Quick link back to Summer 2017 events

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Bristol Uni (Cabot Institute)
Tue 10 October 2017
David King
Science, Politics, Industry and the Role of Future Cities in Managing the Risks of Climate Change ,
18:00-19:30 Wills Memorial Building Free, but booking required
For over 97 per cent of scientists the science of climate change and the role of humans in this have been clear for a long time.
(OK start with a fallacy to show how rubbish you are)

But the issue remains mired in politics, vested economic perspectives and the power of multinationals.
(projection)
Meanwhile, the business of climate change is seeing new solutions.
Where will all this lead?
Given his vast experience working on the challenges of climate change policy, as well as the role of future cities, there is no better guide than Sir David King.
(sick bags will be provided at the door)

Above Event is part of Bristol : Future Cities Festival
as is
Will Driverless Cars Liberate Cities?
Wed 18 October 2017, 15:30-17:00 Watershed Free, but booking required
It is said that 40 years from now our cities will look very different to how they look today thanks to driverless cars. Driverless cars offer plenty of opportunities for an improved environment, but there are many potential problems too including around issues of ownership, employment, inequality, legislation and safety.
Peter Allchorne (Partner, DAC Beachcroft), Richard Blyth (Royal Town Planning Institute),
Charlene Rohr (RAND Europe) and journalist and academic Jack Stilgoe (University College London) discuss

Jeez most of the events are Liberal Buzzword BS, I'm ignoring most of them
Thu 19 October 2017
Sustainable Development Goals and Cities: An International Perspective
Paula Lucci, Sergio Tobon and Ian Townsend , 14:00-15:00 Watershed Free, but booking required
Almost 200 countries signed up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which cover 17 areas where major progress is needed by 2030.
The panel – which brings together experts from the Overseas Development Institute, British cities and Medellín – explores how the goals are being implemented by cities across the world; how they can be linked with existing strategies and structures; how different cities are doing internationally; and how cities at different levels of development are addressing shared challenges.

Thu 19 October 2017
Sustainability and the Future of Cities
Mya-Rose Craig, Caroline Lucas MP, George Monbiot, Papa Omotayo and Saskia Sassen
, 15:30-17:00 Watershed £9.00 / £6.50
With high concentrations of people, cities present both opportunities and barriers to making urban areas and the world more sustainable. How do we create sustainable cities? What powers must central government part with to allow cities to be free to act? How radical can cities be? How do we make sure that sustainability involves all? And how do we do this for all generations? Our panel explores what works well and what needs to be done. Following this event an optional walking tour will leave Watershed to join the workshop below.

Thu 19 October 2017,
The Challenge of Inclusive Transformation: Towards a Sustainable City
18:00-19:30 Hamilton House, Stokes Croft Free, but booking required

Thu 19 October 2017 George Monbiot
Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics in an Age of Crisis , 18:00-19:00 At-Bristol Free, but booking required
What does the good life – and the good society – look like in the twenty-first century? Journalist and commentator George Monbiot argues that mainstream politics is stuck and fails to articulate a vision of a better world. He seeks out the best new ideas, arguing how communities can be rebuilt, how economies can be recharged without destroying the living planet and how politics can once more inspire and thrill.

Then an immigration workshop by Hope Not Hate

4 October 2017:
University of Exeter
Can we live with a warmer planet?
.... The High-End cLlimate Impacts and eXtremes research project (HELIX), led by Professor Richard Betts, are hosting a public event
(Dumb question, cos almost every century since the ice age has been a bit warmer than the last)

helixclimate.eventbrite.co.uk All welcome!

It was The British Festival of Science 5-9th Sept
Usually there are lots of good events when I saw that it was in Brighton, I got a feeling and didn't go. Among other things I didn't want to deal with this snowflake town and its art not science feel.
Now I just scanned the entire programme and found there were hardly any good events.
Surprisingly it was arty that dominated
There weren't even many climate events.

Manchester Sci Fest
Thursday 19 October 2017 - Sunday 29 October 2017
http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/
Not many obvious climate or greenblob events ..a kids brainwashing game
Many events are aimed at kids.

