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