive right after the seminar)
MIT, Building 32-G449 (Kiva), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Noah Jafferis, Harvard University
ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been heightened interest in developing sub-gram hovering vehicles, in part for their predicted high maneuverability (based on the relative scaling of torques and inertias). In this regime, the efficiency of electromagnetic motors drops substantially, and piezoelectrics are generally the actuator of choice. These typically operate in an oscillatory mode, which is well matched with flapping wings. However, at such a small size, integrating on-board power and electronics is quite challenging (particularly given the high voltages required for piezoelectrics), and such vehicles have thus been limited to fly tethered to an off-board power supply and control system. In this talk, I will discuss recent advances in the Harvard Robobee to overcome these challenges, including non-linear resonance modeling, improved manufacturing, and multi-wing designs. I will also discuss fabrication of an alternative mechanism for converting piezoelectric vibration to airflow. This is of interest as a low-profile fan for CPU cooling, a growing issue as electronic devices pack increasing power consumption (and thus heat) into smaller spaces. Additionally, a thruster based on this technology could achieve higher thrust-per-area and speed than flapping wings or propellers (at the expense of efficiency). Its extremely modular nature is also attractive in such an application. When we operate robots near resonance, particularly with very non-linear systems and/or multiple mechanically interacting actuators, control can be extremely challenging. In these scenarios, knowledge of the instantaneous deflections or velocities of each actuator is crucial. Toward this end, I will describe our work on monitoring the actuators’ current to obtain accurate velocity data regardless of external loading, without the need for any additional sensors.
BIO Noah T. Jafferis obtained his PhD in the Electrical Engineering Department at Princeton University in 2012, and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Harvard University's Microrobotics Lab. Noah was home-schooled until entering Yale University at the age of 16, where he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2005. At Princeton, Noah's research included printing silicon from nanoparticle suspensions and the development of a "flying carpet" (traveling wave based propulsion of a thin plastic sheet). His current research at Harvard includes nonlinear resonance modeling, scaling, and system optimization for flapping-wing vehicles; piezoelectric actuators and motors (manufacturing and modeling for optimal power density, efficiency, and lifetime); a fan/thruster using piezoelectrically actuated peristaltic pumping; solar power for autonomous operation of insect-scale robots; and self-sensing actuation. Some of his many research interests include micro/nano-robotics, bio-inspired engineering, 3D integrated circuits, MEMS/NEMS, piezoelectrics, 3D printing, energy harvesting, and large-area/flexible electronics.
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Bad Apples: A new disease and its impacts, farm to fork
Tuesday, November 13
12:00PM TO 1:00PM
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room 125, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Megan Biango-Daniels, Postdoctoral Scholar, Wolfe Lab, Dept. of Biology, Tufts University
Abstract: The United States is the world’s second-largest apple producer. Before this economically important crop makes it to grocery shelves, it faces numerous fungal pathogens, a problem compounded by its long postharvest storage. Fungal rots contribute to the 10-15% of apples that are lost between the farm and the grocery store. Paecilomyces niveus (Byssochlamys nivea) is an important heat-resistant food spoilage mold of fruit products that produces patulin, a mycotoxin often associated with moldy apples. This understudied ascomycete was found in a third of New York orchard soils sampled. My work demonstrated for the first time that the fungus is a plant pathogen, capable of infecting fruit through wounds in the orchard and postharvest. When infected apples are used for apple juice concentrate, they harbor hard-to-kill ascospores that can survive the extended thermal processing used. This work suggests P. niveus may be introduced to wounded fruit from orchard soils and go on to cause spoilage and mycotoxin problems in processed products. Due to its superficial similarity to other diseases, Paecilomyces rot may be overlooked. In proposing a novel explanation for the episodic nature of P. niveus contamination, this research links an apple disease with food spoilage.
Herbaria Seminar
Contact Name: Claire Gallagher
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A Post Midterms America and the Future of Immigration and Immigrants OR Did Fear Win Out?
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wexner 434, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Maria Hinojosa
DETAILS Maria Hinojosa is anchor and executive producer for the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by NPR, and for PBS’s America By The Numbers with Maria Hinojosa. Her nearly 30-year career includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, Frontline, and CBS Radio, and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. In 2010, Hinojosa created the Futuro Media Group, a nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism that gives voice to the diversity of the American experience. She is a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, and is a frequent guest on MSNBC.
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Economics of Blockchain Technology and Crypto Finance
Tuesday, November 13
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
MIT, Building E51-151, Tang Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
As part of its Distinguished Speaker Series, the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP) will be hosting Gary Gensler for a lunchtime seminar on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, where he will share insights from his career in investment banking and government and also provide updates on his recent research. Lunch will be available.
Gensler is the former Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Advisor to the Director of the Media Lab.
Contact deirdre@mit.edu for more information about the event.
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Re-Engineering Humanity: ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE OF AI
Tuesday, November 13
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (room 2036, second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGNmbgsDnxg6hroY4WzCeCwm62nUHRw8yVv3jLww7XHSt6eA/viewform
Brett Frischmann
Event will be live webcast and recorded at 12:00 pm on day of event at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2018-11-13/re-engineering-humanity
Every day, new warnings emerge about artificial intelligence rebelling against us. All the while, a more immediate dilemma flies under the radar. Have forces been unleashed that are thrusting humanity down an ill-advised path, one that’s increasingly making us behave like simple machines? Brett Frischmann will discuss what’s happening to our lives as society embraces big data, predictive analytics, and supposedly smart environments. He will explain how the goal of designing programmable worlds goes hand in hand with engineering predictable and programmable people. If you're interested in understanding exactly how technology threatens the future of our society and what we can do now to build something better, join us!
Are supposedly smart digital technologies re-engineering humanity? Don't worry about the rise of super-intelligent, sentient machines. Instead, worry about the tyranny of digital tech utopianism.
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Avoiding Dystopia: User privacy preferences and empowerment online
Tuesday, November 13
1pm - 2pm
MIT, Building 32G-449, Kiva Seminar Room, Stata Center, Cambridge
Jennifer Golbeck, University of Maryland
Abstract: Online sharing combined with opaque mass surveillance and powerful analytic tools has led us to a place where data is collected and transformed into incredibly personal insights, often without users' knowledge or consent. This impacts the information they see, the way they interact, and it can be used in deeply manipulative ways. This talk will look at users' feelings about these practices and how they tie back to classic sociological understandings of trust, power, and privacy. I discuss possible ways forward to avoid an impending dystopia, especially in light of GDPR on one side and Chinese Social Credit on the other.
Bio: Jen Golbeck is a Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence and social media, privacy, and trust on the web. Her dogs are also famous on the internet and she runs their social media empire at theGoldenRatio4 on all platforms. She received an AB in Economics and an SB and SM in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Polymer Genome: An Informatics Platform for Rational Polymer Dielectrics Design and Beyond
Tuesday, November 13
3:30pm to 4:30pm
MIT, Building 66-110, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
The Materials Science and Engineering Seminar Series presents Prof. Rampi Ramprasad from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who will give a talk on "Polymer Genome: An Informatics Platform for Rational Polymer Dielectrics Design and Beyond." Refreshments will be served.
Abstract: The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) has heralded a sea change in the philosophy of materials design. In an increasing number of applications, the successful deployment of novel materials has benefited from the use of computational, experimental and informatics methodologies. Here, we describe our recent polymer discovery efforts, highlighting the role played by computational data generation and screening, targeted synthesis and characterization, polymer fingerprinting and machine-learning prediction models. These efforts have culminated in the creation of an online Polymer Informatics platform (https://www.polymergenome.org) to guide ongoing and future polymer discovery and design. Challenges that remain are examined, and systematic steps that may be taken to extend the applicability of such informatics efforts to a wide range of technological domains are discussed.
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Our Power: Time to Do The Work
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wexner 436, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Brittany Packnett (IOP Fall 2018 Resident Fellow)
DETAILS Now that the midterm results are in, how do we make sense of the outcome? What do these outcomes indicate about the success of modern social movements and the merging voices within them? And most importantly, after a semester together and a new political landscape, what does this inspire us to go and do? We will prototype movements of our own, and commit to action moving beyond the semester to impact the Harvard community, Greater Boston, and the communities with which we most closely identify. We don't just get to be learners. Our privileges require us to be leaders.
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In Real Life: Will My Idea Work?
Tuesday, November 13
5pm
BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center, 730 Commonwealth Avenue, Brookline
Have a great idea? How do you know it's great? Don't miss this opportunity to learn tips and tricks for validating your idea before you pour tons of money or time into it.
You'll become familiar with the Lean Startup process and the Lean Canvas- both tools are all about working smarter and faster to get your idea into the hands of customers and validating its value.
Facilitator: Rachel Spekman, Innovate@BU, Program Director of Business Innovation
Attendees will be able to:
Understand and explain the Lean Canvas tool
Understand how other companies and/or startups have utilized the Lean Canvas to improve their business overall
Utilize the Lean Canvas to uncover areas of development and strength opportunities for their idea/business
Each workshop follows a similar format:
Overview of workshop goals
Overview and lesson on the topic
Hands-on activity and exercise
Share learnings and activity results
Wrap up and questions
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Radically Happy: Meditation and Mindfulness Based in Ancient Wisdom
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion
SPONSOR Buddhist Ministry Initiative
CONTACT Julie Gillette
DETAILS Please join us for this conversation with Phakchok Rinpoche and Erric Solomon, authors of the recently released Radically Happy: A User’s Guide to the Mind. These two meditation experts—a seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a traditionally trained Tibetan Rinpoche—will discuss their efforts to make meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhist thought accessible to a secular and modern audience. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
Free and open to the public.
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L. Hunter Lovins: A Finer Future
Tuesday, November 13
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts, Cambridge
L. Hunter Lovins is the President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS), and a founding professor of Sustainable Management at Bard MBA. She will speak about her newly-published book: A Finer Future.
This lecture is co-sponsored by MIT Environmental Solutions and Soil4Climate.
Humanity is in a race with catastrophe and charting the course to a regenerative economy is the most important work facing the world. A Finer Future gathers the evidence and delivers the essential blueprint for an economy that will rally communities, companies, and countries to create a world that works for 100% of humanity.
It demonstrates how to transform finance, corporations, agriculture, energy, and the nature of how we work to enhance well-being among the many and restore trust and social capital by addressing income inequality and environmental destruction. Using references and case studies of solutions, it outlines the principles of a regenerative economy and details the policies needed to achieve it.
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Hurricane of the New South: ‘Mud Work’ and Transformations in Black Labor on the South Carolina Sea Islands at the Dawn of Jim Crow
Tuesday, November 13
5:15PM
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston St., Boston
Caroline Grego, University of Colorado Boulder. Comment by Chad Montrie, University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Attendance is free, but you can subscribe online ($25) for the convenience of advance online access to the papers in FOUR series: this, our new Boston African American History Seminar, the Boston Area Early American History Seminar, and the Boston Seminar on Modern American Society and Culture.
Boston Seminar on Environmental History
Contact Name: Alex Buckley
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Research and Innovation in India: What holds it back?
Tuesday, November 13
5:30pm to 6:45pm
MIT, Building 4-237, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT Sangam is pleased to host a talk by Varun Aggarwal (SM '07), who is co-founder and CTO of Aspiring Minds. He'll be talking about his recent book "Leading Science and Technology: India Next?", in which he analyzes the state of science and research in India. His talk will provide data-based insights into India's research and innovation ecosystem and policy suggestions.
Research and Innovation in India: What holds it back?
India is often celebrated for its high rate of economic growth and vibrant startup ecosystem. What about new age technologies such as AI, neuroscience, and biotechnology? How does India do in creating new knowledge, discover, and invent? Why doesn't India create world-class startups? The talk will start with presenting reasons why India should aspire to lead in science and technology. Varun will argue that that the neglect of research and innovation in India retards its startup ecosystem, and risks it economic growth. He will use data to illustrate India’s performance in research, and present comparisons with US and China. Further, the data will shed light on the deficiencies of the research ecosystem - productivity of Indian researchers, interest in research in India, the scientific environment, and connect between startups and academic research. This will form the basis of policy suggestions on improving India’s research and innovation ecosystem.
Speaker bio.
Varun is a researcher, entrepreneur, and author. He has an SM in EECS from MIT and co-founded Aspiring Minds in 2008 to drive meritocracy in labour markets. Aspiring Minds is one of the largest employability assessment companies in the world. His work at Aspiring Minds has led to the world’s first machine learning-based assessment of coding skills and the world’s first automated motor skills assessment. He recently wrote a book on India's research ecosystem, "Leading Science and Technology: India Next?" and has authored more than 30 research papers. Contact: varun@aspiringminds.com
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Community Choice Energy Progress Party
Tuesday, November 13
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Democracy Brewing, 35 Temple Place, Boston
In 2017, Boston City Council passed Community Choice Energy and Mayor Walsh signed it! In 2018, Boston's Environment Dept issued a Request for Information and then a Request for Qualifications. As Mayor Walsh said, these are "big steps toward rolling out Community Choice Aggregation." We're throwing an party to celebrate this progress with our fellow green justice and climate activist coalition groups. All are welcome!
There will be food provided, good company and drinks available. All ages welcome. We'll socialize and talk a little about what's next in the CCE process.
Questions can be directed to Andy Wells-Bean andy@bostoncan.org 617-971-8568
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The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center presents Writing the Ineffable: Michael Pollan in Conversation with Elaine Scarry
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium S010, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Research study, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Michael Pollan, Professor of the Practice of Non-Fiction and Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer
Elaine Scarry, Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and General Theory of Value, Harvard College Professor
Robin Kelsey, Dean of Arts and Humanities
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu; 617-495-0738
DETAILS
The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center is convened by Robin Kelsey (Dean of Arts and Humanities, Harvard University) and Ian Jared Miller (Professor of History, Harvard University).
