E-mail sent by Rich Sleight, Wednesday, 16th May 2012 @ 2:43pm
Hi All!
Suggested Event
Wednesday 23rd May (after 6pm)
Cinema - Phoenix in Jericho or Odeon in Oxford Centre
Films Suggested: Dark Shadows (vampire funny with Johnny Depp), or Marley (a documentary about Bob which has good reviews at the Phoenix), or other....
Restaurant - Those who show an interest can pick depending on what time and place is most relevent.
Please email me back if you would like to go to the cinema, restuarant, or both and express your film preference and place to eat. I can then organise.
See options for films here - http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/events.php
I assumed the Vue cinema is too far out for many people.
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A potluck lunch is being organised for some point in June by Chloe - thanks Chloe!!
We just need to decide on a date!
Thanks
Rich
E-mail sent by Nessa Carson, Tuesday, 8th May 2012 @ 10:57am
Hi everyone!
Hope you're all doing well. You haven't seen me in a while as I'm buried in Finals revision (21 days to go) and no longer capable of having a reasonable conversation with anyone on topics other than chemistry. Anyway there are just few things that I've been sent that I thought you guys might be interested in. The first one's self-advertizing again; sorry about that but it's about animal welfare - would love to see you there.
Enjoy yourselves!
Nessa
1. Oxford University Scientific Society - “Optical Flow, Collective Behaviour and Animal Welfare”
Tomorrow (Wednesday), OUSS will be hosting Prof Marian Dawkins, professor of animal behaviour at Oxford University and head of the Animal Behaviour Research Group.
Wednesday 9th May at 20:15 in the Inorganic Chemistry Dept lecture theatre.
Open to everyone.
Any chicken you eat is probably less than 6 weeks old – so rapid has been its growth from fluffy chick to tikka masala. But what has this massively efficient conversion of food to meat done to the welfare of the birds themselves? A joint Zoology/Engineering Science project is using the optical flow patterns produced by the movements of large flocks to decipher not just what is happening to the animals at any one time but also to predict what their welfare will be days and even weeks ahead. Camera technology is coming to the aid of animal welfare.
Marian Dawkins works in the Department of Zoology here in Oxford and has recently published (March 2012) Why Animals Matter: Animal Welfare, Animal Consciousness and Human Well-Being and (with Aubrey Manning) An Introduction to Animal Behaviour 6th edition.
Talks are FREE for members and cost £2 for non-members. Membership is £20 for life or £15 for a year. Refreshments will be served after the talk.
If you would like to attend the dinner at 18:00 with the speaker before the talk, please reply to nessa.carson@univ.ox.ac.uk as soon as possible. Limited spaces are available.
More information is available on our website (http://users.ox.ac.uk/~science/), where you can view the rest of our termcard, or our Facebook group.
2. Animals and Us - week-long course in Dartington
Schumacher College in Dartington (a stunning location, a couple of miles outside if Totnes) is running a special, week-long short course, Animals and Us in June (I talked them into it) - and they've just reduced the cost, as bookings were a bit slow (and the price too high!)
The price is now £550 and there is updated text on: http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/animals-and-us
It will be an incredible experience...
Marc Bekoff and Jonathan Balcombe, the world's leading experts on animal emotion will be teaching via video link from the U.S.
Richard Ryder (one of the UK's foremost animal rights philosophers, a former Chair of the RSPCA, founder of the Political Animal Lobby and author of several seminal books, including Animal Revolution and Victims of Science) and Rachel Hevesi (one of the world's leading primatologists, now Director of Wild Futures and the Monkey Sanctuary in Cornwall), will be the main course leaders.
They will be joined by Satish Kumar (the former Jain monk, earth pilgrim, and Editor in Chief of Resurgence magazine) and Dr Stephen Harding from Schumacher.
It's a unique opportunity and they're not likely to repeat it, so please do sign up if it appeals - and tell others.
I have attached some features from the tutors that appeared recently in the special issue of Resurgence which I guest-edited.
Very many thanks and best wishes,
Heidi
3. TONIGHT - Oxford Café Scientifique - 'Green Transport - comparing petrol and diesel vehicles with their electric and hybrid rivals'
On Tuesday 8th May at Science Oxford Live (foot of Headington Hill), doors open 19:00 for 19:30 start.
(I wasn't actually asked to tell you guys about this, but thought it might be relevant both for interest and for information to argue back to those who say "oh you're vegan, well on an immediately relevant point did you know electric cars aren't as efficient as they might be".)
Many of the earliest motors cars were electric and quick for their time, around 30 miles per hour! There were petrol-electric cars too: however as Internal Combustion Engines became more effective they displaced the already established electric propulsion systems. For several decades petrol engines held sway. Diesel engines were introduced first to trucks and more recently to cars. So why did these ICEs take over and dominate road vehicle propulsion?
Concern about carbon dioxide and global warming has triggered a renewed interest in electric propulsion. Peter Moss, senior lecturer at the Royal Military College, examines its advantages and disadvantages.
See http://www.cafesci.org/oxford for details (more about the talk linked from the Dates page)
Some wine and nibbles, bring your own if you wish.
Looking forward to seeing you there,
Dr Rachel Quarrell
Oxford Café Scientifique
