THE EVENT
For everyone entering “The Event” competition, I can now let you know that it will take place on Thursday February 12th at a London location. Times are still to be confirmed.
Ta!
Coopie
Spoon bending with your mind – revealed
Well actually it’s not revealed, but that was the claim over at skeptic magazine. I think it’s fairly obvious to work out from the video, it’s a minor technique here – but I’m not giving anything away for fear of an email from Mr Geller (Uri actually DOES use his mind to bend spoons you know… honestly!). Have a look at the video and then head over to skeptic for some more (although don’t expect to find any answers, they’re keeping this one under wraps.)
Mental process which explains why we follow crowds revealed
Researchers believe that the brain re-educates itself if its views are in conflict with the norm.
The process could explain why we consider being too different as one of the most fundamental social mistakes.
It could also explain why people follow fashion trends or join religious groups and even the rise of extreme political movements like the Nazis and Soviet communism.
“We often change our decisions and judgements to conform with normative group behaviour,” said study leader Dr Vasily Klucharev, from the FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Netherlands. “However, the neural mechanisms of social conformity remain unclear.”
Telegraph (Thanks Katherine)
Win tickets to the live TV performance
Blurb: Derren Brown is back with his most extraordinary series yet, ‘THE EVENT’. Filmed for Channel 4 in front of a live studio audience, this series is made up of four one hour specials – during which Derren will attempt some of the most incredible feats to date.
Tony Hart – R.I.P
If you live in the UK you’ll probably have heard about the passing of Tony Hart. Much loved by millions of people he was an inspiration to generations of artists. He will be missed.
Church of FSM update
Having lived in the US for a while I had to suffer the likes of this man – Bill O’Reilly. This mush mouth reactionary represents the very bottom of the barrel of journalism. He regularly demonstrates a pretty low IQ (I honestly would say it’s around 85) and utterly misses the point any of his guests attempt to explain.
I’m posting this as an FSM update to prove the religion is on the way up in the US – but having come across Bill I felt the need to vent my spleen.
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Religions are cropping up all the time – but the fastest growing one in the US is the Church of FSM. Growing at an alarming rate it’s sure to become bigger than Christianity in the next few months.
The Church of FSM (Thanks Katarzyna)
Young Australian Skeptics
Big shout goin’ out to the Australian posse. The YAS is an interesting site for those who are both down under and ready to ask questions. Here’s an article by an upcoming illusionist and free thinker Simon Taylor who writes about The Illusion of Cause and Effect. So do yourself a favour and ‘ave a gander.
Telepathic neckband for augmenting human abilities
A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time.
With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.
New Scientist (Thanks Andrew)
How to hallucinate without the use of LSD
I’m a big fan of hallucinogenics but stopped when I left Mexico – now I miss them. However this interesting article shows you how to mildly recreate the effect (although much more subtly and safer) and offers up some other nice little mind hacks you can do at your next fondue party.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/12/how-to-hallucinate-w.html
