July 8, 2021
7:30pm
Gramps Bar. Wynwood
This month’s speakers and topics:
1) “Appearance and Reality”
by Dr. Aldrich Chan
What does it mean to reassemble models of reality? This presentation will discuss the various illusions our brainmind creates in order for our experience of reality to appear as it does.
Dr. Aldrich Chan is a neuropsychologist and author of Reassembling Models of Reality. He is the Founder of Center for Neuropsychology & Consciousness, Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and Research Associate at University of Miami.
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2) “Threats to Dade County’s Wildlife”
by Lloyd Brown
This presentation will point out some of the major threats to the wild animals native to South Florida.
Lloyd Brown founded Wildlife Rescue of Dade County in 1995. Lloyd is licensed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and US Fish and Wildlife Service to rescue and rehabilitate injured and orphaned native wild animals. He has rescued animals and taught others how to rescue animals all over the planet from South Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Africa. This past February, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA), and in March he received the title of “Ambassador” from the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC). He is also a former Army Paratrooper and is currently a firefighter, paramedic, technical rescue technician, and dive rescue instructor for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
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3) “Watt walks”
by Dr. Anthony Krupp
What happens when a medieval pilgrim (or is he a rolled-up carpet? or is he a long wet dream?) enters an existentialist novel? Samuel Beckett’s Watt, that’s what. Not that Watt is a pilgrim, for he is not. In addition to getting a taste of the sparse stoic hilarity of Beckett’s language, you will learn about the history of walking, romanticism, vegetation, and music. You will also get to hear a world premiere, performed live, of a choral work when Tony Krupp and friends present “Ditch music (Op. 20).”
Tony Krupp has published on the history of childhood, the history of psychology, and German literature and thought. He is also an amateur singer, pianist, and composer. His day job involves teaching students to pick A, B, C, or D on standardized tests. (It’s more fun than it sounds!) The nights belong to his friends, loved ones, and (lately) fiction by Cervantes and Beckett.
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Schedule for the night:
7:00 Doors open
7:30 Presentations begin
9:00 Double Stubble
We’re back!! Join us for our first in person event since February 2020.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
7:00-9:00pm
Gramps Bar, 176 NW 24th St, Miami, FL 33127
This month’s speakers and topics:
1) The Ascent of Poverty and Prosperity in the Modern World
by Jorge Velasco
This presentation will explore the institutional and political factors that propelled certain countries to prosperity and condemned other to the endless cycles of strife and destitution. My quest in this project was to answer one simple question….Why did my family leave Colombia? What did the United States have that Colombia didn’t? I found myself looking into the organization of labor in the Colonial era, the reaction of European Elites to the Industrial Revolution, and perpetual violence that stop countries like mine and ours from reaching it’s untapped potential. We will also be discussing Rick Ross because I somehow tied him into all of this.
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2) The Lost City of Atlantis: Fable or Foreshadowing?
by Alycia Ciresi
Miamians already know that flooding due to sea level rise is not a future concern, but a present threat. From wading through our backyards to cephalopods making headlines landing in parking garages, we have all observed the oddities, inconveniences, and even danger posed by encroaching waters. What does the future of flooding in South Florida look like? In this presentation, we explore the geographic realities of who is most at risk, who can invest in their future (and how to do it), and present case studies of other at-risk cities and their engineered flood management strategies.
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3) Fear & Loathing in Biscayne National Park: The Dark History of a Maritime Paradise
by Gary Bremen
The largest marine park in the National Park System sits at Miami’s front door and offers amazing opportunities to watch wildlife, recreate and learn about some fascinating history, but there is also a lot of history that gets swept under the rug. Nerd Nite veteran Gary Bremen introduces us to some of the park’s lesser-known stories of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and scandal.
Join us Thursday, May 13th at 7:30pm EDT for our final virtual nerd nite!! Be there and Be Square.
