Nerd Nite East Bay #25: Bruce Lee, Disco Clams, and Lawsuits

Poster designed by Cindy Wang.

Poster designed by Cindy Wang.


Nerd Nite’s first event at the New Parkway was two years ago this month. We plan to ring in the anniversary with a fantastic live event. Hear about the Wong Jack Man/Bruce Lee fight from Sifus Rick Wing and Greglon Lee, learn about what gives disco clams their sparkle from Lindsey Dougherty, and navigate the world of litigation with Katelyn Knight.

DJ Citizen Zain and Rick will pull crackers and the Oakland Public Library will be there with a reading list and to issue cards. Be there and be square.

Monday 12/29/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show starts at 8 pm, show ends at 10:30 pm
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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SHOWDOWN IN OAKLAND (AT THE NEW PARKWAY….): THE STORY BEHIND THE WONG JACK MAN – BRUCE LEE FIGHT by Rick L. Wing and Greglon Lee

Many say this fight was the most important fight in the life of the famed martial icon Bruce Lee. True or not? You be the judge. Many say that the fight between Wong Jack Man and Bruce Lee in 1964, spurred Lee on to create his personal art of Jeet Kune Do. This talk describes the context within which the fight occurred, how it all happened, why it happened, and what happened afterward. It is also a glimpse into the kung fu world of San Francisco Chinatown in the 1960s.

Sifu Greglon Lee is an accomplished martial artist, having learned from noted martial arts men such as his father, James Yimm Lee, Bruce Lee, and Wally Jay, among others. Bruce Lee (yes, that one!) moved into his house in Oakland in 1964 and stayed there until late 1965. As one might imagine, Greglon has a certain insight into Bruce Lee that others might not have. Greglon has given many seminars in kung fu, with an emphasis on the art of Jeet Kune Do. Greglon has also co-authored the books, The Dragon and the Tiger, Vols I and II, and also Remembering the Master. These books describe the beginnings of Bruce Lee’s personal style, Jeet Kune Do.
Rick L. Wing is a student of the noted kung fu master, Wong Jack Man. Wong Jack Man was the legendary kung fu master who battled Bruce Lee in 1964, a “fight” which has grown into mythical status, and was a major turning point in Bruce Lee’s martial career. This fight is an integral part of an upcoming movie entitled Birth of the Dragon. Wing has written the most complete version of this story. His e-book, Showdown in Oakland, goes into great detail on the events which lead up to the match, the actual match, and what happened afterwards. Wing has also written other martial arts books such as Shaolin #1: Open the Door, the Northern Shaolin Sparring Set, Shaolin #8 Uprooting Step, The Classical Three-Sectional Staff, and, among others.

DISCO (CLAM) ISN’T DEAD: SILICA BALLS CREATE FLASHING GLAM CLAMS by Lindsey Dougherty

When people think of clams, their minds often go to chowder (possibly accompanied by Pavlovian salivation). “Disco clams”, however, aren’t your average bivalves. These Indo-Pacific creatures are contrasted from their dull-gray, mud-living, soup-making brethren by their bright red tentacles, coral reef homes, and a vivid electric-looking flash that goes back and forth across their mantle. Originally thought to be bioluminescence, the broadband flashing is actually the result of reflection from silica nanospheres that are ideally tuned for the light wavelengths that dominate their environment. The purpose of this flashy display is still unknown. We’ll explore whether the flashing attracts a mate, scares away predators, or lures in prey. Or, perhaps, if the clam is just keepin’ the beat.

Lindsey Dougherty is a PhD candidate in the Caldwell lab at UC Berkeley. Growing up in land-locked Colorado, her childhood aspirations naturally centered around SCUBA diving. With a goal of someday owning a dive shop, she studied business at CU Boulder, and was soon offered her first post-collegiate job… as a toner salesman. Desperate to move to the coast, she accepted, and made >2x what she does as a grad student. Teaching honeymooners how to SCUBA dive in Zanzibar made her realize that research was a better excuse to dive than commercial ventures, so she got a second bachelor’s in biology and studied artificial coral reef systems in Indonesia, where she met and fell in love with the “disco” clam.

NAVIGATING THE LEGAL SYSTEM: JURISDICTION, PROCEDURE AND THE AVERAGE LIFE OF A LAWSUIT by Katelyn Knight

Around 200,000 new unlimited civil cases are filed each year in California’s Superior Courts, that is cases where the amount in controversy exceeds $25,000.  The Courts clear these cases at a rate that doesn’t quite keep up with new filings, resulting in more and more crowded dockets.  But what happens once a lawsuit is filed?  Why does litigation take so long, and why is it so expensive?  We’ll walk through the life of a civil suit in the California Courts from filing to termination…hopefully no more than a year or two later.
Katelyn Knight is a Senior Associate in the Law & Motion practice group of Murchison & Cumming, LLP.  Her practice is primarily defense-side civil litigation including employment, injury, and general commercial matters.  Ms. Knight was named a “Northern California Rising Star” by Super Lawyers Magazine for the past 2 consecutive years.