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What's Next? A Conversation with MA's Up-and-Coming Political Leaders
Tuesday November 13
5:30 - 7:30PM
Boston Public Library, Copley Branch, Rabb Auditorium, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
Join the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, State Representative Joan Meschino, Author of POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook Stephanie Murray, and three up-and-coming political leaders to reflect on the fall 2018 midterm elections and discuss the future of Massachusetts politics. In the Year of the Woman, we're asking the important questions - What did we learn? How do we build on this year's progress to reach gender parity in Massachusetts politics? How can we support even more women to run for office in the future? Panelists include: Nika Elugardo (D) - 15th Suffolk/Norfolk, Tram Nguyen (D) - 18th Essex, and Allison Werder (R) - 2nd Hampden.
Come meet the candidates and ask your burning questions!
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Beantown Throwdown 2018
November 13
5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
LogMeIn, 333 Summer Street, Boston
Cost: $10 - $45
Home to over 60 colleges and universities, Boston has launched some of the most creative and inventive student-founded startups in the world. The Beantown Throwdown is all about celebrating and showcasing them!
Hosted at LogMeIn's Boston Headquarters, the #BeantownThrowdown will feature student teams representing a cross-section of local colleges and universities who will pitch their startups for recognition, as voted by the audience, as the winner of this annual event.
In a fun, collaborative environment, this program will also include a panel with unbridled insights from area entrepreneurs and investors.
Panelists
Kelly O'Brien, Technology Reporter, Boston Business Journal
Wafaa Arbash, Co-Founder and CEO, WorkAround
Kelsey Alpaio, Assistant Editor & Designer, Innovation Leader
Nick Meyer, Entrepreneur in Residence, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
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Richard Sennett: The Good Craftsman
Tuesday, November 13
6:00pm to 7:30pm
MIT, ACT Cube, E15-001 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Richard Sennett will be giving a lecture based on his book The Craftsman. “Good craftsmanship” stands for work of good quality. What sort of work is this in the digital era? The lecture explores this question in three domains: the acquisition of craft skills, learning from others in workshops, and technical supports and barriers to doing good work.
Richard Sennett is an analyst of cities and the work people do in them. He has just completed the “homo faber” trilogy, a three volume study of the relation of work and place. Over the course of his career, he has served as a consultant for the United Nations, most recently creating the policy guidelines for Habitat III. In an alternative universe, he has pursued a career in music as a cellist; he currently chairs Theatrum Mundi, a research center bringing together young artists and urbanists.
Respondent:
Tobias Putrih, ACT Lecturer, engages 20th century avant-gardes, particularly utopian and visionary concepts of architecture and design, through a range of conceptual and materially ephemeral projects. He designs makeshift architectural modifications of public spaces—cinemas, a library, galleries, and a university commons—constructing temporary environments out of paper, cardboard, plywood, monofilament, and light.
Part of the Fall 2018 Lecture Series: Vibrant Signs and Indeterminant Matter(s)
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The Geometric Basis of Structure and Motion
Tuesday, November 13
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Ileana Streinu, Ph.D., Charles N. Clark Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics, Smith College (MA); Frances B. Cashin Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research, 2018-2019
and Ciprian S. Borcea, Ph.D.,Professor of Mathematics and Applied Sciences, Rider University (New Jersey) Elizabeth S. and Richard M. Cashin Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research, 2018-2019
During their year at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research, Professors Streinu and Borcea are writing a book for non-specialists about structure and motion. This work explains animate forms, from protein folding to human movements, and inanimate forms, from crystals to robots. In this visit with Contemporary Science, they show how geometry determines the limits of structures and motion.
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Aga Khan Program Lecture: Anna Heringer, "Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives”
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Anna Heringer
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS The vision behind, and motivation for my work is to explore and use architecture as a medium to strengthen cultural and individual confidence, to support local economies and to foster the ecological balance. Joyful living is a creative and active process and I am deeply interested in the sustainable develo p.m.ent of our society and our built environment. For me, sustainability is a synonym for beauty: a building that is harmonious in its design, structure, technique and use of materials, as well as with the location, the environment, the user, the socio-cultural context. This, for me, is what defines its sustainable and aesthetic value.
For Anna Heringer, architecture is a tool to improve lives. As an architect and honorary professor of the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, Building Cultures, and Sustainable Develo p.m.ent she is focusing on the use of natural building materials. Her diploma work, the METI School in Rudrapur got realized in 2005 and won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007. Over the years, Anna has realized further projects in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Together with Martin Rauch she has developed the method of Clay Storming that she teaches at various universities, including ETH Zurich, UP Madrid, TU Munich. She received numerous honors: the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, the AR Emerging Architecture Awards in 2006 and 2008, the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s GSD and a RIBA International Fellowship. Her work was widely published and exhibited in the MoMA New York, the V&A Museum in London and at the Venice Biennale among other places. In 2013 with Andres Lepik and Hubert Klumpner she initiated the Laufenmanifesto where practitioners and academics from around the world contributed to define guidelines for a humane design culture. She is currently appointed as Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture at the GSD.
This event is supported by the Aga Khan Program at the GSD.
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The End of the End of the Earth: Essays
Tuesday, November 13
7:00 PM (Doors at 6:30)
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Cost: $8 - $28.00 (book included)
Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned novelist and essayist JONATHAN FRANZEN—author of The Corrections and Freedom—for a discussion of his latest collection of essays, The End of the End of the Earth.
About The End of the End of the Earth
In The End of the End of the Earth, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes―both human and literary―that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we’ve come to expect from Franzen.
Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu. The End of the End of the Earth is remarkable, provocative, and necessary.
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Witness: Lessons From Elie Wiesel’s Classroom
Tuesday, November 13
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
In the vein of Tuesdays with Morrie, a devoted protégé and friend of one of the world’s great thinkers takes us into the sacred space of the classroom, showing Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel not only as an extraordinary human being, but as a master teacher.
Ariel Burger is a writer, artist, teacher, and rabbi whose work combines spirituality, creativity, and strategies for social change. A lifelong student of Elie Wiesel, he spent years studying the great wisdom traditions, and now applies those teachings to urgent contemporary questions. When Ariel’s not learning or teaching, he is creating music, art, and poetry. He lives outside of Boston with his family.
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Mushrooms on Martha's Vineyard
Tuesday, November 13
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard, CGIS Knafel- K354, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Tucker Pforzheimer, ’13 and Truman French, ’13, have a passion for shiitakes, which led them to start a mushroom farm on Martha’s Vineyard. Maybe shiitakes aren’t the first food that comes to mind when you think of New England cuisine, but what foods do come to mind? What does the food we eat every day tell us about where we come from? Tucker will share what it takes to start a mushroom farm and how success in the industry impacts the greater food system.
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A Crisis of Beliefs
Tuesday, November 13
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
The Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 caught markets and regulators by surprise. Although the government rushed to rescue other financial institutions from a similar fate after Lehman, it could not prevent the deepest recession in postwar history. A Crisis of Beliefs makes us rethink the financial crisis and the nature of economic risk. In this authoritative and comprehensive book, two of today’s most insightful economists reveal how our beliefs shape financial markets, lead to expansions of credit and leverage, and expose the economy to major risks.
Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer carefully walk readers through the unraveling of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing meltdown of the US financial system, and then present new evidence to illustrate the destabilizing role played by the beliefs of home buyers, investors, and regulators. Using the latest research in psychology and behavioral economics, they present a new theory of belief formation that explains why the financial crisis came as such a shock to so many people—and how financial and economic instability persist.
A must-read for anyone seeking insights into financial markets, A Crisis of Beliefs shows how even the smartest market participants and regulators did not fully appreciate the extent of economic risk, and offers a new framework for understanding today’s unpredictable financial waters.
About The Author:
Andrei Shleifer is John L. Loeb Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from MIT. Before coming to Harvard in 1991, he has taught at Princeton and the Chicago Business School. Shleifer has worked in the areas of comparative corporate governance, law and finance, behavioral finance, as well as institutional economics. He has published seven books, including The Grabbing Hand (with Robert Vishny), Inefficient Markets: An Introduction to Behavioral Finance, and A Crisis of Beliefs: Investor Psychology and Financial Fragility (with Nicola Gennaioli), as well as over a hundred articles. Shleifer is an Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Finance Association. In 1999, Shleifer won the John Bates Clark medal of the American Economic Association. According to RePEc, Shleifer is the most cited economist in the world.
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The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918
Tuesday, November 13
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
Loring Greenough House, 12 South Street, Boston
Cost: $5 – $10
This fall marks the 100 th anniversary of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 when a plague swept across the world virtually without warning. No disease the world has ever known remotely resembles this flu pandemic. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. IIn the United States, where bodies were stacked, without coffins, on trucks. Nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War.
In this talk Judith Chevarley will discuss the disease and what people experienced in the United States, especially in Boston and Philadelphia. Judith has a master of arts degree in American history from the University of New Hampshire and an master of public health degree from the University of Hawaii School of Public Health.
Judith worked for 13 years for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a public health educator. Since retiring in 2014, Judith has been pursuing her lifelong interest in history and historic preservation. She is a member of the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club and a docent at the Loring Greenough House. This talk on the Great Influenza Pandemic combines her love of history with her expertise in public health.
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Resistance Mic! Midterms Edition
WHEN Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, 8 – 10 p.m.
WHERE OBERON, 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts, Lecture, Music, Poetry/Prose, Special Events, Theater
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR American Repertory Theater (OBERON)
The A.R.T. of Human Rights
Timothy Patrick McCarthy (faculty, HKS)
Pangyrus Literary Magazine
SPEAKER(S) Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Sarah Sweeney
Regie Gibson
Atlas Soul
Jennifer Jean
Sonya Larson
Grace Talusan
Krysten Hill
Anne Champion
COST $10
CONTACT INFO OBERON, 64 Brattle Street
617.547.8300
Tuesday – Sunday, Noon – 5PM; closed Mondays
DETAILS It's the midterm edition of Resistance Mic at OBERON, with an amazing lineup: spoken-word poet Regie Gibson, memoirist Sarah Sweeney, poet Jennifer Jean, and activist Timothy Patrick McCarthy, with music by Afro-Mediterranean funk and jazz combo Atlas Soul. Then comes the launch of "The Resistance Issue," with readings by Grace Talusan, Sonya Larson, Fred Marchant, Anne Champion, and more! Featuring Resistance cocktails, including the Moscow Mueller, and a "send-a-haiku-to-the-White-House" contest.
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Green tech Entrepreneur Forum & Brainstorming
Tuesday, November 13
8:15 PM to 10:00 PM
Eastern Bank, 647 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Every 2 weeks on Tuesday
You can give a 5 to 10 minute elevator speech about your startup if you would like. (We will divide the 1st hour by # of people.)
Review Entrepreneur & Green Tech Opportunities in Cambridge and Boston.
Discuss and What stage is your ideas or startup? What is your goal?
Tell what personnel or additional expertise, funding, etc. you are seeking, ideas for viable moneymaking startups, methods of of collaboration, networking, forming teams & partnerships etc.
marketing, media, social media, ideas that have worked well for publicity
Agencies, websites, companies that assist startups
Boston Greenfest & Gov't opportunities.
What would you like to see in future meetups?
We will introduce ourselves and tell about our interest, expertise or work (1st hr):
Discussion and Brainstorming on (2nd hr)
Seminars - We will have seminars by Sustainable Energy engineers and other tech experts as often as possible.
The bank is near the center of Central Sq., where Prospect and Mass Ave cross, - there is a Starbucks on the Northeast corner of the intersection. Next to Starbucks is a Flower shop, and next to that is Eastern Bank. You can see the conference room thru the window, so just wave to us and we will let you in.
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Wednesday, November 14, 6:30 p.m. – Thursday, November 15, 1:30 p.m.
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The Veronica Rudge Green Prize In Urban Design: The High Line
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. – Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Gund Hall, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Award Ceremonies, Exhibitions, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Graduate School of Design
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.
DETAILS Please join us for two days of events in conjunction with the 2017 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design, awarded to the High Line. The events begin Wednesday, November 14 at 6:30 PM with remarks in the GSD's Piper Auditorium followed by a reception in the Druker Design Gallery to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Thursday, November 15 from 12:00 – 1:30 PM, the GSD will host a panel discussion exploring the enduring impact of The High Line.
2017 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design
The 13th Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design has been awarded to the High Line in New York, designed collaboratively by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf. The prize committee has elected to allot the monetary prize of $50,000 associated with the award to Friends of the High Line, in recognition of the organization’s originating efforts and continued stewardship behind the project.
The High Line, a linear public park built on elevated freight rail on Manhattan’s West Side, has been hailed as a model of urban regeneration and of collaboration across fields and perspectives. In summarizing the deliberation process, the Green Prize jury noted that a great urban-design project is one where multiple actors spanning public and private domains are involved in and committed to lasting urban change.
LINK https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/the-veronica-rudge-green-prize-in-urban-design-the-high-line/
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Wednesday, November 14
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A history from the bottom of the sea: Fish, Microfossils, Marine Ecosystems, and Global Change
Wednesday, November 14
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
EAPS Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS) Series: Elizabeth Sibert (Harvard)
Short Abstract: Ray-finned fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrates on the planet today, and are ubiquitous in marine ecosystems. However, this wasn't always the case. In this talk, I will discuss the evolutionary and ecological history of fish and sharks, and their evolving role in pelagic marine ecosystems over the past 85 million years, with a focus on the tiny microfossils they leave behind in marine sediments.
