Nerd Nite Denver took over Wednesday at The Oriental Theater with its monthly mix of education and tasty drinks. Fans of these get-togethers came thirsty and ready to learn in the cozy and comfortable Oriental Theater in Denver last night Sept. 12, 2018. Last night’s fans learned all about Digital Privacy from an Ethical Hacker, Relationships from a love and breakup expert, and how to learn music through a Eurythmics teacher. Each speaker took the stage to educate and entertain.
A super popular monthly event, Nerd Nite is now in 95 cities worldwide. Somewhat like Ted Talks, these everyday experts bring their knowledge and love of the subject matter to gatherings all over the globe. Hannah got the ball rolling when she shared Nerd Nite’s origin story. Apparently, this very smart guy named Chris Balakrishnan flew overseas to study a unique bird that turned out to be the asshole of its species. Shortly after that, these get-togethers were born.
Digital Privacy – Why You Should Care and What You Can Do
by Logan Evans
Logan Evans is what is called an Ethical Hacker. This guy gets paid to hack in order to find the flaws. Evans was incredibly informative and entertaining. Between government surveillance and private companies, a person’s digital privacy is something that should be cared about.
Four things to keep in mind for digital privacy are:
- -Strong, unique passwords
- -VPN (Virtual Private Network) so that hackers can’t see what websites you’re going to; especially when you’re at a Starbucks.
- -Encrypted communications
- -Browser extensions
The expert talked about browser cookies and how they store info on what we look for. Of course it is a good idea to come up with strong usernames and passwords. Avoid using the obvious “winter2018” when the season changes.
Follow Logan’s Twitter @sweetrollbandit as he will tweet his presentation.
Obsession, Infatuation, Love and the Pursuit of Unhappiness
by Chase Chavez
Wednesday’s audience learned about the ridiculous things guys and gals do to find love and the equally ridiculous things they do to end it. As Chase went into his presentation, he explained why he was the ideal person to present this. He has had his share of breakups as both the dumper and the dumpee. He was hilarious! Thought we were watching a stand-up routine.
According to Chase, it all started as early as kindergarten and first grade with “Kim 1” and “Kim 2.” From that point on, it was the usual dating, breakups, marriage, kids, and divorce. Of course, he chatted about online dating and took a quick poll in the room: “How many of you have tried online dating?” About seven or eight woots came proclaimed it. “How many of you like it?” Complete silence. He went on to explain that there are plenty of dangers such as abductions, rapes, and four out of five don’t use protection! There are the fake account profiles out there. Telltale signs that their profiles are fake:
- Usually have just one picture—a model pic they scraped off the internet somewhere.
- The description says I love beautiful things and children are a blessing: FAKE! Nobody talks that way.
- The profile says that they are looking for men between the ages of 18 and 80. Are they really not that picky?
Married, taken, and single people all came away with something.
Dalcroze Eurythmics: Using Movement to Train the Musical Body
by Gregory Marxen
Music teacher, Gregory Marxen introduced the crowd to Dalcroze Eurythmics. The invention came from a guy in Switzerland named Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. In the late 1800s he came up with this method after he discovered that his music students could play the fastest and most technical passages, yet they had never even played an instrument. The method uses movements, activities, and singing to learn the fundamental musical concepts and musical behaviors. Marxen explained that each activity gives a student a different lens with which to view the same musical concept. He uses singing, skipping, running, and clapping.
Audience volunteers on stage used a lumberjack story of needing different lengths of wood such as a log, a stick, and twigs. The demonstration involved the on-stage volunteers as well as the entire audience in an exercise called “Log, Stick, Twig.” Nerds certainly enjoyed it when he added music from the films “Inception” and “Interstellar” to demonstrate his methods.
Get ready for October 24th’s Nerd Nite where a costume contest will be a bonus. Topics will be Escaping to Reality: The best and worst escape rooms and the future of immersive entertainment, putting the science back in poli-sci, and Game of Clones: Sex and Murder in Bacterial Imperialism.