Since the last Thursday of the month falls on Halloween Night proper, we are having our Halloween Nerd Nite on Tuesday the 29th of October. Come in costume as we will have a costume contest! Our 3 speakers for the evening will be covering freaky topics such as unnatural mangling of books for the sake of art, exhuming the rarest of books, and unlocking the energy hiding deep below our feet!
When: Tuesday, Oct 29th, at 7:30pm
(Doors & bar open at 7pm, with drinks available all night)
Where: Studio Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Books are magical and important and should be treated with respect — but sometimes they can be transformed into a whole other kind of art. Introducing the world of Altered Books…
Winston is a reader, writer, designer, book collector, bookseller, holistic librarian, and all around book nerd. When not in the bookish world, Winston can be found singing in choir, playing with Lego, and just trying to make the world a better place. But he also sometimes wrecks books for fun. You can find him online at butterfliesandaliens.com.
What makes a book rare? What are “incunabula,” and why are they so desirable to collectors? How should you handle rare materials – gloves or no gloves? Step into the wonderful world of rare books in this crash course on all things old, rare and bookish.
Natasha D’Amours is a Master of Library and Information Studies student at the University of Alberta. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing from the University of Victoria, has worked in printing and bookbinding for several years, and is currently working at Bruce Peel Special Collections as a reading room supervisor and exhibition docent. As you can probably tell, she thinks that books are pretty neat.
The future of housing is captured in the word “sustainable”. Housing needs to be environmentally sustainable, socially sustainable, and financially sustainable. And at the heart of this future is the energy from the Earth, energy that is transferred using geothermal heat exchangers.
Yasushi Ohki is the executive director of the non-profit housing development called Green Violin Community Development Company. With an education in civil engineering and architecture, combined with a career in land development, Yasushi has just completed his fifth year advocating for housing and is about to embark on the next five year Mission to Demonstrate new housing forms.
Nerd Nite Edmonton is back for the Fall, and we’re eager to welcome you back. Join us to hear about video game reviews and why they suck, bike lanes in our cities, and video game history.
When: Thursday, Sept 26th, at 7:30pm
(Doors & bar open at 7pm, with drinks available all night)
Where: Backstage Theatre at Fringe Theatre Adventures
Nathaniel Romance-Senneville: Why Video Game Review Scores Suck
Before you may play a video game, you have to buy one. When there are more than 5 million video games to choose from, this becomes difficult without some research. A lot of us use video game scores to help us pick. In this (hopefully humorous) talk I’m going to talk about why I think those scores are bad at their job, or at the very least those scores are less valuable than we perceive them to be.
Nathaniel started playing video games around the age of four, and hasn’t been able to kick the addiction. No cross-country move, undergraduate degree or soul crushing jobs have gotten in the way of the playing of video games (He even got his partner addicted.) When moving (back) to Edmonton, the bus allowed three bags. He only brought the essentials: His desktop computer, his monitor, and other things he couldn’t remember. In his spare time, he sleeps and works a full-time job.
Karly Coleman: Co-Design and City Governance – Self and Others in a Dispute Over Bike Lanes
I examine how people engage socially with changes to the material infrastructure of the urban environment, and I specifically look at how people argue about bike lanes in Edmonton. I concentrate on how humans influence urban infrastructure and how that infrastructure influences human behaviour.
Karly grew up in small towns located in northeastern Saskatchewan and central Brazil, giving her an eye for exposing the taken-for-granted in people’s lives. She seamlessly blends practicality with humour and so returned to university to pursue her Ph.D. She’s interested in bikes, cats, cozy murder, creative non-fiction, phenomenology and history. When she’s not writing about bike lanes, life in general, and her life specifically, she’s renovating her home, quelling cat fights, or performing random acts of gardening.
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone focuses on a brief history of games as an emerging and evolving medium for art, writing, and play, and the alarming loss of game history that continues to grow. Games are being lost every day, and without concentrated advocacy for recording and access, many may be lost forever.
Nisha Patel is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Edmonton and a Canadian Poetry Slam Champion. A queer and disabled artist, Nisha is a recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal and the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award. Her sophomore collection of poetry, A Fate Worse Than Death, engages in the necropolitics surrounding disability, and is out now with Arsenal Pulp Press.
There’s no such thing as a fish (shout-out to one of the best podcasts out there). But there is such a thing as Nerd Nite Edmonton #81, which has an aquatic theme! You’ll learn about what effect bad data collection can have on fish populations, aquatic citizen science, and places to scuba dive you may not have thought about.
Shona Derlukewich: Does the misidentification of fish have a significant repercussion on our fish populations?
In fisheries management, accurate fish species identification is critically important as the first basic step in data collection. Provincial and Federal legislation states, we must distinguish each species and implement the appropriate management/measures to protect fish and fish habitat. If not, we run the risk of costly, inaccurate data collection which could ultimately lead to the extinction of a species. Over the years, I have known fish identification to be underappreciated and I strive to tell students why we need to change our mentality to care for all fishes especially the “small-bodied fishes”. From the ecosystem functionality to socio-economic impacts, I will guide you through the effects of misidentifying these underwater mystic creatures. Let’s go on the journey in the life of a fish without a name and offer them more respect!
Shona Derlukewich is a graduate of the University of Alberta – Conservation Biology and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology – Renewable Resources programs. She has provided field knowledge and educational teaching in fisheries over the past 18 years. With the help of Consultants, Governments, Trout Unlimited Canada and friends, Shona’s fish identification guides and workshops have provided the necessary tools to ensure the longevity of our fisheries and sustainable use. She is passionate about circulating her fisheries field knowledge to anglers, biologists, and technologists across Canada. She believes that together we can provide mentorship, education, and awareness to ignite the passions in our fisheries.
The Minnow is an exciting new citizen science tool. Come on a virtual tour and learn all about “The Story of Water” in this exciting new facility rolling out to a waterway near you!
Lee J. Burton is the Secretary to the Board at the Aquatic Biosphere Society of Canada. An experienced scuba diver and amateur filmmaker, Lee’s passion is to bring the mysteries of our water to the public eye. Through key roles at the Aquatic Biosphere Project, the MacEwan Scuba Club and the Alberta Underwater Council, Lee has shared a deep passion for water for over 20 years.
Terina Hancock: Journey beyond the warm waters of the tropics
When most people think about scuba diving and holidays they think of tropical warm water, coral reefs and sandy beaches. However, there is a vast world out there amongst the cold waters and rocky shores. Journey with me as we go on a cool adventure beyond El Fin del Mundo.
Terina is a freshwater biologist with a BSc. in Conservation Biology that is passionate about scuba diving and learning/exploring our natural world in all forms. Although diving is not part of her day job, as a biologist she combines her curiosity of the natural world with her diving by exploring local lakes, differing oceans and recently underwater caves. In 2009 she visited Antarctica above water learning about the above ice world and after visiting the Arctic (Svalbard and East Greenland), she finally made her way back to Antarctica in 2024 to also experience below the water.
