Nerd Nite Philly

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

You nerdy kids know that the Philadelphia Science Festival is right around the corner, but did you know about this trio of events that your nerdy co-bosses have worked so hard to organize? Check them out and tell all your friends!

We have the following scholarly offerings:

 Nerd Nite: Crime Science Investigation

Our second Nerd Nite of the month, Wednesday, April 24 at 7:30PM, brings you some Prohibition Era jazz by the local Cornbread Five to prepare you for a night looking into the world of forensics. Every shred of evidence tells a story, and the evening will be chock full of info on how those stories are put together to make a case. Our presenters include Penn Museum skull specialist Janet Monge, Toxicology expert Jill Yeakel, and Vidocq Society member Bill Fleisher. Also, we’ll have live music from renowned crime scene investigators LL Cool J and Ice-T. Just kidding. So come out to Frankford Hall, put on your windbreaker, grab a bunch of little sandwich bags for evidence, and learn how to really figure out who stole the cookie from the cookie jar.

Hallucinogenic Health: What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been…

Join Nerd Nite’s very own Matt Young on Sunday, April 21 at 4:00PM for a trip into the past of psychedelic research in America, learn how labs across the world are reviving that research, and explore the field’s prospects for future development. Stop by Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Avenue, but don’t drink too many of the German beers, because there’s much more Festival fun to come.

On Tuesday April 23, at 6:30PM at the Iron Gate Theater, 3700 Chestnut Street, Former National Science Foundation Director (and incoming Carnegie Mellon U Prez for all you old Tartans) Subra Suresh will join leading faculty from the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University to talk about some of their greatest hits in the lab. These are the rockstars of nerdy research university world, folks. We have Penn Medicine’s Garrett Fitzgerald,  Drexel Engineer and co-Director of the ExCITe Center Adam Fontecchio, Penn Engineering postdoctoral fellow Jordan Miller, and Penn Vet professor Chris Hunter. And a few more possibly waiting in the shadows.

Tickets for this event are $12 ($10 for educators) but proceeds go toward putting on this bang up show at the historic Iron Gate Theater.

NERDS!

Spring is nearly here!  We are going to get you guys revved up with some talk about seeds!  And toilets?!  Yes!  And secret assassin societies!  And some great tunes!  Hooray spring!

THE DETAILS:

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

doors at 6:30, show at 7:30
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard
$5 cover

wherein you will hear the following:

“Seeds, Seed Exchanges and Solifuges” by Aimee Hill

What do solifuges and free, fancy and available “heirloom/organic” seeds that grow well in Philly have in common? Wait, what’s a solifuge? What’s a seed? As inhabitants of a post-industrial city, what do we have to do with maintaining and developing an ever-changing, resilient and delicious and living bank of edible plants? (mmm, edible plant bank) Learn the answers to all these questions and more…Got a problem? Seeds can fix that.

Bio: Aimee helps maintain the Philly Seed Exchange and is a Farmer and Teacher with a fascination for all things regarding bacterial domination of the world. She has recently moved from Philly to NJ (embarrassing, I know) for farm reasons, but returns to Philly often for seeds, gardens, and the City itself.

“Hold that flush! Towards sustainable equity when doing our business” by Christiaan (yes two aas) Morssink

A lighthearted yet demanding discourse on the wickedness of using tapwater for toilets, the absolute abhorrent global inequities in terms of access to facilities and the need for nerds worldwide to apply their nerdiness towards solutions that are sustainable, improve health and quality of life, while underscoring the dignity of each and all. In other words, bs-ing about excrement.

Bio: Christiaan is a public health policy professional, exe dir of the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia, president of the Project for Nuclear Awareness, founding member of the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative as well as the Global Philadelphia Association. His interests are social determinants of health, and the amelioration of the lives of the poor while they buckle under the onslaught of the world’s feral capitalism. His interest in water is due to his Dutch origin and the realization that all breweries everywhere need clean water.

“Assassins, Creeds, and Crusaders (for reals)” by Paul Cobb

Is a secret society of sexy time-traveling murderers-for-hire too good to be true? Sadly, yes. But the reality is pretty nifty anyway. Thanks to various popular media, in particular the wildly successful video-game series ASSASSIN’S CREED, many people (or at least males between the age of 12 and 25) have heard of the medieval Order of Assassins. In this talk, I will take you behind all these fictions to the real, historical sect that inspired them, a medieval Muslim community that beat all the odds of history and is flourishing–quite peacefully–today.

