NNEB-2014-07

An Easter talk in July? It isn’t the climate, but because we’re mad.

At July’s Nerd Nite East Bay, Alice Handley will tell us why the days on our calendar fall when they do, Dan Miller will address climate change and some of the technological and policy changes that may address it, and Sharon Osterweil will talk about the history o’ crazy.

And, as usual, DJ Ion the Prize, Rebecca, and Rick will eat the carbon-neutral chocolate bunnies.

Be there and be square.

Monday 7/28
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
FB
g+
Tickets

GREAT MOMENTS IN PEDANTRY: THE MODERN GIRL’S (OR GUY’S) GUIDE TO THE SEVENTH CENTURY EASTER CONTROVERSY by Alice Handley

Easter is about bunnies and chocolate and the risen Christ—and also about all sorts of very delicious medieval European theological backbiting and wrangling. The Easter controversy happened when theology, astronomy, and politics collided in the early Christian Church to create what St. Eusebius would have undoubtedly called “a hot mess.” Learn about the centuries-long struggle to define a single date and how this argument played out across church and state in Europe and the Near East—as well as how it affected the calendar we use today.

Alice Handley received a BA in History from UC Berkeley and then an M.Phil. from The University of Cambridge but then decided to get out of the fast-paced, high-stakes, big-money world of Early Medieval History to focus on things that other people on earth might conceivably care about. Currently, she writes words on the internet for a living and resides in Oakland.

HOW TO FIX CLIMATE CHANGE FOR FREE by Dan Miller

Climate change is obviously one of the greatest challenges facing civilization, yet governments (and the public) are mostly ignoring the problem. Why is that? And how bad might it get and how soon? Dan will discuss some technologies that could help the problem, and finish up by describing of a climate policy that will greatly reduce carbon pollution, boost the GDP, and create over 2 million jobs.

Dan Miller is Managing Director of The Roda Group, a Berkeley venture capital group he co-founded that is focused on cleantech. Dan is a former board member of biofuel manufacturer Solazyme, and he was previously the president of Ask Jeeves, Inc., both former Roda Group affiliate companies. Dan co-founded TCSI corporation, which became a leading provider of telecommunications software. Before that, he designed communication satellite payloads at Hughes Aircraft (now Boeing) Space & Communications.

CRAZYMAKING: THE HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE U.S. by Sharon Osterweil

How does a late 19th century outbreak of encephalitis affect the prognosis of people with schizophrenia today? What is an asylum and why is it different from a psychiatric hospital? Why are there so many homeless people who seem crazy? Why might my sibling/parent/friend with a serious mental illness take their medication so inconsistently? It’s tempting to think that with modern medicine, we clearly understand the causes and effects of various mental illnesses, but in fact, how mental illness is treated, who is mentally ill, and even what mental illness means has changed significantly over the past 300 years. By exploring the history of mental illness in the U.S., we’ll shed light in the darkest corners of the locked wards.

Sharon Osterweil currently works for Lifelong Medical Care—a high quality health care organization serving Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond—on a prevention-based case management pilot program. Before returning to her native Bay Area last year, she lived in New York and provided direct services at a supportive housing agency and later studied employment among adults with severe mental illness and histories of homelessness. She conducted research on employment for her MPH thesis at Pathways to Housing, the innovators of the Housing First model.