About this Series
The Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate Sack Lunch Seminar Series is an informal seminar series within PAOC that focuses on more specialized topics than the PAOC Colloquium. Seminar topics include all research concerning the science of atmosphere, ocean and climate. The seminars usually take place on Wednesdays from 12-1pm in 54-915. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest.
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Social Innovation Forum Approach & Impact Lunch
Wednesday,November 14
12:00 pm
2 Oliver Street, Suite 802, Boston
To RSVP or for questions, please email Carolyn Shaughnessy at cshaughnessy@socialinnovationforum.org
The Social Innovation Forum (SIF) plays a critical role in the social impact community by educating, engaging, and connecting resource providers (funders, investors, and volunteers) and on-the-ground leaders of nonprofit organizations and social impact businesses. Our programs and services provide a unique combination of capacity building and network building as we actively connect supporters and practitioners to build productive relationships focused on growing social impact.
Since 2003, SIF has directed over $31 million in cash and in-kind support to 106 portfolio organizations. Our rigorous and intensive programs bring together more than 2,600 philanthropists, foundation staff, and business professionals who support innovative, effective approaches to address important social issues.
JOIN US FOR LUNCH TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW YOU CAN BECOME INVOLVED
Join us at our offices on Wednesday, November 14 from 12:00-1:30 pm for lunch to learn more about the Social Innovation Forum (SIF), our approach to social change, and the impact that we've had over the last 14 years. You will have a chance to meet our team, hear from a past Social Innovator about their experience with SIF, and learn more about ways to get involved.
This event is for people looking to volunteer with, fund, or become an in-kind partner to the Social Innovation Forum or to our portfolio organizations. Prospective nonprofit applicants to our accelerator are encouraged to attend the designated info sessions for that program, which are typically offered in June each year.
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Russia's Use of Semi-State Security Forces Abroad
Wednesday, November 14
12:00-1:30pm
MIT, Building E40-496, Pye Room, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Kimberly Marten, Columbia
Bio: Kimberly Marten is a professor and the chair of the political science department at Barnard College (where she held the 5-year term Ann Whitney Olin Professorship from 2013-18), and directs the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at Columbia University's Harriman Institute. She is a frequent media commentator, and appeared on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. She earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard and Ph.D. at Stanford. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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A Finer Future
Wednesday, November 14
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
The blueprint for an inspiring regenerative economy that avoids collapse and works for people and the planet. Humanity is in a race with catastrophe. Is the future one of global warming, 65 million migrants fleeing failed states, soaring inequality, and grid-locked politics? Or one of empowered entrepreneurs and innovators building a world that works for everyone? While the specter of collapse looms large, A Finer Future demonstrates that humanity has a chance – just – to thread the needle of sustainability and build a regenerative economy through a powerful combination of enlightened entrepreneurialism, technology, and innovative policy.
About the Author: L. Hunter Lovins, Time Magazine’s Millennium Hero for the Planet, is a business professor, President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, and co-author of The Way Out and the best-selling Natural Capitalism. https://natcapsolutions.org/
*Also speaking is Seth Itzkan of Soil4Climate. Soil4Climate, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution. We promote regenerative land management practices to capture atmospheric carbon and encourage collaboration with the larger body of climate activism. Uniting “drawdown” strategies with emissions reduction, divestment from fossil fuels, a price on carbon, and climate justice advocacy, together creates a powerful alliance. Seth Itzkan is Co-Founder & Co-Director at Soil4Climate Inc.
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Using Dialogue to Bridge Political divides Between Massachusetts and Kentucky
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Hauser Hall, Room 104, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Paula Green, Founder and Senior Advisor, Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
Sharon Dunn, Author
COST Free and open to the public; refreshments will be provided
CONTACT INFO dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS After the 2016 presidential election, Paula turned her focus to addressing U.S. communal relations fractured across lines of historical enmity and current partisanship. Engaging communities antagonistic to each other because of their political allegiances, she and other residents of her hometown of Leverett co-created Hands Across the Hills. Modeled on her international work, this 2017-2018 project featured extended dialogues and cultural exchanges between groups from Massachusetts and Kentucky. A newly emerging 2019 project will focus on racial divides and include participants from South Carolina, Massachusetts, and Kentucky.
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Re-Engineering Humanity
Wednesday, November 14
12:45 - 2:00 PM
Northeastern University School of Law, 42 Dockser Hall, 65 Forsyth Street, Boston
Brett Frishmann, Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and Economics at Villanova University School of Law, will visit campus to talk about his new book.
Renowned scholar in intellectual property and internet law, his work explores the governance of and access to knowledge, the social value of shared resources, and the techno-social engineering of humans in the digital age. He will speak about his new book, with philosopher Evan Selinger, Re-Engineering Humanity (Cambridge University Press), which examines what is happening to our lives as society embraces, big data, predictive analytics and smart environments. The book reveals hidden and dystopian connections between fitness trackers, electronic contracts, social media platforms, fake news and autonomous cars, challenging readers to consider how we can build something better for our future in technology.
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xTalk with Willem van Valkenburg: Impact of Online Education on Campus Education
Wednesday, November 14
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 1-390 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In September 2013 the first TU Delft MOOC started. Five years later Willem van Valkenburg will reflect on the impact of MOOCs: more open education, blended learning becoming the standard in campus education, TU Delft recognized by MIT as one of the front-runners in online education, launch of TU Delft Teaching Lab, and more.
Willem van Valkenburg is manager of the department of Teaching & Learning Services. This group supports lecturers in developing and innovating education at the Delft University of Technology. He is also a member of the leadership of the TU Delft Extension School and Vice-President of the Open Education Consortium.
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Urban food security in the age of vulnerability: The Singapore story
Wednesday, November 14
2:30pm to 3:30pm
MIT, Building 66-360, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Join visiting scholar Md. Saidul Islam from Nanyang Technological University Singapore for the second event in his guest lecture series. As the world's population grows, urban food security is becoming an extremely prevalent issue. Come hear Professor Islam address these issues in Singapore, as well as the strategies used to combat them.
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Pledge-and-Review Bargaining: From Kyoto to Paris
Wednesday, November 14
4:00pm to 6:00pm
Bard Harstad, University of Oslo
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Linking Heterogeneous Climate Policies (Consistent with the Paris Agreement)
Wednesday, November 14
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Land Lecture Hall (400), Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Michael Mehling, MIT; Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University; and Robert Stavins, Harvard University. Reception to follow.
This lecture is presented jointly as a Business & Government Seminar. Support from Enel Endowment for Environmental Economics and the Department of Economics is Gratefully Acknowledged.
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
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The Legal System in the Age of Trump
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Littauer 166, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S) Margaret Talev, IOP Fall 2018 Resident Fellow
Ty Cobb, Former White House Counsel under President Trump
DETAILS President Trump has carried out the majority of his presidency under the cloud of Robert Mueller’s investigation. He’s openly challenged the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities, fired his FBI director, threatened his attorney general, hired private attorneys to represent him, and set up a structure inside the White House counsel’s office to deal with Russia requests. And he’s broken the mold for presidents by talking and tweeting about all of this.
This event is closed to the press and not for attribution.
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MIT Teaching Systems Lab: Dine and Play
Wednesday, November 14
4:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST
MIT, Building NE49, 600 Technology Square, Second Floor, Cambridge
The Teaching Systems Lab (tsl.mit.edu) is hosting its next “Dine and Play” on Wednesday, November 14th from 4:30-7:30pm. At the Teaching Systems Lab, we are creating games and simulations to help teachers learn and rehearse key skills in teaching. The Dine and Play is a free community-building event where we test new games and simulations and get feedback. You’ll learn about what we’re doing, we’ll gather your feedback, and then we all have dinner together and talk about education. We welcome all teachers, pre-service teachers and education professionals to join us!
RSVP is required.
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Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Speaker Series ft. Charles Kupchan
Wednesday, November 14
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EST
MIT, Building 66 - 110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Charles A. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2014 to 2017, Kupchan served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council in the Obama White House. He was also Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration. His most recent books are No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn(2012), and How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace(2010).
This series is co-sponsored by the MIT Security Studies Program and the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard University.
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Climate, Pollution, and Economic Growth in Human History: New Results from the Historical Ice Core Project
Wednesday, November 14
5:30PM TO 7:00PM
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard presents the stunning recent results from their collaboration with the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine, which reveal new truths about our human past sealed within the Colle Gnifetti glacial ice core.
Presenters include: Heather Clifford, Andrei V. Kurbatov and Paul A. Mayewski (Climate Change Institute) and Michael McCormick and Alexander More (Harvard University). Comments from Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma).
Public reception to follow.
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Fireside Chat: Reflections on Frederick Douglass and Daniel O'Connell
Wednesday, November 14
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Consulate General of Ireland, 535 Boylston Street, Fifth Floor, Boston
Please join us at the Consulate from 5.30 to 7.30pm on Wednesday 14th November for a "fireside chat" with Dr. William H. Smith, Founding Executive Director of the National Center for Race Amity and Irish author Don Mullan, of Hope Initiatives International.
Smith and Mullan recently returned from Ireland where they completed a four province screening of Smith's documentary film ‘An American Story: Race Amity and the Other Tradition’, about “The Other Tradition” in American race relations - the tradition of amity and close cross/racial collaboration to advance equity and social justice. The film focuses on the relations between pivotal figures of different races who worked together to advance equality, including the meeting in Dublin in 1845 of Frederick Douglass and Ireland’s Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator.
The fireside chat will discuss the visit of Frederick Douglass to Ireland, his encounter with Daniel O’Connell – including an inspirational speech by O'Connell which Douglass transcribed and sent back to the Abolitionist Movement in the USA, and the view that having come to Ireland as a single issue campaigner (to help end American slavery), Douglass left Ireland as an internationalist.
Smith and Mullan will be reflecting on their experiences in Ireland, their vision for a Frederick Douglass and Daniel O'Connell “Season”, and their views on the issues facing the U.S. and Ireland in the area of race amity.
This event is free and open to the public. Please note that registration is required, and space is limited.
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Gore Vidal Bequest Celebration
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Houghton Library and Creative Writing in the English Department.
DETAILS Celebrate the Gore Vidal bequest to Harvard University with Houghton Library and Creative Writing in the English Department.
Join us for "Gore Vidal in His Time”, a talk by Jay Parini, author of "Empire of Self: A life of Gore Vidal." A reception and pop-up exhibition from the Gore Vidal papers follows at Houghton Library.
LINK https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGRRiOfJaD3dmTLRg3l2Dr9m-8h0Nw0nKb6Ba1K4t3nyWZRg/viewform
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The Role of Emergency Managers in Dealing with the Reality of Climate Change and Managing Subsequent Risks to Urbanized Areas
Wednesday, November 14
6:00 pm
BU, CAS 427 - 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Guest Speakers : Tiana Fant and Ryan Broughton
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Origins of the Green Revolution: Hybrid Seeds, Hunger, and Mexico-India Cooperation
Wednesday, November 14
6:00PM
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, will talk about the unexpected technological, environmental, and social impacts a 1966 shipment of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico had on both Mexico and India.
As a devastating famine gripped India and Pakistan in 1966, a cargo of hybrid wheat seeds from Mexico arrived one fateful day on India’s coast. The seeds were first planted across the Punjab region using new agricultural methods, including intensive fertilizers and irrigation. The crop’s high yield surprised farmers and helped save many from hunger that year. Gabriela Soto Laveaga will talk about the origins of these hybrid seeds, their role in the Green Revolution, and the unexpected technological, environmental, and social impacts they had on both Mexico and India.
Contact Name: hmsc@hmsc.harvard.edu
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Nuclear Deterrence is Dead, Long Live Nuclear Deterrence
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Gen. John Hyten, USAF, Commander, United States Strategic Command
John Noonan, IOP Fall 2018 Resident Fellow, Senior Counselor for Military & Defense Affairs, National Security Advisor
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., National Security Advisor, Presidential Campaigns of Governor Jeb Bush and Governor Mitt Romney
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office 617-495-1380
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In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown
Wednesday, November 14
6:00 PM
The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $6 – $32
Harvard Book Store welcomes National Book Award–winning author NATHANIEL PHILBRICK for a discussion of his latest book, In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown.
Tickets are available online only. All tickets for this event include a $5 coupon for use in the bookstore. Pre-sale tickets include a copy of In the Hurricane's Eye. Books bundled with pre-sale tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand.
Learn more at http://www.harvard.com/event/nathaniel_philbrick2/
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
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The Illiberal Disruption: Temporary Detour or Historical Turning Point?
WHEN Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
WHERE MIT Landau Building, Room 110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program and MIT's Security Studies Program
SPEAKER(S) Charles Kupchan, Professor, Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
CONTACT INFO jpwynn@mit.edu
DETAILS Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Speaker Series. Open to the public.
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Exploring New Worlds: An Odyssey to Humanity 2.0
Wednesday, November 14
6:00pm to 9:00pm
Harvard Club of Boston—Back Bay Clubhouse, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $48 for Club of Boston members and their guests; $48 for MIT Club of NH or RI, or AMITA members (contact Helen for discount code); $28 for Club of Boston members who graduated in the last 10 years (contact Helen for discount code); $65 for all others
Prices will increase by $10 on Nov. 7! Refund requests must be received by Nov. 7.
Our species is facing an ever-growing series of large-scale challenges from global malnutrition to climate change, endangered species, political upheavals, topped by godlike technologies. These challenges are calling for a whole new mindset for humans. Owing to decades of technological development, space exploration is now enabling us to study worlds around stars other than our Sun, disrupting our understanding of planets and soon of central concepts such as habitats and life. Let’s embark on a journey to other worlds, a journey from which we shall not come back the same.
About the Speaker
Julien de Wit is an Assistant Professor at MIT. His primary interest and expertise lie where Math, Science, and Engineering converge to make sense of newly-accessible pieces of reality, in order to improve the Human condition. After graduating as an aeronautic engineer from the University of Liege (Belgium) and the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (Toulouse-France), Julien turned to astronomy convinced that our species needed a profound paradigm shift rather than another technological development or a new resource and saw in the growing field of exoplanetary sciences an option for such a shift via the search for extra-solar habitats. He subsequently joined MIT for his PhD thesis on the topic, followed with a postdoc appointment, and his current faculty position. During that time, he has developed techniques to study exoplanets with the goal of deepening our understanding of key concepts related to planet formations and Life. Julien has notably developed techniques to map exoplanet atmospheres, study the radiative and tidal planet-star interactions in eccentric planetary systems, and constrain the atmospheric properties and mass of exoplanets solely from transmission spectroscopy. He also led the first atmospheric study of temperate Earth-sized planets beyond the Solar System—the TRAPPIST-1 planets—using the Hubble Space Telescope. Julien has leveraged his skills in other fields than astronomy, notably in biology which resulted in new insights into cells’ stress responses via calcium signaling. Beyond academia, he has aimed to tackle a whole other problem with significant societal effects, the sleep deprivation of parents of newborns, by cofounding Morpheus, LLC which brings to market a technology for improving their sleep experience.
Agenda
6:00 Networking with heavy appetizers and cash bar
7:30 Presentation followed by Q&A
9:00 Event concludes
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Post Election Listening Circle
Wednesday, November 14
6:30 PM – 9:00 PM EST
The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn Street, Rosa Parks Room, Cambridge
Join Indivisible Mystic Valley for a special Listening Circle intended for anyone who has been working on the 2018 election!
Many of us have been pouring our time, energy, and emotion into this election, whether for candidates or ballot questions. A week after the election, this event will give us the opportunity to share and express all the emotions that this important work raises in us: positive, negative, and in between. What feelings around politics and activism have been building within us? What would it look like if we listened to those emotions and accepted them as part of ourselves?
After a shared potluck dinner, we will gather in a circle and each take equal turns sharing our thoughts and perspectives, while the rest of the circle actively listens. The circle will be led by ListeningWorks-trained facilitators. The only prerequisites are mutual respect and a willingness to be vulnerable.
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Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir Reading & Signing w/ Sarah Fawn Montgomery
Wednesday, November 14
7:00pm
Trident Books Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
Diagnosed with severe anxiety, PTSD, and OCD in her early twenties, Sarah Fawn Montgomery spent the next ten years seeking treatment and the language with which to describe the indescribable consequences of her mental illness. Faced with disbelief, intolerable side effects, and unexpected changes in her mental health as a result of treatment, Montgomery turned to American history and her own personal history—including her turbulent childhood and the violence she faced as a young woman—to make sense of the experience.
Blending memoir with literary journalism, Montgomery’s Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir examines America’s history of mental illness treatment—lobotomies to sterilization, the rest cure to Prozac—to challenge contemporary narratives about mental health. Questioning what it means to be a woman with highly stigmatized
disorders, Montgomery also asks why mental illness continues to escalate in the United States despite so many “cures.” Investigating the construction of mental illness as a “female” malady, Montgomery exposes the ways current attitudes towards women and their bodies influence madness as well as the ways madness has transformed to a chronic illness in our cultural imagination. Montgomery’s Quite Mad is one woman’s story, but it offers a beacon of hope and truth for the millions of individuals living with mental illness and issues a warning about the danger of diagnosis and the complex definition of sanity.
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How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals
Wednesday, November 14
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative. No one knows this better than author, naturalist, and adventurer Sy Montgomery. To research her books, Sy has traveled the world and encountered some of the planet’s rarest and most beautiful animals. From tarantulas to tigers, Sy’s life continually intersects with and is informed by the creatures she meets.
This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals—Sy’s friends—and the truths revealed by their grace. It also explores vast themes: the otherness and sameness of people and animals; the various ways we learn to love and become empathetic; how we find our passion; how we create our families; coping with loss and despair; gratitude; forgiveness; and most of all, how to be a good creature in the world.
Researching films, articles, and 22 books, Sy Montgomery has hiked the Altai Mountains of Mongolia looking for snow leopards, tracked tree kangaroos in Papua New Guinea, and more. A National Book Award finalist, she has also been honored with a Sibert Medal, two Science Book and Film prizes from the National Association for the Advancement of Science, three honorary degrees, and many other awards. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire.
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Brains and Bodies: How to Make Smart Robots
Wednesday, November 14
7 to 9:00 p.m.
Harvard Medical School, Armenise Auditorium (in Goldenson Hall), 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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Our (Super)human Brains
Wednesday, November 14
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, Cahners Auditorium, 1 Science Park, Boston
If you could experience someone else’s feelings, imagine what you could do with that superpower. If you could get your body to metabolize dessert as if it were a diet food, think of how you could exercise that superpower. Treat yourself to an unusual excursion into the world of a doctor who uses his (super)synesthetic brain to treat patients, and learn about the secrets of your own (super)human brain. Book signing to follow.
Lee and Nile Albright Annual Symposium
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The Truth is the Whole: Essays in Honor of Richard Levins
Wednesday November 14
7:30-9:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-141 (Stata Center), 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
We are pleased to invite you to a book launch for The Truth is the Whole: Essays in Honor of Richard Levins, in partnership with the Boston chapter of Science for the People. The evening's program will include prepared remarks by Peter Taylor, Katherine Yih, Nafis Hasan, Victor Wallis, and Abha Sur, as well as Q&A with this panel of speakers.
Levins (1930-2016) was an ecologist, evolutionary biologist, biomathematician, philosopher of science, complexity theorist, Marxist, and one-time tropical farmer. Key to all aspects of his thinking was a dialectical logic of process and change. His work provides a framework for the understanding of crises in environment and society and their analytic relationship with capitalism and imperialism, as well as the tools for the critique of biological determinist justifications for the existing structures of power. This collection of essays pays tribute to Levins by carrying forward his work in the development of the understanding of the dialectics of nature and society.
The book includes an introduction by John Vandermeer and chapters by Antonio Bodini, Douglas Boucher, David Bruck, Luis Fernando Chaves, Harold Heatwole, Patricia Lane, Julio Munoz-Rubio, Cristina de Albuquerque Possas, Brian Rubineau, Javier Sandoval Guzmán, David Schwartzman, Peter J. Taylor, Robert G. Wallace & colleagues, and Victor Wallis.
Also featured are reminiscences and tributes by Tamara Awerbuch, Graciela Campos Escalante, Arturo Cervantes, Yrjo Haila, Aurora Levins Morales, Olga Mas, Leda M. Menéndez Carrera & colleagues, Hilary Rose and Steven Rose, and William Wimsatt.
Editors: Tamara Awerbuch, Maynard S. Clark, and Peter J. Taylor. Paperback books will be available for purchase for $15.
Refreshments will be served.
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Thursday, November 15 - Friday, November 16
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MIT Water Summit 2018: Thirsty Cities
Thursday, November 15 - Friday, November 16
MIT, Building E515, Wong Auditorium,
Cost: $10 - $155
This year’s MIT Water Summit (http://www.mitwatersummit.com/) brings together representatives of industry, academia, government, and NGOs to reflect upon the unique water challenges facing cities from around the globe.
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, up from 50% today. Many cities are already running out of water. At the MIT Water Summit, we will explore the following questions, and more:
How will cities reliably supply water to their rapidly increasing number of citizens?
How can urban infrastructure keep up with booming demand and variability of water supply?
How can cities more efficiently manage water distribution and consumption?
How can technology help us fight off water exhaustion?
How can cities plan ahead in uncertain and rapidly changing conditions?
How do cities interact with each other and the rest of the world?
The MIT Water Summit is a great opportunity to meet and hear from top people in the water sector, featuring keynote speeches from:
Mary Ann Dickinson, President & CEO of the Alliance for Water Efficiency
James Workman, Founder of AquaShares
Jennifer Sara, Director for the World Bank Group's Water Global Practice
Come learn about the future of urban water, including speakers from:
Water utilities & government agencies: Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, Denver Water, Boston Water & Sewer Commission, The World Bank Group, US Geological Survey, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities
Industry & start-ups: Visenti (Xylem), Sasaki Associates, Watchtower Robotics, AquaShares
Non-governmental organizations: The Water Research Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Global Water Works, Consensus Building Institute, the International Water Association
Academia: MIT, NYU, Water in the West (Stanford), Texas A&M, Northern Illinois University, Duke University
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Thursday, November 15
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Sustainability Lunch Series: Bay State Milling Company with Edward Fish
Thursday, November 15
11:45am to 12:45pm
MIT, Building E62-276, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Hear from MIT Sloan Alum Edward Fish (MBA '12) who serves as the Director of Emerging Businesses at Bay State Milling Company. Ed will discuss sustainable agriculture and how to build, scale, and commercialize output oriented supply chains.
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In Search of “Safe Enough”: Quantifying the Probability of a Nuclear Reactor Accident
Thursday, November 15
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Thomas Wellock, Historian, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
What is the probability of a major nuclear reactor accident? Quantifying the chances of an event that had never occurred seemed an impossible task. Yet, nuclear experts devoted vast resources to quantify reactor accident risk. Doing so, they hoped, would make reactors safer and prove to a wary public that civilian nuclear power was “safe enough” for widespread use. Dr. Wellock will trace the controversial history of reactor risk assessment, particularly the influence of turning points such as Three Mile Island and risk assessment’s broader technical and political impact.
Dr. Thomas Wellock is the Historian of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley and published two books, Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–78 and Preserving the Nation: The Conservation and Environmental Movements, 1870-2000. Previously, he was a professor of history at Central Washington University. He also worked as an engineer in the civilian nuclear power industry and in constructing nuclear-powered submarines. He has authored numerous scholarly articles, blogs, and video histories on the NRC and nuclear power. He is currently working on a manuscript on the history of risk assessment of nuclear power plants.
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Starr Forum: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Thursday, November 15
4:30pm to 6:00pm
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
A book talk with Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and one of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind. Pinker is an experimental cognitive psychologist and a popular writer on language, mind, and human nature. Pinker’s research on vision, language, and social relations has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. He has also received eight honorary doctorates, several teaching awards at MIT and Harvard, and numerous prizes for his books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and The Sense of Style. He is Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and often writes for The New York Times, Time, and other publications. He has been named Humanist of the Year, Foreign Policy’s “100 Global Thinkers,” and Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”
About the book:
"My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates
If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.
Co-sponsors: MIT Center for International Studies
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Civic Arts Series: Myron Dewey: Protecting the Water in Solidarity and Unity
Thursday, November 15
5:00pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Myron Dewey is an indigenous journalist, educator, documentary filmmaker and the developer of Digital Smoke Signals, a social networking and filmmaking initiative, emerging out of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline project of 2016-17. Using a full range of contemporary media, including drone technologies, Dewey has pioneered the blending of citizen monitoring, documentary filmmaking, and social networking in the cause of environment, social justice and indigenous people’s rights; he co-directed the 2017 award-winning documentary, Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock.
Co-hosted with the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology and the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab.
The Civic Arts Series, which is part of the CMS graduate program Colloquium, features talks by four artists and activists who are making innovative uses of media to reshape the possibilities of art as a source of civic imagination, experience and advocacy. Using a variety of contemporary media technologies–film, web platforms, game engines, drones–the series presenters have opened up new pathways to artistic expression that broaden public awareness around compelling civic issues and aspirations of our time.
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The Lead Summit at Harvard: Revolutionary Discoveries in Lead Pollution and Health Impacts
Thursday, November 15
5:30PM TO 7:00PM
Harvar,d Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Amidst the news of continuing lead pollution crises, foremost researchers in this field will present new, groundbreaking and alarming data, renewing the call to eliminate lead pollution from our cities, homes and the environment. Hosted by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard.
Presenters include: Philip Landrigan (Boston College Global Health and Harvard School of Public Health), Bruce Lanphear (Simon Frasier University), Paul A. Mayewski (Climate Change Institute, UMaine), Michael McCormick (Harvard), Alexander More (Harvard), Jessica Reyes (Amherst College).
Reception to follow.
Contact Name: Lisa Lubarr
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It's Electric! Opportunities and Challenges in Transitioning to an Electric Heating and Transportation Sector
Thursday, November 15
5:30 PM to 7:30 PM (EST)
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, 1 Federal Street, Boston
As a counter-narrative to the often-cited utility death spiral, the electrification of the heating and transportation sectors could present an opportunity for utilities and their private-sector counterparts to catalyze deep GHG reductions, reduce energy costs, and promote economic growth. However, a number of challenging questions must be explored in this transition to greater electrification. This panel brings together utility, regulator, and private-sector stakeholders to explore a number of questions that must be resolved and initiatives that could be pursued, to allow future industry developments towards increased electrification.
