Upcoming Skeptic, Atheist, Secular etc Events

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.

robindch wrote: »

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

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

Bumping this -- on this evening!

BTW, the ISS have finally (!) opened a facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/irishskeptics

On 14th August, Thursday week, Geoff Lillis of Geoff's Shorts fame is giving a talk entitled "Retweet Offenders – A Talk by Geoff Lillis on Hacking Twitter" at the The Stag's Head at 8pm:

https://www.facebook.com/events/747105855327709/

Geoff Lillis wrote:

Did you know that the most popular sporting figure among Twitter followers of Youth Defence is the former American footballer Tim Tebow? Or that the majority of followers of @Women4Shariah are men? Or that most @ProLifeAtheists describe themselves as Catholic?

In this talk Geoff Lillis will show how most “Irish” pro life groups are supported from the States, how most Intelligent Design fans are more interested in apologetics than science, how you can hack Twitter, and why skeptics should look at the metadata, not just the data.

Geoff Lillis is a programmer and blogger whose work has been featured in print media like the Independent (UK), the Atlantic, and discussed in books such as Savita: The Tragedy That Shook A Nation (Kitty Holland, 2013) and Everyday Sexism (Laura Bates, 2014). He specialises in pulling hard to find information from Twitter accounts and presenting it in a manner that can reveal some surprising trends.

Title: Uranium and Ireland
Speaker: George Reynolds
Date and time: Wednesday Sept 24th at 8.00pm
Venue: Cordoba Room, 4th floor, Gibson Hotel, Point Village, Dublin 1. (Beside O2)
Admission: €3 (Members and concessions); €6 (Others)

George Reynolds has a background in Geology and Geophysics and has worked as a free-lance geophysical consultant for many years. He has spent significant periods of time abroad- in Spain, France, Sweden, and the Sahara. He is a proponent of nuclear power and is a member of BENE (Better Environment with Nuclear Energy).

In his talk to the Irish Skeptics Society, he will argue that perhaps it is time for us to reconsider the nuclear power issue in Ireland. Independent Senator and consultant oncologist John Crown has also called for a mature debate on nuclear energy arguing that our judgement was distorted by misinformation regarding Chernobyl. We think this presentation may provide a stimulating opener in encouraging such a debate.

Please note the change to the usual venue!

The original notice is on the AI facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/651363991646193/

Other than saying that it's an "all day" event, there's no mention of time. Details will be posted as soon as they're available.