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
----------------------------------------------------------
*******************************************
Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
******
———
Index
———
******
——————————
Monday, January 21
——————————
edX Course: MIT D-Lab’s Lean Research Skills for Conducting Interviews
Harvardx Course: The Health Effects of Climate Change
9am Climate Change
2pm Make MLK Day a Day of Service for Those in Need in the Cambridge Community and Beyond
——————————
Tuesday, January 22
——————————
9am Data Science at the Frontier of Discovery: Machine Learning in the Physical World
12pm National Day of Racial Healing Live Facebook Chat
1pm The MIT Fusion Landscape
7pm Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships
—————————————————————
Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
—————————————————————
ComputeFest 2019 | Deep Learning Workshops
————————————
Wednesday, January 23
————————————
7:30am EBC Sixth Annual Offshore Wind Conference – Featuring Scope of Deepwater Wind, Vineyard Wind and Orsted Bay State Projects
9am Put A Price On It Massachusetts Youth Lobby Day
9:30am Mindful UX: Another Look at What Makes Us Swipe Right & The Implications of Mindful UX Design
10:30am The Minerva Model
12:30pm How Governments Mobilize Domestic Finance for Clean Energy Innovation: A Comparison Study between China and Germany
1:30pm Active Shooter / Armed Intruder Training
3pm Everyone’s favorite mistakes: Why do rational minds, so rigorous in their work, seem to abandon all logic in the rest of their lives?
4pm The Glamorous Life: Socialite-Activists and the Black Freedom Struggle from World War II to the Age of Obama
6pm Measuring and Mimicking Biology: Eyes, Noses, Genes and Proteins: A Presentation by Dr. David R. Walt
6pm Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy
6:30pm Why the Earth Needs Its Oceans
7pm Mass Power Forward Lobby Day Prep Webinar
7pm Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives
7pm Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler
7pm Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
7pm Aging and Activism: Madeleine Kunin and John Leland in Conversation
7pm Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age: From smartphones to AI
7pm INEQUALITY AND OUR WELL-BEING: Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
—————————————————————
Thursday, January 24 -Saturday, January 26
—————————————————————
Inequality, Religion, and Society: John Rawls and After
———————————
Thursday, January 24
———————————
7:45am Mapping and Treating Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Using the Human Brain Connectome
12pm Finding your way: The science of success
12pm Strangers in the night: Has light pollution led to firefly declines?
12pm Talks@12-Healing Global Warming
12:15pm Borrowed Power: Financial Origins of Grand Strategy
1pm You Spoke, We Listened: A Detailed Dive into the Themes Derived from the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan's Listening Sessions, Surveys, and Consumer Interviews
5:30pm Responses to climate change in Boston’s neighborhoods
6pm Urban Gardening: A Talk With Lindsay Allen
6pm The Future of Cannabis: Panel Discussion & Networking Event
7pm Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont
7pm Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married
7pm Catastrophe in Yemen: Resisting US Imperialism and Raytheon's War
Profiteering
7:30pm A Woman's Place, Panel discussion at the Huntington Theatre Company after the performance of "A Doll's House, Part 2”
———————————————————
Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27
———————————————————
Bad Ideas Weekend
—————————
Friday, January 25
—————————
8:30am The Architecture of Health
11:30am EBC Climate Change Program: Briefing on COP24 in Poland
12pm Integration of Earth Observation data, modelling tools and advanced global cyber-infrastructures to support environmental policy
12pm Lecture & Lunch: Building a Livable City: Infrastructure for all
4pm Light for Health
7pm The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
—————————————————————
Saturday, January 26 - Sunday, January 27
—————————————————————
Hack for Fusion: A Machine Learning Hackathon at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center
———————————
Saturday, January 26
———————————
11am Fixit Clinic
——————————
Sunday, January 27
——————————
3pm Be the Change Community Action: Transition House
6pm Agroecology with Florence Reed: Low-Hanging Fruit for Climate and Biodiversity
——————————
Monday, January 28
——————————
5pm An Energy Plan the Earth Can Live With? A Lecture with Daniel Kammen
5:45pm A Revolutionary Harbor: Lecture with author Eric Jay Dolin
——————————
Tuesday, January 29
——————————
12pm Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Planning and Paying for Tomorrow’s Transportation
12pm Biological Gods: UFOs, Science (Fiction), and Some Emergent Mythologies
3pm Symposium: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan
4pm Screening of "Jizo and Libido" (Japanese with English subtitles, 62min)
5:30pm Andrey Makarychev: Russia and the EU: Spaces of Interaction in Times of Crisis
6pm Mark Leibovich on the Political Culture and the NFL
6pm Boston Green Drinks
7pm The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind
*******************************************
My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
Zero Net Energy - January 13, 2019
James Baldwin: Collected Essays
*******************************************
——————————
Monday, January 21
——————————
edX Course: MIT D-Lab’s Lean Research Skills for Conducting Interviews
Monday, January 21
Lean Research Skills for Conducting Interviews is MIT D-Lab's first online course with the edX platform and back by popular demand! Instructors: Elizabeth Hoffecker (MIT D-Lab) & Zoe Dibb (Girl Effect). Seven-week course - starts January 21. Find out more
Who should take the course
Academics, students, and professionals preparing to conduct interviews who want to strengthen their social science research skills
Anyone working on a thesis, business plan, etc., that involves gathering information directly from people.
What you'll learn
The steps and the skills needed to conduct quality interviews
How to apply the Lean Research principles to the interviewing process
How to identify and correct problematic interviewing techniques and behaviors
Strategies for dealing with challenging interviewing situations
How to design, prepare for, implement, analyze, and document interviews
More about Lean Research Skills for Conducting Interviews
Interviews are one of the most common and powerful field research methods, used across a wide variety of disciplines and topics. Whether conducting a research study, an evaluation of an existing product or service, or gathering insights for a business plan, or a design process, interviews are often the method of choice for gaining insights directly from people. The quality of that information, however, depends to a large degree on the skill of the interviewer.
This course introduces effective techniques for conducting interviews and is designed to help you develop and strengthen your skills as an interviewer. It does not assume any existing experience conducting interviews, but will quickly take you past the basics and into best practices that incorporate the Lean Research principles of rigor, relevance, respect, and right-size. The course focuses specifically on conducting interviews in “the field” - contexts in which we may be in an unfamiliar setting or culture, such as when traveling abroad or conducting research in a place we haven’t been before.
Developed by MIT D-Lab in collaboration with Girl Effect and featuring examples of Lean Research Interview Skills used by Girl Effect TEGAs (Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors)!
—————————————
Harvardx Course: The Health Effects of Climate Change
Open January 2 – June 3, 2019
Free
Have you wanted to learn more about how climate change impacts our health, but haven't had the time? Are you a journalist, researcher or health professional looking to better explain how health is impacted in different parts of the country? Then we encourage you to take this course, which you can do on your own time and at your own pace.
What you'll learn
Climate change’s impacts on nutrition, migration, and infectious diseases
The research methods used in this field
Strategies to mitigate and adapt to the health impacts of climate change
How changes in Earth’s atmosphere affect health outcomes
How to assess the various ways of addressing the health effects of global warming
About this Course
Our world’s climate is changing. Of the top twenty hottest years ever recorded, sixteen have occurred in the last two decades. This warming has already had a profound effect. Many feel powerless in the face of this challenge, but you can make a difference.
By looking at air quality, nutrition, infectious diseases, and human migration, this course will show you how increases in greenhouse gases impact public health. Experts working in a variety of settings will present their recommendations for responding to these challenges, and interested students will have the opportunity to learn about the research methods that measure the health effects of climate change.
Created by C-CHANGE Co-Director Aaron Bernstein and the Harvard Global Health Institute, this course will explain how climate change impacts people around the globe, and also how it directly affects you and your life. Though your risk rises with the rising global temperatures, climate change is a solvable problem, and there are things you can do to mitigate that risk.
This course is not an elegy for the planet, but a call to action. Enroll now to learn what you can do to reduce the harm caused by global warming.
—————————————
Climate Change
WHEN Monday, Jan. 21, 2019, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (ongoing)
WHERE Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Exhibitions, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Museum of Natural History
This exhibit was made possible with generous financial support from Clark Bernard MBA ’68 and Susana Bernard, together with support from Jonathan Goldstein MBA ’90, and Kaia, Annika, and Skylar Goldstein in honor of Professor James J. McCarthy and Sue McCarthy.
COST Standard museum admission
CONTACT INFO 617-495-3045
DETAILS New exhibition experience: Ongoing and open Monday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History has just opened an important new exhibit on climate change that draws on the latest science about our warming climate, the global, and local consequences, and what we can do to prepare for its effects. This multimedia exhibit includes engaging video and storm simulations, a “check your knowledge” interactive station, and a dramatic inside look at a high-tech Argo float from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — one of 4,000 deployed worldwide to monitor global oceans and climate. Developed in collaboration with the Harvard University Center for the Environment, Climate Change offers visitors the hard facts about one of the world’s greatest challenges.
———————————————
Make MLK Day a Day of Service for Those in Need in the Cambridge Community and Beyond
Monday, January 21
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
CIty Hall, Senior Center, YWCA, Possible Project and St. Peter's Church, Central Square, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/martin-luther-king-jr-cambridge-day-of-service-2019-tickets-50969881287
The 9th Annual Cambridge Day of Service organized by Many Helping Hands 365 to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event is FREE and open to the public. Doors to all the locations will open at 2pm! There will be no Welcome Gathering due to the inclement weather.
All ages are welcome to help with projects that benefit children, teens and adults in need. Join us for an afternoon of hands-on service projects! Make fleece scarves and blankets for homeless children and adults. Make Valentines for elders and veterans. Sort food, winter clothing, books and toiletries for people in need and more!
Come spend an afternoon making a difference in the lives of others.
Don’t come empty handed! Please bring a can of food to help stock our city food pantries, gently used winter clothing to donate or a children’s book for someone in need.
We need everyone’s helping hands!
Many people. Many needs. Many Helping Hands.
——————————
Tuesday, January 22
——————————
Data Science at the Frontier of Discovery: Machine Learning in the Physical World
Tuesday, January 22
9AM-5PM
Harvard, Science Center Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
From hydrology to earthquake prediction to cosmology, machine learning is transforming our understanding of the physical world. This year's symposium will bring together global leaders in machine learning and computational science to discuss new approaches and advances in scientific understanding enabled by significant developments in computational power, design, and analysis.
Confirmed Speakers:
Michael Brenner, Harvard University
Cora Dvorkin, Harvard University
Weinan E., Princeton University
Eun-ah Kim, Cornell University
Petros Koumoutsakos, ETH Zurich
Sella Nevo, Google Flood Forecasting Initiative
Patrick Riley, Google Accelerated Science
——————————————
National Day of Racial Healing Live Facebook Chat
Tuesday, January 22
12pm
With Edgar Villanueva and Marianna Islam, who are members of the Schott Foundation advocacy and programs team
——————————————
The MIT Fusion Landscape
Tuesday, January 22
1:00pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Mitigating global climate change demands new sources of zero-carbon energy on the grid as soon as possible. Fusion energy is the solution. Historically, fusion has been seen as too big, too expensive, and too slow. We are now at a tipping point: recent advances in materials, funding models, and a new generation of scientist and engineers, have come together to ensure fusion energy on the shortest credible timeline ever proposed. MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center is partnering with a private fusion startup, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which will allow us to demonstrate net fusion energy through a device called SPARC, and then take it through to commercialization. Our aspiration is to take energy from scarcity to abundance in time to arrest climate change, improving the lives of every living thing on the planet, achieving “unlimited energy, for everyone forever”.
In a series of lightning talks seven experts will discuss the current MIT Fusion Landscape. Topics will range from engineering and scientific underpinnings to finance, entrepreneurship and social impact. Join us to learn about MIT’s smarter, sooner path to fusion energy.
Speakers
Rein Beeuwkes Harvard University, MIT alumnus
Dan Brunner CTO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Kerry Emanuel Cecil and Ida Green Professor, Earth Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
Andrew Lo Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, MIT Sloan
Robert Mumgaard CEO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Katie Rae CEO and Managing Partner, The Engine
Anne White Associate Professor, Nuclear Science and Engineering
Chair
Dennis Whyte Director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center
——————————————
Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships
Tuesday, January 22
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes psychologist, professor, and UMass Medical School chief diversity officer DEBORAH L. PLUMMER for a discussion of her latest book, Some of My Friends Are . . . The Daunting Challenges and Untapped Benefits of Cross-Racial Friendships.
About Some of My Friends Are . . .
Surveys have shown that the majority of people believe cross-racial friendships are essential for improving race relations. However, further polling reveals that most Americans tend to gravitate toward friendships within their own race. Psychologist Deborah L. Plummer examines how factors such as leisure, politics, humor, faith, social media, and education influence the nature and intensity of cross-racial friendships.
Inspiring and engaging, Plummer draws from focus groups, statistics, and surveys to provide insight into the fears and discomforts associated with cross-racial friendships. Through personal narratives and social analyses of friendship patterns, this book gives an insightful look at how cross-racial friendships work and fail within American society. Plummer encourages all of us to examine our friendship patterns and to deepen and strengthen our current cross-racial friendships.
—————————————————————
Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
—————————————————————
ComputeFest 2019 | Deep Learning Workshops
WHEN Wednesday, January 23 – Friday, January 25
WHERE Harvard SEAS Campus Northwest B-103, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute for Applied Computational Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
COST Open to the public. Registration required.
CONTACT INFO iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu
617-496-2623
DETAILS Learn computational skills in a hands-on format with IACS student-led workshops and industry presenters. Topics will include: Computer Vision with NVIDIA, Using Google's What-If Tool, AI Fairness 360 with IBM Research AI, and NLP with Microsoft Azure.
