Demographic breakdown of our survey sample

We have finally finished writing up the results for our survey on perceptions of appropriate behavior between students and advisors for the 2009 Women in Astronomy and Space Science Meeting.  It was quite an effort – 10 scenarios, 579 respondents and over 2000 comments have been merged into a poster (presented at the conference) and a four-page write-up for the conference proceedings.  All the details can be found at:

http://www.browndwarfs.org/wia2009

A short summary of our results:

1. Perceptions of appropriateness vary considerably in the astronomical community at all levels, even for situations that might be deemed “obvious”.
2. Perceptions of appropriateness vary with age and professional status, with younger astronomers and those at earlier stages in their careers (students, postdocs) typically viewing behaviors as more appropriate.  In particular, there were frequently differences in perceptions of appropriateness between students and advisors.
3. On average, scenarios were seen as more inappropriate for student/advisor pairs with different genders than pairs with the same genders. Given that female students are less likely to have a same-gender advisor than male students (see my last blog post on this), this trend may have a negative affect on young women’s student/advisor relationships.
4. Our survey attracted a small fraction (8%) of highly negative and fearful criticism, overwhelmingly from men.  There unfortunately appears to be continued resistance to open discussion of appropriate behaviors between students and advisors.

Comments are welcome!

Genders of advisors and their students in our survey. These numbers are based on the 2959 students that 252 respondents reported they had advised over the past 5 years. The students are separated by education level (high school through postdoctoral) and gender (green for female, yellow for male), while the bar graphs indicate the fraction of students in each subgroup advised by a male or female (total numbers of students in each subgroup are listed outside each bar). The fraction of female students advised by female advisors decreases with later educational levels, as low as 26% at the postdoctoral level. Male students, on the other hand, are advised by male advisors 65-74% of the time.

I’m currently completing the write-up for a study Jacqueline Faherty and I did for the Women in Astronomy 2009 conference this past October, looking at perceptions of inappropriate behavior between students and advisors in astronomy (see the next blog post).  We polled 579 students, researchers, teachers, staff and other astronomy affiliates as part of an online survey to examine how perceptions of behavior change according to gender, age, professional status, etc.  Our results (when we’re finished writing them up!) will eventually be posted here.

In the course of analyzing the mounds of biographical data we collected from our respondents, there was one thing I realized we could look at: who is advising our female students? One of the issues that continually comes up in addressing the disparity in gender representation in professional astronomy is the problem that female students are less likely to have a female advisor.  I realized that with our survey data we could actually measure this, as we explicitly asked respondents who indicated that they were advisors how many students they had advised over the past five years, and what the genders of those students are.  By matching these statistics with the gender of the respondents, we get a measure of the gender match between students and advisors in astronomy overall.

The Numbers

The figure above shows this breakdown, separated by educational level of the student (high school, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researcher), their gender, and the gender of their advisor.   These results confirm our underlying suspicion: female students are not advised by female advisors nearly as often as male students are advised by male advisors.  As one progresses through the academic stages, this disparity gets worse, from 44.4% at high school to 26.0% at the postdoctoral level.  In contrast, 65-74% of male students are advised by male advisors at these educational levels.  So female students are less likely to have a same-gender advisor than a male student, and as such are more likely to face cross-gender issues.  An example of a cross-gender issue we found in our survey was that many common “grey area” situations are viewed to be more inappropriate in cross-gender student/advisor relationships than in same-gender relationships.  With fewer female advisors, female students are more likely to experience, and possibly be negatively judged on, these situations than their male counterparts.

We need more women faculty

Why does this happen?  Because there are simply fewer female astronomy advisors in academia than males; or more precisely, fewer women in faculty or staff positions that can advise any students.  We see this clearly in our sample – while overall we had just over 50% male respondents, the percentages change when we break the numbers down by professional status, as shown in the figure below. Among students, 54.1% were female and 45.9% were male; among academic faculty, 37.1% were female and 62.9% were male.  These statistics are well-known, and a reflection of what many consider to be a “leaky pipeline” in astronomy.

