StoryCorps

Thursday, December 29, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the last meeting of the year, we will get away from the depressing news and listen to inspiring stories by common people from StoryCorps, which won the 2015 TED prize. The winner of the TED prizes gets to address the influential TED audience and make a wish, which is often granted. Here are the links:

• StoryCorps' TED Talk
• StoryCorps' YouTube Channel

If you get a chance to browse the StoryCorps channel and find a good story, let me know so we can share it during the meeting.

Here is an UPDATE of our meeting room renovation in January; the room will not be ready until 1/23/17. This means that our first meeting for 2017 has been pushed back to 1/26/17; so we will actually have a chance to discuss Trump's first week in office for our first meeting of next year.

----------------------------------- Updated 12/24/16 -------------------------------------

HERE is a follow-up on the StoryCorps TED Talk. You can find more stories on the StoryCorps website.

----------------------------------- Updated 12/30/16 -------------------------------------

Here are the StoryCorps animated stories shown at the meeting:

• Lessons her grandmother taught her in the kitchen
• Traffic Stop
• Intro to StoryCorps
• The Bookmobile
• Eyes on the Stars

Obama's Exit Interviews

Thursday, December 22, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the last two meetings of this year, we will take a break from Trump. During the first two weeks of next year, our meeting room will be unavailable due to renovations. So our first meeting for next year will be 1/19/17, the day before Inauguration Day. We should have a lot to say about Trump by then.

For the next meeting, we review some of the broad aspects of the Obama presidency by looking at some interviews he gave to popular TV hosts.

• With Steven Colbert, Obama polishes his resume
• With Bill Maher, Obama answers some rarely asked questions
• With Trevor Noah, Obama discusses how he personally handled race as president
• With Samantha Bee, Obama contemplates a scary Halloween scenario

------------------------------- Updated 12/22/16 ---------------------------------

Here are the two additional questions to Obama in the Bill Maher interview:

• On American Empire
• On Atheism

Post-Truth vs Truthiness

Thursday, December 15, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The last election was not only short on issues; it was also loose with the truth and the voters did not seem to care. Have we entered new era of 'post-truth', or is it just a continuation of politics bending the truth, sometime called 'truthiness'. We will examine if we have hit a new low in truth, or if it is just more of the same with the following videos:

• Steven Colbert claims that his word 'truthiness' is the same as 'post-truth'
• An example of truthiness, Jon Stewart vs Fox News
• An example of post-truth, Colbert takes on fake news
• A TED Talk on the Filter Bubble

------------------------------------- Updated 12/15/16 -----------------------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Man Behind Fake Campaign News
• Filtering news is direct threat to First Amendment

Xenophobia

Thursday, December 8, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Xenophobia, the fear of foreigners, was a problem before the election. But with Trump as president, xenophobia may become official policy. Here are the videos for the meeting:

• ‘Xenophobia’ Word of the Year
• Islamophobia killed my brother
• Samatha Bee - Sore Winners
• Mineta: Can't believe talk of registries
• CNN commentators clash over Trump, racism

------------------------------------- Updated 12/8/16 ---------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Richard Spencer's appearance at Texas A&M
• The Daily Show - Muslim Registry

A Divided Nation

Thursday, December 1, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Trump, Clinton, Obama and even Sanders are appealing for unity and finding common ground, but the protests against Trump started almost immediately after he won the election. Most agree that had Clinton won, Trump's supporters would have done the same against her. We had a problem no matter who won.

HERE is a TED Talk by Jonathan Haidt about how this election is tearing the nation apart. We listen to a previous TED Talk by Haidt two years ago in our meeting on Political Asteroids. Things were bad then, but have gotten worse.

Haidt encourages us to empathize with the other side, and you may have the perfect opportunity at your family gatherings over Thanksgiving. For our next meeting, we will discuss any attempts made to follow Haidt's advice, and then we will continue with our discussion on the transition to the Trump presidency.

----------- Update 12/1/16 ---------------------------------------

Here is the other video shown at the meeting

• Jill Stein explains why she has initiated the recount

------------ Update 11/20/16 : Here is a commentary of the election by Ken --------------------

What I call the 3 prongs of Republican conservatism (bigots of all kinds, fanatically religious authoritarians, and the selfish rich) were not enough for a Trump victory. He won by adding those who lack the education or skills essential to compete in today's employment world and who foolishly blamed Obama and Democrats for their plight instead of the do-nothing obstructionist Republicans.

