Happy Darwin Day! To help celebrate, Rob Jenkins and I have created an optical illusion……
Update: Thanks to The Times for linking to and Stephen Fry for the Tweet-plug!
The personality of spoons
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We all agreed on the ‘personality’ of a car, but what about spoons? Continue reading
Creepy Sheep Chair
49Bill F just sent me an email with the header ‘creepy sheep chair’. Here’s why…..
Extreme Juggling Event
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Delighted to announce the second of the Inexplicable Acts evenings at the Wellcome Trust – this time we will be examining extreme juggling!
Update: This event is now fully booked.
Does this look like a man or a woman?
25There now exists lots of really interesting and complex software that allows you to take a photograph of someone’s face and change their apparent age and sex. Yesterday I happened to have access to one of the most sophisticated ‘face morphing’ programmes in the world, and so wondered what I would look like if I were a woman. This is the result…
Guess the personality….
30New research from Florida State University has shown that people see human facial features in the front of automobiles and tend to agree about the personality traits that should be ascribed to the cars (thanks Heather). Want to help put it to the test?
Keynote today
Assuming no more sudden snow attacks , I will be giving the keynote address at the Scottish Science Communicators Conference in Glasgow today.
Mystery Face Revealed
28A few posts ago I showed you this great afterimage illusion created by Brian King, and asked if you could recognise the face. If you didn’t try it before, take a look now and see if you can identify the person. Just fixate on the centre of the image below for about 30 seconds (try not to move your head or eyes) and then blink at a white wall.
Any ideas? Answer after the break. Continue reading
Spacedog!
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I have known Sarah Angliss for many, many, years. She is an electrical engineer, sound artist, and all round good egg. She has just finished putting together the new soundtrack for my event with contortionist Delia Du Sol at the Wellcome Trust. You can listen to it,and find out more about her wonderful work, here.
Is this genuine?
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Just been sent this great video (thanks Adrian). I know a bit about juggling but cannot work out if it is genuine. Any thoughts?
Are you a sinner or a saint?
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In Quirkology I discuss the impact that people’s names have on their lives (some of this work is discussed here and here). Now, new research suggests that your first name may be related to the likelihood of you engaging in criminal activities. So…..according to your name, are you a sinner or a saint? Find out here.
On WNYC Radio Today
2I will be live on WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show at 1:15 PM Eastern time today (Friday) for a 40 min interview about the psychology of luck. If you are not a regular listener, this is described as ‘National Public Radio’s flagship culture and current affairs program’. I think that there will be a podcast of the segment available here.
The Academy of Fools
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From time to time I am going to be posting about the people, books, films and performances that have inspired and shaped my thinking. A few posts ago I wrote about The Blue Man Group. This time it is Slava and his Academy of Fools.
Do left and right handed people really hear this differently?
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I recently came across an auditory illusion where the makers claim that right and left handed people hear it differently…..but is that really the case?
Mystery Afterimage: Who Is This?
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I have been looking into the wonderful world of afterimages for a talk in a few weeks time. Almost everyone has seen the classic ‘Jesus’ image (left)….but do you recognise this other guy?
