Topics for 2015

Thursday, January 8, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For January we will continue with topic related to climate change, including geo-engineering, green jobs, oceans, fresh  water, agriculture and more. I will post a video a week before the next meeting which is on January 8.

In the meantime, please post your suggestion for other topics for the coming year.

Movies to Watch in 2014

Thursday, December 18, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the last meeting of the year, we will just have fun by examining the movies of 2014. The Golden Globes nomination just came out today, and we can use this as a guide. But if there is a movie that you would like to discuss, please add your movie suggestion as a comment. It does not matter if you saw the movie or not. Often the topic of the movie is enough for stimulating conversation.

Life Stories

Thursday, December 11, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The schedule shows that December will be used for catch-up and trying new things. The first meeting of December was use to reschedule the Clean Energy Innovation meeting from November. The meeting focused on the upside. But there is also a downside and I said we would cover that next week. However, during the meeting, many more Climate Change topics came up including, water shortage,  energy storage, climate politics, green jobs, nuclear power, geo-engineering and the Clathrate Gun Hypothesis. As a result we will reserve January to cover these and any other topic of Climate Change.

So next week we try something new. There are many superb TED Talks about people who did interesting with there lives. These life stories provide life lessons that applies to anyone, and they are told in a way that is truly inspirational. For the test case, we will show the two talks from Diana Nyad, who at age 64 swam from Cuba to Florida. She is the only TED speaker to give a talk about a glorious failure and then return after achieving success.

Will breakthrough technology rescue the climate?

Bain Center is closed on November 20. Meeting has been rescheduled to:
Thursday, December 4, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Frustrated with the inaction on climate change, the top innovators are taking matters into their own hand. Borrowing from the TED conference model, Goggle has started a "Solve for X" conference for innovators with big ideas, called moonshots, to pitch their ideas to investors. Like TED, Google has place these talks on the web so anyone can view them. The conference is for any big idea, but most of the talks were related to climate change. We will show these videos at our next meeting:

1. A quick review of the 2014 conference
2. The 2014 keynote talk by Ira Glass
3. A 2013 talk by Bill Gross about cheap solar power that was referred to by Ira Glass

-------------------------------- Update 12/6/14 ----------------------

HERE is a link to the video about wind power innovation that was shown during the meeting.

Does the UN have the right Carbon target?

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The UN plan to address Climate Change is for the world to get to zero carbon emission by 2100 and keep global average temperature rise below 2 degrees C from the preindustrial era. This means that the carbon concentration needs to be kept below 450 ppm; we are currently at 400 ppm.

However, there is a belief by some very influential climate activists that say we are already past the safe limit and need to go back to 350 ppm. The 350 target was determined by perhaps the most famous climate scientist, James Hansen.

In our next Zoom-In meeting we will discuss climate science. We will start by viewing James Hansen's TED Talk. 

-------------------------------- Update 11/13/14 -------------------------------

Here are the links to the other videos that were shown at our meeting:

1) This video explains why cold winters are becoming more common with climate change.

2) HERE is the intro to the IPCC final report, which includes Ban Ki-moon the UN Secretary General.

The Climate Change Issue

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

At the United Nations Climate Summit, on September 23, President Obama said:

For all the immediate challenges that we gather to address this week -- terrorism, instability, inequality, disease -- there’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.

Then he bombed ISIS in Syria, and Climate Change vanished from the media. However, there was an effort by Tom Steyer's NextGen Climate PAC to make Climate Change a factor in the election.

When we meet next Thursday, after election day, we will know if the Climate Change issue had any impact at all. We will look back at the UN Climate Summit and consider what was said by the two most prominent speakers, President Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio.

-------------------------------- Update 11/6/14 -------------------------------

Here are links to some of the information that was referenced in our discussion:

1) Book about Climate Change impact on world security:
Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence by Christian Parenti

2) On the Pentagon report that Climate Change as a threat multiplier, including "infectious diseases and terrorism." The full report is HERE.

3) Concerning the methane plumes in DiCaprio's talk, here is some background information on methane hydrates.

4)  Climate Action Plan that was mentioned by Obama in his UN summit talk.

5) When Obama said that the US was helping developing nations in Africa to get clean energy, he was referring to the Power Africa program.

6) Here is a list the UN Climate Change Conferences. Kyoto was COP3 in 1997. Copenhagen was COP15 in 2009. Next month is COP20 in Lima. Next year, at COP21 in Paris, the nations of the world will make pledges, hopefully binding, to meet carbon reduction targets.

National Election Issues Continued

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our last meeting, we mostly talked about Maryland election issues. So for the next meeting, we will discuss national issues. Sherman passed out a list of national issues and we can use this as a starting point. But the list was rather long; so we need your help in picking the topics of discussion. Please look at the list and pick one issue you would like the group to discuss. If you can't find your issue on the list, bring it up anyway.

If you post your issue, as a comment to this blog, it will allow the rest of us to look up relevant facts.

Maryland and National Election Issues

Thursday, October 23, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue our election discussion with a shift to state and national issues. Sherman will be leading the discussion. If you have an issue you would like to discuss please let us know by adding a comment to this blog post. Our conversation goes much better when we have a chance to do a little research.

