When it comes to the government shutdown, let's not round up the usual suspects for a change

Vichy Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) instructing
the police to "round up the usual suspects" in "Casablanca."

Let's get one thing straight here, when it comes to the federal government shutdown, Congress is not the problem. This is what the drama-stoking machinery that masquerades as the popular news media would have you believe. It is also the anodyne, hand-wringing, why-can't-we-just-get-along explanation preferred by people who see national politics as nothing more than family dysfunction writ large.

The people who buy into this analysis, or at least parrot it mindlessly, imagine that putting pressure on Congress, let's say by withholding their pay, will knock some sense to these bickering clowns. As though our Senators and Representatives are quaking in their boots at the prospect of forgoing a paycheck or two or ten. Others imagine that, since Congress is the problem, then the solution is that tried and true - rather that should be trite and failed - demand to "throw the bums out." As though all members of Congress deserve equal treatment, since, of course being politicians, they are equally venal and self-serving.

Well, I've got news for this naive, lump-them-all-together crowd, and that is that the problem here is not Congress, as reassuring as that notion might be to you, the problem is that a majority of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives - and notably not a majority of members of the House itself - wants to roll back a important piece of legislation that is a critical first step in making healthcare accessible to all Americans. They despise this idea and will go to destructive lengths to make sure that this advance in our march toward social justice does not see the light of day.

It is this very same group of troglodytes - and not Congress - that opposes marriage equality. It is this very same group - and not Congress - that undermines even the smallest efforts to deal with climate change and preserve the integrity of the environment for our children and grandchildren. It is this very same group - and not Congress - who continue to conduct a dastardly war against women, in particular, against their right to exercise choices about their reproductive health options and about control of their own bodies.

So, for fuck's sake, quit blaming Congress in some abstract and ultimately ineffectual way and start blaming the backward-looking Tea Party cretins who are responsible for this mess. And, while you're at it, don't forget to blame Speaker John Boehner who, in a trice, could allow a clean continuing resolution to be voted on and likely passed by a majority composed of both Democrats and Republicans in the House.

City of Atlanta Proclamation Honoring Charles Darwin

Thanks to the support of members of the Atlanta Science Tavern and to endorsements from more than two hundred of science enthusiasts and professionals in the Atlanta area, including students, teachers, staff and faculty at high schools, colleges, universities and research institutions, District 6 City Councilman, Alex Wan, has issued the following proclamation, on behalf of the citizens of Atlanta, to

recognize Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection and commemorate the important contributions he has made towards the advancement of our understanding of the biological world and the improvement of the quality of life for humankind.

This is the first step in our efforts to have February 12 proclaimed "Darwin Day" in Atlanta by the full City Council in 2014. You can view and download the text of this year's proclamation here.

Finding a Home at ScienceOnline

At the end of this month I'll be making my way to Raleigh, North Carolina to attend a conference called ScienceOnline2013, the seventh annual installment of an event that brings together "scientists, students, educators, physicians, journalists, librarians, bloggers, programmers and others interested in the way the World Wide Web is changing the way science is communicated, taught and done." I must admit to being both intimidated and excited by the prospect of joining this illustrious group for the first time.

Although this isn't an enterprise that requires new clothes, I did wonder whether I might need to be equipped with a new title for the job. Once upon a time I considered myself a scientist, a physicist to be exact, but my efforts to put together a presentation on the recent Higgs boson discovery reminded me just how long ago that episode was in my career. Of course I am a blogger now - who isn't? - and I do blog about science, that is when I'm not blogging about movies and politics. I imagine myself being a science writer one of these days, but I'd feel more comfortable assuming that mantle once I had book under my belt. That's not going to happen anytime soon. Certainly not by January 30th.

So, echoing the confusion of an erstwhile vice-presidential candidate, I find myself asking the question, "who am I? And what am I doing here?" What is ScienceOnline about and why is it a fit for me?

Well, according to their website

ScienceOnline is a non-profit organization that facilitates conversations, community, and collaborations at the intersection of Science and the Web.

The intersection of Science and the Web? That's pretty much my home address.

You see, I am the Director of a group called the Atlanta Science Tavern, Atlanta's premier grassroots public science forum, organized on Meetup.com, with over 2,800 members. We produce or promote several science-related educational or cultural events each and every month and specialize in bringing research scientists and science writers to an audience of science enthusiasts who just can't get enough of the stuff, especially when food and drink are involved.

Our topics cover everything from The Manufacture of Glass in Ancient Egypt to Neutrino Astrophysics; from Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose to Global Climate Change Policy. Many of these talks have been captured as podcasts available free-of-charge from our iTunes library.

Founded in June of 2008 by my friends Carol Potter and Josh Gough, the Atlanta Science Tavern began life as a science cafe in the tradition of Cafe Scientifique. But their decision to use Meetup.com as an organizational tool rapidly transformed what were to be informal, small-group encounters with scientists over beer or coffee into large public science presentations over dinner at our home base, Manuel's Tavern, routinely drawing over 100 people on a Saturday night each month. This has been an entirely Internet-fueled phenomenon, with easy discovery on Meetup allowing us to mobilize a vast community of under-served science lovers.

In the last couple of years we have leveraged our Internet presence to promote events and activities hosted by other organizations and groups. This has led to a partnership with the Atlanta Botanical Garden, in which we help them to get the word out about their own summer science cafe series. Two years back we launched the very first Science Track at the Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country. It was a fortuitous result of our featuring Holly Tucker and her book Blood Work there in 2011 that finds me attending ScienceOnline2013, thanks to Holly's encouragement. Our collective Science Tavern gig as contributors to Holly's history-blogging website Wonders & Marvels has given us a new way to extend our reach to an even wider audience on the Web.

The sky, it appears, is hardly a limit when it comes to expanding our program. Our Mars Landing Party the night of August 5-6, 2012, which included a five-speaker symposium streamed live around the world, attracted over 300 guests to the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute, including people who traveled hundreds of miles from neighboring states, to witness the landing of the Curiosity rover. It also attracted the attention of The New York Times and CNN.com. Closer to Earth, we are currently organizing another big public event, the first annual Darwin Day Dinner here and are working to have February 12, 2013 proclaimed Darwin Day in the City of Atlanta. It's a challenge not quite on a par with Curiosity's "seven minutes of terror," but still fraught with some suspense as of this writing.

So all said, although I'm still not exactly sure of the title I should adopt for this new enterprise - "science impresario" would be my dream - I am convinced that I belong at ScienceOnline. If that's where the intersection of Science and the Web is, then I'm there! It feels a lot like I'm going home.


Finding a Home at ScienceOnline by Marc Merlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://thoughtsarise.blogspot.com/2013/01/finding-home-at-scienceonline.html .