Join us for an engaging panel discussion on the future of electrification:
Moderator: Michael Haggerty, Senior Associate, The Brattle Group
Policy: David Farnsworth, Senior Associate, The Regulatory Assistance Project
Non-Profit: David Lis, Director of Market Strategies, Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships
Utility: Lauren Regan, Senior Policy Advisor, Tesla
Private Sector: Carine Dumit, Senior Policy Advisor, Tesla
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Antibiotic Resistance: What Collaboration and Policy Can Do For Our Future
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvardl, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1010, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR U.S. PIRG
Harvard Animal Law and Policy Program
Harvard Petrie Flom Center
Harvard Animal Law Society
Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic
Green Century Fund
Harvard Food Law Lab
SPEAKER(S) Jared Fernandez: Green Century Fund
Kathy Talkington: Antibiotics Project Director at Pew Charitable Trust
Nicole Negowetti: Clinical Instructor at Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic
Sujit Suchindran: MD, Infectious Disease Specialist at Lahey Hospital
Matt Wellington: Antibiotics Program Director at U.S. PIRG
Ed Silverman: Senior Writer and Pharmalot Columnist at Stat News
Chris Green: Executive Director of Animal Law and Policy Program at Havard
DIRECTED BY Shelby Luce
WRITTEN BY Shelby Luce
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/antibiotic-resistance-what-collaboration-and-policy-can-do-for-our-future-tickets-51662798822
CONTACT INFO Shelby Luce sluce@pirg.org 6504558860
DETAILS U.S. PIRG and Harvard Law School invite you to a panel discussion about antibiotic resistance as part of Antibiotic Awareness Week. The World Health Organization ranks antibiotic resistance as a top global health threat and experts estimate that without swift action, drug-resistant infections could kill more people each year by 2050 than cancer does today. The panel discussion will look at where we are now and how research, collaboration, and policy can encourage better antibiotic stewardship in human health care and animal agriculture, as well as effectively develop new antibiotics.
The panel features experts in the fields of public health policy, infectious disease, food supply chain management, and shareholder advocacy.
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GET UNCOMFORTABLE: AN INTERACTIVE SCREENING EVENT
Thursday, November 15
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 17th floor, Boston
The Uncomfortable Conversation is pleased to present an interactive screening event featuring new content produced in partnership with Company One Theater and students at the Margarita Muniz Academy in Jamaica Plain, MA and a workplace series filmed at Impact Hub Boston.
The Uncomfortable Conversation is dedicated to normalizing conversations about consent, healthy relationships, sexual harassment and showing up for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. This interactive screening event will introduce attendees to The Uncomfortable Conversation, showcase new videos produced here in Boston, feature a panel reflection modeling pathways to uncomfortable conversations, and offer a chance to practice conversations about sexual harassment and violence in an interactive – and fun – format.
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Jacqueline Rose, 'The Legacy: Political Protest and the Denial of History’
WHEN Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Haarvard, Barker Center 110, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Ethics, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard
SPEAKER(S)Jacqueline Rose, Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities; Homi Bhabha, Director, Mahindra Humanities Center
CONTACT INFO 617-495-0738, humcentr@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS What is the legacy of a brutal political past? How does it pass down through the generations? At a time of persistent, or even growing, race, gender, and class discrimination, and inequality, what does it mean to tell the young that they have been born free into a new world? What is the psychic temporality of protest?
In this lecture Jacqueline Rose turns to South Africa to argue that, far from lifting the weight of history, such expectations lay an impossible burden on the children of the nation. How, she asks, might the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious help us forge a path through some of these difficult questions as they press on our public life today? Drawing on the living archive of the university protests of recent years, on radical South Africa thinkers, alongside other voices from across the world who have struggled with a cruel history, she suggests that, as with the private life of the mind, only a continuous reckoning with the past, however agonized, can forge a path towards a more just and livable future.
Free and open to the public; seating is limited.
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The Influence of Women on Impact & Sustainability
Thursday, November 15
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Goodwin LLP Boston, 100 Northern Avenue. Boston
Cost: $10.00 /per person
Studies have demonstrated time and again that women have a major role in shaping positive outcomes for companies and organizations. With the advent of impact and sustainability metrics and ratings, this influence becomes even more pronounced for companies seeking to improve their financial and operating performance while learning to incorporate and adhere to evolving impact standards. Our panelists will offer their views, data, industry experience and insights into how and why women can be a force for driving impact and sustainability within their organizations and how they contribute to a positive cultural environment that results in rising top and bottom line performance.
Speakers:
Maura Hodge, Partner, KPMG
Ann Sweeney, Principal, Acadia Consulting
Deb Kemper, Managing Director, Golden Seeds
Girija Verma, Social Entrepreneur
Please join us for a post event gathering - details at the event.
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Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Food
Thursday, November 15
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Floor 20 Lighthouse, Boston
Calling all students and community members interested in entrepreneurship and food!
Thursday, November 15th from 6-8PM at Branchfood in downtown Boston, join us for a networking mixer and panel discussion with local food and food tech entrepreneurs who launched and grew their startups in Boston!
This event is an opportunity for students across Boston, as well as community members, to network and hear from entrepreneurs who leveraged the local ecosystem to build industry-transforming businesses. This event is free and open to the community. Light food and drinks will be provided.
Hope to see you there!
Panel Speakers:
Adam Behrens, PhD, CEO of Cambridge Crops, has spent his career developing and translating polymer-related technologies in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, and nutrition. Most recently, Adam was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Langer Lab at MIT, where he still retains affiliate status. Adam managed several projects including the scale up and clinical trial design/implementation of a nutrient stabilizing fortification technology. Adam was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2017. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Maryland.
Luke Schlueter, Co-Founder + Lead Mechanical Engineer at Spyce Food Co., oversees the integration of all mechanical systems within the robotic kitchen. He works with partners to design and outsource larger components of the machine, while ensuring their feasibility within the robotic kitchen and restaurant. Luke graduated from MIT with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2016. When the chance to join Spyce arose, Luke thought it would be a great opportunity to build a very complicated machine with complete autonomy. Now, almost three years later, Luke, know as the "Spyce Handyman" has loved builidng the robot kitchen from the ground up.
Nadine Habayeb, Co-Founder + CEO of Bohana, Bohana is a nutritious popped water lily seed snack company. Bohana is the first brand to introduce this ancient Ayurvedic ingredient to the US market. Prior to Bohana, Nadine built her career in Brand Marketing, PR & Communications in the fields of Fashion and Hospitality between the Middle East, Europe and the US. She is an MBA graduate of IE Business School and extension fellow from Babson College - Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business.Nadine is currently expanding Bohana’s retail footprint and spreading their message of ‘Free Spirit Snacking’.
Micah Risk, Co-Founder + CPO at Lighter, Lighter's mission is to improve the Standard Amerian Diet and celebrate real food through brilliant technology. Micah is a graduate of Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy where she earned an M.S. in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition and specialized in Nutrition Interventions. Micah is also an ultramarathoner and a Runner's World cover model.
This Panel will be moderated by Lauren Abda:
Lauren Abda, Founder + CEO of Branchfood, the largest community of food entrepreneurs and startups in New England. Her work is focused on highlighting local, national, and international food initiatives through events and social media and also aggregates resources for food entrepreneurs to help their businesses launch and grow in Boston. Prior to Branchfood, she consulted for foodtech businesses in Boston and San Francisco, worked as an analyst for Salt Venture Partners LLC, a venture capital firm, focused on food startups, targeting content, commerce, and technology, and wrote reports on international food safety development initiatives on behalf of the Agriculture and Commodities division at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She has a Masters in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont.
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2019 Water Innovation Prize Kickoff Dinner
Thursday, November 15
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
RSVP now to join us for an evening of food, fun and education as we celebrate the launch of 2019 MIT Water Innovation Prize with a roomful of industry leading investors, researchers, multinational corporations and startups.
WHAT TO EXPECT
6:00-6:30PM - Registration & Buffet Dinner
6:30-6:40PM - Introduction to MIT Water Innovation Prize (WIP)
6:45-7:15PM - Keynote by Industry Practitioners (Confirmed speaker: Jay Iyengar, CTO of Xylem)
7:15-7:45PM - Startup Rapidfire Pitch
7:45-8:00PM - Keynote by WIP alumni team
8:00-9:00PM - Networking & Closing
CALL FOR STARTUPS
We welcome individuals or teams to pitch their ideas at the Kickoff Dinner (3-5 min). Please contact us at: waterinnovation@mit.edu
The MIT Water Innovation Prize is the premier startup competition focused on water innovation, awarding up to $30k in innovation grants annually to student-led teams from across the globe. Official application opens in November and shortlisted teams will receive mentorship in February and March. Winners are selected at the final pitch event on April 18th. More info at mitwaterinnovation.org
MIT WATER SUMMIT: THIRSTY CITIES
By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, up from 50% today. Many cities are already running out of water. This year’s MIT Water Summit brings together representatives of industry, academia, government, and NGOs to reflect upon the unique water challenges facing cities from around the globe.
The two-day MIT Water Summit begins the morning of November 15 and will conclude by 6pm. It will take place at Wong Auditorium just a 5 minute walk from the MIT Media Lab so you can easily attend both the Summit and the Kickoff dinner.
Full program and tickets at mitwatersummit.com
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Boston New Technology CleanTech, GreenTech and Energy Startup Showcase #BNT95
Thursday, November 15
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Microsoft, 5 Wayside Road, Burlington
Cost: $0 – $99
Join us at Microsoft on November 15th to:
See 7 innovative and exciting local CleanTech, GreenTech and Energy technology demos, presented by startup founders
Network with 200 attendees from the Boston-area startup/tech community
Get your free professional headshot photo from The Boston Headshot (non-intrusively watermarked)
Enjoy pizza, salad and beverages
Each company presents an overview and demonstration of their product within 5 minutes and discusses questions with the audience.
Products & Presenters:
1. Microsoft is committed to leveraging technology to solve some of the world’s most urgent environmental issues, focusing on areas where we can have the most positive impact. Learn about Microsoft's Environmental Sustainability. Microsoft is putting artificial intelligence to work for a more sustainable future. Read "AI for Earth" on the Microsoft Green Blog and learn how Microsoft's Submersible Datacenters could provide internet connectivity for years! (Bob Familiar)
2. Magnomer: Magmark / @Magnomer2 - Magnetic markers for zero-waste packaging! (Ravish Majithia)
3. Atlas Power Systems: CARIES / @AtlasPrimeNRG - Compressed air renewable integrated energy storage system is the best energy solution for small islands and developing states! (Christian Lecorps / @CRlecorps)
4. Rent Items / @RentItems - A peer-to-peer rental marketplace! We take items sitting idle in your garage, closet, storage unit, office, or warehouse and put them to better use. (James Zimbardi / @jameszimbardi) Tech: iOS, Android.
5. VIV Life. Better.: AutoPilot / @VIVNetwork - Automatic savings on your energy bill in deregulated energy markets! Set it and forget it. No catches or surprises. (Gustavo Balestrero / @DD6G6)
6. Solstice™ Community Solar Platform / @solarforgood - The first integrated marketplace, CRM and educational platform for shared solar! (Sandhya Murali) Tech: React, Node.
7. Battery Resourcers: Li-ion battery recycling / @BatResourcers - Closed-loop recycling of spent Li-ion batteries! (Eric Gratz)
8. Sign up to present your startup here and get publicity with 24k professionals: http://bit.ly/bntDemo
Agenda:
6:00 to 7:00 - Networking with pizza, salad and beverages served and free headshot photos (non-intrusively watermarked)
7:00 to 7:10 - Microsoft Welcome & BNT Partner Introductions
7:10 to 8:30 - CleanTech, GreenTech and Energy Startup Presentations, Q&A
8:30 to 9:00 - More Networking and free headshot photos
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Distinguished Speaker Series: Ana Navarro
Thursday, November 15
6:30 PM
Tufts, ASEAN Auditorium, Cabot Center, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Join Tisch College for a conversation on the 2018 midterm election results, public service, and the future of national politics with Ana Navarro and guest moderator María Cristina “MC” González Noguera. A renowned Republican strategist and frequent political contributor to CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo, Ana Navarro served as the national Hispanic co-chair for Governor Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign and the national co-chair of John McCain’s Hispanic Advisory Council in 2008, when she was also a national surrogate for his 2008 presidential run. Navarro also served as ambassador to the UN’s Human Rights Commission and as then-Governor Jeb Bush’s first director of immigration policy. Our moderator, MC González, served as communications director for First Lady Michelle Obama and as special assistant to President Obama before becoming the Senior Vice President of Global Public Affairs at Estée Lauder. She is a member of the Tisch College Board of Advisors.
This event is cosponsored by the Political Science Department, the Latino Center, the Tufts Republicans and JumboVote. Follow the conversation live at #NavarroAtTufts
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Post-Election Blues (or Reds?): A Social Work Perspective on the Midterms
Thursday, November 15
7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
BU School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Road, 2nd Floor, Conant Lounge, Boston
A panel presentation and discussion with:
Dean Jorge Delva
Professor Betty J. Ruth
Professor Geoff Wilkinson
RSVP by November 12 (Early registration is strongly encouraged, as seating is limited.) This event is free of charge.
For more information, please contact Ken Schulman at (617) 353-3750 or kschul@bu.edu.
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In Her Footsteps; Documentary & Conversation with Director
Thursday, November 15
7:00pm to 9:00pm
MIT, Building 3-333, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Join us for an opportunity to see In Her Footsteps, an award winning documentary, followed by an intimate post-film conversation with the Director, Rana Abu Fraiha!
A light dinner and snacks will be served.
In Her Footsteps - وراءك
75 minutes | Hebrew, Arabic | English subtitles
In the dead of night, my parents left our house in the Muslim Bedouin village, Tel Sheva, where I was born, and moved, perhaps 'fled', to Omer, a nearby Jewish town, where I grew up.
For more than twenty years in Omer, we've been deeply integrated into Omer's white hegemony, we were convinced that we're like everyone else around us, till my mother became ill with breast cancer.
She expresses an unprecedented wish, to be buried as a Muslim in the town’s Jewish cemetery.
