Second Life Journal Club

I have an opportunity to set up a journal club in Second Life.

I would like to base it on journal club at U of Chicago, with a quarterly focus, starting each quarter with a general topic, beginning with review papers and moving historically through the topic to current controversies. I'd expect participants to have a degree in a physical science; either an advanced degree or ongoing work toward one is preferred. This will cost me a little money which I'll pay out of pocket the first year if there is sufficient interest. If we get enough momentum I'll take up a collection for the second year.

Topics might include pleistocene paleoclimate (the last 2 million years, the interesting ones with the ice sheets coming and going), climate dynamics, glaciology, biogeochemistry. I am interested in mathematical and statistical rigor. I am totally not interested in hockey sticks and century to millenial temperature reconstructions; this is the only climate science topic I will exclude up front.

Also, this is not an occasion for policy nattering. (I have no trouble managing that; keeping up with the literature is much harder.)

Membership in Second Life is free; it requires access to a decent computer and a fast internet connection. We'll try to get the audio channel working. I'd like to get on the order of a dozen participants.

The time will be weekly, either 07:30 or 21:30 GMT, on a weekday to be determined. The idea is not to be in the middle of the night in Australia/Japan, western Europe or North America.

Please let me know if you are interested. Contact mtobis@gmail.com