Date: Wednesday September 28, 2016
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)
I ღ Georgian
Summary: Georgian is a Kartvelian language and the official language of Georgia (the country). It dates back to the 5th century CE and is much better in every single respect than the vowel ridden, pathetic thing you call English. Strap yourself in for a whirlwind tour of Georgian linguistics and its idiosyncrasies along with some historical tidbits.
Presenter bio: Lado Bakh is an area medical student. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and subsequently moved to the United States to pursue his lifelong dream of berating Americans about the culture of his people despite having an embarrassingly inadequate and constantly diminishing grasp of said culture. His likes include writing about himself in the third person and sour beer.
Political Polarization: How’d we get this way?!
Summary: With every election cycle it feels like the political climate in the United States gets worse—more congressional gridlock, more incivility, more fear that there are people out there trying to wreck the place. How’d it get this way? Can anything be done about it? This talk will answer these questions…and more!
Presenter Bio: Paula McAvoy is a professional philosopher (earning her Platinum Nerd status) and the director of the Center for Ethics and Education at UW-Madison. She is also the co-author of the The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, a New York Times Best Seller (not really, but one can still hope). She’s not a political scientist, but she often acts like one.
You Are the World to Somebody (and that somebody is a worm): the disgusting dramas inside us
Summary: They can get into your stomach via your foot. In your intestines, they might mate for life and have hundreds of thousands of babies a day. They manipulate your immune system and hide in plain sight. Remember that scene in Alien? It’s like that but cooler because there are pheromones and antibodies involved. And it’s real.
Presenter bio: Gail Emilia Rosen is a PhD student in infectious disease and viral ecology at UW Madison. When she DMs Call of Cthulhu, there is inevitably an NPC with tiny monsters popping out of his or her flesh. She is an excellent dinner table conversationalist.