Nerd Nite SF

Happy birthday to us! Nerd Nite SF turns two! Two awesome years of not-quite-sober education (inebrication? drunkademics?) and meeting great people. The tradition continues with talks on exploiting cuteness for fun and profit, why the English language is so fucked up, and how atomic magnetometry is the coolest form of measurement. Be there and be square!

Wednesday, 5/16
Doors at 7:30, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street @Van Ness
$8
All ages

Facebook Event Page

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“Kawaii: The Art of the Super-Cute” by Megan Carlsen

Behold the power of pandas, penguins, and Pikachu! Kawaii is the Japanese word for the quality of cuteness. Cute things stimulate the same area of the brain as arousal, a good meal, or cocaine does. We connect and respond to cute-cues in a visceral way, strongly influenced by our culture, and this behavior affects our actions and, consequently, marketing, medical research, and evolution. We’ll explore what creates cuteness, including the “so ugly it’s cute” phenomena. Corgis, otters, and flying rainbow ponies will abound!

Megan Carlsen makes art so cute it hurts your face for TinyCo. You can check out examples of Megan’s work at www.meganillustration.com, or play Tiny Pets and Tiny Zoo, available free in the App Store! * plug plug *

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“Ghoti Spells ‘Fish’ (and Other Vagaries of the English Language)” by Logan Hesse

Why are “beard,” “read,” and “heard,” pronounced differently? Why do sympathy and empathy have nothing to do with places to walk? Exactly how much of this can be blamed on the Dutch? What’s so great about the Great Vowel Shift? Samuel Johnson or Noah Webster? So many questions! These mysteries and more will be explained as a jaded ESL teacher shares stuff he had to learn the hard way: by telling his students to memorize it.

Logan Hesse is an American who studied English in Australia, a fact that makes Brits cry. He has spent the last 8 years in the trenches of the English Language classroom teaching at vocational colleges in Thailand, universities in Australia, and private language colleges in San Francisco. When not teaching his students the correct pronunciation of “fer sheezy” he also has been known to write stuff down.

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“A Boy and His Atoms: A Tale of Rubidium, Magnetic Fields, Lasers, Helicopters, and a Giant Corpse Flower” by Brian “Ishy” Patton

Much as atomic clocks measure time to mind-boggling precision, atomic magnetometers can measure magnetic fields better than just about anything. This isn’t just a useless stunt; precision magnetic measurements can help map the interior of the planet, determine what you’re thinking, detect land mines, and maybe even spy on plant sex. This talk will address the basics of atomic magnetometry through a combination of anecdotes and demonstrations (with a conspicuous amount of hand-waving thrown in).

Ishy, a.k.a. Brian Patton, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Physics Dept. at UC Berkeley. His research interests include nuclear magnetic resonance, hyperpolarization of stuff, hot-vapor atomic physics, and anything involving the word “spin.” He spends his free time watching videos of people throwing alkali metals in water.

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All this and DJ Alpha Bravo spinning tunes specially selected for our speakers’ topics!

Another month, and another awesome lineup at your favorite lecture-in-a-bar series! Get ready to eat bugs, to be seduced by Mary Jane, and learn what your period might have to do with hooking up. Be there and be square!

Wednesday, 4/18
Doors at 7:30, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street @Van Ness
$8
All ages

FB Event Page
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“Edible Insects: Finger-lickin’ Grub” with KQED’s QUEST, Don Bugito, and Girl Meets Bug

A plate of roasted crickets, pan-fried bee larvae or caramelized mealworms would be a tough swallow for most, but not for a few Bay Area residents who are encouraging people to open their minds and mouths to edible insects. Explore why they think edible insects are a smarter alternative to more traditional kinds of meat with KQED’s QUEST Science Series Producers, Amy Miller and Sheraz Sadiq who hatched the idea to report on the topic. They’ll be joined by two people featured in QUEST’s edible insects report premiering at 7:30pm on Wednesday, April 25 on KQED 9 Public Television: Monica Martinez (of Don Bugito, the nation’s first edible insect food cart) and Daniella Martin (AKA “Girl Meets Bug”, an edible insect enthusiast). Plus, if your stomach is up for it, select members of the audience will have a chance to try edible insects!

Amy Miller is the TV Series Producer of QUEST and has had the opportunity to produce stories on a great range of science and environment topics including NASA’s hunt for killer asteroids, the alarming increase in premature births in the U.S. and the causes of sewage spills in San Francisco Bay.

