UK pix Part I: The Sword Guy
Further pictures will be forthcoming from our UK trip--we saw a splendid exhibition of installation art and got some startling pictures of that, as well as discovering a very amusing bit of graffiti. In the meantime, however, here's some pictures from Mr. Improbable's show at the Cheltenham Science Festival.
These are all of or related to Dan Meyer, the sword swallower who won an Ig Nobel Prize last year.
Mr. Meyer asked a woman from the audience to assist him by removing the sword after he had swallowed it. Here she is demonstrating how far down the sword would go:
And here he is taking a bow post-swallow and pre-extraction:
Here, Mr. Meyer is swallowing a curved sword:
And this is the beginning of a brand-new trick, possibly inspired by the new "Indiana Jones" movie. Mr. Meyer modified a bullwhip by putting rings on the end of it, and ran a short ("short" = approximately 18 inches) sword through it. He then swallowed the sword, and Dr. Witcombe (his co-author on the Ig-winning paper "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects") whipped the sword out of his mouth:
Wish I'd managed to catch that one in midair, but the camera was too slow.
Rumor has it that Mr. Meyer will be on "America's Got Talent" on June 17 (this Tuesday). I'll be tuning in!
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Who is Miss Conduct?
Robin Abrahams writes the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine. Robin, who has a PhD in psychology from Boston University, has worked as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which are given annually for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