States won by Trump that were so close that they could easily have gone for Clinton include:

• Florida 49-48% 29 electoral votes
• Pennsylvania 49-48% 20 electoral votes
• Michigan 48-47% 16 electoral votes
• Wisconsin 48-47% 10 electoral votes

If Clinton had won any two of the above, she would have won the election.

Then there were the non-voters (who were especially important in the above battleground states). These people always get the government they deserve and shouldn't complain after the fact. But it could have been worse.

The 5 closest House races were won by Democrats:

• MN-8 Rick Nolan (incumbent) 50.28%
• MN-1 Tim Walz (incumbent) 50.38%
• CA-7 Ami Bera (incumbent) 50.59%
• NV-3 Jacky Rosen (new) 50.68%
• NH-1 Carol Shea-Porter (back again) 50.76%

The closest Senate race was won by a Democrat, NH Maggie Hassan (new) 50.05% (or just over 1000 votes). The other close Senate races were won by newcomer Catherine Cortez Masto (replacing Harry Reid) in Nevada, Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet in Colorado, and four Republican incumbents in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. If Democrats had won all of these races, they'd have a 52-48 majority(instead of the reverse).

If there's a flood of revulsion against Trump in 2018, Democrats could finally retake the House, but there are only two Senate Republicans (Dean Heller in Nevada and JeffFlake in Arizona) in any kind of danger that year. They won in 2012with 46% and 49% of the vote respectively. But there are five Senate Democrats who won then with less than 52% of the vote. They are JonTester of Montana, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of NorthDakota, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Of these, Baldwin and Brown are the most progressive (and will receive substantial campaign contributions from me). Accidental Senators Donnelly and Heitkamp are the least progressive and, in my view, aren't worthy of support. Then, there is a likely Democratic retiree (Dianne Feinstein, who will be 85, from the safe blue state of California) and a possible Democratic retiree (Ben Cardin of safeDemocratic Maryland, who will be 75). GOP Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, although he'll be 84, is making sounds about running again. Other oldsters in the Democratic ranks are Florida's Bill Nelson (76) and Delaware's Tom Carper (71). Independents who line up with Democrats (Vermont's Bernie Sanders, who'll be 77, and Maine's Angus King, who'll be 74) could conceivably retire in 2018.

By the way, Maine adopted a new ranked-choice voting system that is scheduled to begin in that year. The fact of the matter is that it's aimed at assuring that extreme right-wingers (like Maine's current Governor Paul LePage) never again get elected to high federal or state public office there. In the past, Democrats and Independents have sufficiently split the vote to elect LePage twice.

2020 is the year that Democrats must sweep at state levels if they are to overcome Republican gerrymandering that leads to the kind of House of Representatives we have now.

What Will Trump Do?

Thursday, November 17, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The shake out over the election has just started; so we will devote our meetings to discuss the ramifications of the election as long as it is the primary topic of interest. In the last meeting, we focused on Hillary. For this meeting, we will focus on Trump and what he will do.

Trump has said many outrageous things before he was elected. but since then he seems reasonable. Trump has changed his position quickly and radically in the past, and he really does not owe anything to anyone, at least nothing that he can't renege on. We don't really know if he is crazy like a fox or just crazy. Certainly, he is in a better negotiating position by appearing crazy.

Because things are changing so fast, I will not select the videos for the meeting until the day before. As always I will post the videos shown at the meeting retroactively on the post for the meeting.

--------------------------------- Updated 11/18/16 -----------------------------------

Here are the videos shown at the meeting:

• Fox News on where Trump starts
• Chuck Todd says Donald Trump Doesn’t Owe Anybody Anything
• Ana Navarro hopes that Trump was playing a character
• It’s now on America’s institutions to check Donald Trump
• Obama says This office has a way of waking you up
• Lesley Stahl on her "60 Minutes" interview with Trump

Election Results

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

By next week Wednesday we should know the results of the election; so we will spend Thursday discussing the significance of the final vote. Besides the presidency, we can discuss the Senate race and state referendums, such as recreational marijuana.

