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).
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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
Out of an abundance of caution given the rise of COVID-19, we’ve decided to cancel the Nerd Nite on March 31st.
We don’t want to put anyone’s health or safety at risk. We’re sad to have to do this, but we think it’s more important to do the right thing, and abide by the advice of the experts at Alberta Health.
We’ll be refunding tickets for people who’ve already purchased. Watch your inbox for more details.
This Nerd Nite, we’re smashing together pop culture, public service and not knowing what we want. Hopefully, by the end of the night, we WILL know what we want. Or at least know why we don’t really know what we actually want. Confused? Us too. Here are the details for the evening…
Science demo starts at 7:30pm. Trivia starts at 7:45pm. Main show kicks off at 8pm.
When: Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Where: Backstage Theatre — Northeast side of the ATB Financial Arts Barns (10330 84 Ave NW)
Tickets: $20 in advance (plus fees + GST)
No minors.
Our line-up of talks includes:
How to Prosecute Thanos
Gregory Pang
Thanos kills half of all life in the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. His motivation was not to kill for the sake of killing, but he wanted to make life more sustainable. In the sequel, **spoilers!** the good guys win but not by way of due process in the courts of law to bring Thanos to justice. But what if instead, we, the surviving half of civilization, put Thanos on trial?
Gregory is a lawyer who has been practising since 2009 in the areas of business, trademark and entertainment law. He also collected many different Marvel comics as a kid and still keeps the most valuable ones securely locked away in an undisclosed location. Gregory’s negotiating style is inspired by Captain Picard totally owning the Sheliak when he cited the treaty’s arbitration clause against them in ST:TNG episode “Ensigns of Command”
Ambulance Dispatch: The most important thing is to know where you are
Monica Davis
Most people are calling 9-1-1 looking for an ambulance in one of the worst moments of their life. Through clear protocols and advance computer-aided dispatch and deployment, emergency communication officers are able to be the first first responders when someone calls for help. Learn a little about the voice on the end of the phone, the protocols we use, the technology we employ, and the realities of a job in ambulance dispatch.
I’m a single mom of four kids. I have a PhD and teach science labs at MacEwan University. I have worked in ambulance dispatch casually for nearly seven years. I love the juxtaposition of my former research life in basic science, where what I discovered had very few tangible results for actual people and the fact that someone can call me asking for an ambulance and I can see that ambulance arrive and give the help they need in real-time. I also love the comparison of my academic life that some like to flippantly call “ivory tower” and my first responder life, where I deal with so many people who are at the margins of our society. I like to think that I live in the middle of these two extremes and it allows me to be more empathetic while still having high expectations of the people in my life.
Do You Feel Like Your Life Is Out of Your Control? You’re Right!
Bryan Saunders
Years of psychological and neuroscience research have come down to this: we don’t really know what we want, and many of our actions are out of our logical control. This talk will explore all the subtle ways in which our behaviour and decisions are manipulated, and how this can be used for both good and evil in economics, dating, gambling, cancer prevention, religion, and more!
Bryan is the CEO of Psychology & Marketing. Here, he consults businesses on the use of psychology & neuroscience to influence behaviour & increase sales. Bryan is also the President of the Board of the Predictive analytics, Omnisensory, & Neuromarketing Society—which is working to establish ethical and professional standards in these emerging fields. Finally, he manages the Alberta operations of Aromatech Scent Branding & Marketing. Previously, Bryan used his superpowers to improve cancer prevention campaigns & public health policy tactics at Alberta Health Services. Bryan has a keen interest in eye tracking, multisensory marketing, & conversion rate optimization. He is currently working on a app that gamifies saving the planet. He’s hoping that it goes viral, and saves us from certain doom.