Nerd Nite Beta

June 12, 2014
Doors open at 7:00 pm – Event starts at 7:30 pm

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Beta software is usually buggy and not ready for public consumption.
Nerd Nite Beta contains no bugs and consumption is encouraged.

At Nerd Nite Alpha I learned that there are more nerds in Calgary than I expected!   So for Nerd Nite Beta I have moved us to a new location – the National Music Centre.  A cool venue that should have lots of room for all the nerds out there that want to attend.

I have 3 speakers lined up that will again educate us on 3 very different topics.  So bring out your friends and enjoy some nerdness.

When: June 12, 2014 – Doors open at 7:00 pm, event starts at 7:30 pm.
Where: National Music Centre – 134 11 Avenue SE
$15 in advance only – includes one drink (available here)
No tickets sold at the door.
This is an 18+ event.

Notes about the new venue:  One change is that at the new venue we have to run our own bar so due to liquor license rules there will be no entry tickets sold at the door.  Tickets will be $15 online only but do include one drink.  There will be no kitchen also but our caterer will have baked goods and one food dish available (Cashew Chicken Curry with basmati rice).  There is a large parking lot on the other side of 11th Ave.

As we require a liquor license for this event, please note the event is private and only open to Nerd Nite Calgary members and invited guests.  To become a member please email to be placed on the groups mailing list.

 

Bitcoin From Scratch
Matt Lonsdale

Between the wild fluctuations in value, the FBI raids, the bankruptcies of high-profile firms and the botched attempts at investigative journalism, Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies get a lot of press these days. Unfortunately, these news stories rarely spend much time on one basic question: how does Bitcoin actually work? This talk will attempt to answer that question, progressing from the basic concepts of a decentralized currency to the technology which makes it possible and the attempts by government to regulate the whole thing.

Biography:
Matt Lonsdale is a lawyer and unapologetic geek. Before getting into law, he earned undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics from the University of Calgary. He spent six years working as a Linux/UNIX system administrator and interned with the the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.He is currently the Copyright Advisor at Mount Royal University, where he also teaches a course on Intellectual Property law in the Continuing Education department. He spends more time than is probably healthy thinking about the intersection of law and technology and wishes he’d bought more bitcoins years ago.

 

Bigger on the Inside: Fandom, Materiality and the Limits of Participation
Benjamin Woo

In Batman (1989), the Joker famously asks, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” A better question – and one painfully familiar to the film’s fannish audiences – might be where he keeps them. Growing collections of toys, books, DVDs, and other mementoes are an almost intrinsic part of participating in geek culture, but when they have to be stored, managed, and maintained they also become a limit on participation.

In this presentation, I’ll discuss geek culture from a material culture perspective. Material culture studies is a perspective in the social sciences that attempts to understand human behaviour through the physical artefacts that we use. For instance, although we often talk about fandom in terms of emotional states like “interest,” “enthusiasm,” or “passion,” fandom is also intimately involved with material objects, objects that enable certain actions but also become problems we have to deal with.

Bio:
Benjamin Woo (@wooesque) is a currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of English at the University of Calgary where he has been conducting a study on working conditions in the comic-book industry. He did his graduate work at SFU’s School of Communication, writing an award-winning dissertation on one city’s “nerd-culture scene,” and will begin teaching in Carleton University’s Communication Studies program this fall. With all this moving around, he’s had to make some tough decisions about his own collections.

 

The Breathtaking Effects of Obesity on Breathing During Exercise
M@ … aka: Matthew David Spencer

Some obese individuals experience shortness of breath during exercise, whereas others do not. This talk will outline some of the potentially damning effects of this breathlessness, and will also provide a glimpse into what may lead some to feel the discomfort, while others do not. 100% truth… no hot air!

Bio:
Matt is currently working as an Eyes High Postdoctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He previously spent time in some research capacity at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (Dallas, TX), Kobe University (Kobe, JP), and earned his doctorate from the University of Western Ontario (London, ON). On his own time, Matt thoroughly enjoys coaching basketball; after spending 12 seasons as an assistant coach with the high school girls’ team in his hometown of Antigonish, NS, he then spent two years with the UWO Mustangs women’s team, and a month as a guest coach with the Kobe University Seagulls while in Japan. Matt joined the University of Calgary Dinos coaching staff as an assistant last year, and lately has donated loads of his “nerdiness” to the program by conducting an advanced statistical analysis of the team’s performance. After the Nerd Night experience is over, Matt plans on focusing his attention toward his next failed comeback to distance running!

