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Brooklyn history and speed dating, together again! Join Nerd Nite for a special evening at the venerable Brooklyn Historical Society. 20 smart, single fellas and 20 smart, single lasses get a shot at finding their fall love during speed dating while also learning about our rich and sometimes dubious local history.  With drinks, of course.

September 24, 2015
Doors and check-in for speed dating open at 7pm / speed dating starts at 7:30pm
Presentations-only:  Doors at 9pm
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Buy tickets here

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
When Brooklyn Lost its Swagger: The Consolidation of 1898
by Michael Miscione

Description: Brooklyn was a large, proud, and independent city until 1898, when it was consolidated into the newly conceived five-borough NYC that exists today. Ever since, generations of bitter Brooklynites have grumbled about living in Manhattan’s shadow, but Brooklyn’s downgrade from city to borough was welcomed by many 19th century Brooklynites who saw is as a way to save their hometown from bankruptcy and irrelevance. Manhattan Borough Historian Michael Miscione will reveal all the dirty details behind what some Brooklynites still call “the mistake of ’98

After making you drive to Austin the last four years, Houston, you no longer have to trek north to go to Nerd Nite.  We’re proud to announce that Nerd Nite Houston premieres on January 30, 2014 at Notsuoh downtown.  Enjoy two funny-yet-smart presentations while the audience drinks along!

Nerd Nite Houston
Thursday January 30, 2014 at 8pm (doors at 7:30pm)
Notsuoh
314 Main St,
Houston, TX 77002
$0

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
Presenting Science to the Public:  “It’s late; we’re all tired; why should any of us care about anything you’re saying?”
by Douglas Natelson, Professor of Physics, Astronomy, and Electrical and Computer Engineering and Quantum Institute Fellow at Rice University

*Presentation #2
Why Voting Mechanisms Can’t Work
by Andy Boyd, Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston and Host of Engines of Our Ingenuity on NPR

*Presentation #3
Why I Hate Ellipsoids and How Superspace Saved Me
by Amado Guloy, Co-Boss of Nerd Nite Houston

There’s nothing like western Massachusetts and the Berkshires in the fall.  The leaves will be stunning and you’ll want to see them in all their changing glory.  And this fall, you can visit Nerd Nite too!  Yes, the good folks at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) invited Nerd Nite to be their special guest.  So come enjoy funny-yet-smart presentations about mumblecore movies, sex robots, and the sordid-yet-tasty history of cheese, while, of course, you drink along with your friends.  MASS MoCA + autumn + learning + drinking = a perfect night!

Tickets available soon!
October 13, 2012
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
Mumblecore: The Film Movement that Didn’t Roar
by Maria San Filippo

Description: Whether you’ve got a Netflix queue full of mumblecore or this is the first you’ve heard of the “m” word, there’s much to muse about in these homegrown indie movies that forged the first film movement of the 21st century.

Bio: Maria saw Blue Velvet at the impressionable age of 14, so naturally she now teaches cinema and media studies. She has a PhD from UCLA, is a visiting lecturer at Harvard and MIT, and is a research associate in feminist new media at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center. Her book The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television is forthcoming next year from Indiana University Press. Her friends, family, and therapist often admonish her that real life isn’t like the movies…but mumblecore just may prove them wrong.

*Presentation #2
Nerds & Whey: how the controlled spoilage of milk begets the world’s tastiest cheeses
by Aaron Foster

Little Miss Muffett sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey… what a poor cheesemaker she was. In her defense though, making cheese is hard work. It’s remarkable how only four ingredients can yield so much variation! Maybe Miss Muffett didn’t use the right proportion of rennet. Or perhaps the milk wasn’t allowed to properly acidify before coagulation. In this talk, we’ll explore the science, history, and culture of cheesemaking, and how those four ingredients give us Asiago and Zimbro, and the thousands of cheeses in between.

