Saturday, May 27, 2017

Man vs Machine

Thursday, June 1, 2017, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Humankind has suffered another defeat in its battle against machines. Today, Google's AlphaGo swept a three games series against the world's best Go player, Ke Jie. AlphaGo also beat a team of 5 top ranked Go players in an exhibition match. Google has retired AlphaGo from matches with humans, since there is no challenge. HERE is a video which provides historical background, from Chess to Jeopardy to Go. For our next meeting, we will discuss if people are needed anymore. Here are the videos:

Monday, May 22, 2017

Trump Update

Thursday, May 25, 2017, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Having avoided Trump for the last two meetings, we now need to take a quick peek in his latest self-generated crisis. Since our last meeting on Trump, he fired FBI director Comey, came close to admitting to obstruction of justice, revealed classified information to the Russians and complained to graduates on how unfairly he was being treated. A special counsel was appointed to oversee the Russia investigation and impeachment seems possible. Here are the videos for the meeting:
------------------------------------------------- Updated 5/25/17 --------------------------------------------------

Here is the other video shown at the meeting:



Saturday, May 13, 2017

The Good and Bad News of Clean Energy

Thursday, May 18, 2017, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Two weeks ago we talked about how the Trump administration seems to be at war with science, particularly in their denial of climate change. However, it seems that many climate activists are in a denial of their own, that nuclear power is not needed as part of the solution for climate change. While most climate activists are against nuclear power, some activists have changed their mind about nuclear power. 

For our next meeting, we will look at public attitudes toward nuclear power. Here are the videos:

Friday, May 5, 2017

The Coming Marijuana Battle

Thursday, May 11, 2017, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The 2016 election continued the trend of marijuana legalization, but the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has threatened a federal crackdown on marijuana in spite of state law. Here are the videos for the meeting:
------------------------------------------ Updated 5/11/17 ---------------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting:


Monday, May 1, 2017

Trump's First 100 Days

Thursday, May 4, 2017, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For our next meeting, we will review Trump's first 100 days. Here are the videos:
------------------------------------------- Updated 5/4/17 -------------------------------------------------

Here are the other videos shown at the meeting: