Connecting Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining to Chicago

You are invited to attend the upcoming screening of mountaintop removal coal mining documentary, Black Diamonds: Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice.  This film takes an in-depth look at one of the biggest environmental and social justice issues of our time.  The film will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Catherine Pancake, as well as a discussion on your connection to this issue and what you can do to help.

Event Details:

Thursday, September 2, 2010       5:30pm-7:30pm
Logan Square Library, 3030 W. Fullerton
FREE ADMISSION

RSVP to mountainsinchicago@gmail.com
(Seating is limited to the first 25 reservations so sign up soon!)

For more information about the film, visit www.blackdiamondsmovie.com.  For information about the issue, visit www.ilovemountains.org.

Supported by the Chicago Conservation Corps.

Description:

The Perseid meteor shower is an annual meteor shower that is extremely regular in its timing and can potentially be visible for weeks in the late summer sky, depending on weather and location.

The Perseid meteor shower is named after the constellation Perseus, which is located in roughly the same point of the night sky where the Perseid meteor shower appears to originate from. This is a useful naming convention, but not very accurate!

The source of the Perseid meteor shower is actually debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Every year, the earth passes through the debris cloud left by the comet when the earth’s atmosphere is bombarded by what is popularly known as “falling stars.”

Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010

Start Time: After dark starting around 8:30pm if the weather is clear

Location: Look toward the horizon for the Perseus constellation rising in the northeast sky.

The world-premiere tour of BBC Earth’s ground-breaking nature documentary is part of the Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park this summer.  The highly acclaimed series on the natural history of the world is brought to life on the big screen, featuring the score being conducted by five-time Academy Award-winning composer George Fenton.

This astonishing film will, in the words of David Attenborough, “take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet and its wildlife as you have never seen them before.”

Location: Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago

Date and Time: Wednesday, July 21, 2010                 8:15pm

Tickets:  None.  FREE and open to the public.

Open Rehearsal:  Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 11:00am – 1:30pm
Open Rehearsal:  Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Open Rehearsal:  Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 11:00am – 1:30pm

Sponsored by BBC Earth and ComEd

For more information, visit Grant Park Music Festival

The weather might be the most important thing to humankind. It affects our moods, what clothes we wear, what foods we eat and how we live. Despite centuries of scientific victories that have enabled us to exert some control and “air condition” the elements out of our lives, we may never escape the weather.

The desire to modify the weather has been around forever; but the threat of catastrophic climate change, water wars, and intensifying hurricanes, a new breed of weather control emerged. Mixing character-driven verité with the scope of an essay film, Owning the Weather tells the story of weather modification in the United States, from Charles Hatfield’s infamous rainmaking days to modern plans to engineer the climate. There are more than fifty active weather modification programs in the United States alone. Through the eyes of key individuals on the front lines of a crucial but largely unknown debate, the film introduces the cloud seeders struggling for mainstream recognition, the “legitimate” scientists who doubt them, and the activists who decry any attempts to mess with Mother Nature.  Will the scientific renegades in the weather modification community ever shed the label of “snake-oil-salesman”? Will they succeed in securing government funding for the first time in decades? Traversing vast ethical, political, and social currents, the film asks the question, “will we have to own the weather to save the planet?” This compelling study of science, nature, ingenuity, and eccentricity unfolds as a stark meditation on, and cautionary tale about, our all too human need to control.

Film:  “Owning the Weather”  Directed by Robert Greene, U.S.A., 2009, 92 mins.
Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Av., Chicago
Showtimes:
Fri., May 28 at 7 & 9 pm
Sat., May 29 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm
Sun., May 30 at 1, 3 & 5 pm
Mon.-Thurs., May 31-Jun. 3 at 7 & 9 pm

Tickets: $9 (Free for Facets members)

Today’s enormous development challenges are complicated by the reality of climate change – the two are inextricably linked and together demand immediate attention. Climate change threatens all countries, but particularly developing ones. Estimates are that developing countries would bear some 75-80% of the costs of anticipated damage caused by the changing climate. Developing countries simply cannot afford to ignore climate change, nor can they focus on adaptation alone. But developed countries must make financing and technologies available. Action to reduce vulnerability and lay the groundwork for a transition to low-carbon growth paths is imperative for both developed and developing countries. Dr. Rosina Bierbaum will explore how to better help people cope with new or worsened risks. Land and water management must be adapted to better protect a threatened natural environment, while at the same time meeting the need to feed an expanding and more prosperous population. Energy systems must be transformed to meet increasing demand while drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The World Development Report 2010 is an urgent call for action: a climate-smart world is within reach if we act now, act together, and act differently.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010               5:15pm

