How to play chess anywhere

The other day a colleague and I had been booked to give talks at the same conference. We met the night before in a hotel close to the venue, and discovered that:
1) We both liked chess
2) We both really wanted to play a game there and then
3) Neither of us had a chess set with us
4) The hotel didn’t have one either
However, about an hour later we had solved the problem. Our answer allows you to construct a chess set anywhere, anytime.

We noticed that there was a supermarket across the street, and I had an idea. How about we buy some Battenberg cake, and slice it up to make a chessboard. Then, we could invest in some cocktail sticks, marshmallows and Flumps, and use various combinations to create a confectionery chess board.

An hour later we had this….

It actually worked really well, and we got two games in before a another hotel guest scoffed my king. In addition, to solving a practical problem, it occurs to me that this could be a cost-effective birthday gift for someone who is both bright and has a sweet tooth. Anyway, what do you think? Genius lateral thinking or soooo sad? Vote now.

New seance show

Tickets have just gone on sale for a new séance show that I will be co-presenting with Spacedog UK at the Brighton Festival (8, 9, 10 May).

Entitled ‘Electroplasm’, it is going to be a rather unusual affair, with Spacedog UK performing death ballads and eerie electronica, and my good self staging a theatrical reconstruction of a Victorian séance. All of this will be accompanied by Spacedog’s latest automata, including an all-seeing, all-knowing, mind-reading doll.

It promises to be quite an evening, and places are very limited, so book soon.

Lots more details here. This video gives you a flavour of the performance…..

Finally, for anyone in the UK, I will be on the Paul O’Grady show later today.

‘Hauntings’ results out

We have just announced the initial results of our project into ‘ghostly’ photographs.

The findings will be discussed in depth at Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts on 4th April at Edinburgh Science Festival. However, we have some initial results on the Hauntings website, including the top ten ‘ghost’ pics from the study (click the link above, and then the ‘experiments’ tab).

In terms of print and web, the story has been featured all over the place, including The Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Metro, BBC, CNN, Yahoo, Sky News, The Guardian, and Fox News.

TV and radio has included R4′s Today Programme (at 8.55), GMTV, BBC Breakfast News and CNN. AOL have a video about the story here.

Sky News clip below:

And thanks to the nice people over at Derren Brown’s blog for posting another link to this blog.

Feel free to post comments about the pic. Back on Monday.

Puzzle for the weekend

This time it is old bar stunt that has been one of my favourites for years.  It involves a glass and a cherry tomato (sorry about the film quality – all being done in a bit of a hurry!)…..

As ever, feel free to say if you have worked out a solution and how long it took you, but please don’t post any answers.

Are there only two types of people in the world?

I am rushing around at the moment and so was trying to think of a post that would be short but hopefully thought-provoking.

Then I remembered something that a personnel manager said to me a few weeks ago at a conference.

I had been speaking about the various ways of categorizing people, focusing on the poor psychometric properties of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

Afterwards, the personnel manager came up to me, explained that he had been doing his job for 25 years, and was now convinced that there are only two types of people:
1) People that start with nothing and manage to produce something.
2) People that could be given all of the resources in the world and would still produce nothing.
Not surprisingly, he was keen to employ the first type. The idea resonated with me and fits in with my experience.
But what do you think? Do you think this is a helpful way of viewing people and, if so, which are you?

Genuine Flea Circus

A few years ago I became interested in flea circuses (see old, and somewhat embarrassing, photo on left).

I ended up putting together a talk about the topic, performing with a mechanical circus, and writing an article on the history of them (click the ‘history’ tab).

The original Victorian circuses used genuine fleas, but the art form has all but died out because of a lack of performers (mainly caused by improvements in hygiene over the years).

So, imagine how excited I was to discover that some people were once again staging genuine flea circuses. There is a video of their activities after the break and the footage of their performing insects is amazing (thanks Sid)!

Excited to announce…..

….that Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe is the latest addition to the exciting line-up of speakers at the ‘Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts’ event on 4th April.

Ciaran was my PhD student and is now the resident parapsychologist on the popular Living TV show, Most Haunted. He has lots of interesting stories to tell including, for example, his involvement in The Daily Mirror’s famous expose of the medium Derek Acorah.

I am really excited about the line-up of speakers, in part, because it represents such an interesting mix of psychologists, historians, writers, performers and magicians. We will also be announcing the results of the ‘ghostly’ photograph study, which has now received just over 250,000 votes!

Update: For Jacqueline…

Something for the weekend

I am up to my eyes at the moment in ghosts and the new book, so won’t be posting over the weekends. However, here are three quick puzzles to keep you going over the next two days. What letter comes next in these sequences….

W, L, C, N, I, T,_

O, T, T, F, F, S,_

A, S, D, F, G, H,_

As ever, feel free to say if you have solved the puzzles and how long it took, but don’t give the solutions.

Interviewing Chris French

Yesterday I posted about my strange ‘broken glasses’ experience. Today I interview Professor Chris French, one of the world’s leading anomalistic psychologists, about the event…

First meeting of Edinburgh Skeptics in Pub

Quick reminder for anyone in Edinburgh or surrounding area…..the ever wonderful Chris French is speaking at first meeting of Edinburgh Skeptics in the Pub tonight (8:00pm at the Nicol Edwards Pub, Niddry Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LG).

More details here.

A strange thing just happened to me

I have just experienced something strange….

Best ever example of Pareidolia

Forgetomori carries some great content about the paranormal, and recently posted this truly remarkable example of pareidolia…..

Richard’s Big Day Out

I am off to Cambridge University today to take part in a meeting about the psychology of belief. There is a great line-up of speakers, including Sue Blackmore, Dan Dennett, Nick Humphrey, Paul Rozin, Bruce Hood, and Dan Wegner.

Sue is responsible for me getting involved in all of this paranormal psychology stuff. When I was an undergraduate I happened to catch an Open University television programme in which Sue described some of her early work exploring why people believe in the paranormal.

I suddenly realised that it was possible to carry out experiments that looked at the psychology of belief in psychic powers, rather than simply looking at whether such powers actually existed. Yet again, it is another example of how the smallest of chance events can have a large impact on someone’s life.

What about you? How has a seemingly chance meeting or experience changed your life?  Anyone else a fan of Sue’s work?

Big Announcement!

Time to announce a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity!

I have just finished writing my new book (out in the UK in July). I can’t say too much about it at the moment, but it follows in the quirky footsteps of The Luck Factor and Quirkology, with part of it looking at the scientific basis for quick and effective ways to change your life.

So here is my idea – I thought that it would be fun to offer up a unique opportunity to write the book’s dedication (the bit right at the start that reads, for example, ‘This book dedicated to xx’).

If you are the chosen one, you will be free to write any dedication you like! You might decide to dedicate it to yourself, your friends, a loved one, a family member or pet.

All you have to do is email me at r.wiseman@herts.ac.uk with:

1) The single sentence that has proved most helpful in your life. It might be something that a friend or family member has said to you, something you have figured out yourself, or something you have read in a book or heard in a film. Either way, send in the piece of life advice that you believe everyone should know.

2) Your dedication

So, for example you might go with ‘Live every day as if it is your last’ and ‘To Eric’.

A panel of judges will then look at the ‘life advice’ sentences, and either choose a winner, or  produce a short-list that will then go to a public vote! The winner will then get their dedication printed in the book.

The rules are here. Have fun, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Drawing illusion

Very, very clever.  Freud would have a field day…..