Speaker: Elinor Karlsson (University of Massachusetts Medical School / Broad Institute)In person or on Zoom at https://mit.zoom.us/j/93513735220

Computers can get lost or stolen. Data can become corrupted. Hardware can fail. Setting up a solid backup system is key to avoiding data loss and restoring your data when catastrophe strikes. This session will cover what a good backup system looks like and what resources are available at MIT to help you confidently back up your stuff.

Professor Rochelle Terman from the University of Chicago at will speak at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.Summary: Public perceptions and representations of global affairs are central to International Relations (IR) scholarship, yet existing methodologies—such as surveys and media analysis—face temporal and coverage constraints. In this paper, we introduce a new, comprehensive dataset of country representations in millions of English-language books over 120 years. Harnessing the massive Google Books Ngram Corpus and cutting-edge text-as-data methods, we track the distribution of attention and meaning attached to 256 countries in both American and British print culture from 1900 to 2019. We measure both the frequency of country mentions and the semantic associations attached to them using dynamic word embeddings. Our analysis reveals enduring and evolving discursive frames—such as China’s association with growth/decline and Russia’s with grand strategy—demonstrating the persistence of country images in American public discourses. We validate our measures against established benchmarks and highlight their utility for studying international reputation, status, and public discourse. By expanding the temporal and substantive scope of text-based IR research, this study provides a valuable resource for examining long-term trends in public perceptions of global affairs and international relations.Dr. Austin Long will offer some reflections on the development of US nuclear policy, drawing on his experience as the Joint Staff deputy director, Strategic Stability Strategy, Plans and Policy Directorate within the Department of Defense's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Do you have a long-term home for your research data? Somewhere it can be persistently accessed so that other researchers can replicate your research or to comply with journal or funder requirements? There are many options out there, but we're here to help you narrow it down. This short workshop runs through MIT Libraries' recommendations for data repositories, as well as some of the main characteristics to consider as you decide where your data should be made available.

Ten minutes for your mind@2:50 every day at 2:50 pm in multiple time zones:Europa@2:50, EET, Athens, Helsinki (UTC+2) (7:50 am EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88298032734Atlantica@2:50, EST, New York, Toronto (UTC-4) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85349851047Pacifica@2:50, PST, Los Angeles, Vancouver (UTC=7) (5:50 pm EST) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85743543699Almost everything works better again if you unplug it for a bit, including your mind. Stop by and unplug. Get the benefits of mindfulness without the fuss.@2:50 meets at the same time every single day for ten minutes of quiet together.No pre-requisite, no registration needed.Visit the website to view all @2:50 time zones each day.at250.org or at250.mit.edu

PPSM Seminar