Lecture Series

Michael Miller The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has banned a flier advertising an upcoming lecture by controversial author and commentator Eric Schlosser. Jaime Castellanos, assistant superintendent of secondary education for the district, said he had ordered all middle schools and high schools not to display a flier promoting Schlosser's speech this Friday and Saturday as part of the Newport Beach Public Library's Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series.

A Nobel Laureate will discuss nuclear proliferation at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Crystal Cove Auditorium as part of a UCI lecture series. Thomas C. Schelling will speak as a guest of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series on “Managing Nuclear Proliferation.” Schelling is a professor at the University of Maryland. He shared the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for his work on game theory and its application to conflict and cooperation in groups. The event is free and open to the public.

June Casagrande Anyone who thinks that the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization agreement are just about trade could learn a thing or two from Lori Wallach. What they'd learn could shock them. That's just fine by Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, who is the first in this year's Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series "Everyone needs to know about this stuff," Wallace said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Paintings can do more than decorate a home. They can also save your brain. Studies show that exposure to a diverse range of arts and other educational stimuli over long periods of time can decrease memory loss by up to 50%, said Dr. William Shankle, program director of Memory & Cognitive Disorders at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute. "The use of artistic or creative activity activates many brain areas," he said. "By activating those brain areas, it induces changes in brain activity that protect the brain from disease and aging.

B.W. Cook The vivacious Bonnie McClellan chairs the fifth annual design lecture series sponsored by the Decorative Arts Society. The association is a support group for the worthwhile New Directions For Women, an organization that provides addiction treatment for women in the community. This fall, beginning Oct. 5, Wendall Garrett, senior vice president of Sotheby's New York and an editor-at-large for the magazine Antiques, will inaugurate the series.

Deirdre Newman CORONA DEL MAR -- Most 9-year-olds don't know the meaning of the word "genetics," let alone how much potential they have for curing disease. Not Mason Hemmel. He discusses genetics with the same casual ease as talking about how he loves playing baseball and taking kung-fu lessons. In fact, Mason's grasp of genetics is so sophisticated that he recently completed the first lecture series on the subject sponsored by the UC Irvine College of Medicine.

Greg Danilenko has seen counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He?s been in war zones in Chechnya and Bosnia and has seen the NATO bombings in Belgrade and Kosovo. He?s seen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand. On Thursday at UCI, Danilenko, a CNN cameraman, will discuss his experiences as an independent journalist in some of the most violence-plagued locations in the world. He will share photos and video footage from his reporting in Afghanistan and Iraq over the summer and discuss his recently filmed documentary about operations in both regions.

B.W. COOK It is one of the most distinguished organizations in Orange County, dedicated to providing opportunity for future generations. Achievement Rewards for College Scientists recently inaugurated its fall 2004 lecture series, which is named for the late scientist Arnold O. Beckman. The fall science lecture debuted with a very special dinner at the Beckman Center at the UC Irvine, welcoming Nobel Laureate James D. Watson who delivered the inaugural address.

The gift that Jason Sherr helped give to the Newport Beach Public Library this year can be measured in dollars and cents -- for the record, it came to $405,609. But with so many people potentially using the library, it could be considered priceless. Last week, the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation announced that in the 2003-04 fiscal year it had doubled the amount of funds it raised. In doing so, it set an all-time record. The bulk of the money came from a $250,000 gift from an anonymous community member, but the foundation also solicited thousands more from corporations and other wealthy providers.

"This is not a 'Buck Rogers' vision of the future, but people just need to get used to something new." --Martin Schlageter, of The Sierra Club, speculating that it may be a while before gas stations begin offering alternative fuels. "Without having a moral compass, without realizing that there is right and wrong, students don't know and shoot up other classmates." -- Newport-Mesa board member Wendy Leece, on posting the Ten Commandments in schools.

Paintings can do more than decorate a home. They can also save your brain. Studies show that exposure to a diverse range of arts and other educational stimuli over long periods of time can decrease memory loss by up to 50%, said Dr. William Shankle, program director of Memory & Cognitive Disorders at the Hoag Neurosciences Institute. "The use of artistic or creative activity activates many brain areas," he said. "By activating those brain areas, it induces changes in brain activity that protect the brain from disease and aging.