Nerd Nite East Bay #24: Singing Spiders, The Brain, and Sci-Fi Sex Interfaces

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Sit back and sip on a some tasty beverages.  Nerd Nite East Bay warms you up for Thanksgiving and begins our third year with a particularly salacious night: Erin Brandt will show what happens when you aim a laser Doppler vibrometer at a male spider dancing on pantyhose to woo the corpse of a female spider; Zarinah Agnew will show mappings from regions of the brain to genitals; and Chris Noessel plots the design lessons science fiction provides in the realm of sex interfaces.

DJ Citizen Zain, Rick, and Rebecca will brine their turkeys. The Oakland Public Library will be there with a reading list and to issue cards. Be there and be square.

Monday 11/24/2014
Doors at 7 pm, show starts at 8 pm, show ends at 10:30 pm
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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SING A SONG, DO A DANCE: THAT’S HOW YOU SEDUCE A DANCING SPIDER by Erin Brandt

Like many animals, there are many aspects that go into jumping spider seduction. Males in the genus Habronattus must coordinate elaborate vibratory songs and flashy dances in just the right ways to attract females. To further complicate matters, these spiders live in dynamic and unpredictable habitats. Environmental factors also influence how courtship signals are produced by males and perceived by females. Erin Brandt, a Ph.D. Candidate at UC Berkeley, will tell – and show – with interactive demonstrations – how to win a lady spider’s love.

Erin Brandt is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Elias lab at UC Berkeley.  Her main project involves understanding how jumping spider courtship behavior (songs and dances) are affected by changing temperature.  She hopes to understand both short and long-term consequences of changing temperature on different species of jumping spiders.  Erin is also broadly interested in many aspects of biology, from locomotion (how jumping spiders jump), to large-scale questions in evolution.   When not in the lab, Erin is often found conveying her fascination with spiders and other arthropods to broad audiences, from classrooms to public talks.

A GUIDED TOUR OF THE BRAIN by Zarinah Agnew

What does that pinkish greyish mass in side your head doing? And how is it doing it? Zarinah will introduce basic concepts about neuroanatomy, what that has and has not taught us about how the brain functions and where we might aim to go next. As we go through the brain, we’ll look at what we know about each region of this complex mass, how these regions differ from those in other primates and what happens to people who sustain damage to those regions. We’ll cover some of the strange disorders that occur as part of localized brain damage, you’ll learn where your penis is in your brain (vaginas are still somewhat up for debate..) and by the end you should hopefully have some idea of the complexities that we are facing in neuroscience, and perhaps even be inspired to join in the quest for understanding.

Zarinah Agnew is a neuroscientist at UCSF where she works on how the brain controls complex voluntary movement. In humans, this generally refers to movements of the hands and articulators, our most dextrous bits. She uses a combination of different forms of neuroimaging and brain stimulation techniques to probe motor function in humans, both in healthy people and in patients with brain damage. A recent migrant from the UK, Zarinah received her PhD at Imperial College, where she worked on human mirror neurons, and went on to UCL to work on sensory motor aspects of speech. In London, she was heavily involved in science outreach, which led her to work with Guerilla Science, create a giant brain sand sculpture and let her into the murky world of science stand up comedy, which she can safely say, is the most terrifying thing she has ever done. Nerd Nite is her first foray into public engagement of science in the US.

SEXY INTERFACES FOR SEX IN SCI-FI by Chris Noessel

The last chapter in the book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction (Rosenfeld Media, 2012) is simply titled “Sex.” In this tour de force review of sex-related interfaces in sci-fi (and there are more than you probably think) Christopher Noessel discusses matchmaking interfaces, augmented coupling, mediated coupling, and yes, even sex with technology. Along the way he shares practical lessons that the sometimes surprising, sometimes hilarious interfaces inspire for those of us designing for the real world.

Bio to come.

October Events

We’re taking October off from our regular monthly event that usually falls on the last Monday of the month. You will find us celebrating the Bay Area Science Festival and we’ll be back in November.

Here are our suggestions for a few things to do over the next month:

Tue Oct 7 Nerd Nite North Bay


The Hop Monk in Novato brings even more Nerd Nite to you! Their tickets are cheaper, the beer selection is better. If you sign up to their announcements, you may get free beer.

Thu Oct 23 Nerd Nite East Bay Office Hours

Telegraph Beer Garden, 2318 Telegaph, Oakland, 6:30PM-9:30PM
Meet with Rick and Rebecca to chat about Nerd Nite East Bay, the upcoming Bay Area Science Festival, or stare at us awkwardly while we eat sausages and drink equal quantities of beer and coffee. Just drop by. We’ll have a table outside.

Fri Oct 24 Nerd Nite Block Party

The area surrounding Folsom Street Foundry, SF turns into a block party with nerd speed dating, how it’s made field trips, gaming, and a concert with space-themed music, chip-tunes, and physics demos.