Northwestern Univ., Jacobs Center, Room 101, 2001 Sheridan Rd., Evanston

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by Northwestern Institute for Sustainable Practices (NiSP),  Social Enterprise at Kellogg (SEEK) and Environmental Science, Engineering, & Policy Program (ESEP)

Details below on this image!

Today’s telescopes reveal the cosmos in colorful detail.  The images produced are inspiring to behold, but should be viewed as much more than just “pictures of space”.  These images differ from ordinary photographs, both in how they are made and how they are used.  Telescopes are designed not to mimic human vision, but to maximize the information in the images they record.  The creation of cosmic images is also far from being the final step in the scientific process. Interpreting or “reading” these images, using mathematics and physics, is how we go from a beautiful picture to a deeper understanding of our universe.

The panelists in this discussion work on the cutting edge of astrophysics and cosmology, studying the birth and death of stars, the properties of galaxy clusters, and the evolution of the universe under the influence of both Dark Matter and Dark Energy.  They will show you how to look at “pictures of space” in a new way, explaining the making and meaning of the most important images from their own research.

A Panel Discussion on the Nature and Meaning of Images in Astrophysics

Sunday, June 13, 2010    7:00pm       FREE and open to the public.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S. Michigan Ave., SAIC Ballroom, Chicago

Panelists:

Dr. Thomas Crawford is a Senior Research Associate in the Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.  He uses observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which is the faint afterglow of light from the Big Bang, to discover and characterize distant galaxy clusters.  These clusters can be used to study the properties of the mysterious Dark Energy, a substance which is currently accelerating the expansion of the universe.

Dr. Michael Gladders is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.  He studies clusters of galaxies, which are the most massive objects in the universe.  The gravity from these massive objects warps space, bends light, and acts like a magnifying lens for viewing distant galaxies.  Using this “gravitational lensing”, Dr. Gladders can study both the properties of galaxy clusters, and these distant galaxies that would otherwise be too faint to be seen.

Dr. Christy Tremonti is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin Madison.  She studies starburst galaxies which are forming stars at a rate 10 to 100 times higher than the Milky Way. Star formation is so intense in these galaxies that the combined action of multiple supernovae explosions causes huge amounts of gas and newly formed heavy elements to get ejected from the galaxy.

This event is jointly hosted by the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Adler Planetarium, in association with the Great Lakes Cosmology Workshop 2010

Image “Starburst Galaxy M82″ Credit:  Mark Westmoquette (University College London), Jay Gallagher (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Linda Smith (University College London), WIYN//NSF, NASA/ESA

This image is a color-coded picture of the archetypal starburst galaxy M82. It shows the horizontal stellar disk of the galaxy, which harbors its active star formation, and a perpendicular supergalactic wind of ionized gas powered by the energy released in the starburst.

To make this image, data from the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope on Kitt Peak were combined with data from the WFPC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. Purple represents emission in ionized hydrogen (H-alpha) and ionized nitrogen, and the green is ionized sulfur in the WIYN data. In the HST image, these colors refer to H-alpha and nitrogen separately. Note the varying angular resolution of the dust lanes in the central part of the superwind on either side of the stellar disk.

These data are being used in a study of the connection between structures within M82 and its galactic superwind. This image was first presented at the “Essential Science in Hubble’s Final Years” symposium, held 3-6 May 2004 at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The WIYN 3.5-meter and 0.9-meter telescopes on Kitt Peak are operated by a consortium of the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO).

“Broadcasting” has become less appealing. Come and find out how in the not so distant future you will be receiving greater personalized information and services that are aimed at you and cares about your interests.

Northwestern University’s InfoLab aims to make information accessible and relevant to the specific moment and task at hand. They’ve constructed systems that connect users with information, services, people, and community based on the context of their in-the-moment activity.

One of their projects, News at Seven, is a system that automatically generates a virtual news and entertainment show that connects original stories to related content like images and blogs to format a news experience that you uniquely receive.