Dear Nerds,

This month we are bringing you a smorgasbord of Nerdery starting with cheese, moving onto pain (sorry!) and then finishing up with hip hop.  With jazz in between.  Details:

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

doors at 6:30, show at 7:30
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard
$5 cover

What’s up:

Guys:  Philly Nerd Nite is turning 21 in February!   We are celebrating with three nerdacious talks and one phenomenal juggler.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

doors at 6:30, show at 7:30
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard
$5 cover

For our twenty-first Nerd Nite, and the first one of 2013, we present for you:

“What’s Love Got to Do With It? – An inside look at avian amore!” by Carrie Ashley

Did you ever wonder how a penguin proposes or why a cowbird prefers to hit it and quit it? If so, you may want to get a hobby, but we also have the answers for you! Come explore the flamboyant, deadly, and neurotic world of bird love.

Bio: Carrie Ashley, Education Manager for PA Audubon, has spent her adult life contemplating the birds and the bees and decided to cut her losses and just focus on the birds.  PA Audubon’s mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity in Pennsylvania.

“NextGen: Humans, Automation, and the Future of Air Traffic Control” by Kenneth Allendorfer

Advances in information, communication, and navigation technology are driving major changes to the air transportation system in the US and around the world.  These changes are intended to improve safety and efficiency, to reduce delays caused by bad weather and congestion, and to reduce the impact of aviation on the environment.  The talk will discuss research examining at how these changes affect the humans in the system–the pilots and air traffic controllers–and how to create technological systems that improve rather than interfere with their performance.

Bio: Kenneth Allendoerfer is an engineering research psychologist with the Federal Aviation Administration, located at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City.  He studies air traffic control, expertise and decision making, human error, and the design of technology for safety-critical domains.

“Dispatches from the Planet Enz” by Chris Cummins

In this talk, pop culture writer Chris Cummins will take you inside the weird and wonderful world of movie novelizations. From discussing the strange extraterrestrial origins of Gremlins featured in that film’s tie-in book to presenting readings from a few of the craziest film spin-off books, Cummins will open up your eyes to the bizarre literary offshoots of some of your favorite movies.

Bio: Chris Cummins is a Philadelphia-based writer who regularly contributes to Geekadelphia and Topless Robot. He also runs the blogs Hibernation Sickness, What’s Dave Kendall Wearing? and Songs of 1992, and co-hosts a monthly quizzo night at The Dive. When not writing about pop culture, he can usually be found obsessing over everything from Star Wars figures to forgotten shoegaze bands.  You can follow him on Twitter at @bionicbigfoot.

And: Juggling by David Darwin!

Be there, be square and buy us a shot.

Nerds:

It’s going to get seriously cosmic in here.  For our *twentieth* Philly Nerd Nite, we bring you the universe *and* a grammar maven.  Don’t you dare split infinitives while pondering the infinite.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
doors at 6:30, show at 7:30
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard
$5 cover

The lectures at hand:

Derrick Pitts on Astronomy

Bio: Derrick Pitts is the Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute.  Helping audiences all over the world better understand the mysteries of the universe since 1978, Pitts is a nationally recognized media commentator on issues in astronomy and space science.  He is a NASA Solar System Ambassador and in 2010, he was one of the lead astronomers at the first-ever star party on the White House lawn.

“The Big Bang With Big Beers” by Sara Stanchfield

Cosmologists study the origin, evolution, and ultimate fate of our Universe. In order to do this we make use of an arsenal of tools that allow us to study the Universe from its very infancy through today, and even allow us to make predictions about the future. This presentation will explore some of these tools and the leading cosmological theories we aim to test, such as the Big Bang theory and the existence of dark energy.

Bio: Sara Stanchfield is a PhD student in physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research is in observational cosmology, where she is especially interested in the Cosmic Microwave Background and trying every beer Philadelphia has to offer at least once before she finishes her thesis.

“Words, Grammar Nerds, and the Riotous Joy of Language Evolution” by Sarah Grey

Grammar nerds all over the English-speaking world have read and loved Lynne Truss’s bestselling punctuation rant Eats Shoots & Leaves. But is there more to being a grammar nerd than just snottily correcting  apostrophes at the grocery store?  Freelance editor Sarah Grey, who punctuates for a living, thinks there is. She’ll take you on a whirlwind tour of the evolution of language from “me Tarzan” to LOLcats, celebrating the sheer sexy joy and the liberatory power of humanity’s greatest invention.

Bio: Sarah Grey is a freelance writer and editor with a small business, Grey Editing LLC (www.greyediting.com), where she applies her red pen to everything from history to erotica to Marxist theory. She lives in Fishtown with her husband Joe and almost-three-year-old daughter Lucia.

And featuring: Christopher Davis-Shannon playing blues and ragtime guitar.  Dance music for the old at heart.

Be there and be square!