On September 17th, 1976 the first Space Shuttle, Enterprise was unveiled by NASA. Join us for an equally epic unveiling of Vancouver’s nerdiest nerds! Check out a sneak peek of Nerd Nite v6.0 below.

Where: Café Deux Soleils (2096 Commercial Drive)

When: Wednesday, September 17th 2014 @ 8pm (Doors @ 7:30pm)

Tickets: $5 dollars at the door

#1. Quit school and join the circus: How juggling and human pyramids do a better job preparing you for life.

Jacqueline Davis

There are big think tanks where pedigreed academes spend loads of time discussing how to cultivate more pedigreed academes. Great gobs of money are invested in deciding which human attributes are worth investing gobs of money in, then more gobs of money are spent (and made) testing whether student performance justifies having spent those gobs of money. But, gee, sometimes some pretty good ideas come out of all those gobs, like naming skills that people need to actually live their lives: how to think creatively, collaborate with others, and adapt to change, for example. These are known as 21st Century Skills.  Missing from this discussion however is that school might not be the only place, or the best place, to learn these skills. Sometimes, the circus might be better.

Bio: Jackie Davis is a 3rd year doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia where she’s researching the effects of community-based circus arts on youth development. She first started geeking out on circus during her master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, then later coined the term “circademic” for that special breed of scholar who loves connecting dots between circus practice and statistical significance.  When she’s not working on her comprehensive exams, or her research design, or her lit review, Jackie is — wait, she’s never not doing those things. Never mind.

#2. Psycho. Acoustic.

Gordon McGladdery

We are constantly interacting with sound. It carries human and animal language, informs us of our environments and is capable of wholly manipulating our emotions. Yet outside of music, we pay very little attention to it both in our surroundings and within the media we consume. How is sound found in nature (what is a sonic boom, anyway?), and how is nature using sound? From echolocation to vibrating elephant foreheads and stridulating bug penises as loud as a broken diesel truck, mother nature is the most skilled and creative sound designer imaginable. How do we steal her ideas for fortune and glory? We’re animals as well, but sound for us is different in that it makes us feel feelings. What techniques are sound designers using in games, film and otherwise to brainwash audiences in to doing our emotional bidding? We’ll draw from my [completely non-academic] obsession with sound to expound on these topics.

Bio: Gordon McGladdery is a professional composer and sound designer. He helps stimulate the nerdtastic passions of the world with Destin on the hit Youtube channel Smarter Every Day, spearheaded audio and music for the top-selling game Rogue Legacy and generally loves learning about and evangelizing audio to the world. When he’s not working on games or film, he’s further nerding out with Matt Marteinsson of Klei Entertainment on the podcast Beards, Cats and Indie Game Audio.

#3. Alien Languages – Beyond Human Limits?

Guy Immega

Animals make sophisticated calls but only humans talk. No other creature on Earth – ape or bird – has mastered syntax: structured sentences with a subject, verb and object. Dinosaurs had over 200 million years to acquire language, but probably didn’t. Did Neanderthals talk? Today, seven billion chattering humans are the masters of the planet. But what about sentient aliens? Could language evolve differently on one of the estimated 100 million exoplanets in the Milky Way that may harbour complex life? Does speech need words? How does language shape culture? A science fiction author examines some of the myriad possibilities.

Bio: Guy Immega is a retired aerospace engineer, entrepreneur and science geek. His company, Kinetic Sciences Inc. built experimental robots for the space station, robots to clean up nuclear waste and miniature fingerprint sensors for cell phones. In 2005, he sold the company’s assets and retired. Since then, Guy has published science fiction short stories and other nonfiction essays and completed an SF novel, in which he explores the linguistic potential of an alien species. For more info, check out his website: http://kineticwords.net.