nerd nite

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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