Category Archives: Funny
AAARGH MY EYES! The Ugly Animal Preservation Society
Update: My animal won! The night was a sell-out and fantastic fun, thanks to all who came along! It was great to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while and to make some new ones. The other acts were hilarious (and hideous), and Simon was a fantastic compere! My animal was Promachoteuthis sulcus, which isn’t very well known so doesn’t even have a common name. At the event, I proposed the “human-gobbed squid” or “gob-faced squid” to a large crowd. It was agreed at this event and at the Festival of the Spoken Nerd event on Friday that the animal should be known as the gob-faced squid. With several hundred people from these events now referring to it as the gob-faced squid, it’s the most common name it has as a relatively unknown creature! I’m happy and strangely proud that my animal won the evening. Here is the new mascot for the Scottish branch of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society:
This is a message for all the amazing people who have come to the brilliant Edinburgh International Science Festival. If you’re up for some shenanigans, and don’t have a weak stomach, come along to see us at the Ugly Animal Preservation Society! If comedy and nasty ugly are your things, you’ll be in a disgusting heaven!
As well as myself, you’ll see performers including Helen Arney (Uncaged Monkeys, Festival of the Spoken Nerd), Simon Watt (Inside Nature’s Giants), Steve Cross (Science Showoff), the guys from Punk Science, and more! It will be funny, interesting, and horrific in equal measure.
It’s on Wednesday night, 9pm-11pm. You can get all the details here!
2012 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK – Edinburgh
March is an exciting time! Not only do we have QEDcon in Manchester, but British Science and Engineering Week takes place between the 9th and 18th of March. I’ll be performing/speaking at a few events during this time, including a Science Ceilidh in Aberdeen on the 17th of March.
In conjunction with British Science and Engineering Week, March will also bring us the 2012 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK, visiting Edinburgh on the 16th of March. I’ll be providing a reading alongside other science/comedy types about previous Ig Nobel prize winners, strange and improbable research “that first makes people laugh, and then makes them think”.
It’s guaranteed to be both funny and interesting, so come along to Counting House at 7pm and be sure to reserve a ticket! The Edinburgh event is being hosted by Edinburgh Skeptics.
The History Of Man
I love this (although I do still cringe a little whenever I see “man” rather than humanity or similar).
(Video) Hovind owned by Molecular Geneticist
I’m taking a trip down memory lane. I love the giggles in the background during this clip. And I wonder how Hovind is doing these days.
CSETI announces first ever photo of extraterrestrial
First, let’s clear something up. SETI and CSETI are not the same thing. One does serious science, the other quite simply doesn’t. CSETI describe themselves as an “international nonprofit scientific research and education organization dedicated to the furtherance of our understanding of extraterrestrial intelligence.”
You’ve maybe heard of the founder of CSETI, Dr Steven Greer. He went to the interesting Maharishi University of Management, where they teach “consciousness-based education”. Sounds fun.
Peter Harrison