————————————
Wednesday, January 23
————————————
EBC Sixth Annual Offshore Wind Conference – Featuring Scope of Deepwater Wind, Vineyard Wind and Orsted Bay State Projects
Wednesday, January 23
7:30 am – 12:30 pm
WilmerHale, 60 State Street, 26th Floor, Boston
Cost: $50 - $185
Massachusetts has awarded Vineyard Wind a 20 year power contract for 800 MW of offshore wind (OSW) south of Nantucket. Rhode Island and New York have awarded Deepwater Wind/Ørsted another 290 MW between Martha’s Vineyard and the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded three more leases south of Nantucket on December 13, 2018. Come hear OSW Developers and Stakeholders discuss how OSW can expand while addressing concerns of stakeholders who share the sea, including commercial fishermen, Native Americans, and endangered whales, birds and sea turtles.
Program Chair: Michael Ernst, Executive Advisor, Power Advisory LLC
Speaker Agenda:
Speakers
James Bennett, Chief, Renewable Energy, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Rachel Pachter, Vice President of Permitting Affairs, Vineyard Wind
Additional speakers to be announced.
Stakeholders Panel – Perspectives on Fishing, Environmental, Workforce and Supply Chain Issues
Moderator: Michael Ernst, Executive Advisor, Power Advisory, LLC
———————————————
Put A Price On It Massachusetts Youth Lobby Day
Wednesday, January 23
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street, Boston
Join Our Climate for our Massachusetts Youth Lobby Day. Students from all over the state of MA will throng the statehouse to meet with their representatives and ask them to pass equitable, science-based climate policy.
The Lobby Day occurs at a critical moment early in the session, when representatives still have the chance to demonstrate their support for important bills. Help us get representatives to cosign Rep. Benson’s upcoming carbon pricing bill, which will steer the economy clear of polluting fossil fuels while financially protecting vulnerable communities.
Interested in participating? Click that you’re going and then RSVP using the form linked below so that we can help you make the most of your advocacy. Any questions? Email the New England Coordinator at eben@ourclimate.us
———————————————
Mindful UX: Another Look at What Makes Us Swipe Right & The Implications of Mindful UX Design
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Lamont Library (B30), 11 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR User Research Center
SPEAKER(S) Christelle Ngnoumen, M.A.
Maya Tateyama
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://libcal.library.harvard.edu/event/4857434
DETAILS In this one-day workshop, sponsored by the User Research Center, we will discuss examples of how principles of behavioral economics have been applied to design across a variety of products and industries. We will review examples of good and bad (i.e., addictive) UX design. As a group, we will explore and discuss ways mindfulness theory can be integrated in the design of products to allow users greater control of their experiences. Students will be given a rare opportunity to engage in collaborative UX design thinking and research! Open to all members of the Harvard community.
Free lunch will be provided. Please RSVP.
Editorial Comment: May be Harvard only, but you can always ask.
———————————————
The Minerva Model
Wednesday, January 23
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
MIT, Building 3-270, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Dr. Kara Gardner, Associate Dean of Faculty Development at Minerva on "The Minerva Model", an active seminar discussion on Minerva’s innovative educational model and how they are training leaders and innovators for a global future.
This active seminar discussion will introduce participants to Minerva’s educational model, including the technology we use to facilitate our classes, the Forum platform. Our goal at Minerva is to take students with the highest potential and train them to become leaders, innovators, broad thinkers, and global citizens. To that end, we have designed a curriculum focused on “great cognitive tools,” rather than “great books.” In the 21 st century, students need more than just an introduction to content at the university level – they need tools to help them process and make use of information. The Minerva curriculum provides students with habits of mind and foundational concepts organized into four core competencies: critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. All students learn these habits and concepts during our first-year cornerstone courses, and they continue to be measured on their use and mastery of the HCs throughout their four years of study. They apply these skills and concepts inside and outside of the classroom as they travel in cohorts, living in up to six cities around the globe. Our goal is for students to graduate with a skills they can apply in a variety of professional contexts, and tools that will help them solve an array of difficult problems.
———————————————
How Governments Mobilize Domestic Finance for Clean Energy Innovation: A Comparison Study between China and Germany
Wednesday January 23, 2019
12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Tufts, The Fletcher School, Goddard 310 (Crowe), 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Fang Zhang, Predoctoral Fellow, The Fletcher School
Both Germany and China have been leading renewable energy development in the last few decades. What’s interesting is that, though the two countries have used similar policy frameworks, including feed-in-tariffs and big national development banks to direct financiers to support renewables, they end up with two contrasting financial ecosystems around renewables. Germany has a highly decentralized and diversified approach to funding renewables where relatively small actors rise to become major forces. Whereas China has formed a centralized and homogeneous approach where the large actors dominate. This research will try to shed light on how governments shape who finances what in renewable energy innovation, and why it matters.
Fang Zhang is a doctoral candidate at The Fletcher School at Tufts. She was a visiting scholar with the Center for Environmental Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley from September 2011 to August 2012 and a pre-doctoral researcher in CIERP's Energy, Climate, and Innovation program through June 2014. She received her doctoral degree from the School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University in China in 2016 and she is working on her second Ph.D. at The Fletcher School now. Her research topics include innovation finance, renewable energy innovation, and technology transfer.
———————————————
Active Shooter / Armed Intruder Training
Wednesday, January 23
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street Cambridge
This interactive session, conducted by Emergency Management and MIT Police, will provide attendees with information on recognizing and surviving an active shooter/violent intruder incident. Attendees will learn about: how to report incidents; MIT Alert; phases of an attacker; preventative measures; police tactics; and personal response (the "Run, Hide, Fight" model).
———————————————
Everyone’s favorite mistakes: Why do rational minds, so rigorous in their work, seem to abandon all logic in the rest of their lives?
Wednesday, January 23
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Harvard, Jefferson 250, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jean-luc Doumont is known worldwide for his lectures and workshops focused on scientific and technical communication. He is acclaimed for his no-nonsense approach, his highly applicable, often life-changing recommendations, and "Trees, maps, and theorems", his book about “effective communication for rational minds”. [Visit his website]
Speaker Bio: Jean-luc Doumont runs conceptual discussions in plenary class meetings. An articulate, entertaining, and thought-provoking speaker, he successfully reaches a wide range of audiences worldwide, as a trainer or an invited speaker at companies, top-ranked universities, research laboratories, and major conferences. He is an engineer from the Louvain School of Engineering and holds a PhD in applied physics from Stanford University.
Dr Doumont is a popular speaker on US campuses. Those where he has been invited, indicated here, comprise 24 of the top 25 graduate engineering schools in the US (according to the 2017 ranking by US News & World Report) and at the same time 17 of the top 25 world universities (according to the 2017 study by Shanghai Jiao Tong University).
Host: SEAS Graduate Council and SEAS Academic Office
Contact: Tobias Egle
Email: egle@g.harvard.edu
————————————————
The Glamorous Life: Socialite-Activists and the Black Freedom Struggle from World War II to the Age of Obama
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Knafel Center, 18 Mason Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Tanisha C. Ford, 2018–2019 Lisa Goldberg Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, University of Delaware
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS As a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Tanisha Ford is working on the first economic history of the civil rights movement to explore how black women activists raised millions of dollars for movement organizations by hosting lavish galas, fashion shows, and beauty pageants for an interracial audience. Using glamour as a framework, she will reveal how their fundraising strategies have shaped much of the modern taste and etiquette culture and, ultimately, helped to elect the first black U.S. president.
———————————————
Measuring and Mimicking Biology: Eyes, Noses, Genes and Proteins: A Presentation by Dr. David R. Walt
Wednesday, January 23
6:00pm
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambrdige
We have taken inspiration from both the visual and olfactory systems to design sensor arrays that are inspired by the properties of the natural systems. Optical fiber arrays that mimic the structure of the compound eyes of insects are used to create sensing arrays based on principles of the mammalian olfactory system. Many design features of mammalian systems are incorporated into these array sensors and the resulting sensing behavior recapitulates the natural system. In addition, the architecture of the arrays has revolutionized the scale of both genomic and proteomic data that can be collected. Such capabilities are transforming health care, which Dr. David R. Walt, Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital will discuss.
Dr. David R. Walt is a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Previously, he was University Professor at Tufts University. Dr. Walt is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc., Quanterix Corp., and has co-founded several other life sciences startups including Ultivue, Inc., Arbor Biotechnologies and Sherlock Biosciences. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical microwell arrays and single molecules. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has published over 300 papers and holds nearly 100 patents.
Le Laboratoire Cambridge is hosting this special presentation featuring Wyss Core Faculty member Dr. David R Walt.
The doors open at 6pm, the talk starts at 6:30pm. Space is limited, please register at the link below.
Contact: info@lelaboratoirecambridge.com
———————————————
Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy
Wednesday, January 23
6-7:30pm
Suffolk University, Sargent Hall, Fifth Floor Commons, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
Shoshana Zuboff, PhD with Christopher Lydon
More information at https://sites.suffolk.edu/fordhallforum/2018/12/05/shoshana-zuboff-harvard-business-school-professor-emerita/
———————————————
Why the Earth Needs Its Oceans
Wednesday, January 23
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Amala Mahadevan, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Dr. Mahadevan discusses the crucial relationship between oceans and atmosphere, and how that partnership makes the Earth a life-sustaining planet. She describes how excess CO2, ocean warming and acidification all threaten that balance. The Mahadevan Lab at WHOI does biogeochemical research that helps to reveal one this most important system works.
————————————————
Mass Power Forward Lobby Day Prep Webinar
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM
Join the Mass Power Forward coalition to learn about the MPF Lobby Day on January 24 and how to best take action!
Time
————————————————
Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives
Wednesday, January 23
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Through her evocative intertwined histories of the penitentiary and the monastery, Jane Brox illuminates the many ways silence is far more complex than any absolute; how it has influenced ideas of the self, soul, and society. Brox traces its place as a transformative power in the monastic world from Medieval Europe to the very public life of twentieth century monk Thomas Merton, whose love for silence deepened even as he faced his obligation to speak out against war. This fascinating history of ideas also explores the influence the monastic cell had on one of society’s darkest experiments in silence: Eastern State Penitentiary. Conceived of by one of the Founding Fathers and built on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the penitentiary’s early promulgators imagined redemption in imposed isolation, but they badly misapprehended silence’s dangers.
Finally, Brox’s rich exploration of silence’s complex and competing meanings leads us to imagine how we might navigate our own relationship with silence today, for the transformation it has always promised, in our own lives.
Jane Brox is the author of Brilliant, Clearing Land, Five Thousand Days Like This One, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Here and Nowhere Else, which received the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She lives in Maine.
———————————————
Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes veteran reporter PETER SHINKLE for a discussion of his new book, Ike's Mystery Man: The Secret Lives of Robert Cutler.
About Ike's Mystery Man
President Eisenhower's National Security Advisor Robert "Bobby" Cutler shaped US Cold War strategy in far more consequential ways than previously understood. A lifelong Republican, Cutler also served three Democratic presidents. The life of any party, he was a tight-lipped loyalist who worked behind the scenes to get things done. While Cutler's contributions to the public sphere may not have received, until now, the consideration they deserve, the story of his private life has never before been told.
Cutler struggled throughout his years in the White House to discover and embrace his own sexual identity and orientation, and he was in love with a man half his age, NSC staffer Skip Koons. Cutler poured his emotions into a six-volume diary and dozens of letters that have been hidden from history. Steve Benedict—who was White House security officer, Cutlers' friend, and Koons' friend and former lover—preserved Cutler's papers. All three men served Eisenhower at a time when anyone suspected of "sexual perversion", i.e. homosexuality, was banned from federal employment and vulnerable to security sweeps by the FBI.
——————————————
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Inheritance is a book about secrets–secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman’s urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years–years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in–a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.
DANI SHAPIRO is the author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion and five novels including Black & White and Family History. Also an essayist and a journalist, Shapiro’s short fiction, essays, and journalistic pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and many other publications. She has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, the New School, and Wesleyan University; she is cofounder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. She lives with her family in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
—————————————
Aging and Activism: Madeleine Kunin and John Leland in Conversation
Wednesday, January 23
7:00pm
Trident Bookscafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
join Vermont's first and only female governor, Madeleine Kunin, and celebrated New York Times reporter, John Leland, for a discussion on growing older, happier and more engaged in prevalent social issues. Both authors will read from their books on aging and discuss what it means to come into old age in America today, and how that personal transformation can make the world a better place.
About the Books:
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 topis 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. 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 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.
In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notion of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. Happiness is a Choice You Make is an enduring collection of lessons that emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. With humility, heart and wit, Leland has crafted a sophisticated and necessary reflection on how to "live better" -- informed by those who have mastered the art.
About the Authors:
Governor Madeleine Kunin has written three previous books: Living a Political Life, The New Feminist Agenda: Defining the Next Revolution for Women, Work, and Family, and Pearls Politics and Power. She has more energy than two 40-year-olds. She is currently James Marsh Professor-at-Large at teh 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.
John Leland is a reporter at The New York Times, where he wrote a yearlong series that became the basis for Happiness Is a Choice You Make, and the author of two previous books, Hip: The History and Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of "On the Road". Before joining the Times he was a senior editor at Newsweek, editor-in-chief of Details, a reporter at Newsday and a writer and editor at Spin magazine.
—————————————
Technology, Power, and Resistance in the New Gilded Age: From smartphones to AI
Wednesday, January 23
7:00-9:00pm
Hariri Inistitute for Computing Seminar Room, 3 Cummington Mall, Boston
Panelists:
Nicole Aschoff - Editor of Jacobin Magazine, author of "The New Prophets of Capital" (Verso 2015) and author of the forthcoming book "The Smartphone Society" (Beacon 2019) based on this article.
