I will be presenting the last in the Inexplicable Acts series at the Wellcome Trust this afternoon (2pm-4pm).
This time I will be joined by social historian Vanessa Toulmin (University of Sheffield), sideshow impresario Jon Marshall, and sword-swallower Dan Meyer. We have also invited a Headless Lady along, and there is some footage of her and other sideshow acts in action after the break.
Man on Wire was awarded a 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This is so well-deserved. The film is one of my all time favourite documentaries, and provides a remarkable record of Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers.
Using archive footage, and filmed in the style of a heist, it shows what happens when one man had a beautiful but seemingly impossible dream, and then made that dream a reality against all of the odds.
I recently had the pleasure of seeing Philippe Petit talk about his life in person, and found him wonderfully charismatic and captivating. See it.
Trailer after the break. (more…)
John Huntington is an entertainment technologist, and runs a great blog called control geek. John and I met a few years ago because we share an interest in how best to scare people in Haunted Houses. Each Halloween he gets his students to build interactive exhibits as part of a Haunted Hotel, and then films members of the public screaming in terror (details here). He has just sent me this wonderful audio piece that is a brilliant demonstration of just how much of our perception is driven by ‘top down’ expectations. Enjoy….
P.S. – Answers to the Monday puzzle tomorrow.
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Starting from any point and without lifting your pen from the page, can you draw 4 straight lines, such that each of the nine dots has at least one line running through it?
Yes, it’s the old ‘nine dot’ problem, first popularized by Sam Loyd around the turn of the last century, and used in pretty much every creativity training session since.
The answer is well-known. However, there are several other lesser known variants of the puzzle. For example, how about….
Starting from any point and without lifting your pen from the page, can you draw 3 straight lines, such that each of the nine dots has at least one line running through it?
and how about….
Starting from any point and without lifting your pen from the page, can you draw 1 straight line, such that each of the nine dots has the line running through it?
The answer to this puzzle, and 100 others, can be found in a new kindle ebook called PUZZLED, and is available in the UK here and USA here.
The next event in the Inexplicable Acts series at the Wellcome Collection will be happening on Thursday 26th, and involve my good self teaming up with amazing American sword swallower Dan Meyer and medics Brian Witcombe and Hugh Barr.
We are going to be attempting some new and ambitious medical procedures for the event. Tickets are scarce, but hope you can make it.
Meanwhile, here are some x-rays of various objects apparently found in animals (thanks Sarah). Video of Dan in action after the break.
On Thursday I presented an event with Feeding the Fish at The Wellcome Collection. This amazing juggling duo were a joy to work with, and we managed to get some jaw-dropping shots of them in action….
Oprah.com have just run a long article about my work into the psychology of luck.
Also, on Saturday 28th February I will be speaking at this TED-esque event at the University of Warwick. Philip Zimbardo is on the same bill.
As you may be aware, Zimbardo made his name with an amazing social psychology experiment in which randomly selected students were assigned the role of prison guards, and subsequently acted in a way that fitted the ‘prison guard’ stereotype (exhibiting bullying and sadistic tendencies, etc.). This suggests that significant aspects of our behaviour is the result of the social roles that we find ourselves in, rather than something inherent in our psychological make-up.
I have often thought that it might be fun to replicate the study with other occupations. For example, if you randomly assign people to be hairdressers, can they stop themselves asking inane questions and telling you about their last holiday?
What do you think? Do Zimbardo’s findings show that we are all capable of evil?
Also, 10 points if you know which famous psychologist was a classmate of Zimbardo when he was at high school.
Wow. Yesterday’s assault on The Birthday Problem far exceeded my expectations! Thanks to the hundreds of people who took part. So, what did we learn…..
Psychologists and statisticians often illustrate people’s poor grasp of probability by asking….How many people do you need in a room to have a 50% chance of any two of them sharing the same birthday?
According to the laws of probability the answer is surprisingly small, but is it correct? Let’s put this world famous problem to the test…..
The ‘Devolve me‘ website is fun, and allows you to upload a photograph and then find out how you would have looked as an early human. I gave it a go…. (more…)
The first of the Wellcome Trust’s Inexplicable Acts evenings went very well. It was a sell-out event, and my thanks to the wonderful Delia and everyone who came along. At the end of the evening Sarah Angliss mentioned this knife throwing clip to me. I hadn’t seen it before. It is both jaw-dropping, and very very wrong.
OK, I know it’s an old one, but I love it…..So, there is a frog called Jason. Jason has been a very silly frog and fallen into a well that is 12 feet deep. Now, as you might expect, Jason is eager to get out, but can only jump 3 feet high. Not only that, the walls of well are covered in slime and so he slips down 2 feet each time he lands. So, every jump takes Jason 3 ft up but 2 ft back. How many jumps will Jason have to make to get out of the 12ft well?
Before you ask, Jason does not have access to any springs, ‘Space Hoppers’ (also known as skippyballs, kangaroo balls, bouncers, hippity hips, hop balls, and hoppity hops), or crampons.
The answer to this puzzle, and 100 others, can be found in a new kindle ebook called PUZZLED, and is available in the UK here and USA here.
Delighted to announce that I am co-organising a unique event on the science and history of ghosts as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
We have a great line-up of speakers, including the guy who wrote the amazing BBC hoax documentary ‘Ghostwatch’, the man who puts the magic into Harry Potter films, and a rare performance of a Victorian phantasmagoria.
It all takes place in Edinburgh University’s hauntingly historical Anatomy Theatre. This is going to be very special and I hope that you can join us. Full details at www.scienceofghosts.com.
Yesterday was rather exciting. The Darwin Day illusion caused an especially large number of views and comments (thanks to everyone who linked to the site and Stephen Fry for the twitter-plug).
Also, the work that Rob Jenkins and I have been carrying out into facial appearance and personality made it onto the front cover of New Scientist. The research provides tentative and tantalizing evidence that religiosity may be reflected in facial features (at least in female faces). But can you spot a religious face?
A few posts ago I noted how people see faces and personalties in the front of 