Local Election Issues

Thursday, October 16, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

I planned to cover Maryland and Howard County election issues on the last week of October, but early voting starts on October 23 and it would make more sense to have a discussion on local elections before then. We will discuss local elections on October 16 and reschedule the ObamaCare discussion  to October 30. We will have a broad discussion on the national election on October 23.

Ken has agreed to lead the discussion and he will surely bring interesting discussion topics, like he did in our primary election meeting in April.. However, we would have a better meeting if you brought your own issues you would like to discuss. If you post your issue to the blog, it would give the rest of us time to prepare. So please do!

----------- Update 10/17/14 -----------

Here is copy of Ken's presentation at the meeting:

The only certain local general election contests that I see are for County Executive, Council District 1, Delegate district 9B, and four seats on the school board.  However, there are possible contest for Senate District 9 and for the third seat in Delegate district 12.

It's over for all of the other four Council seats, where the incumbents (three Democrats and Republican Greg Fox in district 5) will be reelected.  There isn't even any GOP opposition to Terrasa or Sigaty.

Also definitely settled is everything in legislative district 13.  Team 13 for the Democrats did such a good job in the primary of publicizing the newcomer to their slate (delegate candidate Vanessa Atterbeary) that she finished first.  It shouldn't be necessary for them to do the same again.  And Delegate district 9A is so Republican that no Democrat could possibly win it.  Incumbent Warren Miller will be reelected and Trent Kittleman (step-mother of Allan) will join him in Annapolis.

 

I wouldn't want to bet on who's going to win the County Executive race between Democrat Courtney Watson and Republican Allan Kittleman.  Both are strong candidates with long family histories of service to the county.  Courtney's father, Ed Cochran, served one term as the second Howard County Executive.  Allan's late father Bob Kittleman had served in both the House of Delegates and the Senate.  I first met Bob Kittleman as he worked the polls in Savage in 1962 and soon after that in his role as Education chair for the county NAACP, when the push was on for an accelerated pace of school desegregation.  On issues, Allan is very much like Bob: very conservative on economic matters and willing to take a stand against discrimination and for reform.  You can see from his responses to the Sun questionnaire that he's no orthodox Republican.  I expect the main reason why he didn't seek reelection to the Senate was because of mutual discomfort in the party caucus.  He had to give up his role as Senate Minority Leader when he voted for the Marriage Equality bill.  His vote to repeal the death penalty was joined by only one other Senate Republican,  This year, his vote to ban transgender discrimination went against the party rank and file.  But he's definitely with them on such matters as guns and spending.  Courtney Watson has a record as a member of the school board and the Council and she's campaigning, with a ton of money behind her, as at least a moderate liberal.  Howard County has been trending Democratic for some time now, so Kittleman has his work cut out for him in trying at attract registered Democrats and independents.  The only Republican County Executive here (Chuck Ecker) barely squeaked by in 1990 and had it a little easier in 1994.  As I see it, anything can happen in this race.

 

The only Council district that either party could win is Council district 1, which Courtney Watson is leaving.  However, in the redistricting process, Democrats made it a little easier for themselves by adding all of Dorsey's Search (including the precinct south of Rt. 108) to it.  These four precincts could provide a plus of 400 to 500 votes for the Democrats over what they get from the rest of the territory.  It also probably doesn't hurt that their candidate (Jon Weinstein) ran for delegate in most of the District 1 precincts in 2010 and that Republican candidate (Kevin Schmidt) is a relative newcomer to county politics.

 

The most uncertain legislative contest is in LD9B, which mainly consists of south and southeast Ellicott City, between Democrat Tom Coale and Republican Bob Flanagan.  The latter has name recognition as a former delegate and Ehrlich cabinet member and as the narrow loser to Courtney Watson in Council district 1 four years ago.  Coale was a Republican as recently as two years ago, but comes across in the Sun questionnaire and public forums as far more liberal than Flanagan.  Democratic redistricters created 9B in an effort to elect one more of their brand to a seat in Annapolis.  They will be quite upset if Coale loses or if he wins and turns out to be not as liberal as he sounds.

 

Not quite certain are the Senate seat in LD9 or, some say, the third delegate seat in LD12.  In that LD9 Senate race, the very conservative Republican Delegate Gail Bates should be strongly favored to win it because two-thirds of the territory is extremely Republican and the 9B section seems less extremely Democratic.  But Democratic newcomer Ryan Frederic is putting a lot of money into his campaign and has gotten endorsements from unions and women's rights groups that are unhappy with Bates.  You can see how they stand on issues from their responses to the Sun's questionnaire.

 

In district 12, it seems clear that the two Howard Countians running (Democrats Clarence Lam and Terri Hill) are a lock to win two of the three delegate seats.  That's because most of the voters in the district will be Howard Countians and the other four candidates for these seats reside in Baltimore County.  But the Columbia end of the district is so Democratic that I expect the third Democrat (Eric Ebersole) to join them as winners.  The biggest threat coming from the Republican side is businessman Joe Hooe, who has run for delegate a couple of times already but never in the Columbia territory.  As long as Ebersole doesn't fall too far behind among Baltimore County voters, he should cruise in Columbia.