I will not have videos until after the election, so if you want something to chew on until our meeting, HERE is a link to the 538 forecast.

----------------------------------- Updated 11/11/16 -----------------------------------

Here are the videos that were shown at the meeting:

• Election summary by Democracy Now
• Election analysis by John Heilemann
• Understanding Hillary by Vox

The Choice, Part 3

Thursday, November 3, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will finish Frontline's The Choice 2016, starting from 1:11:50. This is where both Trump and Clinton have there biggest crisis. For Trump it was the Taj Mahal; for Clinton it was Monica Lewinsky.

So far the election has been about personalities, devoid of serious discussion of issues. Yet most of the issues really cannot be addressed without the cooperation of Congress. But Trump, with just an executive order, can end the EPA Clean Power Plan and thus disrupt the Paris Climate Change Agreement. In the last meeting, I mention that DiCaprio will make his latest movie on climate change, Before the Flood, available for free from October 30 till November 6. HERE is the promo.

------------------------------------ Update 10/31/16 --------------------------------

HERE is the link to the movie, Before the Flood. There are direct references to some Republican climate deniers in Congress. The release before the election was no coincidence.

The Choice, Part 2

Thursday, October 27, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue discussion of the 2016 election with the Frontline's The Choice 2016. We will pickup where we left off from the last meeting, 24:30 into the video.

Last meeting, I recommended the you watch the Al Smith Dinner. For those that missed it you can watch it in its entirety HERE.

The Choice, Part 1

Thursday, October 20, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next three meetings, we will Zoom-In on the 2016 election, mostly but not limited to the presidential election. We will start on the day after the final presidential debate; so we will begin the meeting with an open discussion about the debate series. For the remainder of the meeting, we will view and discuss the Frontline special, The Choice 2016, about the biographies of Clinton and Trump. This is a two hour documentary, so it will span possibly the following two meetings.

---------------------------------------- Updated 10/21/16 -------------------------------------

Here is a link to the addition video shown:

• Hillary Clinton’s 3 debate performances left the Trump campaign in ruins

Police Under Fire

Thursday, October 13, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will conclude our Broken Windows series with a look at police misbehavior. While recent events seem to indicate that the situation is out of control, the underlying problems have been identified since Ferguson. Obama has taken steps to solve the problem, but it will take time. Until Obama's reforms are enacted, communities have taken action with program like CopWatch. These are the videos that we will review:

• Police Accountability
• Baltimore cop tells all
• Ferguson Revisited
• Obama's COPS Task Force, PDF
• CopWatch

Penalties of Law

Thursday, October 6, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Two meetings ago we discussed that Broken Windows may not have caused the drop in crime of the 90s. In this meeting, we will discuss how Broken Windows may be the underlying cause of the current conflict between the police and their community. In particular, excessive policing of minor offenses results in an overwhelming economic burden on the underclass due to excessive penalties.

Emmy Award winning comedian John Oliver gives three examples of excessive policing:

• Municipal Violations
• Civil Forfeiture
• Bail

Abortion Politics

Thursday, September 29, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Last week we examined the alternatives explanations to the crime drop of the 1990s, thus further discrediting the Broken Windows Theory, the primary justification for zero tolerance policing. The surprising cause, credited for a third of the crime drop, was the demographic change due to the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Not surprisingly, this reason is rarely mentioned.

Abortion is a topic we have so far avoided in our discussion group. But now I have opened the issue, I cannot just put it aside. So for this meeting, the topic will be the politics of abortion, how this became such a hot button issue and its impact on the current presidential race. I could not find any videos which had an intelligent discussion on abortion which could not be accused of taking a political side. But I did find some material from the late night comics, whose we generally give license to be biased.

• Samantha Bee recounts the untold history of abortion politics
• An apology by one of the founders of the Pro-Life movement
• John Oliver explains the state laws used to restrict legal abortion
• The Supreme Court decision on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

-------------------------------------- Updated 9/29/16 -----------------------------------

These are the additional videos shown at the meeting:

• Al Jazeera's report on Texas HB2
• Mike Pence speaks on Pro Life
• Tim Kaine speaks on Pro Choice

The Freakonomics of the Crime Drop

Thursday, September 22, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Malcolm Gladwell acknowledges the problems with "Broken Windows", but he wants to know what else could have caused the dramatic drop in crime in the 90s. Another famous author, Steven Levitt, answered that question in his book, Freakonomics. Chapter 4 of that book ranks all the proposed reasons for the crimes drop, and identifies an important reason that was overlooked. Unfortunately, that reason was so controversial that Levitt's challenge to Broken Windows is rarely discussed.

