Nerd Nite Philly

The April edition of Nerd Nite takes place during the Philadelphia Science Festival, a two week event where Philadelphia’s schools, universities, cultural institutions, and research centers will come together as a single, united voice to put science in the spotlight.  Check out http://www.philasciencefestival.org/ for a complete schedule of events.

Also – note that we are lowering the cover to three dollars!  That’s right.  Bring some one dollar bills and help us out with the change making.

Nerd Nite Special Edition: The Philadelphia Science Festival!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

MarBar at 40th and Walnut

Doors at 7:30, show starts at 8, $3 cover

“Are Males the More Interesting Sex?” by Faye Flam

Males have been called the secondary sex, the mutant sex, a biological afterthought. Some have even called them unnecessary. According to my book on the evolution of males, this is not only mean but wrong. I’ll explain not only why males are important – even essential – to many organisms we know and love, but also how males evolved and what they brought to the table. In the process we’ll explore whether monogamy is part of human nature, why men have nipples, what’s happening to the Y chromosome, what that business with the G-spot is all about, and why some male bees explode after having sex. We’ll also explore what we can learn about ourselves from transgender fish, gay sheep and the sex life of the giant squid.

Bio: Faye Flam will go anywhere in search of a good story – from the research station at the South Pole, to NASA’s nausea-inducing zero-g plane, to Iceland’s shocking “penis museum.” She holds a degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology. She’s written for Science News, New Scientist, and the Economist. In the early 1990s, she was a staff writer at Science, covering high energy particle physics and cosmology.  She came to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995 because it seemed like a good idea at the time. She’s known for creating an unholy marriage of science and sex in her column, Carnal Knowledge, and more recently for launching an even more unholy column called Planet of the Apes.  Her new book is The Score: How The Quest For Sex Has Shaped The Modern Man.

“The Marcellus shale, life after death after life.” by George Love

The Marcellus shale, a fine-grained sedimentary horizon of Devonian age, is rapidly becoming a significant target for exploration in Pennsylvania. Projections of its value have pushed it into position as a world class suppository of nature gas. This talk will examine how such an event came to happen, how its formation has transformed organic-rich digestive leavings and associated body parts into a much sought after commodity, and the heroic efforts employed by capitalist organizations to clothe themselves in this sweet smell of success.

Bio: George Love is just a geologist with few redeeming qualities.  He has done time in a variety of geotechnical and mining endeavors, most recently serving time as PA State Geologist.

“Habitable Zones: Astrobiology and the Search for Life Beyond Earth” by Marc S Kaufman

Since the beginning of humankind, people have imagined life in the skies — angels, gods, heavens filled with the eternally rewarded, djinns and, more recently, little green men, UFOs and ETs of all kinds.  Now, for the first time in human history, we have the scientific knowledge and technology to actually learn what might really be out there.  The red-hot field of astrobiology has brought us to this point, with its discoveries of a universe of exoplanets (and potentially billions in habitable zones), with breakthroughs that prove the chemical building blocks for life exist throughout the cosmos, with new understandings about how and where extreme life exists on Earth, and with a growing consensus that Mars was once wet, warm, and potentially hospitable for life.

Bio: Marc Kaufman is a science writer at the Washington Post, after more than three decades of being a foreign correspondent, beat reporter, magazine writer and more primarily for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Post.  His first book, “First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth”, was released by Simon & Schuster this month.  He has traveled the world for two years reporting on the science and scientists of astrobiology.

Musical Entertainment by: West Philadelphia Orchestra

An eclectic ensemble made up of Philly’s finest and wildest musicians performing trumpets, clarinet, drums, saxophones and sousaphone, the West Philadelphia Orchestra will get you moving with the poignant melodies and the frenetic, propulsive rhythms of Eastern Europe. Enjoy a unique mix of Balkan and klezmer sounds, the powerful rhythms of samba and dancehall, the growling energy of punk rock, the spontaneity of jazz, and, of course, the soul and grit of Philadelphia.