Percentage of survey respondents broken down by gender (female in green, male in yellow, transgender/intergender/other in blue) and professional position. Total numbers of respondents in each professional category are listed along the bottom. Undergraduate and graduate students who responded to the survey were mostly female, while postdocs, staff and academic faculty members were mostly male.

Indeed, our respondent numbers are actually better than contemporaneous accounts of the representation of women in astronomy, which indicate roughly 20-25% of professional astronomers are women, as opposed to 37.1% here.  We also noticed that the fraction of females students responding to our survey was higher than the fraction of female students reported by their advisors in the first figure above: 43.8% female versus 56.2% male overall, dropping to 38.6% and 61.4% at the postdoctoral level.  This discrepancy indicates that our respondent sample is probably biased toward more equal parity than what actually exists in astronomy (perhaps not surprising given that this work was presented at a Women in Astronomy conference), and that the actual fraction of female students advised by female advisors may be even lower.

Other links:

A Survey of Perceptions of Appropriate Behavior Between Students and Advisors in Astronomy: http://www.browndwarfs.org/wia2009

Women in Astronomy 2009 conference page: http://wia2009.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Women in Astronomy Blog: http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/

AAS Committee on the Status of Women: http://www.aas.org/cswa/

She is an Astronomer: http://www.sheisanastronomer.org/

The FIRE spectrograph in the MIT lab, cooling down for testing

Today we obtained our first lab images with the Folded Port Infrared Echellette, or FIRE, spectrograph.  This instrument is being built by Rob Simcoe, myself, Paul Schechter, John Bochanski, Jason Fishner and Matt Smith at MIT; Criag McMurtry, Judy Pipher and Bill Forrest at U. Rochester; and Rebecca Bernstein and Bruce Bigelow at UC Santa Cruz.  FIRE is a near-infrared spectrograph that will be installed at the Magellan Telescopes, Las Campanas Observatory, hopefully in January 2010.

This week was the first time we had (nearly) all of the components inside the dewar, evacuated (to <10^-5 torr) and cooled (to 100 K) in order to test whether we could actually get light onto our engineering grade detector.  To our happy surprise, our first images detected the light of a flat field lamp and, after some fairly minor focus adjustments, we were able to get flat field and arc lamp light across the entire detector.  So much for the 2 months planned for optical alignment!

Flat field lamp exposure with the 0.4 arcsecond slit. This is a single read image as the lamps saturated the detector on the software's standard 10 sec correlated double-sampling exposure.

Flat field lamps exposed through the pinhole slit, showing what a typical source spectrum might look like. The dark regions are defects in the engineering grade detector; our final science detector will be much cleaner.

Argon arc lamp exposure through the 0.4 arcsecond slit, showing the lines scattered across the various orders.

Argon arc lamp exposure in the prism-dispersed mode, which is lower resolution but covers the same wavelength range at much higher throughput and has a wider (1 arcminute) slit. There is some vignetting due to the slightly offset position of the mirror folding lamp light into the instrument.

FAQ:

What is the FIRE spectrograph?

FIRE is a moderate resolution (λ/Δλ ≈ 6000, Δv = 50 km/s for the nominal 0.6 arcsecond slit width), cross-dispersed, near-infrared spectrograph, meaning that we get full 0.85-2.4 micron coverage in a single exposure.  Its design is a balance of sensitivity for faint targets and sufficient resolution to split telluric OH emission to measure quasar absorption lines and stellar radial velocities.  It will be installed at the Magellan Telescopes, with commissioning planned for January 2010.  You can read more about the science case for and design of FIRE at the FIRE webpage.

Why do the images look so rough?

The array we are using (a Hawaii 2RG from Teledyne) is an engineering grade array, and will eventually be swapped out for a better (and more expensive!) science grade array.  This array will be used as a slit-viewing camera for acquisition and guiding.

Why are these images so important?

Bringing the instrument to this stage has been a 3+ year venture, with many custom components – software and hardware – being built just for this instrument.  A lot of things had to go right just to get any images: the vessel containing the instrument (the dewar) had to be successfully evacuated and cooled (i.e., the plumbing had to work); the various mirrors, prisms and lenses had to line up after cooling by almost 200°C; the new detector, new control electronics and new software all had to work (the latter was a bit titchy but we’ll have better soon); and most importantly the design had to be right.  So we were frankly amazed that the pictures turned out at all!

What’s next?

Plenty!  We need to address some cooling issues (it took nearly 2 days to bring the detector down to 100 K), install the science grade detector, install the slit viewing camera, finish the control software, make sure all the motors are hooked up and communicating with the control software, put all the electronics together, install and test the final calibration unit, ship the whole thing down to Chile, install it on the telescope, test it on the sky and run the hell out of it to make sure it works, finish the reduction software….and then you can use it!

Wow, what a cool instrument! Can I get some swag with the FIRE logo on it?

Yes you can.

Felicia Day: don't fear the Andromeda!

Some time back I wrote a post on the reporting of astronomy and how it is frequently couched in violent or aggressive tones.  The brilliant folks at IRrelevant Astronomy have fired their own salvo at this trend (see how easy it is to make astronomy violent?) with a great mockumentary on the making of an education film: “When Galaxies Collide”. You tell them, Felicia!  Also starring Buffy Henshaw and Sean Astin (as an audiobook).

Here’s the video:

I miss you Eames chair

This year I made a move from my faculty position at MIT to one at UC San Diego.  While there were many wonderful and positive things I was leaving behind in the process (good friends, brilliant students, phenomenal staff and a supportive and scientifically engaging department), the one thing that my backside will miss the most is my Eames lounge chair. I purchased this design icon as a “thinking chair”, but it was a frequent hit with visitors, students and of course the other junior faculty.  Indeed, not long after I had made public my decision to head out to San Diego, I received emails like the following from my colleagues:

“If you are not taking it with you right away, can I keep your Eames Chair for “safeguarding” in my office? I promise to give it back whenever you either come back or take it with you..”

Unfortunately, this was not an item that could leave MIT, so it was clear that it had to be passed on to a deserving recipient.  But how to pick one person in a department of superstars?  Thus was born:

The Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair of Astrophysics

The Contest

For those who aren’t faculty-nerds, endowed chairs are sort of like “honorariums”, where you get a pot of money to support students, postdocs, research, etc., plus a fancy title that you can add to your curriculum vitae.   Well, I had the chair, why not endow it and pass it on to a deserving junior faculty person?

So began the contest, and here were the rules:

1. The Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics is only available for untenured, junior faculty  (Assistant or Associate Professor) affiliated with the astrophysics division and the MIT Kavli Institute.
2. The recipient of the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics is entitled to the installment of said chair in her/his office, and will be awarded a modest grant that may be used for any purpose, research or otherwise (this turned out to be $100).
3. The recipient of the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics is entitled to indicate this honorific in their publications and/or curriculum vitae (this was more of a dare than a requirement).
4. Should the recipient of the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics leave MIT or receive tenure while holding the chair, she/he must pass the chair on to another untenured junior faculty and provide an endowment double that originally received. The method by which to select the next recipient is at the discretion of the current chair holder.  The name associated with the chair may not be changed (got to keep my legacy in place after all!).

The four eligible applicants – Enectali Figueroa, Scott Hughes, Rob Simcoe & Josh Winn – had to submit one paragraph describing how they would use the chair to further their research career at MIT, with the submissions judged on the basis of originality, elements of humor, font choice, and degree to which they praised and/or made fun of me.

The Results

Remarkably, with only one week’s notice, I had 100% participation rate (ha, beat that Packard!).  Here were the contestants’ applications  (PDF format):

• Enectali Figueroa
• Scott Hughes
• Rob Simcoe
• Josh Winn

As you can see, the proposals were phenomenal: humorous, deeply introspective, refreshingly creative and (importantly) grammatically accurate – reflecting of course the high quality of the MIT astrophysics junior faculty.

The choice was, as you can expect, difficult.

Rob provided the best justification as to how the chair would further his research career, making a poignant and rather pathetic plea on the grounds that his current seating situation contributes to the “perception that astronomers surround themselves in squalor” (see photo included in his submission).  He hoped the chair would “lure unwitting students and collaborators into his office so that they can be enticed into working with him.”

