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Nerd Nite No. 10, January 11, 2012
Hey everybody!
It’s 2012 and it’s gonna be nerdier than ever this year. The first Nerd Nite of the year is approaching rapidly. Are you worried about cell phone radiation, do you want to seriously geek out about bikes, are you a closet graffiti writer yearning to paint freely on walls? This is your Nerd Nite. Plus we have music, comedy, and Frankford Hall has delicious beer and pretzels. See you there!
The details:
January 11, 2012, doors at 7, show at 7:30
Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard
$5 cover
Our line-up:
“The radiowaves are coming for your sperm, and other myths of the cell phone era” by Scicurious
It seems that these days everyone has a cell phone attached to their ear. Every week another website trumpets a study saying that the cell phone waves are causing cancer, lowering your sperm count, even killing the bees. But are they? Sci will take you through the latest on cell phones and radiowaves, and let you know exactly whether or not the cell phones are coming for your sperm.
Scicurious has a BS in Biology, a BA in Philosophy, and a PhD in Physiology. A mild mannered researcher by day, Scicurious is an active science blogger by night, where she writes about the good, the bad, and weird in physiology and neuroscience. She is the recent winner of the Three Quarks Daily Top Quark Prize in Science Writing, has been published several times in The Open Laboratory Science Blog Anthology. Her writing has also been featured in Scientific American, The London Guardian, and the New York Times, and has made numerous appearances on the radio and at conferences to talk about life as a science blogger and the weird and wonderful world of science. She writes at the blogs Neurotic Physiology and Scientific American’s “The Scicurious Brain”, and you can follow her on Twitter at @scicurious. She often writes in the third person.
“A Nerd’s Survival Guide to Biking Cross Country.” by Geoff Cotter
Traveling by bike is an excellent way to better experience one’s surroundings while traveling. At a bicycle’s speed, its easier to take in every hill and river and meet people on a more personal level than you would had you driven by car. Through a series of misadventures, anecdotes, and lessons learned, geoff introduces a basic guide to the how and why of bike touring across the US.
Geoff is a 28 year old mechanical engineering grad student at Drexel University. Geoff has bike toured across the united states, new zealand, central california, kentucky bourbon country, as well as numerous shorter trips through New England, PA, and NJ.
“Why That Kid is Hanging from the Overpass to Paint His Name” by Ryan Derfler
In the 60’s and 70’s, the modern day graffiti movement blew up in Philadelphia. By the 80’s, Philadelphia was “all tagged up” and as an attempt to curb the problem, the City created a program called The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network, to engage the youth and to rechannel their creative energy. Fast forward almost 30 years and the program has changed the face of the City with over 3,500 outdoor and indoor art works, involving over 40,000 youth, earning Philadelphia international acclaim as the City of Murals. Hear some of the more colorful anecdotes and learn about some of the Program’s “secret weapons” to get so many public works done over the years.
Ryan Derfler, Director of Business Development, joined the Mural Arts Program in 2008 and was tasked to develop a tour program to generate earned income revenue. Since then, he has developed the most talented tour guide pool in the City, tour attendance and revenue have doubled, and tour products and promotions have received acclaim world wide. Ryan now oversees merchandising and is working on a social entrepreneurship model centered around a new learning center and gift shop called Mural Arts at The Gallery, which opened in October 2011.
BE THERE AND BE SQUARE.
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Nerd Nite No. 9, December 7, 2011
Nerds. The December Nerd Nite is upon us:
Wednesday, December 7th
Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Avenue
doors at 7:00, show at 7:30 pm
$5 cover
For your edification, we present:
Brett Cohen majored in philosophy at Brown University, where he took over 14 classes in topics such as metaphysics and philosophy of mind. Realizing that he was headed toward the philosophy of unemployment, he learned software development, and currently creates websites, user interfaces, and mobile applications.
“Why it pays to slice up body parts: bone histology and dinosaur biology” by Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian
We can learn a lot about extinct animals from the overall anatomy of their skeletons, but even more information is contained in their bone microstructure. Bone tissue records a detailed record of an individual’s life history, and thin-sections of fossil bone provide windows into understanding the biology of critters long dead. Age, growth rate, stress, and sex—it’s all in there if you know what to look for, and can stand a little sawing and grinding.
