Reading in the dark
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kestrell" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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06:09 pm
[Link] |
Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi interviews
Neil Gaiman at Google
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LmfCGy_ZLg
and for those in the Boston area, Neil will be the speaker for the first julius Schwartz Memorial Lecture happening on May 23, 7-10 p.m., Kresge Auditorium at MIT.
http://cms.mit.edu/events/specialevents.php#052308
John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow talk about their new young adult books, George Orwell fan fic, and new ways to mentally torture your dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THEGpbnp1tM
Also of potential interest is Cory's article in The Guardian about his top tips for sorting email
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/29/email.filter
Current Location: aerye
Current Mood:  cold
Current Music: www.wumb.org
Tags: books, events, mit, writing
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11:10 am
[Link] |
Web broadcast: It’s a Small World: How Virtual Worlds Are Changing the Ways We Relate”
The Web broadcast of the MIT event I went to on Wednesday has been posted online
It’s a Small World: How Virtual Worlds Are Changing the Ways We Relate”
http://alum.mit.edu/broadcasts
** Warning: While the initial link claims you need RealPlayer to access the broadcast, there is a Windows Media Player option once you click on the first link. However, I could not get this to play the video with my screen reader, so I'm not certain how accessible this site is.
Two comments of particular interest
1. Henry Jenkins's comment that one of the things which is standing in the way of virtual worlds retaining more users is the complexity of the interface. Note that many of the aspects of accessibility which I discuss in this blog include those same characteristics of a userface which tend to make it more easily usable by everyone, including keyboard shortcuts, the ability to get cues or hints as to possible actions, and other features such as
captions and subtitles (someone on the igda.org accessibility mailing list posted this link to
Valve statistics on user experience
http://steampowered.com/status/ep1/?captionsHelp
which includes the fact that
12.33% of users use subtitles and closed captions).
2. Beth Coleman's comments on the six aspects of a healthy virtual world (if anyone listens to this video, I would appreciate a post listing the six characteristics and the title of the 1998 HCI article she references).
Also note that Beth Coleman
blogs at
http://www.projectgoodluck.com/blog/
and is soon releasing a book titled _The Virtual World Primer_.
Current Location: aerye
Current Mood:  frustrated
Current Music: www.wers.org
Tags: media studies, mit, virtual worlds
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10:53 am
[Link] |
Turning Disabled Into Gamers, MIT Aims to Spread Robot Rehab
Article on the development of rehab robots at MIT’s Newman Lab for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4252136.html
I found the following quote especially amusing--now if only I could program live humans to learn this rule.
block quote start
“Apparently, this hasn’t been easy on the physical therapists,” says Hermano Igo Krebs, principal research scientist at MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “It’s a highly aerobic activity for them.” That’s not because the robots are particularly strong—according to Krebs, they’re generally built to be capable of 28 newtons, or roughly the same strength as a “weak woman.” Since these devices aren’t working out muscles, but attempting to restore synaptic connections, there’s no need for additional force. In fact, to build successful rehabilitative robots, MIT had to develop machines whose first priority wasn’t to push back, but to get out of the way.
Krebs compares most robots to a car in low gear. When you’re heading uphill, shifting into first gear makes sense. But once you’re driving downhill, the car is actually resisting gravity, restricting your speed. Likewise, robots are generally built for performance, and even robotic toys rely on sensors to avoid either slapping their human owners around or burning out their motors against us. On assembly lines, potentially lethal industrial robots are built to freeze the instant anyone crosses nearby laser boundaries. Building robots that instantly shift between zero resistance and even a minor amount of force is an ongoing technical challenge.
block quote end
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.937mikefm.com
Tags: disability, games, mit
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07:08 pm
[Link] |
50th Smoot Celebration being planned for October 4, 2008
From a MIT Club of Boston newsletter:
A 50th Smoot Celebration Committee has just begun planning a full day of activities for Saturday, October 4, 2008. They plan to appropriately commemorate
that fall day when Ollie Smoot '62 started on way to becoming a measurement icon. There will be community service events, tours, and a menu of options
for students, alums and their families, and others from the extended MIT community. Current planned events things like a River Cleanup, dedicating a new
plaque on the Bridge, MIT tours, and a nostalgic 50's party in the MIT Museum that evening. Our Club will be co-sponsoring the day, along with the MIT
Class of '62, and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, which has dutifully repainted the markings these last fifty years.