The next Philly Nerd Nite will take place on April 21, 2011, at MarBar on 40th and Walnut.  Doors at 7:30 and the show starts at 8.  Stay tuned for speaker and talent information!

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The next Nerd Nite is Thursday March 10th, 2011.  Doors at 7:30, Show at 8:00. The $5 cover gets you drink specials and a whole lot of lore in the areas of ancient wine-consumption habits, Philadelphia’s centennial exhibition in 1876, and the many uses of yeast, beloved organism of beer drinkers, bread bakers and geneticists!

Nerd Nite will be held at our *new venue*, MarBar at 200 S. 40th St. (at Walnut).

The new venue is wheelchair accessible, easily reachable by public transportation (including the blue line which makes a stop at 40th and Market), and features drink specials ($3 beers, $4 well drinks, $5 wine).  Most importantly, Nerd Nite doesn’t share the MarBar space with any other event, so no more competition with sports games or downstairs bands!  Plus, there’s a lot of seating.  So come check out the new space!

We’re excited to bring a group of great speakers to our first night at the new location:

“Drunk like a Scythian! Ancient attitudes towards wine.” by Jill Weber, archeologist and owner of Jet Wine Bar

Do you drink like a Scythian?  I do!  These accomplished horsemen drank their wine undiluted with water, a fact that chagrined the Greeks.  Of course, like the Mongols, they also drank fermented mare’s milk.  But it was the wine that led to bawdiness and madness, and a enhanced their reputation for uncouth incivility.   Attitudes toward alcohol and inebriation are integrally tied to attitudes about social roles and values, and differentiating one’s (highly sophisticated, of course) culture from another’s barbarian existence.

Bio:  Jill Weber received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.  This has allowed her to continue her travels to Syria, Turkey and Armenia – making many other stops and drinking lots of wine along the way.  She opened Jet Wine Bar in Philadelphia in November of 2010, and continues to drink lots of wine!

“The Whole World Revolves Around Philadelphia: The Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876” by Rob Armstrong, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Department

In 1876, Philadelphia was the center of the world as it hosted the first major World’s Fair in the United States. The great Centennial Exhibition, officially known as the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, took place in Fairmount Park. It was a grand, sprawling Victorian marvel to behold, attracting roughly 10 million visitors between May and November of 1876.  Sadly, almost all of the structures were demolished after the Fair with only the Catholic Total Abstinence Fountain, Memorial Hall and the Ohio House remaining in the Park’s landscape. This talk will highlight Victorian Philadelphia and the wonders of the Fair’s architecture and inventions introduced such as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and the Corliss Steam Engine.  In addition, we will view many of the sites of the Fair through stereoscopic images produced as souvenirs.

Bio:  Rob Armstrong is a Ph.D. candidate at Lehigh University studying the history and development of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park system from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. By day, he works for the Planning, Preservation and Property Management Division of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation managing a variety of projects, including: trail construction, canal dredging, historic preservation and storm water management. In his spare time, he enjoys home brewing, bicycling around the City and collecting and listening to LP records.

“The Joys of Fermentation” by Phillip Seitz, master beer brewer

Yeast is just like us—it eats, reproduces, pees and farts.  While we also enjoy these things, yeasts raise them to an art form.  As a result we get hundred of kinds of beer—especially all those delicious Belgians!—breads of many varieties—sourdough!—and even disgusting brewers’ yeast products for those who can’t leave well enough alone.  This talk will provide an overview of the brewing and breadmaking processes, and explain how yeasts are used differently to provide the many different flavors we know, love and detest.

Bio:  Phillip Seitz is a Certified Beer Judge, an accomplished home brewer and an artisan bread baker. Until recently he was Curator of History and Fermentation at Cliveden, Philadelphia’s National Historic Landmark and Battleground. He has also worked at the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress and as an historian for the Smithsonian Institution, documenting Soviet space medicine, the Manhattan Project, the development of automated DNA sequencing and cell sorting equipment, and the full body CT scanner.

