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.