Thank you for these enlightening findings, Mr. Reed. We definitely be 4T.

Shakti Butler, the evil racist, can go screw herself.

Originally Posted by sean '90

Thank you for these enlightening findings, Mr. Reed. We definitely be 4T.

Shakti Butler, the evil racist, can go screw herself.

Isn't she the one who preached to the Delaware State choir, about how only Caucasians can be racist? I think she already screwed herself, Sean.

It's funny... you'd never think a biracial person would think the way she does, if you didn't know people personally who did.

I had a friend back in Seattle who came from a background similar in many ways to Barack Obama's. She was so focused on proving to other people that she was "just as Black" as any full-blooded Nigerian, that she actually told me her Father SOLD OUT his race/culture by marrying her Irish-American Mother and fathering HER!!!

All I could about do was stifle a jaw-dropping WTF... and calmly explain "Well, I for one am happy that you were born, and that you're my friend and co-worker. I'm deeply sorry if YOU don't feel you should have ever existed".

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

I had a friend back in Seattle who came from a background similar in many ways to Barack Obama's. She was so focused on proving to other people that she was "just as Black" as any full-blooded Nigerian, that she actually told me her Father SOLD OUT his race/culture by marrying her Irish-American Mother and fathering HER!!!

All I could about do was stifle a jaw-dropping WTF... and calmly explain "Well, I for one am happy that you were born, and that you're my friend and co-worker. I'm deeply sorry if YOU don't feel you should have ever existed".

Ooh! How did she respond to that! Good one, Kev!

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

Isn't she the one who preached to the Delaware State choir, about how only Caucasians can be racist? I think she already screwed herself, Sean.

It's funny... you'd never think a biracial person would think the way she does, if you didn't know people personally who did.

1. That's the University of Delaware choir, which unfortunately is considered (and considers itself) the state's brain trust. Delaware State University is down the road in Dover, a HBCU whose president wants to make the school "the Harvard of Delaware", take the football team to Division I-A, etc. (Unfortunately the typical response from that community has been "We just want to be the Howard of Delaware.") UD and DSU will play each other for the first time ever in football on Friday, in the first round of the I-AA playoffs.

2. I don't know what it is with Shakti Butler, Samuel Betances, and the like, who think because their ancestors lived on different continents 1000 years ago that they're so much more insightful about race.

Originally Posted by The Wonkette

Ooh! How did she respond to that! Good one, Kev!

Probably by admitting that Roadbldr has all the smarts! Roadbldr, why the hell haven't you run for office. You're far more sensible and stuff than most of the trash that occupies political office these days.

Originally Posted by The Wonkette

Ooh! How did she respond to that! Good one, Kev!

Yeah, well, I wasn't exactly giving myself high-fives over it. She pretty much blew away any chance of me ever asking her out on a date, by that one remark. At any rate, she was pretty speechless... she knew I was right... but at least she didn't shoot the Messenger.

Originally Posted by sean '90

Probably by admitting that Roadbldr has all the smarts! Roadbldr, why the hell haven't you run for office. You're far more sensible and stuff than most of the trash that occupies political office these days.

Um... because politics is a dirty business for dirty people???

Besides, why do you say that I have all the smarts? Look around you, kid... you're surrounded by smart people.

Originally Posted by Earl and Mooch

I don't know what it is with Shakti Butler, Samuel Betances, and the like, who think because their ancestors lived on different continents 1000 years ago that they're so much more insightful about race.

No, you misunderstand... that's not it at all. It's that such people are alot like my friend... ashamed of their mixed ancestry... desperately trying to prove to themselves, and to the world, how totally Black they are.

No matter. They'll eventually realize that the people they are trying so damn hard to please (Black racialists, and multiculturalist liberals) don't give a shit about them, other than for helping to advance their postseasonal, neosegregationist agenda. It would result in less grief for everyone if the Shaktis of the world figured that out sooner, than later.

Originally Posted by Earl and Mooch

1. That's the University of Delaware choir, which unfortunately is considered (and considers itself) the state's brain trust. Delaware State University is down the road in Dover, a HBCU whose president wants to make the school "the Harvard of Delaware", take the football team to Division I-A, etc. (Unfortunately the typical response from that community has been "We just want to be the Howard of Delaware.") UD and DSU will play each other for the first time ever in football on Friday, in the first round of the I-AA playoffs.

2. I don't know what it is with Shakti Butler, Samuel Betances, and the like, who think because their ancestors lived on different continents 1000 years ago that they're so much more insightful about race.

Shouldn't the "Harvard of Delaware" have a Division I-AA team, just like the "Harvard of Massachusetts" does?

Originally Posted by Earl and Mooch

Delaware State University is down the road in Dover, a HBCU whose president wants to make the school "the Harvard of Delaware", take the football team to Division I-A, etc. (Unfortunately the typical response from that community has been "We just want to be the Howard of Delaware.")

That would still be a step up.

UD and DSU will play each other for the first time ever in football on Friday, in the first round of the I-AA playoffs.

Really!

Go DSU!dfmijresiune8uj

Originally Posted by Seminomad

Shouldn't the "Harvard of Delaware" have a Division I-AA team, just like the "Harvard of Massachusetts" does?

Is Ivy I-AA? I thought they were I-A. I think Dr. Sessoms's point is that the school shouldn't feel constrained to be second fiddle to the University of Delaware, or merely the state's HBCU (playing right now in the MEAC, which is a I-AA HBCU conference.) That means onward and upward, etc.

Originally Posted by Earl and Mooch

Is Ivy I-AA? I thought they were I-A. I think Dr. Sessoms's point is that the school shouldn't feel constrained to be second fiddle to the University of Delaware, or merely the state's HBCU (playing right now in the MEAC, which is a I-AA HBCU conference.) That means onward and upward, etc.

The Ivy League is I-AA. Off the top of my head, I can think of only two schools in New England that play 1-A football, or 1-A any sport. Boston College is in the ACC. Connecticut is in the Big East. Boston has some national power colleges in more obscure sports such as hockey and rowing. A while ago MIT had the number 1 and number 2 world ranked tiddlywinks teams in the world. (I was wandering the corridors once a few years ago, and stumbled into a world class tiddlywinks game. Intense. Absurd.)

New Englanders can get into pro sports. We'll follow the Sox, Celtics, Bruins or Patriots intensely enough. Somehow, though, we have this quaint idea that colleges are supposed to be for learning.

I don't know that a college should be held back to be a lesser entity than some other college, but building up the football program doesn't appeal, somehow.

This day the radio stations in Duluth and St. Paul are full of ire and anguish after a very foolish Anglo-spheroid schoolmarm called forth majoritarianism in the hands of her Nilotic charges to choose a name for a Rooseveltian Ursine figure.

The citizens upon the shores of the Blue and White Niles, perhaps unfamiliar with democracy, majoritarianism, the Ursine species, the Rooseveltian tradition, UK educationalism, etc., etc. were distressed when King Numbers decreed that the stuffed figure should be named for the Prophet.

Now the North Star State is distressed that the Khartoumians are distressed. We be 3T here north of the Mesabi and below that slightly towering range. Do you think the Upper Nile is 3T as well???

Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

This day the radio stations in Duluth and St. Paul are full of ire and anguish after a very foolish Anglo-spheroid schoolmarm called forth majoritarianism in the hands of her Nilotic charges to choose a name for a Rooseveltian Ursine figure.

The citizens upon the shores of the Blue and White Niles, perhaps unfamiliar with democracy, majoritarianism, the Ursine species, the Rooseveltian tradition, UK educationalism, etc., etc. were distressed when King Numbers decreed that the stuffed figure should be named for the Prophet.