Yarden Katz- Systems Biology Fellow, Harvard Medical School, member of Berkman Center, and author of "Manufacturing the AI revolution"
Ben Tarnoff- Columnist for Guardian Newspaper, organizer with Tech Workers Coalition, founder and editor of Logic Magazine.
Sponsored by: Science for the People - Boston, Logic Magazine, Hariri Institute of Computing
—————————————
INEQUALITY AND OUR WELL-BEING: Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
Wednesday, January 23
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EST
First Church In Jamaica Plain, 6 Eliot Street, Boston
Globally recognized UK health leaders Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket will be speaking at the JP Forum about their new book, THE INNER LEVEL: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-Being.
In 2009, Wilkinson and Picket revolutionized our understanding of economic inequality with their globally-recognized book, THE SPIRIT LEVEL: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. They are coming to Jamaica Plain on their U.S. book tour for The Inner Level.
Brookline Booksmith will be present with copies of the new book to purchase during the book signing.
—————————————————————
Thursday, January 24 -Saturday, January 26
—————————————————————
Inequality, Religion, and Society: John Rawls and After
Thursday, January 24 -Saturday, January 26
Pre-Registration is required.
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Sponsored by: The Sekyra Foundation (Prague), the Center for Political Philosophy, Ethics and Religion (Charles University), and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, the Department of Government and the Department of Philosophy (Harvard University).
———————————
Thursday, January 24
———————————
Mapping and Treating Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Using the Human Brain Connectome
WHEN Thursday, January 24, 7:45 – 9:15 a.m.
WHERE Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Technology Assessment in Health Care Seminar Series
SPEAKER(S) Michael Fox, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director, Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
CONTACT INFO Debra Milamed
617-327-5612
DETAILS Harvard University Technology Assessment in Health Care Seminar Series.
Continental breakfast served
———————————————
Finding your way: The science of success
Thursday, January 24
12:00 p.m. ET
Webinar
Albert-László Barabási, Ph.D., Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Njeri Rionge, Independent entrepreneur, Toronto, Canada
Darren Griffin, Ph.D., University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Shruti Naik, Ph.D., NY University Langone Health, New York, NY
Moderated by Sean Sanders, Ph.D., Science/AAAS, Washington, DC
This webinar is brought to you by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office
Sponsored by Fondation IPSEN
What is success to you? For each of us, what it means to be successful in our work and our personal lives might be very different. Where do we develop our concept of success, and how is it influenced by our environment and culture? How do we measure our success, both internally and relative to others? Do we value money, inner peace, or a Nobel Prize? Do we fear failure? And what price are we willing to pay to be successful? Are we prepared to exchange greater success at work for less time with family?
In this webinar we will address these questions with our expert panel, all of whom have experienced success, at least according to some measures. We will hear their personal stories about wins and losses, struggles and breakthroughs. They will help us examine our own thinking about what success means and what we might consider sacrificing or risking to reach our goals. We will also delve into what scientific research tells us about our desire for success and how satisfied we are when we achieve it. Join us for a fascinating discussion of both the science and the psychology behind success.
This webinar will last for approximately 60 minutes.
Speaker bios
Albert-László Barabási, Ph.D., Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Dr. Barabási is the Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science and a University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he directs the Center for Complex Network Research. He also holds appointments in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Central European University in Budapest. A native of Transylvania, Romania, he received his Master’s in theoretical physics at EÅ¡tvÅ¡s University in Budapest, Hungary and his Ph.D. from Boston University. He is the author of Network Science (2016) and the coeditor of The Structure and Dynamics of Networks (2005) and Network Medicine (2017). His latest book, The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success, was published in 2018. His work has led to many breakthroughs, including the discovery of scale-free networks, which continues to make him one of the most cited scientists. Dr. Barabási is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His many awards and recognitions include the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) Anniversary Prize for Systems Biology (2005), the John von Neumann Medal for outstanding achievements in computer science and technology (2006), the C&C Prize from the NEC Foundation (2008), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Cozzarelli Prize (2009), the Lagrange Prize for his contributions to complex systems (2011), the Prima Primissima Award for his contributions to science (2014), and the Senior Scientific Award of the Complex Systems Society (2017). He was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Romanian Academy, Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences, and has received honorary doctorates from Universidad PolitŽcnica de Madrid, the West University of Timisoara, and Utrecht University.
Njeri Rionge, Independent entrepreneur, Toronto, Canada
Ms. Rionge is one of East Africa’s most successful serial entrepreneurs, as described by Forbes. She is a director and board secretary of the Corktown Residents and Business Association, a Northern Secondary School Council member and Co-Secretary, was Co-Chair for Elevate Tech 2018 Toronto, and has been a speaker at several events globally, including attending the 2015 Oscars for the Dare Greatly advertising campaign by Cadillac. She has also held board positions with Unilever Tea (Brooke Bond Kenya), the Institute of Directors (Kenya), the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA), and Ambulance Air Rescue (AAR) Holdings, as well as Wananchi Nominees Limited and Wananchi Online Ltd. (now the Wananchi Group). She is a current advisory committee member of Sport at the Service of Humanity at the Vatican. Ms. Rionge is one of the few female pioneers in the information and communications technology sector on the African continent. She co-founded Internet service provider Wananchi Online, now Wananchi Group Holdings—one of East Africa’s leading providers of pay-TV, broadband Internet, and VoIP services. She is currently raising capital for an African fund, a private-equity, closed-ended fund domiciled in the Cayman Islands. She commutes between her Toronto and Nairobi offices to play a pivotal role in making the changes we want to see on the African continent.
Darren Griffin, Ph.D., University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Dr. Griffin is Professor of Genetics at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. He is director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Reproduction (www.kent.ac.uk/cisor) that has a mandate to encourage cross-disciplinary endeavors. As president of the International Chromosome and Genome Society, he promotes the interests of chromosome research and science communication worldwide. His personal research interests include the study of chromosome analysis, the genetics of early human development (including preimplantation genetic diagnosis), gametogenesis, and chromosome evolution (including an interest in dinosaur chromosomes). He has published over 200 scholarly manuscripts and raised over GBP 10 million in grant funding. He is a regular contributor to the national and local media, speaking on issues such as “designer babies,” personalized genomics, and how to be a successful academic scientist.
Shruti Naik, Ph.D., NY University Langone Health, New York, NY
Dr. Naik is an assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania–U.S. National Institutes of Health Graduate Partnership Program, then pursued her postdoctoral studies as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow at The Rockefeller University. She studies the dynamic interactions between immune cells, epithelial stem cells, and microbes. She is a strong advocate for increasing diversity in science and promoting the advancement of underrepresented and marginalized groups. For her research and advocacy, she has received numerous awards including the Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation, the L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Award, the Damon Runyon–Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists, the Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy (Finalist), the Tri-Institutional Breakout Award for Junior Investigators, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, and the Takeda Innovators in Science Award.
Sean Sanders, Ph.D., Science/AAAS, Washington, DC
Dr. Sanders did his undergraduate training at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, UK, supported by the Wellcome Trust. Following postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health and Georgetown University, Dr. Sanders joined TranXenoGen, a startup biotechnology company in Massachusetts working on avian transgenics. Pursuing his parallel passion for writing and editing, Dr. Sanders joined BioTechniques as an editor, before joining Science/AAAS in 2006. Currently Dr. Sanders is the Senior Editor for Custom Publishing for the journal Science and Program Director for Outreach.
———————————————
Strangers in the night: Has light pollution led to firefly declines?
Thursday, January 24
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford
Avalon Owens, Department of Biology, Tufts University
Why do fireflies flash? Because they want to be seen! But their unique bioluminescent courtship signals can be obscured by street lamps, house lights, and other sources of artificial light at night — and if we’re not careful, our lights might extinguish theirs forever. Learn more about the total impact of light pollution on firefly reproduction, and methods whereby fireflies, moths, and other essential members of the nocturnal ecosystem can continue to coexist with humans on this increasingly urbanized planet.
Avalon Owens is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at Tufts University, where she studies the impact of light pollution on North American fireflies. She obtained her B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard Unversity, and a Master’s in Entomology from National Taiwan University. In her spare time, she hosts a bilingual educational YouTube channel called INSECT[昆蟲島]ISLAND.
Editorial Comment:
I want
lightning bugs
back.
———————————————
Talks@12-Healing Global Warming
Thursday, January 24
12 – 1pm
Harvard School of Public Health, Armenise Amphitheater, 210 Longwood Avenue, Boston
What is the true impact of global warming on human health? HMS and its affiliated hospitals recently signed a joint commitment to extensively decarbonize throughout our local medical community and actively contribute to reversing some of the ill effects of climate change. Aaron Bernstein will discuss how reducing greenhouse gas emissions provides health benefits, improves patient care and is quickly becoming critical to the future of health care.
———————————————
Borrowed Power: Financial Origins of Grand Strategy
WHEN Thursday, January 24, 2019, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, One Brattle Square (Room 350), Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Daniel Z. Jacobs, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
DETAILS Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come, first served basis.
————————————————
You Spoke, We Listened: A Detailed Dive into the Themes Derived from the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan's Listening Sessions, Surveys, and Consumer Interviews
Thursday, January 24
1:00-230PM EST
Webinar
Join us for an engaging review and online discussion of all the information we gathered during summer 2018 for the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan. The webinar will provide a comprehensive description of the Food is Medicine landscape in Massachusetts. If you want to learn about the data behind our upcoming policy recommendations and action plan, then this discussion is for you.
While many of you attended our Food is Medicine Symposium in October, this webinar will include new and more detailed information. If you weren't able to attend the Symposium, then this will provide an excellent opportunity to learn about our findings and next steps.
————————————————
Responses to climate change in Boston’s neighborhoods
Thursday, January 24
5:30 - 7:30 PM
The Yard, 120 Saint James Avenue, Boston
Reserve your space at https://tinyurl.com/NFBPAClimate
On Thursday, January 24, 2019 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at The Yard, 120 Saint James Ave. in Boston’s Back Bay, the Boston chapter of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators will host an event featuring David Corbie of Greenovate Boston (www.greenovateboston.org) and the Sustainable Solutions Lab at University of Massachusetts Boston (www.umb.edu/ssl) to learn how Boston neighborhoods are affected by important environmental issues, and how we can become environmental stewards.
Our urban environment is facing unprecedented challenges related to pollution, climate change and waste. These trends have direct impacts on our health and the well-being of our communities. The City of Boston, in collaboration with researchers, practitioners, advocates and youth, are working to understand the scope of the problem and innovative responses. Each of us has a role to play – but what can we do? What impact can we make? How will our daily lives be affected?
“Organizing for community action: Responses to climate change in Boston’s neighborhoods” will feature informative presentations, conversations and opportunities for each participant to become an environment leader in many different ways.
For questions, please contact president@nfbpaboston.org.
————————————————
Urban Gardening: A Talk With Lindsay Allen
Thursday, January 24
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Avenue, Somerville
We are thrilled to welcome Lindsay Allen, the Rooftop Farmer at BMC and Operations Director at Higher Ground Farm for a discussion of urban gardening. Attendees will learn about the history of urban gardening, food justice, and innovative ways to grow food at your home!
This is the first event in our Food for Thought Community Gardening and Cooking Initiative!The initiative will continue with the installation of a teaching garden at the Central Library in the spring of 2019.
Additional events will include hands-on educational workshops, as well as the addition of several gardening kits to the library’s circulating collection. Participants of all ages will acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to create and maintain gardens in an urban environment and learn techniques for cooking and preserving fresh produce. All programs are free and open to the public.
Food for Thought is funded in large part by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.
Please contact Lilly Sundell-Thomas at (617) 623-5000 x2961 or lsundell-thomas@minlib.net for more information.
————————————————
The Future of Cannabis: Panel Discussion & Networking Event
Thursday, January 24
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
CIC Boston, 50 Milk, Lighthouse, 20th floor, Boston
If you weren't convinced that we are in the early stages of a cannabis boom unlike any other in history, then consider these stats:
In 2017, sales of medical and recreational cannabis in the U.S. were nearly nine times higher than Oreo cookies.
The Cannabis industry is on track to add as many as 340,000 full-time jobs by 2022.
In 2018, the marijuana industry created an estimated $28B-$34B in economic impact.
Total demand for marijuana in the U.S., including the black market, is around $52.5 billion.
At Branchfood we've seen plenty of new products making their way into the home. Cannabis is quickly advancing in both medicinal and leisure markets and some experts predict cannabis will develop into a craft industry similar to microbreweries and craft distilleries. Many options for infused food, drink, and personal care products made with cannabis derivatives like CBD and hemp are just the beginning. With so much innovation underway, 2019 will surely be the biggest year yet for industry development and maturation.
In continuation of our ongoing Future of Food panel series, we'll bring together leading industry experts for a discussion and networking event on the future of cannabis to understand the past, present, and future of the industry. Join us for this event and brush up on the latest on this fast-moving sector.
About the panelists
Charles Finnie, Chief Strategy Officer at Marimed Advisors
Charles Finnie leads corporate strategy, M&A, and investments at MariMed Advisors. MariMed designs, develops, finances, and optimizes the success of licensed medical cannabis cultivation, production, and dispensary facilities through its validated management. MariMed's team has developed or is in the process of developing state-of-the art regulatory-compliant facilities in Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. MariMed's facilities are models of excellence in horticultural principals, marijuana production, product development, and dispensary operations. In addition, MariMed is on the forefront of precision dosed branded products for the treatment of specific medical symptoms. Prior to his work at MariMed, Mr. Finnie was Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners, covering consumer health and wellness, specifically focusing on cannabis. He was Wall Street’s only research analyst focused solely on cannabis where he researched every major cannabis company in North America and was involved in launching some of the industry’s biggest players. He has over 25 years’ experience as an analyst and investor in emerging technology and energy companies.
