Nerd Nite 6 Year Anniversary

Posted on by Thor

The Nerd Nite 6 Year Anniversary was held at Celine Orlando, (22 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, FL 32801.) Nerd Nite anniversaries are usually held at The Abbey but that venue was booked for the night. The evening was slated to begin at 6 PM but the first speaker didn’t take to the stage for another hour and a half. I suppose that was time set aside for mingling and networking. I used the time to block in my sketch. I had never been to Celine before so the space itself was exciting. Ricardo Williams started off with excerpts from some of his favorite Nerd Nite presentations over the years. His white suit caught the blue light to great effect.

Dr. Krista Noble was the first speaker for the night. Her talk was titled “Why the Heck Are We Conscious? The Hard Problem of Consciousness”. As she said, “Everyone agrees that our mental processes (meaning our thoughts,
emotions, and perceptions) correspond with physical processes in our
brains. The question is, how and why? Why do we have subjective
experiences at all? Why aren’t we genetically programmed to pursue
survival, yet lacking consciousness? These fundamental questions still
plague scholars in spite of our most advanced scientific discoveries.” As she spoke about comparing two objects and noting that they were both bright red, I put some red notes on my sketch. If I sketch am I conscious? Perhaps I am more like a zombie using my few synapses to document what is around me with my hands and eyes.

“To Boldly Go: A Brief History of the Space Toilet” by Brendan Byrne followed with hilarious results. Brendan works for WMFE and he covers the space beat. As he said, “Human spaceflight has been plagued by waste. From urine-soaked
spacesuits to floating turds, the history of human spaceflight is flush
with dirty (and hilarious) anecdotes of dealing with waste in space.
Engineers seem to have a handle on #1 and #2 as we explore low Earth
orbit, but the future of deep space exploration hinges on our ability to
overcome a heaping pile of physiological, biological and engineering
problems. So how will we do it? Brendan has
been exploring the history of the space toilet for a new book and
presents a brief history of the galactic commode – and ideas for new
hardware that will boldly take our poop to places like the moon and
Mars.” 

On the first space flight, the astronaut was supposed to be in flight for just 15 minutes so no thought was put into a toilet. He was nervous and drank many cups of coffee that morning. Then there was a delay in launch which resulted in his needing to ask permission from mission control if he could wet his spacesuit. Engineers followed with a hard dock solution in which a condom was attached to a bag. A crap was more difficult requiring a cup strapped to the butt and a two fingered method of snipping off the log. Gravity usually helps the solids fall away but there was no gravity. Brendan read a recently declassified transcript in which astronauts debated about whose crap was floating around the capsule. Upon opening a recently recovered capsule a navy man vomited upon smelling what was inside. There was some hilarious audio of astronaut John Young (namesake of John Young Parkway)  as he was on the moon. He farted loudly and curses saying he would never eat citrus again.


Technology did catch up with the problem with a small fan providing suction to draw the excrement from the source. He played a video of astronauts pee being vented into space and it instantly crystallizing. Today however all liquids are recycled to be reused as drinking water. For long distance space flight a researcher is creating a device that burns down all waste and turns it into water and hydrogen. Brendan ended the presentation with a photo if him sitting on a space station toilet replica. is  mom must be so proud. I geek  out just as hard trying to get to as many space launches as I can to  sketch.


It was an evening of scatological and cerebral pursuits, who could ask for more?

The next Nerd Nite is April 11, 2019

Nerd Nite is expanding in 2018.

Posted on by Thor

 Nerd Nite Orlando is an evening of entertaining yet thought-provoking
presentations, all while the audience drinks along in a casual
atmosphere. Speakers present for 15-20 minutes each on a fascinating
subject, often in an uncanny and unconventional way. Following each
presentation is a brief Q&A with the audience. The premise is simple, drink and think. 

Nerd Nite operates in over a hundred cities around the world,
including Tokyo, Seattle, London, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Austin, and
many more. Nerd Nite launched in Orlando on Thursday, March 14, 2013
with founding organizers Valerie Cepero, Josh Manning, and Ricardo
Williams.

Since its inception, Nerd Nite Orlando has taken place on every
second Thursday of the month and is now organized and hosted by Ida
Eskamani and Ricardo Williams.

The announcement of Ida’s addition to the Nerd team was made on Thursday, September 14th at “Nerd Nite
Orlando LV: Neural Networks, Autonomous Vehicles, and The
Procrastination Paradox” where Eskamani took the stage at the end of the
evening to emphasize big plans for 2018 including a Nerd Nite Prom and
how they’re going to “triple everything in size and Nerd Nite this whole
damn town!”

Ricardo Williams said, “I am incredibly excited for our plans for 2018, including the continuation of our monthly events, the second season of our show, our new documentary film, the 5-year anniversary, the cosplay prom, and so much more!”

Presentations at Nerd Nite XXXI included, “The Amazing Fabric of Gordon Space Time” by Scott Gordon, “Vulnerability: You ARE crazy and its GREAT” by Rodrigo Groppa, and “The Science of Jurassic World” by Trevor Valle. 

On January 11th from 7 PM – 9:30 PM, Nerd Nite will be held at The Geek Easy (114 S Semoran Blvd, Ste 6, Winter Park, Florida 32792.) The evenings them will be “Space.” The suggested Donation is $5.00.  Doors open at 6pm. Program starts at 7pm.  Like the universe after the big bang, Nerd Nite is expanding in 2018. 