Featuring: the return of Bill Pierce for some juggling redemption!

See you Thursday March 10 at MarBar!

Hey Nerds!

Nerd Nite Presents
“The Streets of Philadelphia!”

This Thursday, February 10th at the Field House, upstairs.  Doors at 7:30, the show starts at 8:00.   Come learn some new stories about the City of Brotherly Love.  We’ve got history, trees and a mystery!  The $5 cover gets you cheap drinks and two hours of excellent nerdosity.

Speakers:

“A photographic tour of Gray’s Ferry and its environs: 1700 – 1950” by Josh Nims, Operations Manager, Schuylkill River Development Corporation

A short review of the changes wrought on the Gray’s Ferry segment of the tidal Schuylkill River by the cruellest and filthiest beasts of Industry: railroads, road builders, paint factories, and animal slaughterhouses. Find yourself aghast at the serenity and verdure of 18th Century Gray’s Ferry trounced immeasurably by the pollution of greed. A relatively happy ending will also be provided.

Bio:  Hailing from the Deep South, Josh moved to Philadelphia in 1997 to attend Temple Law School.  He is now the Operations Manager for Schuylkill River Development Corporation, a public-private partnership that is implementing economic, recreational, environmental and cultural improvements on the lower (tidal) Schuylkill River between the Fairmount Dam and the Delaware River.  Josh manages the maintenance, volunteer, and individual giving programs for the trail and greenway along the tidal Schuylkill.  His job is a daily mix of city and community politics, science and architecture, basic custodial services, people management, and historical analysis.  Josh is also the founder and board chair of Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund, Inc., which is developing the Paine’s Park project on Schuylkill Banks near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is creating smaller facilities across the City pursuant to a Master Plan for Philadelphia Skateboarding.  Josh is married to fellow nerd, Noelle Dames, who currently manages a low-income CSA program (LIFE) and the Kensington Community Kitchen for Greensgrow Farm.  They have an awesome daughter, Juniper, and reside in NW Philadelphia.

“The Urban Tree Canopy Assessment: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation is so much cooler than you thought” by Sarah Low, Division of Urban Forestry and Ecosystem Management

The City of Philadelphia has taken on an ambitious goal to increase the tree canopy to 30% city wide by 2025. In order to reach that goal, we need to plant 200,000 to 300,000 trees in the next five years. But where? Using remote sensing technology and some fancy modeling, we have been able to figure out where in the city are the best opportunities and the greatest need, so that we can prioritize our efforts.

Bio:  Sarah Low holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation, with an emphasis on Watershed Science and Management, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the Director of Spatial Analysis and Conservation Planning for the Urban Forest and Ecosystem Management Division of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, she facilitates ecosystem planning. These days Sarah is developing an Urban Forest and Ecosystem Management Plan and helping determine through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) how to best prioritize tree plantings to meet a goal of 300,000 trees planted by 2015.

“Asphalt mosaic tiles of the Toynbee variety and beyond – what they are, and how to make your own” by Justin Duerr, Toynbee Tile Expert

“Toynbee tiles” have been spotted in Philadephia, the eastern seaboard of the US, and several locations in South America since the 1980’s. They are linoleum tile mosaics which are embedded into the asphalt in pedestrian crosswalks. For decades, hundreds of them have cropped up mysteriously, almost all of them bearing the cryptic message “Toynbee Idea/In Kubrick’s ‘2001/Resurrect Dead/On Planet Jupiter.” Despite being investigated in depth and receiving a fair amount of coverage in print media and on the internet, their origin and meaning have remained a mystery. Recently, the medium and technique of making these asphalt mosaics has caught on among street artists, and rashes of new tiles with wildly varying design and messages have begun appearing. Regardless of the identity and motivations of the originator of this street-art technique, it is undeniably an ingenious creative innovation which is only now beginning to spread widely. This talk will focus on both the history of these tiles, the future of the art-form, and will touch briefly on how you can make one of your own. As the original tiles often implored, YOU MUST MAKE AND GLUE TILES!!! YOU!!!

