Now this would be a cool bar...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/fashi ... yt&emc=rss

I'd go there.

Thanks for the link to that great story. I sent it to one of the organizers of the new Louisville Science Café and perhaps some of the ideas can be used here.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the new Louisville Science Cafe. The next meeting is Friday November 30, 2007 - 5:30 PM at Blue Mountain Coffee House.
http://www.cafescientifique.org/louisville.htm

(Quote from sciencecafes.org)
"Science cafés involve a lively conversation with a scientist about current science topics. They are open to everyone, and take place in casual settings like pubs and coffeehouses.

At a science café you can…
* learn about the latest issues in science
* chat with a scientist in plain language
* meet new friends
* speak your mind
* talk with your mouth full"

What to expect at a science café:
http://www.sciencecafes.org/what.html


Louisville Date:
Friday November 30th 5:30PM

Where : Blue Mountain Coffee House Wine & Tapas Bar

400 E. Main at Preston Street [Opposite Slugger Field and diagonally from Browning's Brewery]
Louisville, Kentucky

Contact: Nicholas Arno 582-3220

Title: Electronic Medical Records and Health Information Exchange: Who Do You Trust?

Speaker: Dr. Robert Esterhay, MD.

Bob will be speaking about efforts in Louisville to create the Louisville Health Information Exchange (LouHIE)

LouHIE aims to use technology to provide consumers and health care providers anytime, anywhere access to complete healthcare information

A brief YouTube video about LouHIE can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bzgue9x ... ouhie.org/

Too cool! I had no idea there was anything like that here in town. Now I'm excited!

The Louisville Science Cafe just started this past July. It is a wonderful forum with intelligent people that I would usually not meet otherwise. I have attended all of the meetings and found everyone to be very down to earth with good senses of humor.

I forgot to mention there is a good beer list (in bottles) and wine available at Blue Mountain Coffee House.
Nicholas is a wonderful host and has some good desserts, coffee drinks and teas.
There may be some still be some paninis and tapas as well.
(Phone 582-3320)

Leah Stewart's HotBytes February 2007 review of Blue Mountain Coffee House (near the end of the page):
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/?p=127

Some of the people who attend the Science Cafe walk over to Browning's afterward for a "consultation libation"

The Louisville Science Cafe just started this past July. It is a wonderful forum with intelligent people that I would usually not meet otherwise. I have attended all of the meetings and found everyone to be very down to earth with good senses of humor.

I forgot to mention there is a good beer list (in bottles) and wine available at Blue Mountain Coffee House.
Nicholas is a wonderful host and has some good desserts, coffee drinks and teas.
There may be some still be some paninis and tapas as well.
(Phone 582-3320)

Leah Stewart's HotBytes February 2007 review of Blue Mountain Coffee House (near the end of the page):
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/?p=127

Some of the people who attend the Science Cafe walk over to Browning's afterward for a "consultation libation"

If you're considering a list of subjects, may I suggest:

-Global warming (is it real?)
-The "carbon footprint" (how should we evaluate it?)
- Chicken brain function (besides the obvious potential human health impacts from unsanitary conditions, should we be concerned about how they're "treated" before they're butchered?)
- The science of any other environmental topic that is "feel good" on the surface

I'm not listing these as an invitation for discussion - just some items I'm interested in knowing the science behind.

Thanks, Jay

I will pass those topics on and/or you are welcome to attend the Science Cafe informal meeting a week from Friday.

I think the Science Cafe can do much better than Rep. Gooch in a Frankfort hearing.

(I don't know why the interim joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing last week when the legislature is not in session)

-------------------------------------

Excerpts from a Lexington-Herald story.

Legislators hear global warming disputed
By John Cheves - Lexington Herald-Leader
Posted on Thu, Nov. 15, 2007
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/231346.html

FRANKFORT --Global warming is a myth concocted by former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, Hollywood and the news media, Kentucky lawmakers were told yesterday.

The interim joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to dispute the idea that the Earth is warming, at least in part because of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere produced by industrial activity.

Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, a longtime ally of the coal industry, said he purposefully did not invite anyone who believes in global warming to testify.

"You can only hear that the sky is falling so many times," said Gooch, whose post makes him the House Democrats' chief environmental strategist. "We hear it every day from the news media, from the colleges, from Hollywood." (?)

Neither of Gooch's invited panelists was a scientist.

.........

Several committee members protested that it was unfair to hear only one side of the argument, so Gooch let two environmentalists in the audience talk about global warming -- and the need to address it -- for about five minutes each.

One of them, Andy McDonald, solar energy co-coordinator for Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest, complained that hastily plucking two people for brief rebuttals of a two-hour presentation wasn't fair or balanced.

"It really wasn't my intention to get into so much science today," Gooch replied.

Before the hearing, Gooch said he called the Heartland Institute once he decided to address global warming and asked for any skeptical experts it might send. Scientists weren't necessary, he said.

"Well, I mean, where are we going to get scientists?" Gooch asked. "We're limited here in Kentucky to what we can do. I don't know how we'd necessarily get scientists to come here."

..........

More of this article
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/231346.html

Who needs science when we have creationism?