Party tricks and baseball stars part of scheduled UAFS lectures

Mathematical party tricks, a Barling baseball star and the basics on how to start a business in Arkansas are just a few of the topics to be addressed in the next few weeks and months by faculty and staff of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

BIZ START
The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center at the UAFS is joining with other centers around the state in celebrating Arkansas Entrepreneur Week the last week of January by hosting business seminars on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29. Both events will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. in the 8th floor board room at First National Bank in downtown Fort Smith.

Nick Remy (pictured right), director of the ASBTDC in Fort Smith, will conduct both Fort Smith workshops. The Jan. 27 seminar is to focus on starting a business in Arkansas, and the Jan. 29 seminar is titled “Growing Your Business in Tough Economic Times.”

“During the economic downturn we have been experiencing, it’s sometimesbeneficial to go back over the things that reinforce good habits, rather than reinforcing bad habits,” Remy said.

For more information or to register, call 479-788-7758.

LIFELONG LEARNING
The UAFS Center for Lifelong Learning recently announced its “Scholar Series” on a wide variety of topics. All lectures in the series will be held in the Community Room of the Fort Smith Public Library at 3201 Rogers Ave. All lectures begin at 7 p.m., are scheduled to conclude by 8:15 p.m., and are free to the public.

The lecture schedule:
• Feb. 12: “The Royal Nonesuch: Mark Twain’s Legacy in Hannibal, Missouri”
Dr. Cammie Sublette, assistant professor of English, will explore the intersections between the literary and historic Hannibal, Mo., with emphasis on the performative nature of historic downtown Hannibal.

• Feb. 26: "Mathematical Party Tricks"
Dr. Kathy Pinzon, assistant professor of mathematics, will relate some of the mathematics behind impressive party tricks, giving participants a chance to amaze and astound their friends.

• March 12: "What Have We Done to Shakespeare?"
Dr. Dennis Siler, assistant professor of English, offers a glimpse of who William Shakespeare really was, compared to what has been taught, and will show how the performance of Shakespeare’s plays has changed over the last 400 years.

• March 26: "The Barling Darling"
Billy Higgins, associate professor of history, will tell the story of Hal Smith, a baseball player from Barling, who had a 42-year career span, most of it with the St. Louis Cardinals. Smith coached for six years in the major league, managed one year in minor-league baseball and scouted for the Cardinals for 23 years.

• April 9: "Social Credit: A Political Economy for the 21st Century"
Dr. M. Oliver Heydorn, assistant professor of philosophy, will focus on the fundamental nature of the nation’s enduring economic, social and environmental problems and briefly explore some of the highly original solutions found in the writings of British engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas, who had a unique and relatively unknown viewpoint on these issues.

• April 23: "Do the Exotic House Sparrows Affect Nesting of Native Cliff
Swallows in Arkansas?"
Dr. Ragupathy Kannan, professor of biology, will talk about the damaging effect house sparrows have on cliff swallow nesting colonies in Western Arkansas. The house sparrows steal nests of cliff swallows, impeding the reuse of the nests by swallows in subsequent seasons.

For more information about the lectures, call 479-788-7220.