 

That gets us to school board, where there seems to be some strange nastiness going on.  Six members of the county board voted to condemn fellow member Cindy Vaillancourt for daring to mention the word "condom" in talking with a group of people including some students.  Somebody got all irate and filed an official complaint alleging sexual harassment by her and this is hanging over her head through the election and maybe after (with talk of impeachment and removal).  Of the eight primary winners, Vaillancourt finished first, with 15,851 votes (ahead of fellow incumbent Sandra French, who had 14,688).  Somebody up there in officialdom seems unhappy about that.  Thus, in my opinion, the nastiness.  We'll see whether this whole charade over condoms helps or hurts Vaillancourt, who is one of four teacher's union endorsees, in the election.  I expect someone has shot themselves in the foot and it's not the candidate who finished first in the primary.  The other three teacher's union endorsees, who finished just behind French in the primary, are Professor Bess Altwerger (with 12,733 votes), lawyer Dan Furman (with 11,880 votes), and pediatrician Dr. Zee Beams (with 10,042 votes).  The other three candidates, who finished sixth, seventh, and eighth, are Christine O'Connor, former member Allen Dyer, and lawyer Mike Smith.  They received 8477, 7724, and 6730 votes respectively.  O'Connor seems the best situated of this trio, since she has a base of support in Elkridge and the northeast.  Dyer may get a boost out of the board majority's attack on Vaillancourt, since he may now be more likely to be perceived as a previous victim  of an education establishment vendetta.  But he was indeed a serious boat-rocker and seems determined to remain such.  The makeup of the board majority is at stake in this election.  If Sandra French is reelected, the current majority will remain in power.  If the four union candidates all win, they'll have a 4-3 majority on the board.

(There is a letter from school board chair Ellen Flynn Giles in the Sun on Oct. 14 that defends the board’s position on the anti-Vaillancourt action.)

 

Finally, there are the rather unexciting ballot questions:  two statewide and one local.  Question 1 would make it difficult to move money intended for transportation projects from the state Transportation Trust Fund.  Senate president Mike Miller introduced this constitutional amendment and pushed it to passage.  Question 2 would enable charter counties to fill County Executive vacancies by special election (which they can already do for Council members if they choose).  That would also apply to the Mayor in Baltimore City.

Local Question A would allow the Howard County Council, by two-thirds vote (meaning four of the five members), to extend the deadline for consideration of legislation for a second 30 days.  They can already do that, by the same means, for a single 30 day period.  Without any extension at all, county legislation dies automatically after 65 days.

 

Ken

The Missing Healthcare Debate

To be scheduled later

ObamaCare was supposed to be the primary issue of the 2014 midterm elections, but has since been overshadowed by ISIL and Ebola. Just as well, since the political discussion of ObamaCare had deteriorated to a "food fight". What we really missed was an honest debate on how to best fix the US healthcare system. Here is a TED Talk about the lost opportunity.

War on Terror

Thursday, October 9, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will discuss the renewed war on terror and its affect on the election. We will use this TED Talk by  Chris Fuller as a guide. We will break the discussion in three parts:

1. The new terror organizations, al-Qaeda 3.0
2. The underlying causes
3. How does it end

------ Update 10/9/14 ------

Here is an article by Bruce Riedel, who is mentioned in the above TED Talk, about Al Qaeda 3.0.

This article offers a reason why drones are ineffectual against the current form of Al Qaeda.

Schedule for 2014Q4

Here are the themes for October to December:

• October - Political issues ahead of the November 4 elections

• November - Climate Change issues leading to the UN Climate Conference in December

• December - Unfinished business, covering leftover issues and trying new ideas of future themes

Political Asteroids

Thursday, October 2, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will start the new quarter with a discussion of political issues that will likely dominate the election in November. We will use this TED Talk by Jonathan Haidt to get started. He is concern with the political divide between the Left and the Right. One side sees an issue as existential, like an approaching asteroid. While the other side sees the same issue as minor or a hoax. Watch the video to see his examples of Political Asteroids. Come with you own examples of Political Asteroids that we can discuss in the upcoming meetings in October.

Getting to Zero Carbon Emission

Thursday, September 25, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In spite of all the promise of the gas and oil fracking boom, it still emits significant amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Here is a TED Talk by Bill Gates about the need to get to zero carbon emission. Spoiler Alert: He is advocating nuclear energy.

This is the last meeting for the quarter. Please come with suggested topics for the next quarter, or even better, leave a suggestion on the blog.

Fracking, Part 2

Thursday, September 18, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue our discussion on fracking, this time focusing on the articles that Bill distributed in the last meeting. Please take time to read the articles and use this week to find supporting or opposing material on the web.

Natural gas is now so plentiful, that it needs new markets. It is replacing coal to generate electricity and it will soon be exported as LNG. Bill has several articles about how natural gas will provide the feedstock to a revived chemical industry.

However, natural gas does not convert economically to the liquid fuels needed for transporation. Our last TED speaker, T. Boone Pickens, wanted to covert our commercial truck fleet to run on natural gas to free us from imported OPEC oil. However, this became a moot issue with the boom in fracked oil, as shown in this TED talk.

---------------------------- Update 9/18/14 ----------------------------------

During the meeting we discussed the minority opinion that the current shale gas boom is not sustainable. Here are two books that take this stance:

1) Snake Oil: How Fracking’s False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future, by Richard Heinberg. We showed a portion of his talk from YouTube. His talk used data from the first shale gas play, the Barnett.

2) Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth, by Bill Powers. His book covers many of the other shale plays in the U.S.

Fracking, Part 1

Thursday, September 11, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Bill and I will start a two part meeting on gas and oil fracking, both the pros and cons. Bill will bring some articles and I will bring some videos, but please don't let that stop you from bringing your own material to share with the group. To get things started here is a TED Talk by a famous right wing oilman, T. Boone Pickens, who believes in the need to address climate change but puts America first.

-------- Update 9/11/14 ---------

Here are links to the two videos that were shown in part during the meeting:

1. Peter Hoffman, eco-chef who wants the EPA to regulate fracking
2. Rob Jackson, Duke professor who investigated water and air contamination from fracking

Energy and the Environment

Thursday, September 4, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the first meeting of September, we will start a new theme, Energy and the Environment. For at least one of the meetings, we will cover the topic suggested by Bill, the pros and cons of fracking for natural gas and oil. But the first meeting is open for general discussion of the theme. Please come with suggestions on what other energy and environment topics we should cover.

While climate change may not affect us directly, it will be the legacy we leave the next generation. We talked about it last June. Here is TED Talk by John Doerr, a venture capitalist who invested heavily in greentech for the sake of his daughter's future.

Minimum Wage

Thursday, August 28, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will conclude this month's theme of Money a Wealth with a discussion about the minimum wage and its politics. Here is a TED Talk by Nick Hanauer to get the discussion started.

Hanauer is a wealthy venture capitalist who warns his fellow plutocrats that they ignore growing inequity at their own peril. This is actually his second TED Talk, but you will not find his first TED Talk on the main TED website. When Hanauer complained to TED curator Chris Anderson, Anderson created a YouTube channel only for Hanauer's first talk. Anderson has since had a change of heart and invited Hanauer to give an expanded talk at the TED office. Here is the backstory.

The Psychological Nature of Inequality

Thursday, August 21, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the previous meeting, we discussed how Thomas Picketty used historical financial records to show that Inequity is indeed increasing. He used national trends to forecast how individuals will fare in the future, a top-down approach.

In this week's meeting, we will look at Inequity from the bottom-up. Experiments on how Inequality affects individuals can help us predict how society will fare if inequality continues. Here are four TED Talk videos about experiments which explore the psychological nature of Inequity.

1. Paul Piff -  Shows what a rigged Monopoly game reveals about the super-rich.
2. Dan Pink - Uses the famous candle problem to evaluate Pay for Performance.
3. Frans de Waal - Show that even animals have a sense of fairness.
4. Michael Norton - Answers the question, Does Money Buy Happiness?

To help you decide which videos to watch before the meeting, here's the plan. We will show the first video in its entirety, but only excerpts from the second and third. The fourth video was already shown, so it will not be played again, but will still be part of the discussion.

Inequality Revisited

Thursday, August 14, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We already discussed Income Inequality last October, but it remains a hot topic, so we will revisit it next week. Since our last meeting on Inequality, French professor Thomas Piketty released Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It presented empirical evidence that Inequality has returned to pre-WW1 levels and is likely to increase. The book has fanned the flames of the Inequality debate and its English translation become a best seller in this country. Here is a quick video summary of the book.

For the next meeting, we will show and discuss excerpts from this Huffington Post interview of Picketty. It doesn't hurt that Elizabeth Warren is also there.

Wealth and Money

Thursday, August 7, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Wealth and Money is the theme for August and we will start with a meeting to select the topics for the month. We will do a session on income inequality for the second meeting, but we need topics for the third and fourth meetings.

We had several suggestions, including Bitcoin, the FED, minimum wage and the Import Export Bank. Please consider if these topics are appropriate for a 90 minute meeting, and if you would like the lead the discussion. Suggestions for other topic are also welcome.

To get things started, we will show a TED Talk by Michael Sandel about the use of markets in our civic lives.

Global Trends

Thursday, July 31, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the final meeting in July, under the theme of International Affairs, we will Zoom-Out to look at overall global trends. No one is better able to do this than Hans Rosling who uses UN data in dynamic and entertaining ways to show how the world has progressed beyond our preconceived notions. Rosling has given many TED Talks, we will look at the first two.

• The best stats you've ever seen - Rosling demonstrates how data tells how most of the world has caught up with the west
• New insights on poverty - Rosling shows why there is still hope for the parts of the world that is still in poverty

Zoom-In on Immigration

Thursday, July 24, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The group had a lot to say about immigration, though somewhat disorganized. While that was normal, there was a sense of frustration because we hopped for issue to issue. Nevertheless, the group wanted to spend another week on the immigration topic.

Please leave a comment on the blog on what immigration issue you want to discuss. We will discuss the issues in the order that they are submitted.

Immigration

Thursday, July 17, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the third session in International Affairs, we will discuss the broad topic of Immigration. To get the conversation started, here is a TED Talk by Jose Vargas, about the plight of Americans w/o Papers, aka Illegal Aliens. After that we can talk about any immigration issue of interest.

There are many topics we could cover, so if you have an immigration issue that you want to discuss, please leave a comment to reserve your spot.