Now the North Star State is distressed that the Khartoumians are distressed. We be 3T here north of the Mesabi and below that slightly towering range. Do you think the Upper Nile is 3T as well???

Translation: A teacher had her students vote on a name for their teddy bear, and they voted to name him (it?) Mohammed.

That the United States chose to cover this has an air of Silent political correctness that points to a 3T.

Originally Posted by James E. F. Landau

Translation: A teacher had her students vote on a name for their teddy bear, and they voted to name him (it?) Mohammed.

That the United States chose to cover this has an air of Silent political correctness that points to a 3T.

The TV news here in liberal Portland didn't cast the Sudanese in a kindly light over the Teddy Bear debacle. I can't believe they actually do in Minnesota either... I mean, everyone knows how the serial raping-and-murdering Arab Muslim Sudanese treat their fellow countrymen who aren't Arab or Muslim. In fact, it's GWB's Republicans who seem most inclined to look the other way at these scumbags ("We are NOT at war with Islam... we RESPECT your faith!!!). The hell we aren't... and the hell we do.

Fuck Islam. I'm practically ready to go out and my a Teddy myself, dress him in a t-shirt that reads "Hi, my name is Mohammed!!!", and post it to every Muslim website I can get my hands on. And dare the sons-of-bitches to come over here and get me.

P.S. My apologies to Craig Cheslog for my 1% profanity ;-)

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

Isn't she the one who preached to the Delaware State choir, about how only Caucasians can be racist? I think she already screwed herself, Sean.

It's funny... you'd never think a biracial person would think the way she does, if you didn't know people personally who did.

I had a friend back in Seattle who came from a background similar in many ways to Barack Obama's. She was so focused on proving to other people that she was "just as Black" as any full-blooded Nigerian, that she actually told me her Father SOLD OUT his race/culture by marrying her Irish-American Mother and fathering HER!!!

All I could about do was stifle a jaw-dropping WTF... and calmly explain "Well, I for one am happy that you were born, and that you're my friend and co-worker. I'm deeply sorry if YOU don't feel you should have ever existed".

Being the son of a Yankee Wasp and the child of Ukrainian orthodox Jews, I think that is very, very sad.

We are all products of the ups and downs of history--and all incredibly lucky to have been born. (It was a 1/several hundred thousand chance that that particular sperm would make it. . ) We have to accept our history to accept ourselves and each other.

I'll go one better--there's a lot of handwringing about slavery today by America's blacks--but without it, 90% of them, at least, would never have been born. Would they really prefer that? I'm glad the United States came to exist--it sure is hell is the only way I would ever have been born.

Originally Posted by Mr. Reed

This is a sure sign that "we are entering a different era." In fact, it surprises me that many Blacks don't view themselves as a single race. Ironically (as predicted by S&H) the most important racial issue may be the class/values divide within Black America.

Redefining What It Means to Be Black in America

by Juan Williams

One of the most damaging forces tearing at young black people in America today is the popular culture's pernicious image of what an "authentic" black person is supposed to look like and how that person is supposed to act.

For example, VH-1's highly rated Flavor of Love show features a black man in a clownish hat, a big clock hanging around his neck, spewing the N-word while demeaning black women. And hip-hop music videos celebrate the "Thug Life" and "gansta" attitude for any young black person seeking strong racial identity.

But a critic who points out that this so-called culture is defeatist and damaging — because it leads to high drop-out rates, record black-on-black murder statistics and a record number of out-of-wedlock births — is dismissed as a prude and a censor. Anyone questioning lyrics that glorify violence and make it cool to treat women as sex toys is told that the words reflect the reality of black life, and that they are "acting white."

Well, today there is new fuel for the debate.

A poll released by the Pew Research Center, in association with NPR, finds that 67 percent of black men and 74 percent of black women think rap music is a bad influence on black America. In fact, 59 percent of black men and 63 percent of black women think the whole hip-hop industry — from the jailhouse fashion of pants hanging low, to indifference to work and school — is equally detrimental to black America.