Sat Oct 25 BAHFest

The Bad Ad Hoc Hypothesis Festival takes over the Castro Theater.

Mon Oct 27 BAASICS: MONSTERS

BAASICS will take over our normal time slot at the New Parkway. The show is fantastic and you should go.
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Nerd Nite East Bay #23: Picture Books, Parasites, and Pandemic: Paralytic Snakes

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Party on, our potent potable drinking people. September’s alliterative line-up brings a presentation from Oakland Public Librarian Sharon McKellar on picture books, Kelly Weinersmith‘s PowerPoint on zombifying parasites, and Matthew Lewin‘s proposal on how to cure poisonous snake bites. All with plenty of time for pleasureful potation of pivo.

Mana and Walter will be there from OPL to issue library cards and help you pursue a plentiful plethora of extra resources.

DJ Ion the Prize, Rick, and Rebecca will provide pluck and pizazz.

Be there and be square.

Monday 9/29
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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CATS, KIDS AND CALDECOTT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PICTURE BOOK by Sharon McKellar

Picture books aren’t always as simple as they appear. With equal importance of storytelling and visuals, the picture book should be taken seriously as a tool and an art form. Come see a brief history of this medium and also learn about the prestigious Caldecott Medal. How does a group of librarians decide the most distinguished picture book each year?

Sharon McKellar has been a librarian with the Oakland Public Library since 2003, serving as a children’s librarian, a branch manager, and currently as the Community Relations Librarian. She is a reader, a writer, an excited member of the 2015 Caldecott Selection Committee, and a giant nerd.

BRAIN-INFECTING PARASITES: WHAT CAN ZOMBIE-MAKERS TEACH US ABOUT THE BRAIN, IMMUNE SYSTEM, AND BEHAVIOR? by Kelly Weinersmith

Do you find parasites disgusting? If not, they may have already gotten to you. Some parasites are like little mad neuroscientists, forcing animals to bend to their wicked whims. Parasites can make ants into zombies, make fish beg to be eaten, and make humans get in car wrecks. In many animals, parasite manipulations are downright surgical. They manipulate behavior in ways that cannot yet be replicated in medicine.

Modern parasitology seeks to ask these little mad scientists to give up the secrets they’ve been developing over millions of years of evolutionary tinkering. I am one of those parasitologists, and I’ve already squeezed a secret or two out of this these tiny tinkerers. I’ll chat with you about some of my favorite examples of parasite manipulation, and what they may tell us about the brain, the immune system, and behavior.

Kelly Weinersmith is a PhD student at the University of California Davis, where she studies how parasites turn their hosts into zombies. Groups like the National Science Foundation and the American Association of University Women have funded Kelly to do crazy things like sample fish in quantities measured in dump trucks, induce and analyze fish puke, and infect fish with brain-infecting parasites to measure how these parasites change fish physiology and behavior. It’s impossible for Kelly to keep her mouth shut about science, so when she isn’t actively doing science you can find her podcasting over at Weekly Weinersmith or Science…Sort of. For Kelly’s next big adventure, she she’ll be joining Rice University as a Huxley Faculty Fellow. Follow Kelly on twitter @Fuschmu.

PANDEMIC: EXTREME MEDICINE AND THE QUEST FOR A UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE TO SNAKEBITE by Matt Lewin

Snakebite is arguably the most neglected of neglected tropical diseases, affecting nearly 5 million people annually. Lewin, along with an international group of colleagues, made headlines recently for their pioneering approach to the treatment of venomous snakebites using a nasal spray of inexpensive anticholinesterases. This novel technique is the first step toward finding a universal antidote for snakebite. Hear about the treatment and about Lewin’s exciting tales from the field.

Throughout his career, Dr. Matt Lewin has treated patients and scientists in some of the world’s most remote locations and under the harshest conditions. Since 2008, he has been the California Academy of Sciences emergency medicine liaison to UCSF. Now Director of the Center for Exploration & Travel Health and Fellow of the Academy, he has played an active role in developing and testing protocols for the safe handling and first aid of Academy and Aquarium employees potentially exposed to venomous animals housed on Academy grounds and on display to the public.

Nerd Nite East Bay #22: Bitcoin, Cosmology, and Underwater Robots

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Grab a beer and then listen up to this month’s Nerd Nite East Bay. Jeremy Rue will tell you how the encryption built into Bitcoin protects your cash. Roger O’Brient, who works on BICEP2 and other cosmic microwave background telescopes will discuss what these high-profile experiments have to say about how our universe came to be. Finally, David Lang will show how us how makers are using OpenROV to explore our waters.

Citizen Zain, Rick, and Rebecca will provide the beats and sign your encryption keys.

Be there and be square.

