Poster by Rebecca Cohen.
Join Nerd Nite East Bay‘s 50th (!) show on Monday Feb 27th for
- The Personality of the Pet Rock!
- Roller Derby!
- The Evolution of the Penis!
Mingle from 7-8PM with games, tasty food from Grilled Cheese Guy and tunes from Citizen Zain, then grab a drink and a seat as the talks begin at 8PM.
Early bird tickets just $8, tickets $10 at the door.
Club 21, Oakland Facebook Tix
The Dong of Man
Hard Facts and Little Lies About The Human Penis
This month’s swell talk on the human penis has us pumped! Learn how pensises evolved, why sexual selection advanced this absurd appendage, and why it’s pretty great to not be a great ape. Get straight up phallus facts, and find out how little science knows about the female vagina compared to men’s mono-log.
Benji Kessler studies courtship behavior and the sensory systems of jumping spiders in the PhD program at UC-Berkeley. His work includes Googling things like “comparison between human and chimpanzee vaginas”, and he’ll happily write a limerick about your research.
Stone. Cold. Steve Austin?
The Surprising Personality of Pet Rocks
Find out why our brains see faces everywhere, and how this Anthropocene perspective actually gave personality to pet rocks. Learn how personification goes into the collection, presentation and disposal of rocks, and get flattened by morbid tales of people who disrespected “rocks as people” and ended up between a rock and a… bigger, harder rock.
Andrew Alden runs the Oakland Geology blog and is a former U.S. Geological Survey staffer. He has been writing and speaking about the geology of the solar system, Earth, California and Oakland for 20 years, was the founding geology expert at About.com, appeared in KQED Science and Bay Nature, and is writing a book on the geology and landscape of Oakland.
Skate or Die
Physics, Physicality and Survival in Roller Derby
Discover the hard hitting history of roller derby, and how Bay Area Derby has brought the skirmish on skates into the modern era. Learn how derby is also science on skates, where Newton’s laws, malicious math and a little change in body posture can be the difference between smashing and getting smashed!
Chewie, Moxxxie and Pie of Bay Area Derby bring flat track roller derby to arenas throughout the Bay. Emily “Chewie” Chu, Ph.D. is a Professor of Chemistry at CCSF, officiated roller derby with BAD and volunteers as a math and science instructor for Prison University Project at San Quentin. Melissa “Miss Moxxxie” Chamberlain co-founded BAD in 2004, skated and coached the SF ShEvil Dead, is the BAD Head Announcer and Editor in Chief of the legendary roller derby fanzine HELLARAD. Sherryann “Pie” Danna-Vandervort first laced up her skates with Gotham Girls Roller Derby in 2005. She is the head of BAD marketing and coach of the ShEvil Dead. Her time is spent thinking about how to break down derby drills, throwing kettlebells about, and long-winded rants about ‘the good ole days’.