Author: chicago

Weather Wonkiness, Nature’s Nuclear Option & Relativity Pants!

(Gravity puts its pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.)

Storm gathering above a frame-dragging diagram with nuclear symbol substituted for Earth

NerdNiteChicago2011October

Thursday, October 20th, 201
Villains Bar and Grill
8pm get yer beer & food & another beer
9pm the talks start

We have missed you! Your obsessive interests, your geeky charm, your problem drinking. Come back to us. Come to Mama Nerd Nite, she’ll treat you right.

Here’s how she’ll treat you:

The Ghost of Ted Fujita!

Mike Renkosiak

When Skilling gets giddy predicting nasty weather, do you feel his excitement? Does distant thunder draw your eyes skyward? Do you set your DVR for the Discovery Channel on Sunday nights at 9? If any of these things describe you or if you wonder why there are now so many weather weenies out there, come check out the world of storm chasing.

Mike Renkosiak is a member of Chicago’s Community Emergency Response Team and a meteorological hobbyist. His interest in weather goes back almost 40 years when a funnel cloud chased his family from a picnic. Then there was the science fair project on devising homemade weather instruments using simple things like empty white gas cans, conduit, and hair (which he wishes he had back) When it was a first place winner he knew he was on to something. Now a professional and a seasoned storm chaser, you can follow him @WindyCityWxMan.

Hot Rocks: Naturally Occurring Nuclear Piles

Bo Jayatilaka

The first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, was constructed at the University of Chicago, by a team led by Enrico Fermi, in late 1942. The first sustained nuclear fission chain reaction on Earth was about 1.7 billion years ago, in what is now the nation of Gabon. Neutron-multiplying critical masses of Uranium-235 catalyzing their own nuclear fission? Yep, nature had already thought of that one. (Suck it, Leó Szilárd.)

Bo Jayatilaka is not the kind of doctor who can fix broken bones, he’s the other kind. The science kind.

Warped Space-Time and Pants

Jim Pivarski

Years before I studied it in college and grad school, General Relativity was high on the list of things that I had to know about before I die. Somehow, space and time are curved, which just sounds trippy and seems to open the door to wormholes and warp drive. I got a working understanding of it from three semesters of classwork, but I didn’t really have the “Aha!” moment until I learned to sew. Sewing (as well as knitting/crocheting) demands an intuitive understanding of intrinsic curvature; it should be a prerequisite for Riemannian Geometry 101.

This talk addresses the question, “What does it mean to say that space-time is curved?” I’ll present the picture that I wish I had in mind before learning the subject formally. We’ll use hand-sewn cloth models of space-time manifolds to help us visualize how curvature and gravitation are related, as well as some morphologically correct pictures of the time-evolution of the universe.

Jim Pivarski is sometimes a particle physicist at Fermilab, sometimes a statistical programmer, and sometimes a science writer for Fermilab Today and his own website, Coffeeshop Physics.

Be there AND be square!

Odd-Bad Disasters, Bad-Ass Roseanne, and Real-Ass Cloud Computing

(Nerd Nite Chicago, número siete)

Thursday, July 21st
Villains Bar and Grill
8pm get yer beer & food & another beer
9pm the talks start

We have missed you! Your obsessive interests, your geeky charm, your problem drinking. Come back to us. Come to Mama Nerd Nite, she’ll treat you right.

Here’s how she’ll treat you:

Unusual Disasters

Laura Lanford

We’re all aware of the destruction that tornadoes, tsunamis and earthquakes can wreak, but next Thursday you’ll learn about deadly natural disasters nobody saw coming. Your preparedness plan might cover Aliens to Zombies, but I’m willing to bet “Silent Gas Cloud of Death” isn’t in there. Share in my collection of the most interesting, odd disasters I’ve run across while researching emergency crises. You’ll never think of the phrase “slow as molasses” quite the same way again.

Laura Lanford is an instructor for the Chicago Community Emergency Response Team and a preparedness hobbyist. Ask her about the PAW (Post Apocalyptic World) after her second beer.

