The salon as "local TED talks"

Mes amis,

the literary salon is a forum for witty and interesting discussions about topics of the day. It began in Italy in the 16th Century but became very popular in France in the 17th and 18th Century.

Here's a little history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_%28gathering%29

We've revived the salon concept here in Santa Barbara and have now held six monthly meetings at various homes around town.

It's been a raging success so far and we're starting to spread the word and provide some resources for others contemplating starting their own local salons.

Here are some pictures from our latest salon, yesterday, hosted by Christine Tipper at here beautiful Mesa chateau.

Here was the line up from our salon yesterday:

Our first talk will be given by Scott Overstreet on "Regulating Internet Porn – Protecting our personal freedoms or protecting our children?" The House Judiciary Committee recently passed a bill to protect children from Internet pornographers. The same bill lays the groundwork for all Internet traffic to be easily monitored by government officials. The bill titled HR 1981 has some nicknaming it HR 1984. Starting with a true story from 1984 (the year, not the book) we’ll trace pornography access over the past 25 years and how the Internet, with all its benefits in terms of information access and increased connection, may come at a great price with or without the passing of this bill.

Scott has a degree in Law and Society with an Emphasis in Criminal Justice. He has 15 years experience in various technology sectors (software, network, security) with the last 11 years in sales and consulting.

Our second talk will be from Celia Alario and Heather Hurwitz on "A Message from Pandora: Brazil’s controversial Belo Monte monster dam." The movie Avatar was not only a box office sensation, but a provocative mirror to issues of development, the environment, and indigenous people here on Earth. Celia and Heather will discuss the parallels between Pandora (the moon-planet in Avatar) and our very own Earth. They will introduce a debate around Brazil's Belo Monte Dam, a dam projected to be the third-largest in the world and one of the Amazon's most controversial development projects.

Celia Alario is visiting faculty at the Bren School at UCSB and is a former consultant for AmazonWatch.org. She is also a producer, public relations and media strategist, and has worked on projects as diverse as the Rainforest Action Network, MoveOn.org, Michael Moore’s Emmy-nominated television show, "The Awful Truth," and much more. Heather is a Ph.D student in sociology at UCSB.