Wednesday, 3/19/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages
Get tickets here
If on the third Wednesday of this month, one finds oneself desirous of getting jugged up and hearing a person of authority quack on about creating a library of books one would like to have around when restarting civilization, WELL, then do come to the Nite of the Nerds, at which musical groups wielding homemade instruments and fraudulent pretenders to medical skill will also be considered, all whilst alcoholic drinks and amplified music flow mellifluously down our throats and ears, respectively, and sandwiches, grilled and with much cheese, are munched upon. Friends: Run on over, be there and be square!
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“Music in a Jugular Vein” by Bebo White
All American roots music–bluegrass, country, blues, Americana, even rock and roll–has been influenced by jug band music. (Everyone, blow into your beer bottle!) But what exactly IS this joyous cacophony? Originating in the 1920s or earlier, jug band music is characterized by non-electric, often homemade instruments. A jug, of course, is typically included, with the player blowing into the jug to generate bass sounds. But a washboard, comb and tissue paper, washtub bass (gutbucket), and other ordinary objects also join in. Take a toe-tapping stroll through the world of jug band music!
Bebo is a computational physicist at SLAC , and in his spare time makes beer and wine, keeps bees, and plays the banjo and jug.
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“This Won’t Hurt a Bit: The Truth About Quack Medicine” by Jenny Benjamin
In 19th-century America, going to the doctor was only for the brave, what with anesthesia in its infancy. (Here, bite down on this leather belt!) But what if you could purchase a medicine or device that promised a miracle cure–with no pain at all–and you didn’t have to visit the doctor? Enter: quackery! In this talk, we’ll learn some ophthalmological history and how eye medicine in particular was plagued with charlatans who promised everything from getting the red out to curing blindness with treatments that were ludicrous and, occasionally, dangerous.
Jenny has been the director of the Museum of Vision for the past 13 years–you know, that museum in SF about eyes that no one has ever heard of? Yeah, that one. See what you’ve been missing at www.museumofvision.org!
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“Building a Library at the End of the World: Long Now’s Manual for Civilization” by Andrew Warner
If there were a rupture in the continuity of civilization, what books would you need to bootstrap it back into motion? This question informs the curatorial process of The Long Now Foundation’s new member-curated library project, the Manual for Civilization. In this talk, we’ll give a whirlwind tour of Long Now’s ongoing projects, explain our new salon/bar/cafe/museum/library space, The Interval, and then discuss the inevitable issues that arise when one tries to distill civilization down to 3,000 volumes. Highlights include book lists from Stewart Brand, Neil Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, and Brian Eno, as well as an opportunity to submit your own selections to the library.
Andrew is the programs associate at Long Now, where he works on seminars, the Long Now blog, social media, and anything else that needs attention. When not at Long Now, he enjoys whirlwind weekend adventures, cooking, and DJing house parties.
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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.
And come hungry for the Grilled Cheese Guy, who’ll be upstairs slinging sammies!
Wednesday, 2/19/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages – Get tickets here
eSports, Staph, and Shep: Aren’t you at least a little intrigued by this month’s grab-bag, and not just for the alluring alliteration? We heart a motley crew of topics here at NNSF, especially if they’re muddled with the Rickshaw Stop’s stiff quaffs, mixed with interludes of ditties on vinyl, and put forth by experts and amateurs (in the purest sense of the word) alike. So, come, be educated about professional gaming by a games user researcher, grab the Staph of life with a microbial mentor, and relive a classic détournement with a Night Person. Be there and be square!
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“Let’s Get Ready to Microooooooo (Why I Love eSports and You Should, Too)” by Omid Farivar
Did you know people are playing video games for money and fans watched an average of 12 billion minutes of content every month in 2013? How about the international tournament where the prize purse exceeded $2.8 million? And viewership, prize money, and mainstream attention are steadily increasing as more professional gamers emerge. Come join the f(o)ray, as a games user researcher explores the professional competitive gaming scene and its fans. Gamers expected and non-gamers oh-so-encouraged to attend.
Omid is a games user researcher at KIXEYE, graduated from U. Michigan with his MA in Information/HCI in 2012, and will crush you at any rhythm game ever.