In the Arab, Muslim and men world, where Rodina lives, women are forbidden to attend funerals. She hoped that by fulfilling her wish, her three daughters could walk with her on her last journey. But in the Jewish society, there has never been a precedent for a shared burial of Arabs and Jews. Her wish tore the family apart and raised serious dilemmas, about identity, belonging, femininity and the meaning of home.
See the Trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LahzmPO7Q9E
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BostonTalks: Robots
Thursday, November 15
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
WGBH, 1 Guest Street, Boston
Cost: $11.54
Spend a smarter happy hour with WGBH sipping a drink and hearing about robots from fact to fiction.
BostonTalks is WGBH’s smarter happy hour. It’s smarter because we feature three speakers and, it’s happy hour because we offer a variety of affordable beer, wine and cider.
Featured speakers:
Sam Spaulding, Doctoral student at MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group
Sam works to design and program robots that can understand and react to humans. Learn about the future of robot and human interaction!
Joelle Renstrom, Science writer
A columnist for the Daily Beast, Joelle Renstrom is a professor at Boston University who teaches writing with a focus on artificial intelligence and space exploration. Hear her talk about cyborgs, sex, love and more.
With support from Just Us Gals
You must be at least 21 with a valid ID to attend. Beer, wine and hard cider is available for purchase.
This is a networking-style event. Limited seating will be available.
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Massachusetts Sustainable Business Awards
Thursday, November 15
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Avenue, Somerville
Cost: $50 - $60
Join the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts for the Fourth Annual Massachusetts Sustainable Business Awards!
We're excited to host our annual fundraising event at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville, MA. This lively venue will provide the perfect backdrop for a true celebration of all things local. Five businesses will be recognized for their work toward a local, green & fair economy!
Look forward to live music, a delicious locally sourced dinner, beverages, live and silent auctions with exciting new items, and so much more!
Interested in donating to our silent auction? E-mail amy@sbnmass.org
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Friday, November 16 - Saturday, November 17
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Institutional Investor Activism in the Trump Era: Responses to A Changing Landscape
9:00 am on 11/16/2018 to 2:00 pm on 11/17/2018
BU School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
This year’s Boston University Law Review Conference will review the past decade of investor activism and assess what lies ahead as we enter the Trump Era; an era that, to date, is characterized by record-breaking stock prices, newfound hostility to shareholder activism in Washington, and increasing political pressure on investors. This conference aims to take a broad, 30,000-foot view of institutional investor activism as these institutions adjust to new challenges. It is also timed fortuitously, taking place ten days after the 2018 midterm elections leading up to the 2019 proxy season.
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Friday, November 16
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Inequities in urban climate mitigation and adaptation Planning: Exploring the socio-spatial challenges for making cities green for all
Friday, November 16
9:00 am to 11:00 am
Webinar
Isabelle is Director of BCNUEJ, an ICREA Research Professor, a Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator at ICTA and coordinator of the research group Healthy Cities and Environmental Justice at IMIM. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Studies from Science Po Lille and a Master’s in International Development at the Université de Paris 1 Sorbonne, pursued a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Harvard University and obtained a PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT before returning to Europe in 2011 with a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship.Situated at the intersection of urban planning and policy, social inequality and development studies, her research examines the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how community groups in distressed neighborhoods contest the existence, creation, or exacerbation of environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes and policies. She explores how environmental gentrification processes lead to new forms of locally unwanted land uses (LULUs), how municipalities protect vulnerable communities from climate risks and inequality, and the initiatives and obstacles to transitioning towards a low-carbon economy within European urban regions.
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FreeCycle
Friday, November 16
11 am–2 pm
Harvard, 124 Mt Auburn Street Lobby, Cambridge
Bring your unwanted household goods, office supplies and equipment to 124 Mt Auburn lobby and take away what you need! Also bring kitchen supplies including pots & pans, silverware, plates, crockery, glassware, books, CD’s, clothing, toys, unopened cosmetics, nonperishable food, linens, tools and all other reusables!
Harvard Recycling will deliver a good “seed supply” at 11 and will take away all unclaimed goods. Help reuse, save money and build community by FreeCycling! Email rob_gogan@harvard.edu if you have any questions.
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Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar
Friday, November 16
12:00PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Melissa Lunden, Chief Scientist, Aclima, will give a talk. Title TBA.
Contact Name: Kelvin Bates
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Ash Community Speaker Series: China and the World Order in Transition?
WHEN Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, 12 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Floor 2, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Dr. Miwa Hirono, Visiting Fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership
Dr. Dandan Zhu, Visiting Asia Fellow
COST Free
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us for a conversation with Dr. Miwa Hirono, Visiting Fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership, and Dr. Dandan Zhu, Visiting Asia Fellow. Arne Westad, the S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, HKS, will moderate.
China’s foreign policy represented by the Belt and Road Initiative brings with it a speculation about the transition towards a China-centric global order. Hirono and Zhu will discuss the domestic and international complexities that affect such a transition. Hirono will show a wide variety of perceptions that people in conflict and disaster-affected regions have about China’s international responsibility as a great power, while Zhu will examine the major factors that have shaped the state leadership’s views of China’s duties beyond the border since 2010 and discusses how to assess Chinese views and practices with regard to global governance.
Lunch will be served.
The Ash Community Speaker Series features discussions with students, faculty, fellows, and alumni whose research or other academic work is supported by the Ash Center. The series is a forum to discuss new ideas, innovative work, and ongoing projects that are related to the Ash Center's mission to make the world a better place by advancing excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, education, and public discussion.
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Learning and flexibility for water supply infrastructure planning under uncertainty
Friday, November 16
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 48-316, Parsons Laboratory, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Sarah Fletcher, Postdoctoral Associate , Civil and Environmental Engineering
Water supply infrastructure planning must account for uncertainty in future supply and demand in order to ensure long-term reliability. Recent planning methods have used scenario-based approaches to develop robust planning strategies that perform well across many possible future climates. Robust approaches, however, face high risk of overbuilding expensive infrastructure if the worst outcomes are not realized. In this seminar, I assess the potential to learn about uncertainty over time and enable flexible, adaptive infrastructure planning approaches to maintain reliability at reduced cost. To do this, I develop a novel planning framework that uses Bayesian statistical modeling to update climate change uncertainty. These dynamic uncertainty estimates are used to characterize climate change uncertainty in a non-stationary stochastic dynamic program. I apply this framework to a reservoir sizing problem in Mombasa, Kenya. Results show that high potential to reduce uncertainty over time enables large value in a flexible dam design in which the dam can be raised in the future to increase storage capacity. The value of flexibility depends on the social discount rate, technology choice, and the value society places on water reliability. This approach shows promise in targeting large-scale investments for climate change adaptation where necessary while identifying opportunities to rely on smaller, incremental approaches.
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Hack Your Mind: The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age
Friday, November 16
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 66-144, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Catherine Steiner-Adair, Clinical psychologist; author
Join us for our Hack Your Mind series with guest speaker clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair who will be speaking about the impact of technology on your relationships with the people you love the most. Dr. Steiner-Adair takes an in-depth look at how the Internet and the digital revolution are profoundly changing childhood and family dynamics, and offers solutions parents can use to successfully shepherd their children through the technological wilderness.
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Challenges to Multiracial Democracy
WHEN Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, S250, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global Populism/Challenges to Democracy
SPEAKER(S) Rafaela M. Dancygier, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Robert Mickey, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
CONTACT INFO jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS The challenge of sustaining multiethnic democracies is one of the most significant challenges facing democracies of all types today. The politics of redistribution has also been notoriously complicated by ethnic diversity, but the growing ethnic diversity of both new and old democracies, driven in part by immigration, have generated different forms of right-wing populist backlash and has exacerbated political polarization. This poses dilemmas for parties of the right and left.
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Artificial Intelligence & Biotechnology
Friday, November 16
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
An academic seminar held by MIT Deshpanda Center for Technological Innovation. Mr. Leon Sandler, the executive director of Deshpanda Center, and Mr. Liangang Sun, an initiator of Contemporary Ideographism, will be the speakers of the seminar.
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Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals
Friday, November 16
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and Mass Humanities welcome philosopher and author CHRISTINE M. KORSGAARD—Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University—for a discussion of her latest book, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals.
About Fellow Creatures
Christine M. Korsgaard presents a compelling new view of humans' moral relationships to the other animals. She defends the claim that we are obligated to treat all sentient beings as what Kant called "ends-in-themselves". Drawing on a theory of the good derived from Aristotle, she offers an explanation of why animals are the sorts of beings for whom things can be good or bad. She then turns to Kant's argument for the value of humanity to show that rationality commits us to claiming the standing of ends-in-ourselves, in two senses. Kant argued that as autonomous beings, we claim to be ends-in-ourselves when we claim the standing to make laws for ourselves and each other. Korsgaard argues that as beings who have a good, we also claim to be ends-in-ourselves when we take the things that are good for us to be good absolutely and so worthy of pursuit. The first claim commits us to joining with other autonomous beings in relations of moral reciprocity. The second claim commits us to treating the good of every sentient creature as something of absolute importance.
Korsgaard argues that human beings are not more important than the other animals, that our moral nature does not make us superior to the other animals, and that our unique capacities do not make us better off than the other animals. She criticizes the "marginal cases" argument and advances a new view of moral standing as attaching to the atemporal subjects of lives. She criticizes Kant's own view that our duties to animals are indirect, and offers a non-utilitarian account of the relation between pleasure and the good. She also addresses a number of directly practical questions: whether we have the right to eat animals, experiment on them, make them work for us and fight in our wars, and keep them as pets; and how to understand the wrong that we do when we cause a species to go extinct.
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How to Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives
Friday, November 16
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridg
Harvard Book Store welcomes author and former CIA intelligence officer DAVID PRIESS for a discussion of his latest book, How to Get Rid of a President: History's Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.
About How to Get Rid of a President
To limit executive power, the Founding Fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Even so, Americans have often resorted to more dramatic paths to disempower the chief executive. The American presidency has seen it all, from rejecting a sitting president's renomination bid and undermining their authority in office to the more drastic methods of impeachment, and, most brutal of all, assassination.
How To Get Rid of a President showcases the political dark arts in action: a stew of election dramas, national tragedies, and presidential departures mixed with party intrigue, political betrayal, and backroom maneuvers. This briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage proves that while the pomp and circumstance of presidential elections might draw more attention, the way that presidents are removed teaches us much more about our political order.
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No Man's Land Film Festival
Friday, November 16
7:30pm to 9:30pm
MIT, Building 26-100 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
No Man's Land Film Festival is an all-woman adventure film festival based out of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado that meets a need and desire to highlight and connect individuals who identify as women in pursuit of the radical. We are a collaboration and celebration of humans who are deeply engaged in enhancing the female presence in the adventure arena. The goal of this festival is to connect like-minded individuals who are action-oriented, wish to support a shared vision of gender equality, have a desire to experience their passions and environments through a uniquely female lens, and above all, love adventure. Along with cultivating a deep interest in exploring the vastness of our planet from a female point of view, No Man's Land strives to create a history of motivating audiences to implement and inspire change. Our mission transcends the films presented; this festival acts as a platform for progressive thought and movement in the outdoor industry. At No Man's Land, we aim to un-define feminine in adventure and sport through film.
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Saturday, November 17 - Sunday, November 18
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Climate Biodiversity and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Natuve
Saturday and Sunday, November 17-18
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Volunteer opportunities available too – please contact staff@bio4climate.org
*Biodiversity for a Livable Climate is not affiliated with Harvard University,
nor is this conference a Harvard University program or activity.
A conference about us civilized humans falling in love with the wonders and beauties of the natural world once again. For what we love, we protect.
We now have a rapidly growing collection of science that demonstrates the abilities – even intelligence – of creatures across the kingdoms of life. We’ll review fascinating scientific research and everyday experiences that must give us pause. Such investigations indicate how brilliant the being that some have called Gaia – Planet Earth – collectively is. It’s not just about animals either – it’s also about fungi, plants and microbes, and how we humans are just one small part of this great symphony of intelligent life.
Indigenous cultures have known this forever, the rest of us have some catching up to do. Fortunately we are finally leaving behind us the scientific curse of “anthropomorphism,” the idea that attributing any form of intelligence to non-human creatures was really just a matter of over-using our imaginations.
You may ask, “What does pan-species intelligence have to do with climate and biodiversity?” In keeping with our striving towards systems thinking we would say “a lot”! Can we let go of our hubris, our belief that we are the chosen ones, and realize that compassion and collaboration, far more than competition, are the essence of life on Earth? If we can, perhaps we will finally become the stewards – and the stewarded – that we can and should be.
We promise that you will be astonished and delighted, as have we, at recent as well as ancient insights about the creatures we share Planet Earth with. They are smart and compassionate, they lead rich and loving lives, and we rely on their diverse and varied presence for our own survival. They’re talking to us, and this will be a weekend where we learn more about how to listen – and to marvel.
More information at https://bio4climate.org/species-intelligence/
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Saturday, November 17
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TEDxBeaconStreet 2018
Saturday, November 17
8 am – 7 pm
JFK Library, Dorchester
On November 17, TEDxBeaconStreet will return to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for a second year! Some of the most inspiring minds and speakers in the world will come to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for the final day of TEDxBeaconStreet.
Now in its seventh year, TEDxBeaconStreet is one of the most celebrated independently organized TED events in the world, providing free access to thousands in person and featuring talks that have been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
More details coming soon at https://tedxbeaconstreet.com/tedxbeaconstreet-2018/
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SMART RECOVERY Facilitator Forum with Professor Michael Lewis
Saturday, November 17
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Mount Auburn Hospital, 330 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge
Professor Michael Lewis will be addressing the SMART Recovery Facilitator Forum on Saturday, November 17, at 10 AM at the North Cafeteria Conference Room, Mount Auburn Hospital, 330 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge 02138.