Tali was the champion on originality, with an application written in a 19th century literary formalism, complete with profuse capitalization, abundant use of polysyllabic adjectives and the most beautiful signature I have ever seen.

Scott won hands down on humor, making a clear connection between the chair and his research specialty, gravitation, noting that the chair is the essential tool for preventing one’s natural trajectory in spacetime (i.e., falling).

Josh won on the “most pleasing to read” criterion, with a nicely laid out and clearly legible proposal pleasing to view both on printed page and computer screen, probably reflecting his experience working with copy editors at the Economist (Josh was the first to submit his application, almost immediately after the call for proposals, begging the question as to whether he had anticipated the competition).

The tie-breaker was how the proposer either praised or made fun of me, and all four applications made excellent efforts to this end:  Josh equating brown dwarf research to the “Holy Grail of observational astronomy” (without exaggeration of course); Rob discerning my plans for beach lounge chairs and a “desk constructed of surfboards” at UCSD (I do work in the SERF building after all); and Tali’s pointing out the “beloved Gluteus Maximus of the incomparable Professor Adam J. Burgasser”.

But Scott made the best linkage to the chair endower, managing to actually track down the number of my citations since I got the chair (subtly mocked my obsession with the h-index). More importantly he made a committment to include an acknowledgement to the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics in every paper he publishes while holding the chair (indeed, he already includes it on his home page).

So congratulations to Scott Hughes, the first recipient of the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair in Astrophysics!

Scott Hughes, the first recipient of the Adam J. Burgasser Endowed Chair of Astrophysics

My graduate student Jackie Faherty and I are running a survey about perceptions of appropriate behaviors between students and advisors in astronomy, as part of our contribution to the 2009 Women in Astronomy and Space Science Meeting.  We came up with 10 scenarios that one or both of us have experienced as advisors and/or students where the appropriateness of the situation or behavior could be ambiguous depending on your gender, age or professional status.  The survey runs through the end of October, so if you are an astronomer or interested in astronomy, and have dealt with advisor/student issues, please take our survey – it only takes 10 minutes!

The survey can be accessed at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QuGqrPrt3cxxiwVnvGBkSQ_3d_3d

Results will be posted at http://www.browndwarfs.org/wia2009 in November.

Anyone can be a pillow

My friend Nikki is going on a trip to Thailand next month (lucky!), and knowing my near-constant travelling (I’m currently averaging 17 mph for the year) she wanted some tips on how to prepare for long flights. There are several websites and blogs that discuss this, and even a book, but here’s my own personal tips for preparing for and surviving a long ride in the flying bus.

Preparing for the Trip

Make sure you have the best seat: Nearly all airlines allow you to choose your seat online, but how do you know your seat reclines or has a power plug or has a good view of the movie?  I’m a big fan of Seatguru.com, which shows seat maps for the planes of most airlines, based on reviews by flyers.  Also, should you be fortunate enough to get a window you might check out Openflights.org to see what will be out the window and what side to sit on.  Openflights also tracks your flights if you’re a crazy flyer like, ummm, me…

Bring it all on the plane or just bring a light travel bag: In my opinion there are two strategies to dealing with baggage on a long-distance flying.

Strategy 1: Carry on all your luggage.  This means packing light and making sure your one or two bags – be sure to check with your airline(s) how many! – will fit in the overhead and/or under the seat in front of you.  Bringing only carry-on makes check-in faster, reduces the chances that the airline will lose your bags, and can save money given that most airlines are now charging for check-in baggage.  However, it can also make going through security more of a hassle, limits what you can bring (no liquids and limited toiletries) and there is always a chance everyone else carried their luggage on and there isn’t enough space (this explains the mad rush when people are boarding the plane).

Strategy 2: Check in as much as possible and carry on only what you need.  You may be faced with extra fees, lost bags and time spent at the baggage carousel, but it will generally be a more relaxed experience getting on and off the plane.  Frankly, which strategy works best depends on the trip.  I tend to pack as light as possible and carry-on for domestic flights, but as soon as I have to check anything, I usually check it all.

Check in online and get to the airport early: Unless you are at a rock concert, waiting in line sucks, so if available use online check-in whenever possible.  Also, if you are trying to upgrade, priority tends to go with check-in time, so the earlier you check-in (usually 24 hours max) the better your chances for first-class.  I’m also a huge fan of very early arrival to the airport – 1 hour before domestic, 2 hours before interational – even if it means rising before the Sun.  It reduces stress, mitigates against problems, and most airports are equipped with wireless and ample diversions to make the extra hour or so pleasant.

Consider joining the airline’s frequent flyer program: If you are traveling a truly large distance (say to Thailand!) consider joining the airline’s frequent flyer program and making use of those miles for a future flight.  If you have several big trips coming up soon, you might even try a frequent flyer challenge – be awarded a high status right off after flying some set number of miles in a short period.  For example, if you fly 10,000 miles on American in 90 days, you immediately can get boosted right to platinum.  Airlines tend not to promote this, so call their customer service line to see if it’s a possibility and sign up (American and United have this program).

What to Bring on the Plane

Noise mitigation: Until the airlines start shelling out for sound-proofing (don’t hold your breath), your ears are going to be assaulted by 60-90 decibels (db) of jet engine noise inside the cabin for the entire trip, particularly if you are in the back of the bus.  Since OSHA forbids 90 db exposure for more than 8 hours on the job, you can imagine that your 10 hour flight is probably doing permanent damage.  So consider purchasing noise-cancelling headphones for the ride, which knocks down the white noise but still allows you to hear the flight attendants and your traveling partner (be sure to bring extra batteries too).  Of course, a good set of Bose headphones (my preference) can run you $300, so a cheaper and still excellent alternative is to just pick up a bunch of earplugs at the local drug store, which will also be useful if you stay in a hostel or noisy part of a city.  I actually use both on long plane flights, just to make sure my ears are safe and sound!

Sitting & sleeping comfort aids: I’m not sure what genius designed the modern airline seat, with its thin padding, narrow width, metal armrests and total lack of back support, but a long flight in one of these modern-day torture devices can knock out the first day or two of your trip in back, neck and joint pain.  Plus, unless you’re a GI Joe action figure, sleeping sitting up sucks.  So I recommend getting some comfort items to make sure your body arrives still malleable.  To support that 10 lb bowling ball we call “the head”, consider bringing an inflatable neck pillow (see this review), but be sure it’s one that you can tighten/tie together at the opening so your head stays supported (I’ve actually considered getting a cervical collar but those tend not to be made for comfort).  To support your back, there are plenty of travel back supports available for purchase, but my recommendation is to just roll up a sweatshirt, which you might need anyways if the plane gets cold. Finally, if you’re going to sleep, blocking out the lights and movie is very helpful.  So pick up a good eye mask, particularly the uber-comfy Temper-pedic or  NapForm eye masks (we call it an eye mattresses!) you can pick up a Relax the Back or Brookstone.  Incidentally, the best thing for a long sit is to make sure to get up once and awhile to stretch your joints, and also do regular seat exercises.  This will help prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis, a potentially fatal risk for long-haul flights.

Snacks: There was once a time you could get a nice healthy meal and some wine, especially on international flights; now airlines serve reheated cheese, bread and meat combinations (even in first class!) and don’t provide enough food for all passengers.  You can generally pick up something in the airport, but unless you’re on a fast food diet I suggest bringing along some healthy snacks for the trip.  While you can’t bring fresh fruits, vegetables or liquids past security, packaged goods, including dried fruits and nuts, are ok and sometimes even sandwiches (although it varies depending on where you’re going and your departure airport).  Also, if you’re not down with Lipton swill (American Airline’s special brew!), consider bringing your own stash of tea as well.

Plane activities: Sure there is the movie and the inflight magazine, but does 10 hours of airline-approved entertainment really sound that entertaining?  (actually, it can be if you’re on a foreign carrier)  Books are an obvious and good alternative, and a paperback that you’re willing to donate at the other end of your trip will keep your carry-on load light.  Another idea is an activity book like crossword puzzles or Sudoku – they’re much more compact than a laptop and much more stimulating that solitaire (which is hard to play on the tiny meal trays anyways).  If you really need that video fix, portable DVD players or mini-computers are much better for a compact space than a full laptop, but remember you’ll need to lug that thing around for your entire vacation.  If you’re more of an audiophile, consider downloading an audiobook or two from audible.com, or download some free language lesson podcasts for you destination country (see my post on French podcasts) – you’ll be surprised how much Farsi you can pick up in a few hours!