Monday 8/25
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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TO THE MOON!!!┗(°0°)┛HOW ENCRYPTION CAN CHANGE THE WAY OUR DIGITAL WORLD WORKS by Jeremy Rue

Some of you may have heard of Bitcoin, that crazy virtual currency with roller-coastering price fluctuations. But what you may not have heard is that the underlying technology running it is so brilliant, it could spark a revolution in how digital information is processed and verified online. Using encryption and distributed networking, Bitcoin solves some very fundamental computer science problems: it creates a system of trust in a place where trust should not be possible — that seedy underbelly of society known as the Interweb.

Jeremy is a lecturer of digital storytelling at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He teaches classes on programming for journalists, multimedia storytelling and designing online news packages. He’s a former print reporter, photojournalist and web developer. With the right software tool, you can verify anything he digitally signs online by his PGP fingerprint: A2F8 9A6A EA47 1319 7465 69E4 BEE1 A29D 00CE 40C7.

TICKETS TO THE GUN SHOW: SEARCHING FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES WITH BICEP1 AND BICEP2 by Roger O’Brient


Our team operates telescopes in the interior of Antarctica, searching the Cosmic Microwave Background for signatures of gravitational waves generated by the Big Bang. In March, our team announced that we had seen patterns consistent with these waves. In my talk, I’ll describe the science behind this measurement, specifically what we saw in our maps, and what implications this result may have for our universe’s origin and ultimate fate. Of course, critics have pointed out that this detection could just be glowing dust in our galaxy, so I’ll describe these critiques and how our team is moving forward to clarify what we’ve actually seen.

Roger O’Brient studied physics and cosmology at Caltech and Berkeley, where he also barely escaped a series of disasters relating to his hobbies of pyrotechnics, motorcycles, and beer-brewing. Despite this dubious history, the folks at NASA are surprisingly calm about letting him manage the CMB detectors program at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s spent more than a decade looking for CMB B-modes, much of it designing and vetting the sensors that enable the current and next generation experiments. The game’s finally afoot, with numerous teams racing to understand how our universe operates at the highest conceivable temperatures.

OPENROV: LOW-COST TOOLS AND CONNECTED EXPLORATION by David Lang

Citizen science and exploration – the process of discovery by non-professionals – is at a tipping point. The idea is nothing new. Any attempt to research the history of “citizen science” quickly turns into, quite simply, the history of science. Benjamin Franklin, Darwin, Newton. It’s a colorful lineage. The idea has taken on new meaning in recent years, as networked groups of amateurs have proven effective in contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge and understanding. Even more recently, within the past five years, the Maker Movement (the combination of low-cost tools and components, physical makerspace locations, and increasing access to the means of production) has accelerated the development of low-cost citizen science tools. Next stop: adventure!

David Lang is one of the co-founders of OpenROV, an open-source underwater robot and community of DIY robot builders. He is also a co-founder of OpenExplorer, a platform for DIY adventures and exploration. He is also the author of Zero to Maker and an occasional contributor to MAKE: Magazine.

Nerd Nite East Bay #21: Easter, Climate Change, and Mental Illness

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An Easter talk in July? It isn’t the climate, but because we’re mad.

At July’s Nerd Nite East Bay, Alice Handley will tell us why the days on our calendar fall when they do, Dan Miller will address climate change and some of the technological and policy changes that may address it, and Sharon Osterweil will talk about the history o’ crazy.

And, as usual, DJ Ion the Prize, Rebecca, and Rick will eat the carbon-neutral chocolate bunnies.

Be there and be square.

Monday 7/28
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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GREAT MOMENTS IN PEDANTRY: THE MODERN GIRL’S (OR GUY’S) GUIDE TO THE SEVENTH CENTURY EASTER CONTROVERSY by Alice Handley

Easter is about bunnies and chocolate and the risen Christ—and also about all sorts of very delicious medieval European theological backbiting and wrangling. The Easter controversy happened when theology, astronomy, and politics collided in the early Christian Church to create what St. Eusebius would have undoubtedly called “a hot mess.” Learn about the centuries-long struggle to define a single date and how this argument played out across church and state in Europe and the Near East—as well as how it affected the calendar we use today.

Alice Handley received a BA in History from UC Berkeley and then an M.Phil. from The University of Cambridge but then decided to get out of the fast-paced, high-stakes, big-money world of Early Medieval History to focus on things that other people on earth might conceivably care about. Currently, she writes words on the internet for a living and resides in Oakland.

HOW TO FIX CLIMATE CHANGE FOR FREE by Dan Miller

Climate change is obviously one of the greatest challenges facing civilization, yet governments (and the public) are mostly ignoring the problem. Why is that? And how bad might it get and how soon? Dan will discuss some technologies that could help the problem, and finish up by describing of a climate policy that will greatly reduce carbon pollution, boost the GDP, and create over 2 million jobs.