Afghanistan

Thursday, July 10, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue with the International Affairs theme by zooming-in on Afghanistan. Skye, who was deployed there, has prepared a presentation and will lead the follow-up discussion.

Please help our group by preparing before coming to the meeting. General background information for Afghanistan can be found HERE in Wikipedia. Any other information or questions related to Afghanistan is welcome.

Schedule for 2014Q3

Thursday, July 3, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We start a new quarter next meeting. For July we will zoom-in on international affairs. Ron will lead a survey meeting.

Here are the themes for the rest of the quarter:

• July - International Affairs: Regional hotspot and global trends

• August - Wealth and Money: What is it and who gets it

• September - Energy and the Environment: How we balance energy needs while preserving our environment

Generational Legacy, Conclusion

Thursday, June 26, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Last week, there was general agreement with Colin Powell's TED Talk about kids needing structure, but some Zoom-in members objected that he used the military as the primary example. What seemed to be missing was a sense of morality. Hank did remind us of the importance of passing moral values to the next generation. But so far we have been more concern about how the next generation will cope, given the extraordinary circumstances they will face.

If we accept Powell's contention that coping depends on the structure provided by our institutions, is it important that our institutions have high moral values? The answer is yes, according to Bryan Stevenson. In his TED Talk, We need to talk about an injustice, Stevenson encourages TED to adopt high moral value as an institution. What makes his talk relevant to our discussion on generational legacy is that Stevenson tells about three times that received advice from the older generation that influenced his course in life, once as a child, once as a young man getting started, and once as a practicing lawyer.

It is said that Stevenson's talk received teethe strongest standing ovation ever seen at TED. Enjoy.

Generational Legacy, Part 3

Thursday, June 19, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our last meeting,  Tim said that the next generation may need our help in finding a direction. His statement seems to in agreement with this TED Talk by Colin Powell, Kids Need Structure. We will use this video as the starting point for the next meeting.

As you watch this video, think about the kinds of structures that kids have traditionally used to shape their lives. As a former general, Colin Powell uses the military as a metaphor for structure. Other traditional structures are education, religion and sports.  When kids instead spend their time on video games and Facebook is it because they lack structure or are they involved in a new kind of structure that we do not understand?

Generational Legacy, Part 2

Thursday, June 12, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next meeting, we will continue our discussion on Generational Legacy. There were a lot of ideas in the last meeting. I was touched by John H. having a discussion with his children about how they felt about the problems they are inheriting from our generation, particularly climate change. They answered that did not blame our generation and it was up to their generation to solve the problem. Would your children have said the same?

So what was the idea that was raised in our meeting that caught your attention? Was there an idea that you that was not brought up that should have?

What makes our group unique is that the topic is known ahead of time to give members a chance to prepare. So please share your thoughts with the others members by commenting on the blog. I consider this month's theme to be very important, so I will commit to adding a comment every day until the next meeting. So please check back when you can to participate in this online discussion.

Note: If you are having problems posting a comment, like your comment disappearing after you click the Publish Button, it may be because the security setting on your browser may be too tight. I know this to be true for the Safari Browser on the Mac. There are ways to fix this without changing your security setting, so please email me and I can get you going.

Generational Legacy

Thursday, June 5, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

What will our generation pass to the younger generation? We will explore this issue in the month of June. We will start by soliciting ideas from our members based on their personal experiences. Tim will lead the discussion. Vince has offered this write up to get things started.

Zoom-in and Wisdom: An Inter-Generational Discussion

Most of our group members are in their seventh decade and have accumulated much wisdom. We have accumulated knowledge and have experienced much in life. There is a deep reservoir of knowledge and understanding that should be shared with younger generations. Yet, having a conversation with members of younger generations, often with children and grandchildren is sometimes difficult.  The younger generation can learn from us. We’ve experienced life far longer and often with more consequences than have the younger generations.  We have been exposed to much, such as the Great Depression, World War II and many societal changes that have impacted our communities during the 60s, 70s and into the present. Our experiences and insights are valuable. They need to be shared with the younger generations.  For example, the Great Recession of 2009, in my opinion, was not recognized as a potential crisis by the younger generation that had not experienced the direct or indirect effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Is there anything in your life experiences that you would like to share with the younger generations? If so, what would it be? What problems have you had to overcome? What successes have you achieved and why?  How best to communicate with the younger generations some of your wisdom without threatening them; or being dated and appearing irrelevant to their concerns? 

Likewise, we can learn much from the younger generations. I know I feel threatened when I see my grandchildren and other youth zipping around with technological gadgets with which I am quite unfamiliar. There is in my opinion no “greatest generation” as Tom Brokaw has identified the generation of the Great Depression and World War II.  Each generation has its own challenges and problems to overcome. Whereas,  many of us have had economic issues to overcome and educations to obtain, the younger generations have different and no less no less challenging issues to confront.  The global economy, social culture, overwhelming technological change, and a host of other issues are on the agenda of  younger generations.  How would you like to be facing a global economic competition as are the millennials?

In sum, I feel our group has much to offer younger generations and much to learn from them. I propose that we dig into our own experiences and discuss how to share them with younger generations. We as individuals have had different experiences that have had great impact upon where we are today. I suspect that as we reflect on our lives we can come up with some common themes that would capture what we would want to discuss in a manner to be presented to young people who are not party to our Zoom-in discussion.