Dates for Nerd Nite in 2018:

January 11, 2018

February 8, 2018

March 8, 2018

April 12, 2018

May 10, 2018

June 14, 2018

July 12, 2018

August 9, 2018

September 13, 2018

October 11, 2018

November 8, 2018

December 13, 2018

Nerd Nite moved from Stardust to the Geek Easy.

Posted on by Thor

Stardust Video and Coffee,
(1842 E Winter Park Rd, Orlando, Florida) hosted the 23rd consecutive and first Nerd Nite Orlando event!

The evening consisted of entertaining yet thought-provoking talks across many disciplines, all while the audience drinks along in a casual bar atmosphere. Speakers present for 15-20 minutes each on a fascinating subject of their choice, often in an uncanny and unconventional way. Following each presentation is a brief Question and Answer with the audience.

Quench your curiosity! Come meet up, drink, and learn something new!

The first presentation was “DNA Nanotechnology: A Breakthrough For Us All” by Felix Sosa.

The talk is about the history, development, and possible future of the great breakthrough known as DNA nanotechnology. Felix is an undergraduate researcher at UCF working towards a Bachelor’s degree in both chemistry and computer science. He currently is a part of a large-scale research effort between the Chemistry Department, NanoScience Technology Center and Physics Department at UCF designing, simulating and synthesizing DNA architectures that have vast applications from medicines to computational machines. His talk opened our eyes to the incredible possibilities right around the corner.

My favorite talk of the evening was “Trash to Treasure: Hoarding Demystified” by Heather Grove.  If you are a hoarder, have friends or family who hoard, or just know about it from the Discovery channel, you know it is a serious, life-threatening disease. With 1 in 30 Americans afflicted by the not so uncommon disorder, Heather hopes to shed some light on the science behind collecting shit.

Since she was one, Heather has found value in what most might consider valueless. From rocks to wine cork collections, Heather has been an avid acquirer of things, but with an extreme hoarder in the family, she has fought the genetic proclivity to collect stuff by understanding the science and specifics of the disease…she hopes to help others transform their habits from hoarding to helping re purpose waste and keep it from landfills. By day, Heather turns wasteful lawns into food-growing gardens and she is co-creator of East End Market. Her talk hit home because she had family that were hoarders. This made her talk more personal as she tried to explain her own hording tendencies. I myself seem to be a hoarder. I collected rocks and minerals as a child, coins, stamps and now I collect shelves full of sketchbooks. My studio is a riot of materials and books making it hard to even enter the room. Yet, since I still create every day, I don’t seek a cure.

The final talk, “The Cosmetology Cosmologist” by Derek Demeter. Derek has been Planetarium Director at Seminole State College of Florida since 2007. He writes and produces new shows that explore the astronomy and history of numerous cultures from around the world. He serves as Vice President of the Central Florida Astronomical Society and sets up telescopes at local shopping centers to give the public a truly “out-of-this world” experience.

After this evening, Ricardo Williams took the helm to lead Nerd Nite into the future. Now the events are being held monthly at the Geek Easy ( 114 S Semoran Blvd Suite 6, Winter Park, Florida). Mark your calendar! The next Nerd Nite is Ladies Nite and it will be tonight, July 9th from 7pm to 9pm.

Nerd Nite is like the Discovery chanel with beer!

Posted on by Thor

Nerd Nite Orlando at Stardust Video and Coffee, (1842 E. Winter Park Rd. Winter Park, FL) s an evening of entertaining yet thought-provoking talks across many disciplines, all while the audience drinks along in a casual bar atmosphere. Speakers present for up to 20 minutes each on a fascinating subject of their choice, often in an uncanny and unconventional way. Following the presentations is a brief question and answer with the audience.

Quench your curiosity! Come meet up, drink, and learn something new!

The September 11th Nerd Nite featured “Nerd Nite Trivia!” with Ricardo Williams. Teams of up to 4 people competed against other smarty pants from across the city. Here are a few of the challenging questions. I’ll put the answers in the comment section of this post.

1. 90s Animated Series. What 90-93 animated TV series featured the voice talent of Whoopee Goldberg?

2. Wars that the United States fought.  What was the United States major cold war engagement prior to the Vietnam war?

3. People named Michael. Who is the baddest man on the planet?

4. Animals that have sex. If a Puma mates with a Leopard what animal is produced?

5.  Potent potables. What Welsh privateer of the Caribbean was also known as Sir Henry Moore?

The second presentation was, “Steampunk: Creating the Future out of the Past!” by Richard Young. I sketched Richard as he agonized over the Power Point slides. Steampunk is a combination of Victorian Aesthetics with Science Fiction Technology. Speaker He took a look at this Sub-Genre of Science Fiction. Including it’s history, it’s effects on modern culture, and his own experiences exploring this strange and beautiful world. Richard Young has been a member of the Central Florida Steampunk Association for over two years. He spends most of the time at work staring at computer screens, and a lot of time outside of work looking for things to do that do not involve staring at computer screens. An ex-Disney animator is working on a steampunk styled hand drawn animated film. I’m excited to see artists returning to traditional animation. Perhaps we all have been staring at computer screens to long.

“Bird Nerd: Plumage, Sex, and Social Selection!” by Angela Tringali. The plumage of birds isn’t just beautiful, it serves a function. To determine if the plumage of Florida scrub-jay juveniles had a function she changed it, and their social behavior changed too. She spoke about bird color, and a bird found only in Florida. This nerd nite was a bird nerd nite. Her passion for the subject was contagious. She is a conservation biologist and behavioral ecologist. She earned her PhD in 2013. When Angela isn’t chasing birds she is thinking about it. Some people say she has a one-track mind.