The Roseanneator

Jill Wolf

Do you ever find yourself looking for that ONE television show that will discuss it all? That ONE television show that doesn’t hide behind the difficult (and often funny) issues that our society just doesn’t want to talk about? You know what I am referring to: death, masturbation, feminism, sex, politics, domestic violence and even drugs (OMG!). Well look no further (or look back ‘cause the show is only on re-runs now)…ROSEANNE! Come laugh at things that you shouldn’t (but are funny) and learn why Roseanne is/was the BEST show on television!

Jill Wolf is a social worker, loves to play the drums, listen to music, cuddle with her cats, play sports, read, spend time with her family and watch, you guessed it, Roseanne over and over and over and over. Laugh with her, or at her!

The Cloud of Unknowing

Christian Vozar

Having nothing to do at all with weather, Clouds have been around for years as a technology implementation pattern for scalable resources. Recently, they have become more than something IT professionals use as mainstream culture is being introduced to the concept. As we hear about them more than ever confusion surrounds just what exactly is “the cloud.” Join us in a presentation about cloud technology and find out if you really can go “to the cloud!”

Christian Vozar is Director of Managed Services at CITYTECH, Inc. (http://www.citytechinc.com​/) and adjunct faculty at DePaul University teaching cloud computing infrastructure and operations. He is also a lover of opera and aged cocktails.

Be there AND be square!

nnChicago VI

No, that’s not the pre-emacs throwback of a text editor, that’s the “6” of classical antiquity!

Thursday, June 30th
Villains Bar and Grill
8pm get yer beer & food & another beer
9pm the talks start

We’re setting out for the vast seas of nerdery this Thursday, and we have not one (1) but three (III) first mates!

Former Attorney Converts to the Science Side

Monica Metzler

Why would a perfectly respectable attorney and policy wonk give up her evenings, weekends and vacation (not to mention money) for the cause of science?

For most Chicagoans, their most memorable exposure to science was the baby chicks exhibit at a school field trip to the Museum of Science & Industry. That was the case for Monica Metzler, whose science training finished in a “B” in high school chemistry. But then in 2006 she founded the Illinois Science Council, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting science and technology to adults in Chicago. The result, so far, has allowed her to drink beer, play with chocolate and shoot a Taser gun.

Chemistry and Cons in Your Cosmetics

Perry Romanowski

People use cosmetic and personal care products every day but have little idea about the chemicals they are putting on their bodies. In this talk, we’ll cover the basic chemistry that makes cosmetics work. We’ll also cover some of the common beliefs about personal care products and separate the beauty science from the BS. Should you be afraid that cosmetics are killing you? Will a skin cream really make your wrinkles disappear? Do more expensive products really work better? After hearing this talk, you’ll know.

Perry has spent the last 18 years researching and developing products to solve consumer problems in the personal care and cosmetic industry. His primary focus has been on hair & hair related products. He is currently Vice President of Brains Publishing which specializes in science education. He had the most shampooed head of 2007.

Simulation for Stimulation: The Science of Sex on Screen

Rebecca Fons

Don’t get too excited, this isn’t an tutorial on porn. Rebecca Fons discusses the science behind the sex/sexual scene in mainstream film: from the actual filming (there are usually socks involved), to the MPAA rating system to audience reactions and responses (protests, bans and boycotts included). You’ll never look at famous people faking it the same way again.

Rebecca Fons is the Education Program Manager at the Chicago International Film Festival (www.chicagofilmfestival.com), as well as a producer of numerous short films and the popular web series Quilty (heyquilty.com). She’s a Senior Referee for Chicago’s nationally ranked roller derby team the Windy City Rollers (www.windycityrollers.com), an avid potter and loves a hard R rating.

Be there AND be square!

This of That – NerdNite May, 2011

The History of the Guitar

Joe Gioia

In a talk drawn from his upcoming book, The Guitar and the New World (SUNY Press, 2012), Joe reviews the stages of the evolution of the American acoustic guitar, from its origins in the mythological past to the great folk music scare of the 60s. Highlights include the major developments of intermediate instruments, a look at string theory (ha-ha) with Daniel Bernoulli, and what, if anything, Galileo had to do with it.

Do Toasters Have Human Rights?