*Presentation #3
Hey, Where’s My Robot Girlfriend? The Singularity, Sperm Bots and the Future of Sexual Technology
by Laura G. Duncan

Description: Technology and sexuality have long been intimately connected. The robotic bride. The orgasm ray. The sex machine. These classic tropes of science fiction – how fictitious are they really? Hybrids of sex and technology are flourishing in contemporary culture, from basement workshops where power tools are lovingly repurposed into bedroom aids to media empires with genres devoted solely to robot-human couplings. So just how close are we to having a real life Data, the beloved android from Star Trek as fawning partner to our eminently human Tasha Yar? Will we be able to disable our foes with weaponized orgasms? Can you learn to love a robot? Can a robot learn to love you? Using examples from science fiction, the medical sciences and actual sex/tech projects, this talk will explore the past, present and future of sexual technology and its implications for the changing nature of sexuality, technology and the body.

Bio: Laura is a sexual health researcher currently studying social inequity in sexual healthcare and the influence of medicine on social understandings of sexuality and the body. She has taught sexual health education in a variety of academic, non-profit and community venues and currently serves as a full-spectrum doula. She is, disappointingly, not a robot.

There’s nothing like western Massachusetts and the Berkshires in the fall.  The leaves will be stunning and you’ll want to see them in all their changing glory.  And also this fall, you can visit Nerd Nite too!  Yes, the good folks at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) invited Nerd Nite to be their special guest.  So come enjoy funny-yet-smart presentations about mumblecore movies, sex robots, and the sordid-yet-tasty history of cheese, while, of course, you drink along with your friends.  MASS MoCA + autumn + learning + drinking = a perfect night!

Buy tickets ($10 students / $14 adults)
October 13, 2012
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

Back to the Lectures At-Hand:
*Presentation #1
Mumblecore: The Film Movement that Didn’t Roar
by Maria San Filippo

Description: Whether you’ve got a Netflix queue full of mumblecore or this is the first you’ve heard of the “m” word, there’s much to muse about in these homegrown indie movies that forged the first film movement of the 21st century.

Bio: Maria saw Blue Velvet at the impressionable age of 14, so naturally she now teaches cinema and media studies. She has a PhD from UCLA, is a visiting lecturer at Harvard and MIT, and is a research associate in feminist new media at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center. Her book The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television is forthcoming next year from Indiana University Press. Her friends, family, and therapist often admonish her that real life isn’t like the movies…but mumblecore just may prove them wrong. Learn all about her here.

*Presentation #2
Nerds & Whey: how the controlled spoilage of milk begets the world’s tastiest cheeses
by Aaron Foster

Little Miss Muffett sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey… what a poor cheesemaker she was. In her defense though, making cheese is hard work. It’s remarkable how only four ingredients can yield so much variation! Maybe Miss Muffett didn’t use the right proportion of rennet. Or perhaps the milk wasn’t allowed to properly acidify before coagulation. In this talk, we’ll explore the science, history, and culture of cheesemaking, and how those four ingredients give us Asiago and Zimbro, and the thousands of cheeses in between.

Bio: Aaron Foster is the head cheese buyer for Murray’s Cheese, New York City’s oldest cheese shop, located in Greenwich Village. Before narrowing his focus to the cheese trade, Aaron studied the classics at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. This grounding in philosophy and literature proved surprisingly relevant to a career in comestibles, with food sitting squarely at the intersection of art, science, and culture. Aaron went on to pursue a course in gastronomy at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche, the school established by Slow Food near Torino, Italy. Upon his return to the US, Aaron served as buyer and importer for a number of cheese retailers and distributors, notwithstanding a dalliance with a small bean-to-bar chocolate company in Somerville. He has worked for Murray’s Cheese since February 2011.

*Presentation #3
Hey, Where’s My Robot Girlfriend? The Singularity, Sperm Bots and the Future of Sexual Technology
by Laura G. Duncan

Description: Technology and sexuality have long been intimately connected. The robotic bride. The orgasm ray. The sex machine. These classic tropes of science fiction – how fictitious are they really? Hybrids of sex and technology are flourishing in contemporary culture, from basement workshops where power tools are lovingly repurposed into bedroom aids to media empires with genres devoted solely to robot-human couplings. So just how close are we to having a real life Data, the beloved android from Star Trek as fawning partner to our eminently human Tasha Yar? Will we be able to disable our foes with weaponized orgasms? Can you learn to love a robot? Can a robot learn to love you? Using examples from science fiction, the medical sciences and actual sex/tech projects, this talk will explore the past, present and future of sexual technology and its implications for the changing nature of sexuality, technology and the body.