Change of clothes: Face it, you and your clothes will probably stink after sitting in one place for 10 hours, and there is nothing worse than getting to you destination to find out the airline’s misplaced your luggage with the rest of your clothes.  Carrying on a change of clothes is a good insurance policy against this.  In addition, it means you can wear clothes on the plane that are more suited for the long trip – loose and light shirt and slacks/sweatpants, sandals (but bring socks for the cold), and a sweatshirt are optimal; pajamas are just plain tacky.

Avoiding Jet Lag

This is a controversial topic, with many frequent flyers and physicians having all kinds of conflicting potions and notions on how to reset your circadian rhythm (here’s a nice list).  Frankly I feel if you fly enough jet lag just becomes a fact of life.  However, here are some tactics I’ve tried in order to avoid it:

Don’t eat on the plane: While that reheated soggy ham sandwich might seem appealing, there is evidence that fasting on the plane and then eating as soon as you arrive can reduce jet lag.  Fasting triggers a “starvation” body clock that can help reset your circadian cycle, and your first meal in your new destination will reset your clock to breakfast – so it’s helpful if you arrive in the morning.

Sleep as much as you can on the plane: While many people think it best to “pre-adjust” to the destination’s day-night cycle, I have found that just getting as much rest as possible on the plane is infinitely better – this is where the sleep aids come in handy.

Exercise and immediately get onto a normal sleep schedule at your destination: After a long flight, one’s first instinct is to get to the hotel and get some rest, but that will almost certainly throw off your circadian for a few days.  Instead, plan on some low-level activities that involve exercise, like a good walk or hike, or a bike ride around town.  Get to bed early in the evening and you should be adjusted by the first morning of your trip.

Enjoy your trip!!

The Amazon

Like most tourists, I recorded much of my recent trip to the Amazon by camera, capturing the beautiful scenery, fauna, and anything else that caught the eye.   Yet sight is only one of our senses, and in the jungle possibly our least useful.  It’s hard to see the frogs, toucans & howler monkeys behind the veil of vines and trees – but you sure can hear them (and occasionally smell them).  So I brought along a digital voice recorder and tried to capture some of the sounds of the experience.  The result is an organic tapestry of chirps, warbles and whistles that will more surely transport you to the jungle than any still image could. Enjoy!

Night jungles sounds from the Amazon (33m41s; 30.8 Mb)

By the way, this is an excellent sleep aid…

A couple of weeks ago I had the fortune of being down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a meeting of the International Astronomical Union.  In addition to the great science, scenery and sunshine, we had a few really spectacular meals.  Rio isn’t just churrascarias (just skip Porcão); there is a wide mix of styles and tastes to satisfy any palate.  Here is a perfect day of eating for anyone going to A Cidade Maravilhosa.

Breakfast @ Cafeína in Ipanema

One of my all-time my favorite things to do in life is breakfast cafe in Paris, and Cafeína is almost a perfect reproduction of that in Rio.  Located on the leafy Rua Farme de Amoedo just a few blocks in from the beach between Postos 8 and 9, Cafeína is one of several restaurants and cafes in a hip and lively section of Ipanema.  It sets itself apart by its excellent food, good service, and fun people watching from the sidewalk tables.  They serve traditional Parisian déjeuner (roll or croissant with butter and jam, cheese & meats, juice and coffee/tea/chocolate), as well as omelets, quiches, sandwiches & salads.  The also serve torts, cakes and pies, and have a nice selection of breads in the morning.  The croissants were particularly outstanding – so much so that they typically ran out by the afternoon – as was the chocolate quente (hot chocolate).  They also have a particularly potent “caffeine cake” that will would almost certainly raise the dead.

