Healing

Thursday, December 31, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the last meeting of year, we will keep in the spirit of the New Year by examining examples of healing.

A song does not come from the heart; it comes from your lungs. HERE is a TED Talk by soprano, Charity Tillemann-Dick, who survived a double lung transplant, and with tremendous will was able to sing again.

The will to heal comes from the brain, but what if your brain is damaged. HERE is a TED Talk by game consultant, Jane McGonigal, who healed her brain by inventing a game.


-------------------------------- Updated 12/31/15 ------------------------------

Here are the links to the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers
• Ramona Pierson: An unexpected place of healing

Joy and Sadness

Thursday, December 24, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Christmas has been called both the happiest and saddest time of the year. We will review these two emotions in a couple of TED Talks. This talk by Shawn Achor dismisses the ideal that joy comes from success. Instead, he says success come from joy. This talk by Brene Brown is about her discovery that sadness is essential for joy. (This revelation will sound familiar to you if you saw this year's hit movie Inside Out). 

The meeting is on the morning of Christmas Eve, but please come if you can. The group size should be smaller than usual, which is perfect for a focus group to suggest topics for next year.

Purpose

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the last three meetings of the year, we will take a break from the worries of the world and explore some of life's personal experiences. We will start with something simple, finding a purpose in life.

Vic Strecher, a professor from the University of Michigan, has made his purpose helping his students find their purpose. He developed media that would appeal to his young audience, including a comic book which featured a dung beetle, a creature who finds purpose in a pile of crap. He tells his story in this TEDx Talk. 

Mike Rowe, the host of "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel, has a different take. People take jobs without purpose, but they can find purpose in their work. Here is his TED Talk.

---------------------------- Updated 12/17/15 -------------------------------

Here is the third TED Talk shown at the meeting:
Mark Bezos: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

Also here is a TED Talk about dung beetles, not shown at the meeting:
Marcus Byrne: The dance of the dung beetle

The Way From Paris

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

With the Paris COP21 Summit, climate change is getting a lot more attention, but mostly in the form of criticism. The right says it is naive, while the left says it is inadequate. Obama had to find a realistic path in spite of a hostile Congress and an uninformed electorate. 

In our next meeting, we will view excerpts from Obama's press conference before he left Paris. Here he carefully explains why he expects an agreement in Paris will lead to a solution to the climate crisis.

-------------------------------- Updated 12/10/15 ----------------------------

Here are the additional videos shown at the meeting:

• John Oliver on climate deniers
• The Carbon Bubble

Syria, Conflict and Refugees

Thursday, December 3, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For our next meeting, we will look at the conflict in Syria and its refugees. Here are the background videos:

• The Syrian war, who is fighting who
• How Climate Change affected Syria
• A Syrian refugee story
• Republican reaction after the Paris attacks

-------------------------- Updated 12/3/15 --------------------------

These are the additional videos shown at the meeting:

• John Oliver On Accepting Syrian Refugees
• Russia orders new sanctions against Turkey
• Obama's Thanksgiving address

Road to Paris

Thursday, November 19, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

This will be the last meeting before the ultimate UN climate summit COP21 being held in Paris starting November 30. Some say that this meeting is humanity's last chance to advert catastrophic climate change. We will discuss the key events leading up to the meeting using the following videos as background:

• A history of climate change negotiations
• Latest IPCC report
• The largest climate march ever
• Republican excuse for inaction
• China agreement
• Green Climate Fund for developing nations
• The Pope and other religious leaders call for action
• Exxon caught misleading the public
• Obama rejects Keystone
• How Paris is different for previous attempts

Crumbling Infrastructure

Thursday, November 12, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Our bridges, levees, water mains, roads, sewers and dams are deteriorating. Yet we put off their maintenance even though we need the jobs. Thing will only get worse with climate change. For our next meeting, we will discuss the state of our infrastructure and the politics behind it. Here are the videos we will use for background:

• Crumbling America - A History Channel Documentary
• LaHood, Rendell make push to revitalize US infrastructure - PBS News Hour
• Infrastructure - John Oliver

Fusion Energy

Thursday, November 5, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Our next meeting will explore the many avenues to achieve fusion energy.