Katrina Yolen, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Curaleaf
Katrina leads all marketing initiatives for Curaleaf. Curaleaf, Inc. is the largest multi-state operator in the fast-growing U.S. cannabis industry. Vertically integrated in 10 states, Curaleaf is rapidly expanding across the U.S. in states wherecannabis is legal. With over 25 dispensaries, Curaleaf operates the largest branded retail network and dispenses its own brand of Curaleaf premium medical cannabis products. Curaleaf medical cannabis is known for quality, safety and innovation, and is available in multiple productformats to meet a variety of consumer needs. Curaleaf is an industry leader in cultivation,processing, product development, and advocacy. Katrina is a seasoned marketing executive with over 20 years of experience working in mid-sized and large consumer packaged goods companies, as well as in startups. Prior to Curaleaf, Ms. Yolen served as Vice President of Marketing at Dancing Deer Baking Co., Director of Marketing at Weetabix North America, and held senior marketing roles at GlaxoSmithKline and Kraft Foods.
Patrick Connolly, Partner at Foley Hoag
Patrick is a partner in Foley Hoag's Business Department. Attorneys in Foley Hoag’s cannabis practice have unique insight and experience to assist cannabis and cannabis-related operators and investors with all aspects of their business from corporate formation and transactions, employment matters, intellectual property matters including trademarks, banking and finance issues, FDA and FTC compliance, legislative issues, business and regulatory disputes, and real estate transactions. They have experience obtaining state licenses and local approvals. In addition, they have represented both buyers and sellers of cannabis businesses as well as investors. They also advise clients regarding industrial hemp and CBD products. Patrick maintains a diverse business practice, focused on advising entrepreneurs and emerging growth clients on early-stage business matters, angel and venture financing, commercial transactions and mergers and acquisitions. In addition to emerging growth company clients, Patrick has represented a variety of investors in venture capital transactions.
Schedule
Networking and Arrival at 6:00 pm
Panel Discussion bagins at 6:30 pm
Q&A Session begins at 7:30 pm
Event ends at 8:30 pm
————————————————
Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont
Thursday, January 24
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Yvonne Daley
Going Up the Country is part oral history, part nostalgia-tinged narrative, and part clear-eyed analysis of the multifaceted phenomena collectively referred to as the counterculture movement in Vermont. This is the story of how young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment of the 1950s and moved to the backwoods of rural Vermont, spawning a revolution in lifestyle, politics, sexuality, and business practices that would have a profound impact on both the state and the nation. The movement brought hippies, back-to-the-landers, political radicals, sexual libertines, and utopians to a previously conservative state and led us to today's farm to table way of life, environmental consciousness, and progressive politics as championed by Bernie Sanders.
Yvonne Daley is the author of five previous books and director of the Green Mountain Writers Conference.
————————————
Duped: Double Lives, False Identities, and the Con Man I Almost Married
Thursday, January 24
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Abby Ellin was shocked to learn that her fiancé was leading a secret life. But as she soon discovered, double lives are everywhere.
In Duped, Ellin plunges headlong into the world of double lives. Studying the art and science of lying, talking to women who’ve had their worlds upended by men who weren’t who they professed to be, and writing with great openness about her own mistakes, she lays the phenomenon bare. These remarkable–yet surprisingly common–stories reveal just how strange and improbable our everyday lives really are.
Abby Ellin is an award-winning journalist and the author of Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In On Living Large, Losing Weight and How Parents Can (and Can’t) Help. For five years she wrote the “Preludes” column about young people and money for the Sunday Money and Business section of the New York Times. She is also a regular contributor to the Health, Style, Business and Education sections of the New York Times. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, New York, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and many others.
Editorial Comment: My notes on The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It... Every Time by Maria Konnikova
——————————————
Catastrophe in Yemen: Resisting US Imperialism and Raytheon's War
Profiteering
Thursday, January 24
7-9pm
First Church in Boston Unitarian Universalist, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston
Speakers include:
Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi - Michigan State University Professor who lived through two civil wars in Yemen
Beth Huang - Co-chairperson of Boston DSA
Chance Charley - BU Student Activist
Sponsored by: Mass Peace Action - Next Gen, Coalition to Stop the Genocide
in Yemen, Boston DSA
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/events/297886380867441/
——————————————
A Woman's Place, Panel discussion at the Huntington Theatre Company after the performance of "A Doll's House, Part 2"
Thursday, January 24
7:30pm
Huntington Avenue Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Use code: PANEL for $49 orchestra tickets
Tickets are just $30 for everyone 35 or under
Join us on January 24 for a special panel discussion following the 7:30pm performance of A Doll's House, Part 2. The panel will feature Tania Del Rio, Executive Director for the Mayor's Office of Women's Advancement and Elisa van Dam, Senior Director of the Simmons University School of Business's Executive Education program.
Who's that knocking at the door? 15 years after slamming the door on her marriage, leaving her husband and children behind, Nora's come home. Now a successful yet scandalous writer, she's being blackmailed by a judge, and she needs her not-quite-ex-husband's help. Not so fast, Nora. Your family has a few grievances they want to air! Inspired by Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking 1879 classic A Doll's House, Lucas Hnath's Tony Award-nominated Broadway hit is a smart new comedy that raises fascinating questions about marriage and the ways the roles of women have - and haven't - changed. Don't miss your chance to see the most produced, most talked about play in America.
———————————————————
Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27
———————————————————
Bad Ideas Weekend
Friday, January 25 - Sunday, January 27
The epicenter of Bad Ideas is the East Campus courtyard, but Bad Ideas and Bad Ideas events can take place anywhere around campus.
Have you always wanted to design and build, but have been frustrated by silly requirements and "good engineering practice?" Well, fret no more and come to the 2019 Bad Ideas festival, where your ideas can really take wing and crash straight to the ground. The weekend will also be packed with numerous smaller events, so come by any time, grab some free food, and join us in a celebration of bad ideas. No skills required, tools and materials provided. Alumni and all members of the MIT community are expressly invited.
Sponsored by East Campus, LEF, and DormCon.
—————————
Friday, January 25
—————————
The Architecture of Health
Friday, January 25
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Optum, 1325 Boylston Street, Boston
Cost: $0 – $15
Design Museum Mornings with Diana Anderson, MD, M.Arch, healthcare architect and a board-certified internist
Can architecture impact health? Increasingly, clinicians are asking not only for the architect’s perspective, but to develop a skill-set and knowledge-base that will allow them to help shape the future of health. Architects aim to engage clinical professionals within research, education and practice. For some patients, design can succeed where drugs may fail. For clinicians, the built environment can support and improve efficient care delivery. We all have a shared goal in seeking to enhance health outcomes through innovations in the design of healthcare spaces.
Join us in January for Design Museum Mornings at Optum for breakfast and learn more about designing better health facilities for mental and physical health.
Doors open at 8:30am; Presentation begins at 9:00am.
Design Museum Mornings is a monthly event series brought to you by Design Museum Boston. These events are meant to inspire you before your day begins and bring you closer to the Design Museum Boston community. Each event will include a short presentation by a local thought-leader, free breakfast, and great people to wake up with. These events are hosted and sponsored by various generous businesses of the Greater Boston area. If you are interested in hosting one of these events, please check out our host page here for more information.
——————————————
EBC Climate Change Program: Briefing on COP24 in Poland
Friday, January 25
Registration: 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Program: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Brown Rudnick LLP, One Financial Center, Boston
Cost: $25
This EBC Climate Change program will provide a briefing on the December 2019 COP24 held in Katowice, Poland. Rachel Cleetus, Policy Director for Climate and Energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists will provide her first hand reflections on the discussions at the meeting and the eventual outcomes.
Time will provided for discussion with the audience.
About COP24:
The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference is the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), also known as the Katowice Climate Change Conference. It was held between December 2 and 15, 2018 in Katowice, Poland. The conference agreed on rules to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Speaker:
Rachel Cleetus, Ph.D., Policy Director, Climate and Energy program, Union of Concerned Scientists
——————————————
Integration of Earth Observation data, modelling tools and advanced global cyber-infrastructures to support environmental policy
Friday, January 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, Pierce 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Nicola Pirrone, CNR - Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, Rende, Italy
Earth Observation through in-situ and satellite observations is of fundamental importance for improving our understanding of dynamic mechanisms that are driving global changes and environmental policy development. Earth observation global priorities are primarily addressed to support the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. This requires advocating for and making available broad, open Earth observation data and information to support informed decisions and actions. With reference to the European context, recent political and technological revolutions must be leveraged to pursue such a demanding goal which include: (a) the Open Science and Open Data policy in Europe; (b) the European Single Digital Market strategy; (c); the Copernicus programme digital services; and (d) the Big Data cyber-infrastructure technologies. To support such a development, the European Union and European agencies (noticeably ESA) have launched important programs and initiatives, including: Copernicus DIAS (Data and Information Access Services), the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) cyber-infrastructure, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) and more recently, ERA-PLANET (The European Network for Observing our Changing Planet) and EuroGEOSS regional initiatives to contribute to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems). The European research program (Horizon2020) has been supporting these actions funding R&I projects to contribute to realize these infrastructures and services and/or to demonstrate their effectiveness in different Societal Benefit Areas. All these initiatives and programmes are facing common challenges dealing with Big Data and heterogeneous information access and interoperability as well as knowledge generation through Big Data analytics and processing. The aim of this seminar is to present major achievements of ERA-PLANET with a special emphasis on the integration of Earth Observation data, modelling tools and advanced global cyber-infrastructure for data sharing and interoperability to build the Minamata Knowledge Platform.
Contact: Kelvin Bates
Email: kelvin_bates@fas.harvard.edu
——————————————
Lecture & Lunch: Building a Livable City: Infrastructure for all
Friday, January 25
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Initiative on Cities, 75 Bay State Road, Boston
Boston University City Planning and Urban Affairs Program, Initiative on Cities, and Sustainability@BU invites you to attend an upcoming lecture and lunch, "Building a Livable City: Infrastructure for All," presented by Adriaan Kok, Senior Designer and Project Manager at ipv Delft creative engineers.
Mr. Kok is educated as an Industrial Design Engineer at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. For the last 18 years he has been involved in a wide variety of projects ranging from bridge design for all modes including moveable and fixed, designing urban elements from seats, waste collection systems, lighting systems, to a wayfinding system for small children, as well as Dutch National studies to find new ways to improve infrastructure in floodplains and writing Dutch regulations for the design of active transport bridges.
Currently, Mr. Kok is involved in several bridge design projects, the development of an underground waste-collection system, writing a design process guide for the Dutch National Highway and waterways authority to help develop more sustainable future-proof infrastructure, and the development of a bike path along the LA River.
Join us at the Initiative on Cities, 75 Bay State Road, on Friday, January 25 from 12:00 - 1:30 pm. Lunch will be provided beginning at 11:30 am.
——————————————
Light for Health
Friday, January 25
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
MIT, Building 46-3310, 43 Vassar Street, 3rd Floor, Picower Seminar Room, Cambridge
Light aids us in seeing, but the latest research development has shown that light is required not only for vision but is also very important for biological function. This field of science is known as non-visual pathway. Our research has been investigating two different wavelengths of light: one is blue and the other is violet. Blue light determines the circadian rhythm, mood, and memory through the melanopsin (OPN4) photoreceptor. Violet light controls the circadian rhythm of the eye and partially, the body. A significant recent study has demonstrated that violet light controls the size of the eyeball. We have termed this “violet light hypothesis for myopia control.” In this talk I will cover the general concepts of light for health and discuss the specific effects of blue and violet lights on human health.
——————————————
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
Friday, January 25
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes acclaimed author and Harvard Business School professor emerita SHOSHANA ZUBOFF—author of In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power—for a discussion of her latest book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.
About The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff's interdisciplinary breadth and depth enable her to come to grips with the social, political, business, and technological meaning of the changes taking place in our time. We are at a critical juncture in the confrontation between the vast power of giant high-tech companies and government, the hidden economic logic of surveillance capitalism, and the propaganda of machine supremacy that threaten to shape and control human life. Will the brazen new methods of social engineering and behavior modification threaten individual autonomy and democratic rights and introduce extreme new forms of social inequality? Or will the promise of the digital age be one of individual empowerment and democratization?
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is neither a hand-wringing narrative of danger and decline nor a digital fairy tale. Rather, it offers a deeply reasoned and evocative examination of the contests over the next chapter of capitalism that will decide the meaning of information civilization in the twenty-first century. The stark issue at hand is whether we will be the masters of information and machines or its slaves.
—————————————————————
Saturday, January 26 - Sunday, January 27
—————————————————————
Hack for Fusion: A Machine Learning Hackathon at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Saturday, January 26 - Sunday, January 27
10:00am to 10:00pm
MIT, Building NW17-218 175 Albany Street, Cambridge
Teams of up to four will seek machine learning solutions to a set of control, optimization, and data mining problems relevant to modern fusion research. Submissions will be judged and prizes awarded.
Sessions will begin at 10am.
Registration required: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvJcp-VcLs1mjKK0k3rf9EPVp0v6RKb0XxVxGTQBq3zqkjKw/viewform
For further information: info@psfc.mit.edu
———————————
Saturday, January 26
———————————
Fixit Clinic
WHEN Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Ed Portal
COST Free
DETAILS Bring your broken, non-functioning items including jewelry, electronics, clothing, and more to the Harvard Ed Portal for a Fixit Clinic! We provide the space, tools, and coaches to help you tinker, troubleshoot, and even fix your items. This is an all-ages, do-it-yourself event that’s fun and educational.
