Nerd Nite Boston

Hello Nerds of Boston,
Our next Nerdnite gathering will take place Monday October 25, 8pm at Middlesex Lounge. DJ Claude Money will supply the nerd-appropriate tunes. The lineup for this month:

1. “Cooking for Geeks: Science in the Kitchen”
by Jeff Potter
Jeff has just written a book of the same name (O’Reilly Media). In this talk he will share some of the nerdy material he unearthed for his book.

2. “Artistic visualization and creative science”
by Ben Jordan
Ben works as both a scientist and algorithmic artist, using visual representation to explore mathematical and natural subjects. In this talk, he will exhibit some prints and movies (large file) from his “Divisibility” series, and will walk us through the creative process. He will also give us a brief history of how the sciences and arts have been entangled, and some suggestions for why and how to further blur this line. Ben lives in Somerville, and works at Harvard.

Be there and be square
Monday October 25, 8pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA
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In case you were wondering what DJ Claude Money was doing on the turntables, here’s the playlist from last week’s Nerdnite:

Nerd nite sept 27

I’m always drunk in San Francisco. Nancy Wilson
Here he comes drunk again. Bird rollins
Drunk. Jimmy liggins
Janos revenge. Los sospechos.
The wolf. Menahan street band
Tanz der vampire. Draculas music cabinet.
Romantic rhino. Ananda Shankar
I believe in miracles. Mark capanni
I like it. The emotions.
Bill withers. Lovely day.
Can’t get enough of your love. Richard ace.
Slow run. Byron lee and the dragonaires.
Louie Louie. Richard berry
Have love will travel. Richard berry.
Mom won’t you teach me how to monkey. Little Emmitt sutton
Influx. DJ shadow.

First speaker
Ada Brunstein

Bonnie and Clyde. Serge gainsbourg
Liberte. Marc Aryan
I’m comin home. Mel torme.
Trouble will remain. Amnesty
Let the good times roll. Shirley and lee
boredom pain. MFB
Come together. Ike and Tina turner.
Surfin bird. The trashmen.

Second speaker
Courtney Humphries.

Soul chicken. Bobby Allen and the exceptions
Make it real (ride on). Betty Adams
Money. Barrett strong
You got what I need. Freddie Scott
Shimmy shimmy y’all. Prince fatty
96 tears. ? Mark and the mysterions
Jonny und Joe (German). The supremes
Ain’t got no home. Clarence Henry.

Third speaker.
Tim Lillis

Zombie. Fela kuti
Is that all there is? Peggy lee

At last month’s Nerdnite, we had some technical problems that kept Ada Brunstein from showing her videos of weird technology/fashion hybrids. As promised, here are the links.

Ada’s talk was based on her article “The Little Black Piezoelectric Dress” in the Atlantic Monthly.

The videos:
“Intimate controllers” by JennyLC Chowdhury. This is the video game you play by touching your partner in special places.

Sound reactive nightgown by Sarah Soriano. This is the nightgown that lifts up when your lover whispers sweet nothings to you. Or shouts them, in the case of the current iteration of the technology.

And the Grand Finale: Hussain Chalayan’s Spring/Summer 2007 collection. FYI: Video ends with a moderately NSFW moment. More stills of the same fashion here.

There was one more video for Suzi Webster’s Barking Mad garment, but the video was broken when I surfed on by. There are other interesting videos of odd garments on her site though…and maybe it will be fixed soon…so it may be worth checking it out.

Last, but not least, all three of our great speakers from last month have their own websites. So if you want to know more about their work, check out these links:
Ada Brunstein
Courtney Humphries
Tim Lillis

Hello friends of Nerdnite,
Our next event will take place Monday September 27, 7pm (yes, that is
earlier than usual) at the Middlesex lounge in Central Square. We’re
getting an early start because our lineup is even more action packed
than usual, with three fantastic speakers bringing the full-on
nerdery. The talks:

1. Computational Couture: Clothing for the Techy Fashionista
By Ada Brunstein
(approx start time: 7:40)
Ada is a senior editor at MIT Press and freelance writer. She recently
wrote about fashion and technology for the Atlantic Monthly.

2. Pigeons: The surprising story of the birds you love to hate
By Courtney Humphries
(approx 8:30)
Courtney is a freelance science writer and author of Superdove: How
the Pigeon Took Manhattan….And the World by Smithsonian Books, which
chronicles how pigeons came from seacoasts to city streets. Although
Courtney writes about a wide range of health and science topics for
the Boston Globe, Technology Review, Harvard Magazine, and other
publications, she will probably always be known as “pigeon girl.”

3. Tricks of the Trade: Using Your Stuff Better
by Tim Lillis
(approx 9:20)
Tim is a San Francisco-based illustrator, designer, and end-user. He
is the creator of the “Tricks of the Trade” comic strip/column in Make
Magazine, where he shows readers how to use their stuff better. A
pioneer in the field of Object Use Optimization, he argues that the
design process does not cease when a product is released, but
continues throughout the life of the product, as the user becomes
acquainted with the object. Audience members are invited to share
their own tricks.

As usual, DJ Claude Money will spin the nerd-appropriate tunes.

Be there and be square!
Monday September 27
7pm
Middlesex Lounge
315 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA
Nerdnite Boston elsewhere on the web:
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Dear Nerdnite Boston Google group,

The next Nerdnite will take place Monday August 30 at the Middlesex
lounge. Be there and be square! For all the details about the talks,
please check out this link:
[link]

Dear Nerdnite Boston Google group,

The next Nerdnite will take place Monday August 30 at the Middlesex
lounge.  Be there and be square!  For all the details about the talks,
please check out this link:
http://boston.nerdnite.com/2010/08/22/nerdnite-august-30/

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
Tweets by nerdniteboston

Hello Nerdnite Google Group,
The next Nerdnite will take place Monday July 26. For full details
please follow this link:
[link]

Be there and be square!

Hello Nerdnite Google Group,
The next Nerdnite will take place Monday July 26.  For full details
please follow this link:
http://boston.nerdnite.com/2010/07/18/nerdnitejuly26/

Be there and be square!

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