Exhibition : Library of Fake News
Saturday 21 October - Friday 27 October 2017,
11am - 5pm

New Scientist Live - 28 September – 1 October 2017 Thu-Sun 10-5pm
LONDON
Pretty expensive when you are used to free festivals
£78 whole fest ..day tix available
https://live.newscientist.com/talks

28-Sep-2017
CLIMATE CHANGE: WINNERS AND LOSERS
16:00 - 16:40 Jane Hill

CLIMATE ENGINEERING: FIXING THE EARTH
15:45 - 16:25
Tim Kruger, Geoengineer - University of Oxford
"The Paris Agreement of 2015 was a diplomatic triumph"

30-Sep-2017
David Spiegelhalter
HOW TO SPOT BAD STATS IN THE NEWS
14:45 - 15:25
Statistics should provide us with information, but more often are used by people who want to persuade us to do something or think the way they want us to. Numbers get abused in all sorts of ways, including framing in a favourable way, ignoring context, or cherry-picking one statistic for a tweet.

01-Oct-2017
ANTARCTICA – FROM GREENHOUSE TO ICEHOUSE
13:30 - 14:10
The world’s icebound continent wasn’t always white and deserted – and once even sustained forests.
Jane Francis, Palaeoclimatologist and director - British Antarctic Survey

Winchester
Energy storage - are batteries the key to a renewable future
Thursday, October 5, 20176:30 PM
The Stripe, University of Winchester King Alfred Campus
"Green Energy Business Leader Chris Miles will explore how the storage of renewable energy can help to balance supply and demand in our energy system"

2018 September
next Years British Festival of Science will be in Hull
(I've got Hull down as a more engineer place than arty Brighton)

OCT 23
Cambridge FREE
HOW TO SPOT BAD STATS IN THE NEWS : David Spiegelhalter :
I note the panel has Lew's sidekick : Dr Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision Making Laboratory.
the 3rd & 4th panellists are Orit Kopel, Co-Founder of Wikitribune;
Will Moy, Director of Full Fact;
details

Univ. Reading:
Saturday, November 11, 2017 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM
"Climate Justice: Can Fairness Create a Green Future?" more

Is it possible to help poor and vulnerable communities and climate change at the same time? (*not if GreenBlob sell them magic solutions which cause inefficiencies and need subsidies)

Climate Justice Scholars from the University of Reading will explore climate justice through entertaining presentations and thought-provoking posters.

This leads into our screening of the film ‘Greedy Lying Bastards’ – which investigates fossil fuel industries and how they affect vulnerable communities. (DramaGreens show projection with that title)

Winchester : Discovery Centre
Monday, December 4, 7:45 PM to 9:15 PM
Win Cafe Sci: Dr Matt Loxham – Particulates and Health

But what exactly is air pollution, and where does it come from? How is it measured?
What happens to our lungs and other parts of our body when we inhale air pollution? And how can we reduce our exposure to pollution?
In my talk I will try to answer these questions, using examples from the latest research, as well as showing how much more there is that we need to understand.

You know how Conspiracy Theorists like Lew , like to shout "Conspiracy Theorist"at people who don't agree with them ..well a sidekick of theirs is repeating his lecture.
The Winchester Discovery Centre
: "The psychology of conspiracy theories" £3
Thursday, October 26,7:30 PM to 9:30 PM
with Michael Woods of Winchester U
More

Geoff Chambers mentions him in a 2013 comment : "Your colleague Michael Woods withdrew as a reviewer of this paper (Lewandowsky paper Recursive Fury). It would be interesting to know why."
Geoff's question was never answered.. So if anyone goes today they can ask him

In 2014 Wood and Debra Gray did a presentation : Right-Wing Authoritarianism and beliefs in Conspiracy Theories ..never published tho it seems

They seem to say they found NO general correlation between right wing authoritarianism and conspiracy theories
They only said "In two Mechanical Turk studies" ": a positive relationship between conspiracy theory belief and RWA is only evident among theories which implicate minority or deviant groups.