Current Location: aerye
Tags: events, mit
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02:33 pm
[Link] |
2007 Ig Nobles: sword swallowing hamsters on Viagra and cross-referencing confusion
Kes: Part of me wants to get my hands on that military report on the gay bomb so I can try to write the fan fic--there should be fan fic. Hell, there should be a musical, a sort of "Dr. Strangelove" meets "Rocky Horror" epic with songs and dancing and a special guest appearance by Sweet.
The 2007 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday evening, October 4, at the 17th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. You
can watch archived video of the live webcast and find more info at
http://www.improbable.com .
MEDICINE: Dr. Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer for their report "Sword Swallowing and its Side Effects."
PHYSICS: L. Mahadevan and Enrique Cerda Villablanca for studying wrinkle patterns in sheets.
BIOLOGY: Dr. Johanna E.M.H. von Bronswijk for her census of all the mites, insects, spiders, pseudoscorpions, bacteria, algae and ferns found in our beds.
CHEMISTRY: Mayi Yamamoto for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla fragrance and flavoring -- from cow dung.
LINGUISTICS: Juan Manuel Toro, Josep Trobalon and Nuria Sebastian-Galles for demonstrating that rats can't tell the difference between a person speaking
Japanese backward and a person speaking Dutch backward.
LITERATURE: Glenda Browne for her study of the definite article "the" and the ways it causes problems when alphabetizing.
PEACE: The U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory for their proposed "gay bomb," a chemical weapon to make enemy soldiers sexually attracted to each other.
NUTRITION: Brian Wansink, whose experiment with a bottomless bowl of soup showed that humans eat more when presented with more food.
ECONOMICS: Kuo Cheng Hsieh for patenting a device that drops a net over bank robbers.
AVIATION: Patricia Agostino, Santiago Plano and Diego Golombek for discovering that hamsters recover from jet lag faster when given Viagra.
Current Mood: carried away now
Tags: cross-referencing, mad science, mit
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02:49 pm
[Link] |
Internet addiction, computer-assisted therapy, and neuromedia
First, Ed Boyden, an assistant professor in the MIT Media Lab who leads the Neuroengineering and Neuromedia
Group, has begun blogging for Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/boyden/ .
I like the title of the first post
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/boyden/21839/
"In Pursuit of Human Augmentation: The journey toward making "normal" obsolete"
in which he discusses the work being done in the new Augmentation Lab which was launched this summer (and yes, he uses the phrase "neural prosthetics.")
Second, via MindHacks
This week's ABC Radio National All in the Mind
discusses
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2007/2042572.htm
how the internet can affect the mind, whether we can be addicted to it, and how it's being used to delivered effective psychological therapies for a range
of mental disorders.
The show features a number of guests who discuss their pioneering work on using computer technology to provide treatment for mental illness, including Isaac Marks, who is one of the founders of behavioural therapy and also one of the editors of a new book,
Hands-on Help: Computer-aided Psychotherapy
By Isaac M. Marks, Kate Cavanagh, Lina Gega
http://www.cbtarena.com/books/Hands-on-Help-isbn9781841696799 .
Also mentioned during the programme is an online cognitive behaviour therapy for depression website called
MoodGYM.
http://www.moodgym.anu.edu.au/
which has been the subject of some research
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PubMed&orig_db=PubMed&term=MoodGYM&cmd=search
that has found it effective.
Lastly, has anyone else heard the radio commercials for the BrainH2 for the nintendo? I heard one last week on wbos.
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.wumb.org
Tags: brain, disabilitytech, mit, neuromedia, prosthetics
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05:41 pm
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Boston psychologist winds one of twenty-four MacArthur "genius grants"
Kes: The reading group I belong to spent some months reading about the role of soldiers and stories about soldiers, which is why I'm including the description of this winner in particular.
from
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/25/macarthur_foundation_awards_24_grants/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News
block quote start
Another fellow is Dr. Jonathan Shay, a staff psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Boston. His two books -- "Achilles
in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character" and "Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming" -- employ ancient heroes
to help understand the effects of war on individuals.
Shay, 65, is an advocate for choices he believes can be made before soldiers are deployed to aid their psychiatric well-being.
