Date: Wednesday May 29, 2013
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
The Sociology of Class in Dragonball Z
Summary: Dragonball Z is a popular 90’s anime series. In the show, Saiyans from Planet Vegeta try to save our Earth from evil robots, dragons, and aliens (the other evil-universe-domination-hungry kind). The main protagonists are Goku, and his rival, Vegeta. Goku is from low class Saiyan, while Vegeta is from the planet’s elite class. Through the application of Marxist Class Theory, and Bourdieu’s Social Capital Theory, I will present how both of these characters’ classes are depicted throughout the anime series.
Haiku bio:
Minh from Milwaukee.
Mega rad Pokemon dreams.
In grad school, bitches.
Longer version: In all seriousness, Minhtuyen (Minh) Mai is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She did her undergrad at UW-Madison in Sociology, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages and Cultures of Asia and received a certificate in Asian American Studies. She is now back for more school in pursuit of a doctorate in Educational Policy Studies, studying college access, persistance, and success for low income students. She is also President of the Association of Asian American Graduate Students and she can breakdance.
Sexy Local Birdsongs
Summary: What is that bird singing outside your window at 4am? Is it making your morning miserable or magical? Learn the basics of birdsong identification and listen to a few of the sexiest birdsongs you may hear in Madison this Spring.
Presenter bio: John Feith is the author and nature recordist of the Bird Song Ear Training Guide: Who Cooks for Poor Sam Peabody? CD used by thousands of birdwatchers in the Midwest. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from UW-Madison, where he won an award for his Ultrasound Theremin MIDI Controller. Other nerdy accomplishments include developing Noise Reduction and Acoustic Modelling algorithms for Sonic Foundry, building a near-anechoic chamber in his basement and regurlarly performing the guitar riff in Mamma Mia for the disco band VO5.
Micro-Monsters: The Perils of Predatory Protists
Summary: The average barstool conversation about predation tends to dismiss amoebas and their tiny ilk as simpletons whose microscopic size and formless appearance renders them harmless. Investigation shows them to be more complex and a lot scarier than the the blobs they’re mistaken for. See in horrifying closeups how these predators made of a single cell are among the world’s most important and ravenous hunters.
Presenter bio: In school George Rothdrake studied fossils of obscure creatures, and while he’s since worked many ordinary jobs surrounded by remarkable folks, he continues to find fascination in the story of life on our world. All said, though, he’s little more than a colony of trillions of eukaryotic cells.