Sheraz Sadiq has been at KQED since 2000, when he was hired to work on “No Turning Back”, a National Emmy Award-winning documentary about political asylum. In addition to producing TV segments for QUEST on topics ranging from synthetic biology to astronomy, Sheraz has also reported on breaking science stories for KQED News.

Monica Martinez is a San Francisco artist and chef with an unusual culinary specialty: edible insects. She launched Don Bugito, the nation’s first edible insect food cart, at the 2011 San Francisco Street Food Festival, and recently joined the food truck extravaganza “Off the Grid”.

Daniella Martin is the host of Girl Meets Bug, the insect cooking/travel show. She also blogs about bugs for the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniella-martin). You can watch her cooking demos on her YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/GirlMeetsBug).

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“What the Girls Want: Thoughts on Desire and the Cultivation of Cannabis” by Heather Donahue

In this talk, we’ll be exploring the light illicit botany has to shed on female sexuality. Humans and Cannabis have been co-evolving for thousands of years. This relationship has been fueled by desire and has been powerful enough that marijuana plants have adapted to thrive in places far from their origins. The cannabis plants commonly used for medicine and recreation are typically female. Heather Donahue, a former medical marijuana grower and permanent human lady, has some unexpected insights to share from the synthesis of these two experiences.

Heather Donahue started life telling stories and hasn’t stopped. A brief foray into acting brought the freakish experience of partaking in The Blair Witch Project. Other roles were played in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Seven and a Match, New Suit, Without a Trace, Steven Spielberg’s Taken, and of course there was that alien impregnation in the Outer Limits. Her memoir Growgirl was recently published by Gotham/Penguin. She has written for The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, and was the winner of the one and only Bust/Good Vibrations erotica contest. There is more at www.heatherdonahue.com

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“The Calculus of Attraction: the Female Cycle and Human Evolution” by Jason Whitaker

Why is the peacock’s tail so extravagant? Why are men’s voices deeper than women’s? Why do only male stag beetle possess a horn? These questions can’t be answered by Natural Selection — differential survival; but instead, many traits’ origins are best explained by Sexual Selection — differential reproductive success. And humans are not exempt from this process. This talk will survey some instances of Sexual Selection in human evolution, how these hypotheses are inferred from behavioral data, and -oddly enough- how the female cycle figures into all of it.

Jason is currently earning his BS in Psyc-Neuroscience, with minors in Biology and Biological Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego. He is excited about giving this talk, as it provides him with a larger than normal audience to whom he can somewhat drunkenly ramble at on the finer points of niche evolutionary biology.

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Music by the always awesome DJ Alpha Bravo, who plays tunes specially themed around the presenters’ topics! I’m very curious what he’ll come up with for this month.

Wednesday, 3/21
Doors at 7:30, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street @Van Ness
$8
All ages

Facebook Event Page

Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and inattentive? Living in fear of a squid invasion? Considering wealth redistribution by cutlass and cannon? Then this is the Nerd Nite for you! So come on down, grab a beer, nod your head to the beats, and listen to these three awesome presentations. Be there and be square!

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“The mindful brain: If the Buddha was a neuroscientist” by Philippe Goldin, Ph. D.

There is an evolving contemplative neuroscience that is delineating how we transform ourselves from anxious, overwhelmed, and inattentive creatures to beings that can develop laser-beam attention, refined emotion regulation skills, and a genuine motivation to care for others. And it is all happening in the brain, body, and society. This talk will provide a glimpse into the cutting-edge field of contemplative science and how new neuroimaging research is being applied at Google, in mental health clinics, and beyond!

Philippe Goldin, Ph.D. spent 6 years in India and Nepal studying various languages, Buddhist philosophy and debate at Namgyal Monastery and the Dialectic Monastic Institute, and serving as an interpreter for various Tibetan Buddhist lamas. He then returned to the U.S. to complete a Ph.D. in Psychology at Rutgers University where he trained as a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist. He is currently a research scientist and directs the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience group in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University (http://caan.stanford.edu/index.html).

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“Making Squid Babies: Investigations of an Invertebrate Invasion” by Danna Staaf

Humboldt squid sporadically show up en masse in California, prompting media outlets to freak out about a squid invasion. Is it all hype, or is there cause for alarm? Will Humboldt squid move into California for good, devour all our fish, then cover our beaches with their rotting carcasses? Danna will offer answers and insight from her experience as a mad scientist–years spent mixing squid eggs and sperm in petri dishes to create baby squid for experimentation.

