June 21, 2009
On Wednesday, June 24th, we’ll be having a book sharing conversation. This will have three parts, and you can choose to participate (or not) in any or all of the three:
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1. Share: Bring two books you’ve really liked — they don’t have to be your favorite or most influential — and spend about five minutes summarizing the books and telling us why we should read them.
2. Select: After we hear about why we should read each of these great books, we’ll corporately choose one book to read and discuss at our July 22nd meeting.
3. Swap: If these two books (or other books you like but don’t bring to talk about) are ones with which you are willing to part, put them into our swap pot — bring a book, take a book. We’ll all leave with something new to read!
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ThinkTank Bradenton
2nd and 4th Wednesdays
7:30 pm / Starbucks I 75 & SR 70
thinktankbradenton AT gmail DOT com
Update:
Some of the books recommended:
“Walk Across America” Peter Jenkins
“War in Heaven, A Novel” Charles Williams
“The Elegance of the Hedgehog” Muriel Barbery
“Conversations with God” Neale Donald Walsch
“Persepolis 1 and 2″ Marjane Satrapi
“Haunted” Chuck Palahniuk
“An Egg Is Quiet” Dianna Hutts Aston, Sylvia Long
“The Celestine Prophecy” James Redfield
“False Assumptions” Henry Cloud and John Townsend
“When Character Was King” Peggy Noonan
“Hawking” ???
“Villette” Charlotte Bronte
First Aid and Emergency Pocket Guide
“Twilight” Stephanie Meyer
“Brain Rules” John Medina
What titles did I forget to list?
June 10, 2009
This discussion will be facilitated by Bill, springboarding from a comment a few weeks ago:
“How has the 24/7 news cycle and constant pressure for delivering the fastest news affecting the quality of our news and how does that affect us?”
“This college student faked a quote on wiki to see how quickly it would spread and found many news sources quoted it without checking the unverified source.”
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090512/ap_on_hi_te/eu_ireland_wikipedia_hoaxer
Pat suggested some other lines of inquiry including,
“In terms of the topic for tomorrow night I had one major question. If the newspaper model is dead and bloggers and instant news is the current and future reality, where exactly do we think these new media get their information? Do blogs support research staff and investigators? Do instant news places have foreign bureaus? Do any of the new media conduct interviews with due diligence? I think that there will be a news blowback when the last newspaper goes under and these insta-news sources suddenly have no news to report on.”
And one of our Florida East Coast friends has suggested continuing this conversation again on a Saturday, because he’d like to join in. . . especially considering his background in journalistic field. So stay tuned for possible ThinkTank ancillary meetings!
Join us!
June 10: “The 24/7 News Cycle”
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
7:30pm – 10:30pm
Starbucks on SR 70 near I-75
7386 52nd Pl E
Bradenton, FL
May 25, 2009
This Wednesday at ThinkTank we’ll be talking about the “Biases of Western Civilization,” and the discussion will be facilitated by Patrick.
Details:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
7:30pm – 10:00pm
Starbucks on SR 70 near I-75
Bradenton, FL
If anyone has resources related to the upcoming topic and would like them posted here for others, feel free to leave a comment!
May 10, 2009
Come join us to discuss art, beauty, meaning and culture at our next meeting, Wednesday, May 13th. We will again be meeting at the Starbucks on SR 70 near I-75, from 7:30 – 10:00 pm. This discussion will be facilitated by Bethany.
If you want to read a little on aesthetics before you come, check out wiki or skim the syllabus from the aesthetics course taught by Gideon Strauss.
If you are really ambitious. . . Keep reading →
April 20, 2009
Our current meeting place is Starbuck’s Coffee, located on SR 70 near Interstate 75. We meet on the firs and third Wednesdays of each month. For more information, please email us at thinktankbradenton@gmail.com
April 10, 2009
As discussed at our last meeting, the upcoming themes will be:
April 22: “Seven Pounds” Movie Discussion
May 13: “Aesthetics and the Culture” (facilitated by Bethany)
May 27: “The Biases of Western Civilization” (facilitated by Pat)
If you have resources related to the above topics, please share them in this thread! Or, if there are other themes or movies you’d like to discuss, feel free to suggest them.
March 22, 2009
How does technology (internet, cell phones, etc…) affect community and relationships?
At our March 25th meeting, we’ll be discussing themes related to the impact of various technologies on relationships. This topic grew out of our discussion of cultural relativism.
I read an article earlier this week somewhat related, How the Kindle Will Change the World (Jacob Weisberg, Slate).
Looking forward to our discussion this week. . .
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Update:
I really enjoyed the conversation tonight. . . feel free to continue it in the comments here.
A few books were mentioned during the discussion:
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman
Distracted, Maggie Jackson
Fat, Dumb and Ugly, Peter Strupp
March 15, 2009
This forum is not hosted by ThinkTank, but looks like it is very worthwhile for our members to attend.
Forum on Human Trafficking
Date: Saturday, March 21, 2009; TIME: 9 AM to 1 PM
Location: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 508 Riviera Street, Venice, Florida
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is hosting an educational forum for the Sarasota County area. The goal is for participants to learn about human trafficking in Southwest Florida and what we as community members can do to combat this serious problem…a problem much larger than most residents in this area realize.
Distinguished panel for this forum includes:
**Jordan Buckley of the Coalition of Immokalee Farm Workers (CIW) and Interfaith Action of Southwest
Florida
**Christine Nolan, District Director of Catholic Charities of Lee, Hendry, and Glades Counties
**Nola Theiss of Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, Inc.
Representatives of local law enforcement task force
Register by email to: humantrafficking AT stmarksvenice.com
A continental breakfast and light lunch will be provided.
A donation to cover the cost of food and materials is appreciated. Please register or direct your questions to the email above.
(h/t Venice Buzz)
March 11, 2009
3/11: Discussing the movie “Thank You for Smoking”
3/25: How does technology (internet, cell phones, etc…) affect community and relationships?
4/8: Movie discussion, TBA
4/22: TBA
Bring your topic suggestions to the next ThinkTank meeting, or post them here or on Facebook.
We will continue to meet the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month beginning at 7:30 pm at the Starbucks near I75/SR70.
During our last meeting, we decided to make “religion” an upcoming discussion topic. Rather than hammering out the details at the meeting, we agreed to work them out here at the blog.