Bio:  Justin Duerr is a Toynbee tile scientist and researcher who has studied the Toynbee tile humanities and sciences since 1994. He is also a visual artist and musician, who has created hundreds of pictures and been part of dozens of musical ensembles, many of which have received small amounts of acclaim in isolated pockets of nearly-unknown subcultural niches. Justin was recently featured as lead Toynbee tile scientist in the award-winning feature documentary film “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.”

Featuring: Tragi-comic songs by Charles Latham and comedic storytelling by Will Dean.

February 10, 2011
The Field House
Doors at 7:30, the fun starts at 8
$5 cover gets you food and drink specials

see you there!

Hey Nerds of Philadelphia!

The next Nerd Nite is drawing near.  This time, we’ll hear about the first computer (Philly’s own ENIAC), how animal bones can teach us about ancient humans, and time travel.  For entertainment in between talks: comedy and juggling!

Set the time and space coordinates on your TARDIS for January 13, 2011 (doors at 7:30, show at 8:00) at The Field House at 1150 Filbert Street.  Note that we’ll be *upstairs* this time and removed from the football noise.  The $5 cover gets you cheap drinks and over an hour of excellent nerdosity.

Speakers:

“The ENIAC: The first modern computer, the men who invented it, and the women who (re)invented programming” by Mitch Marcus, Univ. of Pennsylvania

The ENIAC, first demonstrated publically at Penn on Valentine’s Day, 1946, was the world’s first general purpose electronic computer.  With 100,000 parts individually soldered together, it was 100 times more complex than any previous electronic device, and believed to be impossible by the best experts of the day.  How did the machine work? Who were the visionaries who thought such a machine was possible, and how did they actually get it to work?  Who were the original programmers,  why were they all women, and did they really invent programming?

Bio:  Mitch Marcus is a professor at Penn, where his day job is figuring out how to get computers to automatically misunderstand human language half as well as people do.  In his spare time, he studies programming manuals for long-gone 30 ton computers, just in case he finds one at a yard sale.

“From the table to the grave: using animal bones to uncover past human behavior” by Kristen Gardella, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Zooarchaeology is the study of animal bones recovered from archaeological sites. Archaeologists use animal bones to help them understand not only the life history of animals, but also complex human behaviors such as foodways, ritual practices, herding strategies and long-distance trade. Highlighting several sites from Latin America, this talk will address how faunal data is gathered from archaeological sites and how it is interpreted to understand human and animal interactions in the past.

Bio:  Kristen Gardella is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Zooarchaeology of the Andes.  She has a BA from Bucknell University and a MA from the University of Chicago and has spent more than 16 years working on archaeological sites throughout North, Central and South America.  She teaches in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Ursinus College and is the project zooarchaeologist for a multidisciplinary investigation studying climate change and early hunter-gatherer societies in the high Andes.

“How (not) to build a time machine” by Dave Goldberg, Drexel Univ. and Jeff Blomquist, Boeing and Widener Univ.

We’ll give a hands-on guide for the practical time-traveler, from basic design specs to how to avoid paradoxes.  Most importantly, we’ll discuss whether you should attempt (or if it’s even possible) to kill your grandfather when you encounter him in the past, and how to explain yourself when you see him again next Thanksgiving.

Bio:  Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist are the authors of “A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty.”  Dave is an associate professor of physics at Drexel University, where he works on theoretical and observational cosmology.  He has contributed to Slate, the LA Times, and has appeared on WNYC’s Studio 360. He also writes the “Ask a Physicist” column for io9.com.  Jeff Blomquist is an engineer at Boeing Aerospace and adjunct professor of Astronomy at Widener.  He drew the illustrations in “A User’s Guide” all by himself! He lives in Philadelphia and has only recently stopped sleeping on a couch.

Featuring entertainment: Comedic storytelling by Zach Webber and Juggling by Bill Peirce

See you there!

Flyer by Jon Oliver.