Category: Speaker

Michael Abramson

January 21, 2018

Michael Abramson is a physicist specializing in system modeling and simulations, and a concerned citizen leading a “Positive Agenda” group who is involved with a number of activist organizations. He will present a new taxonomy of major political groups in our society, highlighting what is common for all of them. Understanding and acknowledging this commonality is a first critical step if we want to overcome our bitter political divisions. How can we come together and build the better and stronger America for all? What our next steps could be? Who could lead the way? It may not be easy to answer these questions, but let’s start this conversation.

Documents for this event:

Uniting The Divided States Of America
Taxonomy

Humanist Community Forum (2018-01-21): Uniting the Divided States of America – Michael Abramson from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Lester Earnest

January 14, 2018

The Internet is a result of the following five main developments:

· First Computer Network: SAGE air defense system, Initiated by MIT in the early 1950s, built by many contractors and operational 1958-1982.
· General Purpose Interactive Computing: timesharing systems, developed at MIT, beginning operating in 1962 and went commercial in 1965.
· General Purpose Computer Networking, initiated by people from MIT and funded by the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), resulting in the ARPANET, which largely interconnected academic institutions.
· Network Interconnections: Internet Protocols developed at Stanford University, released in 1974 and eventually adopted widely, forming the Internet. Also called TCP/IP.
· Standardized Graphical Terminal Interface: World-Wide-Web, started at CERN in Switzerland in 1990, came into widespread use by 2000 and now is maintained at MIT.

Thus, MIT played a major part in creating the Internet. By chance, Lester Earnest contributed to each of the above developments, and is evidently the only person in the world who did that.

Humanist Community Forum (2018-01-14): How a Fraud Launched the Internet – Lester Earnest from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Prof. Martin Carcieri

January 7, 2018

The constitutional implications of Donald Trump’s presidency are sprawling. One of the most enduring may be his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. In 2006, Gorsuch published his doctoral dissertation, a critique of the right to die – and in particular physician assisted suicide – based on the principle of the inviolability of life. Following an introduction, Prof. Carcieri shall present a critique of Gorsuch’s book using Rawlsian principles of justice. Prof. Carcieri is a Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University.

Humanist Community Forum (2018-01-07): Trump and the Constitution – Prof. Martin Carcieri from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Lisa J. Blanchard

December 24, 2017

The Grateful Garment Project’s mission is to ensure that every victim of a sexual crime who seeks medical attention and/or law enforcement involvement is provided with whatever new clothing, toiletries, snacks and other items that he or she may require. We have further expanded our mission and vision to encompass all victims of sexual violence. This includes, but is not limited to Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC), and victims of Human Sexual Trafficking. Our scope is wide but our purpose is narrow: no victim of sexual violence in our communities should ever experience further suffering due to a lack of clothing to wear home after he or she receives services from a Sexual Violence Service Provider.

Lisa J. Blanchard is the Executive Director and Founder of The Grateful Garment Project (gratefulgarment.org). As founder, Lisa has been the guiding force and visionary of The Grateful Garment Project. Lisa’s unique combination of experience in nonprofit, customer service, law, and management produces the creative and conceptual leadership required to bring The Grateful Garment Project to the State of California and beyond. She has dedicated significant amounts of time to working with people not only professionally, but also in a volunteer capacity. Lisa holds an AS in Business, a BS in Human Services and a Masters in Nonprofit Administration. It is her vision that no victim of sexual assault ever experience further suffering due to lack of resources.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Antonio J. Torres

December 17, 2017

Antonio J. Torres will speak about his own personal experiences, as well as those of Puerto Rico generally, by going into detail about the legal aspects of the church and state relationship there. Mr. Torres is associated with the Secular Latino Alliance (secularlatinos.weebly.com) and Hispanic American Freethinkers (hafree.org), and used to be involved with Humanistas Seculares de Puerto Rico (www.humanistaspr.org) when he lived in Puerto Rico, before moving to California last year.

Humanist Community Forum (2017-12-17): Humanism in Puerto Rico (Antonio J. Torres) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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