White and Hispanic Americans agree, too. The Pew poll finds 64 percent of whites and 59 percent of Hispanics agree on the damaging impact of hip hop.
This Pew poll is a uniquely reliable measure of black opinion. Unlike most polls, it has a large sample of black people, in addition to whites and Hispanics. Most polls include such a small number of blacks and Hispanics that it is hard to draw reliable conclusions about racial issues. This poll is different and its findings are stunning.

Damaging Media Images

For example, young black people are the most upset (when compared to older blacks in the poll) about the way black Americans are portrayed on television and in the movies. Blacks under the age of 50 are much more likely to say media images of black people are worse today than they were 10 years ago.

And the proportion of young black people in the 18-29 age group who condemn the current media images of black people is 31 percent — higher than the 25 percent of blacks between the ages of 30-49, and the 17 percent of blacks in the 50-64 age group with similar disdain for black images in the media.

Similarly, when asked if the portrayal of black people on television and in the movies is harmful, it is young black people who most likely scream "Yes!" More than half (54 percent) of 18- to 29-year-old African Americans say black people are presented in a negative way in movies and TV shows. Fifty percent of black people ages 34-49 agree.

It is interesting to note that among black people 65 and older — who may have lived through times of rank racial images, from Amos 'n Andy-type minstrel shows to blaxploitation movies — the percentage concerned about current negative portrayals of black people drops to 18 percent.

Note that in every age group, the level of outrage about troubling images in movies and on TV is far less than the alarm over the corrosive impact of rap and hip-hop.

These revealing cultural findings are just part of a series of revelations about the reality of black opinion today.

Falling Concern over Immigration

Take the explosive subject of immigration. Last year, an anti-immigration group in Los Angeles, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, pulled together a group of black academics and activists to announce that most black Americans oppose guest-worker programs, want to close the U.S. border with Mexico and favor rounding up illegal immigrants. This got wide attention and was cited as Congress struggled with immigration reform earlier this year.

But the Pew poll finds that only 28 percent of African Americans say illegal immigration represents a "very big/big problem" in their community. There is a split on the question of whether blacks would have more job opportunities if there were fewer immigrants. The poll found 46 percent of black Americans disagree with that statement, while 44 percent agree.

When a poll asked a similar question in 1986, nearly three-quarters of black respondents said blacks would have more job opportunities if there were fewer immigrants. That would indicate that despite the higher profile of immigration today, black concern over the issue has actually dropped dramatically.

The level of concern over illegal immigration in black America is about the same as it is in white America (30 percent) and lower than it is among Hispanics (44 percent).

The big concerns for black Americans are lack of good jobs (58 percent); unwed mothers (50 percent); crime (49 percent); and drop-out rates (46 percent).

A Single Race?

Another revelatory finding in the Pew poll is that 37 percent of African Americans now agree that it is no longer appropriate to think of black people as a single race. A little more than half of the black people polled — 53 percent — agreed that it is right to view blacks as a single race. And the people most likely to say blacks are no longer a single race are young black people, ages 18-29.

Forty-four percent of those young black people say there is no one black race anymore, as compared to 35 percent of the 30- to 49-year-old black population, and 34 percent of the black people over age 65.

The split in the black race comes down to a matter of values, according to the poll. In response to the question, "Have the values of middle-class and poor blacks become more similar or more different?" 61 percent of black Americans said "more different." White Americans agreed, with 54 percent saying there is a growing values gap between the black middle class and the black poor; 45 percent of Hispanics agreed, too.

At the same time, 72 percent of whites, 54 percent of blacks, and 60 percent of Hispanics agree that in the last 10 years, "values held by black people and the values held by white people (have) become more similar."

Making It in America

This leads to what may be the most important finding in the poll: 53 percent of black Americans now agree that "blacks who can't get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition."

