Food for Thought
Catalyst Café: Innovating for Good
5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10
Joel D. Valdez Main Library101 N. Stone Ave.
791-4010; tucsontalks.blogspot.com
Catalyst Café pictures itself as Tucson's answer to constantly evolving technology and the way it impacts individuals, communities, nonprofits and small businesses.
"The Café's mission is to help organizations into the next millennium. OK, maybe 3001 is a little bit of reach; but do you want to be using dial-up when all of the websites are designed for high-speed?" its website asks. "We have this belief that if you bring a diverse group of people together for informal discussion of fresh ideas, we all get a little stronger."
At this month's session, the first since August's "summer break," the Café's topic will be "Innovating for Good: Tucson and Social Entrepreneurship." Panel members are Alok Appadurai of Fed By Threads and the Movement Shala; Aaron Cooper of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, or ISDA; Robin Breault, of LeadLocal; and Dan Stormont of the Pineapple Project.
Café topics are aimed at providing technical solutions to everyday issues. Upcoming topics include professional social media accounts, creativity in the 21st century and building a social media strategy.
The group will meet in the library's fourth-floor boardroom.
Keep up with Café activities at tucsontalks.blogspot.com. The website also provides links to jobs, help for businesses, information on grants for nonprofits, and articles about how people all over the world are keeping businesses and communities alive in innovative ways.
—C.G.
Armageddon at the UA
UA Starlight Science Cinema presents: Armageddon
6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7
UA's Highland Commons1224 E. Lowell St.
615-944-2627
Watch Bruce Willis and his crew race to stop an asteroid set on a collision course with Earth as the UA Starlight Science Cinema presents the 1998 flick Armageddon.
Before the screening there will be trivia questions and a presentation by Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer mission, better known as the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission.
OSIRIS-REx was developed by the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in partnership with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Lockheed Martin Space Systems. The mission involves sending a spacecraft to asteroid 101955, where it will spend more than 500 days mapping the asteroid before collecting a sample of the asteroid and returning it to Earth for analysis.
Scientists are hoping the sample will provide insight about the period before the formation of the solar system, the initial stages of planet formation and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life. The mission is expected to launch in 2016 and return with the sample in 2023.
Bring flashlights, blankets and chairs. Admission is free, and there will be snacks for sale, with proceeds supporting UA clubs.
If the skies are clear, the film will be screened at Highland Commons, near Sixth Street and Highland Avenue. If it looks like rain, head to the Kuiper Space Sciences Building, 1629 E. University Blvd.
—C.G.
History of Religion
Exploring the Roots of Religion series
9 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 8
St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal ChurchLa Paz room, 4440 N. Campbell Ave.
299-6421
Get in touch with religion—yours and everyone else's—by participating in the "Exploring the Roots of Religion" series at St. Philip's in The Hills.
While the series is being hosted at an Episcopal church, it isn't about the world as viewed through an Episcopalian lens. The series features video presentations by University of Louisville professor John Hale, an archaeologist and scholar, followed by a discussion of the topics.
The series explores the roots of all religions—where they came from and why—in an exploratory but nondefinitive manner.
"The series is interesting since it does not attempt to identify individual religions, which occurred thousands of years later," said Sue Agnew, St. Philip's director of communications. "It focuses on the earlier sense of presences that were unseen but suspected by primitive people, manifested in ruins that still exist today."
The presentations will cover sacred caves, mother goddesses, megaliths, the dead at Petra, Stonehenge, bulls at Knossos, ancient Ohio, Chaco Canyon, monasteries at Ajanta and the underground of Rome. Admission is free and it is not necessary to attend all of the discussions.
The series starts on Sunday, Sept. 8, and continues for 18 weeks. The topics for September are: Sept. 8, Temple of the Goddess of Malta; Sept. 15, The Aten-Monothesiem of Egypt; Sept. 22, Deities of the Acropolis; and Sept. 29, Gods and Pyramids at Teotihuacan.
—C.G
Fantastical Meets the Scientific
Magic of Science at Valley of the Moon
6 to 9 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 7
Valley of the Moon2544 E. Allen Road
323-1331; tucsonvalleyofthemoon.com
Liquid nitrogen, fire tornados and lasers will be making their debut at Valley of the Moon, courtesy of the Physics Factory.
Visitors will be able to experience the always enchanting paths of the park enhanced by science demonstrations. The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association will have telescopes set up around the park and the Zen Poi Fire Dancers will perform at 8:15 p.m.
The Physics Factory is a nonprofit made up of scientists and educators trying to spread their enthusiasm for physics through the community. They use hands-on activities and stage shows to demonstrate that physics is an exciting process of discovery and a rewarding career path.
Valley of the Moon is a fantasy fairyland and oasis built in the 1920s by George Legler, who dedicated his life to the idea that "kindness to all is the golden key to happiness." That mantra is reflected in the winding paths, the statues and the enchanted fairy gardens of Valley of the Moon. Other than for a few hours on the first Saturday of every month, the park is open to the public only during special events like this one.
Admission is free, but donations help continue restoration of the 90-year-old buildings at Valley of the Moon. For more information about Physics Factory events, visit physicsfactory.org. Or check out youtube.com/user/PhysicsFactory to see footage of their experiments.
—C.G.