Nerd Nite Alpha – SOLD OUT

May 8, 2014
7:30pm

nerd_glasses_tape2_smaller

Hello Calgary, Nerd Nite begins!

In almost 80 cities around the world, nerds congregate in bars, pubs and theaters to listen to talks that are educational, fun and sometimes even a little ridiculous … add in a little alcohol and you have a great combination.

For our inaugural event, I’m proud to present our topic line up of floating dinosaurs, one way tickets to mars and the Flintstones as history.  Come on out and bring your friends!

When: May 8, 2014 – Door open at 7:30pm
Where: The Belfry Gastro House – downstairs (102-630 8 Ave SW, Calgary)
$10 in advance (available here) SOLD OUT
$13 at the door
This is an 18+ event.

Sauropod dinosaurs – the colossal corks of the Mesozoic
Dr. Donald Henderson

The tiny-headed, long-necked, long-tailed sauropod dinosaurs were the largest land animals to have evolved on Earth. They were around from the earliest Jurassic until the very end of the Cretaceous, a period of about 145 million years, and can be considered one of evolutions success stories. The smallest of them weighed about a 1 tonne, but most were in the 10-20 tonne range, while exceptional ones may have weighed as much as 60 tonnes. These animals showed many skeletal adaptations to reduce the amount of bone needed to form their skeletons, and they also developed a very elaborate system of air sacs in the spines, neck, chest and abdomen to assist with breathing and cooling. As a result they had a mean body density less than that of water, and this leads to the idea that they would have been very buoyant in water. The modern interpretation of sauropods is to have them as land-living, herbivores, but most land animals will take to water occasionally. This talk will look at the consequences of light and airy sauropods being immersed in water.

Bio: Dr. Donald Henderson is Curator of Dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. He has a BSc in geophysics from the University of Toronto, but got fed up with solving computer hardware and software problems, and not doing much science. He subsequently earned a PhD in vertebrate palaeontology and biomechanics from the University of Bristol in England. He spent 5 years as a post-doc, research associate, and instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary, before joining the Tyrrell Museum in 2006. Despite his dinosaur title, he also collects and studies ancient marine reptiles (plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and mosasaurs), and also studies pterosaurs – the ancient flying reptiles that co-existed with the dinosaurs. His main research interests are understanding how the large and mysterious animals of the past functioned as living animals, and he does this with his math, physics and computing knowledge.

The Flintstones are Real!
Christine M. Shellska

In this journey through rhetorical mayhem, I will attempt to persuade you that The Flintstones cartoon is a historically accurate portrayal of a young earth! Pay no attention to the mounds of scientific evidence that soundly refute the claims of Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC), and never mind what philosophers of science have to say about how we demarcate science from pseudoscience: after briefly positioning the so-called “controversy” surrounding evolution and arming you with some basic critical thinking tools to aid your navigation through this “scientific debate,” I will deploy some of the rhetorical strategies advocates of IDC use to engage students, citizens, and others to mistrust and reject science, and to convince you (hopefully unsuccessfully) that The Flintstones are real!

 Bio: Christine Shellska is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research involves studying the rhetorical strategies employed by the Intelligent Design Creationism movement, and her areas of focus include history, philosophy and sociology of science, Actor Network Theory and rhetoric. She is a Secular Humanist Liaison at the Faith and Spirituality Centre at the University of Calgary, a member of the Board of Directors for Atheist Alliance International, and a regular co-host on the Calgary-based Legion of Reason podcast.

Settling Mars: The next chapter of the human saga
Graham Blair Christensen

An Albertan Mars One candidate tells the story of his lifelong love of science and adventure, calling the red planet home and of the deep past and possible future of humankind. The talk will focus on Mars One’s plan to send 40 people on a one-way mission to Mars which is set to launch the first settlers in 2024 and will begin training the candidates in 2015. Graham will share his personal story of obstacles and triumph in his effort to reach the red planet. Along the way, he will introduce us to Mars of the past and present and share his thoughts on the Neanderthals and human evolution, Mars as a stepping stone to the establishment of a galactic civilization and the potential diversity of a cosmic biosphere.

Bio: Graham Blair Christensen is one of Mars One’s 1,058 worldwide candidates for a one-way mission to Mars which plans to launch the first human settlers in 2024. Graham has lived in Alberta all his life where he has pursued his interests in astronomy and paleontology and his love of outdoor adventure. He has some formal background in electronics but is largely self-educated. As a seasoned fossil hunter Graham has made many fossil discoveries in Alberta’s badlands and mountains. His lifelong love of astronomy is expressed through astrophotography, nightscapes and time lapses.