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“Staphylococcus aureus: Making a Living (And Sometimes a Killing) in the Skin” by Lauren Popov
Have you or someone you know ever had a Staph infection? S. aureus is both a common, peaceful member of the bacterial community living in your skin and a dangerous, disease-causing pathogen. So how does Staph decide to up the ante and turn into an infection? And why is that infection sometimes so alarmingly intractable? In this talk, we’ll take the viewpoint of the bacteria and explore the challenges it faces in its quest to call your body its home.
Lauren is a PhD candidate at the Stanford School of Medicine in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. When she’s not experimenting in lab, she can be found at parties, preaching the tipsy gospel of our astounding microbial world.
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“Revenge of the Night People! Culture-Jamming at 3 a.m.” by David Grosof
In 1955 a 30-something white guy from the “howling darkness of the great American Midwest” came to New York City to work in entertainment. Within three years he had found an audience for improv radio storytelling, created flash mobs, helped crowd-source Cassavetes’s first film, and pulled off a magnificent literary hoax with his loyal audience who listened, in bed, late at night, and wondered What It All Meant. Before Negativland, This American Life, Indiegogo, and @Horse_ebooks, there was Shep. Find out about culture jamming, 1950s-style.
David is one of the Night People, second-gen. He listens to waaay too much radio.
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With: Alpha Bravo, who’ll be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
And: Kevin & Gail’s Chili Palace, who’ll be serving delicious hot chili upstairs.
SOLD OUT! Limited tickets will be available at the door.
Wednesday, 1/15/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages
Advance tix here
We hope you like your sciences hard–and on the rocks–because we’re getting all rigorous this month. So take a firm grip of your lowball glass; push up your specs; and blast off into private space exploration, summon the superhero anti-creationist alliance, and optimize the bejeezus outta your brain. Be there and be square!
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“Private Space Ventures Take Off” by Sheraz Sadiq and Julian Mann
A new wave of commercialization is shaking up the $300-billion global space industry. The producer of Silicon Valley Goes to Space and the co-founder of Skybox Imaging, one of the start-ups featured in the film, talk about how the big, bold ideas down south are helping launch a new era of private space exploration. Skybox’s satellites can capture high-res, rapidly updated views of the world’s streets, waterways, and farmlands. See some of the images captured from their first satellite, which launched in late November, and find out how Silicon Valley is innovating the space industry like never before.
Sheraz is an Emmy Award-winning producer at KQED and writes on subjects ranging from astronomy to synthetic biology. Julian is an aerospace engineer and entrepreneur who can often be found racing sailboats, SCUBA diving, and snowboarding.
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“The Science League of America” by Joshua Rosenau
When evolution education is in danger, who you gonna call? Today it would be the National Center for Science Education, but in the 1920s, you’d call the Science League of America. In 1924, Maynard Shipley–a science communicator and former shoe salesman, music teacher, and criminologist–feared a creationist onslaught. He saw anti-evolutionists attacking the theory of evolution “with the avowed intent of putting in the place of science the Book of Genesis.” Sound familiar? Learn how Shipley and his Science League of America dealt with many of the same issues that confront us today.
Joshua is the programs and policy director of the National Center for Science Education. He has also researched the evolutionary relationships between Philippine rodent species based on phallic morphology. So you can ask him about rat dicks, too.
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“Harnessing Brain Plasticity: The Future of Neuro-optimization” by Dr. Adam Gazzaley
A fundamental challenge of modern society is how to enhance everyone’s brain function. For the healthy, this problem is a core mission of our educational system, and for the cognitively impaired it’s a critical goal of medicine. But will schools and hospitals be able to do it? One of our favorite NNSF alumni will describe a novel approach to achieving neuro-optimization. Integrating recent innovations in software (e.g., video game mechanics) and hardware (e.g., mobile EEG), he’s creating a targeted and personalized intervention that may change the ways we teach and heal.
Adam is director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at UCSF, an associate professor in Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, and principal investigator of a cognitive neuroscience lab studying the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, and memory.
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NNSF t-shirts are still here! Designed by Alpha Bravo, who’ll also be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
And come hungry for the Grilled Cheese Guy, who’ll be upstairs slinging sammies!