Bio: Laura is a sexual health researcher currently studying social inequity in sexual healthcare and the influence of medicine on social understandings of sexuality and the body. She has taught sexual health education in a variety of academic, non-profit and community venues and currently serves as a full-spectrum doula. She is, disappointingly, not a robot.

Finally…Nerd Nite in regularly recurring audio form.  Nerd Nite Chicago Co-Boss (and former Nerd Nite Austin Co-Boss), Dan Rumney, is the host of our new Nerd Nite Podcast series.  Our premiere episode features Nerd Nite Founder/Godfather, Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, talking about the origins of our Nite and why drinking and silly taunting are so important.  Fun!

Download and/or subscribe now at http://podcast.nerdnite.com/feed or subscribe directly via iTunes at itpc://podcast.nerdnite.com/feed

Dearest Nerds & Friends of Nerds in Washington DC,

Please pass this along to your friends in and around our nation’s capital…
I’m proud to announce Nerd Nite’s first ever visit to our nation’s capital!  Yes, after years of requests, we’re finally getting off our lazy gluteus maximuses (maximi?) to bring together DC nerds who like to learn and drink, as we’re heading to the Wonderland Ballroom in Mount Pleasant / Columbia Heights on Saturday September 26 at 7pm. We’ll feature a presentation by our Nerd Nite Boston host about real-life zombies, as well as presentations by two local guests talking about the gross ways vaccines are created, and, well, I’m not willing to disclose the other talk just yet.  We’re even featuring the music of Brooklyn indie-rock supergroup Overlord (not a metal band and featuring current and ex-members of Palomar) so you can rock out while simultaneously viewing some of the best mental hygiene and Cold War film footage around.  It’s going to be, like, totally tubular.  Nerd Nite; it’s like the Discovery Channel with beer.

Facebook invite link too: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=144574809622

Saturday September 26, 2009 at 7pm (sorry about the early start time) – $10

Nerd Nite Washington DC
The Wonderland Ballroom
1101 Kenyon St NW
Washington, DC 20010
(Green Line to Columbia Heights Metro station)
Saturday September 26, 2009 at 7pm (doors at 6:30pm)
$10 cover charge
http://www.nerdnite.com

Back To The Lecture(s) At-Hand:

*Presentation #1:
The Neurobiology of Zombies
by Jeremy Kay

Description:  Zombie mind control is real!  Some types of parasites have the ability to turn their hosts into zombies that serve the needs and whims of the parasitic invader.  I’ll give some more examples of real-life zombies and delve into the neurobiology of how a parasite can control the behavior of its host.

Bio: Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Harvard. His professional work concerns vision, but he thinks parasite mind-control is far more interesting. His interest in zombies is purely academic. Really. Like, your brain will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.

*Presentation #2:
by Seth Cain
I’m not telling you, but involves the elimination of human waste in space.  Yep, I said it.

*Presentation #3:
Vaccines Are Helpful, But Making Them Is Gross
by Rebecca Blank
Description: Vaccines.  We’ve all had them (well, ideally all of us).  They keep us healthy even though they may make our arms and/or buttocks sore.  But since they’re in the news, there are also a lot of misrepresentations of them.  Rebecca will dive into the history of vaccines because you probably want to know that some methods involved taking pus from cow’s lesions and injecting it into humans.  Or that there once was an actual Cooties vaccine which we should all have been immunized against in childhood if our friends were nice enough to provide us with. Oh, and she’ll talk about the real science behind them, besides just recounting the icky details.

Bio: Rebecca is a scientific program manager at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health working on a global health project that involves malnutrition and diarrhea. Always one to have the gross out story at a party, she chose to get her Ph.D. studying parasitic worms that live off your blood and penetrate your liver with their eggs. Having recently recovered from an episode of the world’s newest pandemic, Swine Flu, she really really wishes that the vaccine had been made available BEFORE she got sick.

