Toronto Oasis, Secular Community

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

Our featured speaker will be Ann Norman. Ann will be speaking on this topic not as an expert but as a layperson who has learned a lot about how AI art models work. Ann describes herself as “totally an amateur at art and AI art”, but for about a year she has spent almost an hour a day doing AI art, and she has some interesting observations to share.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298831863/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting was recorded: GMT20240331-153454_Recording_1920x1080.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a TEDx talk by Garry Gray, a University of Victoria Sociology professor and a Network Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. The video was selected and will be introduced by Tim Mt. Pleasant, a Toronto Oasis volunteer. After we watch the TEDx talk, Tim will do a 15-minute presentation putting the talk into a Canadian context.

We will also be having live music! Our featured musicians will be the Ugly Bug Band. Here is how they describe themselves:

“The Ugly Bug Band got together in the 1990s out of a desire to write the songs that happy and sometimes cranky hoboes might want to sing in a world where the moon had a tendency to fall out of the sky, pirates were the heroes of any stories they were in, and the world was always already in the process of ending. Over the past thirty years, members have come and gone but that mission hasn’t changed, and the Bugs have brought their gnostic folk songs full of monkeys, angels, and rewritten bible stories to audiences from Roncesvalles to the Annex – and back! The members of the Ugly Bug Band are Michael Kaler (bass), Martin Loomer (guitar), Arnd Jurgensen (guitar and banjo), Wendy Banks (stylophone, kalimba, bowed ukelele, accordion, music box), and Mark Blaauw-Hara (percussion). Everyone sings, and the Bugs hope that you will too!”

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298831862/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

The guest musician was recorded: GMT20240324-152947_Recording_640x360.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

Our featured speaker will be Leslie Rosenblood, host of the Podcast for Inquiry (https://centreforinquiry.ca/podcast-for-inquiry/), a biweekly podcast produced by the Centre for Inquiry Canada (CFIC).

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298831861/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting has been recorded: GMT20240317-153901_Recording_1856x1024.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing two YouTube videos on the topic of authenticity selected and introduced by John Shannon, a Toronto Oasis volunteer.

We will also be having live music! Our featured musician will be Reenie Perkovic. Reenie is a queer folk-pop artist. With a soulful edge, she composes heartfelt songs that are both fun and introspective. Infusing her classical background with jazz harmony, folk rhythms, and pop sensibilities, Reenie and her guitar weave together stories of the human condition, connection, and social justice.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298831860/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a TEDx talk by Julia Galef, speaker, podcaster and author of the book: The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t. The topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Tanya Long, a Toronto Oasis participant.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298339836/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a TEDx talk by Malavika Varadan, who worked in radio and was host of a primetime breakfast show in Dubai. In this TEDx talk, Varadan challenges the societal norm that “we should not speak to strangers” by presenting 7 ways to make conversation with anyone. The topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

We will also be having live music this Sunday! Our featured musician will be Kathryn Merriam. Described by audiences as ‘other-worldly’ and ‘transcendent’, Kathryn Merriam’s songs interweave melismatic melodies with soaring lyricism, evoking flavours of Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. Accompanying herself on the guitar and harp, Kathryn explores the intersections between folk song tradition and mystical music – making subtle observations of the human experience, and musing on reality, perception, meaning, healing, and purpose. You can check out her music here: https://soundcloud.com/kathryn-merriam

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298182481/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

The guest musician was recorded in two parts: Part 1: GMT20240225-170705_Recording_640x360.mp4 and Part 2: GMT20240225-173413_Recording_640x360.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a TEDx talk by social scientist and PhD student, Genevieve Gregorich. The talk is about her research endeavor on Bullshit (the card game) and how that provided her with a life lesson. The topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Tim Mt. Pleasant, a Toronto Oasis volunteer.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298182479/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a TED talk by Dr. Kris Alexander, associate professor at TMU, and sometimes referred to as “the professor of video games”. The topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

There will also be live music at our meeting this Sunday! Our guest musician will be Elizabeth Block. Elizabeth was born in New York and loves telling people, “I wuz boan in Brooklyn. You gotta PROBLEM wid dat?” She was brought up on Gilbert & Sullivan, Broadway musicals (when they were written for singers), and the songs of Arthur Block – her dad wrote songs. She went to the High School of Music and Art, where she was an art student, but was allowed to sing in the senior chorus in her last year. She was a choral singer for decades, and a church soloist for many years. She joined Toronto’s informal folk song circle in – she thinks – 1984. A few years later she decided she should learn to play the guitar, which she did – not well, but well enough to accompany herself and other people. She knows a lot of songs, some in other languages, many satirical and/or political. She has written new words to existing tunes, and a couple of times tunes to existing words, never an entire song – but there’s still time.

Elizabeth is a potter by trade. You can check out her pottery work on her website:
http://www.elizabethblockpottery.com/

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298182475/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Our guest musician was recorded: GMT20240211-163129_Recording_640x360.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

The Canadian government has restricted its funding program for academic research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Environment Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to members of academic institutions, academic hospitals, and research institutions. Importantly, the funding flowed through CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC or CFI are not passed through the Canada Social Transfer or Canada Health Transfer, but directly to principal investigators and academic institutions which may pose problematic when attempting to make transparent the milieu of the modern research enterprise. Our featured speaker, Tim Mt. Pleasant, will survey a Toronto Star article on this topic and provide some relevant context for consideration and discussion by participants.

Participants are asked to review the following article prior to the meeting, if possible.
Canada bans funding for some foreign-linked research (thestar.com)

Tim Mt Pleasant has spent six years undertaking academic training at the intersection of applied philosophy and bioethics, particularly in the ever-developing area of research ethics within a Canadian context. Tim completed his undergraduate training at TorontoMU in 2021, receiving his Honours Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with Distinction and was offered admission to postgraduate programs at Johns Hopkins University, NYU and McGill University.

For the last two years, Tim served as a Postgraduate Student representative to the Advisory Council on Human Research Ethics and was appointed by the Board of Governors to the Research Ethics Board while working to complete degree requirements for the Master of Arts in Philosophy with Bioethics Concentration. Tim is considering all available options on a path forward to meet his postgraduate research training while maintaining sight on the Research Ethics space, particularly as it relates to Indigenous communities, particularly First Nations, in Canada.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298182472/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting has been recorded: GMT20240204-164101_Recording_1856x1024.mp4

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be listening to and then discussing a YouTube video about Canada’s Housing Crisis by YouTuber: The Plain Bagel. The video lays out a number of factors that have led to housing (both ownership and rental) that is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to afford for most of us.  What should our relationship to housing be?  Should it be an investment or mainly a place to live?  How can we protect people in the face of huge market forces?  This topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Lola Bradford, a Toronto Oasis participant.

Please RSVP on Meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/298182471/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!