Weekly Update

Meeting Reminder: Next meeting tomorrow, Thursday, January 24th, 5:45 pm, in the UnCommon Room, which is the room down the hall and to the left in the Rockefeller Chapel basement.

And what is this meeting about? Well, in the theme of the evening, we'll be talking about bias, personal and scientific. We'll talk about people's experiences in and out of the secular movement, the evidence about bias and how it operates (ever heard of chilly climate? You will!) and all other related things. Is there bias? How much? How should we address it? Feel free to bring your own stories and check out Harvard's Implicit Association Test and also this piece on chilly climates. 

Following that, we will all be walking over to Kimberly Veal's talk about Freethinkers and Freethought in the Civil Rights Movement. If you can only make it to the meeting, that's fine, but I'd really love for everyone who can to come to this talk. It's going to be great.  Facebook event here. 

The meeting will have just hot drinks, but Kimberly Veal's talk is going to have lots of yummy snacks, brought to you by Emma Tehrani :)

Announcements/Upcoming events: 

• Sex Week is happening sixth week! It's going to be a whole amazing week of great events, which you can find out about through the website (www.sexweekuchicago.com) and by signing up for the listhost, which you can do through the website. There will be no fewer than THREE amazing atheist speakers: Greta Christina, talking about Atheism and Sexuality; Cliff Pervocracy, talking about consciousamory, an approach to sex and relationships, and Natalie Reed, talking about fourth wave, or trans-feminism. Also, my sister, Giuliana Serena, is going to be talking about body-positive approaches to menstruation, for both men and women. It's going to be awesome. Finally, Jay Feldman and I are going to be leading a workshop on what sex ed should look like. 
• Interested in cool talks about skepticism? Skepticamp is a free event/gathering of skeptics taking place March 2, from 11am to 6pm, at the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N. Knox Ave., Chicago, IL 60630 (more information in the facebook group)
• If you're interested in speaking at Skepticamp, email ChicagoSkeptics@gmail.com right away!

Links:

• Do you guys know we have a website and a twitter? Johnny Antos is doing an excellent job of running them now, so go check them out.
• Inauguration news: Obama Urged to Resign Over Beyonce Scandal
• Speaking of Obama, did you all catch that he recognized us nonbelievers on Religious Freedom Day?
• Andrew Tripp, who you'll all meet tomorrow if you're coming to the Kimberly Veal talk, is having a really interesting blog discussion with Greta Christina over oppression of atheists and how it compares to other oppression. His first post here, her response, his response to that. They'll be continuing in days to come.