We are seniors having discussions among seniors.  Generational  differences are often mistaken for developmental differences of youth becoming  adults.  For example, have youth throughout the ages  differed from their elders; Or are the younger generations of today really facing a future that is fundamentally different?

Although our discussions have been enlightening and informative, they are generation bound and biased.   Let’s open the window, or if you prefer a door initiating an intergenerational discussion.

Issues to discuss over our lifetime and project into the future.  (Add your own)

• The American Dream;   Inheritance of wealth and community values;

•  Diversity: race, ethnicity and social class,

• Employment/Unemployment;   Military Service

• Family structure:  How does it matter and what difference does it make?  Raising children

• Education- How should youth be educated and what should they learn?

 Note: There is no official definition of what constitutes a generation. Often ages used as a guideline when talking about generations. I have read in, Generation Inc. , that age should not determine generational groups, but rather social events and demographics that were happening at their inception. For example, many of us have been called a “traditional”  group, born before World War II, while others, are in our group are referred to as baby boomers. As we grow older it is the “context” in which we were born, and come of age,  that defines the  perspective for how we view life. and determines to which generation we belong.   A “traditional” will  always be a traditional and a baby boomer will always be a baby boomer and so on with generation X. generation Y, millennial’s and generations yet to be defined.

-------------------------- Update 5/3/14  ------------------------

Tim has provided an outline of what we will cover this month.

These ZOOM-IN discussions assume that the future may not be as promising for our grand children and great grand children.  Not as promising as it was for us and our children.  It may well be that many virtues, values, skills, and life lessons taught to us by our parents, grandparents, and experience can serve future generations well.  

Let us try to identify and package them in a way that is meaningful and useful.
 Session One:  An initial list of discussion topics will be provided.
 1.     What is missing from the list of discussion topics?
2.     What is our experience* (a quick survey) regarding each of the topics – both positive and negative.
 Sessions Two and Three:
 1.     Discuss each topic area and both our positive and negative experiences.
2.     Try to formulate a consensus statement regarding our positive and negative experience for each topic area.
3.     Determine guidance that can be passed on to future generations.
 Session Four:   

1.     Continue to determine guidance that can be passed on.
2.     Discuss possible uses that can be made with fruits of our efforts.
  *  No embarrassing examples or confidences please.

The New Economy, Recap

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This month we examined the driving force of the new economy, technology. There is little doubt that we are in a second industrial revolution and should see a sharp rise in productivity. What is in doubt is if employment is still coupled to productivity. In our discussion about Automation we have seen that while productivity has recovered from the Great Recession, jobs have not. As technology advances, even more jobs will be threaten.

The new technology has enabled individuals to make free information and services available on the Internet. While the quality of our lives have improved from theses acts of Altruism, none of these free goods add to the GDP and have displaced many traditional jobs.

The new technology has also spawned new services based on Collaboration between individuals. More people can share the use of more goods instead of owning them outright. Since people like to share and ownership can be a hassle, the quality of life can actually improve by spending less. But the decrease in aggregate demand can have a negative impact on the current economy.

Finally, we examined how technology has supercharged the Maker Movement, leading to the explosion of small businesses. This may actually be how new technology will increase employment so we can actually enjoy the fruits of technology.

In last week's meeting on the Makers, I focused on how technology was empowering individuals, but did not show how it will improve the overall economy. The maker movement in better explained by Chris Andersen in his book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Anderson has given a talk about his book at Google, HERE.

------------------- Update 5/28/14 --------------

I found a better talk by Chris Anderson about the Makers given in the UK, HERE. It covers the same material as his Google talk, but he explains more since his audience is less tech oriented than at Google.

The Maker Movement

Thursday, May 22, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We have seen how the new technology is eliminating traditional jobs. But the same technology has opened new possibilities in how goods are designed, finance and produced. This week we will examine the Makers Movement which is in essence Open Source for hardware. Here are some TED Talks for background:

• Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination
• Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach
• Dale Dougherty: We are makers

Even the Obama administration is getting on the Maker bandwagon by announcing the first-ever White House Maker Faire.

Altruism in the New Economy

Thursday, May 15, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There is a lot of free stuff on the Internet. Although most of it is supported by advertising, there are some free and useful websites that are truly supported by altruism. Wikipedia is the primary example. In our next meeting we will discuss the role that altruism plays in the new economy. Is it profound or just hype? Will is create or destroy jobs? Here are some TED Talks that will provide some background and examples of altruism on the web.

• Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
• Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world
• Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

-------------------- Update 5/15/14 and 5/16/14 -----------------

1) For those that want more detail on the Youtube vs, Pakistan incident can koi at this article, How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline.

2) From Dave Lenzo, link to Brief History of the Internet.

3) The three founders of the Internet who were high school classmates were Vinton Cerf, Jon Postel and Steve Crocker, and the school was Van Nuys High School. Zittrain did not mention other Internet founders, notably Bob Kahn.

4) Before making jokes about Al Gore inventing the Internet please read the facts. Here is what actually happened.

Automation

Thursday, May 8, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Continuing with the month's theme on the New Economy, we will look at how technology has led to a jobless recovery.  In the eBook, Race against the Machine, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson see automation to be different from of the past. Now automation cause more jobs to be lost than gained. They see the trend to continue, but also see the crisis as a good thing.