Allison Tumarkin-Deratzian is a vertebrate paleontologist in the Temple University Department of Earth and Environmental Science, where she pontificates about rocks and fossils and delights in making her students’ heads explode. She also moonlights as an actress with various community theatre groups in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. This basically means she spends her days with dead things and nights with people that don’t really exist, which may explain a lot.
“When You Have Nowhere To Go Except Everywhere” by Scott Beibin
‘Groucho Fractal’s Nearly Amazing Quantum Transdimensional Survival Guide at the End (and Beginning) of Everything’ is a touring live performance and webcast exploring the intersection of science, consciousness, art and nature hosted by Scott Beibin. The show features the delightful pairing of eco-engineering, open source philosophies, and emerging technologies with silly dance moves and tasty raw vegan treats. Come enjoy a short preview of the Groucho Fractal show before the official(ish) launch in 2012 at this installment of Nerd Nite Philly.
Scott Beibin is a Philadelphia based artist, theorist, problem-solver, and vortex engineer connecting the sacred, profane, and the absurd. Beibin has toured internationally as host, curator, and media-archaeologist for the Lost Film Festival which combines activist filmmaking with live storytelling. He is also co-founder of the Evil Twin Booking Agency (along with author Elizabeth-Jane Cole), organizing tours and outreach campaigns for people who think and act.
And rock music by Ben Riesman of Le Fits.
Food and drink specials: $6 beer + pretzel and $8 beer + sausage to enjoy in a veritable sea of tables and chairs.
Nerd Nite No. 8, November 9, 2011
What’s up Nerds.
The next Nerd Nite is drawing near:
Wednesday, November 9th
Frankford Hall, 1210 Frankford Avenue
doors at 7:00, show at 7:30 pm
Free Nerdiness: NO COVER!
Food and drink specials include: $6 beer + pretzel and $8 beer + sausage to enjoy in a veritable sea of tables and chairs.
The lectures at hand:
We normally use image processing to look at the Earth (essentially the reflectance spectra of plants and rocks). But the same technology can be used to examine pieces of art. When we do so we need to keep in mind how we can deceive ourselves or how we can be deceived. We’ll look at how magic is done, and how knowing neuroscience can be helpful in image interpretation. When we’re done you should have a better idea of how to forge a masterpiece.
Bio: Jay Parrish is Professor of Practice in the Penn State University Dutton e-Education Institute, teaching remote sensing. He has previously been State Geologist of Pennsylvania, Director of GIS for Lancaster County, Director of RE Wright’s Forensic image analysis, a volunteer with the Mennonites, a college professor (BGSU), Ball Aerospace employee at JPL (radar geobotany), and a geophysicist at Mobil Oil and Geospectra Corporations. He cannot hold a job.
“Demystifying Acupuncture” by Caroline Grace Ashurst
Caroline Grace Ashurst, L.Ac., M.Ac., a practicing Acupuncturist in Philadelphia, intends to shed light on the practice of acupuncture by offering information to enlighten, inform, and inspire. She plans on challenging preconceived notions and engaging curiosity while delivering the principles of this complementary modality.
“Sexy Serpent Smells: a Sense of Snake Scents” by Rocky Parker
Imagine sitting on the barely-thawed ground of a field, surrounded by flattened yellow grass and bare trees. Then you hear a rustle, some thrashing, more rustling… then out from the grass pop one, two, ten, twenty little brown and yellow heads staring blankly into the spring air. They delicately flick their glossy black tongues and tick their heads in random directions before indulgently returning to the scents of sex saturating the ground. Every spring, garter snakes emerge in the tens of thousands from limestone sinkholes on the midwest plains in search of one thing: sex. After 8 months of life at 0.5 degrees, they are willing and able to seek out mating opportunities… and as many as possible in the tumultuous four week scramble of spring. The one cue males need to locate and choose between mates is the female sex pheromone. But sometimes, things are not always what they seem. Sometimes, there are males that smell like females. I will discuss different aspects of the garter snake mating system, with special focus on how pheromones are used to coordinate reproduction in this (and maybe all?) snake species.
Bio: Rocky Parker is a physiologist who specializes in endocrinology and molecular biology. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. His previous research centered on snake reproductive physiology and chemical ecology. He is now studying the physiology and molecular biology of taste cells… and he can slay Bohemian Rhapsody… a cappella.