"War is war is war is war," Shay said. "... What's important about it is not what makes it unique, but what makes it a universal experience for the returning
soldiers."
block quote end
Other winners include
a medievalist who has translated works fromHebrew poets of the Andalusian “Golden Age”
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={F026BA49-836B-4CCF-B5CA-05AD4290995B}¬oc=1
Cheryl Hayashi, a biologist studying spider silk
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={CF365623-6253-46D6-80A6-4FFC31F64498}¬oc=1
Corey Harris, a blues musician
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={24D5862A-4523-4604-B59B-4F1EA9375558}¬oc=1
Lisa Cooper is a nationally and internationally recognized physician and public health researcher whose scholarship on clinical communication is improving
medical outcomes for minorities in the United States. A Liberian raised outside of the U.S., she brings a unique perspective to American medical care.
While most studies concerning the disparities in health care across race and gender have focused on socioeconomic causes, Cooper has identified the crucial
role race, ethnicity, and gender play in the physician-patient relationship. In a landmark 1999 Journal of the American Medical Association paper, she
found that minority patients perceived their physicians’ decision-making style as significantly less participatory than non-minorities. She also established a direct link between the propensity of physicians to involve patients in treatment decisions and the success of health care interventions. In response
to these findings, Cooper has developed culturally tailored education programs designed to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and depression among African-Americans. Preliminary results indicate that when patients and physicians are trained in patient-centered communication skills, patients are more likely to keep scheduled appointments, take medications as prescribed, and adhere to diet and exercise regimens.
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={F6E54349-A2BF-4FCD-8041-0DA09A56B5B5}¬oc=1
and an MIT alumn
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={3F4055F9-D3B9-4849-93A6-4729BA0CFE8F}¬oc=1
Saul Griffith is an inventor whose innovations span industrial design, technology, and science education. Through a variety of endeavors at MIT and as a principal in Squid Labs, Griffith demonstrates his boundless energy for inventing across diverse disciplines in the global public interest. While still a graduate student at MIT, he designed a unique membrane-based molding system that can produce a variety of common lenses from a single pair of flexible
molding surfaces. This prototype has the potential to change the economics of corrective lenses in rural and underserved communities around the world
and continues to be a major focus of research and development energy at Squid Labs. At MIT, Griffith co-founded Thinkcycle.org, a web community that has
produced socially conscious engineering solutions, such as novel household water-treatment systems. Thinkcycle.org is the forerunner of Instructables.com,
a remarkable do-it-yourself website driven by user contributions. He is also a creative force behind HowToons, an animated educational resource designed
to engage children in hands-on science and engineering projects. Through the spin-off company Potenco, Griffith initiated the project design for a hand-held human-powered generator, which has the potential significantly to improve access to electronic devices such as laptops and water purifiers throughout the world.
Tags: books, education, macarthur, mit
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12:35 pm
[Link] |
Review: The Winter's Tale, performed at MIT on Thursday, September 20
Thursday night ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alexx_kay and I went to a production of "The Winter's Tale" at MIT put on by students of
THE Cambridge University American Stage Tour (CAST)
http://castonline.org/
and while initially I had my doubts about how enjoyable it would be due to the various ambiguities of the play itself along with the fact that it was a student production, I can definitively state that this was an amazing production that demonstrated once again that these plays were meant to be experienced live, not just read.
Indeed, one of the aspects of CAST's production which made the play so much livelier than I expected was that the company exploited every possible moment for making the play come alive to the audience.
While it didn't occur to me at the time, this sense of liveliness was kicked off when we bumped into eanja and fabrisse before the show and then when we took our seats found ourselves sitting in front of xiphias and cheshyre, maintainers of the wonderful
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) bard_in_boston, virtual home of all things Shakespeare in the Boston area.
The play itself is, as I commented, a bit ambiguous in its categorization: while the theme itself is very dark--jealousy and the destruction it enacts not only upon individuals but upon families and social order--the play is often listed as a comedy, because nobody actually dies (thanks, Fabrisse). According to Marjorie Garber's book _Shakespeare After All_, Winter's Tale can be categorized as one of the late romances, along with Tempest and Midsummer's Night, and also as one of the triad of "jealousy plays" which include Much Ado and Othello. The players made a creative choice to highlight the comedic parts of the play while not downplaying the darker elements, the two main means for doing this being the use of puppets and the use of character/costuming references to Lewis Carroll's _Alice in Wonderland_.
Yet the use of children's toys and stories did not detract from the dark theme of jealousy and violence. As anyone who knows about the secret history of Punch and Judy can tell you, violence is woven through the oldest puppet plays. And as for stories, a winter's tale is a story told during the darkest part of the year.