Lunch @ Aprazível in Santa Teresa

Sitting along a ridge running through the center of Rio, Santa Teresa is an artsy, eclectic area with a quiet view over the favelas and urban centers.  And nestled within is Aprazível, a restaurant precariously perched on the steep hillside facing southeast toward Pão de Açúcar.  Indeed, a few of the tables (like the gazebo shown at right) stand on shaded platforms of eucalyptus hanging off the cliff, giving the sensation of eating in a treehouse.  The ambiance alone ranks this restaurant as a “must go”, but the food also lives up to its setting.  As an appetizer, I recommend the Palmito Fresco Assado, palm heart that is left in the palm!  Follow that up with a Cordeiro Sagrado – sacred lamb.   Be sure to leave room for a sobremesa; the Banana Santa Teresa is the perfect facilitator for food coma.  Pass on the “famous” cashew caipirinhas; I had to follow that drink with three traditional caipirinhas to get rid of the bad taste.  Note that getting to Aprazível can be an adventure in itself; out of five taxi rides, only one managed to get there without asking directions, and the steep hairpin turns can either be a thrill or cause for indigestion (there is a tram that services the area).  Before heading down, be sure to take a post-meal stroll through the neighborhood to see the saguis (little monkeys).

Dinner @ Le Blé Noir in Copacabana:

OK, maybe I have a French bias, but who thought one could find some of the best crepes – in or out of France – in Copacabana at Le Blé Noir.  Blé noir translates into “black wheat”, a low-gluten buckwheat (also called sarrasin) that is used extensively in the northwestern Bretagne region of France.  It is no surprise then that the candlelit, intimate interior is done up in full Brittany decor, and they even serve a good fermented cider.  The selection of savory crepes (Breton galettes) was quite extensive – up to 80 varieties – laid out in the menu in a grid of cheese choice versus everything else (guess what’s most important?).  There were several unusual combinations to try, with ingredients such as duck, scallops, Parisian mushrooms, and palm hearts (yum).  Each galette was ringed with salad greens, a nice balance to the rich cheeses and meats.  Four of us shared five galettes family-style to maximize our taste experience, which left us with barely enough room for a dessert crepe of chocolate and toasted almonds (we finished it anyways).  Bom apetite!

For more information:

Cafeína: Rua Farme de Amoedo 43 – Ipanama; Phone.: (21) 2521-2194; http://www.cafeina.biz

Aprazível: Rua Aprazível 62,  Santa Teresa;  Phone: (21) 2508-9174; http://www.aprazivel.com.br

Le Blé Noir:  Rua Xavier da Silveira 19,  Loja A; Phone: (21) 2267-6969

The director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as he was arrested outside his home on July 16th for disorderly conduct.

You would have to be living in a deep, dark hole in Cambridge to not have heard about the recent arrest – subsequently dismissed – of Harvard University Fletcher Professor of African and American Studies, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. outside his home on July 16th.  For the past week it has been the talk of the nation; civil rights experts, church leaders, police chiefs, mayors, governors, news commentators, bloggers and people of all walks of life have been chiming in their opinons (so why not Physics professors?). Even President Obama threw in his two cents during this past Wednesday’s press briefing, commenting that the Cambridge officers “acted stupidly” when they handcuffed Prof. Gates outside his own home (Obama has already received considerable backlash from his statements).  Prof. Gates’s arrest appears to have sparked a national dialogue on issues of racial profiling, the limits of police authority and the rights of citizens of all backgrounds.

When I first heard about Prof. Gates’s arrest, the story sounded like a clear-cut case of racial discrimination: a white woman (Lucia Whalen) contacts Cambridge police to report “two black males with backpacks…[one] wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry” at Prof. Gates’s Ward St. home (this from the Cambridge police incident report).  (NOTE: a recent report indicates that Ms. Whelan did not specify the race of the “intruders”) The responding officer, the now (in)famous Sgt. James Crowley, a white man, arrived and asked Prof. Gates to step outside and provide identification.  When Prof. Gates protested his treatment outside his home, Sgt. Crowley arrested him for disorderly conduct.  Catch that?  White officer arrests an esteemed black professor outside his own house for yelling.  Sounds like racial profiling, right?  (Al Sharpton thinks so)

The devil is in the details.  The official police report (filed by both Sgt. Crowley and Officer Carlos Figueroa, a hispanic man) claims that Prof. Gates refused to show state identification, presumably necessary to prove residence; cites racist accusations (“accused me of being a racist police officer”) and threats (“You don’t know who you’re messing with”) from Prof. Gates; and reports that the arrest was made after two warnings were given.  On the other hand, Prof. Gates (as quoted in the The Root) counters that he showed both Harvard and Massachusetts state IDs to Sgt. Crowley, never yelled because he “was suffering from a bronchial infection” and states “I don’t walk around calling white people racist.” He also claims to have been immediately arrested upon walking onto his porch without any warning.