Entertainment by: The Philadelphia String Quartet
To Frankford Hall via public transport: from the Market Frankford Line, get off at Girard Station and go east on Girard Avenue (toward Johnny Brenda’s, away from the Piazza). Make a left on Frankford Avenue, and Frankford Hall will be on your left side.
Nerd Nite No. 7, October 5, 2011
Yo Nerds,
Mark your calendars for the return of Nerd Nite!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
MilkBoy Philly, 1100 Chestnut St.
doors at 7:30, show at 8:00
5 dollar cover
Boy have we got a show in store for you:
“Back to the Future: Antarctica in a Warm World” by Jane Willenbring, Univ. of Pennsylvania
East Antarctica hosts the largest amount of ice on land on Earth. As such, it is particularly important to understand what happens to this ice when the Earth warms. Does it melt and contribute to sea level rise? Or, does the ice sheet expand due to an increased ability of warmer air to hold moisture? Until recently, the Earth Science community has had limited ability to measure rates of surface processes that occur over long time periods, such as recording the very slow glacier margin movements and other imperceptibly slow rates of land surface change. In this talk, I will discuss a novel geochemical technique that uses cosmic radiation to date rocks at the Earth’s surface. This technique has revolutionized our understanding of how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet responded to times in the past that were even warmer than today and helps us to go Back to the Future.
Bio: Dr. Jane Willenbring is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania where she leads a research group that uses field work, isotope geochemistry and the changing composition of the Earth’s water and atmosphere to study the response of the landscape to the rise of mountains, sea level, ice sheets and civilizations. She is originally from North Dakota and so is well-suited to the cold temperatures like those near the South Pole in the ’summer’ time – but she still dislikes the cold.
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“Brainstorm: Mind reading technology, theory and practice” by Geoffrey K. Aguirre, Univ. of Pennsylvania
Using machines to “read out” the contents of sensory experience directly from the brain has been a staple of science fiction. Recently, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to reconstruct a ”movie” of visual perception for human participants. I’ll explain how this works, and what the prospects and limits are of mind reading technology.
Bio: Geoffrey Aguirre is a Neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist. His clinical and research work concerns the organization of the brain for mental operations, in particular the loss and recovery of visual ability. Using functional MRI, a non-invasive tool for measuring brain activity, he studies how neurons are normally arranged to represent and store the appearance of people, places, and things. He uses these techniques to understand as well how blindness changes the brain, and with collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania, how the brain adapts to the recovery of vision.
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“An Introduction to the Fun of Lockpicking” by Robert Tran, The Open Organization of Lockpickers
Everyone relies on their locks to keep things secure. From front doors to filing cabinets, they give us the sense of security that no one else can get inside without the proper key. However, in reality, most locks can be picked trivially without any evidence of exploitation. You will learn how and why lockpicking works as well as what manufacturers have done to protect against such shenanigans.
Bio: Robert Tran is a security professional by day, but some say he’s a super-secret agent by night. He’s been tinkering and taking apart technology since childhood, but hasn’t necessary figured out how to reassemble them. When Robert is not wrenching on his cars or motorcycles, he’s picking locks. Going by the handle “Dr. Tran”, he’s been an active member of TOOOL for 3 years and has taught at conferences including Shmoocon, CarolinaCon, NotaCon, Security BSides, QuahogCon, HOPE, & Defcon.
And featuring:
Tragi-comic songs by Charles Latham and Comedy by Chip Chantry.
The Return of Philly Nerd Nite
Nerds of Philadelphia!
Great News! First, yes, we do still exist, and two new co-bosses have joined the ranks of the Nerd Nite Philly Team. Matt and Gina will be working with Michelle to bring the nerds of Philadelphia more great speakers and talented performers!
ALSO, Nerd Nite has found a brand new venue for our Fall return. Starting on October 5th, Nerd Nite Philly will take place at (drum roll please) MilkBoy Philly on 1100 Chestnut Street the 1st WEDNESDAY of each month. Check out http://milkboyphilly.com/ for more info. Our new venue is easily reachable by public transportation (including the blue line stop at 11th and Market and Regional Rail at Market East).
Please email us at with questions, comments and speaker and performer suggestions.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all again in October! Stay tuned for more information.
Michelle, Matt, & Gina
Nerd Nite Philly Team