White America (71 percent) and Hispanic America (59 percent) agree that racism, while still a factor in American life, is not the principal force keeping poor black people in poverty. The more oppressive force, they seem to be saying, is a lack of strong families and the prevalence of values that do not emphasize education, hard work and perseverance.

It is important to note that this is not some Pollyannaish view that ignores the reality of racism. Sixty-eight percent of blacks say they deal with racial discrimination today in at least two of the categories of experience cited in the poll: such as applying for jobs, buying a house, renting an apartment, applying for college, shopping or dining out.

But even with that hard-edged view of how often they have to deal with discrimination, a majority of black people say that regardless of the race of an individual, a black person can make it in America.

That is a very different tune from the one the rap lyrics want you to believe — the one that says black people are all victims unless they are society's thugs, pimps and criminals.

It surprises you, Robert? Really? This article reflects mostly how I've felt for the past 30+ years, i.e. old enough to understand what was really happening. My guess is that even back in the Awakening, lots of people knew the truth. However it took an entire Turning of lone-wolf individualism, and a 4T Catalyst, for anyone to grow balls large enough to state it publically.

It's not across-the-board agreement, however. None of the "categories of experience" listed in the article above have been applied to me often enough for me to notice. I've never felt I had more of a problem buying a car or house, getting served at restaurants, buying a suit, or even finding a job than anyone else around me.

In fact, in only one area of my life do I regularly feel the effect of racism today: the presupposition of my politically-correct "identity"... that is to say, that I consider myself "all-black" (I do not), and that I can somehow relate to the dysfunctional mindset described in the article. I get elements of this from blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, biracial folks alike. Heck, last night at the beer fest, I even met a Native American who presumed I was "deep enough" to identify with his childhood... which it turned out was a dysfunctional, poverty-stricken life on a Montana reservation.

No matter. This experience alone serves to dim my view of human beings of all stripes.

Originally Posted by Virgil K. Saari

Now the North Star State is distressed that the Khartoumians are distressed. We be 3T here north of the Mesabi and below that slightly towering range. Do you think the Upper Nile is 3T as well???

Still 3T in Minnesota? Dang, wasn't the former hero of all heroes, the Minnesotan "We", greatly "distressed" at the "Rooseveltian tradition" of Nazi baiting deep into our last 4T?

Hey, 3T? 4T? What's the frickin' difference anyhow, save for some "inconvenient truth" or convenient political posturing?

Bah! A damn black plague upon the whole damn notion of "cycles in history." It's just another tool the demagogues, like ____________ , uses to fool the unthinking simple fools among us.

Originally Posted by KaiserD2

We are all products of the ups and downs of history--and all incredibly lucky to have been born. (It was a 1/several hundred thousand chance that that particular sperm would make it. . ) We have to accept our history to accept ourselves and each other.

I'll go one better--there's a lot of handwringing about slavery today by America's blacks--but without it, 90% of them, at least, would never have been born. Would they really prefer that? I'm glad the United States came to exist--it sure is hell is the only way I would ever have been born.

I had a similar discussion with a classmate of mine, who is very Black, in the aftermath of our wonderful 25-Year High School reunion... at which 135 of 200 mostly-successful alumni showed up... about how our Graduating Class of 1976, and even Arts High School itself, would never have existed if history, horrible as much of it was, hadn't happened the way it did. Regardless of whether one's ancestors were slaves or not, the time stream would have been totally different otherwise... think Edith Keeler's death in the classic Trek episode "City On The Edge Of Forever".

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

It surprises you, Robert? Really? This article reflects mostly how I've felt for the past 30+ years...

Good grief, Juan Williams is nearly the pariah within the mainstream left, black or white, as Clarence Thomas. He's off the reservation, folks, and thus hasn't a damn thing to say about anything "black" to anybody.

Sheesh. Now back to your regularly scheduled Clinton News Network, the "first black" network, programming...

Al Sharpton sharply criticized Senator Obama today as "not black enough" and never having been "down for the struggle" for African-American rights...

