Date: Wednesday November 30, 2011
Time: 8pm
Location: Genna’s Lounge (map)
Smut and Sluts: How Reading Novels Will Turn You into a Sex-Crazed Maniac
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Summary: New reading practices and the rise in popularity of the novel caused 18th century moralists to panic that novels might be transforming docile and virtuous women into hysterical nymphomaniacs with no regard for societal rules. Meanwhile, libertine authors were writing—and illustrating—erotic novels with exactly that goal in mind. Can reading really turn you into a sex-obsessed madwoman? Is the novel the first step toward total collapse of civilization? Is this talk just an excuse to display historical porn in public? Discover the dangers of fiction before it’s too late!
Presenter bio: Rachel Tapley is getting her PhD in French literature at UW-Madison. She is writing about seduction and the dangers of reading in 18th and 19th century novels. It is too late for her to benefit from her own warnings.
Sweeeeet! Science! The Chemistry of Candy
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Summary: For milennia, one “spice” has stood tall against the rest, and rightly so. Without sugar, there’d be no candy, which means no Halloween, practically no Valentine’s Day, and thousands fewer good reasons to be obese or diabetic. It’s true, candy has imposed its will upon the weathered fabric of society and taken hold. Issues examined will include the awesome things that candy can do, mechanisms for killing someone with sweetness and how to mitigate chocolate-induced guilt.
Presenter bio: Nick Myllenbeck is a chemistry graduate student at UW and candy enthusiast (he says the sour ones are his type!) Nick enjoys thinking about chemistry that will solve the world’s problems and how Madison should be in California.
The History of the Vibrator
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Summary: Half of Americans have used vibrators during their lifetimes, but few know the history of these pleasure-producing devices. In this talk, you’ll learn that Wisconsin played an important role in the history of the vibrator, while also seeing (and perhaps touching) a 100-year-old working vibrator manufactured in Racine, Wisconsin.
Presenter bio: Hallie Lieberman is the world’s leading (only) dildographer. She’s writing her dissertation on the history of sex toys. To learn more about the fine art of dildography, read her blog at http://www.dildographer.wordpress.com
Date: Wednesday October 19, 2011
Time: 8pm
Location: Genna’s Lounge (map)
The Virology of Werewolfism (Lycanosis): What Werewolves Have in Common with Cold Sores
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Summary: This highly publicized and dramatized disease has plagued humanity for centuries, yet little is known about what it is or what we’re supposed to do about it. In this talk you’ll learn the exact modus operandi and strategic plan of the virus that causes werewolfism, and how best to thwart it and save your life and the lives of countless other drifters and people with poor nighttime transportation habits.
Presenter bio: Sarah Koske is a student studying both the rare and more common animal diseases and zoonoses. She has an interest in non-traditional species (including, but not limited to, werewolves), as well as pathology, and the ecology of disease. Unfortunately, Sarah also has an imagination that cannot be controlled with corticosteroids. Sarah has been the winner of the NIH’s coveted “Most Original, Well-written, Yet Inordinately Ludicrous Grant Proposal” award since 2005.
Nerd Nite of the Living Dead: How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse
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Summary: Do you have a strategy in place to survive zombie attacks? Do you want to be devoured by or converted into one of the living dead? If the answer to both of these questions is no, then you’re in luck. This Nerd Nite presentation will introduce you to the the origins of zombie lore and give you the essential do’s and don’t’s for short-term strategies against individual attacks as well as long-term success in a post-apocalyptic environment.
Presenter bio: Danielle started her zombie-preparedness training through taking courses in the English department at her undergraduate institution, the geographically-confusing Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is now a PhD candidate in the philosophy department at UW-Madison, working on a dissertation in philosophy of braaaaaaaaaaaains
Sasquatch, Science, and Pseudoscience
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Summary: Is Bigfoot real or bullshit? By applying basic scientific principles and some biological anthropology, we’ll explore the legend of North America’s famous hirsute bipedal ape. We’ll find out how real scientists out fraudsters and see how fact is more intriguing than fiction.
Presenter bio: Zach Throckmorton is a dissertator at UW-Madison’s Department of Anthropology. He is Madison’s leading (i.e. only) authority on the evolution of the human foot.
Date: Wednesday September 7, 2011
Time: 8pm
Location: Genna’s Lounge (map)
Urination Explanation – What Is Pee and Why Is It So Awesome?!!?!
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Summary: Pee!!! Jokes about it will never stop being funny and facts about it will never stop being interesting! This talk will explain what pee is, why it is yellow, why it smells, how it connects us with the rest of life on earth, and how humans have used it to learn more about the nature of the universe. Teaser fact: humans used pee to make the worlds first explosives! Get ready for an unruly undertaking of urinary utterances!
Presenter bio: Lee Bishop is a PhD chemist and professional science enthusiast. When not pushing the boundaries of knowledge in his research as a postdoctoral fellow at UW-Madison he is trying to come up with simple explanations for our complex universe for his blog Science Minus Details. Lee loves to pee.
Mind-Bending Morphology and the Science of Human Language
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Summary: Language pervades our reality; whether spoken, written, typed, or signed, language is an inescapable fact of human existence. One of the most basic functions of a human language is to describe events in the world around (and inside of!) us, and so it’s reasonable to start by examining the fundamentals: in a human language, how can you tell who did what to who(m)? This talk will dig beyond familiar European languages to show that the answers to this question are surprisingly diverse!
Presenter bio: Hunter Thompson Lockwood is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been speaking human languages in his personal life since the mid-to-late 1980’s. He is currently putting his nerdish obsessions over minutiae to good use by helping the Potawatomi people put together the first real dictionary for their language. In his spare time he rambles to his fiancée and cat.
“Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful” – The Evolution of Penis Morphology
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Summary: Penises are perhaps simultaneously the most studied and least studied adaptations in the animal kingdom. Hobbyists have been examining them for millennia, however until recently, evolutionary biologists have paid little attention. This talk will explore the different selective pressures on penis morphology, with colorful illustrations and explanations of some of nature’s strangest penises. It will conclude by considering how these forces have shaped the human penis.
Presenter bio: Hayley Clatterbuck is a graduate student studying the philosophy of biology at UW-Madison. She is interested in evolutionary biology and anthropology, and she always appreciates a salacious scientific anecdote. Hayley does not have a penis.