Category: Speaker

Category to indicate a forum is a single speaker.

Pseudoscience and the Law: Why Doesn’t the Government Stop the Charlatans?

Nicholas Little

11 a.m., March 26, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday we are happy to have Nicholas Little, the vice president, general counsel, and legal director of the Center for Inquiry, with us on Zoom to discuss “Pseudoscience and the Law: Why Doesn’t the Government Stop the Charlatans?”

23/03/26 Nicholas Little from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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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.

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RSVP on Meetup here.
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See videos of our past Forums here.
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Mysteries of Spinal Fluid Told Through Art and Storytelling

Dr. Masuma Ahmed

11 a.m., February 26, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday one of our members, Dr. Masuma Ahmed, will speak to us in Mountain View.

The brain is perplexing and poorly understood. A holistic approach emphasizes the interdependency of the different parts of the body to perform various functions. The cerebral spinal fluid in the dura mater of the spinal cord performs its critical function by continuously circulating around the brain, keeping it calm and cool. However, the dura mater can rupture, leaking spinal fluid, causing the brain to sag and misbehave. Dr. Masuma Ahmed presents the puzzling behavior of the brain when it lacks spinal fluid, using an innovative artistic and storytelling approach.

About our speaker
Dr. Masuma Ahmed, a physicist and high-tech professional turned artist and writer, received her Ph.D. in physics from Yale University. Masuma is a self-taught artist who has studied art and creative writing at Stanford, Yale, and the Bangladesh Art Institute. She received many awards for her artwork from international and US galleries. Masuma was one of the 16 artists selected by the City of Palo Alto to paint the BLM mural in the city in 2020. Masuma also painted murals in Palo Alto, Redwood City and Harlem. She had solo art exhibits in Palo Alto, Redwood City, and San Jose. Masuma was the “Artist of the Month” in Redwood City for the month of July 2018. Masuma’s poems were published in the New York City Poetry Table Anthology and the Waverly Writers Group Poetry Anthology. Masuma captures the voices of women, diasporas, and science through her artworks and writings at New York City Rainbow Faces, www.facebook.com/nycrainbowfaces.

23/02/26 Dr. Masuma Ahmed from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

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

From Junkie to Judge: Recovery without God

Retired judge Mary Beth O’Connor

11 a.m., January 29, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

This Sunday we welcome retired judge Mary Beth O’Connor as she joins us in the Mountain View Community Center.

Mary Beth will describe her long history of injecting methamphetamine. She will describe how she responded when her rehab ordered her to comply with the God-based approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and how she built a secular recovery program. Mary Beth then will provide an overview of substance use disorder and treatment options. This will include six peer support groups and a study comparing the efficacy of several of them. She will explain the benefits of building a personalized recovery program and the obstacles to doing so. Mary Beth will provide recovery resources and take questions.

Bio: In her memoir, From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction, Mary Beth shares her three-phase journey. The abuse and trauma that drove her to shoot methamphetamine at 17, the chaos from her addiction, and how she developed a personalized recovery plan, without a higher power, that led to twenty-nine years of sobriety thus far.

Mary Beth is a Board Member for She Recovers Foundation and a Director for LifeRing Secular Recovery. She regularly speaks on behalf of these organizations and about multiple and secular paths to recovery. She had an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, “I Beat Addiction without God,” and one in Recovery Today, “How I Attained 28 Years Sobriety by Rejecting my Rehab’s Submit to AA Order.”

Professionally, 6 years into recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge from which position she retired in 2020.

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230129 Mary Beth O’Connor from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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. Note that Amazon plans to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-closing-amazonsmile-to-focus-its-philanthropic-giving-to-programs-with-greater-impact

Nuclear Energy is the best solution to the climate crisis

George Erickson

11 a.m., January 8, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

On Sunday, January 8, Dr. George Erickson will join us on Zoom to discuss nuclear energy and climate change. 

Dr. George Erickson is a best-selling author of five pro-science books and a retired dentist. He has spent parts of 38 summers ”bush-flying” in Alaska and Arctic Canada and is a former VP of the American Humanist Assoc., a former president of the Minnesota Humanists and a former member of the New Brighton, MN Environmental Quality Commission. 

He is a member of the National Center for Science Education, a member of the Thorium Energy Alliance – and a member of a group of about 100 independent physicists, engineers, MDs, energy experts and journalists who are deeply concerned about climate change, the environment and energy issues. 

He has exchanged climate change/energy emails with Dr. James Hansen, former chief climate scientist at NASA – now Climate Change scientist at Columbia Univ., whom he often quotes in his image-rich book, Unintended Consequences: The Lie That Killed Millions and Accelerated Climate Change – the book on which his presentations are based. After reading a sampling of Dr. Erickson’s published op-eds on climate change and energy issues, Dr. Hansen called them “brilliant.” 

Dr. Erickson travels the country at his own expense, giving presentations on the environment, climate change and energy issues at colleges, schools and affinity groups. Unintended Consequences: can be downloaded for free from the home page of www.tundracub.com. Contact him at tundracub7@gmail.com or 218-744-2003 

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).

1/8/23 George Erickson from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

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.

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).

221211 Christine Hoffman.mp4 from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

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.