Join us through Facebook Live here:
https://www.facebook.com/NerdNiteMiami
or through Zoom here:
https://zoom.us/j/96162775461
This month’s speakers and topics:
1) The Never-ending Partition and the Trail of Tears
by Abdul M. Abid
The presentation will cover a brief history of the partition of India in 1947, its human toll, and its aftermath. It will touch on the Trail of Tears and the similar journey that took place in the Indian subcontinent. Come learn about the different forces and actors that participated in the partition story as well as the genesis of the conflict between India and Pakistan.
Abdul M. Abid is training in pathology at a hospital in Houston, Texas. In his past life, he has worked as a journalist and writer.
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2) Broadway History in 15 Minutes
by Ryan Cunningham
Come on along and listen to all of Broadway history in one 15 minute medley with commentary from an award-winning musical theatre writer.
Ryan Cunningham is a Jonathan Larson Award-winning lyricist and bookwriter, and a Drama Desk and MAC award nominee. His Off-Broadway musical, written with composer Joshua Salzman, I Love You Because, was in the NAMT Festival of New Musicals and went on to be produced all over the world in five languages. His next musical also with Salzman, Next Thing You Know, has been produced at CAP 21 in New York, across America and in Europe. He also wrote the book and lyrics to The Legend of New York and Michael Collins (ASCAP Musical Workshop winner) both currently in development with Salzman. When he is not writing his own work, he is helping support other people’s as a Creative Director at the Broadway advertising agency AKA and as the Associate Artistic Director of the American Musical Theatre Project at Northwestern University—where he is an adjunct faculty member with a focus in lyric writing. Ryan is a graduate of the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two sons.
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3) Great Big Trivia (*Zoom Only*)
This month, in place of a 3rd presentation, David Blum of Great Big Trivia is back with more trivia and awesome tunes. Each round begins easy and gets progressively more difficult, so whether you’re a casual trivia player or seasoned trivia buff there’s something for everyone!We’re playing for fun (and pride), but like traditional pub trivia we’ll keep score.
You’ll submit answers via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/uy527tsJj7YYrjVo8
Can you beat the competition?
We’re back! Join us for 2 talks by Nerd Nite all stars and then TRIVIA!!!!
April 8, 2021 at 7:30pm
ZOOM and Facebook Live
1) How Much for a Priceless Smile? Economics of Dental Tourism by Shaka Brown
Shaka Brown was born with a tooth. It quickly fell out. He has since left many more teeth around the world. His goal? A smile that can be loved by someone that isn’t his mother. Join him for an adventure of international proportions, and learn some of the opportunities and obstacles when sharing your precious orifice in a strange land.
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2) Planets Under Construction: How to Study a Million Year Processby Nienke van der Marel
Planets around other stars, also called exoplanets, are seen everywhere! In the last 25 years, thousands of exoplanets have been found throughout the Milky Way. How do we find these planets? What are the chances of discovering life there? And if they are so common, why is it that we still don’t know how they are formed? With the ALMA telescope we can now finally zoom into the birth cradles of planets: dusty disks around young stars. The spectacular images have given us new insights, but also raised many more questions on the process of planet formation.
Nienke van der Marel is a Banting postdoctoral fellow at University of Victoria since December 2019, working on planet formation using the revolutionary ALMA telescope. Before this she worked for 2 years as NRC postdoctoral fellow at the Herzberg institute for Astronomy, and 2 years as Parrent fellow at the University of Hawaii. She received her PhD cum laude in 2015 at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where she originates. In September 2021 she will join Leiden University again as assistant professor. Nienke is also the founder and host of Nerd Nite Victoria, with public science talks in an informal setting every third Wednesday of the month since August 2018.
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3) Great Big Trivia
This month, in place of a 3rd presentation join us for trivia and awesome tunes with David Blum of Great Big Trivia. Each round begins easy and gets progressively more difficult, so whether you’re a casual trivia player or seasoned trivia buff there’s something for everyone!We’re playing for fun (and pride), but like traditional pub trivia we’ll keep score.
You’ll submit answers via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/uy527tsJj7YYrjVo8
Can you beat the competition?