\\ Our results extend previous research on the importance of specific content in conspiracy theory belief, and highlight the need for content-specificity in investigating the individual-difference correlates of beliefs in conspiracy theories.//

Cambridge Festival Of ideas starts next week
...seems a lot of the usual weird Libland stuff

Exhibition : WE KNOW NOT WHAT WE MAY BE:
R&D Time is running out: can we imagine an alternative economic future to halt climate change?
Encounter the research-in-progress for a new performance by the creators of last year’s World Factory.
11AM – 5PM WED 18 OCT to SAT 21 OCT
Judith E Wilson Drama Studio, Faculty of English, 9 West Road, CB3 9D

TALKS

RELIGIOUS TRUTH IN AN AGE OF DIVERSITY?
Join Edward Kessler, Woolf Institute, Canon Chris Chivers, Westcott House, and Atif Imtiaz, Cambridge Muslim College, to discuss identity, diversity and the nature of religious truth.
5PM – 6.30PM MON 16 OCT
The new Woolf Institute Building, Westminster College Site, Madingley Road, CB3 0UB

Pre-book MON 16 OCT
HERODOTUS Herodotus is referred to as the ‘father of history’ – and he was that, and also much more besides. But much of his life remains a mystery, and there is much more to be discussed about his superb work, The Histories. Join translator Tom Holland and Herodotus expert Professor Paul Cartledge in conversation about this enigmatic figure and find out what we can learn about history from his writings.
6PM – 7PM
St John’s College Old Divinity School, All Saints Passage, CB2 1TP

Pre-book MON 16 OCT
POPULISM Populists can be sloppy with facts and speedy with promises that are impossible to deliver. Yet they can also highlight real inequities and persuade followers that they are in possession of some greater truth. Join Hugo Drochon, Tanya Filer, Ayça Çubukçu, LSE, Nayanika Mathur, Oxford, and Madeline Reeves, Manchester, as they explore truth and populism examples from around the world.
6PM – 7.30PM
St John’s College Fisher Building, St John’s Street, CB2 1TP

Pre-book WED 18 OCT 6PM – 7.30PM
St John’s College Fisher Building, St John’s Street, CB2 1TP
I DON’T KNOW IT FOR A FACT, I JUST KNOW IT’S TRUE: HOW CONSPIRACY THEORIES STAKE THEIR CLAIMS TO TRUTH
Conspiracy theories usually arouse scepticism. Yet when we confront them in the flesh, they can appear – at least on first sight – strangely persuasive. Join a discussion about the strategies conspiracies use in making their pitch for plausibility and staking their claim to truth. Organised by the Conspiracy & Democracy project at CRASSH.

THU 19 OCT 5.30PM – 6.45PM prebook
David Attenborough Building, New Museums Site, CB2 3QZ
CLIMATE CHANGE: THE TRUTH
Join us for a stimulating panel debate on the difficulties of establishing the truth around climate change; panellists include Professor Mike Hulme, Rowan Williams, Joanna Depledge and Bhaskar Vira.

Pre-book THU 19 OCT 6PM – 7.30PM
St John’s College Fisher Building, St John’s Street, CB2 1TP
REFUGEES: TRUTHS AND INNOCENT LIES
Refugees often have to give the most personal details to prove their past and receive asylum. But how easy is it to be open and truthful in a climate of mistrust when governments are looking to keep numbers down? Lucy Popescu, editor of Freedom from Torture, speaks to asylum seekers and writers Noo Saro-Wiwa and Hassan Abdulrazzak, and writer Tim Finch.

Friday
Pre-book FRI 20 OCT 4PM –7PM
NOMADIC AND DIALOGIC: ART & ECOFEMINISM
Director Eliza Gluckman, artist Elena Cologni, author Susan Buckingham and curator Anna Santomauro discuss motherhood, dialogic art and ecofeminism. They address the caring role devalued in neoliberal societies, and the spatial dimension of dialogue as the intercorporeal space of micropolitics.
(Publicly funded)
New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Huntingdon Road, CB3 0D

Pre-book FRI 20 OCT 6PM – 7.30PM
EU VS UK: IN THE BREXIT BATTLE WILL TRUTH BE THE LOSER? As the Brexit negotiations proceed, who will win the PR battle over Brexit and who will be the losers? What will the outcome be for Britain’s future relations with Europe?

Pre-book FRI 20 OCT 7.30PM – 9PM
FAKE NEWS Accusations of slurs and slanders, lies and misinformation have a long history in democratic politics – but is ‘fake news’ something different? Annabel Brett, John Robertson and Ben Slingo

SAT 21 OCT 11AM–NOON
Denial: in defence of truth
DENIAL Richard Evans President of Wolfson College
Year 2000 David Irving libel, she had called him a Holocaust denier and a falsifier of history.

Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 11AM – NOON
ONE IN TEN AMERICAN LIGHT BULBS ARE LIT BY THE RUSSIANS: FAKE NEWS? The aim of fake news is to mislead but what of its corollary – that genuine news may be viewed as fake? One such item was that the Russians were fuelling American nuclear power plants in the 1990s, and is just one of several real and fake stories published following the end of the Cold War that are explored in this talk.

CAN WE KEEP SECRETS? Leaks and hacks are praised as tools of transparency and accountability or condemned as espionage and manipulation by malevolent powers. How safe is our data in the digital age, and what is the worst that could go wrong? With Richard Dearlove, former Head of MI6, MI5 historian Christopher Andrew, journalist Nick Davies and Martha Spurrier, Head of Liberty. Chaired by the ** BBC’s Chris Mann **
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 11AM – 12.30PM

MEDIA, THE STATE AND PROPAGANDA: WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
Does the state use the media, and vice versa? In the symbiotic state–media relationship how much of what we are presented with as fact is really propaganda? This talk illuminates some of the key issues of truth versus propaganda.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 12.30PM – 1.30PM

WHO BELIEVES IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES? This talk explores what factors – religious, economic, political – make some but not others believe in conspiracy theories. Hugo Drochon considers what impact that has had on contemporary political events, from Brexit to Trump.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 1.30PM – 2.30PM

IS RELATIVISM TO BLAME FOR OUR POSTTRUTH WORLD?
If all cultures and concerns are equally valid, then surely it follows that truth is subjective. Or is this a meaningless caricature of relativism? Join Simon Goldhill, Caroline Edwards, Priyamvada Gopal and Frank Furedi as they discuss what relativism can and can’t tell us about the ‘post-truth’ world. Chaired by Simon Blackburn.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 1.30PM – 3PM

SAT 21 OCT 2.30PM – 3PM
THE ‘LYING SAGAS’: TRUTH AND FANTASY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC FICTION
If sorcerers, seeresses, the undead and unipeds can be found in ordinary Icelandic sagas, what does it take for a saga to be called a ‘lying saga’?

SAT 21 OCT 11AM–NOON
Denial: in defence of truth
DENIAL Richard Evans President of Wolfson College
Year 2000 David Irving libel, she had called him a Holocaust denier and a falsifier of history.

Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 11AM – NOON
ONE IN TEN AMERICAN LIGHT BULBS ARE LIT BY THE RUSSIANS: FAKE NEWS? The aim of fake news is to mislead but what of its corollary – that genuine news may be viewed as fake? One such item was that the Russians were fuelling American nuclear power plants in the 1990s, and is just one of several real and fake stories published following the end of the Cold War that are explored in this talk.

CAN WE KEEP SECRETS? Leaks and hacks are praised as tools of transparency and accountability or condemned as espionage and manipulation by malevolent powers. How safe is our data in the digital age, and what is the worst that could go wrong? With Richard Dearlove, former Head of MI6, MI5 historian Christopher Andrew, journalist Nick Davies and Martha Spurrier, Head of Liberty. Chaired by the ** BBC’s Chris Mann **
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 11AM – 12.30PM

MEDIA, THE STATE AND PROPAGANDA: WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
Does the state use the media, and vice versa? In the symbiotic state–media relationship how much of what we are presented with as fact is really propaganda? This talk illuminates some of the key issues of truth versus propaganda.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 12.30PM – 1.30PM

WHO BELIEVES IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES? This talk explores what factors – religious, economic, political – make some but not others believe in conspiracy theories. Hugo Drochon considers what impact that has had on contemporary political events, from Brexit to Trump.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 1.30PM – 2.30PM

IS RELATIVISM TO BLAME FOR OUR POSTTRUTH WORLD?
If all cultures and concerns are equally valid, then surely it follows that truth is subjective. Or is this a meaningless caricature of relativism? Join Simon Goldhill, Caroline Edwards, Priyamvada Gopal and Frank Furedi as they discuss what relativism can and can’t tell us about the ‘post-truth’ world. Chaired by Simon Blackburn.
Pre-book SAT 21 OCT 1.30PM – 3PM

SAT 21 OCT 2.30PM – 3PM
THE ‘LYING SAGAS’: TRUTH AND FANTASY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ICELANDIC FICTION
If sorcerers, seeresses, the undead and unipeds can be found in ordinary Icelandic sagas, what does it take for a saga to be called a ‘lying saga’?