Learn more online at http://www.fixitclinic.org
——————————
Sunday, January 27
——————————
Be the Change Community Action: Transition House
Sunday, January 27
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
This Be the Change event is a timely discussion about the struggle to end domestic violence as seen through the evolution of Transition House, Cambridge’s domestic violence agency. Transition House was founded in 1976 by local feminist activists who were survivors of abuse themselves. It was the second domestic violence shelter in the US, and, from the start, it was more than a safe shelter. It was a movement organization, a collective resisting a social service identity, a peer-help organization and part of a national movement. Today it is a multifaceted, multicultural nonprofit social service organization with far reaching involvement in the Cambridge community. Over four decades Transition House has both contributed and adapted to changes in the culture and in our understandings of domestic violence.
Ann Fleck-Henderson is a retired social work professor. As Transition House approached its 40th birthday she agreed to write a brief history of the agency. The result is Transition House 1976-2017: The Movement and The Mainstream, based on more than 60 interviews and piles of primary source documents. Ann will present highlights from the book and some of the issues it raises, such as the tension between social change and social service missions and how domestic violence is still a feminist issue. Current Transition House staff will discuss how the organization works with the Cambridge community today, and what each of us can do to join its efforts against violence.
20% of sales from 3-5PM will be donated to Transition House.
——————————————
Agroecology with Florence Reed: Low-Hanging Fruit for Climate and Biodiversity
Sunday, January 27
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
One Fayette Park, Cambridge
Climate change and loss of biodiversity threaten the very existence of the human race. While professors and policymakers in ivory towers study, debate and try to forge agreements, campesinos with little money or education are stabilizing the climate, bringing biodiversity back to degraded lands and feeding the world. Meet some of these unsung heroes working with Sustainable Harvest International, a member of Regeneration International, and learn how millions more could join their ranks to become the cornerstone of a healthy planet and food system.
Florence Reed is a prize-winning thought leader, innovative practitioner, and deeply engaging speaker who believes that when people work together, things can change for the better. This belief led her to serve
as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras in the early nineties. In 1997, Reed founded Sustainable Harvest International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to working with rural Central American communities to
implement sustainable farming practices and preserve tropical forests. As the organization’s chief visionary and networker, Florence spends her time in rich conversations with internal and external stakeholders, bringing together farmers, donors, volunteers and others to catalyze changes for a better future.
Her entrepreneurial spirit and interest in expanding horizons makes identifying new opportunities for collaboration a favorite part of Florence’s work. In recent years she has enjoyed being a delegate to the
Opportunity Collaboration, Regeneration International General Assembly and Environmental Laureates Convention, as well as a member of advisory committees for the National Peace Corps Association and Regeneration International. Florence is currently especially interested in helping expand global coalitions such as Regeneration International for a truly sustainable future.
What to bring
An item of food or drink to share, tending to the healthy and organic.
Important to know
Biodiversity for a LIvable Climate is a small non-profit so a $10 donation is requested.
——————————
Monday, January 28
——————————
An Energy Plan the Earth Can Live With? A Lecture with Daniel Kammen
WHEN Monday, January 28, 5 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Research study, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Daniel M. Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy and Chair of the Energy and Resources Group, and Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy and in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Served as chief technical specialist for the World Bank in 2010-2011 and served as the science envoy for the US Department of State in 2016-2017.
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a critical report in October 2018 on the vital need to hold anthropogenic global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Humans have already warmed the planet 1 degree.
In this talk, Kammen will examine the pace of scientific change, the problem of sustained innovation and deployment, and the tremendous array of benefits that could be realized by making climate protection the priority it must become. Most remarkable, perhaps, is the range of benefits — in social equity, ethnic and gender inclusivity, cultural diversity, and poverty alleviation — that can be realized through an energy plan Earth can live with. Register online.
———————————————
A Revolutionary Harbor: Lecture with author Eric Jay Dolin
Monday, January 28
5:45 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Atlantic Wharf, 280 Congress Street, Boston
Join the National Park Service, Boston Harbor Now and Save the Harbor, Save the Bay in the first of three winter lectures exploring our Revolutionary Harbor.
Best-selling author, Eric Jay Doln will speak about his new book, Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age”. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Dolin provides this wholly original account of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.
Following the lecture, Eric Jay Dolin will be available for book signing.
Light refreshments and drinks provided.
Funded in part by Boston Harbor Now and Mass Humanities.
——————————
Tuesday, January 29
——————————
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Planning and Paying for Tomorrow’s Transportation
Tuesday, January 29
12:00 - 2:00 PM (Lunch will be served)
Foley Hoag, 155 Seaport Boulevard, Boston
RSVP at ndubin@e2.org
Whether you've been stuck in traffic on I-93 or watched helplessly as MBTA shut down operations during the winter of 2015, if you're a commuter, you know that our transportation system is broken. At the same time, transportation has become the biggest source of GHG emissions in the Northeast and one of the leading drivers of climate change worldwide. An important step toward solving these seemingly intractable problems is on the horizon: the Transportation and Climate Initiative, through which states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are developing a regional approach to modernize, and reduce emissions from, the transportation sector. As commuters, members of the business community know all too well how badly these changes are needed, but what role should and can private industry play as states such as Massachusetts bring their transportation systems into the 21st Century?
Please join E2 New England at “Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Planning and Paying for Tomorrow’s Transportation” as we explore the business perspective on our broken transportation system, how tools such as regional rail can help, and where Massachusetts and its neighbors are headed with the Transportation and Climate Initiative.
———————————————
Biological Gods: UFOs, Science (Fiction), and Some Emergent Mythologies
Tuesday, January 29
12 – 2pm
Harvard, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Avenue, Conference Room, Cambridge
After a summary of the UFO phenomenon and its modern histories and interpretations, this lecture will reference four texts: Philip K. Dick’s Valis (1981), Whitley Strieber’s Communion (1987), Kary Mullis’s Dancing Naked in the Mind Field (2000), and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Living with a Wild God (2014). In each case, we will see how the author describes a deeply personal, life-changing encounter with what any earlier culture would have recognized as a deity or demon. Each author engages these earlier religious interpretations but finally moves outside of them to posit actual invisible species in the environment that interact with human beings at their own whims and for their own interests, perhaps, some of the authors speculate, to "feed off" of human emotion or to tame, domesticate or evolve us via sexual communion and interspecies symbiosis. The result is a new set of evolutionary panpsychisms, erotic vitalisms and biological polytheisms that pose a challenge to the reigning materialisms and projection theories of conventional science and the humanities. The lecture concludes by reading at least some aspects of the UFO phenomenon in “eschatological” terms, that is, as dealing with the dead and the destiny of the human soul.
Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and is the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the author of eight monographs, including, most recently, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge (Bellevue Literary Press, 2019). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of science and esoteric literature for the University of Chicago Press collectively entitled The Super Story. His full body of work can be seen at http://jeffreyjkripal.com
———————————————
Symposium: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, 3 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Conferences, Exhibitions, Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Special Events, Support/Social
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Fung Scholar Event sponsored and organized by:
The Harvard Asia Center
With the generous support of:
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University
The Harvard Law School Project on Disability
The Harvard-Yenching Institute
The Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Panel 1: Art Production at the Margins: Atelier Yamanami and Nanjing Outsider Art Studio
Prof. Karen Thornber, Director, Harvard Asia Center, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Comparative Literature
Masato Yamashita, Director, Atelier Yamanami
Haiping Guo, Director, Nanjing Outsider Art Studio
Prof. Shaun McNiff, University Professor, Lesley University
Exhibition curators:
Raphael Koenig, Ph.D., Harvard University, Comparative Literature
Benny Shaffer, Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University, Anthropology
Panel 2: Disability and Mental Illness in China and Japan: Social and Legal Issues
Prof. William Alford, Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability & Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Prof. Andrew Campana, Post-Doctoral Associate, Cornell University
Prof. Cui Fengming, Director, China Program, Harvard Law School Project on Disability; Professor, Renmin University of China Law School and Senior Fellow, Renmin University of China Disability Law Clinic
Prof. Arthur Kleinman, Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine, & Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University
COST Free entry
DETAILS On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition "Eye Eye Nose Mouth: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan"
The opening reception on Jan. 29, 2019 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. will be preceded by an interdisciplinary academic symposium (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.) that will provide further context on the broader aesthetic, legal, and sociopolitical conditions under which each of these workshops featured in the exhibition operates.
———————————————
Screening of "Jizo and Libido" (Japanese with English subtitles, 62min)
WHEN Tuesday, January 29, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS South, Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Exhibitions, Film, Health Sciences, Humanities, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR A Fung Scholar Event sponsored and organized by:
The Harvard University Asia Center
with the generous support of:
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University
The Harvard Law School Project on Disability
The Harvard-Yenching Institute
The Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Director Yoshiaki Kasatani.
With the participation of:
Julia Alekseyeva, Postdoctoral Fellow, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Yukiko Koide, Gallery owner and leading expert of Japanese self-taught art
Masato Yamashita, Director of Atelier Yamanami
COST Free entry
DETAILS Screening of a recent documentary film about Atelier Yamanami, followed by a Q&A with the director and panel discussion.
On the occasion of the exhibition "Eye Eye Nose Mouth: Art, Disability, and Mental Illness in Nanjing, China and Shiga-ken, Japan."
———————————————
Andrey Makarychev: Russia and the EU: Spaces of Interaction in Times of Crisis
Tuesday, January 29
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Tufts, Cabot 702, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
Please join the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School for a book talk by Professor Andrey Makarychev of the University of Tartu on "Russia and the EU: Spaces of Interaction in Times of Crisis." He will discuss relations between Russia and the European Union after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014. Refreshments will be provided. Attendance is by registration only on Eventbrite.
Andrey Makarychev is Visiting Professor at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. Before he came to Tartu, he was Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Institute for East European Studies, Free University of Berlin, as well as Professor of International Relations at the Linguistic University (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia). His research interests include Russian foreign policy discourses, international security and regionalism in EU – Russia common neighborhood. He has worked for the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research, ETH Zurich (2000-2001) and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen (2003-2004). He was visiting fellow at several European and US Research Institutes, among them the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute; Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies (Washington, D.C.); George Mason University, Fairfax, and the JFK Institute for North American Studies, Free University of Berlin.
Russia and the EU: Spaces of Interaction is an important resource for researchers in Russian and Soviet Politics, Eastern European Politics and the policy, politics and expansion of the European Union. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s support for military insurgency in eastern Ukraine undermined two decades of cooperation between Russia and the EU leaving both sides in a situation of reciprocal economic sanctions and political alienation. What is left of previous positive experiences and mutually beneficial interactions between the two parties? And, what new communication practices and strategies might Russia and Europe use? Previously coherent and institutionalized spaces of communication and dialogue between Moscow and Brussels have fragmented into relations that, while certainly not cooperative, are also not necessarily adversarial. Exploring these spaces, contributors consider how this indeterminacy makes cooperation problematic, though not impossible, and examine the shrunken, yet still existent, expanse of interaction between Russia and the EU. Analysing to what extent Russian foreign policy philosophy is compatible with European ideas of democracy, and whether Russia might pragmatically profit from the liberal democratic order, the volume also focuses on the practical implementation of these discourses and conceptualizations as policy instruments.
———————————————
Mark Leibovich on the Political Culture and the NFL
WHEN Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, 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) Mark Leibovich, Chief National Correspondent, The New York Times Magazine, Author of “Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times”
CONTACT INFO 617-495-1380
———————————————
Boston Green Drinks
Tuesday, January 29
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Warehouse Bar & Grille 40 Broad Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-green-drinks-january-2019-happy-hour-tickets-54216340534
Happy New Year!!
Looking for resolutions...joining Boston Green Drinks on a monthly basis sounds perfect!
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community! Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
Special Guest: While the majority of our time is spent socializing and networking, we on occassion will have a community member share a bit about what they're doing, providing a potential direction for surrounding conversations.
For January 2019, we will be joined by Sam Josiah, a Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Sam will be sharing a bit about the efforts Ameriprise has been putting into Sustainable Investing. To sweeten the pot basket, he will be raffling off a free basket of sustainable products!
———————————————
The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind
Tuesday, January 29
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Aveue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the American Constitution Society welcome award-winning scholar and University of Chicago Law School professor JUSTIN DRIVER for a discussion of his new book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind. He will be joined in conversation by Harvard Law School professor RANDALL KENNEDY.
About The Schoolhouse Gate
Judicial decisions assessing the constitutional rights of students in the nation’s public schools have consistently generated bitter controversy. From racial segregation to unauthorized immigration, from antiwar protests to compulsory flag salutes, from economic inequality to teacher-led prayer—these are but a few of the cultural anxieties dividing American society that the Supreme Court has addressed in elementary and secondary schools. The Schoolhouse Gate gives a fresh, lucid, and provocative account of the historic legal battles waged over education and illuminates contemporary disputes that continue to fracture the nation.
Justin Driver maintains that since the 1970s the Supreme Court has regularly abdicated its responsibility for protecting students’ constitutional rights and risked transforming public schools into Constitution-free zones. Students deriving lessons about citizenship from the Court’s decisions in recent decades would conclude that the following actions taken by educators pass constitutional muster: inflicting severe corporal punishment on students without any procedural protections, searching students and their possessions without probable cause in bids to uncover violations of school rules, random drug testing of students who are not suspected of wrongdoing, and suppressing student speech for the viewpoint it espouses. Taking their cue from such decisions, lower courts have upheld a wide array of dubious school actions, including degrading strip searches, repressive dress codes, draconian “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies, and severe restrictions on off-campus speech.
Driver surveys this legal landscape with eloquence, highlights the gripping personal narratives behind landmark clashes, and warns that the repeated failure to honor students’ rights threatens our basic constitutional order. This magisterial book will make it impossible to view American schools—or America itself—in the same way again.
