Ed Buckner
In Freedom We
Trust: This is a Free Country, not a Christian Nation!
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009
SPECIAL TIME: 10 a.m.
The founders
of the United States debated long and hard over the U.S.
Constitution. By 1789 they had created a revolutionary document
that provided the structure for a secular government. So why do
people in 2009 think we live in a Christian nation? Is there a
difference between a country with a Christian-based government
and a country that contains a Christian majority? Ed Buckner
will explain why we live in a free, not Christian, country.
Buckner, who
has been the President of American Atheists for the past year,
has been a professor, a technical school administrator, and
Executive Director of Council for Secular Humanism (2001-2003).
He earned his doctorate at Georgia State University. Buckner and
his wife, Lois Diane Bright, have edited several books and
published Oliver Halle's Taking the Harder Right (2006).
He has debated and spoken across the U.S., often about the
Treaty of Tripoli and "This Is a Free Country, Not a Christian
Nation." His “No More Lies!" talk was featured at the Godless
Americans March on Washington in 2002. Buckner also serves on
several national advisory boards and committees.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Prof. Randy Cerveny
Weather’s Greatest Mysteries Solved!
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009
11 a.m. in Hollywood; 4:30 p.m.
in
Costa Mesa
Why was
human life nearly wiped out 73,000 years ago? Did the Red
Sea part as described in the Bible? Why did the T-Rex become
extinct? Arizona State University Professor Randy Cerveny
is a history detective who brings past weather to light in a
new book, Weather’s Greatest Mysteries Solved!, that
shows how it played a major role in key turning points in
history. Cerveny will give a lively, fascinating tour of
some of the world’s most perplexing and provocative climate
mysteries, past and present. They range from the causes for
widespread calamities, such the disappearance of the Mayan
civilization and the rise of the American Dust Bowl, to
smaller scale weather phenomena, such as intense microbursts
that can down an airplane.
Cerveny, a professor who specializes in weather and
climate at ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences, was named in
2005 as one of three inaugural “President’s Professors” at the
university. With a doctorate in geography at the University of
Nebraska in 1987, he has studied weather on all seven
continents. His work, including a book, Freaks of the Storms:
The World’s Strangest Weather Stories, and nearly 100
science articles, has ranged from studying the weather
associated with prison escapes to computing the weather of the
next 10,000 years. Cerveny has been interviewed by the BBC, CNN,
ABC News, NPR, and has appeared live on the NBC Today show and
on the CBS Morning Show. He is an editor of the popular-based
weather magazine Weatherwise. Currently he is working
with the World Meteorological Organization to develop a global
database of extreme weather records (now online at
http://wmo.asu.edu/)
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Al Seckel
Your Mind's Eye:The World's Most Powerful Illusions and What
they Tell Us About How We Think and Perceive
Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009
11 a.m.
Come see,
experience, and take delight in some of the world's most
powerful visual and other sensory illusions presented by
illusion expert Al Seckel. He will take us on an
interactive journey through our inner minds. Many of the
dynamic illusions presented in this lecture, including
visual and auditory ones, are not available anywhere else,
including his books, and cover many different aspects of
perception. Illusions can reveal the hidden rules of the
human perceptual system in a way that normal perceptual
processes do not.
Seckel is
internationally recognized as one of the world's leading
authorities on visual and other types of sensory illusions.
He has authored more than 18 books on the subject, including
several best-sellers. Two have won national book awards.
Seckel has lectured extensively at many of the world's
prestigious universities, including Harvard, MIT, Caltech,
Cornell University, University of Oxford, University of
Cambridge, UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley, University of Rome,
University of Utrecht, University of Lund, and Singularity
University. He also has lectured at many conferences and
venues, including twice at TED.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Angela Hawken
Is Corruption Measurable?
Sunday, Nov 15, 2009
11 a.m. in Hollywood; 4:30 p.m.
in
Costa Mesa
Measures
of corruption have become increasingly important drivers of
American policy decisions, influencing flows of foreign
assistance and investment. But existing measurement systems
are not sufficiently accurate or valid. Angela Hawken of
Pepperdine University will not only explain the problem of
measuring corruption but also briefly examine its impact on
society, from individual scams perpetrated by schemers such
as Bernie Madoff to governmental graft and corruption. The
arbitrariness of the U.S. allocation of international aid,
for instance, is demonstrated through an analysis of
"eligible country" determination within the Millennium
Challenge Account, a bilateral development fund created by
the Bush Administration. Measurement is more than an
academic exercise; seemingly small details have large
impacts.
Hawken is
an Assistant Professor of Economics and Policy Analysis at
Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy. She is originally from
South Africa, where she taught economics before moving to
the United States in 1998 to complete her doctorate in
policy analysis at the RAND Graduate School. Hawken teaches
graduate classes in research methods, statistics, applied
methods for policy analysis, crime, and social policy, and
her research interests are primarily in illicit drugs,
crime, and corruption. She develops measurement instruments
to study corruption and gender issues in Afghanistan, where
she has lived, for the UN Development Program and the
Asia-Pacific region for the UN regional office.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
James
Fallon
The Brain of a Criminal: Genes, Brain Imaging, and Free Will
Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009
11 a.m.
The new
field of imaging genetics has provided unique insights into
the causes of diseases such as schizophrenia and depression,
as well as a greater understanding of a range of elusive
concepts such as creativity, free will, and the brain of the
psychopathic killer. In this talk, Dr. James H. Fallon of
the University of California, Irvine, discusses the
interactive contributions of genetics, environmental
stressors, brain damage and gene modification, and how the
mix of these factors form a basis of the study of complex
adaptive behaviors and psychiatric disorders, including some
skeletons in the speaker's own closet.
Fallon,
Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the University
of California Irvine School of Medicine, is a prominent,
pioneering brain researcher who was the first to show how to
mobilize significant numbers of adult stem cells and
progenitors in the injured brain. He has written extensively
on neurodegenerative disorders and has a particular interest
in examining psychopathic criminal behavior. Fallon is
presently principal investigator on an adult stem cell grant
and working on several other imaging and genetics grants. He
is on numerous scientific, biotech, and art/humanities
boards.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
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