Les Johnson

Dr. Eric Smith from UAH will speak on "Mob Zombies, Alien Nations and Cities of the Undead: Monstrous Subjects and the Post-Millennial Nomos in I am Legend and District 9"

Dr. Irena Buksa from UAH will speak on "Russie Yesterday and Today"

US National Security Policy and Nontraditional Threats -- guest speaker Dr. Kathy Hawk from the University of Alabama in Huntsville was our guest speaker.

The Ethics of Geoengineering -- Climate change is upon us.  What can we really do about it?  Robert Kennedy of Tetratech was our guest speaker in association with the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop.

China - Personal Observations of a Rising World Power -- Reflections from some Stammtisch members of their recent trip to China

Will America Crumble from Addictions?

Death and Dying in America - How Americans view death and dying. Why do we ignore the subject until it is too late?

Fermi, Civilization and Baby Boomers -- An eclectic evening of discussing The Fermi Paradox, what makes a civilized society "civilized," and the nature of the Baby Boomer Generation (are they really a selfish generation?).

Occupy Wall Street

Outliers -- The group discussed OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell. "The lives of outliers -- people whose achievements fall outside normal experience -- follow a peculiar and unexpected logic, and in uncovering that logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential."

Designer Drugs -- Biomedical expert Dan Carter presented an overview of albumin, the major protein of the circulatory system. An emphasis will be placed on his company’s work over the past several years in establishing its role in drug design (drug-binding/delivery at the atomic level) and how this work translated to new applications in cancer chemotherapy and a new class of anti-aging cosmeceuticals.

Don't Fail Me -- The group watched and then discussed the CNN documentary "Education in America: Don't Fail Me."

Things in Science That Don't Make Sense --  A discussion of Dark Matter, Dark Energy, The Pioneer Anomaly, The Expansion Rate of the Universe, The Changing Universal Constants, The Mars Viking Lander's Positive Test for Life on Mars, and the Wow! Signal received by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Demographic Winter -- a dramatic new documentary -- is the first to explore the most overlooked crisis of our times: the rapid, worldwide decline in birth rates.

The Emergent Church, with Guest Speaker Houston Hodges

Homeschooling in America: Why More and More Families are Opting Out of Public Education, with Guest Speaker Larry Bond

The History of the Conflict Between Science & Religion

Book Report Nights

Green Energy, with Guest Speaker Robert Kennedy

Understanding the Financial Crisis of 2008

Civil Liberties Issues in Alabama, with a Guest Speaker from the ACLU

The Obama Presidency

Heaven on Earth - The Rise, Fall and Possible Rebirth of Socialism

Health Care Reform

The Tea Party Movement, with Guest Speaker Christie Carden

Men's Brains, Women's Brains

Greenways

The Future of Food

Eyewitness Testimony, with Guest Speaker Jeffrey Neuschatz