*****************
----------------------
Upcoming Events
----------------------
*****************
————————————
Wednesday, January 30
————————————
Impact of Memory Training on Brain Function
Wednesday, January 30
10:30am to 12:30pm
MIT, Building 46-3002, McGovern Institute, Singelton Auditorium, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Three speakers will discuss the impact of memory training on brain function from a variety of different perspectives. Martin Dresler is an assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Donders Institute in the Netherlands and further affiliated to the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich. He will speak about changes in functional connectivity that take place in the brains of memory experts and naive individuals who are in the process of learning to employ the techniques. Boris Konrad is the only individual to have been both a world memory record holder and a PhD in neuroscience. He will discuss experiments he has performed on the degree to which enhanced memory function transfers to other cognitive capacities. Finally, the man who arguably possesses the greatest long-term memory in the world, Jim Karol, will speak on some of his personal experiences in transforming his memory from the rudimentary to the phenomenal in the last 15 years of his life. Specific attention will be focused on his emphasis on long-term memory and how memory can be transformed into knowledge.
——————————————
The State of the Union and Congressional Action On Climate in 2019
Wednesday, January 30
1:30 - 2:30 PM Eastern
Dial-in information will be provided immediately upon registration. If you have any questions, please contact Zach Amittay at zamittay@e2.org
President Trump will give his State of the Union (SOTU) address on January 29. Please join E2 for this webinar the following day, where we will be recapping the SOTU and analyzing its implications for E2’s clean energy, jobs and environmental priorities. We will also look at what is planned in Congress on our policy priorities and identify some of our federal policy plans for the coming months.
Speakers To Be Announced
——————————————
Batteryless Intermittent Computer Systems
Wednesday, January 30
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM **Refreshments at 2:45 pm
MIT, Building 32-D463 Star, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Brandon Lucia , Carnegie Mellon University
Abstract: The emergence of extremely low-power computing components and efficient energy-harvesting power systems has led to the creation of computer systems that operate using tiny amounts of energy scavenged from their environment. These devices create opportunities for systems where batteries and tethered power are inapplicable: sensors deeply embedded in pervasive civil infrastructure, in-body health monitors, and devices in extreme environments like glaciers, volcanoes, and space. The key challenge is that these devices operate only intermittently, as energy is available, requiring both hardware and software to tolerate power failures that may happen hundreds of times per second. This talk will describe the landscape of intermittent computing systems. I will briefly describe our newest programming and execution models that are robust to arbitrarily frequent power failures, providing a simple programming model and reliable intermittent operation. I will discuss our latest hardware platform, Capybara, which enables applications to dynamically provision energy to different parts of an application. I will close with a discussion of our recent work on intermittent deep neural network inference and a recent deployment of an intermittent computer system work to the International Space Station.
Bio: Brandon Lucia is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Lucia's lab's work spans programming languages, software and hardware computer systems, and computer architecture. Lucia and his research group are defining the
area of intermittent computing on energy-harvesting devices, and developing future edge computing systems that make near-sensor computing more efficient on Earth and in deployments to Earth's orbit. Lucia's work has been recognized with a number of awards, including several best papers, 3 IEEE MICRO Top Picks, a 2016 Google Faculty Award, and the 2015 Bell Labs Prize.
His lab's website is http://intermittent.systems and his personal website is at
Contact: Sally O. Lee, 3-6837, sally@csail.mit.edu
——————————————
It's Too Complicated: How the Internet Upends Katz, Smith, and Electronic Surveillance Law
Wednesday, January 30
3:30 pm to 5:00
BU, School of Law, 15th Floor Faculty Lounge, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Electronic surveillance law seeks to balance protecting the privacy of the people while enabling government's surveillance capabilities. In the U.S., legal frameworks governing surveillance have, for forty years, drawn a distinction between content and non-content components of communication. The non-content portion of a communication and those aspects of non-content being shared with a third party receive a lower degree of privacy protection than the content shared between two communicating parties. Such protections were developed in an era when public service telephony reigned. Today’s communications systems, particularly on the Internet, are far more complex.
In this Cyber Alliance talk, Tufts University Bridge Professor in Cyber Security and Policy Susan Landau will show how complexity collapses traditional content/non-content distinctions and disrupts application of the third party doctrine to such an extent that, in many circumstances, they have become too difficult for courts to construe and apply consistently. It's too complicated.
The implications of this in-depth technical analysis, worked on jointly with Steve Bellovin, Matt Blaze, and Stephanie Pell, are huge, overthrowing many aspects of surveillance law. Prof. Landau will also provide recommendations as to how new electronic surveillance law should be shaped.
There will be time for casual conversation and light refreshments before and after the presentation.
Please RSVP to tgabs@bu.edu
——————————————
The Price of Biodiesel RINs and Economic Fundamentals
Wednesday, January 30
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Littauer-382, HKS, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
with Scott Irwin, University of Illinois, Kristen McCormack, and James Stock, Harvard University
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Contact Name: Casey Billings
——————————————
Moral Resistance: When Faith & Activism Meet in the Streets
WHEN Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, 79 JFK. Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Chaplain Khalil Abdur, Father J. Bryan Hehir, Brittany Packnett, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Reverend Cornell William Brooks (Moderator)
CONTACT INFO IOP Forum Office, 617-495-1380
DETAILS In this moment of generationally unprecedented activism, millions are engaged in moral resistance. Whether it be the Women’s Marches, March for Our Lives, Border demonstrations, Climate Marches or Black Lives Matter, religious activists are both sources of support and opposition. This JFK Jr. Forum explores some of the most recent policy, moral and organizational movement challenges of when faith and activism meet in the streets.
——————————————
The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution
Wednesday, January 30
6:00 PM
Harvard Science Center, Hall C, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Division of Science, Cabot Science Library, and Harvard Book Store welcome distinguished primatologist RICHARD WRANGHAM—Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University—for a discussion of his latest book, The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution.
About The Goodness Paradox
What during human evolution accounts for this paradox: we can be the nicest of species and also the nastiest? What are the two kinds of aggression that primates are prone to, and why did each evolve separately? How does the intensity of violence among humans compare with the aggressive behavior of other primates? How did humans "self-domesticate” themselves? And how were the acquisition of language and the practice of capital punishment determining factors in the rise of culture and civilization?
Authoritative, provocative and engaging, The Goodness Paradox offers a startlingly original theory of how, in the last 250 million years, humankind became an increasingly peaceful species in daily interactions, even as its capacity for coolly planned and devastating violence remains undiminished. In tracing the evolutionary histories of reactive and proactive aggression, biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham forcefully and persuasively argues for the necessity of social tolerance and the control of savage divisiveness still haunting us today.
——————————————
Future Fossil Exhibition Opening Reception
Wednesday, January 30
6:00 pm
Radcliffe, Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden Street, Cambridge
Clarissa Tossin, a Radcliffe fellow in 2017–2018, expands upon her fellowship project with a newly commissioned exhibition that considers the ecology of an uncertain future. Inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction trilogy Xenogenesis (1989), in which the Amazon becomes the site for a new civilization of alien-human hybrids, Tossin speculates upon a postapocalyptic world following ecological collapse. Pairing DIY plastic recycling techniques with the materials and practices of Amazonian aesthetic traditions, Tossin highlights the contemporary footprint left in the geological sedimentation of the earth. These new works consider indigenous knowledge in relationship to the environment, while they also resemble ruins of a world yet to come.
Exhibition organized by Meg Rotzel, Radcliffe Arts Program manager
—————————————
LIVING WITH ROBOTS
Wednesday, January 30
7 pm.
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Computers are learning to read our emotions and it is big business. Alexa will soon be servicing all our needs. But can we really trust the robots?
Join Judith Shulevitz, from the Atlantic Monthly and Maxim Pozdorovkin, film-maker of The Truth About Killer Robots as they discuss the future of robots
More information at https://www.cambridgeforum.org/?cat=3
—————————————
Brighton and Allston Through Time
Wednesday, January 30
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-local-author-and-historian-anthony-sammarco-tickets-53927922869
"Brighton and Allston Through Time” outlines a neighborhood of the city of Boston which was once known as Little Cambridge before it became an independent town from Cambridge in 1807. With contemporary photographs by Peter B. Kingman, Anthony M. Sammarco has created a fascinating book of 19th- and 20th-century images that chronicles the history and development over the last hundred years. Once renowned throughout New England for its cattle industry as well as its horticultural gardens, Brighton and Allston became a well-known town. With prosperity, an ever-increasing population and proximity to the city of Boston, Brighton and Allston was annexed to the city in 1874 and henceforth became known as Ward 25. Over the century that followed, the neighborhood saw new places of worship, public and parochial schools, and housing ranging from one-family and two-family houses which were quickly augmented by three deckers and the largescale building of apartment buildings. During the first three decades of the 20th century, Brighton and Allston saw its population double, from 27,000 residents in 1910 to 47,000 residents by 1925 and today, with a population of 75,000 people, Brighton and Allston has a rich and ever evolving history, with demographics which are constantly in flux.
About the Author:
ANTHONY SAMMARCO is a noted historian and author of over seventy books on the history and development of Boston, and he lectures widely on the history of his native city. His books Lost Boston, The History of Howard Johnson's: How A Massachusetts Soda Fountain Became a Roadside Icon, Christmas Traditions in Boston, and The Baker Chocolate Company: A Sweet History have been bestsellers.
—————————————
The Future of Food
Wednesday, 30 January
6:30 – 8:30 pm EST
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
Kale Rogers, Co-Founder & COO, Spyce
Joe Blunda, CEO, Forager
About This Event
Our food system is rapidly changing and these innovators are staying ahead of the game.
Join us at General Assembly for lightning talks exploring the future of the food industry as it intersects with technology and changing consumer behaviors. We'll delve into the rising trends around food tech as it applies to on demand delivery, access to healthy meal plans, culinary media, food waste management, and consumer experiences. Hear straight from experts in the space to small business food entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing the industry in Boston.
About the Experts
Kale Rogers, Co-Founder & COO, Spyce
As COO, Kale is responsible for the restaurant experience as a whole - from shaping the in-store design to guiding the creative direction of Spyce’s brand. He handles location acquisition, legal and financial matters, and manages logistics of the build. Kale also supports the culinary, marketing, and engineering teams to ensure deadlines are being met.
Kale was first introduced to the world of culinary talent when he started watching Food Network with his mom. They began recreating recipes together, which is how Kale’s house became known as having the best dinner in town (and partially because he couldn’t stop telling everyone). After years of growing accustomed to this, Kale found himself extremely frustrated by MIT’s dining options. He couldn’t afford to eat meals that were as good as the ones at home, but he didn’t have time to cook, so he kept turning to fast food. When he heard Michael’s idea of a restaurant featuring a robotic kitchen, he realized this could be a perfect way to eat good food, all the time.
Raised in Newberg, Oregon, Kale has always been a jack of all trades. He is an outstanding athlete and teammate. A four time Academic All-American in Swimming and Water Polo, and the 2013 NCAA swimming champion, he was voted as MIT’s male athlete of the year with the highest quality of humility, inspiration, and leadership.
Joe Blunda, CEO, Forager
Joe Blunda has been in the food business since 2016, most recently joining local food pioneer Forager as CEO at the request of its founder, David Stone. As a boy, Joe sold native blueberries in Maine and has had a passion for local food ever since. Before coming to food, Joe was an aerospace and defense consultant for private equity firms. He earned his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin and completed his graduate business studies at Fletcher/Tufts University.
—————————————
Outbreak: Fighting Disease in a Changing World
Wednesday, January 30
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston
Some of the most infectious and harmful pathogens originate in wildlife, infect humans, and spread rapidly around the world. Viruses such as Ebola and influenza have caused outbreaks that killed thousands of people in the last five years alone. What would you do if an Ebola or influenza outbreak were unfolding in your community?
In this program, you'll hear from experts from Boston University's Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Learn about infectious diseases that affect millions of people all over the world, then work with other participants to explore strategies of outbreak response and prevention by considering lessons learned from diseases we've managed to eradicate.
Join us for a fun and interactive evening where you decide how your community handles these outbreaks.
——————————
Thursday, January 31
——————————
Annual Davos Debrief
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Building, Bell Hall (Fifth Floor), 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief, Harvard Business Review
Jane Nelson, Director, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Meghan O’Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Mark Wu
Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
CONTACT INFO mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS Commentary and takeaways from Harvard leaders who attended the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
—————————————
Designing biology for sustainability
Thursday, January 31
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Multi-purpose Room, Curtis Hall
Kit McDonnell, Manager of Capital Markets and Special Projects, Ginkgo Bioworks
As the original circular economy, biology is the most sophisticated form of sustainable technology on the planet. Ginkgo Bioworks is tapping into this inherent trait to create new modes of production, recycling, and remediation. From engineering plant probiotics for improved agricultural practices to resurrecting the fragrance of extinct flowers to building and breaking down plastics, Ginkgo is using biotech to improve the value chains of consumer markets.
Kit McDonnell (A16) operates at the intersection of design, tech, and sustainability. At Ginkgo Bioworks she specializes in futures-driven business development with consumer brands— how might we wear, eat, drive, and interact with new forms of biology—as well as corporate strategy, branding, and compelling organism design. As an advocate for a future that is grown, she’s spoken and led workshops on the subject of biodesign at Harvard University, MIT, the Japanese Business Federation Keidanren, Rhode Island School of Design, and Brown University, among other places, and exhibited at HUBweek in collaboration with the design agency Faber Futures.
At Tufts, Kit studied Biology, launched the Tufts Venture Lab, and founded TEDxTufts, among other ideation-minded initiatives. Between Tufts and the Field Museum of Natural History, she’s conducted research on myriad organisms. From Costa Rican ant metagenomics, cheese microbiomes, and malaria in Neotropical birds to pu-erh tea polyphenolics, hermit crab behavior, and Malawian mammal phylogenentics. She caughtthe biodesign bug while studying abroad at the University of Hong Kong and hasn’t looked back since.
