Results tagged “science”

COCKTAIL PARTY: Wow, we're intrigued. Bold Italic presents 1939. Tog to the Bricks!, a decadent cocktail party from the 1930s, celebrating the opening of the World's Fair. The organizers promise "a raucous good time while the gin and absinthe flow, photographers roam, the piano keys are plunked." Cocktails and food by St. George Spirits, Distillery No. 209, Aidells, Cheese Plus and Pacific Puffs are all included in the cover charge. Attire is 1930s inspired, of course, and the best dressed will get gift certificates to Decades of Fashion and tickets to Long Now's Rick Prelinger Lost Landscapes screening.

HISTORY: As part of the SF Museum and Historical Society's 2009 "Neighborhoods of San Francisco" program, author and historian Woody LaBounty will reintroduce the community to Beachside Bohemia: Carville-by-the-Sea and the Birth of the Outer Sunset District, which he researched extensively for his new book, Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco’s Streetcar Suburb. Carville-by-the-Sea, which was in its heyday in the 1890s, is one of the quirkiest and least-remembered communities in San Francisco’s history. There will also be a companion walk to this event with Woody LaBounty on Saturday from 2 to 4. Meet at the corner of La Playa and Lincoln Way.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 60, a molecular biologist at the University of California at San Francisco, won the Nobel Prize for medicine today. Just what , exactly, did Blackburn do to win this this fancy award, you ask? Well, according to reports, she discovered "an enzyme that is essential to normal cell function and plays a role in cell aging and most cancers."

Arse Elektronika 2009, the annual conference on sex, technology and the future, kicks off tonight. Here's how this year's kinky conference (“Of Intercourse & Intracourse”) is being described.

ART: It's the opening night of the Open Source Embroidery exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. The show brings together individual and collectively made artworks by artists, makers, computer programmers and html users that explore the relationship between craft and code through social and digital networks. The exhibit will coincide with the launch of the museum's Etsy Labs, in which local artists will teach visitors how to embroider or brush up on their knitting skills with a quick and easy scarf, free of charge.

FILM: Director Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) pays homage to classic sci-fi films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner in the acclaimed Moon. Sam Rockwell stars as a solitary astronaut who's been isolated on the moon for three years and desperate to see his family again. As the end of his contract nears, odd things start to happen. The film shows through tomorrow night and has a special 2 p.m. screening tomorrow afternoon.

MUSIC: Jazz quartet Yellowjackets are promoting, Lifecycles, their first album in 15 years, which was recorded in collaboration with high-energy guitar virtuoso Mike Stern and received a Grammy nomination. The five players will be shaking up Yoshi's tonight and tomorrow night.

COMEDY: Off-the-wall comedian Maria Bamford has a knack for introducing the audience to her myriad of multiple personalities/dysfunctional family members during her stand-up routine, and we especially enjoy her occasional appearances on Tim & Eric's Awesome Show. Larry Vazeos and SF's own Chris Garcia open.

LIT: Did someone say free Scotch tasting? Enjoy a free tasting of Balvenie scotch with some light snacks, along with raffle prizes, as author Howard Miller celebrates the release of his book You’re Full of Shift, an inspiring collection of stories that show how difficult situations can be shifted to positive opportunities. Musician Shelley Kutliek will also sing from her debut release, Resolution, which combines the genres of pop, jazz, blues and bossa nova.

SPORTS: The San Francisco ShEvil Dead duke it out with the Richmond Wrecking Belles at the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls' Duel on the Docks, a full contact, all female, flat-track roller derby league.

Jason Everett Keller, 40, the San Mateo man who attacked another sans maison gentleman with a skateboard during a presumably heated quantum physics discussion, was acquitted of all charges on Thursday. During said conversation, Keller, according to authorities, went berserk and thrashed Stephan Fava in the mug with his board. But, after a four-day trial in Redwood City, "the jury deliberated for less than a day" and let hum off the hook. Now that Keller is free, please use discretion when dialoguing in public about splitting atoms. Hen. Meh. Yeah.

Delightful news, folks. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (a stem cell research funding agency established thanks to Prop 71 in the 2004 election) put their seal of approval on 15 grants to help fund blessed and beneficial stem cell know-how. Awesome. Said funding will go to Stanford ($3,930,000), UC Berkeley ($3,371,686), UCSF ($3,899,912), and the J. David Gladstone Institutes ($2,517,888) to "fund graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and clinical fellows working in stem cell research labs," reports SF Biz Times. After handing out the much-needed funds, CIRM President Alan Trounson said "'It’s important that we continue supporting these future stem cell scientists who are already making significant contributions.'"

Aw, recent college graduates. Aren't they adorable? They're younger than you, they're prettier than you, they believe in things, they can drink more than you, and they will steal your jobs. Take, for example, this recent Cal grad who created an awesome solar-powered graduation cap. But it's not just any solar-powered cap; it's a sustainable, green cap. According to Daily Clog's Christine Borden -- congratulations on the big day, Christine; you will be missed deeply! -- this chapeau comes "complete with grass paper (astroturf probably causes global warming or something), a solar panel, a wind turbine, a small house and a mechanical rising sun."