From the sweetest of lemons to the sweetest of information scientists and the sweetest of… accounting?, we have a delightful cocktail of non-holiday-related talks that will make you glad you skipped that one Christmas party. So head over to the Rickshaw Stop and join us for fruity drinks and fruitful discussions with a plant-loving theorist, the Librarian in Black, and an accountant with a PhD. Be there and be square!
Wednesday, 12/18/2013
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages
Get tickets here!
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“Debits and Credits and Fraud… Oh My!” by Nick Ross
Over the last two decades we’ve seen an explosion of accounting fraud. From WorldCom to Tyco, Enron to Kmart, it sometimes feels like more companies are engaging in fraudulent behavior than being honest. And despite the fact that these are often multi-billion-dollar crimes, involve mysterious suicide (Clifford Baxter at Enron), and help push our economy to collapse (Lehman Brothers), accounting somehow still isn’t sexy and is considered boring. During this talk, we’ll do a bit of demystification, a bit of history, and a bit of forensics to show how we’ve gotten here and why this keeps happening. Hopefully, you won’t fall asleep.
Nick Ross, PhD, actually, no lie, holds a PhD in accounting from UCLA and finds it fascinating. He currently ruins video games at TinyCo and teaches Accounting and Analytics at USF.
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“When Life Gives You Lemons: Frank Meyer’s Hunt for Pomological Perfection” by Xan Chacko
In the early 20th century, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded agricultural explorations with the aim of retrieving fruit specimens for hybridization projects. One such agricultural explorer, noted for his eponymous lemon, was Frank Nicholas Meyer (1875-1919), an immigrant from the Netherlands whose expeditions in Asia brought us celebrated fruit, toxic weeds, and possibly even Chestnut blight. Writing to his patrons, Meyer is hopeful for a future for his fruit trees, laden with promise and productivity in their projected American environments.
Xan Chacko is a grad student in cultural studies at UC Davis who thinks about the intersection between plants and our ways of knowing them.
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“Where’d the Card Catalog Go? Today’s Ass-Kicking Libraries and Librarians” by Sarah Houghton
Contrary to the pundits’ predictions of their demise, libraries are now more vital to the knowledge economy than ever. They have 3D printers, home brewing and butchering classes, battles of the bands, downloadable books and magazines, torrent tutorials, and some of the world’s strongest information privacy systems and policies. And what about the librarians? You’ll find a scary-smart group of tech-nerd radicals dedicated to fighting government surveillance, campaigning against digital rights management, and above all protecting your freedom to access the information you want. As the library of yesteryear fades away, what
is emerging in its place?
Sarah Houghton is the director for the San Rafael Public Library. She’s blogged and consulted about technology and the future of libraries for ten years as the Librarian in Black. You can find out more at http://librarianinblack.net.
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NNSF t-shirts are still here! $20. Designed by our Über-talented DJ, poster artist, and now t-shirt maker, Alpha Bravo. He’ll also be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
And Kevin & Gail’s Chili Palace will be serving delicious hot chili upstairs.
Welcome back to dry land after the splendors of the ship-bound edutainment of Nerd Nite at Sea! It turns out there IS such a thing as the opposite of sea legs: mal de débarquement. But the dizziness will be swiftly allayed if you follow our Rx: alcoholic beverages by the Rickshaw Stop; music by Alpha Bravo; and a consultation with our three PhDs on the power of genomes, the saga of the vibrator, and the history of the original personal computer, your brain. Be there and be square!
Wednesday, 11/20/2013
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages
Get tickets here!
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“Unleashing the Power of Genomes” by Moisés Bernal
Love, God, end, universe, genome–these words have something in common: Their definitions can be unclear, and discussions on these matters can quickly spin off into knotty philosophical debates. What is a genome, anyway? And why is its study so important in evolutionary biology? This talk will address these questions, describe the main techniques that scientists use to unleash the genome’s power, and reveal some exciting findings of the past couple of years. Unfortunately, this talk will not alleviate your existential and spiritual fuzziness, but, hey, that’s what beer is for!
