nerdnite – Boston

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O Nerds of Boston (and environs),

The latest exciting edition of Nerdnite is on tap for Monday August 30, at the Middlesex (details below). Those of you making your way back to town for the start of the fall semester — or possibly showing up for the first time — are going to arrive just in time for a fantastic night of nerdery. I can’t tell you how eager I am to hear both of these presentations…. One of our speakers has written a book that is so perfect for a Nerdnite talk that it really should have been the first title from Nerdnite Press…if only there were such a thing. Even though there isn’t, we’re doing the second-best thing: We’re celebrating the release of the paperback version of Ethan Gilsdorf’s “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks” by having him come in to tell us his story.

And the other speaker — how could he top that? Well, he’ll be explaining how he can control your brain with lasers. Trust me folks – this one is not to be missed. As always, DJ Claude Money will provide the nerd-appropriate tunes.

The talks:
1. “Mind Control and Optogenetics: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Virus”
by Azriel Ghadooshahy

Azriel is a graduate student in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. His current work aims to elucidate neural primitives of how the brain’s executive control system copes with environmental uncertainty and unpredictability. These studies employ optogenetics, a revolutionary technology that enables selective manipulations of neural circuits with light. Ostensibly, his goal is advancing scientific progress and discovering new therapies for incurable diseases of the brain. However, his other motivations may or may not include mind control and world domination.

2. “Tolkien, D&D, RPGs, MMOs and me: one geek’s personal journey there
and back again through fantasy and gaming subcultures.”
by Ethan Gilsdorf

Back in the Reagan Administration, Ethan Gilsdorf played Dungeons &
Dragons every Friday night from 8th grade to senior year in high
school, read a crapload of science fiction and fantasy, and wasted his
allowance playing Galaga and Robotron 2084 at his local arcade. Now
he’s all growed up (mostly) and felt compelled to explore his geeky
past and present in his travel memoir / pop culture investigation
“Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role
Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.”
Gilsdorf lives in Somerville, where he writes on arts, travel and pop
culture for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science
Monitor, Washington Post, and Psychology Today, and trawls the
Internet for rumors of the movie adaption of “The Hobbit.” More info:

http://www.ethangilsdorf.com/.

Be There and Be Square!
Monday August 30, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52318050296

http://twitter.com/nerdniteboston

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nerdnite/

Dear nerds of Boston (and their friends),
For many of you, summer is probably a welcome break from your academic nerdy pursuits.  But if you’re hankering for a brief dose of summertime nerdery, we’ve got you covered.  The next Nerdnite will be Monday July 26, at the Middlesex Lounge, starting at 8pm (full details below).  As usual, we’ve got two fantastic talks lined up, interspersed with nerd-appropriate tunes by DJ Claude Money.

Talk 1:  “Joystick Soldiers: Fifty Years of Videogames and War”
By Nina Huntemann
Nina first starting playing videogames in 1978 on a Sears clone of the Atari 2600 and, when her father wasn’t looking, on the TI-99/4A he bought at Toys R Us in 1981. She has managed to turn her love of gaming into a career at Suffolk University, where she was granted tenure last year for, among other things, publishing a book about videogames and the military.

Talk 2: “Crazy Vision: The Science Behind Popular Optical Illusions”
By Brandon Moore
Brandon is a graduate from MIT where he studied brain and cognitive sciences.  When not studying how the brain does vision he enjoys reading, playing video games, and coming up with bad ideas.

Be there and be square!
Monday July 26, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave (Central Square)
Cambridge, MA
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52318050296

Hello nerds of summer,

The next Nerdnite will be a special SUNDAY edition, June 27 (8pm) at Middlesex Lounge. There’s no better way to finish off your weekend than with a little bit o’ nerdery…so we hope you’ll join us next Sunday for some edutainment and beer. As always, DJ Claude Money will provide nerd-appropriate tunes.  The lineup:

Talk 1:
“That’s What She Said: Creating and Using Personal Narratives”
by Jessica Bitely
History is made by the winners, but sometimes the losers have a lot to say. This talk will explain how the making and use of oral histories can expand our understanding of the past. Jessica is a once and future librarian with a passion for other people’s stories. With family from West Virginia, friends in Florida, and her heart in Texas, she has learned to love tall tales and exaggerations, and she is always willing to speculate on things she knows nothing about. (But she totally knows about conducting oral histories.)

Talk 2: “Welcome to St. Augustine”
by Mary Lewey
Using 5 cameras (film and digital) to explore the history and culture of our nation’s oldest city, this presentation is a documentation of time and place, of old meeting new. Mary is a writer, photographer and bon vivant currently living in Jamaica Plain with her cat, Graham Greene. Oh, and she almost forgot to mention: she is co-organizer of Nerdnite Boston.

Be there and be square
Sunday June 27 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52318050296

Hello Boston nerds and friends of nerds,

Wrap up your Memorial Day grilling early and come out to the Middlesex for a nerdy kick-off to summer.  The Nerdnite barbecue is cookin’ up a ton of nerd-o-licious info about beer brewing and internet chicanery.  We hope you’ll join us at 8pm on Monday May 31.  As always, musical entertainment will be courtesy of DJ Claude Money.

