ADULT EDUCATION PRESENTS:
"Technology for Good, Evil, & Otherwise"
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 8 pm (doors at 7:30)
Union Hall in Park Slope
702 Union St. @ 5th Ave
$5 cover
MAC MONTANDON, "Jetpack Dreams: On Getting Nowhere Fast"
It's been over 80 years since Buck Rogers first introduced jetpacks -- and
the promise of flying like a bird -- to the greater public consciousness,
and many of us want them more than ever. Why?
CARLOS YU, "Brief Highlights of Modern Explosives Research: Or,
Things That Make You Go Boom"
A discussion of places that have been accidentally blown up, things that
set sand on fire, and what to expect from current frontiers in
explosives research.
FLASH ROSENBERG, "Digital Photography and Other Unstable Elements"
Rosenberg traces new opportunities for merry tech-glitches in gears and emotions,
as human brains shift from film to digital imaging
DANIEL WRIGHT, "Divine Invention, From Travel Toothbrushes to
Resurrection Machines"
A survey of intellectual property reveals the path from God to Man.
Hosted, as always, by the inimitable Charles Star
* * * *
BIOS
MAC MONTANDON has written for the New York Times, New
York magazine, Salon and Spin, among others. He is
the editor of Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader, and
is founding editor of The Silence of
the City, and Best Recession Ever!
His most recent book is Jetpack Dreams: One Man’s Up and Down (But
Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was. Mac lives
in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two daughters. You can find him on
the web at JetPackDreams.com.
FLASH ROSENBERG is an "attention span for hire"
as a photographer, cartoonist, writer and performer. She is Artist-in-Residence
for LIVE from the New York Public Library, creating real-time "Conversation
Portraits" (on Vimeo.com),
and is animating the new series by the executive producer of Sex and the City
for NBC.com, all while managing a full-time career shooting Bar Mitzvahs for
Flash Rosenberg Studio. You can find her on the web at FlashRosenberg.com.
DANIEL WRIGHT is the author of Patently Silly: From
the Collapsible Walker to the Incinerating Toilet, the Craziest Inventions
Ever Devised. Daniel Wright has a degree in engineering, has studied
clowning and Commedia dell'Arte, and after several years with a puppet theater
company in Portland, Oregon, now works in New York City as a stand-up comedian
and web analyst. This is his third talk for Adult Ed. You can find him on
the web at PatentlySilly.com.
CARLOS YU has been a biochemist, a comic strip writer, a
stockbroker,
and a barista, in that order. He is co-author of the forthcoming The Big Ditch,
an economic history of the Panama Canal from Princeton University Press. Mr.
Yu previously appeared at Adult Ed's "Safey Lessons" show, where
he presented "A Brief Foray into the World of Medical Self-Experimentation."
Yes, he is single.
CHARLES STAR (HOST) is a lawyer sans portfolio and a stand-up comedian sans recognition who lives in Brooklyn with his excellent wife, his awesome cat, and a budding baby genius. He's on the web at charlesstar.com.
Got an idea for an Adult Ed lecture? Email your pitch to adulted (at) stayfreemagazine.org. Themes for upcoming shows include "Anatomy & Physiology" (March), "Homemade & Home Spun" (April), and "Malcolm Gladwell Takedown" (TBA).