Here are three TED talks by the two authors.

• Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?
• Erik Brynjolfsson:The key to growth? Race with the machines
• Andrew McAfee: What will future jobs look like?

McAfee and Brynjolfsson have recently updated their eBook as a regular book, The Second Machine Age.

-------------- Update 5/9/14 -------------------

For those interested in a more comprehensive talk by McAfee and Brynjolfsson, here is a video of the authors presenting their idea of how the new automation is killing jobs to Google.

The Beginning of a New Economy

Thursday, May 1, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Are we in a dying economy or in a transition to a new one? We will explore this theme in the month of May. We start with the rise of collaborative consumption made possible my social networking on the Internet.  Here are two TED Talks by Rachel Botsman:

• The case for collaborative consumption
• The currency of the new economy is trust

I just attended the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo, Hawaii. To find a room, I used AirBnB which was mentioned in the second talk above. 

Religion in Politics

Thursday, Apr. 24, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Do you remember when candidate John F. Kennedy said that his religion would not compromise his duties his duties as president? Could Kennedy be elected today? Here are some videos of Kennedy's famous speech, Rick Santorum's reaction to the speech, and an explanation of what changed by Penn Jillette.

I will be on travel next week, so videos will not be shown during the meeting. But we should still have a great meeting since Lowell Sunderland has volunteered to lead the discussion.

Guns

Thursday, Apr. 17, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Continuing with our theme of Politics, our next topic will be Guns. Bill Ramsey has volunteered to lead the discussion. Is there some way to balance Second Amendment rights with public safety? Is the NRA too powerful? Was the new Maryland gun law proper? Our group should be able to answer these questions, and more, in just 90 minutes.

To get the conversation started here is a video of gun debate, which is actually civilized:

Sam Harris and Cory Booker Debate Gun Control on Real Time


------- Update 4/16/14 -------

In anticipation for the upcoming challenges to the new Maryland gun law, here are some relevant court cases:

• District of Columbia v. Heller
• McDonald v. Chicago
• Woollard v. Gallagher
• SB 281 LAWSUITS

Maryland and Howard County Politics

Thursday, Apr. 10, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will turn our focus to Howard County and our local districts in the Maryland State legislator. The meeting will be led by Zoom-in member Ken Stevens, who has been active in local politics for many years.

Here a some web links which can provide background;

Find your election districts: http://www.elections.state.md.us/voting/where.html

List of local races: http://elections.state.md.us/elections/2014/primary_candidates/index.html

Howard County Council: http://cc.howardcountymd.gov/displayprimary.aspx?ID=4294968693

Howard County Budget: http://www.co.ho.md.us/current_budget.htm and http://www.co.ho.md.us/Departments.aspx?Id=6442458740

Ken has also recommended these news articles:

ON NEWS ITEMS ABOUT CANDIDATES IN THE HOTTEST LOCAL PRIMARIES

LD12 Delegate candidate news in press:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/arbutus-lansdowne/ph-ca-at-candidate-forum-1120-20131114,0,7005243.story

http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79280201/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/catonsville/ph-ca-at-district-12-forum-0312-20140307,0,832349.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/catonsville/ph-ca-at-district-12-charlestown-0319-20140312,0,331693,full.story

LD13 Delegate candidate news in press:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/ph-janet-siddiqui-withdraws-district-13,0,7520635.story

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/ph-team-13-announcement,0,2901301.story

On Columbia Democratic Club forum for Democratic legislative candidates:

www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/ph-political-notebook-0220,0,2413585.story

On Democratic Council district 1 candidates at Columbia Democratic Club forum:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/ph-district-1-democratic-candidates,0,6423856,full.story

Schedule for 2014Q2

Here is an outline of the themes that will be covered in the second quarter of 2014. Just like last quarter, we will announce the specific topic for the week's meeting on the blog

• April - More Politics: Our involvement in government and politics

• May - The New Economy: How technology has brought new economic opportunity, challenges and possibly a job crisis

• June - Generational Legacy: What the older generation will pass to the younger generation, both good and bad

Local Government

Thursday, Apr. 3, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

While the Federal government seems to be in perpetual deadlock, real progress is being made at the local level, especially in large cities. Here is a TED Talk by Ben Barber, which suggests that some global problems are better solved by cooperating cities.

At an even more local level, there is a movement to enable cooperating citizens to fix the problems of their neighborhoods. Here is a TED Talk by Jennifer Pahlka which shows how free Open Source technology is being used to help local government.


------- Update 4/3/14 -------------

Links to the other videos shown at the meeting:

Lecture by Benjamin R. Barber "If mayors ruled the world?"
Catherine Bracy: Why good hackers make good citizens

Why Do They Vote Against Their Own Best Interest

Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Even with all the money spent on political ads, it seems to be a mystery why so many of the working poor vote against their own best interest. In his book, Deer Hunting with Jesus, Joe Bageant explains that they are trapped in ignorance. They don't even realize what is their own best interest. Bageant was raised in that culture but was able to escape and is now a self proclaimed socialist. Yet he tells the story from the view of the people he grew up with. Here is an interview he gave about the book.

Campaign Finance

Thursday, Mar. 20, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue our discussion on democracy in crisis. Last week the issue of campaign finance, made more serious by Citizens United, was raised.