Prof. Lewis has written 2 best-selling books on addictions and his extensive Review Article on "Addiction as a Learning Disorder" was published in the NEJM on Oct. 18, 2018.
Greater Boston Humanists' (and SMART Recovery's current) President, Joe Gerstein, MD, FACP, founded SMART Recovery in 1994 in response to our challenge as humanists to make a difference in the world. Using rational cognitive behavioral therapy, this science-based addiction treatment program has facilitated thousands of meetings and successful treatments, from Massachusetts outward to the world.
THE EVENTS:
All are invited to the SMART Recovery Facilitator Forum Saturday, but please RSVP to 508 733 6469 if you plan to attend. If interested in attending remotely, you can do so by phone via 224 501 3316, Code 915 918 845 or via computer at:
Prof. Lewis will also be talking at the Quincy Community Recovery Center on Monday evening, November 19.
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Ollin Solidarity Caravan: Freedom of Movement Is a Human Right
Saturday, November 17
Noon to 3 PM
JFK Building Government Center Boston
No Borders, No Walls, No Prisons! We will not be complicit!
Ollin is the Nahuatl word for movement and everyone has the right to move whether it be because of political, economic or corporate violence, oppression, racial or sexual discrimination, environmental catastrophe or circumstances, to connect with family and friends, or just because they have the desire to do so. We will gather outside immigration court to participate in a vigil; a land honoring ceremony; dance, drumming, and music; to say the names and share the stories of those on the migrant caravan being stopped by armed military, borders and walls, along with those facing ICE violence and imprisonment right here in Boston. We will stand against the threat to birthright citizenship and for the right for our community to obtain driver's licenses. We will insist that all relationships with ICE be severed and for permanent protection for all. Afterwards we will form our own "Solidarity Caravan" and move through the streets to South Bay Detention Center to deliver our messages and well wishes to those being held inside and demand that Sheriff Tompkins ends the ICE contract!
Hosted by Cosecha Massachusetts
Editorial Comment: There are still, as of Friday’s news, 171 children separated from their parents and held by the USA government, months after a court order to return them to their parents and guardians. If you are a USA citizen, this is being done in your name and your tax dollars are paying for their imprisonment.
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Invitation to Tech and Revolution discussion
Saturday, November 17
12-5pm
Encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, (near Park Street) Boston
/encuentro5/ (e5) and DigBoston are pleased to invite your organization to participate in an important discussion on Technology and Revolution at the e5 movement space in Boston on Saturday, Nov. 17 from 12-5pm. The event is part of a series of discussions being held nationwide and coordinated by May First/People Link and the Center for Media Justice leading up to an international convergence in Mexico City next year.
Notable attendees include: Alfredo Lopez, author, Puerto Rican independista, and co-director of May First/People Link; and Rajesh Kasturirangan, mathematician, cognitive scientist, and professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in India.
Over the last few decades, technological advances have not only radically changed methods of human communication but have also started to change humanity itself in ways that grassroots organizations on the political left have been slow to address. To the extent we have done so, it has been mostly to advocate for disenfranchised communities - access to computers and broadband internet service.
But we have largely failed to grapple with issues beyond the rise of the internet and huge corporate social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And we’ve barely scratched the surface of those key changes, let alone put much thought into analyzing the effects of newer technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, and genetic engineering on our communities. This is all the more alarming because rapid technological has aggravated the inequalities about which the left has traditionally cared.
Nonetheless, social-change movements continuously emerge, often in unexpected spaces, but especially in artistic and youth spaces or from insurgent social movements of the oppressed and exploited. They create campaigns to challenge potentially negative technological developments and propose more helpful community-centered technologies in their place. In the interest of promoting these movements and their just agendas, this gathering will convene organizers for an afternoon of sharing and thinking together. We will be sharing information and analyses about these topics in short, plain-spoken, manageable conversations. Our
thinking together will be strategic, asking and answering straightforward questions:
What are the most urgent and important challenges connected with technology?
What are the key areas for intervention?
Who are our allies?
What are our resources?
Before we can talk about joint and/or coordinated campaigns and targeting, what do we need?
Please let us know if your organization will be able to attend at your earliest convenience, and what leaders will be participating in the conversation, if so.
Questions? Contact the convening organizations via tech@encuentro5.net or Jason Pramas at jason@digboston.com
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What Nature Sounds Are Music?
WHEN Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, 2 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Music
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) David Rothenberg, Professor of Philosophy and Music, New Jersey Institute of Technology
COST $15
TICKET WEB LINK http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu
TICKET INFO Call 617-384-5277
CONTACT INFO Pam Thompson 617-384-5277
DETAILS Bird song, whale song, bug song? Are these sounds really music? What of the whistle of the wind? David Rothenberg, author of three books, "Why Birds Sing," "Bug Music," and "Survival of the Beautiful," will do his best to answer these questions and fuel further thinking about noise, communication, and song in nature. A composer and jazz clarinetist, David Rothenberg has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years, and improvised with whales, cicadas, and other creatures.
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Artists' "Talk Back" with Jonny Sun and Friends
Saturday, November 17
3:00pm to 4:00pm
MIT, Building 14S-100, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Join us for an artists' "Talk Back" with Jonny Sun and friends at Hayden Library.
Sun's interactive multimedia piece, The Laughing Room, at the Cambridge Public Library, and a companion piece, The Control Room, at Hayden Library, invite participants to ask questions about artificial intelligence and the role it can play in our society. Learn more
Sun is the author and illustrator of everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too and the illustrator of Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Named one of Time’s 25 Most Influential People on the Internet of 2017, Sun is currently a doctoral candidate at MIT, an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and a creative researcher at the Harvard metaLAB, where he studies social media, virtual place, and online identity.
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Democracy in a Suddenly Hard Place: Confronting the Authoritarian Challenge in America
WHEN Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, 4:15 – 5:25 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn Street, Suite 200N, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HKS Ash Center
SPEAKER(S) M. Steven Fish, University of California, Berkeley
DETAILS Democracy in the West, including in America, is suddenly under threat, just as it is in many other societies in which it has long been taken for granted. How can we understand the menace, and how can democracy advocates defeat it? Join M. Steven Fish, University of California, Berkeley, in discussion.
M. Steven Fish is a comparative political scientist who studies democracy and regime change in developing and postcommunist countries, religion and politics, and constitutional systems and national legislatures. He is the author of "Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence" (Oxford, 2011), which was selected for Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles, 2012: Top 25 Books. He is also author of "Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics" (Cambridge, 2005), which was the recipient of the Best Book Award of 2006, presented by the Comparative Democratization Section of the American Political Science Association, and "Democracy from Scratch: Opposition and Regime in the New Russian Revolution" (Princeton, 1995). He is coauthor of "The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey" (Cambridge, 2009) and "Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy" (Princeton, 2001). He served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia, in 2007 and at the European University at St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2000-2001. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Social Sciences Teaching Award of the Colleges of Letters and Science, University of California-Berkeley.
This discussion is part of the Ash Center's Democracy in Hard Places Initiative, a program co-directed by Scott Mainwaring, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Brazil Studies, and Tarek Masoud, Professor of Public Policy and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations. Democracy in Hard Places aims to foster social science research on democratic experiments — both successful and failed — throughout the developing world to learn how democracy can be built and maintained in a variety of terrains. The initiative's seminar series brings to campus distinguished scholars and practitioners to analyze the conditions, institutions, and behaviors that enable democracy to survive in hard places.
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The Haiti Initiative (SUD): The Impact of Climate Change in Arniquet
Saturday, November 17
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Pisani Center, 131 Washington Street, Apt. 5, Cambridge
The Haiti Initiative (SUD): The Impact of Climate Change in Arniquet is an event is to reconnect the Cambridge - Boston Haitian diasporic community to the current environmental circumstances in Arniquet, Haiti. The event will include food made by Marie Nirva Tancyl, an Arniquoise through and through. Also part of the event will include a report back with photos from our recent trip to Arniquet, video presentations from the commune government about the impacts of climate change, and a presentation on climate change from a member of The Haiti Initiative (SUD). So come learn about the impacts of climate change on Arniquet. Learn how you can get involved!
THE ARNIQUET PROJECT
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is working with the commune government leaders, Maurice Chateau and Bernadette Genois. Arniquet is a small commune in the south of Haiti. The population is roughly 29,000 and decreasing everyday due to climate force migration. A sizable Arniquet diasporic members live in the metro-Boston area.
The Hait Initiative (SUD) has taken up the Arniquet project to support an initiative to build a gabion wall and a eco-bridge where the ravine have formed behind the town hall near the center of town. The massive ravine threatens the future of the town and the lives of the people who live in and around the town center.
The Haiti Initiative (SUD) is a project under the umbrella of the YWCA Cambridge. The purpose of the Haiti initiative (SUD) is to support Haitians in the Southern who are participating in grassroots organizing around hurricane preparedness and climate change. Our goals are to create spaces to educate the public about climate change, to support with hurricane preparedness, and to work with Haiti-born and Haiti-based activist.
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Encuentro5 will be organizing an evening of music and politics celebrating Charlie Welch's birthday!
Saturday, November 17
6:30pm with dinner at 7pm
encuentro 5, 9A Hamilton Place, Boston
Join me in this event as part of the process of building Encuentro5 into an organization that will be around and in the struggle for our
future. I have put time and energy into a number of organizations that have used E5 extensively.? It has been invaluable to the movement in Boston and we need to take steps to insure that it survives and thrives.
Charlie
With a history of activism grounded in early opposition to the U.S. war against the Vietnamese people, Charlie Welch is a powerful role model for young activists. His contributions to the causes of social movements and revolutions have been as plentiful as they have been strategic, providing the equipment and tools that movements need as they confront capital and empire. He pioneered Activist Massachusetts (act-ma) email list and continues to moderate/curate it twenty-two years later, all while involving a network of activists in its operation and reaching 1,000 of the state; s leading activists every day! Similarly, he has been the force behind TecsChange, Technology for Social Change ever since its founding as a movement organization getting computers and related tech into the hands of worker and peasant revolutionaries in Africa, Latin America, and even East Timor, all while keeping a steady eye to the needs of local activist organizations in our region?s working-class communities.
His involvement with encuentro5 predates its formal launch in 2006. Ever since, he has remained a steady, guiding presence, one of the secrets to its success as a movement-building space serving multitudes of activists and progressive causes.
Join us for the reception that starts at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:00 p.m. This event is open to the progressive community, no financial
contribution is necessary however attendees are encouraged to make a tax-deductible contribution and/or monthly pledge to encuentro5, where Revolution Has an Address! because people like Charlie have stepped up and stepped forward!
Past e5 honorees include Avi Chomsky, Robin Jacks, Dorotea Manuela, Sergio Reyes, Paul Shannon, Aaron Tanaka, Angela Kelly, Banjineh Browne, Karen Schneiderman, and Lily Huang.
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/251566048751115/
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Sunday, November 18
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Moving the Future Conference
Sunday, November 18
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
Harvard Business School, Spangler Center, Batten Way, Boston
Cost: $0 – $40
Infrastructure is the lifeblood of the world. Trains, planes, automobiles, roads, bridges, airports, and satellites all make our modern life possible. We believe these industries are underrepresented in public debate. The Harvard Business School Aviation & Aerospace Club and Transportation, Infrastructure, and Logistics Club are bringing top representatives together from these fields to discuss their future and progress.
The fourth annual Moving the Future conference will be held on November 18, 2018 at Harvard Business School. This year, industry leaders and accomplished speakers from exciting organizations such as Hyperloop, Cubic Aerospace and Kespry as well as government entities such as the Argentinian Ministry of Transport will discuss how the business of moving people and things is rapidly changing.
For the detailed schedule of events go to the conference website, https://movingthefutureconference.com/
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"Untamed Romania" movie screening
Sunday, November 18
11:00am to 12:30pm
MIT, Building 4-370, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Quoting from the movie's IMDB page, "Untamed Romania" is a unique production that reveals the beauty of Romania as it is, raw, magical but fragile at the same time. The movie is an invitation to knowledge, responsibility, and appreciation meant to raise awareness on the fragile wildlife of Romania. "Some things must remain as they are" is the message this documentary wants to promote.
"Untamed Romania" made its international debut on 18th of March in Washington, at an ecological film festival and on 12th of April in London, at the BAFTA gala. This film is a gift offered to the Romanian people, made by Auchan Retail Romania with the occasion of the centenary of the Great Union.
This is a public event: all are welcome to join! Tell your friends and hope to see you all there!
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Monday, November 19
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PAOC [Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climates] Colloquium: Caroline Ummenhofer (WHOI)
Monday, November 19,
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
About this Series
The PAOC Colloquium [PAOCC] is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. Contact the 2018/2019 Coordinators: paoc-colloquium-comm@mit.edu.
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Ontario's Electricity Market Design Journey--Steps and Missteps on the Road to Best Practice
Monday, November 19
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, HKS, 7 JFK Street, Cambridge
Susan Pope, Managing Director, FTI Consulting
Lunch will be served.
HKS Energy Policy Seminar
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Institutional Solutions to Democracy’s Challenges?