Music and mental hygiene and Cold War film footage by indie rock supergroup Overlord which features former Nerd Nite presenter George Pasles on vocals and lead guitar, current Palomar (http://www.myspace.com/palomar) bassist and former Nerd Nite presenter Sarah ‘Brockett’ Brockett, part-time Palo keyboardist Tris McCall, and past drummer Matt Houser.

Dearest Nerds & Friends of Nerds in Washington DC,

Please pass this along to your friends in and around our nation’s capital…
And here’s a Facebook invite too: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=144574809622&ref=nf

I’m proud to announce Nerd Nite’s first ever visit to our nation’s capital!  Yes, after years of requests, we’re finally getting off our lazy gluteus maximuses (maximi?) to bring together DC nerds who like to learn and drink, as we’re heading to the Wonderland Ballroom in Mount Pleasant / Columbia Heights on Saturday September 26 at 7pm. We’ll feature a presentation by our Nerd Nite Boston host about real-life zombies, as well as presentations by two local guests talking about the gross ways vaccines are created, and, well, I’m not willing to disclose the other talk just yet.  We’re even featuring the music of Brooklyn indie-rock supergroup Overlord (not a metal band and featuring current and ex-members of Palomar) so you can rock out while simultaneously viewing some of the best mental hygiene and Cold War film footage around.  It’s going to be, like, totally tubular.  Nerd Nite; it’s like the Discovery Channel with beer.

Saturday September 26, 2009 at 7pm (sorry about the early start time) – $10

Nerd Nite Washington DC
The Wonderland Ballroom
1101 Kenyon St NW
Washington, DC 20010
(Green Line to Columbia Heights Metro station)
Saturday September 26, 2009 at 7pm (doors at 6:30pm)
$10 cover charge
http://www.nerdnite.com

Back To The Lecture(s) At-Hand:

*Presentation #1:
The Neurobiology of Zombies
by Jeremy Kay

Description:  Zombie mind control is real!  Some types of parasites have the ability to turn their hosts into zombies that serve the needs and whims of the parasitic invader. I’ll give some more examples of real-life zombies and delve into the neurobiology of how a parasite can control the behavior of its host.

Bio: Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Harvard. His professional work concerns vision, but he thinks parasite mind-control is far more interesting. His interest in zombies is purely academic. Really. Like, your brain will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.

*Presentation #2:
by Seth Cain
Not telling you yet…

*Presentation #3:
Vaccines Are Helpful, But Making Them Is Gross
by Rebecca Blank
Description: Vaccines.  We’ve all had them (well, ideally all of us).  They keep us healthy even though they may make our arms and/or buttocks sore.  But since they’re in the news, there are also a lot of misrepresentations of them.  Rebecca will dive into the history of vaccines because you probably want to know that some methods involved taking pus from cow’s lesions and injecting it into humans.  Or that there once was an actual Cooties vaccine which we should all have been immunized against in childhood if our friends were nice enough to provide us with. Oh, and she’ll talk about the real science behind them, besides just recounting the icky details.

Bio: Coming soon (Rebecca currently has the swine flu – seriously – so she’s currently focused on fever reduction instead of bio writing)

Music and mental hygiene and Cold War film footage by indie rock supergroup Overlord (http://www.myspace.com/overlordisnotmetal) which features former Nerd Nite presenter George Pasles on vocals and lead guitar, current Palomar (http://www.myspace.com/palomar) bassist and former Nerd Nite presenter Sarah ‘Brockett’ Brockett, part-time Palo keyboardist Tris McCall, and past drummer Matt Houser. And Kerry too.

In case you missed it, we had a lot of great press recently and we even had a documentary shot by Japan’s elite NHK TV.  View it here:  http://dailynewsonline.magnify.net/video/New-York-Wave-Nerd-Nite

Video!: http://www.truveo.com/Nerd-Night-Comes-To-Hollywood/id/887647248
Video!: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/station/features/Are_You_Nerd_Enough__San_Diego.html
http://nycgo.com/?event=view.article&id=136616
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/thecity/01nerd.html
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/nerds-just-wanna-have-fun/
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1146949520070612
Video!: http://blogs.discovery.com/nerdabout_new_york/2009/02/nerd-nite-revisted.html
Video!: http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-gaming/article/2008-04/driving-intellects-and-quenching-thirst