The holidays are over and the breaking of resolutions is well underway. So what better time to talk about the science of responsibility, marijuana, and dead bodies. Wait…what? Join us January 22 for a new year with new speakers and the same ol’ rowdy nerdery!

Plus we’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with Sexpot Comedy! These hilarious, Denver-based wunderkinds are the masters of all things entertaining in the Mile High City and look forward to bringing you the science of comedy throughout Nerd Nite in 2015. Keep an eye on our Nerd About Town calendar for other exciting Sexpot shows around town.

• When: Thursday, January 22 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Embrace that inner early-bird and grab your tickets now!

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What Makes a Responsible Person?

by Rachel Weston Rowell

The Responsibility Process is a model that explains how your brain responds to a problem. In an effort to allow you to cope with problems and move on quickly, your brain does a lot of work to give you someone or something else to pin your problem on. The process includes steps such as Blame (someone did this to me), Justify (the world/environment/situation did this to me), Shame (blame myself), and Obligation (the world/environment/situation I created is doing this to me). In our lives we spend a lot of time in Shame and Obligation. The issue with all of these responses is that they are coping, not growing and learning spaces. Only when we move to responsibility can we move beyond the problem. Rachel teaches us how to get there.

Speaker creds: Rachel did her undergrad and graduate work at UC Berkeley and CU Boulder respectively in communication and linguistics and now works for Rally Software in Boulder investigating what’s next for the ever-challenging work of building Lean and Agile teams. When she isn’t transforming engineering and business practices, Rachel does improv at the Bovine Metropolis Theater in Denver and volunteers for Code for America through the Code for Denver Brigade. That is, when she isn’t enjoying her very own at home hilarity: her husband and 3 year old daughter.

A Complete Guide to Marijuana

by Jake Browne

We all have an endocannabinoid system, but what is it and how did it get there? Why do some marijuana smell like a dead skunk and why do some people actually like that? Jake Browne, marijuana critic for the Denver Post, breaks down everything you never knew about marijuana, from the gene level to Cheech and Chong sized joints.

Speaker creds: Jake Browne is a Denver-based comedian, writer, and co-host of the Whiskey and Cigarettes podcast. He founded the HempBox, a subscription box focused on hemp consumer goods, in 2014; is co-host of Comics Against Civility, a Cards Against Humanity themed game show that runs monthly in Denver; and is a writer for CULTURE Magazine. He also happens to be a pot critic for The Denver Post. Check him out on Facebook and Twitter!

Inside the Mind of a Coroner

by Lora Thomas

We’ve all seen intense, case-solving, music montage scenes with coroners on CSI or The X-Files but what does a coroner actually do? Do you even want to know? We do! Lora explains the real world of dead bodies and how a hyper-sucessful cop becomes a coroner.

Speaker creds: Lora Thomas was elected Douglas County Coroner in 2010 and served until January 13, 2015. The county coroner is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death. Lora’s term was nothing if not eventful. She cut the budget by 33% while the caseload increased 45% and two former employees are now convicted felons! Wha?

Before being elected coroner, Lora Thomas worked with the Colorado State Patrol for 26 years, becoming the first woman captain and major in the organization.  She has earned an MBA, finance, and criminal justices degrees.

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Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

See you soon!

p.s. Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Or know someone who should be? Let us know!

Couldn’t make it to June’s Nerd Nite? Don’t worry! The Girls of Geek 12 have you covered! Check out their review here! Thanks geeks!

Prepare to NERD! Get your tickets for Nerd Nite now!

• When: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 – doors at 7pm, show at 8pm (come early to mingle and drink with us)
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• $5 online, $7 at the door – 18+
• Tickets available on Eventbrite or from The Oriental Theater
• Ticket alternative: Tweet or Facebook us a nerdy poem and score two FREE tickets to the June 24th event!

When Doctor Who himself explains the wonders of the universe, ye nerds should listen. To help improve those listening — and speaking — skills, we’re going to learn all about cued speech. And to top it all off, let’s all Tweet at our toasters. For science. Be there and be square!

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*The Wild and Wonderful Universe

by Sorin

Description: You don’t need a Tardis to be able to look through space and time. Come along for an exploration of some of the wonders of our universe and our never-ending quest for knowledge, as presented by an in-costume and in-character 4th Doctor Who! We’ll look back some 13 billion years to the formation of the first galaxies, then leap forward to talk about some of the greatest minds of the last 500 years that took our view of the universe from our lowly earth centered cocoon to the unimaginably vast cosmos we know today. No complicated mathematics or physics – all you need is a sense of wonder.

Speaker Bio: Sorin a software product director for Pearson by day, and an amateur astronomer by night. He is a current board member of the Denver Astronomical Society, and a former board member of the Seattle Astronomical Society. You can find him on Twitter @SoggyAstro or read him at http://soggyastronomer.com

*Cued Speech: Improving Your Communication Skillz, One Consonant at a Time

by Aaron Rose

Description: Phonemes, speech articulation, language acquisition, the inner voice construct. Still unclear? Don’t worry, Aaron Rose will delight you with all the ways that Noam Chomsky was right…or kind of right. It took a brilliant physicist to figure out how to effectively convey spoken language in a consonant-vowel construct that uses “cues,” or handshapes, in conjunction with verbal speech. The concept is so ridiculously simple that it fits on a wallet-sized card that you can carry around to remind yourself of a hand shape or a hand placement. Nerd Nite attendees will go home knowing how to cue (almost…)  

*Your toaster needs a Facebook page: How our increasingly connected culture is changing the Internet

by Chris Crocco

Description: Web connected devices have become integral in day-to-day life across the globe. As we use devices for everything from video conferencing to checking the status of our toothbrush from our smartphones, the Internet as it exists today has been pushed to adapt. This talk looks to explore the challenges that come from the transition to a web based culture, and how the Internet is changing to allow everyone on the planet to tweet at their toaster. Speaker Bio:

Speaker bio: Chris Crocco is a member of the network operations team for ViaSat, which provides satellite based networking. He currently supports the company’s residential and mobile satellite Internet service running off of the highest capacity satellite ever launched, meaning he literally makes the internet everyday. Chris is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, and has received multiple professional certifications in being a networking nerd.

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Don’t miss these amazing presentations (and the accompanying drinks). Tickets are $5 online and $7 at the door. So grab your tix now!

Before you go, be sure to take a minute to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

See you soon!