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Current Location: aerye
Current Mood: mercurial
Current Music: www.wmbr.org
Tags: events, mit, reviews, shakespeare, theatre
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05:49 pm
[Link] |
MIT Press Loading Dock sale+other book events
Kes: alexx_kay and I count the MIT Press loading doc sale to be an annual anniversay evene, and it really is a wonderful event. Last year's find came from a fellow CMSer who called from across the room "Kes! I have a cultural history of footnotes here..." and I just put up my hand and he slapped it into my palm. Yes. Oh, and the other book someone found for me was a book about the computers of Star Trek. Being a media studies scholar means never having to say your sorry for justifying your Star Trek books as a professional expense.
News from the MIT Press Bookstore
* Fall Loading Dock Sale
* the 2007 Ig Informal Lectures
* authors@mit reading with Robin Lippincott
Also: Sherry Turkel's new book _Evocative Objects_ which includes an essay by Henry Jenkins
The Fall 2007
MIT PRESS BOOKSTORE LOADING DOCK SALE
DAY: Saturday & Sunday
DATE: October 20th & 21st
TIME: 10:00am to 7:00pm
ROOM: MIT E38, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
MAP:
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E38
"a feeding frenzy for the brain"
On October 20th & 21st The MIT Press Bookstore will hold its legendary Loading Dock Sale. Literally *tons* of books will be on sale at drastically reduced
prices--up to 90% off their original retail price. Can't come in the morning? Don't worry--new items will be added throughout the course of this two day
extravaganza. You've heard the stories, now see it for yourself!
For parking or event information call 253-5249, email books@mit.edu, or check
http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/
Evocative Objects: Things We Think With
Edited by Sherry Turkle
For links to a podcast interview with the author, table of contents, and sample chapters, go to
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11121&mode=toc
The 2007 Ig Informal Lectures
DAY: Saturday
DATE: October 6, 2007
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Current Location: aerye
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: www.wumb.org
Tags: books, events, fetish, mit
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01:22 pm
[Link] |
MIT: Marvin Minsky talk tomorrow on The Emotion Machine
Kes: I attended Minsky's lectures on this during my final semester at MIT, and you can, as noted below, read it online.
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
http://www.csail.mit.edu/events/eventcalendar/calendar.php?show=event&id=1557
Topic: The Emotion Machine
Speaker: Professor Marvin Minsky, EECS
Date/Time: Wed, 12-Sep-2007; Refreshments: 3:00PM, Talk 3:15PM to 4:30
Location: MIT Stata Center (Building 32), Room 32-G449 (Patil Room)
Relevant URL:
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/E7/eb7.html
Most previous proposals to make AIs have foundered because each was
based on some single idea -- no matter that it was a valuable one. For
example, these approaches included using formal logic, neural
networks, statistical learning or simulated evolution. And while each
of these can solve some class of problems, none of them came to be
able to do the more "reflective" kinds of thinking that make human
beings so much more resourceful. So, I?ll briefly describe the
multilevel "Critic-Selector" architecture developed in my book, The
Emotion Machine. I hope this scheme will help us to build a system
that can exploit every clever idea that we can imagine.
To prepare for the talk, I suggest that you read the draft of
Chapter 7 of the book, which you can find at
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/E7/eb7.html
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.937mikefm.com
Tags: ai, events, mit
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02:57 pm
[Link] |
MIT Gambit lab develops accessible deejay game for blind gamers
Kes: This is the game I spent some time testing this past summer--you can find out more about it on Eitan's Web site
http://www.eitanglinert.com
and note that Eitan is looking for more blind testers as development continues.
Video games' new frontier: The visually impaired
By Steve Mollman
For CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/09/02/video.blind/
Forget shoot-em-up addicts -- video games are reaching out to the rest of us.
The greatest symbol of this is the Wii console from Nintendo. Its innovative wireless control -- the Wiimote -- has even non-gamers excited as they swing
it through the air to control, say, a tennis racket on the screen.
Wii's Wiimote may play a pivotal role in bringing the visually impaired into the electronic gaming fold.
But not quite everyone has been reached. One group is still largely ignored by video game makers: the blind.
With that in mind, a team of researchers at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in Massachusetts set out this summer to make a music-based video game that's
designed for mainstream players and also accessible to the blind.
Appropriately, perhaps, they incorporated the Wiimote into the game-play, though it's optional.
The resulting DJ game, designed for the PC, is called AudiOdyssey. In it, players try to lay down different tracks in a song by swinging and waving the
Wiimote in time with the beats. Or they can just use keyboard controls.
