Nerd Nite + Nat Geo Present: South By Supercluster

Nerdizens of the Virgo Supercluster, prepare to party! This is no normal Nerd Nite. Featuring Nerd Nite royalty, triumphant alums, a local Youtube celebrity and free food / drink / swag celebrating NatGeo's upcoming programs StarTalk With Neil deGrasse Tyson, America Genius and The Big Picture! Oh, and preceded by a very special Skype call from the Hayden Planetarium... The talks: +++++++++++++ "Illuminating the Cosmic Battlefield," by Dr. Joel D. Green The formation of galaxies, stars and planets can be understood as a battle between random motions and gravity. Joel returns to the Nerd Nite stage to break down the stellar images now arriving from the most sophisticated array of telescopes ever placed in orbit. Formerly a UT astronomer, Joel Green is now a Project Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the science operations center for the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. +++++++++++++ "Thomas Jefferson vs Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon," by Joe Hanson When the United States was a young nation, it wasn't held in very high esteem by most Europeans. Especially not the French. It fell to Thomas Jefferson, then a diplomat in France, to prove that Presidents and Counts were once among our most prominent scientific minds. He decided to start by mailing the French a moose. Forget Ben Franklin, this was America's first scientific showdown. Called "everyone's favorite Feynman of the Tumblr era,"Joe Hanson, PhD is publisher of the popular blog and YouTube show about science, It's OK To Be Smart. His mission in life is to tell the world about the awesomeness of ALL THE SCIENCE. +++++++++++++ "How to Become a Digital Nomad," by Lillian Pierson More and more 'digital nomads' are leveraging telecommunications technology to travel internationally and move abroad while continuing to work for employers in the west. Learn the technologies, tricks, and tips central to this data-centric lifestyle, whether you live in Austin, Texas or Ubud, Bali. Lillian Pierson, P.E. is the founder of Data-Mania, a business that focuses on data science training and growth engineering services, and is author of the forthcoming book Data Science For Dummies. +++++++++++++ Plus! Nerd Nite NYC Godfather and Global Overseer Matt Wasowski will be present to confound the crowd with his tortuous trivia! +++++++++++++ Plus plus! FREE FOOD, OPEN BAR and NERDY SWAG courtesy of the kind folks at NatGeo! +++++++++++++ Plus cubed! At 5PM, early birds will be able to watch NatGeo's exclusive first-look screening of StarTalk With Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson will make a SPECIAL GUEST SKYPE APPEARANCE and Q&A, when he will also announce the show’s premiere date (doors for this pre-party are at 4PM)! +++++++++++++ As always, Nerd Nite is free for the people. Talks may not occur in the order described; grab a beer and relax!