We are so happy to be back, we have nothing snappy to say. We hope you’re glad to be back with us and will tune in to our next event on April 29!
Tickets are pay-what-you-can.
RSVP to the event on our Facebook page to get event reminders and to show off to your friends that you’re coming.
Workers Of All Worlds Unite!
by Olav Rokne
Science fiction is filled with depictions of standard capitalist employment relationships, but little thought seems to have been given to how workers in the future will assert their rights. Join Olav Rokne as he explores the troubled history of labour unions in science fiction, and makes an argument as to why this history matters.
Weird and Wonderful Museums in Small Town Alberta
by Lianne McTavish
If “World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington Alberta” doesn’t make you want to get a ticket, I don’t know what else to say.
Did you know Demi Moore had a pottery double in Ghost?
by Lori Fossum
Well, not exactly, but there was a professional potter that made the pieces she pretends to throw on the wheel. It takes years to learn how to make a tall beautiful vase like the one in that famous scene. I’ve been making pottery for almost 20 years and in 20 minutes I will break down how to make a mug. We’ll travel together from raw clay to finished glazed piece. I’ll explain all the pottery jargon as I go through steps in the making process and in the end you’ll see a finished mug!
New year, new Nerds. We hope you didn’t have the misfortune of missing our first Nerd Nite in over a year. That was back in February. Now it’s March, and there’s no excuse for not nerding out with us. We’ve worked out the technology. We’ve located the nerds. We’ve secured the venue (your house). Sadly, we still haven’t found a way to get you beer, but you’re capable adults so we believe in you.
Save the date for Nerd Nite 57: Home Edition Vol. 2 on March 25.
Join us at 7:30 pm on Fringe TV.
Pay what you want for your ticket at Fringe Theatre’s ticketing page.
We appreciate whatever you can offer, and if you are strapped for cash, we’ve got you covered!
Featuring:
Cobra Effects: How Legal Solutions Often Make the Problem Worse
Laws intended to solve a problem often make the problem worse—as with a bounty on cobras causing an increase in the cobra population. This talk will describe a number of these situations, and what can be done to avoid them. Presented by Ian Runkle, a local lawyer.
With:
Advantages of Inbreeding: Banging yourself for the win.
Dr. Kate St. Onge will talk about the surprising evolutionary advantages of the most extreme form of inbreeding: selfing. Selfing is a common mating system seen in plants. Evolutionary shifts from outcrossing to selfing have lead to lots of diversification in flowering plants.
And:
My Journey into Nature Photography
Join nature photographer Shane Turgeon as he dives into his photographs, how his story lead him to pick up a camera, and how the many facets of nature photography are of tremendous benefit to our mental health.
Martians, Murderers, and mStatistians (the m is silent)
Good news, everyone! Nerd Nite is back and live from the comfort of your own couch. Join Chris Herd, Bradley King, and Amanda Hedden and get yourself inoculated against boredom on
Attendance is free and the audience is welcome to join us on video (BYOB).
RSVP now on Facebook!
Join the live video audience via Zoom
-or-
Stream live on Fringe TV
Searching for Life on Mars: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Mission
Chris Herd
The Perseverance Rover is set to touch down on Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18th. The rover is the most capable of its kind ever sent to the Red Planet, designed to explore rocks that were formed more than three and a half billion years ago as a river flowed into Jezero Crater. Not only will the rover enable the study of the rocks from Mars—including looking for hints of ancient life—it will collect more than 20 samples of rock and soil, which will be sealed and left on the surface for later return to Earth. Perseverance is the first step to collect the samples with the ultimate goal of finding out if life ever evolved outside of the Earth.
Nerd Nite Alum Chris Herd is a planetary geology expert, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, and a returned sample scientist on the Perseverance mission.
The What, Who, and How of Fringers: A Love Letter to North America’s Largest Fringe Festival
Bradley King
Every August, Edmonton hosts North America’s largest Fringe Theatre Festival, bringing together people from around the world to create, share, and learn over a period of 11 days. Thousands gather to see hundreds of shows, a plethora of street performers and maybe enjoy a mini donut or two (dozen). The people who attend this weird, wonderful festival are called “Fringers,” and we’ve learned so much about them! Get nerdy with us while we chat about Fringers, where they come from, who they are, and how they Fringe. It’s time to take a deep dive into Fringer demographic data, to explore what we can determine from just a postal code, and to enjoy some pretty plots along the way. Bonus points if you can count the number of times we say “Fringe” during the presentation.
My Scrapbook, 1937
Amanda Hedden
Amanda Hedden of Chronic Nostalgic has been voraciously consuming and collecting vernacular photography for nearly two decades. Her primary passion is positive colour found film, but she will be cracking open a dark corner of her albums collection for Nerd Night. She’ll be discussing the joy and anguish of narratives while taking you through a mysterious scrapbook tied to a brutal true crime that gained national attention and still remains unsolved.
Contact Amanda at Chronic Nostalgic on IG and FB @chronicnostalgic