Dan Miller is Managing Director of The Roda Group, a Berkeley venture capital group he co-founded that is focused on cleantech. Dan is a former board member of biofuel manufacturer Solazyme, and he was previously the president of Ask Jeeves, Inc., both former Roda Group affiliate companies. Dan co-founded TCSI corporation, which became a leading provider of telecommunications software. Before that, he designed communication satellite payloads at Hughes Aircraft (now Boeing) Space & Communications.

CRAZYMAKING: THE HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE U.S. by Sharon Osterweil

How does a late 19th century outbreak of encephalitis affect the prognosis of people with schizophrenia today? What is an asylum and why is it different from a psychiatric hospital? Why are there so many homeless people who seem crazy? Why might my sibling/parent/friend with a serious mental illness take their medication so inconsistently? It’s tempting to think that with modern medicine, we clearly understand the causes and effects of various mental illnesses, but in fact, how mental illness is treated, who is mentally ill, and even what mental illness means has changed significantly over the past 300 years. By exploring the history of mental illness in the U.S., we’ll shed light in the darkest corners of the locked wards.

Sharon Osterweil currently works for Lifelong Medical Care—a high quality health care organization serving Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond—on a prevention-based case management pilot program. Before returning to her native Bay Area last year, she lived in New York and provided direct services at a supportive housing agency and later studied employment among adults with severe mental illness and histories of homelessness. She conducted research on employment for her MPH thesis at Pathways to Housing, the innovators of the Housing First model.

Nerd Nite East Bay #20: Bees in the Dirt, Development of Squirts, and Balls that Hurt

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Come one! Come all! To the twentieth installment of Nerd Nite East Bay! Where Hillary Sardiñas will dig up our pollinators where they live! Where Caren Walker and Sophie Bridgers will speak to how children learn! Where Adam Howe and Hunter Huston will rally the adult dodge ball league! And where DJ Ion the Prize, Rebecca, and Rick will wax lyrical!

Be there and be square.

Monday 6/30
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
squirts-and-balls-that-hurt/">More info
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THE REAL DIRT ON BEES by Hillary Sardiñas

Bees are incredibly important to agriculture. One out of three bites of food we eat comes from a bee-pollinated crop. Honey bees, with their queens, colonies, drones and honey stores, are usually what comes to mind when we think of bees. In fact, there are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide. They have a variety of life history strategies that are nothing like those of the honey bee. We’ll delve into the diversity of wild bees, particularly focusing on where they nest: in the dirt!

Hillary is a doctoral candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on native bee nesting in agricultural regions, particularly whether creating natural habitat on farm edges can help bolster bee populations and boost crop yields. She can often be found buzzing around farms in the Central Valley helping growers make decisions about habitat management techniques. Hillary has also worked as a restoration ecologist in a variety of non-profits and governmental organizations around the Bay Area.

LITTLE LEARNING MACHINES: CHILD AS SCIENTIST AND SUPERCOMPUTER by Caren Walker and Sophie Bridgers

Historically, children were considered to be incompetent, irrational, short adults. Recently, however, there’s been a revolution in our scientific understanding of the minds of young children, transforming our interpretation of childhood and providing new insight into adult cognition as well. As adults, we have coherent, abstract and highly structured knowledge of the world. The foundations of this knowledge are constructed in childhood from the fragmented and concrete evidence of our senses. How do those seemingly useless (but adorable) creatures learn so much about the world so quickly and accurately? Our research shows that even the youngest babies have learning abilities that are more powerful than those of the smartest scientists and most advanced computers. In particular, we propose that children, like scientists, implicitly formulate hypotheses about how the world works, and test those hypotheses through their own exploration and play.

Caren Walker is an East Coast transplant, currently wrapping up her Ph.D. in Developmental Cognitive Science at the University of California, Berkeley. When she’s not contemplating the origins of abstract knowledge, she enjoys experimenting with the circus arts and spending time in nature. (However, Caren will be going on the job market next year, so if anyone asks: she spends ALL of her time in the lab).

Sophie Bridgers has lived in the East Bay her entire life but is brand new to the Nerd Nite community. She currently works as a lab manager for Dr. Alison Gopnik, but is betraying her Berkeley roots and heading to Stanford in the fall to get her Ph.D. in Cognitive Development. When she’s not collecting data for Caren’s studies, she spends her time in the dance studio (or with Caren, in nature).

GETTING AWAY WITH PHYSICAL ASSAULT AND ITS CATHARTIC EFFECTS: RECREATIONAL ADULT DODGEBALL by Adam Howe and Hunter Huston (RAD League)

Though most people only remember dodgeball as a childhood sport or zany comedy, it has actually become a thriving intramural activity for 20-30 somethings across the country. In this 30 minute presentation, RAD League dodgeball will guide you through the inner workings of this quirky sport while explaining the rules, strategies, and positions used in today’s modern game. So grab your favorite knee pads and headband as you won’t want to DODGE this unique discussion.

RAD League dodgeball was created with the sole purpose of bringing together different groups of people who know how to have a good time and love playing dodgeball. One year, four seasons, and over a hundred participants later, RAD League is going strong! Whether you are a grizzled vet or 1st time player, RAD league offers a fun experience for all. And while the goal on the court might be to eliminate your opponents, the social part of our league is to meet new people, and hang out with old friends.