• The DOE laser fusion
• The ITER international consortium fusion with a Tokomak
• Venture capital backed steam-piston fusion
• Boy genius does fusion in garage
• Open source fusion
• Defense contractor Lockheed's Compact Fusion
• Exotic a-nutronic fusion
• Views from a fusion skeptic

CHALLENGE: Name the seven members of the ITER consortium. Which major nuclear power country is missing?

-------------------------------------------- Update 11/5/15 -------------------------------------------

Here are links to the videos that were shown at the meeting that were not on the original list

• Mining the Moon for Helium-3 - BBC
• Cold fusion claim from Italy - 3 News
• Cold Fusion- How it works

Guns Revisited

Thursday, October 29, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Sadly, guns are once again in the news, this time after the shooting in Oregon. Our Zoom-iIn group discussed guns just last year after the Columbia Mall shooting. Is there anything that can be done?

Here are the video that will be used for background in our discussion:

• President Obama expresses his frustration
• Steven Colbert on the need to do something
• Seth Meyers on gun control hopelessness
• John Oliver on the excuse of mental illness

-------------------------------- Updated 10/29/15 -----------------------------------

Here is the three part series from the old Daily ShowJ gun control in Australia:

• Gun Control Whoop-de-doo
• Gun Control & Political Suicide
• Gun Control's Aftermath

The Grid

Thursday, October 22, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The US electric grid needs to be upgraded to eliminate the regional blackouts from the recent past, to tolerate intermittent renewable energy of today, and prevent the cyber attacks of tomorrow. As we charge ahead with wind and solar energy to mitigate climate change, we just assume the electric grid will be able to do load balancing by using smart meters. But is it that simple?

Our discussion will be based on the following videos:

• Al Gore Presents Reason for Hope #4- THE ELECTRIC GRID IS EVOLVING
• PBS NewsHour: Rooftop solar on the move again in Hawaii
• Zoom-In clip: Grid stability
• Scientific American: What is the smart grid
• RT Report: No Privacy with Smart Meters
• Collection of news clips: Are you prepared for a major power outage
• MSNBC: The Threat Against America's Power Grid
• CalEnergy: UCSD microgrid

CHALLENGE: In the first video, Al Gore talks about a micro grid in Rutland VT. He gives the impression that Rutland has a community grid run completely on solar. Can you find out what the real story is here?

------------------------------------ Update 10/22/15 ---------------------------------------

HERE is a link to the Congressional hearing on cyber attacks on the grid, which was sampled during the meeting.

Criminal Justice

Thursday, October 15, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next meeting we will return to election issues, this time focusing on criminal justice. We will try something different. Instead of a collection video, we will show a full one hour program from HBO, VICE Special Report: Fixing The System. We will break it up into 20 minute segments and have a discussion after each segment. See you at the meeting.

Grid Storage and the Holy Grail

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

The world has long sought economical electric grid storage, but without success. The quest has been likened to the futile search for the Holy Grail. Recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will supply a cheap Lithium grid battery that will solve climate change. Just how serious is his claim?

For our next meeting, we will look at current efforts to supply grid storage, particularly batteries from Tesla and other serous contenders. Here are the videos that will be used for background:

• The state of grid storage just three years ago
• Al Gore anticipating the grid battery boom
• Elon Musk announcing the PowerWall and PowerPack
• Al Jazeera reports the start of the grid battery race
• The liquid metal battery by Donald Sadoway
• The Aquion battery by Jay Whitacre
• The vanadium flow battery by Pacific Northwest National Labs

Voting Rights

Thursday, October 1, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next meeting, we will explore the issue of voting rights and related issues like gerrymandering. Here are the videos that we will use for background:

• A historical perspective on voting rights
• Obama speaks on voting
• Laws that make it harder to vote
• Voter ID
• Mandatory voting
• Gerrymandering