Danna Staaf is a marine biologist, a science writer, a novelist, an artist, and an educator. She helped found the outreach program Squids4Kids, illustrated The Game of Science, and blogs for Science 2.0 and KQED QUEST. She got a BA in Creative Studies from UC Santa Barbara and a PhD in Baby Squid from Stanford, and lives in San Jose with her husband and two cats.

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“Noblemen Gone Wrong: Piracy and the Democratic Society” by Brittany Stonesifer

Swashbucklers and buccaneers have been remembered by Hollywood for their vicious skirmishes on the briny deep and for legends of jewel-laden shipwrecks, but pirates have been lesser known for their role in influencing contemporary politics. From the (relative) egalitarianism and racial diversity of Golden Era privateers to the creation of a blueprint for modern anti-terrorism law, the world of pillaging sea rovers and scurvy corsairs has been a hotbed for developments and failures in the democratic experiment. This talk will give pirates their proper spotlight as celebrities of political change in the tumultuous wave of globalization.

Captain Morgan Bonney (aka Brittany Stonesifer) is a law student in San Francisco, focusing in international human rights and Constitutional law. Hailing from the Aloha State, Brittany has spent years adding to her already sizable nerdery by making herself an amateur pirate specialist. She also makes a mean crème brulee.

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Plus: DJ Alpha Bravo selects vinyl cuts to illuminate our presenters’ themes. Alpha Bravo is VP of left-field pop label, Radio Khartoum, and was one of the forces behind legendary SF pop-club nights, Anisette and Schokolade.

King tides foretelling global warming’s global flooding! Grown-up Lego enthusiasts and the bricks they love! The history of sex science and teledildonics! All these lectures and the pleasures of drink, music, and nerd fellowship await you at this month’s Nerd Nite SF. Be there and be square!

Wednesday, 2/15
Doors at 7:30, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street @Van Ness
$8
All ages

FB Event Page

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“Strange Waters: King Tides + Sea Level Rise, Rollin’ up to a Coast Near You” by Taylor Nairn

Let’s set aside for a moment whether one “believes” in dinosaurs, yetis, 2Pac still recording music – or climate change. The photographs speak for themselves. The California King Tide Initiative will showcase pics from you – yes, you provided the evidence! – of seasonal king tides (which are higher-than-normal high tides) to demonstrate what rising sea levels could look like along our coast. From Sutro Baths to Jack London Square, the Embarcadero to Sausalito, Taylor Nairn will discuss the community-based initiative to visualize the impact of rising waters, and win hearts and minds in the process.

Taylor Nairn works for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. She calls her project partners The Sea Level Rise Sisters, which was cute only once.

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“LEGO® and Grown-Ups: Instructions Not Included” by Brendan Mauro

Remember raking through piles of bricks, searching for the precisely sized piece of injection-molded plastic to finish your masterpiece? The telltale rattle of a new set wrapped and under the Christmas tree? The click and snap and smooth perfection of two bits fitting together? For the subculture of grown-up Lego enthusiasts, these pleasures aren’t just nostalgia. Brendan Mauro presents an insider’s view on the quirks, talents, and habits of the adult Lego community, what it’s like being the guy in the Lego store who’s outlived the recommended ages on all the boxes, and what makes the brick – still considered a children’s toy by most – so compelling as a hobby and artistic medium.

Brendan is lead artist at an independent game developer in San Francisco. He started playing with Lego bricks when he was five and never really stopped.

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“The Politics, History, and Future of Physiological Sex Science” by Ned Mayhem

This talk will argue that rigorous and candid science about sex is important for individual freedom and social justice, and that it the current system of academic science is failing in this distressingly controversial field. The most important experiments are the least likely to be funded or published in the current system. The tools necessary to do these experiments are becoming increasingly accessible and robust, so it is now possible for an independent scientific community to do cutting edge research. To give context to this perspective, I will give a brief and selective overview of the history of sex science in the modern system of academic science. I will then present the PSIgasm devices, created by myself and my partner Maggie Mayhem to measure physiological sexual response quickly and robustly at home.

Ned Mayhem is a queer scientist and pornographer who splits his time between quantum physics research and on-camera sex acts. Ned created the software that runs Meet The Mayhems (http://MeetTheMayhems.com/), a couples porn site featuring Ned and his partner Maggie Mayhem. He is now working to make this software available to other performers and sex workers interested in any kind of online media or product sales. Ned and Maggie also run the PSIgasm Project, an open source independent science project which creates devices to measure arousal and orgasm in the body directly.