Here is a TED Talk by Lawrence Lessig which makes the case that campaign finance reform is the single most important issue. A longer version of this talk can be found HERE. The talk was based on Lessig's book Republic Lost.

A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Thursday, Mar. 6, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Next meeting is on the first Thursday in March; so we will start a new theme, "A Republic, if you can keep it". Tim will be the theme discussion leader. His syllabus has been email. The first session will cover our Inalienable Rights. A good p;ace to start is our Bill of Rights. Here is a video that will provide a quick review.

No Child Left Behind

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last session on the theme of "Challenges of the Next Generation", we will zoom-in on the so called fix for the American education system,  No Child Left Behind, and its successor, Common Core. 

Here is a TED Talk critical on the concept of standardized education.

Here is a student letting his state legislator know what he thinks of Common Core.

Things look bleak for US education in a competitive world, but will the next generation succeed it spite of it? There is a poll on the upper right corner of this page. Please take time to add your option on the future prospects of the Millennials.


Update 2/27/14:

Here is a link which explains the Common Core standards.

World Education Competition

Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This meeting has been rescheduled for Feb. 20 same time and place

The Unites States spends more per student than any country in the world but is getting only mediocre results when compared to other countries. For the next meeting we will explore how US education compares with the rest of the world. We will use these talk by Amanda Ripley, the author of The Smartest Kids in the World, as the the starting point of the discussion:

• Amanda Ripley: Ask the kids
• Amanda Ripley "The Smartest Kids in the World"

The PISA test is used to rank the countries. Here is a TED Talk which will attest to  the validity of these tests.

Challenges for the Next Generation

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Note: We are meeting one hour earlier!

This month, we are starting a new theme, Challenges for the Next Generation. In the first meeting we will take the broad view by looking at the next generation as a demographic group known as The Millennials. We will be show excerpts from the following videos:

• Gen Y acting entitled? New facts. You decide.
• Young Americans Are the Dumbest Generation
• Generation jobless
• Millennials Will Change the World
• Millennials: The Most Diverse Generation
• How To Sell To Millennials
• RSA Millennials Debate

For those the want more background, here is the study of the Millennials by the Pew Research Center.

Please come with suggestions on topics about the next generation topics we can cover for the remainder of February. This can include but not limited to:

1. The failed education system
2. Lack of job prospects
3. Increased health issues
4. Living in technology vs the real world
5. Inheriting our problems
6. The performance of boys vs girls
7. Lack of interaction between generations

Zoom-In on CyberCrime

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Starting in February we will be meeting One hour later, 10am to 11:30

By now we should know what the four kinds of cyber attacks in CHEW are. We talked about the last three kinds, Hackivism, Espionage and War. This week we will focus on the first kind, Cyber-Crime, the part of CHEW that might affects us most personally.

The meeting will show excerpts from the following videos:

• Mikko Hypponen: Fighting viruses, defending the net
• Misha Glenny: Hire the hackers!
• Extreme Identity: Jeff Carter at TEDxKC

Also note the poll on the upper right of this page. The poll will close on Feb. 3 at 9am. This is an experiment so please email me if you have technical difficulties.

Afghanistan Rescheduled

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Meeting Cancelled due to weather

Skye will give her presentation on her experience in Afghanistan. This is a rescheduling of the 1/9/14 meeting. You can check on the previous post for related videos and comments.

Starting in February, we will meet and hour later. So our time slot will be from 10am to 11:30. Hopefully, this will allow more people to attend our meetings. For the remainder of January, we will meet at the same time, 9am to 10:30.

As reminder here are the themes for January to March. In February we will start the theme, Challenges for the next generation. You can add comments below if you have suggestions for topics we could cover which apply to the next generation. You can also add suggestions for future themes and topics for April and beyond.

Cyber CHEW (Crime, Hacktivism, Espionage and War)

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our meeting on Cyber Privacy, Ron pointed out that Cyber Espionage was a much more serious problem. Certainly it is a serious problem, as well as Cyber Crime, Hacktivism and War.  We can argue if any of these are more important than Privacy.

This presentation by Richard Clark about his book Cyber War, covers the four-headed Cyber monster a called CHEW. We will show Richard Clark's presentation at our meeting and use it to set up our discussions.

Here are seven short YouTube videos which provides some background on the topics covered by Clark. We will show these videos only if time permits.

1. Obama issue executive orders to improve Cyber Security
2. Action against China
3. Cyber Attacks by Iran
4. Stuxnet
5. Military Cyber Command
6. Internet of Things
7. Anonymous

------------------------------------------------

Update 1/15/14

Here is a link to the Economist article on Cyberwar.

Afghanistan Presentation

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, 9am to 10:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This meeting has been rescheduled for Jan. 23 same time and place

This meeting will be rescheduled

For next week's meeting, we will take a break from the normal program. Skye will give a presentation on  her experience in Afghanistan. 

Here are some interesting TED Talks which are about the Afghan people. These talks are not central to our meeting, by they are interesting and may provide background to help in our discussion.

• Monika Bulaj: The hidden light of Afghanistan
• Shabana Basij-Rasikh: Dare to educate Afghan girls
• Alberto Cairo: There are no scraps of men