------------------------------------------ Updated 10/1/15 ------------------------------------------

Here are the additional videos shown at the meeting:

• George Carlin - if you vote you have no right to complain
• Obama suggests mandatory voting
• Thom Hartmann on SCOTUS ruling on redistricting
• John Oliver on voting in US territories

Focus on Solar

Thursday, September 24, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The recent dramatic drop it the price of PV solar has made it the primary technology for the US to reduce carbon emissions by 32% by 2030. While it is still questionable if renewables alone can get to the 100% carbon free energy that we need, 32% is still impressive. We will examine how solar, particularly rooftop solar, will play the major role in meeting our short term goals. Here is list of videos to be shown at the meeting:

• Al Gore on the rise of PV Solar
• What rooftop solar has meant to Bangladesh
• A collage I made on net metering from several videos
• The utilities wanting to change the rules on rooftop solar
• The backlash against the utilities
• The story of First Solar

CHALLENGE: In the first video, Al Gore talks about a Minnesota judge who picked solar over natural gas to provide additional electrical capacity. What is going on here? Why is a judge picking an energy source? Doesn't he know that the sun does not shine at night? Why did this happen first in a Northern state instead of a sunnier state down south?

You have a chance to practice your Googling to find out the real story here. Everything Gore said was true, but he left out important details. The true nature of this story is key to understanding the real value of solar to meet our energy goals.

Immigration by Trump

Thursday, September 17, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We already covered the immigration issue last year and it is still very much a problem as it was then. But, thanks to Donald Trump, the issue has reemerged as possibly the defining issue on the Republican side. For our next meeting, we will reexamine the immigration, including birth right citizenship. Here are some of the videos we will use for background material:

• PBS NewsHour - Should citizenship be a birthright?
• Obama - Fixing America's Broken Immigration System
• Bill Gates - Immigration laws hurt smart talent
• Stephen Colbert - Congressional Testimony

---------------------------------------------------- 9/17/15 ------------------------------------------------

Other videos shown at the meeting:

• President George W. Bush calls for comprehensive immigration
• The Onion U.S. Border Patrol
• Steven Colbert answers Lamar Smith and Judy Chu

The Renewable Energy Challenge

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

To meet the EPA carbon targets of 32% by 2030, we are going to need a lot more than energy efficiency. The few new nuclear plants will just compensate for the closing of older nuclear plants. We will need to rely on renewable energy, mostly wind and solar, to replace the energy from closing coal plant. Obama is betting that renewable energy is up to the task. But optimists and pessimists paint very different pictures, especially for the further carbon reductions that we need after 2030. Some say renewables can take us to 100%, other say that we will need advance nuclear plants to provide the baseload electricity missing from renewables. We will take a closer look at the challenges to renewable energy to get a fair assessment. We will use material from the following videos:

• Al Gore on the reason of hope from renewables
• Thorium Energy to fight Climate Change by Gordon McDowell
• Obama at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas
• CASEnergy & IEER Debate Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7
• Amory Lovins - A 40-year plan for energy (link corrected 9/10/15) 
• Jonathan Lesser on Intermittent Power
• Bill Gates Talks About the Future of Energy (link corrected 9/10/15)

Note that many of these videos have information about nuclear energy, but we will will only look at the parts that pertain to renewable energy.

---------------------------------- Updated 9/10/15 ------------------------------------

Here are the links to the video that were shown at the meeting, but were not listed above:

• Chuck Grassley The Wind Energy Production Tax Credit
• Lamar Alexander Let Wind Power Stand on Its Own in the Marketplace
• Arizona PBS Expediting Electrical Transmission Lines

Student Loan Debt

Thursday, September 3, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Student loan debt now exceeds 1.2 trillion dollars. Is has been a problem for a number of years and is a major issue for the 2016 presidential race, at least on the Democrat side. However, main stream media continues to focus on the "horse race", so the issues get lost. We can do better.

