Upcoming Skeptic, Atheist, Secular etc Events

The Irish Skeptics' final talk for 2012 is taking place tomorrow evening, Wednesday, December 12th, at 8pm in the Davenport Hotel, where Professor Mike Gibney (Director of the Institute for Food and Health, UCD) and author of the recent book Something to Chew on: Challenging Controversies in Food and Health, gives a talk entitled "Facts and fancy of food and health".

This presentation will look at food and health from the point of view of both nutrition and food safety. As regards the latter, Prof Gibney will cover the myth that things "natural" are always superior to those that are synthetic. In all aspects of life we trade risk with benefit and this is also true of the human food chain. Risk is considered and if below certain levels, is accepted and the process of defining that risk will be presented. The 'natural' versus synthetic' debate will be explored in relation to organic agriculture and to genetically modified foods.

It will also extend into the whole area of the slow food (locavore) movement. Given the huge importance of obesity, the nutrition component will focus on that area. Prof Gibney will show that obesity is not a recent phenomenon but has always accompanied affluence throughout history. Trying to explain the modern epidemic on modern root causes is popular but wrong. Finally, Prof Gibney will look at the issue of "nature"and "nurture" in relation to obesity which has a heritability of up to 75% which compares with values of 69% for depression and 53% for alcoholism.

The ISS will be celebrating its 10th birthday on the night, so there'll be a glass of (non-slimline) mulled wine on offer before the talk

Jesus H Christ.

The Iona "Institute" is doing something next door with John Waters. Matter and anti-matter meet.

Could be interesting in the bar afterwards.

We survived. None of them made it to the bar. Probably as most were too old to climb up the stairs. David Quinn is a small little chappie, btw. He must feel weird hanging around all these really old people all the time.

Still, strange to see a priest at the entrance to a skeptics talk.

//sheesh

Can't remember if this has been mentioned before, but Atheist Ireland are organizing a conference on 29th and 30th of June this year entitled "Empowering Women Through Secularism":

http://www.atheist.ie/empowering-women-through-secularism-conference-dublin-ireland/

High-profile speakers include

• Ivana Bacik, Irish Senator and member of Atheist Ireland
• Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation, USA
• Ophelia Benson, author and commentator, USA
• Jane Donnelly, Education Policy Officer Atheist Ireland
• PZ Myers, science professor and blogger, USA
• Maryam Namazie, Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain, Iran
• Michael Nugent, Chairperson Atheist Ireland
• Rebecca Watson, Skepchick network, USA

And topics will include:

• How religions discriminate against women
• How religiously-influenced laws discriminate against women
• The history of women in atheist and secular activism
• Healthcare, sexuality and reproductive rights
• Education, careers, and social policy
• Combatting violence against women
• Political strategies, media and building coalitions
• The future of women in atheist and secular activism
• Declaration on Empowering Women Through Secularism

As with the World Atheist Conference in 2011, this conference will be in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel, just off Merrion Square.

URBAN KNIGHTS: MONTHLY PLATFORM FOR URBAN CRUSADERS AND CHANGE AGENTS
Tuesday, 2013-04-16 18:00–20:00
What inspires you to think differently about how we live in the city? And, if you were to transform Dublin what would you do? Urban Knights is a new series of talks that celebrates the urban crusaders, innovators and those who are actively changing how we behave, think and engage with the city. In the first monthly event, experts will talk about everything from the benefits of open data to why Dublin could be the next Berlin. Admission: Free. BOOK NOW

THE UPSIDE OF RISK WITH DAVID SPIEGELHALTER
Friday, 2013-05-03 18:00–19:15
RISK LAB Curator and Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge David Spiegelhalter will look at why some people take risks, why others play it safe, how people are triggered into betting against the odds and why the house always wins, along with looking at the upside of risk - serendipity, coincidence and happy accidents. Admission: Free. BOOK NOW

JOHN COATES: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF FINANCIAL RISK TAKING
Thursday, 2013-05-23 18:00–19:15
John Coates is a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, but in a former life, he was a successful trader on Wall Street. Having always had a strong intuition that it was body chemistry that causes people to be risk takers or risk averse, he set out to prove it in a series of groundbreaking experiments that linked testosterone and levels of cortisol to our appetite for risk. In this talk John will shed light on what it is inside us, chemically, that drives us to take risks and will leave us with a better understanding of our own risky behavior. Admission: €5. BOOK NOW.

Bumping this - tomorrow evening at eight in the Davenport Hotel:

http://www.irishskeptics.org/events/2013/2013-06-19

James Mallory wrote:

James Mallory is Professor Emeritus of Prehistoric Archaeology at Queen’s University Belfast. Earlier this year he published The Origins of the Irish which has received uniformly excellent reviews. He utilises evidence from a wide range of areas in presenting his arguments including archaeology, geology, linguistics and genetics.

In his presentation to the society, Professor Mallory will take a closer look at some of the book’s contents to elucidate and better illustrate some of the ideas expressed in it. Special attention will be devoted to when a language ancestral to Irish was brought to Ireland and how it may have spread.

^^^ Bumping this.

April's talk will take place on Wednesday, April 9th when Professor Luke O'Neill, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin will present a talk entitled "Drugs-good ones, bad ones and how to find new ones". I'll put up a summary of the talk as soon as I see it!

The talk will be at 8pm in the Davenport Hotel and admission is €3 for members and concessions and €6 for non members.

El sumario:

Luke wrote:

Since antiquity humans have taken drugs. Originally these were in the form of plants such as marijuana which was in fact the first drug ever depicted ( on the Ebers papyrus from ancient Egypt) its use being as an anti-inflammatory agent. Other plants such as the poppy, coffee plant or tobacco had benefits as did fermented plants which produced alcohol. The very first drug synthesised was aspirin, which was a derivative from salicylates from the willow bark. A striking feature of several medicines in widespread use was the serendipitous nature of their discovery- good examples being penicillin and Viagra. The pharmaceutical industry today spends billions on trying to find new medicines.

What are the challenges? - and might it be true that most drugs are good for us, the only concern being dose and frequency of use?
What are the prospects that new medicines will be found for diseases that still afflict us?

Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place: Kidney Stone Disease

May 21st at 8.00pm, Davenport Hotel, Merrion Sq., Dublin 2

Admission: €3 (Members and concessions), €6 (Non-members).

The talk will be given by Professor Marguerite Hatch, Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville. Professor Hatch has worked as a clinical researcher in kidney stone disease and has published extensively in the area.

Here's the talk abstract:

Kidney stones are very common, with about 15% of the population afflicted with this disease of unknown cause. There are global geographic "stone belts" and Ireland is in one of these areas. While there are many types of urinary stones with differing chemical compositions, and caused by different mechanisms, the most common type (~80%) is made of calcium oxalate. Still, today in 2014, the cause of stone disease is generally unknown and the diagnosis is based on various "risk factors" as well as the chemical composition of the stone. This talk will present the basics in our current understanding of stone disease, with a special emphasis on oxalate stones. In addition, oxalate stone disease in a rare genetic disease of the liver called Primary Hyperoxaluria, which is generally misdiagnosed, will be discussed as will stone disease in an emerging population of patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgery to cure obesity. The latter patient population is growing rapidly because of the rapid growth in obesity in Western society resulting in oxalate stone disease that is secondary to the surgical procedure and manifesting about a year or more after the surgery has been performed. Unfortunately, since there is no effective, pharmacological (drug) treatment for oxalate stones, a potential probiotic ("good" bacteria ingestion) treatment based upon experimental animal studies will be presented.