———————————————
Climate Actions: Transformative Mechanisms for Social Mobilisation
Thursday, January 31
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
BU, The Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road, Boston
Laurence Delina, a post-doctoral associate at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, will discuss his recent book, Climate Actions: Transformative Mechanisms for Social Mobilisation, at a seminar on Thursday, January 31 from 12:00 to 1:30 pm at the Pardee Center, 67 Bay State Road (Lunch will be available beginning at 11:30 am).The book, published by Palgrave Macmillan, gives an overview of global climate change action and explores ways to mobilize groups and individuals to become more successful activists. By synthesizing insights from a series of international surveys, Delina introduces a novel set of mechanisms to strengthen the climate action movement’s campaigns, tactics, and strategies. His recommended mechanisms are designed around five major themes: enhancing relationships, developing value-based messaging, presenting alternatives, establishing networks, and increasing public communication.
——————————————
The Nexus between Internationalism and Localism in Civil Conflict: Insurgents' Policy toward Humanitarian Access
WHEN Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, One Brattle Square (Room 350). Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Ayako Kobayashi, Research Fellow, International Security Program
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
DETAILS Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come, first served basis.
———————————————
Environment Matters: Neuro-Immune Interactions in Development and Implications for Lifelong Health
Thursday, January 31
1:00PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard School of Public Health, Building 1-1302, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston
HSPH NIEHS Center for Environmental Health presents Staci Bilbo, Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Program in Neuroscience, who will give a talk as part of the Re-Envisioning the Environment Colloquium Speaker Series.
Dr. Staci Bilbo is the Director of Research for the Lurie Center for Autism at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. She received her Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 2003, and continued her training with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She directed the Developmental Neuroimmunology Laboratory in the Department of Neuroscience at Duke University from 2007-2016, until joining the faculty at HMS in 2016. Her research is broadly focused on the mechanisms by which the immune and endocrine systems interact with the brain to impact health and behavior. Current research in her laboratory focuses on understanding the consequences of early life events, including infection, stress, environmental toxins, and maternal obesity on neural and immune system development.
Contact Name: Monica Russell
———————————————
The Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan GIS Methodology: Mapping the need for and access to interventions across the Commonwealth
Thursday, January 31
1:00-2:30PM EST
Webinar
Join us as we explore the geospatial methodologies behind the Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan maps. This webinar will review the datasets used and the decisions that were made throughout our mapping process. After walking listeners through the creation of the Food is Medicine Priority Level map that considers town-level food insecurity, chronic disease burden, and vehicle access rates, we will discuss the spectrum of Food is Medicine interventions that currently exist throughout the state.
We welcome stakeholders from Massachusetts and beyond to seize this opportunity to learn more about the role of GIS within the groundbreaking Massachusetts Food is Medicine State Plan. There will be ample opportunity for discussion and questions.
———————————————
Transportation Connect 2019
Thursday, January 31, 2019
3:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Venture Café Cambridge @ Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), 5th Floor, 1 Broadway 5th Floor, Cambridge
Join us for Transportation Connect at Venture Café Cambridge to hear more about The Future of Transportation. The evening will feature three talks on the latest business, technology, and regulatory developments in the movement of people and goods.
———————————————
Martin Luther King Now: Toward a Public Philosophy of Justice, Democracy, and Peace for the 21st Century
Thursday, January 31
6:00pm to 7:00pm Reception to follow
Boston Athenaeum, 10 ½ Beacon Street, Boston
Registration is required at https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/events/6168/martin-luther-king-now-toward-public-philosophy-justice-democracy-and-peace-21st-century
Cost: Members $10 and Non-members $15
Brandon M. Terry
Join us for a lecture on one of our nation’s most prominent and important figures. Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and Social Studies Brandon M. Terry will explore the ethical and political thought of arguably the greatest public intellectual and activist that the United States ever produced, Martin Luther King, Jr. In interrogating King’s body of public philosophy, as well as its leading critics and interpreters, Terry argues we can find indispensable conceptual and philosophical resources to navigate many of our current political crises and confusions.
Brandon M. Terry is an Assistant Professor at Harvard as well as the editor, with Tommie Shelby, of To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fifty Years Since MLK. He is currently completing a book entitled The Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement: Political Theory and the Historical Imagination that interrogates, with philosophy of history, literary theory, and political philosophy, the ethical and political significance of the different ways we imagine African American history. Terry earned a PhD with distinction in political science and African American studies from Yale University, an MSc in political theory research as a Michael von Clemm Fellow at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, and an AB, magna cum laude, in government and African and African American studies from Harvard College. He has published work in Boston Review, Dissent, The Point, New Labor Forum, Du Bois Review, Huffington Post, and Perspectives on Politics. An active contributor to public debate, Brandon has also provided commentary for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, NPR, Time, the Associated Press, The Nation, and other national and international publications.
This event is the first program in the three-part “Undermining Racism” series, which presents thoughtful examinations of people who found ways to navigate, undermine, and change a system designed to limit African Americans’ rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Join us on February 7 for a screening of the documentary Fair Game: Surviving a 1960 Georgia Lynching and a discussion with filmmaker Clennon King and on March 7 for a preview of and discussion on Steeplechase Film’s documentary Driving While Black: African Americans on the Road in the Era of Jim Crow with Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, the film’s senior historical advisor.
———————————————
More than Linkedin Connections: Building Social Capital to Reach Your Goals
Thursday, January 31
6:30 – 8:30 pm EST
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
Introduction
Networking is more than handing out business cards at events. Cultivating strong and lasting relationships is so valuable. We are coming together to discuss how to build and leverage that social capital to grow in your career.
Why it Matters
Reputation is everything in business. Connecting and helping others within your network creates good will amongst your community, helps to build a positive reputation for you and/or your business, and helps you make smarter connections.
What You'll Take Away
Understand how your network can help you grow in your career and learn from those in Boston experienced in creating and driving social capital about some of the easiest and most impactful ways you can build your own reputation in business.
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
———————————————
The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty
Thursday, January 31
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Karen Dillon & Efosa Ojomo
Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator’s Dilemma and the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life, and co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity, and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change.
Efosa Ojomo works side-by-side with Christensen and the Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, where he leads the organization’s Global Prosperity Practice. His work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, the Guardian, Quartz, CNBCAfrica, and the Emerging Markets Business Review.
Karen Dillon is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life? She is a graduate of Cornell University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In 2011 she was named by Ashoka as one of the world’s most influential and inspiring women.
————————————————————
Friday, February 1 - Sunday, February 10
————————————————————
The Power of Community Summit is an entirely free, online experience organized with the goal of catalyzing community, exploring the leading edge of the regenerative future movement and increasing our collective consciousness in a climate-changing world. It will take place February 1-10, 2019 and will feature three conversations per day shared and discussed worldwide on multiple platforms. To see the full list of speakers and to see which interviews are live at any given time, visit http://summit.ecovillage.org
The Power of Community Summit is the very first ever organized by the Global Ecovillage Network, in partnership with Pioneers for Change, an organization with proven success on past summits. The theme of the event is also in coordination with the upcoming Climate Change and Consciousness Conference 2019 to be held at Findhorn in April 2019. For more on CCC19, visit https://ccc19.org
The Power of Community Online Summit aims to turn our conscious and compassionate attention towards a climate-changing world and inspire individual and community-led action for a regenerative future.
—————————
Friday, February 1
—————————
Voyager 2 in the Interstellar Medium, Finally!
Friday, February 1
1:30pm to 2:30pm
MIT, Building 6-120, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
John Belcher - Professor of Physics
Abstract: Voyager 2 crossed into the interstellar medium (ISM) in November 2018. I discuss current conditions in the ISM as measured on Voyager 2.
IAP 2019 Physics Lecture Series
——————————————
America, Compromised
Friday, February 1
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In collaboration with the Harvard Book Store, we are thrilled to welcome former Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and Harvard Law School professor LAWRENCE LESSIG—author of The Future of Ideas and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace—for a discussion of his latest book, America, Compromised.
About America, Compromised
“There is not a single American awake to the world who is comfortable with the way things are.”
So begins Lawrence Lessig's sweeping indictment of contemporary American institutions and the corruption that besets them. We can all see it—from the selling of Congress to special interests to the corporate capture of the academy. Something is wrong. It’s getting worse.
And it’s our fault. What Lessig shows, brilliantly and persuasively, is that we can’t blame the problems of contemporary American life on bad people, as our discourse all too often tends to do. Rather, he explains, “We have allowed core institutions of America’s economic, social, and political life to become corrupted. Not by evil souls, but by good souls. Not through crime, but through compromise.” Every one of us, every day, making the modest compromises that seem necessary to keep moving along, is contributing to the rot at the core of American civic life. Through case studies of Congress, finance, the academy, the media, and the law, Lessig shows how institutions are drawn away from higher purposes and toward money, power, quick rewards—the first steps to corruption.
Lessig knows that a charge so broad should not be levied lightly, and that our instinct will be to resist it. So he brings copious, damning detail gleaned from years of research, building a case that is all but incontrovertible: America is on the wrong path. If we don’t acknowledge our own part in that and act now to change it, we will hand our children a less perfect union than we were given. It will be a long struggle. This book represents the first steps.
The “Ethics in Your World” series features leading thinkers taking on tough problems that matter to us all and is part of the Harvard Book Store's Friday Forum.
———————————————
Combating Antibiotic Resistant Superbugs across Diverse Habitats
WHEN Friday, February 1, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Research study, Science, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Gautam Dantas, Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Biomedical Engineering, and Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Disease-causing bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to all available antibiotics, causing approximately 700,000 annual deaths globally and costing the U.S. economy $55 billion each year.
In this lecture, Gautam Dantas will discuss how new genomic and computational technologies are enabling a deeper understanding of how antibiotics affect diverse microbiomes, including the evolution and spread of antibiotic resistance across diverse habitats. These insights enable the design of novel diagnostics and therapeutics for maintaining healthy microbiomes and preventing and treating future infections. Register online.
——————————————
Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality
Friday, February 1
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning writer and sociologist KATHERINE S. NEWMAN—author of No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City—for a discussion of her latest book, Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality.
About Downhill from Here
As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged fifty-five and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages―a number projected to drop to under 28% within two decades. Old-age poverty, a problem we thought was solved by the New Deal, is poised for a resurgence.
With dramatic statistics and vivid portraits, acclaimed sociologist Katherine S. Newman shows that the American retirement crisis touches us all, cutting across class lines and generational divides. White-collar managers have seen retirement benefits vanish; Teamsters have had their pensions cut in half; bankrupt cities like Detroit have walked away from their commitments to municipal workers. And for Generation X, the prospects are even worse: a fifth of them expect to never be able to retire. Only the vaunted “one percent” can face retirement without fear.
Other countries are confronting similar demographic challenges, yet they have not abandoned their social contract with seniors. Downhill From Here makes it clear that America, too, can―and must―do better.
——————————————
American Dharma
WHEN Friday, February 1, 7 – 8:35 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Film Archive
COST $12 - Special Event Admission
CONTACT INFO bgravely@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Harvard Film Archive is happy to welcome back documentary legend Errol Morris with a screening of his provocative new film "American Dharma" followed by a conversation with Ann Marie Lipinski, Curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
"Steve Bannon asked me why I wanted to make American Dharma. I told him I didn’t understand him or why he was doing what he was doing. But I thought if making a film could help me, and others, understand any of this, then it would be a good thing."
——————————————
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Friday February 1
7:00 pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline
Steven Pinker
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.
Steven Pinker is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers
——————————
Monday, February 4
——————————
Equity and Social Justice: Precision Medicine
WHEN Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Countway Library, Minot Room (5th Floor), 10 Shattuck Street, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Health Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HMS Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership;
co-sponsored by: Personal Genetics Education Project; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; The Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Keynote presentation:
Vence L. Bonham Jr., JD, Senior Advisor to the Director on Genomics and Health Disparities
National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
Panel discussion:
Marnie Gelbart, Ph.D., Director of Programs, Personal Genetics Education Project
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Jonathon Jackson, Ph.D., Instructor in Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Director, CARE Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital
Paul Underwood, MD, Medical Director, Clinical Interventional Cardiology, Boston Scientific
Moderator:
Latrice Landry, Ph.D., Genomic Medicine Fellow, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ESJ_2-4-19
CONTACT INFO Jackie Wright
617-432-2645
DETAILS The goal of this session is to foster a dialogue on health equity, health disparities, and health policy issues related to involving diverse communities in genetic innovations in medicine.
—————————————
Blockchain Technology in the Education/Social Sectors
WHEN Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, 10 – 11 a.m.
WHERE Harvard, HGSE Gutman Conference Center (Area 1), 6 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Information Technology, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HGSE Emerging Tech Club
SPEAKER(S) Iliana Oris Valiente, Managing Director - Emerging Tech, Blockchain Innovation Lead, Accenture
COST Free
CONTACT INFO harvardeto@gmail.com
DETAILS Join us for refreshments and a presentation by Iliana Oris Valiente, Accenture's Blockchain Innovation Lead and Managing Director of Emerging Tech, on blockchain technology in the education and social sectors.
——————————————
Shifting the Story: Narrative Change in the Time of Trump
Monday, February 4
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Northeastern University School of Law, 416 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Winter 2019 Daynard Visiting Fellow: Dimple Abichandandi '02, Executive Director, General Service Foundation
In her community lecture, Dimple will discuss the role of narrative in our quest for justice and will share case studies of successful narrative change efforts. She will explore the intersection of law and narrative, how lawyers are using narrative change approaches and make recommendations for how lawyers can think about narrative in their practices.