For our next meeting, we will examine the full scope of the problem, and some of the incremental solutions that have been implemented by Obama, mostly by executive order. Our discussion will use the following videos for background:

• PBS report on the student debt problem
• Obama's last year's executive actions on student loans
• Senator Warren on student debt held by the elderly
• TED Talk on using technology to lower college cost
• Obama announces Student Aid Bill of Rights
• John Oliver on for profit colleges

Energy Efficiency

Thursday, August 27, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Energy efficiency is expected to play a large role in the EPA Clean Power Plan, see our previous meeting. Maryland has plans to shut down some of it coal fired electric plants to meet its EPA mandated carbon reductions. Unless we find ways to use our electricity more efficiently, our rates will surely go up.

Of all the carbon reduction actions, efficiency is the one that we will have the most personal experience with. While we don't know yet what Maryland plans to do, we can talk about how energy efficiency affects us globally and personally.

Al Gore explains how global energy efficiency can contribute to stop climate change. Alex Laskey tells us how to use psychology to make us conserve more. Catherine Mohr shares her over-the-top energy accounting.

There are also some down sides. The Conundrum is a book which claims that energy efficiency will just let us consume more. Aim High, by Thorium advocate Robert Hargraves, explains what is really needed to reverse climate change, (warning this is a long talk and only a small part will be shown at the meeting).

---------------------------------------------- 8/27/15 update -----------------------------------------------------

Here link to videos shown at the meeting not listed above:

• Amory Lovins on energy and efficiency
• Hans Rosling story of The Magic Washing Machine
• James Hansen on nuclear and coal

The Iran Deal

Thursday, August 20, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Next week we will discuss the Iran Deal, which has long been in the news but is about to get a lot more attention as we approach the votes in the House and Senate in September. We will show clips from videos which explore aspects of the deal and its political ramifications.  Here is a partial list:

• A brief history of Iran's nuclear program and the conditions of the deal, Warning this video gets a little political in some areas.
• Obama's July 14 announcement of the final deal and the threatened veto
• Ernest Moniz and the expected media barrage
• Obama's August 5 address to American University, answering the critics to the deal
• Maryland's Ben Cardin, possibly the most critical undecided vote
• Marco Rubio's bluntness on how the deal will ultimately be decided

------------------------- Updated 8/20/15 --------------------------

Here are links to the other videos shown at the meeting:

• John Oliver - Selling the Iran deal back home
• Israel's Netanyahu urges 'better deal' over Iran nuclear program
• The President Holds a Press Conference on the Nuclear Deal with Iran
• Barack Obama interview with Jon Stewart
• Boehner on Obama Presenting 'False Choice' on Iran
• Kerry on Why Reinstating Sanctions is a Bad Idea
• NPR interview with Obama on Iran Deal
• Morgan Freeman and others explain the Iran Deal

EPA's Clean Power Plan

Thursday, August 13, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will discuss Obama's Clean Power Plan, how it can lead to a solution to climate change, how it will survive the legal challenges, how it will affect the 2016 presidential elections and how it will affect Maryland. Because this is breaking news there is no single TED Talk you can view ahead of time. Instead, I am looking at YouTube videos as they become available and posting the ones I find interesting.

• Short promotion of the Plan
• Obama's announcement, this is long and will not be shown at the meeting, but it will be discussed. So watch this one if you only have time to watch one video.
• A summary of plan and its process by Gina McCarthy
• The connection to the UN Paris Summit
• A surprisingly honest assessment of the Plan by Europeans
• A look-back at climate politics
• The legal challenge by some governors, including Scott Walker
• Will old fashion coal politics still play a part?
• Will this kill the US coal industry?
• HERE is a long but interesting talk about coal's dominance in energy

--------------------------- Updated 8/24/15 ----------------------

Here is a link to the clip of Obama's Anger Translator at the WHCD.

Also during the meeting the Scott Walker clip above was not shown. This clip of Roy Blunt was shown instead.

Can We Influence Government?