Santa Cruz County construction crews spotted a fossilized vertebrae sticking out of the ground at Mid-County beach last month, which paleontologists have since identified as the remains of a whale, likely dating back five millions years. There will soon be an excavation of the site, the location of which will not be revealed. The whale is thought to be between 15 and 20 feet long, and the rock that it's attached to comes from the end of the Miocene Epoch. Experts are hoping to find the skull, which will help them ascertain whether the animal was an ancient Baleen whale, along the lines of today's plankton-feeding Humpbacks, or a meat-eating toothed whale, more closely related to the modern Orca.

Our sister site LAist informs us, via the Mars Phoenix Lander's Twitter, that water ice has been found on the planet Mars today. At around 5:15 p.m., NASA folks exclaimed, "Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!"

Thinking about going to the Maker Faire? You know, the adult science fair? You should. It's loads of fun. Don't believe us? Check out SFist's partner in binge drinking, the brilliant Nate Halverson over at the Press Democrat, who gives you a glimpse into the DIY science, technology, engineering, arts and crafts fun happening this weekend. So go. Now.

After their American Idol hour was unforgivably interrupted by the San Francisco Police Department making an announcement last night, a reader writes to SFist asking:

• Beatropolis: Oh joy! Beatropolis has returned! (Not that they really went anywhere, but it always feels like forever when they're not around.) Anyway, Beatropolis' special brand of dance rock, live drum 'n' bass, and futuristic space pop will have you up until the wee hours of the morning. The Toy Soldiers (a heady nu-electrorawk mix of Flaming Lips, Justin Timberlake, and Hot Chip) and the Buttercream Gang (a local indie/post-punk/afro-beat band) also perform starting at 8 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; $8.
• The Geek System: Starring Hard 'n Phirm , Reggie Watts, and " We have no idea what that last thing means--okay, some of that other stuff, too--but anything Kraftwerk-y is simply smashing by us. Starts at 10 p.m. at the Knockout; free.

Cosco Busan Update:

Tickets, tickets, anyone want some tickets? We have two tickets to Friday's concert at Slim's featuring: Until June, Matt White and Melee. We've already told you that you don't want to be late to this show, because all three bands are equally as good.

-- Crime in Choir: CIC rocks it. Hard. For reals. Big time. One of the purest sounds coming out of SF these days, really. Brave the chill and head down to Potrero Hill to check them out. You won't regret it. Pink Mountain and Science of Yarba open at this anniversary party for Frenetic Records. The music starts at 10 p.m. at Bottom of the Hill; $10.

What a perfect meeting of past, present, and future glories. Former Santana guitarist/now-and-forever Journey member Neal Schon is coming back to the North Bay (where he grew up and leaned how to strum) to help launch the first-ever Gibson Robot Guitar. Just what is the Gibson Robot Guitar, you ask? We have no idea. But let's go to the press release to find out!

According to the Merc, "astronomers have discovered a fifth planet circling a star beyond our solar system -- a star that holds the record for the most orbiting extrasolar worlds." Using the Doppler technique -- the same technology, we think, that's used to predict sweater weather -- it took a little over 18 years to find the new locale.

For our tree-hugging, non-essential-light-extinguishing, green-bulb-using readers out there, now there's a new way to Google yourself and save energy at the same time. Well, it's new to us, anyway, and much easier on the eyes than the stark white background that we're repeatedly subjected to on the web.

-- Gay Geeks Saturday Night Social: "Fucking faggots," you scream? Ah, correction: "fucking nerd faggots," is more like it. Queers (not just Marys) who like to "geek out on the arts or science, study old plane crashes,... the myth of the American cowboy or how to make graphs more efficient for displaying data," this is the night for you. Come! Starts at 8 p.m. at Muddy's Coffeehouse, 1304 Valencia; free.

No longer just for cute Aryan stoners, Albert Fert of the Scientific Research National Center in Paris -- who just received the Nobel Prize for physics alongside Peter Gruenberg for their massive brainpower to help shrink hard drives so that they fit into your iPods, or whatever -- is a Dell user. We'll go one step further by suggesting that Fert has dabbled in Linux use when he was young, too.

Sorry for the delay in getting SFist Tonight out. This afternoon was steeped in several fun-filled return trips to CompUSA, dealing with customer service. So much fun was had, folks, that we felt like putting our face through a window several times.

San Rafael-based Edutopia Magazine, which is brought to us by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, looks to the future in its latest issue, identifying 10 ideas or trends that its experts believe can improve K-12 education. We found them thought provoking, and hope you agree.

Servers aren't cheap, so we'd like to take a moment to thank the advertisers on SFist this week:

It's a day of relatively-unusual natural phenomena -- first the earthquake this morning and then, less than 24 hours later, there's going to be a total eclipse of the moon.