Moisés is a PhD Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin currently conducting his research from the California Academy of Sciences. He is also a mediocre bassist; terrible guitarist; and bike-riding, beer-imbibing, and live-music enthusiast.
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“Hysterical Paroxysms: The Amazing History of the Vibrator” by Carol Queen, PhD
Learn the history of our favorite “socially camouflaged” technology: the vibrator! From doctor’s office implement, where it was used starting in the 1880s to treat the “female trouble” called hysteria, to common household appliance promising “health, vigor, and beauty”–not to mention star turns in early-20th-century stag movies and the late-20th-century women’s sex toy revolution–the vibrator has had one of the most fascinating careers of any consumer product.
Carol is Good Vibrations‘ staff sexologist, curator of the Antique Vibrator Museum, and runs the Center for Sex & Culture.
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“The History of Your Brain” by Erica Warp, PhD
Congratulations! You made it from one fertilized cell to trillions of cells that work together to make a body that breathes, digests, and goes to lectures in bars. If you’re not already amazed by this, I hope you will be by the end of this talk, especially when it comes to the development of your super-complicated brain. How the heck did you build a computer inside your head?! Learn the steps your brain made, the roles genes and non-genes played, and how you are still developing today.
Erica is a developmental neuroscientist and artist turned educator and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the brain education company Kizoom and mom to Ned the Neuron.
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NNSF t-shirts are still here! $20. Designed by our über-talented DJ, poster artist, and now t-shirt maker, Alpha Bravo. He’ll also be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
If Nerdism were a religion, we would be kneeling down before this holy trinity of topics: alien hunting, augmented reality, and robots. We are not worthy! Come worship at the Rickshaw’s stage; grab a libation (or three); and meditate with an astronomer from the SETI Institute, an expert in wearable computing, and a robot evangelist. Be there and be square!
Wednesday, 10/16/2013
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St @Van Ness
$8, all ages
Tickets on sale now!
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Brilliant!Science presents: “Confessions of an Alien Hunter” with Seth Shostak and Ryan Wyatt
Seth Shostak knew he would spend his life hunting for signs of life in the Universe from the time he was just 10 years old. He is now a senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the Universe. Shostak has published hundreds of scientific articles, written several popular books and even has his own radio show. Ryan Wyatt, director of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization at the California Academy of Sciences, will join him on stage to hear the latest confessions of one of this world’s leading alien hunters!
Brilliant!Science is running several other awesome events from now until 10/26; learn more at http://www.calacademy.org/brilliantscience/
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“Wearable Computing and Big Data” by Anselm Hook
Wearable computers and big data will make our current Internet seem like a simple “series of tubes” after all. With technologies such as dense 3D scene reconstruction and a new, shared open voxel (volumetric pixel) map of the world, get ready for your Iron Man-style augmented reality (AR) dreams to come true! See fun examples of Anselm’s recent AR work and discuss some non-obvious implications while we break through the Google-Glass-ceiling to catch a glimpse of the future.
Anselm Hook is a software programmer at Dekko, an AR startup. He also worked on Terry Gilliam’s latest movie, The Zero Theorem. Prior to that he was at Xerox PARC, and in a former life he wrote video games.
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“It’s 2013. WHERE IS MY PERSONAL ROBOT?” by Elad Inbar
We often hear about the robotics revolution that’s set to change every aspect of our lives. From self-driving cars, pizza delivery drones, humanoid robots, all the way to the simplest vacuum cleaners, robots are here, and the trend is accelerating. But look deeper, under the flashy PR, and it’s obvious that the way to a bright, Hollywood-style future–with a Jetsons Rosie in every home–is still a long way off. Join a live demo of robots (including the humanoid NAO) and an open and intriguing discussion.
Elad Inbar is the founder and CEO of RobotAppStore, the first marketplace for robot apps, and RobotsLAB, a boutique firm dedicated to teaching STEM topics using robots.
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NNSF t-shirts return! $20. Designed by our über-talented DJ, poster artist, and now t-shirt maker, Alpha Bravo. He’ll also be spinning tunes specially selected for the presenters’ themes. Follow the setlist on Twitter @djalphabravo.