Thursday, August 6, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Thanks to the Citizens United decision, you certainly can influence government, provided that you are a billionaire. Our Zoom-In group examined the need for campaign finance reform in a previous meeting. The featured video was a TED Talk by Lawrence Lessig, which explained how money corrupts our faith in government. He laments that we cannot addressed the problems that we care about unless we first fix campaign. For group members who missed that meeting, I suggest you watch it before coming to the meeting.

In our next meeting, we will view Lessig's follow-up talk where he promotes the grassroots movement that he is leading to force Congress to fix the problem. You might be surprised to learn that Columbia's Congressman John Sarbanes has introduced a bill, H.R. 20, to do just that. Sarbanes explains his bill HERE. So far H.R. 20 has 151 cosponsors, including the entire Maryland Democrat delegation. Unfortunately, there is only one Republican cosponsor. Nancy Pelosi is urging us to show support.

But what can you do? THIS TED Talk has a suggestion.

Respecting the Rights of Women

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

After the tragedy in Charleston, we had a series of discussions of race and prejudice. While successful, our discussions left out the largest persecuted group, which makes up over half the population in this country and just under half the population in the world, (you can look it up on the web).

In THIS TED Talk, Jimmy Carter gives a comprehensive summary of what he considers the greatest injustice in the world. He also explains why men are reluctant to talk about it.

Persecuted groups in our country have gained respect after sacrifice in military service. Only a short time ago, it was unthinkable that our country would send our young women to die in combat. In THIS TED Talk, we see that this is no longer the case. One our Zoom-In members, Skye, had some personal contact with these women warriors in Afghanistan. She has graciously agreed to lead the discussion for this part if our meeting.

Nuclear Reactors Go Abroad

Thursday, July 23, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last meeting, we learned that molten salt, not thorium was the key to nuclear safety, fuel efficiency, and waste management. We discussed two molten salt reactor designs in the United States that had potential to solve the energy crisis, but were blocked by federal regulation. The future of advanced reactors appears to be outside the US. In our next meeting, we will examine two foreign molten salt reactors, the FHR in China and the IMSR in Canada. These reactors, while still in early development, are considered to have a realistic chance of getting into production.

The Chinese government nuclear program is awesome and the FHR is just one of many advanced reactors in development in China. What makes the FHR unique is that it is being jointly development by China and the United States, even though China is putting up most of the money. Some see this as a giveaway of US expertise and expressed outrage as in THIS talk.

The Canadian reactor is a private enterprise and needs to find investors, even though regulation is not expected to be an obstacle. HERE is an investor meeting where the IMSR is being pitched as a uniquely Canadian product. Ironically, the expected primary investor is the tar sands industry. 

Please note that both video are rather long, so only a portion of each video will be shown to allow more time for discussion.

----------------------------- Updated 7/24/15 ---------------------------------

Here are the links to the other videos from which clips were shown at the meeting;

1. Kirk Sorensen again.
2. Paul McIntosh talks about Terrestrial Energy at TEAC6.
3. David LeBlanc talks about Canadian tar sands at TEAC4.
4. One of the 4th generation reactors.

Can Thorium Save the World from Climate Change?

Thursday, July 16, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Before I get to Thorium, I want to thank Sherman for leading the discussion on race and to Vince for giving us a historical perspective. Historically, the day of our meeting, July 16, is the 70th anniversary of the Trinity atomic bomb test, which ushered in the nuclear age. Had Nazi Germany been more tolerant to Jewish scientists, they may have gotten the bomb first. Groups which discriminate do so at their own peril. 

In a TED Talk we already saw, Bill Gates said that to solve the climate change, developing nations need zero carbon energy as reliable and available as coal but cheaper and safer. Gates proposed to develop an advance nuclear reactor based on the traditional uranium fuel cycle, but recently a nuclear reactor based on thorium has gotten the attention of the Internet community, as shown HERE. Similar reactors have also gotten attention as THIS one which burns nuclear waste.

For our next meeting we will look at the potential of these new reactors and why developers are leaving this county to pursue their designs.