The talks:
1. Preparing for the next prohibition: a primer on brewing your own beer.
by Desika Narayanan

Desika likes snowboarding, playing basketball, brewing beer and doing astronomy. Unfortunately (for him), he sucks at the first three enough that he only gets paid to do the latter. Fortunately (for you), he practices the penultimate enough that he’s able to give this talk. He’ll tell you exactly how to put sugar, yeast and water in a bucket and turn it into the sweet, sweet, delicious alcohol that your brain loves so much. And the best part is that what comes out tastes like a million times better than bud light. (Disclaimer: This is coming from an Indian [dot not feather] bred in the south on natty light.)

2. Attack of the Packets!: A brief history of Internet Denial of Service attacks.
by Karthik Arumugham
Karthik has been active in the Internet network engineering community for the past 11 years, both in operations as well as research and development. He currently works as a consultant in the fields of IP networking and security, Unix systems engineering, and software development. Karthik strongly agrees with the notion of hosting geeky talks in the presence of good beer!

Be there and be square
Monday May 31 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave, Cambridge
$5
www.boston.nerdnite.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52318050296

Hello blog readers,

We love DJ Claude Money’s nerdy music so much, we’re going to post the playlist after each Nerdnite.  Thanks to Sean for keeping track of everything! And for playing MC Solaar.

Here’s the playlist from April:
Donald Byrd places and spaces
Eddie palmieri. Harlem river drive
Doris ebong. Boogie trip.
Althea and donna. Oh dread
Biz markie. It’s spring again.
Freddie Scott. (you) got what I need
Stevie wonder. Hey love.
Sir jablonsky. Juck juck part 1
Mc solaar. Nouveau western.
Serge gainsbourg. Aux armes et caetera
Lee Dorsey. Workin in a coal mine.
First speaker.
Tv on the radio. Halfway home.
Portishead. Wandering star.
Gangstarr. Words I manifest.
Harlem underground. Ain’t no sunshine
Second speaker
Betty Lavette. What condition my condition was in.
Ernie k. Doe. A certain girl
The remains. Diddy wah diddy
The del Vikings. Cool shake
Marc Aryan. Liberte
M. F. B. Boredom pain
Co real artists. What about you (in the world today)
Stevie wonder. Bang bang.
Incredible bongo band. Inna gadda da vida.
Nina Simone. The pusher (live version)

Hello Boston Nerds and Nerd-adjacent individuals,
The next Nerdnite is coming up next Monday, March 29 at the Middlesex. We’ll get things started at 8pm. As usual we’ll feature two nerdy speakers and nerd-appropriate tunes from DJ Claude Money.

The Talks:

Phoebe Cohen — “Mass Extinction Will Get You Every Time: A Brief History of Life’s Worst Moments”
Phoebe  is finishing up her PhD in paleontology at Harvard University. Really, she should be writing her thesis instead of giving a Nerd Nite talk, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity. While her research is on the early evolution of life (think – fossilized amoeba) she’s generally fascinated with the perpetual destruction and renewal of life on Earth. After defending, Phoebe will be moving on down Mass Ave to do education and public outreach for a NASA Astrobiology grant program at MIT.

Rebekah Rogers — “Adaptive impacts of a chimeric gene in Drosophila melanogaster.”
Rebekah’s talk will feature bio/genetic nerdiness from a molecular evolutionary biologist.

Be There and Be Square
Middlesex Lounge
315 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA
Monday March 29, 8pm
$5

Be there and be square tonight at the Middlesex. Full details in this post.

And while you’re at it, check out the write-up we got in the nightlife section of Boston.com (scroll all the way down to the last blurb).

Dearest nerds and friends of nerds,
The next Nerdnite takes place this coming Monday, February 22, at the Middlesex lounge in Central Square (see below for address). As usual we’ll be featuring nerd-appropriate tunes by DJ Claude Money

The talks:
1. Cross-Cultural Revolution: Contemporary Chinese Music in Exile
by Danny Liss

After graduating from Amherst College with a degree in Music Theory and Medieval Literature, Danny Liss moved to China for a year in order to escape the constant harassment of recruiters offering him lucrative employment. In between teaching lessons about the difference between “like” as a verb and “like” as a modifier, he explored some of the country’s many contradictions. He currently lives in Cambridge, where he works in non-profit administration.

Talk 2: The Neurobiology of Zombies — Updated for 2010
by Jeremy Kay

You might think of zombies as lowly B-movie material, but scientists have discovered many instances of zombie-like behavior in nature. Updating my talk that I gave several years ago, I’ll give some creepy examples. Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology at Harvard — and the organizer of Nerdnite. He loves referring to himself in the third person. His professional work concerns vision… his fascination with zombies is purely recreational. Really. Like, your brains will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.

Be there and be square!
Monday Feb 22, 8pm
315 Mass Ave
Cambridge
$5

Hello nerdnite fans,

Nerdnite co-host Mary got interviewed by the Weekly Dig at the last Nerdnite — you can check out the article here:

Also: A NY Times article about the research Lanthe described in her talk can be found here:

Stay tuned for news coming soon about the next Nerdnite, Monday February 22.