WHEN Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel, K262, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Weatherhead Research Cluster on Global Populism/Challenges to Democracy
SPEAKER(S) David Altman, Professor of Political Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow, Political Reform Program, New America
Elaine Kamarck, Senior Fellow; Director, Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution
CONTACT INFO jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu
DETAILS Can institutional reforms provide solutions to some of the problems afflicting established democracies? Many Western democracies maintain constitutions, electoral systems, and other democratic institutions whose origins lie in the early 20th, 19th, and even 18th centuries. The age of these institutions is often a point of pride for many citizens (think of Americans’ attachment to their constitution and even dysfunctional institutions like the Electoral College). But existing institutions may be ill-suited for the challenges facing contemporary democracies. In this panel we will examine institutional innovations aimed at improving the quality of established democracies.
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The Decline of North Atlantic Right Whales: What’s Going On?
Monday, November 19
12:30 – 1:45 pm
Tufts, Cabot 702, 170 Packard Avenue, Medford
CIERP Research Seminar with Peter Corkeron
Peter Corkeron has led the large whale research program at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center since 2011.
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Autonomous Vehicles: Exciting Opportunities, but Daunting Challenges
Monday, November 19
3-4 PM
MIT, Building 32-141, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Christopher A. HartHart Solutions LLC/ former Chairman NTSB
Abstract. The lives lost on our streets and highways – nearly 40,000 a year in the U.S., and more than a million a year worldwide – constitute a public health disaster. Experts estimate that more than 90% of motor vehicle crashes involve human error, and the theoryis that by replacing the human with automation, this tragic human error toll will largely be eliminated. While this theory is overly simplistic, automation can potentially prevent or mitigate most motor vehicle crashes.A large percentage of the public is already very skeptical about automation in cars, and with so many lives being lost every year, it would be very unfortunate to delay the implementation of automation by having crashes that could have been avoided by paying attention to aviation lessons learned in the past. This presentation begins with automation lessons that can be learned from decades of development in aviation.In addition, automation on the ground will be considerably more challenging than automation in the air. This presentation also addresses several automation issues that the autonomous vehicle industry will face that have not already been encountered in aviation. Some of these issues are related to automation that assists drivers, and others are related to automation generally, with and without drivers.
Bio: Christopher A. Hart is the founder of Hart Solutions LLP, which specializes in improving safety in a variety of contexts, including the safety of automation in motor vehicles, workplace safety, and process safety in potentially hazardous industries.Until February 2018 he was a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In March, 2015, he was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to be Chairman, which he was until March, 2017. Prior to that he was Vice Chairman of the NTSB, after being nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2009 and 2013. The NTSB investigates major transportation accidents in all modes of transportation, determines probable cause, and makes recommendations in an effort to prevent recurrences. He was previously a Member of the NTSB in 1990, having been nominated by (the first) President Bush.Mr. Hart’s previous positions have included: Deputy Director, Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Assistant Administrator for System Safety, Federal Aviation Administration, Deputy Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Deputy Assistant General Counsel to the Department of Transportation, Managing partner of Hart & Chavers, a Washington, D.C., law firm, and Attorney with the Air Transport Association.Mr. Hart has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a Master’s Degree and a Bachelor’s Degree (magna cum laude) in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association.
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The Rise of Populism in the US and Europe
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston
Panelists including Salena Zito and Brad Todd, authors of The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Shaping Contemporary Domestic Politics, and John Judis, author of The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics, examine the rise of populism in the US and Europe with Heather Cox Richardson, Boston College professor of history.
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Great Decisions - Waning of Pax Americana?
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Add to Calendar
Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
Join us to hear Ambassador Ivo Daalder and Dr. James Lindsay speak on the future of the peaceful international relations of Pax Americana!
Since 1945, Pax Americana has promised peaceful international relations and an open economy, buttressed by U.S. military power. But in championing "America First," President Trump has advocated selective U.S. engagement, in which foreign commitments are limited to areas of vital U.S. interest and economic nationalism is the order of the day. Allies and challengers alike are paying close attention.
Ambassador Daalder and Dr. Lindsay have co-authored the book, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership, released October 16, 2018. The book discusses the current apparent disruption to the world order that the United States fashioned from the ruins of WWII and that produced unprecedented global stability, prosperity and democratic consensus. Critics argue that Donald Trump's America First Policy threatens this world order, yet, the authors maintain, this order has been fraying for years. With their expertise as authors of this timely book, Ambassador Daalder and Dr. Lindsay will speak to the waning of Pax Americana. Their book will be available for purchase.
Ivo Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and served as the U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Ambassador Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from MIT. James Lindsay is senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the the Council on Foreign Relations, where he oversees the work of more than six dozen fellows in the David Rockefeller Studies Program. Dr. Lindsay holds an AB in economics and political science from the University of Michigan and an MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University.
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Getting to Know You: What Are the Prospects for People’s Emotional Relationships with AI/Robots
Monday, November 19
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering (CILSE), 610 Commonwealth Avenue, (Eichenbaum Colloquium Room 101), Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/a-panel-discussion-on-artificial-intelligence-tickets-52021427490
a panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence will be held at the Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering on November 19th, 2018. Two topics will be discussed: ‘The Future Visions of AI’ and ‘The Possibility for AI to Take Human Emotions into Consideration.’ The Consulate General of France, in collaboration with Boston University, has worked to organize this panel discussion because the potentially dangerous and disruptive effects of Artificial Intelligence have become a growing interest in our society. Upending age-old ways of seeing society, time, social interaction, politics, and more, AI plays an ever-increasing role in our lives. Hoping that the discussions that occur today will enable a more humanistic, reflective and wise vision for the future of AI.
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Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties with Madeleine Kunin
Monday, November 19
7:00pm
Trident Books Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
Many readers are already familiar with Madeleine Kunin, the former three-term governor of Vermont, who served as the deputy secretary of education and ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. In her newest book, a memoir entitled Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties, the topic is aging, but she looks well beyond the physical tolls and explores the emotional ones as well. And she has had an extraordinary life: governor, ambassador, feminist, wife, mother, professor, poet, and much, much more.
As recently reported in the New York Times, a girl born today can expect to live to the age of ninety, on average (boys, on the other hand, can expect to live until age eighty-five). Life expectancy, for many, is increasing, yet people rarely contemplate the emotional changes that come alongside the physical changes of aging. Madeleine wants to change that. Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties takes a close and incisive look at what it is like to grow old. The book is a memoir, yet most important of all, it is an honest and positive look at aging and how it has affected her life.
Governor Kunin has written three previous books: Living a Political Life (Knopf), and The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family (New York Times Editor’s Choice) and Pearls Politics and Power. She has more energy than two 40-year-olds. She is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont where she gives guest lectures on feminism and women and politics. She also serves on the board of the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a nongovernmental organization that she founded in 1991, and she recently launched Emerge Vermont to encourage and support women in politics. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont.
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Richard Smallwood Music, Activism, and Well-being
WHEN Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
WHERE Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Concerts, Humanities, Music, Religion, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Department of Music Blodgett Distinguished Artist Program, Office for the Arts, Elson Family Arts Initiative Fund, Harvard College Innovation Fund, and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research
SPEAKER(S) Join gospel artist Richard Smallwood in conversation with Prof. Braxton Shelley and in song with the Kuumba Singers (Harvard), Inner Strength Gospel Choir (Boston University), and Third Day Gospel Choir(Tufts). The night culminates with a performance of Smallwood’s "Total Praise.”
COST Free
CONTACT INFO musicdpt@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and pianist Richard Smallwood has been one of the most popular inspirational artists in the music business, with classic tunes such as "Total Praise," "Center of My Joy," and "I Love the Lord." His songs have been recorded by Whitney Houston, Destiny’s Child, Kelly Price, Gerald Levert, American Idol’s Ruben Studdard and many others throughout of the gospel world. Even the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, recorded Smallwood’s "Faithful."
Smallwood will be in conversation with Prof. Braxton Shelley and joined by the Kuumba Singers and the gospel choirs of Boston University and Tufts University.
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Tuesday, November 20
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A Brief History of Spotify: R&D Department for the Entire Music Industry
Tuesday, November 20
5:30pm to 6:30pm
MIT, Building 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Gustav Söderström, R&D Chief, Spotify
Gustav Söderström will present a brief history of Spotify, reflecting on the company's key technical challenges in machine learning, followed by a discussion on the future of creativity and computation in the age of AI.
The Q&A session and discussion will be moderated by Eran Egozy, Professor of the Practice, Music Technology and Co-Founder, Harmonix, which launched the Guitar Hero video game franchise.
All are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served.
Hosted by the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science (SHASS) and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).
This event will be recorded.
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Robert Jaffe and Washington Taylor: The Physics of Energy
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Join us at the bookstore in welcoming Washington Taylor and Robert Jaffe for a discussion of their book, The Physics of Energy.
The Physics of Energy provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the scientific principles governing energy sources, uses, and systems. Students, scientists, engineers, energy industry professionals, and concerned citizens with some mathematical and scientific background who wish to understand energy systems and issues quantitatively will find this book of great interest.
Robert L. Jaffe holds the Morningstar Chair in the Department of Physics at MIT. He was formerly director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics and recently chaired the American Physical Society's Panel on Public Affairs. Jaffe is best known for his research on the quark substructure of the proton and other strongly interacting particles, on exotic states of matter, and on the quantum structure of the vacuum. He received his BA from Princeton and his PhD from Stanford. In recognition of his contributions to teaching and course development at MIT, Jaffe has received numerous awards including a prestigious MacVicar Fellowship. Jaffe is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Washington Taylor is a Professor of Physics at MIT, and is currently the Director of MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics. Taylor's research is focused on basic theoretical questions of particle physics and gravity. Taylor has made contributions to our understanding of fundamental aspects of string theory and its set of solutions, including connections to constraints on low-energy field theory and observable physics and to new results in mathematics. Taylor received his BA in mathematics from Stanford and his PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Among other honors, Taylor has been an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Department of Energy Outstanding Junior Investigator, and has received MIT's Buechner faculty teaching prize.
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Ben Franklin Circle in Boston
Tuesday, November 20
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 15th Floor, Boston
Impact Hub Boston is joining a 21st-century community-building initiative inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s “club for mutual improvement,” launched more than 200 years ago. Ben Franklin Circles gather people in conversation about shared values and common goals. Participants discuss 13 civic virtues championed by Ben Franklin—qualities like justice, humility, moderation and order—as a lens into self-improvement and civic engagement.
Impact Hub Boston will hold its second Ben Franklin Circle meeting on Tuesday, November 20 at 6:00pm, and we continue to welcome any who are interested in exploring this format for conversation and self-improvement as we get our local circle's rhythm going in our second meeting. We're a small, intentional groups of 8-12 people looking to improve themselves and the world around them. Feel free to bring your along own dinner and ideas to our casual first gathering to see who wants to join this circle.
For our second meeting, we will be focusing on the virtue "Silence." Watch this space (or your registration email) for reading resources on this topic ahead of our meeting.
The Circles will be moderated by Mette Kreutzmann, of the MA Office of Public Collaboration at UMass Boston. Mette heads-up their public dialogue initiative focused on introducing "deliberative dialogue” as a tool to help people address difficult issues affecting their community and move toward collective action.
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Starting Small and Making It Big
Tuesday, November 20
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Bill Cummings never aspired to be a billionaire—and never acknowledged he was one until long after it happened. That’s because it is not money that motivates him, but rather the immense enjoyment he gets from building and growing successful businesses. He thrives at being an opportunist and believes that this often-misunderstood trait is one of the key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. They see opportunities where others overlook them. And they act swiftly to adopt them before someone else does.
Although perhaps not intentionally, Bill’s parents encouraged his entrepreneurial nature by instilling in him the desire to "get ahead" and to become "somebody." His father painted houses, raising a family in a one-bedroom apartment atop a liquor store and a taxi stand on the outskirts of Boston. Bill’s mother was a neighborhood fixture, building friendships as she knocked on doors to collect coins for large charities that once operated that way.
From his parents, Bill learned the value of hard work, kindness, and fiscal responsibility. Year-round he washed windows for his neighborhood’s storekeepers, and for three summers as a young teen he sold ice cream from the back of his bike at a nearby Ford Motors assembly plant. Later he purchased and sold dozens of small boats using Boston Globe classified ads. Eventually, he built a 500-person firm near Boston with a debt-free portfolio of 11 million square feet of commercial real estate.
This fascinating self-written autobiography shares not only how he got there, but also his singular dedication to giving back to the communities and institutions so vital to his success. In Massachusetts alone, the cash donations from Cummings entities to local charities already total more than $240 million.
Through Bill’s unique voice, readers experience his achievements and adventures—including a stint at Fort Dix with Ralph Nader and, much later, meeting and working regularly with some of the world’s greatest philanthropists—as well as his setbacks and personal tragedies during the seven-decade story.
For anyone studying business, building a business, or running a business, Bill’s journey also offers keen insights, cautionary observations, and the pioneering thinking that produced great prosperity and a multibillion-dollar enterprise. For everyone else, it offers a new and engrossing twist on the classic American success story.
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On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News
Tuesday, November 20
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
In the 1960s and 1970s, the American press embraced a new way of reporting and selling the news. The causes were many: the proliferation of television, pressure to rectify the news media’s dismal treatment of minorities and women, accusations of bias from left and right, and the migration of affluent subscribers to suburbs. As Pressman’s timely history reveals, during these tumultuous decades the core values that held the profession together broke apart, and the distinctive characteristics of contemporary American journalism emerged.
About the Author
Matthew Pressman worked for eight years at Vanity Fair, where his articles about the news media won the 2010 Mirror Award for Best Commentary (digital media). He has also written for The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Time. At Seton Hall University, where he is Assistant Professor of Journalism, he teaches writing for the media, the history of American journalism, and a course known informally as World War 2.0, in which students report on the Second World War as if it were happening today.
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Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
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