--------------------- Updated 7/17/15 -------------------------------

Here are the link to the videos from which the supplemental clips were taken, what out some of these are really long:

1. Kirk Sorensen's long explanation of thorium to the hackers.
2. Leslie Dewan's pitch to investors.
3. US Congress hearings on nuclear energy.
4. Russ Wilcox, investor in Dewan's company

Continuation

Thursday, July 9, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

People surely had much to say on the subject of race in the last meeting and we ran out of time. Sherman has agreed to continue the discussion in first hour the upcoming meeting. Vince, who was originally scheduled, will still get his time at the last 30 minutes of the meeting. I am looking forward to both talks; see you there.

A Much Needed Discussion

Thursday, July 2, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will conclude our discussion on the race issue in our country. Sherman will lead the discussion. Unfortunately, I will be away on travel so there will be no video at the meeting. But this is a good thing, because there will be more opportunity to voice your opinions.

As always, you are invited to leave comments on this blog to share your opinions with everyone.

The Racial Issue

Thursday, June 25, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Every week there is another reminder that the racial issue in America is far from settled. For the next two Zoom-in meetings we will discuss the progress, or the lack thereof, of racism in America. First we will take a broad view, by viewing several TED Talks, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

The following week, Zoom-in member Sherman will lead us in a more in depth discussion of racial issues closer to home.

Nuclear vs Renewables Debate

Thursday, June 18, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will view the TED Debate: Does the world need nuclear energy? This is a debate between two environmentalists who want to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to save us from climate change. Stewart Brand favors nuclear, while Mark Jacobson thinks we can do it only with renewables, such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. We have seen both Brand and Jacobson in previous meetings, and now they will debate each other in perhaps the most important issue that is ignored by main stream media and both political parties.

Zoom-in member, Calvin will lead the discussion. I hope that other members will lead in future meetings. I can help in finding appropriate videos. Please help to make this format work by previewing the video and coming prepared with related issues we can discuss in the meeting.

The GMO Heresy Revisted

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

For the next two weeks we will revisit two of four heresies presented by Stewart Brand in our 5/8/15 meeting. Next week we will zoom-in on the GMO issue. We will view a recent TED Talk about how the genetic engineering of crops provides unique solutions and may be necessary in a changing world. We will then look at an opposing view, particularly about the need for GMO labeling.

Two weeks from now we will revisit the nuclear energy issue by watching a TED debate about nuclear energy vs renewable energy, between Stewart Brand and Mark Jacobson. Since we already saw Brand's pro nuclear talk, it is only fair to see a pro renewable talk by Jacobson ahead of the actual debate.

The Dietary Health Crisis

Thursday, June 4, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Every five years, the USDA Dietary Guidelines gets updated; 2015 will be the latest update. The scientific recommendations have been submitted and is awaiting approval. However, past recommendations have not halted the nations decline in health due to poor nutrition. What went wrong?

One possibility is that past guidelines did not clearly delineate refined carbohydrates from whole grains. HERE is a talk by the Walter Willett, the chairman of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which has dominant influence on the interpretation of science used by the USDA Dietary Guidelines.

Another possibility is that current dietary science is flawed. The unhealthy person is blamed for not following the guidelines, but at least for some people the guidelines is the cause of the problem. In THIS TED Talk, Peter Attia relates how he blamed obese people for their poor health habits, but later had his own problems and had to shift to a fat based diet, not recommended by the dietary guidelines, to regain health. Attia is now leading a foundation to bring integrity in dietary science.

New discoveries in microbiology suggest that past dietary guidelines have been unsuccessful because they underestimated the role played by gut bacteria. HERE is a TED Talk about this promising line of research.

Polyface Farms

Thursday, May 28, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue with food sustainability by looking at Joe Salatin's of Polyface Farms, made famous by Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, HERE is an excerpt. Salatin has employed the methods of using cattle grazing to enrich the soil and capture carbon. He also uses other animals, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and pigs in a symbiotic "dance" to improve the yield of his farm. Salatin is a colorful speaker of is farming methods and his philosophy of life, HERE is an example. He definitely has a conservative libertarian bent, but he believes that climate change is real.