For our meeting we will go over Levitt's analysis. There is no good video on YouTube; so I will use excerpts from the audiobook during the meeting. For those that want to read about the analysis, but don't have the book, there is a PDF online.

----------------------------------- Updated 9/22/16 --------------------------------------

Here is the link to the short video shown at the beginning of the meeting:

• Origin of Broken Windows

Broken Windows and the Baltimore Police

Thursday, September 15, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Malcolm Gladwell's story on NYPD "Broken Windows" policy may have been instrumental in spreading it across the nation, including to Baltimore where it is called Zero Tolerance. This policy was rebuked in the AG report on the Baltimore Police. For our next meeting we will discuss the Broken Windows policy and its effect on the Baltimore Police.

• A retrospective on Gladwell's story on Broken Windows, Part 1, Part 2
• Zero Tolerance in the AG BPD Report
• The effort to end Broken Windows in New York, HERE, HERE and HERE

Malcolm Gladwell

Thursday, September 8, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Malcolm Gladwell is arguably one of the most influential authors of our time. The concepts he popularized, like Tipping Point, Matthew Effect and 10,000 Hours of Practice, are now part of regular public discourse. In the previous meeting, we explored Moral Licensing, which Gladwell recently introduced in his Revisionist History podcast. In the meeting after this, we will explore Broken Windows, an older theme from his early work, and is now at the heart of the controversy of policing. For the upcoming meeting, we will watch Gladwell's three TED Talks, which cover a range of topics. In each of the following talks, Gladwell tells you something different about a subject that you thought you knew everything about, and then broadens its scope so that it has a major impact on the way you look at the world.

• David and Goliath
• The Norden Bombsight
• Spaghetti Sauce

Moral Licensing and Misogyny

Thursday, September 1, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

With the Olympics over we can turn our attention back to the election. Clinton has a huge lead and will probably be the first woman US president. But her election to the presidency may give her opponents moral license to attack her viciously without being accused of misogyny. For our next meeting, we will explore moral licensing and how it applies to Clinton and how misogyny originates in men.

• Malcolm Gladwell explains moral licensing
• TED Talk on how the culture of manhood leads to misogyny

------------------------------ Updated 9/2/16 --------------------------

Here are the other video shown at the meeting:
Feminist Activists Protest Rousseff Ouster
America’s powerful female politicians tell us how they broke the glass ceiling
Trump Appeals to Blacks,  at 6:36 to 8:46

The Olympics, continued

Thursday, August 25, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will use this session to wrap-up our discussion on the Rio Olympics. Last week, we did not have time to show the TED Talk on the Special Olympics, so we will use the time remaining on the Special Olympics.

Here are some TED Talks about the Special Olympics:

• Special Olympics let me be myself
• Let's Talk About Intellectual Disabilities

------------------------------------- Updated 8/25/16 --------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• U.S. swimming scandal casts shadow over Rio, but Bolt still shines
• Runners collide but help each other out and finish race
• North and South Korea unified by Olympic spirit
• Paralympic Sport A-Z- Swimming
• America Totally Dominated the Olympics, Scandals Included

The Olympics

Thursday, August 18, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The subject for this meeting is the Olympics, but not just the current games in Rio. These are some interesting videos I found so far:

• The success of the Opening Ceremony in spite of Brazil's problems
• The Olympics as a showcase for diversity
• The Special Olympics

Since the games are still in progress, there may be other video that come out on YouTube before Thursday.

---------------------------------------------- Updated on 8/19/16 ---------------------------------------------

Besides the videos on swimming, soccor and gymnastic, here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Problems at Rio
• The Refugee Team

Public Shaming

Thursday, August 11, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

With Hillary the most likely next president, how far behind are the stories of Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky. While Bill has recovered, there was little consideration about what happened Monica, until she gave a moving TED Talk about her public shaming. And if you think it couldn't to you, think again. 