Barbra Barnett

How do we define and ground human rights? Can our existing categories serve as a basis for universal moral norms as humanity moves into an unchartered future? The science fiction cable television series Battlestar Galactica calls into question our basic ethical precepts and is a valuable tool for teaching ethics. By challenging the prevailing assumption that membership in the human species carries moral significance, the show provides a framework for examining basic paradigms for understanding ethics as it has developed in the West. It also offers several avenues for engaging contemporary issues in practical ethics, including whether there are any ethical limitations on the use of political and military power, and arguments for extending rights protection to animals, nature, and other non-human entities.

Barbra Barnett has taught courses on human rights, ethics, philosophy, and religion at The University of Chicago and Elmhurst College. She has a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and a Ph.D. in Ethics from The University of Chicago. When not watching reruns of Battlestar Galactica, she can be found watching the TLC reality t.v. show “Sister Wives.”

The World of Ketchup

Jason St. John

Ketchup, as a topic of study, is just shockingly multidisciplinary. In a talk ranging from international studies through linguistics, culinary studies, non-Newtonion fluid dynamics, and pop culture, Jason reveals all that he learned from Wikipedia one slow day at the lab, instead of doing science. He is a local student finishing his dissertation work at one of the nearby National Accelerator Labs (there are two), on something entirely unrelated to condiments. He also sometimes organizes a local event called nerd nite.

April’s Nerds in New Location! This Thursday!

We’re back on track, last Thursdays of the month. Get you down to Villains from 9 – midnight on April 28th for drink specials and, naturalmente, nerds. Don’t miss the spring re-birth of Nerd Nite Chicago. And come with your presentation ideas in hand, you clever so-n-so.

“Does Size Matter?”

— Jim O’Reilly poses the eternal question. And answers it:

Oh, Hell yes! At least if you are a vertebrate physiologist, like me, or an architect, or the guys with fancy sports cars parked outside the bar. Differences in the dimensions (length, area, mass) of vertebrates are strongly correlated with variation in pretty much every physiological variable we have cared to measure. Tonight, I will try to convince you that whether it is how fast we move, how much we need to eat, or how long we live – differences in body dimensions alone accounts for the vast majority of variation we see in how animals are designed and function. That whole “It’s how you use it” thing is just crap.

Jim O’Reilly is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago where he teaches Anatomy and Physiology to first-year medical students. In a past life, he was a comparative physiologist who studied the evolution of movement – and would now be called a “neuromechanist” if he still went to the lab for things other than coffee and harassing the graduate students.

“A post-Easter recipe for building a church from scratch”

by Trey Hall

And/or how a church, a community of scandalous intellectual and social liaisons, will naturally offend people like Rick Santorum as easily as it does people like Christopher Hitchens. And/or how belief may be overrated. And/or, speaking of nature, why Aristotle would have been a better church planter than Plato.

A nerd by only very specific definitions [editorial comment], Trey Hall is co-pastor at Urban Village Church in Chicago, a southerner who thinks Chicago is one of the best cities in the world, a reader, runner, coffee drinker, public transit junkie, and very novice guitar student.

“How Do We Know What Dead Languages Sounded Like Anyway?”

by David Mihalyfy

How do we know that Napolean existed? How do we know that man landed on the moon? How do we even know that Obama was inaugurated two years ago? We base our knowledge of the past on probability; all we have are some pretty good reasons for believing a lot of things. Historical linguistics, too, assembles and weighs sources of evidence that allow us to figure out what dead languages sounded like. I’ll walk us quickly through the reconstruction of Coptic, the last stage of Egyptian and the language of the Gnostic Gospels. Could knowing what a language sounded like affect interpretation of these controversial texts…?

David Mihalyfy is a PhD candidate at at the University of Chicago Divinity School. When not reading ancient texts in their original languages, he enjoys trashy cult memoirs and small art house films. His last name, in case you’re wondering, is Hungarian.

With warm, nerdy regard,
Rebecca Anderson

Nerd Nite of the Nerding Nerds!

Take a break from putting the finishing touches on your latest Halloween get-up, the very best you’ve ever done (and that’s saying something — yeah, we’ve been watching you all these Halloweens…)

We’re all going to be at the California Clipper on Thursday, October 21st, from 8:30. By ‘we’ I hope I mean ‘you, too, buster’ because the talks we have lined up are ridicu-good. And it would be a damned shame if you missed them.