Dimple Abichandani is the executive director of the General Service Foundation (GSF), a private foundation that supports organizations advocating for racial and gender justice. Dimple joined General Service Foundation in 2015, bringing almost two decades of experience advancing social justice as a lawyer, funder and educator.
Prior to joining GSF, Dimple was the executive director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law. At the Center, Dimple launched a social justice innovation lab aimed at generating new long-term approaches to persistent social justice challenges and providing law students opportunities to develop skills and mindsets including creativity, empathy, collaboration and social justice problem-solving.
As the founding program officer of the Security and Rights Collaborative (SRC) at the Proteus Fund, Dimple managed a donor collaborative aimed at challenging post-9/11 Islamophobia and discrimination and restoring civil rights and liberties. Earlier in her career, Dimple worked at Legal Services NYC, first as a staff attorney where she represented low wage workers and later as the Director of Program Development.
——————————————
Strangers in the night: Will light pollution lead to firefly declines?
Monday, February 4
12:10p
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill, 1300 Centre Street, Roslindale
Avalon Owens, PhD Student, Tufts University
Cunin/Sigal Award Recipient
Editorial Comment:
I want
lightning bugs
back.
——————————————
Crypto: A Look at the Current State of the Controversy
Monday, February 4
12:15pm - 1:30pm
Harvard, 1 Brattle Square - Suite 470, Cambridge
Join the Cybersecurity Project for a lunch talk on "Crypto: A Look at the Current State of the Controversy" with Professor Susan Landau, Bridge Professor of Cyber Security and Policy in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, Tufts University.
Lunch will be served on a first come, first served basis.
Cyber Security Project Events Series
——————————————
2019 John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum feat. Congressman Joe Kennedy III
WHEN Monday, Feb. 4, 2019, 4 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall (Room 2019), Milstein West A, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program and Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S) Congressman Joe Kennedy III
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cong-joe-kennedy-iii-building-a-moral-capitalism-tickets-54557515999
CONTACT INFO info@ash.harvard.edu
DETAILS Join us and the Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program for the 2019 John T. Dunlop Forum featuring Congressman Joe Kennedy III. Congressman Kennedy will discuss his recent call for “moral capitalism” and outline how he believes a new Congress can recalibrate our country’s economy back toward American workers.
LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cong-joe-kennedy-iii-building-a-moral-capitalism-tickets-54557515999
——————————————
Twins in Space
Monday, February 4
5:00 pm
Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
The Undiscovered Lecture Series
Spaceflight poses unusual stressors to the human body. Microgravity, confined spaces, radiation exposure, and restricted diets are among the challenges faced by astronauts. To ensure that astronauts can perform under these daunting conditions, NASA investigators have been studying the effect of long-duration spaceflight on crew members.
One such investigation is the NASA Twins Study, which is an integrated, multi-omic, molecular, physiological, and cognitive portrait of a pair of identical twin astronauts—one who spent a year in space while his co-twin stayed on Earth to provide ground-control measures. In this talk, Brinda Rana will present the findings of the NASA Twins Study and discuss additional findings from our simulated microgravity studies.
Please register and join us.
Free and open to the public.
——————————————
Reception for “Saints of Star Wars” Exhibit
Monday, February 4
5 – 6:30pm
Harvard, Center for the Study of World Religions, CSWR Conference Room, 42 Francis Ave.nue, Cambridge
This series of Star Wars characters cast in the guise of Byzantine saint icons is a playful parody of the worship and adoration that fans give to these beloved figures. The paintings in this series draw on many of the typical features of Byzantine iconography, including the subjects’ hand gestures and postures, draped clothing with angular folds in high contrast, and stylized portraits with large eyes, elongated faces, and distinct outlines. Jabba the Hutt’s Last Supper, diverging somewhat from this pattern, blends a more realistic style in portraying the figures (in accordance with da Vinci’s masterpiece) with the gold background and Greek character labeling deployed in the rest of the series.
Alex Ramos is a self-taught artist working in acrylic paints on canvas. In addition to his popular Icons of Science Fiction series, he paints landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes so realistic and detailed that they are often mistaken for photographs. Alex is an alumnus of Harvard Divinity School and earned a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and he currently resides in central Pennsylvania.
——————————————
Is A.I Laughing at Us? A Conversation with David Weinberger, Jessica Fjeld, and Nikhil Dharmaraj on Ethics and Governance of AI
Monday, February 4
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM ET
Cambridge Public Library Lecture Hall, Main Branch, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Join a spirited and accessible discussion of artificial intelligence and art, how humor and creativity interrelate, and the successes and the shortcomings of new Al technologies, featuring poet and lawyer Jessica Fjeld, author and thinker David Weinberger, and metaLAB research assistant (and incoming Harvard student) Nikhil Dharmaraj. Inspired by Cambridge Public Library's recent exhibition, The Laughing Room by Jonny Sun and Hannah Davis, in which visitors found themselves on a sitcom set where the laughter was controlled by an Al.
Presented as part of Horizons: Exploring Breakthroughs in Science & Technology and Their Impact on Society, a lecture series of the the STEAM Initiative at Cambridge Public Library Cosponsored by metaLAB (at) Harvard and the ARTificial Intelligence group at MIT.
Jessica Fjeld is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. and the Assistant Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Recently, she has emphasized work with Al-generated art. the overlap of existing rights and ethics frameworks on emerging technologies. and legal issues confronted by digital archives. She holds a JD from Columbia Law School and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts.
Author and thinker David Weinberger explores the effect of technology on ideas. He is a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and is serving a stint as a writer-in-residence at Google's People + Al Resesarch group He was co-director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab. a journalism fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center. and a Franklin Fellow at the US. State Department. He has PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and has worked as a humor writer. His next book, Everyday Chaos (Fall 2019). argues that Al and the Internet are transforming our understanding of how things happen, enabling us to acknowledge the complexity and unknowability of our world.
Nikhil Dharmaraj is fascinated by the intersection of technology and the humanities. As an intern at Harvard's metaLAB, Nikhil worked with artists Jonny Sun and Hannah Davis on The Laughing Room. A senior at The Harker School in San Jose, California, he will enter Harvard College as a member of the Class of 2023.
——————————————
The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century (Paperback)
Monday, February 4
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
The Beiging of America: Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century takes on "race matters" and considers them through the firsthand accounts of mixed race people in the United States. Edited by mixed-race scholars Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Sean Frederick Forbes and Tara Betts, this collection consists of 39 poets, writers, teachers, professors, artists and activists, whose personal narratives articulate the complexities of interracial life.
The Beiging of America was prompted by cultural critic/scholar Hua Hsu, who contemplated the changing face and race of U.S. demographics in his 2009 The Atlantic article provocatively titled "The End of White America." In it, Hsu acknowledged "steadily ascending rates of interracial marriage" that undergirded assertions about the "beiging of America."
The Beiging of America is an absorbing and thought-provoking collection of stories that explore racial identity, alienation, with people often forced to choose between races and cultures in their search for self-identity. While underscoring the complexity of the mixed-race experience, these unadorned voices offer a genuine, poignant, enlightening and empowering message to all readers.
——————————————
The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation
Monday, February 4
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes guiding teacher at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center NARAYAN HELEN LIEBENSON for a discussion of her debut book, The Magnanimous Heart: Compassion and Love, Loss and Grief, Joy and Liberation.
About The Magnanimous Heart
In her long-awaited debut, a beloved master teacher shows us how to move from the “constant squeeze” of suffering to a direct experience of enoughness.
The magnanimous heart is a heart of balance and buoyancy, of generosity and inclusivity. It allows us to approach each moment exactly as it is, in a fresh and alive way free from agendas and “shoulds,” receiving all that arises. It has the capacity to hold anything and everything, transforming even vulnerability and grief into workable assets.
In writing evocative of Pema Chödrön’s, Narayan Helen Liebenson teaches us exactly how it is possible to turn the sting and anguish of loss into a path of liberation—the deep joy, peace, and happiness within our own hearts that exists beyond mere circumstances. The Magnanimous Heart shows us how to skillfully respond to painful human emotions through the art of meditative inquiry, or questioning wisely. Readers will learn how to live from a compassionate love that guides our lives and warms whatever it shines upon. With metta and compassion as companions and allies, we discover how our own magnanimous hearts can gently allow the inner knots to untie themselves.
——————————
Tuesday, February 5
——————————
Community Engagement Forum - Best Practices for Translating Evidence into Policy: Present and Future Considerations
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, 9 – 10:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard Medical School, Countway Library (Ballard Room), 25 Shattuck Street, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Conferences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Catalyst
SPEAKER(S) Panelists include:
Sue Curry, Ph.D., Interim Provost, University of Iowa College of Public Health
Michael Curry, Esq, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs & Public Policy, Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
Carlene Pavlos, MTS, Executive Director, Massachusetts Public Health Association
Eric Rimm, Sc.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Moderated by:
Howard K. Koh, MD, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
TICKET WEB LINK https://hms.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6mXeiiTIHT9Y3pr
DETAILS Join the Harvard Catalyst Community Engagement Program for an expert panel discussion on best practices for translating evidence into policy. The panelists will examine contextual challenges and current best practices and discuss the future of evidence-based policy making and public health. Registration required. Space is limited.
——————————————
The External Sources of Rising State Strength
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CGIS Knafel Building, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Jennifer Lind, Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College; Faculty Associate, Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Moderated by Christina Davis, Acting Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations (Spring 2019); Professor of Government and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
——————————————
UnBooks@Baker with Michael Wheeler
WHEN Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Business School, Cumnock Hall 220, 33 Harvard Way, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Baker Library
SPEAKER(S) Michael Wheeler, Professor of Management (2001-2013)
COST Free
CONTACT INFO schurch@hbs.edu
DETAILS The Art of Negotiation shows how master negotiators thrive in the face of chaos and uncertainty. Michael Wheeler illuminates the improvisational nature of negotiation, drawing on his own research and his work with Program on Negotiation colleagues. He explains how the best practices of diplomats such as George J. Mitchell, dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein, and Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub apply to everyday transactions like selling a house, buying a car, or landing a new contract. Wheeler also draws lessons on agility and creativity from fields like jazz, sports, theater, and even military science.
Based on Wheeler’s chapters on openings, critical moments, and techniques for closing, negotiate123.com seeks to provide business practitioners, MBA students, and other learners an interactive online resource for improving their negotiation skills. The site features key concepts on negotiation illustrated through text, videos, quizzes, and a variety of other interactive tools.
Q&A with the author. Books available for signing.
——————————————
Botany Blast: New and Emerging Pests at the Arnold Arboretum
Tuesday, February 5
6:00–7:00pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Jared Rubinstein, Living Collections Fellow, Arnold Arboretum, and Javier Marin, Forest Pest Outreach Coordinator, Crop & Pest Services, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
The Arnold Arboretum has a long history of finding innovative ways of responding to threats to the collection from pests and diseases. Come learn about some new and emerging pests in the region and how the Arboretum is trying to get ahead of their arrival. We’ll talk specifically about spotted lanternfly, thousand cankers disease, southern pine beetle, and winter moth.
Fee Free, but registration requested
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
——————————————
The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump
Tuesday, February 5
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Three veteran constitutional attorneys say there’s no way around it: The Constitution demands that Donald Trump must be impeached.
And in clear language using compelling logic rooted firmly in the Constitution, they detail why the time to start is now—not in the indefinite future after criminal investigations have ended. In fact, much of Trump’s impeachable conduct lies outside the scope of ongoing federal criminal investigations.
Citing charges such as accepting illegal payments from foreign governments, using government agencies to persecute political enemies, obstructing justice, abusing the pardon power, and the undermining freedom of the press, they provide the factual and legal basis for eight articles of impeachment.
In short, they argue, abuses threatening our constitutional democracy should be dealt with by the remedy that the Constitution provides for a lawless, authoritarian president: impeachment. And an informed citizenry should be part of the process.
After all, they say, impeachment is not a constitutional crisis — impeachment is the cure for a constitutional crisis.
Ron Fein, legal director for Free Speech For People, is a constitutional lawyer who previously served as assistant regional counsel in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he received the National Gold Medal for Exceptional Service. He appears regularly on television and in the op-ed pages of The Washington Post, commenting on constitutional matters.
John Bonifaz is the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People. He previously served as the executive director and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, and as the legal director of Voter Action, a national election integrity organization. A distinguished attorney, he has been at the forefront of key voting rights battles across the country for more than two decades, and is a winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award.
Ben Clements is the chair of the board of directors of Free Speech For People and chair of its legal committee. He is also a founding partner of the Boston law firm, Clements & Pineault, LLP. His clients have included the state and federal governments, candidates for state and federal office, senior public officials, large corporations and small businesses. He is a former federal prosecutor and former chief legal counsel to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
************
——————
Opportunity
----------------
************
Announcing Destination 2040: The next long-range transportation plan for the Boston region
How would you improve the Boston region’s transportation system? That’s the question at the heart of the MPO’s preparations for Destination 2040, which the MPO expects to adopt in the spring of 2019.
Every four years, the MPO identifies the system’s strengths and weaknesses; forecasts changes in population, employment, and land use; and creates a plan to address existing and future mobility needs. The resulting long-range transportation plan (LRTP) allocates funding for major projects in the Boston region and guides the MPO’s funding of capital investment programs and studies.
Use the new Destination 2040 website at http://ctps.org/lrtp-dev to explore the state of the system; learn how the MPO will identify needs, revisit its vision and goals, and prioritize its investments; and share your own interests, concerns, and ideas.
*********
------------
Resource
------------
*********
Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
——————————
Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
Solar map of Cambridge, MA
———————————
Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
————————————
Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
———————————
The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development - http://www.bnid.org/events
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
——————————
Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston: http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
****************************************
------------------------------------------------------
Links to events at over 50 colleges and universities at Hubevents: http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://calendar.mit.edu
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 11 AM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
No comments:
Post a Comment