Adam Howe was a founding member of RAD League and helps oversee the scheduling, roster relations, and event planning for RAD League. On top of RAD League Adam currently manages the Pyramid Alehouse in Berkeley, CA and has made Oakland his home for the past 6.5 years.

Hunter Huston is one of three co-founding members of RAD League and has been playing dodgeball competitively for over 6 years. He has also been coaching high school basketball and teaching for the last 4 years in Berkeley.

Nerd Nite East Bay #19: Burnside’s Lemma, Artificial Photosynthesis, and Paramedics

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I don’t need a counting theorem to let you know that the three talks we feature this month will be nothing less than nerd-a-licious. First, Nathan Ilten will offer one of the cooler pieces of group theory to show how you can count things. Then Alexandra Krawicz shows us how we can design better approaches to harvesting energy from the sun. Chris van Luen close, who gave us an alternative for his talk: “Life as a Street Medic. Yes, this shit really does happen.”

DJ Citizen Zain is back again already! And Rick and Rebecca will provide resuscitation between talks. Be there and be square.

Monday 5/26
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
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HOW TO COUNT BETTER THAN A THREE-YEAR-OLD by Nathan Ilten

Mathematicians and young children have (at least) two things in common: they drool more than they should, and they love to count things. While children are often forced to rely on their fingers for counting, older mathematicians often have more sophisticated tools available. In this talk, we’ll examine one such tool: “The Lemma that is not Burnside’s”, first discovered by Augustin Cauchy in 1845. Not only does it have a confusing name, this lemma can be extremely useful when counting objects with some kind of symmetry. As an example, we’ll solve a problem that would make your three year old niece break down in tears: how many ways can you paint the faces of a cube using 97 different colors?

Nathan Ilten grew up counting with his fingers, but quickly learned to use his toes as well. After learning to count a bit higher, he got his PhD in mathematics from the Freie Universität in Berlin. When not spending his time working as a visiting assistant professor at UC Berkeley, Nathan can be found out on the Bay in a sailboat.

TAME THE SUN: MAKE FUELS VIA ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS by Alexandra Krawicz

Plants are photoautotrophic, they do not depend on anyone to synthesize their “food” or give them energy to grow. Through a series of light driven reactions plants split water and fix carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis. Humans can mimic photosynthesis artificially, but are not as successful as plants. However if we become masters in mimicking plants we could use their “trade secrets” to become energy independent and produce carbon neutral and fully renewable solar energy. Our consumption of energy is growing at an exorbitant rate and since most energy comes from burning fossil fuels we continue to pollute the atmosphere we live in, and induce climate change. The goal of the work presented here is to mimic one part of the photosynthetic reaction. In nature, photosynthesis splits water into protons and oxygen and in the process releases electrons. These electrons are then used along with the protons to reduce CO2 and form sugars. We have developed a method for preparing an electrode composed of grafted molecular cobalt-containing hydrogen production catalysts onto visible light absorbing semiconductor p-type GaP(100) that can mimic the hydrogen production step. This construct is able to produce hydrogen (fuel) catalytically upon exposure to solar illumination. The preparation of the construct exploits UV-induced immobilization of vinylpyridine and subsequent surface-initiated photopolymerization to yield a covalently attached polymer with pendent pyridyl groups that bind to cobaloxime catalysts. Surface derivatization is characterized by several spectroscopic techniques and performance is assessed by electrochemical methods. The Co containing catalyst functionalized photocathode shows significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance in aqueous conditions at neutral pH, compared to results obtained on GaP without attached cobalt complex, yielding a 2.4 mA cm-2 current density at a 310 mV underpotential, meaning that only solar light is driving the reaction and there is no applied bias. These results open new possibilities for re-engineering the catalytic constructs to improve their efficiency and durability.

Alexandra Krawicz is a Postdoctoral scholar at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and The Joint Center for Artificial Synthesis (JCAP). She joined JCAP in August 2012 as part of the Interface group to work on immobilization of molecular catalysts onto semiconductors for solar energy conversion. Currently she is working on developing
stable attachment strategies for molecular catalysts to photocathodes to create constructs for solar fuel production. Despite her best efforts, she is heterotrophic.

911….WHAT’S YOUR EMERGENCY? by Chris van Luen

Everyday we see ambulances speeding down the street with lights and sirens blaring. Have you wondered…what type of emergency are they going to? Is it the life threatening heart attack or car crash like we see in movies or on television? Well, you might be surprised at what the real answer is. Come join us as we take you on virtual ride-along with paramedics during a 24 hour period and get an idea of what life is really like as a paramedic on the street.

