Weekanerd NYC - Halo Week, Gay Superheroes, and Fun with Mass Extinction

Monday, October 1, 2007

• Start of Halo Week
  
• All Day @ web2zone, 54 Cooper Square, Manhattan
  

Okay, so Halo 3 came out like, what, a million days ago at this point? But if you're one of those poor saps without an Xbox 360, here's your chance to play the game for free, and possibly win some yet to be named prizes.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

• Comic Book Club with Perry Moore
  
• 8pm @ The P.I.T, 154 West 29th Street, Manhattan
  

Perry Moore is the guest on this live, weekly comic book talk show. Who's Perry Moore? Why, he's the author of Hero, a book on LGBT superheroes which somehow fails to mention me. $5 bucks.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

• Secret Science Club
  
• 8pm @ Union Hall, 702 Union St., Brooklyn

This free lecture has been packed the last two nights out, so arrive early if you want a view and/or a seat. And this is a particularly sexy topic - mass extinction and the history of life. Your guide is Dr. Michael Rampino, biologist, geologist, and most likely not a nut wearing a sandwich board that says "The End Is Near".

Secret Science Club Encourages Lay Scientific Musing

On Wednesday, Geekanerd Correspondent Sarah B checked out Secret Science Club at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The guest speaker this month was biogeochemist (I learned this word from Union Hall's myspace) William Schlesinger, global warming expert.
Here's a guerilla photo of Dr. Schlesinger talking about trees (Park Slopics and Environmentalists in foreground).

You may know that plants eat CO2, so you may think: well if CO2 emissions are choking the Earth, isn't that OK, since trees will have more to snack on? Answer I learned at the club: a few extra trees will grow (he said 10% more), but not enough to take in all the bad molecules. Or something like that. I think. The point is, the trees aren't going to save us at this point. This isn't Lord of the Rings.

More Scientalk after the omega jump...

Anyway, Dr. Schlesinger described a pretty interesting experiment on this point. Some Duke kids put a CO2 cloud all around a patch of forest to see how this would affect botanic growth, and the plant with the highest growth rate increase turned out to be......... poison ivy.

The conclusion I came to the next day when thinking about this: we're all going to be wearing more tank tops once this global warming thing starts to make us "awkward and uncomfortable"* and all that exposed skin...you see where I'm going...is inevitably going to end up all itchy and irritated since poison ivy will have taken over the Earth. Not the Uma Thurman kind, just to be clear.

This was just one of many sub-subjects discussed during the lecture. Other topics featured:

• GDP and carbon emissions correlation line graph
• penguins
• Are the environmental benefits of driving a hybrid car negated by all the energy used to create a hybrid car?
• Ethanol

I liked Secret Science Club because it was like a New Yorker article that talks to you: a wide range of causes and implications were hashed over by an expert. There were slides. Also: some bitch asked the professor if cell phone waves commanded thunderstorms. He was like, No.
Here's a shot of a special drink Union Hall was serving for the event. The Climate Cooler. 3 dollars.

*William Schlesinger's phrasing

Weekanerd NYC: Mario Strikers, Movies, and Super Secret Science Club

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2007

• Mario Strikers Charged Released
  
• Available wherever games are sold, or order online at the link above.
  

I kinda hated the GameCube version of this title, and the Wii doesn't exactly seem made to simulate games played with your feet, but...uh, Albo, why should people be excited about this again?

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007

• http://summerscreen.org/home.html
• 8pm (with music @ 7) @ McCarren Park Pool. Lorimer btw Driggs and Bayard Ave, Brooklyn (Williamsburg)

Sci-fi punk mayhem, starring everyone's favorite Mighty Duck. Free!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2007

• Super Secret Science Club: William Schlesinger
• 8pm @ Union Hall, 702 Union Ave, Brooklyn (Park Slope)

The Super Sceret Science club meets once a month for guest lectures and science nerd fun - this month, the presentation is on everyone's favorite terrifying topic, global warming. Also included in the evening are "low-impact tunes", a video, Q & A, and "Eco-Cocktails". Free!

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2007

• NYC Noir: A Double Life and The Seventh Victim
• Various times @ The Film Forum, 209 West Houston St, Manhattan.

Two examples of classic NYC film noir for the price of one. Get your film history on.