Is this one about Kriss Donald ?
POLICING ISLAM: WHAT A MURDER IN SCOTLAND MIGHT TELL US ABOUT THE BOUNDARIES OF A RELIGION
A talk on why arguments and conflicts about the boundaries and limits of Islam are so often about what it means to ‘respect’ the Prophet Muhammad.
5PM – 6PM Pre-book Alison Richard Building

1.30PM – 3PM
CAN POLITICS KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY?
False statistics can spread around the world in an instant.
Politicians are open to manipulation by hostile government hacking.
Masses of data on citizens is widely available and open to surveillance and misuse.
How can politics and government keep up?

3.30PM – 4.30PM Pre-book
FREEDOM AND PERSUASION IN THE ATTENTION ECONOMY
former Google employee James Williams explains his answer to the set question
‘Are digital technologies making politics impossible?’

3.30PM – 5PM Pre-book
MANUFACTURING A CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS
In a polarised world, ** populist leaders with narratives of grievance promote global schisms** based on cultural differences.
How can this be prevented?

Sun, Mon, Tue
Sun 22 Oct
2.30PM – 3.30PM Pre-book
THE TRUTH ABOUT POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Are political parties targeting you on social media?
Can political parties use psychological profiling to tailor messages to different voters?
Did these strategies help the Trump and Brexit campaigns?

5PM – 6PM Pre-book
THE POST-TRUTH ERA: IS THE TRUTH UP FOR GRABS?
It is said that we are living in a posttruth era and yet, paradoxically, statements about world affairs are made with increasing certainty.
By examining the close relationship between philosophy and posttruth,
Alex Carter suggests ways of mitigating its toxic influence.
---------------------------------
Mon 23 Oct
5PM – 6PM
CLIMATE CHANGE AND COLLAPSE: A (NOT SO)
SIMPLE STORY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIMATE AND THE DECLINE OF SOUTH ASIA’S INDUS CIVILISATION
Does climate change really cause collapse?
This talk explores the resilience and sustainability of South Asia’s first complex society, the Indus Civilisation (c. 2500– 1900 BC).

5.30PM – 7PM Pre-book
POPPING THE FILTER BUBBLE: HOW FACTS CAN HELP YOU
When you’re surrounded by so-called fake news how do you know when information is fact based?

6.30PM – 7.30PM Pre-book
THE BRIGHTEST AND THE BEST: WHAT DOES A MERITOCRACY LOOK LIKE?
Studies of implicit bias and stereotype threat suggest that
** humans are incapable of identifying merit independently of race and sex.**

-------------------------------------------
TUE 24 OCT
6PM – 7.30PM Pre-book
St John’s College Old Divinity School, All Saints Passage, CB2 1TP
TRUTH, FREEDOM AND AUTHORITY IN PUBLISHING
How might the law, market or technology evolve to preserve the accuracy, truth and impartiality of information, whilst maintaining people’s freedom to share thoughts and creations?

6.30PM – 8PM Pre-book TUE 24 OCT
THE EUROPEAN MISUNDERSTANDING: COMPETING TRUTHS ABOUT EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY SINCE 1945
Through the personal story of the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Mathias Haeussler’s talk explores why post-war Britain and Germany have frequently been unable to see eye to eye over European integration.

7.30PM – 8.30PM Pre-book
Room 6, Faculty of History, West Road, CB3 9EF
BREXIT TIME We can capture the phenomenon of Brexit in a variety of ways: one measure is time.
why the UK is leaving the EU, how and – importantly – when.

DRAMA
7PM – 8.10PM Pre-book TUE 24 OCT
THIS RITUAL IS NOT AN ACCIDENT
How does climate change, a vastly distributed emergency, become personal?
In This Ritual Is Not An Accident, time and scale are recalibrated, and the slow-motion accident of climate change becomes intimate.
Judith E Wilson Drama Studio

Saturday 21 – Sunday 29 October 2017
Norwich Science Festival 2017
events-list
Heavily sponsored by BBC Focus Magazine (a commercial venture)

Monday 23 October
Engineering and Maths open forum 10am-4pm
not that much for me

Tue 24 Oct Chemistry day
Bird Migration in a Changing World
With Prof Jenny Gill 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Wednesday 25 October
BIOLOGY DAY
includes
Can you Believe your Brain? 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Thursday 26 October
Nature & the environment DAY