We will also show the TED Talk that we did not have time for last week, on us eating insects. While we may not be ready to eat insects, insects can be used as animal feed as is being on on Salatin's farm.

No Cows, More Cows and Insects

Thursday, May 21, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last meeting, we learned how GMOs can address the sustainability crisis. In the next meeting, we will review three TED Talks which offer other solutions for sustainability, two of them involving cows. There is a movement to eat less or no meat, primarily beef, to promote health and improve sustainability. This theme has been incorporated in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, DGAC, report, and is its most controversial recommendation of many controversial recommendations.

The primary argument against the DGAC recommendation is that the issue of sustainability was outside its charter and expertise. Focusing just on the efficiency of plant based diets ignores the role that animals, especially cattle, can play in soil management. The real problem are the concentrated feedlots, not animals in our diet. Many believe that grazing animals will play a major role in food sustainability and removing carbon from the atmosphere.

The third solution for sustainability, eating insects, is really a serious suggestion but is often considered a joke. Rather than explaining it here we will let the TED speaker make his case.

Environmental Heresies, Redux

Thursday, May 14, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will revive our March 5th meeting that was snowed out about the environmental heresies of Stewart Brand. Brand was a famous environmentalist known primarily for the Whole Earth Catalog, but has since changed his opinion on long standing environmental beliefs. His TED Talk covers four such heresies about third world urbanization, nuclear energy, genetically modified crops and climate engineering.

Norm will be leading the discussion, but there is a lot of material. So please take the time to study the material presented by Brand and tell us at the meeting if your agree or disagree with him.

Commencement Address

Thursday, May 7, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We typically send our college grads into the world with words of optimism, but is this really a wise choice. Since the world is cold, wouldn't it be better to tell them what really to expect. Here are two talks which take opposite approaches. The first talk is Steve Jobs'  address to Stanford during his fight with cancer. He explains how his closeness to death made him only settle for excellence. This is considered to be one of the most inspiring commencement addresses ever given. Yet we know that Jobs eventually lost his battle with cancer.

The second talk is from TED, and takes a more pessimistic tone. This is not a real commencement address, and after you see it you will know why. So in your opinion, which talk would be more useful to college grads?

In the Pan portion of the meeting, we see a TED Talk by our old friend Hans Rosling. He will answer Al's question of why the world population will level off.

Sports

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

We will discuss sports, what is means to you personally and what it means to society. Bill will be leading the discussion. Instead of a video to provide background, he will have a live person.

I hate to miss the meeting, but I will be in Ann Arbor for my niece's graduation.

From Bill:

Herb Hartnett retired a few years ago from the University of Maryland after a career in public relations for the athletic department and university.  He came to Maryland from the University of Pennsylvania at the time of the Len Bias matter.  He seems to have been everywhere and to have know everyone in college athletics and has some opinions on the subject. I propose this format:  

1.  Herb will have 20 minutes to talk and discuss sports and society.  

2.  Since everyone seems to have some experience in sports, I propose letting each person in turn discuss his or her experiences and thoughts on the meaning of sports uninterrupted for say 3 minutes.  

3.  General discussion of the ideas brought up. 

Earth Day

Thursday, April 23, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The day before our next meeting is the 45th celebration of Earth Day, which has special meaning this year due to the upcoming Climate Summit in Paris in December. We have talked about environmental issues in previous meetings, but we have not yet talked about the oceans. For the Zoom In, we will review this classic TED Talk by Sylvia Earle which summarizes all the environmental problems facing the oceans. We will then focus on the ocean plastics problem and a solution proposed by a teenager which has gotten serious attention.

In two weeks, I will be away and Bill will lead the group in a discussion about sports. I found this interesting TED Talk about why athletes are continuously improving, which would serve well as an appetizer for Bill's meeting. It will be shown for the Pan portion of the next meeting.