It's the money that talks, folks. And it's all green today. Wanna talk about some black carbon-offset credits, ya'll? Step right up, suckers!

Originally Posted by Roadbldr '59

<snip>

Fuck Islam. I'm practically ready to go out and my a Teddy myself, dress him in a t-shirt that reads "Hi, my name is Mohammed!!!", and post it to every Muslim website I can get my hands on. And dare the sons-of-bitches to come over here and get me.u

... Or how about a picture of a mushroom cloud over a map of Iran ? Last I heard, they like all things radioactive. As for the "Great Teddy Bear Controversy", I suppose a map of Sudan would suffice as well.

No matter. They'll eventually realize that the people they are trying so damn hard to please (Black racialists, and multiculturalist liberals) don't give a shit about them, other than for helping to advance their postseasonal, neosegregationist agenda. It would result in less grief for everyone if the Shaktis of the world figured that out sooner, than later.

Please add Marathon's executives to the list. I had to endure a whole month of looking at a stupid this is American Indian month poster. The hand wringing mush drove me nuts. And. you can't miss seeing the damn thing. It was something like 20 feet by 20 feet. Sheesh, GET OVER IT.

P.S. My apologies to Craig Cheslog for my 1% profanity ;-)

I thought it was 5%. May I have your extra 4% to add to my quota?

Science cafes are a growing phenomenon in the Western world. The general public is evidently showing interest in science and in research. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a rising celebrity astrophysicist. I hope it inspires more people to get into those fields.

A rising public interest in scientific, technological, factual, and otherwise rationalistic concepts and events tends to occur during Crisis periods.

The 1680 and 1690s were very good decades for science and for rational pursuits. Cotton Mather, Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, among others had a dominant position in cultural discourse.

In Massachusetts during the eve of the Revolution, one Tory official, surveying the post Tea Party unrest noticed that the public began "to think and to reason". Through the Revolutionary period, new public figures arose championing reason and science.

The Civil War caused a feverish boom in railroad production, and set the nation on the path to full industrialization.

During the 1930s, nearly every genre of fiction suffered. Science fiction, however, completely bucked the trend, experiencing its golden age. Non fiction books also became very popular, particularly ones about the public events. During the Crisis, new celebrity scientists arose, including Albert Einstein, the atomic supermen, and others.

Perhaps, we are seeing the beginnings of this happening again.

Science Cafés Tap Nation's Fascination With Research and Discoveries

On a recent Wednesday night the crowd spilled out the door at San Francisco’s Axis Café, where the draw wasn't a hot band or a talented bartender, but a lecture. On physics.
Toby Garfield, an oceanographer at San Francisco State University, was explaining the science of big ocean waves, like the giant Mavericks surf break about 25 miles away. As he showed slides of the ocean floor and explained that the coast is a system of energy dissipation, the crowd peppered him with questions. Why do waves come in sets? What are rogue waves? How is the United States harnessing the power of waves to make renewable energy?

Scenes like this are being repeated across the country at science cafes, where contemporary science -- a topic that Americans supposedly find dull -- is drawing substantial crowds month after month, even on topics as nerdy as gene sequencing and dark matter.

"It gets me exposed to more areas of science," said Jodie Kasmir, a health care communications specialist, during a break at the big-waves lecture. "Where else am I going to learn about things like sea urchins, or astronomy? How else am I going to find these scientists? Am I going to e-mail them, or go to their lab?"

These cafés seem to have hit a sweet spot in adult science education, offering access to cutting-edge discoveries and the scientists who make them, minus the notes and tests required in school (plus wine, coffee or beer flowing freely from the bar).

About 60 Science Caféshave cropped up across the United States. The first café was held in England in 1998, and the movement is spreading elsewhere in Europe, as well as South America and Australia. Most are held free of charge and are loosely affiliated through an international umbrella organization called Café Scientifique.

Café coordinators say that crowds come with minimal advertising and represent a wide demographic, from teenagers to thirty-somethings to retired folks.

