Tonight I am speaking about Laughlab at the Royal Institution in London (details here). There are a handful of tickets left, but be great to see you.
Take a quick look at the following pairs of pictures and, for each pair, choose the picture that most appeals to you….
What does this say about you? More after the break.
Tomorrow I am going to be speaking about the scientific search for the world’s funniest joke at the Royal Institution in London (details here). If you are around, do pop in and say hi.
Also, the Edinburgh International Science Festival opens next week, and I am involved in events on the psychology of sin and comedy. Again, hope you can make it. During the Festival people will also be able to watch a video loop of Quirkology videos, and so I was asked to make an intro video. Here it is. It was done in the first and only take! Long-time visitors to the blog will know that I have done something similar in the past!
On Sunday I will be talking about the paranormal at the Sunday Times Literary Festival in Oxford. If you are in the area, please come and say hello. OK, here is the puzzle….
You are given three boxes of fruit. One contains just apples, one contains just oranges, and one contains a mixture of apples and oranges. One box is labelled ‘apples’, one is labelled ‘oranges’, and one is labelled ‘apples and oranges’. None of the boxes is labeled correctly. Can you label the boxes correctly if you are only allowed to take and look at just one piece of fruit from just one of the boxes?
As ever, please feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took, but do NOT post your answer. Have a good weekend and I will post the solution on Monday.
Following on from the great ‘is the smiling dog photo shopped?’ debate from yesterday, here are three more photos that look they are digitally manipulated but are genuine. First up is the levitating girl….
Then comes the headless horse….
and finally the woman in the mirror….
So, can you figure out how they were created?
First, a quick plug. In July I head off to Portugal to join 32 other magicians at the world’s first virtual magic conference. Tickets are selling fast, and there are a limited number of participants who can join us online so, in you are into magic, please do consider booking here. Just to whet your appetite, here is a 60 second video about what will be happening…
Onto more serious matters. Yesterday I was sent this great pic of a smiling dog (thanks to Pete Firman)….
My question is – why does the dog look so human? Is it the eyes? The mouth? The way he is sitting? Can you explain the mystery of the human dog?
UPDATE: A few people are say that the photo is a fake. I have no idea if that is the case, but the article it comes from claims that it is genuine (article here).
UPDATE 2: For everyone that says it is photoshopped – the owner has other pictures of the dog here (thanks to @neiltheneil)
There is much happening. On Sunday 28th March I will be at the Sunday Times Literary Festival in Oxford talking about the paranormal,then on the 31st March I am at the Royal Institution in London talking about the psychology of comedy. I am also on the Guardian Science podcast this week talking about the scientific search for the world’s funniest joke (listen here).
Luc kindly sent me this the other day, and I rather liked it…..
What do you think?
Exciting news! Today I will be having a live video chat with ace Portuguese superstar magician Luis de Matos – we will be talking about magic, psychology and teaching everyone the world’s greatest card trick.
Update: OK, all done, you can watch it and download here.
Well, the matchstick puzzle seemed to go down well last week, so here is another one. Can you move one matchstick and make the equation valid (and no using the ‘not equals to’ sign!).
As ever, please do NOT post your answer, but do say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. I will post my solution on Monday. Have a good weekend!
Tonight I am talking about the psychology of comedy at the Cambridge Science Festival – if you are in the area, do come along and say hi. As part of the talk I will examine differences in the male and female sense of humour. So, I thought it would be fun to conduct a little experiment and report the results tonight. Take a look at this…..
The question is….did you find this funny, sad or neither? Men and women, boys and girls, vote now using the polls below.
…if it is genuine….
but surely it has to be faked. Any thoughts?
I am over at Goldsmiths College later today to give a research talk on parapsychology – details here – do come on over if you are around!
I am sure that many of you will have seen this great take on the old tablecloth science trick…
My question is……is it fake or genuine and why?
Oh, and if you missed it, here is my video containing 10 science stunts for parties (including the tablecloth trick)
First, if you haven’t participated in the Saint or Sinner online survey please take part!
Second, here is the Friday puzzle. Can you move one matchstick and still have an equation that is correct? I think there are at least three answers – can you find all three?
As ever, please do NOT post your answers but feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. See you all on Monday!
Please post what you see when you look at this image…..
The full version of the image is after the break….
First, my thanks to everyone who was kind enough to take part in the new sinner or saint experiment yesterday. If you haven’t participated yet, please come over to www.sinnerorsaint.org and confess your sins! Second, I came across these three great photos recently and thought you might enjoy them. As far as I know they are all genuine – feel free to say which is your favourite!
As part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, I am launching a new online survey today, looking at the degree to which people indulge in the so-called seven deadly sins. It only takes a few minutes to take part, so please participate at www.sinnerorsaint.org and encourage your friends, colleagues and family to join in. Whether you are young or old, male or female, we need your sin!