Plus: DJ Alpha Bravo selects vinyl cuts to illuminate our presenters’ themes. Alpha Bravo is VP of left-field pop label, Radio Khartoum, and was one of the forces behind legendary SF pop-club nights, Anisette and Schokolade.

Wednesday, 1/18
Doors at 7:30, show at 8
Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell Street @Van Ness
$8
All ages

Mad science turns its attention to ice cream making! A 19th-century suburb of SF made out of streetcars! Artificial development of antibodies – which will maybe help me get over this @*($% cold! But, wait, there’s more! We’re also celebrating the first issue of Nerd Nite: the Magazine! So come on down for some drinks, beats, lectures, and a free copy of our first issue. Be there and be square!

NERD NITE: THE MAGAZINE

Holy heck, we have a magazine, peoples. It features the best of the best from Nerd Nites around the world, coupled with gorgeous photos and infographics. The first issue covers: the history and future of the late Kim Jong-il’s favorite attire, the jumpsuit; an in-depth look at the romance novel industry; a cephalopod sex advice column written by Nerd Nite SF alum, Rich Ross, and more! We’re giving away FREE copies at this month’s Nerd Nite.

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“Closer to the Cow: Robyn’s Adventures in Ice Cream” by Robyn Sue Fisher and Cory Bloom

After graduating from Stanford Business School in 2007, Robyn Sue Fisher attended ice cream school (which is even more fun than it sounds) at Penn State University, where she met cows that told her they were really, really disappointed with how their milk was being churned into icy, way-too-sugary ice cream that was loaded with preservatives. She decided to perfect the ice cream freezing process using liquid nitrogen, so she spent a few years in her super top-secret underground workshop building “Kelvin,” her patented ice cream making machine. In late 2009, she began wheeling Kelvin around the streets of San Francisco atop a Radio Flyer wagon, powered with a homemade battery pack, equipped with off-road wagon wheels, and armed with Twitter and a dewar of LN2. She’s now the proud owner of the first San Francisco made-to-order scoop shop, which is in nearby Hayes Valley.

Robyn will talk about her invention process, entrepreneurial passions, and New Year’s Resolution to make new, old fashioned ice cream for each and every resident of San Francisco. She will be joined by “The Kelvin Doctor,” Cory Bloome, the engineer responsible for bringing the next generation of Kelvins to life.

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“Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco’s Streetcar Suburb” by Woody LaBounty and David Gallagher

“Carville-by-the-Sea,” one of the quirkiest and least-remembered communities in San Francisco’s history, flowered as an 1890s beach retreat on the sand dunes south of Golden Gate Park. Prominent bohemians, judges, lady bicyclists, and sand-bath-prescribing physicians transformed old transit cars into cottages and clubhouses, mansions and churches. See what creative carpenters of a century ago could make with obsolete horsecars, cable cars, and trolley cars. Famous capitalists, writers, painters, and journalists visited Carville to work, play, and enjoy what was touted as the “oddest village in the world.”

Woody LaBounty and David Gallagher are the founders of the Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of western San Francisco (www.outsidelands.org). Rather than get history degrees, the two have relied on wearing old-timey hats to appear credible.

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“Antibody Engineering (or at least something close)” by Sai Duriseti

Do you get sick? Yes? Well, me, too. Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about those little guys that help you fight off disease. That’s right, I’m talking about antibodies; they rock. They rock so hard that, in fact, there is a whole scientific field dedicated to the artificial development of antibodies to fight disease. We call this field: antibody engineering. Men have spent fortunes, leveraged their homes, and sold their spouses in order to bankroll efforts to find an antibody-based magic bullet for diseases. As I’ll explain to you, however, this task is much harder than it seems. We ingenious humans, however, have found some PAR codes (shame on you if you know what those are) for this seemingly insurmountable task. We’ll talk about antibodies and the current status of this awesome field.

Sai is a PhD student at UCSF. He is a gentleman, a scholar, and a troublemaker.

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Plus: DJ Alpha Bravo selects vinyl cuts to illuminate our presenters’ themes. Alpha Bravo is VP of left-field pop label, Radio Khartoum, and was one of the forces behind legendary SF pop-club nights, Anisette and Schokolade.