Most get-togethers follow a friendly and informal format: Bring a local scientist to present a short lecture, and give the guests plenty of opportunities to ask questions, especially at the end.

"The idea is to get everyone engaged in the conversation and involved in the discourse to where they're not just asking questions but challenging the scientist and going off on tangents," said Ben Wiehe, who hosts a café at a bar called The Thirsty Scholar in Somerville, Mass.

The topics are as diverse as science itself. An upcoming café in Portland, Oregon, will advise how to survive a pandemic, while a past event in St. Louis explored the secret life of lichens, and another in Pittsburgh explained patterns in computational biology.

Many cafés are sponsored by educational institutions such as universities and museums. They're seizing on the opportunity to introduce their research and experts to a new audience.

Katey Ahmann, who organizes a café for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, said she had doubts whether anyone would show up when she dedicated an early café to new research on the 19th Century Irish potato blight. Thirty-five inquisitive people showed up. A year later, the museum is offering monthly cafés on Tuesday nights at an Irish bar that draw up to 120 people, and Ahmann often has to cut off a lively discussion for time.

"It provides something for adults to do that's fun, and they learn something, too," Ahmann said. "The idea of having adult programs that work is really exciting."

The science-café phenomenon is also giving new exposure to public-television shows focused on science, such as NOVA scienceNOW, produced by WGBH in Boston and Wired Science. Quest, created by KQED in San Francisco, supplied a clip from a show on big ocean waves to the audience at the Axis Café.

A video especially can attract the casual bar patron who came out for a Coors, not a classroom, said Wiehe, who is also an outreach coordinator for WGBH.

"I do a little introduction and the people who aren’t there for the café pay no attention," he said. Once the film is cued up, though, "Everyone's paying attention and laughing on cue. And then they're all involved."

Originally Posted by Mr. Reed

Science cafes are a growing phenomenon in the Western world. The general public is evidently showing interest in science and in research. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a rising celebrity astrophysicist. I hope it inspires more people to get into those fields.

A rising public interest in scientific, technological, factual, and otherwise rationalistic concepts and events tends to occur during Crisis periods.

The 1680 and 1690s were very good decades for science and for rational pursuits. Cotton Mather, Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, among others had a dominant position in cultural discourse.

In Massachusetts during the eve of the Revolution, one Tory official, surveying the post Tea Party unrest noticed that the public began "to think and to reason". Through the Revolutionary period, new public figures arose championing reason and science.

The Civil War caused a feverish boom in railroad production, and set the nation on the path to full industrialization.

During the 1930s, nearly every genre of fiction suffered. Science fiction, however, completely bucked the trend, experiencing its golden age. Non fiction books also became very popular, particularly ones about the public events. During the Crisis, new celebrity scientists arose, including Albert Einstein, the atomic supermen, and others.

Perhaps, we are seeing the beginnings of this happening again.

Science Cafés Tap Nation's Fascination With Research and Discoveries

On a recent Wednesday night the crowd spilled out the door at San Francisco’s Axis Café, where the draw wasn't a hot band or a talented bartender, but a lecture. On physics.
Toby Garfield, an oceanographer at San Francisco State University, was explaining the science of big ocean waves, like the giant Mavericks surf break about 25 miles away. As he showed slides of the ocean floor and explained that the coast is a system of energy dissipation, the crowd peppered him with questions. Why do waves come in sets? What are rogue waves? How is the United States harnessing the power of waves to make renewable energy?

Scenes like this are being repeated across the country at science cafes, where contemporary science -- a topic that Americans supposedly find dull -- is drawing substantial crowds month after month, even on topics as nerdy as gene sequencing and dark matter.

"It gets me exposed to more areas of science," said Jodie Kasmir, a health care communications specialist, during a break at the big-waves lecture. "Where else am I going to learn about things like sea urchins, or astronomy? How else am I going to find these scientists? Am I going to e-mail them, or go to their lab?"

