The Power from Above

Christine Hoffman

11 a.m., December 11, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum, in person with our presenter OR on Zoom.

We will discuss a higher power critical to the creation and sustenance of humans and life on earth. This power is of course… the sun. After a very brief introduction on how the sun creates energy, the main focus of the talk will be on how this energy can be harnessed to electrify, heat and cool our homes. We will cover the basics of photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal technologies. Finally we will touch on the limitations and challenges of this amazing power.

Speaker Bio: Christine Hoffman has been a lifelong environmentalist, and waste-reduction advocate. She holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics, with her thesis work focusing on optimizing nonimaging solar concentrators. She currently teaches machine learning and data mining, but also aspires to become an entrepreneur for a company that uses technology to solve logistical issues of container reuse.

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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RSVP on Meetup here.
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See videos of our past Forums here.
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Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Policing: an Introduction to the Concepts of Police Defunding and Abolition

A video of a talk by Alex Vitale

11 a.m., November 27, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum in person OR on Zoom.

At this Sunday’s Humanist Forum, we will watch and discuss a video of a talk by Alex Vitale.
Due to several high-profile accounts of abuse, police are seen as both oppressors and protectors. The problem, says Prof. Vitale, is that police are trained in highly militarized ways. He says that diversifying the police force or requiring them to wear body cameras will not change the underlying systemic racism in police procedures. He discusses the history and nature of this racism, what defund the police really means, and why the call to defund the police is reasonable.
Alex Vitale is an American author and professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. He is also the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The Appeal, USA Today, Vice News, and other media outlets. Vitale is the author of The End of Policing (2017), which argues for the abolition of police.
The video is produced by Skeptics in the Pub, an international discussion form. You can preview this talk at https://youtu.be/q_ysKdFbDhA

On the following Sunday, December 4, Vic Schachter will speak to us, in person.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Peaceful Dispute Resolution Programs for Underserved Populations of the World

Victor Schachter

11 a.m., December 4, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum in person OR on Zoom.

In this presentation, Vic Schachter, the president of the Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives, returns to our Sunday Forum to provide an update of his efforts to promote fair and effective dispute resolution in countries with heavily backlogged courts cases, thereby promoting access by underserved populations to fair, timely and peaceful dispute resolution of their claims and preservation of their human rights. He will share some of the unique challenges to do this work during the pandemic, as well as the prospects for continued, future efforts in Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and Africa.

Victor Schachter is the founder and president of The Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives (FSRI), a non-governmental organization dedicated to establishing sustainable mediation centers globally to achieve timely, fair and peaceful conflict resolution in countries with backlogged court systems. He has served extensively as a mediator, and as an advocate representing clients in numerous mediations and arbitrations over his fifty-year career. In addition, he has led rule of law and related educational initiatives promoting judicial reform, alternative dispute resolution and judicial case management in India, Brazil, Liberia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Georgia, Turkey, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Mr. Schachter has been honored as a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year for his service in judicial reform, rule of law, and mediation building. In October, 2020, he received the Mediator of the Year Award from The Mediation Society of San Francisco for “outstanding contributions to the field of mediation”. His work has been reported and cited in numerous publications. Previously, he was a litigation partner at Fenwick & West LLP in Silicon Valley, California for 17 years.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Understanding Radical American Partisanship

Drs. Lilliana Mason and Nathan Kalmoe

11 a.m., November 20, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum this Sunday at 11 AM, in person OR on Zoom.

At this Sunday’s Humanist Forum, we will watch and discuss a video from the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University on Understanding Radical American Partisanship.
Political violence is rising in the United States, alarming citizens and leaders alike. How many Americans endorse partisan violence and other forms of extreme hostility? What are its deep social, political, historical, and psychological roots? What can be done about it? And what does it mean for democracy?
In this talk, Drs. Lilliana Mason and Nathan Kalmoe make sense of our contentious politics with a groundbreaking study of radicalism among ordinary American partisans. Their individual-level studies utilize more than a dozen new nationally representative surveys and experiments to trace recent trends since 2017, reactions to elections and violent events, broader conditions that spur support for violence, links from violence attitudes to aggressive behavior, and the role of leaders in enflaming or pacifying their followers.
The results reshape the study of modern American political behavior by showing that ordinary partisanship is far more volatile than scholars have recognized in the past century of study.
Dr. Lilliana Mason is an associate professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Kalmoe is interim associate dean for undergraduate studies and administration and an associate professor of political communication at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication and Department of Political Science.
You can pre-watch this one-hour video here.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Justice and Morality in the Absence of Free Will

A video of a talk by Robert Sapolosky

11 a.m., November 13, 2022

Join the Humanist Forum this Sunday at 11 AM, in person OR on Zoom.
At this Humanist Forum we will watch and discuss a video by neuroendocrinologist researcher and author, Robert Sapolosky, on “Justice and Morality in the Absence of Free Will.” He is currently a professor of biology, and professor of neurology and neurological sciences, and, by courtesy, neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya.
You can pre-watch this one-hour video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhvAAvwS-UA.
You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists in the Maple Room of the Mountain View Community Center at 201 S Rengstorff Ave, Mountain View. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch.
If you attend in person, COVID protocols will be followed. Vaccinations and masks will be required. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom (see below).

———-

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.