Archive for the ‘Lectures’ Category
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
February Skeptics in the Pub
Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 6:30 pm
Al’s Wine and Whiskey Lounge, 321 S. Clinton St., Syracuse
Come hang out with Central New York Skeptics at Al’s in Armory Square. Larry Slosberg is the organizer of this event.
March CNY Skeptics Meeting
CNY Skeptics Presents Bryce Hand, Ph.D., on Climate Change
Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 7:00 pm
DeWitt Community Library at Shoppingtown Mall
Buckland Community Room
Join us at our March meeting where longtime CNY Skeptics member Bryce Hand, Ph.D., will talk to us about climate change. Bryce is professor emeritus of geology at Syracuse University.
Here’s what he says about his presentation:
This contentious and politically charged issue involves several very important questions: (1) Is it happening? (2) If so, is it our fault? (3) Should we care? and (4) Is there anything we can do to reduce future warming, if in fact it seems to be a problem?
My response to every one of these questions is “Yes,” and I’ll try to show why thousands of scientists active in climate research agree. We’ll look at the historic (and geologically ancient) record, the physics driving “greenhouse” warming, and some implications few people are aware of, while addressing the usual counter-claims of deniers.
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Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
Damian Allis on “Controversy in Science”
Listen to Damian Allis’s talk (35 MB). The file is large; please be patient while it loads.
The infinite unknown that is our universe is being studied by a finite number of people with finite budgets and a finite number of hours in the day, many of them with real jobs to boot. Opinion and intuition have served as double-edged swords throughout the practical application of the scientific method, often weighing down now-famous great leaps forward for reasons having nothing to do with science itself.
Damian will spend his time being both antagonistic and defensive as he discusses some of the history of now-obvious-but-previously-insane truths and facts gleaned from the scientific method, then will briefly describe his own work in the field of molecular manufacturing, an area of research previously seen as profoundly forward, then game-changing, then heretical, then highly suspect, and now increasingly academic, all without strong experimental evidence for or against for most of its history.
Damian Allis is research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Syracuse University.
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Saturday, November 19th, 2011
Mike Affleck on “How Christians Got It All Wrong”
Listen to Mike Affleck’s talk(46 MB). The file is large; please be patient while it loads.
Our November 2011 meeting featured a talk by Mike Affleck. In his talk he discusses the following:
“Two Jewish teachers emerged at the same time and in the same place: first century Judea. They offered two very different perspectives on the same catastrophic situation: Rome’s assault on the life of the Jews. The difference in their perspective has largely been lost in the surprising embrace of the teachings of John by followers of Jesus.
“John looked at Rome’s occupation of the Jewish Homeland and made a bold prediction: God is coming, soon, to make things right. Jesus looked at the same situation and concluded that John was very nearly right, but his timing was wrong. God is not coming soon. God’s kingdom is already here. Yet the followers of Jesus nearly universally side with John. How did it happen?”
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Thursday, October 27th, 2011
November 2011
CNY Skeptics Presents Mike Affleck
“How Christians Got It All Wrong”
Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 7:00 pm
DeWitt Community Library at Shoppingtown Mall
Buckland Community Room
We invited Mike Affleck back to talk on any topic of his choosing. He picked a compelling one:
How Christians Got It All Wrong
Two Jewish teachers emerged at the same time and in the same place: first century Judea. They offered two very different perspectives on the same catastrophic situation: Rome’s assault on the life of the Jews. The difference in their perspective has largely been lost in the surprising embrace of the teachings of John by followers of Jesus.
John looked at Rome’s occupation of the Jewish Homeland and made a bold prediction: God is coming, soon, to make things right. Jesus looked at the same situation and concluded that John was very nearly right, but his timing was wrong. God is not coming soon. God’s kingdom is already here. Yet the followers of Jesus nearly universally side with John.
How is that?
Mike Affleck is an art model and actor, theologian, and social activist.
Photo of John the Baptist by Lawrence OP on Flickr.
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Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
February 2011
“Peak Oil and the Economy: Should We Be Concerned?” Presentation by David Murphy, Ph.D.
Wednesday, February 16, at 7:15 pm at the DeWitt Community Library at Shoppingtown Mall.
Our economy runs on fossil fuels, and oil most importantly. Many believe that we have reached a peak in global oil production (i.e. peak oil) and will soon be facing a decline. Meanwhile, many others believe that a combination of technology and exploration can secure oil supplies for the foreseeable future. Who is right, and what are the potential economic impacts if they are right? I will try to answer these questions in my talk.
David Murphy holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from State University of New York-College of Environmental Science and Forestry, largely focused on the interplay between energy and economics. In addition to academic work, he contributes to the energy blog The Oil Drum and is an independent consultant within the energy field. He has published a number of articles on the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) of different energy sources, and is currently studying the energy-GDP relation from a thermodynamic perspective.
Image by adpowers on Flickr.
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Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
David Cay Johnston on Taxes
Listen to David Cay Johnston’s talk (61 MB). The file is large, so please be patient while it loads.
Our October 2010 meeting featured a talk by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston. Johnston’s talk, “Taxes, Not What You Think,” can be heard by clicking the link above.
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