These cafés seem to have hit a sweet spot in adult science education, offering access to cutting-edge discoveries and the scientists who make them, minus the notes and tests required in school (plus wine, coffee or beer flowing freely from the bar).

About 60 Science Caféshave cropped up across the United States. The first café was held in England in 1998, and the movement is spreading elsewhere in Europe, as well as South America and Australia. Most are held free of charge and are loosely affiliated through an international umbrella organization called Café Scientifique.

Café coordinators say that crowds come with minimal advertising and represent a wide demographic, from teenagers to thirty-somethings to retired folks.

Most get-togethers follow a friendly and informal format: Bring a local scientist to present a short lecture, and give the guests plenty of opportunities to ask questions, especially at the end.

"The idea is to get everyone engaged in the conversation and involved in the discourse to where they're not just asking questions but challenging the scientist and going off on tangents," said Ben Wiehe, who hosts a café at a bar called The Thirsty Scholar in Somerville, Mass.

The topics are as diverse as science itself. An upcoming café in Portland, Oregon, will advise how to survive a pandemic, while a past event in St. Louis explored the secret life of lichens, and another in Pittsburgh explained patterns in computational biology.

Many cafés are sponsored by educational institutions such as universities and museums. They're seizing on the opportunity to introduce their research and experts to a new audience.

Katey Ahmann, who organizes a café for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, said she had doubts whether anyone would show up when she dedicated an early café to new research on the 19th Century Irish potato blight. Thirty-five inquisitive people showed up. A year later, the museum is offering monthly cafés on Tuesday nights at an Irish bar that draw up to 120 people, and Ahmann often has to cut off a lively discussion for time.

"It provides something for adults to do that's fun, and they learn something, too," Ahmann said. "The idea of having adult programs that work is really exciting."

The science-café phenomenon is also giving new exposure to public-television shows focused on science, such as NOVA scienceNOW, produced by WGBH in Boston and Wired Science. Quest, created by KQED in San Francisco, supplied a clip from a show on big ocean waves to the audience at the Axis Café.

A video especially can attract the casual bar patron who came out for a Coors, not a classroom, said Wiehe, who is also an outreach coordinator for WGBH.

"I do a little introduction and the people who aren’t there for the café pay no attention," he said. Once the film is cued up, though, "Everyone's paying attention and laughing on cue. And then they're all involved."

I'm only four miles from one (Schlafly Brewery- not related to Phyllis). Thank you, Robert.

This post was a failure on the Obama thread, so I'll put it here, since it relates to where we are in the cycle.

If this is 1860--and it might be--then we can cast Barack as his fellow Illinoisian Lincoln, with Mitt Romney as (say) Stephen Douglas and Michael Bloomberg as John Bell. There is even a possibility that the Republican party might split, as the Dems did in 1860. Obama, however, at 47, is a bit younger than Honest Abe, at 51.

My problem is that I'm not sure that this is 1860. I'm afraid that it might be 1856, and Barack might instead be John Charles Fremont, born 1813 (and therefore four years younger than Barack is now.) The parallel would be enhanced if Barack has to run against an artist, John McCain/James Buchanan. And it would be even more enhanced if he lost.

(I just spent a few fruitless minutes trying to find people born either in 1796 or in 1800 to see which ones seemed more like myself, but I couldn't find any. Not very important data, anyway.)

Don't get me wrong--I'm as eager for the crisis as any of you, and probably more than some. I don't want four more years of going nowhere. But I was depressed after Saturday night's debates because no one wanted to say anything substantive if they could possibly avoid it. Nor is there any problem so desperately crying out for a solution that it will force all Washington to get its act together.

Barack is obviously very intelligent and charismatic. I like the things he has said on foreign policy--particularly about talking to enemies--very much. The Democrats are ready for him. I don't know whether the country is or not. We'll know a lot more tonight, but we won't know anything for sure until November.