For our next meeting we will explore the blood sport of public shaming with TED Talks by Monica Lewinsky and Jon Ronson. Ronson tells a story of the public shaming of an average person who tweeted a joke.

2016 DNC

Thursday, August 4, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last meeting, we covered the Republicans. Now it is the Democrats turn. We will view video clips about the 2016 Democrat National Convention in Philadelphia.

2016 RNC

Thursday, July 28, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will review the 2016 Republican National Convention. Much has happened, so it is hard to pick which, if any, of the events are significant. Please add a comment to this blog post to let us know which RNC topic you would like to cover. I'll try to locate a matching YouTube video.

Dallas Aftermath

Thursday, July 21, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For this meeting, we will discuss the aftermath of the Dallas shooting, using for background Obama's speech at the memorial service for the five slain police officers, HERE. The speech is long, but it is one of Obama's best.

----------------------- Update 7/21/16 ---------------------

FYI

• Joe Biden gives the weekly address after the Dallas shooting
• George Bush speech at the Dallas Memorial
• Obama comments after the Baton Rouge shooting

International Terrorism

Thursday, July 14, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Orlando was just the beginning of a string of terror attack during the month of Ramadan, as summarized HERE. For this meeting, we will view three TED Talks about international terror.

• Karima Bennoune tells how Muslim communities are fighting back against terrorist
• Marc Goodman tells how terrorist are using the latest technology
• Trevor Aaronson talks about problems in how the FBI is fighting terrorism

Brexit and Guns on Late Night

Thursday, July 7, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Once again Late Night comedians are doing a better job in explaining the issues of the day. We will look at two issues in recent news, Brexit and gun control.

Samantha Bee, on TBS Full Frontal, explained how Britain's vote to leave the EU has affected the US presidential race.

• Britian's buyer's regret on the vote
• Brexit foreshadowing the US presidential election
• Blaming Muslim for not reporting terrorist

Seth Meyers, on NBC Late Night, Closer Look series on Democratic congress fight for gun control:

• The Senate filibuster
• The Senate gun control vote
• The House sit-in

Korean War

Thursday, June 30, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Norm will be leading the next meeting while I am away. The topic will be the Korean War, which was not discussed in our meeting on Veterans a few weeks ago. Our group has several members who are or know someone who is a veteran of the Korean War.

Norm will bring some material but please be prepared to share your experiences. Better yet, leave your comments on this blog. It will help your fellow members prepare for the meeting.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Thursday, June 23, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Now that Hillary Clinton is the first woman presidential candidate of a major party, can we say that the "Glass Ceiling" is finally broken, or do we still have a long way to go? These videos can give us some perspective.

• Hannah Rosin thinks that women already outperform men
• Reshma Saujani says that women still lack self-confidence
• The pay gap women's soccer
• Women vs Men in local government

-------------------- Updated 6/23/16 --------------------

Here is the extra video shown at the meeting:

• The Battle of the Sexes, 1973

Driverless Cars

Thursday, June 16, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Are you ready for the driverless car? Driver assisted cars are already here and driverless cars and trucks are being tested on public roads, although a person is still required as a backup. Here are the videos we will view in the next meeting:

• The current state of driver assisted cars evolving to driverless cars
• Google leapfrogs driver assisted cars, going diredtly to driverless cars
• How driverless cars will transform society
• Ethical dilemmas of the driver software
• The first wave, driverless trucks

------------------------- Updated 6/16/16 --------------------

Other videos shown:
Why Uber's Self-Driving Car Test Is A Big Deal
Mystery van raising suspicions that Apple is developing driverless car

Lying in the Internet Age

Thursday, June 9, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Lying and deception have been with us since the dawn of time, and we expect it to continue in the age of the Internet and social media. How will the new technology change the nature of lying. With communication more easy than ever, we expect lying to increase. But with increased data capture, better lie detection is possible. 

Here are the TED Talks  for the matting:

• Marco Tempest explains the nature of lying by using magic tricks with iPhones
• Jeff Hancock tells how text communication make it less likely to lie
• Kung Lee tells how Internet video can be used to detect lies
• Markham Nolan tells how news organizations verify breaking stories from social media

Returning Vets

Thursday, June 2, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Skye recommended a recent TED Talk about how Vets returning from war feel alienated, not just because of the trauma of combat, but because of the nature of the society they are returning to. Returning Vets have been a sensitive topic since their shameful treatment in the Vietnam era. So now we careful to say, "Thank you for  your service" to any person in the military.  