Chris van Luen is a veteran paramedic who has been working in Emergency Medical Services for over 25 years. As a young medic he served as a Helicopter Rescue Swimmer in the US Coast Guard for 13 years. In 1999 he returned home to the East Bay where he has since been working as a paramedic in Alameda County with several years working the streets of Oakland. He is a published author on topics relating to pre-hospital care, a paramedic instructor and has received multiple awards including Paramedic of the Year.

Nerd Nite East Bay #18: Nuts, Maker Ed, and Race in Comics

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The next monthly installment of Nerd Nite East Bay brings many firsts: our first food science talk, the first talk (on modern education methods) based on audience suggestions in our facebook group, and our first talk about comic books. Megan Fisklements will dig through the two billion pounds of almonds California produces each year and distill the most nutritious and entertaining information about your nuts. Aaron Vanderwerff comes out of the shop to let us know how he’s teaching our young about making. Finally, Grace Gipson will show how we paint our superheroes of color in comics and graphic novels.

As usual, DJ Citizen Zain, Rick, and Rebecca will do their best to get the nuts & bolts together. Be there and be square.

Monday 4/28
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
Tickets
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BLANCHING KINETICS OF YOUR NUTS, AND OTHER DELICIOUS ITEMS, EXPLAINED TO YOU BY A FOOD SCIENTIST by Megan Fisklements

There are so many delicious foods out there, and almonds are one of them. But every few decades, the skins mysteriously loosen and fall off uncontrollably! Let me share with you my graduate research trying to shed light on this mystery of the slippery skins. Have you ever wondered what almond skins are made of? Or how they form during almond development? And how do they ever come off? Come with me on an adventure of plant anatomy, methods-MacGyvering, kinetics modeling, and Gary Larson comics. On the way, you’ll peak into the bizarre, joyful world of food nerds, and shed new light on common food products you’ve probably already eaten.

Megan earned her Ph.D. from UC Davis in the Food Science & Technology department, and has been working in food product development ever since. When not experimenting in the lab, she is a devoted keeper of sourdough and an anarchist quilter.

FROM KINDERGARTEN DANGER DAY TO LED TUTUS: MAKING IN SCHOOLS by Aaron Vanderwerff

Why would you hand a bunch of five-year-olds saws?

Design and making (including crafts, electronics, woodworking and programming) give context to students’ learning, develop persistence and creativity, and expose students to new career paths. Making is being integrated into the curriculum both as a support to other subjects and as an end in itself. Kindergarteners with saws and hot glue guns develop into high school students who can imagine and create their own independent projects, everything from electric trucks to LED tutus.

Aaron has been teaching kids to make for years – even without knowing that was what he was doing. He has taught chemistry, physics and robotics in East Bay high schools, and is currently the coordinator of the Creativity Lab at Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, where he works with teachers to integrate making into their classes.

BEWARE OF THE STORM: COMICS AND POP CULTURE STUDIES BREAKING THE COLOR AND GENDER LINES IN COMIC BOOKS by Grace Gipson

Historically, comic books have often been dismissed as less relevant and inferior pop culture texts. However, academic scholars are now re-considering and re-introducing the discussion of comic books [and graphic novels] as complex texts deserving of serious scholarly study. Even though specific research on comic book characters [particularly those of black and brown distinction] has begun to emerge there still remains a need to fill the gap, which includes further examination of these superhero characters of color. These complex characters and their stories offer an opportunity to move beyond the surface narrative of the comic book pages. One might say the most fascinating aspect about the comic book world is that this particular medium has a way of strategically telling a variety of narratives from a diverse group of characters. Superheroes have played a significant role in “presenting idealized projections of ourselves as physically powerful, amazing and fantastic versions of ourselves; as well as serving as a roadway to escapist fantasy or funhouse mirror reflections of our desires to create bigger-than-life personas that can exert our will and power in the world” (Nama, 2009). Overall, the superhero plays a huge role, both positively and adversely, in the formation of our thoughts, beliefs, and ideas within popular culture.

Grace Gipson aka Quiet Storm is a Bay Area and Nerd Nite neo that hails from Champaign, IL by way of the Atlanta, GA who by day is a current nerdy doctoral student at UC Berkeley in African American & African Diaspora Studies with research interests in Popular Culture Studies, Film/Media Studies, presentations of Race/Gender in African American Film and Comic Books, Black Gender & Sexuality Studies, Race, and Media. By night, Grace is a mutant-android international scholar at the Berkeley Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters (also known as the Xavier Institute). Her big sister is one of the most well-known X-Men, Storm (Ororo Monroe). And as a student of the human and mutant world, Grace aims to promote academic excellency and the co-existence of nerds, androids, mutants, and humans. All in all, as a researcher of comic books, Grace attributes much of her work to her fascination of the well-known Marvel series X-Men (particularly Storm). So with these last words spoken by her big sis Storm, “Enter freely, and of your own will.”