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Current Location: aerye
Current Mood:  pleased
Tags: accessibility, blindness, games, mit
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04:37 pm
[Link] |
Cambridge: Susan Cooper events in November
Posted to a local sf-related list--I will definitely have to make the MIT event, woot! The Dark Is Rising movie is one fantasy film about which I am actually excited.
Hello,
I'm writing from the Cambridge Public Library to let your group know that we will be hosting two events in November highlighting the work of Susan Cooper
and fantasy writing, with the theme of "Unriddling the World." On November 14th, there will be a panel discussion (held at MIT) with the panelists being
Susan Cooper, Gregory Maguire, and Roger Sutton (executive editor of the Horn Book Magazine.) On November 15th, the Cambridge Forum will host Susan Cooper
for a talk at the First Parish in Cambridge , Harvard Square.
I have attached a "save the date" flyer [cut-n-pasted into the message below] which says a bit more about these events for those who are interested. We
are compiling a large list of places where we would like to send publicity for these events, but we would love your ideas about any other groups where
events might be listed on a website, etc. Is there a place on your website we could publicize this event? Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for any ideas you have, and if you have any questions about the events, please feel free to call Daryl Mark at 617-349-4409.
Sincerely,
Amy Newmark
Cambridge Public Library
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.wumb.org
Tags: books, events, fantasy, mit
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09:59 am
[Link] |
Boston: Accessible game project needs blind testers
Kes: I'm posting this for some folks at MIT who are working on an accessible game project.
My name is Mark Sullivan, and I’m part of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. As the name suggests, our group makes video games. My group’s objective is
to make a game playable for the blind and visually impaired, yet still fun for everyone. At this point I don’t want to give too much away, but we are
designing it to be a DJ game. All games need testing, and therefore we are in search of blind or visually impaired testers. No background in testing,
games, or being a DJ is necessary. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me. We are in Cambridge at MIT, so I can arrange to meet you
somewhere in the area. I would ask for about an hour of your time. Thanks for reading, I hope to hear from you soon!
Sincerely,
Mark Sullivan
marks3@mit.edu
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: www.wumb.org Keep Your Eyes On the Prize
Tags: accessibility, games, mit
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10:31 am
[Link] |
MIT Center for Human Augmentation announces ABLETech conference for June 6
Kes: I am registered to attend this, and I still hope to get my notes from last week's H+ conference online--John Hockenberry is an outstanding speaker and Hugh Herr is one of my heroes.
A.B.L.E. Tech:
Achieving Better Life Experiences
For People with Injury, Disability, and Aging
Challenges Through 21st Century Technologies
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Register
http://WWw.mitenterpriseforum.org
Kresge Auditorium, MIT Campus
Our featured panel is moderated by NBC News correspondent and MIT Media Lab Distinguished Fellow,
John Hockenberry,
and features MIT Media Lab Professor
Hugh Herr,
and noted inventor, entrepreneur and president of DEKA Research,
Dean Kamen.
5:30pm Networking
7:00pm Program
Registration and deTAILS
http://enterpriseforum.mit.edu/network/broadcasts/200706/index.html
Description of The Center for Human Augmentation from the program packet:
block quote start
The MIT Media Laboratory has created a Center for Human Augmentation to develop a new generation of cognitive, emotional, sensory, and physical tools for the improvement of quality of life, not only for the disabled, but for all people. Here, scientists and engineers will seek to unlock the secrets of the human body and mind to develop a powerful new generation of machines that will forever change human capability.
( Read more... )
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: Keep Holding On
Tags: disabilitytech, events, mit
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10:10 am
[Link] |
h2.0 at the MIT Media Lab explores intersection of disability, technology, and identity
Kes: This is where I will be tomorrow--it's as if almost everyone I mention in
my thesis
http://www.blindbookworm.org/decloakingdisabilitycomplete.rtf
will be there, and I am hoping to get an autograph from Aimee Mullins. Note the url at the bottom of the blurb: the conference will be webcast live.
h2.0 -New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities
presented by the MIT Media Lab
hosts
JOHN HOCKENBERRY
award-winning journalist; distinguished Media Lab fellow
HUGH HERR
NEC Career Development Professor, MIT Media Lab
keynote
OLIVER SACKS
special guests
MICHAEL GRAVES
MICHAEL CHOROST
JOHN DONOGHUE
AIMEE MULLINS
DOUGLAS H. SMITH
The program will focus on the Media Lab's sweeping new research initiatives for augmenting mental and physical capability to vastly improve the quality
of human life. Presenters will explore how today's—and tomorrow's—advances will seamlessly interact with humans, giving us a glimpse into a future where
all humans will integrate with technology to heighten our cognition, emotional acuity, perception, and physical capabilities.