For our next meeting, we will discuss the needs of Vets and some programs designed for them, HERE and HERE.

Opioid Abuse

Thursday, May 26, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Opioid abuse has been quietly growing for a long time, but the story exploded in the media during the coverage of presidential race in New Hampshire. We now know that opioid addiction is a national problem affecting all age and economic groups. President Obama and Speaker Ryan have pledged to address the problem, and we are now seeing executive actions and bills passed.

A 2015 book, Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari, has challenged our current notions of drug addition. Hari claims that drug addiction was originally not a serious problem. It became a problem because of the war on drugs, which had its origin in racism.

We will discuss the current opioid epidemic and how the the views in Hari's book affects the solution. Here are the videos for the meeting:

• How the ‘quietest’ drug epidemic has ravaged the U.S.
• Opiate abuse amongst pregnant women soars
• Seniors and prescription medications
• Congress address opioid abuse without new funding
• Johann Hari's TED Talk
• Partial summary on Hari's book

Science Credibility

Thursday, May 19, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Now more than ever we need science to guide us, but in today's politics even science is under attack. Here are some videos illustrating the problem:

• Jimmy Kimmel on climate denial
• John Oliver on science hype
• Ben Goldacre on fudging science

Internet Playground

Thursday, May 12, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Are all those viral videos on the Internet just a bunch of silliness, or can it lead to anything important? For our next meeting we will see some TED talks about why people love viral videos and how they can lead to unintentional usefulness.

• Kevin Allocca - Why videos go viral
• Charlie Todd - Improv Everywhere
• Magda Sayeg - Yarn Bombing
• Chris Anderson - How web video powers global innovation
• Eric Whitacre - Internet Choir

The Last WHCD

Thursday, May 5, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Obama hosted his last White House Correspondents Dinner last Saturday. He did not disappoint. The WHCD is called the Nerd Prom for a good reason. You need to be very familiar with current events the get the jokes. We will review Obama's talk so we can pickup the jokes we missed.

Here are clips from other WHCD:

• Collection of the best moments of past WHCD 
• Trump moments from the 2011 dinner
• My pick of Obama's best moments not in other videos we already seen

Also, the song played at the beginning of Obama's talk at the 2016 WHCD, is When I'm Gone. See if it captures the emotion of Obama's leaving the White House:

The above song, also know as Cups, has a fascinating HISTORY.

Autism Diversity

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Autism has touched many of us, including some in our group. The perceived autism epidemic was blamed on vaccines; we now know otherwise. There is wide diversity among autistics. High functioning autistics have succeeded because of their condition. As for the rest, new research and technology offer hope.

For this meeting we will view these TED Talks about autism:

• Steve Silberman traces the history of autism, how it was always there but hidden
• Temple Grandin is a successful autistic who say we need the diversity that autistic provide
• Wendy Chung summarizes our current understanding of autism and hope for the future

The Fight for Zika Funding

Thursday, April 21, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Obama is trying to get Congress to appropriate emergency funding to fight the Zika virus expected to be a crisis this summer. This should have been a no-brainer but Congress is refusing to go along. As summer approaches, the situation is becoming urgent and Obama's press secretary Josh Ernest is stepping up the pressure on Congress.

The story is finally getting in mainstream media, as shown HERE, but it does not capture the full nature of this needless battle. I collected clips, primarily from the White House press briefings, which shows how the story developed, HERE.

---------------------- Update 4/21/16 -------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Pregnant woman worried about Zika after Puerto Rico trip
• Climate change could increase the spread of Zika virus
• Zika Virus Outbreak and the 2016 Brazil Olympic Games
• Zika Virus Forces Female Athletes to Consider Sitting Out Olympics
• Zika virus in Brazil and Rio Olympics dangers precautions fears
• Political turmoil (Brazil)
• New Rule – Bloodsucker Proxy

The Maryland Primary

Thursday, April 14, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

It seems that the Maryland primary will actual play a pivotal role in the presidential race for both parties. HERE is the latest poll. There is certainly much to discuss about the presidential race, but there are also other important races on the ballot. The race for Barbara Mikulski's Senate seat, is focused on Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen; HERE is the latest poll. The other races can be found HERE.