Nerd Nite East Bay #17: Pinball, Fusion, and Emergency Medicine

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We ring in the the 90th day of the year and the 125th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower with three fantastic talks. First, Michael Schiess and Larry Zartarian from the Pacific Pinball Museum will touch on the technology, aesthetics, and historical context of the best coin-operated games ever. Then, Robert Kolasinski is back to deliver the talk we rescheduled during Nerd Nite #14 on missed on the largest and most promising international effort at producing fusion energy in the future. Finally, Shivani Garg Patel will tell us about surgery in the field.

DJ Ion the Prize, Rick, and Rebecca will Launch Those Geese.

Monday 3/31
Doors at 7 pm, show at 8
The New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakland
(less than half-a-mile from the 19th St BART)
$8
All Ages
Tickets
FB
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EARLY PINBALL ART by Michael Schiess and Larry Zartarian (Pacific Pinball Museum)

Our discussion will focus on the development of art used on pinball machines from the 1930s through the late 40s. The evolution of the games technology and the purpose of the art in attracting players. The differences between the styles of the 2 main artists and their roles in defining the genre. We will highlight pinball art as reflections of popular culture during the times they were introduced and enjoyed by the public. We will be discussing the role of the museum in presenting and preserving the art of pinball and lastly, the museum’s goals for establishing a permanent institution for pinball.

Michael Schiessis the Founder of Lucky Ju Ju Pinball and the Founder and current Executive Director of the Pacific Pinball Museum. He invented and built the Visible Pinball Machine, Pinbowl, Lil Ju Ju and other pinball accessories and art projects. He does freelance work for the Exploratorium.

Larry Zartarian is President and Treasurer of the Board of Directors, a collector of ’40s, ’50s and ’60s rare pinball machines. He has worked with PPM for the past 8 years, and served as Board President for 6 years. He leads the board in its drive to improve all the museum’s programs. As an ambassador of pinball, who loves to introduce new people to the game, he has loaned his entire collection of rare pinball games — among the most significant in the world — to PPM. His professional background in investing and unparalleled understanding of the games complements the museum leadership. During his copious amounts of spare time, Larry is an investment adviser at Rand and Associates in San Francisco.

THE ITER PROJECT: THE WAY TOWARD MAGNETIC FUSION ENERGY by Robert Kolasinski

ITER is a physics experiment under construction at the Cadarache facility in southern France. With seven contributing international partners including the U.S., its overall goal is to demonstrate many aspects of magnetic fusion energy for the first time after it becomes operational in 2020. The ITER reactor will use a 78-ft diameter toroid-shaped vacuum chamber known as a tokamak to generate an intense plasma of deuterium and tritium ions. Using superconducting electromagnetic coils, researchers will attempt to confine the plasma for long enough to exceed breakeven, the point where the energy released by fusion reactions equals the input heating. If successful, ITER will generate over 400 MW of fusion power and could serve as a pathway toward a future large-scale energy source. As one might expect, developing reactor materials that withstand such intense plasmas is enormously difficult, but researchers from around the world are working to develop innovative new technologies to address these unique challenges. In the meantime, Iron Man enthusiasts hoping for a reactor design that can power their home-built exoskeleton armor may have to wait until a more compact version of ITER can be developed.

Rob Kolasinski is a surface scientist in the Hydrogen and Metallurgical Science Department at Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore. His interest in plasmas began during grad student at Caltech, when a friend who convinced him to take a class on space propulsion. Seduced by the glamorous world of plasmas, Rob decided to collaborate with the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study plasma-surface effects in ion thrusters for his thesis. He would eventually receive a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, but not before the hard-living celebrity culture of JPL and southern CA had taken its toll. Needing a place to recuperate and “disappear” from the public eye for a while, Rob then took a position at Sandia. Here he continued his study of plasma science, but now related to magnetic fusion energy. His research interests also include a variety of other topics, including fundamental surface science and hydrogen in materials.

SOLVING AN UNKNOWN PROBLEM: GLOBAL SURGERY by Shivani Garg Patel

Dr. Paul Farmer calls global surgery “the neglected step child of global health.” In our discussion we will examine the impact of global surgery that is all too often not discussed in the broader global health dialogue. Millions are suffering from treatable conditions but lack the funds to seek treatment. We will dive into the types of essential surgeries and their impact on the global burden of disease and individual suffering. There are hundreds of organizations working to bridge the gap of access to basic surgical care for those who cannot afford treatment. We’ll discuss these organizations, review emerging efforts to shine a light on the field and highlight the resources required to enable people to receive treatment to treatable conditions.

Shivani Garg Patel is Co-founder of Samahope, a crowdfunding site for doctors providing critical medical treatments for the world’s poorest. She is a former Microsoft product manager, McKinsey consultant turned social entrepreneur. Her technology-driven social innovation work spans the Grameen Foundation, World Bank and World Health Organization. Her work with Samahope is inspired partly by her time in college leading a non-profit that provided free medical and social services to the low-income population of Berkeley. Shivani has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a B.A. in Cognitive Science from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. She also spent 3 months studying Shakespeare at Oxford University.