The symposium can be viewed through our live Webcast, available here on May 9 at 8:30 am.
http://h20.media.mit.edu/
Please Join Us
Current Location: aerye
Current Music: Nickelback I'm Alive
Tags: cyborg, disabilitytech, mit
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03:31 pm
[Link] |
MIT game developer looking for blind/visually impaired testers
Kes: I did some consulting with Eitan a couple of months back, and now he is looking for blind/visually impaired users to test the interface of the game is designing.
( description below cut )
Tags: accessibility, games, mit
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11:35 am
[Link] |
Cambridge Science Festival April 21-April 29
The Cambridge Science Festival Saturday April 21Sunday April 29
http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/
Kes: Science for all ages, includes lots of science/art collaborations and lots of these events are free, such as
Wednesday April 25, 10:00AM - 5:00PM
MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA. Learning Lab.
Take a Trip to the Stars! (Activity)
Toddler/pre-school sing-along. Today's theme: all about the stars!
and
Wednesday April 25, 10:30AM
Central Square Branch Library, 45 Pearl Street, Cambridge, MA
Stem Cell Town Meeting (Talk)
but the most fun event sounds like
Science Trivia Smackdown!
SCIENCE TRIVIA CONTEST
Wednesday, April 25 at 6:30PM
Kirsch Auditorium at MIT's Stata Center
Kirsch Auditorium is room 32-123 in MIT’s building numbering scheme. Parking is available off Main St. at the East Garage Annex surface lot.
Ira Flatow, the colorful host of National Public Radio’s “Science Friday” will be moderating. Every participant will receive
some kind of award, and the overall winners will be treated to a lunch with Nobel Prize-winning scientists like Jerome Friedman, Bob Horvitz, and Frank Wilczek!
* Youth (High School) and Open Divisions
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Tags: events, mit
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03:09 pm
[Link] |
MIT Loading Dock Book Sale April 14-15
Kes: Not a bad way to begin National Reading Week April 15-21
Edited: Okay, April 13-21 is actually National Library Week, but there's no reason you can't use that as a reason to enrich your own personal library.
The Spring 2007
MIT PRESS BOOKSTORE LOADING DOCK SALE
DAY: Saturday & Sunday
DATE: April 14th & 15th
TIME: 10:00am to 7:00pm
ROOM: MIT E38, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
MAP:
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E38
Current Location: aerye
Current Mood: bookish
Current Music: Fresh Air interview with Richard Gere
Tags: books, events, mit
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02:00 pm
[Link] |
MIT: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Collective Action
Kes: I'm going, is anyone else interested?
Topic: Virtual Worlds and the Future of Collective Action
Speaker: Beth Simone Noveck, New York Law School
Date/Time: Thursday 29-Mar-2007 at 4:00 PM
Location: MIT Media Lab; E15 in the Wiesner Room on the 2nd Floor
Beth Simone Noveck, who is a professor of law and director of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School and is a visiting professor at Stanford University
( more information below cut )
Tags: mit, onlinecommunities, virtualworlds
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01:02 pm
[Link] |
Paper accepted for feminism and activism conference at MIT March 23-25
My paper
'Math is hard' Redux: The challenge of creating a support network for young blind women in mathematics
has been accepted for the
2007 Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies Conference, Beyond Revolution or Behind It?
The Politics and Practice of Contemporary Feminism across Academic and Activist Communities.
March 23 -25, 2007
Stata Center, MIT Campus
http://web.mit.edu/gcws
The conference is free and open to the public
all are welcome! We do request that participants register, though. As you spread the word, ask that interested folks email gcws@mit.edu.
Abstract:
As both a blind technology consumer and an academic whose background is in the intersections of disability studies and media technologies, I have researched and written about cultural images of people with disabilities and their use of technology. One unforseen consequence of my research and activism is that I am often called upon to mentor young women with disabilities who have been persuaded by their own academic advisors that disabled students cannot "do" math, science, or technology. These are young women who are not just being told "math is hard" but "math is impossible."
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Current Mood:  nervous
Current Music: MIT radio station
Tags: events, mit, writing
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