Charlottesville Podcasting Network
Lectures, radio shows and more available on-demand
On November 16, 2007, the Society hosted Larry Peck, formerly the Vice President for Global Fuels Technology for BP, and the current Chief Operating Officer of Cilion, a new biofuels company. Peck talked about efforts to develop renewable energy sources. His experience spans agricultural and fuel markets as well as ethanol technology.
Larry Sanger, one of the co-founders of Wikipedia, recently addressed the Jefferson Society about his efforts to createG,V a successor called Citizendium. The Virginia Sentinel has a write-up on the event.
Paul Bibeau is the author of Sundays with Vlad: From Pennsylvania to Transylvania, One Man’s Quest to Live in the World of the Undead. And if those aren’t enough subtitles, Paul’s blog has this caption: “Paul Bibeau’s funny book about vampires, Dracula, globalization, bad Romanian roads, ruined honeymoons, and the horrors of funnel cake.” He recently spoke about his book to the Jefferson Society at the University of Virginia, and was introduced by local author Jonathan Coleman.
Dr. Stuart Davies specializes in tropical ecology and plant taxonomy at Harvard University. An Australian by birth, he has spent much of his time in Southeast Asia studying the long-term effects of environmental stresses on rain forests.
While conducting field research, he spent several years teaching at universities in Malaysia and Brunei. He has published articles on the effectiveness of managed forest regeneration, on the impact of soil properties on biodiversity, and the evolutionary history of the paleotropical genus Macaranga.
For more information, visit the Jefferson Society’s website.
Nicholas Johnson, NASA’s chief scientist for orbital debris, spoke on the
history and present state of orbital debris policy. Orbital debris are
objects in space unintentionally left behind by human space exploration.
They are one of the key obstacles to the future of space endeavors because
of the risk they pose. Most are no bigger than a finger nail and by
travelling at speeds up to 5 miles/second they are a potent danger to any
man or man made object in space. Mr. Johnson recounts the history of orbital
debris policy and acknowledges that very little can be done about them with
present day technology. The militarization of space, most recently evidenced
by the Chinese destruction of a weather satellite, only exacerbate the
problem for future space travel and Mr. Johnson concludes his presentation
by highlighting the efforts of international organizations to better monitor
and prevent the spread of this phenomenon.
Dr. Robert Solow, recipient of the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics,
gives a lecture on his recent work with the Russell Sage Foundation on the
economics of low wage workers in high wage countries.
Dr. Solow coordinated an international team of researchers looking at economic differences in five leading European nations with respect to their low wage earners. Among the more interesting findings Dr. Solow feels the study has uncovered are the wide variations in the percentages of low wage living in first world nations as well as great differences in these workers’ ability to move on to higher paying work. Smaller, more homogeneous nations such as Denmark were much more successful in transitioning their low wage workers to better employment compared to larger, more heterogenous nations such as France.
Perhaps the most interesting obesrvation Dr. Solow makes is how the United
States would exhibit the least amount of social mobility if compared to
these other nations. With careful discussion on productivity, education, and
economic theory Dr. Solow gives a serious and engaging speech on the state
of economic inequity in the 21st century.
Another write-up from this lecture is available at the U.Va Sentinel.
On Friday, September 14, The Jefferson Society hosted Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute.
Dr. Shostak traces the development of computing alongside the development of extra-terrestrial research, claiming that because computing efficiency doubles every 18 months, SETI will find some proof of life by the year 2020. He also amusingly debunks conspiracies of alien abduction and government collusion with aliens, and offers thoughts about such the cultural importance of the alien figure/myth from the lenses of psychology, sociology, and evolutionary theory.