Come hear from Kristian Hammond, co-director of InfoLab and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, to find out how, in the not-so-distant future, you will receive more personalized information and services that are aimed directly at your specific interests.

Science Cafe Evanston

Wednesday, June 16, 2010           6:15 – 7:30pm

Firehouse Grill, 750 Chicago Av., Evanston, IL

Free and open to the public. Arrive early to ensure a seat.

Science Cafe Evanston is an informal event where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology.

Can culture change the basic anatomy of the brain?  When individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe are compared, it might be culture, not just genes, that drives evolutionary outcomes.  Join Prof. Joan Chiao, Northwestern University Dept. of Psychology, as she explores the evolution of humanity operating on at least two different levels of the brain.  One is the well understood biological level, but there is also a level where traits are selected for their particularly unique cultural success which leads to the selection of different types of genes.  In other words, is culture not just something interesting to do on the holidays but actually has an affect on how we think and even how we perceive reality?
Northwestern University’s Science Cafe Evanston

Wednesday, May 19, 2009    6:15 – 7:45pm

The Firehouse Grill, 750 Chicago Ave., Evanston

Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe. The sun is neutrino factory, and trillions of neutrinos cross out bodies every second. Yet we know very little about these particles and the role they have played in the evolution of the universe. Are they the reason we exist? New particle accelerators that produce high-intensity neutrino beams and particle detectors  will allow us to unravel the neutrino’s mysteries. Regina Rameika is a lead scientist in the Fermilab neutrino program and worked on the first observation of tau neutrinos at Fermilab.

Friday, April 23, 2010       8:00pm

Fermilab’s Ramsey Auditorium, Batavia, IL

Tickets are $7.00 (nonrefundable) and can be reserved by calling 630-840-2787. For more info visit here.

Regina Rameika has been a staff scientist at Fermilab since 1982.  In the early part of her career she led experimental programs to measure hyperon magnetic moments.  Since 1993 she has concentrated on measuring properties of neutrinos.  In 2002 she was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society for her work on the experiment to make the first direct observation of tau neutrino interactions.  She has been a leader in the development of the Fermilab neutrino oscillation program, including the MINOS long baseline experiment.  The MINOS detector located in northern Minnesota detects neutrinos produced by the Fermilab accelerator, 450 miles to the south.  She is currently one of the scientists leading the efforts to build the next generation oscillation experiment which could be located at the proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory in the Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, South Dakota.  She received her PhD in physics from Rutgers University.

This is the 30^th (!!) year for Tom Skilling’s Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar

This seminar is open to the public and includes multimedia presentations from many forecasters, researchers, and noted personalities from the meteorological world.  Everyone with an interest in understanding severe weather is encouraged to attend this year’s program and take part in this wonderful learning experience.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Program begins at 12:00 noon and repeats in entirety at 6:00pm

Free program; no tickets; no reserved seating

NOTE:  this seminar has a long history of attracting beyond capacity crowds.  It is strongly recommended you arrive early to ensure a seat.

Fermilab’s Wilson Hall in Batavia, IL.  Directions are here.

Below is a list of presenters.  Additional information on their presentations can be found here.

Dr. Louis Uccellini, Director of the National Weather Service, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)  – “Revolutionary advances in computer modeling offer much earlier warning of nature’s most extreme severe weather outbreaks”

Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, University of Illinois – Chicago – “Lightning: Take it seriously!”

Brian Smith, National Weather Service, Omaha – “The Tornado: A Powerful and Unusual Phenomenon”

Dr. Jim Angel, Midwestern Regional Climate Center – “Science and Serendipity – Illinois is home to the first recorded radar hook echo of an actual tornado”

Gino Izzi, National Weather Service, Chicago – “A Look at the Forecastibility of the F-5 August 1990 Plainfield, IL Tornado Using the today’s most sophisticated short term computer forecast model (the “WRF”) which wasn’t available in 1990″

Ed Fenelon, National Weather Service, Chicago – “Dual-Polarization Doppler Radar – Coming Soon to the NWS-Chicago!”

Jim Allsopp, National Weather Service, Chicago – “Severe Weather Myths and Facts”

Tom Skilling – WGN TV and the Chicago Tribune