Nerd Nite Philly

Dear Nerds,

Please join us as we make plans to take over the world.  If you attend the March Nerd Nite, you will learn how to build a nuclear fusion reactor, how to manipulate vast swaths of data to generate art (or whatever your little heart desires), and how to harness the power of the pig nose to become vastly wealthy.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

doors at 7:00, show at 7:30

Frankford Hall at Frankford & Girard

$5 cover

For your edification:

Hey Gang!

The next Nerd Nite is drawing near!  This is also our first Nerd Nite to feature a talk by a chemist!  And as far as we know, our first skydiver *and* our first hypocrisy expert . . .

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

doors at 7:00, show at 7:30

Frankford Hall at Frankford and Girard

$5 cover

For your listening and learning pleasure:

“Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind” by Rob Kurzban

Do you wonder why people are so inconsistent?  Why people often seem to contradict themselves? Why they believe things they know aren’t true? Why they say “don’t do X”  and then do that very thing? In this presentation, I’ll show how the fact that the human mind is made up of many different parts answers all these questions…

Robert Kurzban is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. His research focuses on evolutionary approaches to social phenomena such as cooperation, trust, mating, friendship, and social networks. His favorite color is blue and his favorite breed of dog is husky.

“Jumping out of planes: the art and sport of skydiving” by Alex Mandel

Skydiving is on the top of most people’s bucket list. It is one of the most exciting and exhilarating extreme sports around but there’s much more to it than strapping on a parachute and diving out of a plane. In this presentation, I’ll explore the techniques and finer points of skydiving.

Alex Mandel is a licensed skydiver who has been frequently jumping out of airplanes for the past 4 years. He made his first tandem jump in January 2008 and than worked his way to earn a free fall license. On the weekdays he works on his start up and develops real estate.

“Chemistry and energy. From alternative fuel to blowing sh*t up” by Mike Zdilla

Chemistry was once about mixing substances and changing them into other things, but this is not the case today. Perhaps with the exception of drug discovery, most every facet of chemistry today is concerned with energy. From food to fuel to batteries to bombs, chemists are concerned with storing and using energy. A talk highlighting usage and transformations of chemical energy will be presented, with a focus on the oft overlooked role of the inorganic elements. The talk will include chemical demonstrations, and a live musical performance.

Mike Zdilla is a professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Temple University. His focus is inorganic chemistry, which means the study of the chemical elements that usually get ignored by the more popular yuppie elements (I’m talkin’ to you, carbon oxygen and hydrogen). He teaches courses on inorganic chemistry, metals in biology, and crystallography. He has a wife who is an English and literacy educator, and who indulges his love of all things nerdular, and a 2 year old son who loves letters like his Mom, but whom Mike hopes to convert to his own camp in time.

And as if that weren’t enough, we have comedic storytelling by Zach Webber and tunes by song knitter Rob Gallo.

Nerd Nite is conquering not only bars, but also the press via the brand new Nerd Nite magazine, your iPod via the Nerd Nite podcast, and now the local airwaves!

Check out Carolyn Beeler’s very nice story “Thinking while Drinking” on WHYY.

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.

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.

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.

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: