Nerd Nite SF

Wednesday, 12/21/16
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @ Van Ness
$8, all ages

Tickets here

As is our hallowed nerdy tradition, our December show has NOTHING to do with the holidays and EVERYTHING to do with learning something new about something you never knew you should know. Got it? So come get it! Dude, we’ll get so meta about metadata with a software engineer and kick it with one of our audience faves (and nephew of DJ Alpha Bravo) rapping (maybe literally) about dinosaurs. With booze from our beloved Rickshaw ‘tenders, books from the SFPL, and bites from Alicia’s Tamales, be there and be square!

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“STOMPIN’ THROUGH TIME!!!” by Brian Engh

Explore a dinosaur-infested prehistoric ecology through the evidence left on a squishy, nasty old lakeshore! You may remember Brian from his 2015 talk, “Extreme Dinosaur Makeover,” in which he took us through the process of accurately reconstructing dinosaurs from bones on up. Well, this professional paleo artist and creature designer is back to edify and entertain you!

Brian is also a filmmaker, animator and rapper/beat-maker steeped in a lifelong fascination with natural history. His paleo illustrations can be seen in scientific papers, books, museum displays, and several outdoor interpretive fossil sites around Moab Utah, one of which is the focus of this talk. His various and assorted creative efforts are collected on his website http://www.DontMessWithDinosaurs.com.

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“Getting Meta with Your Data: How to see and be more than the sum of our parts” by Simon Bayangos

“Metadata” has entered the mainstream, but much of its meaning and value has been mislaid in the process. Metadata is just that—data that tells us about data. But most of our attempts to capture, comprehend, and control this information have tried to do it as if it were analog information. What if we could experience data the way we hear an orchestra or smell an amazing meal? What if we could interpret millions or even billions of pieces of information not as individual isolated stories but as a collective whole? And what if this information were not scientifically accumulated data on the physical world but rather the intertwined threads of our lives? Tonight we will see and hear metadata in ways few people have perceived it and learn about all the big and small, public and secret ways and places it is accumulated. Whoa, meta.

Simon’s never met a piece of data he couldn’t dig something interesting out of (a.k.a. Head of Engineering at Nuix – a forensic software company).

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“Hysterical Paroxysms: The Amazing History of the Vibrator” by Carol Queen, PhD

Your great-great-grandmother might have owned a vibrator, and the fascinating story of our favorite household helper is truly stranger than fiction. Learn all about their history with Good Vibrations’ Antique Vibrator Museum curator Carol Queen, PhD!

Carol is Good Vibrations‘ staff sexologist, curator of the Antique Vibrator Museum, and runs the Center for Sex & Culture.

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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected to match the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.

Food: Alicia’s Tamales los Mayas will be upstairs serving hot plates of yum.

Wednesday, 11/16/16
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @ Van Ness
$8, all ages
Tickets here

You know what sounds really good right now? A good stiff drink, and a reminder that despite all the ups and downs, the world is still an amazing and wonderful place. We’ll experience the glorious highs of seeing supermassive black holes in a new light, so to speak, and the crushing lows of a new satellite spinning into oblivion. We’ll admire the marvels of amazing materials, and then ponder what the hell we can actually do with them. And we’ll learn not just how our minds are remarkably gullible, but why that is actually a good thing.

All that, plus our local friendly librarians, tunes by DJ Alpha Bravo, libations by the Rickshaw Stop bartenders, and a crowd of awesome nerds. Be there and be square!

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“Good for Nothin’: The Beautiful and Impractical Side of Materials Science” by Becky Belisle

New semiconductors for solar power, biocompatible transistors to map your brain – scientists are hard at work coming up with new materials to make your world better, faster, stronger. But what about discoveries that are more dope than disruptive? Tonight, let’s hear it for the underdogs of solid-state chemistry, and celebrate the science behind some amazing materials whose applications are more than a little far afield. We’re talking light-sensitive lights, semiconductors that move like plants, how to grow your own nano-garden, and more! So come rejoice in some materials that just might not be good for anything (yet!).

We are living in a materials world, and Becky is a materials girl (a.k.a. PhD student at Stanford University).

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“Hitomi: A Tale of Black Holes and Broken Satellites” by Norbert Werner

On Feb 17th, 2016, the Hitomi satellite was launched into space. It was meant to be the most sensitive X-ray eye in space, and designed to answer some deeply puzzling questions in astrophysics. It immediately made a truly groundbreaking observation, but then a system failure sent the satellite into a death spiral, literally spinning itself apart. This talk is about the science that was gathered in the first observation and a personal story of the ups and downs in studies of supermassive black holes.

Norbert is an astrophysicist and one of the scientists who analyzed the Hitomi data.

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“Suggestible You” by Erik Vance

Explore the world of placebos, hypnosis, false memories, and neurology with science writer Erik Vance to reveal the science of our suggestible minds. We are all suggestible, gullible, malleable by nature – and this is actually a good thing. Our expectations change our reality: If you give an athlete colored water, but call it “Gatorade”, they perform better. Students test better with “MIT” pens. And fancy labels will genuinely make wine taste better. Can we use this to make ourselves fitter, smarter, and even happier?

Erik is science writer whose work has been featured in Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic, and many others, and contributing editor at Discover magazine. He is the author of “Suggestible You“.

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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected to match the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.

Food: Delicious bites from a pop-up food purveyor.

Plus: The San Francisco Public Library will be on hand to dole out library cards, reading lists, and the hottest branch gossip.

Wednesday, 10/19/16
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @ Van Ness
$8, all ages
Tickets here

Remember the good old days, when people flashed their Muni Fast Passes, took selfies with collodion wet plates, and, um, dug up their dead mistresses and crowned them queen? No? Well, come refresh your memories, slake your thirst, and sate your hunger with talks, booze, and bao, respectively. Add the usual aural (DJ Alpha Bravo) and biblio (SFPL) support and you have Nerd Nite in a nutshell. Be there and be square!

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“The Muni Fast Pass: A Tale of Transportation, Innovation, and Obsession” by Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez

Long before The City was a home of digital doo-dads, that new technology was a simple slip of colored paper: the Muni Fast Pass. It may be old hat to San Franciscans now, but at one time, offering a monthly ticket for infinite bus and train rides was a novel idea. Catch an express ride through the history of the Fast Pass, from its early champions in the 1970s, including Harvey Milk, through its technological innovations and creative presentation over the decades, and come to a stop at its boring terminus: the Clipper Card.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Joe was a staff writer at the SF Bay Guardian and now writes the Examiner’s political column “On Guard.” He is also a transportation beat reporter covering pedestrians, Muni, BART, bikes, and anything with wheels.

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“Through the New Looking Glass: Reality Capture from the Camera Obscura to 3D Scanning, VR and AR” by Scott Page

Prior to 1839, one had to be both keen observer and careful listener to get things right. Mechanical recording devices of light and sound simply did not exist. After this watershed year, the brain got a brief reprieve as an explosion of ingenious memory aids came to the marketplace. With the invention of the photographic process, a “mirror with a memory” emerged, able to permanently capture reality onto light sensitive materials, filling an insatiable human need for storytelling, novelty, and wonder. It took the combined efforts of artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs to usher in a revolution in imaging that continues to this day.

Scott, M.Arch, is a designer in Berkeley who thinks we need wonder as much as good cheese, chocolate and sex.

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“Love Unhinged: King Pedro & the Corpse Bride of Portugal” by Annetta Black

True love may undo us all… but in the mid-14th century one extraordinary, forbidden love affair threatened to tear apart an entire kingdom. The passion of King Pedro of Portugal for his mistress, Inês de Castro, began with the usual medieval mix of political intrigue, illicit affairs, and fair ladies walled in towers, moved on to murder and open rebellion, and culminated in corpses exhumed, bloody revenge exacted, and an eternal love that extended beyond the grave. And it’s mostly true.

Annetta is a Bay Area-based writer and salonist, ferreting out stories of overlooked history, strange science, doomed expeditions, and marvels of the natural world. She’s co-founder and curator of Odd Salon, the Bay Area’s other nerdy cocktail lecture series.

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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected to match the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.

Food: Delicious pork-belly bao and other bun goodness from Cross Hatch Eatery.

Plus: The San Francisco Public Library will be on hand to dole out library cards, reading lists, and the hottest branch gossip.

Wednesday, 9/21/16
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @ Van Ness
$8, all ages
Tickets here

This Wednesday we’re in for quite a ride! We’ll build up the evening with self-organizing tissue assembly, then dive deep into the legacy of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction, before leveling off with a talk about the neuroscience and evolutionary biology of the endlessly irrational decisions we make. Throughout the night, enjoy refreshing beverages from the Rickshaw Stop bar, beats by DJ Alpha Bravo, books from the SFPL, and bites from Alicia’s Tamales los Mayas. Buckle up, be there, and be square!

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“How Tissues Build Themselves” by Zev Gartner

The human body contains over 10 trillion cells–spanning hundreds of different cell types–that must work together for our bodies to function. But it remains a mystery how these diverse cells coordinate their behaviors. Tissue structure, the composition and arrangement of the cells, helps this coordination by organizing the flow of information between cells. Learn how Zev’s lab at UCSF constructs tissues in a dish using the same strategies that tissues use to build themselves in the body: through the process of self-organization. Someday, these “built” tissues will engineer transplantable organs and help suppress diseases like cancer.

Zev hails from Santa Cruz, California. Although originally trained to build molecules as a chemist, he now focuses on building tissues. When not in the lab, he tries to find time to surf.

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“A Journey Through Liquid Space: Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Ride” by David Shuff

In 1971, Disney unveiled the greatest theme park attraction ever: the 20K ride. For decades it inspired, delighted, and scared the crap out of anyone with half an imagination. In 1994, the ride was temporarily “closed for maintenance,” but that was a LIE. It never sailed again, and the ruins were unceremoniously demolished in 2004. David Shuff has dedicated himself to keeping the memory and magic of 20K alive, despite having ridden it only once, when he was 3. Sharing rare photos, video, and actual crew-member accounts, he will helm a spine-tingling adventure through the rise, fall, and surprising afterlife of the 20K ride–the lost 8th wonder of the world.

David is a well-rounded human being with a healthy dislike of most things Disney. He’s a video creative at AKQA in San Francisco. Beware the plush giant squid behind his couch.

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“I Am Deeply Biased” by Jacob Ward

This late-breaking addition to our line-up will be a preview of a four-part PBS series Jake is hosting, about the neuroscience and evolutionary biology of the endlessly irrational decisions people make about strangers, food, credit cards, presidents, and everything else in modern life.

You’ll remember Jake from his 2013 NNSF talk, but he’s probably a little more famous for having been a science and tech correspondent for Al Jazeera and the editor-in-chief of Popular Science.

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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected to match the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.

Food: Delicious meals from Alicia’s Tamales los Mayas.

Plus: The San Francisco Public Library will be on hand to dole out library cards, reading lists, and the hottest branch gossip.

 

Wednesday, 8/17/16
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @ Van Ness
$8, all ages
Tickets here

Ah, the brave new world: Commuters make up their sleep deficits snoozing at the wheels of driverless cars on their way to their jobs using lasers! We are living in the future! Come explore it using the finest in, um, 1990s technology: PowerPoint! With vinyl records (1940s) to tickle your eardrums, grilled cheese (invented circa the Jazz Age) to fill your bellies, SFPL book recommendations (to mark the mid-15th century) for homework, and booze (from time immemorial). Be there and be square!

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“F**ked If You Don’t Sleep!” by Matthew Walker

Allow us to ask you a question: Can you recall the last time you woke up without an alarm clock, feeling refreshed, not needing caffeine? If the answer is “no,” you’re screwed, and this talk will describe why.

Matthew eavesdrops on sleeping brains at night and is a professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley during the day.

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“Microwaving Proteins with X-Ray Lasers and Galloping Horses” by James Fraser

In 1872, Leland Stanford gave photographer Eadweard Muybridge the task of proving that all four of a horse’s hooves are off the ground at the same time during a gallop. Little did he know he’d be setting in motion (ha!) early cinema, with the concomitant improvements in camera shutters and film emulsions. Fast-forward to today and discover the surprising geographic and scientific parallels between the first “movie” and current efforts to make molecular movies of proteins using the world’s first X-ray free electron laser.

James is a professor at UCSF–where his lab studies the structure and dynamics of macromolecules–and consulting professor at SLAC National Lab, as well as an advocate for the beer-and-tacos approach to scientific publishing, wherein work is made immediately accessible to a wide audience via preprints and eventually also peer-reviewed by traditional journals.

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“Driverless Vehicles: Who’s Really in Control?” by Lauren Isaac

Driverless vehicles have the potential to change so much in our society: Boozers will never have to worry about DUIs, Grandma Gertie can get around without people fearing for their lives, and the millennials can do their elliptical workout while commuting! Are we really going to be safer, though? Will they do more harm than good for society? And who is going to make sure we aren’t just overrun with robo-cars? Who’s really in control and what can we do to prepare for this disruptive technology?

Lauren is a transportation enthusiast/nerd who works at WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff and has spent her career helping government agencies with public transit, bike sharing, ride sharing and now driverless cars.

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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected to match the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.

Food: Delicious hot goop between crispy slices of bread, brought to you by the scientist of the sammie, Grilled Cheese Guy.

Plus: The San Francisco Public Library will be on hand to dole out library cards, reading lists, and the hottest branch gossip.