Come meet fellow Austin freethinkers, find witty and intelligent conversation. All newcomers are welcome, just look for the CFI sign.

Jerry A. Coyne, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, will present an evening talk and book signing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, at the Alkek Library Teaching Theatre on the campus of Texas State University-San Marcos.

For directions see http://www.maps.txstate.edu/campus/buildings/alk.html

Coyne's presentation is titled Why Evolution is True (and why many think that it's not) and is based on his latest similarly-titled book.

Admission is free and doors will open at 6:30 p.m. A book signing with light refreshments will take place following the lecture.

Coyne is an evolutionary biologist whose work focuses on understanding the origin of species. He has written more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers on the subject.

In addition, he is a regular contributor to The New Republic, the Times Literary Supplement, and other periodicals. He runs the popular Why Evolution is True blog, and is an internationally known defender of evolution and critic of creationism and intelligent design.

The book Why Evolution is True has received widespread praise for providing a clear explanation of evolution, while succinctly summarizing the facts supporting this revolutionary theory.

Coyne's lecture is sponsored by the Department of Biology and the Philosophy Dialogue Series at Texas State. Contact Noland Martin (512) 245-3317 for more information. For more information about Coyne and his book, please visit his blog: http://jerrycoyne.uchicago.edu/ .

Charles Stross "Accelerando"

From Amazon.com review:

Accelerando "follows several generations of the Macx family through the rapidly transforming, Internet-enabled global economy of the early twenty-first century to the human and transhuman populated worlds of the outer solar system a half century later. The saga begins with Macx patriarch Manfred, a freelance "venture altruist," giving away patentable high-tech ideas in exchange for endless handouts while looking forward to the day when nanotech-programmed smart matter surpasses humanity in intelligence and productivity. Fifteen years later, his adolescent daughter Amber is an indentured astronaut trolling the orbit of Jupiter, and by 2070, Sirhan is Amber's permanently space-bound offspring, paying witness to the fruits of his grandfather' s early innovations as something ominous and nonhuman is systematically dismantling the planets from Pluto to Earth.

Stross has his thumb squarely on the pulse of technology's leading edge and exults in extrapolating mere glimmers of ideas out to their mind-bending limits. His brilliant and panoramic vision of uncontrollably accelerating technology vaults him into the front rank of sf trailblazers, alongside Gibson and Stephenson, and promises to become a seminal work in the genre."

Your coordinator is Elze Hamilton.

A panel discussion of the Pecan Street Project

Pre-lecture activities and hands-on demonstrations begin at 5:45 pm in the main hall of Welch on the UT campus.

The talks begin at 7 pm in Welch Hall, Room 2.224. A question and answer session will follow the one-hour lecture. The public can attend the community event for free or view the live Webcast and ask questions online: www.esi.utexas. edu

Hot Science - Cool Talks provides a means for leading researchers from the University of Texas and other prominent universities to communicate their research to the public in general and the K-12 educational community in particular. Teachers that attend will receive two hours of professional development credit (per lecture) and a FREE CD-ROM that includes educational materials related to the lecture topic. The Hot Science - Cool Talks Outreach Series is presented by the Environmental Science Institute, The College of Natural Sciences, and the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

NOTE: This is the south location. There is also a Drink Rationally happy hours at Trudy's north location each month. Hope to see you there!

Come meet fellow Austin freethinkers, find witty and intelligent conversation. Newcomers always welcome, just look for the CFI sign.

Discussion Group - Topic TBD

Michael Flynn "In the Country of the Blind"

From Amazon.com review:

"This novel of big ideas explores the consequences of manipulating history. When Sarah Beaumont moves into an old Denver house, she learns that a previous owner, Brady Quinn, was killed in 1892 during a gunfight between two cowboys, seemingly an innocent bystander. Sarah's research into the mysterious Quinn leads her to a building where she finds some strange, abandoned machines, which turn out to be Babbage Analytical Engines (i.e., 19th-century computers).

Soon Sarah is on the trail of the Babbage Society, founded before the Civil War, whose members use the science of Cliology to tamper with history. Some of them have formed a splinter group and created Ideons (later called memes) to control an unsuspecting public. With several friends, Sarah continues her research, only to find that they have all become targets of a relentless enemy. Intrigues and double-crosses abound, as various competing factions justify and adjust their practice of Cliology. Plot and character development, as one might expect, matter only insofar as they further the philosophical argument."

Your coordinator is Elze Hamilton.