Radio broadcast veteran Warren Duffy will speak at St. James Anglican Church at 7 p.m. Wednesday as part of the church’s “Steadfast in Faith” lecture series. For a decade, afternoon drive-time radio listeners in Southern California tuned in to hear the daily talk program “Duffy and Company — Live From L.A.” A free dinner will be served before the lecture at 6 p.m. Offerings will be accepted at the event. St. James Anglican Church is at 3209 Via Lido.

A Nobel Laureate will discuss nuclear proliferation at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Crystal Cove Auditorium as part of a UCI lecture series. Thomas C. Schelling will speak as a guest of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series on “Managing Nuclear Proliferation.” Schelling is a professor at the University of Maryland. He shared the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2005 for his work on game theory and its application to conflict and cooperation in groups. The event is free and open to the public.

Greg Danilenko has seen counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He?s been in war zones in Chechnya and Bosnia and has seen the NATO bombings in Belgrade and Kosovo. He?s seen the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand. On Thursday at UCI, Danilenko, a CNN cameraman, will discuss his experiences as an independent journalist in some of the most violence-plagued locations in the world. He will share photos and video footage from his reporting in Afghanistan and Iraq over the summer and discuss his recently filmed documentary about operations in both regions.

Fairview Community Church's new reverend may not resemble the majority of her congregation, but she does embody the spirit of their beliefs. An enthusiastic advocate of gay rights, immigrant rights and workers' rights, 30-year-old Rev. Sarah Halverson returned to Costa Mesa, where she grew up, in August as the progressive church's senior pastor, and her post will be made official during today's installation ceremony. "What we were looking for was somebody younger who could reach out to a younger crowd and somebody who was very open and welcoming," said Martha Blake, 66, who joined the congregation in 1999.

Photojournalist Gerd Ludwig, who has worked for National Geographic, Time and Life magazines, will kick off the 10th annual Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series later this month at the Newport Beach Public Library. The 2007 series, announced Monday by the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation, also includes sports journalist Frank Deford in February, writer Michael Pollan in March, religious scholar Reza Aslan in April, and political commentator and writer Andrew Sullivan in May. Thanks to a sponsorship from Canon, Ludwig's appearance is an extra in a series that normally includes four speakers.

SOCIETYSOCIETYSan Francisco-based interior designer Paul Wiseman joined the Newport-Mesa crowd at the elegant oceanfront residence of Sally and Randy Crockett to launch the 2005-06 Decorative Arts Society's series of programs. Wiseman came to the Orange Coast to deliver a lecture on the new definition of luxury. He inaugurated the 11th season of Decorative Arts Society programs, which have brought some of the world's leading experts on the decorative arts to the area. The dapper Wiseman, wearing his signature Harold Lloyd inspired tortoise shell round spectacles, mingled with the cocktail crowd discussing life and style and the evolving trends of taste in the world of the decorative arts.

The gift that Jason Sherr helped give to the Newport Beach Public Library this year can be measured in dollars and cents -- for the record, it came to $405,609. But with so many people potentially using the library, it could be considered priceless. Last week, the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation announced that in the 2003-04 fiscal year it had doubled the amount of funds it raised. In doing so, it set an all-time record. The bulk of the money came from a $250,000 gift from an anonymous community member, but the foundation also solicited thousands more from corporations and other wealthy providers.

Michael Miller This time last year, Christopher Hitchens was in Kabul, Afghanistan, checking up on the country's progress since the overthrow of the Taliban. Despite the ongoing violence in that impoverished nation, the British author and columnist found at least one thing to cheer him. "The first thing I did was go to a bar," Hitchens told a crowd of high school students Saturday at Newport Beach Public Library. Remembering the days when alcohol, among other things, was banned by the totalitarian government, Hitchens saw the new industry as progress indeed.

Carol Gaetano In response to recent articles in the Daily Pilot, I would like to first say that I am disappointed by the decision of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to prohibit the distribution of fliers at the district schools for Eric Schlosser's lecture at the Newport Beach Library. I feel a discussion about the country's food industry and about writing nonfiction would have been great information for high school students. And if students posed questions about his more recent book, well, we adults might have learned what the students are thinking on those subjects.