I do not have any video's planned for this meeting, so please come prepared If you have any issues about the primaries that you want to discuss, please comment on this blog so we can do some research before the meeting.

Update on Gun Control

Thursday, April 7, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

There has been some interesting developments on the issue of Gun Control, not about another major shooting.

• For the first time there was a TED Talk about gun control, HERE. TED represents what some very influential people are thinking about and typically avoids controversial topics.We may be near a breakthrough in gun control legislation.
• There is also local interest in the Maryland ban on assault weapons working through the courts, combined with the Republican Senate refusing to act on Scalia's replacement on the Supreme Court. HERE is a video montage which summarizes the situation.
• Finally, there is still some nutty stuff going on in the presidential race like THIS petition to allow open carry at the Republican convention. Or THIS Ben Carson suggestion on how to prevent school shootings.

Micro Credit

Thursday, March 31, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We need to change the single narrative of how the world poor depend on wealthy nations. In general, people in poverty are ashamed of taking charity and want to be able to be self-sufficient. But they need access to capital. A way has been developed to allow people in one country to make small loans directly to people in a different country, bypassing governments. We will view four TED Talks about this micro credit phenomenon:

• Jessica Jackley was motivated by her Christian faith to create the micro credit website, Kiva
• Julie Hannah was a refugee from Egypt who later became Kiva's chairman
• Sangu Delle is an African who insists that micro-loans are not enough for success
• Gayle Lemmon uses the woman's perspective to explain why micro-loans succeed

And another thing. One of our members has a very special relation to one of the speakers above, more at the meeting.

African Origins

Thursday, March 24, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In past meetings, we have talked about the need to broaden our understanding beyond the single narrative. In that spirit, we will have a guest speaker, Sherman's friend, Kenneth M. Jennings, Jr., on the topic of the true origins of ancient Egypt, its suppression by main stream historians, and what it means for Black Americans.

An excerpt from Ken's handout:

Understand that when I speak of the Kemites I am speaking of the Black people of the Nile Valley of Africa who built the world’s first major civilization and nation state long before Moses and long before even Abraham.  Greece and Rome did not exist.  Sumer in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers area (now called Iraq) was a city state.  There was no concept of a “Europe” among the primitive white inhabitants of that area on the western edge of the Asian land mass.

Here is a little about Ken, related to the topic:

He has made nine trips to Ghana, West Africa and one to the Nile Valley in Egypt on a study tour.  He is a member of The Association For The Study Of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC).  Ken gives presentations to Alpha Achievers in the schools and others to ensure that the young men, school staff and the community have a clear sense of African history and culture.  He has written essays to express an Afrocentric perspective, often using the name Kofi Akuffo Ojise’.  Kofi is the Akan peoples of Ghana name given to boys born on Friday, Akuffo means Ordained by God and Ojise’ means “messenger” in the Yoruba language of Nigeria.

HERE is a link to the video that will be shown.

-------------------------- Updated 3/24/16 -----------------------------

Other videos:

• Richard Pryor - Egypt
• Dr. Asa Hilliard, Part 1

Political Funnies

Thursday, March 17, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Sorry for the late post. I wanted to talk about something positive in politics, like the CARA drug bill that recently passed the Senate, but the presidential race has gone crazy and demands our attention, so we will talk about that instead. But the election is so depressing; so we will use comedy videos to guide the discussion. Here is a starter:

• CNN Election Center
• Voters for Trump Ad
• Carson Endorsement
• Hillary Campaign Ad

There should be more by Thursday.

------------------------------------ Updated 3/17/16 -------------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown in full at the meeting:

• GOP Brokered Convention- A Closer Look
• Cruz 101 - Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
• The Daily Show - Donald Trump's Political Fight Club

Here are the other video clipped for the Ben Carson piece:

• Super Tuesday Part Three Proved They Need To Retire The Franchise

Here are the videos clipped for the Jeb Bush piece:

• George W. Bush Cold Open - SNL
• Jeb Bush's Campaign Trouble- A Closer Look
• Donald Trump attacks George W. Bush on 9-11, Iraq
• George W. Bush Offers Tough Trump Takedown In Campaign Debut
• John Oliver - South Carolina Republican Primary
• Hungry For Power Games- Jeb Has Fallen

Aging Gracefully

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Members haves requested that we cover more age appropriate topics; so what could be better than aging itself. For our next meeting we will explore the wide spread belief that people get happier as they age.