“An incomplete talk on Gödel’s Incompletedness Theorem”
by L. Lanford
All Russell and Whitehead wanted was an arithmetical system that was both complete and consistent. But dear dorky 25-year-old Kurt Gödel explained to the math world why you can’t always have what you want, and I’m here to explain why to you. [“I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member”. ~Groucho Marx]

“The Neurological Basis of Personality in Your Gut, Brain, and Heart; OR
One More Way You Are What You Eat; OR
The Polyvagal system, Your Gut, and the Hungry Heart; OR
How Humans Interact Peacefully While in Aroused States (“and I use the term aroused broadly” ), AND
How That Is Linked to Heart Rate and the Craniofacial Nerves”
by D. C. Tessman.
Some people pass out from the vagal stimulation of eating soft, bulky things, like a slice of bread. Clare not only knows why, she also finds it fascinating. You will, too.

“The More You Know”
by B. Jayatilaka
A talk on pivotal moments in humanity’s grasp of the nature of the universe which went totally right for all the wrong reasons. Dr. Jayatilaka is not the kind of doctor who can fix broken bones, he’s the other kind. The science kind.

Be there and Be Square.

Nerd Nite Chicago – Now with a Regular Schedule!

It’s official, Nerds of Chicago: We have a home at the Chicago Clipper (“Home of the Purple Martin”) every 3rd Thursday of the month. That makes our next Nerd Nite August 19th (so soon!).

Here’s the lineup (possibly one more talk in the offing):
“Battle of the Millennia : Renaissance Faire vs. Renaissance” by Katie Chenoweth

From Katie: “Whenever I tell people I’m attending a conference for Renaissance scholars, I know without asking what image is forming in their head: puffy shirts, pointy hats, massive cleavage—maybe even a Hobbit or two. They think I’m going to a Renaissance Faire. The Ren Faire is the bête noire of academics who study the Renaissance, threatening to undermine our seriousness at every turn. That’s probably why I resisted going until this July, when I headed toward the Wisconsin border, determined to find out once and for all what draws non-academics by the thousands to play Renaissance for a day.

“So, what does the Renaissance Faire—with its fairies, wenches, and WWF-style jousting matches—actually have in common with the Renaissance? Are playtrons this century’s neo-Latinists? You’ll have to wait for Nerd Nite to find out what that last question even means.”

Katie Chenoweth is a very serious Renaissance scholar, and currently a faculty member at the University of Chicago. She will not be wearing a puffy shirt (but that doesn’t mean you can’t).

“US High Speed Rail: The New Interstate Expressway?” by Maurice Ball

From Maurice: “Since the 1950’s, passenger railroad in the US has been a joke, taking a back seat to the airplane and America’s #1 love, the automobile. Now with the cost of fossil fuels threatening, on a daily basis, to hold the average American citizen hostage for future years to come, the modern concept of passenger railroad is being given second look…………in the form of High Speed Rail. What does this mean to the average American citizen? And do they even care? Giving up their cars is not an overnight relinquishment. But with the help of the federal government, high speed rail could become the next great ‘Interstate Expressway’.”

Maurice Ball, a transplant from Houston, Texas, is a Mechanical Engineer, having obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Prairie View A&M University in Texas, and Master’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Maurice currently works at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL and is a member of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, based in Chicago, IL.

And our concluding talk of the evening:
“Joggling: The Future of Running” by Perry Romanowski

From Perry: “Running is an excellent way to maintain health and weight.
Unfortunately, it can be incredibly dull. Joggling, or juggling while
running, represents the future of running. No longer do your hands
need to idly pump away while your legs do all the work. Joggling
engages your brain and make running an exercise for thinkers. This
talk will introduce you to the world of joggling, it’s history and a
demonstration on how to do it.”

Perry Romanowski is a world-class joggler who has been running while
juggling since 1996. His now very tired, as you might imagine. Along the
way, he has completed numerous joggling races including 30 marathons,
and currently holds the world record for the fastest 50 miles run while
juggling. Additionally, he has joggled over 630 consecutive days and is a
member of the United States Running Streak Association. Ever since the
accident, however, he does it without the flaming chainsaws.

Can’t wait to see you at the Clipper! We just found out they have grape soda on the gun. This is stoke-worthy.

Nerdily yours,
-Jason St. John