These two descriptions paint very different pictures of the episode, and of course there are really three sides to the story: Sgt. Crowley’s report, Prof. Gates’s recollection, and some mixture that is probably the truth.

But let’s consider these perspectives.  If Prof. Gates’s version is correct, then there is no doubt that Sgt. Crowley – and indeed the cadre of Cambridge officers that responded that day (including a black officer seen in the photo above) -  “acted stupidly” and deserve the condemnation that is being widely disseminated by the national media.

On the other hand, if Sgt. Crowley’s report is accurate, that he responded at the request of a concerned (white) citizen and arrested Prof. Gates after being taunted with threats and only after clear warnings, then do we conclude that the whole episode is a grossly overblown misunderstanding?  (That seemed to be the conclusion from an initial joint statement by the Cambridge police and Prof. Gates, now moot.)

Even if we could ascertain the true course of events, these “black and white” interpretations (pun intended, of course) are still insufficient.  Prof. Gates clearly felt threatened by the unexpected presence of a white officer at his home (“All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger.”), an instinct that arose from a lifetime of racial prejudice and discrimination.  Prof. Gates’s refusal to follow orders and verbal rebuffs in view of the public (if this in fact occurred) would certainly annoy an authority figure like Sgt. Crowley (“I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me”), perhaps leading to his decision to place Prof. Gates under arrest and his subsequent refusal to apologize for the incident.  Without being able to read the minds of these men at the time of the arrest – which many pundits believe they are capable of – we cannot begin to understand their motivations or behaviors on July 17th, much less the actual turn of events.

These complexities stand in the face of the many reports and op-eds that generalize this incident as “the sort of episode that has come up over and over again” (Randall Kennedy, Klein Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, in a July 21st NPR piece).   I personally have difficulty comparing this incident with more egregious episodes of racial profiling.  Then again, to the best of my knowledge, I have never experienced negative racial profiling (I get plenty of positive racial profiling – it’s how I get into the pools at the Wailea Four Seasons for free).  By generalizing this incident as a “typical” case of racial profiling, it becomes easier to place it in the context of the larger issues of racial discrimination that linger in our country.  However, generalizing also obsfucates the complexities of race relations, and in particular the many subtle (and not-so-subtle) fears, expectations and projections many Americans internalize in our largely racially segregated society.

I did some of my own self-reflection while reading coverage of the Gates incident that revealed subtle racial biases and white-centric perspectives in my own thinking.  Take for example a quote from Paul Butler, associate dean and professor of law at George Washington University, in the New York Times Opinon piece on the Gates case:

“Professor Gates might not have been arrested if he’d been more submissive — let the cop win the masculinity contest.” 

My reaction (as a white man) is: Heck yeah, one should always defer to the police!  C’mon -  they’re big, they have guns, they can call up other big friends on their CBs – and they can arrest you.  However, I do not have the instinct (as a white man) that cops would exhibit any (negative) racist behavior toward me.  Prof. Gates, on the other hand, had a different reaction -  “I was in danger” – prompting his defensive behavior toward Sgt. Crowley.  It is well-known that fear is a common instinct among minorities in their interactions with police, the consequence of racism spanning generations.   Not sharing this instinct means that I have a subtle racial bias in interpretting the Gates story.

The Gates incident presents an opportunity to have the kind of race dialogues that the election of President Obama should have facilitated but never really happened.  Because the details of the incident are murky, we fill in the holes  with our beliefs – and prejudices.  I encourage you to discuss your interpretation of the Gates incident with friends and family – or the guy sitting next to you at the bar – and see where your prejudices really lie.  In this manner we may truly achieve a “post-racial” America.