• Jane Fonda thinks that the best time of life is in the final third act
• Susan Jacoby disagrees
• Robert Waldinger says it depends and has the studies to prove it

-------------------------------- Updated 3/10/16 ------------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:

• Susan Jacoby's Never Say Die
• 93 year old bodybuilder Charles Eugster

Super Tuesday

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

What happens next Tuesday could determine the Presidential nominee for both the Republicans and Democrats. So our Thursday meeting should be the perfect time to pontificate over the election. 

As I will be away, Norm will lead the discussion.

Dangerous Stereotypes

Thursday, February 25, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Unfortunately, the presidential race has devolved into bigotry based on dangerous stereotypes about race, religion and gender. For the next meeting, we will view three TED Talks about how we can overcome these false narratives.

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells how the single narrative has distorted our views of Africans.
• Anand Giridharadas tells a story of forgiveness after a religious hate crime.
• Dame Stephanie Shirley tells how gender based bias of women in business was overcome.

Government Services Privitization

Thursday, February 18, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

I will be away next week, so Norm will be the discussion leader. The topic will be on the trend to privatize many government services. There will be no videos during the meeting and 90 minutes is a lot of time to fill. So please use the blog comments give your opinions and examples.

How about this: Here’s How to Fix Flint’s Water System: Privatize It

Please add your examples below.

Our Connection to Animals

Thursday, February 11, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will take a break from current events and have a meeting on a "soft" topic. Usually I find interesting TED Talks on a common topic. Here are three talks on our connection to animals;

• Ian Dunbar explains that the key to dog training is to see things from the dogs point of view
• Janine Banyus show how animals have provided solutions to engineering problems
• Maria Spivak reminds us on our dependance on bees and why they are endangered

---------------------------------------- Updated 2/11/16 -----------------------------------------------

Correction: I said during the meeting that cockroach robots were used in the Taiwan earthquake rescue. I think that the actual news was that cockroach robots were only suggested, not actually used.

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

• Cockroach robots to the rescue!
• Whitehouse Bees

State of the Union, part 3

Thursday, January 28, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)
Meeting cancelled due to snow cover from the weekend blizzard, rescheduled for 2/4/16.

For the last meeting in January, we will wrap-up the State of the Union, focusing on what Obama considers to be the most important question, "How can we make our politics reflect the best in us, and not the worst?" Remember that Obama was elected largely because he wanted to unite the country. HERE is an excerpt of his famous 2004 keynote speech at the DNC. In his last SOTU, he admits that he failed but will continue to try.

For the remainder of the meeting, we will go over the speech as a whole. HERE is a recap from Obama's speech in Omaha following the SOTU. The Whitehouse has created a website to elaborate in the four questions presented at the SOTU.

----------------------------------- Updated 2/6/16 -------------------------------------

Here is the other video video shown at the meeting:

• Obama in Baton Rouge. 

State of the Union, part 2

Thursday, January 21, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our last meeting, we covered the introduction and economy portions of the SOTU. In our next meeting we will continue with the last three parts, technology, security and democracy. There is a lot of ground here; so I though you might enjoy this quick summary of the SOTU by Steven Colbert.

2016 State of the Union

Thursday, January 14, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Obama gives his last State of the Union next Tuesday, Jan. 12. We can use it as an opportunity to look back at previous year and forward to the next. HERE is a video preview.

For those that watch the speech, please bring your favorite moments that you will like to discuss. I will try to find video clips that we can watch during meeting.

Politics of Fear

Thursday, January 7, 2016, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Welcome to 2016, an election year that may be dominated by the politics of fear. For good or evil, fear has a way of overshadowing other issue which may be more important in the long run. Here are the videos that will be shown at the meeting:

• David Rothkopf: How fear drives American politics
• The Daily Show - Donald Trump- The White ISIS
• Ted Koppel, 'Lights Out'
• Karen Thompson Walker: What fear can teach us