Weekly Update 2/3/12

Hello, Secular Students!

Here is your update for 5th week.

Meeting Reminder
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 7th, at 6:00 pm in the Uncommon Room of Rockefeller chapel. We know you're all stressed with midterms, so this will be a social meeting, with YouTube videos, candy, and Science Valentine making. It should be a good time, so we hope you'll join us.


Announcements

• Darwin Day: Sunday, February 12th, marks Charles Darwin's 203rd birthday, and to celebrate, we're watching The Land Before Time! The event will be from 5:00 pm to 8pm on the 12th, in Harper 140. There will also be cake, so there's no reason not to come. For more information, and to RSVP, check out the Facebook event.
• Science Valentines: We will be tabling, selling science-themed Valentines Cards around Darwin Day and Valentine's Day (Feb. 12th and 14th, respectively). We will send out more information shortly, as we finalize details, but if you are interested in tabling, please let us know.
• Life Before the Dinosaurs Visit: On February 19th, SA has the opportunity to take Art, the 7 year old author of the Life Before the Dinosaurs blog, out to dinner.
• Hemant Mehta is going to be coming sometime the week of February 28, so be looking forward to that.
• Greta Christina: This is a ways out yet, but on March 1st, Greta Christina will be coming to give a talk on Religion, Atheism, and Sexuality. If you don't know who Greta is, here is a short bio:
  

  Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is on the speakers's bureaus of the Secular Student Alliance and the Center for Inquiry. She is editor of the "Best Erotic Comics" anthology series, and of "Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients.

  Greta also blogs at http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/.
• Blogging and Vlogging: Due to technical issues, the website and blog have not been updated in a while. However, most of the kinks are getting worked out, and so, once again, we'd like to put out a call for contributors to the blog and YouTube channel. If you interested in sharing an article or a video blog on our website, email us at ssa.uchicago@gmail.com. Or, if you're just interested, but aren't sure what to write or talk about, email us about that too, and we'll help you get started.
  Additionally, if you run a personal blog about topics related to secularism, let us know, and we may feature it on the website as well.

Links to Follow

• From last week: During our talks about framing and rhetoric, we referenced these two papers: a Hitchens paper and a Sagan paper.
• The Susan G. Komen Foundation first announces that it will no longer fund Planned Parenthood, and then that it will continue to fund Planned Parenthood, after much outrage within and outside of the skeptical community.
• Jessica Ahlquist won her court case, claiming a banner in her school was unconstitutional, as it featured a Christian prayer. Threats and general insanity insued. Greta Christina wrote up a good article about it.

That’s all for this installment. In conclusion, this week’s quote is from Gerry Spence, author of How to Argue and Win Every Time:

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

Hope to see you on Tuesday!

~The UChicago Secular Student Alliance~
Email - Website - Facebook - Twitter - YouTube